View From the Wing

« June 2005 | Main | August 2005 »

July 29, 2005

Man Charged with Exposing Himself on a Flight

The alleged incident occurred on a flight from DC to Syracuse, and the guy denies it.

Story contains one of the best lines ever in a news article:

When he got off the plane in Syracuse, police took him into custody and checked to see if he was wearing underpants, which he was, Gibeau said. But I don't think this is actually illegal:

Police searched Gibeau and found five Polaroid photos of his penis, according to Bragg's affidavit. Gibeau said he was bringing the photos to his girlfriend to show her the contrast between the sunburned areas of his body and the areas that weren't exposed on the beach.

Posted by gleff at 5:11 PM | Comments (0)

I'm shocked! Shocked to find that GAMBLING is going on in here!

A piece in the Seattle Times explains that State Department travel warnings, which harm tourism in the country on the receiving end, are influenced by political considerations. (I'm shocked!)

Noting that the State Department's treatment of London bombings were delayed, contained scant detail and provided warning for just a few hours, when less serious country warnings don't expire for months

Jim Grace, CEO of InsureMyTrip.com, an online seller of travel insurance, puts it, "if the State Department issues a travel warning, Tony Blair would be on the phone to President Bush pretty quickly, saying 'Hey, what are you doing to our economy? We're supposed to be best allies.' " Of course the State Department denies this, and simply claims to be incompetent instead

"We are a bureaucracy and unfortunately these things don't always happen as quickly as one might hope." I think I've seen this play somewhere before...

Captain Renault

Croupier: Your winnings, sir.

Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.

...

Captain Renault

Rick: Twenty thousand francs says it isn't.

Captain Renault: Is that a serious offer?

Rick: I just paid out twenty. I'd like to get it back.

Captain Renault: Make it ten. I'm only a poor corrupt official.

Round up the usual suspects!

Posted by gleff at 7:25 AM | Comments (0)

July 27, 2005

Best Mileage Earning Credit Cards

How to choose the best credit card

With this post I intend to outline the major issues that should affect your choice of mileage-earning credit card and to offer some specific suggestions that will work in most circumstances.

Feel free to leave comments if you feel like I'm missing any important issue, or if you'd like specific feedback on your own situation.

Do you pay your bill in full at the end of each month? If not, stop. You may not want a mileage-earning card. At a minimum, miles probably shouldn't determine what card you choose. Instead, you want a card with the lowest interest rates. Perhaps you have balances already, look for a card with 0% balance transfers (and then pay very close attention to the card's terms and conditions in order to retain that 0% rate.)
How much spending are you going to put on the card? Signup bonuses aside (I'll talk about those shortly), if you aren't going to put more than $1000 a month on the card on average, it may not make sense to get a card with an annual fee. For instance, many airlines have free cards that offer 2 miles per dollar spent. At $12,000 in annual spending, that's 6000 fewer miles but you'll save $60 - $80. You're basically buying those miles at 1 to 1.25 cents apiece. At lower levels of spending you're buying the miles at a higher premium. The enhanced earning that comes from cards with an annual fee may not make sense unless you're putting substantial charges on the card.
Are you striving for elite membership in a program? Check whether that program's co-branded credit card will help you get there.
- Many hotel programs give you their lowest level of status for taking their program's credit card. The Hilton Visa gives you silver status the first year, enough to qualify for their elites-only awards. The Hilton American Express offers silver status as long as you hold the card and Gold status for spending $20,000 on the card in a calendar year. Both cards are free. Starwood gives you 'Preferred Plus' status for taking its credit card, basically Gold without the bonus points for spending money at their hotels. Marriott gives you Silver status for taking its Visa card as well.
- The new United Visa Signature Platinum Class offers up to 15,000 Elite Qualifying Miles in the first year of cardmembership based on a combination of spending and United purchases (up to 10,000 qualifying miles in subsequent years). The Delta Skymiles Platinum American Express comes with Elite Qualifying Miles, both with first purchase and based on annual spend. In the past the USAirways Visa Signature has offered miles towards elite status based on annual spend, though I don't think that's currently the case. However, the USAirways card does offer some of the benefits of first-tier elite status such as preferred checkin and boarding along with the occasional upgrade.
Do you spend a lot with 'everyday purchase' retailers like grocery stores, restaurants, or the US Postal Service? If you do, consider a card that offers bonuses for that kind of spending. Consider both the Delta American Express and the Hilton American Express. Since my primary mileage accumulation isn't in a Delta account, I choose to hold the no annual fee Hilton card and I use it specifically at grocery stores and restaurants.
Do you fly a particular airlines? Miles towards elite status aside, there are some cards that offer specific benefits which are useful when traveling with their co-branded partner. Without these types of benefits, I'm not a fan of picking a credit card based on the airline that you fly. You're already earning miles with that airline and if you have enough of a balance to claim the awards you want it's better to diversify into other programs. That makes things much easier when it comes time to try to redeem -- if your main program doesn't have availability, perhaps your second or third program will. That said, some cards like the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature offer nice benefits to customers that fly the airline such as an annual $50 companion ticket (unlike most companion tickets, this one can actually be used -- on any published fare), lounge passes, and day of departure upgrade certificates.

General advice

If you pay your bill in full every month, charge a decent amount to the card, and don't have special needs like help making elite status, then some general advice is probably most useful.

The best general, all-purpose rewards card is the Starwood American Express card.

It's free the first year and $30 thereafter, comes with a signup bonus of 6,000 points with your first purchase and up to 6,000 more for hotel stays, and offers points which can be used for hotel nights or converted 1:1 into most airline programs.

The card isn't a good option for earning United Airlines miles, though, because the points only transfer at a rate of 2:1. BankOne, which issues the United Visa, provided lots of money when United went into bankruptcy and doesn't like the competition from this card. When you covert 20,000 points at a time into airline miles Starwood gives you 5,000 bonus miles -- which means you're really earning 1.25 miles per dollar on most every carrier, better earning than most airlines' own co-branded offerings. The flexibility, though, is the best benefit. With, say, an American Airlines Mastercard you're stuck with American Airlines miles. With the Starwood American Express you earn whatever miles you want and you don't have to decide until later.

An example of the power of this card -- spend $50,000 on the United Visa or American Mastercard, and you have enough miles for a coach ticket to Europe. Spend $50,000 on the Starwood American Express, and you can transfer those 50,000 points to Cathay Pacific in exchange for 60,000 Asia Miles which are enough for a business class ticket on British Airways from the East Coast of the U.S. to most destinations in Europe.

Be aware, though, that transfers from Starwood into an airline program are not instantaneous so you may not be able to reserve your award before making a transfer on carriers that don't let you hold awards (e.g. Northwest) or that don't permit you to hold them for very long (e.g. United at 72 hours).

Still, with Starwood I can stay at some of the top hotels in the world and my airline mileage earning is supersized, 25% better than airline cards themselves. This is by far the best all-around mileage earning card.

I also carry a Diners Club card and a Hilton American Express.

The Diners Club card is now a Mastercard, so it's accepted universally. I use the card with merchants that don't take American Express. Their points program offers transfers into most airline and hotel programs. I can even launder United or American miles into other programs through this program (with some devaluation).

Since Diners Club became a Mastercard, it lost some of its unique features -- such as two billing cycles to pay and a lower than usual foreign currency conversion charge. But it maintains its primary insurance coverage on rental cars, and since it's a Mastercard it's useful for airline and hotel promotions that require payments with that brand of card (such as Hyatt's outstanding Faster Free Nights promo).

Downsides to the card are a charge for transferring points to airline miles (95 cents per 1000 miles) and a $90 annual fee. I rent cars enough to make this worthwhile.

I use the Hilton American Express only for things where I earn bonus points. I use it at the grocery store and at restaurants and my cell phone bill is automatically charged to the card. I run no more than $1000 or $1500 a month on this card. If I ever run out of Gold status with Hilton, I'll probably notch up the spending to reach $20,000 to retain my status.

Full disclosure, I also carry other cards that stand apart from this general advice. For example, I have an American Express Platinum card with Membership Rewards because it provides a greater credit line than traditional points-earning cards. It's useful to me for charging large events, and has lots of extras like lounge access (Continental, Delta, and Northwest), elite status with Starwood and Avis, and the Fine Hotels and Resorts program which offers extras at properties like Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons. It's expensive at $395, so not useful for most.

The Membership Rewards program offers transfers to a variety of airlines and hotel programs, but it's been eroded over the years. Marriott dropped out last year. No replacement was ever made for Northwest or TWA (when the latter was acquired by American). But it works for me, because I couldn't otherwise put such large charges on a single card. And a seven figure membership rewards balance is certainly better than paying by check!

If you don't charge enough to warrant an annual fee card, consider a free card.

The Amtrak Mastercard gives one Amtrak point per dollar spent. The value in this card is that points can be used for train travel or transferred one-to-one into Continental, and Midwest Airlines and one-to-two into Hilton. You can transfer 25,000 points out of an Amtrak account each calendar year (elite members can transfer out 50,000 points.) The Amtrak card also offers redemption for gift certificates, generally valuing points earned at one cent apiece. The card offers pretty good earning considering that it's fee-free.

I don't trust the company running the Amtrak program, though. They tend to make changes without notice -- such as imposing a cap on points transferred out (it used to be unlimited) and ending transfers into United.

The Hilton American Express comes with 15,000 points as a signup bonus, Silver Elite status in the Hilton program, and earns 3 Hilton points per dollar spent (or 5 on 'everyday spend' charges like restaurants, grocery stores, and cell phone bills).

Consider also cash rebate cards. Most of them cap the amount of money you can earn, but if you're spending less than $15,000 or so a year that may not be an issue. This type of card is outside the scope of the post. Miles are usually worth more than money in a rewards program, since the latter tends to return only about 1%. But $150 may be worth more to you than 15,000 Amtrak points (though shrewdly used, the Amtrak points can be worth more than the money).

Stay away from proprietary rewards programs, like the CapitalOne GoMiles card.

Proprietary miles programs have marketing appeal, offering "any seat on any airline" and tapping into the frustration that some feel trying to redeem their miles. But these programs turn the value proposition of miles on their head. Miles are most useful for tickets that would have been too expensive to purchase -- international business or first class tickets, or even last minute transcon flights (which aren't as expensive as they used to be). Proprietary programs generally offer coach seats, which have to be purchased a few weeks in advance, and often cap the amount of airfare that they'll pay.

Furthermore, proprietary miles can be earned only through credit card spending so it may be harding to reach the point of redeeming for a free ticket. Airline and hotel points can be earned through a variety of partnerships, whether it's telephone or internet or mortgage financing, let alone actually flying or spending the night somewhere.

While some may get value from these offerings, my general advice is to avoid them. They more or less amount to a cash rebate card where you can only spend the rebate on specific travel offerings.

Earning bonus miles from credit card signups

In some cases, depending on the credit card issuer, you can sign up for the same credit card more than once and pocket the signup bonus over and over.

This is especially true for cards issued by BankOne (e.g. United, Marriott, British Airways, Priority Club) and Citibank (e.g. American Mastercard, Hilton Visa).

I'm not a frequent Northwest flyer, so I've used signing up for their credit card three times as my qualifying activity in the annual Fly Free Faster promo. While it's not easy to get a signup bonus from US Bank more than once for the same card, you can sign up for each of their different cards and earn the signup bonus each time. I've gotten the Visa Platinum, the Visa Signature, and the Visa Business card, and each time that qualified me to earn an additional 10,000 miles from the summer promo. (I'd never sign up for the Northwest card unless it qualified me for some other offering, since those offerings come around so regularly and I wouldn't want to blow the chance to use the card as an activity towards the bonus.)

Credit cards generally can offer some of the richest bonuses around.

The American Airlines Mastercard is currently offering 15,000 miles with first purchase and fee waived for a year.

The United Visa is also offering 15,000 bonus miles with first purchase and fee waived for a year. Update 8/28/05: There's also an offer of 20,000 bonus miles with first purchase and fee waived the first year.

The Delta American Express makes that same 15,000 bonus mile with first purchase offer, fee waived the first year. (There are occasionally even better offers on this card as well.)

Both the American and United bonuses can be earned more than once. The Delta American Express doesn't offer similar possibilities, although with all cards you can generally earn miles not just for a personal card but also for a business card. Some issuers require a certain minimum business income to qualify, and some consumers think "I don't have a business." But what if you are looking for consulting work on the side, even if you don't do any such work at this time? Most of us can qualify as "Our Name & Associates" - boom, our own business, and own business credit card with signup bonus.

Be aware that each time you apply for a credit card the issuing bank will pull your credit report. Each 'hard pull' on your report is logged, and too many pulls over a short period of time can temporarily reduce your credit rating. On the other hand, having a decent amount of unused credit can be valuable, a lower percentage utilization of your available credit helps your score. So does having a long average age for your accounts, so cancelling unused fee-free cards may not be wise. Suffice to say that credit score issues are beyond this scope of this inquiry, but be aware that your credit score will affect your ability to obtain credit and the interest rates you'll pay (such as when applying for a mortgage). These are complicated issues worth understanding. Here's a good basic overview. Here's a way to estimate your score for free and play with the different variables.

Posted by gleff at 3:43 PM | Comments (1)

Causes of airline delays

Tyler Cowen points to a Slate piece that purports to explain airline delays.

Mayer and Sinai's study also identified the real culprit: the deliberate overscheduling of flights at peak periods by major airlines trying to increase the amount of connecting traffic at their hub airports. Major airlines like United, Delta, and American use a hub-and-spoke model as a way to offer consumers more flight choices and to save money by centralizing operations. Most of the traffic they send through a hub is on the way to somewhere else. (Low-cost carriers, on the other hand, typically carry passengers from one point to another without offering many connections.) Overscheduling at the hubs can't explain all delays—weather and maintenance problems also contribute. But nationally, about 75 percent of flights go in or out of hub airports, making overscheduling the most important factor. I'll leave aside the demonstrably false nature of the claim that low cost carriers don't operate connecting flights (their model is having passengers wait on planes rather than having planes wait on passengers, which spreads workload throughout the day and minimizes their labor costs).

Airlines 'bank' flights, or cluster them together, for passenger convenience. Historically they've been able to earn a revenue premium based on passenger convenience. It's hardly been an irrational strategy. Over the past few years this revenue premium has disappeared and low cost carriers have profited. In the meantime, airlines like American have depeaked their hubs in order to reduce costs since consumers were no longer demanding the quick connections with their wallets.

That said, it's fairly short-sighted to blame airline scheduling when systemic changes are available that would solve the problem: slot pricing and exchange, airport privatization, and technological solutions. Slot pricing works well at Heathrow. Privatization works well in Britain, Canada, and Australia. But the holy grail, it seems to me, is

Allowing planes and pilots to operate in the skies much like cars, with technology and communications that allow them to direct themselves while coordinating with each other (as a replacement for the current command and control model) offers some of the best hope for increasing the total capacity of the skies for air travel. Anything less seems like a temporary bandaid, albeit one with the potential to reallocate existing resources to their highest valued use.

Posted by gleff at 5:22 AM | Comments (0)

July 26, 2005

Advance hotel room assignments

Hilton is testing out e-checkin.

Our new eCheck-In service allows you to have the convenience and control to complete your registration the day before or up to two hours before you plan to arrive. The idea is similar to picking a seat assignment on a plane, you should be able to see what room you're blocked into and choose a different room if you prefer. It should even process upgrades.

This is going to be interesting to watch.

Posted by gleff at 7:03 PM | Comments (0)

Aircraft on eBay

You, too, can own an airplane

Posted by gleff at 6:05 PM | Comments (0)

Frequent Flyer Miles as Debt in Need of Devaluation

Tim Harford asks what would be the best way for frequent flyer program to devalue their currency?

Last year I explained why a devaluation is inevitable, and why that doesn't mean you should stop collecting miles.

The simplistic version of the problem is too many miles chasing too few seats. Problems have been exascerbated the last couple of years as airlines pulled down capacity. Now, with flights running especially full, getting a nominally free seat can be tough. Award redemption (at least at the usual mileage pricing) is predicated on giving away only those seats that are likely to go unsold. That pot of inventory isn't growing, but mileages balances are.

Given the need for devaluation, how should airlines do it?

The first option Harford gives is rejected, but not strongly enough:

Airlines could simply repudiate the debt, but this seems unnecessary."Seems unnecessary?" It would be suicidal to the viability of the programs. Not only do the programs drive loyalty, they are a huge databsae of consumer behavior, and they actually make a profit. The Air Canada program has a market value of about $2 billion. Large US domestic programs are worth some multiple of that. Why kill the goose?

British Airways seem to have decided on the latter: they are making it nearly impossible for me to book frequent-flyer tickets, rectify their errors or coordinate with my wife's bookings. But this is a puzzle - a simple devaluation would go unnoticed, but the current shenanigans are hugely irritating.For transatlantic crossings, I've actually found award availability on BA to be pretty good. But that aside, devaluations are far from unnoticed! Devaluations 'move the goalpost' while your customers are earning. Some may strive harder, certainly others will become angry.

It's true that an inability to redeem seats is a frustration felt by many, Capital One exploits is through their David Spade TV spots to hawk an inferior credit card.

Several explanations are offered:

1) They have devalued already and I didn't notice, but they still had too much debt outstanding. Bingo. A good example is Northwest, but BA devalued substantially a couple of years ago. And Qantas nearly double the cost of some premium awards.

2) The frequent flyer contract makes devaluation illegal but obstructiveness legal.Hardly, both are legal and ongoing.

3) Never attribute to conspiracy that which is adequately explained by incompetence.Another good theory. Never trust airline websites to tell you about availability. Never trust the CSRs either. If you don't like the answer you get, hang up and try again. Not everyone is sufficiently diligent to find seats that do exist.

I've never walked away empty handed, but it takes trying each gateway one by one, flight by flight.

Technology will solve this in the short run, but without greater devaluation the problem will return as more miles are successfully redeemed, eating up available seat inventory.

Now there are inefficiencies and some award seats do go unoccupied. Once technology wrings those out, the problems will be even more acute and more demanding of further devaluation.

Posted by gleff at 4:16 PM | Comments (0)

Faster Free Nights Returns

Probably the best hotel promo around, Hyatt's Faster Free Nights, will return from September 1 through November 30.

The offer as usual is a free night after every two eligible stays paid for with a Mastercard.

Registration for the promo will begin August 15.

Posted by gleff at 5:34 AM | Comments (0)

To boldy go...

Boldly going where another travel site has gone before, SideStep has brought on Patrick Stewart as its spokesman.

Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Picard on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," is the new company spokesman for travel search engine SideStep. That's a direct challenge to rival Priceline.com, whose ads have long featured William Shatner, Captain Kirk on the original "Star Trek."

(Via Tripso Daily.)

Posted by gleff at 5:25 AM | Comments (0)

How did American make money in the second quarter?

Now that American Airlines announced a profit for the second quarter, there are lots of stories trying to figure out how they did it. One piece contends that they managed to cut costs by listening to ideas from their employees. (Naturally the piece cites no evidence whatsoever that American did this any more than any other airline.)

Still, there are some interesting stories about cost savings. For example,

Two American Airlines mechanics didn't like having to toss out $200 drill bits once they got dull. So they rigged up some old machine parts - a vacuum-cleaner belt and a motor from a science project - and built "Thumping Ralph." It's essentially a drill-bit sharpener that allows them to get more use out of each bit. The savings, according to the company: as much as $300,000 a year. Of course, American and all other airlines remain heavily unionized, with compensation more a function rigidly of showing up to work rather than an employee's contribution to the enterprise's profitability. Notably absent from the piece is any suggestion that the mechanics were rewarded for their ingenuity. It's the labor work rules that are ultimately going to have to go if major airlines are going to become entrepreneurial companies.

After all, it's the labor costs, stupid!

Posted by gleff at 5:17 AM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2005

Junk fees

We all have certain fees that travel providers charge which drive us up the wall, usually because they offer an explanation that's especially absurd.

I'm usually bothered by award 'expedite fees', a charge that some airlines impose for issuing an electornic award ticket within a certain number of days of travel.

I'm similarly bothered by hotel resort fees (just include it in your room rate!) and charges for ticketing at the airport when that's the only option available, such as issuing an open-jaw award on United for someone with a different last name (since it can't be done online and if it isn't, it must be signed for in person).

Perhaps the most offensive, albeit small, fee I've heard of was recently reported at Flyertalk.com. Apparently American Airlines is now charging $3 to e-mail a replacement travel itinerary. I'm speechless, truly.

Posted by gleff at 6:10 PM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2005

A pillow to rest on

Probably the best marketing bang for the buck in hotel history was Westin's introduction of the Heavenly Bed. Travelers came to trust the brand to provide them with a good night's sleep.

A more recent trend in hotels is paying attention not just to the best but to the pillow in particular. The trend started at the Benjamin hotel in New York and has spread, there's now a recognition that people sleep differently and different types of pillows can enhance or detract from a night's sleep.

The New York Times piece on the subject could have been made really useful with an added discussion on what pillows best match which sleep habits, a subject about which I know little.

I understand the entire bed effect, and while I like the Westin Heavenly Bed I find that some properties may need to replace their beds more often. Since the oldest beds are now six years old they're not as comfortable as they once were.

Intuitively I know that pillows matter, but here I need some expert input. Fortunately better hotels have concierges or butlers versed in the subject, but I haven't yet acquired their knowledge.

Posted by gleff at 7:30 AM | Comments (0)

No outside food or drink

bmi has introduced its buy-on-board menu and it contains this frustrating statement:

Only food and drinks purchased from the cabin crew may be consumed on board.I'm not sure how or whether this will be enforced, but it's a striking policy. US domestic carriers offering buy-on-board haven't adopted similar policies... yet.

Posted by gleff at 7:02 AM | Comments (0)

Dishonesty at GlobalPass

InsideFlyer interviews the President of GlobalPass who tries to explain the gutting of their program.

The most offensive piece has been taking existing mileage holders and requiring them to earn additional points in order to use miles already in their accounts. The new program offers points for booking travel through their portal, which may even be more expensive than competitors, and then for each new point earned one can use an existing point.

The explanation is that the program needs frequency from their members, people got too good a deal in the past, and the old model of awards they promised wasn't good for the company so they shouldn't have to live up to those promises.

Not at all surprising, but also a good reminder that this has never been a trustworthy program. GlobalPass is not a company one wants to do business with.

Posted by gleff at 5:01 AM | Comments (0)

July 23, 2005

A new wrinkle in the debate over daylight savings

Airlines oppose the move to extend daylight savings time to March and November because if the rest of the world doesn't go along the timing of their flights will be out of sync with limited landing slots in foreign airports. One estimate I've seen is that this will cost US airlines more than $170 million per year, though I presume the figure is somewhat self-serving and likely lower in reality.

Perhaps the cost argument isn't the only place to focus. Tyler Cowen asks whether daylight savings time is dangerous, because the moving the clock forward is equivalent to imposing a mild case of jetlag on the whole country. Some data suggests that automobile accidents go up after the change to clocks, although the data is far from conclusive (Tyler observes a lack of data on whether Indiana, which doesn't observe daylight savings, is safer during parts of the year).

Posted by gleff at 5:36 AM | Comments (0)

Multilevel Marketing for Credit Card Rewards

Colloquy reports on a new program in the United Arab Emirates where cutomers receive a 1% rebate on their spending and a 1% rebate on the spending of everyone they refer for the credit card.

I haven't seen anything like this in the U.S. (though there are certainly one-time referral bonuses for getting someone to sign up for a card) but I certainly expect to.

Posted by gleff at 5:26 AM | Comments (0)

July 22, 2005

Be careful whom you trust

USA Today reports on bloggers on the payroll of government tourist bureaus.

Blogs tend to criticize other blogs, and many blogs permit comments (my current technical difficulties notwithstanding) so the blog's culture of critique should limit the harm from this. Blog content should stand on its own, regardless of funding. But be aware of potential shading, influenced by financing of blogs.

This isn't new, surprising, or all that different from traditional travel writers whose perspectives may be colored by the advertisers at their publications or the free trips and upgrades handed out by travel providers. It's always worthwhile using a skeptical eye towards travel writers.

I want to know, though, how to get my hands on some of this money -- then you could hermaneut my own writing all you want!

Posted by gleff at 8:53 AM | Comments (0)

Travel and weirdos

Tyler Cowen wonders whether airplanes make weird people seem less weird. More broadly, travel brings different types of people together and that kind of mixing tears down frames of reference that allow people to judge others weird.

If his hypothesis is correct, he then wonders

Does this mean that weird men are more likely to have foreign wives?

Posted by gleff at 7:39 AM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2005

Cheap Vegas Hotel Night

Mandalay Bay hotel is available on Orbitz for $20 the night of August 29th. It's a prepaid Summer of Fun rate which should include a $25 dining credit and 50% off passes to the spa.

No other night appears to have this same rate, and the deal won't last long.

Posted by gleff at 8:06 PM | Comments (0)

Wedding Crashers

Last night I saw Wedding Crashers. I don't usually comment on movies here, but the opening scene features Dwight Yoakam and Rebecca DeMornay fighting over Yoakam's frequent flyer miles in their divorce settlement conference.

This was a raunchy, funny movie. Senator John McCain with a very brief appearance in the film has been all over the media, getting asked why he's in this kind of movie when he spends his time railing against Hollywood for producing just this kind of product? The answer, which he won't give, is that he's a cynical politician who exploits anti-Hollywood sentiment but frankly enjoys these movies. Maybe McCain is a Straussian after all.

While funny and creative, the opening of the film was absolutely brilliant taking the main characters through a series of different ethnic weddings each one funnier than the last, it's as if the writers stopped somewhere in the middle and realized that they had left out all of the cliches'. Perhaps the producer demanded that they be re-inserted?

How can a wedding movie possibly be made without a climactic interruption, I tried to tell you how much I love you but I was misunderstood!

I put up with the tired cliche's -- every "plot twist" was thoroughly predictable -- because the chemistry worked and the movie was funny. That and the early scenes with Christopher Walken were priceless.

Though I'm confused by the ending, the main characters depart a wedding that's presumably at the National Cathedral and then drive into Washington, DC. Why do I look for consist editing in a cliche'-laden yuk-fest?

Posted by gleff at 5:02 AM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2005

Free stuff, courtesy of the Flyertalk S.P.A.M. forum

128mb memory card, free after rebate.

Anticavity fluoride mouthwash, free sample.

Biz laundry boost, free sample.

Posted by gleff at 5:56 PM | Comments (0)

The End of eBay Anything Points

eBay Anything Points is being phased out.

eBay Anything Points, which operates like a "frequent flyer" program to stimulate customer loyalty, will be phased out by Feb. 28, the company said. Points earned under the program will be honored through August 2006.

...

eBay will prevent sellers from offering the incentive points on new listings starting Aug. 15. eBay said it would, on Sept. 30, remove remaining points from listings still offering them.The Anything Points program on eBay Canada will continue.

This is very disappointing news for me. Other than signing up for some free trial offers a year ago, I only used this on my Priceline bids. But the value proposition was compelling -- 1000 to 1500 Anything Points on a successful bid, which converted at better than 1:1 into Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. And since 60,000 Asia Miles buys a British Airways business class ticket from the US East Coast to most destinations in Europe, the program offered $3000 - $5000 in airfare for 45 - 55 Priceline wins.

Soon I'll have to go looking for the next best Priceline deal.

Posted by gleff at 3:42 PM | Comments (0)

July 17, 2005

Wynn Las Vegas Doesn't Appear to Live up to Expectations

The travel section in today's New York Times carries a review of Wynn Las Vegas... as though the property didn't get enough press when it was opening.

This $2.7 billion hotel seems far from offering a flawless experience, and most folks seem disappointed. TripAdvisor reviews are decidedly mixed. I haven't stayed there yet.

Now, no 2700 room property can possibly be a luxury hotel. Personal service seems impossible. Complexes are sprawling. Wait times will occasionally seem interminable, no matter how well the property is designed, when unusually large cohorts of guests decide to make us of the same thing at once (pool, elevators, checkin/checkout).

I have nothing against large resorts per se. I have an upcoming stay booked at the Westin Diplomat, and I enjoyed a trip to Wyndham's El Conquistador in San Juan last year.

And the sprawling kitsch experience is what I actually want in Vegas. Sure, there's a Four Seasons, and in most cases that might be more my preference. But when in Vegas I'll want Vegas. And though the Bellagio is probably the nicer property, I have a particular strange affinity for the Venetian.

Since I'm not a gambler, I don't have much juice in Vegas. So I like that all the rooms are suites (one one sort or another). And I like themes a la Paris, New York, etc.

The Venetian comes cheap, too. One trick to Vegas is to sign up for the various hotel newsletters to receive their special offers. The Venetian frequently offers midweek rates of $100/night. I often see offers from the Venetian below the rates that people are winning the hotel for on Priceline, and the Venetian offers might come with a room upgrade, match credits, or other benefits.

(Side note, for reliably inexpensive accomodations, The Orleans is a pretty good standby. It's a basic, clean casino hotel and I've seen midweek rates on the hotel's website as low as $13.)

Posted by gleff at 5:47 AM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2005

Double miles on Delta

Register to receive double miles on Delta for flights in September and October that are booked on Delta.com and paid for with an American Express card.

Posted by gleff at 4:36 AM | Comments (0)

500 KLM Miles for Online Booking

Click on this link by July 26 and choose "Reserve Your Free Gift Voucher" in the upper-right hand corner.

You'll get a voucher for 500 free KLM miles when you book a ticket on klm.nl between by January 1, 2006.

Thanks to Free Frequent Flyer Miles for the link.

Posted by gleff at 4:33 AM | Comments (0)

July 15, 2005

Oops... bad timing

A new Destiny's Child pre-paid Visa debit card was introduced last week.

It's probably been in the works for awhile, so I'm sure there were plenty of groans when the executives involved learned that Destiny's Child is breaking up.

Posted by gleff at 4:42 PM | Comments (0)

Threats to National Security

Steven Levitt studies terrorism as an academic and realizes this makes him a threat to the state. It's dangerous to carry pictures of 9/11 terrorists when you fly...

It's also dangerous, by the way, to claim not to have a bomb or to carry a bible through a security checkpoint.

Posted by gleff at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2005

20,000 Mile Bonus Offer for United Visa Signature Platinum Class

The new United Mileage Plus Visa Signature Platinum Class, detailed earlier this month, has an offer of 20,000 bonus miles with first purchase along with the other card benefits detailed in my previous post.

The application link won't spell out the bonus miles -- these links usually don't -- but the link is from an email clearly promising the bonus miles. In my experience with the United Visa, this works out perfectly well (although if you have any problems receiving the correct bonus, email me at gleff -at- yahoo.com and I'll forward the text of the email).

Posted by gleff at 5:06 AM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2005

Several free items

Free Dove deoderant sample
Free $10 OfficeMax gift card for taking a survey from DHL.
Free Bausch & Lomb ReNu contact solution sample. (I signed up for several at the same address, received them all.)

Posted by gleff at 4:57 PM | Comments (0)

One small step for sanity, one giant leap for my bladder

The thirty-minute no pee rule at Reagan National has been repealed.

Posted by gleff at 4:46 PM | Comments (0)

Marketing price increases

Last year I explained why airlines instituted 'fuel surcharges' instead of simply announcing 'price increases'.

One reason is that customers seem to accept price increases more readily when there's a story that accompanies the change. Another reason is that surcharges are often permitted in negotiated corporate travel contracts that have fixed prices.

The dance that accompanies surcharges leads to some absurd explanations.

Northwest has announced that it will no longer 'absorb' passenger facility fees (which they have to pay to airports that they carry passengers cross), and as a result will be adding those fees onto tickets.

Gosh, I never knew that they were kindly 'absorbing' a fee for me. Turns out I was getting something for nothing!

Airlines have recently instituted ticketing fees for using their call centers or buying at the airport. One common explanation is that there's a service which was previously being given away, now it will be purchased as though from an a la cart menu. Heh. I thought that it was just their cash register! Little did I know it was an extra optional service.

Northwest's decision to increase fares for flights connecting through Houston and Memphis -- which do not charge PFCs -- puts the lie to Northwest's claim that it is passing along a fee that it used to absorb.

Posted by gleff at 2:26 PM | Comments (0)

July 11, 2005

Reading the fine print for breakfast

Brad DeLong points to the fine print in a hotel's complimentary breakfast offering

Toast is not included with Hotel breakfast,

Coffee, Tea, Milk, Lemonade, Orange Juice, Apple Juice, or Pass-O-Guava Juice Only

No substitutions on Hotel breakfast. A $3.95 credit will be applied to other entries on the breakfast menu if you choose outside the box.

Two comments.

First, as Brad DeLong observes, the hotel squanders much customer goodwill through its complicated rules.

Second, this hotel has to be a good candidate for a six sigma project. Their rules are so complicated that the costs of enforcing them have to be higher than any incremental revenue the policy brings.

Posted by gleff at 1:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 8, 2005

Cracking down on motel pricing

David Rowell notes in his latest weekly email that Florida has settled with 23 hotels that were accused of price gouging during last year's hurricane season.

At One hotel in particular

the daily rate for rooms at the motel increased from $55 per night to $75 and, in some instances, $100 per night.As a result

the Airport Inn will provide restitution to guests affected by the price gouging practices, many of whom were over age 60.(I'm not sure why being 60 years old makes paying $75 for a hotel night especially problematic?)

I addressed this issue when it came up last year:

Via Chris Elliott, Florida's attorney general filed complaints against two hotels for price gouging in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley.

The attorney general has issued a press release to let voters know he's fighting evil, greedy corporations.

"Hurricane Charley is the worst natural disaster to befall our state in a dozen years, and it is unthinkable that anyone would try to take advantage of neighbors at a time like this. We are taking a two-pronged approach to fight this egregious behavior, " said Crist. "Families putting their lives back together should not have to worry about price gouging."The conduct in question is a Days Inn charging $109 for a room when a billboard advertised $50 rooms, and a Crossroads Motor Lodge charging $61.27 (including all taxes and fees) rather than $44.79.

My blood doesn't really boil at $109 hotel nights, even when it's for an airport Days Inn. While there may be an advertised teaser rate of $50, the cheapest rate over a range of dates on the Days Inn website and on Expedia is $62.99, although I also found a pre-paid rate at Res99.com for $55.99 - along with a "DAYS INN ROCK BOTTOM RATE PROMOTIONAL RATE" of $71.99 and a "Standard Rate" (presumably rack) of $79.99.

The complainant indicates that they were renting one of the last rooms at the hotel, and the rates charged are presumably within the maximum posted daily rate for the property (that absurd room rate printed on the back of your hotel room door). Naturally the last rooms available at a property fetch a higher price, hotels and airlines refer to this as 'yield management' and economists call this allocating scarce resources to their highest valued use.

The Florida Attorney General outlines the details of Florida's anti-gouging rule:

Florida's price gouging statute requires that the cost of necessities like food and water must remain at the price that was average during the 30 days immediately preceding a major storm like Hurricane Charley.I'm not even sure what it would mean to determine average prices for a 30 day period preceding an emergency. Hotels do calculate average daily room rates, but on any given day the price that any traveler will pay varies substantially. Would the Florida statute require not just avoiding price increases, but setting the mean price as the price ceiling for the duration of the declared emergency?

This seems an absurd conclusion given the industry's status quo pricing practices, and an offensive one on basic freedom grounds. Thus I take umbrage with Chris Elliott who encourages readers to file complaints with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Though I don't take too much umbrage because there's something cool about sending such a complaint to Florida's Commussioner of Agriculture, one Charles Bronson.

Tyler Cowen offered some interesting thoughts on why we don't see more price gouging after Hurricane Isabel last year.

Posted by gleff at 5:35 AM | Comments (0)

July 7, 2005

Food poisoning in the air

Joe Turner got food poisoning on a JAL flight. Not fun, and I can relate -- I picked up salmonella last month on Qantas (in first, flying Melbourne to Los Angeles).

Doesn't discourage me from flying, though, I'm just not sure how to 'be more careful' and avoid such things in the future. Thoughts?

Posted by gleff at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)

Air Marshall Mission Creep

Watch what you say. Don't make fun of the law, or joke that you might be breaking the law. An air marshall might be listening.

Apparently an air marshall overhead some men on a plane talking about having crossed into the U.S. illegally so he had the plane met and the men taken into custody.

Some might say: great, law enforcement is present and acting against criminal activity.

I'm actually frightened by this, on several levels.

The expansion of law enforcement in our midst has been accepted as a way of fighting terrorism (though it's unclear this particular method is effective in that fight). Now, once in under the cover of fear of terrorism, law enforcement has far greater access to our conversations by simple virtue of being closer to those conversations in daily life (not to mention more extensive searches, which have been used in questionable drug arrests).

Law enforcement officers no doubt are charged with enforcing laws rather than ignoring violations of law. And my own personal opinions of immigration law notwithstanding, most Americans would presumably like to see greater crackdown on violations of law rather than not. But the societal monitoring that is now taking place scares me, it really does.

Posted by gleff at 8:21 AM

Disputing the fair market value of a prize

A story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday has been much talked about on the web, the man who turned down 12 round-trip coach tickets for two from the U.S. to anywhere in the world American flies. (He won the 'We Know Why You Fly' contest, I'll save mocking American's ad campaign for another post.)

The man turned down the prize because American reported that each ticket would be worth $2200, and so his tax liability was going to be $800 per ticket. The tickets expire within a year, and he quite reasonably didn't think he'd get as much value out of them as he'd be liable for in tax.

As the Journal piece notes, it is possible to dispute the reported value of a prize.

Mr. McCall says he was aware of the possibility of challenging American's valuation of the vouchers on his tax return, but he thought that tactic was too risky. "The problem with that is that if the IRS didn't buy it, I'd be" in trouble, he says. "And if I report something different than what American does, that's a red flag for an audit. And who wants to be audited by the IRS?"

Nora Butler, an IRS spokeswoman, says an audit wouldn't necessarily result from such a return. Still, she said the agency might need further clarification. "The best option for a person in this situation is to try to work it out ahead of time" with the company giving the prize away, she says.

The article doesn't explain how this process works. Though not to be confused with tax advice, here's my understanding of it from personal experience:

First, you should attempt to negotiate with whomever provides the prize. The official way to do it (since in most cases you won't be successful just asking for an adjustment) is to call the IRS at (800) 829-1040. It's best to do so early in the morning in my experience, since you'll have a better chance of getting through.

Explain that you received the 1099 and disagree with the amount that was reported on it, and that you've tried to resolve the situation but have been unable to.

Tell them that you were advised to have the IRS complete a Form 4598, "Form W-2 or 1099 Not Received or Incorrect." It's not something you can just download from their website.

You'll need to give the IRS the payer information from the 1099 you received and the details of how you arrived at your own valuation figures.

The IRS will send the complaint form to the payer, who has 10 days to respond (you should receive a copy as well). Hopefully the payer will simply send a corrected 1099.

If you don't receive a satisfactory response by the due date of your return, you have two options.

One is to include the amount that you believe to be correct on your return and attach the Form 4598 and an explanation. The IRS may later send you a notice of the discrepancy, so keep your records in good shape.

The other option is just to enter an adjustment as a negative amount. (You can even do that without going through the process of seeking to adjust with 1099, but your case may be more strongly documented if you've taken that step.)

If you received a Form 1099-MISC that shows $1,000 in box 3 for a prize yon won in a contest, but you know that a local store has the same item available for $750, you argue that the fair market value is $750. You can enter the $250 difference as a negative adjustment under Other Miscellaneous Income. One of the popular tax software packages advises that you enter "PRIZE FMV ADJUSTMENT" for the description and "-250" for the amount.

No matter what course of action you pursue, you'll want to document your adjustments, such as with ad clippings. If the prize was miles, and the fair market value was listed at a cost per mile greater than what the airline charges, simple printouts of the 'purchase miles' web pages should do the trick.

Posted by gleff at 7:28 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 5, 2005

Wrapping up Northwest's Fly Free Faster 5 Bonus

Last month I detailed Northwest's Fly Free Faster 5 bonus. Over the past week I've gone through the hoops to earn it.

Last weekend I applied for a Northwest Visa Signature, I received the card on Friday . That qualified me for the Fly Free Faster 5 bonus. I promptly registered that credit card to earn Northwest miles at iDine (er, "Rewards Network") restaurants.

Last Monday I transferred 1000 Goldpoints into 125 Northwest miles and 1000 Diners Club Club Rewards points into 1000 Northwest points.

This weekend I racked up two iDines with the Northwest credit card.

Once those points post, and I receive the Visa bill, I'll have 5 partner credits and I'll receive the 10,000 bonus miles. The Visa will provide another 25,000 miles, and I'll earn about another 2,000 miles from the partner activities.

Posted by gleff at 5:21 AM | Comments (4)

July 3, 2005

Where I'd like to Stay

I've had fabulous oceanfront rooms and rooms with the neatest gadgets imaginable. I've stayed in suites at Ritz-Carltons.

Though not the largest or most technologically advanced I'm probably happiest with my room at Bora Bora Nui, if only for the view from my deck (here's the view to the right). The ability to feed fish from the tub isn't bad, either. The sunset, the view from the spa, and the incredible colors of the water made this the most beautiful physical property I've ever seen, though service at the property was a bit lacking.

Recently I've been musing over what properties are on my 'must see' list.

While reserving the right to change the list at any time, the hotels I'm meaning to see in the near future include:

Cala di Volpe on Sardinia's Costa Smeralda, and while in the same part of the world I figure I'll stay at Hotel Villa Cirpriani in Italy and Hotel Grande Bretagne in Athens, this last is one it's hard to believe I haven't visited yet -- several friends have been and it doesn't take that many Starwood points to stay there either.
Four Seasons George V in Paris
Banyan Tree Phuket in Thailand
Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur
Peninsula Bangkok in Thailand
Four Seasons Chiang Mai also in Thailand (a theme is developing here)
Little Nell in Aspen (since it's supposed to be far nicer than than the Broadmoor)
Parrot Cay Resort in Turks and Caicos
The Montage in Laguna Niguel - I've been to the Ritz there, admittedly pre-renovation, but this is supposed to be a lot better
Four Seasons Resort Bali at Jimbaran Bay in Indonesia

The nice thing is that I'll be able to redeem Starwood points to stay at the first three hotels I've mentioned.

What hotels are on your list?

Posted by gleff at 5:41 PM | Comments (0)

RSS Feeds

Don't forget that you can receive this blog's content via RSS feed:

http://blogs.flyertalk.com/blogs/viewwing/index.xml (RSS 2.0)

or http://blogs.flyertalk.com/blogs/viewwing/index.rdf (RSS 1.0)

or read it via your WAP-enabled mobile phone at http://www.winksite.com/gleff/blog

Posted by gleff at 5:02 PM | Comments (0)

July 2, 2005

United Mileage Plus Visa Signature Platinum Class

There's been a lot of buzz about a new United Airlines co-branded credit card. It's expensive but has some great features. I haven't chosen to carry it myself, but for frequent United flyers it may be just the right card.

First, the fee is $140 per year. That's more than the regular Signature Visa at $60 and more than the Gold Class Visa Signature which is priced at $85 (and which comes with 2500 anniversary miles, double miles on United purchases, and up to 10,000 miles a year for balance transfers).

It's also more expensive than the $30 Starwood American Express, to my mind the gold standard in mileage earning credit cards.

However, there are some interesting benefits to the new United card.

In addition to the 15,000 bonus miles with first purchase, 1000 mile upgrade certificate, and free companion ticket (all fairly standard offers), you get:

double miles for United and Star Alliance ticket purchases
double miles for 'everyday purchases' of groceries, dining, gas at the pump, and items from home improvement stores -- a bonus which matches the Delta and Hilton American Express products.
No mileage earning limit, something that the other United cards offer to United alite members.

But perhaps most intriguingly,

5,000 Elite Qualifying Miles after your first purchase
5,000 Elite Qualifying Miles when you spend $35,000 each year with your card
One elite mile per dollar spent on ticket purchases at united.com, up to 5,000 total elite qualifying miles a year.

So if you're a heavy spender who flies United and buys tickets online, you can rack up 15,000 miles towards elite status in the first year and 10,000 miles towards elite status in subsequent years. Some flyers will find this exceedingly valuable in the quest for status.

By the way, you've got to love the constant escalation in naming of Visa products. Once upon a time a Gold card was prestigious. Then Platinum came along. Then Signature. The United product offered a Visa Signature Gold Class. And now there's Visa Signature Platinum Class. I don't think Visa Signature Signature Class sounds particularly good, so I wonder what's next in the naming arms race? After all, Visa Infinite really hasn't caught on here (the 'white card' which was intended to compete with the Amex 'black card').

Posted by gleff at 5:00 AM | Comments (0)

July 1, 2005

Extra income on the side

Jaqueline Passey explains how to make a few thousand dollars off of online casino signup bonuses by exercising a bit of self-control.

Posted by gleff at 5:59 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack