View from the Wing

Northwest has finally improved the offerings of its elite program. It doesn’t bring them up to par with American and United, which both offer a substantial international upgrade benefit to their top tier flyers, but it’s a move in the right direction. The Flyertalk discussion is here.

After flying 60, 90, 120 and 160,000 miles Northwest is offering elites the choice of new benefits (much as United has been doing the past couple of years). Choices include bonus miles, the ability to give away lower tiered elite status, lounge memberships, and most importantly — starting at 120,000 miles flown — international upgrade certificates.

Now, Northwest only offers 2 at 120,000 miles and 2 more at 160,000 miles flown (compared to 6 for United and 8 for American at 100,000 miles) but Northwest’s certificates appear to come out of revenue inventory so you’re not jockeying or waitlisting for a seat. That’s a real start, and finally a reason to fly Northwest if you do more than just domestic travel (where the only real benefit to the program has been complimentary domestic upgrades).

I’ve been saying for years that this is a needed step for their program. Their view has been “we just don’t have as many business class seats as the competition so we can’t offer this.” Guess they’ve come around!

I’m terribly glad that the Le Meridien Khao Lak Resort is honoring its mistake rate which published prices in Ugandan Schillings rather than US dollars.

Some on Flyertalk speculated that it would be cheaper to get the government of Uganda to revalue its currency than to honor the deal.

In the end I won’t be paying in ‘UGX’ nor will they offer up the rooms for 60 US cents (roughly the currency conversion). Instead, for US$50 a night including tax with 3rd night free (thus $33/night) the hotel is honoring the room types booking as well as complimentary breakfast.

Someone who recently returned from the property sent along pictures of the private pool and backyard view from the resort’s Presidential Oceanfront Villa. Wow.

I usually think of car rentals in four categories.

There’s Avis and Hertz at the high end, then the Budget/Thrify/Dollar/etc in the middle. I don’t really count the Foxes and Paylesses of the world, though they’d be a category of discount off-airport agencies. And there’s the ubiquitous Enterprise, who I’ll do anything to avoid, if only because I hate to do the mandatory “walk-around” and hear the speech about how they’ll hold me responsible for every last scratch and how I really need to buy their collision damage waiver even though I’m renting with a Diners Club card.

Frankly I like the service of Avis and Hertz, a car already ready with printed contract most of the time at airport locations and they both tend to be a bit less persnickety with normal wear and tear — every little scratch or pebble doesn’t prompt a half hour exercise at return.

The knock on Avis from really frequent renters is twofold: no real elite level with benefits, and limited rewards. Hertz offers points towards free rentals. Avis offers only miles for individual rentals, and in most cases the mileage options are limited (who cares about 50 miles a day anyway, except to credit to an otherwise unused account to keep that account active?).

As a side note, I always credit my Avis rentals to Virgin’s frequent flyer program — 1000 miles per rental. I used to get my 1000 miles as a British Airways Gold, but recently I’ve only been netting 250 miles when using any kind of discount code. So BA isn’t an option. Virgin gives the full 1000 miles regardless of discount used. I know several people that have redeemed for air travel using points earned solely with car rentals.

Instead of offering real rewards to most travelers, though, Avis has focused on kickbacks to companies signed up on corporate contracts. Anyone can sign up for a Corporate Awards account, by the way, and earn a free rental day for every 15 days credited to the account…

Avis beginning to address their lack of elite levels.

Historically, what they’ve offered is:

• Preferred. Anyone can sign up for this, you go straight to your vehicle with contract in it. A useful service, of course, but not an elite level.
  

• Preferred Select. This is the elite level you earn as a frequent rental (or anyone with an American Express Platinum card can request it). You get a one car class upgrade and a free Wall Street Journal. There’s been no higher level you could generally earn as a frequent customer.
  

• Presidents Club. A certain number of these memberships come with high volume corporate contracts, and anyone with an American Express Centurion (black) card gets this. Two car class upgrade and guaranteed availability. There are some reports of high volume renters requesting it, but it’s not a part of a formal structure to offer it.
  

• Chairmans Club. This is the true VIP level, think Fortune 500 CEOs. MarquisJet owners also receive this level. Rent a mid-size car and get the best car on the lot (though recently Volvos and Hummers have been excluded from the upgrade benefit though some locations will still offer them up on request). Return valet service, you don’t ride the bus back to the terminal. Guaranteed availability. Car delivery within 25 miles. Some reports are automatic market rate charged on gas fillup, so no need to fill up yourself prior to return (I haven’t tried this benefit). Meet-and-greet service, a manager will usually personally meet you at the car and assist with your luggage.

Apparently Chairmans Club is being extended, and Avis is sending out invitations to join to high volume renters (though curiously they’re charging $250 for the first year and $350 thereafter for the privilege). Criteria isn’t clear, but it looks like 60+ rental days a year, plus perhaps an association with a corporate contract.

This is a good step by Avis to finally recognize its high value business with elite perks. On the other hand, those of us that have already been enjoying Chairmans status will likely see a dimunition of benefits — first, because the high-end service has to in part be because Avis employees see the status as rare and thus the customer as very important. That has to change as it becomes more common to see Chairmans members. Second because more renters at this level means more competition for upgrade vehicles.

An interesting move by Avis.

Signing up for an email newsletter nets you a free copy of Freakonomics.

After completing the form I get the following message:

Your copy of Freakonomics will be on its way to you shortly. Plus, you’ve been entered for a chance to win a Magellan® eXplorist™ 500 LE handheld GPS*.

The brand new Westin Dawn Beach on St. Maarten opened in December to much controversy on Flyertalk, both because some folks dislike ’spoiling’ a public beach with a new resort, and because others claimed it had opened too early — rushing things to take advantage of the high season while not nearly ready for prime time.

Since I was going to be in the Carribean anyway, I decided to check it out for myself.

Turns out to be on the verge of becoming a lovely resort, but it certainly wasn’t ready — by a long shot — in the middle of this month.

This is going to be a very beautiful property. Emphasis on going to be. The small strip of beach in front of the hotel has great white sand. The color of the water is beautiful. The views from the balconies are great. And the hotel is “new Westin”… corridors are pretty much what you would expect from a Westin built over the past 18 months (drop me in the Westin Arlington Gateway and the interiors are similar).

But the hotel just isn’t finished, not even close.

The entrance to hotel looked like a war zone, but you only really see the entrance coming and going. No worries. Perfectly functional.

Upon checkin I was given an oceanfront king. No suite, but not sure how many this property has and how many of those are even yet functional. All fine. Bellman helps me with my bags but I wound up carrying them upstairs anyway because the elevators didn’t work. (They were later repaired and then broken again the next day.)

Broken Elevators

Lots of work going on all around, there were beds in the hallways as the staff prepared to bring more rooms online apparently. Some rooms even had checklists on the doors listing what they were missing.

Getting a Room Ready

Wired internet in the rooms don’t work, so they offered free wireless in the lobby. Voicemail in the rooms didn’t work properly. And during my stay housekeeping came in to add the telephone inserts that tell you which buttons do what (and at this point, the hotel had been open for a month).

One morning I got up and wanted to go sit outside at the casual restaurant and drink coffee, but outside seating was closed because construction was working on the area. We were told “maybe tomorrow” it would reopen, but it took two days.

People seem very friendly, but not always on top of things, instead they seem rather resigned to problems. Since I couldn’t sit outside at the restaurant and enjoy my coffee, I rang up room service… I asked for skim milk for my coffee… $5 charge appeared on the bill for skim milk. I called down to ask about it, service express said they’d “investigate” and call me back (over $5??). They called back and said because I asked for skim rather than 2% milk they were charging me. Weird. I’d have been fine with 2%, they certainly didn’t suggest that one was a charge and the other was not. I explained this and they offered to “call back room service and get back to me.” Over $5?? I told her not to bother having another round of phone calls, the runaround was more aggravating than the money.

The gift shop wasn’t open yet. Only one (jewelry) store, a car rental place, and the small business center.

As for the room, the balcony was relaxing, but the furniture didn’t fit so it was difficult to get in and out. And watching workers outside littering coke cans isn’t great either.

The room itself is a nice size. Entryway with mirror on one side and large bathroom on the other (two doors open into the bathroom, toilet and large glass shower on left… Tub on right… Large wooden vanity though only one sink bowl directly ahead)… Small closet and just past that three drawers/minibar underneath the TV, then a desk and some space followed by the balcony. Bed is standard Westin fare and there’s a nice leather and weave lounge chair inside. Outside furniture is two upright wooden chairs with a seat cushion and a wooden table.

The room really wasn’t ready at checkin, although the hotel doesn’t as yet realize it. The shower leaks water substantially onto the floor… The shower head isn’t properly attached to the wall…

The hotel improved just over the course of my three night stay. I wonder whether that’s a function of checking in midweek and they put much of the construction away for the weekend when occupancy is higher. Our last morning the maid checklist showed all but one first floor room was either occupied or to be gotten ready for an arriving guest (one room was out of service). I didn’t look further, but it appears from the workmen that several rooms in the 2100 block are out of service and several 3rd floor rooms as well. But that’s just a guess.

The resort has (4) sources of food… Room service, poolside (there are 3 attendants who did a wonderful job serving all guests as well as offering cold towels), and two restaurants… Ocean is the casual restaurant serving breakfast (off the menu and buffet), lunch, and dinner, and Aqua is the ‘fine dining restaurant’ offering dinner only. I enjoyed an evening meal my first night at Ocean. It wasn’t great but seemed quite good for resort fare.

Salmon at the Casual Restaurant, Ocean

I was going to eat at Aqua, their ‘nicer’ restaurant (which is quite expensive, entrees in the $30s and $40s, appetizers hovering around $20, dessert $15, and the menu set up to recommend five courses in total). But when I was talking to one of the concierges they actually recommended against it — they’ve gotten complaints that the food is rather bland. It’s nicely presented but nothing special, apparently. And St. Maartne does have some wonderful restaurants, so why bother? Perhaps the kind of feedback that actually has a hotel concierge recommending against the property will spur them to improve. (Admittedly, the concierge likely gets a kickback from other options they recommend though not from their own hotel restaurant, so this may be biasing them.)

It was nice to be at the resort (1) midweek into the early weekend and (2) before it’s up to full capacity. I wonder, though, once it’s up to full speed how easy it will be to get chairs out at the pool during weekends over high season… The pool area isn’t that large for a hotel of 300+ rooms. I’d hate for this to become another property where folks get out at 8am to reserve chairs.

For now, one positive is that there are plenty of staff to guests, that the staff are friendly, and that in spite of the hotel’s problems the water is just beautiful.

I used the 50% off award redemption promo here, so 5000 points/night. The Starwood Preferred Guest internal reimbursement rate was originally on my folio, no problem having it taken off. For the curious, SPG is paying $88/night. Fits my theory of between 0.8 and 1.1 cents per usual redemption point (cat 4 would have been 10k points).

Plenty more photos after the jump…

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Taking a cue from recent airline promotions, Amtrak is offering Buy 3, Ride Free on Acela. 3 roundtrips or even 6 one-ways on the Acela Express by May 19 earns an Acela Business class or Regional Coach class roundtrip.

Registration is required.

And in one of the more annoying clauses I’ve seen (for folks like me looking for every angle), they’ve pretty much ruled out the possibility of doing the promo cheaply or quickly:

Minimum spend of $75 per qualifying trip one-way or $150 per roundtrip. Limit of one qualifying roundtrip or two one-ways per member per day.

Grr.

Back in August I posted about a first class fare glitch to St. Croix and I took the trip earlier this month.

The deal was Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to St. Croix, so I drove up the night before (could easily have done it same day, but the newly converted Wyndham is a Sheraton at just 3,000 points a night and they give breakfast in the restaurant to Platinums when the club lounge is closed on weekends). Satellite parking for the week ran $35. Shuttles very frequent in both directions. This is such a great airport, it’s almost laughable… huge, new, expansive, but only a handful of flights and gates. The old terminal still stands and there’s a banner encouraging people to suggest uses for it.

Flights were standard domestic service. Harrisburg-Charlotte was booked as an Airbus, swapped for a regional jet, so no first class and no bonus miles on the flight. Charlotte-St. Croix was delayed an hour, but I didn’t mind as I was in the USAirways club and Charlotte has free wifi.

We landed in St. Croix, walked outside and around the corner to baggage claim where it took nearly an hour for the bags to come up. Grabbed a taxi to the King Christian hotel for one night. Hotel was a little sketchy, but on the water in the historic district and sheets were clean and it was cheap for the one night… It was wonderful to sit on the balcony and relax. Walked around the pier for some food. Bar food, boisterous crowd. Next morning walked around the town and checked out the Fort (they charge $3pp but it was a decent time-killer, and Alexander Hamilton’s mother was imprisoned there).

Back to the airport, we caught an American Eagle flight to San Juan and spent three nights at the Westin Rio Mar (upgraded to an Atlantic Suite, report forthcoming). In any case, there was no elite checkin for the American Eagle flights at St. Croix… all the counters are outside… and there was only one person processing passengers for awhile as another was handling a large band checking in with ticketing problems. Line hardly moved at all… an hour passed.. finally to the front of the line with 20 minutes till scheduled departure.

Checkin at St. Croix is a difficult affair. Check your bags, proceed through customs (for US - to - US connections!) then collect your checked bags, present them to TSA for inspection.. which can take a minute or two or a very long time as we unfortunately found out, we got the one staffer that all the others rolled their eyes at, she literally unpacked item-by-item each suitcase and then slowly repacked them. As we watched our time to flight ticking away..

Ran through the checkpoint (which was not so overzealously staffed, though the difficult woman was working the checkpoint on our way back through a week later) and found the plane boarded but still on the ground. They grudgingly allowed us on, and our bags made it too, as the flight was delayed for awhile while they figured out weight and balance issues and unloaded cargo.

Will also share details on the new Westin on St. Maarten which we visited on the trip (then flew back through St. Croix on the way home, clearing customs and immigration on the way in, of course, and then funny that we had to clear customs again to fly St. Croix-Charlotte a few hours later).

Photos from St. Croix after the jump….

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I may get mad at Starwood Preferred Guest from time to time, such as because they’re adding a new highest level for redemptions starting February 1 and the points price of better than a quarter of all their hotels will be going up at the same time. But I do have an emotional attachment to them, and I’ve already scheduled redemptions for over 25 hotel nights so far in the first half of 2007.

So it’s no surprise, perhaps, that I’m addicted to the What Color is Your Dream? video that I watch over and over in a loop on SPGtv in my room, stay after stay…

And boy does that Sheraton “We Belong” commercial tug at the heartstrings!

(Thanks to Flyertalk member tjk1976 for the YouTube links.)

Book at Hampton.com by March 31, 2007 for stays completed by April 30, 2007 and earn an extra 250 Hilton HHonors points by entering promo code H250.

The Amtrak Mastercard is on hold — no new applications are being accepted.

Amtrak and Bank of America are ending their relationship. Only purchases that are posted prior to the closing date of the May 2007 statement will earn Amtrak points.

Presumably a new bank will partner with Amtrak over the next few months, but there’s currently no new partner in place.

ANA is offering 20% off the mileage required for awards with its partners as long as they’re booked via the ANA website.

All Nippon Airways may seen obscure to some, but they’re a Star Alliance carrier so their partners are varied. And they’re an American Express Membership Rewards partner so if you have Amex points you can transfer them to ANA and redeem for fewer than the usual miles required.

The ANA partner award mileage chart outlines the number of miles usually required for an award. Take 20% off with this promo. And after you’ve signed up for an ANA account their website is actually quite good at searching for award availability.

United announced today that its miles will now expire after 18 months of inactivity rather than the current 36 months.

The worst part of the change, though, is that instead of giving useful advance notice of the change, it’s retroactive to July, 2006. Accounts without activity from July ‘06 through December ‘07 will be terminated at the end of the year.

The press release contains some whoppers:

By shortening the amount of time a
Mileage Plus account can remain inactive, United’s most loyal customers
will compete with fewer people for award seats, making it easier for them
to redeem their miles.

Sure, I compete every day for international first class awards with the median member with 17,000 miles in their account striving for 25,000. Heh. As though it’s the fault of members (rather than the airline which controls inventory) when award inventory is unavailable. True, zapping miles off the planet means fewer miles chasing a constant pool of seats, but it’s a fairly disingenous argument to make.

This change…brings our program in line with major competitors

First, one doesn’t usually describe a change as positive when it removes an advantage relative to the competition.

Second, it isn’t even true — Ameican’s miles (the largest airline, United’s largest competitor) still expire after an account’s inactivity for 36 months. It’s true United isn’t the first one out of the gate on this — Delta and USAirways recently made similar changes and Continental has had this (unenforced) rule for years. But it’s hardly a benefit as the press release suggests that United is now the same (in a negative way) as some other carriers.

Shame, shame, for the lack of notice on this one United.

Rippied from Free Frequent Flyer Miles, Suntrust is offering 16 Airtran credits (free domestic coach ticket) for a $10,000 or more deposit into a Premium Money Market Performance Account by March 9, 2007.

The money needs to stay in the account for 90 days and you need to open or have an existing Smart Solution Plus or Signature Advantage checking account.

I’m not an Airtran junkie (though I do have elite status in their program via a status match years ago), and their credits expire after 12 months (though I believe you can bounce credits back and forth between other elite members and thus extend their validity), plus I have other better uses for $10k so I’m not doing this one… but if you have interest in a money market and if Suntrust’s is attractive to you then this may be worthwhile. I’ve been perfectly happy as a Suntrust business customer for years.

United’s online booking bonus has been reduced from 1000 miles to 500 - though on the upside, one-way itineraries now earn 250 miles rather than being ineligible. A sad day, truly, though certainly in line with the direction of the rest of the industry.

The 20,000 mile signup bonus for an Alaska Visa has been extended to January 31, according to the most recent e-newsletter for the airline. It’s a great offer — though they aren’t waiving the $75 annual fee, the miles plus $50 companion ticket (that’s really usable) and club passes make the cost worthwhile.

The Upgrade: Travel Better blog points to a $34 roundtrip (or $17 each way) discount promotion on JetBlue.

Start your flight search via their promo page and enter SEVENTEEN in the “promotion password” box. (Apparently teenage girls are worthy of an airfare discount.)

The promotion is valid for travel through February 14.

This is probably too inside baseball and technical for most frequent flyer program members, but Delta has implemented some nasty changes in the way they allow (or don’t allow!) you to book awards. There’s a current discussion of this on Flyertalk, naturally.

As of this month, awards can only have two stops each way domestically and three internationally. If you live in, say, Montana and want to get somewhere on the East Coast you already have to make two stops (in Salt Lake City and Atlanta) most of the time. No extra stops in order to find an available award, and no extra stops to utilize your allowable stopover in a non-hub city.

You can also only use ‘published routings’ when constructing your award itinerary. I have a United award flying DC-New York-San Francisco-Osaka-Bangkok-Phuket (with stops in New York and Osaka that are less than 24 hours so technically considered connections) and Phuket-Bangkok-Hong Kong-Seoul-Chicago-DC (with a stopover in Hong Kong) on the return. Leaving as that getting a premium cabin award to Asia in the first place is more or less a non-starter with Delta miles, this sort of routing would never be permitted. Score one for the competition!

Most folks don’t book lots of connections, but take for example trying to book an award on Delta partner Continental Micronesia. I’d fly from DC to Atlanta to Los Angeles (all on Delta) to Tokyo (Continental) to Guam (Continental Micronesia). Whoops, I can’t do that! It’s now more than 3 flights each way. The only way to make this work would be if there’s award space available on Delta’s own Atlanta-Tokyo flight (good luck!). You can no longer use partner flights from the West Coast to Tokyo and travel beyond Tokyo, unless you either start in the partner’s gateway city or Delta’s own hub. If you have to connect you’re toast. And forget about island hopping, say to fly from Tokyo to Cairns (for access to the Great Barrier Reef).

A real drawback of the current programming architecture is that Delta only has their own routings in the system, making most partner awards (other than non-stops) impermissable until this programming glitch is corrected.

Variations from all of this may be possible, but require additional miles.

On the positive side, Delta is now allowing you to combined Skysaver (the regular award chart, eg 25,000 miles for a domestic coach ticket) with Skychoice (the more expensive chart that avoids capacity controls). So you could go one way Skysaver and the other Skychoice for 35,000 miles. Under the old system unless all flights were available as Skysaver the award would price at the higher 45,000 mile level. Technically this is an improvement, but who books Skychoice to begin with?

I was not a fan of Delta miles to begin with, this makes them far less attractive to me. I sure hope to “Keep Delta My Delta” — as I’d hate for my USAirways miles to become less valuable!

A new promo for Hilton Gold status - this one soliciting Emirates Skywards Gold members, but apparently anyone can sign up using this link, which just enrolls you with promo code EMOD.

New accounts instantly receive Gold status, hearsay suggests the promo will only last through January 31 and that status will last until April 2009 (I would have expected April 2008, but Hilton status sometimes just lasts awhile).

Some promos have worked out well in the past. Others, like the Citibank Chairman’s offer for Gold status, have prompted Hilton to revoke the status when used by folks not actually eligible for the offer. (I know of some folks that got the letter revoking their gold status, and yet the status mysteriously remained.)

So, as with so many of these things, your mileage may vary…

I won’t actually drink Sutter Home wine, but I will take a free corkscrew…

Most places in the world, if you’re paying $450 a night for a hotel, you expect something out of the ordinary. In New York you can expect a bed. That’s the first reality check for folks not used to staying in Manhattan. The Holiday Inn Midtown usually goes for upwards of $369 a night. If you want to stay under $300, check out the Ramada. If you want closer to $200, there’s the HoJo’s at Penn Station.

Even when you’re at a nicer property, rooms and bathrooms are uniquely small. Think 250 square feet. 350 square feet might be considered a junior suite.

And — I can say this as a former New Yorker — the hotels are staffed by New Yorkers….

When I’m up in New York I’m most likely to stay at the Grand Hyatt at Grand Central Station. It’s the best deal in the city when booked at the voucher rate ($165 including tax). But I find myself unhappy there. But it’s so much less than any other (non-Priceline) option….

Last week I checked into two rooms, both of which were upgraded to the Regency floor. Wanted king beds in both, so they moved the room that had two doubles down a few floors into a junior (”Lexington”) suite, still with club access.

The club itself was small, crowded, and loud. Odd for my usual travels, they charged for cocktails even during evening h’or dourves. At least it’s not the lounge at the Sheraton New York, there a coke will set you back $3.

Meanwhile, the concierge in the club was on the phone the whole time I was there, on each visit (different concierges, even). And not talking to a guest or a restaurant, either. Gossiping with friends. The only time they got off the phone was to make themselves a plate from the buffet. And to kick everyone out of the lounge at 9:50pm (evening service was supposed to last until 10pm, but the paltry offerings were cleared at 9:45pm).

The rooms themselves could use an update, though I recall the hotel going through substantial renovations just two and a half years ago. One room had a door with substantial dents in it. Both had dirty furniture. One had a dirty bathroom floor. And are the walls ever thin!

But I guess I got more than I deserve at the rate I paid.