Converting hotel points into British Airways miles will earn a 50% bonus through January 31, 2005.

The offer applies to points from Hyatt, Hilton, Starwood, Marriott, and Priority Club.

Lufthansa has announced a new top tier elite level for their frequent flyer program, HON Circle. Link to details are on the airlines homepage.

There’s a nice summary in the current MilesLink newsletter.

Members who earn at least 600,000 status miles in two consecutive years on Lufthansa, Lufthansa Regional, Austrian, LOT, Air One, Air Dolomiti or United will achieve the status, represented by a sexy new black membership card (up to 100,000 miles earned by rail travel will count toward the status, as well).

…

Members will enjoy use of the new first-class terminal and two new first class lounges at Frankfurt, which offer gourmet meals and limousine service to departing flights.


A personal assistant will be available at both departure and arrival for each member.


Members will also receive free subscriptions to Stern, Financial Times, Focus, Capital, Welt, WamS and FAZ.


One of the most talked-about perks is the complimentary membership in a number of other programs, including Avis President’s Club, Sixt Diamond status for the member and a partner, HHonors VIP Gold status, Hyatt Platinum status, Kempinski Private Concierge, and Platinum membership in the Vodafone Stars program.


Members receive a booking guarantee up to 24 hours before departure in business class, and up to 72 hours before departure in economy class.


Members also get guaranteed award-flight availability for themselves and up to three others up to 14 days in advance, as long as there are still seats available.



In addition, members can clam Senator status for a spouse or partner.
HON members get the highest priority on waitlists, six eVouchers for upgrades, a dedicated service line, and a 50 percent Executive bonus on most flights.

Hilton is running a “member-get-member” promotion: refer a member, and if they stay at a Hilton hotel in 2005 you get 1000 bonus points. If they twice, they get 1000 bonus points.

That’s my understanding of the offer via MilesLink, though the website still lists the 2004 expiration date.

Sign up here, and if you need to be referred for the bonus miles feel free to use my Hilton HHonors number 839900993.

The latest NotiFlyer brings news of total victory for the Save Skymiles movement.

• The threshold for Platinum Medallion qualification reduces from 100,000 miles to 75,000 miles – in line with partners Continental and Northwest.
  

• All discount fares will earn a full qualifying mile for each mile flown. First and business class as well as Y, B, and M coach fares will earn 1.5 qualifying miles per mile flown. The minimum miles per segment will be reduced from 750 to 500.

Full information on the changes, which go into effect January 1, can be found here.

I’m really glad to see all fares earning a full qualifying mile per mile flown. That’s good business and it’s a much simpler system than the craziness that had been spreading across some parts of the airline industry.

My one concern is the reduced qualifying threshold for Platinum. While good for current Golds — it’s easier to make the top elite level — it’s going to mean a whole lot more competition for upgrades at the top level. And that also means greater difficulty for mid-level elites to get those upgrades.

Gratis Internet has a new free offer — a Free Game System. You can get an Xbox, Nintendo GameCube or Handheld, or a Sony Playstation 2.

Click on the link, sign up. Then you’ll be asked whether you’re interested in several marketing offers. Each one has a yes/no. Choose no, as they don’t help you get your Xbox.

Once you’re through that screen, you need to choose one trial offer from a long list. I just signed up for a free 30-day trial with eFax (which I’ll cancel in a couple of days once the offer credits to my account). Then you need to refer 4 friends who complete offers.

This is the easiest of the free offers yet — the iPod takes 5 offers, the flatscreen 8, the computer 10… so this one is worth trying.

Another easy one is the free handbag offer which takes only 5 referrals.

And the absolute coolest offer is the free photo iPod.

This blog is apparently recommended for a very specific niche of traveler.

[I]f you’re a road warrior who will make three ugly flight connections for triple bonus points, you may want to go straight to a pro-blogger who focuses on mileage programs, such as WebFlyer (www.webflyer.com/blog)

If only “pro” in this context meant “participating for gain or livelihood”…

Looks like Delta pulled the amazing “Dash to the Gate” offer of 10,000 miles for a simple game.

The page now says, “So sorry you’ve missed your chance to Dash to the Gate. If you haven’t already played, you’ll have an opportunity in the near future…”

Michelle Malkin links to my old Impeach Norm Mineta bumper stickers. Now that Mineta is clearly staying in the Bush Administration, it’s time to resurrect them. Oh, and I’m already getting orders for them via paypal.

Smarterliving.com has two new useful columns on upgrades. First is a piece by Tim Winship on affordable first class and second is an article by Erica Silverstein on upgrading with miles.

Both are useful and worth reading, although it’s always worth remembering that any time you try to tackle such a broad subject across a range of carriers, the devil will be in the details and some small items will be wrong or misleading.

Contra-Winship, not all carriers offer unlimited domestic upgrades to their elite members. United, for example, does not.

Erica Silverstein offers a bit of confusing prose about what fares are eligible for upgrades on US carriers.

Northwest allows all but the most deeply discounted fare classes to be upgraded; and Delta only allows full-fare economy economy tickets to be upgraded.

She’s correct about Northwest with respect to domestic tickets — elites can upgrade pretty much any fare, and non-elites can upgrade most fares (but not the cheapest). Internationally, Northwest allows mileage upgrades only on full fare (Y and B) across the Atlantic and on almost full fare (Y, B, and M) across the Pacific.

Delta allows full fare tickets to be upgraded internationally as well as M fares which are a notch below full fare.

Similarly there’s a bit of confusion on partner upgrades

United and US Airways do not seem to allow upgrades on their partners.

While United and USAirways do not allow mileage upgrades on each other (though elite members can purchase upgrade certificates and use those), United does permit upgrades with miles on its partner Lufthansa.

So always worth reading upgrade primers. Just know that you still have to check the details for each carrier. Or drop me a note and ask, and I’ll dig up the details for you.

The easiest Delta miles ever. Just play the Delta Dash to the Gate game for up to 10,000 miles. It’s a multiple choice game with obvious answers.

You’re almost certain to earn the full mileage since (a) the questions are easy and (b) if you don’t earn the points they give you a chance to play the game again for a better score until you do.

At first I was skeptical about the offer, but the website is an actual Delta site and it’s quite professionally done. Seems too easy to work. But it should.

Update: I’ve already received a confirmation email after playing the game, verifying that I’ll be receiving 10,000 miles. The terms and conditions say the following two useful things:

All SkyMiles members worldwide are eligible for this promotion.

…

Miles will appear automatically on your SkyMiles statement up to 8 weeks after promotion ends.

What a great headline, “Western Plastic Breaches Great Wall”.

Anyone looking for signs that China is edging its way into Western consumer culture should consider this: the Bank of China, the oldest indigenous Chinese bank, now issues a Great Wall platinum Visa credit card, and it comes with a frequent-flyer rewards program.



Only 1 per cent of Chinese citizens hold Western-style credit cards; usually the wealthiest of urban sophisticates. Most people use cash for everything; they have no bank accounts or have never been offered credit by a bank. What little personal lending occurs is usually informally arranged among friends, family or business associates.

Foreign banks will be allowed to offer banking services within China beginning in 2007. Currently 704 million bank cards are in circulation in China, most of which are debit cards.

Or the US State Department may not give you a Visa.

The State Department frowns on toothy smiles, which apparently are classified as unusual or unnatural expressions. According to the Bureau of Consular Affairs, smiling distorts facial features.



Officials say smiling can change facial features so much that facial-recognition software would think the passport or person weren’t the real deal.

Who knew that terrorists could avoid detection by smiling?

Tyler Cowen offers several explanations for why wait times vary across stores.

Some stores put impulse purchase items near the checkout counter, and need long lines to make sales. Some stores have more conflict at checkout than others, rental transactions take longer than cash transactions, and long lines can substitute for raising prices by adding a cost to the consumer (waiting) which substitutes for a cost to the seller (adding staff).

The explanation that most interested me in the context of aviation is

Long lines may serve the cause of price discrimination. Perhaps the store offers personalized shopper services, free home delivery, or other services at a premium. These ancillary benefits might be more profitable if shopping takes just a bit of time. Low-income demanders won’t mind so much, high-income demanders may be pushed to the extra services.

There are clearly different markets of consumers who value their time in different ways.

So-called “legacy carriers” attempt to cater to the high-income demanders by offering first class travel. Legacy and some low-cost carriers offer ‘elite status’ to frequent flyers who are given the right to bypass long checkin lines, at some airports long security lines, and who may be given access to airport lounges.

But the most interesting difference to me is the way that entire airlines are set up to serve these different segments. Legacy carriers like American, United, Continental, and Delta operate “hub and spoke” systems where aircraft take off and land in defined banks of flights over the course of the day. There are tremendous periods of activity at their hub airports and long periods of inactivity. Schedules are geared to get passengers off one plane and onto another as quickly as possible.

While convenient for the traveler, this causes significantly higher costs on the part of the airline. They have customer service agents, ramp workers, mechanics, etc. working all day long without an even flow of activity. And they have to staff at a level capable of handling their high volume periods. Furthermore, once a bank of flights has landed and taken off, aircraft still on the ground will wait for the next bank of flights so that there are (in theory) enough passengers to fill up the aircraft.

The argument for doing this is the the hub and spoke model should allow the carrier to capture both a revenue premium and a geometrically-increased share of a market’s business.

In contrast, low cost carriers tend not to operate hubs. Even carriers like Airtran that heavily focus on a single city like Atlanta aren’t operating a hub in the traditional sense. While passengers may connect through Atlanta with great frequency, the on the ground wait time of those passengers tends to be nearly double that of a passenger at a major carrier hub. The difference in operating models is that a hub means that planes wait for passengers, while the low cost carriers force passengers to wait for planes.

In this way, an airline like Airtran is able to spread its activity out throughout the day and save on labor costs. It is also able to get a higher utilization rate on its aircraft. In exchange for these efficiencies, and thus profitability at a lower average fare, customers choosing Airtran are often forced to wait longer for their connections.

Through December 31st, Alaska Airlines Board Room (lounge) membership is on sale and so are day passes.

For annual membership, the $100 ‘initiation fee’ is waived. For day passes, the usual $25 price is reduced to two for $25 or one for $15.

To take advantage of the offer, call Board Room Administration at 206-392-5496 and use promo code BRGIFT04. Lounge passes make great gifts for your Seattle-area friends and my understanding is that they come without an expiration date.

In the middle of the night Thursday night, a Krispy Kreme doughnut truck was stolen. The back door to the truck was left open, and police followed a trail of doughnuts to find the truck.

Hat tip to Ramble On.

Diners Club is doubling the cashback from its restaurant savings program for your most expensive restaurant visit through the end of 2004. Registration is required.

The Restaurant Savings Program is basically iDine, with cashback up to 20% rather than frequent flyer miles as the reward. You eat at a participating restaurant, pay with the card, and the rebate appears on your account statement.

This promotion doubles that rebate, meaning savings up to 40% on a single visit.

Make your reservation through the Diners Club concierge and you’ll also earn 500 Club Rewards points as part of their current promotion to get you to use their free concierge service. (First 3 uses yield 500 points apiece with 250 points thereafter, up to a maximum of 2000 bonus points per month. The promotion runs through January 31st.)

More good reasons why I highly recommend Diners Club — even before it becomes accepted everywhere that takes Mastercard at the beginning of 2005…

American Airlines publishes a chart, perhaps updated weekly, with a rough guide to award availability between select city pairs.

This isn’t nearly as useful as Continental’s real-time availability calendar, but it’s a start.

The city pairs are all domestic, and availability appears to be listed strictly for coach awards, but some disclosure is better than no disclosure at all — although the color coding (white, yellow, green) eerily resembles something from the Department of Homeland Security.

Through January 15, Goldpoints is offering a 50% bonus on points transfers to United and American.

Then again, 1250 Goldpoints gets you an appetizer at TGI Friday’s…

Update 12/3/05 5:45 am: The offer appears to be targeted and available only to those who receive it from Goldpoints via email. Sorry for any confusion and thanks to Free Frequent Flyer Miles for the heads up.

United is offering double miles on the first three roundtrips that post to your Mileage Plus account by February 28, 2005 which are booked in M class or higher. M fares are nearly full fare coach. Registration is required.

Sprint has a very short survey. Take it by December 27th and they’ll give you 100 Anytime minutes.