Qantas is running Los Angeles to Sydney for $160 plus all taxes, which omes out to about $500 – $520 all-in. It’s valid for November and December travel on their new Airbus A380 and you need to depart on Monday or Wednesday (many more Wednesday departures are actually available) and return on a Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday. Best to try flexible date search using the Qantas website or booking engine with similar functionality such as Travelocity, since it can be somewhat tricky to find availability. This is the lowest I’ve ever seen US to Australia. The flight won’t even credit full 100% mileage in American’s frequent flyer program, but if you credit the points to Qantas or LAN you’ll receive full mileage. The Flyertalk discussion is here. Update 1:20pm Eastern: The fare no longer appears…
OMG, A Greyhound Mileage Run!
Wow, this one almost makes me cring to post. A couple of years ago I wrote about Greyhound introducing a loyalty program. At the time I declared I had no interest in joining. And I still haven’t. After all, 16 Greyhound trips and you get… a free Greyhound trip. Ouch. And I cringe at the prospect of flying over 1000 miles in coach. When I come back from Asia, I even huff and puff at 5 hours in domestic first class, having gotten used to the charms of international premium cabin travel for similar stage lengths. Yet it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a Greyhound mileage run. I’m appalled. It might not be the right forum, but since GREYHOUND has some kind of loyalty program (see HERE and TERMS…
What The TSA Is Good For, In Their Own Words
The TSA brags that they just caught someone with a fake ID! Update: 6/14/08 Just a quick note… Our ticket checkers found a fraudulent ID at JFK. Just thought some of you might be interested. At New York Kennedy Airport (JFK) on Thursday, June 12, a passenger was interviewed by police after attempting to enter into a security checkpoint with a fraudulent ID. A TSA Travel Document Checker noticed a passenger trying to use a fraudulent New York driver’s license and notified the Port Authority Police Department who came and interviewed her. The Port Authority Police Department released the passenger after issuing a Summons to Appear. Travel Document Checkers are TSA officers that are specially trained to detect fraudulent IDs and boarding passes to help keep our airports safe and secure. Sounds like we’d all…
New Westin Reston Pricing All its Room Types the Same… Including $99 Suites
It seems to frequently be the case that the Westin Reston is pricing all of its internet prepaid rate room types the same. Several weekends, such as at the beginning of July, all room types show up at $99. During the week their prepaid rates go as high as $329, but again will frequently price all room types the same. Alas, the hotel doesn’t have a club lounge or I might take a Staycation out near Dulles airport in a $99 Deluxe Suite 605 Sq Ft Spacious 2 Room Suite Suited For Business With Contemporary DecorDeluxe Suite Non-smoking, Heavenly Bed And Bath, Separate Living Rm/w Sofa Bed, Separate Luxury Shower/bath, 42 Inch Plasma Tv This doesn’t work with all dates, of course, and I haven’t tested how far out these suites are bookable. But folks…
25% Off at L’Occitane
L’Occitane is running its ‘friends and family’ sale through Sunday, June 15th. Promo code FNF25 is good for 25% off. Mary2e reports this on Flyertalk and adds The downside, it doesn’t look like they have any of the freebies with purchase left. I made out like a bandit with some of them by breaking up my orders into $80 batches to qualify for free shipping and the freebie. Still, there are plenty of additional opportunities for leveraging L’Occitane purchases including free shipping, 3 American Airlines or Membership Rewards points per dollar (or 4 Citi Thank You points), or 4% cash back from Ebates or Fatwallet.
3000 Virgin Miles Per Hertz Rental
Hertz is offering 3,000 Virgin Atlantic miles per rental through September 30th. You have to use their rate code to get the offer, which may not be the best rate available, but 3000 miles is a good offer nonetheless. (I usually rent from Avis and take advantage of their standard 1000 Virgin miles per rental, most of my rentals are for just a single day or a couple days, and rack up the Virgin miles quite nicely, thank you.)
LAN.com Selling US-Europe Tickets Without Fuel Surcharge
There’s a current discussion on Flyertalk of a glitch at Lan.com that allows you to book tickets between the US and Europe without being dinged for a fuel surcharge. That’s a substantial savings; the “YQ” charge usually runs about US$250 roundtrip. This appears to work best with British Airways, or at least to and from Heathrow or on fitineraries transiting Heathrow. Heathrow seems to be the key here, and and the need for British Airways stems from the difficulty that LAN has in pricing and ticketing multi-carrier itienraries. It’s worth reading through this post by Flyertalker djohannw who has plenty of experience booking at Lan.com.
Tumi Summer Sale Coming…
Tumi’s Summer Sale will be running June 16-July 31. The specific sale offerings aren’t loaded onto the site yet (or so it seems) but they promise “Save up to 50% on some of our very best styles.” Generally the sale consists of discontinued items and colors, and the products still aren’t cheap, but Tumi produces my favorite travel accessories and these sales are often the only times that I can afford ’em! The pickings may be slim, or generous, we’ll see in a few days. But the key is to check in early because a sale item lasts until it sells out, so although the sale runs until July 31 only the barest pickings will be left as the thing goes along. Meanwhile, there’s a free shipping offer and also 5 American miles per dollar…
Free Miles for Churning Presidential Coins from the US Mint
The US Mint sells $1 coins on its website, doesn’t charge for shipping, and takes credit cards. It’s an opportunity for free miles: buy coins, deposit those coins back into your back account, use the money to pay off the credit card. Net result = the miles for the charges on your card. Here’s the Flyertalk discussion. Reports are consistent that these show up on your credit card statement as purchases rather than cash advances (fortunately!). These are ‘Presidential Dollar Coins’ and there are only (6) different ones out so far. They’re adding another 2 per year, apparently. And unfortunately you’re limited to purchasing 500 of each. So right now you can buy 6 x 500 = $3000 and thus 3000 miles. Not quite as lucrative as the days when you could buy savings bonds…
EV Reward.com Rewards All Your Online Shopping And More
You can earn a rebate or top off your mileage account at no extra cost beyond the shopping you already do online. And using EV Reward helps you search out the best offerings. And it may even be a useful mating strategy, too! Most online purchases aren’t that lucrative, since the spending amounts are small. Sure, if you buy a high-end laptop computer at a few miles per dollar you’ll wind up with several thousand miles. But the odd $30 purchase here or there will yield only a couple hundred miles at best most of the time. But it’s amazing how much I, for one, shop online and thus how easily those shopping miles add up. A little effort in clicking a link through a mileage portal goes a long way towards free travel. But…
