The Le Meridien Khao Lak in Phuket, Thailand has an amazing rate right now, pricing rooms in Ugandan Schillings rather than US dollars. Naturally, this was found on Flyertalk. Go to this link. Change promotion code to “z3r” (for a 3 day stay, z5r may work on a 5 night stay, and of course you can line multiple stays up in a row) Change the special rate plan entry to a blank Pick some dates (must be at lease 3 consecutive days with ‘z3r’, most work at least through early September) Click continue. If you get an error, then see #6. On the left side, put in your dates again, scroll down and put “z3r” in the promo field, click search. Sort the available rates from high to low, you should get some rates in…
Problem with Miles for Cheese
It looks like the company offering miles for cheese may be backing off on its commitment of 500 American Airlines miles per box. The current scuttlebutt on Flyertalk is that the compan didn’t anticipate the response, apparently assumed most codes wouldn’t be redeemed, and didn’t imagine folks buying up large quantities of boxes just for the points (which likely cost the company more than the sale price of the product, let alone their profit margin).Developing… but in the meantime, I wouldn’t go buying up more cheese.
Triple points at Sheratons in Asia, Australia, and South Pacific
Starwood is offering triple points for stays at Sheraton hotels in Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific from December 1 through February 28, 2007. Registration required.Note that this is a Sheraton-specific promo and not Starwood-wide, so stays at other Starwood Preferred Guest brands like Westin and Luxury Collection don’t offer the bonus points.
Halfway to an Award Ticket, Just for Signing Up
Southwest is offering 8 Rapid Rewards credits just for signing up as part of their promoting Washington-Dulles service. Join Rapid Rewards and get 8 free credits. All you have to do is enroll by January 31, 2007. That puts you halfway to a free Award (16 credits). Plus, you’ll receive double credit each time you book on southwest.com and fly by January 31, 2007. That means you can fly 2 roundtrips into or out of Dulles and get 1 roundtrip free (it usually takes 8 roundtrips to get 1 free!) to anywhere we fly.
Air India to Join Star Alliance?
The Times of India is reporting that Air India will join the Star Alliance and that an announcement will be forthcoming by the end of December.
New Starwod Category 7 Devaluation Confirmed
Last week I passed along that Starwood would be announcing a devaluation of its points by introducing a new higher category for some hotels requiring additional points. Yesterday Starwood Lurker posted on Flyertalk that just such a change is coming. (I assume the announcement was pushed forward because I broke the news here on this blog and on Flyertalk.) Starwood Preferred Guest will be adding a Category 7 to it’s Free Night Award redemption ladder in February 2007. This new category will feature a limited number of hotels which are often unique and have rooms which may not be standard in terms of size, configuration and/or amenities. Free nights at Category 7 hotels will cost 30,000 Starpoints per night in low season and 35,000 Starpoints per night in high season. Please note that where there…
Air Zimbabwe Cancels its Profitable Route
Online Travel Review points to Air Zimbabwe suspending its only profitable route, Harare to London, over fears that its aircraft would be seized for nonpayment of debts.70% unemployment and 1200% inflation, the country can’t mine its significant resources because it lacks the hard currency to secure replacement parts for its machinery. Lay this at the feet of dictator Robert Mugabe, whose wife has been known to take the national airline’s planes on shopping trips forcing the carrier to cancel passenger flights.
Bogus Reviews on Tripadvisor
The Upgrade Travel blog points to a story in the Sunday Times of London on bogus reviews on internet websites like TripAdvisor. Proprietors describing hotels as “outstanding”, “excellent” and “charming” without declaring their interest in the business. Marketing executives to top British hotels recommending perks be offered to customers in return for a promise of a good review. Hotel star ratings on well-known websites that could be easily “ramped” with just a few e-mails from bogus customers. To me it matters little whether reviews are bogus or just written by the median traveler with preferences nothing like my own. I don’t go off of internet rankings of properties. That’s not why I find sites like TripAdvisor useful. I look for common themes in written reviews, specifically for repeated factual details about a property. For instance,…
More on Miles for Cheese
There are reports of the cheese wheels (that I previously wrote about) — with a shiny Boeing 777 on the box, so you know it’s the right one — for as low as $2.99. While details on the company website are limited, one Flyertalker reports confirming there’s no limit to the number of 500 mile codes from the boxes that you can enter for miles. That’s $60 per 10,000 American miles, and depending on your tax situation you might be able to reduce your cost basis further by donating the cheese to a charity. Miles for you, and a cheese-a-licious Thanksgiving for someone in need! This is still twice the price of pudding, of course, but a great deal on miles (and since I’m just a wee bit shy of my next lifetime status mark…
Rumor: Starwood Category 7 Redemptions Coming
I haven’t been able to get this confirmed officially, but I’ve heard from multiple sources that the devaluation is coming after all, and in the form of a new category 7. I apologize that I cannot attribute this, and I hope that the places I heard this are wrong. But my gut says they aren’t. I imagine we’ll know more as the year comes to a close or the new year begins, but that’s just an assumption as to timing. It’s unclear what this would mean initially. Perhaps the really expensive properties like Bora Bora Nui and W Maldives — that already charge more than category 6 prices for redemption — would go into this category. Perhaps it’s just a way to make headroom for rising hotel rates and pressure for greater internal reimbursment on…
