Hotel Chatter ran some advice today on scoring a hotel upgrade, and the suggestions are substantially similar to the advice that I offered in November while guest blogging at Marginal Revolution. Read theirs and re-read mine.
The Westin Arlington Gateway is Now Open
The Westin Arlington Gateway had its official opening and ribbon-cutting today. I went over for the event and toured the property. I’d been over a few months ago while it was still under construction and I had to wear a hard hat. (We started out at the hotel’s temporary offices in a building behind the Holiday Inn down the street, saw a mock up of a guest room, and then headed over to the property.. After being taken out for a nice lunch, that is). The new building is a site to behold inside! That new hotel feel is just great, and the design is pretty sweet. It’s very light and airy, modern in look and feel. It reminds me of the Westin Melbourne, at least for the lighting. The top two floors aren’t done…
Free iTunes with Avis Car Rentals
Register to receive free iTune downloads for renting cars with Avis through June 30. You’ll receive an “email containing your music download code(s) for the iTunes Music Store® just days after you complete your rental.” Rent 1 to 4 days for 5 songs, and 10 songs for renting 5 days or more.
10% Off Midwest Airlines Flights
Courtesy of Hertz, Midwest Airlines is offering 10% off on flights costing $200 or more using promo code HGMIDWEST. The discount is valid on tickets purchased by May 15, 2006 for travel through June 15, 2006, with travel to Florida and Phoenix blacked out April 13-15, 2006 and travel from Florida and Phoenix blacked out April 21-23, 2006. (What’s going on then?) This is a nice replacement for the now-expired Diners Club 10% off. Hat tip to Samir.
United to partner with TACA
United made a move towards shoring up its significant weakness in Latin America via an announced codeshare with TACA. Necessary approvals are expected in the second quarter of the year. Not a replacement for Mexicana dropping out of the Star Alliance, but sorely needed.
3000 bonus Starwood points with first stay after registering for Starwood Preferred Business
Register for Starwood Preferred Business with promotion code PBAN and you’ll receive 3000 bonus Starwood points with your first stay by April 30. Plus your company earns a point for every (“eligible”) dollar spent with Starwood hotels on top of regular Starwood points earned by an individual. And since in this free agent nation we’re really just consultants anyway, we’ve all got personal companies…
1000 Bonus AsiaMiles Per Night at Hyatt
Normally you have to choose between hotel points and miles when staying at a Hyatt. And normally I suggest that the hotel points have more value, except on inexpensive single-night stays where fixed-mileage earning can be more lucrative. Hyatt has a new promo through May 31 where you can earn 1000 bonus Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles per night on top of the usual 500 miles per stay. Registration is required. AsiaMiles are a great currency to collect outside of your normal frequent flyer program. Their distance-based partner awards have some real sweetspots, e.g. 60,000 AsiaMiles gets a business class ticket on British Airways from the East Coast of the U.S. to most points in Europe.
Free iTunes for Financial Literacy
Feb
26
2006
There are about a dozen free iTunes to be had by watching a series of interactive financial tutorials from Penn State Federal. Some are longer than others and they’re quite rudimentary but if you want to click through learning about debit cards and how to buy a used car you can get some free music.
I finally broke down and bought a wireless router for travel
Finally purchased a small wireless router for travel. It wasn’t expensive, less than $50 and there was a rebate to boot. I can’t explain why I didn’t have one before now. I’m sick and tired of wired high-speed internet in hotel rooms. I understand that it was expensive to install, but adding wireless shouldn’t be a particularly large capital investment. Inexplicably, some brand new construction even goes wired, which I have a hard time understasnding. This may sound like the smallest of concerns, and I can hear all of the worlds smallest violins playing “My Heart Bleeds for You” amongst my readers when I say this, but I can’t even express the frustration of finding myself in a corner suite at the Westin Diplomat, looking out of the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway, and…
Tyler Cowen Does Paris
Tyler Cowen offers some good advice about Paris. He says that Pierre Gagnaire is better than Taillevent, which I have a hard time accepting for purely emotional and irrational historical reasons (the same logic by which I retain an attachment to the Fairmont in San Francisco when there are several objectively better properties in the city). I keep a Taillevant vintage chart pinned to the cork board on my office wall. I find the best of Paris to be extremely overpriced yet strangely an outstanding value. It’s home to the best city hotel in the world. (I can’t afford it, but it’s worth every penny. Alas, for such luxury I must confine myself to the better properties in Hong Kong or ever Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.) Perhaps the best advice: 7. Watch The Triplets of…
