The Houston Chronicle, umm, chronicles Continental’s push to improve its premium cabin catering. They spoke to me about the efforts, and while I caveated that I’m not a frequent Continental flyer, Continental remains the only carrier serving complimentary meals in domestic coach, whatever you may think of those offerings. Meals don’t generate incremental flights, very few people get on a plane just to eat the food! Non-stop service drives most decisions, but when connecting the biggest consideration is seat — followed by quality in soft product. Attracting premium passengers is all about generating the expectation (and delivery) of a comfortable, stress-free experience. The quality of service, the small touches, airport ground handling, and food are all a part of seamless execution that draws a revenue premium.Celebrity chefs are pure marketing. They’re a signal that the…
Interesting Hotel Deals and a Possible $10 AA.com Discount Voucher
HotelCashBack.com is a new blog with hotel deals, they’re currently showing $24.11 per night all-in at Stratosphere in Vegas (yuck!), $50.68 at Sheraton Bungavillas in Puerto Vallarta, $58.40 at Atlantis in Reno including breakfast buffets, and $119.06 at Encore at the Wynn in Vegas. And to promote themselves, they’re trying to go viral with a modest giveaway: [W]e are giving away sixty (60) American Airlines vouchers. Just mention our blog on another web site, blog or forum, email us at info@hotelcashback.com to let us know and we will email you a voucher. Each American Airlines voucher is good for $10 off per ticket purchased on aa.com, up to six tickets, maximum savings of $60!
Jetiquette Podcast with Randy Petersen
The Jetiquette Podcast interviews Randy Petersen this week. There aren’t a whole lot of podcasts I listen to (other than Upgrd.com) and I hadn’t listened to Jetiquette before. It’s a little campy perhaps, but Randy is always worth devoting a few minutes’ listening to. Highly recommended.
Listen to Me Discuss Award Booking
I’ll be recording another session, but in the meantime you can listen to this week’s upgrd podcast where we talk about “United Airlines award levels, website issues, and evil StarNet blocking; US Airways award levels and availability; and Continental’s award chart and how they match up with United.” Give it a listen.
Free Hotel Night Giveaway: Don’t Forget to Enter!
You have just a little over a day left to enter to win a free Hilton hotel night courtesy of BoardingArea.com.
Proof the Air Marshall Program Needs an Overhaul
Even Kim Kardashian can spot them.
50% Bonus on Hotel and Car Partner Activities Through April 30
You need to register and have at least three qualifying activities to earn a 50% bonus on all of your hotel and car partner earning through April 30th. Regular readers know that I’m not a huge fan of Delta Skymiles. And it’s not the 150% bonus offer that Delta mistakenly offered in November, 2008. But I am a fan of bonus miles. This would, for instance, make a 2-day Avis car rental that would otherwise offer 2010 miles especially value (3015 miles!). Mileage transfers count, so 20,000 Starwood points normally generate 25,000 Delta miles. If you’ve got two other qualifying partner transactions, then a 20,000 Starpoint transfer would yield 37,500 Delta miles. This isn’t lucrative enough to actually get me to burn my Starwood points, they’re too value and Delta miles aren’t. But if you…
A Surgeon Should Know Better to Fly With His Pregnant Wife on Spirit
Tony Woodlief brings us the story of a pregnant woman being refused water by Spirit Airlines during a two-hour tarmac delay. I agree with the standard fare outrage in this story, sometimes you just need water, pregnant woman, blah blah. It’s pretty indecent to refuse the request, even if the flight attendants couldn’t be moving around the cabin a great deal at that time, even if they weren’t in a position to provide water service to everyone. There would have been a reasonable way to handle the issue and this wasn’t it. The only thing I suppose that’s worth adding here is that a bit of personal responsibility is in order here. The person ejected from the aircraft was the woman’s husband, and he’s the Chief of Obesity Surgery at Manhattan’s Lenox Hill Hospital. No…
1000 United Mile Bonus for Hertz Online Booking
Via Frugal Travel Guy, Hertz is offering 1000 bonus United miles for online bookings. They’re also offering triple United miles, “up to 1500!” Rick described it as, “2500 United Miles Per One Day Hertz Rental???” but I don’t think that’s correct. It’s a 1000 mile bonus and triple miles, which presumably are triple the standard United mileage offer of 50 Mileage Plus miles per day for all qualifying paid rentals of 1 to 4 days. Earn 500 miles for qualifying rentals of five or more days at any airport and downtown location worldwide. So a 1-day rental would earn (50 x 3) + 1000 = 1150. And it would take a 5-day rental to earn 2500 miles. Though I’d love to be wrong on this one! Nonetheless, good if you’re renting from Hertz anyway. But…
Randy Petersen’s 17 Million Frequent Flyer Miles
Forbes runs a piece on Randy Petersen, where he talks about how he got started giving miles and points advice, about the 17 million miles in his accounts, and why he doesn’t burn them. I guess when you have 17 million you’re not worried about a little bit of devaluation!
