United’s big devaluation goes into effect February 1. Make no mistake, it’s huge, some awards go up 87%! At the same time it’s not as bad as we think. It all depends on how you use your miles. The biggest increases are in international first class partner awards. That’s where you’ll find the 80%+ increases. International business class partner awards go up too, that’s where you’ll find increases of ~ a third. They’ve created a separate category of United flight awards that do not go up as much as partner awards, you’ll see increases there of ~ 15%. Flights within the Americas, and coach awards, don’t really change in a material way. If you redeem for coach, the ‘devaluation’ doesn’t really hit you (except that higher prices for other awards may mean more people are…
Has TSA Gone Off the Rails With PreCheck?
I love PreCheck. Which is to say that I love not have to stand in interminable bureaucratic lines to exercise my right to travel. And I love not have to go through a dance of shoes and liquid freedom baggies. I go through security quickly and in a somewhat more dignified manner. And in the meantime TSA doesn’t waste its resources screening me, since I’m pretty obviously not a terrorist threat. At first they worked with airlines to identify frequent flyers with travel patterns they were confident could be considered low risk. And they folded in folks who had been extensively screened through programs like Global Entry — if folks were ok to enter the U.S. without an interrogation, odds on they were ok to wear their shoes through the airport security checkpoint. Getting Global…
United Lies to its Elites, LAX Hates its Passengers, a Hotel CEO Hates His Job, and Where the Cheap Room Awards Are (Bits ‘n Pieces for January 24, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: United’s “My Fingers Were Crossed” Defense Succeeds in Court: The lawsuit by United’s million milers over program changes has been dismissed. There was not really a dispute that United devalued the benefits offered to its million mile customers, even almost immediately after they promised not to do so. But United hadn’t promised not to break its promises, so its customers can’t sustain their suit. Here’s a Preview of Monday’s Fire Sale: IHG Rewards has posted a preview of the hotels they’ll be offering for just 5000 points a night (for stays through March 31) starting on Monday. The most desirable properties usually see strong demand and fall off the list quickly. That’s the Truth, Truth! The CEO of Choice Hotels really hated being on undercover boss. And running…
Marriott Rewards and Cosmopolitan Points Now Transfer Back and Forth, and What it Means for the Lodging Loyalty Industry
Vegas is all the rage this year in the lodging loyalty industry. Las Vegas is the largest hotel market, but the major chains had very limited presences there. Hyatt kicked things off with its MGM alliance that involves both points-earning and redemption and also reciprocal elite status recognition. I think of this as the hotel industry’s answer to airline alliances. The latter have been close to tapped out, but have been a real engine of growth for a decade. Hotel chains can grow strategically in much the same way, exchanging customers, without the infrastructure cost or addition of new rooms, competition, and driving down of prices. Starwood and Caesars followed up with their own, somewhat less extensive partnership. IHG plants its flag with Venetian, and Marriott has the quite-good Cosmopolitan. Yesterday, Marriott Rewards let me…
100 Free Hyatt Points
Enter your Hyatt Gold Passport number here to receive 100 points as a Chinese New Year gift. We hope extraordinary travels await you in the Year of the Horse. I didn’t write about this yesterday when the offer first emerged because I was skeptical that the offer would work — it says clearly that only folks who were targeted are eligible for the points — but reports so far are that points are indeed posting… already! This isn’t a huge ppints score, but it’s always useful to have account activity for the infrequent Gold Passport member because Hyatt points now expire. Of course no one’s points will expire for 24 months, that clock for that only just started ticking for the first time, so doing this now won’t help much. Still good practice to get…
Speaking Truth to Travel, Free Money, Plus Free Internet and Cheap Reward Nights are Coming (Bits ‘n Pieces for January 23, 2014)
News and notes from around the interweb: Someone has made fake London Underground signs and whoever did it is a ruddy genius IHG Rewards hotel properties (Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, etc) is introducing free internet for all members including when not even staying at the hotel. Only the new benefit doesn’t apply in Europe, though it had previously been promised that it would be offered worldwide. Turns out that free internet will become a European benefit in July. Will be bringing out their new slate of discounted ‘PointBreaks’ award nights — 5000 points a night at select hotels — on Monday, January 27. They’ll be bookable for stays through March 31. Participating hotels aren’t online yet, but they’re promoting Hotel Indigo in Athens, Georgia; Holiday Inn Johannesburg, South Africa – Sandton-Rivonia Road; Holiday Inn…
Amazing American Airlines First Class Award Space to London in April
There’s been a real knock on American Airlines lately for the lack of award availability using their miles to Europe. They’ve been great to Asia — great space on their own flights, Japan Airlines seats are on the whole easier to get than they once were, and while Cathay has tightened up a bit it’s still doable (especially in business class and on new routes). But Europe has been something of a challenge. Business class space on American’s own flights has been really tough the past couple of years. First class used to be easy, but that changed perhaps six months back. On partners the transatlantic cupboard has been spotty — Iberia is feast or famine, Air Berlin has a few routes, and British Airways isn’t nearly as generous as they used to be with…
Twelve Terrific Tips That Top Travelers Trust
Totally!Print copies of your itineraries when traveling abroad How to avoid jetlag Carry a sheet printed in the local language with the name and address of your hotel How to predict things will go awry before they actually do Travel with a compact power strip Shoulder seasons are best for hotel upgrades How to get into a sold out hotel. How to prevent – and recover – lost luggage How to ask for an upgrade How to get help during irregular flight operations Saving on foreign currency when traveling abroad Always wear shoes when visiting the airplane lavatory 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…
How to Get Into a Sold-Out Restaurant
Wendy Perrin lists several approaches for getting into sold out restaurants. Here’s my interpretation of her suggestions: Be flexible. OpenTable will show you the next available reservation, so go when the place isn’t sold out. But OpenTable also won’t show all available, restaurants often withhold peak times from the booking service so be sure to call directly, too, and ask them when you might get in. Have a concierge service call for you. There are the premium credit card versions, American Express Platinum and Centurion also have some set-aside reservation agreements with some restaurants. Their concierge services aren’t the equal of the truly high-end membership concierge offerings, and I’ve had truly mixed results with such concierge services actually even calling to try, but it can’t hurt to multi-process — have them attempt while you do,…
Plink Your App, Devalue and Don’t Tell, Get Loew, and Sue! (Bits ‘n Pieces for January 22, 2014)
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Loews hotels now offers free internet to all guests. Plink has Android and iPhone apps. (“How to Take Advantage of Plink Rewards“) Did Wyndham Rewards add a new category 9 redemption tier and not tell anybody? The lawsuit claiming damages because airlines don’t award you more miles when you fly a circuitous route has now been dismissed. 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!
