A reader sends me to this link, which looks like a cosmetic refresh in the works for SeatGuru. Though personally I’ve found several inaccuracies in their seatmaps over time, shared several with the SeatGuru folks, and they haven’t corrected them. I’d rather see the investment go into keeping things accurate and up-to-date rather than cleaning up the interface, but I realize I’m in the minority of a minority of a minority of travelers, and won’t generate enough ad views on the site to justify any sort of investment to meet my needs… Still, there’s no question that SeatGuru (and SeatExpert) represents a really useful tool in the traveler’s bag of tricks in order to stay informed and improve the travel experience.
Hertz Offering Status Matches
Many airlines and hotels have long offered status matches (you’re an elite customer of one travel provider, they’d be happy to have you as their customer and will make the transition easier by giving you comparable status in their program). More recently several programs have moved towards challenges, either expedited ways of earning the status or temporary status while you fly or stay a certain amount to keep that status. Back in August I noted that National Car Rental is running a status match program through January 31. It was the first time I remembered seeing a formal status match offer from a rental car company, in the past when I’ve inquired about those I’ve been told by the major rental companies that they do not have anything of the sort. Now Hertz has a…
Award Wallet Drawing Reminder
This week I’m giving away Award Wallet OneCards. Just go to the official entry thread and leave a comment telling me how you track your miles, and I’ll draw winners after noon Eastern on Friday. I’ve purchased my OneCard, a single card listing frequent flyer numbers and phone numbers and with a magnetic stripe to use at airport checkin kiosks. But you might gets yours for free 🙂
AwardWallet Giveaway: Win a Personalized Loyalty Program Membership Card
As regular readers know, I used Award Wallet to track my miles and points. They have a free service with most of their functionality, you input your frequent flyer accounts and passwords and can update them all with a single click or can log into an account with a single click as well, no more spreadsheets or writing down account numbers and passwords on scraps of paper. I’ve used various services like Award Wallet for years, and there are several. The first one, which I loved, was Miletracker (the downloadable application, not the online service). The problem was that it wasn’t kept up to date. Whenever a loyalty program would change up its website, the service needs to be updated, and Miletracker just didn’t get updated all that often. Which meant that lots of programs…
In Which I Discover Biscoff Spread
The greatest thing about the US Airways Grand Slam may not even be the 100,000 miles I’m going to earn. It’s the fact that it introduced me to Biscoff Spread. GoRemy once tweeted that cashew butter is like peanut butter but with you owning two less dollars. Biscoff spread is like peanut butter… but with Biscoff. I was first introduced to Biscoff on WestAir regional flights in California 15 years ago. I was thrilled to find them on Skywest not long after. And now they’re an airline staple. And now they’re a spread. There is no great stagnation.
American Finally Adding Partner Award Booking Online
One of the things that surprises me most every time I hear it is that people I talk to assume that airline websites display all of the awards that are available with their miles. When they type in an origin city and a destination, and nothing comes back, they assume nothing is available and they are frustrated. Sometimes folks don’t know that partner airline redemptions are an option. Or if they do know, they assume that whatever is possible will be displayed online. Perhaps that’s just a reflection of society more generally, we expect to be able to do our business online, and it isn’t the first thing that would occur that the telephone is necessary or superior to a website. Especially with companies pushing so many consumers online due to lower costs. With airlines,…
Ten Year Hotel Stay Comes to an End
A woman recently checked out of Towne Place Suites in Falls Church, Virginia after 10 years. She did apparently secure a low nightly rate for her long-term stay, her monthly housing cost is lower than mine and in the same area. Her stay raises several questions for me that the CNN article doesn’t answer. I’m not familiar with Virginia law on the subject, but often long stays aren’t subject to hotel tax. Apartment rent isn’t, for instance. I wonder if that’s part of how she kept her expense down as well. Starwood Preferred Guest won’t away credit for stays over 30 days. Marriott Rewards doesn’t have such a rule. Was she a member? If so, you would expect her to be a lifetime Platinum (though it doesn’t sound like she availed herself of the benefits…
Sharing My Comprehensive Award Booking Techniques Talk Here on the Blog
Yesterday I gave a talk at the Chicago frequent flyer seminar on award bookings. Frequently Flying has a nice overview of yesterday’s events. I’ve had lots of requests over time to share the information here on my blog that I share in person through these presentations. The only real barrier to doing that has been that I just know the stuff in my head and talk about it, but I’ve never sat down to actually write it out. Call me lazy, I suppose that’s why I’ve never written a book either. But if there’s enough interest it occurs to me that I could develop a real resource, even though some of the advice does change over time and that’s been another reason I’ve been reluctant to write out the best advice — as soon as…
Milepoint Lending Team Sets a Record on Kiva
Yesterday I opened my talk on booking award tickets at the Chicago frequent flyer seminar by giving away raffle tickets. Sharon was collecting for three charities, and there are plenty of donated giveaway items. I bought several tickets, even though I didn’t really want to win. I asked the group of over well over 300 (it was standing room only in the back) who had already purchased raffle tickets and selected from those folks to give away my raffle tickets. It was a way to reward those that were already doing something to support charities, and encourage others to do so. It gave me an opportunity to begin my talk which is all about getting the greatest value, return, and luxury for miles with a bit of a discussion of my overall philosophy, which is…
Oneworld MegaDO Sold Out in 23 Minutes, But Are There Still Opportunities to Go on the Trip?
I understand that The Points Guy will be giving away a seat, which he pre-purchased for that purpose. (You’ll have to sit next to him, though. Hah! Kidding, Brian’s a really good guy.) You can bet that Randy Petersen has plans to do something, he always finds a way, I haven’t asked but would bet that he’ll figure out some mechanism to give away a seat on an experience that you wouldn’t even be able to buy otherwise. And.. yes, there were apparently some server issues with the massive slam of folks wanting to book immediately when sales opened. And that frustrated folks, for sure. One suggestion, naturally, was just to swap in a bigger plane for the scheduled 757. Who knew this thing would need a 777??? Of course it isn’t as easy as…
