I read the news in this Flyertalk thread Amex is losing a transfer partner. But plenty of notice, so I can’t level tons of criticism here. And they’ve just added British Airways, so for my own uses I view cardmembers as net ahead here.
Hilton First Quarter Promo: A Free Night for Every Four Stays or 10 Nights
Loyalty Traveler lays out the Hilton first quarter promo. The registration link will be http://hiltonhhonors.com/anightonus but it’s not yet active. The offer is a free night for every four stays or 10 nights at a Hilton brand property beginning with check-ins on Thursday, January 7 and ending with check-outs through March 31. It’s no Hyatt Faster Free Nights, the gold standard in hotel promos at a free night ever two stays. But it’s impressive coming from Hilton (if somewhat derivative). I’m likely to earn a single free night under the promo, and the high qualification threshold makes it difficult to make mattress runs using cheap paid stays to redeem for expensive free nights. Plus, we don’t yet know all the details (such as whether there are any restrictions on the properties where the free nights…
Opt into E-Statements for 250 Priority Club Points
Here’s the offer, they say they’re doing it for the environment, yadda yadda. We all know it’s for the savings on printing and postage, but that’s fine, I don’t really look at paper statements much these days anyway. I just wish they wouldn’t cloak it in green rhetoric, like please don’t wash my towels or bedsheets because we care about the enviornment. That may well be true but it’s not the motivation behind expending energy producing those little cards to put on the bed, it’s about the bottom-line and I don’t like being lied to. But I do like points.
Satire That Doesn’t Even ‘Get’ The World We Live In
Can you spot what’s wrong in the lead paragraph from “Paris Hilton screws Senator Al Franken” The Paris Hilton admitted today that it had screwed Senator Al Fraken out of double-dipper frequent flyer miles by neglecting to properly process the bonus points to the Senator’s credit card.
30% off and Free Shipping from W Hotels Store
Promo code D6T8V is good for 30% off and free shipping through January 10 at the W Hotel Store. For beds and bedding I’d wait until the 40% off and free shipping specific to those items comes around, it seems to several times a year. (Though if you were considering getting a W Hotel bed, and didn’t want to wait, this is still a reasonable offer.) But for non-bed items, like stocking up on Bliss products, this is the best deal going most of the time. I admit, ever since I started staying at W properties I’ve used Bliss soaps and shampoos at home, and I refill my own supply when 30% off and free shipping comes around.
Flights to Canada and Hotel, 2 people from $150 plus 5000 United Miles Per Person
Here’s the deal, and the Flyertalk thread. Use promo code GOCANADA to take $600 off the package price, airfare for two people with hotel and minimum spend of $750. Book by December 31st 7 p.m. eastern time and travel needs to be complete by April 30. Each traveler will also receive 5000 bonus United miles per reservation. Cheapest options will usually be two night stays for two people. Of course you only get $300 off per person, so you’re better off booking for two even if traveling solo. There are some nice properties available with this promo as well, including three Fairmont properties — one of which will also throw in a $100 food and beverage credit to boot.
Hilton Gold Fast Track Offer
Hilton is offering Gold status after just four stays within 90 days of registration. Terms and conditions of the offer do say “Offer available only for Savings at Work-eligible Corporate Cardmembers for stays paid for with a Savings at Work eligible American Express Corporate Card and is not transferable” but I can’t imagine that this is the case in practice. (Via Frugal Travel Guy.)
Morons
Let me just hand the mike to Lucky. Poor, poor Chris Elliott. And while I almost always disagree with him, this time it’s different. I support him. As we all know, the TSA didn’t exactly do a great job making the new security initiatives clear. So in trying to help the public out (for once), Chris Elliott posted the security directive on his website, which wasn’t supposed to be published. Now, aside from the fact that this wasn’t supposed to be made public, I don’t see anything in there that I’d consider confidential or surprising. In other words, Chris wasn’t compromising our national security. But apparently someone from the government showed up at his house last night with a subpoena, wanting to know who leaked him the document. Overkill much? You’d think they have bigger things…
Alamo $10 Weekend Rentals
Alamo’s $10 a day weekend rates are back from January 6 through February 8. (Thanks to mrp alert for the pointer.) Book using corporate ID 7015238. Pick up the car 9am on Thursday or later, return by Monday, and the key to getting the deal is keeping the car Saturday night. Rates are $10 for compact up to $20 for premium vehicles. Rates are capacity controlled and only available at airport locations.
I Have Little to Add to Recent TSA Commentary
I had only just been joking about the shoe carnival at checkpoints, the unfortunate legacy of ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid. Thank goodness he wasn’t the ‘pants bomber’ was my joke, or we’d all have to take off our pants at security. So it’s cruel irony that the December 25th failed attempt has become known alternately as the pants bomber and the crotch bomber. TSA has been roundly criticized, no mocked is more like it, for their silly response to last week’s events. Somehow we need extra security measures on flights into the U.S. because somehow Amsterdam’s security is less thorough than that at US airport, or perhaps because there aren’t already terrorists in the U.S. and so we have to keep all would-be bombers from staying warm with blankets. And if they’re really bored while flying…
