First learned about this from Grace.  Delta has announced a partnership with MasterCard to issue both personal and business debit cards.  Theoretically, these debit cards could be issued by most any bank that signs up to market them.  From a business standpoint, I really like the deal.  I mean, you can get an affinity card product in the hands of a large swath of population, a much broader potential market than just Amex, and Delta’s current banking partner, SunTrust.  On the flip side, just how many more miles do we need out there chasing after a diminishing supply of seats?

On the surface, I think the business case looks promising.  Honestly, I’m surprised some other airline hasn’t tried to do the same thing.  Perhaps they have and just haven’t been able to ink a deal yet.  I wonder if any other airlines have similar deals in the works?

Continental Airlines and American Express Membership Rewards will part ways next year.  Announced today, I don’t think this is a big surprise.  What was not yet announced, but I expect will likely happen, is an end to lounge access with Continental for Amex Platinum and Centurion Card holders.  While I suppose it’s still possible that the new United will offer lounge access after the merger with Continental, I personally am not getting my hopes up. Remind me to read a little harder next time, lounge access to Continental President’s Clubs ends on 9/30/11 as well.

There was other news in the same press release.  Amex will begin offering new benefits to its Platinum and Centurion Card members on December 1st.  Directly from the release:

1. $200 Airline Fee Credit — Cardmembers can check a bag or enjoy an in-flight meal on American Express. Every year American Express will cover up to $200 of incidental airline fees that are charged on the Cardmember’s enrolled Card on a selected airline. The $200 Airline Fee Credit can apply to fees such as baggage fees, flight change fees, in-flight food and airport lounge day passes.
2. 20% Travel Bonus — When Cardmembers use Membership Rewards Pay with Points to pay for part or all of their travel including airlines, hotels, cruises and vacation packages, they will get 20% of those points credited back to their account. For example, if a Cardmember redeems 30,000 points to pay for an airline ticket, American Express will credit 6,000 point to the Membership Rewards Cardmember’s account.
3. American Express® Travel App — This complimentary mobile app will help keep travelers informed with flight alerts, an airport lounge locator, airport guides and more.

Moderately useful stuff for some folks that might be flying on an airline where they hold no elite status.  We’ll see how the new bennies work in practice.

Random, I know. But Chase issues several big travel credit cards, most notably the United Mileage Plus, Continental One Pass, Southwest Rapid Rewards, and Marriott Rewards cards. Not to mention Priority Club, Hyatt, and Amtrak Guest Rewards. Their website has been down for over 24 hours at this point. Shocking, and unacceptable in 2010. What the heck is going on?

Thank you for tolerating my rant post.

ETA: Chase.com is finally working again on Wednesday morning.

Back down again as of 11:18a.m.

I noticed today that Alaska Airlines is offering a double miles promotion much like the one Delta started a few weeks ago.  Simply fly Alaska/Horizon and Delta on the same ticket and receive double miles.  Registration is required, and travel must be completed between 9/15/10 and 11/15/10.

Alaska’s Mileage Plan is an interesting program, and a great alternative for many.  I’m especially attracted to the ability to earn miles when flying not only Alaska but Delta AND American.  I briefly considered switching my Delta accumulation to Alaska this year, but elected to give SkyMiles one more try for the forthcoming program year based on several improvements they’ve made.  I’ll be watching.

Did you know we are on Facebook?  Check out the Marshall Jackson on Travel Facebook fanpage.

The promos from the various brokerage houses have going on for a long time…years, in fact.  Thing is, I recently took advantage of one of the promos for the first time, so I thought I’d share the details with you.  MrsMJonTravel and I had been discussing our options regarding where to place vast holdings of stocks and bonds (OK, I’m kidding about “vast”) for a while.  A few months ago, I just happened to stumble across this post on TM Travel World.  It seemed Fidelity’s mySmart Cash account might be a great option for us, so I did a little research on this and other options, and finally narrowed things down to Fidelity.  Just a few things that attracted me to the Fidelity mySmart Cash option.

• It’s with Fidelity

• Your cash is FDIC insured and held at a bank

• You can use the account like a checking account, complete with ATM and billpay

• Fidelity reimburses your ATM fees for using any ATM

• The ATM card only charges a 1 percent foreign transaction fee

• And I got miles for the deal

What’s not to like?  A little judicious googling revealed few (in my opinion) complaints on the part of other Fidelity users, so I was sold.  After discussing with MrsMJonTravel, I registered us for the mileage promotion at http://www.united.com/fidelity, and set things up.  I funded the account with the necessary cash, and transferred our stocks from our old broker to Fidelity.  All of this was done with inspiring ease.  I assumed I would need to wait weeks for the miles.  But after opening the account on Monday afternoon online, I was pleased to see that the bonus miles had posted to my Mileage Plus account this morning!  It only took 5 days.

There may be better deals out there, and Lord knows, don’t consider this investment advice please!  But if you are looking around for a brokerage account, don’t forget to check your favorite airline’s promotions page for possible bonus miles with certain brokerage houses.

I recently completed a 2-night stay at this Back Bay boutique property.  The hotel was host to a friend’s wedding, and MrsMJonTravel and I took the opportunity to stay there for wedding weekend.  We flew up to Boston on US Airways, which was subject to a trip report that you can read here.

Getting There

MrsMJonTravel and took a cab from Logan, but the local subway system, “The T” is another good option.  In fact, the Prudential Station is literally right outside the front door of the hotel.  Our cab ride was very expensive, to the point that I think we may have gotten taken.  Granted, the tolls leaving the airport inflate the fare as soon as you get in the tab, but still.  Our cab ride TO the hotel was nearly $40 dollars with tip, while our cab ride to the airport was just under $25 dollars.  You do the math.

Checking In

We arrived at the hotel prior to the standard 3PM check in time, but our room was ready anyway.  Only one person was working the desk, but we were first in line, and within minutes, had been checked into room 805 by the very polite front desk clerk.  Taking the elevator to the 8th floor, we found our room at the very end of the corridor, far from the noise of the elevator and the ice machine.  Yay!

The Room

Room 805 was a standard King room, equipped with what I consider to be a large work area, and fantastic King bed.  There wasn’t a desk per se, but rather a round table with comfortable chairs, and 2 lamps which each had power outlets for plugging in our laptops as well as wired and wireless internet.  I can’t promise that I wasn’t doing something wrong, but I was unable to get the wired internet to work.  Wireless, however, worked fine.  Cost was $13.95 per night.  Overpriced, for sure, but it worked very well.  The room was equipped with a well lit bath area, and the tub even came with a rubber duckie!

Rubber Duckie at the Colonnade

Vanity Area

But a highlight no doubt, was the fabulous bed.  Complete with duvet, and duck feather pillows, I can’t say that I’ve slept in a more comfortable bed in any hotel!  It was great.  So good, in fact, that I just couldn’t get MrsMJonTravel to wake up in time for a tour of Boston!  Oh well.

The Fantastic Colonnade Bed

Nice LCD TV and Keurig Coffemaker Too

Around the Hotel

I just can’t say enough good things about Boston, and the area immediately surrounding the hotel.  The Shops at Prudential Center, immediately across the street from the hotel were quite nice, and home to several great stores.  And better yet, the area surrounding the Prudential Center were great restaurants.  Among our favorites were the Atlantic Fish Company, which we visited for lunch.  Great wine, and my lobster roll was simply divine!  MrsMJonTravel enjoyed her entree as well.  Everything on the menu looked great, and I expect that it was!

Not nearby, but a reasonable cab ride away, was America’s oldest restaurant, The Union Oyster House.  We went there for dinner.  While I liked Atlantic Fish more, our food was good, and the bar service while we waited for our table was just great.  I suggest making a reservation via Open Table if you are going on a weekend, and don’t want to wait 2 hours for a table.  Immediately across the street from Union Oyster, you’ll find the Bell in Hand Tavern.  Have no clue how old it is, or if it has any history at all.  But if you’re looking for a place to drink a bit, do stop by.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the hotel’s own restaurant, Brasserie Jo.  MrsMJonTravel and I only enjoyed a couple of cocktails and dessert there, but rumor has it the restaurant serves terrific French cuisine.  Our dessert was fantastic, and of course, our cocktails were good.  Better yet, Brasserie Jo happens to be a member of Rewards Network, so you miles junkies can pick up a couple of extra miles by dining there.

Checking Out

Leaving the hotel was the biggest challenge.  Just our luck to be behind the 2 people in the hotel that had an issue.  Couple that with a patron who thought she shouldn’t have to wait in line with the rest of us, and we were waiting a few minutes to check out of the hotel.  Why was I waiting?  There was one minor ( $4 dollars or so) mini bar item on our bill, and since we didn’t even have a key to the mini bar, I felt it necessary to get that charge removed from our bill.  It was promptly removed, and we were on our way back to the airport.

The Bottom Line

I look forward to visiting The Colonnade again on our next visit to Boston.  What a great hotel!  I didn’t even have time to visit the rooftop pool in this trip, and I look forward to doing so next time.  The staff was great, our room was great, and the stay was great.  What more could one want in a hotel.  Visiting Boston’s Back Bay area soon?  Give The Colonnade Hotel a try.

I slept in this morning, and didn’t get around to reading emails until something like 9:30am!  Weee!  The email at the top of my inbox was Chris Elliott’s daily missive.  This particular article opined about various issues with loyalty programs and questioned their value.  It also includes a few examples from hapless (helpless?) travelers that have been bitten one way or the other by a loyalty program.  I was going to get around to writing my own take about this later today, but I’ve already been beaten to the punch.  Gary Leff was up earlier than me this morning, and I agree 200 percent with everything he says.  So check it out.

I only want to add that if you want to make these programs work for you, YOU are going to need to take it upon yourself to learn how to make that happen.  Read the fine print.  Study, and consult the myriad of resources available to you to learn how to make your experiences with loyalty programs worth your time.  Can it get too complicated?  Probably.  But that didn’t stop me from enjoying 2 trans-Atlantic trips this summer (one in First, the other in Business) for the cost of a few hundred dollars in taxes.  It is what it is.  And right now, it IS worth my time…and probably yours too.

Originally posted September 11, 2009

Eight years ago today, my morning began much like any other early fall day.  I was roaming the airport in search of coffee and a bagel, mentally celebrating a successful morning launch of kick-off flights at Washington National Airport (DCA) on September 11, 2001.  I was one of the Customer Service Managers at DCA on duty for American Airlines that day.

During a visit with our operations agent, I heard a radio call from our first inbound flight of the day.  The crew had a question, “had we heard anything about an incident in New York involving a United flight?”  The operations agent and I both looked at each other in agreement that we had not, but I immediately got on the nearest computer to find cnn.com.  I’ll never forget the picture of smoke billowing from the first tower, and the caption “Aircraft Hits World Trade Center.  Details to Follow.”  I immediately went to our conference room where I knew I would find access to a television.  By the time I arrived there, the second tower had been struck, and the newscasters were spinning replays of the aircraft striking each tower.

By this time phones were ringing and my boss, the station general manager had arrived in the conference room.  He took a call, while other managers from flight, flight service and maintenance began to gather.  Upon hanging up the phone, he stated that they think 77 from Dulles is involved.  And with that, things got real.  I immediately returned to operations where our ops agent informed me that two flights that had just pushed were returning to the gate.  He’d just gotten off the phone with dispatch, and learned that American was grounding all of its flights and that we may have had an airplane involved in New York.

I proceeded out to the gates to assist as our flights returned.  The first passengers were coming off and I was immediately stopped by one of them who wanted to know about the possibility of getting rebooked on another airline.  No, I’m not making that up!  She was nice enough about it, but wasn’t interested in giving me a minute to figure out what was going on.  As we stood there discussing the situation at DCA’s gate 28, she happened to glance out towards the north, and immediately asked “what’s that?”  I turned to see the strangest color of smoke rising just above the tree line in the direction of the Pentagon.  I responded that I wasn’t sure, but that I thought that it might be a good idea to leave.  Within seconds, an announcement was made throughout the terminal to evacuate the building.  I didn’t know it at the time, but our flight 77 had just crashed into the Pentagon.

I could tell you a lot more about that day, and the weeks that followed.  The mass exodus from the airport on foot as F-16s criss-crossed the skies above, and the sick smell of burning jet fuel wafting through the air.  I was certain more aircraft would follow at this point, and half expected to see one plow into the Washington Monument, the Capitol or for that matter, our airport at any minute.  I could tell you about taking a team of airport agents to Dulles to stand in while the folks at Dulles grieved for the loss of one of their beloved colleagues, a 45 year AA employee, not to mention the shock of being the origin of flight 77.  I could also talk about walking through an empty National Airport terminal at 5:30am a few weeks later.  It was an eerie place with most of the lights turned off and none of the escalators running, the silence only broken by the sound of my shoes hitting the floor as I walked through on my way to pick up the lay off packages I would have to deliver to people that didn’t deserve it.  I could say a lot, but I won’t.  I think I’ve made my point.

I remember.

1. Is it weird that I’m looking forward to not traveling for a whole ‘nuther week?  Because come October, it looks like I’m on the road until Christmas!  Some of that travel is pure leisure though.
2. Is it saying something that the best domestic major airline flights I’ve had all summer have been on US Airways Shuttle to/from Boston?
3. Tomorrow is September 11th.  I will do what I always do, email someone I was working with that day, and reminisce about that morning at DCA.  He knows who he is.  What will you do to remember?