With snow creeping out along the East Coast, the forecast for DC today was 6-12 inches. And the entire DC area panics at the thought of an inch or two. Dulles, National, and BWI all paralyze. So I rather figured I wouldn’t be making it home this afternoon. Flying Alaska Airlines (out of a destination with only Horizon service, but fortunately benefiting from one of those $99 companion tickets that come with the Alaska Airlines Visa from Bank of America, I didn’t have a ton of options. Alaska doesn’t have very many East Coast flights, and the weather was looking worse for Newark and Boston. There were seats to Chicago, but only coach. Atlanta and St. Louis were looking like my best bets. I’d expect to overnight, and grab a flight on Monday morning early…
And the Winner is…
Hyatt wanted to highlight the benefits of the Gold Passport program.. which for general members became especially attractive a year and a half back when they lifted capacity controls on their hotels, if there’s a standard room available at a property you can have that room with your points. And which for elites became especially attractive as well, they were the first chain to introduce free internet (and for all elites, not just top tier). And they won a Frequent Traveler Award for “Best Elite Level” in both North America and Asia Pacific, as well as a Loyalty Leadership Award for introducing confirmed suite upgrades four times annually for their Diamond members, providing top tier elites the benefit they want most when they decide they most want it. So they asked if I’d give away…
I’m Giving Away 44,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points and Entering is Easy
We’re halfway through the contest period, you have until noon Eastern on December 25 to enter (by leaving a comment – easy!) in my giveaway of Gold Passport points, thanks to Hyatt. Full details here.
Thanksgiving in Mumbai: United First Class from Frankfurt to Washington-Dulles
After passport control and an extensive security check, where we were selected and taken over to a side screening area in the terminal, we made it to our gate for United’s old-style 777 to Washington-Dulles. Approaching the gate there was a man directing everyone to see one of several US agents with laptops, they were re-entering everyone’s passport information and then being told to queue for the flight. No sitting around the gate area, everyone must get in line! And it wasn’t time for boarding yet.. There was a general boarding line and a priority line, after we had our passport data re-entered we were walked to the front of the priority line. We got a couple of nasty looks, and the man directing everyone asked why we had gone to the front of the…
Basic Tips for Getting Organized and Getting Rewards in the New Year
Regular readers of this blog know that many of the things I often write for for intermediate travels than for beginners. But I’ve been evangelizing the benefits of miles, points, and free travel more often to colleagues and friends of friends more frequently lately, and I thought that passing along some of the basics that I’ve found helpful for the not-already-converted might be useful to some of y’all having similar conversations with family over the holidays. And thus I offer some basic tips for getting your rewards house in order for the New Year, since most everyone can set a goal to have their dream trips inexpensively with a little bit of attention to rewards programs. Sign up for frequent flyer programs. If you’re flying cross country and back, why not sign up for a…
Thanksgiving in Mumbai: Lufthansa’s Frankfurt A Concourse First Class Lounge
Having arrived at the dreaded C pier, I had to make the long trek through Frankfurt to my connecting flight on United. US flights depart from the A concourse, and it’s a long trip. The biggest delay was at security, where the lines were reasonably long but really just because it was taking 3 to 4 minutes to process each passenger, though it’s not really clear why. After awhile, and though processing was incredibly slow, one of the two lanes was closed and everyone had to queue in the only line at the checkpoint. Bags were put on the belt and the screener examining x-rays just sat there. Staring at each bag. And staring. There wasn’t extra screening or seconday screening, just an excrutiatingly slow gentleman operating the x-ray machine. Had I realized, I’d have…
The Best Current Credit Card Signup Bonuses
Note of course that this is not a discussion of the best credit cards to put your spending on, rather it’s about what credit cards are offering the best bonuses for getting a new card and in some cases for putting some initial spend on that card. Frugal Travel Guy mentioned this morning one of the 100,000-mile signup bonus offers that’s still running for Citibank American Airlines co-branded credit cards. I mentioned this offer back on September 24: 50,000 miles after $2000 in purchases within 4 months, another 25,000 miles after $10,000 in purchases within the first year, and an additional 25,000 miles after $10,000 in purchases during the second year. The annual fee is waived the first year. On November 1 though I posted what’s in general a better offer, or at least an…
Cheap Transatlantic Airfares from $250 Roundtrip Including Tax
Via Flyertalk, there are some great fares to Europe on American Airlines (as Iberia codeshares), such as JFK – Paris for $288 roundtrip, all-in.. slightly less to Milan.. and DC to New York to Madrid for about $350. Dan’s Deals has written up the fare as well: Bookable on Travelocity. This is valid for many dates. Post the ones you find! And be sure to post if you find other valid cities! Sample valid dates: 03/24/11-03/29/11. JFK-Milan is $251 with tax for those dates. JFK-Brussels is $283 with tax for those dates. JFK-Paris is $291 with tax for those dates. The flight is sold as an Iberia codeshare, but it will on AA. Now, the codeshares are a bit annoying as I don’t expect them to earn full mileage. Iberia flights between the US and…
New Tool for Simplifying and Automating the Priceline Bidding Process
I haven’t played too extensively with the site yet, but The Bidding Traveler looks to be a very useful tool for novice and intermediate Priceline users. It both helps lay out a bidding strategy and automates that strategy in order to save on effort. It’s certainly simpler one-stop shopping than using a site like Biddingfortravel.com or Betterbidding.com, searching through recent bids to determine what folks are generally winning hotels for and identifying which ones are similar to your circumstances (e.g. weekday versus weekend). And it takes care of the work of identifying your ‘bidding strategy’, figuring out which zones to use as free re-bids in order to order to bids from lowest to eventual highest that you make. (Priceline bidding permutations are explained here.) Ultimately, the site just sets up your bidding for you. It…
Thanksgiving in Mumbai: Lufthansa First Class, Mumbai to Frankfurt
Our Thanksgiving in India was coming to an end and at around 1am it was time to leave the Grand Hyatt. I went down to the club lounge to check out, and noticed on my bill two breakfast charges (I never ate a restaurant breakfast at the property during my stay). The charges were immediately removed. They asked whether I had taken anything from the minibar, I had not. (There was a minibar slip in the room from the previous guest, who apparently did take something, that slip was never taken so perhaps he was never charged or perhaps he fessed up at checkout.) I asked for a car to the airport, it was complimentary after all, they retrieved our bags from our room and we went downstairs and headed off towards the airport, which…
