Randy McNally is offering $10 off with no minimum purchase, as part of a promotion with La Quinta. This was posted on Flyertalk with a suggestion to buy a map of Cyprus to coincide with all the folks going on the Alitalia fare glitch. Alas, the Cyprus map is temporarily out of stock. But plenty of other possibilities abound. Update: Link no longer appears to be working.
USAirways/America West Merger Takes Another Step
May
22
2006
Both USAirways.com and AmericaWest.com now both direct you to the same, new website. It looks like a rocky transition, the website was put up before it was ready. Some Flyertalkers are reporting that the merger of their frequent flyer accounts is a mess, with their status being downgraded. Others see miles missing from their accounts. Some attempted ticket purchases either are or are no going through, or in some cases going through without notice to the traveler (so they’ve bought tickets but need to call the airline to find out, and even the airline representatives take awhile to figure out that yes, indeed, a ticket has been purchased). Developing…
Changes to Diners Club Just Keep On Comin’…
Diners Club is ending the current Restaurant Savings Programs. They used to have their own program, the past few years it’s been outsourced to iDine aka Rewards Network. In short, the Diners Club card has come with iDine Prime which offered 20% cash rebates on participating restaurans (but for the past year just 10%, and some restaurants only 5%).The cashback iDine program otherwise comes with a fee, Diners Club covers that, although it also means that you can’t get iDine miles for dining purchases made with the card. Of course, if you use iDine linked to a mileage program 10 or more times in a year you earn 10 miles per dollar — which isn’t as good as a 20% rebate, but is better than a 10% rebate. And that’s free. So it may be…
Why Rental Car Insurance Isn’t a Good Deal
Tim Harford explains in Slate why you shouldn’t opt to pay for rental car insurance. And that’s without even seeming to realize that most credit card products bundle rental car insurance at no marginal cost. My Diners Club card offers primary insurance. Almost any premium Visa, Mastercard, or American Express will at least cover the costs your insurance company does not, such as the $900 deductible Harford references in the article. Several cards whose coverage is generally secondary provide primary coverage when the driver is not otherwise insured. Check the fine print or call your credit card company to find out. People aren’t just paying too much for something. They’re paying too much to buy something they already have. (Hat tip to Marginal Revolution.)
25,000 American Mile Signup Bonus for New Mastercard
May
18
2006
Citibank is offering 25,000 American Airlines miles for purchases of $250 or more on a new American Mastercard. It’s today’s (day 18) American AAdvantage 25th Anniversary offer, though I owe the heads up to the indispensable free MilesLink newsletter. I still like the 20,000 mile offer better because it comes with fee waived the first year, and a simple $1 gas purchase will trigger the bonus. The 25,000 mile offer’s $85 fee comes immediately, so you’re paying 1.7 cents a mile for the incremental 5000 miles. Update: the offer mentioned in MilesLink and today’s AAdvantage25 offer are different. The former is 25,000 miles for $250 in spend and an $85 annual fee. The latter is 25,000 miles for $250 in spend and fee waived the first year. In theory you have to apply today to…
Has this blog changed focus?
A reader wrote to me today, asking whether I’ve changed my focus on this blog. He explained his view as this: that I used to write advice for travelers, and lately I’ve been writing more about my own travel. The thought hadn’t occurred to me, but it’s probably a valid concern. I didn’t used to write about my own travels at all — or at least extremely rarely! I just assumed that no one would be interested in the view I had from XYZ suite. But I’ve been busy with work and haven’t paid as much attention to systematic treatment of issues as I used to. At the same time, some of my travel stories have prompted specific questions or requests for advice, and I’ve answered these emails when I could. It probably would have…
The $20 Trick
I have an upcoming stay booked at the Bellagio. It’s a real cheapie rate over a long weekend, but it was booked through American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts so in theory I’m entitled to an upgrade of some kind at checkin subject to availability. I’m used to having a little more juice, but the places I have status don’t give me many options on the Strip. So I’ll be walking into the Bellagio, I’m not a high roller, and I’ve booked the lowest category room. I can try my schmooze at checkin or I can try the $20 trick (though at the Bellagio perhaps it’s the $50 trick — or more). The morals of it are questionable. Most of us wouldn’t agree if a grocery store clerk offered not to charge us for groceries…
Intercontinental Mark Hopkins, San Francisco
I spent this past weekend at the Mark Hopkins in San Francisco in a Terrace Suite. Concierge.com offers, Splurge on a Terrace Suite to enjoy the ultimate perch above the city and feel like a railroad tycoon. The room sells online for $1500 a night, but I received it as a Royal Ambassador upgrade. The hotel played host to a gathering of Flyertalk moderators, so I figured I might as well stay there. I have a tinge of jealousy over the Flyertalkers upgraded to Astor Suites at the St. Regis San Francisco, but my upgrade was secured at booking and not having to play the upgrade lottery was reason enough to choose this hotel. I queried the hotel about what room I’d receive if I booked their lowest category offering. Their usual policy is that…
The End of Award Charts?
At the moderator gathering in San Francisco I sat with Randy Petersen at dinner Saturday night. He raised some real alarm bells for me. Up until now I haven’t made mention of the new United Choices program. United has introduced new award redemption options for Mileage Plus Visa cardholders. It’s a complex Rube Goldberg scheme where you can only redeem miles earned from the credit card for specific awards on offer through the program. It will probably, eventually, be rolled out more broadly. United already reduced the value of its regular award chart. Now they’ve introduced new awards that have a rough value of 1 cent a mile or less, though of course not subject to capacity controls. I hadn’t mentioned the program because, to me, it wasn’t worth mention. I have a hard time…
What Makes Me Feel Good
This past weekend I was in San Francisco for a meeting of Flyertalk.com moderators. The event was held at the Mark Hopkins in San Francisco, and I had a nice stay there. I’ll post photos of my Terrace Suite and a more complete review a bit later. But just as interesting as the conversations and meetings — which were excellent — was my multi-tasking. Sure, I issued a couple of warnings to new Flyertalk members looking to sell their miles and I had to delete a couple of posts (all while everyone else was being more productive than I). But the real joy came from a reader of this blog who emailed a question about award travel. He was taking his mother on a trip to Bangkok and wanted to use United miles for the…
