Your email address is worth 2000 Priority Club points A flash drive shaped like a hand grenade? (HT: MrAOK) Who Needs Money? Beautiful People Travel Free! (via Marginal Revolution) The New York Times on social media and US Airways attempts to take over American with lessons from SaveSkyMiles and this blog. There’s apparently been a rash of shoplifting by Pakistan International Airlines crew in the U.K., the airline has been warned that their crews could be detained – and without backup crews available their operations could be severely impacted. Speculation that Qatar will join oneworld, though I’d expect Etihad would have the leg up since it recently inked a partnership with American and acquired a 30% stake in new oneworld entrant Air Berlin.
Frequent Travelers Speak: Which Programs Really are the Best?
The Freddie Awards website did an excellent job chronicling the evening’s blow-by-blow with photos. My own summary is over at Conde Nast Travel. Here’s the USA Today take. You can read about it at Rapid Travel Chai and at Mommy Points. Deals We Like covered the results. So did the Points Guy. And Live and Let’s Fly just Another Points Traveler is giving away her swag bag from the evening. The big winners on the night were: American Airlines in the Americas — Program of the Year, Best Earning Promotion (Double Elite Qualifying Miles), Best Customer Service, and Best Elite Program. I think they do deserve to be the big winner here, their award inventory domestically is head and shoulders above the competition and their elite program is a solid choice, I definitely feel valued…
Hyatt’s Summer Promo – Up to 5x Airlines Miles
Between May 1, 2012 and August 31, 2012, Hyatt Gold Passport is offering up to five times the airline miles — quadruple points on the second and third stays during the promotion period and quintuple points on stays four through eleven. (The promo is capped at 11 stays.) This is a great offer for folks who do a lot of one-night stays, since airline miles even without the bonus are often worth more than the points which are accrued based on that night’s spend in the Gold Passport program. This promotion, since it’s based on stays rather than nights, is especially valuable for those short stays. Registration is required, for your choice of participating airline program; Air China PhoenixMiles Air France KLM Flying Blue American AAdvantage ANA Mileage Club British Airways Executive Club China Eastern…
Former TSA Head Kip Hawley to Chat Live on Milepoint, May 2nd at 9pm Eastern
Kip Hawley, former Director of the TSA, will chat live on Milepoint Wednesday, May 2 at 9pm Eastern. Mark your calendars! A couple of weeks ago he dropped a bombshell editorial in the Wall Street Journal where he basically repudiated just about everything that the TSA did under his watch. He protests effectively “sure I was in charge and spoke up publicly in favor of it all, but it wasn’t really my fault!” I arrived in 2005 with naive notions of wrangling the organization into shape, only to discover the power of the TSA’s bureaucratic momentum and political pressures. He makes some silly suggestions, like improving security by removing checked bag fees so fewer bags get carried on, forgetting that pre-9/11 passengers were allowed two carryons and a personal item through security, so it’s not…
Fourth Wife Flies Free Sale!
Taking a page from (or possibly even one-upping) Spirit Airlines, South Africa’s Kulula has a “Fourth Wife Flies Free” offer on its Facebook page. South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma was just again married on Sunday, he now has four wives though this was actually his sixth marriage. Inspired by regular VIP travellers with sizeable spousal entourages, the offer is open to all fourth wives when the family travels together on the Jo’burg to Cape Town route. There are of course some peskys Tees and Cees to go with our less than pesky offer: – The offer is valid on Joburg to Cape Town route from Monday 23rd April ‘til April 30th – The family must have already bought a kulula.com ticket for all wives and husband – Simply present ticket and proof of marriage and…
40% Discount on Purchased United Miles
Via Lucky United is running a sale through 11:59pm Central time to purchase miles at 40% off. That link is for their Facebook fans, though you don’t need to be one in order to use it. They’re promoting the same discount for their Twitter followers. The offer brings the price down to 2.1 cents a point plus 7.5% tax. That’s above the point where I buy them on the if-come, but it’s a good offer to top off an account towards a specific award.
American Offering TARGETED Elite Fast Track and Double Miles
American is running a targeted offer of an elite fast track that makes even Executive Platinum somewhat easy to obtain along with double miles. I don’t know how broadly targeted it is, the person who received this is an occasional American flyer — three or four trips a year — and was once an AAdvantage Gold. Registration is open through May 11. Offer terms and conditions are here. Elite status earned under the promotion is valid through February, 2013 — not through February 2014 which is what you’d get flying the normal required miles during calendar 2012. Interesting that the elite fast track is based on miles rather than the tougher qualifying points (which penalize cheaper fares and bonus premium cabin fares). This is a targeted promotion though of course you may well have been…
Bits ‘n Pieces for Tuesday, April 24
Advice on Choosing a Good Travel Partner, a weekend trip is a different animal than a two week adventure in Asia! Groundlink has a new promotional video for their car service and mobile app. Password-protected, the password is groundlink (If your company name is groundlink, then that’s “the stupidest combination I’ve ever heard of in my life! …the kinda thing an idiot would have on his luggage!”) (Update: new non-password protected link provided) Cute video, though. I’ve used Groundlink several times, on the whole quite positive, and after booking they promote promo code RIDE2 for 10% off. Starwood expects their summer promo to drive 2.9 million incremental room nights to their properties. They’re avoiding having any hotels opt out by picking up the tab for the promo themselves, according to internal documents. I outlined the…
Up to 40% Off and a $15 Credit on a New Tumi Bag
One King’s Lane is offering up to 40% off on Tumi luggage through April 26th, and they have a variety of popular styles available. The site also gives you a $15 credit towards your first purchase when signing up and the person who refers you gets a $15 credit when you make that purchase as well. This is my referral link which anyone can use to get that $15 credit. But you’re also welcome to leave your own link in the comments that others might use. These are some of the best prices on Tumi that I’ve seen. You can save more than a couple hundred dollars on a Tumi rollaboard. And get $15 towards the purchase as a first-time customer of the site. (Although they do charge shipping, but on the other hand don’t…
Week 5 of Amex Daily Getaways Posted – Time to Stock Up on Points!
I wrote previously about the US Travel Association/American Express Daily Getaway Groupon-style offers here and here. A limited number of discounted travel packages go on sale, and most of them go quickly. Some go on sale an hour early to folks with a special code on the travel provider’s Facebook page. Pay with an American Express for a 10% discount. Most of the offers weren’t great, today’s Wyndham Rewards offer was outstanding. And they’ve just posted the week 5 deals for May 7 – May 11. Monday, May 7 – 10,000 Best Western Rewards points for ~ $60, there’s 825 of these packages available with 160 going on pre-sale. I might pick one up to transfer points to US Airways for a Grand Slam hit, since I presume the airline will bring back that promotion…
