The following United Visa offer was just shared with me. The $60 annual fee isn’t waived, it’s 21,000 bonus miles instead of 25,000, but the Morton’s Steak House $200 Gift Card is new. On net, then, 4k United miles and $60 buys $200 to be used at Morton’s. A Morton’s gift certificate with a side order of 21,000 miles As a valued Mileage Plus® member, you are invited to apply for a Mileage Plus Visa ®1 and soon see your mileage balance grow.As a new cardmember, after you spend $250, you’ll earn 21,000 bonus miles2 and a $200 gift card to use at any of the 78 worldwide locations of Morton’s The Steakhouse3. Enjoy a spectacular dining experience with exceptional hospitality and service.You will also enjoy these Mileage Plus Visa benefits: Earn one…
W Hotel Store 40% Off Beds and Bedding is Back (Again)!
A deal I’ve posted about several times in the past is back — 40% off beds and bedding at the W Hotel Store using discount code 39Y9G. Thanks to Craig for the heads up. Update: I believe this code is valid through April 30.
A few more days without regular posting, but hopefully worth the wait
I hope to have a pretty nice and useful trip report coming, with insights into award redemption strategies to boot. But before I get there, though, I’m enjoying my trip. Some folks will have a pretty good idea where I’ve been so far.
Expedia $50/night Off Hotels
According to this Flyertalk thread, Expedia coupon code ELITEPLUS50 takes $50 off of Expedia Special Rate hotel stays per night. Book by March 31 for travel through April 30. The coupon is for “Expedia.com Elite Plus members only” but appears to be working for anyone. Coupon terms and conditions are here.
Delta Will No Longer Hold Awards On Telephone Bookings
Mar
19
2008
Delta will no longer allow Skymiles members (at least those members in the U.S.) to hold awards over the phone. If you book by phone, you have to ticket immediately. And booking over the phone just became more limited, as non-elites can only make telephone award reservations between 8am and 10pm Eastern. Holding awards for 48 hours is still possible online. Awards on Delta as well as parter airlines Hawaiian, Alaska, Continental, and Northwest are bookable online.. sort of, sometimes, when the website works and prices out awards correctly. Of course, that means that awards on other partners like Air France, Aeroflot, and Korean cannot be held at all. This is a really annoying change. Finding awards can be challenging at times. Sometimes it takes humans because the online technology is lacking. You find flights…
A Status Match for Those of You Flying to Kazakhstan
Air Astana, the Kazakhstan airline, has published an offer to match existing British Midland Diamond Club status with elite status in their Nomad Club program. A large number of airlines offer status match programs, but they rarely publish them. They exist as unpublished procedures for how to respond when an elite (and presumably lucrative) customer of another airline offers to switch to a new carrier… but doesn’t want to lose their perks as a result of the switch. Status matches are very rare outside of the United States. The only program that’s part of a major alliance with a regular match program that I can think of is British Midland (and it’s a great little program, especially for premium class customers who earn boatloads of miles and then can redeem them with a generous cash…
Making New York Delays… Enjoyable.
Tyler Cowen’s advice for dealing with LaGuardia If you ever fly in or out of LaGuardia, you’ve probably grown to dread the experience; a delay of “only” 60-90 minutes is better than average. But I’ve discovered a new method for enjoying a LaGuardia visit. It’s simple: I leave Manhattan 90 minutes early and I stop in Flushing for a Chinese meal. Flushing has most of the best Chinese food in the city, especially adjusting for price. The trouble has always been getting there and back — but the simple solution is to fly more often. For great Chinese food, no price is too high and otherwise you’re simply not going to go. Read the whole thing, complete with ordering suggestions and how to continue on to the airport.
15,000 – 25,000 United Miles for 3 or 4 Roundtrips
United is running a targeted promotion. Some folks have to fly 3 roundtrips to get 15,000 miles. Some have to fly 4 for 20,000 miles. Others have a chance at 25,000 miles. Here’s the one that I received. Book and complete your qualifying travel by June 30, 2008 Enjoy earning more bonus miles the more you fly: 5,000 bonus miles if you fly 2 qualifying roundtrips 10,000 bonus miles if you fly 3 qualifying roundtrips 20,000 bonus miles if you fly 4 qualifying roundtrips Note that registration is required. All the offers, regardless of which one you’re eligible for, seem to have the promo code MPD048 so the same registration link should work for you regardless. (If you receive an offer with a different promotion code, please so note in the comments.) Worth checking your…
Alaska Members – Time to Prepare – Mileage Plan to Take a Week Off
Ok, their tech staff won’t exactly be taking the week off. No doubt they’ll be working some overtime, overhauling the back end of their systems. But the upshot is that effective April 14, 2008 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan will be completely unavailable and will come back online no later than April 22, 2008. During the outage it will not be possible to book or change award tickets, request a mileage upgrade, or any number of other things (fully detailed on this page). This won’t affect the ability to earn miles, they just won’t appear in your account until the system is back online. Here’s hoping it goes smoothly! And if you need to request upgrades or book an award ticket, better do it prior to April 14.
This Just Encapsulates How Bad U.S. Domestic Lounges Are
A Flyertalker visits the United Red Carpet Club in Los Angeles and finds these as snacks: Well, at least there were snacks. Last time I went through there neither self-service coffee machine worked.
