Jacksonville Airport’s concourse C uses artwork to tell passengers which restroom is for men and which is for women. Credit: Jacksonville International Airport If I was designing a restroom, I’ve just place a sign on the men’s side, “Don’t eat the big white mint.” (HT: MSYgirl on Milepoint) 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!
Amtrak’s Losses… and Abuse of Their Customers
There’s some interesting new data on Amtrak’s tremendous losses. Amtrak loses on average nearly $100 million per year on meal service. Much of Amtrak’s food spoils, and they maintain full dining car staffing even during periods where ridership is extremely low. The federal government has spent an average of over a billion dollars a year in capital expenditures for the Northeast corridor over the past 40 years. That spending isn’t included when Amtrak claims to make a profit (about about one-fifth that amount) on Northeast corridor services. Amtrak projects a need for $151 billion more for Northeast corridor high-speed rail. It turns out that the belief that Amtrak makes money in the Northeast corridor is based on faulty accounting. For critics who say Amtrak is starved for cash, and deserve greater subsidies, it actually gotten…
What Would You Give to Fly Emirates First Class With an Onboard Shower?
Perhaps the coolest thing in international commercial flight is the Emirates A380 first class… onboard shower. That’s got to be about the most aspirational inflight amenity there is, at least without getting into private or government aviation. Do you have a frequent flyer bucket list? Is there something at the absolute top of it? Have you ever said to yourself, “What I would give…” But would you come anywhere close to doing what this guy did to get what he wanted most? Many of us testicle owner/operators have often claimed that we’d happily donate our (usually left) testicle for something, usually some kind of car. So it shouldn’t be so shocking to hear that some loon is actually doing just that. One nut for $35,000. Which he’s using to buy a Nissan 370Z What’s your…
4500 Bonus Points for New Club Carlson Account Signup (And How to Get a Free Night With Every Other Stay)
Through November 26, if you register for a new Club Carlson account and then have a stay within 30 days of registration, you’ll earn 4500 bonus points. The single best thing about the Club Carlson program, I think, is the Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature® Card which gives you: Up to 85,000 bonus points for signup — 50,000 after first purchase and 35,000 more after $2,500 spend within 90 days. 40,000 renewal bonus points each year. Gold elite status in the Club Carlson program just for having the card (benefits such as upgrades, early check-ins, and late check-outs). Buy One Get One awards: A free award night with every award stay of two nights or longer. That means you only spend points for one night on a two night award stay, every time (up…
Nothing Gets Me More Excited Than a New Gift Card at an Office Supply Store!
Stopping by Staples to pick up Amazon and Starbucks gift cards (because I prefer to earn 5 points per dollar for my purchases rather than just 1 point), I noticed a store card I hadn’t seen before. I’m used to seeing Southwest Airlines, Marriott, various gas stations, iTunes, and cards for a bunch of restaurants I wouldn’t want to eat at. This was the first time I saw gift cards for Whole Foods: I went to a talk by John Mackey, co-CEO of Whole Foods, earlier in the year at the National Press Club. His interlocutor asked about Whole Foods prices, repeating the mockin name “Whole Paycheck” to which Mackey replied “I’ve never heard that one before.” And in fact there are some items that are much more expensive there, in some cases reflecting higher…
Citi Thank You Points Bonus for Hilton HHonors Transfers
After a year of speculation, Citibank finally introduced its first transfer partner to the Thank You Points program: Hilton back in January. Citi Thank You Points are worth a penny or 1.25 cents apiece. The transfer rate to Hilton is normally 1 Citi point to 1.5 Hilton points. Even before the March 28th Hilton HHonors devaluation massacre, I valued Hilton points at half a cent apiece. So I considered this to be a bad value – instead of getting at least a penny in nvalue, a transfer under most circumstances meant getting three-quarters of a cent. Of course topping off accounts for certain high value awards you could exceed that. Transfer partners are useful, more options are good, and the hope was that this would be the first of several transfer partners. But 10 months…
Have a Citibank Hilton Visa? Earn 2500 Bonus HHonors Points Per Stay
This offer appears to be for holders of the free Citi Hilton HHonors Visa card and not for folks with the $95 Citi Hilton Reserve Card (those folks already earn more points for their Hilton stays) and also not for holders of American Express co-branded Hilton cards. Registration is required prior to check-out to qualify, you must pay for your stay with the Citi Hilton HHonors Visa card, and the offer is valid for stays between November 25 and February 28. 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!
Bits ‘n Pieces for November 23: Cell Phones in the Sky May Be Good, $350 Europe Tickets, and Inflight Cocktails
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: My WTOP radio interview on cell phone use inflight. (Streaming audio) I like doing WTOP because as an all-news station in the local DC market it directly reaches federal policymakers. The sun no longer sets on British Airways call centers. It’s easy to forget that until their merger with United, Continental didn’t offer 24 hour call centers for booking international award tickets. Fancy cocktails you can make out of what’s in the galley. US-Europe roundtrip on United for $343 including all taxes. It’s through a Norwegian travel site, pricing without fuel surcharges, so may not ultimately be honored. Read the caveats, but potentially great deals to be had! You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts…
30% Bonus on Purchased American AAdvantage Miles Through December 31
American AAdvantage is offering up to a 30% bonus on purchased miles through December 31. The most miles American allows you to buy in a calendar year is 60,000. This is a tiered bonus, and if you buy the full 60,000 miles you get 78,000 at a cost of $1808.75, or 2.32 cents per mile. The miles are processed by Points.com so do not earn bonuses for your credit card spend. They don’t post instantly, usually 1-2 days but can take 72 hours under their terms, which is ok usually since American still generously allows 5 day award holds. At the end of 2012 and again at the beginning of 2013 American offered a 50% bonus on purchased miles, which meant a price of 2 cents per mile instead of 2.3 cents. If your need…
Get Free Instant Top Tier Elite Status With Sofitel, Novotel, and More!
In case you missed one of the past opportunities for Le club Accorhotels instant top tier Platinum status for new account signup, free instant top tier Platinum elite status from Leclub Accor Hotels is back. How to Sign Up This offer won’t last long, usually just a few hours once they start getting lots of signups but sometimes a little longer. You must open a new account, it cannot be applied to existing accounts. And when you do so you must use an email address that’s not currently on file with them. Even if you don’t frequently stay at Sofitel, Novotel, Pullman, Mercure, and other related properties frequently, you never know when you might find yourself in one and having top tier status can’t hurt. What Platinum Status Gets You Platinum status usually requires 60…
