Fresno is something of a hotel wasteland. There’s a Marriott Courtyard, a couple of Holiday Inns, the local Picadilly chain (which years ago was about as nice as it got), a Radisson, a couple of La Quintas, and a well-placed Hampton. Supposedly there’s a Hyatt Place coming. Not a lot as far as full service properties go. And with a penchant for Starwood properties, I wind up at the Four Points. I wish it was further North, it is it’s on Blackstone (a main drag, across the street from a mall that’s been surpassed many times over and that’s fairly dead, and near a Starbucks and the 41 freeway) about 10 minutes from the airport. The neighborhood isn’t the best in Fresno, I lived there at one point in Northwest and this isn’t Northwest. Not…
How Should I Run the Hilton Free Night Giveaway?
A couple of days ago I posted that I’m going to be giving away a free Hilton hotel night. The only thing I’m waiting for is to decide how to do it. In the comments to that thread some folks commented stuff lke make it one entry per reader or such. not much fun for those who can enter 50000000 times. When I gave away a travel power strip there were over 670 entries, many many from the same people. I was fine with that, but appears it didn’t play well with some of you (presumably the people who didn’t enter 100 times!). At the same time, I gotta tell you, the easiest way for me to do a giveaway is to have each comment be a separate entry, with no limit on the number…
Not Really My Kind of Airline
Via Marginal Revolution, Crooked Timber on RyanAir: Shafting Your Customer As a Reputational Strategy. They’re proud to be awful!
Successes Asking American Airlines to Release Domestic Award Seats Connecting to International Flights
Ridiculously Extraordinary writes about being inspired by my post about little white lies I tell airline agents when booking awards to get American Airlines to release a domestic flight in advance of an international award segment. Now, the author originally wanted something that isn’t possible: So while I was booking my flight to India a couple of months ago I settled on flying American Airlines / British Airways. I wanted to fly Cathay Pacific, but didn’t know how to get the person I was speaking to at AAdvantage to give me the CP ticket. She told me only the AA/BA flights were available. I knew that wasn’t true, but I didn’t know enough to get around it. On an American Airlines partner award you need to route from the US to India via the Atlantic.…
Goldpoints Increases the Value of Points!
Kudos where they’re do, and what a contrast to Hilton’s January points devaluation. Loyalty Traveler lays out the significant point reductions that Goldpoints Plus is requriing for free nights at their top-end hotels: The cost for a free night reward in the top three categories of their six hotel reward tiers has dropped. Over 300 hotels at the top of the Carlson hotel chain require fewer points for free night rewards. The highest Gold Points Plus category-6 rewards were 90,000 points for a free night and are now only 60,000 points. In addition to lowering points at the high end categories, the program has eliminated FlexNights which were a 50% premium for peak demand rewards. To repeat: Top tier hotels have dropped from as high as 135,000 points for one free night to 60,000 points…
Expedia $10 Off Per Night at Prepaid Hotels
Expedia is offering $10 off per night on “Expedia Special Rate” hotel rates (minimum 2-night stay) with promo code 10WINTER. Book by April 30 for travel through May 31. Not enough of a discount to make it worth my booking with Expedia (even as an “Expedia Elite”) when I won’t get elite benefits or stay credit with Starwood, Hilton, etc. At least Marriott provides elite benefits on stays booked from any source (including Priceline). In fact, last weekend I spent a night at the Renaissance Boca Raton, Pricelined for $96 (web rate was $229). I got an upgraded to club level (last time I Pricelined there I had an executive suite), access to the closed club lounge (raid the refrigerator for bottled water), and coupons for full breakfast buffet (due to closed lounge). I’ve blogged…
3000 US Airways Miles for a 3-Day Rental
The 3000 US AIrways mile bonus for 3-day Avis rentals that’s targeted to US Airways elite members doesn’t seem to be restricted to elite members. For a rental a week and a half back, I had the following activity post to my US Airways account today: AVIS 2010 PREF. MEMBER 3000 MILE BONUS I am not a US Airways elite member. Oh, and in addition to the 3000 bonus miles I received 150 miles (50 per day x 3 days).
5000 bmi Miles Per Wyndham Rewards Stay in February
This Flyertalk thread notes a bonus to celebrate bmi becoming a new partner with Wyndham Rewards: 5000 bmi miles per stay through February 28. The bonus can be earned a maximum of 4 times, doesn’t require registration, just choose bmi miles as your earning preference and provide your Diamond Club number. I guess I’ll be scouring the area for a cheap Knights Inn or HoJo’s that I can check in and out of four times this month for 20,000 miles… Update: From the comments, beaubo notes that bmi now allows household accounts, so “that 20K up to 6 people, amplifying to 120K BD which is a US-Asia Business Class roundtrip with no co-pay!!!”
Is Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” Hard Work? Is This Blog?
A 10-year old kid smacks down Anthony Bourdain for his ‘rough life’ flying first class and eating good food. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVQk5NlGEBs&feature=player_embedded It’s a funny clip, especially around 50 seconds in after Bourdain patronizes the kid. Sometimes the commenters on this blog do this to me… (HT: Marginal Revolution)
Online Booking Site Elite Status Remains Unrewarding
This afternoon I received my renewal email for Expedia’s Elite Plus program. I’m not sure plus what, exactly. They offer a dedicated phone line where you don’t have to wait on hold for interminable amounts of time, and they waive their own imposed change fees (that you wouldn’t have had to pay if you’d book your travel through the airline or hotel directly anyway). At least this fee waiver used to be part of the program, I can’t seem to find it on the website any longer. And I haven’t found their ‘elite’ customer service to be better, just faster to pick up the phone. Beyond that they give you “early access to sales” and “exclusive offers.” I think I’ve been in this program as long as it’s existed, and had some sort of VIP…
