View from the Wing

Amtrak’s new small business program allows you to earn points in addition to the standard Guest Rewards program both for your travel and those that enter your small business program membership number.

Accounts in this program earn 25% of the base points earned on Amtrak by each traveler.

Through December 31, 2007 enrollment code STR07 yields a 1500 point signup bonus.

(I got a copy of the offer and ignored it, so thanks to Samit for beating me over the head with it…)

Unsecure Flight has sample forms online to request copies of records kept on you and your flying by the Department of Homeland Security.

Through October 31, Chase has a new compelling offer for the British Airways Visa.

In addition to 20,000 miles with first purchase, they throw in a companion ticket. They used to offer a free ticket with purchase of a full fare ticket, useless for most. The new offer is one companion ticket that is honored with purchase of any published fare.

Full details of the companion ticket offer are here.

The companion ticket needs to be booked by January 31, 2008 for travel commencing (and outbound flight completed) by May 31, 2008.

The card comes with a $75 annual fee, and I’ve never seen a fee waived the first year offer for it, but for those who can use the companion ticket it’s well worth it.

Update:Gary from Free Frequent Flyer Miles cautions:

Looks like the British Airways offer is targeted:



This offer is only available to new cardmembers applying on or after September 13, 2007. The BA Visa card application must be made from the special links provided in the emails sent to selected British Airways Executive Club members and British Airways registered customers. Applications made by any other means, including ba.com, will not be eligible for this offer.

My own take, though, is that the link in question is the one I provided. My read is that the email was sent to targeted folks, and the link from that email is the only way to qualify from the offer, as long as that email is used the offer will be honored. But that all remains to be seen, anyone trying it please report in the comments whether you are able to book a companion ticket.

As a companion to the best offer for the Starwood American Express (10,000 points with first purchase, 15,000 points for spending $15,000 in six months, and first year free), there’s a new best offer for the Starwood American Express small business card: free the first year, 10,000 points with first purchase and an additional 5000 points for adding free employee cards (1000 per additional card).

That’s a potential 40,000 combined bonus Starpoints.

The internet porn defense, or “I was just safeguarding my AdultCheck account.”

Prior to starting Hawaiian intra-island low fare carrier Go, Mesa Airlines considered acquiring either Aloha or Hawaiian Airlines. Now that Hawaiian is back in front of a bankruptcy judge, they’re claiming their failures are a result of ‘unfair’ competition from Go, that Mesa pretended to be interested in an acquisition in order to learn their business strategies and use the data against them.

(Of course, Hawaiian’s track record underscores the value of their strategies, ahem.)

But Mesa had to answer the charges, and apparently Mesa’s CFO destroyed some computer files relevant to the case. Mesa had to answer in court for this, explaining that the deleted files were an accident, their CFO was just trying to erase all the porn off his computer. The other stuff was just an unfortunate byproduct.

Yeah. Sure. But props for creativity.

Last week the largest shareholder of American Airlines publicly released a letter calling for the airline to spin off its frequent flyer program. Air Canada’s Aeroplan was spun off and is valud at about US$2.5 billion. The American program is ten times larger, but Aeroplan has a stronger relative position in its home market. Certainly, though, the AAdvantage program has to be worth nearly the $5 billion total market capitalization of the airline itself.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) covered the issue yesterday. United is also considering spinning off its program, as is Qantas.

The Journal claims, though, that

United in 2002 moved its 48 million-member Mileage Plus plan into a UAL subsidiary called United Loyalty Services LLC. Last year, the plan produced $600 million in revenue, though it isn’t a stand-alone company and doesn’t disclose its profitability or costs.

In fact, a look at United’s 10-Q filings reveals the profitability of its frequent flyer program. Bottom-line, it’s by far the most profitable part of the airline. (Similarly, selling frequent flyer miles to Bank of America is a key driver of revenue for Alaska Airlines.)

Our best guide to what happens under a spinoff is the Aeroplan program, which remains part of the Star Alliance and their miles can thus be used lucratively for international premium class awards on partner carriers. And an independent frequent flyer program should survive even if the associated airline does not, points are safer, redeeming five to ten million airline awards a year should allow the program to negotiate seats at a deep discount.

On the other hand, independent programs in the past haven’t offered much comfort, such as LatinPass (difficult to work with, forever changing rules) which became GlobalPass (offering very little of value).

My own sense is that spinoffs make sense for the airlines, it would be hard for them not to, but that the upside to consumers is limited at best — except for those who value their points in terms of non-airline redemptions as the separate companies are likely to offer more choices. Still, merchandise redemptions are generally poor values, topping out at a penny a mile at best, and folks interested in such awards are better off with cash back rewards than miles in any case.

Shutterfly is offering 1000 Delta miles for spending $20 or more (not including shipping) through December 31st.

Via Joe Sharkey

If you are sitting next to someone who irritates you on a plane or train.


Follow these instructions:



Quietly and calmly open up your laptop case.

Remove your laptop.

Start up.

Make sure the guy who is annoying you, can see the screen.

Close your eyes and tilt your head up to the sky.

Then hit this link:



Click here: http://boortz.com/mp3/archive/countdown.swf

Many of these are summer items, to be sure, but I did just stock up.

Through October 8th, promo code SALELC takes an additional 30% off of sale prices on clearance items.

Pay with your Visa card and use promo code VISATEN for a $10 discount on orders of $10 or more through September 26th. The game, of course, is to find items right at $10. You still pay shipping, unfortunately, and JC Penney doesn’t let you use more than one promo code on an order (so no free shipping codes with this deal). But enjoy nonetheless…

They even have a clearance page of items under $10, but many of those won’t work with this deal, clearance items and this coupon are very much a ‘your mileage may vary.’

No photos are allowed in Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal. Still - naturally - there’s a video tour on YouTube.

For the uninitiated, if you’re flying Lufthansa international first from Frankfurt, you don’t mix with the unwashed masses in business. You have a separate facility, top service, and a Mercedes or Porsche transfer across the tarmac to the plane.

Orbitz is offering $200 off five nights at hotels outside the U.S. using promo code 200INTL. Requires booking by September 30.

When you go to Orbitz, choose hotel and then ‘expand search options’ so you see the box to enter the promotion code.

The new Amtrak Visa is now up and running, offering 8000 bonus points with first purchase and no annual fee. Since it’s a Chase card, it may be churnable (Thus far, only the United card seems to disallow signing up over and over to pocket multiple bonuses).

Now, I still recommend the Starwood American Express as the best all-purpose credit card. And specific charges warrant some special-case cards.

But as far as truly no annual fee cards go, this one isn’t bad… although I don’t trust the underlying Amtrak Guest Rewards loyalty program, given its history of making changes without any notice whatsoever — miles used to be transferrable to outside programs without a cap and United used to be a transfer partner, for instance. Both changes were made without notice. And an increase in Amtrak train travel redemption levels was also dropped out of the sky without warning.

Through October 1, TACA is selling miles in its Distancia program at half-off. Normally 2.5 cents a mile, they’re selling at 1.25 cents a mile.

• Minimum purchase required: 1,000 Miles
  
• If you wish to buy more than 32,000 Miles, Please make another transaction. You can make as many transactions as you like.
  
• *Prices do NOT include local taxes

There appears to be no limit to the amount of miles you can buy. However, it also appears that the website hasn’t been updated yet to allow purchase of the miles at the discounted price. I imagine that will be fixed shortly.

TACA partners with both United and Iberia, however it appears as though redemptions on those carriers can only be done in coach (making miles purchase less of a good deal). You can fly non-stop from Washington-Dulles to Buenos Aires, for example, but only in coach. Business class redemptions actually need to be done on TACA, which will frequently involve connections. And despite the award chart including business class levels to Asia, it doesn’t actually seem possible to accomplish such a reward.

Still, for folks interested in redeeming in premium cabins on TACA and Avianca, this seems an excellent deal. TACA Distancia miles do expire after 12 months of account inactivity, however, so only load up on miles if you’re certain you can extend the life of your account (and not being all that familiar with the Distancia program myself, I do not know what kinds of account activity qualify).

Discussion of the deal on Flyertalk is here.

The Best Western signup bonus I blogged about in May has been extended — signup by October 6th and receive 1000 bonus points with your first stay.

Based on the card graphic on the signup page it looks like you may also receive Gold Elite status at signup.

Diners Club is offering a 50% bonus on transfers to Midwest Miles between October 1 and November 30.

They’re also promoting a less exciting Delta transfer bonus between October 1 and December 31 — 10% on transfers from 20,000 to 39,000 points and 25% on transfers of 40,000 or more.

Meanwhile, the 50% Frontier transfer bonus still runs through October 31 and discounted Hawaiian Airlines redemption runs through December 1.

Tyler wants early adopters of the iPhone to stop complaining that the price dropped after they purchased..

I agree, stop complaining and get your credit card to refund the difference.

There are all kinds of benefits hidden in premium credit cards, most of which consumers never take advantage of. Does your card come with concierge service (lower end ones are often outsourced to VIPdesk, mid-tier services to Circles, etc.)? Price drop protection? Extended warranties? Plenty of reasons to buy with a credit card rather than a debit card, especially when you know the benefits.

Oh, and after getting the price difference back you are still eligible for your $100 certificate from Apple…

As a result of some prodding on Flyertalk, Northwest has added a more detailed page on how their complimentary domestic upgrade system works.

Nothing really new here for the already well-informed, but a good step forward nonetheless.

For years the Starwood American Express has had no annual fee the first year and $30 after that. They’ve now upped the post-first year fee to $45.

I’ve just been billed my $30 fee in August, so I’m good for at least a year. And I don’t yet know whether existing cardmembers are being grandfathered in at the old amount or will be pushed up to $45 with their next renewal. (My guess is the latter, I just haven’t checked yet.)

Still, the annual fee is lower than most reasonable points-earning cards, which frequently range from $60 - $85. So this is hardly reason to cancel. Presumably Amex realizes this.

Meanwhile the Starwood American Express small business card is still first-year free and $30 thereafter. While this too may go up, perhaps they’ve left the lower fee in place because the card has only been around a little over a year and may not have gotten traction yet. They’ll want a succesful card before they increase the fee.

Lufthansa is offering 2000 bonus points for new members who enroll in Miles & More and accrue 3000 miles by June 30.

(Thanks to Free Frequent Flyer Miles for the heads up.)