A neat documentary about the quest for frequent flyer miles. Much of the filming was done at last spring’s Flyertalk Moderator meeting in Orlando. Sadly I was in Thailand at the time and missed it.

Perhaps not Up in the Air, but it’s great to watch. I especially enjoyed Flyertalk’s beaubo talking about getting questioned by the DEA about why he had hired several local Thais to do nothing but fly back and forth between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai for six weeks. Not to mention Randy Petersen explaining how ‘normal’ it is to pick up and get together with friends on another continent.

A very neat tool, Twitterfeed for the frequent flyer set, it lets you automate your Facebook status update-bragging.

Lufthansa has introduced MySkyStatus, that lets you enter your flights and it will send altitude, location, departure and arrival updates automatically to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The Chase co-branded British Airways Visa has announced a new benefit:

Redeem for 1 travel for 2
Every year you spend $30,000 you will receive a redemption voucher for a ticket for a companion valid for 2 years. Redeem your BA Miles for a British Airways flight and take anyone with you on the same flight, in the same class of service.

(There’s a website for the offer — http://www.ba.com/redeemfor1travelfor2 — that isn’t live yet.)

Two first class award tickets for the price of one is huge, even with British Airways’ inflated award chart.

This new benefit is on top of the new benefit that I mentioned a couple weeks ago where all spend on the card would earn 1.25 miles per dollar instead of the standard 1 mile per dollar.

So you’ve got a 25% increase in earning, and once a year (if you spend $30k on the card) a 50% discount on burning. That’s a real value proposition.

(Via Lucky.)

Last week I posted that Hilton has been planning to devalue its points by introducing a new, more expensive higher category and presumably bumping the majority of properties up a category as a result.

Now the new award chart is out and goes into effect on January 15.

It comes with a new category 7 (50,000 points per night), and all “Waldorf=Astoria hotels” are 50,000 or more points in low season and up to 80,000 points a night in high season.

From the FAQ:

Has the cost of a free night changed?
Yes. Reward categories have been updated along with point redemption rates. Please refer to the chart below.

Updated reward catagory	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
New point cost for 1 free night	7,500	12,500	25,000	30,000	35,000	40,000	50,000
Old reward category	Opportunity	1	2	3	4	5	6
Old point cost for 1 free night	7,500	10,000	20,000	25,000	30,000	35,000	40,000

(There’s also a .pdf chart showing the changes to elite multi-night VIP awards as well.)

Now we don’t really know exactly what the effect of introducing a new, 25% more expensive category 7 will have on the value of points until we know which hotels are placed in each category. My working hypothesis until I hear otherwise, certainly bolstered by the display of the chart above, is that the majority of hotels will migrate up a notch.

But for now that’s speculation, as Hilton won’t publish the list of which hotels are going up in category until “late December of this year or early January 2010.”

Nonetheless, it’s almost surreal for Hilton HHonors to be raising the points price of award nights when the cash price of revenue room nights — along with occupancy — have fallen to such depths.

This is making me rethink my plan to shift significant spend over to a Hilton Surpass American Express for 2010.

One Mile at a Time notes the news that US Airways will be offering complimentary beer and wine in their lounges beginning October 30.

They’re also dropping the inance ‘partner lounge fee’ where you had to pay extra for your club membership to be valid in partner lounges, the only program to offer such a fee (and truly silly because you could buy a lounge membership for less from their partners and access their lounges — so it was a higher price to be paid only by people who didn’t know better).

It’s not amazing that a lounge offers complimentary drinks. That’s pretty much world standard. But it’s amazing that US Airways is offering something extra, a cost that they aren’t already incurring. That simply hasn’t been their model. They’ve dubbed their stock ticker LCC for a reason.

Although it should also be noted that what’s free is only the house beer and wine. No cocktails, and ‘premium’ beer and wine will still be available for purchase. But it’s an improvement.

The interesting argument that Lucky makes in his post though is that leaves United and American as the only major carriers not offering free drinks to domestic lounge guests. He posits that United will be forced to change, since both of their domestic partners — US Airways and Continental — offer alcoholic beverages complimentary.

And if United changes, American will stand alone and that isn’t likely sustainable.

Flyertalk’s Smart Shopper calls my attention to a letter in the November issue of Conde Nast Traveler praising my award booking service.

After reading Wendy Perrin’s oft-repeated praise of frequent-flier expert Gary Leff on The Perrin Post *), contacted him regarding my upcoming European itinerary. Gary was incredible – he knew every carrier, every seat, every nuance. He handled everything, and we saved money by using our American Express points to book business-class flights.

That’s what I like to hear!

Apparently Technocrati is listing this blog as #23 in travel.

I don’t know how these rankings work or how they’re figured, how often they’re updated, what they’re based on, etc. But I guess I’m pleased to be in the top 25.

I get why ‘produced’ blogs like Gadling and Jaunted beat me out, and why Rick Seaney is ahead in these rankings (hey, people like cheap airfares!). Not sure why several others are, last week I made my differences known with TripBase about their upgrade advice but I guess they’re more popular than I am. That’s alright, more upgrades for my readers!

I was glad to see Musings of the Global Traveller up 13 spots to #70. Kiwi Flyer, who writes the blog, doesn’t post enough. But when he offers advice, it’s actually true!

I think the ones most missing from the top 100 are One Mile at a Time and Frugal Travel Guy, but that’s based on my judgment of quality rather than on popularity.

(Hat tip to Loyalty Taveler who is also in the top 100.)

Wandering Aramean has filed suit in small claims court against British Airways for their refusal to honor a mistake fare to India.

The tickets were $40 plus taxes and fees for full fare coach travel from the US to India. With fuel surcharges (assuming you didn’t find a strategy to get a booking engine to drop those) the tickets priced at over $500.

BA cancelled the tickets pretty quickly, they didn’t wait weeks and decide not to honor. So I don’t have a real beef with them in the way they handled the matter.

To a non-expert, though (who didn’t realize the base fare or the fare basis) $500 tickets don’t seem like obvious mistakes. And tickets of this price are usually non-refundable, consumers don’t get an out by saying they made a mistake several days later.

So of all fares not to honor this seems like a strange one, considering British Airways honored $20+tax premium economy tickets a few years back.

But as I say, I don’t have a beef, certainly not to the level where I’d file suit — even if small claims court is costing Wandering Aramean plus some time to file papers and show up for the hearing.

Now, there are times where it could be warranted. If an airline waited months to cancel a reservation, or they made unilateral changes to a booking, it seems to me a customer would have a serious beef. And at some price one should be ale to rely on a travel provider to honor what they offer. I would have thought the actual price paid — as a result of high fuel surcharges — would have led British Airways to honor in this case.

In this case though because the tickets were refundable a customer doesn’t have a reciprocity argument, that British Airways wouldn’t have let them cancel after three days. Because in fact BA would have.

So ultimately I would have liked BA to honor these, but I don’t think it is egregious as to warrant a suit.

 Loyalty Traveler Blog covers the news that Starwood has introduced Cash and Points awards for Category 1 and 2 propoerties in Asia, the U.S., and Canada (though he can’t find any category 1 and 2 properties in the U.S. currently offering cash and points availability).

Starwood’s Cash & Points awards are useful because they stretch your points. And they’re almost always more valuable than a points-only redemption, it amounts to selling you the difference in points at a deep discount (usually just over a penny a point).

Unlike regular award nights, cash and points awards are not always available when a hotel has standard rooms available. Starwood will reimburse a hotel its full average daily room rate on a regular award night when a hotel hits 90% occupancy. Not so with cash and points, Starwood pays roughly the same for the room but without the extra revenue when the hotel is full. So hotels don’t offer cash and points when they expect to be full, since the cash and points award night might trade off with selling a revenue room for more money.

One other difference between regular award nights and cash and points is that regular nights can be upgraded at booking with additional points, whereas cash and poiints bookings usually can not be (there was a special promotion last year that offered it, but that was the exception). The only points-upgrade on cash and points reservations would be instant awards which are usually handled at checkin, though I secured one at the Sheraton Saigon in April in advance (I emailed the hotel and they deducted points before my stay to move from the regular hotel to the towers section, and then gave me a confirmed in advance status upgrade to a suite).

Cash and points have only been available at categories 3-6 properties (and until two years ago, only at category 3 and 4 properties). Now they’ve introduced them at categories 1 and 2, but while the offering is well worthwhile during the week since Starwood also discounts regular redemption nights at those category levels on the weekend cash and points for category 1 and 2 is of questionable value on the weekends. Instead of effectively purchasing points at a bit over a penny apiece, on the weekends at category 1 and 2 properties the cash and points offering equates to purchasing points at a bit over 3 and 2 cents apiece, respectively.

More options are always better, and this is especially welcome for weeknight redemption, less useful for weekend redemption.

(Note that this chart assumes that Starwood retains the February decision to eliminate peak season surcharges for regular award nights.)

That’s a nice haul from a single credit card applicaiton. And Continental miles are worth a whole lot more than they used to be, with the airline joining Star Alliance in just over a week.

The credit card offer itself is for 40,000 miles broken out as follows:

Promo code THKYOU25 is valid for $25 off a $400 “GoodBuy” hotel booking at Travelocity. Book by October 24 for travel through December 15.

Radisson’s Friends and Family rate is a 25% discount and valid through the end of the year using promo code CARLSONF, according to this Flyertalk thread.

I don’t know any more about it than that, so I’d like to see someone report back on Flyertalk having used the discount before I use it myself.

I’m familiar with the Priority Club / Intercontinental Friends and Family rate which is usable by anyone and the Fairmont Friends and Family rate which requires a ‘booker ID’ (basicaly an employee number) but not other verification (there are several employees on Flyertalk who make theirs available).

The Marriott Friends and Family rate requires a rate authorization form signed by the sponsoring employee’s supervisor. And Hilton will give anyone 25% off just for using a Visa Signature card so don’t really need a Friends and Family rate there. (They probably offer a friends and family discount but I don’t know the details.)

These offers are all different. Bottom-line is every chain makes discounts available, not really as a “friends and family perk” but as a way of generating price-sensitive incremental revenue. Using the narrative of insiders it’s a way of separating these out from regular bookings and not leaking revenue from higher-priced reservations.

Makes sense that Radisson would follow the lead of other chains who have generated incremental business during a downturn this way. However I’d want to know whether anything else is required of the guest besides entering a promo code before booking.

Tim Winship says that Southwest is likely to move towards a revenue-based frequent flyer program a la JetBlue (he gives he example of Virgin America).

I don’t follow Southwest enough to evaluate the claim, but imagine it’s credible.

For Southwest, this makes some sense. I prefer segment and mileage-based programs because they provide more opportunity to benefit disproportionately; my hobby. But a low cost carrier with a low reward frequent traveler program makes some sense, although on the whole I think there are real unexploited opportunities to leverage these programs profitable as major carriers have done (while the ‘legacy’ airlines on the whole haven’t been particularly profitable, their frequent flyer programs have been). Selling miles is profitable, and Southwest doesn’t have nearly as extensive array of partners as major mileage-based programs. Those programs also offer far greater opportunity for mileage sales — one mile per dollar offers from credit cards or other merchants are far easier to implement and more attractive than some fraction of a credit for larger volumes of activity.

What I especially dislike in these sorts of programs is the tendency for revenue-based earning to be coupled with price-based burning.  And the value of points on the spending side thus tends to be much lower.  I value frequent fliyer miles predominantly for their aspirational value, I can redeem points for the kinds of trips I would otherwise only dream of taking.  I don’t view these programs as a substitute for cash back rewards.  Turning mileage into cash back with restrictions on the ability to spend points only for travel doesn’t make them more attractive, it undermines the value proposition that makes them so attractive to so many millions of people.

Of course, since Southwest doesn’t offer these types of rewards to begin with, the likely affect is to make the program marginally less attractive for the types of people who read this blog but on the whole the consequences will probably be pretty marginal. 

If major carriers went in this direction I think they’d be killing the golden goose. The Global Traveller reports that Emirates is moving to a revenue-based program. But even there it’s fixed-earning based on geographic zones rather than points based on price of ticket, there’s simply more of a differntiation between earning rates for different fare classes. Moving to straight revenue would be a mistake…

I’ve written about Bankdirect before, but not much and not in awhile (e.g. here).

In a low interest rate environment, a BankDirect checking account is especially attractive. And I’ve been thoroughly happy with them for the past six years.

BankDirect offers online mileage checking, as well as other products (I’ve only been a customer for their checking). They don’t have physical branches, at least outside of Texas. In exchange for that, though, they offer a huge set of benefits compared to a regular brick and mortar bank checking account. I do need to keep a $2500 average balance to avoid fees, but I do that anyway. They offer:

American Express now offers the Premier Rewards Gold Card.

• 15,000 bonus American Express Membership Rewards points after $1000 in spend
• 15,000 bonus points for spending $30,000 on the card between January 1 and December 31 each year (equivalent to 50% bonus if you hit $30,000 in spend and stop). This isn’t a one-time bonus, rather an every year opportunity.
• No fee the first year
• Triple points on airfare
• Double points on gas and groceries

After the first year the annual fee is $170 (ouch!) but if you spend enough on airfare it could be worth it. I need to consider this card for myself since I buy enough tickets for other people in addition to myself, the bonus on airfare will probably make the annual fee more than worthwhile.But I’ll likely wait until January to sign up because the 15,000 bonus for $30k in spend is based on calendar year, not cardmembership year.

Let Shutterfly connect to your Facebook account (click the link and then click to allow) and then go to the same link again and they’ll give you a unique promo code for a free 8×8 20 page hardcover photo book valid through November 15 (regular price $30).  They say they’ll charge you taxes, shipping, and handling.

(Via Dan’s Deals)

I’ve certainly experienced the higher end of travel. There aren’t many products and elite services on my ‘bucket list’ as it were. And I’m rarely jealous of others’ experiences. Until now. Here’s a photo report of the Emirates A380 first class shower.

Seriously.

Makes my upcoming visit to the Cabanas in Hong Kong after a first class arrival on Cathay look purely pederstrian.

I just wish Emirates would start flying the A380 to JFK already…

Update: Joe Brancatelli emails to let me know that Emirates had been flying the A380 JFK-DXB earlier this year, but they’ve shifted the aircraft up to Toronto where they’re only permitted 3 flights a week and they can better utilize the extra capacity.

I don’t usually post sweepstakes, but this is one I’d actually like to win.

American is giving away a grand prize of tickets to the Up In The Air movie premiere, 700,000 AAdvantage miles, and $300 MasterCard gift card.

Although if you win, you’ll want to study this blog post on how to dispute the fair market value of a prize for tax purposes…

(Hat tip to @WanderngAramean)

Rrporter for a major news organization is looking for folks that have earned millions of miles through flying. Please email me — gleff -at- yahoo.com —  if you’d be interested in talking to them. Their story is tied to the upcoming release of the film Up in the Air.

KLM is offering two free design-your-own luggage tags in exchange for subscribing to their e-mail list.

You can use a photo of your family, your favorite destination, or, to make it easier, you can choose from one of the images pre-selected by KLM.

(Via Things in the Sky.)