US Airways Dividend Miles is offering 1000 miles for new signups. Usually these offers require some sort of flight activity before earning bonus miles. This one gives you the miles just for joining. So a good chance to join if you aren’t already a member.For a limited time, enroll in Dividend Miles online and receive 1,000 bonus miles. That’s right, all you have to do is sign up and we’ll automatically credit 1,000 miles to your account. The miles don’t count toward Preferred status, and you can’t combine this enrollment bonus with any other offers. Enrollments must be made on usairways.com and only one bonus is permitted per individual.
Generous Hyatt Promotion: Up to 20,000 Air Canada Aeroplan Miles
Hyatt stays through May 3 accumulate significant Aeroplan bonuses. The bonuses grow with additional nights up to 8 total nights, as follows: 2,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles (two nights) + 4,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles (four nights) + 6,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles (six nights) + 8,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles (eight nights) = 20,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles (And you still earn the standard 500 miles per stay as well.) The offer is valid at all Hyatt brands, and Registration is required.
Air Tahiti Nui Cutting Routes, Perhaps Partnering With Delta?
Air Tahiti Nui is pulling out of the New York-JFK market. JFK-Papeete didn’t do especially well for them, even during high season, and they previous pulled out of JFK-Paris. They’ve also ended their Osaka service, and are pulling out of Sydney. This leaves Auckland, Los Angeles, and Tokyo from Papeete and Paris from Los Angeles (providing one-stop service from Tahiti, matching Air France’s offering and allowing their politicians to visit the administrative bosses while flying their state carrier). Fewer than 200,000 people visited Tahiti in 2008. I seem to recall a statistic (which I never validated) that more people arrive in Hawaii in a day than in Bora Bora in a year. While I don’t always trust with 100% certainty the accuracy of Tahiti Presse stories, there’s been some speculation amongst frequent flyers about what…
Much Harder Way to Earn Status Than Flying
One Mile at a Time says the passengers from US Airways flight 1549 will get top tier elite status for a year. Unless US Airways did something wrong, I’m not sympathetic to lawsuits. Something really bad happened, people survived, from what we know at this point the pilot did a remarkable thing and the emergency response crews were outstanding. Thanks are deserved, not lawsuits. Still, going above and beyond is the appropriate response from US Airways. Sending out checks immediately for lost luggage in excess of the maximum permitted under the contract of carriage was a good immediate step. I’d have liked to see “free travel for a year” or “elite status for life.” Somehow top tier for a year (while nice) doesn’t quite feel the same or seem to get US Airways very much.…
Link Your Northwest and Delta Accounts for 500 Bonus Miles, Transfer Points Instantly at Will
It was supposedly coming in February, they’re even a little bit early. You can now link your Northwest and Delta frequent flyer accounts and they’ll give you 500 bonus points for doing so by March 15 which will post to your Skymiles account 2-4 weeks after the end of the promotion (or 4-6 weeks, depending on whether you believe the transfer website or the e-mail confirmation after linking accounts). And then you can transfer points back and forth between your accounts, the transfer happens instantly. Excellent functionality!
Continental to Switch to Star Alliance End of October, 2009
It’s certainly taken long enough, but we finally have some specifics on when Continental miles will become worth something (i.e. when Continental will leave Skyteam and join Star Alliance). From their mass email yesterday: Regarding SkyTeam, Continental intends to end its participation in the SkyTeam Alliance after the last scheduled flight on Oct. 24, 2009. We continue to work through the details of our planned exit from SkyTeam and entry into Star Alliance, but anticipate our participation in Star Alliance will begin promptly after we leave SkyTeam. We’ll have to wait until the end of October to learn whether Continental will provide access to awards throughou tthe Star Alliance the way that every other Star Alliance member except United does. If that’s the case, their miles will be worth more than United’s, assuming that they…
Hilton New York Deals
With hotel bookings exceptionally down, and New York suffering both from the general decline in leisure travel expenditure and a drop in business travel tied to financial firm troubles, it’s unsurprising (yet pleasant) to see Hilton offering a New York-specific sale. A handy rate calendar offers specific prices on given dates at each participating hotel. Through April they promise: Hilton New York: Rates as low as $159 (code QO, 14 day adv. purchase Millenium Hilton: Rates as low as $159 (code P9) Waldorf=Astoria: Rates as low as $175 -(code QO, 14 day adv. purchase) Unsurprisingly, the Millenium Hilton down in the financial district is offering both a low rate and no advance purchase requirement. While these are advance purchase, non-refundable rates, they’re not much higher than one often finds on Priceline and of course qualify…
Northwest Partially Relents Just a Little on Platinum Award Change Fee Waivers
Having just blogged about the end to Platinum award change fee waivers over at the new Delta/Northwest (sourced from the head of the Skymiles program), perhaps responding to the outcry Northwest has sent out an email which clarifies that Platinums will still get 2 free changes a year and changes thereafter will be $50. That’s better than the original plan to end fee-free changes entirely, but still a hit. [W]e will modify the reissue and redeposit fee waiver for Platinum Elite members. Effective March 1, 2009, we will waive this fee for two different reservations per year and collect $50 for each additional award ticket change. It’s not yet completely clear to me whether this means that two award bookings will have unlimited changes, or whether only one change per booking is allowed with a…
Vinesse Wine Club — 4800 Northwest Miles for $42
Through January 30 (I meant to blog this awhile ago…) Vinesse Wine Club is offering 4500 Northwest miles for signup, in addition to 8 Northwest miles per dollar spent. Here’s the offer. This involves signing up for their wine club, so assuming you don’t want to continue you’ll have to cancel which I understand is relatively painless (under a minute) by phone. And the miles do appear to post as promised. You’ll get (6) bottles for $6.99 each with no shipping charges on the first order. I’m not valuing the wine a whole lot, but it’s less than a penny a point for Northwest miles and the wine value must be nonzero…
Hertz Sells Their Top Tier Elite Status
Hertz is offering their top status level, Platinum, for sale. The price ranges from $1200 – $1500 a year depending on your current membership level with them. (Though no one should ever pay more than $1350 since that’s the Hertz Gold price, and that status can be had free any number of ways — and even if you were paying it’s only $60 so the $1500 no status price seems silly, see for instance here or here and search on the page for ‘gold’ or find plenty more versions of this by Googling ‘free hertz gold’.) The benefits strike me as similar to Avis Chairman’s status, which I much enjoy: vehicle delivery, upgrades, valet service back to the airport so you don’t have to ride the shuttle bus. As an Avis Chairman I pay market…
