Loyalty Traveler extensively discusses the second least appealing development in loyalty programs, ever: the limited time ability to redeem Accor A|Club points for Motel 6 stays.
The least appealing loyalty program news ever was, in my view, this.
I’d sooner redeem my Aeroplan miles for an LCD toaster.
For the next four days, a year of Travel & Leisure magazine is available for $5.
I’m not subscribing because I don’t especially like ‘paper’ but if you enjoy magazines and travel you may be interested.
Sadly, if you don’t want to pay $20 a year after your first year, you’ll need to cancel your subscription once the your $5 year is depleted.
United today announced what everyone already knew (or at least expected to a 98% approximation), that the surviving frequent flyer program in the United-Continental merger would be called Mileage Plus, and not Onepass. Mileage Plus was the larger program and significantly more brand value that they couldn’t walk away from. It would have been silly to create an entirely new name, as well.
Lots of little details to be ironed out in the merger, and I provided an update over the weekend on much of what we know.
United’s posting to Milepoint by Scott O’Leary mentions several outstanding issues still to come. Perhaps the biggest unanswered question not listed is whether the new program will engage in Starnet blocking.
For those unfamiliar, this is the practice whereby Mileage Plus programmed its computers to say that award seats weren’t available even when United’s Star Alliance partners were offering them those seats. Mileage Plus did this when it didn’t want to pay for the seats. Roughly speaking, Mileage Plus would set a budget for each partner for the quarter, they would have some blocking of award seats at the beginning of a quarter in order to prevent themselves from running out of planned spend on partners. As they used up their allotted money, they would tighten blocking. Lufthansa was the most-blocked partner, when blocking was in place you could almost never get a Lufthansa premium cabin award seat, despite Lufthansa offering those seats to all of their partners. But it wasn’t limited to Lufthansa. In its early forms, United’s system would usually just not return even the existence of the flight. Which led to surreal conversations with agents like “Lufthansa doesn’t fly to Frankfurt” and “ANA doesn’t serve Washington DC” (and I’d be like, “It’s called ANA Flight 1 and I attended the party to celebrate 20 years of service.”)
For a long time United was the only Star Alliance carrier engaging in the practice. Currently there’s some confusion about what is going on at US AIrways mostly with Lufthansa first class transatlantic award space. Some speculate it’s blocking, though it’s equally plausibly an AVS synch issue with their reservations system. One imagines though that US AIrways rather likes this problem and hasn’t acted to fix it, in fact they’ve instructed their agents not to manually sell the award space (which is a way to circumvent the problem).
Anyway, Starnet blocking led to agents unintentionally (on the part of the agents, though likely intentionally on the part of Mileage Plus) lying to customers. They would tell customers that the partner airline wasn’t offering seats to United, and that each partner allocates a certain number of seats to each Star Alliance member. Neither of those statements were quite true. The seats would be offered to United, United just wouldn’t book the seats. A manual sell of the award space would confirm this, but of course United then began threatening their agents to prevent them from doing manual sells. (Some carriers do offer their own members additional seats, eg Lufthansa and Swiss offer extra availability to Miles & More members and Singapore offers additional seats to Krisflyer members, and also strangely to Miles & More members.)
When Continental joined Star Alliance Scott O’Leary went on the Upgrd Podcast for an interview in which he stated that Continental doesn’t believe in award seat blocking, and promising that they would roll out an award chart which was ‘realistic’ enough to allow them not to block award inventory.
Of course, what we wound up getting for both United and Continental was this new ‘realistic’ award chart. And they recently adjusted the chart again, just a few weeks ago, so hopefully that chart remains one they can live with sans blocking.
Now, I also understand that Continental has seen higher redemption costs than they had expected when joining Star Alliance, but certainly on net the benefits outweigh the costs. And they still believe in being honest with their customers, as Scott promised they would when Continental joined Star.
When I posted on this on Milepoint, Wandering Aramean took issue with my claim that this issue is a big deal for many members and how they perceive the program. Presumably his take is that it’s sufficiently esoteric as to not reach the radar of most of the program’s combined 70 million or so members. I disagree. First, because it materially affects their award redemption experience and that’s the touch point when members really determine their long-term relationship to a program. A good reward experience heightens loyalty and future engagement while a frustrating experience turns them off to the program. Second, because the folks who will base their opinions directly on the issue of ‘starnet blocking’ are thought leaders, are influencers, and are vocal in public fora, and will have a disproportionate impact on the reputation of the program which will reverberate across many more members than their numbers alone indicate.
This is a “big deal.”
Over the weekend I shared details of the upcoming Star Mega DO.
Events kick off September 5 with an optional European program (and deeply discounted business and economy tickets between New York and Munich). Last year’s event featured an after-hours party in Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt. The year before there was even an emergency slide popped for members of the trip.
The full event begins at the Park Hyatt Chicago on Wednesday, September 7 with management of United and Hyatt. The next morning there’s a behind-the-scenes tour at O’Hare, followed by a champagne magic show in the Red Carpet Club, charter flight to Montreal for an Air Canada and Aeroplan program and a Bombardier factory tour. It’s on to Denver for a United training center tour and a charity auction for flight simulator time and tentatively an Air National Guard tour with potential for F16 rides and a Lockheed Martin tour.
United is offering double, triple, and even quadruple qualifying miles for the charter flights (depending on class of service). Hyatt is giving all participants Diamond elite status through February 2013.
Pricing and more details are posted over at Milepoint, but since this is just put together by frequent flyers for frequent flyers it’s surprisingly affordable — coach seats on the charter run $750 all-in, and there are good group discounts on the hotels.
Well, the registration link is now live and though it’s been up for only a few hours it’s apparently already about half sold out, I’m told there are only about 50 seats left.
Cranky Flier has a two part interview with Spirit Airlines’ marketing chief Barry Biffle.
I remember Barry as a good guy, I had drinks with him and some other frequent flyers in Crystal City years ago after he participating in an online chat with Randy Petersen back when he was at US Airways.
He came over to Spirit with Ben Baldanza, I certainly have nothing against Barry though I’ve long held a grudge against Baldanza for his comments in USA Today that frequent customers who were buying the lowest fares that US Airways offered weren’t the kind of customers that they wanted. US Airways led the pack in the day with a plan to only award elite qualifying miles on full fare tickets, though the effort was aborted amidst much backlash and when the rest of the industry didn’t go along with the changes.
Baldanza continued developing his customer-unfriendly reputation with an email where he hit reply-all, insulting a customer and belittling their complaints, when he meant to send it internally. His view was that people make their decision based on price and the service they get mattered much less.
It’s interesting to see the transition from Baldanza looking for premium fare passengers to catering towards the low fare crowd, though in both cases his attitude and mental model appeared to be highly dismissive of the customer.
I’m long on record believing that Spirit Airlines is a carrier I would never want to fly, and one that I wouldn’t recommend flying. Though at the same time I strongly support their right to offer their product as they see fit. Their business model is a cheap, stripped-down flight experience with everything ‘extra’ being extra. I do think that some of their practices are shady, such as Cranky observes their ‘opt out’ for travel insurance rather than opt-in and their booking fees which can be avoided at the airport. This is the airline that used to charge a web ‘convenience fee’ for online booking. Still, despite the fees they can sometimes be the cheapest option and they certainly add low fare pressure to markets where major carrier routes overlap meaning that I Can often buy cheaper tickets on other airlines because of Spirit’s presence and I appreciate that. I wouldn’t want to fly them during irregular operations especially, and I find the overall package of benefits offered by major airlines with better frequent flyer programs and elite benefits more to my liking.
But it’s still exceptionally silly for members of Congress to crusade against things like Spirit’s carry-on baggage fee for items that don’t’ fit under the seat. It’s easy to grandstand in front of the cameras but as long as Spirit does disclose all of their fees and the value proposition on offer they ought to be able to innovate and offer a product which is differentiated from other carriers.
Making this sort of case, I think Biffle comes off exceptionally well in the interview. Perhaps it helps that Cranky Flier seems sympathetic to him, but assuming the interview is reported straight-up I think that Biffle himself makes an excellent case. I wish he’d put himself forward more broadly and articulate Spirit’s right to operate, articulate exactly what the value proposition is, so that no one is surprised and can make informed decisions. Spirit has long appeared to be of the belief that any media is good media, so the more free media he gets with his interviews the better.
In addition to defending Spirit’s business model, I think Biffle makes an important yet subtle point that’s often missed. Airline ticket sales are heavily regulated. There are massive disclosure requirements, both in the ticketing process and also in their advertising. And with all of the mandated information, that an airline can be fined for foregoing, there’s a bit of information overload with consumers. Spirit doesn’t really hide their practices. I agree with that. But many consumers still miss the important points and come off feeling misled because they’re used to major carrier behavior and Spirit is different. There’s so much information that an airline must throw out there, that nobody reads it and nobody understands it. Adding more disclosures just adds to information overload. Regulations undergirded by “more information is better” and a meme of transparency can actually be harmful to consumers overall.
I’m not sure what we do with this observation exactly, I don’t know the right level of disclosure or how to best communicate with customers, though I suppose it makes me skeptical of calls for greater disclosures. A simpler approach where airlines are required to be truthful, or at least not lie, to their customers might be in order and then let those airlines innovate in how they communicate, with plenty of media and blog criticisms of those which do it badly. To some that will fall short, but over-disclosure seems to as well.
Ultimately I’m just glad that Spirit has a right to offer their product, even if I don’t want to fly them.
Nicholas Kralev was a diplomacy reporter for the Washington Times for several years, and flew all over the world on the newspaper’s dime — but newspapers haven’t been the most thriving businesses over the past several years, so he had to make the most of a modest travel budget. And like many readers of this blog, he doesn’t like flying coach. So he learned the ins and outs of airfares, frequent flyer programs, upgrades, bonuses, and began to think strategically and methodically as he planned out his travels.
His travels also earned him a regular column in that newspaper, “On the Fly,” which was both a personal journal of his frequent flyer experiences, and a platform for offering advice to the public on how to make travel more comfortable — which frequent flyer programs were more generous than others, who offered the most generous upgrade schemes.
The column was also a soapbox of sorts. Last year I ran into Kralev at the Fresno airport, and we chatted during our flight to Los Angeles and then in the Red Carpet Club about a topic I had recently blogged — frequent flyer programs and Haitian disaster relief. I had argued that Hilton HHonors was being exceptionally ungenerous in their scheme to allow members to donate points to charity. It was far better to redeem points for a paid stay, and then give the money from that stay to charity, than it was to donate points. I argued that redeeming your points for donations was actually cheaper for the HHonors program in many cases than redeeming your points for a room. We actually shared the same flight back to Washington-Dulles and he popped by my seat in the business cabin (he had planned his trip in advance and was in the mini-cabin of United’s 777 business class, I planned mine last minute and was in the main cabin). The next day he contacted HHonors, and the attention he was giving the issue was enough to get them to match all member contributions to Haitian relief. He had gotten them to come out of pocket with a quarter million dollars for charity, just on the basis of writing the piece.
Kralev has left the Times and has been offering paid seminars at which he teaches techniques for getting the most out of travel for the least amount of money. And having been teaching these seminars for a year, he’s now written a book, Decoding Air Travel. I should disclose that about three months ago he sent me a draft, and I offered extensive comments. I wasn’t paid for my review, but he does generously include me in his acknowledgments.
The book is broken down into three sections: booking tickets, the trip itself, and making the most of frequent flyer programs.
In section one, across six chapters, Kralev offers the best introduction to airfare construction and searching out the best airfares that I’ve ever read.
Now, that’s not for everyone. Most consumers will be happy going to Kayak, Bing, or Hipmunk and booking the least expensive trip that matches their general flight preferences. But this book takes you completely through looking up the cheapest airfares, understanding the rules of the fare, and finding flights that (1) match those rules and (2) have inventory available at the lowest price. He explains concepts like same-day confirmed changes, standby, coach airfares that offer confirmed upgrades to first class, and married segments.
In walking you through how to use this information to book the best flights for you — whether that means the cheapest flights, the flights with upgrade availability, or the flights that will earn you the most miles — he gives great examples but I do take exception to his naming the technique “The Kralev Method” 
I’m not sure he invented it, after all, even if he’s providing the clearest written explanation of it that I’ve seen.
In the second section, the book takes you through buying your tickets, making changes to your reservation at the lowest cost, handling irregular operations (weather, mechanical, and other delays and cancellations), and obtaining compensation from an airline for your inconveniences.
The final five chapters are all about using frequent flyer programs: choosing the right program for you, making the most of airline alliances, obtaining elite status (by flying and by other means) and the benefits of status, the ins and outs of upgrades both domestic and international, finding airline award seats — and because the book is by the guy who brought so much mainstream attention to the issue of United’s “starnet blocking” (programming their computers to tell customers that partner flights are unavailable even when those partner airlines are offering award seats, because United didn’t want to pay for those seats) there’s even a section on that practice. We have to keep reminding ourselves just how bad it got, up until a year ago, because United has not publicly commented on the practice in the past twelve months. Even though award blocking has been an issue only for a couple of weeks in the past year, we have to keep the pressure on the combined United-Continental so that it doesn’t return next year.
Ultimately, I did know everything in the book, but it was still a good read — summarizing the debates between Expert Flyer and the KVS Tool for searching flight availability, reminders not to take ‘direct’ or ‘codeshare’ flights without meaningful cost savings, making changes to your return only after flying the first outbound segment and using schedule changes to get fee-free changes. Lots of great reminders about things I already know.
The most advanced mileage runners probably don’t need this book. But the frequent flyer that’s looking to learn to get the lowest airfares and get the most for their money will likely find it money well-spent. It’s not cheap at $40, but he’s offered promo code V9S696JF for 25% off at this site.
It’s not the book I would have written (and who knows, someday may write). It’s largely about airfares and I’ve always found miles and points much more interesting. His chapter on frequent flyer miles is a very good contribution. It’s less comprehensive but written at a somewhat higher level than Randy Petersen and Tim Winship’s 2005 Mileage Pro which I much liked (and which could use an update). A book about true luxury travel at the cheapest prices, not just airline upgrades but hotel status and the very best point redemptions, going ‘all-in’ on monster deals, and an overall way of approaching travel to succeed where most fails remains to be written. I’m probably not a lucid enough writer to pull it off and still make it accessible. And this is a book that Kralev is eminently qualified to write, and that will be helpful to many.
Kralev will have a book launch party this Wednesday in D.C., it’s free to anyone interested in the DC area. I hope to meet some of y’all at the event.
Generally good piece in today’s Cleveland Plain-Dealer on United-Continental integration, focusing on the minutiae.
The author goes through policy changes like crated pets being will loaded backwards, rather than forwards (score that one for United) and the switch in boarding from zones over to rows at United, to mirror Continental, and then quickly shifting back to zones – a policy that will spread across Continental going forward.
On aircraft configuration, in addition to keeping economy plus and international first class on some routes but not others, she notes that the airline’s 787 orders are for two-cabin aircraft, and that the layout of their 777s are different:
Nor has United said whether it will go with Continental’s wider business class seats on aircraft such as Boeing 777s used on international routes, said Henry Harteveldt, an airline analyst at Forrester Research. Both airlines fly the plane with business-class seats that can recline flat. On Continental they are 22 inches wide and six to a row. On United they are 20.5 inches wide and eight to a row.
On outstanding questions, some others she flags as to-be-determined:
No details have been announced on the pattern on beverage napkins. And the one-pour or two-pour issue is also up in the air: Should flight attendants hand you the can or pour your pop and keep what’s left for the next customer?
She references the contentiousness of some of these decisions on message boards, there she’s referring to mostly the Milepoint threads started by UA Insider (I spoke with the reporter for about half an hour, she found me through Milepoint and we went through the threads for many of the examples and changes that folks are concerned with).
To me, the most important outstanding issue which I had explained to the reporter) is:
Message boards also have bubbled over complimentary upgrades for elite customers. United gives free upgrades on domestic flights to elite MileagePlus members before offering upgrades for sale. Continental tries to sell first-class seats to coach customers throughout the booking process, before providing premium seats as an elite benefit.
“We’re still weaving the systems together,” O’Leary said.
I do love the extensive detail the piece gets into, though, like bowling ball and tandem bike checked baggage policies. And while I did know that United was going to keep Channel 9 inflight air traffic control perhaps I’ve been under a rock but I hadn’t seen it confirmed that Continental aircraft would be getting channel 9 — I did tell the reporter that this was important, and she confirmed that channel 9 would be “Added to Continental aircraft beginning in 2012 (phased in by aircraft type.”
Milepoint has rolled out its award store, only nothing is for sale.
“Original members” (very modest activity by May 15) can order their free original member t-shirts. There are also luggage tags and referral cards available as well. Log into Milepoint and see what’s available to you based on your activity on the site to date.
Additional awards will be coming, with the best stuff coming for active contributors to the community.
The Points Guy argued this morning that the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is the best “card for everyday purchases to start accruing mileage points.”
Now, I do think Chase Sapphire is a very good non-American Express card. It’s one definitely worth considering as the backup card, for spending with places that don’t take American Express. But I don’t agree that it’s the best card for most spend.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers:
So I agree that this is a good card! And it’s worth considering as a second card in your wallet. But here are cards that I like better:
American Express Premier Rewards Gold card. Earns Membership Rewards points, which are more flexible and more valuable than the Chase Sapphire points. And earns double points on gas and groceries and triple points on airfare. Membership Rewards transfer to programs like Aeroplan, Delta, British Airways, All Nippon, Singapore, etc. and with many programs like Aeroplan, Delta, and British Airways the transfer is instantaneous. Plus they frequently run bonuses as high as 50% on transfers. So airfare spend winds up getting you 4.5 Delta or British Airways points per dollar. $175 annual fee is waived the first year. My wife just got this card with a targeted 75,000 point signup bonus, it was recently broadly available with 50,000 points, so you may want to wait until one of these offers is live again. Note that the only card that is arguably better for airfare purchases, if you can buy your tickets on Travelocity, is the 10% rebate Travelocity Amex.
Asiana American Express earns two points per dollar spent. Asiana does add fuel surcharges to awards but there’s a partial credit returned by the card once a year. Their distance-based award chart is reasonable for short- and medium-haul travel, a trip of no more than 10,000 miles flown costs 80,000 points in business class. That covers much of the US East Coast to Europe. And a roundtrip allows four stopovers in addition to destination on the award.
Starwood Preferred Guest American Express is still the all-around go to card for flexible points, redeem with Starwood hotels (W, Westin, Sheraton, St Regis, etc) or transfer to one of the largest stables of points program and with transfer bonuses to boot. Most programs (but not United or Continental) transfer 1:1, and earn 5000 bonus miles when transferring 20,000 Starpoints. Upshot is you’re effectively earning 1.25 miles per dollar spent with most airline programs, and you get to choose which program later plus have the flexibility of hotel redemptions. Points transfer 1:2 into LAN with double the transfer bonus, making short-haul non-stop oneworld award flights an incredible value. Only real downside is that points transfers don’t happen as quickly as with Membership Rewards making it hard to set up an award ticket and then and only then transfer the points.
Alaska Airlines Visa largely for their annual $99 companion ticket which is good for any Alaska Airlines itinerary that can be booked online (over the phone they may limit to basic roundtrips/open jaws). It works for first class, too, a paid for class ticket from New York to Hawaii one-stop via Seattle, for instance, the second ticket is just $99+tax and booked into full paid first class so availability isn’t an issue and even the companion ticket is refundable and earns class of service bonus. Plus, of course, Alaska miles can be redeemed on Cathay Pacific (140,000 for first class to Africa via Hong Kong), Qantas, British Airways, Air France, American, Delta, etc.
Diners Club isn’t available to new signups in the US currently, but there are tons of (mostly international, plus American) points transfer partners, and it still offers primary collision coverage when renting a car. Note that they’re not alone in this, even the standard Continental Onepass Plus Mastercard offers this now. But it’s a great benefit, and the Diners Club remains my primary non-American Express card, and I happen to use the Hyatt Visa for foreign currency transactions, though the Chase Sapphire card is good for foreign charges as is the Amex Platinum (which I also have and get great lounge access from) and the British Airways Visa from Chase.
British Airways Visa earns 1.25 BA miles per dollar, no foreign currency transaction fees, and offers a free companion award ticket after $30,000 in spend — redeem one ticket on British Airways (no partners) and the second person on the same all-BA itinerary is ‘free’ (you still pay taxes and fees for the companion, and with BA those can be quite pricey, think $700 or so to Europe, more if you have a UK stopover due to the British government’s luxury tax on premium cabin departures, and the fees can be even higher if flying BA beyond Europe).
The BA Visa doesn’t quite find a place in my wallet, but I’ve made good use of these other cards (and others). There are a ton of great cards out there, Chase Sapphire may have a place in your wallet especially as a secondary card for non-Amex spend and for international spend, but to me it doesn’t rank as the best current card out there.
What’s your preferred card, and am I missing anything important?
I was interviewed in the June issue of Inside Flyer along with a handful of others: Carol (SanDiego1K on Flyertalk), Steve Belkin (the famous ‘beaubo’), and Seth Miller (Wandering Aramean blog).
A good discussion, I express my overall preference for United Mileage Plus and Hyatt Gold Passport (with an honorable mention to Starwood Preferred Guest). I admit to letting my AAdvantage miles expire in the early 90′s. And I express the controversial view (contrary to the position taken by the other three on the group) that miles have gotten more valuable rather than less valuable — despite award chart inflation, where programs continually increase the number of miles required to redeem an award.
Programs are definitely more valuable than they were 10 years ago, though they may not be as valuable as they were two years ago.
At the depths of the Great Recession, bonuses were flying out of programs like never before, and since international premium cabins weren’t selling, securing awards was really easy. I doubt we’ll see anything like 2009 again any time soon.
But it’s hard to say that the era of great value is over when there are more opportunities than ever to redeem your miles, and in better ways. When I redeemed United miles to go to Australia in business back in 2000, the Mileage Plus agents offered me the chance to fly Air New Zealand and then I could fly United in coach to California to catch that flight “as a courtesy.” Now I redeem my Mileage Plus miles for awards that include Lufthansa, Thai Airways, All Nippon, and Asiana–all on one award–and my United segments are in first class, too! The partnerships are expanding and becoming better integrated, improving the award experience all around.
Sure, mileage charts have become more expensive. That Australia trip I took is a lot more miles now. But earning miles is easier, too.
I think this is an important point, that the good old days really weren’t as good as we think, I much prefer using my United miles to fly first class on Lufthansa, Thai, All Nippon, and Asiana than to use them to fly… United!
While miles have gotten more valuable, I still advise folks to spend their miles not to hoard them — earn and burn in the same period, to avoid the effects of award chart inflation. Use the miles to achieve world-class travel, expand your horizons, and experience things you wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to see. Miles and points have certainly changed my life, for sure.
New members of Hotels.com’s loyalty program, Welcome Rewards, can earn double credits on their first stay (up to 4 bonus credits) through July 31 with coupon code Double12.
I’ve recently joined Welcome Rewards to take advantage of the free night for a paid night offer for anyone who has stayed with three major chains during the past 18 months. But I haven’t stayed through Hotels.com yet, so I’m eligible for this offer. I’ll use the double credit promo first, probably, especially if I can find a 4-night stay with a hotel chain where I don’t need to earn points. That’ll get me eight credits. Then if I do a two-night stay under the free night for a paid night offer I’ll earn the free night from that promo and a second free night through the Welcome Rewards program as a standard redemption.
Put another way, using these two offers Hotels.com is providing new members a chance to earn 2 free nights with 6 paid nights. Not the greatest offers ever, but pretty decent. Sadly the value of the free nights can’t exceed the average cost of the nights you pay for. But it’s better than a hole in the head, as my grandfather used to say.
Meanwhile, you can also get 10% off when booking through the Hotels.com Australia website.
Hertz #1 Award is re-branding and offering 500 bonus points for signing up — enough for a free weekend day — and an additional 100 bonus points per day for rentals from July 1 through September 30. Registration required.
What’s more, Hertz #1 Club Gold is free through September 30, though I don’t know that many people actually pay for it, there have always been many free offers for joining — normally you go to the signup site and enter a company name, CDP number, and promo code number. And if you google ‘free hertz #1 club gold’ you’ll come up with plenty of options such as this and this and many more.
A free rental day is a free rental day, worth the signup.
Many of the frequent flyer and frequent guest programs I’ve talked to in putting together the Frequent Traveler Awards would mention that feedback of members does matter to them, and seeking these honors does influence their behavior at the margin.
In the July issue of Inside Flyer, Priority Club’s Amy Ceriani-Nelson attributes their decision to keep PointBreaks awards (which have been speculated to be on the way out with the introduction of Last Minute Rewards) to PointBreaks winning a Frequent Traveler Award this year.
IF
Many members we’ve talked to have mentioned that they are concerned that PointsBreaks awards might be going away, or changed in some way. What can you tell us about this?Ceriani-Nelson
Currently, we are still offering PointBreaks promotions where select hotels from InterContinental Hotels to Holiday Inns are available for 5,000 points per night redemption and we have no immediate plans to change the program. In fact, PointBreaks are currently available. We have received very clear feedback from members regarding how much they value this program–and have won awards around the globe over the past several years as a ‘best redemption promotion’ in addition to being a factor in having been recognized as Program of the Year by several industry publications.
(Emphasis mine.)
I actually predicted that their win for best redemption promotion in the Frequent Traveler Awards would encourage them to keep it around.
And since it’s a reward I do rather like quite a bit as part of the program, thanks to everyone who voted this year!
Star Mega DO III has officially launched, with the opportunity to join in for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Events kick off September 5 with an optional European program (and deeply discounted business and economy tickets between New York and Munich). Last year’s event featured an after-hours party in Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt. The year before there was even an emergency slide popped for members of the trip.
The full event begins at the Park Hyatt Chicago on Wednesday, September 7 with management of United and Hyatt. The next morning there’s a behind-the-scenes tour at O’Hare, followed by a champagne magic show in the Red Carpet Club, charter flight to Montreal for an Air Canada and Aeroplan program and a Bombardier factory tour. It’s on to Denver for a United training center tour and a charity auction for flight simulator time and tentatively an Air National Guard tour with potential for F16 rides and a Lockheed Martin tour.
United is offering double, triple, and even quadruple qualifying miles for the charter flights (depending on class of service). Hyatt is giving all participants Diamond elite status through February 2013.
Pricing and more details are posted over at Milepoint, but since this is just put together by frequent flyers for frequent flyers it’s surprisingly affordable — coach seats on the charter run $750 all-in, and there are good group discounts on the hotels.
Sponsors and partners are United Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Canada/ Aeroplan, Hyatt, Bombardier, milepoint.com, usingmiles.com, and awardwallet.com.
A good snapshot of what a Star Mega DO is all about was captured in a Wall Street Journal piece on the 2009 event
The Mega DO—which started in Chicago—gave the road warriors an education in how airlines work. At each stop, airline executives greeted them with singers and dancers, mechanics and pilots, ample food and drink and tours of engine shops, training facilities, airplanes and hangars.
Like kids on a school field trip, they filed through crew briefing rooms at UAL Corp.’s United Airlines in Chicago, quizzed maintenance experts at Continental’s engine shop in Newark, practiced flight-attendant skills at Lufthansa’s training center in Frankfurt and were photographed sitting in various aircraft cockpits opened for them at hangars.
They asked airline workers about snow plows at O’Hare, bird-strikes in engines, access to airport clubs and the environmental impact of deicing fluid. They learned how airlines cycle engines and airplanes through scheduled maintenance, how company workers assign gates and direct aircraft movement around terminals, how pilots prepare for long journeys and how Airbus puts together its giant double-deck plane.
.. and also in a big spread in Conde Nast Traveler. Photos from past Star MegaDOs can be found on the Facebook page.
Contracts are signed and DOT approval has been received for the charter, so the website for signing up will launch this weekend. There’s only 135 spots available (fewer than last year due to smaller aircraft), so it’ll be necessary to jump on the opportunity.
I wasn’t going to comment on the recent kerfuffle over Saudi Arabian Airlines joining Skyteam, it seemed pretty silly and Wandering Aramean and One Mile at a Time already covered the issue quite well.
But the story is still circulating, I’m incensed at the silliness being repeated on this morning’s news shows, and which completely miss the point.
Huffington Post carried a piece claiming that Delta discriminates against Jews because Saudi Arabian is joining the alliance of which Delta is a member. Saudi Arabia won’t provide visas to anyone with an Israeli stamp in their passport (though of course one can get a secondary passport to circumvent this problem, or avoid the permanent stamp in the first place).
Saudi Arabia is a particularly oppressive regime, as are many Middle Eastern governments. And Timatic contains the following information on admittance:
- Visitors holding passports containing any Israeli visa or
stamp could be refused entry.
Delta doesn’t fly to Saudi Arabia. But they will partner with the country’s national airline, making it easier for passengers to buy through-travel. Delta is required to follow the entry rules of the country to which passengers are flying. As are other airlines that fly to Saudi Arabia, and plenty of other airlines partner with airlines that do as well. Lufthansa, for instance, flies daily to Riyadh and partners with United/Continental and with US Airways. So does Star Alliance member British Midland. And Turksih. And EgyptAir. These airlines are subject to the same rules and behave exactly the same way.
And in fact, the government of Saudi Arabia is hardly unique in its requirements. Here’s what Timatic says about entry to the United Arab Emirates:
Holders of passports containing an Israeli visa or stamp
must obtain clearance through the C.I.D. (Crime
Investigation Dept.) upon arrival.
American just this week announced a new partnership with Abu Dhabi-based Etihad. Which offers non-stop flights to the U.S. (American’s joint business venture partner British Airways flies to Saudi Arabia as well.)
Until recently, United and Continental partnered with Emirates, which also offers non-stop flights to the U.S.
The U.S., by the way, offers special rights to Saudi Arabian Airlines to continue its Jeddah – New York flight on to Washington Dulles (it cannot carry passengers solely between DC and New York). And it allows special rights to Kuwaiti Airlines to fly New York JFK – London, in other words flights between the US and a country other than the airline’s home country .. out of a slot-controlled airport, no less.
There is plenty of reasonable outrage at the practices of Saudi Arabia, and at other oppressive regimes. But the locus of outrage, it seems to me, ought to be at (1) those regimes directly and (2) at the U.S. government for accommodating those regimes.
Plenty of people will argue that the current government of Saudi Arabia is much more liberal, and much more friendly towards the U.S., than what we would get otherwise. And that’s a reasonable argument to have. But it doesn’t seem like it’s an argument to have with Delta, which clearly isn’t anti-semitic.
Delta seems to be the frequent target of misplaced public outrage (and some that’s justified). In this case, though, the beef seems with the government rather than the airline… which after all allows Saudi Arabian Airlines to fly to the U.S..
As I walked in the door with flowers, my wife asks “How many miles did you get?”
Nicholas Kralev, the former Washington Times diplomacy reporter who also wrote a weekly travel column (and who is especially known in frequent flyer circles for ‘breaking’ the story publicly about United’s Starnet blocking, proactively programming their computers to tell customers that award seats were unavailable on their partners when those partners were actually offering seats, so that Mileage Plus wouldn’t have to pay for the awards), has a new book out, Decoding Air Travel.
I read an early draft and I’m reading through it now, it looks to be really excellent so far and offers some of the most extensive step-by-step tutorials I’ve seen on identify the lowest airfares and constructing itineraries to get those fares and also find and secure confirmable upgrades. I plan to post a full review once I’m through, which should be in the next several days (I hope!).
At least I commit to reading the entire thing by next Wednesday, since there’s a book launch party at the Arts Club of DC at 7pm on Wednesday, June 29. The event is open to the public, but advance registration is required.
I’ll be at the event and I look forward to meeting any readers of this blog in the area who can make it, and toasting Kralev on the success of his new book.
Consistent with the theme of discount air travel, I asked if I could get a code to bring down the price of the book, and managed to secure V9S696JF for 25% off valid here.
Via Fly Gracefully, Hilton’s third quarter promotion is out: double points or miles from July 1 through September 30.
You have to sign up for which one you want to earn, and once you choose you canoot change your mind. And of course if you choose double miles you need to have your profile set to earn either points and fixed miles or points and variable miles — if you are set to earn points and points then choosing to earn points and double miles with this bonus won’t get you anything.
Here’s the (rather extensive) list of non-participating properties.
This isn’t a particularly exciting promo, not something that’s going to encourage me to make incremental stays with Hilton and not even likely to be a promotion that encourages me to choose a Hilton over another property. But it’s still nice, bonus miles are always good. And we don’t have other promos running out through September that are particularly exciting from other chains either. And earning extra bmi miles (my double dip partner whenever I stay with Hilton) always makes me happy.
Via FrequentFlying, Delta has been giving out elite status to favored politicians: the Governor of Georgia gets comped Diamond status and the Lieutenant Governor, state House Speaker and state Senate President all get Platinum Medallion status.
Programs routinely comp status to special friends, whether program partners or influentials that they wish to ingratiate themselves with. There’s less of this with Members of Congress where ethics rules tend to be stricter and scrutiny greater (though the 2007 “Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007″ carves out specific exceptions to allow Senators to play golf for free). Still, while explicit gifts are rare treatment for politicians is still better than for others — members of Congress created their own legislative deal to score free close-in parking at National Airport and when US Airways was struggling financially early in the last decade and announced significant layoffs, Ted Kennedy intervened to “protect” two jobs at DCA — the special services reps who took care of important politicians such as himself.
It’s one thing when an airline or hotel chain offers status to important customers to sway business, or to leadership of firms they’re doing business with. It’s another thing entirely when they’re offering these perks to politicians and bureaucrats. Mind you, I don’t blame the travel provider one bit. It’s how business is done, especially in highly regulated industries. Politicians hold a great deal of sway over a company’s profitability. It’s called crony capitalism. Delta was noted to have provided the Georgia governor with top tier elite status after he signed a $30 million tax break. By any measure that makes the governor important to Delta. There’s no suggestion of quid pro quo here, but Delta is reliant on the good will of political favors, and they treat their politicians well when they can.
It’s entirely to be expected as long as politicians influence fortunes of private companies, and crusading against special perks for politicians misses the point. Still it does rather anger me if I’m trumped out of an upgrade by a politician doling out dollars they’ve taken out of income (or if I’m trumped out of that same upgrade by an air marshall…)
The W Hotel Store is offering 35% off everything with promo code WSTAR35. These discounts are frequently used to buy W hotel beds, the best option in my opinion is the plush top mattress with feather bed rather than the more expensive pillow top (which tends not to last as long).
The price of these mattresses went up about 10% back in May of last year, so this isn’t as good a deal as when I bought my own W Hotels bed four years ago, and then using a 40% off code which I’ve only seen one time since then in March of this year. I am still happy with my purchase, by the way.
Expiration date on the offer is unknown, if you’re interested you may want to make the purchase now.
(Via Dan’s Deals.)
