Thanks to a co-branded offer with Harley Davidson, Best Western is offering new members a 1000 bonus points with your first stay by June 28. Hat tip to boazs of MileMaven.
Orbitz Hotel Coupons
TripAdvisor is offering a $50 off Orbitz coupon good on a 3+ night hotel stay or vacation package. In addition, Orbitz promo code PRIDE100 offers $100 off on a 5 or more night hotel stay or $40 off on a 3-4 night stay.These presumably work only on ‘OrbitzSaver’ hotel rates, though I haven’t ploughed through the relevant terms and conditions to verify. The Pride offer is part of their Gay and Lesbian travel deals, but anyone can use the savings (the booking engine lacks appropriate gaydar).
Fly JetBlue Get $50 Off JetBlue
JetBlue is offering $50 off travel between September 5, 2007 and October 31, 2007 after you book a roundtrip by June 1 for travel commencing by June 15. Registration required. Thanks to reader Sloan for the pointer. Pair this with $10 off each way when buying your qualifying roundtrip. (Here’s the link via American Express.)Purchases need to be made with an American Express card by May 31 for travel by June 13, and Friday and Sunday travel are excluded.While the promo rules say the offer is good on transcontinental flights, that doesn’t appear to be true — the special fare comes up from Dulles to Orlando, for instance, and becomes as low as $39+tax one way.
Would You Want to Land Here?
Would you trust air traffic, or the ground controllers for that matter?
Giving Bad Advice on TV
NBC News in Connecticut ran a story on redeeming frequent flyer miles that was notable for how much it got wrong in only 166 words. Airline industry expert Darryl Jenkins said tough economic times are making airlines stingy with free seats. I much like Darryl, but this may be the closest to plausible thing he’s quoted as saying in the article. (It’s plausible that every quote was taken out of context and mangled…) Airlines aren’t being stingy because of ‘tough economic times’. If anything, the reverse is true. Full planes, usually not a sign of tough times, are making the seats harder to come by. Award redemption at the ‘saver’ level (i.e. capacity controlled awards, after all many airlines allow you to redeem double – or more – the miles to get any seat on…
Free Hilton Gold Still Available?
May
12
2007
In April 2005 I posted that the offer to Citibank Chairmans Card holders of complimentary Hilton Gold status was accessible by anyone. Some folks kept the status after signing up. Others had Hilton take it away. Some had Hilton say they were taking it away, but the status remained… The Fatwallet discussion of this deal suggests that it still works (by phone only, no longer online). Naturally, your mileage may vary.
4000 Mile Delta Signup Bonus
May
09
2007
Through June 30, Delta is offering 4,000 Skymiles just for enrolling and entering your Starwood Preferred Guest number. Offer may be targeted, so your mileage may vary…
Flying Air Koryo
Paul Karl Lukacs is blogging about his trip to North Korea. I find his Air Koryo flight from Beijing especially interesting, having heard plenty of stories before but never having flown the airline myself. The plane to Pyongyang was an Ilyushin 62-M, built by the Soviet Union in 1979 and kitted like a set from The Spy Who Loved Me. No cool corporate off-white here. The surprisingly comfortable economy seats were covered in puke green cloth upholstery with an indistinct pink pattern. The cabin’s interior shell was cast in a shade of beige which belonged in a Southern California ranch house from the era of earth tones. The plastic window shades were not opaque but a dark translucent brown. Read the whole thing…
Beer Cozies from Girlfriend Getaways
May
08
2007
Budget Travel is giving away beer cozies for their new sister magazine Girlfriend Getaways. There aren’t a whole lot of ’em according to this post, but something about the title of the mag just sounds appealing, yknow? (I think the magazine is actually about women getting away together, so not applicable to all readers perhaps, but on the other hand . . .)
$1480 business class fare, LA/San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand
United has blown it with a decimal point — San Francisco or Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand was supposed to be $10,620+tax for full fare business but got published (fare basis CNZ) as $1062+tax or about $1480 all-in. The fare works to Christchurch, New Zealand as well. This is available at Orbitz, Expedia, United.com, and some other places. You have to fly LA or San Francisco to Sydney on United and then any carrier (Air New Zealand, Qantas, Emirates, Thai, LAN) on to Auckland (for the Auckland fare). It doesn’t appear to allow stopovers in Sydney — just connections. While the fare says ‘unlimited stopovers’ it is apparently a mileage-based fare, so stopovers cause a “HIP check” aka a check for the highest fare to any stopover and causes the price to jump accordingly…
