The February issue of Conde Nast Traveler as a has a long-ish piece on Flyertalk, the Star Alliance MegaDO, Pudding Guy, cockroaches, Continental DOs, and more. (here’s a .pdf, scanned by a Flyertalker).

The article contains ten tips for accumulatng miles, which it attributes to me. Close enough, and boiled down to bullet points for a magazine sidebar, though I think one of the tips may not have come from me… Hah!

I specifically laud Air Canada Aeroplan and Continental Onepass, and take United to task for Starnet blocking, and Delta to task for difficulty in redeeming international premium class awards. Take that, United and Delta! I’ll continue screaming from the roof tops until you clean up your act!

The Wall Street Jouirnal ran a piece on the little luxuries and personalizations that travel providers offer to their really frequent customers.

Now, I’m not necessarily one of the very best customers that any given travel provider may have. I’m a good customer of some specific hotels, staying a few times a year, year-in and year-out. But that’s it. So most places don’t have the personalized memory of my preferences.

But I do truly appreciate the refined service that comes from a hotel where I’m staying a few days remembering how I take my morning coffee after the very first time I order it. And remembering where I chose to sit, and ensuring the same spot is available for me at the same time throughtout my stay.

And Avis knows, “No Town Cars.” I’ll take a premium sedan if there’s nothing special on the lot, and no Cadillacs. But I don’t want a Chrysler 300. Of course, I’ve let them know this and they usually follow through. It isn’t something they just noticed and always deliver on, on their own.

Anthony Lee, who has worked at the Connaught hotel in London for the last 31 years, says his luxury hotel makes sure it helps busy chief executives gain precious time.

“Luxury is not about money. It is about something intangible,” Mr. Lee said. “It is about no barriers — no ifs, no buts.”

I don’t think this quite captures it. Certainly there’s an element of Gordon Gekko’s famous line in Wall Street about being rich enough not to waste time. And I appreciate the small elements of it that I receive. But it’s not just time, it anticipatory, personal service.

Mr. Lee, who is the sixth general manager at the Connaught in its 113 years of existence, says his frequent guests appreciate the “little, unexpected things” the hotel does for them.

After having coffee with an American who regularly stays at the hotel, he discovered her favorite kind of Starbucks coffee. When she came back from a trip in the countryside the following Monday, he had that same kind of coffee ready for her in her room. “She couldn’t believe it. She said she was never going to forget that. What does a Starbucks coffee cost? Nothing. But we both had fun with it,” he said.

To me, and in this story, how I take my coffee matters. Not having to sacrifice, or repeat myself, or think about how to get what I want or what I’m used to. That’s service, it engenders loyalty, and it is what sets apart a good hotel from a great one, makes a stay memorable, and leads me to be an evangelist for the property.

I spoke with CNN the other day about this piece on air travel frustrations. It was prompted by recent increases in checked baggage fees, but I told the reporter I couldn’t really speak to my personal experiences with those in so far as I usually don’t pay them as an elite traveler (or an upgraded one).

So I laid out what I find to be the major inconveniences, and that’s primarily the farce that’s airport security.

Gary Leff, another frequent flier who lives in Arlington, Virginia, called this part of the security process the “shoe carnival.” For him, the vast amounts of time spent waiting are the biggest hassle of flying. …”It takes more time and so you have to leave earlier and earlier to go to the airport. Most of the time you just wind up sitting… but you don’t know what the lines are going to be like.”

Leff said it’s not clear that any of the security measures being taken — including putting people through full-body scanners and producing detailed images in what he jokingly called “nudiscope” — actually protect travelers. “It’s mostly silliness,” Leff, 35, said. “If I’m a terrorist, I’m happy, right? Look at what I’ve caused.”

The only thing that makes the piece noteworthy for me is that I managed to get in both shoe carnival and nude-o-scope!

The Priority Club partner activity bonus has been a bit vexing for some — it seems that plenty of members received fewer points than they should have from the offer.

Personally I should have received the full 10,000 points but received only 6,000. And the reason appears to have been that I transferred points via Points.com into Priority Club (1 Priority Club point…) and I also purchased 1000 points. Both of those were described as unique activities. But the purchase of points is managed by Points.com, and both transactions post as Points.com to the account, so the Priority Club system treated them as a single partner and not unique activities.

Folks have been pulling teeth to get their missing points, spending tons of time on hold, emailing to no avail.

My points are finally in. I never dealt with anyone on the phone, I don’t want to waste my time on hold and I hate talking to people anyway.

Instead, it took 3 emails over 3 days. Here’s the exchange that finally worked.

Dear Priority Club,

I am writing about missing points from a bonus offer for my Royal
Ambassador/Priority Club account # XXXXXXXXX.

The 2009 MULTIPARTNER OFFER provided me with 6000 points on December 9.
This was offer code 3558.

However, I had (4) unique partner transactions and should have received
10000 points.

In other words, I am missing 4000 points.

I transferred points from another program to Priority Club via Points.com
26 Aug 2009 POINTS.COM 1 pts.

I redeemed Membership Rewards points for Priority Club points
10 Sep 2009 MBRSP RWDS TRSFR-UNITED STATES 1200 pts.

I made a purchase from the Priority Club Mall
13 Oct 2009 PC MALL- RESTAURANT.COM 20 pts.

I purchased points at Priorityclub.com
28 Sep 2009 POINTS.COM 1000 pts.

The problem appears to be that point purchase and points to points conversion — while verified by Priority Club to be eligible unique activities — both posted as “Points.com”

Please post the missing 4000 points to my account.

Sincerely,

That wasn’t persuasive, they just explained that Points.com is one partner, period.

Dear gleff,

Thank you for taking the time to contact Priority Club Rewards Service Center.

We regret to inform you that purchasing and transferring of points with Points.Com are considered one unique activity as both transactions were done with the same partner. We require only one activity per partner to qualify for the 2009 Multi Partner Promotion.

The Priority Club® members are our most valued customers and we appreciate your loyalty to our hotels. As a goodwill gesture, we have credited your account with 500 points as compensation for this unfortunate situation.

Your current point balance is XXXXXX. This adjustment should be available for immediate viewing in your online account which can be accessed at

http://www.priorityclub.com/account

We look forward to serving you again in the future and hope that you will continue to use IHG as your preferred lodging of choice.

Should you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. Attached is the link to our service centers’ phone numbers page:

http://www.priorityclub.com/contactus

Sincerely,

So now I’m out only 3500 points after 500 points for my troubles, but I need to explain to them that buying points and transferring points were two different unique activities.

Ms. XXXX,

Respectfully I believe you are mistaken, and that I earned 10,000 points from that promotion but have received only 6000. Thus I am missing 4000 points.

While you say that “purchasing and transferring of points with Points.com are considered one unique activity as both were done with the same partner,” I did not transfer points with Points.com. I did it on the Priority Club web page. No where did it say that the activity would post as a points.com transaction.

Besides, the terms and conditions are very specific that these are two separate unique transactions: “A Priority Club Point purchase and a partner points to points conversion transaction are considered eligible unique activities.”

Further, the terms and conditions list these separately again under “Other eligible activities.”

I made a Priority Club Point Purchase, that was a unique transaction from a points to points conversion transaction. That is straight from the terms and conditions of the offer.

Please credit me with the missing 4000 points.

Regards,

They weren’t buying it. And they go on to explain how I’m mistaken.

Dear XXXXXX,

Thank you for your reply to Priority Club® Rewards.

We would like to inform you that though points purchase and points transfer are eligible activities, please remember that only one activity per partner would count towards the Multipartner Unique Activity bonus. Since both transactions where from points.com, then you have utilize one partner only.

Further, even when you made the purchase through the Priority Club® Rewards website, this would direct you to the Points.com website to make the necessary transaction.

We hope this clarifies your inquiry.

Please accept our apologies for the confusion regarding this matter.

Should you need further assistance, please feel free to get in touch with us directly. Attached is the link to the Service Centers’ phone numbers page:

http://www.priorityclub.com/contactus

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be of service to you.

Sincerely,

Oh no they didn’t, trying to school me with my doing both transactions on the Points.com website.

So I replied:

Ms. XXXXXX,

Respectfully, the terms and conditions of the offer specifically said that transfers and purchases were separate unique activities. I proceeded on that basis. I purchased points only because the terms and conditions said this was a separate unique activity from transfers, in order to earn the full promised bonus.

Further, while you mention that purchasing points “takes you to the points.com website,” the website at points.com is made to appear graphically the same as the rest of the priority club website — precisely to make it appear as though you haven’t left the Priority Club website. It’s not reasonable to expect, as your email implies, that someone would realize they’re working with points.com when the website is designed to obscure that fact.

Regardless, transfers and purchases are separate activities!

Separately, as reported at Flyertalk.com, other members have been told — consistent with the terms and conditions of the offer — that these are indeed separate unique activities and have had their missing 4000 posted manually.

I again request that the 4000 missing points be added to my account.

Sincerely,

And now I have the missing points.

Dear gleff,

Thank you for your reply.

Your comments have been recorded and we have shared them with the management staff of the Priority Club® Rewards Service Center, which will in turn pass them on to our corporate executives that make decisions pertaining to future enhancements of our program.

The Priority Club® members are our most valued customers and we appreciate your loyalty to our hotels as well as your honest feedback. As a goodwill gesture, we have credited your account with additional 3,500 points as compensation for this unfortunate situation.

We hope that we will be able to take future measures to incorporate your suggestions into our program. We look forward to serving you again in the future and hope that you will continue to use IHG as your preferred lodging of choice.

Should you have further queries or concerns, feel free to contact us. Attached is the link to the service centers’ phone numbers page: http://www.priorityclub.com/contactus

Sincerely,

XXXXX

Via TM Travel World, Lufthansa is offering 2000 miles to new members of Miles & More.

Sign up, and then use your new membership number for a free $100 certificate valid on a stay of 2 nights or more at Renaissance Hotel properties.

Wandering Aramean explains the challenges for relief flights landing in Port-au-Prince and the role of the US Air Force handling air traffic control on the ground.

There’s no fuel on the ground, so arriving flights need to carry enough petrol for their return trips. There aren’t enough parking spots, the runway isn’t up to the task of some of the jumbos looking to land, and there really aren’t ground crews to work the flights.

Flyertalk member Beckles points out that through February, 2011 US Airways elite members receive bonuses when making purchases through the Dividend Miles shopping mall.

Silver Preferred – 25%
Gold Preferred – 50%
Platinum Preferred – 75%
Chairman’s Preferred – 100%

Pretty neat ongoing offer for US Airways elites!

Furthermore, through February 28, 2011, US Airways elites earn a 25% bonus on transferring or purchasing miles to gift.

It will be interesting to see whether these promotions are stackable with other offers that US Airways may run during the year, such as if they bring back their 100% bonus on transferred or purchased miles (a 125% bonus for elites!) or holiday shopping promo.

In light of recent increases in checked baggage fees, I found this bit from the Onion rather funny:

With holiday traffic down almost 4 percent compared to last year and business continuing to decline, US Airways announced Monday that it would allow VIP customers to bring bombs on board its flights for a one-time $100 million fee. “At US Airways, we want to show the world that we’re willing to go the distance for customers our competitors repeatedly ignore,” a press release read in part. “Your enrollment fee grants you full access to our prestigious Bomber’s Club at participating airports, early boarding with choice of seat, the option to bring aboard knives and guns for a small additional surcharge, and allowance for an extra carry-on, which can of course be used for your bomb.” The airline noted that an additional $50 million dollar deposit was required and would not be refunded in the event of a detonation.

Lots of folks have $5 Omaha Steaks gift cards, basically a throwaway order from the US Airways holiday shopping promo (one of the easy, inexpensive transactions to get a qualifying merchant).

If you kept a card rather than tossing it, thanks to Alex here’s a chance to actually use it: Omaha Steaks is offering free shipping today only amd pumpkin pie is $4.99.

There are apparently sauces and seasonings available for under $5 as well.

Update: Commenter Diana writes, “The free ship is supposed to only be for orders over $75. The checkout screen does show free shipping, but the confirmation email will reflect a $13.99 charge. Customer service was able to let this order go through, since their website has a glitch.”

The first 2500 Miles & More members to sign up get a $100 certificate for Renaissance, valid on minimum 2-night stays. The form is in German, I don’t speak it but had no problem filling it out.

German speakers out there, let me know if there additional terms and conditions I should be aware of?

U.K. man arrested for venting his delay frustrations on Twitter.

When heavy snowfall threatened to scupper Paul Chambers’s travel plans, he decided to vent his frustrations on Twitter by tapping out a comment to amuse his friends. “Robin Hood airport is closed,” he wrote. “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”

Unfortunately for Mr Chambers, the police didn’t see the funny side. A week after posting the message on the social networking site, he was arrested under the Terrorism Act and questioned for almost seven hours by detectives who interpreted his post as a security threat. After he was released on bail, he was suspended from work pending an internal investigation, and has, he says, been banned from the Doncaster airport for life.

You have to enter coupon MUAA044 and provide your Dividend Miles number with the reservation. This is valid through March 31, 2011.

The ad copy says it is for US Airways elite members, but presumably that’s just who they are targeting with the offer, generally anyone using the coupon will get the miles (Avis doesn’t know if you’re an elite, they send the miles over in a batch and US Airways imports them).

The offer is combinable with your standard “AWD” number discounts and doesn’t require using the US Airways discount code, just entering the coupon code (but is not combinable with other coupons).

The offer requires that you

contact the Member Service Centre at goldpointsplus@carlson.com or call +44 207 949 0379 and mention the promotional code indicated in your XING promotion (Code: OPBCSL09).

Now, Silver status doesn’t get you a ton.

But it does get you “Our World, Your Lounge” benefits in Europe, Middle East, and Africa: elite members are welcome any time in any hotel for a free coffee, tea or hot chocolate for two people and to use free wireless internet.

This is really a nice benefit that doesn’t cost the hotels much at all but really creates a feeling of belonging and a special relationship with the hotel chain for its elite membership.

Finnair is offering a status match (.pdf) after you take a flight on Finnair to Asia.

You need to scan the boarding pass and send it to Finnair along with a copy of your Skyteam of Star Alliance elite status card and Finnair will match you to the comparable leve, Silver or Gold. They’ll also give you a fast track to requalify,

This is marketed to French residents (via Finnair in Paris). TM Travel World says that it’s limited to French residents but I don’t notice that in the offer. Your mileage may vary on whether you need to make a friend in France to use the status match or not.

Registration is required to earn double miles (6 for online-registered members, and 10 for VIP dining members) on spending at participating restaurants between February 1 and March 31.

The Daily Yomiuri reports that Delta and Japan Airlines “reached a basic agreement on a comprehensive tie-up” that will mean JAL moving from oneworld to Skyteam.

Japan Airlines has historically offered pretty good premium cabin award availability.

I was on record saying that despite reports that Japan Airlines would jump ship from partnering with American and oneworld, that I still believed that was mostly posturing for a better deal from their existing partners. The news coverage now suggests I was mistaken, and that American will be losing an important partner and oneworld will be shrinking.

Delta and Japan Airlines will become the dominant carrier in the US-Japan market, followed by United and All Nippon. (And in the Skyteam case, Korean also flies Los Angeles – Narita, and in the latter case Singapore also flies Los Angeles – Narita as well.) American offers Tokyo flights from four airports, but won’t have nearly the lift of its rivals.

With the impending loss of transpacific partner JAL from American’s oneworld stable, I’ll renew my call for American and British Airways to tighten their partnership and allow mileage redemption on transatlantic flights between the US and London on each others’ carriers. Currently there’s no American mileage redemption on British Airways from the US to Britain (and vice versa). That’s a huge disadvantage for American frequent flyers, since BA tends to offer excellent premium cabin availability (which American presumably doesn’t want to pay for). Of course, one can fly to London via Canada, Mexico, or the Carribean and use American miles on British Airways, but one would really not have to use this workaround. And really, losing JAL they need to do something to make the remaining partnerships more valuable.

Update: BP888 provides a link in the comments where the reports in Japanese media that this is a done deal are being denied.  So we’ll still have to wait and see.  I have three reactions:

(1) Good, my previous written predictions that JAL would stay with American might still be validated!

(2) Hah!  I suppose it’s still possible that Skypesos won’t be worth much, I should always bet on that outcome I suppose

(3) American and British Airways should still relax restrictions on transatlantic partner redemptions, either way…

Loyalty Traveler runs down the changes in hotel categories for Hilton HHonors and concludes that it represents a 19.3% increase in the average points cost of a room night.

He crunches the numbers for US Hilton properties and finds the following category comparison between 2009 and 2010:

Category	2009	2010
Opportunity	37	n/a
Category 1	150	39
Category 2	1124	117
Category 3	1143	1334
Category 4	459	1109
Category 5	139	347
Category 6	57	121
Category 7	n/a	65

To a first approximation, just eye-balling, it does look like Hilton did mostly what was execpted: drop the opportunity level, add a new category 7, and shift most properties up a level.

There remain 7 active categories, and each category has a similar number of properties in it.

Category	2009	2010
Bottom	37	39
1 From Bottom	150	117
2 From Bottom	1124	1334
3 From Bottom	1143	1109
4 From Bottom	459	347
5 From Bottom	139	121
6 From Bottom	57	65

What they’ve done in the limit is increase each hotel by a category level in price.  Some properties have jumped two properties.  Loyalty Traveler notes that one single property in California dropped a category.  And there’s little relation to hotel price it seems, plenty of regularly available $99 properties in San Francisco are at the top award price level.

It’s really quite bloody, and wholly unreasonable after a year of truly historic drops in hotel occupancy and average room rates.  And I’m glad I burned my full HHonors balance the day before the devaluation.

Even though I have Diamond status (through credit card spend), HHonors is one of my least favorite hotel loyalty programs.  They don’t match their peers in redemption value.  And their elite benefits are paltry.  Like Marriott they don’t offer suites as a program benefit to top tier members.  Starwood and Intercontinental sure do, and so does Hyatt.  All Diamond members really get is club lounge access, only Intercontinental doesn’t guarantee this.

HHonors Diamond is more valuable than Priority Club Platinum status is at Holiday Inn properties.  But if that’s your benchmark, then it’s rather damning with faint praise…

Alaska Airlines is offering 5000 miles for signing up for a new frequent flyer account, and another 20,000 miles after taking a qualifying roundtrip.

Account must be opened by April 1, and the roundtrip must be flown between February 15 and April 1 and must not be purchased as a ‘hot deal’ (booked in G or T class).

And most importantly, the deal is only available to residents of Oregon and Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, and Skamania Klickitat Counties in Washington.

Someone needs to figure out where those counties are, or if they have friends in Portland whose home can become their permanent address.

What’s up with all of these residency-specific offers of late, both here and in Europe?

(HT: Lucky.)

Lucky says he doesn’t want to fly first class.

What I think he’s saying is that he’s made travel decisions based on in-flight products and lounges, and chosen to visit some places at the expenses of others he might have wanted to go as a result. And since he’s accomplished most of his inflight goals — the First Class Terminal, the Thai First Class Spa, the Turkish Suites, etc. — it’s time to move on to visiting places he’s neglected because of the lack of quality first class products to get there.

That’s reasonable. And I have advice for him. It’s two-fold.

(1) Don’t despair, the amazing thing is htere are always new products to try! Just a year or so back there wasn’t a new Swiss first class product. Turkish didn’t have suites. And there will be new products still to experience in the future, and even ones he hasn’t yet gotten to (and sadly, products I haven’t yet tried either).

(2) Choose great cities to visit. But don’t self-immolate in business. (Hah!) Figure out the best ways to get to those cities, even if it means a short hop in business. You don’t have to fly LOT Polish long-haul to get to Warsaw. Book each and every JFK – Frankfurt flight in first class on Lufthansa for this summer, and one of them is bound to get swapped for the new Lufthansa A380 First Class. And then continue with the short hop to Warsaw. Bam, both needs solved — a visit to Warsaw and a new product to try, one that doesn’t even exist yet!

One never need get blase’ about first class travel, after all….

Hilton will let you convert 10,000 points into a $25 donation to the Red Cross. That’s one quarter of one cent per point. More options to give to disaster relief are better of course, but is it cynical of me to point out that this is hardly generous on Hilton’s part? It costs Hilton less on e a per-point basis to redeem your points for disaster relief than for HHonors to pay a hotel for an award night.  They get liability off their books at a lower cost than actually giving you an award night.  Is it too much to expect Hilton not to actualy come ahead ahead through donating to Haitian disaster relief?

Meanwhile, you can earn points through American by giving to the Red Cross for Haitian disaster relief. Generous of American, right? Not exactly.

I contacted American to verify that this promotion wasn’t arranged differently than their partner promotions gneerally are. I didn’t get a call back. Presumably the Red Cross is buying these miles from American. And the miles cost a good chunk of what the Red Cross gets from the donation. It’s part of their cost to acquire a new donor. The contribution itself doesn’t really provide net dollars for disaster relief, it puts the donor on a mailing list and the Red Cross makes money because people who self-identify as likely to give to the Red Cross (because they’ve already given) are highly likely to give again in the future. The Red Cross really makes money for future activities off the the re-solicitation of people who give now, even though those current gifts only recoup the cost of the Red Cross acquiring new donor names.

That isn’t to say that the Red Cross isn’t spending money on disaster relief. No doubt they are. But the economics of new donor acquidition are such that an initial gift is unliekly to provide new net dollars, and the funds available to the Red Cross for disaster relief are unlikely to go up as a result of a new donor coming in off this campaign (unless the gift is uniquely large).

Yesterday One Mile at a Time posted about an offer of 5000 Delta miles for the first 5000 people who donate $50 or more to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial project. Is that Delta being generous? No, it’s a charity buying miles to acquire donors, and then betting that they can resolicit those donors and make money in the future. A new donor is valuable to a charity, and if they can entice a first gift with miles they hope to entice future gifts without such expensive premiums. And why limit the offer to the first 5000 people? Because the charity has set a budget for this new donor acquisition campaign, and they don’t want to exceed it.

(Cf. Wikipedia on direct mail fundraising.)

There are real needs, Haiti is a real tragedy currently, and donating to organizations helping out there is certainly commendable.  But it’s also easy to delude ourselves into thinking we’re doing good, or congratulating our travel partners for their generosity while they’re working in their own self-interest.

Meanwhile, if you actually want to help Haiti… (Update: The U.S. federal government has, indeed, granted Haitians in the US temporary protected status. This will allow them to return to Haiti to assist and come back to the United States, as well as make it easier to work in the United States and send funds back to Haiti.)

Update: A Delta spokeperson emails the following:

Delta does not charge charitable organization for the cost of miles. We value the charities in the communities that we serve in many ways including: Delta’s Force for Global Good, of which the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial project part, and our SkyWish program (http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use_miles/donate_miles/index.jsp) which allows members of our SkyMiles program to donate to the charity of their choosing. Neither of these programs includes payment for miles by the charities associated with the programs.