The oneworld MegaDO so far, posts on the MegaDO Blog over the last 24 hours: Oneworld MegaDO is about to take off! Arriving for the New York opener in VIP style Taking over Puglia Ristorante in Little Italy for the Opening Dinner Gold Passport Diamond Breakfast at the New York host hotel, Andaz Wall Street Your Badges Have Arrived! Planning and Lunch – But Distracted by Football Pink Limos to JFK! Waiting in Traffic, Wishing for Champagne With this kind of welcome, the wait is worth it!
Where the Blogging Action is for the Next Week: the Oneworld MegaDO is about to take off!
Over the next week I’ll be blogging over at the Mega DO website. That’s where I’ll have extended posts about all of the activities, experiences, and insights that are going on during the ultimate frequent flyer once in a lifetime experience that starts in New York, heads over to London then Dallas on American Airlines with a visit with oneworld European carriers.. then visits with American Airlines execs in Dallas, there will be flight simulator time for participants and even a real simulated water evacuation of an aircraft and folks get to go down the emergency slide. We all hop on a chartered 757 party plane (I’m told, quadruple catered with liquor) up to Seattle for tours of private parts of Boeing and a cocktail reception with industry execs as well, and then take the…
1000 Free Hilton HHonors Points
Via MilesQuest: You can get 1000 Free Hilton HHonors points by registering a mobile phone number and a Visa card. You’re basically agreeing to receive “special offers” via text. They promise to only send you two messages and you can opt out at any time. You can earn an additional 4000 Hilton Honors points by spending at least $100 at a US Hilton hotel or resort with your registered Visa card. You must register by June 30, 2012 to receive the sign up bonus and must spend $100 by then to receive the additional 4000.
Save the Date! Frequent Traveler University, April 27-29, New York Area
Announced last night on Milepoint: After the huge success of the inaugural FT University in NYC last April, the FT University is coming back again this year with a brand new format! This year you can enjoy: — Complimentary cocktail party on Friday night sponsored by milepoint.com — On Saturday you will be able to learn from the best in the biz from exclusive speakers you won’t be able to hear anywhere else, including the miles guru himself, Randy Petersen and popular blogger Gary Leff! — On Sunday, interact with the largest frequent flyer and hotel programs in the world, including Mileage Plus, AAdvantage, SPG and Hyatt Gold Passport — The introduction of the best credit card learning program “Credit Card Lions Den”. The credit card programs will present their most popular cards in front…
Alaska Airlines Partners with Emirates: A380 First Class Showers in Our Future?
Lucky notes that effective March 1, Emirates will become a mileage accrual partner of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan — and that later in the year you’ll be able to burn miles for Emirates flights. That’s great, I noted yesterday that Emirates was in desperate need of a US airline partner having lost United and Continental (I had expected that partner to be American until American hooked up with Etihad). Sure, Emirates promoted its interline agreement with JetBlue, and there’s probably some non-zero benefit they get feeding their New York flights from that. But the cupboard is pretty bare. I expected them to cozy up to Delta, and for sure they still may, but it seemed interesting that concomitant with the launch of their Seattle service they’re hooking up with Alaska. Good move for Emirates, and…
Why is American Adding Free Booze Back into Coach on International Flights?
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…
