There’s three possible models for service and cost in the airline industry. You can be a super premium carrier. Singapore Airlines has that reputation, though I tend to think it’s more hype than substance even though I like the ability to pre-order meals in business and the service is quite good most of the time. Bangkok Airways impressed me in November, meals in coach (I was in business) and an escort and ride across the tarmac for domestic to international connecting passengers. You can be a deep discounter. Everything is an upcharge, Spirit charges not just for carryon bags but also water and has even charged a convenience fee for booking online. Ryanair drums up publicity by threatening to charge to use the bathroom, and by saying they’re going to order planes where everyone has…
Continental-Virgin Atlantic Frequent Flyer Relationship Ends February 13
Via Lucky, Continental and Virgin Atlantic will no longer be frequent flyer partners after February 13. There’ll be no reciprocal mileage accrual after that date, and no redemptions either. Any awards on Virgin using Continental miles must be ticketed by February 13 (and vice versa). Any changes to awards after that date will require switching carriers, you won’t be able to book an award with Continental miles now to fly Virgin and change the date later, since Continental will no longer have access to Virgin reward inventory after that date. This is completely and utterly expected. United wasn’t a Virgin partner. Virgin isn’t a Star Alliance member. It was a holdover of an old relationship. And the two airlines have shed other non-alliance partners like Etihad over the past year. The value to Virgin from…
Hilton Introducing Suite Upgrades for Diamond Members
A couple of months ago I laid out the strengths and weaknesses of each of the major hotel loyalty programs. At the time I said there were two major drawbacks to the Hilton HHonors program: No suite upgrades. Diamond isn’t much better than Gold. There is no suite upgrade benefit in HHonors. Not confirmed, or at check-in based on availability. For a chain their size, too few aspirational properties. Once you get past the list of top-end award values, they’re surprisingly thin on luxury vacation destinations. Earlier on I would have said another major drawback was that in addition to no suite upgrades (as part of the terms and conditions of the program), there was also no way to redeem additional points to get a better room either. But Hilton earlier this year introduced both…
Airline Elite Upgrades Become Grist for the Republican Presidential Primaries
The Washington Post runs a piece implying that Ron Paul wastes taxpayer dollars on his own travel. And I agree that taxpayers ought not to be on the hook to fly Members back and forth to their districts at will, that’s the standard practice. The crux of the piece turns on Paul buying flexible government fares which are eligible for confirmed upgrades based on Paul’s status in the Continental Onepass program, so they lead with Ron Paul “flying first class on dozens of taxpayer-funded flights to his home state.” What they don’t say, of course, is Ron Paul was buying first class airfare, because he wasn’t. And they acknowledge at the end that Members of Congress buying flexible tickets is fairly standard. The Post contends that by buying government fares rather than searching on his…
Getting to Know American Airlines As a Newly Minted Executive Platinum
Thanks to American Airlines’ generosity, participants in the upcoming Oneworld MegaDO were able to participate in a fee-free status challenge. Normally, American charges for challenges and offers them only up to Platinum. MegaDO participants had reduced flying requirements and could match existing status with other airlines up to the top-tier Executive Platinum level. And I’m now an Executive Platinum. The requirement was 20,000 flown miles on American within three months, which isn’t bad, except that the flying had to be completed by January 13 and it was mid-December before I decided to jump in and do it. American’s double elite qualifying miles promotion meant that any of the flying I did in January would could double towards re-qualifying for Executive Platinum, making it easy to keep the status for two years based largely on my…
Town Car Airport Transfers in Major Cities for $4 – $14
Via Ben you can currently get Town Car airport transfers in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and San Francisco from $4 – $14. Basically Groundlink is offering a discount off of their usual pricing through JetSetter, and new JetSetter accounts receive a $25 credit which can be used to pay for the car service. So while Groundlink usually charges $38 for a Town Car from New York LaGuardia to Manhattan, they’re selling it instead for $29 through JetSetter, and your net cost is just $4. Other airport options: Newark to Manhattan, net $10 New York JFK to Manhattan, net $10 Chicago O’Hare to Downtown Chicago, net $14 Chicago Midway to Downtown Chicago, net $14 Las Vegas, net $14 San Francisco to Downtown, net $14 There’s also a $35 mobile voucher (net cost $10) which will…
Priority Club to Improve Points Earning at Intercontinental Hotel Properties in North America
New Girl in the Air reports that starting February 15, Priority Club is changing its points earning structure for Intercontinental Hotel properties in North America — offering 10 points per dollar (like at Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels) rather than the current fixed 2000 points per stay. Folks currently spending less than $200 on a stay at an Intercontinental (which is certainly possible for a night in Cleveland or Tampa for instance!) will earn a bit fewer points. But the pricier Intercontinental properties, and those with longer stays, will certainly earn more points. The change doesn’t apply in Europe or Asia Pacific, just North America. And it doesn’t apply to Affiliate Resorts (Venetian). While this is a positive change — it’s always been strange that Priority Club has been so tight-fisted with points at…
Using International Hotel Booking Site Sales for Successful Best Rate Guarantee Claims
My friend S. passes along that on January 27, Travelocity will be running a “UK 24 hour sale” claiming 50% off. Why do we care? Most of these sales are overhyped and this is the Travelocity U.K. site after all. Quite simply, it’s a great opportunity for successful best rate guarantee claims. Hotels will likely be offering inventory there on that site that they aren’t offering through their home booking channel. Chain hotels don’t generally participate in these sort of sales on US sites because they’ll be out of parity with their chain’s booking sites. But few best rate guarantee claims do it against international booking pages. So hotel revenue managers tend to offer their better rates on these international sites frequently. This works especially well with big city international markets such as New York,…
Track It Back is Good for More than Just Earning Miles?
As I rhapsodized nostalgic about back in August, the US Airways 2009 holiday shopping promotion was the biggest frequent flyer promotion I ever took advantage of, for myself and for others I earned over 16 million miles. After making purchases from four other merchants on the US Airways Dividend Miles shopping sites, purchases from Track It Back earned 140 miles per dollar — they doubled their usual 20 miles per dollar offer to 40 miles per dollar, and five different merchant transactions would earn a 250% bonus. That meant buying miles in unlimited quantity for 7/10ths of a penny apiece, donating the Track It Back stickers to charity would reduce the cost to half a cent a mile. The idea behind Track it Back is that you put the sticker on an item, register the…
Chicago Frequent Flyer Seminar Hotel Now Bookable
While the schedule for the October 12-14 Chicago frequent flyer seminar isn’t up yet, and registration won’t be available though will be shortly, booking of the event host hotel is now live. What I do know to expect is talks from at least Rick Ingersoll (Frugal Travel Guy), Brian Kelly (The Points Guy), Ben Schlappig (One Mile at a Time), as well as Mommy Points and others — both new speakers and repeats. With hopefully 500 spots at the seminar, and certainly over 400, registration shouldn’t sell out immediately. Two years ago it filled up almost entirely and very quickly, but the registration fee was lower and included less so folks made speculative reservations even if they weren’t committed to attend. Lots of folks dropped out, some didn’t even bother to cancel, the $20 fee…
