(Complements of BillShrink)
Here’s a excellent picture illustrating the current fee structure of all major airlines based in the U.S. One airline definitely stands out (Hint: Starts with ‘South’ and ends with ‘west’):
With the economic downturn, airlines have been pretty aggressive with adding fees so this graph may not stay relevant very long.
It looks like the Clear program will close down operations due to financial difficulties. Here’s an email received by a fellow co-worker who was enrolled in the program:
Clear to Cease Operations
At 11:00 p.m. PST today, Clear will cease operations. Clear’s parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations.
After today, Clear lanes will be unavailable.
Sincerely,
Clear Customer Support
I never saw any Clear lanes at the airports I traveled through so I guess they never got around to pushing it out everywhere.
As a frequent flier, I’m a big fan of Tumi. I recently received a great offer for 25% off anything from Tumi.com – sale or no sale. I haven’t seen a deal like this before. Must be the economy. I consider my readers, “friends and family”, so enjoy!
Every so often, I’ll introduce a new feature available through the More Than Points Personal Travel Assistant. This post introduces the flight status command. Using this command, you can see if you’ll be home on time. It also displays FAA-provided gate information in case you have an unexpected gate change. Since the MTP PTA lets you send commands through any jabber-compatible client (e.g. Google Talk) or any email client (like your BlackBerry), you can use it anywhere you have data service.
The flight command only requires the the two-digit airline code followed by the flight number:
Remember: To use the MTP PTA just send an instant message to morethanpoints@gmail.com OR send an email with NO SUBJECT and the command in the body of the email to the same email address. Why bother with pulling up a website when a simple email or IM will do the trick.
More Than Points is all about saving you time so you can spend it on yourself and your family. Enjoy the rest of your week.
If you received a complimentary membership last year to FlyClear through a hotel promotion check your credit card statements as some road warriors have noted an “automatic renewal” and subsequent charge of $179 on their credit card. A fellow road warrior signed up for the FlyClear promotion through Marriott and was able to successfully cancel his membership and get a full refund by calling FlyClear.
Here are the numbers:
212.332.6397
212.332.6395
If you don’t want it or find it useful, take care of it now.
“Cingular (now AT&T) rollover meets Marriott rewards”
This new Marriott offering ensures you stay Elite Platinum through 2011 without having to worry about racking up the required nights in 2010. Silver and Gold members have a similar offer. I’m not sure we can call this a promotion as there doesn’t seem to be an expiration date. Perhaps it will be a permanent offering going forward. Expect the other hotel chains to follow suit with similar offerings – they have to.
The Sell:
| You asked for it; we’ve created it. We’re breaking new ground to help you achieve – and increase – your Elite status. Introducing Elite Rollover Nights! After you’ve stayed enough nights to earn Elite status in 2009, we’ll roll over all additional nights to 2010 (for example, Silver member nights in excess of 10, Gold member nights in excess of 50 and Platinum members nights in excess of 75). That means you can start earning next year’s status this year! It’s the only rollover night enhancement we know of – anywhere. And we’ve designed it exclusively for you. Plus, get a head start with Double Nights. Between May 11 and June 26, every night you stay counts twice! If you’re not registered, you can sign up now. So get rolling! Reserve at any of more than 3,000 Marriott hotels worldwide. Since every night this year counts, it’s easier to maintain your status – and achieve the next level in 2010. No need to do anything extra: your Elite Rollover Nights will be automatically posted to your 2010 account. |
This is a great offering with a promotion thrown in as well. Make sure you sign up so it’s even easier to get Platinum Status through 2010.
There’s a fair amount of chatter about this promotion among my fellow road warriors. On the surface it looks really good.
Promotion Details:
- Register for SPG Free Weekends now and start earning one Free Weekend Night Award with every two stays through July 31, 2009 — with no limits.
- Awards can be earned and redeemed at more than 875 Starwood Preferred Guest participating hotels and resorts worldwide across nine brands — including Westin, Sheraton, W and more.
- Redeem Awards at over 875 Category 1–6 properties any Friday, Saturday or Sunday night from May through the end of September 2009 — all with no blackout dates on available standard rooms.
- To earn one Free Weekend Night Award with every two stays, register and stay between May 1 and July 31, 2009.
A quote from a fellow road warrior:
“This is one of the best promotions ever I’ve seen Starwood run. The free nights are good at category 1-6 hotels (usually they only go up to cat-4 or occasionally cat-5), and the number of nights you can earn is unlimited (vs. usually capped at two or three).”
A closer look at the fine print in the FAQ (thanks *josh*):
Is there an expiration date for the Free Weekend Night Award?
Yes. The Free Weekend Night Award can be used through September 27, 2009.
It’s a really good promotion as long as you use it before the end of September.
As I stepped out of my hotel room, this was on the front cover of USA Today. If you’re consistently flying out of a mid-sized airport (check the graph here for percentage declines), try scheduling a flight on your regular route a few months into the future to see if it still exists and plan accordingly. If you’re flying into an airport that typically supports a vacation destination, you should also review future flight routes. The financial fallout has had a huge impact on vacation and business flight routes even for the larger airports.
Plan now and save time in the future.
I am honestly surprised it took this long for toothpaste companies to come out with a 3 oz size, but I imagine the ridiculous margins on the “travel size” toothpaste to have something to do with it. To make a long story short, I randomly strolled into a Walmart because it happened to be the closest pharmacy near my hotel and after picking up some DayQuil/NyQuil I stopped by the travel section and found this:
I have not seen this size in any other supermarkets so perhaps its a Walmart only thing. Let’s see if it gets rolled out everywhere. If not, you know where to find it.
You know you’re a road warrior if this makes you happy. Never having to deal with ridiculous “travel size” toothpaste again is priceless.
From American’s promotion page:
“Qualify or re-qualify for AAdvantage Gold®, AAdvantage Platinum®, or AAdvantage Executive Platinum® status faster than ever with this special promotion. Just book your trip and fly on American Airlines, American Eagle, or AmericanConnection® between March 18, 2009, and June 15, 2009, and you’ll earn double elite-qualifying miles - the miles that bring you closer to AAdvantage elite-status membership - at an accelerated rate.”
Terms and Conditions:
Double elite-status qualifying miles are not redeemable for award travel, but do count toward qualification for AAdvantage Gold, AAdvantage Platinum, and AAdvantage Executive Platinum status. AAdvantage elite-status qualifying double-mile offer is valid only for travel on eligible purchased, published fare tickets on American Airlines, American Eagle, or AmericanConnection marketed and operated flights between March 18, 2009, and June 15, 2009. Promotion does not apply to travel on mileage award tickets or fares that are ineligible for AAdvantage mileage accrual. Flights operated by our codeshare partners or oneworld® alliance carriers are not eligible for this promotion. Offer applies only to new reservations booked between March 18, 2009, and June 15, 2009. Registration prior to travel is required. This offer does not increment the member’s elite-qualifying points, segments or award-eligible mileage balance. Double elite-qualifying miles will be calculated at 100% of the elite-qualifying miles earned for each applicable flight and will be posted to the account of the traveling AAdvantage member within six to eight weeks after the qualifying activity is posted to your account.
The promotions keep coming…