If you’re traveling this weekend in the U.S., best of luck to you! Here is my nickel’s worth of free advice as you prepare to depart along with 40 million other Americans for the Thanksgiving holiday (fortunately they won’t all be flying). Give yourself lots of time. Wednesday and Sunday are amateur days. Everyone else will slow you down. Flights instead of being 80% full are 100% full (that alone would be a 25% increase in people) and frequent travelers are replaced by occasional travelers who don’t know the drill as well. Be patient, across the whole process — getting to the airport, parking (if that’s your thing), clearing security, boarding while other passengers try to sneak bags into the overhead bins on that wouldn’t fit in a shipping container. Avoid checking bags. That’s counterintuitive…
New York-Based Duane Reade Drugstores Now Accept Credit Cards for Vanilla Reload Cards
Hat tip to Point Me to the Plane who reports success in finding Vanilla Reload cards at Duane Reade drugstores, and making a purchase for (2) $500 cards via credit card. The Duane Reade chain, which is almost exclusively located in Manhattan and surrounding suburbs, is owned by Walgreens — which sells Vanilla Reload cards but only takes payment for those in cash. If any of you live in New York or find yourselves there for Thanksgiving, it might be worth stocking up on whatever you need for your travels.. and your prepaid reloadable cards. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me…
National Will No Longer Count Your Car Rental Towards Elite Status If You Earn Miles
I received an email from National Car Rental, and if you have an Emerald Club (their frequent rental club) membership you probably did too. They’ve made changes. So the link in the email is going to take you to a summary of those changes, right? No, you’re taken to a page that says the terms and conditions of renting from National have changed — effectively immediately (November 26th) and offering links to .pdfs in English and in French. The English document is 44 pages. There is no executive summary, highlights of changes, or track changes. I haven’t done a full comparison of the old document to the new one. In fact, I’m not even sure hen I last combed through the old one (at one point or another I have actually read the full rental…
Details on Starwood’s First Quarter Promotion Are Out
Starwood has announced ‘Bring on the Nights’ which will provide 2500 bonus points for every 5 nights (up to 10,000 points for 20 nights) between January 5 and April 30. In addition, hitting 25 eligible nights during the promotion period will award an additional 5000 points. This really isn’t that generous. It’s 500 extra points per night, but only for 5 night increments, so many members will average fewer bonus points (since their total nights will not be in increments of 5). Maxing out the promotion with 25 nights exactly pushes up average earning to 600 points. The first quarter is traditionally slow, so I wouldn’t expect better promotions to be coming along in the immediate term. This is a reflection of the strength of the lodging sector of the economy, Starwood doesn’t need to…
JetBlue Award Rebate: Get Points Back on Redemption Travel Through January 31
JetBlue is offering you 2013 points back into your account when you redeem points by December 2 for travel through January 31. Registration is required prior to booking. (HT: Wandering Aramean) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Business Class Awards Using Delta Miles from the West Coast to Middle East, India, and Elsewhere
I’ve written about how easy it is to find business class availability on Saudia, which you can book using Delta miles. You can even use this to take the whole family to India using Skypesos. This was part of my unscripted, live presentation at the last Frequent Traveler University in Tampa. The L.A. Airspace blog is reporting that Saudia will be introducing serving between Los Angeles and Jeddah. So in addition to New York JFK and Washington Dulles, this third U.S. destination introduces a West Coast gateway from which to fly to the Middl East and beyond on Skyteam. The flight will be operated three times weekly beginning in the second quarter of 2014 with Saudia’s new cabin configuration onboard a Boeing 777-300ER. This is in addition to introducing Toronto service as well. View from…
Whole Foods Testing a Loyalty Program — Stackable With 5x Points Earning
Whole Foods gift cards are now available at office supply stores. I found $25 and $50 cards at Staples. Some readers reported variable amount ($25 – $500) gift cards at Office Depot. The 5x bonus points you earn at office supply stores help take the sting out of (the Whole Foods reputation, deserved or not, as) “Whole Paycheck.” The store’s margins are apparently getting squeezed – by other specialty grocers on the one hand, and by major supermarket chains introducing high-quality organic produce on the other — and so they’re testing out a loyalty program in eight stores across three states. Austin, Texas based Whole Foods Market is currently testing a new loyalty program called Hello 365 in eight stores in Illinois, Indiana and Florida that offers a 10% discount on its private-label line of…
Westin Austin at the Domain I Guess is Kinda Sorta in Austin
Westin Austin at the Domain isn’t downtown. If you need to be in Downtown Austin, you don’t want to stay here, you would face a 20 minute drive without traffic and heading into the city at peak business times it would be much more. But if you need to be north of downtown, it’s a good hotel that often prices much less than downtown alternatives. This four year old hotel is at the back of the Domain outdoor walking mall. There are plenty of restaurants, there’s shopping, and the staff are quite nice. In some ways it’s fairly non-descript, with standard Westin rooms. Here was my view waking up in the morning: The parking lot though gets very full, likely juiced by non-hotel guests. (Parking is free for everyone, as is internet.) Many readers know…
My Favorite Noodle Shop Now Has an A Rating from the Health Department — But is Still Good
I’ve written before about Lam Zhou Homemade Noodle on the edge of Chinatown in New York (here, and here). On a recent visit I was very nervous. The front window now displays an “A” rating from the health department. Ruh-roh. Was it going to be any good? What’s more, the refrigerator with drinks was no longer sitting outside. It was now actually in the restaurant. Not to worry, the interior of the restaurant looked as it ever has before. There’s still the same guy pounding noodles on a table between the dining room and kitchen with his bare hands. The menu is up on the wall. Very little English is spoken, but everyone knows what you mean when you ask for “Number 2, and a Number 11.” The nooodles – both as soup, and on…
The Top 5 Reasons Marriott Rewards Doesn’t Value its Platinum Elite Members
Marriott’s top elite tier requires the most nights to achieve at 75. In contrast, you can become a Starwood Platinum or a Hyatt Diamond after 50 nights (or 25 stays). And yet Marriott Rewards is less rewarding than Starwood and Hyatt — and arguably less rewarding than Hilton HHonors – for top tier elites. No guaranteed late checkout, late checkout is instead on request on day of departure. Award nights don’t count towards status. IHG Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest and Hilton HHonors do. Hyatt’s new cash and points awards will. (Marriott will even be alone in not offering cash and points awards.) No confirmed suite upgrades — not at booking or even a few days prior to check-in. Elites aren’t even entitled to standard suites that may be available when they arrive. No breakfast at…
