Anyone who wants to request a status match from Starwood needs to do so in the next few hours.

Here are the details that we know.

The folks at SPG want to give advance notice to the MilePoint community that there will soon be a change in policy regarding status match requests from competing frequent stay programs. Starwood Preferred Guest is evolving its policy on status matches to Platinum to a Stay Challenge format beginning April 1, 2011.

Any contacts regarding a Stay Challenge offer will be done via email to the Platinum Concierge department. Any member wishing to apply for a Stay Challenge beginning April 1, 2011 can contact them at platinum.liason@starwoodhotels.com in order to request consideration.

Members will be advised on the full requirements of their Stay Challenge and then contacted to advise if the Stay Challenge has been met. Should a member not successfully complete a Stay Challenge, they may request another once the original Challenge has expired.

Now, I wouldn’t call 7 hours (based on Starwood headquarters time) a whole lot of “advance notice.”

All status match requests received on March 31 will be considered. Beginning April 1 they will start entertaining requests for a Stay Challenge. And we don’t know what that will entail yet — whether it’s temporary status and stay a certain number of times to keep the status, or status earned more quickly (granted after a certain number of stays). And we don’t know how many stays or nights will be required, or what the criteria will be for determining who is eligible.

So tons of questions and very few answers today (more will be known within a few days no doubt) about what Starwood will do in this area going forward.

But we do know that right now there’s still an opportunity for Platinum members of Marriott Rewards, Diamond members of Hyatt Gold Passport, and Diamond members of Hilton HHonors who have never held Starwood Platinum status to request complimentary Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum.

If you want to do this you need to submit a copy of your elite membership card and a printout of your online account statement along with your Starwood account number to platinum.liaison@starwoodhotels.com or fax to (512)997-9046.

Presumably they’re doing this because of abuse of status matches in the past. Matches used to be processed within hours or a couple of days, but the past few years have taken weeks to a month, Starwood implemented a system of actually verifying your status with some programs (like Hyatt and I think Hilton, but possibly not Marriott) — too much fraud. Folks doctoring statements or credentials. And they even managed to get a couple of programs to help them hunt down the fraud, surprisingly enough because normally you wouldn’t expect programs to cooperate as one tries to poach valuable elites from the other.

At least that’s one theory for the change, Starwood of course hasn’t explained why or very much at all. Developing…

(Thanks to Carol for the prompt that I should be sharing this change which was just announced a couple of hours ago, in case anyone wants to get in under the wire.)

Three and a half weeks ago I scooped Hyatt’s PR reps in detailing Gold Passport’s second quarter promotion, a few hours after I posted they were pitching it to me. Hah!

Well, they announced the details of the promotion but you couldn’t register yet.

But Will in the comments to that original post points out that the registration page is now up.

Between April 1 and June 30, members earn 10,000 Gold Passport points after their first five nights, and then 5000 points for each additional two nights. A maximum of 60,000 bonus points for 25 nights can be earned under the promo.

Register at goldpassport.com/possibilities.

Lufthansa’s Miami-Frankfurt flight has been annoucned to go Airbus A380 beginning June 10. I’m a bit surprised, actually. While there’s surprisingly little transatlantic service out of Miami, that’s also presumably because it isn’t a market with the loads to handle an A380. But perhaps if Lufthansa was otherwise considering a second flight this is more economical.

Whenever a new A380 flight is annoucned, the first thing I think is “award seats!” Several airlines restrict premium cabin award redemption on their Airbus A380 aircraft. Singapore doesn’t make the seats available to partners (intentionally) at all, and to their own members they don’t even allow double points redemptions into “suites class” in fact I have seen their offers go as high as nearly 1 million points roundtrip. Lufthansa restricts A380 first class awards to Miles & More elite members.

Now, some airlines are a bit more open with these seats, like Emirates (not great availability from most markets, but I have certainly seen a couple of first class seats JFK – Dubai and it’s regularly available Auckland-Sydney and Hong Kong – Bangkok) and also Qantas.

But in general many folks have gotten A380 first class seats by booking a flight that they thought might get changed to an A380, and getting lucky when they add the aircraft to the schedule. That’s the most common way that it has happened with Singapore.

And certainly when Lufthansa’s Beijing and San Francisco routes were announced some folks were pouncing on previously available award space, before the inventory management folks caught up with the press relations people making a hoopla over the introduction of the aircraft.

Naturally my first instinct was to check for first class award space on Miami – Frankfurt. I’ve searched partner first class availability from June 10 through August 17 and am coming up empty, unfortunately. I booked someone on the flight just this past weekend, looks like they’ll luck out. But availability I had seen on Tuesday during the day for this summer is apparently now gone. Probably must quicker on the trigger this time, those Lufthansa folks!

Effective immediately, Chase no longer adds foreign currency transaction fees to charges made on the Marriott Rewards Premier card ($65 annual fee waived the first year; annual free night certificate (up to category 4 on account approval, up to category 5 each year); 15 nights towards elite status and another status night for every $3000 in spend; 30,000 bonus points with first purchase).

This card adds to the stable of no foreign currency transaction fee offerings from Chase:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95 fee waived the first year, points transferable to several programs)
  
• Continental Airlines Presidential Plus Card (the expensive one that comes with lounge access)
  
• British Airways Visa Signature Card (1.25 BA miles per dollar and a free companion award ticket after $30k spend)
  
• Chase Priority Club Select Visa Card (good signup bonuses, not great for spend)
  
• Hyatt Gold Passport Card (2 free nights at any Hyatt and Platinum status with signup)
  
• United Mileage Plus® Club Visa® Card (the expensive one that comes with lounge access)

Used to be that you needed to get a Capital One card, or a non-rewards card, in order to avoid paying usually 3% in foreign currency transaction fees. And for regular international travelers it certainly made sense to do so. The rewards from most cards weren’t worth the transaction fee.

American Express Platinum and Centurion also waive foreign currency fees now as well. But in general Chase has the best and most rewarding cards for international spend. It’s not a feature on any of their free cards, but savings for regular international travelers will more than cover the fees.

Via Milepoint, the launch of Club Carlson as the replacement for Goldpoints plus (the current loyalty program for the Radisson family of hotels) happens on March 31 and will bring with it a free night promo.

Two stays between April 15 and June 15 will earn a free night to use by December 31, 2011. These are often a great opportunity for a couple of cheap one night stays, and redemption at a high-end property. But we don’t yet know whether the number of free nights you can earn will be capped (at one?) or not.

Registration will be required and the link won’t actually work until tomorrow, March 31.

My usual double dip partner with Hilton is british midland, at 1000 points per night up to 3000 points per stay. Great for those cheap Hilton Garden Inn stays in small towns, for sure.

On shorter says, the best current value though is double dipping with Virgin Atlantc. (HT: Loyalty Traveler) Registration is required to earn 3000 Virgin miles per stay from April 1 through June 30. A cheap one-night stay will earn 3000 miles (in addition to some Hilton HHonors points).

In order to earn the flat 3000 miles per stay, you need to select your “earning preference” as points and fixed miles. The offer is actually for triple miles regardless of earning preference and brand, which means that Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn stays earn 600 miles instead of the usual 200. And folks choosing “variable miles” instead of “fixed miles” as their earning option earn triple miles based on spend amount as well.

I’m in general not a huge fan of the Virgin program for their fuel surcharges on award tickets and inability to combine partners on a single award booking. But they’re often a good acrrual partner, for instance I use them as my default earning option on one-day Avis rentals where there’s a fixed 1000 miles per Avis rental. On longer rentals there are often more lucrative promos, but it’s rare you’ll do better than 1000 miles on a one-day car.

Last week I blogged about upcoming changes to the Priority Club program.

Business Traveler was reporting at the time on the introduction of an option to buy airline flights directly with points.

Now Loyalty Traveler summarizes the press packet on upcoming changes that have now been announced .

Bottom-line is that there really isn’t much here.

• Last Minute Reward Nights. Like airline e-savers of old, Priority Club is going to send out emails at the beginning of the week with a list of hotels where you can redeem your points at half off for the following weekend.

• Points & Cash for Merchandise Rewards. As if it wasn’t already a bad idea to redeem your points for toasters ‘n such, now you can do so with a combination of cash and points.

• “Lucky Points” Sweepstakes. You can buy lottery tickets with your points, entering drawings for prizes like iPads, hotel stays, and more points. This rolls out in China and Japan in the fall. State-run lotteries are a tax on people who don’t know math. I don’t expect that this will be much different. I’ll be interested to learn if the offering makes it to the U.S. and how they manage to maneuver various gaming laws. I suppose the argument is that the points don’t have cash value. Will prizes that you win generate tax forms? Will they use inflated valuations, such that the tax owed will often be as much as the value of the prize? I don’t see much good coming from this one.

• Downloadable Media Rewards. I redeem my points for luxury stays on the beach. You use yours for the latest Justin Bieber. Tomato, tomato, potato, potato.
  

All in all not much here other than a new logo.

Now, the introduction of last minute redemption discounts does seem to overlap with the existing PointBreaks offering — reduced point prices for hotels that may be lightly booked, for a short period of time. PointBreaks were introduced in March 2007 as a sweetener to soften the blow of a pretty brutal points devaluation (some redemption prices increased by two-thirds, and with no notice). But they haven’t been nearly as generous as they were when first introduced. So it wouldn’t surprise me if they were eventually phased out in favor of these last minute weekend redemption offers, which would be a shame as PointBreaks at least let you plan further out than a weekend and are only 5000 points — a much better deal than 50% off.

Other than that, which is just speculation of a future move which hasn’t been announced, there’s little news here at all. Which is a shame, because Priority Club desperately needs to:

• Honor elite benefits on award stays, rather than leaving it to the discretion of the property. I’ll scream this one from the rooftops. (No other major chain has terms and conditions making elites ineligible for upgrades when spending points.)
  
• Offer better rooms for additional points, like Starwood, Hyatt, and Marriott do. Members want something other than a standard room when they redeem their points, that’s part of the point of an aspiration award for many members.

• Offer real elite benefits as part of Priority Club and not just for Royal Ambassador members at Intercontinental properties. Priority Club Platinum is not a meaningful elite level in any way.

So in many ways an opportunity lost, though fortunately for now not a devaluation.

The free Marriott Gold status offers are all expired, so it’s worth noting that The Points Guy flags an offer for free Marriott Silver status, being offered to members of LAN’s frequent flyer program.

Malcolm Coles points to absurd website terms and conditions, including one hotel and airline that actually forbids you to link to them.

RyanAir’s website terms and conditions (.pdf) says:

You may not establish and/or operate links to this website without the prior written consent of Ryanair

Coles’ rejoinder? “They probably charge you if you do.”

Radisson Edwardian hotels says

[Y]ou agree not to link your web site or any other third party web site to our web site without our express prior written consent. We reserve the right to disable links from any third party sites to our website

Yes, they actually say they have the right to disable your links! A team of hackers in the basement of one of their properties, ready to pounce!

Maybe it’s all just guerilla marketing reverse psychology? In which case I command thee: do not link to this blog post! (Err… you can if you want to.)

(HT: Marginal Revolution)

I covered Expedia’s new rewards program when it launched in beta at the end of January. And then I complained that they were sending out bonus offers without telling you how much the points you’d be earning were worth!

Now that Expedia has publicly launched the program, they’ve made public their award chart. Redemptions of points for flights is coming. But in the meantime you can redeem points for coupons good towards the payment of pre-tax cost of Expedia’s “Special Rate” hotels.

Here’s the reward chart and the dollar value of each redemption option:

Points		Hotel Coupon		Value Per Point
3,500		25		0.007
6,000		50		0.008
10,000		100		0.010
14,000		150		0.011
18,000		200		0.011
22,000		250		0.011
29,000		350		0.012
32,000		400		0.013
35,000		450		0.013
38,000		500		0.013
40,000		550		0.014
42,000		600		0.014
44,000		650		0.015
46,000		700		0.015
47,500		800		0.017
49,000		900		0.018
50,000		1,000		0.020

Since most standalone travel earns just one point per dollar it’ll take a long time / a lot of spend to earn rewards. But it’s still a 1% – 2% rebate on your travel spend with Expedia, which is better than other similar offerings at the moment. (It’s worth noting that packages earn 2 to 4 points per dollar, and thus 4% to 8% rebate.)

And thus it’s a reason to consider booking with Expedia over Orbitz or airline websites (be more careful especially booking hotels with Expedia, since not all hotels offer points earning or elite benefits on stays booked through sites like Expedia’s).

You can generally double and triple dip here, I use eBates usually to earn cash back on my Expedia bookings. And I’ll still earn miles on the airline tickets booked there. Airline sites rarely ever offer mileage bonuses for online bookings anyway, though some will offer cash back through the various shopping portals.

Good move for Expedia to offer this, even though it’ll take a long time for most folks to get much through the program and especially for the higher tiers. They give “VIP status” to members who spend $10,000 in airfare on the site in a year, but that’ll only give you $100 towards a hotel. A VIP qualifying through airfare spend would take 5 years to accumulate enough points for the top level reward. Still, since it’s more or less an add-on (the previous program, linked in with Citi’s Thank You Points, didn’t offer anything on airfare-only bookings) it’s a real plus.

I should note that it’s less valuable than Hotels.com’s program for rebates on hotel spend. But with Expedia you earn through hotel and airfare. Further, holders of the Travelocity Amex can get up to 10% cash back for their Travelocity spend. Though Expedia’s points are in addition to credit card rewards. Overall, I’m just glad to see the baby steps that the online booking services are making into the loyalty space!

Back in December I wrote an extensive post on the Andaz 5th Avenue in New York. Bottom-line is that there were a few things that could be improved, but that I thought it was likely to become my default property in Manhattan.

I spent the weekend there, this time in a suite. I had a Gold Passport Diamond suite upgrade that needed to be applied to a stay by February 28. I paid one night of the stay (always worth considering if you qualify for status based on stays rather than nights, plus when there’s a decent promotion based on stays it can be advisable as well though the new Hyatt promo which is based on nights doesn’t begin until April 1) and redeemed for the other night. The suite upgrade would technically apply only to the paid night, but my ‘private line concierge’ let me know that the hotel was happy to extend the confirmed upgrade for both nights of the stay.

One of the things I like about Gold Passport is the private line concierge. Starwood has platinum concierges which can assist with stays, but I found most of them to be more or less just reservations agents (though if you found one you liked you could ask them to be your regular agent). Hyatt will assign a dedicated agent to you, in my case I let them know that I prefer to work via email rather than phone and I was assigned an agent who worked well that way. (Or so I thought: the one I initially was assigned to wasn’t very helpful at all, I’ve been re-assigned to the greatest and most responsive specialist ever and that alone builds loyalty.) It’s my understanding that Hyatt will assign a dedicated specialist to any Diamond member who requests one.

My wife was checking in ahead of me, since I wasn’t going to get out of the office early on Friday and she needed to be up in the city by mid-afternoon. No problem, her name was added to the reservation and the check-in process was smooth for her. And my wife is on the ball. When I got there I asked which Diamond amenity my wife had selected, and it was the points…

So no ‘amenity’ but there were delicious cookies and a note waiting in the room.

We had room 1212, and it wasn’t much larger than the Extra Large View King room that I had back in December, though the suite did have two separate rooms. No public library view (which wasn’t a premium that I valued anyway), it did have a balcony which is fairly rare for New York City hotels. And the bathroom was very well placed — instead of being by the doorway it received direct light through the bedroom window which took care of the biggest complaint on my last stay that it was just too darned dark in the bathroom.

The other complaint I had last time was that there were no drawers in the room, on anything more than a single night stay I prefer to unpack. Well, the suite had a chest with a drawer in the bedroom, so again complaint solved!

A highlight for me is certainly the library space, they have plenty of books and a place to work where they offer complimentary wine in the evenings and refreshments throughout the day. I’m just happy for a refrigerator with an unlimited supply of bottled water.

The minibar also offers complimentary soft drinks, but I always want more than two waters per day between the two of us. (The complimentary snacks in the minibar, while limited, are quite tasty — very good chips, a top end granola bar, and chocolate.)

After my last stay I queried the hotel for the recipe to their lemon poppyseed pancakes. Diamond members get complimentary breakfast, the breakfast can even be taken via room service, and those pancakes were just amazing — I wanted to make them at home. Well, I was promised the recipe but they never came. I asked again, an apology was forthcoming, but again no recipe.

This time I ordered those same lemon poppy seed pancakes again and they just weren’t the same at all. Perhaps they’ve changed chefs (the hash brown potatoes were different too) but I admit I was really disappointed.

Problem was solved the next morning, I just ordered something different for breakfast, it was all perfectly good but I wasn’t going to be comparing the dish to the amazing breakfast I had on my December stay which is certainly for the better.

Checkout was smooth, my folio was preprinted at the desk. I didn’t take them up on web checkout because there’s a departure gift, I didn’t want to miss that mostly so that I’d be up to speed on the current offerings. The agent who gave me my bill didn’t offer me anything, and I asked whether they still have departure amenities. They do, they opened the box and the choices were lip balm, hand sanitizer, or a lollipop. I chose the lip balm.

The agent checking me out asked whether I needed a cab, I did as I was headed to the airport. He pushed for me to take a car instead, which I wasn’t all that keen on. A cab is ~ $35, a quick ride, no reason to pay more.

He was ultra-insistent, assured me that the car was right there and that he’d “try” to find a cab. He named the price for the BMW at $55, and I figured I’d just take it.

Smooth ride into the airport, the driver ran my credit card and emailed me the receipt — for $69.95! I sorted it out with the driver over email who said the difference was “taxes and tolls.” Uh, yeah. He offered to split the difference, I declined, and he’s refunded me the $14.95.

All in all the Andaz remains the best value in the city for a Diamond Gold Passport member, even for folks who have top tier status with other chains as well I think. This weekend they had room rates under $300, and to have a confirmed suite with balcony (or even just a really spacious room, no upgrade cert required) and room service breakfast plus complimentary beverages and internet, it’s such a steal for Manhattan.

And it is a nice hotel, I love the bathrooms in particular and found everything about it perfectly comfortable — my only kvetches on my last stay weren’t issues on this one. So I’ll definitely be back.

Update: Someone at the Andaz must read my blog, or more likely the post triggered a Google Alert for them, because this afternoon I received an email with the recipe for the lemon poppy seed pancakes.

Lucky is taking some heat over on his One Mile at a Time blog for planning to meet some folks for dinner taking a bump instead, blowing off plans and friends for $400 in vouchers.

Now, in fairness to Ben he actually thought he’d wind up making the dinner, maybe 15 minutes late. Because of another flight delay and some additional flight changes, he wound up with a second voluntary denied boarding. (Read the whole story, he was very creative and had a great strategy — worth learning from.)

I used to take bumps all the time years ago, I haven’t taken any in a really long time, I’m almost always wanting to get where I’m going with enough commitments on the other end and downline consequences for missing a flight, that the compensation rarely seems worth it at the time.

But that’s not a moral judgment about taking compensation for yourself and not keeping plans with others. It’s that the compensation amount isn’t enough to meet my reserve price.

It’s reminiscent of the apocryphal Churchill story

Churchill: Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?

Woman: My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course…

Churchill: Would you sleep with me for five pounds?

Woman: Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!

Churchill: Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price

I wouldn’t have taken the first bump, but if I had had foreknowledge of two bumps it’s hard to imagine that I’d have said no.

I would, however, have texted a credit card to buy a round of drinks for the group I was missing, to make up for skipping out on dinner. Call me a Coasian if you like, I’d have bought off the objections by dipping into my double VDB gain.

This is a Continuation of “Trip Report – A Private Jet Experience: Alone in First Class on ANA and Thai, Plus Singapore First, a Suite, a Villa, and Some Incredible Food Porn”

Past installments:

• Prologue: The decision-making and booking process
• Washington Dulles – Chicago in United First Class and the Greatest Airport Hotel Ever, the Intercontinental O’Hare
• Alone in First Class on ANA, Chicago-Tokyo
• Singapore Airlines First Class, Tokyo-Singapore
• JetQuay Planeside Pickup in Singapore
• Intercontinental Singapore Ambassador Suite
• In and Around Singapore
• Tetsuya’s Restaurant Waku Ghin at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore
• Iggy’s Restaurant in Singapore
• JetQuay Departure from Singapore Changi Airport
• Thai Airways Business Class Singapore – Bangkok – Phuket
• Sala Pool Villa at the Westin Siray Bay, Phuket
• Fly Solo in First Class Again! Thai Airways Phuket – Bangkok – Tokyo and the Bangkok First Class Lounge & Spa

We returned to the ANA Suites Lounge after clearing transit security, and were the first customers of the day.

I shared photos of the shower room earlier, so I’ll just add one more, it’s hard to be in Japan and not marvel at the toilets and I must admit there is something nice about a heated seat at the least.

Things filled up over the course of our four hour stay. Again the food options were far more extensive than on my previous trips through Tokyo. I whiled away the time catching up on some work, I was beginning the transition back to the real world. I didn’t fill up on much, just had a cappuccino and a couple of bits to eat as I’d have plenty on offer during the flight.

We were visited by an ANA agent who confirmed our baggage had been transferred over from the Thai flight and would be on our aircraft home to DC. This was something similar to our trip through Tokyo a couple of weeks earlier when Singapore came to find us, I thought that was even a bit more useful since we were on separate tickets and it wasn’t even their lounge whereas I suppose it isn’t surprising that NAA would know where I was when I had checked in at the desk a couple of hours earlier. Still, it’s equally impressive when they know who you are, where you are, and how to find you. And I appreciate proactive service for my bags!

Our departure was delayed by about 10 minutes and an announcement was made that customers in the lounge on our flight were requested not to go to the gate yet. The proactive announcements are helpful, though they didn’t tell us how long a delay to expect and I was a bit surprised when I heard shortly thereafter that it would be time to proceed to our gate.

There was a long line for boarding but no one in the premium queue, we walked right onto the plane and into the first class cabin, where I asked about the load and was told that two more passengers would be joining us for the flight to DC. Sadly, not another flight alone in first class, but a load of 4/8 shouldn’t tax the fine service of the ANA flight attendants!

An older Japanese businessman joined, and then just before pushback an older well-dressed Japanese woman was escorted onto the plane. She looked very familiar to me, I’m nearly certain it’s the same VIP who was on my Tokyo – DC flight in ANA First back in 2006. She was met on arrival in DC then and escorted through diplomatic immigration, and she was once again met on the jet way on our arrival in DC this time. I don’t know her role, but she was clearly recognized as important by the ANA flight attendants, both the last time and this. There were no service flaws for us or that I could tell for the other passenger in the cabin, but it was obvious from the way that the flight attendants acted that she was by far the most important person in the cabin.

Amenities were distributed (the basket wasn’t left out on an empty seat this flight, if you wanted more items you’d need to ask), the flight attendant inquired if I wanted to change into pajamas prior to departure and I said I’d wait. So the pajamas weren’t brought out, I was asked to let them know when I was ready. Menus were distributed as well, and we quickly pushed back. There wasn’t much of a departure backup at Narita at a bit past 11 o’clock in the morning, so we were well on our way in a hurry.

After takeoff drink orders were taken, and I had a bit of Krug. And then meal service began.

The menu for the flight was as follows:

KAISEKI
Grilled flat fish, Japanese parsley with cod roe Prawn with Tobiko, Broiled chicken, Japanese abalone, Trout with egg yolk
Noodles with grilled sea bream
Thinly sliced flatfish and herring roe
Assortment of steamed turnip and seafoods
Seafoods and vegetables dressed with spicy vinegared miso
Grilled tilefish with sake lees 199kcal

APPETIZER
Caviar with traditional garnish
Crab meat and avocado salad with apple “Crown” style
Medallion of lobster and scallop with pistachio and vinegar sauce
“Kouchi”Prefecture pheasant,foie gras and truffles traditional galantine
Fresh garden salad, choose from three kinds of dressings Japanese style onion dressing, strawberry dressing, carrot dressing

MAIN PLATE
Fillet of Kuroge－Wagyu beef steak truffles flavor with Annou potato croquette 427kcal
Fillet of yellowtail fish with lightly smoke flavored with potato puree 171kcal
Roasted “Shibetsu” lamb loin with herbs and crépinette with Noord’s Oude Geneva Sauce 214kcal

BREAD OR RICE
Freshly-steamed Nara koshihikari rice, miso soup and assorted pickles
Selection of breads (luvain baguette, butter roll, campagne, calamari ink bread) with flavorful domestic Hiruzen butter or extra-virgin olive oil

CHEESE PLATE
Cheese plate (Brie de Meaux, Roquefort, Mimolette and Pont-l’Evêque)

DESSERT
Selection of fresh seasonal fruit
Trio of strawberry sorbet, vanilla & jeasey milk ice cream
Savarin with custard cream
Tarte tatin with premium vanilla ice cream
Three varieties of amanatto (sugar-glazed chestnuts, toroku beans and sweet potatoes)
Three kinds of petits fours champagne flavored chocolate,petit strawberry tart,green tea macaroon

POST-MEAL SIP
Caramelized freshwater willow minnow in sweet soy sauce
Deep-fried fishcakes
Devil’s tongue dengaku

LIGHT DISHES
Bowl of hot Japanese udon noodles, garnished with wakame seaweed
Japanese tea poured over steamed rice, garnished with grilled rice ball
Semi dried flakes yellowtail , served over steamed rice
Cauliflower and crab chowder
Pork cutlet sandwich
Stir-fried scallops and squid in Chinese leek-infused broth with kinshinsai buds
Special chicken and mushroom curry with steamed rice

POST-NAP MEAL
Stir-fried burdock root and carrot
Simmered mackerel with ginger
Steamed rice or creamy rice porridge
Miso soup and assorted pickles
Accompaniment for steamed rice (Choose from four condiments)

POST-NAP MEAL
Cured ham and Italian salami with two kinds of cheese
Morning bread accompanied with flavorful domestic Hiruzen butter and a choice of three kinds of sweet spreads
Selection of fresh seasonal fruit
Plain yoghurt with green lemon confiture
Crisp brown rice flakes with milk

Meal orders were taken on the left side of the cabin, the other two passengers first. Then they came to me, I asked for the Japanese meal. And finally my wife, she requested the Japanese meal as well — and were told that they had no more. They had only loaded three!

I tried to get my wife to take the Japanese meal instead of my having it, the Western options looked fine, but she wouldn’t. The flight attendant was clearly embarrassed, and offered to split the Japanese meal so we’d each be able to have some, and suggested she could make a custom Japanese meal from some of the other options on the flight. But my wife opted for Western options instead.

It wasn’t that much of a letdown, ANA’s food really is excellent and their menu extensive. I have definitely noticed cutbacks compared to the menu two and five years ago, but they’re still legions ahead of any carrier I can think of in food. Still, I was rather shocked that ANA would only cater three Japanese meals, I’ve never seen or heard of ANA not having sufficient food selection to meet their first class passenger requests.

Meal service began, and we both started with the caviar from the Western menu.

I did have the Japanese meal, although slightly abbreviated, not hungry enough for the entire thing.

My wife had some of the Western options, though not every course either (she did have dessert).

Some petit fours to end for both of us.

I proceeded to try to get some sleep, I should have been really tired after the too-short overnight flight from Bangkok, but I changed into pajamas and had the flight attendant make my bed but I couldn’t sleep so I stayed up and watched the rest of season 6 of The Shield on my laptop (still not a fan of ANA’s insufficient video options, even if they’re much improved over three or four years ago).

Midflight my wife and I each had snacks while we whiled away the hours.

All in all the flight didn’t have the special appeal of our first class segment on ANA on the outbound, I suppose it’s just a matter of expectations, for the outbound we were actually alone in the cabin and that made for a truly remarkable once-in-a-lifetime type of experience. “Yoga in the cabin” pretty much encapsulated that outbound. This was a perfectly good, workmanlike ANA first class segment. The flight attendants were gracious. There was little lost by not having four Japanese meals. The food was good. We were made perfectly comfortable. This was just a great way to fly, but the last segment of the trip isn’t the one that will be most remembered, in fact other than the Singapore – Bangkok and Thailand domestic flights, it was the least memorable of a trip that was overall incredible – alone in first class on ANA and on Thai, a chance to fly Singapore first class, the incredible ground service from Thai in Bangkok and the treat of the Jetquay service in Singapore… an overall air travel mileage redemption trip to remember!

Thank you all for reading along, and let me know if you have any questions…

One of my favorite resorts is the Intercontinental Bali. The service is great. I wouldn’t stay at the ‘regular hotel’ it’s large and busy and there are just so many wonderful and inexpensive places in Bali to go. But their club lounge experience is really nice, it’s peaceful, and it represents just a phenomenal value although pricing is certainly higher than it was a couple of years ago.

There are three separate ‘wings’ of the hotel, the main property, the Sinjara wing, and the Club wing. As even an regular ‘ol Ambassador you can expect an upgrade to a Duplex Suite, they don’t upgrade generally between the wings though so if you want club you need to book (or buy up to) it.

Historically they were very generous with upgrades, as a Royal Ambassador in 2008 I received a Jimbaran Bay Suite which was just amazing, three separate seating areas on the balcony even. Club guests receive complimentary roundtrip airport transportation, though it no longer includes VIP fast track through immigration. And I understand though that they’ve downgraded the club experience somewhat, it used to be that there was complimentary food off a menu to order 24 hours a day and that’s no longer the case. A lovely spa, nice rooms, good service, it still seems like a property worth returning to.

But they’ve gotten much tighter on upgrades indeed, and they pay a great deal more attention to room rates than they used to. Last year some good friends received a Uluwatu suite when booking a club room on the Friends & Family rate. This year they were told that the friends and family rate is no longer eligible for upgrades at all. Technically according to the rules, to be sure, but a change in attitude towards their guests. (There are some reports of Royal Ambassadors still being upgraded from club room bookings to Duplex Suites but I haven’t seen recent reports of better upgrades than that, and they’re proactively telling folks they don’t upgrade the rate.)

Intercontinental’s terms and conditions allow them not to upgrade at all not just on rates like friends and family, but even on award nights. When using points — and mind you, there’s no way to use additional points to reserve a better room with Priority Club in contrast to Starwood, Hyatt, and Marriott — very few if any benefits apply at all. I offered a detailed discussion of the policy and a particularly bad Willard stay report back in January.

Last week I wrote about possible changes coming to the Priority Club program and Carol made a very trenchant observation, that I think captures something really fundamental:

Until they offer the same upgrades for awards that they do for paid stays, they are not a competitive program, Royal Ambassador or no. I’m not made to feel second class when I book an award at Starwood or Hyatt.

What some hotels, and some programs, forget is that the loyalty programs promise better treatments for their most loyal guests.

The best expression of the principle came from Flyertalk member PremEx in 2003, when Starwood announced that they would no longer honor elite benefits when booking stays through third party websites like Expedia. I raised the point, and his quote, last summer:

Welcome to the Starwood Preferred Rate® Program. You are no longer a Preferred Guest.

Forget about the 25 or 50 or 75 stays you had on normal rates, that earned you Platinum. Walk in the door on Jan 1, 2004 on an occasional Priceline or other third party booking…and magically and mystically you’ve somehow become a Non-Preferred Guest!

And now that that fundamental change in the program has kicked-off and that wall has been shattered to pieces, where will it end?

Only property elite benefits when staying on Rack Rates? That also would certainly improve elite benefits too…on only those times that you were staying on Rack Rates!

Slippery slope, my friend.

I don’t know about you, but I prefer to be a Preferred Guest. As long as I’m at a Starwood property, I prefer and expect to get the recognition I earned. And I earned that status all on qualifying rates.

Because I’m a Platinum Preferred Guest. I am not my rate.

This is a very important principle, and not just from a consumer standpoint. Programs destroy the goodwill they create when a loyal member walks into their property and is treated less well because of how they booked their stay. They no longer feel like an honored guest. Either the person is important to the chain or they aren’t. If they stay, say, 50 nights during a year on a qualifying, paid rate and they show up on an Expedia rate because it’s the only place that was selling the room, or because the room was booked for them by someone else, and they are treated less well then their loyalty feels less meaingful. More importantly, when they stay loyal and earn their points and finally cash in those points and aren’t treated as well becausee they’re taking advantage of what’s supposed to be a reward for their loyalty, their loyalty feels a whole lot less meaningful.

For frequent guest loyalty to mean anything, it needs to be that when a guest walks into a hotel they are important to the chain. Every time. Radisson in Europe even has the “Our World, Your Lounge” program where they tell their elite members that they’re welcome in a hotel any time even when they aren’t staying at the property– come in, have a complimentary cup of coffee, and use our internet. They’re a valued customer, every time, even when not staying at the hotel.

Similarly, there’s an issue for the airlines, if an elite member is flying on an award ticket they should be eligible for an upgrade. Using points, after tons of flights, they shouldn’t be treated less well than a customer on a discounted fare. (And don’t get me started on airlines that take the short-sighted view that full fare trumps status for upgrades, so that a Delta silver on a cheap government fare trumps a Diamond on a discount fare.)

Your members are people, your points are the reward, every time they walk into your hotel or up to your checkin counter they are the same person regardless of rate or fare. An honored guest is an honored guest. Or as PremEx so trenchantly reserved, “I am not my rate!” This deserves to be screamed from the rooftops.

Update: I should add that honoring status benefits on award stays is very much the norm, only Priority Club (that I can think of) has rules which permit a hotel not to do so. Honoring status benefits on Priceline stays is something that Marriott and Hyatt do. No earning towards status, but benefits are provided. Starwood and Hilton do not.

I summed up some advice for booking Australia flights with American miles over on Milepoint and thought it might be worth reproducing the advice here as well, since Australia is one of those really frequent questions that I get (and that I’ve touched on before).

1. BA/QF/CX loads their schedules ~ 355 days out. Their members can book flights beginning that early.

2. Interestingly, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan partners with these three programs. Alaska doesn’t load its own flight schedules until 331 days out but they can book award seats on QF/CX/BA 355 days out, no problem. In fact, you can book a partner award 355 days out and then call back later to add in Alaska segments once the Alaska schedule loads and they won’t charge you to make the change!

3. But American will not book partner awards until 331 days out when their own schedules load. This means that QF/CX/BA members have a head start in booking those award seats which are loaded when the schedle initially comes online.

4. Of course there’ll likely be more seats later. Airlines constantly evaluate loads and flights whcih are selling more lightly than expected will see more award seats being loaded as time goes on.

5. Australia is the toughest frequent flyer award there is IMHO. (Except that V Australia has great availability in business class, good use of Delta miles.)

6. February is high season. If you got business class seats, you done good!!

7. The new Dallas flight has had better inventory than the LAX flights. With American miles you can also fly LAX-PPT-AKL on TN and connect to SYD on QF. Or LAX-NAN-SYD on FJ.

8. American will not allow an Asia routing on an all-partner award. But they will allow you to do it of course on a distance-based oneworld award.

9. American agents notoriously don’t always see partner award inventory that’s out there, you need them to search segment-by-segment and often to hang up, call back. Very frequently an issue with CX and especially when looking at destinations beyond HKG like DPS.

The Qantas website is great for searching awards with most oneworld partners (just join their program, from most countries it’s free to do so). The British Airways website covers some partner availability that Qantas isn’t good at showing or doesn’t offer like Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines. The website is more cumbersome than Qantas’, but if you can find the seats on the BA site you know they’re available to partners for sure.

I was shopping for a 2-day rental car this morning, and I searched for 48 hours plus 30 minutes. I was curious how it would price, since Avis will still give you a 30 minute grace on the return. I actually probably needed an extra 30 minutes even beyond this, but it was really just to see the price.

Well, they sure taught me! It was going to be a very expensive rental!

I was thrilled to see the option to rent a hummer! But at $3400 that was going to be a little bit outside my budget for a weekend vehicle.

Alright, I bet there are other rental companies at the same airport that would have rented for less, and even if I had booked it I bet it would have given the folks at Autoslash a big chuckle the first thime they ‘found me a lower rate’ and rebooked me.

I shifted back to a 48 hour rental and the price dropped to $21.50 per day.

I’m scheduled to be on a flight late tonight. At 5am this morning my phone rang, waking me. It was a US Airways robocall letting me know my flight — a full 15 hours later — was cancelled.

They give a phone number for re-accomodation, it would be much easier (especially if they’re going to wake you at 5am) if they would say something like “press 1 to be connected to US Airways specialists” instead of reading off a phone number. It’s a little early to make sense of the number.

Now, it wasn’t a weather cancellation but they quickly offered me another flight that worked for my schedule and had me in not too far off the original plan. Of course I went to check in and the reservation was ‘out of sync’ so I couldn’t get the website to work. Another call. At 5:10am, holding, waiting for them to correctly sync my reservation after having changed my flight. Alright, taken care of.

I wasn’t going back to sleep, and I was up too late last night, today is going to be a long day. And I’m left wondering why the flight was cancelled (there’s no indication of a reason on the US Airways website or using the other tools online I’m aware of), and what time it actually makes sense to call.

In general I want to know as quickly as possible, but in this case with the large number of flights I could choose from and the long period of time in advance that the cancellation was done, I certainly would have preferred 6am or 7am to 5.

How proactive do you want airlines to be with flight cancellations?

I’m down to a little over 25,000 bmi Diamond club miles, what should I do with them?

The expectation was that Diamond Club would get folded into Miles & More by this summer, but that plan appears to be on hold. And I guess that also means if I want to be a Lufthansa Senator (not that I really do, I just love the name for the status) that I’ll have to qualify for bmi Gold status this year — assuming that the program gets folded into Miles & More next year. Which is still an assumption.

But I don’t want to wind up with a stash of Miles & More miles. They’re not great for a US-based flyer except single-continent travel, their award chart in premium cabins is pretty expensive for travel to, say, Africa via Europe. You do get better availability, especially in premium cabins and especially in first class, than they offer to their partners so that’s something. And pricing of US-Europe isn’t bad. Plus a Senator can redeem a companion award at 50% off for the second ticket and that really helps.

But on the whole bmi’s miles are more valuable than Lufthansa/Swiss/et al Miles & More miles. So my bmi miles will never be worth more than they are today. What to do with the last 25,000? Definitely open to ideas.

I could also boost that balance of course, credit some flights and get myself to a higher award plateau though the goal is to burn rather than to earn and hoard.

bmi’s cash and points award chart really stretches the miles, there are some nice values such as having taken my recent one-way Singapore – Bangkok – Phuket redemption in business class on Thai for just 7500 miles and about 100 pounds all-in in taxes and fees. Not that it would have been that expensive a ticket to buy in the first place, but of course I’m in burn mode with these.

But oh those fuel surcharges, if I want to avoid those I’ve got to focus on US Airwaays for transatlantic, though their new business class seat looks really good. Cash and points plus fuel surcharges and I’m looking at serious outlay of dollars for an ‘award’.

What’s my strategy with the remains of my balance?

I should have been more on top of this, considering that I’m speaking as part of the agenda, but Lucky scoops me on the schedule for the day at Frequent Traveler University.

Events begin Friday evening, April 29 with cocktails at the Sheraton LeGuardia East. THen the educational program is as Lucky posted:

850a-900a Opening Remarks

MORNING: EARNING

905a-1015a Part 1: Earning By Flying
Fare Classes: How Flying 1 Mile Could Earn You 2.5 miles or .25 miles!
Elite Status: How to Transform Precious Metals Into Precious Bonus Miles!
Mileage Running: How To Top-Off Your Account To Achieve Elite Status or Reach Award Redemption Threshold

1015-1030a Break

1030-1140a Part 2: Earning By Buying
Credit Cards: Sign Up Bonuses and Most Points Per Dollar of Spending
Mileage Transfers: How Credit Card, Hotel and Your Best Friends Can Pad Your Account
Fire Sales: When Airlines Sell Their Miles and Mileage Mall Products For A Can’t-Resist Price

1145a-1215p Part 3: Off the Podium, Into The Firing Line: Breakout Session Q&A

- Star Alliance (United, Continental, US Air, Air Canada, Lufthansa among others)
- oneworld (American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia among others)
- Skyteam (Delta, Air France/KLM, Alitalia, Korean Air among others) and independents (Virgin, El Al, Emirates, Alaska among others)

1215-130p Lunch Break

AFTERNOON: BURNING

145p-245p Part 4: Putting A Value On Your Miles
The Tipping Point: When to Redeem Awards and When to Buy a Ticket
The Tipping Point 2: When to Use Award Tickets Vs. Upgrading Paid Tickets For Business Class
OutSourcing Mileage: Off-The Radar, But On-Target Foreign-Based Mileage Program Awards

245p-355p Part 5: Award Redemption Strategies
Is Israel in Asia or Europe?: Understanding Award Charts- Zones Vs. Mileage-Based
Expanding The Reach of Your Award Ticket: Understanding Routing, Stopover and Open Jaw Rules
Getting From ‘No’ To ‘No Problem’: The Art of Turning The Phone Agent Into Your Advocate…and Getting Your Hard-To-Book Award

355-405p Break

405-435p Part 6: Where Our Speakers Become YOUR Advocates: Breakout Session Q&A
- Star Alliance (United, Continental, US Air, Air Canada, Lufthansa among others) (Gary)
- oneworld (American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia among others) (Ben)
- Skyteam (Delta, Air France/KLM, Alitalia, Korean Air among others) and independents (Virgin, El Al, Emirates, Alaska among others) (Steve)

435-515p Part 7: Randy Petersen- World’s First and Foremost Frequent Flyer Guru: Surveys 30 Years Of Mileage Program History

Attendance is $49, which includes not just the day’s program on Saturday, April 30th but also Friday evening cocktails and both breakfast and lunch at the hotel on Saturday. I’m told that the actual per-head cost is much higher, and of course they save money by not paying me to speak.

I’ll be hosting one of the morning breakout sessiosn and the giving an afternoon talk on effectively booking award travel.

The other speakers for the day will be Ben from One Mile at a Time, Rick from Frugal Travel Guy, and Steve a.k.a. “beaubo” the most creative mileage strategist I’ve ever met who once acted as a labor broker hiring disabled Thai rice farmers to fly back and forth between Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai Thailand 10 segments a day in order to earn United systemwide upgrades… until the DEA stepped in.

Should be a great day, and follows Friday’s Randy Petersen Executive Travel Summit and Frequent Traveler Awards at Citi Field.

Via Priority Club Insider, Business Traveler reports on Priority Club’s planned ‘revamp’ in the coming two months.

The piece is light on specifics but does mention the introduction of “a ‘flights anywhere’ function will allow travellers to redeem their points on any flight globally” which sounds tremendously like “SPG Flights” — directly spending points to buy airline tickets, which is almost certain to be a low value reward (too many points per dollar of airfare).

The rest of the piece focuses on introduction of mobile platforms, and revamping lobbies to accommodate small business meetings, so doesn’t give much to go in as far as a revamp of the program itself is concerned.

Surely there’ll be more than a flight option? Priority Club sorely needs:

• Ability to spend additional points for upgraded rooms
  
• Real elite benefits (suite upgrades? Breakfast?)
  

But it’s hard to imagine that they give us either of these, though this is where the program is sorely lacking relative to most of its competitors.

The Intercontinental Royal Ambassador program is outstanding, with guaranteed early check-in at 8am as well as 4pm late checkout, outstanding upgrades, and of course complimentary drinks from the minibar. But it’s confusing to most, you earn Priority Club points at Intercontinentals, Intercontinental status doesn’t matter at other hotels in the chain (though they comp you the ‘platinum’ level which doesn’t get you much generally). And Priority Club status doesn’t get you anything with Intercontinentals.

That’s a mess they probably ought to sort out, but whenever they get around to it I fear for the consequences.