I get press releases all day long from travel providers, and 99% of the time I spare you, my readers, from having to hear about them. They usually read something like, “New survey research discovers that X% of travelers say they want to get away for Y holiday, and Z is a great place to [Book Your Travel Online / Stay for a Romantic-Exciting-Fun Time / Waste Large Amounts of Your Hard Earned Dollars]”

And on occasion when I reply to the PR hacks with a legitimate question, even just searching for how in the world there’s something to write about, I don’t hear back. Most PR firms send out press releases hoping something’ll stick but don’t know enough about what they’re pitching to speak intelligently about it, or they’re too lazy to do the legwork to answer real questions.

The result is most of the time I don’t bother replying, or even opening pitch emails.

But I did get a fairly interesting one recently, from someone promoting San Francisco International Airport.

Ok, it’s not miles and points and deals and luxury travel. More airline transport biz, the kind of thing that Cranky Flier writes about.

But it was still kind of interesting.

SFO wants travelers from Australia and New Zealand to connect in San Francisco — rather than LAX — and they’re puttin’ the smack down.

They’re not quite on the money, they’re saying it’s LAX or San Francisco because

Remember, travelers from Down Under *have* to connect in California when going to the US.

Of course that’s not quite true — it’s perfectly reasonable to connect in Vancouver, and Air Canada’s Sydney flight is timed quite well for US connections not to mention Air Canada offers a very nice business class product. The Air New Zealand Vancouver flight isn’t great for heading East since it doesn’t arrive most of the time until almost 2pm. But it’s not an unreasonable option for Western US connections. And there’s always connecting in Honolulu.

But certainly the major connecting point decision from Australia for sure is LAX vs SFO.

Apparently, most of the San Francisco traffic is origin/destination and connecting traffic tends to push through LAX. They tell me that only 10% of Qantas passengers flying to San Francisco connect onward, compared to 25% of Qantas passengers flying to Los Angeles. (Perhaps that’s because of Qantas partner American’s substantial presence at LAX, there’s not a ton of oneworld service ex-SFO.)

San Francisco wants to raise their profile for connections. And they’re calling the campaign
“I Wanna Go Through SFO.”

Their arguments about why it’s a better place to connect are twofold:

• SFO’s terminals are under one roof
• Customs facility can process 5,000 passports an hour.

I was intrigued by the comment about the SFO customs facility, but don’t really have the context to evaluate the claim. So I pushed back a bit — there’s no comparison here — is San Francisco better than LAX in this regard?

They shot back that LAX is capable of processing “upwards of 20,000 passengers per day” which is less than SFO.

Anecdotally, first out of the shoot usually flying in premium cabins, and even when landing behind several other international flights, the only especially long queuing I’ve ever faced has been at Washington-Dulles, Miami, and New York-JFK. Have any of y’all out there found it easier/harder/longer/shorter to process through SFO than LAX?

Now, the “all under one roof” argument is to me quite persuasive. I hate LAX. It’s a pit. The Tom Bradley terminal, I always thought, was designed to make travelers coming from the far reaches of the world feel at home, even if they come from a country with a corrupt government and per capita GDP of less than US$5000. And to make passengers arriving from Asia feel superior. Perhaps as some sort of international trade marketing strategy. Terminal 3 is pretty ghetto, too. And while I don’t mind walking between adjacent terminals, e.g. arriving terminal 4 Qantas and walking outside to terminal 3 Alaska, going from the Tom Bradley terminal to United is a nightmare.

San Francisco used to be a pain going from domestic to international, waiting for the bus to take you across, but now that everything’s connected it’s a pleasure. It even means that United domestic Premier Executive-and-higher members can walk across to the international terminal and use Singapore’s SilverKris lounge during times that correspond to Singapore flights. (Because it’s a Star Gold lounge, they accept all Star Golds flying same-day .. not just international passengers.. so travelers who can’t use the United lounge can use the Singapore one, and while Spartan by Singapore standards is much better than a Red Carpet Club). LAX has no such option, since the Air New Zealand lounge in terminal 2 is rather hard to access without a ticket for a carrier served from that terminal.

Still, Qantas-American connections at LAX aren’t bad. And United-United is pretty good. Air New Zealand – anything domestic at LAX is a pain. And Tom Bradley – Anything, which you won’t experience arriving from Australia or New Zealand (unless coming in on Air Tahiti Nui, Air Pacific, or arriving via Asia!), is awful.

No question San Francisco is aesthetically nicer. And not as much of a pain going from terminal to terminal.

But Qantas doesn’t have the substantial alliance presence at San Francisco, so Qantas passengers are likely to prefer Los Angeles to earn or redeem miles. Though if they don’t mind interlining across alliances, and changing to say a United flight, San Francisco is reasonable.

But… those darn SFO runways, only 750 feet apart, a little bit of wind off the Bay and you’ve got major traffic delays. The San Francisco marketing folks concede that LAX has better on-time performance. And that matters more to most travelers than avoiding the LAX intra-terminal buses.

Me? I’m interested in which flights are easier to upgrade. On United I’ve always found LAX to be the easier station, United has a greater lock over the Bay Area and there’s always seemed a greater concentration of 1K members there. So my bets have been on clearing through LAX.

If I were a Qantas passenger I’d be more torn.

Qantas has a Boeing 747 a day Sydney – San Francisco, and both a 747 and A380 to Los Angeles plus the Brisbane and Melbourne – Los Angeles flight. There’s a whole lot more premium seats on Qantas from Australia to Los Angeles, so that’s great if you’re looking for upgrades. But there’s a reason there are so many more premium seats, there are more passengers flowing through Los Angeles both as a destination and connecting to American. So I’d be really interested in the upgrade experiences of San Francisco vs. Los Angeles passengers.

Hit the comments: LAX or SFO?

The new Upgrd podcast is up, this time discussing American Airlines AAdvantage awards. I didn’t join the sho this week, but after listening if you have any questions about booking awards with American miles hit the comments here and I’ll offer up my suggestions.

I’ve got a major first class award redemption coming up, one that’ll definitely be worth a report here, involving some of the better carriers in the world and some amazing hotel rooms, not to mention a very famous restaurant.

But I couldn’t start the award out of my home city, and so I’ve booked a separate ticket to connect up to the start of the award. That always makes me nervous, because in the event of irregular operations that causes a misconnection the onward carrier isn’t responsible for re-routing you.

When I booked my flight, I gave myself better than a six hour connection. And there was a flight an hour after the one that I booked as a backup.

But since that time the ‘backup’ flight has been pulled from the schedule. There’s no good option to get between my city and the start of the award if my flight is cancelled.

And wouldn’t you know it? Weather reports aren’t looking great — forecast in DC is rain and thunder, forecast in my destination city is rain and wind.

Moreover, I’m flying United Express (a regional jet operated by Shuttle America). From Dulles.

So I’m getting nervous…. I can switch to a flight about five hours earlier, so I’m monitoring the weather, hopefully things will clear up, but I really don’t want to give myself a 12 hour layover and I’ve got folks visiting in town before I leave, I’d hate to bail on them as well.

This could get ugly.

Via Lucky:

You can earn 300 Priority Club points by completing this quick survey. The points post instantly.

The answers are all obvious. This is their program, they’re going to say it’s good, so you can earn points from ‘all of the above’ and your benefits are ‘all of the above.’ They’re not going to advertise other brands, so theirs are ‘all of the above.’ They have lots of hotels.

The only question where the answer may not be obvious is how many nights or points it takes to get to Platinum elite status — 50 nights or 60,000 points, the latter being exceptionally easy (and these 300 points count).

In April, Hyatt announced free internet for all elites.

Two weeks ago Starwood announced free internet for Platinums (not Golds), and that benefit started March 1.

Now Marriott joins the party with free internet for Gold and Platinum members (not Silvers), although the benefit will only apply in the U.S. (excluding Hawaii and US territories) and Canada. That’s the most limited benefit of the three programs. It will begin May 7.

Hilton, of course, makes free internet an option for Gold and Diamond members, but to have it you’re required to give up your upgrade and breakfast. There’s not much difference between Hilton Gold and Diamond as it is (though a year and a half ago they made an attempt to distinguish the two by downgrading the Gold breakfast benefit), they could at least offer free internet to Diamonds. But then again, with only $40,000 in spend required on a Hilton Surpass American Express card to reach the status, it’s not much of an elite level.

The only elite level of a major program more watered down that Hilton Diamond is Priority Club platinum. Don’t expect free internet access with that, though of course Holiday Inns give internet to everyone.

Intercontinental Royal Ambassador doesn’t get you internet. Or does it? They introduced a free internet promotion (right on the heels of Hyatt!) across most intercontinental properties, not just for Royal Ambassadors but for Ambassadors too. But they’ve since changed the offer. In order to get free internet, you need to book and pay for the free internet rate which is suppose to be the same as the the best flexible rate. It’s currently only on offer through April 30 (it keeps getting extended) and excludes prepaid and other discounted rates.

Clearly the internet billing dominos are falling. But not all at once, and not completely. C’mon, Marriott, extend this benefit internatioanlly!

At Four Points hotels, the water bottle in the room says on it, “It’s water. Of course it’s free!” (Hah!) Eventually the same will likely be true of internet.

Straight from Free Frequent Flyer Miles:

100 easy miles are offered for learning about the benefits of the Energy Plus/Continental Airlines partnership by April 30, 2010. Use promo code 57077.

100 easy miles are offered for reading about earning miles for paying your energy bills on your Continental Airlines credit or debit card by April 30, 2010. Use promo code 57078.

Aren’t you proud of me? I called them Rewards Network in the title, I’m breaking my habit of referring to them as iDine — finally. It took me long enough to stop calling them Transmedia.

Their United Airlines co-branded mileage earning for dining program is offering a 1000 mile bonus for spending $25 or more on qualifying dines within 30 days of registering.

(Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)

Speaking of laptop bags, coupon code SCENE25 is good for 25% off at eBags. (HT: Dan’s Deals.)

The AAdvantage Shopping Mall offers 7 American miles per dollar at eBags.

Not certain that the SCENE25 will work with mileage earning, though I suspect it will. And the AAdvantage Mall website lists a 25% off one item offer for St. Patrick’s Day. Coupon code for that offer is COMJSTPAT, and to the extent it’s listed on the AAdvantage site there shouldn’t be any combinability problems with mileage-earning.

The internet is sure a crazy place.

I reviewed the Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer, which I much like. One of the arguments for the bag I’ve seen made online is that it’s made in the USA. I explained that while I think the bag is great, this wasn’t one of the compelling reasons for me.

That generated some real vitriol. One of the commenters here on this blog posted a snippet of my review on a political site, Google-stalked me generating a mini-bio for that community, and that was followed up by comments like:

“Wouldn’t it be a shame if such a person were to die in his sleep.”

“Someone needs to figure out how to teach them some manners again.”

“This is another one of those things that I simply will not tolerate. No. I will do something about this, something drastic if necessary. I have no choice.”

I guess of all the things I’ve ever written, I didn’t expect this sort of thing from a laptop bag review.

But on a blog posting interviews off the World Socialist Website, and offering commentary on free trade like “the single biggest weapon of economic devastation ever wreaked upon the world. Not even the bankers in their craven looting have done the damage free trade has done, to the small towns hollowed out by outsourcing in the United States and to the sweatshops and inhumane labor conditions in Mexico, Haiti, Vietnam, and countless other poor nations” I suppose everyone needs a break to threaten to kill a travel blogger reviewing a laptop bag.

I guess if anything untoward happens to me, investigators will start off with some juicy leads.

Cranky Flier, in his BNet column, takes issue with some of the Small Community Air Service Development Program grant winners.

The federal government takes grant applications from small communities to spend in a variety of ways promoting air service.

Tunica, Mississippi — 40 miles from Memphis — got $500,000 to subsidize bringing gamblers to town four times a week via Atlanta on Airtran.

Rockford, Illinois’ airport — which calls itself Chicago Rockford to emphasize just how close and convenient they are to Chicago, which has plenty of air service as a hub for United and DeltaAmerican (O’Hare) and a busy low cost carrier hub for the likes of Southwest (Midway) — got $500,000 to support non-stop flights to business destinations from Rockford to LA, Minneapolis, Dallas, Atlanta, Washington, and/or New York.

Now, Rockford has some modest service on the likes of Allegiant and Apple Vacations to leisure destinations. But flights out of Rockford on low cost carriers tend to need to support themselves on origin and destination traffic. Rockford itself won’t have low enough fares or enough traffic to support regular service across the country. If they wanted to funnel business traffic, they’d likely have flights to major carrier hubs, but there’s a reason that they don’t — Rockford is pretty close to Chicago, and folks drive there and it gives them non-stop access to the world.

Agreed, pouring tax dollars into subsidizing additional service that the market doesn’t demand into Rockford is silly.

On the other hand, Cranky does like much likes two of the 19 grants that were given out, but I’m not convinced.

The little Manu’a Islands in American Samoa were awarded $169,000 for something that seems incredibly basic. I told the sad tale of the Manu’a Islands last year, and I’m genuinely happy to see them get the award. What is it they want? They just want to buy some ground power equipment… they’re having trouble getting regular air service. Part of that is because there just isn’t much demand yet, but the other problem is that costs are high. Since there is no ground equipment at the airport, airplanes have to keep one prop spinning when they land and that uses precious fuel – up to $125 worth. Give them ground power, and they can keep costs down.

A $169,000 grant that saves $125 per flight? That would take 1352 flights to break even. Yes, I realize it’s more complicated than that, but remember that the equipment has maintenance and upkeep costs and labor cost to operate so that’ll mitigate against additional savings as well.

Airlines don’t choose not to service the Manu’a Islands because of the need to keep one prop spinning at a cost of $125 per flight.

Back in 2006, the Governor of American Samoa wanted to kick Hawaiian Airlines off Pago Pago because their fares were too high and they didn’t offer DigE Players. But no one else wanted to service the island from the U.S., even with subsidies… (independent Samoa on the other hand has service to the US, New Zealand, Australia, and elsewhere).  The problem across Samoa isn’t technological, DigE Players notwithstanding.

Cranky also liked:

The other proposal that stood out among the winners is that of Eldorado, Harrison, and Jonesboro in Arkansas. Those communities are jointly the lucky recipients of $150,000. What will they do with this money? Spend it on marketing.

Call me crazy, but when you have to convince people to use an already-subsidized service, that service probably shouldn’t exist in the first place.

As Cranky concedes, it’s been

nearly a year and a half without air service and now it’s heading the opposite direction (east). During that time, the people in the communities learned to drive elsewhere. Now that service is back, they need to tell people about it and get them to start considering flying locally again.

Hardly a compelling case for a subsidy, and if that’s the best of the bunch one really has to wonder about this program.

I had a very nice conversation this afternoon with Chris Holdren, Senior Vice President for the Starwood Preferred Guest program.

He reached out to me after my post on SPG’s decision not to adjust hotel categories for 2010 — which I called a “stealth devaluation” (and which was picked up USA Today’s excellent Barbara De Lollis).

My original argument was basically that a hotel’s category level in the Starwood program basically rises or falls with its average daily room rate (and Chris confirmed that it is indeed average daily room rate rather than revenue per available room, for all you hotel revenue geeks out there).

Now, with hotel rates lower than in 2004, Starwood Preferred Guest hotel category assignments aren’t being adjusted downward to reflect that.

In my post last week I initially made the claim that the ‘rate bands’ (the average room rate figure tiering to each hotel category) had changed over time, so a (for instance) $165 hotel night might have been category 3 in 2004 but might now be category 4. Starwood Lurker posted on Flyertalk that I was mistaken, and I quickly took down that claim from my post, within an hour or so of making it. I didn’t want to mislead anyone.

Chris checked on things and said that indeed, the rate bands for categories 1-4 had not changed since the beginning of the program. That they only assigned higher categories 6 and 7 to the upper end of what was originally category 5.

How to explain, then, hotels that had seemed to have constant room rates but went up in category? Presumably overoptimistic budget forecasts for those hotels. He explained that hotel categories are determined based on the projected average daily room rate for the year, and those projections might well have not come true for a given hotel.

He made the argument that the current categories reasonably match current room rates, with 180 hotels having dropped in category at the beginning of 2009 when they were forecasting a bad revenue year for hotels. Of course, I noted that perhaps 70 had gone up in category, so on net I guessed only 12% of Starwood hotels were at a lower level than in 2008 despite the worst revenue year in history.

In fairness, he pointed out that Starwood suspended ‘high season’ premiums for redemptions again in 2010, that this was a real benefit to members. I agree, it is.

They made the tradeoff to not bring back high season surcharges at category 5 and higher properties, but also not to adjust categories this year. Some would have gone up, I believe many more would have gone down, and I would have preferred that they let the chips fall where they may based on the formulas they’ve always used. I think members reasonably feel that when category assignments go up when rates go up, they should be able to expect category assignments to fall this year of all years. But it’s true that they’re adding value in other ways, like with the suspension of high season premiums and with the recent introduction of free internet for platinums (of course Hyatt offers free internet to all of their elties already).

Ultimately, I think that if Starwood is changing the way their category assignments work then they should be upfront with their members, own that they’ve changed things around this year and not try to say it’s all about member benefit (“Though rates are expected to generally rise in 2010, we wanted to make sure all of our members are able to continue to take advantage of our 2009 award levels.”)

It’s probably true that Starwood is being held to a higher standard here, members trust Starwood more than many other programs, and I think they were truly caught by surprise with the member reaction on Flyertalk and elsewhere that saw this as a negative move.

Starwood has built up significant goodwill with its members. And changing the way that redemption categories are assigned, in a year in which members were anticipating a big benefit from the way the system has always been structured, erodes that trust — especially when the announcement of the decision seemed disingenuous.

Why does this matter?  Because Starwood’s unique value propositions have been intangibles.  Sure, they were first with no capacity controls on award redemption.  But Hilton and Hyatt have matched that (Priority Club in my experience comes close).  And their elite program includes suites, which Priority Club, Marriott, and Hilton do not.  But Hyatt offers confirmed suites, so Starwood isn’t quite as unique as they once were.

On a given stay, if a Platinum member isn’t upgraded to a suite, they may not get much recognition at all.  Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott top tier elites can generally count on breakfast, at least, every day.  Starwood offers lounge access, but fewer and fewer properties in the US and Europe at least offer lounges.  When there’s no suite and no hotel lounge, a Platinum is for the most part just like any other guest — with the exception of a 500 point amenity at checkin (250 points at Four Points) and now free internet.

Even so, Platinums were fiercely loyal and I’d argue it’s because of consistent customer service and a candidness that’s unique among hotel programs, exemplified by Starwood Lurker on Flyertalk (and I’d also provide some recognition here to Theytus, Starwood Lurker II, who has been doing an excellent job as well).

Members expect devaluations from mileage programs to some degree, but it comes as a surprise from Starwood.  Perhaps it shouldn’t.  But that’s the unique position that they’re in, that’s an enormously valuable position to be in, and they act counter to it at their own peril.

Holdren seemed surprised by the reaction, thought they were doing right by their members. I hope the conversation was on some level useful to him, even if I’m not thoroughly convinced that SPG’s decision was a very sporting one.

MilesQuest offers up another 35% discount at the W Hotel Store: promo code QDG8Y.

For those considering a W Hotel bed, the 40% off codes are rare and I haven’t seen one for awhile. 35% is pretty good.

And if you’re considering stocking up on Bliss products (my daily use choice), this isn’t a bad offer either.

Frugal Travel Guy reports that there is now a 50 boxes per household limit on the purchase of Native American $1 coins (which come with free shipping, of course).

Seriously.

The 62-year-old Ogletree, you see, was headed to Las Vegas on December 30 when he stopped at a pizza place in the Houston airport. Upon departing the food court in Terminal C, Ogletree somehow forgot to take his “expensive black leather coat,” an XL Polo model (with a fashionable plaid lining) worth $800. Not surprisingly, the coat subsequently disappeared. Now Ogletree is threatening to sue the City of Houston, Continental Airlines, and the food court’s management company for failing to have “collected the coat, kept it in a secure place and held it for a reasonable time” until he was able to reunite with the garment. These prospective defendants, Ogletree reasoned, “breached their duty” in connection with how they “manage lost and found items for which they are responsible.”

He wants $800 not to sue.

Now, I’m not sure what duty exists here to monitor for and determine the moment a jacket has been lost.

It’s also not clear there’s any proof that such a jacket exists and was left in the food court.

I have no idea what Continental Airlines’ liability ought to be in all of this, since he left his jacket in the food court rather than on an airplane.

Somewhere in this the fact that he left his jacket certainly ought to play into the responsibility somewhere.

Now I’m not much of a fan of the TSA or overzealous government enforcement of silly rules. But in this case I might make an exception. It seems to me that this lawyer is admitting to leaving his personal items unattended in an airport. Surely there must be an administrative fine in there somewhere!

(Hat tip Dan R.)

Grey Roberge details his experiences booking a Star Alliance first class award through Aeroplan.

Regular readers of my blog know that I’m a big fan of the Aeroplan program, and in particular their first class award from the US to South Asia (as far south as Singapore) for 120,000 miles — which allows you to transit the Atlantic or Pacific (or one ocean each direction) and to stopover twice in addition to your destination.

And I rather like Aeroplan agents, I have found them on the whole to be quite friendly. It’s a Canadian thing.

The one thing I don’t like is that they do not permit award holds. Instant ticketing only. Now, you can make changes to an itinerary after ticketing for CAD$90. And as long as you’re three weeks out from travel, you can also cancel an award and refund the miles. But you do have to be three weeks out, otherwise no redeposit.

The best part of their change policy is that unlike most Star carriers, they will let you make changes to your trip even after departure. You have to keep the same routing and carriers, but can change flights and dates. Very helpful, especially if nesting other tickets in with your award and in case of irregular operations on that other ticket. I usually otherwise live in fear of a whole return trip cancelling out. So this is quite a convenient option (of course there has to be award space to change into…).

Still, even with liberal routing rules, agents often have a hard time finding space that’s out there and it’s important for a redemption customer to be armed with the flights they want before calling. It’s usually a waste of time on a complicated itinerary asking the agent to find seats for you. I know what I want, and as Grey did (and as I’ve advised on this blog in the past), I tell the agent that I had worked on the award earlier and found flights with another agent that I was hoping to book. That tends to open them up to searching segment by segment for the flights I want.

He had a rather frustrating experience, spanning several hours, but in the end got what he was after — three Thai First Class segments, Lufthansa First, and United First. He generally knows what he’s doing and still didn’t have an easy time of it, and the seats were out there.

I’ve long said the problem isn’t availability, it’s technology. And it can take real expertise to workaround these issues, something that I do offer. Grey promises his thoughts on paid award booking services, which I’ll be interested to hear, and of course he managed to build his trip without one.

Keep reading this blog of course and you probably won’t need one (me!) either…

Frugal Travel Guy outlines the Delta Team competition for bonus miles.

Find a team captain with an address in Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee or Washington state. Additional team members can reside anywhere. And up to 4 people can participate as a team.

Then the total Delta miles flown by the team through May 31 May 15 on tickets paid for with an American Express card determines the number of bonus miles earned by each member of the team.

2500 total miles flown = 1500 bonus miles per person
5000 total miles flown = 3000 bonus miles per person
15000 total miles flown = 9000 bonus miles per person
20000 total miles flown = 15000 bonus miles per person
25000 total miles flown = 20000 bonus miles per person

Registration required by April 15th.

Hilton Point Stretchers — which more or less disappeared last year — are back.

Point Stretchers offer 40% off of standard redemption pricing, though historically some participating hotels would offer only a smattering of dates… like two weeks for the whole year.

But it’s still worth checking and the website to do so is up. Though currently the only hotel they’re displaying availability for is the Hilton Garden Inn Allentown West — and then only for March 26 – 28 and April 30.

Fortunately the ‘real’ list is a little bit longer, and Flyertalkers are building it by hand. For instance, the Hinckley HIlton is available March 2 – May 30.

I saw the news yesterday and didn’t bother writing about it. Some details of Hilton’s second quarter promotion are out, and they really aren’t all that exciting.

Hilton’s first quarter promo was a free night every four stays or 10 nights.

When Hyatt runs these sorts of promos, it’s a free night every two stays — far more generous.

Fly Gracefully and TM Travel World note that the new offer will be a free night every 10 nights, or double points.

Registration and fine print to come, but geez, c’mon. If you’re gonna run a promo, run a promo. It’s better than no promo (by a little bit) so I guess we’ll take it. But c’mon, Hilton, generate some excitement!

American Express is offering 5000 bonus Membership Rewards points every month you spend $10,000 on a Business Platinum card. No registration required.  The offer runs March, 2010 through February, 2011 — for a potential of 60,000 bonus Membership Rewards points (and if you hit exactly $10k in spend per month, it means earning 1.5 miles per dollar on all that spend).

I’m not overly interested in the deal for myself since I was in the Bahamas over New Year’s and the Carribean isn’t my favorite, but it’s a great deal nonetheless.

I first saw it a week ago at Frugal Travel Guy and now there’s a Flyertalk thread.

The deal is this: book an Expedia vacation package to the Bahamas with a minimum four night stay using coupon code BAH400 for up to $400 off. Coupon is valid through May 10, 2010, for travel completed by December 22, 2010. March 19, 2010 through April 10, 2010 are blacked-out.

Make sure you uncheck the ground transportation box (on the 3rd page of the booking process).

There are packages from Ft. Lauderdale to Freeport, hotel and air, that price out at $0 with this coupon. From DC I’m finding $200 all-in. Of course that’s for resorts I don’t really want to stay at. But nonetheless, since there’s no minimum spend on the package, $400 off is a great deal.

Update: Dan’s Deals breaks it down with a sample from Ft. Lauderdale to Freeport, Bahamas (Nassau will work, too, but this uses especially cheap starting point and cheap hotel in Freeport to get the $0 price):

Step 1: Click on this link to Expedia Vacations.

Step 2: Type in your origin city, for this example I’ll use FLL (Fort Lauderdale)

Step 3: Type in FPO (Freeport, Bahamas) for you destination city.

Step 4: Type in your travel dates. For this example use 04/11-04/15.

Step 5: Change from the default setting of 2 adults to 1 adult and then click “search for packages.”

Step 6: Locate the $399 “Island Palm Resort” and click “Select and continue.”

Step 7: Scroll down to the bottom of the next page and click “Continue booking this package”

Step 8: Uncheck the “Roundtrip Shuttle Ground Transportation” that added $31.50 to the package.

Step 9: After unchecking that option scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Continue booking this package”

Step 10: Sign into your Expedia.com account or continue as a guest.

Step 11: Enter the passenger information and then click “Proceed to booking.”

Step 12: Scroll down to the bottom of the next page and click “Accept rules and continue”

Step 13: Scroll down to the billing info and click “I have a coupon”

Step 14: Use the following coupon for $400 off and then click “Apply and Reprice”: BAH400

Step 15: The new total will be $0. You still need to enter in credit card and billing info and click “complete this booking!

Step 16: Enjoy the Bahamas!!!