100 Free Northwest Miles and a 2000 Mile Online Booking Bonus

by Gary Leff

nwa-planes
Aug 07 2006

Worldperks University has added a new, third course — read a couple quick screens, take a three question ‘quiz’, and get 100 bonus miles. The offer says miles post in 3-4 weeks, but they actually post instantly. When you complete the quiz you also become eligible for Book and fly one roundtrip flight on an NWA- or KLM-operated flight within the next 90 days and earn an additional 2,000 Bonus Miles. Back in March Northwest introduced the first two easy quizzes, I’m glad to be able to ‘enroll’ in another one at the start of a new semester… (Hat tip to Slippahs.)

Continue Reading »

Finally Earn Miles for Air Tahiti Nui Flights

by Gary Leff

Air Tahiti Nui has long been a partner of American Airlines, has recently added Northwest Airlines, and was supposed to add Delta — for redemption only. You can spend lots of points to get to Tahiti but if you’re flying Air Tahiti Nui on a paid ticket you’re not going to earn miles — unless you pay to join Air Tahiti Nui’s own program (doesn’t make sense for most) or book the flights as Qantas codeshares. That’s now changed. As of August 1, you now can earn American miles when flying Air Tahiti Nui. These are not “elite qualifying miles” so they won’t help you keep your Gold, Platinum, or Executive Platinum status. But they’re redeemable miles.. the kind that will help you earn towards your next award flight to Tahiti! Most coach fares (Y,…

Continue Reading »

USAirways Club Passes on Sale

by Gary Leff

usairways
Aug 07 2006

Via the Upgrade Travel Blog, USAirways is selling day passes to its lounges for $25 through August 31 — rather than their usual $40 — by mentioning promo code ES25. Details here. Most US carriers sell day passes for $50, though $25 is the usual price for access to the Alaska Airlines Boardroom without a membership. (Boardroom members can buy day passes as gifts for only $15, and a year and a half back Alaska was selling these around Christmastime for only $12.50.)

Continue Reading »

Which Starwood for an Award in San Francisco?

by Gary Leff

A reader at HotelChatter.com wants to know which Starwood hotel to use for an anniversary stay. The choices are: Westin St. Francis W San Francisco Palace Hotel Le Meridien Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf The St. Regis – not on the list above – is absolutely outstanding. Of course it’s category 6 property so 20k – 24k points per night! The choice depends on how many points this person has to burn in their account…. The other key question is whether they have any status with Starwood. The Westin St. Francis has some absolutely teeny rooms at the entry level, so I don’t think I’d stay there unless I was a Platinum and thus reasonably assured of an upgrade. (The St. Regis does a good job upgrading Platinums to suites, by the way.) The Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf…

Continue Reading »

$25 room nights at the La Quinta Resort & Club

by Gary Leff

According to this thread on Flyertalk and this thread and others at Biddingfortravel.com, La Quinta Resort & Club is coming up on Priceline for $40 when bidding for a resort in the “Rancho Mirage-Indian Wells-Palm Desert” zone… and $25 when bidding for a three-star hotel in this same zone. Priceline has been known to set minimums for successful bids at a particular quality level. It looks like there’s a rate of as low as $25, but when bidding for a resort Priceline rejects bids under $40. There aren’t any three star properties willing to accept anything even close to $25, so Priceline ‘upgrades’ you to a resort when bidding on a three star property. My hunch is that La Quinta loaded a Priceline rate of $250, err they meant to load a $250 rate, and…

Continue Reading »

$25 room nights at the La Quinta Resort & Club

by Gary Leff

According to this thread on Flyertalk and this thread and others at Biddingfortravel.com, La Quinta Resort & Club is coming up on Priceline for $40 when bidding for a resort in the “Rancho Mirage-Indian Wells-Palm Desert” zone… and $25 when bidding for a three-star hotel in this same zone. Priceline has been known to set minimums for successful bids at a particular quality level. It looks like there’s a rate of as low as $25, but when bidding for a resort Priceline rejects bids under $40. There aren’t any three star properties willing to accept anything even close to $25, so Priceline ‘upgrades’ you to a resort when bidding on a three star property. My hunch is that La Quinta loaded a Priceline rate of $250, err they meant to load a $250 rate, and…

Continue Reading »

$25 room nights at the La Quinta Resort & Club

by Gary Leff

According to this thread on Flyertalk and this thread and others at Biddingfortravel.com, La Quinta Resort & Club is coming up on Priceline for $40 when bidding for a resort in the “Rancho Mirage-Indian Wells-Palm Desert” zone… and $25 when bidding for a three-star hotel in this same zone. Priceline has been known to set minimums for successful bids at a particular quality level. It looks like there’s a rate of as low as $25, but when bidding for a resort Priceline rejects bids under $40. There aren’t any three star properties willing to accept anything even close to $25, so Priceline ‘upgrades’ you to a resort when bidding on a three star property. My hunch is that La Quinta loaded a Priceline rate of $250, err they meant to load a $250 rate, and…

Continue Reading »

Scoring an Upgrade at the Bellagio: a tip at checkin and a two-bedroom, five bath suite

by Gary Leff

I’m sitting at the Bellagio in Vegas, and while it’s certainly an impressive physical plant it isn’t really a ‘nice’ hotel. Every request takes probably 45 minutes or more to fulfill. (I wanted more towels, so I was sure to pull out my phone while I was down at the pool to call the hotel so that there would be towels in the room when I went up later… there weren’t, but fortunately housekeeping turned up within 20 minutes of my returning to the room.) Turndown service is inconsistent. Housekeeping is inconsistent. The lobby is a madhouse. Valet parking can take a couple minutes or 30. But that’s really a function of Vegas more generally. There are a few better service-oriented options. Certainly Skylofts at MGM Grand would provide better service (I haven’t stayed there…

Continue Reading »

Elite Security Lines Finally at Washington-Dulles!

by Gary Leff

I haven’t been through Dulles recently, so this email from United (which came this morning, despite forward-looking reference to July 18) was news to me:We are delighted to inform you that beginning July 18, 2006, Washington Dulles will offer two new security checkpoints exclusively for our First, Business and elite travelers, their families or travel companions. With the shorter lines and wait times, getting through security will be quicker and easier for you. Also for your convenience, one elite lane will be available on the east side of the terminal near the United® ticket counter. A second elite lane will be located on the west side of the terminal. Whichever lane you use, we ask that you please be prepared to show your Mileage Plus® card.

Continue Reading »