When I need to book travel online, I may go to an airline or hotel website or to Orbitz, Expedia, or Travelocity. A small business can go to one of the major online travel retailers and have them set up a special portal customized to the business, implementing the company’s own travel policy. Depending on the volume of travel it may be free or a small setup fee may be involved. Employees of the company then book travel through the dedicated site. Government generally approaches this ‘problem’ by working with GAO-approved vendors. The Department of Defense, though, goes its own way. They’ve spent almost $500 million over the past 8 years on their own online booking system. And it doesn’t work. Among its many problems, the system doesn’t properly display flight and fare information, causes…
Up to 60,000 Bonus Miles for Flights Between Dallas and Kansas City, St. Louis, Austin and San Antonio
Jan
24
2006
It’s part of their broadside against Southwest, they’ve titled their press release American Airlines Gets Serious About Competing at Love Field Starting March 2 through May 26, customers who fly three roundtrips between Dallas Love Field or DFW International Airport and Kansas City, St. Louis, Austin and San Antonio can earn 30,000 AAdvantage bonus miles …Fly six roundtrips in the same time period and earn an additional 30,000 bonus miles Registration is required with promo code FLY3.
Dissing the Donald on Travel
Hotel Chatter fires Donald Trump as its travel agent. The Donald apparently has a travel site (who knew?) called GoTrump.com. GoTrump.com is all about “The Art of the Travel Deal. ” Online travel is a huge business – an $80 billion business. That is why negotiating to get the best rate matters. There are plenty of other sites out there, but only GoTrump.com gets the best deals. And on the site, Trump offers his recommendations for best hotels. Hotel Chatter’s criticisms are twofold — that it’s unlikely Trump has even been to some of the properties he recommends, and that the suggestions are boring and unimaginative: Considering that there are about 53 cities listed, we doubt that Trump has been to all these hotels but there’s a good chance he may have. We’ll give him…
Huge Bonus for Flying to Wichita
Okay, no need for the jokes. They’re too obvious. But if you’re actually flying to Wichita anyway, there can’t possibly be a better way than Airtran’s Buy One Get One program. Through February 28 every roundtrip to Wichita earns enough credits for a free roundtrip ticket. You have to sign up for Airtran’s “A2B” business program to be eligible for the promotion.
500 Continental Miles for Creating a OnePass Dining Profile
Jan
24
2006
Through March 31, when you sign up for Continental Airlines OnePass Dining (the free Rewards Network a.k.a. iDine program that awards miles for eating at participating restaurants) and create an online profile, you’ll get 500 Continental miles. Details can be found via Continental OnePass News and Offers using the link “Join OnePass Dining For Free By March 31, 2006 and Earn 500 Bonus Miles.” However registration is not required, so all you need to do is go to the OnePass dining site and register (if you haven’t already) and create an online profile.Members who created profiles prior to January 15 aren’t eligible for the bonus.
Expedia’s Best Price Guarantee
The CEO of Kayak.com calls Expedia’s best price guarantee for airfare “laughable.” Of course he’d say that, he’s a competitor, but the fine print is a doozy — it doesn’t count Expedia’s booking fee (so an airline’s site offering the same fare will be cheaper) and it doesn’t count airlines that Expedia doesn’t sell (so it doesn’t matter that Southwest and JetBlue offer it for less). And since Expedia only selectively honored the $3 room nights at the Tokyo and Osaka Hilton properties, we know that some rates are too good on Expedia…
The rest of the world just doesn’t understand
Suzanne Marta of the Dallas Morning News takes a clearly tongue-in-cheek look at American Airlines service cuts. While there are bigger cutbacks that have been made, she focuses on the ice cream sundaes which American stopped offering made-to-order in international business class.The piece cites some cutbacks but then offers up American’s spin:Last year, American changed the hot towels it gives elite passengers from cloth to paper. Earlier this month, business-class lunch service changed from a four-course feast to lighter fare. A spokeswoman said it’s the carrier’s first menu overhaul in seven years for domestic transcontinental flights. The changes are meant to better reflect how people eat during the midday meal. After complaints the made-to-order sundae will come back on dinner flights but remain pre-made for lunch. Marta concludes: The changes don’t apply to travelers in…
A couple of blogs
Leigh Witchel has a new ongoing series on finding the best mileage awards. So far he’s written about credit cards and also mileage programs with awards based on distance. The latter key takeaway is one of my favorites, the neat benefit of Cathay Pacific Asia Miles — awards in business class under 5000 miles are only 60,000 points. So flights on British Airways from the East Coast of the US to most destinations in Europe qualify. Similar flights would cost 100,000 British Airways miles. Separately, the new Gratis Air Blog is posting daily airfare deals, some of which are pretty good.
Elite numbers at Air Canada
A Flyertalker reports that Depending on the number of Aeroplan Status Miles collected over the year, a member can reach Air Canada Prestige, Elite or Super Elite status. To make Super Elite status a customer has to fly 100,000 miles a year. There are 9,000 Super Elite 68,000 Elite and 57,000 Prestige customers. These numbers are usually proprietary and so are interesting to learn. There’s some discussion there of how they compare to past figures, given changes in the travel industry and changes in qualifying requirements. I’ll save analysis of this for another day, but thought I’d pass along the figures.
Sick of Priority Club’s Inconsistency Awarding Points for Hotel Stays
Jan
20
2006
Priority Club (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental, etc.) is probably worse than any other chain with respect to hotel properties complying with the terms and conditions of their loyalty program. One specific area where this manifests itself is upgrades for elite members (Platinums can never really know what to expect at a Holiday Inn, and Royal Ambassador treatment varies markedly at all Intercontinentals — is there an upgrade at all? is it to an executive room or a suite or two room categories or…?). But what bothers me most at the moment is their decision to award points and stay credit on any given rate. You just never know whether you’re going to earn points. And even if you think you should, reporting a discrepancy after the fact may or may not be met with…
