Amtrak is running a new promo (registration required) in the Northeast Corridor (from DC through New York and up to Boston). Every 3 roundtrips or 6 one-ways on Acela Express from January 10 through March 19 will earn a free Acela Express roundtrip. And every 2 roundtrips or 4 one-ways on Northeast Regional trains will earn a free Northeast Regional roundtrip. They’ve clamped down the ability to buy ultra-cheap segments and redeem them expensively by setting a minimum qualifying fare of $85 each way on Acela and $49 each way on regional. Free travel can be taken June 1 – August 31. And Acela award travel can’t take place before 9am or between 2pm and 6pm Monday through Friday, in other words more or less off-peak only. Not a huge bonanza, but a plus for…
Southwest’s New (Gutted) Frequent Flyer Program
It’s long been expected that Southwest would be rolling out a new frequent flyer program early in 2011. They’ve been getting fairly stingy as an airline across the board over the past year, they even started enforcing the expiration on their drink chits. I certainly expected the new program to be a gutting of the old one, and it apears to me that’s the case. Southwest introduced its new fare-based Rapid Rewards program today, moving from a credits system (based on segments flown) to a points system (based on dollars spent, with redemptions based on cost of paid airfare for the flight). Overall they align themselves more with the programs of other ‘low cost carriers’ like JetBlue and Virgin America rather than the mileage programs of major airlines. And while there’s a great deal of…
150 Free American Airlines Miles
Via MilesQuest, Bose is again offering American Airlines miles for learning more about, for testing, and for buying Bose products. It’s 150 miles for watching a video about their bluetooth headset. And as usual you don’t actually even have to watch the video. And the answer to their question is of course, “All of the above” (because they’re selling you on how awesome and feature-rich it is). You get 250 miles for going into a Bose store for a demonstration. And 400 miles if you buy the darned thing. Offer is valid through 1/17/11. When they offered something similar in October 2009 and in October 2008 the miles posted reliably.
The Willard Won’t Honor Status Benefits on Award Stays, and Why This Means the Priority Club Program Lags the Competition
A friend contacted me on the afternoon of New Years Eve after checking into the Willard in DC. They’re a Royal Ambassador member of Intercontinental Hotels, and that means they’re entitled to an upgrade ‘to an Executive Room or suite’. I’ve always received great upgrades in the past at the Willard, it’s usually automatic for a Royal Ambassador to be given a corner suite that’s basically two full rooms (with two bathrooms). Only once I was only given a “Willard Room,” an oval shaped room looking out at the monuments that amounts to a junior suite with a spectacular view but not a true suite. My friend was told that because they had used points for the stay that they wouldn’t receive any upgrade. They wanted to know from me if that was correct, or…
New Year Registration Reminders
Now that we’re into the New Year, a couple of registration reminders for promos that were announced in advance but that you have to return in order to register for:Register for Continental’s Mile-a-Thon promotion. Register for Starwood’s Great Weekends promotion.
Some Food I Can Never Go Wrong With – Katz’s Pastrami
I grew up on Long Island, and one of my favorite things in the world is a good Jewish-style Delicatessan. Sadly, while there are a few outside of New York worth eating at in a pinch (and some of the better ones in Los Angeles certainly have their partisans), the best deli food can be especially hard to find in my travels. There’s certainly not any worth mentioning in my home town of DC. So when I head to New York I almost invariably have to seek out my favorite Pastrami, which comes from Katz’s on the Lower East Side. More often than not I’m busy, and have any number of restaurant meals booked and obligated, and so I’ll find the only chance to head over there being on the way out of town. No…
Federalizing the Solution to Bedbugs
Bed bugs are certainly a problem, they vex even the best hotels, frustrate and infuriate travelers, and keep pest control companies in business. Now, apparently, the federal government is getting involved. In keeping with the best of government traditions, the Federal Bed Bug Work Group is hosting its second national summit Feb. 1-2 in Washington to brainstorm about solutions to the resurgence of the tiny bloodsuckers that have made such an itch-inducing comeback in recent years. The effort is widespread across the federal government, and this is apparently not DC’s first foray into the issue. Several federal agencies participate in the Federal Bed Bug Work Group: the Environmental Protection Agency, the deapartments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Defense and Commerce, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The…
One More to Cross Off the List: Bistrot Lafayette in Old Town Alexandria
While we’re on the subject of food, one of my old standbys used to be Bistrot Lafeyette in Old Town Alexandria. It wasn’t great and certainly never innovative, but a very reliable French bistro serving classic dishes. It also wasn’t high end, the escargot would be from a can, but you’d always get exactly what you expected. A couple of weeks ago I went back. It had been awhile, because the place had seemed to deteriorate the previous time I was in and I was in no rush to return. And I was really disappointed by what I found. No more baguettes, just hard rolls. The french onion soup had a piece of white bread on top. White bread. The hanger steak with fries used to be one of my favorites, with fries that were…
Michel at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner… Disappointing
This week I went to dinner at Michel, Michel Richard’s new restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner. The space was previously home to the amazing Maestro, which closed when the chef moved to New York to open there … right at the start of the financial crisis, his restaurant there didn’t work and he’s on his way back to DC. Tyler Cowen gave the place “an enthusiastic thumbs-up”. I take his recommendations seriously and find that for strip mall restaurants he’s invariably spot on but that we disagree more often than not with fine dining. He loves Komi, I find it especially hit or miss. I reviewed The Fat Duck outside London, and he thought the meal seemed like ‘B.S.’ and while I had mixed emotions about the place I think I took it much…
Should Tall People Be Entitled to Complimentary Upgrades, or Required to Stand During Flight?
Chris Elliott writes about a man who was asked to stand onboard a Spirit Airlines flight, or so he says. The man is apparently 6′ 7″ and that’s just pretty tall to be suffering a coach seat. The average economy class seat “pitch” on a Spirit Airlines Airbus A321 — the distance between seats on an aircraft — is between 30 and 31 inches, which is well below the industry standard and hardly enough room for a big guy. Except, no, that isn’t well below the industry standard. Industry standard for coach seating is 31 inch pitch (distance from seat back to seat back). So some seats on Spirit may be an inch shy and others equivalent to industry standard, but certainly not ‘well below.’ (And according to Spirit, seating on the A321 does have…
