Hyatt has been on a tear for the last year, figuring out how to add more value for members, especially elite members and frequent guests. Honestly, I haven’t seen anything like it in years. Last year they pioneered free internet for elites, at the same time they (1) lifted capacity controls on award nights — if there’s a standard room available, it’s available on points, matching Starwood’s redemption proposition and (2) offered confirmed at booking suite upgrades for their Diamond members four times a year. I wish there were more Hyatt properties, because over the last 12 months they’ve clearly been offering the best value proposition of any hotel chain. They also continue to bring back the richest bonus promotion in the hotel industry. I will always call it “Faster Free Nights” but thehy call…
35,000 Mile Signup Bonuses for American Airlines Visa, American Express, and Business Visa
Via MJ On Travel, Citibank is offering their various American Airlines co-branded credit cards with no fee the first year and 30,000 miles after $750 in purchases (a common but good offer) and now also throwing in an additional 5000 miles after $5000 in spend during the first 12 months you have the card. The offers are here and apply to the Visa, American Express, and Business Visa. The most common cards have always been the co-branded Mastercards. That’s what most people have or have had. Citibank isn’t as generous with allowing people to get the same signup bonus over and over any longer. But if you haven’t had these other cards, you should be able to get signup bonuses for them even if you’ve had Mastercard products in the past. And this represents as…
Is Instant Gold Status with Virgin Atlantic back?
Back on April 9 I posted an offer for free instant Virgin Atlantic Gold status. Enroll at this link for instant Gold status in Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club. Benefits of Gold, Virgin Atlantic’s top tier, are detailed here. Basically benefits apply primarily when actually flying Virgin — bonus miles, lounge access and priority checkin even when flying economy, extra baggage, and Heathrow fast track. You can also nominate a Silver. And there are reciprocal benefits with Virgin Blue, VAustralia, ANA, and Singapore. This puppy won’t last long. I believe it’s intended to incentivize folks buying higher-priced business class transatlantic fares, who already have status in another program, but was made available to all comers. Those that used the link received Gold status, and it seems have been able to keep it. The link was taken down, however,…
Trip Reports are Apparently Very Different with Kids
Jared Blank shares the future with luxury travel bloggers, once they have kids. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Win a Free High-end Tom Bihn Laptop Briefcase
Two ways to enter, and you can do both, leave a comment in the official entry thread (one comment/entry per person in that thread) and follow @garyleff on Twitter. The contest will close at 12:00pm Eastern time on Friday, April 23. Any questions? Feel free to hit the comments in this thread.
Intercontinental Manila Presidential Suite — a continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant”
On arrival at the Intercontinental Manila we waited for the bomb sniffing dog at the entrance to give us the all clear. Not bringing any bombs into the hotel, so we were cleared to head to the checkin desk. After a long overnight flight I didn’t want to think about, “where is the club?” to handle checkin there, a waiting staff member at the main desk in the lobby would do just fine. Now, it was still a bit shy of noon. As a Royal Ambassdor I’m entitled to 8 a.m. checkin, one of the great unsung elite status benefits out there and one which no other chain matches. However, I was told my room wasn’t ready yet. After all, there was only one of my room… the Presidential Suite. I had actually wanted to…
Hong Kong – Manila in Cathay Pacific First Class — A continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant
Our flight from Toronto landed just a few minutes early, but that meant before 5 am. And Hong Kong is a ghost town at that hour. We quickly went through transit security and found our way over to the Wing. It opens at 5, but the first class side doesn’t open until 5:30 am. We waited and wandered — most parts of the lounge, the Game Room for instance, were deserted. But the main sitting room was jam packed. Once 5:30 rolled around we went upstairs, and immediately asked for a Cabana. We shared one, which was perfectly fine, and in my opinion this makes for one of the nicer shower facilities after a long overnight flight. My wife and I aren’t separated, which means we can mill about and meander slowly given our four-ish…
CONTEST/GIVEAWAY: Tom Bihn Empire Builder Laptop Briefcase
Back in January I blogged that the Tom Bihn folks offered to send me some sample products to try. I was in the market for a laptop bag in particular, so I asked to try both their Checkpoint flyer and Empire Builder bags. I fell in love with the Checkpoint flyer, I’ve been using it as my primary bag ever since, and it’s logged a ton of miles. What then to do with the Empire Builder? It’s a very nice bag. But I don’t need it. I thought about making it an every day bag while using the Checkpoint flyer TSA friendly bag for travel. But I don’t like switching, and I’m perfectly happy with the Checkpoint flyer for every day use. It’s a $170 retail bag, and that’s just for the base bag. And…
Toronto – Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific First Class — A continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant”
After months of anticipation and significant stress making it up to Toronto to start my trip, it was finally time to get underway. The KLM lounge in Toronto was disappointing to say the least. They did announce boarding, at least, and walk around letting everyone know it was time to head off. I couldn’t help thinking, though, that they were really just shooing us out of the lounge so they could close down rather than being helpful. So off to the gate where things were a bit of a madhouse. We lined up for boarding (boarding call was made rather prematurely in the lounge) and finally made it onboard. All the unpleasantness and stress melted away upon entering the aircraft. A flight attendant walked us to our seats, showed us the closet for our carryons,…
On the Cusp of Lifetime Platinum Status with American
As most of y’all no doubt know, American Airlines AAdvantage is unique in its lifetime status qualification — miles from all sources count, not just flown miles. One million miles earned = Lifetime Gold Two million miles earned = Lifetime Platinum I’ve never been a regular American customer. I’ve long leaned much more towards the Star Alliance. I don’t think I’ve done more than 25,000 or 50,000 total qualifying miles on paid oneworld tickets in my entire life. But stay around these programs long enough, watch the promotions, chase after some of them, and the miles build up. And with all the partners and promotions that American has had over time, they’ve been great to build mileage balances up with. In particular, churning Citibank co-branded credit cards over time was very good to me with…
