Turning the mic to Frugal Asian Man: Hilton DoubleTree is running a special promotion with Topguest where if you sync your Hilton HHonors number on their page at http://doubletree.topguest.com, you will receive 500 Hilton HHonors points for free. This offer is available to only the first 40,000 Hilton HHonors users who sync. From my understanding, you do not need to be a member/user of Topguest to use this promo. However, it does seem that if you have had your Topguest account suspended before (and you had synced your Hilton HHonors #), you will not be able to participate in this promotion.
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Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Still the Best All-Around Most Rewarding Credit Card
Key Link: Chase Sapphire Preferred There are three key value propositions for a credit card. Signup bonus (how much will they give you upfront for getting the card) How value is the earning for your ongoing spend (do you actually want to put spending on the card once you’ve earned the bonus) Benefits of having the card And the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is top of wallet for the first two of those criteria — one of the very best signup bonuses, 40,000 points after $3000 in spending within 3 months, and that’s an exceptionally good offer because their points are among the two best currencies of any loyalty program, and double points earning in that most valuable of programs on all travel and dining spending, Visa acceptance, and no foreign currency transaction fees. The…
United’s Computer Woes: Yanking Miles from Your Account Improperly When Partner ‘Fails to Confirm’ Flight Activity
If you’ve been flying United’s airline partners recently, and crediting those flights to your MileagePlus account, check your balance — apparently United has been removing legitimate flight credits en masse when their flight partners haven’t confirmed the activity. Some attribute the lack of proper confirmation to United’s IT woes and inability to properly sync up with its partners for validating the credits. Many flyers inconvenienced. Normally I toss boarding passes once miles post. Note to United flyers: save partner boarding passes even after you receive credit for the flights. Miles from Blighty reports a similar and perhaps related problem, with paid business class travel on Air New Zealand reverting from having earned elite qualifying miles to earning just redeemable miles. These sorts of IT problems, along with problems like failing to properly issue award tickets…
Qatar Expected to Join oneworld Alliance
There’s been lots of speculation of a Middle East carrier joining the oneworld alliance. Etihad is a frequent flyer partner of American, and owns a stake in oneworld carrier Air Berlin Qatar’s relationship with United has been terminated, and there’s been some public comment by British Airways’ Chairman about the desirability of a tie-up with Qatar Emirates has a new strong relationship with oneworld airline Qantas, though at the expense of the Qantas relationship with British Airways and even Cathay Pacific, my own sense was that Emirates was the least likely to get closer to oneworld overall The speculation has intensified in the past weeks, and now it’s being predicted that Qatar will join oneworld in an announcement slated for October 8. Oneworld will hold an event announcing a “significant membership development” on 8 October,…
Finally Back at the Andaz 5th Avenue
This was only maybe my sixth stay of the year at the Andaz 5th Avenue. I’ve been trying out a variety of hotels this year in New York — sometimes due to location (like the Conrad New York when I was attending an event there, or the Renaissance Newark for the Freddie Awards), sometimes due to getting simply too good a deal to pass up (the couple of times I stayed at the Andaz Wall Street), and sometimes because the 5th Avenue Andaz was full and I don’t have deep enough pockets to cover a Diamond guaranteed availability stay (so I took refuge at the Grand Hyatt and the Parker Meridien). Every time I stay in New York and it’s not at the Andaz 5th Avenue, I’m disappointed. It’s not the single best hotel in…
Cathay Pacific Introducing New Regional Business Class Product
Yesterday Cathay Pacific announced their new regional business class product. Cathay Pacific has an outstanding long haul business class.. fully flat, direct aisle access, they took the innovative seat that US Airways first introduced and improved on it. But their regional (intra-Asia) product is fairly antiquated. I’ve written about it in the past, such as here and here. I’d liken it to flying in United’s old recliner-style business class seats, better than US domestic first class for sure and better than flying business class inside Europe by miles, but not the same seat you get for transpacific or transatlantic flying on better carriers — and not what Singapore offers on its new regional (Airbus A330-300) product, examples here and here. Here’s how Cathay describes the new regional product: The principal feature of the new product…
New Features at View from the Wing
Somehow I wound up in a nostalgic mood yesterday, the kind you feel when you go through old drawers or old boxes and look through each and every item, bringing back memories of childhood or high school. Only for me, it was reading through the old archives of this blog, which I’ve been writing for over 10 years. I was struck by the early posts, how I was trying to figure out what the blog was supposed to be, it was as much postings of weird news as it was travel deals, and the deals and offers I posted were really just the things I wanted to keep track of, this website was just a convenient bookmark or repository for links and my notes on them so I could find them more easily later. Writing…
Trip Reports – Air
An index of View from the Wing airline reports back through 2008: 2015 Delta Business Class, Sydney – Los Angeles Virgin Australia Business Class, Cairns – Sydney Virgin Australia Business Class, Brisbane – Cairns Virgin Australia Business Class, Los Angeles – Brisbane Emirates First Class, Dubai – Dallas Emirates First Class, Colombo – Dubai (Alone In) Emirates First Class, Male – Colombo Boat Transfer and Maldivian Domestic Flight from the Park Hyatt Maldives to Male American Airlines inaugural 787 flights in economy and business class, Dallas – Chicago – Dallas Maldivian economy, Male – Kooddoo Etihad First Class, Los Angeles – Abu Dhabi American Airlines New Business Class, Paris – New York JFK American Airlines Business Class, Chicago – Paris Qantas A380 First Class, Sydney – Los Angeles Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class, Singapore –…
Trip Reports – Lounges
An index of View from the Wing lounge reports back through 2008: 2015 American Express Centurion Studio, Seattle Air New Zealand (Temporary) Lounge, Sydney Skyteam Lounge, Sydney American Express Lounge, Sydney Virgin Australia Cairns Lounge Virgin Australia Brisbane Domestic Lounge American Express Centurion Lounge, Miami Star Alliance Business Class Lounge, LAX Emirates First Class A380 Concourse Lounge in Dubai Emirates First and Business Class Lounge, Colombo Plaza Premium Lounge, Male (Maldives) Etihad business class lounge, Abu Dhabi terminal 3 Star Alliance Business Class Lounge, Los Angeles Star Alliance First Class Lounge, Los Angeles Mobile, Alabama Airport Authority Executive Lounge American Airlines Admirals Club, Paris MAA Executive Lounge, Mobile, Alabama American Airlines Flagship First Class Lounge, Chicago American Flagship First Class Lounge, Los Angeles Qantas First Class Lounge, Sydney Singapore Airlines ‘The Private Room’ First Class…
When You Should (and Shouldn’t) Collect Delta Miles
Delta miles really are among the least valuable of any airline currency, certainly any major North American airline currency. My feelings about Delta are well-known, I’m the guy who coined the term ‘Skypesos.’ At one point I was told that Delta was ‘building a dossier’ on me. Still, sometimes Delta miles are exceptionally easy to earn, and that can make them attractive (if you can earn twice as many miles per dollar with Delta, it doesn’t matter all that much that it costs twice as many miles to redeem). Sadly there haven’t been any American Express Membership Rewards transfer bonuses to Delta this year, 40% – 67% were common in recent times. In response to a suggestion by the Delta Points Blog that it made sense to credit Rewards Network dining miles to the Delta…
