Delta is offering 1000 miles for new frequent flyer account signups and 5000 miles for booking a Delta flight with an American Express business card. Offer appears valid through April 15th. Update: Turns out to have been targeted – sorry!
Cold Stone Creamery is offering buy one get one free with coupon through the end of February.
For seven days the W Hotels Store is having a Warehouse Sale. Lots of junk, a few decent items, advertised as “up to 80% off.”
Northwest has finally improved the offerings of its elite program. It doesn’t bring them up to par with American and United, which both offer a substantial international upgrade benefit to their top tier flyers, but it’s a move in the right direction. The Flyertalk discussion is here. After flying 60, 90, 120 and 160,000 miles Northwest is offering elites the choice of new benefits (much as United has been doing the past couple of years). Choices include bonus miles, the ability to give away lower tiered elite status, lounge memberships, and most importantly — starting at 120,000 miles flown — international upgrade certificates. Now, Northwest only offers 2 at 120,000 miles and 2 more at 160,000 miles flown (compared to 6 for United and 8 for American at 100,000 miles) but Northwest’s certificates appear to…
I’m terribly glad that the Le Meridien Khao Lak Resort is honoring its mistake rate which published prices in Ugandan Schillings rather than US dollars. Some on Flyertalk speculated that it would be cheaper to get the government of Uganda to revalue its currency than to honor the deal. In the end I won’t be paying in ‘UGX’ nor will they offer up the rooms for 60 US cents (roughly the currency conversion). Instead, for US$50 a night including tax with 3rd night free (thus $33/night) the hotel is honoring the room types booking as well as complimentary breakfast. Someone who recently returned from the property sent along pictures of the private pool and backyard view from the resort’s Presidential Oceanfront Villa. Wow.
I usually think of car rentals in four categories. There’s Avis and Hertz at the high end, then the Budget/Thrify/Dollar/etc in the middle. I don’t really count the Foxes and Paylesses of the world, though they’d be a category of discount off-airport agencies. And there’s the ubiquitous Enterprise, who I’ll do anything to avoid, if only because I hate to do the mandatory “walk-around” and hear the speech about how they’ll hold me responsible for every last scratch and how I really need to buy their collision damage waiver even though I’m renting with a Diners Club card. Frankly I like the service of Avis and Hertz, a car already ready with printed contract most of the time at airport locations and they both tend to be a bit less persnickety with normal wear and…
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The brand new Westin Dawn Beach on St. Maarten opened in December to much controversy on Flyertalk, both because some folks dislike ‘spoiling’ a public beach with a new resort, and because others claimed it had opened too early — rushing things to take advantage of the high season while not nearly ready for prime time. Since I was going to be in the Carribean anyway, I decided to check it out for myself. Turns out to be on the verge of becoming a lovely resort, but it certainly wasn’t ready — by a long shot — in the middle of this month. This is going to be a very beautiful property. Emphasis on going to be. The small strip of beach in front of the hotel has great white sand. The color of the…
Taking a cue from recent airline promotions, Amtrak is offering Buy 3, Ride Free on Acela. 3 roundtrips or even 6 one-ways on the Acela Express by May 19 earns an Acela Business class or Regional Coach class roundtrip. Registration is required. And in one of the more annoying clauses I’ve seen (for folks like me looking for every angle), they’ve pretty much ruled out the possibility of doing the promo cheaply or quickly: Minimum spend of $75 per qualifying trip one-way or $150 per roundtrip. Limit of one qualifying roundtrip or two one-ways per member per day. Grr.
Back in August I posted about a first class fare glitch to St. Croix and I took the trip earlier this month. The deal was Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to St. Croix, so I drove up the night before (could easily have done it same day, but the newly converted Wyndham is a Sheraton at just 3,000 points a night and they give breakfast in the restaurant to Platinums when the club lounge is closed on weekends). Satellite parking for the week ran $35. Shuttles very frequent in both directions. This is such a great airport, it’s almost laughable… huge, new, expansive, but only a handful of flights and gates. The old terminal still stands and there’s a banner encouraging people to suggest uses for it. Flights were standard domestic service. Harrisburg-Charlotte was booked as an Airbus,…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
