Will Frequent Flyer Miles save Ehud Olmert?

As if Ehud Olmert didn't have enough on his plate, the Israeli prime minister is now suspected of double-billing his trips, and using the surplus money for family vacations. Olmert claims he used frequent flyer miles. See full story here.

400 Starwood Points in Chicago, Registration Required

Starwood is offering a complementary upgrade and 400 Starwood points at all its Westin properties in Chicago - but registration is required. You'll also enter a draw for a Heavely Bed pacakge. Check out the details here

Options for new Diamond Club members

It all started in January, when bmi offered 9,000 miles just for joining its frequent flyer program, Diamond Club. That's enough for a return flight within Europe. Although those days are over, bmi is still very aggressively trying to recruit new members. There are at least 4 active offers for new members; two that require a flight, two that don't. Check them out here.

Competing for Filipino Members

1,500 Bonus Miles are offered to new members of Cathay Pacific Asia Miles after their first flight from Manila, providing their address is in the Philippines. And Philippines Airlines is offering 50% bonus miles on their new route between Manila and Macau.

MileMaven on WNBC

MileMaven was mentioned yesterday on "Sree Advice", a weekly tech segment that airs on Mondays and Thursdays on WNBC 4 News in New York. Other sites that were recommended are FlyerTalk, WebFlyer and Placely.

Anyway... we got lots of traffic and our service crashed for a few hours. Apologies if you got an error message! We've now tweaked our servers to handle more requests. This is the kind of problem that we enjoy solving...

2,500 Starwood Points for Submitting an Enquiry

So is it inquiry or enquiry? I got used to the latter - too much time spent in the U.K. and India, I guess - but Firefox wants me to use the former. Anyway, enough with that.

After blogging about PointMaven's newest addition - support for meeting offers - I realized that I forgot to mention the most interesting offer out there, which probably deserves a post of its own: 2,500 Bonus Starpoints when submitting a meeting RFP. You don't actually need to book a meeting - just submit a request for proposal. Here's the offer page.

PointMaven now Lists Bonuses for Meeting Planners

Many hotel programs offer incredible amounts of points to meeting and event planners. Starwood, Marriott and IHG's Priority Club all offer points for event-dollars in their hotel guest plans. Since events can run thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, we're talking lots of points. For example, a $12,000 event will earn you 4,000 Starwood points and 36,000 with Marriott or Priority Club. Given that you're usually not the one paying for the event, that's pretty nice.

But wait. It gets better. These programs often run promotions for event planners. And hey - we're not talking your run-of-the-mill "1,000 bonus points" promotion that we earthlings are usually very happy with. We're talking thousands, tens-of-thousands, and sometimes hundreds-of-thousands of points.

And now, PointMaven includes all these meetings promotions, so if it's points you're after - search PointMaven before you book! How do you find these promotions? Easy. Search as usual, and then look for a greenish "MEETINGS" designation next to the offer name. For example, here are the results for Marriott Rewards hotels in Atlanta. Tip: Deeper marker color means more promotions.

More information:
Starwood Preferred Planner
Priority Club Meeting Rewards
Marriott Rewards for Meeting Planners

Here's a sample PointMaven screenshot. Notice the MEETINGS near the offer name.

Complimentary Premier Executive Status, Take 2

United is again running targeted offers for free, 90-day Premier and Executive Premier status. Registration is needed by July 31, 2008. Since it may up take up to two weeks for the new elite status to show up online, the following strategy is suggested: Register for Executive Premier. Wait two weeks. Check your account to see if you got lucky. If not, register for Premier. Since this is a targeted offer, YMMV.

Good luck, and please remember: No expectations, no disappointments!

See milemaven.com/UA for links and offer details.

Blame Frequent Flyer Programs for "Hub Premium"

Or at least a portion of it. Prof. Lara Lederman, a researcher at the Rotman School of Business, estimates that "FFPs account for between 25% and 37% of the fare premium that hub carriers receive.'". Her research methodology examined the relationship between frequent flyer partnerships and fares in order to isolate the FFP component of the hub premium: If a non-hub carrier becomes a frequent flyer partner of the hub carrier, can it now charge a premium since it is more lucrative, FFP-wise? The short answer is yes. For the long story, read the recently published paper. The research is based on rather old data - remember when US Airways and American Airlines were still partners? - so it would certainly be fascinating to try and figure out if, and how, things have changed since then.

Bonus Miles, New York to Paris

American Airlines is offering bonus miles from JFK to CDG, but only in its more expensive fare classes: Double Miles in full fare economy (Y/B), and triple in business (J/D/I). Register by August 25th, fly by September 1st.

If I got the numbers right, then an Executive Platinum flying in business will earn 30898 miles for the round trip - enough for a domestic award.

Complete details on MileMaven's AA page.

MileCalc Shows Full Airport Names

A fan of MileCalc.com requested that the Itermized Mileage Calculation table will display, in addition to the 3-letter airport code, also the full airport name. Done!

BusyPoints.com alerts when 500 Bonus Points Offer is Available

Starwood Preferred Guest has this ingenious incentive to encourage customers to hang up the phone and book online when the call centers are collapsing under extreme load: A recorded message refers callers to an online site that awards 500 bonus points when booking online. But this booking bonus is only available during those very specific, and highly unpredictable, busy times.

Since it's impossible to predict the offer's availability, a reasonable booking strategy would be to book as usual, and later rebook if - and when - the offer becomes available, provided that the room rate did not increase.

But how would you know when to (re)book if you fancy those 500 points? A new website, still in beta, seems to take care of that. Called BusyPoints.com, it offers an RSS feed that will alert you as soon as the bonus status changes.

Italian Airline Offers Double Miles on US-based Programs

Air One, an independent Italian airline, is offering double US Airways Dividend Miles on its new transatlantic route between Milan and Boston. And if the latest Dividend Miles "improvements" encouraged you to switch to United Airlines' program, you can also earn double Mileage Plus miles when flying Air One domestically in Europe. Complete details on the Air One page.

Choice Privileges Speeds Elite Status Acquisition

Choice Hotels is offering elite status twice as fast: Only 5 nights instead of 10. To qualify, you will need to join by September 30, and stay 5 nights by the end of 2008. Elite status earns you a 10% bonus on subsequent stays, as well as exclusive offers. Complete details here.

5,000 Miles for Trying Out DXB T3

Want to act as a passenger and earn miles? Emirates is offering 5,000 miles to volunteers for checking out Terminal 3, which will soon become their main hub of operation in Dubai International Airport. From the official announcement:

Operational Trials at T3 will be conducted in summer 2008. The trials will facilitate a seamless transition from the construction site to a fully operational facility. Dubai Airports will be recruiting volunteers from the general public to evaluate the proposed operations. The volunteers, recruited to act as passengers will also help in assessing the various facilities. This will ensure complete functionality on the opening day.
Dubai Airports is looking forward to maximum participation from the public. From frequent flyers to first time flyers, everyone is invited to help Terminal 3 get off to a flying start.

Where's that Offer?

So let's say Delta Air Lines was offering double MQMs on flights taken between April 1st and June 30th, but you had to register for the promotion and book these flights by April 30th. Up until recently, MileMaven would display this promo up until the last day of travel, which in this case would be June 30th. We have now improved our algorithms and databases to also take note of the last day of the promotion, and to display the offer only until the last day of validity, which is usually - but not always - the last day of travel. So in the double MQMs case, the offer would not display starting May 1st, since if you didn't register by then, there's no point displaying it and creating information overload.

What if you want to find expired offers? Use our "Show Expired Promotions" link, available on the lower right bar after searching for route, airline or program promotions. This is also where you'll find the Delta promo these days.

MileCalc Reflects New US Airways Elite Non-Earnings

US Airways has recently announced the future elimination of elite level bonuses, among other changes. This earth-shuttering event has been analyzed to death at the various forums and industry blogs, so we will skip the ranting here, even though it's very tempting to do so. But in case you haven't heard, starting with tickets purchased on or after August 6th, preferred members of its Dividend Miles program will no longer earn bonus miles on US Airways flights.

To reflect this new policy, we recently completed the unpleasant task of updating MileCalc, our frequent flyer calculator. So now MileCalc supports two US Airways "modes": one for tickets booked before August 6th, and the second for tickets booked on or after that date.

I must admit: it's kind of addictive - yet painful - to watch the mile totals drop when changing from the first mode to the second.

How to Earn 750 Miles PER NIGHT at Best Western

Best Western's Gold Crown Club (GCC) program is offering 12,000 bonus points when staying 4 nights and paying with any American Express card. Registration is required.

If your earning preference with GCC is airline miles, and you don't mind paying with your American Express, consider switching - at least temporarily - to earning points, and then converting the points to miles. You will earn at least 750 miles per night, instead of the usual 250 miles per stay. Here's the calculation:

Assuming a daily rate of $90 and a basic membership, 4 nights will earn you 3,600 points (AAA/CAA members earn a 10% bonus. Gold Elite level and above earn an additional 10% to 30%). Together with the 12K bonus, that's at least 15,600 points - more than enough for 3,000 miles at most major North American carriers (see conversion chart here), or 750 miles per night.

If you happen to stay at a Best Western property which offers quadruple points (here's one such hotel), you'll earn the equivalent of 1,000 miles per night.

To change your earning preference, click here (login required).

P.S.: GCC also offers a $50 travel card after staying 6 night this summer (5 nights if you're an AAA/CAA member). These two offers seem to be combinable. Again, registration required.

United offers complimentary Premier Executive status

The competition for high-mileage travelers is heating up. United Airlines is now sending out targeted invitations for a 90-day complimentary Premier Executive (PE) status. PE is usually achieved by flying at least 50,000 qualifying miles (or 60 qualifying segments) a year.

Registration must be completed by June 30th, 2008. Eligible members will not receive the PE card or any other material, but will get all the benefits of PE, including Y/B upgrades, free Economy Plus seating, mileage bonuses, priority check-in, etc.

Although the offer is targeted, you may want to give it a shot. Note that the offer is not combinable with other non-combinable offers. Click here for the registration page. The offer code is MPD408.

Double Points for Travelers who Plan Ahead

If you plan to fly between the U.S. and Australia around November/December 2008 or February/March 2009, pay attention: Qantas is offering double points between Melbourne or Sydney and Los Angeles during these months. The dates are different for Melbourne and Sydney.
The only caveat: You need to purchase the tickets - and register for the promotion - by June 20th, 2008.
Click here for more information.