As part of it’s multi-billion dollar makeover, Sheraton will offer the opportunity to stay for free at participating hotels. You must register in advance at sheraton.com/freenight. You’ll be able to book rooms between October 6th and 9th, and there are limits to the number of rooms available.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

This New York Times article seems to indicate so.  Airlines have raised billions in the last couple of weeks, and now someone is willing to spend some coin on Clear.  Could it be a sign that credit markets are starting to thaw?

United Mileage Plus has added a new option for using your miles.  Now you can redeem your Mileage Plus miles for hotel stays and rental cars.  Get more details at united.com/hotelandcarawards.

A very precursory review of some sample bookings of hotel rooms appeared to offer several options all the way up to 5-star properties, but they weren’t cheap.  One high-end L.A. hotel priced out at just over 45,000 miles, but another large chain hotel near LAX was pricing at approximately 16,000 miles.  A one-day car rental for pickup at LAX was 10,000 miles.  I’ll let you be the judge of whether or not those represent the best uses of your miles.

In any event, if you have more miles than you can spend, you now have a new option to use them.  And I’ll never complain about that.

British Airways is about to begin charging for the privilege of an advance seat assignment more than 24 hours in advance.  To be clear (and fair), BA hasn’t been offering advance seat assignments for most passengers.  The good news, now you can get an advance seat assignment.  The bad news, you’re gonna pay for it….even if you paid thousands for a business class ticket.   $90 dollars per segment, even in business class, unless you buy the walk-up business fare.  Connecting in London to get to the continent?  Yep, you’ll pay even more.  They have plans to charge $30 dollars for advance seat assignments in economy and $75 dollars for exit row seating.

I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, I do not oppose airlines charging for items that can legitimately be considered as a “plus up” to the core product.  And as I said, BA has previously not offered advance seat assignments to most passengers.  But something about this one, especially the business class fee, where one can still pay thousands even if flying on a discount fare, just doesn’t pass the smell test.

The full skinny isn’t out on this new program yet, but its sure to be fodder for comedians, airline-haters, journalists, and bloggers.  And as far as I’m concerned, a gigantic incentive to fly someone else, especially if you are flying beyond London.  There are any number of alternatives out there, and I’d surely pick one of those over paying this fee unless I was really in love with the thought of flying BA.

Hat tip to Joe Brancatelli for scooping this info in his Friday newsletter.

Edited to Add:  There’s a really good summary of these new fees over at The Global Traveler.

Edited to Add x 2:  Here’s a link to BA’s website detailing who pays and who doesn’t.

The October 2009 edition of Conde’ Nast Traveler has a pretty good article on airport lounges.  If you haven’t taken a look at October’s magazine yet, give the link a try.  The article contains some useful information on various ways to secure lounge access, including hidden secrets Priority Pass and Lounge Pass (which I admittedly had not heard of).  In addition to “how to get in” steps, the writers also visited a few lounges and provided a summary of their experiences.

One item of note, on page 68 of the magazine, the writers state that the American Express Platinum Card includes Priority Pass as a benefit.  I believe the Platinum Business card does, but the personal card which I carry does not include Priority Pass.  I understand (but have not verified) that some of the overseas personal Platinum cards may offer Priority Pass as a benefit as well, but the US card does not.  (Edited to Add:  Thanks to Gary for pointing out in reader comments that the Citibank issued Amex Platinum offers Priority Pass access as does the Hilton Surpass Amex.)

I’ve written before about the benefits of the American Express Platinum Card, and lounge access is just one.  Depending on the airlines you fly, the lounge access benefits of that card can exceed the value of the $450 dollar annual fee making this card a compelling addition to many travelers’ wallets.

As a side note, I’ve added an “Airport Lounges” category to the blog, and will include details of my visits to various airport lounges from time to time.  I hope you find the information useful.

I’m pleased to report that I have secured our return seats from Rome next July.  I’ve managed to book roundtrip business class transportation on American Airlines using AAdvantage miles smack in the middle of summer!  I got the flights I wanted, but our return is 2 days later than I’d planned.  I’ll keep an eye on the flights throughout the year and perhaps book a different flight if one becomes available.  But if not, oh darn, 2 extra days in Italy!

American’s fabulous new one-way awards made this easy.  I grabbed our outbound seats as soon as the booking window opened, and then booked our return about 3 weeks later.  To all those pundits who say you can’t use your miles anymore, I say try harder, pick your dates wisely as well as the programs you intend to accumulate miles with.  This is just one data point, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence out there if you look for it that American’s AAdvantage has among the best award seat availability in the industry.

Cash is King

Airlines have announced liquidity transactions by the 5-gallon bucket full this week.  I suppose American’s news that it finally moved forward with an advance mileage sale to Citi was the biggest deal, but that was actually last week.  American announced a share offering this week.  Delta and US Airways were also in on the action with either debt or stock sales to raise cash.  Yes, the squirrels are salting away nuts for the winter.  Random musing nested thought:  is anyone else out there amazed at the ability of this industry to generate cash?

Cash is King Even if it Isn’t Nice

American canceled its non-union retiree medical coverage effective at year’s end.  I don’t know what that benefit cost the company, but it must have been significant.  Like I said, cash is king…even if it isn’t nice.  I wonder how many companies in any industry still offer this benefit?

Citi AAdvantage Deals in the Making?

If Citi is prepaying for $1 billion + in advance AAdvantage miles and obviously solidifying its relationship with American, do you think it’s remotely possible that they might offer a card product that gives elite qualifying miles for a certain amount of spend?  I don’t see it happening, but one can dream….and take advantage of the double eqm offer that’s already out there for actually getting on a plane and flying (gasp).  Yes, I am.

Come to think of it, I previously posted about an offer that caught my eye.  Check out www.fly9.citicards.com.  I haven’t seen Citi push an AAdvantage Visa card for personal use in a long time.  But there’s an ad in this month’s American Way doing just that.  The signup bonuses are getting more generous too….30,000 miles.

Southwest Pilot Contract

Southwest’s pilots are voting on their recently renegotiated tentative agreement.  This one is going to pass.  If not, then I really don’t want to know what the temperature has dropped to in that very hot nameless place that starts with “H.”

I know one flight doesn’t mark a trend, especially since I was upgraded to first class.  But I thought this was worth sharing.  Yesterday, I took my first flight on one of the newly delivered 737′s that American has been adding to its fleet in Chicago.  The first class seat is a major improvement over American’s prior offering.  The seat is thinner, but far more comfortable in my opinion.  And the amazing thing is that when the person in front of you reclines, they don’t lie down in your lap.  I’m sorry I didn’t take pictures of the seat, but here’s link to American’s own description of their newest 737′s.  Keep your eye out for one of these new jets.  They’ve got that new plane smell.  I think American got this one right.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Citi promote an AAdvantage Visa card other than its business card product.  An ad in American Way caught my eye on Sunday.  It promotes the Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage Visa signature card as well as the business card.  Apply here. (link updated 1/15/10)  No annual fee the first year, and 30,000 bonus miles after you spend $750 dollars in the first 4 months of cardmembership.

Business has brought me to Wichita, Kansas this week.  Wichita is home to a number of aviation-related industries, including general aviation stalwarts Cessna and Bombardier Learjet.  My lodging choice for this week is the Residence Inn Wichita East at Plazzio.  This is my first Marriott stay in well over a year, and I have not been disappointed.  I never purposely avoided Marriott Rewards properties in the first place, and in fact, I like Marriott.  It’s just that my travel needs have seemed to direct me toward Hilton HHonors properties more so over the past two years.  So coming back to Marriott has been like visiting with an old friend again.

Residence Inn is pretty basic, so I will not offer a full review of the hotel.  But trust that the Residence Inn Wichita East is a brand new property, with comfortable rooms, friendly staff, and a location that is convenient to many businesses such as Hawker Beechjet.  I plan on staying here again should business bring me back to Wichita.

Wichita has exceeded my expectations for restaurant choices and things to do after work.  The city has obviously invested in bringing business and people downtown.  I’m particularly fond of Old Town Wichita, an area of converted warehouses now home to many restaurants, bars and loft apartments.  Among several choices, I found Uptown Bistro to be a real gem, and highly recommended by the locals I spoke with.  Good food, good wine, and good company made for a great meal.

I can’t visit the midwest without a visit to the local steakhouse, and this visit to Wichita was no different.  Scotch and Sirloin, apparently a Wichita legend, was recommended by colleagues, so I had to give it a try.  Believe me when I say that I was not disappointed.  The ribeye was perfect, but I hear the prime rib is even better.  The atmosphere was very much “old-time” steakhouse, and should not be missed if you’re in town.  Reservations are recommended, and I could see why.  We were seated immediately on our Monday night visit, but I didn’t see another empty table in the restaurant.

Tomorrow, I leave for Chicago.  I’ll have a hotel review for that as well as a full review of my first ride on one of American’s brand-new 737-800′s.  I’m scheduled to ride one of the newly delivered Chicago-based birds home to DC on Friday.

I wondered how many seconds it would be before American formulated some kind of response to news reports that Delta Air Lines is considering an investment in Japan Airlines.  Turns out they’ve been working on something with JAL for a month or so.  I cannot fathom that American and Oneworld will let JAL leave for Delta and SkyTeam without a fight.

Here’s a link to a recent AP story.