My free digital camera takes some outstanding pictures, I’ve been using it to take photos of all the hotel rooms I’ve stayed in over the past six months or so. A couple posts below you can see the view from my deck at Bora Bora Nui. I’m still working on the free Xbox 360 though. As long-time readers of this site know, I spent a lot of time figuring out the best ways to go about getting these offers. In general, you have to complete a marketing offer and get several friends (3 to 10, depending on the electronic item you seek) to do the same. If you wait long enough, easy offers will show up — offers that are free or free for a trial period long enough to cancel without getting charged. Customer…
Several United Mileage Offers
Oct
17
2005
I’ve been swamped the past few days, I have an inbox full of great deals, and no time to cull through them. Fortunately FreeFrequentFlyerMiles does much of the work for me. Gary Steiger points to several worthwhile offers: United’s Silver Wings Plus has a promo (promo code SWA16-2904) — join for $264 and get 25,000 bonus miles, (3) $100 travel credits, and double miles on your next 12,500 flown miles. You’ll have to cancel before the first year is up or they’ll auto-renew you for another $264. Silver Wings Plus is United’s senior citizen program. The offer may expire November 4. United is offering 4,000 miles for signing up for Netflix and paying with a United Visa (2,000 miles otherwise). United is offering up to 36,000 bonus miles for flights to the West Coast and…
St. Regis Bora Bora
Turns out that the long-awaited Ritz-Carlton on Bora Bora is going to be a St. Regis instead. Louis Wane owns this property along with the Sheraton Tahiti, Sheraton Moorea, and Bora Bora Nui Resort & Spa — all managed by Starwood. This latest property should be even more over-the-top luxurious than Bora Bora Nui, where I stayed in June. The Nui is already the most expensive points-redemption property in all of Starwood-dom. Will Starwood have to create a whole new redemption category for the St. Regis? Or will the hotel build a low-end ‘points room’ for SPG guests? Interestingly, Bora Bora Nui was originally intended to become a St. Regis. Two stories explained why this didn’t happen. One was that Louis Wane visited the St. Regis Monarch Beach and St. Regis Los Angeles and was…
Ghost in the Motel
Are two hotels in Anchorage haunted?
More Proof Of the Tremendous Economic Value of Frequent Flyer Programs
Oct
10
2005
United’s Mileage Plus is such an important economic engine that JP Morgan Chase, which issues United’s co-branded credit card, has been the largest funder of the airline’s bankruptcy. It’s BankOne unit put up hundreds of millions of dollars in debtor-in-possession financing and JP Morgan is putting up a chunk of United’s $3 billion in bankruptcy exit financing. Now a deal to extend the co-branding relationship together with a large pre-purchase of airline miles is taking the place of hundreds of millions of dollars in reserves that United would have to post to its credit card processor (which is majority-owned by JP Morgan). As part of a deal extending United’s co-branding relationship with J. P. Morgan Chase through 2012, the bank agreed to make a “substantial” advance purchase of miles from United, according to an Oct.…
Hardcore Mileage Runner
This morning I started reading the blog of an Air Canada Aeroplan member who has booked flights to earn one million miles in 60 days. He’s earned 135,000 miles after his first week.
USAirways-America West Program Merger Moves Forward
The America West-USAirways frequent flyer program merger is making progress. You can now earn and burn each airline’s miles on the other carrier. As summarized by the MilesLink newsletter:The programs are merging into a single “Dividend Miles” program, bringing some changes. For starters, a new four-tiered elite program will be implemented in both programs. The entry-level elite threshold will be set at 25,000 miles. Benefits include a 25-percent earning bonus, unlimited upgrades on full fares confirmable anytime, and unlimited upgrades on discounted fares confirmable up to two days in advance. Higher tier thresholds have been set at 50,000, 75,000 and 100,000 miles. America West Platinum Elite members will be elevated to Chairman’s Elite status by Feb. 28, 2006. Lower-level awards (FlightFund’s 15,000-mile short-hop and Dividend Miles 20,000-mile coach saver) are history. All awards will begin…
30% Bonus for Transferring Membership Rewards to Delta
Oct
06
2005
Following up on last month’s 35% bonus, American Express is offering a 30% bonus for transfers of Membership Rewards points into Delta miles through November 30. Registration is required.
Megabonus for Expensive tickets to Europe
Roughly speaking, American has matched the British Airways offer of earning 50,000 miles on a business class ticket to Europe. United — and possibly other carriers — can’t be far behind, especially as this is more or less a redux of an offer from last year.
Dealing Directly with a Hotel for the Best Rates
There’s a decent article on getting the best prices for hotels up over at everything2.com. Don’t believe every claim 100%, but many of the general broad brushes are correct. Best Rate Guarantees notwithstanding, you often won’t get the best price possible for a room by booking on the internet or calling a chain’s 800 number. A hotel’s in-house reservations or revenue manager can certainly often provide a better deal. You usually won’t do better that way than on Priceline, contrary to what the article suggests, and the techniques involved are tedious and time-consuming… but there’s little downside, especially in just realizing that while some chains offer discounts to members of their loyalty programs, that’s not where to start when dealing directly with a hotel that sees the program as a tax rather than a benefit.…
