Via Milepoint, Accor is offering instant Platinum status just for enrolling (with this HSBC promo). Platinum status generally requires 60 nights (or 25,000 points earned) and comes with a 100% points bonus and then at Sofitel, Pullman, and MGallery hotels: room upgrades that the rules say you specifically have to ask for, 4pm late checkout, guaranteed availability, and a welcome drink and gift. I’ve always found it odd that A|Club elite status doesn’t get you recognition at Novotel properties, but still being Platinum which is their top tier is certainly better than a hole in the head as my grandfather used to say — especially when the status is instant and free.
$200 SniqueAway Hotel Credit Giveaway
SniqueAway is a new-ish site for discount hotel bookings. I don’t even know how long it’s been around, I’ve been vaguely aware of it for months but never took a closer look. I got an email from one of their PR folks wondering if I’d try it out if they gave me a $200 credit to use. Well, I haven’t done that, and I suggested we do a giveaway of a $200 credit here. If you sign up using my referral link I’ll get a $25 credit should you wind up also making a booking through the site. I’m giving away the $200 credit offered, but I’d just assume that someone wind up with the referral credits. I’ll bear no malice if you use someone else’s referral link, I’d just hate to see the $25…
Is Citibank Evil or Stupid for Ending Mileage Earning on Debit Cards?
Reader E.M. writes to pitch me on calling out Citibank for ending their mileage earning debit cards. Citi’s decision to discontinue the AA Advantage debit card program is incontrovertible evidence of a corporate ethos that puts profit before customer satisfaction. Their ending frequent flier mile earning opportunities may seem like a trivial issue compared with other crimes that banks are getting away with, but it is highly symbolic of the industry’s overall disregard for the consumer. This was not a free program ($65 dollar annual fee). The Dodd-Frank law is not to blame for creating this situation. Debit card interchange fees have not been eliminated, they have been reduced. Citi’s choice to end the program will result in the loss of untold millions of debit card transactions because customers will stop using their debit cards…
The Blogs this Blogger Can’t Do Without
Last month in Denver, Jeff Zidell asked me what my daily blog reads were and strangely enough I didn’t quite know because it’s so habitual, I have a ton of subscriptions in my Google Reader because I’ll look for tips of things to write about in the most unlikely of places, I actually had to think about the question of which blogs I prioritize, which are my first reads, which ones I actually anticipate reading. The question sort of stuck with me and I’ve paid more attention to which blog posts I click first to read, which ones I actually enjoy. So I thought I’d share with y’all my take, in case it introduces you to blogs that you’d be interested in checking out. I know I’ll ruffle some feathers with my comments on these…
Months of Shopping Portal Meltdowns: When Deals Are Too Good to Be True, Blame the Mileage Member?
Inside Flyer‘s October cover story (ungated) is on monster shopping portal mileage deals that didn’t work out for members. They were all deals that on many levels were ‘too good to be true’ but that at the same time shed light on the workings of the mileage malls which are very poorly understood — by design of the airlines and those outsourced companies running the shopping portals — and shed light on some of the questionable practices of those vendors, with at least tacit approval of the mileage programs. In August I wrote about what could have been the biggest mileage bonanza ever: an offer on the US Airways and Hawaiian Airlines shopping portal sites to earn miles for transactions with web hosting company EasyCGI. The offers were very explicit that there were no restrictions…
2500 Free US Airways Miles
Sharebuilder will offer you 2500 US Airways miles for registering. (Here’s the offer directly on the Sharebuilder site as well.) But here’s the kicker: I’ve had a Sharebuilder account in the past. I got the miles for ‘renewing’ my account, basically entering my login information, updating my contact information, and linking it up with the US Airways offer. I didn’t fund the account or engage in any transactions. I didn’t even link a bank account to do transfers into the Sharebuilder account, I skipped that part choosing to ‘return later’. A couple of minutes of online forms, not even a new customer, and no money spent … I opened the account on Saturday, October 1 and the miles were there on Tuesday, October 4. And a ‘hit’ in the US Airways Grand Slam promotion. The…
Rumored Bankruptcy for American Airlines May Mean Good Times for AAdvantage Frequent Flyers
SmartMoney ran a piece telling frequent flyers to go out and burn their American Airlines miles because the airline is so troubled. Attention, nervous flyers: It may be time to buckle up and use your American Airlines miles. Shares at the airline plummeted by one-third Monday amid fears that it will seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As investors panicked and sold their shares, its 67 million frequent flyer members around the world were also left with a worrying question: In a worst-case scenario, will all those hard-earned miles be lost? The bad news: When airlines file for liquidation, loyal customers are usually among the last on the long list of creditors to be reimbursed. Experts say nearly all other major debts will be paid before these rewards are redeemed. What a lead, eh? And the…
Aeroplan Will No Longer Include Domestic First Class with International Business Class Awards
I haven’t yet verified this myself, but via Matthew Klint, Aeroplan has a new devaluation (on top of the pretty brutal changes to their award chart in July). Aeroplan will no longer book domestic (and US-Canada transborder) first class seats as part of an international business class award. If you include domestic first class, they will price the whole award as first class. Most airlines will include domestic first class on a business class award. There are exceptions. British Midland treats first class as first class, business class as business class, even when the flight is just an hour-long ‘first class’ seat on a United Express regional jet. That’s how Aeroplan appears to be proceeding, as a way of cutting costs on their redemptions according to the memo that an Aeroplan supervisor read to Matthew.…
A Reason Not to Trust Hotel Reviews
Leave aside that hotels post their own bogus positive reviews, and competitor properties post their own bogus negative reviews. Sure, some people like to create an image of themselves as sophisticated, either by associating with a high status property or trashing a high status property — or by convincing people that where they stay is indeed high status. The individual incentives aren’t necessarily to spread the word about great places a traveler wants to return to. It can sometimes be better to keep them a secret. Or so says XKCD web comic.. (HT: Dan R.)
The Million Mile Secrets Interview
Daraius from Million Mile Secrets has been running a series of interviews of frequent flyer bloggers. He interviewed me last month (and I extended on the most asked about story from the interview here.). For a new blogger, it’s a great strategy to bring in an audience I imagine, since the more highly trafficked bloggers link to you. Plus it happens to also be interesting, I’ve enjoyed the stories of the bloggers who are my daily reads.source a blog post! 🙂 Since Darius is a relatively new blogger, but whose posts have been interesting and useful, I thought that his story would be interesting. So I asked him to share it with me. Plus, I get to mostly out And so I present The Million Mile Secrets Interview. (In Rajasthan, India) How and when did…
