View from the Wing

United’s generally worthless ‘luxury travel club’ is offering 50,000 United miles as a bonus when signing up for a 2-year membership ($500).

That’s one cent per mile, plus you get 2 lounge passes and Starwood Gold status (and a couple other minor sundry items, like the ability to request a free leather travel wallet from one of their partners).

The 3-month trial for $10, which still nets you the lounge passes and Starwood status but no miles, is still available.

Starwood has announced the name of its new mid-market chain meant to build on the W style while competing with Marriott Courtyards and Hilton Garden Inns. The chain will be called aloft.

These first aloft properties will be located in Lexington, Massachusetts, Tucson, Arizona, San Francisco Airport, Philadelphia Airport, and Cherry Creek, Colorado. The company also stated that its UFOC, or franchise offering circular, was effective as of today and that it would begin to offer aloft licenses to qualified hotel owners and operators. Starwood anticipates the first hotels to break ground in early 2006 and open in early 2007, with 500 properties worldwide expected by 2012.

Here’s what we know about their plans so far:

Design visionary David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group, whose award-winning projects include the Kodak Theater, Nobu and the W Union Square, are collaborating on the brand’s design.



With generous nine-foot ceilings and oversized windows, guest rooms will have a decidedly loft-like feel. In addition to the guest room centerpiece — a signature, ultra-comfortable bed for which Starwood’s brands are well known — a well-designed workspace, an mp3 docking station and a flat panel television will further differentiate the aloft guest room. Large stylish bathrooms will feature oversized walk-in showers and amenities created by Bliss.



Starwood has created aloft to be both quiet and inviting, day and night, offering a variety of friendly venues for guests to gather. aloft’s public spaces are designed to draw guests from their rooms with a number of super social offerings. With Relax; a communal space to grab a drink with friends and Fresh air; an open-air area out back, guests can socialize and gather for light meals during the day or night. aloft will also satisfy guest’s needs 24-hrs-a-day with Re:Fuel; a one-stop area offering up food, snacks and drinks to grab and go. For workouts, Train fitness centers or Splash; the indoor or outdoor pool, will start or end guest’s days with a quick work out. The aloft sites will also feature flexible meeting and function space and offer 100% wireless Internet access throughout the properties.

Starwood needs something other than Four Points to compete in the mid-market category. And they can’t do any worse than Intercontinental Hotel Group’s Hotel Indigo misadventure.

Forbes runs a list of the world’s most expensive resorts.

Unsurprisingly, Singita Private Game Reserve, Sandy Lane, and Eden Rock in St. Barts make the list.

I knew there was a new One&Only property in the Maldives, and everything is pricey in the Maldives to begin with, but didn’t realize the rate class that it was in.

It’s interesting that nothing in French Polynesia shows up on the list. Eden Rock checks in with a high season room rate of $888. Perhaps Bora Bora Nui (at $1000 to $1300 for an Overwater Bungalow) doesn’t make the list because it offers a handful of less expensive Beachside and Treetop Bungalows. I imagine that a new Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons on Bora Bora will manage to crack this list.

And where is Cala de Volpe? I can’t imagine that nothing in Porto Cervo makes the list. And not a single Aman property?

Altamer in Anguilla and Rania in the Maldives… now those are just a little out of my league.

But let’s not forget that price isn’t always the same as quality, and that incremental improvements in quality beyond a certain point are incredibly expensive.

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The New York Times carried a piece on the problem hotels face in trying to satisfy both Gen X and baby boomer business travelers.

GenX wants hip (W) while boomers want classic (Ritz). GenX’ers are becoming increasingly important, the classic brands know this and are trying to graft onto their preferences without losing their core demographic.

The gap isn’t just manifesting itself at the higher ends of business travel, either — Starwood is introducing a less-expensive version of a W to compete with the Hilton Garden Inn and Marriott Courtyard product (something that their Four Points brand fails at miserably).

The New York Times carried a piece on the problem hotels face in trying to satisfy both Gen X and baby boomer business travelers.

GenX wants hip (W) while boomers want classic (Ritz). GenX’ers are becoming increasingly important, the classic brands know this and are trying to graft onto their preferences without losing their core demographic.

The gap isn’t just manifesting itself at the higher ends of business travel, either — Starwood is introducing a less-expensive version of a W to compete with the Hilton Garden Inn and Marriott Courtyard product (something that their Four Points brand fails at miserably).

The New York Times carried a piece on the problem hotels face in trying to satisfy both Gen X and baby boomer business travelers.

GenX wants hip (W) while boomers want classic (Ritz). GenX’ers are becoming increasingly important, the classic brands know this and are trying to graft onto their preferences without losing their core demographic.

The gap isn’t just manifesting itself at the higher ends of business travel, either — Starwood is introducing a less-expensive version of a W to compete with the Hilton Garden Inn and Marriott Courtyard product (something that their Four Points brand fails at miserably).

It’s now possible to stick Priceline’s booking engine on your own website and, naturally, earn a commission for hotels booked through the site.

A bit of trouble to set up, perhaps, but for the adventuresome it should yield a better return than the 3% offered by eBates.

(Hat tip to Tripso Daily.)

Register to earn double points on Metroliner and Acela Express trains through the end of the year.

(Whenever there’s a bonus that requires registration, register. You may not think you’ll be getting on a train, or flying between two cities, but you may wind up surprised — registering for the bonus gets you the miles you never expected.)

A timeshare company is offering 500 Goldpoints for entering their sweepstakes. 500 Goldpoints aren’t worth much — you earn 500 points just for updating your email address every three months — but I figure it’s worth a sales call because every year I transfer Goldpoints into Northwest miles to complete a partner transaction in the Fly Free Faster promo for 10,000 miles…

(Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)

Holiday Inn’s sweepstakes is giving away a free iTunes download just for entering.

Website is crawling at the moment, but when it works all you have to do is fill out a form and you’ll get an email with an iTunes download code fairly quickly.

Marriott is offering double Marriott Rewards points on stays paid with Visa between October 1, 2005 and January 31, 2006 — beginning with your second stay during that period. Registration is required.

The Merrill+ Visa offers an interesting value proposition: a proprietary points program that can be used for coach airlines tickets or for merchandise, a la Worldpoints or a CapitalOne card.

So far, not very interesting. But there are spending thresholds of $20,000 and $50,000 and at each threshold additional benefits kick in.

$50,000 in spending on the card in a calendar year will earn 4 free nights at a Ritz-Carlton hotel. That’s a decent reward for $50,000 in spending, but since the proprietary points program wasn’t that useful to me I still preferred my Starwood American Express and Diners Club combo.

Now they’ve introduced point transfers to British Airways on a 1:1 basis.

So $50,000 in spending nets you 4 Ritz-Carlton nights and 50,000 British Airways miles.

Not bad at all, actually an amazing return, and it has no annual fee.

The only downside is that the two pieces of value in the card are tied to contracts that Merrill Lynch probably has to renegotiate annually. I’d hate to spend $50,000 on the card and then find the Ritz-Carlton nights gone, even if Merrill manages to negotiate a contract with another hotel chain.

The current reward offerings are great, I just caution that there’s some risk that the rewards could change by the time you’re ready to redeem for them.

Delta and Northwest both filed for bankruptcy this afternoon after market close.

Both were expected to file in advance of bankruptcy law changes going into effect October 17th.

Northwest did not receive any debtor-in-possession financing commitments, instead opting to operate with its existing $1.5 billion in cash.

Delta received commitments of up to $1.7 billion in debtor-in-possession financing from GE Commercial Finance and Morgan Stanley and has received a separate commitment of another $350 million from American Express. Amex prepaid the purchase of half a billion Skymiles last year to infuse cash into the airline. One requirement of those funds was that as a first act Delta ask the bankruptcy court to reaffirm the airline’s frequent flyer program liabilities.

I don’t expect immediate changes to either airline’s frequent flyer program. If anything I’d anticipate more mileage bonuses — it’s cheap currency to print and might lure customers who would otherwise book away.

Back in April I mentioned (here and here) a promotion code to instantly upgrade your Hilton Hhonors account to Gold status.

It’s a code meant for Citibank Chairman’s Card credit card holders, but Hilton apparently made no effort to restrict up front who could use it.

It isn’t even just a situation of a secret promo code that got out. I called Hilton one day and the promo code was mentioned in the voice tree without even reference to the Citibank Chairman’s Card.

Now, however, Hilton is haphazardly going through their records and demoting the status of people who signed up using the code. I say haphazardly because some people who were eligible for the promotion (they had the Citibank Chairmans Card) were downgraded, and others who were not eligible still retained their status. What’s more, people are finding themselves checking into hotels only to learn of their new status — Hilton hasn’t apparently made efforts to notify members of the change.

Especially bizarre is that it still seems relatively easy to take advantage of the glitch, Hilton’s efforts to downgrade accounts notwithstanding. You can apparently still enroll online with this promotion, I imagine your account would be started at the Gold level.

What should Hilton have done? (Besides not put a promo code they don’t want public on their main voice tree, I mean!)

• They should have a list from Citibank of those that are eligible.
  

• They should run their database of Gold ugprades/new accounts against that list.
  

• Where there’s no match they should contact the member and let them know they’re having trouble verifying eligibility, and give the member 60 or 90 days to provide verification.

I don’t have a problem with downgrading status for people who signed up for a promo they weren’t eligible for (though it seems like members who learned about the promo from Hilton’s 800 number should be considered eligible).

But they really should handle this differently.

By the way, for those downgraded who don’t want to open a new account with the link above and merge it with an existing account, here’s a fast track to Gold offer which requires just 6 stays in 90 days.

And for anyone who thinks I’m giving away state secrets here … both the instant gold and fastrack offers come up in the top half of the first page when Googling “Hilton HHonors Gold VIP”.

I spent Labor Day weekend at the Westin Diplomat on a cash and points award reservation — $60 and 4000 Starwood points per night.

It’s located in Hollywood, Florida — North of Miami, not exactly in the middle of the action but right on the Atlantic Ocean.

In the 60’s and 70’s the original Diplomat was frequented by Rat Pack types. The hotel closed in 1991 and was acquired by the International Brotherhood of Plumbers and Pipefitters in 1998, torn down, and rebuilt.

A building project funded by a union pension to a tune just shy of $1 billion dollars seems like a good idea, doesn’t it? So it should be no surprise that the State of Florida managed to force the union to get an independent trustee appointed to oversee the money and to require that a professional management company come in, enter Starwood and the Westin brand when the property reopened in 2002.

(One secret about the property: I understand that the mattresses were purchased before Westin came on board. So while the sheets are all of the Heavenly variety, the mattress is a different — though quite nice! — brand.)

During high season regular rooms are well north of $300. Labor Day is still the off-season and lowest rates were around $189. That values the points component of my rate at a bit over 3 cents per point.

This is a very large hotel, I believe 998 rooms. The best features are that it’s smack dab on the ocean and that it has nearly 90 suites which means that a status-based upgrade is a gimme. (In fact for Platinum members my understanding of hotel procedure is that they’ll attempt to upgrade you shortly after booking rather than at checkin — something far better than the Starwood Preferred Guest program requires.)

The Diplomat also may have the nicest club lounge of any Westin in North America — a large room on the 33rd floor with both indoor and outdoor seating and an exceptional complimentary breakfast display (snack and evening appetizer presentations were fine, but didn’t nearly live up to the bountiful breakfast which included lox and all the trimmings). I even picked up my Sunday New York Times complimentary there.

I was upgraded to corner suite on the 29th floor, with the ocean to the East and Intracoastal waterway to the South. This is the most common suite at the hotel, to be sure, but outside of the Presidential suite this may be the most desirable.

I wasn’t charged the resort fee which I had read was $16 but includes high-speed internet. I was charged $9.95 for internet use (since I tried to connect daily) — but I mentioned to the desk that internet service was intermittant for some reason and each day’s charge was deducted without my asking.

Given the size of the property I was actually amazed at never waiting for an elevator or for assistance with my rental car. There was always someone available when I arrived to take my car, and it was always retrieved quickly.

Housekeeping had a few issues, I had a stained towel and only one robe on arrival, plus one of the toiletery bottles had been opened. But every item I raised was dealt with quickly and efficiently.

The rooms seriously need wireless internet — what a shame to have to work on my laptop indoors rather than sitting out on the balcony!

While The Atlantic is probably considered the better property (and thus this isn’t even the nicest Starwood in the area) and I don’t generally like such large hotels, given the amazing status recognition hereand the nice lounge it made for an outstanding bargain.

It’s also worth noting that beach renovations are complete - so the beach is accessible from the pool area and had sufficient space to accomodate guests.

There’s a skybridge between the property and the ‘Diplomat Landing’ shopping area across the street. It’s sparsely populated, lots of empty space and ‘coming soons’ — but the gelatto shop is good!

It was interesting to see the diverse mix of guests constantly walking through the busy lobby. It came as a bit of a surprise that people coming in from the pool and beach would traipse by without changing clothes or even cover up their swimsuits with a towel. A downside to some, no doubt a bonus for others.

I’m usually an Avis guy (recent problems notwithstanding). But sometimes the rates from other car companies are just too good.

I recently booked a colleague on a 13-day full size rental with Budget that came to $295 — that’s $22.69 a day including taxes and fees. Their United Airlines special offer gives miles and a real 10% - 15% off the best web rate.

Not always useful, but one for the arsenal.

About 3 weeks ago, Gratis Networks changed its name to FreePay. Gratis, of course, is the company that spawned the Free iPods offer and then expanded into things like free digital cameras and free Xbox 360s.

As long-time readers of this site know, I spent a lot of time figuring out the best ways to go about getting these offers. In general, you have to complete a marketing offer and get several friends (3 to 10, depending on the electronic item you seek) to do the same. If you wait long enough, easy offers will show up — offers that are free or free for a trial period long enough to cancel without getting charged.

Customer service is slow, the company isn’t responsive, but I’ve always gotten my items — the iPod mini, the photo iPod, the desktop computer, Mac Mini, iPod Shuffle, to name a few.

The Xbox 360 (as I understand it) hasn’t even come out yet. But the one they’ll be sending is even the $399 premium edition, not the stripped down model.

FreePay also has a brand new offer — free iPod Nanos.

Overstock.com is offering 12% off entire orders for first-time buyers through September 30th.

In the next few weeks you’ll be able to earn miles in the program of your choice — USAirways Dividend Miles or America West FlightFund — when flying on either airline. Sometime in 2006 miles from both accounts will be merged together.

The two airlines have started to release some information regarding their frequent flier plans. Starting this fall, members of US Airways Dividend Miles plan and America West’s FlightFund plan can earn and redeem miles throughout the new airlines’ combined route system.



Next year, the miles will all be combined into a single Dividend Miles account. And the miles will not expire as long as your account is open, officials of the airlines said.

…

The airlines speculate that “Day 1″ of the merged airline could be as early as Tuesday, Sept. 27.