Monthly Archives

Monthly Archives for December 2009.

30% off and Free Shipping from W Hotels Store

Promo code D6T8V is good for 30% off and free shipping through January 10 at the W Hotel Store. For beds and bedding I’d wait until the 40% off and free shipping specific to those items comes around, it seems to several times a year.  (Though if you were considering getting a W Hotel bed, and didn’t want to wait, this is still a reasonable offer.) But for non-bed items, like stocking up on Bliss products, this is the best deal going most of the time. I admit, ever since I started staying at W properties I’ve used Bliss soaps and shampoos at home, and I refill my own supply when 30% off and free shipping comes around.

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Flights to Canada and Hotel, 2 people from $150 plus 5000 United Miles Per Person

Here’s the deal, and the Flyertalk thread. Use promo code GOCANADA to take $600 off the package price, airfare for two people with hotel and minimum spend of $750. Book by December 31st 7 p.m. eastern time and travel needs to be complete by April 30. Each traveler will also receive 5000 bonus United miles per reservation. Cheapest options will usually be two night stays for two people.  Of course you only get $300 off per person, so you’re better off booking for two even if traveling solo.  There are some nice properties available with this promo as well, including three Fairmont properties — one of which will also throw in a $100 food and beverage credit to boot.

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Hilton Gold Fast Track Offer

Hilton is offering Gold status after just four stays within 90 days of registration. Terms and conditions of the offer do say “Offer available only for Savings at Work-eligible Corporate Cardmembers for stays paid for with a Savings at Work eligible American Express Corporate Card and is not transferable” but I can’t imagine that this is the case in practice. (Via Frugal Travel Guy.)

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Morons

Let me just hand the mike to Lucky. Poor, poor Chris Elliott. And while I almost always disagree with him, this time it’s different. I support him. As we all know, the TSA didn’t exactly do a great job making the new security initiatives clear. So in trying to help the public out (for once), Chris Elliott posted the security directive on his website, which wasn’t supposed to be published. Now, aside from the fact that this wasn’t supposed to be made public, I don’t see anything in there that I’d consider confidential or surprising. In other words, Chris wasn’t compromising our national security. But apparently someone from the government showed up at his house last night with a subpoena, wanting to know who leaked him the document. Overkill much? You’d think they have bigger things…

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Alamo $10 Weekend Rentals

Alamo’s $10 a day weekend rates are back from January 6 through February 8. (Thanks to mrp alert for the pointer.) Book using corporate ID 7015238. Pick up the car 9am on Thursday or later, return by Monday, and the key to getting the deal is keeping the car Saturday night. Rates are $10 for compact up to $20 for premium vehicles. Rates are capacity controlled and only available at airport locations.

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I Have Little to Add to Recent TSA Commentary

I had only just been joking about the shoe carnival at checkpoints, the unfortunate legacy of ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid.  Thank goodness he wasn’t the ‘pants bomber’ was my joke, or we’d all have to take off our pants at security. So it’s cruel irony that the December 25th failed attempt has become known alternately as the pants bomber and the crotch bomber. TSA has been roundly criticized, no mocked is more like it, for their silly response to last week’s events.  Somehow we need extra security measures on flights into the U.S. because somehow Amsterdam’s security is less thorough than that at US airport, or perhaps because there aren’t already terrorists in the U.S. and so we have to keep all would-be bombers from staying warm with blankets.  And if they’re really bored while flying…

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1500 Mile Frontier Signup Bonus — Good for $6 at Starbucks

Frontier is offering 1500 miles for signing up for their frequent flyer program by December 31. (Hat tip Frugal Travel Guy.) Even if you’re never going to add more miles to your Frontier EarlyReturns account, it’s worth signing up. You can transfer your points out of Frontier and into other programs for free at Points.com. 1500 Frontier miles yields your choice of: 372 Air Canada Aeroplan points 311 Alaska Mileage Plan miles 329 American 637 Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles 296 Delta Skymiles 592 HawaiianMiles 348 Midwest Miles 637 Priority Club Rewards points 296 US Airways Dividend miles … or $6 in Starbucks.

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Hilton 50% Off Weekends (Many Hotels Weekdays, Too) in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia

Loyalty Traveler points to the new Hilton 50% off weekends sale for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The sale is valid for bookings made throughout January. Hotels in the Americas are excluded. Rates are fully prepaid and non-cancellable, and include breakfast and late checkout. And while perhaps this will be corrected, currently many hotels are offering the weekend 50% off rate during the week as well.

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Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is a Delta Diamond

Mike Huckabee explains this status to the New York Times. Are you prepared to deal with Delta reservations agents, whom you describe in your book as robotic and unreasonable? You’d think they’d be nice to ex-governors. What does give me cachet is not that, but the number of miles that I fly a year. There’s a new designation that Delta is cranking up in January called Diamond, and it’s for people who are so far above the Platinum status that they are going to put in a unique category. I qualify for that! I’m glad you’ve achieved supreme status in at least one realm of life. You know, if you can’t be president, by gosh, get to the highest level of frequent-flier rewards. Of course, if Huckabee doesn’t like dealing with Delta res agents, I…

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Flyertalk Makes it On Oprah

Up in the Air director Jason Reitman explains to Oprah, Jason Reitman: I think it’s a combination of things. One, it’s the thing that you first brought up—it is a community. If you look at a website like FlyerTalk.com, for example, you will find a group of people who have banded together in their passion for this kind of lifestyle of living continuously on the road and who have an unusual definition of the word home. It’s a group of people that are just as comfortable if not more comfortable living in constant flux—hotel to hotel, airport to airport—who get a sense of thrill from being surrounded by those destination boards knowing that they could suddenly be off to any city in the world. People who live by their daily itinerary. And I think one…

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