One of the things that surprises me most every time I hear it is that people I talk to assume that airline websites display all of the awards that are available with their miles. When they type in an origin city and a destination, and nothing comes back, they assume nothing is available and they are frustrated. Sometimes folks don’t know that partner airline redemptions are an option. Or if they do know, they assume that whatever is possible will be displayed online. Perhaps that’s just a reflection of society more generally, we expect to be able to do our business online, and it isn’t the first thing that would occur that the telephone is necessary or superior to a website. Especially with companies pushing so many consumers online due to lower costs. With airlines,…
Ten Year Hotel Stay Comes to an End
A woman recently checked out of Towne Place Suites in Falls Church, Virginia after 10 years. She did apparently secure a low nightly rate for her long-term stay, her monthly housing cost is lower than mine and in the same area. Her stay raises several questions for me that the CNN article doesn’t answer. I’m not familiar with Virginia law on the subject, but often long stays aren’t subject to hotel tax. Apartment rent isn’t, for instance. I wonder if that’s part of how she kept her expense down as well. Starwood Preferred Guest won’t away credit for stays over 30 days. Marriott Rewards doesn’t have such a rule. Was she a member? If so, you would expect her to be a lifetime Platinum (though it doesn’t sound like she availed herself of the benefits…
Sharing My Comprehensive Award Booking Techniques Talk Here on the Blog
Yesterday I gave a talk at the Chicago frequent flyer seminar on award bookings. Frequently Flying has a nice overview of yesterday’s events. I’ve had lots of requests over time to share the information here on my blog that I share in person through these presentations. The only real barrier to doing that has been that I just know the stuff in my head and talk about it, but I’ve never sat down to actually write it out. Call me lazy, I suppose that’s why I’ve never written a book either. But if there’s enough interest it occurs to me that I could develop a real resource, even though some of the advice does change over time and that’s been another reason I’ve been reluctant to write out the best advice — as soon as…
Milepoint Lending Team Sets a Record on Kiva
Yesterday I opened my talk on booking award tickets at the Chicago frequent flyer seminar by giving away raffle tickets. Sharon was collecting for three charities, and there are plenty of donated giveaway items. I bought several tickets, even though I didn’t really want to win. I asked the group of over well over 300 (it was standing room only in the back) who had already purchased raffle tickets and selected from those folks to give away my raffle tickets. It was a way to reward those that were already doing something to support charities, and encourage others to do so. It gave me an opportunity to begin my talk which is all about getting the greatest value, return, and luxury for miles with a bit of a discussion of my overall philosophy, which is…
Oneworld MegaDO Sold Out in 23 Minutes, But Are There Still Opportunities to Go on the Trip?
I understand that The Points Guy will be giving away a seat, which he pre-purchased for that purpose. (You’ll have to sit next to him, though. Hah! Kidding, Brian’s a really good guy.) You can bet that Randy Petersen has plans to do something, he always finds a way, I haven’t asked but would bet that he’ll figure out some mechanism to give away a seat on an experience that you wouldn’t even be able to buy otherwise. And.. yes, there were apparently some server issues with the massive slam of folks wanting to book immediately when sales opened. And that frustrated folks, for sure. One suggestion, naturally, was just to swap in a bigger plane for the scheduled 757. Who knew this thing would need a 777??? Of course it isn’t as easy as…
Notes and Notables for Thursday, October 27
Wandering Aramean says fleet-wide internet may finally be coming to United, albeit without timetable. Unquestionably United lags other carriers in this area, and while uptake on wifi is modest it’s going to become increasingly important not to be left behind here — which I base solely on the fact that I consider it to be important. Deals We Like does a nice job explaining how to get ~ 16 hits and 25,000 miles for under $140 in the US Airways Grand Slam promo. Here’s my post from last month laying out my strategy for earning 100,000 miles from the promo. Points Addict has the current correct answers for Audience Rewards trivia, which will get you a free hit. The unquestionable leader in Grand Slam coverage, with good clear explanations, has been Mommy Points. Booking for…
Meta Updates About the Blog
One of the great things about a blog is its timeliness, you see right up front what’s new, what’s going on now. What’s not as good is that older posts can often continue to be useful, and for sure there’s a search function which I’ve found to be pretty good but you need to know what to look for. Over time I’m written quite a few posts, how to’s, advice on travel that I suspect readers would continue to benefit from — either because they want to be reminded, or they weren’t reading the first time through. So I’ve added two new pages to the blog, linked on the left hand side, Best Current Deals and Offers which I will try to keep updated and also Best Frequent Flyer Advice Compiled. I’ve only just begun…
American Airlines Amazing Awesome Offers to Oneworld MegaDO Participants
In addition to generous mileage earning for the charter flight, American Airlines has two separate offers for participants: bonus miles for flying on American between now and the charter flight itself, and an ultra-relaxed status challenge offer for folks who are elite members of another loyalty program. Here are the terms and conditions for the American Airlines bonus offers (.pdf) made to MegaDO participants. First, bonus miles for flying roundtrips through January 13. Earn up to 55,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles for round trip travel flown on American Airlines, American Eagle or AmericanConnection® between October 9, 2011, and January 13, 2012. Each roundtrip earns a successively bigger bonus. One roundtrip is 1000 miles, two roundtrips is 2000 more, three roundtrips is 3000 more… up to 10,000 bonus miles for the 10th roundtrip (and 55,000 total bonus…
Starwood’s Elite Status Fast Track to Become More Restrictive November 1
Back on March 31, Starwood announced with one day’s notice that they would no longer do status matches, and that beginning April 1 would only offer challenges which were later revealed to be an offer of Platinum status after 15 nights in 90 days. I believe that my writing about it prompted Ben from One Mile at a Time to request a match right away, and now he’s a Starwood Platinum. And I’ve gotten to relive some of my own past hotel stays through his trip reports. Now Loyalty Traveler reports that Starwood Preferred Guest will again be tweaking their status fast track offerings, we don’t have the details yet but they are believed to be getting more restrictive on November 1. So if you’re considering a status challenge with Starwood, it may be worthwhile…
Oneworld MegaDO Goes On Sale Noon Eastern on Thursday
The signup page opens to the public at noon Eastern time on Thursday. Folks who attended the launch party in Los Angeles earlier in the month got to start booking at noon today (the page is password protected for the first 24 hours, but don’t worry there weren’t as many people at the launch party as there are seats on the plane). There’s an optional part of the trip at the front end, that’s not available for booking yet, though you can indicate your interest during the booking process. That begins in New York on January 23, flies to London, and winds up in Dallas for the start of the main event. But what opens tomorrow is the US portion of the MegaDO — Begins in Dallas on Wednesday January 25 with an American Airlines…
