Similar to past American Airlines offers (here, here, here, and here), Bose is offering Delta miles for you to learn more about their Quiet Comfort 15 product and also to get you to buy from them. 150 miles for watching a video about QC15s 350 miles for an in-store demonstration 1500 miles for buying the headphones The offer runs through September 12. At a minimum, plenty of folks will watch the video for 150 miles. And as in the past, it does appear that one can simply fill out the form at the end to get the miles (you could also click on the video and then fast forward to the end), but frankly they’re asking you to watch the video and offering you miles to do so, that seems like a reasonable bargain to…
Not All Blogger Travel is Glamorous!
Last year I wrote about my very mundane travel routine. It was really about sharing what most of my travel is like, as well as providing a window into the minutiae of how I think about my travel day. Very ritualized, very much ingrained habit. I don’t write about most of my trips because quite frankly they’re boring. I don’t have the wry sense of humor about travel that Ben has. There aren’t that many lessons to be gleaned from a trip out to Phoenix, Chicago, or Denver. I fly more boring domestic segments than first class international ones, but I write about the first class international trips. Some readers get the impression that’s how I travel most of the time, nothing could be farther from the truth. “My So-Called Travel Life” is a good…
US Airways Grand Slam (Up to 110,000 Bonus Miles) Promotion Registration Now Open
US Airways Grand Slam promotion, which I’ve already detailed some of the pluses and minuses of, is now open for registration. Activities don’t begin to count for the promotion, which offers the potential to earn up to 110,000 bonus miles, until September 14th. But best to register so that you don’t forget, more than once I’ve thought enough about a promotion that I’ve assumed I had registered, when I had not. And of course there is no downside to registering. (HT: MJ On Travel.)
New Bath Amenities Coming to Hyatt
As revealed on Milepoint, word is that Hyatt has selected KenetMD which is made by Gilchrist & Soames. I haven’t ever heard of KenetMD but apparently their narrative is a product produced by a dermatologist, scientific approach to skincare or some such. I look forward to trying it out. Back in May there was discussion of Hyatt’s plans to dump Portico, and goodness knows it won’t come soon enough. I like ginger but their ‘white ginger’ smell doesn’t cut it for me, and my wife tells me that many other hotel products work better for her. I rather hoped for L’Occitane, with Hilton rather going upmarket and all with Peter Thomas Roth, but perhaps these new bath amentiies will prove to be worth the search that went into them. I don’t know the timeframe for…
Starwood and Hyatt Announce Their Fall Promotions
I previously wrote about Marriott’s and Priority Club’s fall promotions, and have been impatiently waiting to see what the other major chains had in store. Starwood’s fall promotion is triple points on stays which include a Thursday or Sunday night (double points on all other stays). The promo runs September 6 through December 18, and registration will become available by the 6th of September. The fact that there’s a long list of properties where you won’t be eligible to earn the bonus suggests that hotels aren’t looking to incentivize additional heads in beds, they’re pretty full with high rates and don’t feel like they need to spend broadly to fill up. Which also likely explains why Hyatt’s new promotion isn’t nearly as valuable as some were expecting or hoping (including me). Hyatt has announced their…
New DOT Consumer Protection Rules Are Virtually Meaningless
New Department of Transportation ‘consumer protection’ rules went into effect on Tuesday, and they don’t amount to much — mostly codifying practices that are already in place, and imposing penalties for things airlines rarely do. A very small number of people will be better off, others will be worse off. Kathleen Pender of the San Francisco Chronicle quotes my bottom line: the rules “won’t change the travel experience for the vast majority of passengers,” says Gary Leff, co-founder of Milepoint.com Major components of the new rules are: Airlines will be required to disclose more of their fees clearly on their websites. I struggle to find many examples of airlines that don’t already do this. Besides, while transparency is appealing it’s not clear that greater information influences consumer behavior, travel is complicated already and it’s not…
Hitler Expresses His Frustrations with the Star Mega DO
The Star Mega DO is approaching in a couple of weeks, it really is likely to be a truly special, amazing, once (or three times?) in a lifetime experience. But it’s quite a lot of effort to put together a charter flight, get everyone on the trip Hyatt Diamond status, coordinate flight simulator time with United, work with Hyatt on a series of receptions, get tours of aircraft facilities, set up buses, etc. And communicate all of the relevant details to folks coming on the trip. So there are always going to be folks who are a bit concerned about some of the details, lots of questions get posted over at Milepoint in the discussion thread for the event. And though it’s incredibly inside baseball, I thought it worth passing along a video mashup that…
My Million Mile Secrets Interview
Million Mile Secrets interviews me. An excerpt: It’s cliché to say that we shouldn’t take this all too seriously, but I disagree: I’m passionate about miles and points. I practice full contact loyalty. I love these programs. I think they offer a tremendous value proposition, and for all of their success I think they’re still widely misunderstood (perhaps because they’re so complicated, though therein lies the true opportunity). I do my best to honor those programs that work well – for the travel providers and for the consumer, and to criticize those that I think are missing the boat. Properly understood, the relationship is win-win and for my part my entire worldview has been changed by these programs, I see the world as much smaller and more accessible and I experience the world in a…
American Finally Announces Changes to their Million Miler Status Program
Though speculation has been rampant over the past couple of years, it became clear by April that American was on the verge of changing its uber-generous million mile status qualification program. At the Randy Petersen Travel Executive Summit in April, the President of AAdvantage confirmed that they were looking at changes and promised that there would be advance notice. And indeed they’re giving us 3+ months of notice. For years, American has offered lifetime elite status based on all of the miles you earn in their program. In contrast, every other airline offering million mile recognition only counts those miles earned by actually flying. As a result, and though I am not a frequent American Airlines flight customer, I’m a 2-million miler and have lifetime Platinum status. Historically, American has offered: Lifetime Gold at 1…
The Value Proposition of the US Airways Grand Slam Promotion
Several days ago I shared some details of the upcoming US Airways Grand Slam promotion which offers bonus miles for qualifying activities with their partners. Deals We Like has an excellent summary of what the promotion actually looks like. I had been afraid that only elites would be able to qualify for the traditional highest bonus of 100,000 miles, and also that that highest bonus would require more partner activity than in the past (40 rather than 36 ‘hits’). Instead it’s more or less the standard Grand Slam offer of 100,000 miles for 36 partner activities plus an extra opportunity for an additional 10,000 miles when hitting 40 activities, if you’re a US Airways elite member. Now, since various bonus point thresholds actually offer miles towards elite status, and the 10,000 miles towards elite status…
