The new Upgrd Podcast is up, and I’m again participating. Listen for the discussion of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, joining the Alaska Board Room as a cheaper alternative to Delta lounge membership, the ins-and-outs of their upgrades, as well as items in the news.

Through August 15, US Airways is offering a 100% bonus on purchased miles.

The cost is 2.5 cents per mile plus a $30 processing fee. Purchasing 50,000 miles costs $1280 and yields 100,000 miles — a cost of $0.0128 cents per mile.

I do not recommend warehousing US Airways miles, they’re doing all they can at the moment to goose cashflow because they’re the most financially vulnerable major carrier. Assuming things improve for them, I expect future changes to their award chart given how generous they’re being at the moment — 50% bonus on transferred hotel points, double miles on shopping, and now double miles on straight purchases.

At the same time, if you’re looking to top off for an international premium class Star Alliance award, now’s a pretty good time to do that.  Even starting from scratch, $1030 buys enough miles for a business class ticket from the US to Europe.  And with lucrative personal and small business visa offers from Barclays Bank available, not to mention the hotel and shopping bonuses, no reason you need to start from scratch.

Starwood is offering free general admission concert tickets with each eligible stay completed by August 31st.

Registration is required prior to the stay. Within 5 days of the completion of each stay they’ll email you a code, and you can earn up to four codes with the promotion.

These can be redeemed for Live Nation shows through October.

Greater Greater Washington says it’s time to dismantle the taxi monopoly at Washington-Dulles airport. The monopoly means taxis travel one-way to the airport and can’t pickup passengers on the return. Likewise, the Washington Flyer monopoly carries very few people back to the airport after dropping off arriving passengers. As a result, there are probably 2000 extra cab trips a day, wasting about $20,000 each day in gas.

My concerns aren’t environmental, my experiences with Washington Flyer have been bad — insufficient cabs at peak hours, and drivers with whom I’ve felt unsafe.

It really shouldn’t be illegal for other cabs to pick up passengers like they do at almost every other airport in the country (and even elseewhere in DC).

I’m a guest on the new Upgrd Podcast out today discussing Delta’s fine over involuntary denied boarding compensation, listener questions and advice on credit card spend, iDine, and splitting miles across programs, and using United Red Carpet Club membership to access other Star Alliance lounges.

The United Mileage Plus award sale that I mentioned this morning is now up on the United website and a few more details are available.

As previously noted, the sale is for travel August 18 through November 18, is for coach travel only, and must be on United (or United Express) flights, no partner airlines. What’s new is the news that tickets issued under this promo must be issued by July 24.

And the discount is a minimum of 20% off, but as much as 29% off:

American is offering free wifi through August 23 using promo code AAWiFi76194A1.

Of course, they don’t have their whole fleet wired up yet, You should be good flying 767s, and some MD80s have wireless.

(Hat tip to Frugal Travel Guy.)

Details aren’t available online yet, but Flyertalkers discovered it (and Lucky has mentioned it as well). United’s “FALL 2009 ECON AWARD SALE – MPW039″ is now live — a 20% discount on coach awards flown entirely on United flights between August 18 and November 18.

So a good time to redeem if you like to redeem for coach, and if you’re a 1K who already has some coach redemptions on United flights and award space is still available for those flights you can call back and reticket and save some points (1Ks only, of course, as anyone else would have to pay a fee to redeposit the miles).

Now that Northwest Worldperks is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner, Northwest is offering a 30% bonus on transfers through July 31. Registration is required prior to transfer in order to earn the bonus.

US Airways is offering double miles on shopping transactions through August 31, no registration required.

That means 5000 miles for a Netflix signup, 6000 miles for opening a Sharebuilder account, 40 miles per dollar at FTD, and of course double the listed miles at all Dividend Miles Mall merchants.

The bonus is limited to a maximum of 10 transactions per partner, and of course you should always check EV Reward for other mileage and cash back offers before making a purchase. Sometimes even at double miles US Airways won’t be the best offer out there.

Starwood is offering up to 50% off of bookings made by July 20 for stays between July 16 and October 20. Now, this is up to 50% off of rack rate, which means it will sometimes be a small savings off the rates you’ll otherwise find from Starwood’s website. But it’s worth checking rates under this promo. The rates are available in North America, South America and Asia Pacific. Some hotels place a 4 night maximum stay under the rate, and seven nights generally at resorts. They’re advance purchase, non-cancellable rates.

Another interesting offer is Starwood’s $100 spa credit per night offer for hotels in the Southeast, Florida, and Carribean. Bookings must be made by July 31 for stays through September 30. Rates will likely be a bit higher than booking without this package, but if you have designs on a spa you’ll likely get some significant benefit. As always, compare the regular rate with the promo rate to see whether it’s worth it in your case. (Hat tip on this one goes to Laura.)

They’re closing Las Vegas and reducing staff in Phoenix.

At some point the unique U.S. model where airline lounges are paid memberships rather than a perk of status, becomes no longer sustainable. Crowded rooms with insufficient furniture, virtually no snacks, pay cocktails, and without special services agents don’t make for an attractive sales proposition.

I realize that they’ve reduced their Vegas flying, and they claim they’re not seeing the usual staff attrition hence the need for Phoenix club layoffs.  But this is just another step n the US Airways model of catering less and less to the premium customer.  One less club in the US system, though no expected corresponding reduction in club membership fees…

With the Delta/Northwest merger, Northwest Worldperks has become an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner.

Of course, you could already transfer to Delta and then from Delta to Northwest. And this will only last until the Worldperks program is officially folded into Delta Skymiles. But it makes the process a little easier if you need to top off a Northwest account, as you get to skip one step.

Lucky points out that the new Priority Club PointBreaks list is up, noting in particular the Intercontinental properties in Vienna and Warsaw and the Intercontinental COEX Seoul.  That is, these are properties being offered for redemption at only 5000 points per night.

I’d add that the Intercontinentals in Wellington and Fiji to the list of notable Intercontinentals.

And until I clicked on Mexico, where I found no Point Breaks on offer, I hadn’t been aware that Priority Club was offering ALL Mexico redemptions at 50% off through December 1.

I don’t know why I read these things, they always make me want to throw my laptop, but the 2009 Travel & Leisure World’s Best lists are up.

The Hay Adams is not the best hotel in DC. The Marriott in Budapest is not better than the Four Seasons George V in Paris (neither is the Westin Milan, which was a perfectly respectable city hotel when I stayed there two years ago — but the 4th best city hotel in Europe? That’s absurd.)

Perhaps I’m most offended by three “Couples” resorts — and for that matter a Sandals — on Jamaica being rated above the Aman resort property in Turks & Caicos, which doesn’t even make the list of best resorts in the Carribean.

But then the Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort gets ranked as the #12 resort in all of Asia, when I wouldn’t even consider it to be the best Le Meridien in Thailand (or even the best Le Meridien resort in the Phuket area!).

And the Oriental Bangkok is not the best hotel in Asia. The Shangri-La is not the best hotel in Hong Kong. The Westin Bund Center is not better than the Oriental properties in Hong Kong and Singapore. And the Westin Chosun isn’t even the best Starwood property in Seoul. They have room for the Dusit Thani Bangkok to make the list, yet room for only one hotel (Four Seasons) in Tokyo?

Need I comment that the Shangri-La is not the best hotel in Sydney?

The Intercontinental Thalasso as best hotel in French Polynesia? The worn out Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas makes the list, along with two middling Moorea properties, but not the Four Seasons or St. Regis Bora Bora?

And nowhere on this list is a single Maldives property. (Update: there is actually one property listed in the Maldives, not sure how I missed it. Sadly only one hotel in Indonesia, the former Ritz-Carlton Bali, hardly tops there…)

Take these lists with a definite grain of salt.

In my extensive post discussing the best rewards credit cards, I briefly mention the Asiana American Express card from Bank of America (which earns 2 miles per dollar spent!).

I posted my credit card commentary on Flyertalk this morning, and Flyertalk member Guava went into extensive detail on why he values the Asiana Amex more than I was giving it credit for in my post.

Because this advice is rather unique I will quote at great length. Bottom-line the card is useful especially to those who earn their miles predominantly from credit card spend and who want to redeem in particular from the Eastern U.S. to Europe or for upgrading from full fare coach or paid business class on Star Alliance partners.

Not my redemption pattern, but it does match that of some readers, so have a close read:

The Asiana award charts, as others have pointed out in other MilesBuzz thread is it gives you a US-Europe award ticket in *A Business class for only 70K miles provided the total distance is within 10K miles. And it comes with 4 stopovers. Given how popular transatlantic C class ticket is and are frequently redeemed and used by FTers, can you really say this is a narrow or limited use of miles? I mean if you spend $35K on purchases, say Presidential $1 coins and you get 1 free award ticket to/from Europe with up to 4 stopovers and your taxes/fees paid for by B of A so long as it’s within $100. No other CC in the U.S. gives you that kind of ability to get free Business class awards to Europe so cheaply, it simply doesn’t exist. If you want to fly First Class to Europe, the cost is only 100K miles but then again, opportunity cost is only $50K of spending, still much stronger than SPG AMEX, and then transfer it to desirable airline such as AC or US.

Plus, the one-way award option on Asiana metal is very desirable for some people as well. Many FTers like to buy their First/Business class RTW tickets from Asia where it’s cheaper. So when they depart the U.S., a return award ticket is rather difficult to deal with. This is another very useful feature, plus it makes the 10K miles annual discount much more worthwhile as well, reducing the cost of a one-way First Class award from US to Asia to as low as only 60K miles or an opportunity cost of $30K in spending/purchases due to the 1$ = 2 miles proposition.

Another important aspect not covered about about this card and Asiana FFP is the lower cost *A mileage upgrade. I know that UA withdrew from that program a while ago and then heard they returned not sure what’s happening right now with UA. In any case, most UA flyers will probably not appreciate the benefit of this *A cross airline upgrade using miles because they tend to buy deeply discounted economy class and seeking to upgrade to C; however, many FTers who fly paid C class fare often moan about the high cost of mileage upgrade from C to F, whether it’s LH, SQ or NH.

Transatlantic upgrade on SQ (JFK-FRA), LX, LH from Business to First class starts only at 25K miles and factoring the annual 10K mileage discount, you can have it for merely 15K miles or an opportunity cost of buying $7,500 worth Presidential coins which many people can do in just a month. Tell that to the German Lufty forum flyers and they will probably die of envy because this CC is not available to Germans. Or alternatively, let’s take a route you are familiar with: IAD-NRT-IAD on NH First. We know the First Class has gone on this route recently, but during the time that NH did fly First on this route, the cost of upgrade is actually cheaper than using NH miles itself due to the 10K mileage discount and OZ and NH FFPs ask the same amount of miles for upgrade on this route.

Then you are going to ask: “But isn’t the discount only useable once per year?” Yes, that’s technically correct. But the beauty about the Asiana program is the Family Mileage Plan. Not only you can pool miles with your relatives or people in your household, this allows you to pool the 10K mileage discount as well so in fact you earn many discounts within one year and use them for youserlves, with the consent of the said members of course, for example, your wife.

The bottom line is the Asiana AMEX is a fairly unique animal, it sure isn’t for your average joe American FTer especially having to deal with a foreign FFP. Although they have dedicated call center here in the U.S. (Los Angeles specifically), the staff seems to be all Korean and English skill is rather poor for some of them but they are friendly, patient in the stereotypical Asian way as you’d expect on most quality Asian carriers. However, if you use it right, you’ll find that it contains some unique features and not-so-narrow usage (e.g. Transatlantic C class award to Europe) that are of great value.

Mexicana fare QLABUE, 2-day minimum stay. Non-refundable coach.

Best way to find availability is to go to matrix.itasoftware.com and choose month-long search, from JFK (or enter LAX) and destination EZE. That will pull up a calendar showing the departure dates with the $287 fare available. Only available a few days in August, for instance, but every day in November. Last day of travel under this fare is December 9.

This amounts to $59 each way plus taxes and fees.

A Polish woman is suing an Egyptian hotel, “claiming her daughter got pregnant using their mixed swimming pool.”

The bizarre claim surfaced as Magdalena Kwiatkowska demanded compensation after her 13-year-old daughter came back from the family holiday expecting a baby.

Apparently the daughter claims not to have met any boys on the trip…

The Department of Transportation has granted final approval to antitrust immunity for Continental’s entrance into the Star Alliance.

The Department of Justice had opposed the move, despite being late to the party and despite strange objections about the risk of “monopoly profits” as though they hadn’t looked at an airline balance sheet in 8 years.

Naturally, DOT had to make some face saving concessions for Justice.

The limitations, also called “carve-outs,” affect four transatlantic markets, four markets between the United States and Canada, and all markets between the United States and Beijing, China, it said.

“The Star carriers may continue to serve these routes, but they will not be covered by the grant of immunity at this time.”

In addition to clearing the way for coordinating on frequent flyer benefits, the ruling permits Continental to join Air Canada, United, and Lufthansa in “joint pricing, sales and marketing, and revenue sharing for the transatlantic routes covered by the agreement.”

Contra the Department of Justice, this is good for consumers.  First, Continental miles become worth tons more in the Star Alliance.  Second, preserving the financial viability of domestic carriers means more competition, not less.  Third, Continental would have been an alliance-stepchild without this, all their customers benefit from alliance participation — and in the strong alliance no less.

One of the most frequent questions I get is “how do I find the award seats I want?”

I’ve tried to give some answers on this blog, for example here. I even wrote a piece in Inside Flyer on the subject. That’s me trying to teach folks to fish.

But not everyone has the time or inclination, and it’s not an easy endeavor in any case. I used to be able to direct folks to Award Planner, a pay service full service travel agency that specialized in booking awards. But they ceased operating. Wendy Perrin frequently recommended them in her annual Conde Nast Traveler piece on the best specialty travel agents. LaDonna — and others — were great.

I never talked with Randy Petersen about why he shut down that part of his business. I know that LaDonna left, but he had others on staff expert at booking awards. I imagine that the economics of it were tough. He wasn’t earning commissions except perhaps on other non-award travel he booked as an addition to customers’ award itineraries. And it was a fee-based service, but it’s difficult to charge enough or generate enough volume to make a personal, labor-intensive business like this work while ensuring high quality standards.

People have often asked me why I don’t charge for the service, I’ve certainly found tons of outstanding award itineraries for folks — showing them how to book their dream international first class awards (and topping up their point balances to get there). But how much could I reasonably charge for the service? My consulting rate would be exorbitant. So I’ve just done it as a labor of love. (Though I suppose I do accepts gifts!)

Randy is apparently just now introducing a new service, he alluded to it recently on his blog. It’s still in beta, but his Mileage Manager website which tracks your frequent flyer accounts, is adding functionality to search for award trips. And to keep on searching, letting you know when the seats you’re looking for open up.  Plus since it ties into your actual account information, it will should be able to have access to any additional award inventory made available to elites that a program you qualify in offers.

I use Mileport to track my miles. They have an online version that’s actually more reliable — whenever a program changes its website around, Mileport needs to update its programming since it’s basically screen-scraping — but I prefer the software-bsaed version. Both are free. And as Randy would acknowledge, his (modestly-priced) fee service has been a bit old school in its look for awhile.

I do have a subscription to Mileage Manager, though, I got it free as an Expedia VIP member. So I’m going to fire it up and give it a whirl, and report back here on how it does searching for awards. I’m especially keen on the feature to keep checking and email you when an itinerary becomes available.

Frequent readers of this blog know that I use the KVS tool to search for awards. It screen scrapes as well, offering easy access to the ANA website for Star Alliance awards, Northwest (and Northwest Japan) site for Skyteam, and Qantas site for oneworld. Since the Qantas site doesn’t search Cathay Pacific it offers the Cathay site for that (they still don’t cover Japan Air Lines awards). And for United award and upgrade space it works with the United site.

But the one thing the KVS tool lacks, which is offered by Expert Flyer, is the ability to keep searching and email you when inventory opens up. Problem is that Expert Flyer’s range of inventory that it searches — only a limited set of carriers — doesn’t cover enough space to be useful to me.

Mileage Manager could fill a real gap, and be much more user-friendly to boot, not requiring one to be a full-time award search professional in order to redeem miles. But we’ll see over the next few days!

A little birdie tells me that there’s some more integrated functionality coming, like the ability to combine award itinerary data with paid reservations into single itinerary reports, the possibility of instantly updating account balances (rather than updating overnight as is currently offered) and also an ‘expert help’ feature where if you’re unable to find the awards you want automatically you can enlist experts to do the work for you, albeit for a premium price that many will find worthwhile.

This should be a lot of fun to try out!