Just announced, details to come in their news conference tomorrow, but Air Berlin will be joining oneworld.

These integrations usually take 18 to 24 months, so don’t go out redeeming those American Airlines miles for Air Berlin flights between Miami and Europe and on to Egypt and Male just yet!

But it’s an interesting expansion, not one I would have predicted. First, with British Airways and Iberia and Hungarian oneworld is relatively well-positioned with European-based airlines. Second, because oneworld has tended to focus on premium carriers like Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and even British Airways. So a ‘discount carrier’ breaks the mold a bit.

Air Berlin is apparently the six-largest airline in Europe, and they reach Africa, Asia, and North and South America.

They fly mostly all-coach products but their Airbus A330s do offer business class, and they’ve got Boeing 787s on order which will presumably offer a premium cabin.

I wouldn’t call this a huge new acquisiton for oneworld, but it’s certainly an interesting and unexpected one.

Combine Japanese focus on technology with a commitment to service and what do you get?

All Nippon Airways began offering draft beer on Japanese domestic flights on July 20.

Draft beer couldn’t be served before because fluctuating air pressure created too much foam, according to Japan Probe. Supposedly, new beer keg technology was developed to remedy the issue.

They’re selling the beer in coach, limited quantities are onboard, and the article doesn’t mention availability in premium cabins.

But this alone makes me want to take a Japanese domestic flight with ANA.

The Ottawa Citizen describes some of the ‘crazy’ concierge requests that Fairmont hotel properties have received (and fulfilled) in a story supposedly based on a leaked “internal Fairmont Hotels document obtained by Postmedia News.”

I always love these sorts of stories, reported straight-faced as inside scoop when clearly a hotel chain is providing a list in hopes of getting free publicity for what kind of great service they provide and the lengths that they will go for guests. It’s brilliant marketing I suppose, but a bit cheeky for a news reporter to suggest cloak and dagger stuff in getting the real goods on a hotel’s concierge offerings.

Granted, asking for help securing pig eyes and requesting that the concierge sub in for you on a blind date make for pretty funny stories.

At The Plaza Hotel in New York, a guest who’d had a falling out with his daughter requested that a Native American reconciliation ceremony, complete with feathers and peace pipe, be performed in his room by a chief — who, incidentally, had to be tracked down in neighbouring New Jersey by the concierge.

That same hotel had a guest ask for a dinner of roasted tarantulas.

In San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square, the Fairmont Heritage Place had someone request a hyperbaric chamber.

And the concierge at the Copley Plaza in Boston located a pair of velvet-lined handcuffs at 11 pm, at the urging of a female guest — a bizarre request that nonetheless paled in comparison to the time the hotel was asked to track down a highly specific model of incubator in time to save a guests’ ostrich eggs.

I’ve never placed much in the way of extreme demands on a concierge, booking local restaurants mostly (to avoid language barriers). And even at upscale properties folks don’t usually go to such lengths to fulfill even my mundane requests.

At the Prince de Galles Paris they made a reservation I had requested, but didn’t re-confirm that the restaurant was even open when I’d be arriving. I showed up and they were in the midst of renovations.

At the W San Diego, while staying in the hotel’s ‘Extreme Wow’ suite, the “Whatever, Whenever” line couldn’t even get me ‘coffee’ (what) at 5 a.m. (when: too early).

If you believe what’s implied in this article, I should be staying at Fairmonts more! Just probably not the Royal York in Toronto…

What’s your luck been? What have you asked a concierge for, and were you successful in obtaining it? I’d love some ideas how to better utilize hotel services, after all!

I can’t test this because I’m not an iPhone guy, and a Blackberry version is still in the works, but still seemed worth passing along.

Built on QPX™, ITA’s airfare pricing and shopping engine, OnTheFly offers the same advanced, powerful comparison shopping features used by many travel companies and by ITA’s Matrix airfare search application at http://matrix.itasoftware.com. OnTheFly enables users to easily shop for optimal airfares for any itinerary in the world and provides comprehensive choices to tailor the search and shopping experience.

Samir passes along a tip reported by Barbara DeLollis that Priority Club is partnering with TopGuest and will provide 50 Priority Club points every time a guest ‘checks in’ at a Priority Club hotel property (eg Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza).

You don’t actually have to stay at the hotel, checking in in this sense means showing up and registering your location. You can drive into the parking lot and leave.

MilesQuest thinks this “certainly is worthwhile to sign up for the program and download an app like FourSquare to take advantage.”

I’m not so sure. I value a Priority Club point at about 3/5ths of a penny apiece, although some redemptions can leverage points much more effectively than that like the occasional PointBreaks redemption of 5000 points for a free Intercontinental night. But with Priority Club’s cash and points option you can effectively buy 10,000 points for $60 so it’s hard to ‘value’ the points at more than 3/5ths of a cent (as they can be acquired at that price).

That valuation makes 50 points worth 30 cents. Now, there’s a Holiday Inn down the street from my office. And I could drive into the parking lot every day on the way to work, and after 300 days have a free night at many a Holiday Inn. Still, I’m not quite sure the equation works out for me. And it’s certainly not ‘certainly’ worthwhile! Fun nonetheless, perhaps.

Randy Petersen has taken to YouTube to explain his endorsement of the Lands End Flighwise bags.

I’m more of a rollaboard kinda guy, I like my Briggs & Riley 20″ but for more value-oriented quality the Travelpro Crew 7 is a good bag at more like $125 instead of the $279-ish that the Briggs & Riley usually goes for.

And for my laptop, I’m still in love with the Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer.

Randy says in the video that he’s never found a bag with a strap he liked before the Lands End one, but I really do have to recommend Tom Bihn’s absolute shoulder strap — not cheap at $30 but the most comfortable thing I’ve ever carried a bag with.

Still, these Lands End bags aren’t expensive, less than the TravelPro Crew series, so if duffle is your thing and Tom Bihn is too much dough, might just work.

Priceline is offering a $10 per room per night discount (“bonus cash”) valid on bids for 2 to 5 nights.

The booking needs to be made by July 27 on 3-star, 3.5-star, or 4-star hotels for travel through June, 2011.

Just visit the bonus site and enter code IMISSU and Priceline will deposit the coupon into your account. One coupon per e-mail address/account.

(Hat tip to Flyertalk’s CalItalian.)

Musings of the Global Traveller wrote an exhaustive list in a February blog post about all major frequent flyer program expiration policies. I know most of them, but I have found myself frequently referring back to his list.

It’s been extremenly useful to me when I need to remind myself how long I have before my Mexicana Frecuenta miles expire (18 months from last activity, I’ll drop in a mile from Starwood or 1000 from American Express) and how long I can extend my expiring Singapore miles by paying a fee (6 months as I am not a Krisflyer elite).

And he’s even been keeping the chart updated — I notice that after I posted the change in Korean Air policy mere days ago, his February post has been adjusted.

This may be the go-to resource on mileage expiration, and it’s buried in the archives of a blog. Worth a bookmark!

The W Hotel store regularly discounts items including their beds and bedding, such as this 35% discount that I posted about rhree weeks ago (and beds receive free shipping).

For those that have a particular affinity for Westin products, though, their online store rarely has discounts or at least significant ones. So it’s actually surprising to see 25% off everything in the Westin at Home store through August 1.

Now is a good time if you’ve been wanting a Westin rather than a W bed.

Randy Petersen points out an interesting Canadian tax case where courts there ruled that a person could deduct the value of the miles they redeemed for a ticket to travel for medical care.

The government said the taxpayer could only deduct the taxes and fees — actual out of pocket case — but the Court ruled that he gave up something of value, something which could be purchased from Aeroplan, and that he had ‘paid’ for the tickets so could deduct the value of that payment.

Now, a Canadian court ruling isn’t an issue for me as a US taxpayer.  But what a can of worms this opens!  Randy likes the ruling and sees significant implications:

This case and the fact that it was uphold on an appeal sets in place a basis for many frequent flyers to have their use of miles as payment actually amount to something. Now, whether this case will hold up in situations whereby a person can claim a tax deduction when using their miles for a charity or other cause remains to be seen.

But I’m a glass half empty kinda guy. I see that the potential to tax miles received from business travel (which arent’ a rebate, as the recipient hasn’t paid for them) if those miles are valued as though they were cash. I see the potential to tax miles if an employer gives an employee a trip on points earned with the company credit card. So I’m not nearly so enthusiastic. I have come to like and live within the status quo, changes in tax treatment of miles — even up North — are disconcerting to me.

Wandering Aramean reports that American Express and US Airways have struck a lounge access deal — Platinum (and Centurion) cardholders already have access to Continental, Delta, and American Airlines lounges when flying same-day on those airlines’ flights. Now those higher-end Amex cards (with hefty fees) will offer US Airways lounge access as well, and interestingly with no same-day flight requirement as with the other lounges. So if you’re flying on another airline out of a terminal with a US Airways lounge, the card will actually get you in.

I’ve long recommended the American Express Platinum as a great road warrior card, combining the Membership Rewards points program (that comes with less expensive Amex products) with lounge access the airlines usually charge for along with benefits like the Fine Hotels and Resorts program. The card used to be even better with free domestic companion tickets four times a year, oh for the good old days.

Lucky thinks that once United and US AirwaysContinental merge, the Amex Platinum will get you access to all of hte legacy airlines’ lounges (they’re currently only missing United Red Carpet clubs). My bet is the opposite.

It’s interesting that US Airways is offering lounge access with the card even when not flying on the airline, they’re looking at this as a straight revenue play from American Express. Other airlines may want to entice Amex cardholders to actually fly the carriers but US Airways will just take the cash for lounge access. I wonder if this presages a return to the US Airways partnership in the American Express Membership Rewards program, the airline is pretty big on straight selling miles and Amex is a potentially big customer. Of course the airline pulled out of the program when it was acquired by America West with funding from new credit card partner Juniper Bank (now Barclays). I ssupect their contract will still preclude a bigger Amex relationship at least in the near-term.

But it’s those credit card relationships which make me wonder whether American Express will be able to retain Continental Presidents Club acess rights for their cardholders once Continental and United merge (and whether Continental will remain as a points transfer partner in the new entity).

It’s worth remembering that Chase, which issues both the United Visa and Continental Mastercad, has been playing in the premium card market more recently with offerings like the Continental Presidential Plus Mastercard which offers lounge access and status with Hyatt and Avis as well as bonus miles for elite members flying the airline. And they’ve offered packaged lounge access cards with United as well.

And Chase has enormous sway at United. The issuer of their co-branded credit card provided the debtor-in-possession financing for the airline’s bankruptcy, as well as the exit financing, and massive liquidity through the pre-purchase of miles. My bet is it’s unlikely they’ll allow another credit card issuer to offer United lounge access, or to act as a transfer partner essentially allowing you to earn United miles through American Express spend.

So while there may be a brief time that cardholders have lounge access with Continental after the merger, once the current contract with Continental ends I have a hard time imagining that it’ll be renewed.

And speculating even further, I’d guess that Amex expects that too — and it’s what got them moving to secure a newlounge parnter. That said, if my theory were true I’d also have expected them to wait to finalize the US Airways deal until the Continental deal was ending in order to announce the addition and loss together. That didn’t happen. Take that for what you will.

Through October 15, Hyatt is offering 2500 bonus American Airlines miles per stay (registration required) on top of the normal 500 miles. That’s 3000 miles per stay, even for 1 night stays.

This isn’t Hyatt’s planned third quarter promotion, and in the Flyertalk thread speculating on what that will be, Hyatt’s Gold Passport representative posted an interim offer of 1000 bonus miles per night on the following airlines:

AA-American Airlines
2v-Amtrak
JL- Japan Airlines
NH- All Nippon Airways
QJ- Jet Airways
TA-Thai Airways
UA-United Airlines
US-US Airways
WN-Southwest Airlines

For this bonus, you need to call and ask to enroll in bonus promotion TP30K2010. It runs June 15, 2010 through September 30, 2010, and it’s been confirmed that you can get retroactive credit for stays you’ve made back to the start of the promotion.

While this hasn’t been made explicit yet, it appears that the two bonuses should be stackable provided of course that you are crediting your stays to American Airlines miles. Clearly you can’t earn the American Airlines 2500 bonus miles per stay offer and a bonus 1000 US Airways miles per night since you can only credit a given stsay to one airline program.

But if you register for both promotions then a one-night stay should earn 4000 American Airlines miles during the promotion period. A three night stay should earn 6000 American AIrlines miles.

Update 7/16/10: Hyatt has posted an update on Flyertalk that American is not participating in the 1000 mile per night bonus after all. So while the bonuses should have been stackable, you can’t earn American miles with the per night bonus. The per stay bonus is still valuable, of course, but you have to choose 3000 American miles per stay or the bonuses offered by the other carriers.

Loyalty Traveler outlines the new Starwood “Rewarding Returns” bonus offer running through the end of the year.

Members select from their choice of award after a predetermined number of stays between now and the end of the year. It appears that most people are being offered 4000 bonus points, a $50 Starwood gift certificate for use on a future stay, or a 25% discount on an award redemption (up to category 5 hotel) valid through the middle of 2011.

Some people get 5000 bonus points, a $50 certificate, or a 25% discount on redemptions after just a single stay as their choice.

So it’s targeted to Starwood’s beliefs about how engaged you’ve been in their program, and how much activity they might be able to generate from you with the promotion.

Lucky thinks it’s “pretty lame” but I disagree — this isn’t their only promo, and over at Flyertalk Starwood’s reps have confirmed that this will not take the place of a new third quarter promotion. Instead, this bonus is stackable on top of everything else Starwood is offering (like their free weekend nights after 3 stays currently running through the end of the month).

If you think you’ll redeem points within a year, the 25% discount on redemptions is probably the most lucrative — take a 5-night category 5 stay, normally 48,000 points, you’d save 12,000 points. Even a two-night category 4 stay would normally run 20,000 points so the discount would save you 5000 points.

But still, it’s always nice to have a choice!

Having coffee this evening with some friends who hadn’t yet pulled the trigger on the outstanding Starwood American Express signup bonus of 30,000 points, I was going to get online and post that despite earlier messages that the offer would expire on July 6, the lucrative offers for both the business and personal Starwood Amex cards are still live.

But Ben beat me to the punch. So I’ll turn the mike over to him:

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the amazing sign-up offer for the Starwood American Express credit card, whereby they offered 30,000 points just for spending $1,000 within three months. The offer was only valid for about a week at the time.

Well, I’m guessing it was pretty popular, because they just extended the offer through July 31. You can find the personal card offer here and the business card offer here.

(Tip of the hat to Eli)

So if you didn’t pull the trigger earlier in the month, looks like you get a second bite at the apple.

This afternoon I spoke with Tony Glover, a Senior Vice President at Chase who has responsibility for several of their co-branded credit card relationships.

He was sharing the news that Chase just launched a new suite of benefits for the Priority Club card that are pretty unique. This of course is the loyalty program for Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, and Holiday Inn hotels.

• Annual free night certificate. These are valid for a year and are good at all Intercontinental Hotels properties except their handful of all-inclusives. I specifically asked, it’ll work at the Intercontinental Thalasso on Bora Bora and other top-end properties.

• 10% rebate on Reward Night redemptions, up to 100,000 points rebated per year.

• No foreign currency transaction fee.

They’re offering 30,000 points with first purchase. I’ve seen better signup offers in the past, but I haven’t yet found better for this new card.
The card earns 5 points per dollar at Intercontinental Hotel Group properties, so worthwhile for spend when staying with them (or as I am wont to do, worthwhile for large meeting spend on the card).

It offers 2 points per dollar on gas, groceries, and dining – there’s better leverage for this kind of targeted spend elsewhere.

All other spend earns only one mile per dollar, I’d certainly rather earn an airline mile or more likely one Starwood point than one Priority Club point. So while it’s a great card to have, it’s not top of the wallet for most spend.

But there’s no annual fee the first year, and afterward the $49 fee is certainly paid for in the value of the annual free night certificate.

And once you have the card, it becomes your go-to for foreign spend, previously folks would use a Capital One card perhaps because they didn’t tack on the foreign currency conversion fee – it’s nice to be able to spend abroad and still earn ‘real’ points albeit at a modest rate.

Plus the 10% rebate on points redemptions is a nice benefit for Priority Club regulars.

They also throw in Gold status for as long as you have the card, but that’s not really a meaningful benefit.

One point per dollar means it takes $30,000 or more in spend for a night or more at an Intecontinental hotel property. It takes perhaps $15,000 spend for a night at a Holiday Inn, or even more. In contrast, $12,000 in spend on the Starwood American Express will get you a ‘Category 5′ Westin or Sheraton.

This isn’t the card for most spend, and there’s no threshold bonuses or other extra encouragements. But it’s a good niche player that’ll be useful to many folks who engage the Priority Club program and for international spend.

The card is of course worthwhile just for the annual free night and signup points bonus. The only reason to consider holding off is in hopes that Chase will bring back a 100,000 mile bonus for the British Airways car if you don’t already have one or in hopes that there’ll finally be a Hyatt-branded Chase card…

• Korean Air miles will remain valid for 10 years instead of 5.
  
• Frontier is offering second checked bags for $1 through September 6.
  
• Asiana’s New Business Class seat looks pretty great, and will be flying to San Francisco and Los Angeles. (HT: Charles)
  
• Three-hour ground delay rule harmed 195,000 passengers while helping 3,400.
  
• Park Hyatt Seoul: not a single flaw.

Cranky Flier offers a really interesting chart on airline per-passenger food spending over the past 20 years.

The drop in food spend during the current decade is even bigger than the chart makes it appear, because the figures aren’t adjusted for inflation.

United spends the most on food, with their large international premium cabins and large domestic aircraft flying cross country routes. And that’s before the recent improvement in onboard offerings.

And as Cranky observes, and as in everything else, United does what American does and vice versa.

A couple years back, Randy Petersen treated Flyertalk’s member-elected Board to dinner at Cowboy Ciao in Scottsdale. I much enjoyed the meal and decided to return for lunch.

Here’s the menu:

As an appetizer I ordered the Crispy Mac ‘n Cheese with white cheddar, bacon, tomato/chile salsa. It could have used a bit of salt, but was otherwise good. The salsa strangely reminded me of Pace Picante Sauce, though with a slight kick.

I ordered a sandwich to follow the entrée, but the waitress misheard and thought I ordered the risotto. She was most apologetic, but left the Short Rib Risotto with asparagus, pecorino romano, and truffle oil rather than bringing it back to the kitchen so that I could try it. Again, a bit undersalted but otherwise interesting, creative, and delicious. I ate many 20% of the dish while waiting for my sandwich.

Then the source of the confusion, my Short Rib Supreme sandwich with gruyere and pickled onions, served with aus jus and truffled chips, came out and it was excellent. And wow, those truffled homemade potato chips were awesome!

Lunch was reasonably priced and delicious, I’m glad I returned, and glad that Randy introduced me to the place a couple of years back.

The next day we had lunch at True Food in Phoenix.

We started with their Hummus

And their daily special appetizer of tuna sashimi

Then some shrimp dumplings
/

And we shared two entrees, they happily split them and served half to each of us, a Tuna burger and steak taco.

They offered us their dessert menu but we’d overeaten already and didn’t partake.

With all the eating we were doing we decided to walk off property for a meal, just a couple of blocks down the street from the Intercontinental over to the JW Marriott. We were so close, a drive wasn’t necessary, and it gave me the chance to check out another resort. And we ate at their Rita’s Kitchen restaurant.

Approaching the JW Marriott

I’m somewhat skeptical of their motto, “In all the world only one.” Now, strictly speaking it’s true — there’s only one Camelback Inn Scottsdale that’s a JW Marriott Resort. But presumably that’s not what they mean. It’s like Checkers hamburger commercials. Yes, “Ya Gotta Eat” and I suppose that Checkers serves food… so it’s not like they’re technically over-claiming. But still…

I did make a reservation on Opentable, so that I’d get my 100 points. And of course I need to re-up my Opentable VIP status (hah! It offers literally no incremental benefit). But there was not a single other person in the restaurant. The resort itself seemed deserted, even though our property was hoppin’. I guess the JW Marriott hasn’t been offering $75 or less room nights?

Here’s the menu, nothing on here that would normally bring me out to eat here if I wasn’t staying next door and didn’t feel like a walk.

They did do a decent job with the tableside guacamole, though a bit more spice and even lime might have been in order.

Though I am a sucker for bread with a meal when it’s freshly baked brioche

They were pushing the day’s special, short ribs, pretty hard and promised that they were truly outstanding, the manager on duty came over to tell us she had them for dinner and how great they were. They were alright…

It was great to have a walk back after dinner, it’s about all the exercise I had over the weekend…

On arrival in Phoenix I took the airport rental car bus over to the shared rental center, where Avis had waiting for me a brand new Cadillac with 3 miles on it.

And off we went to the Intercontinental Montelucia Resort & Spa.

I had booked the Facebook promo $99 per night rate with a $25 daily room credit. This booked into the lowest category room, but I was given a first floor Oasis Village Suite (room 501). My reservation became inaccessible online shortly after I had booked it, presumably due to the room type change being made long in advance as a Royal Ambassador.

We arrived and found valet parking $15, apparently reduced over the summer, though self-parking is also almost as convenient. Walking into the resort it’s not entirely clear where reception is, there’s an open courtyard area that’s surrounded by buildings and not much in the way of signage.

After finding the small reception building, we were sent on to our room with a staff member in a golf cart. Room service was finishing up delivering a fruit plate and charcuterie plate along with a large fiji water as Ambassador amenity when we walked in to the room.

I logged on to the wireless internet, it wanted a password or PIN. I rang the front desk, “It should be on the bottom of the form that explained the resort fee.” I wasn’t given one of those… she read off a PIN for internet.

The suite’s bathroom was large, nice, though not all that well provisioned (eg no cotton balls, just the basic shampoo/soap/lotion). It was certainly large enough for dual sinks but they only had one. There was an outdoor sitting area but it didn’t have much of a view, it looked straight at the Oasis (adults-only) pool but the bars around it and growth are designed to obscure that view so there wasn’t much to look at.

We heard folks above us in their room walking around, not what we want out of a relaxing weekend at a resort. I rang up the desk and let them know it was unacceptable — these weren’t guests who needed to be told to quiet down, it just seemed like there wasn’t enough noise absorption between the rooms on the first and second floor. So they moved us to a much larger suite at the very back of the property, it was a one-story building so no one on top of us and much more secluded so we weren’t as likely to hear other noise, either. This was much appreciated.

The new room was technically an accessible suite, but that just meant no shower door which was actually fine since the shower was still large enough that water didn’t escape out onto the bathroom floor. And there was no door on the separate toilet room. But otherwise you’d never know.

The dining room table had seen a good bit of scratches and wear, but otherwise the room was excellent. Vaulted ceilings and a living room with a large L-shaped couch made it a very comfortable room for sitting inside and looking out directly at the mountain. There was a guest bath in addition to the main bath. And the outdoor sitting area was twice as large as with our original room, and with its own semi-private yard.

Everyone at the resort was exceptionally friendly, but service was still lackluster. I suspect that all of the financial problems the resort has seen has probably led to insufficient staffing levels. Any time we picked up the phone we had to wait several minutes for someone to answer, whether the front desk or spa. And busy staff can be forgetful, once I rang and made a request but the person at the desk simply forgot. Perhaps they weren’t expecting to be so busy over the weekend, I guess the ultra-cheap rates they’re pushing over the summer are doing their part to fill up the rooms.

I did once call to request housekeeping at a specific time, since no one had been by the room year at 1 p.m., and the response I got was “housekeeping services rooms from 8:30am to 4:30pm.” Umm, wrong answer. They came when asked.

The pools were very busy, especially the resort’s main pool which had a definite party vibe to it (and to the adjacent café). The adult pool was quieter but still a lack of chairs for the number of guests when the resort is full.

No matter, we spent our pool time relatively early — it is hot out there! — and much enjoyed the back yard of our suite.

Room service wasn’t very good, the better meals certainly came off-property and I’ll mention those in another post. But my wife thought the spa was fine, and a value for a resort in the US with summer massage rates of $105 for an hour-long treatment.

Starwood is partnering with Offbeat Guides to provide complimentary travel guides.

This Flyertalk thread suggests it is for people who have earned free weekend nights from the current promotion, and it’s suggested you’re supposed to get one free guide for each free night earned. But in fact once you enter a Starwood number, anyone can customize and email themselves a .pdf travel guide. And in fact the link doesn’t appear to say it’s limited to anyone in particular.

You’re asked for your Starwood member number, then your destination and origin cities. It’ll ask for your travel dates in order to customize your guide based on specific events during your travels. And then you have the option to specify the Starwood property you’re staying at, but you can leave that blank.

Then you’ll be e-mailed a .pdf customized travel guide for your destination.