Here are the offers that jump out at me as being especially worth considering:

• FTD offering 30 American Airlines miles per dollar, plus 300 additional miles for Citi Advantage credit card holders, for flower purchased.

• For those with a hankering for United miles, FTD is also promoting 30 Mileage Plus miles per dollar for Valentine’s Day.

• And FTD’s offer of 30 United miles per dollar plus 150 miles per order appears to still be working as well.

• Through February 14, Teleflora will give 25 US Airways miles per dollar.

• 1-800-Flowers has a 40 Delta mile per dollar offer with promo code 52DE.

The changes are good for almost all elites.

Golds are all better off, they just get a new benefit (choice of welcome amenity) with nothing taken away. Free internet is the most valuable choice, but someone who is expensing internet may take a $15 welcome drink or if they don’t drink they might take the points.

Platinums who stay 50 nights or more get to choose which nights they want priority for upgrades, and even which rooms they’re willing to use their upgrade priority for. Platinums all now get the choice of Continental breakfast (but they don’t get breakfast and the points amenity or the local amenity, and SPG is working with properties to refresh their local amenities). Platinums who stay 75 nights earn a 100% points bonus instead of 50% for their in-hotel spend, and get 24 hour check-in (which has some limitations, but is a unique benefit in the industry). Platinums who stay 100 nights get a personal Starwood Ambassador, a single point of contact with the chain to manage their reservations and preferences and work with hotels on their behalf.

I do think Platinums who stay less than 50 nights lose out a bit on the upgrade front, because they don’t get to express their preference for when they want upgrades, they’ll be behind those Platinums throwing down a suite night award and at the most popular resort properties one imagines this means that those Platinums will be upgraded less frequently than they are now. On the other hand, all Platinums now get breakfast so there are pluses and minuses.

Another limitation of the upgrade nights is that a 100 night platinum gets the same number of them as a 50 night platinum. So the 50 night Platinum can get an upgrade preference on twice the percentage of stays as a 100 night platinum. Although one imagines the 100 night platinum will get higher priority for their upgrades, though Starwood hasn’t released the formula that they use to prioritize upgrades among those requesting them.

I wish they had given the 10 suite nights to all Platinums, and that they’d continue to add suite nights as Platinums stay more than 50 nights. And I also wish they had added confirmed upgrades, at least for their most frequent guests, perhaps at the 75 night level.

All in all a positive change for most, everyone is given something new that they didn’t have before. And I believe the real game changer is taking away upgrade processing from the hotels and doing it by computer based on a consistent formula, for the advance upgrades.

But there have been lots of misconceptions popping up over the past 24 hours so I thought I’d engage in a dialogue over some of those.

I’d never choose Continental breakfast over the points.

Maybe you wouldn’t. But certainly breakfast for two people every day of your stay will be worth more than the 500 points at full service properties. You wouldn’t choose this if you’re just expensing breakfast. Even on a business stay, though, where you aren’t coming out of your own pocket, plenty of folks are on a per diem. If breakfast is covered, that’s more to spend the rest of the day (or to pocket if you don’t spend).

But hotels are going to give me coffee and a muffin and that’s it

There will always be non-compliant hotels, and those are fixed based on member complaints. And some hotels will push the envelope over what’s allowable. But there’s specific guidance on what continental breakfast means, coffee and juice, fruit, yogurt, cereal, breakfast breads.

But I don’t like Continental breakfast, I want a full breakfast.

Some hotels will offer a full breakfast. And hotels have been told to allow a buy up to full breakfast, if Continental is $15 and full breakfast is $25 a Platinum selecting breakfast should be able to buy full breakfast for $10. It’s not a requirement of the program, and the hotel isn’t out of compliance if they don’t offer the buy up, but most often it should be an option. If you don’t like Continental breakfast, and the hotel doesn’t offer a buy up, then take the points and you’re no worse off. But that seems like it’ll be a pretty limited case.

Your24 Blows: if I check in early I have to check out early.

Starwood will let Platinums staying 75 nights check in any time of day, 24 hours a day. At 12:01am if they want. That’s great for those arrivals in India, a year ago it would have saved me a full hotel night. Yes, if you check in at 5am you’re supposed to then check out at 5am though properties may offer some leeway. However, if you check in at 9am or later then you are still eligible for 4pm late checkout.

That’s a huge benefit, check in at 9am after an early arrival in Europe to take a shower. And you won’t have to check out early.

The drawback is that the benefit isn’t guaranteed, it has to be requested at least 48 hours out, it likely will be available most of the time but a hotel that’s sold out won’t have to kick a guest out early to accommodate, and won’t have to take a room out of service the day before in order to accommodate. So it’s not quite as rich as Intercontinental’s guaranteed 8am checkin for Royal Ambassadors, where they’ll put you in a temporary room if your suite isn’t ready. But it does offer checkin at 1am or 5am, something Intercontinental doesn’t, and that’s a benefit that no other chain offers at all.

What’s also nice is that checking in at 7pm should allow 7pm checkout, and even at a resort where late checkout is otherwise ”subject to availability’ (which in practice means ‘not available’ or at least the hotel isn’t obliged to provide it, it’s always funny when a hotel offers a Platinum member 4pm checkout for a fee, I always rather think that if it’s available at a fee then it’s available and thus should be provided free, but what do I know). Nice benefit at resorts.

I’m a Platinum who stays 60 nights I hate that I’m not top tier anymore

You won’t get an Ambassador or 24 hour checkin, but you’re still a Platinum and that remains top tier in the SPG program. At the hotel level they still see you as a Platinum, and they also see someone staying 75 or 100 nights as a Platinum. Advance upgrade benefits and early checkin benefits are managed in advance and through the corporate level, there’s no new Platinum75 or Platinum100 designator that constitue a new higher level in the program. So kudos to SPG for continuing to value their 50 night guests even as they add benefits for more frequent guests.

I love the idea of lifetime elite status, but I called up Starwood and they told me that my 500 nights for lifetime Platinum all had to occur in years in which I was platinum. Bummer.

Nope. You get lifetime Gold after 250 nights and 5 years of elite status, and lifetime Platinum after 500 nights and 10 years of elitePlatinum status. The elite status years do not have to be consecutive. The 500 nights do not have to all come from years when you were an elite. And of course award nights even now count as nights for this purpose.

What other questions do you have about SPG’s new elite benefits? What do you think of them?

Update: Typo before 6am this morning, lifetime Platinum requires 10 years of Platinum status, I wrote 10 years of ‘elite’ status. Sorry for the confusion!

I spoke for awhile with Gabriel Leigh in Los Angeles last weekend. Gabriel produces a short documentary in 2009 about the quest for miles and points.

He’s now working on a feature length documentary, and he’s looking for support for the project.

Kickstarter allows you to raise funds for a project, people make commitments but the project’s driver only gets the funds if they raise the goal which will allow them to make the project happen. If they fall short they get nothing, everyone keeps their money.

Over the weekend I knew that Gabriel was close, but the final deadline is Friday morning. So I planned to post here, hoping that I could make a contribution and that some of my readers might as well, and push him over the top — it would be the difference between a full documentary and no documentary. But others spoke to him in Los Angeles too, and Milepoint jumped in and put him over the top. He’ll get the funds and be able to make a documentary.

However his goal was only $15,000. Which is the ultimate shoestring. He tells me his plan is to have the film ready to submit to Sundance, not the easiest place to get into, and with a bit more money he could both speed up the production (more money sure helps getting things done) and make the production far better (from locations and travel to editing expense). I’d really love to see a bit support for the project, and I’m making a commitment to it today myself. Hopefully others will as well. Because it’s a great opportunity to see our passion on the big screen.

Via Deals We Like:

During the entire month of February 2012, you will receive a 25% bonus when you transfer your Amex Membership Reward points to the AirFrance-KLM Flying Blue program. Typically, points transfer at a 1:1 ratio, but for this limited time you’ll receive 1,2500 Flying Blue miles for every 1,000 Membership Reward points.

Flying Blue adds fuel surcharges to awards which can make them expensive out of pocket, you’re certainly not going to want to redeem coach awards through this program as you’ll still be out of pocket much fo the cost of a paid fare.

But they allow one-way awards, their website is pretty good for award booking, their award chart can be favorable in some cases (promo awards can offer transatlantic business class for as low as 50,000 miles roundtrip).

Check award availability at the airfrance.us website. Then transfer points if what you want is available, I find that transfers happen instantly, and then book your tickets.

Since the Los Angeles Times covered Citibank’s practice of sending out 1099s to customers who earned points for opening bank accounts, there’s been a lot of interest in the issue. Taxation of frequent flyer miles has always been a hut button issue.

Now the LA Times has done a followup story in which they get the IRS on the record saying that Citibank’s position is a reasonable interpretation of law, and much handwringing has ensued — quite a bit of it overwrought.

Wandering Aramean, for instance, titles his post on the subject, “The IRS moves to hit frequent flier miles” and says “it is readily apparent that the IRS sees some miles as taxable and not at a particularly favorable rate.”

Except that’s not what the IRS has said, and they certainly haven’t commented about the tax rate to be imposed on miles if taxable, they’ve commented on the value of miles only to say that like anything else of value received it is the actual value rather than the cost that’s relevant for tax purposes. Very little new information here.

The LA times pushed and pushed the IRS for an answer on taxation.

What does the IRS have to say about the matter? After days of my pestering the tax agency for a response, it finally took a stand on the taxability of miles.

When frankly the best approach here is not to ‘poke the bear in the zoo.’ Certainly under the law there’s some argument that miles would be taxable, although the IRS does not pursue enforcement actions against anyone for failing to pay taxes on frequent flyer miles. But if pressed, they’re not really in a position to say that the policy couldn’t change. Under the law they’re empowered to do so, but it would be complicated and messy and unpopular and so they don’t. If you really need an answer though no IRS bureaucrat will foreclose the future possibility. And naturally they didn’t. They said Citi’s position is a reasonable one.

“When frequent-flier miles are provided as a premium for opening a financial account, it can be a taxable situation subject to reporting under current law,” said Michelle Eldridge, an IRS spokeswoman.

That’s a very careful answer. The miles can be taxable under current law. We know that. They didn’t say that this is a priority enforcement area, or one in which the IRS will even take a stand that non-reporting of miles is a failure on the part of the provider of those miles or on the recipient. And it’s a far cry from saying, as Seth appears to suggest, that taxation will logically next be applied to credit card signup bonuses.

Tax law raises all sorts of really interesting theoretical issues. Taken literally there’s very little that wouldn’t be subject to tax, from things your friends receive from you (gift tax for items not specifically included under the excludable caps) to bonuses you might receive from a company for liking them on facebook provided those bonuses are sufficiently lucrative or you receive enough of them from a single payer during a calendar year. What if you receive a bunch of Starwood points for liking various Westin properties, Starwood Preferred Guest provides you with the points are they the payer or is the individual property? And what about bonuses for getting your friends to sign up for TripAlertz under your referral link? Or for Jetsetter or Sniqueaway provided your friends make a qualifying purchase?

Miles aren’t, under many programs, legally even yours. Have you received something of value when receiving miles? Or only when the airline allows you to cash in those miles? The more miles you have the more valuable additional miles are, up until the point you have too many. Certainly the IRS wouldn’t value miles on an individual circumstance basis, but there’s also no consensus about average value. My advice about disputing the value of a mile as-reported on a 1099 stands, I think, since there really is no consensus value. We know it’s not the provider’s cost per mile, but neither is it likely the price at which an airline sells a mile (which again is about marginal value, since mileage purchases are frequently done to top off towards an award). The most frequent redemption is the 25,000 mile coach award. So perhaps an average redemption value, not of an expensive coach ticket (highest theoretically possible value) but a fairly low priced ticket (as mileage seats are most often available on flights that won’t sell out). Perhaps some study of how mileage programs value the miles as liabilities on their own books would inform the valuation judgment for tax purposes.

And of course there’d be an uproar. It’s clear that miles earned for personal travel (ie travel you pay for yourself) would constitute a rebate, but what about business travel? Your employer pays, isn’t the mileage rebate a taxable fringe benefit?

It’s a murky, thick area and to date the IRS has chosen not to pursue it because of how complicated it is, and because of how unpopular such a pursuit would be. But don’t poke the bear in the zoo. Back them up against the wall and they’ll almost have to say that of course miles earned from a variety of activities (and a variety of life activities unrelated to miles) which aren’t pursued now certainly could be in the future.

Almost all of us break government rules every day, not out of malice but because of the complications of those rules, and tax policy is one of the most arcane and complex and most anyone with income outside of salaried employment certainly falls into this category. And even most of the rest of everyone too. I recently read that all oil companies which produce gasoline are now paying fines for failing to mix in a biofuel which does not exist.

Bottom-line is that tax law is complicated, getting the IRS on the record on matters of policies is complicated, but a single, carefully crafted, and limited statement by an IRS spokesperson doesn’t change wholesale the manner in which miles are or are not taxed. Which isn’t to say that policy won’t change, just that we do not yet have reason to get excited or concerned.

Of course a big stash of value that’s currently untaxed is and always will be a tempting target for a state which has failed to live within its means. So it’s primarily a poltiical rather than legal question, whether going after the miles is worthwhile in political terms compared to going after other sources of income (such as reneging on Roth IRAs and taxing distributions of those, to give one random example).

Hyatt’s Winter promo which awards progressively more bonus points for incremental nights through April 30th is now open for registration.

For every 4 nights between February 1 and April 30, members earn additional points and Hyatt Visa also earn an extra 25% bonus on top. Registration required by March 31.

• 4 nights earns 4000 points (+1000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
  
• 8 nights earns an additional 8000 points (+2000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
  
• 12 nights earns an additional 12,000 points (+3000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
  
• 16 nights earns an additional 20,000 points (+5000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)

Members staying 16 nights during the three months of the promotion, who also have a Hyatt Visa, will earn 55,000 bonus points in addition to their regular earning. This is my favorite current promotion in the market.

Even if you don’t expect to have 4 Hyatt nights by April 30th you should register, it’s on your mind since you’re reading this post, so it’s easier to just sign up than to remember to do so later when you find yourself with Hyatt bookings you didn’t expect to make.

This morning Starwood is announcing a bunch of new benefits to go into effect March 1, and they’re pretty much across-the-board positive:

• Checkin amenity for Gold members
  
• Free breakfast option for Platinums
  
• Upgrade priority 10 nights a year for Platinums who stay 50 nights or more
  
• Additional benefits for staying 75 and 100 nights — check-in any time you wish, more bonus points for in hotel spend, and access to a dedicated Starwood team member to handle your hotel needs.

For a long time I’ve been saying that Starwood was an innovator, that other chains have caught up, and that they needed to up their game. That I had confidence they would. And I kept waiting. And waiting. They’ve now rolled out a suite of new benefits.

• Starwood pioneered no capacity controls on award nights, if a standard room is available you can have it on points. Most chains have copied or come close on this over the past few years.
  
• Starwood pioneered suite upgrades for top level elites. Hyatt trumped in 2009 with confirmed suites and now Hilton even includes suites as part of their upgrade program.

Beyond their unique selling propositions, Starwood innovated in several other areas that have since been matched — cash and points awards, earning points for hotel restaurant spend when not a guest and redeeming points on property for things other than room rate, they were a pioneer of late checkout. But Hilton and Priority Club have cash and points now and I anticipate Hyatt will eventually, Hyatt has introduced a similar earn and burn option when not a registered guest, and late checkout benefits have improved (most recently, and significantly, by Hyatt).

To me Starwood’s fundamental problem at the elite level has been that a guest who doesn’t get a suite upgrade, at a hotel without a club lounge, really just gets a 500 point amenity at check in and then doesn’t have their loyalty or special relationship with the chain reinforced at all for the rest of their stay. (Sure, at hotels where it isn’t already free they get internet, but that doesn’t accomplish the sort of relationship a chain is after with their most loyalty members.)

The changes announced, going into effect March 1, go a long way towards correcting this.

New amenities for Golds and Platinums

• Continental Breakfast for Platinum members. Hilton and Hyatt guarantee breakfast (and at the Diamond level, a full breakfast, not continental). Marriott generally provides breakfast when lounges are closed. This was a weak spot for Starwood, Platinums had lounge access but with no lounge it was entirely left to the generosity of hotels if they wished to do more. Starting March 1, Platinums will receive breakfast as one of their choices for their amenity, meaning instead of the 500 Starpoints (at full service hotels) or 250 Starpoints (at lower scale hotels) that Platinums get now at check in. Breakfast is continental — Juice and coffee, pastries, breads, yogurts, cereals — though some hotels will be more generous. And many hotels will allow a buy up to full breakfast by paying the difference if they don’t just provide it gratis. The benefit applies to all hotels, all brands, for the entire length of stay and applies to the member and one guest.

• New amenity choice for Golds. Golds receive a check-in amenity of points that’s half what Platinums receive, so 250 points at full service properties and 125 at Aloft, Element, and Four Points; internet for full length of stay (not specified what connection speed, whereas Platinums must receive highest speed available), or a beverage credit for a single drink (valued at US$15 although in Europe valued at 15 Euros, or the signature cocktail if that’s more expensive). This adds a real benefit to the Gold level, in most cases I’d take the internet especially on a longer stay and where it’s not expansible. Hyatt and Hilton offer internet at a similar elite tier. Now Starwood Gold means more than 4pm checkout and avoiding the room over the hotel’s HVAC…

New benefits for Platinums staying 50 nights or more

• 50 Nights: 10 suite night awards. These are confirmable 5 days in advance subject to availability. The member will receive a list of upgraded room options and will be able to select online which ones they’re interested in. They can choose suite only, or premium view only, or both. If the member selects both, the system will first try to upgrade them to the higher category room. But of course there are some places where the view might be more desirable, e.g. at the Westin Maui any suites with an ocean view wouldn’t be considered standard suites so not eligible for the benefit. It might be more desirable to have an ocean view than a non-view suite. The system will attempt to upgrade at 5 days out, and then continue checking inventory each day until the day prior to check in.

  All Platinums that stayed 50 nights in 2011 will receive 10 suite night awards on March 1, and they will be valid until the end of the next calendar year (in this case, December 31, 2013). Suite nights must be consumed by their expiration date, not just put down on a reservation by the expiration date. In future years, when members hit 50 nights they’ll get their suite night awards right away and those will expire at the end of the following calendar year.

• 75 Nights: 4 points per dollar and 24 hour check in. Members staying 75 nights receive a 100% bonus on points earned from in-hotel spend, rather than the 50% bonus earned by Golds and Platinums. And they’ll receive a benefit Starwood calls “Your24″ — the ability to check in any time, 24 hours a day, though this benefit is subject to availability. The request must be made at least 48 hours in advance in order to find out whether it can be confirmed. The request will be possible online or by phone. Checking time will dictate checkout time on a 24 hour clock, so if you check in at 5am then you must technically check out at 5am as well though hotels will often be more lenient than that, and as long as you check in after 9pm you’ll still be eligible for late (4pm) checkout except at resorts where that’s subject to availability anyway. But this isn’t just early check in, if you confirm a late check in like 8pm you should be able to have 8pm checkout.

  The only other chain that currently comes close to this is Intercontinental, their Royal Ambassadors are guaranteed 8am check in. Starwood’s time is more flexible, but it isn’t a guarantee (Intercontinental will just put you in a temporary room to shower and rest if your assigned room isn’t available at 8am, with Starwood your room type may affect the availability of early check in, eg if no suites are available earlier you may not be able to, and it’s unclear whether you’ll be able to downgrade a room that’s had a confirmed upgrade applied and get your suite night certificates back in order to confirm the early check in at a lower room category).

• 100 Nights – Receive a Designated Starwood Ambassador. The Ambassador program is a dedicated concierge who takes care of all of your Starwood travel needs as well as additional concierge services during your stay (and will assist with non-Starwood travel in cities without a Starwood property). They’ll know your preferences, contact hotels in advance to try to arrange them, and it does tend to lead to better on-property service as well at least as reported by many (though not all) folks with Ambassadors assigned.

  There has been a pilot program running, now it’s being expanded. I’d been surprised that I hadn’t seen a rollout of this program but it’s finally come. I actually predicted this benefit back in Septemer, saying I was surprised it hadn’t yet been rolled out to members staying more than just the minimum amount for Platinum. There are other criteria on which to get Ambassadors assigned, but anyone hitting 100 nights will get one. And those folks who don’t hit 100 nights in a future year may have it taken away, too… It seems somewhat like Hyatt’s Private Line program, or at least what that program wants to be, a dedicated contact for all things regarding the chain. Hyatt’s program has been somewhat variable based on the agent you’re assigned to, and I imagine that Starwood’s is no different, though it remains to be seen how well the growth in the program is managed.

Lifetime Status

• Lifetime Gold after 250 nights and 5 years of elite status (does not have to be consecutive)
  
• Platinum after 500 nights and 10 years of elite status (does not have to be consecutive)

It’s fascinating that even with the new benefits for additional nights, Starwood has not launched a new elite level. Higher night benefits are confirmed through SPG, whether suite award nights or 24 hour check in, so the hotel isn’t privileging one set of Platinums over another (though presumably this fits into the algorithm which prioritizes upgrades). But at the hotel level, Platinum is Platinum and that’s top tier. Which is a clever approach, Starwood does need to incentivize and reward nights beyond 50, but the risk in doing that is alienating customers who stay 50 nights but not more and who would no longer feel as valued. By maintaining a single top tier, and offering specific benefits beyond that level but not differentiating at the hotel level, they can continue to communicate the same value to folks that barely make platinum while rewarding those who stay more.

That said, the changes do represent a negative for folks who currently make Platinum on 25 stays but who don’t hit 50 nights. The ‘confirmed upgrade’ benefit, since it’s only confirmed 5 days out, is really an upgrade priority benefit. Hyatt offers guaranteed confirmed upgrades at booking, four a year to Diamonds. You lock it in, and unless you’re disservice or a mistake is made you lock in the suite whenever you plan your travels. Here Starwood is saying that folks staying 50 nights or more can designate 10 specific nights where they jump to the front of the queue to be upgraded if available. On those nights, and at properties where upgrade demand is high, that suggests that folks not putting in for priority will be lower on the totem pole for upgrades. And folks staying 25 times but not hitting 50 nights will not get any of those suite upgrade awards. The folks making Platinum on stays will have a harder time getting upgrades when they want them most, at top leisure properties where others will be throwing down their trump cards.

Personally I like the Hyatt confirmed suite upgrade model better, although Hyatt only lets you use those on paid nights and Starwood doesn’t differentiate between paid and award nights. And I do like that Starwood will let their Platinums speak up to identify the stays where the upgrades matter most to them, instead of lucking out with a suite on a business stay where it may not matter and losing the draw the few times a year when it does. And they’ll let members divvy out those suite nights one by one or on a longer stay, so several weekends for some versus a long stay for someone else. The flexibility is really good. But though it’s pitched as suites confirmable several days in advance, this program really is best understood as an upgrade priority program rather than a confirmed upgrade benefit like what Hyatt offers. And understood that way I quite like it, just not quite as much as I like Hyatt’s benefit.

The real game changer in the suite upgrade, though, may be a side effect of the new upgrade benefit rather than one of the benefits actually announced — Starwood lets members request their suite upgrade awards online, and Starwood’s system will automate upgrade processing. No more discretion of the check-in agent. No more sweet talking the agent. Advance upgrades are managed by computer, not by people. Someone like me who often works to schmooze the upgrade won’t benefit. And they’re not taking the best available room at check in processing away from the hotel. But it’s possibly a real step forward for removing discretion and inconsistency from the upgrade program.

I think my only wish list with these benefits is:

• That all Platinums, not just those with 50 nights, receive the upgrade award nights. So folks with 25 stays and 40 nights would get them, and meeting planners who earn platinum based on spend would get them.

• That 100 night folks would get confirmed suite upgrades as well, at booking, a la Hyatt’s Diamond benefit.

• That more nights in a year would earn more suite award nights, currently someone staying 50 nights earns 10 (20% of their nights) while someone staying 100 nights earns those same 10 (and thus can only express upgrade priority for 10% of their nights).

Overall I think these are great changes for Starwood. They give something new to all elite members. The only ones who potentially lose out a bit are Platinums who don’t stay 50 nights. But they found a way to add benefits without making existing Platinums who just squeak into that level feel less valued by no longer being top tier. And there really are some nice new benefits. I still wish they did confirmed suite upgrades, I want guarantees on leisure stays not just priority, but I suspect they’ll do a pretty good job implementing the benefit that and much of the time the requests will clear.

My remaining tick list for what I’d like to see the program do:

• More earning options. They don’t really have a ton of partners, I’d love to earn SPG points more ways.
  
• Better website. They’re bringing much of the functionality for these new benefits online, I’d like to see existing benefits online like redeeming for premium room awards. They’re certainly emphasizing technology and they’re about to launch a new iPhone app. But there’s still some things we ought to be able to do online rather than calling. (And while we’re on the subject of premium room awards, I’d love to see those paired with cash and points.)
  
• And end to double charging for award rooms at category 6 and 7 ‘all suite’ hotels. Those hotels earn the room rates they do because of their room types, and those rates are what justify their price in points. TO then say that the program charges double points because of the room type penalizes the member twice. And it isn’t a practice any other program has. Starwood has the most aspirational properties, so many that I’d actually want to stay at. But they price many of them at a sufficiently high level so as to leave them beyond reach.
  
• Elite recognition when not a registered guest. This isn’t specific to Starwood. Eventually some chain will pick up on this idea. Before the rollout of Club Carlson, Radisson in Europe, Africa, and Middle East had a benefit they called “Our World, Your Lounge” where all elites were welcome in their hotels any time, to use wireless internet and have a coffee. An honored guest with a relationship to the chain is just that — an honored guest — regardless of whether they happen to be registered on a given night.

Revamping these holes, of course, will be for another day. For now big kudos to Starwood for adding some serious benefits to the program!

• Three Presidents of AAdvantage Connect with Their Customers
  
• Our 12 Hours at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue Weren’t Packed with Sleep

• If it Ain’t Boeing, We Ain’t Going (Hint: We Went)
  
• SEA-lAX: The Ultimate Charter Flight
  
• Raffle Time
  
• People Magazine!

• Roaming through a Qantas A380 and a Cathay Pacific 777 at the Flight Path Museum
• American Airlines LAX Flagship Checkin

As I posted on the MegaDO blog, we got a sneak preview today of the new cabins and services that American is rolling out, especially on their 777-300.

Here’s the new aircraft entrance

The first class seat

The business class, especially, is a huge leap forward

Right now I believe the biggest investment that American needs to make in its onboard product is in its business class, they need fully flat seats but here they go a step farther offering a flat bed product which offers plenty of personal space.

Coach gets an update as well (though of course remains… coach)

There’ll be a premium economy section, though I don’t have a slide of those.

We were told they ‘wanted to’ (hah) but will not be installing this in the 773s.

We also got a summary of premium product enhancements.

Via One Mile at a Time, the Westin Charlotte’s Facebook Page is giving away 250 Starwood points for signing up for their Insiders eClub newsletter by February 1.

Of course the offer could get pulled earlier. And the signup page doesn’t ask for your Starwood Preferred Guest number, one has to guess they’ll email you for it later (I hope!).

But it’s quick free points, if they post of course..

• The Full Boeing Customer Experience Center Experience
  
• The President of AAdvantage Responds to a Frequent Flyer Emergency
  
• American’s New Premium Transcon and International Business Class Meal Service
  
• MegaDO Charter Takes off Dallas – Seattle
  
• Touring American, Flight Simulators, and a Water Evacuation
  
• Sneak Preview of American’s 777-300 Onboard Product
  
• Meeting American Execs at the C.R. Smith Museum
  
• Big Hyatt News at the MegaDO Dallas Opening Reception
  
• Some Serious Food and Drink in Dallas
  
• Checking in for the MegaDO at the Hyatt Regency DFW
  
• The MegaDO Flight Gets Cancelled. Best. Thing. Ever.
  
• American’s Premium Service JFK – London
  
• The Flight Over and Heathrow Arrival
  
• The First Flight of the oneworld MegaDO takes off for London
  
• The Chariot to London Awaits
  
• Getting to Know JFK Terminal 8 and Finnair
  
• Opening Reception at JFK
  
• A Five Star Checkin Experience

Over on the oneworld MegaDO blog, I posted about last night’s opening reception at the Hyatt Regency DFW. Jeff Zidell, who runs the Gold Passport program, gave a great talk with trivia and prizes.. and dropped some advance news. Their winter promo details.

He also broke the news about their first quarter promotion which offers up to 55,000 bonus points, more than enough points for 2 nights at the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris or Park Hyatt Maldives (with 11,000 points to spare).

We started off guessing Charlie Sheen’s favorite promo…

#Winning

And then the new promo was revealed!

For every 4 nights between February 1 and April 30, members will earn progressively more bonus points and Hyatt Visa cardholders will earn an extra 25% bonus on top. Registration for the promo is required by March 31.

 

• 4 nights earns 4000 points (+1000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
• 8 nights earns an additional 8000 points (+2000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
• 12 nights earns an additional 12,000 points (+3000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
• 16 nights earns an additional 20,000 points (+5000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)

Members staying 16 nights during the three months of the promotion, who also have a Hyatt Visa, will earn 55,000 bonus points in addition to their regular earning.

Lucky argues that this is the most generous promotion currently in the market. It’s certainly going to yield more points after more nights than what anyone else is offering, so especially if you’re going to have a few Hyatt nights you’ll want to have more for the incremental bonuses.

Several readers have sent me a Los Angeles Times piece about Citibank’s reporting of mileage signup bonuses for bank (not credit card accounts) beings reported to the IRS on 1099 forms. I’ve written about this sisue several times in the past, and I have a new post up on Conde Nast‘s Daily Traveler.

I make the point that just because something is reported to the IRS doesn’t mean you have to agree that it is taxable or agree with the valuation of the entity sending you that tax form. The IRS has said in the past that not paying taxes on miles wouldn’t generate an enforcement action, and I argue that the value of the miles is likely lower than that being reported by Citi. In the Daily Traveler post, I share how to dispute the valuation and reduce your tax liability, though of course I know better than to offer specific tax advice for individual situations that I don’t know about fully (and I am not a CPA< just someone who doesn't want to pay taxes on his miles!)

• One Mile at a Time tells you how to get a 20% off coupon code for Virgin America.

• Mommy Points has a roundtip of the best mileage offers for flower purchases, it’s almost Valentine’s Day fellas! And there’s 40 Delta miles per dollar from 1-800-Flowers and 30 United miles per dollar with FTD. At 40 miles per dollar you’re basically buying miles and getting flowers for free (though delivery charges don’t earn miles, so the deal isn’t ever quite as good on a straight mileage purchase as it initially seems, but it’s still a good deal since you do also get flowers…).

• Yesterday Frugal Travel Guy pointed out that JetSetter is offering some deep discounts on the Peninsula New York. I actually emailed Lucky from the One Mile at a Time blog on Sunday saying that this was really tempting me, it’s not cheap but I’ve never stayed at a Peninsula hotel. I’ve never stayed at an Aman Resort either. I’m a chain, loyalty program, kinda guy who is always looking to stretch the dollar for as much luxury as possible.

  The dream is just to straight up buy that luxury. I’ll probably be disappointed, and I know I would be at full price. Which is fortunate then that JetSetter has $800 in credit for $450 prepaid, a 43.75% discount. Other really nice properties too like the Park Hyatt Chicago from $182. (If you use my link to sign up with JetSetter we each receive a $25 site credit, I’m also happy to see anyone put their own referral links in the comments of this post.)

• Mileage Saver offers the current answers to Audience Rewards trivia for earning Starwood Starpoints. Audience Rewards sells theatre tickets, and awards tens of miles for answering trivia questions. I use them as a quick and easy way to extend the life of US Airways miles, you need some account activity every 18 months. And earning even 2 US Airways miles works, a single trivia question. You won’t get a firs class award to Asia or a night at the St. Regis Bora Bora off Audience Rewards, but a point or two here and there can be a strategic play.

The oneworld MegaDO so far, posts on the MegaDO Blog over the last 24 hours:

• Oneworld MegaDO is about to take off!
  
• Arriving for the New York opener in VIP style
  
• Taking over Puglia Ristorante in Little Italy for the Opening Dinner
  
• Gold Passport Diamond Breakfast at the New York host hotel, Andaz Wall Street
  
• Your Badges Have Arrived!
  
• Planning and Lunch – But Distracted by Football
  
• Pink Limos to JFK!
  
• Waiting in Traffic, Wishing for Champagne
  
• With this kind of welcome, the wait is worth it!

Over the next week I’ll be blogging over at the Mega DO website.

That’s where I’ll have extended posts about all of the activities, experiences, and insights that are going on during the ultimate frequent flyer once in a lifetime experience that starts in New York, heads over to London then Dallas on American Airlines with a visit with oneworld European carriers.. then visits with American Airlines execs in Dallas, there will be flight simulator time for participants and even a real simulated water evacuation of an aircraft and folks get to go down the emergency slide. We all hop on a chartered 757 party plane (I’m told, quadruple catered with liquor) up to Seattle for tours of private parts of Boeing and a cocktail reception with industry execs as well, and then take the chartered plane to Los Angeles where the days activities will involve a Cathay Pacific 777 and a Qantas A380. Be sure to check that out, bookmark it, subscribe to the RSS feed.

I’ll be live tweeting from @OWMegaDO. Follow that twitter feed for all the live updates, including insights gleaned from airline execs and aircraft manufacturers over the course of the trip. If you’re going to be on the trip, or want to follow others that are, use or search the hash tag #OWMegaDO.

A big thanks in advance to American Airlines and the whole of oneworld, and also to Mega DO sponsor Hyatt hotels.

Three times now a group of frequent flyers have gotten together and built an experience like no other, convinced the airlines that they patronize that their excited, loyal, and excitable customers were worth spending time with — perhaps they thought anyone crazy enough to get together and out of their own pocket charter the plane for the experience must be crazy enough to be worth talking to. A year ago I love how Randy Petersen put it to me, Tommy Danielsen the lead organizer is someone who “makes a bad idea work out well.” And certainly going on the hook for a six-figure aircraft charter on the belief that 150 friends and strangers would want to come along for the wild ride was a very bad idea, made good.

The first three events were held over the course of three different years in conjunction with members of the Star Alliance. After seeing the success, the attention, and the overall excitement, American Airlines actually approached Tommy about putting something together with oneworld. And you just know it was going to come out as something special, no need to cajole the airlines and convince them to play host. American was on board, and with their help for the introductions airlines like British Airways, Finnair, Qantas, and Cathay Pacific would be as well.

Of course, American gets a charter fee out of this, and that’s not cheap. But they’ve dedicated tremendous time and thinking and generosity and goodwill to playing host. And they’ve helped put together an amazing set of fundraisers along the way. The events are all done out of the pockets of the participants, with the idea only to cover costs, the charter price is determined based on an expectation of what things are going to have to come out of pocket, with a few percent overage for contingency, and anything left over at the end goes to charity.

Well, American and the other sponsors have come up with prizes and participants in the event have responded in kind, everyone will have to wait until the end for the final events but it will be tens of thousands of dollars to charity as well, such as American’s charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Hyatt’s Hands on Education Services. At the same time as lifetime memories are being creative, everyone is doing something good.

Not just American, and their oneworld partners, either. American has made a valiant play for the attention and loyalty of the participants, I know that their Executive Platinum challenge has meant a lot for my own flying, I expect to end January with over 60,000 elite qualifying miles showing in my AAdvantage account. But Hyatt hotels and the Hyatt Gold Passport program has been an amazing partner.

Hyatt has made everyone on the trip a Diamond member, we all get our checkin amenities and Diamond breakfast throughout the trip, they’re not just hosting the breakfasts but receptions and giveaways as well and they have executives joining us on the trip. Everyone was able to participate in a challenge to retain Diamond status, and earn bonus points for stays. The Hyatt Churchill in London, Hyatt Regency Dallas, Hyatt Regency Bellevue (mmm — soup dumplings next door!), and Hyatt Regency Century City will be our homes along the way when we’re not up in the air on an American Airlines 757.

Kickoff dinner in New York tonight, events at JFK and then a flight from New York to London. I won’t be joining in the transatlantic portion but I’m promised photos and updates along the way to share. I’ll turn up in Dallas for the launch of the domestic portion of the trip.

Sit back, relax, and follow things over at the Mega DO blog and on Twitter. It’s going to be a fantastic ride!

Via MilesQuest:

You can get 1000 Free Hilton HHonors points by registering a mobile phone number and a Visa card. You’re basically agreeing to receive “special offers” via text. They promise to only send you two messages and you can opt out at any time.

You can earn an additional 4000 Hilton Honors points by spending at least $100 at a US Hilton hotel or resort with your registered Visa card.

You must register by June 30, 2012 to receive the sign up bonus and must spend $100 by then to receive the additional 4000.

Announced last night on Milepoint:

After the huge success of the inaugural FT University in NYC last April, the FT University is coming back again this year with a brand new format!

This year you can enjoy:

– Complimentary cocktail party on Friday night sponsored by milepoint.com

– On Saturday you will be able to learn from the best in the biz from exclusive speakers you won’t be able to hear anywhere else, including the miles guru himself, Randy Petersen and popular blogger Gary Leff!

– On Sunday, interact with the largest frequent flyer and hotel programs in the world, including Mileage Plus, AAdvantage, SPG and Hyatt Gold Passport

– The introduction of the best credit card learning program “Credit Card Lions Den”. The credit card programs will present their most popular cards in front of everyone, then watch the worlds biggest experts on travel credit cards bloggers critique the credit cards and make the right recommendation for you!

– Complimentary, exclusive access to the 23rd Freddie Awards on April 26th will be raffled off for those attending. That’s right! 15 spots to this years prestigious awards will be drawn on March 1st, the only thing you have to do, is sign up for the FT University before this day. The Freddies is not open to the public, this will be one of very few chances to get access!

Get ready for a weekend of fun — and for an unbeatable price!

Registration opens February 10th at 4PM Mountain time. I will post a link to the reservation site here on milepoint.

Details and registration link will be forthcoming, it’ll be priced to cover cost of event room, etc. It’s an opportunity for frequent flyers to get together and swap ideas and experiences, and learn the best tricks and techniques.

Last year’s event in New York was a smashing success, I’m sure this one will be as well, so mark your calendars and more information to come!

Lucky notes that effective March 1, Emirates will become a mileage accrual partner of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan — and that later in the year you’ll be able to burn miles for Emirates flights.

That’s great, I noted yesterday that Emirates was in desperate need of a US airline partner having lost United and Continental (I had expected that partner to be American until American hooked up with Etihad). Sure, Emirates promoted its interline agreement with JetBlue, and there’s probably some non-zero benefit they get feeding their New York flights from that. But the cupboard is pretty bare. I expected them to cozy up to Delta, and for sure they still may, but it seemed interesting that concomitant with the launch of their Seattle service they’re hooking up with Alaska. Good move for Emirates, and also for Alaska — but great news for frequent flyers.

Sure, it’s great to have a program to credit Emirates flying to. But I’m most interested in it from the redemption side. We don’t have any details yet — United used to allow redemption all the way up to first class, Continental only offered redemptions in business. Alaska often allows first class redemptions on many of its partners, I’d love to see that here and also at a reasonable price point (most Alaska awards are at least ‘in the ballpark’ if not a direct value).

Currently Emirates only partners with Japan Airlines, and the JAL frequent flyer award chart is frequently better than the Emirates Skywards one for redemption. Emirates makes quite a bit of first class award space available, including on the Airbus A380 (showers in first class on that baby!). The seats are probably relatively easy to get in part because there’s little competition for them. No American or United members clamoring to scoop them up. Certainly for the median North American member the most likely way to do it is via a Starwood points transfer.

Alaska, on the other hand, presents an interesting alternative. Their Bank of America-issued credit card is churnable, in my experience (and a great deal for the $99 companion ticket valid on any fare, any seat, including first class to Hawaii). They’re a transfer partner of several hotel programs including Starwood, and also a Diners Club Rewards transfer partner in North America. You can credit American and Delta flying to them. So their points are obtainable.

Alaska has some really interesting features to their program:

• They have lots of partners, mostly oneworld and Skyteam, not just American and Delta but also Qantas, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Air France and Korean.
  
• They allow you to book awards whenever a partner’s flight schedule opens. American Airlines in contrast only allows booking 331 days out. Alaska doesn’t load their own schedule until then, but for airlines that load theirs 350+ days in advance like BA, Cathay, and Qantas, Alaska offers an advantage. It’s possible to grab those non-stop Qantas flights from the US to Australia the moment the Qantas schedule opens using Alaska miles. In my experience they’ll even let you call back later and add in Alaska segments to get to the international gateway city (since you couldn’t do it when you booked the award before the Alaska schedule was loaded) without a change fee.

• Creative routings are generally permitted. I love Cathay Pacific from the US to Australia, say New York JFK to Hong Kong to Perth. And I especially love Cathay to South Africa, with an allowable stopover in Hong Kong, that’s 140,000 miles in first class (the same price as just flying first class to Hong Kong!).

Not everything is perfect. My chief beefs are:

• No one-way partner awards. Roundtrip only if you’re booking something other than just Alaska Airlines.

• No mixing partners on an award. You can only book on a single partner, plus adding in Alaska Airlines segments. So you need to use one partner in both directions, it’s not possible to fly American one-way and British Airways the other for instance (and yes, Alaska adds fuel surcharges onto British Airways redemptions).

• No award holds. They abolished holds a bit less than two years ago, without warning or explanation, it’s instant ticketing only.

I’m excited for the addition of Emirates to the stable of Alaska Mileage Plan partners. It offers the glimmer of possibility that I might finally get off my duff and redeem a first class award on their A380, something which to date I’ve decided has just been too expensive points-wise to justify.

Update: Worth noting that Emirates flying counts as elite qualifying with Alaska Mileage Plan. I admit that bit surprised me, hat tip to Rick R.

Advice on Choosing the Best Credit Card

• 2012 Credit Card Spending Strategy

• The Best Mix of Rewards Credit Cards for My Wallet

• Which Credit Cards for High Spenders?

• Earning the Most Points for Booking Travel

• Earning Double Points (and Elite Status) at Starbucks

Analysis of Specific Top Credit Card Choices

• Chase Sapphire Preferred as the King of Credit Cards

• The Enduring Value of the Starwood American Express Card

• American Express Platinum’s Amazing Travel Benefits

Credit Card Churning: Making the Most of Signup Bonuses

• Using Credit Card Offers to Construct a Dream Trip Quickly

• Confessions of a Once and Future Credit Card Churner

• Results of My Recent Credit Card Churn

• Leveraging Monster Credit Card Signup Bonuses — Getting Even More Miles

• Turning a Credit Card Rejection into an Approval

• What Cards Do You Cancel and When?

There’s three possible models for service and cost in the airline industry.

• You can be a super premium carrier. Singapore Airlines has that reputation, though I tend to think it’s more hype than substance even though I like the ability to pre-order meals in business and the service is quite good most of the time. Bangkok Airways impressed me in November, meals in coach (I was in business) and an escort and ride across the tarmac for domestic to international connecting passengers.

• You can be a deep discounter. Everything is an upcharge, Spirit charges not just for carryon bags but also water and has even charged a convenience fee for booking online. Ryanair drums up publicity by threatening to charge to use the bathroom, and by saying they’re going to order planes where everyone has to stand up. They compete for publicity and make everyone think they’re cheap. I wouldn’t want to fly them. For some reason people think Souhwest is cheap, but they often aren’t and certainly don’t fall into this camp (I also like my seat assignments thank you very much.)

• You can be somewhere in between, not providing the very best service so customers choose you even at a higher price point, and not being so ruthless about costs, even though folks kvetch about baggage fees the Ryanairs and Spirits of the world underscore that some stuff is still included.

The problem with being somewhere in between is that consumers usually think of air travel as a commodity product, there are some carriers with brand value but mostly travelers see the airlines as equal — so if you invest in amenities it’s a nicer experience for the passenger but the bet has for many years been that it doesn’t earn incremental business, it just erods margins.

And the very idea that cutting costs is the only way to be profitable in a capital-intensive low margin business like aviation is ingrained in the soul of American Airlines. When Bob Crandall was the CEO he told the story of removing an olive from first class salads to save $40,000 and often emphasized the point and shaving costs by claiming to have replaced a night watchman with a sign about a guard dog.

Which is why it’s sort of surprising to see American adding back complimentary alcoholic beverages to coach on their transatlantic and transpacific flights and some of their South America flights.

I’m not sure I understand the value proposition here, beyond a better customer experience. (That should be enough, right? But remember it would fly against the theory that customers still see you as offering a commodity product even when you make incremental investments in comfort, so unless you go to true extremes you shouldn’t earn enough incremental business to cover costs through amenities in coach).

• One possibility is that American really is trying to invest in its products across the board. They’ve introduced pajamas in first class, a culinary partnership with Richard Sandoval (whose restaurants open with really good food, though they get mediocre very quickly), they offer a purchase option for airport meet, greet, and escort services. They seem to treat their top tier elites really well.

• Another possibility is that they get real marketing value out of the move, and that it’s worth doing precisely because they’re in Chapter 11. They can counter any notion that they’re a struggling carrier through the public display of investing in their product, so it’s more about P.R. than the actual inflight product. If that’s the case, then you wouldn’t expect the move to last once American exits bankruptcy.

In the meantime, I think it’s a really great move by American, though I don’t know how many passengers will make the decision to fly American over a competitor on the basis of free drinks in economy, I do know that if I were flying economy long haul I probably wouldn’t want to be sober either…