The CEO of Kayak.com calls Expedia’s best price guarantee for airfare “laughable.”

Of course he’d say that, he’s a competitor, but the fine print is a doozy — it doesn’t count Expedia’s booking fee (so an airline’s site offering the same fare will be cheaper) and it doesn’t count airlines that Expedia doesn’t sell (so it doesn’t matter that Southwest and JetBlue offer it for less).

And since Expedia only selectively honored the $3 room nights at the Tokyo and Osaka Hilton properties, we know that some rates are too good on Expedia…

Suzanne Marta of the Dallas Morning News takes a clearly tongue-in-cheek look at American Airlines service cuts. While there are bigger cutbacks that have been made, she focuses on the ice cream sundaes which American stopped offering made-to-order in international business class.

The piece cites some cutbacks but then offers up American’s spin:

Last year, American changed the hot towels it gives elite passengers from cloth to paper. Earlier this month, business-class lunch service changed from a four-course feast to lighter fare.



A spokeswoman said it’s the carrier’s first menu overhaul in seven years for domestic transcontinental flights. The changes are meant to better reflect how people eat during the midday meal.

After complaints the made-to-order sundae will come back on dinner flights but remain pre-made for lunch.

Marta concludes:

The changes don’t apply to travelers in first class, who never lost their customized desserts. American said there are no plans to start any sundae service – custom or premade – in coach.

Leigh Witchel has a new ongoing series on finding the best mileage awards. So far he’s written about credit cards and also mileage programs with awards based on distance.

The latter key takeaway is one of my favorites, the neat benefit of Cathay Pacific Asia Miles — awards in business class under 5000 miles are only 60,000 points. So flights on British Airways from the East Coast of the US to most destinations in Europe qualify. Similar flights would cost 100,000 British Airways miles.

Separately, the new Gratis Air Blog is posting daily airfare deals, some of which are pretty good.

A Flyertalker reports that

Depending on the number of Aeroplan Status Miles collected over the year, a member can reach Air Canada Prestige, Elite or Super Elite status. To make Super Elite status a customer has to fly 100,000 miles a year. There are 9,000 Super Elite 68,000 Elite and 57,000 Prestige customers.

These numbers are usually proprietary and so are interesting to learn. There’s some discussion there of how they compare to past figures, given changes in the travel industry and changes in qualifying requirements. I’ll save analysis of this for another day, but thought I’d pass along the figures.

Priority Club (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental, etc.) is probably worse than any other chain with respect to hotel properties complying with the terms and conditions of their loyalty program.

One specific area where this manifests itself is upgrades for elite members (Platinums can never really know what to expect at a Holiday Inn, and Royal Ambassador treatment varies markedly at all Intercontinentals — is there an upgrade at all? is it to an executive room or a suite or two room categories or…?).

But what bothers me most at the moment is their decision to award points and stay credit on any given rate. You just never know whether you’re going to earn points. And even if you think you should, reporting a discrepancy after the fact may or may not be met with favorable customer service.

One rule that seems to be applied sometimes is that you will not earn any points when booking a hotel rate that’s less than 30% of the ‘normal’ rate (whatever this is, it doesn’t seem to be rack) at a hotel. This rule that some hotels seem to use and some Priority Club customer service agents think exists is nowhere to be found in the program’s terms and conditions.

The only reference to 30% discounts and points earning is that points will be earned on conference rates or discounts negotiated directly with a hotel when the rate is discounted less than 30% (off what?).

This item in the terms and conditions does not apply to any other situation. Yet some hotels just refuse to pay for points to be awarded on other discounted rates, and Priority Club lets them get away with it. I imagine they just have poor enforcement mechanisms written into their hotel contracts, and don’t have a good way to make properties pay for points when they don’t wish to do so. And the program chooses not to eat the expense itself.

Points are also awarded inconsistently when Intercontinental Ambassador members use their ‘free weekend night’ certificates. You pay for one night (which should earn points and stay credit) and get the next night free. If the hotel chooses to ‘spread the rate’ evenly across the two nights (which is incorrect) they then argue that the stay is discounted more than 30% and thus ineligible for points, even though the terms and conditions of the program doesn’t provide for this. An appeal to customer service will sometimes yield points, sometimes it will not.

What’s most outrageous is that there’s no way to know in advance, when booking a hotel, whether or not points and stay credit will be awarded. Apparently there’s no simple rule like at other chains that ‘all stays booked on the Priority Club website will earn points.’ Or that points will be earned unless the customer is advised otherwise, at least advised in the rate details. Shouldn’t they at least give customers the option to book a qualifying rate if not all rates will qualify?

This really is a backward program. It’s not as bad as Radisson’s Goldpoints, which I’ve found to be downright dishonest (I blame the company managing that program, which also manages Amtrak Guest Rewards). But it’s not a first-tier program by any stretch a la Marriott, Hilton, or Starwood.

If I wasn’t a Royal Ambassador member and entitled to complimentary drinks from the mini-bar I wouldn’t ever stay at an Intercontinental property, simply for this reason.

I just got an email from United titled United award seats to exciting destinations.

The idea is that it’s possible to get awards with United miles, there are seats available, and they’re going to help me think of places I can successfully go with my miles.

You’ve earned your miles and we’d like to help you to use them for award travel. So now we have a dedicated page that will be updated every month with destinations where there are ample seats available on United®, United Express® and TedSM.



Visit a favorite city, take a break to a sunnier destination or try somewhere new and exotic.



Your seats are waiting.

So what routes are they highlighting in the e-mail?

1. Chicago (ORD) – Washington, DC (IAD)


2. Denver (DEN) – Las Vegas (LAS)


3. Los Angeles (LAX) – Phoenix (PHX)


4. San Francisco (SFO) – Kona, Hawaii (KOA)


5. Washington, DC (IAD) – Fort Lauderdale (FLL)

Chicago – Washington DC? Los Angeles – Phoenix? They’ve got to be kidding. And then the fine print even emphasizes that they’re only talking about awards in coach…

Northwest Vacations is offering airfare and two nights in Hawaii from $94.

Choose one person. I’ve found travel between March 1 and March 31. You’re using promo code WVRQ400 and for the cheapest prices will want to pick Monday through Thursday travel. Cities other than Los Angeles for departures are slightly higher. And yes this deal earns Northwest miles.

Thanks to Flyertalk.

Update Jan 20: The cheapest deals are now gone and the promotion has been revised. No more $94 vacations. Here’s the new promotion in case anyone finds it useful.

From Meg Mueller’s hotel blog, QuickBook has extended its best rate guarantee to allow you to find a better price within 72 hours of booking rather than the industry standard 24 hours.

Internet booking site Quikbook just upped the ante in the stakes of “why book here” on the Web. The company has extended its “best-rate guarantee” to 72 hours after booking. Most hotel sites and online booking agents (Orbitz, Hotels.com, etc..) offer a refund or matching price if you find a lower rate on the same room at the same hotel, but that offer generally expires after just 24 hours. Quikbook also has one of the better cancellation policies on the Web, charging nothing if it’s a “pay when you get there” hotel. For pre-paid reservations, cancellation fees run just $10 for changes made four or more days before arrival, and $35 for changes made after that. Other sites may charge a full night’s rate.

Quickbook‘s ads sometimes grace this website. It’s not my killer app for hotel bookings, but it’s an important tool for the arsenal.

They’ve sometimes got better priced inventory than any of their competitors, at least for the cities in which they offer bookings (which are generally limited to major US destinations with a smattering of Canada thrown in).

I’ve made no more than a dozen hotel bookings with them, but I have found them indispensible those dozen times…

Joe Sharkey’s column today is on mid-market hotels and the absurd prices they go for in Manhattan. This subject is simply a gold mine that keeps on giving to journalists. Most of the country is shocked at what a hotel night goes for in New York, after all. But what to do?

People from out of town sometimes ask me in tones of desperation where they can find a hotel for less than $150 a night.



“You could try the Jersey side of the Holland Tunnel,” I joke. Please don’t actually follow this advice, because the cheap motels on that bank of the river are not particularly known for restful activities such as sleep.

I dropped Joe a note about the Jersey City Hyatt which frequently goes for $179 at Hyatt.com and can be had less expensively with a little sleuthing. I’ve even gotten it on Priceline for as low as $55 and on Hotwire for under $90. It’s literally right next to the Path train, so it’s just 10 minutes into the financial district. A good backup idea to have in your back pocket.

Speaking of Priceline, the days of $75 room nights at the Grand Hyatt next to Grand Central Station are over. But I still see the Hilton New York come up ~ $110 though sometimes it’ll even take $160. Once I had to go as high as $200 and wound up with the ever-mediocre W New York. But there are at least ways to avoid paying $299 for the Ramada or the HoJo’s by Penn Station even when things are booked fairly solid.

And if you’re traveling on your own dime, that’s a great time to use Starwood points (or Hilton points but you’re only a shoe-in for availablility if you’d a Diamon).

Joe did email back to clarify that he wasn’t denigrating the idea of Jersey City lodging, “just the motels on the highway by the tunnel.” Joe’s right, of course, but with a little creativity it should never come down to that!

Christopher Elliott mentions View from the Wing and several other travel blogs — inclusing some that are new to me — in a column in today’s New York Times.

If there is such a thing as an established business travel blog, it probably belongs to Gary Leff, the chief financial officer of a university research center in the Washington, D.C. area. Mr. Leff’s “View from the Wing” (blogs.flyertalk.com/blogs/viewwing/) focuses on award-related news interspersed with his personal observation about travel. He rips into the Westin Sydney in Australia, for example, for adding a $1.30 fee to his bill as “a donation” to a United Nations charity, and says he is little mollified by the fact it removed the charge after he complained.



But unlike political bloggers, who tend to approach their Web journals with a strong ideological agenda, Mr. Leff says he does not have a mission – except, maybe, to help others by pointing out some of the hazards and opportunities of the road. “Travel is a small niche in blogging,” he said. “Award programs are just a small part of that niche. Some of the subjects I write about are only interesting to a small group of people.”



Perhaps the group is not large, at least in comparison to the overall travel industry. But to the hotels, airlines and car rental companies, business travelers who are likely to read blogs such as Mr. Leff’s are their best customers. And blogs have become the latest way to reach them.

Blogs of Flyertalkers techgirl and prncess674 feature prominently.. actually more prominently than mine.

Continental posted several changes to their frequent flyer program today:

You can now receive your BusinessFirst upgrade rewards until 24 hours prior to your scheduled departure. Previously, 72 hours were required.




Effective February 1, 2006, you may redeem reward travel within the 48 contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada on round-trip flights of 1,500 miles or less for only 20,000 miles.




Effective April 1, 2006, some Easy Pass BusinessFirst reward mileage requirements will change:










































Routes between:	Miles required before 4/1/06	Miles required 4/1/06 and after
N. America and Asia	240,000	250,000
N. America and Europe	200,000	250,000
N.Amer & India/Africa/Mideast	240,000	250,000
N. America and Tel Aviv	200,000	250,000
Hawaii and Europe	220,000	270,000
Hawaii and Tel Aviv	220,000	270,000
Asia or Europe & S. Amer.	240,000	280,000




 

The introduction of 20,000 miles for flights under 1500 miles is a response to United and American offering 15,000 mile awards for shorter flights.

The change to upgrade redemption rules is a good one. Continental is afraid that customers will upgrade instead of buying full fare, so they make it difficult. Previously if there were empty business class seats 3 days before the flight you still won’t be able to redeem for them. But whether this change is ultimately an improvement depends on whether the airline releases some of these unsold seats in the period between 24 and 72 hours from departure. A better change would be to allow frequent flyers to use points for any seat eventually unsold, including at the airport.

The increase in miles required for EasyPass awards is especially problematic. A 25% increase for flights between the U.S. and Europe! These are the awards folks are stuck with when regular awards aren’t available, and they’re becoming even more expensive. 250,000 miles for business class to Europe is absurd. And while a valuable award to the extent it provides full flexibility and nearly unlimited availability, Continental’s pricing is out of this world. United charges 150,000 miles for the same award, and for that price will even take you unrestricted in business class to Australia.

This points to something else I’ve been worried about, perhaps the United chart is too lucrative relative to its competitors. I’m afraid that United — which really hasn’t increased its award pricing over the past three years while in bankruptcy yet has printed tons of miles — will start to hack away at their chart.

On Thursday I mentioned that the Starwood American Express is offering double points for tax payments. According to Free Frequent Flyer Miles the United Visa is offering double points on tax payments as well.

Marriott’s ‘MegaBonus’ returns from February 15 through May 15. You must register to find out which bonus you’re targeted for. The possibilities:

MGS61 – Earn 2,500 points/stay, beginning with 2nd stay, up to 10,000

MGS62 – Earn 5,000 points every 3rd stay, up to 25,000 pts

MGS63 – Earn 10,000 points every 3rd stay, up to 30,000 pts

MGS64 – Earn 25,000 points for staying 15 nights or more

MGS65 – Earn 35,000 points for staying 20 nights or more

(Hat tip to Flyertalk.)

Since I’m not a Marriott regular I’ve been assigned 2500 bonus points per stay beginning with the second stay.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a blood bank with a loyalty program, but this is always one of the best stories because it seems like such a caricature.

The Stewart Regional Blood Center in Tyler, Texas is launching a loyalty program to encourage frequent repeat visits by donors.

Club Red allows donors to earn points for each donation that can be redeemed for rewards such as sweatshirts, briefcases, duffel bags, captain’s chairs, desks and radios. Members must promise to make at least three donations per year. The first two donations are worth 50 points each, donations 3 through 7 are worth 100 points each up to 250 points.



Throughout the year, Stewart will have promotions offering double or triple points for donating. Donors who donate on Apheresis machines or ALYX will be able to earn double points for double red cell donations. Platelet donors will be able to donate up to 24 times a year, with the potential to earn the highest number of points and allowing them to shop the store for all the available items.

Virgin Atlantic is ‘refreshing’ its program earning and redemption.

The upshot is that some awards are getting more expensive, for example Upper Class awards from the U.K. to the U.S. are currently 80,000 points and will be going up to 90,000 points (Boston/New York/Washington DC) or 100,000 points (Miami/Orlando/Vegas/Los Angeles/San Francisco).

The old award chart is here.

Some Flyertalkers are reporting that United’s buy-on-board snack boxes are frequently expired.

Bought a minimeal yesterday DEN-BWI and noticed the salami (or whatever it is) was dated use by 1/4 – 4 days past due. I ate it anyway Its 24 hours later and so far so good



So I looked on the box itself and faintly impressed on the bottom is a date which said 12/16! …which I presume is the packing date…



Im not one to complain so I didn’t but you may want to check those dates before you pop it open.



Surprising for coming out of a hub… they must have quite a backlog of those meals!

A flight attendant suggests exchanging expired meat for fresh meat:

We’ve had quite a few snackboxes with outdated items lately. We are happy to exchange them if you let us know (UA crew). We have reported it, but the company wants us to give some excuse about that only being the ‘sell-by’ date.. ….. isnt that the same thing on the aircraft?

I got a nice card from American Express today that really did look like junk mail — bulk mail stamp, etc. — but contained the sweetest little words. It said that I’m entitled to 50% off a single award redemption for free hotel nights (5th night free and reduced-price weekend awards don’t apply). The offer includes category 1 to 4 hotels on awards booked through February 28 for stays through June 30.

The redemption code on the card is 50AMX, but you have to be targeted by American Express to be able to use this. You actually can throw away the card. You can find out whether you were targeted for the offer by calling Starwood and asking if you’re registered for the promotion 5AX.

Oddly enough, the cover of the note from American Express has a picture of the St. Regis Aspen on it. That’s a category 5 hotel and this promotion won’t help you stay there.

This San Francisco Chronicle piece details changes to the Hertz #1 Club Gold contract that took effect on January 1. Customers didn’t used to be responsible for damage to cars in the case of force majeur events, now they are. Hertz also reserves the right to place a hold on a customer’s credit card for $200 above the anticipated rental charges.

Not included in the artcile is that Hertz’s ‘grace period’ of an hour for computing rental charges has been scaled back to 30 minutes. This last item is a big deal for me. Hertz has otherwise been the best rental company in my view. I prefer not to do business with Cendant companies like Avis though I find I do rent from them most often, and probably will do so more in the future.

This San Francisco Chronicle piece details changes to the Hertz #1 Club Gold contract that took effect on January 1. Customers didn’t used to be responsible for damage to cars in the case of force majeur events, now they are. Hertz also reserves the right to place a hold on a customer’s credit card for $200 above the anticipated rental charges.

Not included in the artcile is that Hertz’s ‘grace period’ of an hour for computing rental charges has been scaled back to 30 minutes. This last item is a big deal for me. Hertz has otherwise been the best rental company in my view. I prefer not to do business with Cendant companies like Avis though I find I do rent from them most often, and probably will do so more in the future.

This San Francisco Chronicle piece details changes to the Hertz #1 Club Gold contract that took effect on January 1. Customers didn’t used to be responsible for damage to cars in the case of force majeur events, now they are. Hertz also reserves the right to place a hold on a customer’s credit card for $200 above the anticipated rental charges.

Not included in the artcile is that Hertz’s ‘grace period’ of an hour for computing rental charges has been scaled back to 30 minutes. This last item is a big deal for me. Hertz has otherwise been the best rental company in my view. I prefer not to do business with Cendant companies like Avis though I find I do rent from them most often, and probably will do so more in the future.