I don’t just participate in a coiuple of airline and hotel loyalty programs, I participate in dozens. That’s great for taking advantage of the best promotions on offer, and it’s great when the time comes to redeem miles because I have s omany options. But it’s cumbersome to manage — all those account numbers, all those passwords, and a lot to keep track of like how soon will points in a given account expire? Fortunately there are plenty of solutions that make this easier — aggregating account information in a single place, allowing login to an account with a single click, updating all account balances at once. And offering it all for free, for a couple dollars a year, or at most a bit over a dollar a month. There are really three sites worth…
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Continental’s Star Alliance Award Chart is Out!
Continental joins Star Alliance at the end of October, and their miles become much more valuable as a result. Continental has long had a reputation for being terrible with award redemption, which was really a two-part problem. (1) They were always stingy with flights on their own metal, when awards were available they were at inconvient times. Continental has always been much harder to redeem, at least except close-in to departure. And with small international premium cabins those prized awards were doubly difficult. (2) Being a member of the worst alliance, with the worst partners. Continental wasn’t just stingy with awards, their partners were stingy with awards too. Northwest and Delta were almost as bad as Continental historically. Moreover they were aligned internationally with Air France and KLM and Korean (while finding a single transpacific…
I Charged For An Award Booking
I’ve written in the past about how frustrating it is to offer help to people who don’t appreciate it. And for awhile I became disenchanted with doing the legwork for all of the folks contacting me that I didn’t know, whose awards I would make possible, but whom I would never hear back from with even a simple thank you. (Frankly, if I help a party of four book premium award tickets to Asia, a “hey, can I send you a nice bottle of wine?” might be an appropriate response.) I think readers of this blog will agree that I give away plenty of information for free. There’s very little that I know that is truly ‘secret’ or unique to me, though some certainly has been. I’ve just accumulated knowledge and through practice have learned…
Star Alliance Status Match for Residents of Hong Kong
Got any friends in Hong Kong whose address you can borrow? All Star Alliance programs are offering a status match to residents of Hong Kong, through December 15. Normally only United and British Midland, out of all Star Alliance programs, offer regular status match programs. In addition to requiring that the address on file of your frequent flyer account be in Hong Kong, there’s also a requirement that you show you’ve booked a flight which will be credited to that program during the period of September 1 – December 15 (this can be in a refundable booking class…). Status will be valid for at least 12 months, which is better than the usual status ‘challenge’ being offered by United. Presumably Asiana status will be valid for at least 2 years (Asiana status usually lasts two…
The Best Credit Cards, New Credit Card Offers, and Signing Up for Cards for Profit
Frugal Travel Guy‘s post for today was titled “Which Credit Cards for the US MInt Deal?” but it’s really a generalized comparison of credit cards. He likes the Starwood American Express and Citibank American Express Platinum which earns Thank You Points the best. Both are respectable choices. I recommend the Starwood American Express in my much larger discussion of how to choose the best credit card. I can’t really complain about the 5 points per dollar from the Citi Platinum Amex though I long for the days when those points were worth three cents apiece (or the days when they were worth even more…) rather than just one. Rick both recognizes and dismisses the Asiana American Express, an explanation of which I provided recently — 2 points per dollar on all spend, and a mileage-based…
View from the Wing Goes Home
Home, for me, means the Westin Diplomat. It’s not the single most modern property, the single best service, the most intimate. But as an all around hotel experience it delivers, consistently. And no other property delivers as good a value in terms of elite status recognition. Sometimes the property is very busy, but a combination of off-season and the economy means poolside chairs were much easier to come by (people do save chairs starting around 8am). Alternatively they offer pay cabanas and ‘beach cabanas’ which are covered chairs on the beach. Some folks don’t like to pay, but when there’s a shortage I do appreciate having the options. This is not a small, intimate property. But when ensconced in a suite, and visiting the club lounge frequently, it actually feels as though it is. There…
United Award Discount Details Now Up
The United Mileage Plus award sale that I mentioned this morning is now up on the United website and a few more details are available. As previously noted, the sale is for travel August 18 through November 18, is for coach travel only, and must be on United (or United Express) flights, no partner airlines. What’s new is the news that tickets issued under this promo must be issued by July 24. And the discount is a minimum of 20% off, but as much as 29% off: Origin Destination Regular Sale % mileage mileage Off North America North America 25,000 20,000 20% (excluding Hawaii) (excluding Hawaii) Hawaii 40,000 30,000 25% Central America, Caribbean 35,000 25,000 29% South America 55,000 44,000 20% Europe 55,000 44,000 20% Australia 80,000 64,000 20% …
Two New Starwood Discount Offers
Starwood is offering up to 50% off of bookings made by July 20 for stays between July 16 and October 20. Now, this is up to 50% off of rack rate, which means it will sometimes be a small savings off the rates you’ll otherwise find from Starwood’s website. But it’s worth checking rates under this promo. The rates are available in North America, South America and Asia Pacific. Some hotels place a 4 night maximum stay under the rate, and seven nights generally at resorts. They’re advance purchase, non-cancellable rates. Another interesting offer is Starwood’s $100 spa credit per night offer for hotels in the Southeast, Florida, and Carribean. Bookings must be made by July 31 for stays through September 30. Rates will likely be a bit higher than booking without this package, but…
These World’s Best Hotel Lists Drive Me Nuts…
I don’t know why I read these things, they always make me want to throw my laptop, but the 2009 Travel & Leisure World’s Best lists are up. The Hay Adams is not the best hotel in DC. The Marriott in Budapest is not better than the Four Seasons George V in Paris (neither is the Westin Milan, which was a perfectly respectable city hotel when I stayed there two years ago — but the 4th best city hotel in Europe? That’s absurd.) Perhaps I’m most offended by three “Couples” resorts — and for that matter a Sandals — on Jamaica being rated above the Aman resort property in Turks & Caicos, which doesn’t even make the list of best resorts in the Carribean. But then the Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort gets ranked as the…
Priority Club Extends Free Night Promo Through August 15
The Priority Club stay 2 earn a free night promo which I discussed here has been extended through August 15. The promo website doesn’t say that. It was leaked in Asia but nothing online. Now folks who registered for the offer previously show it in their online accounts with the new expiration date. No need to re-register. Update: Offer extension doesn’t appear to be automatic for everyone, some folks still see an end date of the promo of July 3. And re-registering for the offer doesn’t appear to be working at the moment, either, though folks seem to be successful calling in. I imagine this should all sort itself out in a few days, the key will be to determine in your online account whether you are in fact registered for the promo with an…
