Lucky lets loose the dogs of war over impending changes to the British Airways Executive Club which are coming in November, dubbing them a “huge devaluation.” I meant to write about this last night but was still digging around for more facts, and truth is we don’t know very much yet about what changes they’re planning to make, but since I’ve been predicting a significant devaluation since May I guess you can count me in the camp of those who think the changes are going to be pretty darned bad. The Milepoint discussion of what’s going on is here. But basically all we know is that they’re renaming their miles “Avios points.” I almost typed out ‘Avis’ and of course I’m going to have to train my spell checker (not that I use it often,…
$49 Towards Your Hotel or 555 Free Delta Miles Plus Free Elite Status
Along the lines of obscure frequent flyer signup bonuses, the current issue of Inside Flyer carries an offer (subscription required) for elite status and 5000 bonus points when signing up for VOILÀ Hotel Rewards. Those bonus points can apparently be redeemed right away. InsideFlyer readers who join VOILÀ Hotel Rewards at http://www.insideflyer.com/link/?5075 will automatically receive Orion tier elite membership status and 5,000 bonus points. Orion members earn 25 percent bonus points and receive complimentary space available upgrades, early check-in and late checkout, complimentary WiFi and fitness center access, among other benefits. And 5,000 points can be redeemed for a hotel night award that is $49 or less, 555 Delta SkyMiles, digital music and ebooks or other awards. Seems like a good enough reason to join, I’m not currently a member. I’m actually surprised at some…
Obscure Frequent Flyer Signup Bonuses
Via Frequent Flyer Bonuses, Sun Country UFly Rewards is offering 10 points for signing up. And the Sichuan Airlines Golden Panda Club is offering 888 Golden Panda kilometers for joining their program. They also bonus travel by the end of the year, and referring friends and family. Thank goodness for Google translate. It doesn’t look like referred friends and family need to fly in order for the person doing the referring to earn points…
150 Free Delta Miles for Watching (or Skipping) Short Bose Video
Similar to past American Airlines offers (here, here, here, and here), Bose is offering Delta miles for you to learn more about their Quiet Comfort 15 product and also to get you to buy from them. 150 miles for watching a video about QC15s 350 miles for an in-store demonstration 1500 miles for buying the headphones The offer runs through September 12. At a minimum, plenty of folks will watch the video for 150 miles. And as in the past, it does appear that one can simply fill out the form at the end to get the miles (you could also click on the video and then fast forward to the end), but frankly they’re asking you to watch the video and offering you miles to do so, that seems like a reasonable bargain to…
Not All Blogger Travel is Glamorous!
Last year I wrote about my very mundane travel routine. It was really about sharing what most of my travel is like, as well as providing a window into the minutiae of how I think about my travel day. Very ritualized, very much ingrained habit. I don’t write about most of my trips because quite frankly they’re boring. I don’t have the wry sense of humor about travel that Ben has. There aren’t that many lessons to be gleaned from a trip out to Phoenix, Chicago, or Denver. I fly more boring domestic segments than first class international ones, but I write about the first class international trips. Some readers get the impression that’s how I travel most of the time, nothing could be farther from the truth. “My So-Called Travel Life” is a good…
US Airways Grand Slam (Up to 110,000 Bonus Miles) Promotion Registration Now Open
US Airways Grand Slam promotion, which I’ve already detailed some of the pluses and minuses of, is now open for registration. Activities don’t begin to count for the promotion, which offers the potential to earn up to 110,000 bonus miles, until September 14th. But best to register so that you don’t forget, more than once I’ve thought enough about a promotion that I’ve assumed I had registered, when I had not. And of course there is no downside to registering. (HT: MJ On Travel.)
New Bath Amenities Coming to Hyatt
As revealed on Milepoint, word is that Hyatt has selected KenetMD which is made by Gilchrist & Soames. I haven’t ever heard of KenetMD but apparently their narrative is a product produced by a dermatologist, scientific approach to skincare or some such. I look forward to trying it out. Back in May there was discussion of Hyatt’s plans to dump Portico, and goodness knows it won’t come soon enough. I like ginger but their ‘white ginger’ smell doesn’t cut it for me, and my wife tells me that many other hotel products work better for her. I rather hoped for L’Occitane, with Hilton rather going upmarket and all with Peter Thomas Roth, but perhaps these new bath amentiies will prove to be worth the search that went into them. I don’t know the timeframe for…
Starwood and Hyatt Announce Their Fall Promotions
I previously wrote about Marriott’s and Priority Club’s fall promotions, and have been impatiently waiting to see what the other major chains had in store. Starwood’s fall promotion is triple points on stays which include a Thursday or Sunday night (double points on all other stays). The promo runs September 6 through December 18, and registration will become available by the 6th of September. The fact that there’s a long list of properties where you won’t be eligible to earn the bonus suggests that hotels aren’t looking to incentivize additional heads in beds, they’re pretty full with high rates and don’t feel like they need to spend broadly to fill up. Which also likely explains why Hyatt’s new promotion isn’t nearly as valuable as some were expecting or hoping (including me). Hyatt has announced their…
New DOT Consumer Protection Rules Are Virtually Meaningless
New Department of Transportation ‘consumer protection’ rules went into effect on Tuesday, and they don’t amount to much — mostly codifying practices that are already in place, and imposing penalties for things airlines rarely do. A very small number of people will be better off, others will be worse off. Kathleen Pender of the San Francisco Chronicle quotes my bottom line: the rules “won’t change the travel experience for the vast majority of passengers,” says Gary Leff, co-founder of Milepoint.com Major components of the new rules are: Airlines will be required to disclose more of their fees clearly on their websites. I struggle to find many examples of airlines that don’t already do this. Besides, while transparency is appealing it’s not clear that greater information influences consumer behavior, travel is complicated already and it’s not…
Hitler Expresses His Frustrations with the Star Mega DO
The Star Mega DO is approaching in a couple of weeks, it really is likely to be a truly special, amazing, once (or three times?) in a lifetime experience. But it’s quite a lot of effort to put together a charter flight, get everyone on the trip Hyatt Diamond status, coordinate flight simulator time with United, work with Hyatt on a series of receptions, get tours of aircraft facilities, set up buses, etc. And communicate all of the relevant details to folks coming on the trip. So there are always going to be folks who are a bit concerned about some of the details, lots of questions get posted over at Milepoint in the discussion thread for the event. And though it’s incredibly inside baseball, I thought it worth passing along a video mashup that…
