links from the web -- US News' rankings of hotel and airline programs, airmiles onyx, united app changes, american frequent flyer non-changes

1) gary from view from the wing breaks analyzes the results of the US News' rankings of hotel and airline points programs. i agreed that they are flawed, and he takes a look at the actual score breakdown. for both, it seems like the majority of the points go directly to domestic travel, how large the domestic network is, and how big their presence is in various american cities. it says little about upgrades and bonus perks, amenities, the ability to earn top tier, etc. i think it's important to look at the finer details of how they come up with these rankings. some people buy into these rankings, and i'd hate for people to be misled.

2) airmiles announces a new level in their earnings program as reported on flyertalk. the official website from airmiles is here. to reach this new level, one requires 6,000 airmiles a year. i find it hard to even get myself excited about reaching airmiles gold. when i was airmiles gold, i didn't really take advantage of the 40-50% off reward miles for flights because they were only between odd destinations (prince george to regina, for example), or were only valid for times in the very near future (e.g., how often does one begin to plan a trip to europe 3-4 weeks before actual expected departure date?). i'll probably do a more thorough review in a bit.

3) despite delta and united transitioning to a revenue based frequent flyer program, american airlines has noted that it will not make that transition yet. they still have to merge their programs first, which is expected to start sometime in 2015.

4) united is set to start allowing passengers to check in and scan their travel documents using their mobile app. i've downloaded the latest update but haven't had time to try this out. as someone who definitely flies internationally on united, this is something that would help me to avoid the kiosks at airports.

links from the web: 10 free airmiles, 100 free hyatt points, aeroplan decreasing earnings on united flights

1) taken from smart canucks, you can fill in this 5-question survey re: transportation options in the greater toronto area for 10 airmiles. this is limited to the first 12,000 respondents. it's easy and probably not intended for everyone to do, but i couldn't say no to a freebie. the direct link is here.

2) from view from the wing, hyatt is offering a free 100 points to celebrate chinese new year. the direct link is here. it's good until february 15, 2014.

3) canadian kilometers notes that aeroplan has now decreased the number of miles earned on united flights. united flights used to earn at least 100% across all fare classes, but effective april 1, 2014, the cheapest fares go down to 50%. on the upside, those who are willing to spend money on the more expensive classes and products (including business and first) will receive higher earning rates. the net impact for me: future possibilities of earning status on air canada just became that much harder. the most important thing is that asiana doesn't follow suit. at the time of writing, so far, they haven't.

links from the web: tied up for wanting a smoke, cibc matching td's travel benefits, amtrak's "go free" promotion

1) a passenger is tied up for repeatedly trying to smoke a cigarette on an emirates long haul flight. oh, i guess he was also tied up for physically assaulting the crew. it was on a singapore-brisbane flight. i can't imagine what would happen if it were on a singapore flight, with their fairly dainty singapore girls. nails would be broken! (flyertalk thread)

2) CIBC is matching some of TD's travel benefits on their aerogold infinite visa. starting january 15, cardholders get priority boarding, priority check in, and first bag free when flying on a reward flight operated by air canada. they will also give you a one-time use lounge pass for use, again only on reward flights operated by air canada.

3) view from the wing points out that amtrak is rolling out their "go free" promotion. essentially, if you take a certain number of round trips on their specific lines, they'll throw in one free (for use during a certain qualifying period). the one that is most valuable to me is the cascade line running between oregon, washington state, and vancouver. if you travel 2 qualifying round trips between january 6 and march 1, 2014, you will get one free round trip to use between march 2, 2014 and april 30, 2014.

• in doing a quick investigation of prices, amtrak is about twice as expensive as the bolt bus. however, amtrak's border clearance process is much better than the bolt bus as you clear and pre-clear at the actual rail station in vancouver.

links from the web: killed over baggage, 15 bonus airmiles, neat in flight safety demos, delta's mistake fares

1. from flyertalk which references a link from abc, a turkish airlines employee was stabbed and subsequently killed by a passenger over a luggage dispute. you can be irritated at having your luggage lost, but i'm sure that killing someone crosses a line somewhere ...
2. wpgpoints on the flyertalk says that you can earn 15 air miles for "liking" the heart and stroke foundation on facebook. this is for the first 10,500 people only. link is here.
3. view from the wing writes about the inflight safety demo, "t'was the flight before christmas", and links a youtube video as proof.
4. my friend's friend managed to book a super low, mistake fare to hawaii from portland on delta airlines on boxing day. i think overall, he paid $90.30 all in for a business class return flight. granted it had some awful connections, but i'm sure he will manage. delta has said that they will honor those tickets. my friend and i mused that someone at delta probably just lost their job ...

links from the web: aug 4 edition. toilets, chinese tourists, angry tweets, and expedia

1) gerry from the tarmac writes a post about the history of airplane toilets and how they work. it only occurred to me after reading this that the blue-water systems are indeed much less common today. who knew that some variants contained formaldehyde?

2) i scrolled down a few posts from him, and saw that he wrote about how much the average chinese tourist spends in vancouver. $1,600 CAD for a person who is used to the chinese standard of living, is a lot!

3) hack my trip writes about angry united airlines customers accidentally tweeting to #unitedairlanes, and how the parody twitter account is kind of embarrassing for united. very similar to #untied.

4) it's not a link, but in the last few weeks, i just found out that expedia.ca was now offering air canada tango fares online. it used to be that they didn't -- they would only offer their flex fares and above, and so it was only really beneficial to use expedia.ca to book westjet flights in canada. but now, they have "web fares" -- funny, i didn't realize that people actually booked their tickets any other way for expedia these days.

i like using expedia to book my tickets because via great canadian rebates, each ticket you purchase will get you a $1.50 rebate. i book two one-way tickets at no extra cost just to get two rebates. and while $3.00 is not a whole lot, it's better than the $0.00 that you get back from booking on the airline website directly.

links from the web -- june 15, 2013

1) canadian kilometers writes about the $20 trick in vegas to get a free upgrade. this is a well-written about trick that i honestly don't know if i have the guts to try out for myself. but he tries it by slipping a $20 in his passport photo page, and innocently asking for a complimentary room upgrade to a higher floor. and it works. i'd rather get the complimentary upgrade because i've earned it with status, though.

2) hack my trip has a screen shot of the new united interface that gate agents use. it appeals to the airline enthusiast in me to figure out how they determine if involuntary denial of boardings (bumps) are required.

3) on an older note, there was a wonderful post done by a united gate agent in 2006 which described the rules as to how he would assign operational upgrades in the case where planes were oversold in the back but not in the front, or at least how they were processed. it would appear that the common held belief that schmoozing up to the gate agent makes an upgrade no more or less likely. upgrades, as he explains, are done solely to help the  company.

4) late on this, but view from the wing notes that you can get free virgin atlantic silver status. they don't have any meaningful partnerships which would impact my own travel. if they were a part of an alliance, then i would probably sign up as it would likely give me an increased free luggage allowance on those member airlines. but because they're not, and because there are no free miles being handed out here as well, it's an offer that i'll just let sit. (the benefits of silver status are here, and there is note that there may be a partnership with delta in the works).

5) from my favorite canadian deals blog, smartcanucks links to a 15-20% off coupon for all purchases at the hudsons bay company valid until sunday, jun 16, 2013. i remember how when i was growing up, that was the only place where i used to shop. pretty much now, it's still the only place i go to for household stuff.

links from the web -- may 4, 2013

1) rapid travel chai had posted his travels to the democratic people's republic of (north) korea. in his four-part series beginning here. such a fascinating read to a country that so few people are able to access, including travel on the world's only one star airline, air koryo. there's certainly a flair of americanism in his post, but it is so descriptive. it's a place that i'd want to try going one day, once all the hubbub subsides. apparently, while it's good to go with a sense of curiosity, it's important to exercise such curiosity in a safe manner.

2) the points guy asks if it's polite to ditch your traveling companion for tsa PreCheck in america. this is a program which allows for expedited security screening at airports. with PreCheck, you get to go through security without taking off your jacket and shoes, without removing your liquids, and without removing your laptop. the line is also significantly shorter. this is significant for me because while i don't have PreCheck via being an elite member of an american frequent flyer program, i am eligible because i am a part of the trusted traveler program (nexus). the most relevant part of his post to me was the fact that he was eligible for PreCheck despite having an international leg in his itinerary -- i was always under the impression that having any international leg in the entire itinerary would preclude you from being able to use PreCheck.

anyway, to answer the question, i think it's completely fine. i was allowed priority screening in canada with my nexus pass back when the bf didn't have his, and i totally took advantage of it while traveling with him to edmonton. the bf went to the regular lines, and he came out less than 30 seconds later. but still, does it really make sense for both of us to be in a long line?

3) UA insider, a company representative on flyertalk, had posted about united's plans to re-introduce different subscriptions to the united club, checked baggage, and economy plus. as a non-us star gold member, i get the first two for free anyway. but the subscription for economy plus is interesting to me. right now, i'm probably at 50/50 the number of times that the agents will upgrade my seat to economy plus by virtue of having star gold. and for longer flights, economy plus is certainly much more comfortable. a part of me toys with the idea buying a pass, but the bigger part of me realizes that i'm way too cheap.

4) starwood's q2/3 double take promotion went live sometime last week. the link to register is here.

links from the web -- april 9, 2013

1) remember checkout 51? next thursday, according to smart canucks, will have new offers. apparently, the glade plugins scented oil starter kits will have a 5$ rebate. but wait! i had coupons from websaver.ca delivered to my house a few weeks ago, which also included a 5$ off coupon for the same product. i looked at walmart.com, and these starter kits are going for 4.88$ in the states. so there's probably a good chance that i'm gonna make money off of this deal. it's too bad that i don't actually use these products ...

2) from the same site except posted here, you can get a mail-in rebate for a free finish quantum 20-ct of dishwashing detergent. just purchase and print off the mail-in rebate for up to 8.49$ on any quantum product.

3) tucked away and not broadly advertised on their site, uxb on flyertalk had posted a new starwood promo: stay 3 nights and get a 50$ ticketmaster cash code. stay one night, and check in on foursquare while you're a registered guest, and you'll get a 10$ ticketmaster cash code. stays have to be between apr 5 and may 5. sadly, my upcoming stays all fall just outside of that range.

4) starwood also recently released details about their second quarter promo on flyertalk. double points on eligible stays from may 1 - jul 31. (registration required, but not yet released).  furthermore, if you book on their iphone app, you get 500 extra points per booking.

• for a 100$ hotel night, you get 300 points for base spendings as a gold member
• you receive a ~250 points or more for a gold check-in (i think?)
• you receive an extra 200 bonus points from this promotion
• you receive 500 points a night since you're booking on the app (booking separate nights can be more lucrative).

so for a 100$ hotel night stay, you can receive up to 1250 points, which i value at 25$. if you choose to convert those starpoints to air canada's aeroplan, you will receive up to a 25% bonus, or 1,563 aeroplan points. not bad!