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Members of Marriott Rewards can now opt to have their final hotel bills sent to them via e-mail, eliminating the need to obtain a paper bill at the front desk when checking out.
To sign up to receive e-bills, Rewards members should check the appropriate box in their online profiles on the Marriott website.
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When Northwest imposed a $15 surcharge for preferred seats in March, the move elicited a collective groan from travelers.
While the so-called Coach Choice program will remain in place, the surcharges will be waived for elite WorldPerks members, effective Apr. 18. Here's the jist of the announcement sent to elites:
o WorldPerks Elite customers will be exempt from the Coach Choice charge. Elite customers will have access to Coach Choice seats up to 24 hours prior to departure at no cost. These seats will be available via Northwest Self-service Check-in Kiosks or nwa.com.
o The seats chosen for the Coach Choice program will be adjusted. Some of the most popular coach seats, such as row 6 on the DC9, will be returned to the Select Seating zone. Other seats on the aircraft will be designated as Coach Choice seats. Select Seating, which includes aisle seats, exit row and bulkhead, will remain an important component of our Elite member benefits.
Our take: Coach Choice was a gouge thinly disguised as a consumer benefit. Exempting elites from that gouge is obviously a positive; but the new policy makes the case that the fees are nasty nickel-and-dimeing and should be eliminated altogether.
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Through May 15, WorldPerks members can earn up to 25,000 bonus miles when flying Northwest roundtrip to Hong Kong, Singapore or Seoul in booking class J, C, Z, Y, B, M, Q or V.
Earn 3,000 bonus miles for the first qualifying roundtrip, 7,000 for the second, and 15,000 for the third, for a total of 25,000 bonus miles for three roundtrips.
Registration is required.
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Through July 25, Priority Club Rewards members can redeem 10% fewer points for dining and retail certificates.
Retail partners include Amazon, Best Buy, Blockbuster, Circuit City, Land's End, Pier 1, Target, and Sharper Image.
Restaurant partners include Bennigan's, Buca Di Beppo, Chili's, Macaroni Grill, Olive Garden, Omaha Steaks Catalog, Red Lobster, etc.
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When is a blog just a soft-sell ad for its corporate underwriter? That's a question that Starwood's new blog site will, perhaps, shed some light on.
The site's self-proclaimed mission: "To help keep Starwood Preferred Guests on top of the latest travel trends, Starwood and ElectricArtists have assembled a team of travel writers to contribute to this site."
Aspirations aside, what the site delivers is spiffy look-and-feel, but insipid content.
It may simply be an impossible brief: to please both the site's corporate masters and frequent travelers looking for advice that goes beyond recommending French Laundry, arguably the country's highest-profile restaurant (and harder to book than an award seat to Hawaii during the Christmas holidays).
Tellingly, the "writers" are only identified as Thomas C., Nick L. and the like, suggesting that they're not altogether comfortable in their roles as advertorial writers.
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When a company issues a press release after business hours on Good Friday, you know it's NOT good news, even if the headline promises "New Benefits and Changes."
The bad news in question: In six months, Mileage Plus members will be forced to redeem more miles for many awards; and they'll be forced to pay new fees for awards ticketed within 14 days of departure.
Award Level Increases
Following is a summary of the major changes in award levels for travel booked on/after Oct. 16.
First, the basic Saver award for coach travel within the continental U.S. and Canada remains at 25,000 miles. The first-class domestic Saver award also remains the same, at 60,000 miles. But the business-class Saver award increases from 40,000 to 45,000 miles.
First and business-class Saver awards to Hawaii will increase from 60,000 to 75,000 and from 80,000 to 90,000 miles respectively.
And Saver awards to Australia/New Zealand increase by 20,000 miles across the board from 60K/90K/120K miles for coach/business/first class to 80K/110K/140K miles.
For Standard (i.e. unrestricted) awards, both coach and business-class domestic awards will increase by 10,000 miles, to 50,000 and 90,000 miles respectively. Standard Hawaii awards increase from 60K/120K/160K miles to 70K/150K/190K for coach, business and first class.
Standard South America and Europe awards all increase, from 80K/150K/200K miles to 100K/180K/220K miles for coach/business/first. And Standard Australia/New Zealand awards increase from 100K/150K/200K to 150K/220K/270K miles for coach/business/first class.
Fees
Also effective Oct. 16, United will begin charging a $70 fee for award travel ticketed six or fewer days prior to departure and a $50 for award travel ticketed between seven and 13 days prior to departure. Fees are waived for 1K Mileage Plus and Global Services members.
The new benefits touted in United's news release are modest at best.
First, through Mar. 15, 2007, United is committing to allocating "a percentage of Saver Award seats on every flight to every international and domestic United destination." Since United won't disclose what percentage of seats are being reserved for Saver awards, the commitment rings somewhat hollow.
And second, United will offer Short Haul Saver Awards through the end of the year: award flights up to 700 miles each way on United, United Express and Ted for 15,000 miles, rather than the normal 25,000 miles.
Instead of the ham-fisted attempt at spinning the news -- which fools few and insults many -- United would have done better to simply explain that the award increases put United's levels squarely in line with its competitors'. The same can be said of the booking fees -- although these fees ultimately cannot be justified by any airline since in the era of online booking and e-tickets, there's no extra cost to the airlines to issue last-minute tickets.
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