US Airways is running a ‘3-day sale’ on lounge membership, lasting through Wednesday September 29. The price is $249 and the $50 new member initiation fee is waived. (The ‘normal’ price is $450, or $375 for most US Airways elite members and $325 for Chairmans Preferred members.) They’re also offering 3000 elite qualifying miles for joining using promo code CEB3K (that offer runs through September 30). These appear to me to be combinable. It will even count as a ‘hit’ in the grand slam promo. Of course, the US Airways clubs in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh still charge a buck for alcoholic drinks based on state law, and the Boston club has no liquor license if I understand correctly. But it’s still a great deal. Now, I already get US Airways lounge access via my American…
On Southwest’s Planned Acquisition of Airtran
I won’t have a lot to say on the announcement of Southwest’s planned acquisition of Airtran. I’ll leave that to the Cranky Fliers and Dan Webbs of the world, it’s a little outside of my area of interest — I try not to fly Southwest or Airtran and have little interest in their mileage programs. Still, it’s hard not to see this as a bg deal. This is obviously bigger than Southwest’s previous acquisitions.. Morris Air, run by Dave Neeleman who would go on to found JetBlue once his non-compete was up, and Muse Air which was founded by Southwest’s original President Lamar Muse and his son (and dubbed ‘revenge air’ after Muse’s ouster of Southwest and attempts to compete across Southwest’s key routes). One expects Airtran to begin aligning policies with Southwest once the…
Strategies for Earning 100,000 Bonus Miles Through the US Airways Grand Slam Promo
TM Travel World has an excellent post where he lays out how he plans to get 36 ‘hits’ in the US Airways Grand Slam promotion and earn 100,000 bonus miles. What’s useful about the post is that he details the specific items he’s doing and buying and their costs. I have many different items myself, and I’m not likely to hit the top bonus for 36 activities, but there are some useful nuggets here. He’s going to earn four different partner credits from hotel points transfers into US Airways. Starwood Platinum members can transfer as few as 1 point to miles in their choice of programs, you need to transfer a minimum of 100 miles for this promotion. Then he’s transferring points from Hyatt, Hilton, and Goldpointsplus. He’s going to credit six hotel stays and…
Behind the Scenes of the Frequent Traveler Awards Nomination Process
The Frequent Traveler Awards are underway, and I’m told there have already been hundreds of thousands of votes cast. I’ve gotten a couple of questions here on my blog, by email, and on Flyertalk about what it’s all about, and how it differs from the Freddie Awards — which Randy Petersen decided to bring to a close after two decades. Like the Freddies, the Frequent Traveler awards fulfill a unique role: They honor the best loyalty programs, not the best or hippest resort hotels or airline seats and food. They are decided by the traveling public at large, not by a group of self-described ‘experts’. I’m the Chair of the Frequent Traveler Awards committee that put together the structure, voting processes, and nominations for the Frequent Traveler Awards. I had always been a bit of…
Opting Out of e-Rewards’ Creepy ‘Advanced Cookies’
e-Rewards, the survey site that lets you redeem points for miles in a variety of programs (unless you sign up via a specific program, in which case your redemptions are restricted to that program), plans to implement (on or about October 1) some pretty extreme tracking cookies to watch your overall web browsing sessions. On the whole, I find that their surveys are less rewarding (fewer points for longer surveys) than they were perhaps five years ago. And the opportunity cost of my time has gone up. I rarely find it worthwhile to complete their surveys on the basis of the rewards they’re offering. But I still complete some surveys because I like to have a small stash of points that I can redeem at-will. The surveys are too cumbersome for, say, the 1000 frequent…
Hotel Industry Rates and Occupancy… What Will it Mean for Starwood Award Categories in 2011?
Starwood assigns hotels to award categories (which determines the number of points it takes to redeem a room night) based on each hotel’s projected average daily room rate for the year. Back in February, Starwood announced that they wouldn’t be changing hotels’ award category assignments (for the most part) for 2010. They spun this as doing a favor for their members — we aren’t raising point requirements! — but my view was that given the way they structure and describe the program, they should have been lowering points costs. Each year when they moved more hotels up in categories than down, it was justified based on the room rates those hotels were drawing. Starwood has even added increasingly higher category levels to the program in order to charge more points for the highest priced properties.…
Another 100,000 Mile Credit Card Signup Bonus
The very best credit card signup bonuses out there are undoubtedly the 75,000 and 100,000 mile bonuses for new American Airlines credit cards from Citibank. The offers run through October 31. The 75,000 mile offer has a landing page that includes the relevant details — no fee the first year, bonus miles after $1500 in spend within 6 months. The 100,000 mile offer is 50,000 miles after $750 in purchases within 4 months, and another 50,000 miles after $10,000 in purchases within 12 months, no fee the first year. It’s just links, though — no landing page — everyone has been confirming that the links which take you to an application directly without mention of the bonus works just fine. The links attach the relevant offer code and that’s what Citibank sees and awards miles…
Are the Business Traveller Awards the Least Credible Awards Ever? Their Results Might Lead You to Think So…
Oliver sends me to the just-announced Business Traveller Awards for 2010. Presumably he does this so my head will fall off my head and begin spinning while steam pours out my eyes. Now, these awards — given by a group of self-appointed experts without transparent criteria — are often nonsense. The better awards give reason to quibble, and individuals can differ, but this one is perhaps the most ludicrous not only because it’s selections are inane but because they are not even internally consistent. They can’t even both to massage idiotic results so that they’re consistently idiotic in the same way across categories! Take Emirates, which they say is a better airline than British Airways (true enough). But then British Airways is a better long-haul airline than Emirate. Questionable at best. But for both statements…
Air France to Commit to Inferior Business Class Seating for the Foreseeable Future
Upgrade: Travel Better notes that Air France is upgrading their business class seats. But that they won’t be introducing true lie-flat seats, and that these below industry standard seats will take three years to roll out. Crazy, huh? It amazes me that Air France continues to enjoy a positive reputation amongst the general public, at least here in the US and among the less-traveled. One assumes that this is driven simply by a belief that the French exhibit quality and style. And that they haven’t actually flown Air France recently. Certainly Air France’s ancient angled-flat seats need replacement. On my last Paris trip I flew the carrier’s business class, wanting the non-stop for the short hop across the pond and for what would be a quick trip. Key elements: Seat had pieces coming off, and…
Reciprocal Upgrades Between American, British AIrways, and Iberia Should Be Coming
There’s some great speculation at the Traveling Better forums about expected soon to be introduced upgrade awards using American Airlines miles on British Airways (and likely Iberia), and of course BA and Iberia miles on these carriers as well. Given the anti-trust approval for the carriers’ joint business ventures, the airlines and mileage programs will certainly become more integrated. Now, most Star Alliance programs already allow for reciprocal mileage upgrades. Oneworld hasn’t had that. But this subgroup of oneworld carriers almost certainly will. British Airways offers four classes of service beyond Europe — economy (World Traveller), premium economy (World Traveller Plus), business (ClubWorld), and first class. So one imagines that an American mileage award would be good for upgrading one class of service. In other words, economy to premium economy rather than economy to business.…
