Via Spirit Air, Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas is offering Panorama suites for $177. Rate calendar for booking and availability is here. It’s a 1,255 square foot suite with a 180-degree view of the Strip. Not bad! Hat tip to SC Flier on Flyertalk.
Photos of the A380 First Class Suites
I think I’ll be severely impressed and envious of travel in Singapore’s Airbus A380 first class cabin until I finally try it myself. But Singapore doesn’t offer award availability for their A380 suites, so I’m probably out of luck. Some folks have lucked out by booking awards on routes that then turn into A380 routes. But I haven’t been gambling and chasing the seat, so… I’m left to read reports such as this one on Flyertalk with lots of photos of the suite itself and the first class cabin. Definitely outstanding first class airline porn, for the luxury travel voyeurs among us.
Picking Up My First Rental Car for 9,999 Delta Miles
Some followup on the Delta 9,999 bonus miles for a single day car rental offer. First, some have been interpreting that the offer is good three times with Avis and three times with Budget. My read was three times total between Avis and Budget. I could be proven wrong, but I’m not making a 4th rental to try it out. Second, print everything and I mean everything. I printed the offer itself. I printed the page where I enter all the information about the rental (including my Skymiles number, etc). I printed the confirmation page. I’m saving all of those, and will save my rental receipt as well. There are tons of things that could go wrong here and mess with the bonus posting. Somehow rentals are flagged as being booked through iSeatz, which provides…
Atlantis Casino, Reno
Reno’s Atlantis Casino has been a perennially easy hotel to score on Priceline, it’s been the only four-star property in Reno for awhile – or so Priceline says. It strikes me as rather three-star, but there’s no hard and fast Priceline rule distinguishing the two categories. Still, targeting Atlantis is easy if that’s your bag. Although at some point the Peppermill may get an upgrade to four stars as they complete a renovation. Last week I was there on a $39 Priceline rate. At check-in I was told that no king bed rooms were available (I had put in a request for one in advance). I insisted and was offered a king in the motor lodge. There’s a no-tell motel facility out back, pretty dodgy, a separate facility that I wanted nothing to do with. After…
9999 Delta Miles with an Avis or Budget Rental
It’s a pretty rich offer. Book the car using the Delta.com Car Search Engine. Offer is valid until August 1, 2008 for rentals of one day or longer at participating airport locations in the United States and Canada. The bonus can be earned up to 3 times. And don’t add any other AWD number (Avis) or BCD number (budget) to the reservation.
Virgin Atlantic Award Sale
Via Inside Flyer (subscription required), Virgin Atlantic awards departing the US are being discounted for booking through July 31. Virgin Atlantic Airways flying club members can take advantage of an award sale through July 31, 2008. You can spend up to 50 percent fewer miles when flying in coach and up to 20 percent fewer miles when flying in Premium Economy. You could fly roundtrip coach between New York (JFK and Newark) and London for 22,500 miles if you complete your travel by July 31. You can get 25 percent off if you book by July 31 for later travel — that’s 33,750 miles for a roundtrip flight between New York and London. For the same flight in Premium Economy during this promotion, the mileage cost would be 54,000 miles (normally 67,500).
Singapore’s New First Class “Private Room”
Singapore may be a great airline, but on the whole their lounges don’t meet tip top standards. At Heathrow their premium class customers get access to the Virgin Clubhouse, certainly one of the world’s better offerings, and a better option than Singapore’s lounge at that airport. Their home base lounges don’t compare to similar offerings by Thai, Asiana, or Lufthansa. The new first class lounge at Singapore’s new Terminal 3 was generally disappointing. But this past Tuesday they introduced a new product for paid first class passengers (apparently not those traveling in award first, not their top tier elites, and not the first class passengers of other Star Alliance carriers). It’s called The Private Room and over at sqtalk.com there are photos of the lounge here and here. Nice and exclusive to be sure, but…
United Makes Star Alliance Awards a *Little* More Flexible
United’s Star Alliance award rules have been revised slightly, in a positive way. It used to be that awards involving United’s Star Alliance partners could not be changed at all, in any way (at least officially, though sometimes it could be done at the airport by other carriers). Now United will allow you make changes to an award as though it were an all-United itinerary if the only remaining flights in the itinerary are United’s. (The rule actually appears to say any United segment could be changed even after travel commences, but I’ll want to see this work in practice before stating definitively that it’s accurate.) For example, if you wanted to fly United from Chicago to London and back, but those flights weren’t available and you had to fly United to Frankfurt, connecting on…
Gaming Fidelity’s Mileage Offers
Fidelity offers miles for opening and funding brokerage accounts, up to 25,000 United, Delta, or American miles for $50,000 deposited. That’s a pretty good tax free return in a market where making a decent taxable return is iffy at best. (And via Free Frequent Flyer Miles, Delta is offering a 25% bonus on miles earned through their financial partners until July 15.) But the real trick is this: a Flyertalk thread suggests that you don’t really need to deposit $50,000 to earn the 25,000 miles … you can deposit, withdraw, and re-deposit the same money to reach $50,000 in total deposits (eg the same $10,000 deposited 5 times).
Why Delta Award Redemption Fuel Surcharges Mean You Generally Shouldn’t Redeem for Coach Travel
Just as fuel surcharges are really marketing-speak for price increases (and see also this discussion), coupled with an end-run around corporate contracts and paying commissions (er, “overrides”), they are a price increase on award travel. Delta is saying that miles no longer pay for free travel. Delta now only offers “cash + points” awards for tickets. You can no longer hold awards when booking by phone, plus Delta charges a telephone booking fee. They charge a partner award redemption fee. They charge a close-in ticketing fee. And non-elites flying domestic coach pay for checking baggage. With all of these fixed fees, it makes less and less sense to redeem miles for coach travel. A frequent flyer can spend over $100 redeeming miles for a coach ticket that might cost only $300 – $400. But they’ll…
