Last night I read over on Lucky’s blog that Singapore Airlines had apparently opened up a tremendous swath of premium cabin award space for their partners. The guesses being made — and one shouldn’t try guessing too hard about these things — center mostly around a reservations system update at Singapore Airlines, and the possibility that award space that’s normally offered to their own members only was being made available in error to partner airlines. (Although it certainly appears to me that there was more award space being opened than is normally available to partners.) It was late in the evening, I had a long day at an event where I had just spoken, so I tried playing with it and couldn’t get it to ticket — I called US Airways and they weren’t seeing…
Alternative Summer Vacation Ideas
David Rowell has several vacation suggestions for folks that haven’t planned their summer getaways yet. You can go to Minnesota and drive a tank. A business named Drive-a-Tank offers drivers the chance to pilot surplus military tanks and other armored vehicles around an old limestone quarry and smash junk cars like an action movie hero. …A basic package that includes driving a tank and shooting a machine gun costs $399, with more expensive options for driving several models and shooting other weapons such as assault rifles. Drivers who want to smash a car pay an additional $549; for about $3,500, a customer can drive a tank through a trailer house. You can also book a stay at the Redneck resort. If you want to get away and get mud on your face – and not…
Double Miles in and out of DC’s National Airport on US Airways
US Airways is offering double redeemable miles on all flights in and out of DC for tickets booked by August 5 and travel between July 7 and September 30. No registration required, but the offer applies only to “itineraries starting or ending at Reagan National Airport” and not connections through DCA. This offer “kicks off 30 Days for DC – a month of surprises, community events and giveaways to celebrate our commitment to the Capital City.” Outstanding question: Will tickets booked before July 7 for travel during the promotion period earn the bonus miles? The details of the promo say “Book July 7 – August 5” and that would suggest bookings made before tomorrow do not count. The terms and conditions of the offer, however, do not say that. Instead, they say “Customers must book…
Where Have all the Mistake Fares Gone?
Earlier in the week I wrote about comments I offered on the future of mobile for travel providers and how they’ll need to start understanding the revenue proposition for their investments (it will be more about reducing distribution costs and a defensive measure to avoid losing revenue to competitors than about unloading distressed inventory). After my comments the panel I spoke with someone who works for the Airline Tariff Publishing Company, the airfare clearing house that makes fares available to the computer reservation systems. We chatted a bit about mistake fares, and I must be the last person in the world to realize it, but he shared with me that about 3 years ago they implemented a simple system that’s done a lot to reduce the frequency that “fat finger discounts” (mistyping a price, often…
Bits ‘n Pieces for July 3, 2012
News and Notes from Other Blogs and Fora: Via Delta Points, Gogo inflight internet is offering discounts for pre-purchased 24 hour passes: 2 passes valid through July 8 for $14.50 and 3 passes valid through August 30 for $19.50. Deals We Like explains an American Express offer for a $30 statement credit after spending at least $150 total with a minimum of three merchants in Washington DC in July. It’s mostly hotels and restaurants that are participating (registration required, and though the terms and conditions say you can only register and get the statement credit on one card, in the past similar offers have allowed folks to get the credits on more than one card). American has opened its second US Flagship check-in facility at Miami International Airport. ConciergeKey, Five Star, and three-cabin first class…
Date and Time for Star MegaDO 4 Bookings Announced
Booking for Star MegaDO 4 will open Monday, July 9th at 10 am Eastern (9am Central, 8am Mountain, 7am Pacific) at http://megado.com/events/starmegado/ Seat categories and pricing are as follows: BusinessFirst — each $1,999 USD all in. Tommy Class — each $1,599 all in. (Extra Legroom and No One Next to You) Economy Plus — each $1,249 all in. (Extra Legroom) Economy Class — each $999 all in. At the beginning of the month I blogged about the Star MegaDO launch party in DC, where details of the upcoming event were revealed for the first time. It’s the ultimate frequent flyer adventure, where 150-200 enthusiastic folks get together, charter an aircraft, and go on behind-the-scenes tours of airlines and aircraft, while picking up swag and tons of miles and elite status along the way. To get a feel for what a…
Travelocity Mobile Strategy and Undermining Hotel Best Rate Guarantees
Yesterday morning I wrote about the future of mobile for travel providers. Reader S. shares a bit about Travelocity’s current offers which I thought were insightful. Travelocity pushes their mobile app as the only one from an online travel agency booking flights, hotels, and cars. Currently they report that over 10% of their hotel bookings come via their mobile app, mostly within three days of arrival and 64% for same-night check-in. Travelocity offers ‘mobile exclusive deals’ where they solicit hotels to offer lower pricing through their mobile booking app, usually at the last minute, than are offered on the Travelocity website. In exchange for lower pricing, hotels get help pushing last minute inventory (that hotels may expect to go unsold), and they also get priority placement in search results shown to customers (Orbitz isn’t the…
The TSA PreCheck Program Explained
A couple of weeks ago I explained why TSA PreCheckwas both amazing and useless at the same time — that it was a great security experience, harkening back to the pre-9/11 days before all of the security theatre like shoes off, War on Water freedom baggies out of your carryon, but that since the TSA won’t give approved travelers access to those lines every time and since you don’t know in advance whether you’ll have the access, you don’t actually save time, able to turn up at the airport later. You still have to plan for long TSA lines, and if you’re lucky just wind up with more time to be productive in the lounge or by the gate. Scott Mayerowitz does a great job explaining what the PreCheck program is and how it works…
Air France KLM Flying Blue Can Book One-Way Awards on Delta (Including Transatlantic, With No Fuel Surcharges)
Online Travel Review finds that the Air France KLM Flying Blue program not only allows one-way award bookings on partner Delta (when Delta Skymiles does not allow their own members to book one-way awards at half price) but they do not appear to be adding fuel surcharges to those awards. I was skeptical at first — I commented that of course they don’t add fuel surcharges in his New York – Detroit example, since paid travel doesn’t include fuel surcharges on that route. Jared replied to my comment and amended his post — he’s found that even one-way transatlantic travel, US – Europe on Delta, does not incur fuel surcharges in the Flying Blue program! Of course you have to find saver award availability on Delta metal to make that work, and Delta remains about…
You Can Now Transfer bmi Diamond Club Miles to British Airways Avios
Back in April, British Airways and bmi announced that beginning July 3 it would be possible to move points between Avios and Diamond Club accounts. They brought the functionality up some hours early and it’s now live, which is great, but it appears that the option exists only one way — from bmi to Avios, and not as I had expect from Avios to bmi as well. And the transfer is irrevocable. Roughly speaking you will want to make this transfer unless you expect to use your bmi miles with partners that British Airways doesn’t share (and don’t expect those partnerships to last beyond their current contracts!). So that means you have a near-term desire to redeem on Virgin Atlantic (you know that transfer is going away!), Qatar, and Jet Airways. GhettoIFE walks you through…
