"Up Front" Blog Entries

Following are some of Tim's recent blog posts:

• The Top Five Award Destinations for December
  Your five best bets for award travel this month.
• Coming to Your Inbox: Frequent Flyer Award Alerts
  Two services monitor award availability and notify subscribers.
• Attention Shoppers, Frequent Flyer Miles in Aisle Three
  No trip, no problem. Earn miles and points for holiday shopping.
• Delta Admits Mistake, Rolls Back Seating Policy
  Delta will no longer sell preferred coach seats.

The FrequentFlier Forum - Hot Topics

As always, there's plenty of activity on the FrequentFlier Forum.

In the "Airline Programs" Forum, the "American Express Auto Insurance - Delta Miles" thread, started back in September 2005, remains active, with Ronald reminding everyone as follows: "Remember, you can earn a quick 500 Delta miles once every six months."

Also in the "Airline Programs" Forum, we now know what became of the "Huge Delta Airlines partner bonus offer" mentioned in the thread begun by Gary Steiger. According to Delta:

The More Miles You Earn, the Bigger the Bonus

The SkyMiles multi-partner threshold promotion was in the development phase and not yet formally announced or launched when it was inadvertently published online. The landing page should not have been live and the content was subsequently removed.

However, Delta Air Lines will honor the bonus miles promotion for SkyMiles members who have already enrolled.

The mystery of the disappearing promotion, solved.

Questions, answers, opinions? Post them to the Forum!

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10K Bonus Miles for American, oneworld Flights

Between January 1 and March 31, AAdvantage members can earn 10,000 bonus miles when flying round-trip on American and another oneworld airline in first, business, or full-fare coach (F, J, A, D, I, R, Y, B or H).

Bonus may be earned one time only. Registration is required.

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Double Choice Points for Holiday Shopping

Joining a host of other airline and hotel programs that feature similar promotions, Choice Privileges is offering members double points for purchases at 23 online retailers participating in the Choice Privileges Online Mall.

Bonuses are in effect through December 31.

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Six Times More Delta Miles for Hilton Stays

Between December 1, 2008, and February 28, 2009, members of Delta's SkyMiles and Hilton's HHonors programs can earn six times the number of miles normally earned for stays of two or more nights at participating Hilton family hotels.

During the promotion, HHonors members earning Points & Variable Miles will earn 10 HHonors Base points and six Delta miles for every dollar charged to their room, instead of the 10 HHonors points and one airlines mile normally earned.

And HHonors members who choose Points & Fixed Miles will earn 10 Base points per dollar spent and 3,000 Delta SkyMiles per stay (or 600 miles per stay at Hampton and Homewood Suites), instead of the normal 10 Base points per dollar and 500 airline miles per stay (100 miles per stay at Hampton and Homewood Suites).

Registration is required.

There are more than 3,000 hotels in the Hilton HHonors network, only 1,500 of which are participating in this promotion. So be sure to confirm in advance that your hotel is on the list.

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National Offers Free Rental Day

National has extended its Emerald Club "One Two Free" promotion, originally set to expire on December 12, through the end of January.

The offer: Members of National Car Rental's Emerald Club will receive one free rental day for every two rentals of a midsize or larger car, for two or more days, in the U.S. and Canada.

Registration is required.

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Deal Alert from SmarterTravel.com

1) Europe Sale Fares on Lufthansa From $388

Lufthansa is offering Europe winter and spring sale fares starting at $388 round-trip. Destinations include Dublin, London, Madrid, and Paris.

Travel is valid from December 10 through December 16 and from January 12, 2009 through May 2, 2009. Book by December 3, 11:59 PM ET.

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2) Sale Fares on Virgin America from $59 Each Way

Winter domestic flights are on sale from Virgin America. Fares start at $59 one-way or $118 round-trip, and Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, and San Diego are featured.

Travel is valid from January 6, 2009 through March 1, 2009. Book by December 11, 11:59 PM ET.

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Win a Trip for 2 to Australia

Enter Tourism Australia's "Lose Yourself in the Movie" sweepstakes by January 9, 2009, for a chance to win a 10-day trip to Australia for two, including air and hotel (three nights in Sydney, two in Alice Springs, two in Uluru (Ayers Rock) and three in Cairns, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef).

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[Visit FrequentFlier.com for more travel sweepstakes.]

Feedback from the Frontlines of Travel

In response to an Australia sweepstakes featured two weeks ago, which residents of California and several other states were prohibited from entering: "Quite often individual States have very strict laws, regarding Sweepstakes and Competitions and the Companies involved need to cover themselves, or risk prosecution.

"Needless to say, having a Criminal record and involving minors in these Competitions is also a high risk to the Companies, thus the rules and regulations involved and so be reassured, Australians do not have anything against Californians or any other State, they are just law abiding Citizens." [Colleen D.]

Also in regard to the restrictions on the Australia sweepstakes: "The rules in California are too strict for them to follow. From the state's legal guidelines:

Finally, a contest in which participation is conditioned on payment of value and in which prizes are awarded primarily by chance is a lottery rather than a contest. Under California law, only the California State Lottery may operate a lottery. All other lotteries, except bingo games operated by charitable organizations, are prohibited by California's Penal Code.

[Claus M.]

"Like previous readers, I have more Delta SkyMiles than I care to have and can never convert them for a flight for a hundred reasons they always give me.

"The only thing my miles are good for is a subscription to the Wall Street Journal. With the miles I continue to accumulate, I will have a lifetime subscription to the WSJ till the year 2040!!" [Bowman O.]

"In [last week's] newsletter, there is this editor's note:

FrequentFlier.com replies - Delta's award options are mostly the same as the other airlines', with one exception, their Pay with Miles feature. While it only generates 1 cent per mile in value, it does allow you to circumvent the normal restrictions on award tickets, because you're using the miles in lieu of cash to purchase a paid ticket.

"Unless I'm mistaken, the Pay With Miles program is available only to holders of the Delta branded American Express card, possibly with some other restrictions. Right?

"Great newsletter, by the way!" [Tom W.]

[FrequentFlier.com replies - That's correct, and we should have said as much. Apologies for the oversight.]

"My name is Kate, and I recently planned a trip to fly to Georgia and visit my cousin. Having never redeemed my frequent flier miles from the credit card I hold, I was a bit confused so I turned to the web and came across your page. I was able to find all of the information I needed, and actually wound up with a free flight. Because your site was so helpful, I wanted to take the time to recommend a site that you might want to include under your list of other helpful travel sites. I booked my hotel here, www.hotelsonline.com/, and was able to get a really great price on a nice room. Just a suggestion, as this might be a great added resource for your visitors. Thanks for all the great info." [Kate M.]

Until next week...