I’m Starting to Use Lyft More Than Uber. Here’s Why.

Apr 01 2016

I’ve been a huge fan of Uber since they began disrupting the taxi industry.

But Uber’s market position, while greater than Lyft’s, isn’t really protected by significant barriers to entry.. though in becoming in many cases pro-regulation they’ve tried to impose costs on other services that might start.

I like competition and so I’ve been using Lyft more. Lyft gives out $50 in new rider credits, which is more than Uber’s been doing ($15 – $20).

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VERY Special Price… Park Hyatt Aviara Park Deluxe Suite From $229

Mar 31 2016

Via Extreme Hotel Deals, the Park Hyatt Aviara (used to be a Four Seasons) in Carlsbad, California has a Park Deluxe Suite available for as little as $229+tax. I reviewed this property several years ago.

This room is a level above the basic Park Suite. However the room type is on sale for less than the base level suite (and indeed for the same price as an entry level room).

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American is Killing 24 Hour Reservation Holds Tomorrow After All, But You Can Still Get Them Online…

Mar 31 2016

On March 20 I wrote that American would be eliminating free 24 hour reservation holds on April 1 and switching to 24 hour refunds instead.

American reached out to tell me that wasn’t accurate, only it turns out that it is accurate. Nonetheless, there’s still going to be a way to put reservations on a 24 hour hold at least for some period of time.

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Uber VIP Status is Changing

Mar 31 2016

Arguably the most worthless elite status in the world is OpenTable VIP. The second most worthless? Perhaps it’s UberVIP.

If you’ve had over 100 rides in a city where the feature is available, you’ve been ‘upgraded’ to VIP status which means you can select the option for UberX called UberVIP which gives you the best cars only with drivers rated 4.8 or higher. And since you aren’t looking at all available cars, you likely won’t get the closest car, and may have to wait longer.

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Alaska Airlines Guts Emirates Awards Without Notice, But There’s a Trick to Still Save Miles

Mar 31 2016

I love Alaska Airlines and the Mileage Plan program, but I love it a lot less this morning. While they don’t have plans to go revenue-based and most of their awards remain reasonable, they have gutted their award chart for travel on their partner Emirates and they have done it without notice.

Emirates has been my favorite Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan redemption. They fly to a number of US cities and have a fantastic first class product especially onboard their Airbus A380 which has showers.

These awards are mostly going to be out of reach now for Mileage Plan members.

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American Has Changed its Fare Rules to Charge You More, Here’s How to Beat Them

Mar 30 2016

Increasingly American Airlines has been imposing a new rule in its fares to make your tickets more expensive.

It used to be that if two one-way fares, say San Diego to Dallas and Dallas to Fort Lauderdale, were cheaper than the fare for San Diego to Fort Lauderdale you’d pay the cheaper ‘sum of the two one ways’ for your ticket. Now for many of the cheapest fares in many markets American has updated their fare rules to prohibit “End of End Ticketing” which means you cannot combine the cheap fares, you have to pay the more expensive fare.

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