Last month in Denver, Jeff Zidell asked me what my daily blog reads were and strangely enough I didn’t quite know because it’s so habitual, I have a ton of subscriptions in my Google Reader because I’ll look for tips of things to write about in the most unlikely of places, I actually had to think about the question of which blogs I prioritize, which are my first reads, which ones I actually anticipate reading. The question sort of stuck with me and I’ve paid more attention to which blog posts I click first to read, which ones I actually enjoy. So I thought I’d share with y’all my take, in case it introduces you to blogs that you’d be interested in checking out. I know I’ll ruffle some feathers with my comments on these…
Months of Shopping Portal Meltdowns: When Deals Are Too Good to Be True, Blame the Mileage Member?
Inside Flyer‘s October cover story (ungated) is on monster shopping portal mileage deals that didn’t work out for members. They were all deals that on many levels were ‘too good to be true’ but that at the same time shed light on the workings of the mileage malls which are very poorly understood — by design of the airlines and those outsourced companies running the shopping portals — and shed light on some of the questionable practices of those vendors, with at least tacit approval of the mileage programs. In August I wrote about what could have been the biggest mileage bonanza ever: an offer on the US Airways and Hawaiian Airlines shopping portal sites to earn miles for transactions with web hosting company EasyCGI. The offers were very explicit that there were no restrictions…
2500 Free US Airways Miles
Sharebuilder will offer you 2500 US Airways miles for registering. (Here’s the offer directly on the Sharebuilder site as well.) But here’s the kicker: I’ve had a Sharebuilder account in the past. I got the miles for ‘renewing’ my account, basically entering my login information, updating my contact information, and linking it up with the US Airways offer. I didn’t fund the account or engage in any transactions. I didn’t even link a bank account to do transfers into the Sharebuilder account, I skipped that part choosing to ‘return later’. A couple of minutes of online forms, not even a new customer, and no money spent … I opened the account on Saturday, October 1 and the miles were there on Tuesday, October 4. And a ‘hit’ in the US Airways Grand Slam promotion. The…
Rumored Bankruptcy for American Airlines May Mean Good Times for AAdvantage Frequent Flyers
SmartMoney ran a piece telling frequent flyers to go out and burn their American Airlines miles because the airline is so troubled. Attention, nervous flyers: It may be time to buckle up and use your American Airlines miles. Shares at the airline plummeted by one-third Monday amid fears that it will seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As investors panicked and sold their shares, its 67 million frequent flyer members around the world were also left with a worrying question: In a worst-case scenario, will all those hard-earned miles be lost? The bad news: When airlines file for liquidation, loyal customers are usually among the last on the long list of creditors to be reimbursed. Experts say nearly all other major debts will be paid before these rewards are redeemed. What a lead, eh? And the…
Aeroplan Will No Longer Include Domestic First Class with International Business Class Awards
I haven’t yet verified this myself, but via Matthew Klint, Aeroplan has a new devaluation (on top of the pretty brutal changes to their award chart in July). Aeroplan will no longer book domestic (and US-Canada transborder) first class seats as part of an international business class award. If you include domestic first class, they will price the whole award as first class. Most airlines will include domestic first class on a business class award. There are exceptions. British Midland treats first class as first class, business class as business class, even when the flight is just an hour-long ‘first class’ seat on a United Express regional jet. That’s how Aeroplan appears to be proceeding, as a way of cutting costs on their redemptions according to the memo that an Aeroplan supervisor read to Matthew.…
A Reason Not to Trust Hotel Reviews
Leave aside that hotels post their own bogus positive reviews, and competitor properties post their own bogus negative reviews. Sure, some people like to create an image of themselves as sophisticated, either by associating with a high status property or trashing a high status property — or by convincing people that where they stay is indeed high status. The individual incentives aren’t necessarily to spread the word about great places a traveler wants to return to. It can sometimes be better to keep them a secret. Or so says XKCD web comic.. (HT: Dan R.)
The Million Mile Secrets Interview
Daraius from Million Mile Secrets has been running a series of interviews of frequent flyer bloggers. He interviewed me last month (and I extended on the most asked about story from the interview here.). For a new blogger, it’s a great strategy to bring in an audience I imagine, since the more highly trafficked bloggers link to you. Plus it happens to also be interesting, I’ve enjoyed the stories of the bloggers who are my daily reads.source a blog post! 🙂 Since Darius is a relatively new blogger, but whose posts have been interesting and useful, I thought that his story would be interesting. So I asked him to share it with me. Plus, I get to mostly out And so I present The Million Mile Secrets Interview. (In Rajasthan, India) How and when did…
Win a Free Night at Hyatt Lost Pines Resort
Mommy Points is giving away a free night at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort outside of Austin. The place looks great, and while I don’t often post contests that others are running since the odds of winning are so low, as of this writing there are only 62 entries. Which means the odds of winning are really, really good. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment in her post answering two questions: 1. Why do you need a day away at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa? AND 2. What activity or amenity do you most want to experience at this resort? Enter by Friday 11:59pm Central. Often when I run a contest there are 800, maybe 1000 entries or more. The odds here are much better, and the…
It’s Official: Award Stays Count Towards Stays in Starwood Preferred Guest Effective October 1
Yesterday I blogged that Starwood appeared to be rolling out award stays as qualifying towards elite status beginning October 1. It had been confirmed to me by two sources, but I hadn’t seen it in writing. However, the following memo was sent out from Starwood Preferred Guest to hotel properties at the end of last week: Update: In my original posting of the memo sent to Starwood hotel managers, I redacted some information that struck me as internal and proprietary. On reflection, more of the particular memo ought to be kept internal to Starwood, out of respect to them. In publishing the document itself I was looking primarily for confirmation and explanation of the changes. And the changes have now been publicly confirmed. So the memo itself is no longer necessary. Key details of the…
American Express-Continental Relationship Ends September 30: Should You Transfer Membership Rewards Points Now Before It’s Too Late?
With the American Express-Continental relationship ending on September 30 (crazy to think that they gave us a full year’s notice of year, serious kudos to them!), if you have Membership Rewards points it’s worth revisiting whether to take any last minute steps to protect yourself. Now, for me the first thing I think of is lounge access, since American Express Platinum (and Centurion) card members no longer will have access to Continental/United lounges beginning October 1. And Priority Pass Select members (which also happens to come with the Amex Platinum card) no longer get access, either. I’ll still get my lounge access via my British Midland Gold status. And I’m not really too tinked at American Express here, either. First, understand why the relationship is ending. Chase bank is the issuer of the co-branded credit…
