I spent last weekend at the Park Hyatt Aviara, a former Four Seasons property, and I was really excited to be there. The story as I understand it is that the ownership didn’t want to make the sort of capital investments necessary to maintain it as a Four Seasons given general economic conditions so they had a parting of the ways with their former flag and hence the re-branding. I tend to think of Park Hyatt as a modern brand, and Aviara was a Four Seasons in the ‘old school’ model, so other than the signage the place doesn’t really fit my mental model of a Park Hyatt. But what did strike me more than anything other than the old fashioned furniture and draperies was the service. Every single person that I encountered at the…
100,000 Miles for a New Citibank American Airlines Credit Card
Over the weekend I received an email from Citibank telling me that existing American Airlines co-branded cardholders would receive 1000 miles for registering for the promo this morning as part of American’s 30 Deals in 30 Days to celebrate 30 years of their frequent flyer program. So I blogged it and set it to be published early this morning, no sense posting the offer before it was live when it was about to go live, I figured folks would read it and register rather than having to remember to do it later. Well, the offer today is actually a signup bonus for new cardholders and the 1000 miles for current cardholders appears to be more of a consolation prize. Today’s card signup offer is: First time Citi® / AAdvantage® credit cardmembers can earn 30,000 AAdvantage…
1000 Free American Airlines Miles for Citibank AAdvantage Co-Branded Credit Card Holders
Register today to receive 1000 miles if you have a Citibank co-branded American Airlines credit card (personal or business card) as part of American’s 30 deals in 30 days to celebrate the program’s 30th anniversary.
How Valuable are Hilton’s New Cash and Points and Upgraded Room Award Redemptions?
Last month we learned that Hilton is rolling out new redemption options: cash and points and use of points towards room nights above just the standard entry-level rooms. Both of these seemed like big advances for Hilton, though I did say at the time the question of value would be in the details. How many points would we save by spending cash? ANd how many extra points would it take to get a better than basic room? Starwood pioneered cash and points, Priority Club followed a couple of years back. It’s a way to stretch the value of your points, and in both of those programs it’s generally better to use cash and points when available than it is to use just points for a standard room. For me, if I don’t have status with…
New Priority Club PointBreaks List is Out! They Haven’t Gotten Rid of PointBreaks! (Yet?)
Via Priority Club Insider, Priority Club’s PointBreaks aren’t gone yet! It’s been widely expected that that the introduction of last minute reward nights would spell the end of PointBreaks, Priority Club’s offer of room redemptions for just 5000 points per night at select hotels. Instead, a a new list of participating properties is out for stays through July 30. I had personally hoped that Priority Club winning a Frequent Traveler Awards for their PointBreaks promotion would encourage them to keep it or make it more dificult to eliminate it. It’s a great offering, even if the number of top end properties participating is limited. It’s great to get an Intercontinental for just 5000 points instead of 30,000 or 40,000. Here’s hoping they keep the PointBreaks component of the program, after all!
Are there Ethics to Booking Frequent Flyer Awards for Clients?
Are there some award trips that I just shouldn’t book for clients on moral grounds? I’m not talking about routing rules and whether to push the envelope with a program over what is allowable for getting a stopover. I’m talking about some awards that I just shouldn’t book because of who they are for or where they are going? I received a request this morning that made me uncomfortable, though I fully admit that I don’t yet have all of the information about what’s motivating the trip. A woman wants two award tickets from the U.S. to Iran — one roundtrip for herself, and one one-way ticket for her 8 year old daughter. I’ve spent the morning thinking about this, and here are some tentative thoughts: I’m not a public utility. I don’t have an…
And the Winner of the Five Free Car Rental Days is…
The winner of the five free rental days from National Car Rental is commenter # 482, Corey, as drawn by random.org. Corey is headed to Disney World and will spend the rental car savings on the kids. Congratulations, Corey, I’ve passed your contact information along to the folks working with National to arrange your free rental days. And a big thank you to National Car Rental for providing the free rental days, the Executive Elite status in their Emerald Club, and the Victorinox carry-on bag to give away here on this blog. Nothing to me, great opportunities for my readers, and hopefully also worthwhile to National to promote themselves as a choice for savvy travelers, as I’ve shared I’ve long been a fan of their Emerald Aisle concept where you choose the car you want…
Tips on Buying Presidential Coins from the US Mint for the Miles and Depositing them Back into Your Bank Account
mrpickles is now blogging and recently posted an extensive explanation of buying coins from the US mint with your credit card to earn miles, and depositing the money back into the bank to pay off the credit card. The context for the post is how to quickly meet your minimum spend requirements for a credit card signup bonus, but the lessons are broadly applicable. I first covered the opportunity in June 2008. It’s not as easy as it used to be, there are limits on the amount of money you can do this with (no doubt thanks to the Wall Street Journal piece on the practice). Most folks have long assumed that the deal died after this article, but I pointed out last year that it was still alive, just no longer in unlimited quantities.…
Jeff Robertson, Head of Delta Skymiles, to Chat Online with Milepoint.com Members
The inaugural Milepoint chat with the head of a frequent flyer program or industry leader was a pretty rockin’ success. Maya Leibman, the President of American AAdvantage, was a good sport and shared some important details and explanations about the AAdvantage program and upcoming plans, like that those with current million miler status will have their accrued status miles continue to count even after any changes to the way they calculate those miles, and also that they’re planning to introduce online booking of partner awards by the end of the year. Over 800 people participated in the chat, my only complaint would be that it didn’t go on long enough. An hour is a good bit of time to get out of the evening of an executive running a billion dollar enterprise, but I wish…
Up to 25,000 for Northern California Residents Joining Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
Via Milepoint, Alaska Airlines is offering up to 25,000 miles for new Mileage Plan members in Northern California. 25,000 bonus miles if you fly roundtrip on a Northern California non-stop to Hawaii, or 12,500 bonus miles if you fly roundtrip between Northern California and anywhere other than Hawaii that Alaska flies. Travel must be complete by October 1, and the offer is open to members whose accounts “reside in a ZIP code that begins with 923, 932 or 934 – 961” Full details in this press release.
