Reader Diane S. writes:

I am a rather faithful United/Star Alliance flyer for international travel. I have just booked a trip to South Africa with them and also a BA internal flight. I currently have a UA MC, Visa and Business Visa. I also have a Chase SW card that I’m thinking of dumping.

I would like to apply for a few cards to get bonus miles. I was targeted for a BA card after booking my flight (40,000), am interested in Chase Sapphire for the bonus and the card benefits, but wonder if I should grab the Continental Onepass since I’d get the 25,000 and maybe get switched to the Explorer card after the merger. I know I would need to do this soon. I don’t want to miss out on the Sapphire and bonus and am not sure Chase will tolerate my several apps since I already have several of their cards. My credit is good. I’d appreciate any advise.

First, Diane, congratulations! Premium cabin awards to Africa are most always a great value, not to mention a great time. While British Airways award availability is excellent, the awards are expensive both in terms of miles and fuel surcharges. Star Alliance offers great options – via London, Zurich, Munich, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Lisbon, Cairo to name just some fo the options. Having South African Airways, Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels Airlines, Turkish, EgyptAir and TAP Air Portugal providing service is a real plus. And I’ve even had good luck planning about 10 months out and getting those South African direct flights from New York and DC.

And with the caveat that the which mileage program you choose depends on the destination you want to fly to on your award, there’s some pretty straightforward advice I think that I can offer you.

You’ve hit those United signup bonuses nice and hard, and while it’s generally true that Chase will only give you the signup bonus on a given card only one time and that the Continental Onepass Plus card is going away making that a tempting offer, I’d generally skip a 25,000 mile signup bonus. Especially with Chase since they are also persnickety about approving folks for too many cards.

What I’d do is go for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card — 50,000 points after $3000 in spending within 3 months and no fee the first year – that’s double the points as the Continental card, the points are especially flexible (transferring not just to United/Continental but also to Hyatt, British Airways, Marriott, Southwest, Priority Club, Amtrak, and Korean Airlines).

No foreign currency transaction fees, access to the Ultimate Rewards mall (often the most lucrative points-earning shopping portal), 7% annual bonus on all points earning. This is the card every points fan should probably have and the double points on all travel and restaurant spend make it appeal to actually use, and not just churn.

You say you’re thinking of dumping the Southwest Visa. Don’t. Apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred. You may get approved right away, you may not, but if you aren’t you want to still have that Southwest Visa since you can always call up Chase and offer to trade the credit that’s available to you on the Southwest card in order to get approved on the Sapphire Preferred.

I don’t like cancelling Chase cards, I like holding onto them and trading them in for new cards, it makes approvals that much easier. Here’s my longer discussion of what cards to cancel and when.

Now, two reasons other than the signup bonus that you might want to get the Continental card now — primary collision damage waiver coverage when renting a car (the coverage pays before your own insurance, not just whatever your insurance doesn’t cover, subject to its terms and conditions of course) and also because it’s a Mastercard and my most recent understanding is that when they convert Onepass Plus cards to Explorer cards they will leave you with a Mastercard. So if you want a Mastercard instead of a United Explorer Visa, this is a good way to get it.

Beyond that though I’d certainly do the Sapphire Preferred card and not focus on a 25,000 mile signup bonus from Continental.

Got other questions? Ask away!

Pizza in Motion details a new American AAdvantage mileage bonus for dining at participating restaurants.

Once upon a time it was Transmedia, and then iDine, and now Rewards Network, but I’m still stuck calling it iDine. You register a credit card with Rewards Network, linked to a particular co-branded frequent flyer program, and when you pay a bill at a participating restaurant with that credit card miles will post to your account.

Just signing up earns 1 mile per dollar in most programs, creating an online profile earns 3 miles, and dining 12 times in a year (becoming elite) with a single program means you’ll earn 5 miles per dollar.

The American program has a particularly good joining bonus currently — 1500 bonus miles after you sign up, create an online profile, and complete your first $30 dine within 30 days of joining. The offer should be valid through the end of the year.

You can also double dip with the get ahead bonus (registration required). If you spend $75 at program restaurants before March 31, 2012 and complete your dining reviews within 30 days dining you’ll then earn 2 bonus miles per dollar for each subsequent dollar spent at their restaurants through April 30 (provided that you review those dines as well).

It used to be that you could only go to a restaurant once in a month to earn miles, and anything after your first visit wouldn’t earn anything. Many restaurants now allow multiple visits to earn points, though some do not. It’s a legacy of this old restriction that i’m a member of most dining programs — I would sign up one card with one program, another card with another program, and that would allow me to earn miles multiple times a month at a single place.

But this legacy has paid off nicely, because each program runs their own bonuses all the time. I can get a bonus promotion, register for it, and take advantage of it — sometimes it makes the most sense to credit to US Airways, sometimes American, etc.

And don’t forget that multiple people can split a check and get multiple dining credits at a single meal.

Other programs have similar bonus offers as well, a good place to find these is Gary Steiger’s Free Frequent Flyer Miles website.

I highlighted Hyatt’s Winter promotion when it was first announced and then flagged when registration became available.

But it’s worth highlighting again, because at the time I flagged it as the most generous current promo in the market. It’s not the most generous hotel promotion that’s ever been but it’s pretty good and I like it more than other current offerings.

For every 4 nights between February 1 and April 30, members earn additional points and Hyatt Visa also earn an extra 25% bonus on top. Registration required by March 31.

• 4 nights earns 4000 points (+1000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
  
• 8 nights earns an additional 8000 points (+2000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
  
• 12 nights earns an additional 12,000 points (+3000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
  
• 16 nights earns an additional 20,000 points (+5000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)

Members staying 16 nights during the three months of the promotion, who also have a Hyatt Visa, will earn 55,000 bonus points in addition to their regular earning.

Register here for the promotion.

Hyatt Gold Passport offered me an opportunity to highlight what they’re doing by giving away 66,000 Gold Passport points to my readers. I’m not taking anything from Gold Passport in this, I’m just giving away the points to you.

The giveaway

1. First prize: 44,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points. That’s the number of points you can earn through Hyatt’s new promotion (without the bonus points for being a Hyatt Visa cardholder) and is enough for two nights at any Hyatt property in the world.
   
2. Second prize: 22,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points. These can be split up however you’d like, it gets you a few nights or at the very high end it gets you a night at any Hyatt in the world

Official Rules:

• Enter by leaving a comment in this post, name a Hyatt property that you would like to spend your points at!

• You may enter as many times as you’d like in this official entry thread. However you may not enter more than one time in a row. You have to wait at least until someone else enters in order to enter again. And please don’t name the same Hyatt property more than once.

• This giveaway opportunity will run through 6pm Eastern time on Friday, February 10th.

• I will draw the winners at random using random.org, post the results on this blog, and put the winners in touch with Hyatt Gold Passport in order to claim their prize.

• This is a giveaway, it’s done with Hyatt’s generosity and I’m not taking anything for myself here so hopefully it will be received in the spirit that it’s offered, no technicalities please and no complaints, all decisions on my part are final, any questions just ask.

Good luck!

• Via Dan’s Deals, you can get a free 26 week subscription to the Wall Street Journal and also to Barron’s.

• Via the Points Guy you can get 3000 free Avios points if you log into your account and search for Realtytrac in the top right search bar, then sign up for a free 7 day trial. You’ll need to call (877-888-8722, 8am – 5pm Pacific) in order to cancel within those 7 days to avoid being charged for the service.

• Matthew points out that Continental.com has now added all Star Alliance partners to their website for award booking except Ethiopian Airlines. Continental.com is the easiest site to use for searching for award seats in my opinion, you don’t even have to log in to search flights. And if the miles aren’t in your Continental account you can hold an award, and then transfer miles over from United in real-time, then go back and issue tickets. Thank goodness this will be the surviving platform, although note that sometime the website will misprice awards especially when searching multi-city, you may need to call for the right pricing so be vigilant!

• Richard Quest says “Never board a plane or a train, or rest your weary head on a pillow, or spend a dollar, euro or shekel on any credit card, without making sure a mile is being earned along the way.”

Here are some recent questions from readers.

As y’all are aware, the single most lucrative thing you can do to earn miles and points is to pay attention to your credit card earning. First, there are big bonuses for signup. Second, several cards offer really good bonuses for specific kinds of spending. And third, day to day expenses really do add up quite nicely.

More miles are earned from credit card spend than from actually flying (the last time I saw the data this was true excluding elite bonuses, route bonuses, etc. although it’s possible that now it would be true even including those).

If you have any questions about rewards credit cards, please just fire away.

What’s the best non-airline/hotel loyalty program credit card?

In general I like flexible points the best. Not bank points like Capital One or Bank of America’s, those are usually not worth much (at best a penny a point towards paid travel), but points that can be transferred into another mileage currency. That way you have the specific points you need when it’s time to redeem for the award you want.

The very best would be:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred is going to be number one. I outlined why this card is the King of credit cards back in November.
  • Double points on all travel and dining spend.
    
  • Points transfer to United/Continental, British Airways, Korean Airlines, Hyatt, Priority Club, Southwest, Marriott, Amtrak
    
  • 7% annual bonus on all points earned (including on the 50,000 point signup bonus earned after $3000 in spend)
    
  • No fee the first year
    
  • No foreign currency transaction fees, I use this card instead of my Starwood and Hilton American Express cards when staying at SPG and Hilton HHonors properties overseas even.
    
  • It’s the best-looking card I know, no embossed numbers on the front and it’s heavier than a standard card and gets looks.

  Seriously, if you don’t have this card already, it’s probably the one card you should have in your wallet, my advice is to get it.

• American Express Premier Rewards Gold is going to be number two on my list.
  
  • Triple points on airfare (for me, this is huge)
    
  • Double points on gas and groceries
    
  • Points transfer to tons of programs, the most useful in my opinion are Air Canada’s Aeroplan, Delta Skymiles (frequent transfer bonuses, sometimes over 50%), British Airways Avios (they’ve had frequent 40% and 50% transfer bonuses), Air France KLM Flying Blue (25% bonus currently), All Nippon, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer (which is introducing new saver awards for first and business class long haul flights).

Now, it’s possible that in asking the question about non-airline/hotel loyalty cards you’re thinking about a cash back card. If you must have one of those, the Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express earns 2% cash deposited into a Fidelity investment account and is probably the best all-around cash back card.

Is it better to cancel immediately after earning the signup bonus or wait the year out?

Back in November I wrote a fairly detailed explanation of what cards to cancel and when.

Bottom-line is that you don’t want to cancel no annual fee cards, unless and until you need to in order to get approved for another card. I really hate to ever cancel a Chase credit card in particular, I’ll hang onto whatever credit they’ve given me until I get rejected for a new credit card that I want the signup bonus on. Then I’ll call Chase’s reconsideration line at 888-245-0625 and offer to trade credit from a card I no longer want in order to get the new card.

But certainly many folks won’t be in a position of signing up for several cards, they might get a single credit card bonus and want to cancel before the annual fee hits. Don’t’ cancel in the first six months, it’s rare enough as to almost be an urban legend but there are scarce reports of bonuses being taken away from folks cancelling their cards right away.

Instead, wait until maybe 10 months into the card. Then call to cancel and you may be offered a bonus to keep the card, a bonus that’s worth the annual fee. The last time I cancelled an American Airlines Mastercard from Citibank I was first offered an $85 statement credit (equivalent to the annual fee) for putting 5 charges on the card. I did the spending, I got the statement credit (free $85!) and then I called up to cancel the card anyway.

You don’t need to be in a hurry to cancel the card, even if a fee shows up on your statement you can still ring up the credit card company to cancel.

Plus by holding onto the card you might get an unexpected bonus. I signed up for a US Airways Mastercard for the 40,000 miles after first purchase back in December (I wrote about my recent credit card churn here). Since then I’ve received an offer that if I put $1500 on the card for 3 consecutive months I’ll earn another 15,000 mile bonus. And I also want to keep the card almost to the end of its year because activity on the card should count for the 2012 Grand Slam (multi-partner) promotion, which most imagine will return. It’s a regular offering from US Airways with bonus miles for lots of transactions with their partners, and spending on their co-branded credit card generally counts as a partner for this promotion. Since I can get that spending in before the annual fee is due, it’s worth keeping the card for that purpose.

Tips on the best way to keep track of what cards to cancel and when?

Here’s how one of my readers does it:

With the exception of the cards I’m working at any given time, I keep them semi-organized in a small zip lock (actually it’s a quart-sized bag). I use a black sharpie and write right on the cards “2x gas” “50k w/ 10k spend” “cancel 1/2012″ etc. I can only imagine what waiters and clerks think, but who cares? When I cancel a card, I write a cancel sign on the front of the card with the date cancelled.

Me, not so much. I just keep the cards in a stack in a drawer, and I flip through them every so often. I could certainly improve the process either with an Excel spreadsheet or just setting up an Outlook auto reminder to cancel a given card by a certain date.

How soon after applying for a mortgage is it ok to start churning credit cards again?

I always tell folks to hold off on applying for new lines of credit in the year or two leading up to a mortgage. You don’t need perfect credit for a mortgage. If you have a 760 FICO score you’ll generally get the exact same rates as if you had an 800+ score. But consumer-initiated inquiries on your credit report will ding your score a few points apiece usually, and that effect will age off your report completely after a couple of years. This is an amazing game, and there are some really amazing offers out there, but messing with your credit before getting a mortgage is not something that you’ll be better off for most of the time.

That said, the only thing that gives me pause is a mortgage, and I’ve been playing the credit card churning game for years, I still had stellar scores when I went for my mortgage.

But how long to wait after applying for a mortgage? You wait until closing. Because you don’t want to do anything that could jeopardize things if your score needs to get pulled again. But once the mortgage has closed, churn away baby!

(Note that some of the cards mentioned in this post will provide me with referral credit if you use my links. You’re not obligated to use my links of course, but I certainly appreciate it if you do.)

I think that Starwood’s changes to elite benefits are really quite huge. There’s a breakfast option (Continental breakfast or 500 point check-in Amenity) for Platinums, the ability to express a preference for when you’d like your upgrade for Platinums who stay 50 or more nights per year, and true 24 hour checkin (not guaranteed and must confirm at least 48 hours in advance) for Platinums staying 75 nights or more per year. There are other new benefits, but these to me are the really ground breaking ones for the program. Oh, and Golds can choose free internet finally.

The really funny thing is that Starwood hasn’t moved the needle of my opinion about where it stands relative to other frequent guest elite programs. Its top tier was number two behind Hyatt before, and it remains number two behind Hyatt in my opinion.

Starwood has, in my view, completely addressed its deficiencies. A Platinum checking into a hotel with no lounge and not many suites really just got 500 points and internet as the sum total of recognition for their stay. Now breakfast at least will make Platinums feel recognized each day of their stay.

But for those for whom Hyatt has the range of properties and locations to meet their needs (and Hyatt is growing, to nearly 500 properties, not close to Starwood’s thousand or so and not in any way close to bigger chains like Marriott and Hilton) I do like the Gold Passport program better:

• Confirmed at booking upgrades to suites for Diamond members, rather than just an upgraded preference confirmed within 5 days of arrival.
• Full breakfast guarantee when there’s no lounge or lounge isn’t open (and closed lounge generates bonus points, too!) versus Continental breakfast for Starwood Platinums, and Hyatt Diamonds get their 1000 point amenity in addition to breakfast rather than as a choice to make between the two benefits

Still, Starwood has come much closer, Gold Passport is no longer quite as far ahead. While certainly the programs don’t want to engage in an arms race, I do think there are things that Hyatt can and should do to improve their program, to remain the clear leader.

• Cash and points awards. I understand they’re working on this. Starwood, Hilton, and Priority Club all offer it. And Hyatt uniquely needs it, because Gold Passport points are relatively hard to earn certainly compared to Hilton and Priority Club since there are fewer partnerships. Thus there’s a really strong desire to stretch the points further.
• Early check-in. Intercontinental’s Royal Ambassador level pioneered this, and it’s still arguably the best version of the benefit with 8am checkin guaranteed versus Starwood’s any time but subject to availability. Intercontinental will put its top tier members in a temporary room while waiting for their upgrade if needed. Hyatt doesn’t need to do 24 hour check-in, and they could limit the number of times a year a member does this, most will only do it a few times such as arriving on an overnight flight from North America to Europe. The challenge of course then is that it tends to cluster around a limited number of properties. But when it’s valuable to a member it’s reallyvaluable o a member, and with Starwood offering it we’re no longer just talking about the small Intercontinental program. I’d love to see 9 am checkin for Diamonds.
• Upgrades confirmable on award nights. This is probably the biggest elite benefit wish I hear from Diamond members, Hyatt already has the most generous upgrade program in the industry allowing top tier members to confirm at booking, from any Hyatt ratea suite. No more hoping at the front desk, you declare the times that the suite matters most and if it’s available when you book you confirm it. But it’s available only on paid rates, and certainly offering it on reward nights would increase costs and reduce breakage (expiring, unused suite upgrades). Starwood doesn’t distinguish paid versus reward nights and it would be a grand wish for Hyatt not to either. I don’t think Hyatt will count reward nights towards requalifying for status, but I’d love to see more than anything the ability to use all elite benefits on all rates, paid or points.
• Suite upgrades on availability at check-in when not confirming in advance. While Hyatt lets Diamond members confirm their suites 4 times per year, on those stays when suites aren’t confirmed in advance there’s no comparable upgrade benefit on other stays, Diamond members are not entitled to available empty suites at check-in. Not only Starwood offers this, even Hilton does now. This seems like it should be easy, the suites are empty anyway, this may not happen often with all the confirmed upgrades out there but upgrades to the best available room at checkin ought to include suites if those are indeed available.

And of course, what I’d love to see from Hyatt or from any chain I laid out at the end of my review of Starwood’s new elite benefits — I suppose it’s my hobby horse but I’ll keep trotting it out until someone takes me up on it.  And then I’ll scream it from the rooftops.

Elite recognition when not a registered guest. This isn’t specific to Starwood. Eventually some chain will pick up on this idea. Before the rollout of Club Carlson, Radisson in Europe, Africa, and Middle East had a benefit they called “Our World, Your Lounge” where all elites were welcome in their hotels any time, to use wireless internet and have a coffee. An honored guest with a relationship to the chain is just that — an honored guest — regardless of whether they happen to be registered on a given night.

Via New Girl in the Air, DirecTV is offering 25,000 American Airlines miles for a 2-year contract, offer valid only through February 8.

Not worth it for the miles alone, but a great offer for signing up for the TV service, I prefer my DirecTV to the Comcast service I had before.

Regular readers know that I’m a fan of high-end meet and greet services at airports, while I don’t often pay for VIP assistance I think it’s a great option in certain circumstances, and I certainly love it when it’s included as part of my first class award redemptions (like the car to the plane from the Lufthansa first class terminal, and the escorts in Bangkok from Thai Airways).

Frequent Business Traveler says that there’s a new meet and greet service available at Paris Charles de Gaulle starting at 200 euros. That’s a bit more than American charges for their Five Star service, but this is Europe after all.

For a fee of €200, an Air France representative will provide an escort for departures, arrivals, and connections at the airport. Flying Blue members will receive 400 points each time the service is purchased.

If your flight arrives prior to 10 a.m., you can arrange for breakfast and access to a hotel room for two hours for €56 for a single room and €68 for a double. Airport transfers to Paris by motorcycle taxi, shuttle, or car start at €24 per person and luggage pickup and delivery is also available.

Unfortunately I can’t find details online of this service, I’ve found some third party services at de Gaulle however. Regardless, it will be occasionally a good addition because while pricey this is one of the more annoying airports to transit in my opinion and if I had older family members unfamiliar with international travel making connection I might be inclined to pay for the assistance.

Update: link is here at the Air France website.

Last month I sought reader input into some new technology choices I wanted to make – a new camera, smartphone, and laptop.

Since I much appreciated all of the advice, I thought I’d share an update on what I decided to do.

• It’s slightly old technology but I went with the tried and true Canon s95. There were mixed reviews of the pricier s100 and I’ve always liked the photos I’ve seen taken with the s95. So far I’ve been happy using it, I’ve taken better, richer photos and the auto mode works great. I know nothing about photography, just point and shoot, and this was the right size, quality, and price.

• I’m fully migrated over to my new Lenovo u300s. It’s a little “boxy” and not nearly as sexy as some of the other ultrabooks. But what I was really looking for here was functionality in a truly portable device, that would serve as my primary computer and that I’d carry back and forth between my two offices, take home with me each day, and travel with.

  The keyboard isn’t backlit, and I’m realizing I actually miss that, but the tradeoffs are worth it. The keyboard is light years better than on my Samsung Series 9. It’s got more power (I opted for the Core i7 processor, largely because it comes paired with a much larger hard drive). And the battery life is better too, I wasn’t lasting a full DC – Dallas Westbound flight while using inflight internet with the Samsung. (Not to mention that the keys were peeling, and my second power supply in 6 months was fraying and coming apart).

  Bottom-line is I’m happy with the choice. The machine won’t get me dates (like Ben’s Chase Sapphire Preferred card apparently does for him), but it gets the job done without slowing me down.

• I’ve punted a bit on the phone. If the next generation Blackberry operating system was coming out early in the year I’d give it a go, my interest is primarily in a work/productivity device. Blackberry seems to be a dying platform, I’m doubtful that the new generation operating system when finally released will make a difference. I’m inclined towards an Android phone, but they still seem a little clunky to me, and the best ones with the slide out keyboard (I’m a blackberry junkie..) don’t have the latest technology in other dimensions. So I’m going to suffer my current device a few more months waiting for the right replacement to hit me in the head.

Still happy with the rest of my technology – wireless pocket router, travel power strip, etc. And now I’m happy with my laptop and camera. Just waiting for the right phone solution to materialize.

Subsequent to my post yesterday that Korean Airlines business class award space was now being published publicly (searchable at pay service Expert Flyer, making it much easier to find awards and guide Delta Skymiles agents into booking them, Wandering Aramean has set up a free interface to search for the space. (Thanks, Seth!)

Matthew says US Airways is giving away 10 free minutes of internet to everyone this week with promo code USFREE10, of course US Airways only has onboard wifi on their Airbus A321 aircraft which isn’t a particularly big subset of their fleet. Ten minutes free is better than a hole in the head as my grandfather used to say. I personally find it worthwhile to buy onboard internet and I’m always astonished at the low adoption rates, though also grateful because I doubt the bandwidth could stand up to high levels of usage.

Ben points out that US Airways is offering a 50% discount on mileage purchases during the month of February for US Airways credit card holders only. I didn’t blog it when I got the email announcements since US Airways always seems to have similar offers to this running and this one is limited to co-branded creditcard holders only. But then I also happen to be one, since the card was a part of my recent credit card churn.

Back in December I stayed at the new Hyatt 48 Lex in New York, it’s a pretty good new hotel and an excellent award redemption value as a Gold Passport category 4 (15,000 points per night vs. 22,000 at the Andaz hotels and Grand Hyatt). The only downside was the elite treatment, I felt like they really didn’t want me there, an intrusion in the restaurant where breakfast was very strictly defined and internet was limited to a single device, using two devices would incur extra charges.

Points, Miles, and Martinis visited and reported back that they’ve addressed their deficiencies. Instead of being limited to a single (the least expensive) breakfast item and having to choose coffee or juice, the hotel now gives Diamond members a $25 hotel gift card (two registered guests would mean two $25 cards) per night which can be used in the restaurant for breakfast but also for appetizers or drinks at other times of day. He also reports that the welcome letter no longer specifies internet for one so I’ll be interested in future reports whether it’s possible to use internet with more than a single device at a time (eg iPad and laptop) and have charges waived on both.

It seems like they’re taking feedback seriously, and with the improvements I’d feel welcome enough that on a points stay I would return, and rates depending I would consider the property.

Rates and Gold Passport point requirements aside I still prefer that Andaz 5th Avenue as my choice in New York, however. I had another great stay there just a few days ago, albeit a short one. I’ve had terribly bad service over time in New York, most of the time, I chalk it up to just “being New York” (and I say that having grown up there). But I find the service at the Andaz 5th Avenue to be pretty darned good, the staff are uniformly helpful, friendly, and responsive. The rooms are excellent and certainly large for New York. The Diamond recognition is very good — I understand that they’ve managed to significantly improve their ability to manage upgrades for Diamonds (who have not confirmed their upgrades in advance using suite upgrade certificates) and while they’ve cut back a bit from the unlimited room service breakfast they used to offer, they still provide a very generous $75 credit and as long as you don’t exceed that allotment they don’t even bring a bill to your room at breakfast.

Mostly what the 5th Avenue Andaz represents to me is an exceptional value, it’s expensive but not expensive for New York, I find it simply to be a place where you get as much or more than you pay for. Sure, rates may be in the high $300s most of the time. But so are the rates at most lesser hotels there. It’s not the Peninsula and isn’t meant to be, but it’s spacious rooms with lovely design elements, they have one of my favorite bathrooms, it’s friendly service and without paying $600+ per night on average.

Because of this I’d choose the property whenever I could, though I might still conserve points and stay at the 48 Lex when rates are through the roof. Glad to see the 48 Lex property improving its elite recognition, but equally glad to be back at the Andaz 5th Avenue.

Via Lucky, the British Airways shopping portal is offering 12 points per dollar at Nordstrom and there’s a promotion which will triple your first purchase of $50 or more, yielding 36 points per dollar.

I’m no longer a fan of the Avios program to be sure, as a general matter. But there are some really good targeted uses, such as the uber-cheap short haul non-stop flights on American (which also won’t incur fuel surcharges since paid fares don’t) and also the non-stop US flights from the US to London where availability is really good in business class and first class on BA and for a pretty good product despite the fuel surcharges that will apply. Avios doesn’t thrill me, but if Chase were to bring back a mega credit card signup promotion I’d certainly find myself recommending getting the card — big miles are big miles, even if those miles aren’t as value as they used to be.

So 36 Avios per dollar spent at Nordstrom remains an exceptional deal, if you want to buy anything at Nordstrom, surely as a minimum this constitutes a 1/3rd rebate on whatever you buy in that single purchase.

The shopping portal is under “Collecting Avios” and then “Shopping” when logging into your BA account and then “Shop with BA eStore Now.”

As Lucky underscores,

The key is that once you select Nordstrom as the partner you want to shop with, you’ll have to enter promotion code NORDX3

Gift cards are, sadly, excluded from the offer. Shopping purchases can be a bit probabalistic in their posting. And I’ve seen comments that some people think BA will argue that the triple points will be on the base 6 points per dollar and not the current 12 points per dollar on offer with Nordstrom, still a good offer but less generous (though I don’t really see how that’ll be a tenable position). You may find this posts easily and without work, but I’d make screen shots just in case.

As reported on Milepoint, searching and booking business class award space on Korean Airlines just got easier.

Delta Skymiles partners with Korean, it’s always been a bit of a pain because you cannot search for Korean Airlines award space on the Delta website and you cannot use the Korean website either unless you have enough Skypass miles in your Korean account to actually complete the booking.

That means you’ve been pretty much at the mercy of Delta Skymiles agents, and with all of the different booking classes and blackout dates and probably more importantly variability in agent quality (Delta agents frequently don’t even know who their partners are, let alone how to book partner award seats, or even that you’re allowed to on a route that Delta also serves) that can be a real challenge.

But Skyteam is beginning to align its award booking classes, the way that Star Alliance has. Across the entire Star Aliance, coach award space is X, business is I, and first class is O. Korean Airlines is adopting O as its business class award bucket, just like Air France uses. And the space is searchable at pay service Expert Flyer (which will also give you a 5 day free trial).

Early reports are that Korean’s O inventory, when it shows as open, is bookable by Delta — with the caveat that Delta enforces blackout dates broadly for awards on Korean. Which is to say that generally any time Korean has a blackout date on any route in their system, Delta blacks it out for every route in their system. So even though O shows open on Expertflyer, and would be bookable with other partner miles, Delta may not let you book it due to blackout dates.

However, there are of course other ways to access the space — American Express points transfer to Air France/KLM Flying Blue (with a 25% bonus currently) and Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Korean Airlines directly, of course in either case you’re going to incur fuel surcharges in addition to taxes.

Singapore Airlines premium cabin seats are tough to get on points. One common request I get in my award booking service is for Singapore Airlines flights. There’s a certain allure to flying Singapore. I often feel like the airline is overrated. There’s a mystique to it, their onboard product is good and I very much enjoy the style of service (although others find them to be a bit too fawning). But I also like Cathay Pacific’s first class product quite a bit, and that of several other carriers, at least as much. They just don’t have quite the same branding.

The problem is that Singapore Airlines premium cabin awards have been almost impossible to get.

It used to be that it was easy to get a single seat in Singapore Airlines First class, they would release one seat at a time only in first class and in business class at least to their partners but they would also often release a second seat once the first seat was booked. Availability for Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer members was frequently much better than the availability offered to their Star Alliance partners. It’s one of the few cases where this is true (Lufthansa and Swiss availability to Miles & More members being one of the other prominent examples). With most airlines, award space is award space no matter whose miles are being used to book it.

But Singapore only offered premium cabin award seats to partners on their 747 aircraft and on their regional 777s. They didn’t make premium cabin award seats available on their A380s, on their 77W long-haul planes, and on their Airbus A340-500s which fly the ultra-long haul routes from Newark ad Los Angeles to Singapore non-stop.

Singapore’s own members had to spend double miles for those premium cabin seats, they didn’t even release saver seats to their own members at all as a matter of policy. And since partner airlines don’t have the option of spending double points, there wasn’t supposed to be any award space in business or first class on these flights at all offered to partners. United miles simply could not be used for the awards at all. Singapore also didn’t offer “suites class” seats on the A380 at all for awhile, and when they began offering those seats to KrisFlyer members it was often at close to a million miles roundtrip on the longest haul routes.

Of course, 747 routes were rapidly disappearing and I’ve been predicting for a long time that eventually Singapore’s approach to these seats would have to change. Saying that no saver seats were available in business or first with Singapore’s “new” product made little sense when it really was Singapore’s only remaining product, and when it was hardly even new.

There’s no longer anything flying out of the U.S. on ‘old’ configured aircraft. You only have the 77W, A340-500, and A380. That’s it. Which means no saver awards with KrisFlyer miles from the US to Singapore (or Seoul, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, or Moscow). And no business or first class awards at all with Aeroplan, United, Continental, or US Airways miles.

At least that’s how it is supposed to have worked, there are plenty of times where there were glitches or perhaps unannounced inventory that was opened. And oddly enough, though the non-stop all business class flights to Singapore weren’t supposed to be available to partners at all I often found the space bookable with bmi Diamond Club destination miles. And plenty of folks managed to get first class award space by booking seats far into the future on flights that were scheduled to be operated by 747s and then having the aircraft changed.

But this is changing. Singapore Airlines is making a policy change. They’ve has announced a new mileage chart effective March 1 for use on their own flights. The Star Alliance award chart is also being updated as well. And along with their award price increases will come saver award availability in business class on the A340-500, business and first class on the 77W, and business class on the A380.

We do not know yet whether that will translate into award space for partners, since Singapore has historically offered different space to their own members versus to their partners, although I’m better that it will at least in some capacity.

The award price increases are fairly modest for using Singapore Airlines miles on Singapore flights, they’re fairly significant for use of Singapore Airlines miles on Star Alliance flights. That ‘s really just a negative for Singapore members of course, it doesn’t affect those with partner miles like United’s or US Airways’.

Even if it doesn’t immediately translate into premium cabin award space for partners, it’s still good news, because Singapore Airlines is an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner (and transfer partner of several hotel programs like Starwood’s). Of course, like most non-US programs, Singapore KrisFlyer adds fuel surcharges onto awards so it’s still not an inexpensive proposition. But the price increases for flights on Singapore’s own aircraft aren’t that bad, plus since you’ll no longer have to send double miles to get business and first class awards on net it’s actually a huge price reduction.

I’ve never been especially keen to spend hundreds of thousands of miles to get awards on Singapore when I could spend American AAdvantage miles at the saver level for Cathay. But the marketing, and how tough to get the seats have been, have made the seats very attractive to many. Not to mention that they fly several routes like San Francisco – Seoul and Houston – Moscow plus all those Europe – Singapore routes where they offer the best onboard product for a non-stop option.

This thawing of award inventory with Singapore – which is supposed to begin March 8 for flights April 1 and onward and won’t include suites on the A380 – is certainly welcome.

Here are the offers that jump out at me as being especially worth considering:

• FTD offering 30 American Airlines miles per dollar, plus 300 additional miles for Citi Advantage credit card holders, for flower purchased.

• For those with a hankering for United miles, FTD is also promoting 30 Mileage Plus miles per dollar for Valentine’s Day.

• And FTD’s offer of 30 United miles per dollar plus 150 miles per order appears to still be working as well.

• Through February 14, Teleflora will give 25 US Airways miles per dollar.

• 1-800-Flowers has a 40 Delta mile per dollar offer with promo code 52DE.

The changes are good for almost all elites.

Golds are all better off, they just get a new benefit (choice of welcome amenity) with nothing taken away. Free internet is the most valuable choice, but someone who is expensing internet may take a $15 welcome drink or if they don’t drink they might take the points.

Platinums who stay 50 nights or more get to choose which nights they want priority for upgrades, and even which rooms they’re willing to use their upgrade priority for. Platinums all now get the choice of Continental breakfast (but they don’t get breakfast and the points amenity or the local amenity, and SPG is working with properties to refresh their local amenities). Platinums who stay 75 nights earn a 100% points bonus instead of 50% for their in-hotel spend, and get 24 hour check-in (which has some limitations, but is a unique benefit in the industry). Platinums who stay 100 nights get a personal Starwood Ambassador, a single point of contact with the chain to manage their reservations and preferences and work with hotels on their behalf.

I do think Platinums who stay less than 50 nights lose out a bit on the upgrade front, because they don’t get to express their preference for when they want upgrades, they’ll be behind those Platinums throwing down a suite night award and at the most popular resort properties one imagines this means that those Platinums will be upgraded less frequently than they are now. On the other hand, all Platinums now get breakfast so there are pluses and minuses.

Another limitation of the upgrade nights is that a 100 night platinum gets the same number of them as a 50 night platinum. So the 50 night Platinum can get an upgrade preference on twice the percentage of stays as a 100 night platinum. Although one imagines the 100 night platinum will get higher priority for their upgrades, though Starwood hasn’t released the formula that they use to prioritize upgrades among those requesting them.

I wish they had given the 10 suite nights to all Platinums, and that they’d continue to add suite nights as Platinums stay more than 50 nights. And I also wish they had added confirmed upgrades, at least for their most frequent guests, perhaps at the 75 night level.

All in all a positive change for most, everyone is given something new that they didn’t have before. And I believe the real game changer is taking away upgrade processing from the hotels and doing it by computer based on a consistent formula, for the advance upgrades.

But there have been lots of misconceptions popping up over the past 24 hours so I thought I’d engage in a dialogue over some of those.

I’d never choose Continental breakfast over the points.

Maybe you wouldn’t. But certainly breakfast for two people every day of your stay will be worth more than the 500 points at full service properties. You wouldn’t choose this if you’re just expensing breakfast. Even on a business stay, though, where you aren’t coming out of your own pocket, plenty of folks are on a per diem. If breakfast is covered, that’s more to spend the rest of the day (or to pocket if you don’t spend).

But hotels are going to give me coffee and a muffin and that’s it

There will always be non-compliant hotels, and those are fixed based on member complaints. And some hotels will push the envelope over what’s allowable. But there’s specific guidance on what continental breakfast means, coffee and juice, fruit, yogurt, cereal, breakfast breads.

But I don’t like Continental breakfast, I want a full breakfast.

Some hotels will offer a full breakfast. And hotels have been told to allow a buy up to full breakfast, if Continental is $15 and full breakfast is $25 a Platinum selecting breakfast should be able to buy full breakfast for $10. It’s not a requirement of the program, and the hotel isn’t out of compliance if they don’t offer the buy up, but most often it should be an option. If you don’t like Continental breakfast, and the hotel doesn’t offer a buy up, then take the points and you’re no worse off. But that seems like it’ll be a pretty limited case.

Your24 Blows: if I check in early I have to check out early.

Starwood will let Platinums staying 75 nights check in any time of day, 24 hours a day. At 12:01am if they want. That’s great for those arrivals in India, a year ago it would have saved me a full hotel night. Yes, if you check in at 5am you’re supposed to then check out at 5am though properties may offer some leeway. However, if you check in at 9am or later then you are still eligible for 4pm late checkout.

That’s a huge benefit, check in at 9am after an early arrival in Europe to take a shower. And you won’t have to check out early.

The drawback is that the benefit isn’t guaranteed, it has to be requested at least 48 hours out, it likely will be available most of the time but a hotel that’s sold out won’t have to kick a guest out early to accommodate, and won’t have to take a room out of service the day before in order to accommodate. So it’s not quite as rich as Intercontinental’s guaranteed 8am checkin for Royal Ambassadors, where they’ll put you in a temporary room if your suite isn’t ready. But it does offer checkin at 1am or 5am, something Intercontinental doesn’t, and that’s a benefit that no other chain offers at all.

What’s also nice is that checking in at 7pm should allow 7pm checkout, and even at a resort where late checkout is otherwise ”subject to availability’ (which in practice means ‘not available’ or at least the hotel isn’t obliged to provide it, it’s always funny when a hotel offers a Platinum member 4pm checkout for a fee, I always rather think that if it’s available at a fee then it’s available and thus should be provided free, but what do I know). Nice benefit at resorts.

I’m a Platinum who stays 60 nights I hate that I’m not top tier anymore

You won’t get an Ambassador or 24 hour checkin, but you’re still a Platinum and that remains top tier in the SPG program. At the hotel level they still see you as a Platinum, and they also see someone staying 75 or 100 nights as a Platinum. Advance upgrade benefits and early checkin benefits are managed in advance and through the corporate level, there’s no new Platinum75 or Platinum100 designator that constitue a new higher level in the program. So kudos to SPG for continuing to value their 50 night guests even as they add benefits for more frequent guests.

I love the idea of lifetime elite status, but I called up Starwood and they told me that my 500 nights for lifetime Platinum all had to occur in years in which I was platinum. Bummer.

Nope. You get lifetime Gold after 250 nights and 5 years of elite status, and lifetime Platinum after 500 nights and 10 years of elitePlatinum status. The elite status years do not have to be consecutive. The 500 nights do not have to all come from years when you were an elite. And of course award nights even now count as nights for this purpose.

What other questions do you have about SPG’s new elite benefits? What do you think of them?

Update: Typo before 6am this morning, lifetime Platinum requires 10 years of Platinum status, I wrote 10 years of ‘elite’ status. Sorry for the confusion!

I spoke for awhile with Gabriel Leigh in Los Angeles last weekend. Gabriel produces a short documentary in 2009 about the quest for miles and points.

He’s now working on a feature length documentary, and he’s looking for support for the project.

Kickstarter allows you to raise funds for a project, people make commitments but the project’s driver only gets the funds if they raise the goal which will allow them to make the project happen. If they fall short they get nothing, everyone keeps their money.

Over the weekend I knew that Gabriel was close, but the final deadline is Friday morning. So I planned to post here, hoping that I could make a contribution and that some of my readers might as well, and push him over the top — it would be the difference between a full documentary and no documentary. But others spoke to him in Los Angeles too, and Milepoint jumped in and put him over the top. He’ll get the funds and be able to make a documentary.

However his goal was only $15,000. Which is the ultimate shoestring. He tells me his plan is to have the film ready to submit to Sundance, not the easiest place to get into, and with a bit more money he could both speed up the production (more money sure helps getting things done) and make the production far better (from locations and travel to editing expense). I’d really love to see a bit support for the project, and I’m making a commitment to it today myself. Hopefully others will as well. Because it’s a great opportunity to see our passion on the big screen.

Via Deals We Like:

During the entire month of February 2012, you will receive a 25% bonus when you transfer your Amex Membership Reward points to the AirFrance-KLM Flying Blue program. Typically, points transfer at a 1:1 ratio, but for this limited time you’ll receive 1,2500 Flying Blue miles for every 1,000 Membership Reward points.

Flying Blue adds fuel surcharges to awards which can make them expensive out of pocket, you’re certainly not going to want to redeem coach awards through this program as you’ll still be out of pocket much fo the cost of a paid fare.

But they allow one-way awards, their website is pretty good for award booking, their award chart can be favorable in some cases (promo awards can offer transatlantic business class for as low as 50,000 miles roundtrip).

Check award availability at the airfrance.us website. Then transfer points if what you want is available, I find that transfers happen instantly, and then book your tickets.

Since the Los Angeles Times covered Citibank’s practice of sending out 1099s to customers who earned points for opening bank accounts, there’s been a lot of interest in the issue. Taxation of frequent flyer miles has always been a hut button issue.

Now the LA Times has done a followup story in which they get the IRS on the record saying that Citibank’s position is a reasonable interpretation of law, and much handwringing has ensued — quite a bit of it overwrought.

Wandering Aramean, for instance, titles his post on the subject, “The IRS moves to hit frequent flier miles” and says “it is readily apparent that the IRS sees some miles as taxable and not at a particularly favorable rate.”

Except that’s not what the IRS has said, and they certainly haven’t commented about the tax rate to be imposed on miles if taxable, they’ve commented on the value of miles only to say that like anything else of value received it is the actual value rather than the cost that’s relevant for tax purposes. Very little new information here.

The LA times pushed and pushed the IRS for an answer on taxation.

What does the IRS have to say about the matter? After days of my pestering the tax agency for a response, it finally took a stand on the taxability of miles.

When frankly the best approach here is not to ‘poke the bear in the zoo.’ Certainly under the law there’s some argument that miles would be taxable, although the IRS does not pursue enforcement actions against anyone for failing to pay taxes on frequent flyer miles. But if pressed, they’re not really in a position to say that the policy couldn’t change. Under the law they’re empowered to do so, but it would be complicated and messy and unpopular and so they don’t. If you really need an answer though no IRS bureaucrat will foreclose the future possibility. And naturally they didn’t. They said Citi’s position is a reasonable one.

“When frequent-flier miles are provided as a premium for opening a financial account, it can be a taxable situation subject to reporting under current law,” said Michelle Eldridge, an IRS spokeswoman.

That’s a very careful answer. The miles can be taxable under current law. We know that. They didn’t say that this is a priority enforcement area, or one in which the IRS will even take a stand that non-reporting of miles is a failure on the part of the provider of those miles or on the recipient. And it’s a far cry from saying, as Seth appears to suggest, that taxation will logically next be applied to credit card signup bonuses.

Tax law raises all sorts of really interesting theoretical issues. Taken literally there’s very little that wouldn’t be subject to tax, from things your friends receive from you (gift tax for items not specifically included under the excludable caps) to bonuses you might receive from a company for liking them on facebook provided those bonuses are sufficiently lucrative or you receive enough of them from a single payer during a calendar year. What if you receive a bunch of Starwood points for liking various Westin properties, Starwood Preferred Guest provides you with the points are they the payer or is the individual property? And what about bonuses for getting your friends to sign up for TripAlertz under your referral link? Or for Jetsetter or Sniqueaway provided your friends make a qualifying purchase?

Miles aren’t, under many programs, legally even yours. Have you received something of value when receiving miles? Or only when the airline allows you to cash in those miles? The more miles you have the more valuable additional miles are, up until the point you have too many. Certainly the IRS wouldn’t value miles on an individual circumstance basis, but there’s also no consensus about average value. My advice about disputing the value of a mile as-reported on a 1099 stands, I think, since there really is no consensus value. We know it’s not the provider’s cost per mile, but neither is it likely the price at which an airline sells a mile (which again is about marginal value, since mileage purchases are frequently done to top off towards an award). The most frequent redemption is the 25,000 mile coach award. So perhaps an average redemption value, not of an expensive coach ticket (highest theoretically possible value) but a fairly low priced ticket (as mileage seats are most often available on flights that won’t sell out). Perhaps some study of how mileage programs value the miles as liabilities on their own books would inform the valuation judgment for tax purposes.

And of course there’d be an uproar. It’s clear that miles earned for personal travel (ie travel you pay for yourself) would constitute a rebate, but what about business travel? Your employer pays, isn’t the mileage rebate a taxable fringe benefit?

It’s a murky, thick area and to date the IRS has chosen not to pursue it because of how complicated it is, and because of how unpopular such a pursuit would be. But don’t poke the bear in the zoo. Back them up against the wall and they’ll almost have to say that of course miles earned from a variety of activities (and a variety of life activities unrelated to miles) which aren’t pursued now certainly could be in the future.

Almost all of us break government rules every day, not out of malice but because of the complications of those rules, and tax policy is one of the most arcane and complex and most anyone with income outside of salaried employment certainly falls into this category. And even most of the rest of everyone too. I recently read that all oil companies which produce gasoline are now paying fines for failing to mix in a biofuel which does not exist.

Bottom-line is that tax law is complicated, getting the IRS on the record on matters of policies is complicated, but a single, carefully crafted, and limited statement by an IRS spokesperson doesn’t change wholesale the manner in which miles are or are not taxed. Which isn’t to say that policy won’t change, just that we do not yet have reason to get excited or concerned.

Of course a big stash of value that’s currently untaxed is and always will be a tempting target for a state which has failed to live within its means. So it’s primarily a poltiical rather than legal question, whether going after the miles is worthwhile in political terms compared to going after other sources of income (such as reneging on Roth IRAs and taxing distributions of those, to give one random example).

Hyatt’s Winter promo which awards progressively more bonus points for incremental nights through April 30th is now open for registration.

For every 4 nights between February 1 and April 30, members earn additional points and Hyatt Visa also earn an extra 25% bonus on top. Registration required by March 31.

• 4 nights earns 4000 points (+1000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
  
• 8 nights earns an additional 8000 points (+2000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
  
• 12 nights earns an additional 12,000 points (+3000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
  
• 16 nights earns an additional 20,000 points (+5000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)

Members staying 16 nights during the three months of the promotion, who also have a Hyatt Visa, will earn 55,000 bonus points in addition to their regular earning. This is my favorite current promotion in the market.

Even if you don’t expect to have 4 Hyatt nights by April 30th you should register, it’s on your mind since you’re reading this post, so it’s easier to just sign up than to remember to do so later when you find yourself with Hyatt bookings you didn’t expect to make.