I have an upcoming cruise to the Caribbean and I’m feeling a little out of my element. I’m not really quite sure what to expect. I understand that there are people that go on cruises as much as I fly and that there’s a whole subculture with cruising as well. There’s even a Flyertalk like site called “Cruise Critic.”

My only experience on a cruise boat was a three day cruise from California to Catalina and Ensenada, Mexico. I thought that this was a real cruise ship though I remember wandering around wishing there was a pool on the ship. I now realize that this experience was akin to traveling on a Somalian pirate speedboat. At the casino on the ship, I remember the roulette ball flying off the wheel a couple of times in choppy water. That made for an interesting gambling experience.

I’ll be going on Royal Caribbean cruise line. I looked into their “frequent boater” program but oddly you have to have gone on at least one cruise before they let you join.

Are there different status levels on cruise boats? If you’re a Diamond cruiser do you get cabin upgrades? Second helpings of the prime rib? Do people go on cruise runs at the end of the year to maintain / achieve status? Do people get to know the crew as well as the passengers got to know Captain Stubing on the Love Boat?

I feel totally out of my realm and am afraid that at this time next year, I’ll have had so much fun that I’ll be on my fifth cruise, hanging around the dock with a pipe, an eye patch uttering “I’ll have the fish and chips ye scurvy dogs”.

American Airlines is giving a discount when you select American Airlines, American Eagle, or American Connection for your trip.

You must purchase your ticket at AA.com before February 4, 2011 and travel before March 9, 2011. Use promotion code LSTC8EQ4VJ7K to receive 10% off.

UPDATE: Sorry, this appears to be a one time use coupon and has already been used.

How easy is this, join Best Western Rewards at this link and earn 250 free American Airlines miles. You must set your earning preference to American Airlines AAdvantage® miles by Apr. 11, 2011.

# Be sure to provide your Best Western Rewards® number at check-in and earn additional 250 AAdvantage® miles on every stay.
# Between February 6 and April 11, 2011, REGISTER for the spring promotion prior to your first stay and earn 500 AAdvantage® bonus miles on your first stay, 750 AAdvantage® bonus miles on your second stay, and 1,000 AAdvantage® bonus miles for each stay thereafter.
# Keep staying and keep earning: There is no limit on the number of bonus miles that can be earned during the Promotion Period.

Link

Perfect offer for Valentine’s Day – why not give your loved ones some flowers and pocket Skymiles for yourself?

As I wrote about here, you can earn 50% bonus when you transfer Membership Rewards points to Delta Airlines and 25,000 MQMs if you transfer at least 50,000 points. There is also a 30% transfer bonus out there for transferring Membership Rewards points and it has been confirmed that these are stackable.

Do the following:
1. Register for the 50% transfer bonus for first time transfers.
2. Register for the 30% transfer bonus.
3. Make sure the promotion shows up here
3. Sign up for Platinum American Express Card (you may need to clear cookies to see the bonus offer of 50,000 for $1k spend)
4. Add your Delta Skymiles account to your Membership Rewards profile after approval.
5. American Express will let you borrow the 50,000 Membership Rewards immediately.
6. Transfer the 50,000 to your Delta account.
7. Spend $1k on the card.

Final tally:
$450 membership fee
Free lounge access
25,000 MQMs and Silver Status for two years
$200 incidental credit (for airline fees) on your favorite airline
90,000 Skymiles

Open Small Business by American Express is offering to simply your international wire transfers.

Receive 15,000 Membership Rewards points when you activate your FX International Payments account.

Receive an additional 15,000 Membership Rewards points when you make 3 FX transaction within 90 days of account opening.

OPEN cardmembers have no transaction fees on international wire transfers for the first six months.

Your business must apply for this service which requires review and approval by American Express.

Lucky at One Mile at a Time blog reports that United is offering free Hilton Silver Status and Gold status after four stays within 90 days.

Choose United as your preferred Hilton HHonors Double Dip® earnings partner.

I’m currently a Diamond member with Hilton due to a $30,000 spend on their American Express Surpass card, but will gladly sign my wife up for the free status.

I must say that Priority Club does some very interesting promotions.

Their latest one is called “Win it in a Minute” where you have to answer five questions in less than 12 seconds each. The 50 people with the fastest times each day will win 5,000 Priority Club points. The top 100 cumulative scores each week will win 15,000 Priority Club points.

This is another brilliant marketing program by Priority Club in the same vein as “Crack the Case”. “Luckiest Loser”, and “Priority Club Challenge”.

thanks to Loyalty Traveler

I remember the first time that I hit status on any airline. I became Silver in the Scandinavian Airlines program.

This would normally be an exciting achievement – except I reached it on my trip home from my overseas assignment.

In Swedish you can say “Kan kalla mig för idiot, det har jag ingenting emot.” or “You can call me an idiot, I don’t have anything against that.”

I was totally new to the frequent flier world and therefore didn’t realize how worthless my Scandinavian Airlines miles would be living in the United States.

It was however pretty exciting to have that Elite card for the very first time and spurred me on to start trying to achieve status and pay attention to promotions and loyalty programs.

Have any of you made big frequent flyer blunders as well?

Gary at View from the Wing posts a link to a great offer for Delta Skymiles users.

Transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Delta Skymiles and get a 50% Mileage Bonus. Plus, if you transfer more than 50,000, you will also get 25,000 Delta MQMs.

This offer is only available to first time transfers and expires May 31, 2011.

I did this exact deal last month to qualify for Delta Platinum status by applying for the American Express Platinum Card. Yes, the annual fee of $450 is hefty but it did come with lounge access and when you do the transfer, you get 75,000 Skymiles plus 25,000 MQMs. It was a great deal for me.

You can even “borrow” the 50,000 Membership Rewards sign up bonus from American Express to immediately get the Delta Skymiles, MQMs, and immediate Silver status until February 2013 while you hit your spend mark.

Step by step instructions from Frugal Travel Guy:

FIRST! FIRST! FIRST!

http://dmn.delta.com/offers/getmore/

Next sign up for the promotion and make sure it shows in your DELTA account here:

https://dmn.delta.com/cgi-bin/viewpromo.pro

Then yes get the card

Then link your DELTA account to MR. MR let’s you “advance” 50k right away btw. So, send over the 50k, net out 75k + get 25k MQM on top of that. Then spend $1000 and earn the 50k bonus (to pay back the 50k you advanced!)