This Flyertalk thread highlights current Travelocity promotion codes for two, three, and four night hotel stays (you can of course make separate bookings to capitalize on extra savings, e.g. a six night stay could be a 4- and 2- night stay to use both the $100 and $50 coupons): AMAZING50 Save $50 when you book a two-night hotel booking or flight + hotel Package (minmum spend $250) and travel between October 10, 2008 and October 31, 2008. AMAZING75 Save $75 when you book a three-night hotel booking or flight + hotel Package (minmum spend $400) and travel betweenOctober 10, 2008 and October 31, 2008. AMAZING100 Save $100 when you book a four-night hotel booking or flight + hotel Package (minimum spend $500) and travel between October 10, 2008 and October 31, 2008.
Three New Morning Deals
Frugal Travel Guy has three new deals worth nothing this morning — the first I saw on Flyertalk yesterday and the other two were in my email box this morning, but Rick beat me to the punch! AirMilesMart has added Starbucks as a merchant, go through their site to reload your Starbucks card and you’ll earn three points per dollar spent which can be transferred 1:1 into Starwood points. New American Airlines Rewards Network Dining Members can earn 1500 points for a qualified dine of $25 or more by November 30th. If you’re already a dining member with another program, you can still sign up for an American dining account using a new credit card. American is one of the programs frequently offering the best bonuses as well. Restaurant.com $25 certificates are 80% off through…
The New Qantas A380 First Class Seat Reviewed
The Global Traveller takes a promotional flight of Qantas’ new Airbus A380 and comes away impressed by their first class seat. It’s not the incredible over-the-top offering of Sinagpore’s new enclosed suites. And no showers a la Emirates. But he comes away impressed, arguing that it puts Qantas into the top tier of first class seats. As for me, I’m jealous, I haven’t yet set foot onboard an A380 — even in business.
He Leveraged His Lounge Membership a Whole Lot Better Than I Ever Did
(or maybe he was just a British Midland gold member?) The New York Times covers a federal govenrment procurement scandal and centers the narrative around the perpetrators activities in the US Airways lounge at National airport. They huddled in a quiet corner at the US Airways lounge at Ronald Reagan National Airport, sipping bottomless cups of coffee as they plotted to turn America’s missile defense program into a personal cash machine…. He set up a makeshift office in the US Airways lounge at Reagan National Airport, where he followed up on pitches for money to lawmakers and hid out from his Defense Department bosses. He identified lobbyists who could prove useful and contractors — many of them campaign donors — with projects that needed nurturing…. From the US Airways club, Mr. Cantrell could see the…
American Airlines to Start Charging for Status Challenges
As lucky notes, JonNYC — who is usually right about these things — posts over at TravelingBetter.com that American Airlines is going to start charging for their status challenges (accelerated periods in which it takes fewer miles to qualify for elite status). The price is expected to be $80 to sign up for a Gold challenge and $150 for a Platinum challenge. American Airlines challenges are explained on this old site by Flyertalk member FewMiles. In a nutshell, it’s the “back door to elite status”. Basically, you sign up for the Gold or Platinum Challenge under the premise that you can demonstrate a quantity of qualifying flight activity within a limited time period that justifies your request for fast-tracked elite status. Further details on the above-mentioned site. Me, I’m not an American Airlines flyer, really…
ANA Unique Value Partner Awards
One Mile at a Time points to some interesting redemption offers from ANA, which are especially useful as ANA is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner. In addition to special awards discussed in the past on this blog and on lucky’s, like Virgin Atlantic Upper Class New York – London for 63,000 miles, this entry points out: New York-JFK or Washington-Dulles to Doha on Qatar in business class for 90,000 miles. New York-JFK or Newark to Brussels on Jet Airways in business class for 68,000 miles (or onward to Dehli for 105,000 miles). ANA does impose taxes and fees greater than US-based carriers, to be sure. And their phone agents aren’t always the best to work with. But they do have some unique partnerships and their distance-based award chart can be a blessing on…
Virgin America Launches Co-Branded Visa
Last week I outlined Virgin America’s award redemption offerings and noted that a co-branded credit card was on the way. Now details of that credit card are here. The card is a Visa Signature co-branded with Barclays bank, the same issuer as the US Airways Mastercard and comes with: 3,500 bonus points with first purchase. Apparently the ‘usual’ offer is intended as 2,500 bonus points, as the 3,500 offer includes 1,000 for ‘pre-registering’ on the credit card’s website. The card comes with a free one-way flight after first purchase, with details described as: [A]pply by November 30, 2008, and use the card to make a purchase by January 31, 2009. Travel must be completed by May 20, 2009. No annual fee. According to a PRNewswire release, additional details include: The card launches October 23rd. One…
American Express Platinum to Eliminate Domestic Companion Airfare Program
High Anxiety notes that American Express is terminating its domestic companion airfare program, about a year and a half after it started. A real bummer. The outsourced program (to API) was annoying to work with, very much non-transparent as to which flights were eligible and a cumbersome booking process (by phone, not the sharpest agents, and then the need to get transferred to reconfirm everything once the booking was over). But it was also a value that is being taken away from Platinum cardholders, and I will miss it. Fortunately there are still several companion airfare offers that are worthwhile, such as the Alaska Airlines $50 companion ticket that comes with the Bank of America co-branded credit card and the US Airways $99 companion ticket that comes with both the Bank of America co-branded Visa…
Free Hilton Gold Status is Back
Frugal Travel Guy reports that the old Citi Chairmans Hilton Gold offer is again (still?) available. In fact, the code is even still CTCH, just enter it at this link and open up a new account. That will open a new Hilton gold account for you, and if you already have a Hilton account you can combine the old one into this new gold one as well. At times in the past Hilton has removed the complimentary gold status from ineligible accounts, other times they haven’t, and even when they have they have not done so across the board to all accounts. So whether this sticks is ‘your mileage may vary.’ Still worth a try for those of you without Hilton Gold status already, it generally means free breakfast at least.
Tips for Successful Award Booking
Frugal Travel Guy offers his basic tips on award redemption, which start with being friendly to the agent on the other end of the phone (make them a friend willing to spend the time and do the work necessary to find you your award), be flexible in cities and dates, and be willing to overnight if necessary — plus know your possible partners and routes and suggest them to the agent you’re working with. All good tips, to be sure. But especially since I’ve been getting several requests for award booking assistance since the October 2008 issue of Conde Nast Traveler reprinted a comment I made on Wendy Perrin’s blog offering award booking help, let me outline my own award booking tips… Whose miles do you need, and how many? First, what miles are you…
