View from the Wing

Up to 7000 Miles for New Northwest Worldperks Members

by Gary Leff on October 22, 2006

Oct 22 2006

Through December 31, Northwest is offering new members enrolling in Worldperks up to 7000 miles: Earn 1,000 Bonus Miles: complete your first flight (one-way or roundtrip) Earn 5,000 Bonus Miles: complete a second flight (roundtrip only) Earn 1,000 Bonus Miles: subscribe to NWA E-mail for two consecutive months. Flights must be completed within six months of enrolling to earn the bonuses, and the offer is available to accounts with North American addresses only. (Hat tip to Flyertalk’s slippahs.)

1000 Free BA Miles and Paris Airport Transit

by Gary Leff on October 22, 2006

Through December 29th you can get a free ride on a scotter to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and 1000 British Airways miles.

Reasons to Avoid Northwest DC-9s

by Gary Leff on October 21, 2006

Oct 21 2006

The Upgrade Travel Blog says you should avoid Northwest DC-9s because these aging planes are increasingly responsible for delays, with a single plane causing 2564 minutes of delays so far year to date. I say you should avoid Northwest DC-9s because their first class cabins offer a tighter pitch (34 – 35 inches) than United’s economy plus on an Airbus A320 (36 inches). And the United Airbus offers channel 9 air traffic control, rather than no inflight entertainment at all. Who needs unlimited domestic upgrades when that just means first class on a Northwest DC-9?

$219+ tax each way for FULL FARE tickets Minneapolis to London-Gatwick

by Gary Leff on October 21, 2006

Oct 21 2006

This is available on Continental.com, Expedia, etc. The fare basis is Y3E and is a mileage-based fare rather than routing-based. You’re permitted 4813 miles each way without surcharges. Full fare tickets are refundable, upgradable, and earn 150% of flown miles. This has been out for at least 10 hours but still appears to be going strong. Update 11:15am Eastern: Still available. Here’s the Flyertalk discussion. Really great fare. Update 7:05pm Eastern: This fare is still available. Turns out it was filed on October 17th. Didn’t get posted on Flyertalk till the weekend and no one seems to be minding the store. Sure, it prices out around $600 with taxes — but it’s a full fare refundable ticket that’s upgradable and earns bonus miles and bonus qualifying miles. This could give someone Platinum status on a…

Kudos to Expedia’s Government Affairs Shop

by Gary Leff on October 20, 2006

Expedia’s getting its money’s worth out of its government relations folks, who have managed to have their 10th anniversary named a national holiday. [I]n order to encourage Americans to take some time off, Congressman Jon Porter (R-NV) has announced a House Resolution declaring October 23rd “National Plan Your Vacation” Day. The new holiday falls on Expedia.com’s tenth anniversary.

Outstanding Redemption Opportunity for Priority Club Points

by Gary Leff on October 20, 2006

Oct 20 2006

Since the hotel’s opening, the Intercontinental Thalasso on Bora Bora has shown no award availability. As reported on Flyertalk, they’ve finally loaded their award inventory — and apparently accidentally made all room types bookable as awards. Priority Club has a fairly anachronistic award structure. Most hotels of a given brand come at the same cost. Intercontinental hotels cost 30,000 points a night (unless they’re an all-inclusive property, in which case it’s 40,000 points). So the two Intercontinentals in Cleveland, which can sometimes be had for as little as $99, cost the same number of points on an award as the Intercontinentals in French Polynesia. The $900+ a night Overwater Diamond Bungalows are currently redeemable for 30,000 points… 100 SQM OVERWATER VILLA FACING THE MAIN ISLAND OF BORA BORAVIEW OF OTEMANU MOUNTAIN TERRACE SUN DECK GLASS…

Travelocity’s new VIP program

by Gary Leff on October 20, 2006

Travelocity issued a release officially announcing their VIP customer program. The benefits are:Special customer service line with ‘seasoned agents specifically educated in VIP benefits’ Bonus points for Travelocity bookings made with the Travelocity co-branded credit card. Discounts, especially on “GoodBuy” hotels They claim to offer a first of its kind program, though of course Orbitz and Expedia already have VIP programs (and I assume Travelocity did as well — I only know about the Expedia and Orbitz programs from first-hand experience). Those programs offer special dedicated customer service lines which I’ve found to (1) not be outsourced abroad, thus providing well-spoken English (2) to be answered quite quickly (3) to be staffed with agents empowered to solve problems more easily than standard agents. What appears to be different about the Travelocity program is that it’s…

United’s Website 2.0

by Gary Leff on October 20, 2006

United’s new website is available in beta test. There appear to be some improvements on the way, but hardly a panacea. Me, I’ll be happy if the my itineraries function will be able to display, well, my itineraries – without timing out that is.

$119 non-mistake rate at the Venetian

by Gary Leff on October 17, 2006

For those that missed out on this morning’s $20 rate at Caesar’s Palace, the Venetian has a published special of $119 per night on weeknights. Meanwhile New York New York is offering rooms from $69 which, to me, doesn’t seem like nearly as nice a deal.

Air Canada’s New Draconian Mileage Expiration Policy

by Gary Leff on October 17, 2006

There are the Southwest’s of the world with expiring credits every 24 months (used to be 12 months, but there were no capacity controls on awards — so in that case the tradeoff was well worth it). But then there are the major carriers, where the rough standard on mileage expiration is that you need account activity every 36 months, otherwise your miles don’t expire. But Air Canada is introducing new rules, as explained on Flyertalk but an official from Aeroplan:Change #1: Effective January 1, 2007, Aeroplan will begin date-stamping Aeroplan Miles. This means that Aeroplan Miles issued on or after January 1, 2007, will have a date-stamp of 7 years (84-months) from the month the mile is accumulated. Miles in an account that exceed 84-months without being redeemed will be automatically deducted from members’…

Up to 7000 Miles for New Northwest Worldperks Members

1000 Free BA Miles and Paris Airport Transit

Reasons to Avoid Northwest DC-9s

$219+ tax each way for FULL FARE tickets Minneapolis to London-Gatwick

Kudos to Expedia’s Government Affairs Shop

Outstanding Redemption Opportunity for Priority Club Points

Travelocity’s new VIP program

United’s Website 2.0

$119 non-mistake rate at the Venetian

Air Canada’s New Draconian Mileage Expiration Policy

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About Gary Leff

	Bilt Mastercard® Earn Points Paying Rent (up to 100,000 each year) plus earn 3x at restaurants; 2x on travel; as long as you make at least 5 purchases per month. No annual fee.
	Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months (See rates and fees)
	Citi® / AAdvantage Business^TM World Elite Mastercard® For a limited time, earn 75,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $5,000 in purchases within the first 5 months of account opening. AAdvantage miles are the currency I've redeemed most.[See rates and fees]