Ben was on a tear yesterday: You can book flights on Iberia using Iberia miles without paying fuel surcharges. If your Iberia and British Airways accounts have been open at least three months, you can move your British Airways points over to Iberia and redeem from that account to save on fees. American Express Membership Rewards points also transfer to Iberia, so it’s a way to use Amex points fuel surcharge-free on Iberia travel. The Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa is available with 70,000 points after first purchase and fee waived the first year. That’s enough points for two nights at the lowest category Ritz property. The real benefit of the card is upgrades to club level three times a year, Gold status in their loyalty program (which has modest benefits), a $200 airline fee credit similar…
500 Free Delta Miles
Join Le Club Accorhotels with this promotion link by August 31, select Delta Skymiles as your preferred loyalty program in your membership profile, and enter your Skymiles account number. This offer is open to existing Le Club Accorhotels members as well, just use the offer link and change your preferred loyalty program to Delta and give them your account number. Update: the offer should still be valid but appears to be returning an error at this time.
50% Off Sale on the Park Hyatt Maldives
I reviewed the Park Hyatt Maldives extensively after my trip there in February. It was a phenomenal resort, in the middle of nowhere (with the good and bad that comes from that), and at the time I considered it to be one of the very best uses of hotel points. It’s a top reward category 6 property in the Hyatt Gold Passport program, 22,000 points per night, and that gets you a villa that frequently runs $1000 per night. Rates aren’t always that high, villas can often be had in the $750 range. And the property itself isn’t an inexpensive place to be — roundtrip air/boat transfers from the Male airport run ~ $400 per person. Food is expensive (though breakfast is included for all guests). Excursions are very high priced. But the points open…
What Part of Lifetime Didn’t They Understand?
I received the latest update by e-mail on the british midand Diamond Club program today. You can no longer earn or spend miles with Europcar or bmi hotels, and you can no longer earn miles with Purple Parking. Spending miles on Gifts and Treats goes away June 17. No big deal, partnerships and offers change. But it’s one small step in the continuing dismantling of the once great british midland Diamond Club program. I generally assume programs that offer truly superior value won’t last, or at least the superior offerings won’t, but I’ll enjoy them while they do. What I don’t like — more than anything else coming from a loyalty program — is changes without notice. Members earn their perks, privileges, and benefits. There’s an offer, they do what’s necessary to meet the conditions…
I Wish Buy On Board Really Looked Like This
Austrian Airlines has introduced per-order paid meals in coach from Vienna-based caterer DO & CO, the company which caters Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal and Lounges in Frankfurt (and First Class Lounge at New York JFK). My favorite thing about the First Class Terminal — besides the Mercedes or Porsche ride across the tarmac to the plane,, of course — is the wiener schnitzel. Now, at the fifteen euro price point and served within the constraints of onboard catering, subject to the reheating skill of flight attendants, and packaged to be provided at 30,000 feet I’m not sure what the implementation will ultimately be like. But the pictures sure look good. The menu is available on international flights to and from Vienna, except for Budapest, Prague, and Zagreb. And some will consider it a downgrade, as…
Priority Club 3rd Quarter Promotion “Stay X Nights, Earn Y Points”
Priority Club’s third quarter “stay x, earn y” bonuses are now out. As usual, there are three different levels — earn 5000, 10,000, or 15,000 points depending on how much you stay during the promotion period of July 1 through September 30. Pick the promotion that you’re most likely to successfully hit. Register here with the code of the offer you want. Code 4871, Stay 3 Nights – Earn 5,000 Points Code 4872, Stay 4 Nights – Earn 5,000 Points Code 4873, Stay 7 Nights – Earn 10,000 Points Code 4874, Stay 8 Nights – Earn 10,000 Points Code 4875, Stay 10 Nights – Earn 10,000 Points Code 4876, Stay 12 Nights – Earn 10,000 Points Code 4877, Stay 15 Nights – Earn 15,000 Points Code 4878, Stay 18 Nights – Earn 15,000 Points Of…
Is a US Airways Acquisition of American Becoming More Likely? (I Still Hope Not)
Two years ago I called American a bankruptcy waiting to happen. Their costs were too high. Sure, their revenue was too low also and bankruptcy wasn’t necessarily going to solve that. But their major competitors had been through the bankruptcy court cost-cutting exercise. Staying out of Chapter 11 was both noble and a preservation strategy for existing management. (The day American did file Chapter 11 their CEO resigned…) When American filed for bankruptcy I said that AAdvantage miles were safe. And that a bankruptcy could even be good for American’s frequent flyers at least in the short term, as the airline could use the mileage program to drum up revenue and traffic, awarding bonus miles, all the while not wanting to rock the boat with its customers through any sort of devaluation. In the long-run,…
TSA Screeners Disciplined for Not Doing Their Jobs, But Since Their Jobs Don’t Affect Security, Nothing Was Harmed
5 TSA workers were fired and 38 suspended for failing to perform random screenings last year at the Ft. Myers airport. The 43, a combination of front-line screeners and supervisors, represent about 15 percent of the roughly 280 TSA employees at the airport. .. “It’s the random secondary [check] that did not happen,” he said. “At no time was a traveler’s safety at risk and there was no impact on flight operations.” Rather boggles the mind. A few bad apples who in no way undermine the hard work that thousands of men and women at the TSA do to keep us safe, day in and day out. It takes a lot to reach the disciplinary stage, and that happened with 15% of the workforce at this airport. In how many other cases did they simply…
My Johnny Jet ‘Travel Style’ Interview
JohnnyJet was an internet travel superstar before there was any such thing, he started a website that was a collection of links, everything you’d find online about travel, and grew it from there including television specials. He has a series where he interviews famous (Peter Greenberg, Pauline Frommer) and ‘almost famous’ travelers. And I’m really humbled to be the latest of his ‘Travel Style’ interviews, though I don’t quite fit the almost famous category even. You can read about my favorite US city, my favorite World Heritage site, favorite restaurants both fancy and hole in the wall, my favorite airports, what I carry on, and what I’m reading now. As well as my favorite travel websites. And he gave me the chance to boil my travel advice down to a single tip, so I offered…
50% Off Accor Hotel Properties
Usually when I see hotel sales, discounts are off of rack rate which means that they usually aren’t discounted relative to the best rate you’d normally get. And the sales usually are prepaid/non-changeable and certainly aren’t discounted much relative to otherwise-available prepaid rates. There may be 10% or so savings but the hype is much greater. One exception to this rule is the semi-regular Accor hotels sales. They’re running their 50% off sale through June 22nd, prepaid room nights for stays July 6 through September 2. The 50% off sale is for Leclub Accorhotels members only (of course, if you’re going to stay at one of their properties you should be joining their loyalty program anyway), non-members only get 40% off. The discount “applies to the public rate at the time of booking” and appears…
