Chris Elliott has another column on how awful frequent flyer programs are, how we’d be so much better off without them. Which seems crazy to me. Some people may not get full value out of them, some people may be confused by them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still worthwhile — both to those of us who maximize them, and even some value to those that do not. Chris presumably believes that the programs are costly, that if travel providers got rid of the cost they would lower prices. But he fails to understand first, that the programs themselves are profitable (rather than being a cost center) and second, that they are a marketing device without which there would still be a need to spend resources in marketing — presumably less effectively, at higher…
Still Anxiously Awaiting Double Elite Qualifying Miles Offers
Brent SnyderLaura Jackson details the year-over-year drop in aviation traffic during the traditionally peak summer travel season. And this past week, a PR firm promoting the Chase Sapphire Card shared details of their survey on upcoming travel plans. While not comparative data, it’s suggestive that early (leisure) bookings for future travel may be soft. [A]ffluent Americans may be taking a wait-and-see approach to winter holiday travel. Intuitively, the economy is still weighing on travel considerations, even for affluent consumers. According to a recent poll of Americans with a household income of at least $150,000, a majority (57%) of respondents confirmed that economic considerations are affecting travel mindset in planning personal travel for 2011. What’s more, only 30% have booked travel for upcoming holiday travel season (in late December), and 39% are committed to staying home…
25000 Delta Miles for $500 Skymal Purchases Extended Through September 15
On August 31 Skymal ran a promo offering 25,000 Delta miles for $500 in purchases. That offer has been extended through September 15. (Hat tip to mrp alert in the comments.) Not all items are eligible for miles, those items and vendors excluded from the offer anre so indicated on the product’s page. And the offer isn’t valid for gift cards. The $500 total spending required excludes tax and shipping.
Hilton Point Stretcher Awards Are Back
Outsourced to Loyalty Traveler Hilton HHonors Point Stretcher Rewards discount the regular rate 40%. Hotels are grouped by brand. The link loads Conrad Hotels and the dropdown menu leads to the list of participating hotels in other Hilton brands. You need to check each hotel since Point Stretcher dates does not mean there is Point Stretcher reward availability during those dates.There have been special Gulf Coast Point Stretcher Reward dates for July through September at about 50 hotels in Florida and one hotel in Louisiana. Odds on the hotels won’t be the ones you want to stay at, or if you do the discounted awards won’t be available for the dates you’re interested. But it’s worth checking the list if you’re going to consider a Hilton award redemption between now and the end of the…
Priority Club Weekly Points Giveaway for Guessing a Mystery Destination
Priority Club is running a weekly contest, they’ll give you photos and clues about a geographic location and you guess it to earn points. Every week for the next 8 weeks, we’ll be highlighting a new mystery destination. Each day we’ll reveal more clues about the location — the sooner you guess correctly, the more points you’ll win! Each Tuesday for eight weeks they’ll offer a new destination. If you guess correctly on the first day you earn 2000 Priority Club points. Each successive day they add a photo and clue, and the points reward goes down — 1500 points on the second day (Wednesday), 1000 points on the third day (Thursday), and 500 points on the fourth day (Friday). There’s also a weekly drawing for one winner to receive points or points and an…
Bed Made Out of Airplane Parts
Sarah B. sends along a link to the Mile High Bed. Now, I’m personally very happy with my W bed. And I’m more a miles and points guy than an aviation junkie. When I get off the plane and get home, I want to be off the plane. Still, the description in Sarah’s email was intriguing: Lately, you’ve been feeling that your bedroom is missing something. Like an airplane. Perhaps attached to a California King mattress. .. If any guests—or as you’ll now call them, passengers—are making their maiden voyage, you’ll want to give them a quick in-flight demonstration on how to sleep first class. You’ll explain to them that on the left and right are the repurposed wings of a DC-9 jet, and the headboard at the rear of the craft is made from…
Etihad Guest 50% Off Redemption Sale
Steve Belkin (whose mileage exploits are chronicled in this Google Translate version of a recent Norway Sunday article) points me to Etihad Guest’s 50% off sale on all awards through September 15. I don’t know how I missed this, Steve says he simply saw it listed in the promotions section at the back of Inside Flyer. I need to scour that more often! Sadly I know of no way to quickly ramp up an Etihad mileage balance, at least starting from where I am. I see no transfer options from Membership Rewards (US), Diners Club (US), Starwood Preferred Guest, Hyatt Gold Passport… don’t these folks partner with anyone for mileage transfer? Since this offers the opportunity to redeem US-India in business class for 80,000 points, among other values. This could well be a winner as…
Finding Award Seats to Australia Using Delta Skymiles — V Australia Business Class Awards Are Pretty Available, Just Not Quite As Easy As It First Seemed
A couple of weeks back I posted that using Delta Skypesos to get to Australia on V Australia was easy. That isn’t quite true. It’s one of the best uses of Delta miles, to be sure, and the award space is much better in business class on V Australia than on Delta to be sure. But it isn’t the gimme that it seemed at first. V Australia uses the booking class ‘Z’ for business reward space. Expertflyer ostensibly was displaying Z inventory, but it was phantom inventory that appeared to cause “4” to be shown as available seats regardless of actual inventory. The KVS Tool appears to suffer a similar issue displaying ‘Z’ inventory on V Australia. Now, all hope is not lost. It does seem that Delta has access to the very same reward…
Genuineness vs. Plasticism in Flight Attendant Interactions with Customers
Tyler Cowen presents a reader question about flight attendant ‘fake pleasant speech’ — which questioner Robert refers to as “robotic beauty queen.” Tyler believes that the facade is important to maintain because a more relaxed, casual approach would belie true feelings of contempt for passengers amongst half of flight attendants. Certainly this is a common stereotype, the Wikipedia entry on flight attendants even references the old Saturday Night Live skit with David Spade and Helen Hunt, “Total Bastard Airlines,” where the flight attendants bid passengers adieu with a sarcasm-laden “Buh Bye.” (Here is the skit on Russian RuTube, the stereotype resonates with pilots as well, the old skit gets relatively recent reference at the Professional Pilots Rumor Network bulletin board forum.) I believe that on the whole though flight attendant interaction with customers is driven…
Marriott Platinum Status on the Cheap Without Any Stays or Nights
Here’s an interesting Flyertalk thread on Marriott’s meeting planner incentive program. Marriott, like Starwood (which offers its Platinum status after $100k in meeting spend in a calendar year), offers the ability to earn status credits to incentivize meeting spend. The poster in this thread on Flyertalk reports that the Marriott elite status benefit is 10 night credits for each meeting, and reports on receiving the credits for any meeting, even just a conference room, where no sleeping nights are consumed. If you could secure just a conference room at a low-end Marriott family porperty for $100 for a couple of hours, the thread speculates that you could earn Platinum status from scratch for $800. Or that this allows for ‘mattress runs’ at just $10 per night (10 night credits for $100). Another member, mooper suggests:…
