Instant Platinum (top tier) status in the Accor Hotels loyalty program comes around with some frequency, each time it does the signup link won’t stay active for long — sometimes a couple of days, sometimes just hours. Here’s a current offer for instant Platinum status. (HT: Loyalty Lobby) Note that the signup page is just a signup page, no indication on that page that accounts will start at the Platinum level, but indeed it’s currently working as of this writing. 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…
American’s New Redesigned Boarding Pass
American has rolled out a re-designed boarding pass with a more modern look and more information. Of course it’s not all that radically different. But it is better. It’s a minor thing, the look and feel of the boarding pass, but in general I like it. Compare it to an old card stock boarding pass from American. The new boarding pass will dsplay the TSA PreCheck logo if you’re eligible to use the PreCheck lane (provided the airport you’re using has one). They’ve also changed the elite status and boarding group designator. Instead of printing it, and displaying it as though it were a watermark on the card stock, it will be in the bottom left hand corner and inside of a circle. Black means elite status or other ‘priority access’ eligibility, and if it…
What Strategy for United Elites that Don’t Spend Enough on Tickets to Retain Status Under New MileagePlus Revenue Rules?
Reader C.B. has had United status for a decade or more, but he really does fly on the cheapest tickets and won’t meet the minimum spending threshold for 2015 status based on his spending on United tickets in 2014. So he wrote looking for thoughts on what to do — what airline to credit his United flying to, for instance, with the goal that he would at least have some recognition on United. The goal, then, is Star Alliance Gold which gets lounge access, priority boarding and security and free checked bags. You may be ahead of me, but with United’s unfortunate but not unexpected revenue-qualifier announcement, I know that I won’t be the only one in 2014 moving United flight credits to another [Star Alliance] carrier in order to achieve Gold there — and…
New Stackable First Hotel Booking Bonus from Rocketmiles
Rocketmiles, a website that kicks back substantial miles to you for you hotel bookings (but generally doesn’t provide credit for elite status, and for some chains bookings won’t allow elite recognition, also has a limited set of properties)., has introduced a new mileage-earning partner in Virgin America and has a bonus offer to promote it. Book by July 15 for a stay consumed by December 31 and credit to Virgin America for a 3000 mile bonus — or 5000 miles if you have Virgin America elite status. Those of you that got a status match from Virgin America may have that through June 30 so there’s a bit of a narrow window for maximizing this even more. This is a first-time booking bonus for new Rocketmiles customers, so folks that have used the site before…
How the American Arlines App and My Own Stupidity Cost Me 45 Minutes and Made Me Miss a Meeting
I use the American Airlines mobile app a lot. It’s probably risky in some ways — I’m assuming the risk that the airline’s IT systems will be working and able to generate and scan the boarding passes, and they won’t be limited to working with paper. I’m assuming the risk that I’ll have a decent enough data connection to be able to pull up the app (it has to open and log in) and then connect to open the boarding pass. And I’m assuming the risk that I don’t run out of battery. I’m syncing with two Exchange server email accounts in addition to Gmail and Yahoo. That drains battery on my Android phone. But all of those things are, more or less, a function of the technology. I’m aware of those risks and assume…
Thrifty Promises You a Free Rental Car Day But Changes its Mind
The Associated Press‘s David Koenig covers last week’s marketing debacle where Thrifty Car Rental sent al of their frequent rental members an email saying they qualified for a free rental day .. by accident. I haven’t rented from Thrifty for years (a decade ago they were exceptionally generous with mileage-earning in their partnership with America West). I got two copies of the email, which tells me I probably have two accounts in their database and also that those accounts must still exist. Apparently it was just the wrong data pull. hrifty Car Rental says it’s sorry, but many customers who were offered a free one-day rental won’t be getting that after all. The company says the offer was intended for a select group of top customers but was sent accidentally to many other people. ……
And the Award for Worst Frequent Flyer Program Name Goes to…
Lucky thinks new Star Alliance member EVA Airways’ frequent flyer program has the most horrible name out there — Infinity MileageLands. And it is, no doubt, a bit bizarre and probably the result of a bit too literal translation from Chinese. That’s something that gets brands in trouble. There are famous stories that I’ve never checked out myself because I don’t think I want to know if they’re apocryphal. Like Frank Purdue’s “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” being translated as “It takes a virile man to make a chicken aroused.” Or “Pepsi: the Choice of a New Generation” becoming in Chinese, “Pepsi will bring your dead ancestors back to life.” An of course nothing tops the Chevy Nova in Spanish: “no va”… But I’d like to challenge the assertion that…
Real World Airfare Savings: Using Hidden City Ticketing to Travel for Less
Last year I explained how to use ‘hidden city ticketing’ to save big money on airfare. Airlines often price tickets from one city to another through a hub cheaper than flights that terminate at the hub. Flying United New York to Milwaukee through Chicago is often much cheaper than just flying New York to Chicago. But if you get off the plane in Chicago and don’t board your connection to Milwaukee, you’ve potentially saved yourself a lot of money. This is called hidden city ticketing. In the live example I gave in that post, I helped someone save $1415 on a one-way ticket. That’s a big deal. If you’re interested in the technique, read the post, it walks you through how to do it – and how not to do it – including simple pitfalls…
United Increases Change Fees on Awards for Most MileagePlus Members
After the big news yesterday that United was following Delta’s lead in imposing minimum revenue requirements for elite status, at least for US frequent flyers who don’t spend $25,000 or more on a United co-brand credit card (this exception, or the one for legacy Presidential Plus credit card holders, not applying to 100,000 mile flyer status), comes more news a mere 18 or so hours later. The MileagePlus program has increased the fees that non-elite general members have to pay to change and cancel award tickets. For travel more than 21 days out, changes that didn’t involve a different origin or destination were free. Now — effective immediately, no advance notice given — changes will be $75. If the changes are made inside of 21 days that fee is $100 per passengers. Cancelling and redepositing…
Bits ‘n Pieces for June 19, 2013
News and notes from around the interweb: Hertz still hasn’t solved the Jerry Seinfeld problem: When taking the reservation doesn’t actually hold the reservation. US Airways is rolling out online pre-order o paid meals in coach. You’ll no longer need to game their IT system to be able to have this. You can comment on my blog for a chance to win a Samsung Chromebook. Taipei-based EVA Airways has joined the Star Alliance and is a truly awesome ‘get’ — business class award availability is really, really good and thy fly to Toronto, Vancouver, New York JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Another great way to get between North America and Asia and with a really stellar inflight product. I’ve found the Aeroplan website good for searching space, along with the ANA website. I…
