Two recommended recent articles from Not the Nation. (The two main English language dailies in Bangkok are the Bangkok Post and The Nation, hence the title of the online spoof of Thailand’s news.)

Illegal Airport Taxis To Be Punished With King Power Shopping Trip (“Violators now subject to 5-hour layover and Bt20,000 minimum purchase of overpriced duty-free “)

Life-Size Thaksin Cardboard Cutout Industry Saves Economy. Despite Not the Nation’s reporting that 15,000 people are now employed making such cutouts, not everyone is pleased.

However, Sathit Lompongpan, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Finance, warned that any boost to the economy was probably temporary. “What we’re witnessing is just a further example of the non-sustainability of Thaksinomics,” he told the press. “All this purchasing of life-size Thaksin cardboard cutouts just takes away from working people’s disposable income and adds nothing to the permanent economy or national infrastructure.”

Sathit recommended that the industry that creates life-sized cardboard cutouts of His Majesty the King be encouraged and supported instead.

I’ll preface this by saying that these demands will not be met, but a Thai Member of Parliament and former Finance Minister is demanding an end to some of the silliness of airport security.

Airport security in Thailand will follow the rest of the world silliness, because tourism in Thailand is suffering as it is and security theatre is a necessary precondition for world acceptance.

But Mr. Pichet is undeterred.

The move to lift the requirement for passengers to put their jackets and belts through X-ray machines before they walk through metal detectors is being spearheaded by Pichet Panwichartkul, a Democrat MP.

But why must the procedure be in place?

Aviation operators have pointed out that the screening procedures Mr Pichet wants to axe are enforced by most airports around the world and are in direct compliance with those enforced by the United States Transport Security Administration (TSA) as a counter-terrorism precaution.

Since Mr. Pichet is, of course, a member of the Democrats in the Thai parliament, perhaps Mr. Obama would consider him to reform the TSA…

Two nights ago, I had dinner at the Alain Ducasse restaurant, Adour, at the recently-renovated St. Regis in Washington, DC. The menu was liimted but the food was excellent.

They served meringue cookies as petit fours alongside our desserts. This is my favorite type of cookie, and Adour’s rendition was quite good.

But the very best meringue cookies I’ve ever eaten were the ones waiting in my room on checkin at the Le Meridien Chiang Rai.

It’s really the little touches that make a memory.

Upgrade: Travel Better reports on an in-flight status match offer on Continental.

It’s only one data point, and many details are missing from the story, has anyone experienced anything similar?

Continental is revving up theiir Mileathon. You’ll need to register beginning on September 1. Qualifying activity will run through November 30. And like other similar partner and activity points-generating promos the more points you accumulate the more bonus points you earn. In this case the maximum bonus is 100,000 miles. I haven’t yet gone through the promo rules, they aren’t easily available on the website (but presumably will be on or about September 1) to know whether decent bonuses are attainable or how many quick, easy, and cheap points-generating activities there are. But this is a good heads up. Lots of partner activity bonuses around.

Through September 7 Westin is running a 25% off sale across-the-board.

The W Hotels Store frequently runs discounts, and discounts bedding up to 40% at times. But I rarely see discounts over at the Westin store. So for the subsection of you who prefer Westin items over their W counterparts, this is a decent opportunity.

Priority Club has gotten in on the partner promo bonus offers. American pioneered it (in my mileage-awarness lifetime) with their 20/20 offer, 20,000 points for 20 partners to celebrate their 20th anniversary back in 2001.

In recent times Delta has pushed these offers frequently, at least once a year. And US Airways just rolled out theirs for the second year in a row. But I can’t recall a hotel chain making a similar offer in the past.

Personally I love them, the bonuses grow with greater levels of activity and both build excitement and broader awareness of all of a program’s partners. In turn, greater partner activity means more purchases of points from a program, which means ramping up that program’s revenue stream. I enjoy finding the quick, easy, and inexpensive ways to generate partner activities.

And the current Priority Club offering is great because you earn bonus points from the very first partner activity rather than needing 4 or 6 before getting any bonus at all. Points.com, points purchases, points transfers in from other programs, and shopping portal transactions all count.

Just register for the promo and a 4000 point bonus should be easy.  Activity through October 31 counts.  The first partner earns 1000 bonus points, the second 2000 points, the third 3000 points, and the fourth 4000 points, up to a total of 10,000 bonus points.

(Via Loyalty Traveler Blog.)

I read this morning on both Frugal Travel Guy and on the Best Rate Guarantee Blog that they had added to the blogroll on Priceline’s blog. I’m there too.

I didn’t even know that Priceline had a travel blog. And Frugal Travel Guy notes that a PR person contacted him to let him know. I didn’t get an email about it. But it’s a surprisingly good blogroll, limited to a bakers dozen, and in addition to the aforementioned blogs includes One Mile at a Time and the Budget Travel blog.

Reading through recent posts, it was great to learn that the #1 choice in a recent poll for who you’d want negotiating on your behalf if you were imprisoned in a foreign country? William Shatnaer. NICE.

Through September 30, Southwest is offering 2 free Rapid Reward credits and a free 200 pound cargo shipment for signing up for a fee-waived cargo account.

US Airways is running a partner bonus promotion from Sept. 1 through Nov. 15, 2009. Every 4 qualifying partner activities earn progressively more bonus miles. Registration is required.

4 partner credits yields 4000 miles.
8 partner credits yields 8000 miles.
12 partner credits yields 12000 miles and 4000 elite qualifying miles.
16 partner credits yeilds 20000 miles.
20 partner credits yields 30000 miles.
24 partner credits yields 40000 miles
28 partner credits yields 50000 miles.

50,000 miles is the maximum bonus under the promo.

The rules specify that hotel points transfers constitute a partner credit, and you can earn up to 6 partner credits this way. As a Starwood Platinum member I can transfer a single mile. Sadly only one credit can be earned per hotel transfer partner!

This will probably make me redeem some e-Rewards points for US Airways miles, and also steer a single purchase towards the Dividend Miles Shopping Mall (sadly each merchant at the mall does not count as a separate partner). I’ll also swap a single mile from another frequent flyer program into US Airways at points.com, as that will count as a partner. Once I’ve done those things, crediting rental cars and Hilton HHonors double dips to US Airways will making increasing sense for the incremental bonuses.

One nice thing I have to give US Airways a big thumbs up for is that they’ve been explicit about when they will post bonus miles deriving from this promo: “on 10/12/2009, 11/12/2009, 12/15/2009, 1/15/2010 and 2/15/2010.”

There’s a Frequently Asked Questions for the offer and full rules are here.

(Hat tip to the MilesLink newsletter.)

The Town House Galleria is one of the best hotels in Italy, and indeed in all of Europe.

And it’s available for a fat finger discount of about 90% off right now, according to this Flyertalk thread. The deal won’t be for everyone as it’s still pricey even at 90% off.

Here’s How to Book:
1. Go to Hotel.de

2. Search for hotels in Milan and then click on “hotel.de stars” to sort in descending quality level.

3. The first hotel choice that comes up should be the Town House Galleria – Chateaux et Hotels Collection which the site lists as 5 1/2 stars and which considers itself to be ‘7 stars’.

4. Depending on the dates, you’ll see lowest price of 1200 euros (regular price for regular room) or a lower rate of 270 to 386 euros for a suite that I understand normally goes for 2700 euros a night.

Despite some posts to the contrary, as of my posting time (8:45am Eastern) the deal is not dead. I can get it to come up without difficulty, it’s just not available on all dates.

The room in question appears to be a large junior suite.

Of course it remains to be seen whether bookings at this price are honored, so you may not want to book travel to Milan in conjunction with this rate until we know! But for a truly special hotel at a price that many can afford, you may want to attempt to jump on this booking.

The mistake rate at the Crowne Plaza Venice East that I posted about last weekend is being honored.

Supposedly 228 people booked 1400 room nights, and the hotel claims it stands to lose $129,000. It won’t really cost them that at all. In fact, my best guess is $10,000.

(1) Many of the nights won’t be consumed.

(2) Most nights the hotel won’t be sold out.

Now, if I were on the other end of this deail I would agree to honor the rate but add a stiff cancellation penalty for any booking cancelled after a week or so. In other words, I’d do it in a way that would shake loose any rooms at this rate that definitely won’t be used, or might not be used. Otherwise folks can keep their reservations and never cancel, risking only a single euro cent.

But since the hotel will rarely be completely full, these reservations aren’t actually displacing other paid bookings the hotel could have made. And that means they aren’t actually losing money by honoring the deal. It’s disingenuous to price the number of room nights times their prevailing rate, because empty rooms would have fetched zero rather than 80 euros or thereabouts.

The only ‘cost’ to the hotel for most of these nights is incremental service, let’s say it’s $20 per room night actually consumed. And let’s guess that fewer than half the room nights are actually consumed.. I bet it is no more than 20% tops.. Ultimate true cost here will be less than $10,00 I’d bet — even if 30% of the room nights are ultimately used.

David Rowell has a new four part piece on the basics of Priceline, very good read if you aren’t already an expert.

I’ve linked to some good explanations in the past (e.g. here, here, and here and those are probably worth reviewing as well.

Hit the comments if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer. And don’t forget to earn a 3% rebate on your Priceline bookings.

Lucky brings us the news that British Airways is now a U.S. American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner.

He sees this as good to the extent more options are good.

I see this as huge.

Admittedly, as he points out, their award chart is often expensive. Furthermore they tack on some hefty fuel surcharges to awards (a business class roundtrip award to Europe via Heathrow cost me about $325 last year).

Nevertheless, BA is a better option than Iberia or Mexicana for redeeming oneworld awards. BA offers one-way awards. American Airlines members can’t redeem for BA flights to and from the U.S. So this opens up a world of possibilities for many of us, since I’ve found British Airways to offer exceptionally good award availability especially from the East Coast of the U.S. And they fly three-cabin aircraft all over the world. This is a nice option to India, for instance, or even Africa despite the pricey award chart.

Now, adding BA as a transfer partner isn’t as lucrative as the old days of 100% bonuses each summer on Diners Club transfers, or even the more recent years’ 50% bonuses. But it’s more than just another option. It’s another pretty good option, considering the difficulty most U.S. frequent flyers have in redeeming for transatlantic flights to and from the U.S. on British Airways (Alaska members, it should be noted, can do so…). And considering their overall award availability.

Finally, it’s good to see Membership Rewards add another substantive partner. They’ve lost several like Northwest and Marriott Rewards (ok, they got Northwest back — for a few months — with the Delta merger but that doesn’t count). And the carriers they’ve added have been less than inspriring like JetBlue and Iberia which though oneworld has a very expensive chart.

Happy to see this true ‘enhancement’.

Ever since the major booking sites that are separate from individual airlines dropped their booking fees, and with the airline sites not generally offering bonus mile booking bonuses any longer, I’ve found it attractive to use those sites.

Previously I had found it useful to book elsewhere anyway, and certainly when booking for others, because on the whole I’ve found them much more user firendly and much less cumbersome from search to purchase.

Plus in many cases you can earn mileage bonuses or cash back on your purchases. Fatwallet offers 1.4% (occasionally higher) on Expedia purchases. Combine that with no booking fees, an easy to use interface, the ability to save plenty of traveler profiles and mix and match carriers, I’ve been a frequent customer.

Orbitz has historically been better at finding low fare combinations of different carriers. Expedia will often price the same if you piece together those carriers yourself using a multi-city search (although is somewhat clunky in offering as many flight options as Orbitz) but the interface is less useful for me. Specifically, it hasn’t been able to allow you to enter frequent flyer miles which differ from the program of the operating carrier. That would require a subsequent phone call to the airline itself. And their booking page tries to sell you travel insurance and defaults to including it in the purchase, you have to opt out.

A minor annoyance, a single click to get rid of it, but recently a friend not inexperienced with travel bookings got caught up by this. In a rush to make a purchase, checking that the itinerary is correct, knwoing the purchase price and… Boom. An email arrives about the travel insurance she bought (which in this case even excluded the carrier her flights were operated by for its coverage in the case of airline default — so it wasn’t even all that useful if she had wanted the coverage, something she would never have known without reading the fine print sent after purchase).

I told her to send Orbitz an email insisting that the insurance be cancelled and her card refunded. To their credit they responded promptly to wit:

To cancel this coverage, please contact Access America at (877) 593-4989. Access America will process a full refund of the premium to you if you contact them within 10 days of purchasing the coverage, as long as you have not already departed on your trip or filed a claim. No refunds shall be paid to you after 10 days of booking the program.

Good to know! They slip the insurance in, but it’s perfectly cancellable within 10 days.

I’d rather they not make the default to purchase travel insurance. And if it’s so easy to make the purchase, I really wish it were as easy to cancel (e.g. online). But a simple phone call apparently should take care of it. Good to know for anyone who thinks they’re stuck with a mistaken purchase of Orbitz-sold travel insurance!

Virgin Alantic is offering new members instant silver status plus they promise 2500 bonus points for joining and a fast track to Gold.  (Via Frugal Travel Guy,)

Starwood is offering 1000 bonus points per stay (a few properties cheap out at only 500 bonus points) through November 30 at most North American and Latin American properties. Registration required.

Book exactly two nights at the Crowne Plaza Venice East (not 1 night, not 3 nights, you get the idea) and it’ll come out to just a euro. It’s prepaid, non-refundable, but since it’s only a single Euro for the two nights I wouldn’t worry too much about it !

I can’t get the terms and conditions page to come up. Probably fine to book multiple reservations back-to-back in order to get more than 2 days (4, 6, 8 days…). But if you want to be safe, and know who you will be traveling with, then book one reservation in your own name, one in the other person’s, and then if you want more than 4 nights you can alternate again on the third reservation.

Funny, the offer page (“2-for-1 Monsters vs. Aliens”) says that stays have to be consumed by August 31 — but this works through all of July, 2010 !

TripAdvisor reviews of the hotel look pretty good.

Do note, though, that it’s pretty far from central Venice but very close to a train station, about 3 Euros and 30 minutes of travel. Also apparently free airport transportation, at least per the Flyertalk thread on this deal.

Not normally a very expensive hotel. I’ve booked it for when I’ll be in Europe anyway (I may or may not use it), the rate for my stay was otherwise just 90 euros. We’ll have to see whether this gets honored, and certainly the deal will go fast. Don’t book airfare until you know the hotel is definitely going to honor the rate !

Update 9:07pm: Rate appears to have been pulled.

How to prevent swine flu.

Further discussion here.

You must Register by August 31.

You’ll be upgraded to Silver Preferred within 14 days, though folks report it happens much more quickly. And the status lasts for 90 days once upgraded.  US Airways normally charges $200 for this offer.

Naturally, this only works for people who don’t already have status (or how could the status be upgraded to Silver?). It also doesn’t work for anyone that has received a trial status since May 1, 2007. And under current rules you can only enroll in a trial status program once every 24 months.

If you fly 7,500 miles or 10 segments during the trial period then status will be extended through February, 2010.  In the meantime, you’ll get priority check-in and boarding, waived baggage fees, and some chance of uprgrades.