Saturday, November 29, 2008

Found a website to search budget airline fare

http://www.skyscanner.net/

It includes lots of budget airlines. good option for a short haul flight

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

I found changedetection to replace Changealarm

Changealarm is no longer working, I found a replacement.

Delta Partner Activities Bonus Promotion Updates

Delta has canceled the promotion on Nov 21st, but according to this internal memo,

"Customer who enrolled prior to cancellation may still earn bonus as noted"

So if you registered before Nov 21st, you should be able to get bonus as long as you complete activities by Dec 31st. bonus will be awarded 8-10 weeks after Dec 31st.

There is no way to confirm with Delta whether u have registered or not, if you did, u should get those bonus.

I am going to re initiate my SPG and Marriott transfers this weekend.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Just did some award redemptions today

I redeemed 60K miles for my mom and grandma in Business from PEK to DPS(Bali) next months, total taxes are $145 per person including $25 partner fees and $20 ticketing fees. Not too bad for a C-class award. Also redeemed 28K Hyatt points for 4 nights at Hyatt Regency Bali Club room.

did a last minutes first class redemption for my wife travel this weekend to Ontario,CA. Outbound on US airways and return on United. Total cost 45K UA miles + $10 taxes

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Delta has changed all rental car promotions

Since I was not in States during past few months, I have not aware the changes. Today when I tried to book a rental car for my wife, I noticed all deals are dead! It's time to credit those miles back to VS

Saturday, November 22, 2008

United Airline is no longer my first choice for travel and award accumulation

UA mileage program has always been my first choices since I played miles game 3 years ago because its low amount for premium cabin redemption to lots of places around the world with great *A network.

With changes on award redemption effective Jan 1st,2009, UA will be no longer my first choice for travel and award accumulation.

1 Award level jumps to high, by way too high. from 90K business to Asia to 125K, from 110K business to OZ and NZ to 135K, from 75K business Asia to Oceania and OZ to 100K, many intra zone business changes from 30K to 50K and many more.

2 United *A award doesn't allow any changes once trip begin, you either use it or lost it. Since my time has become very flexible with lots of last min changes, it's very hard for me to come up with a fixed return date.

Now which airline become my top choice?

AA, DL and BMI

It's hard to believe DL is on my list, right?

All three airlines programs have two same advantages, flexibility and lower rate.

AA only needs 110K in business to most Asia, even cheaper to Japan and Korea, and AA offers unbelievable cheap premium cabin travel from Most Asia to South Pacific and Middle east, 70K/90K, 60K/80K. no fee to change on award any time as long routing and carrier remind same.

DL needs 120K in business to Asia and 30K in business for intra-Asia and you can change any time you want with a fee of $100, waived for Platinum member. Yes, many people complaint about availability on Delta and its partners in Premium cabin, but did you try to look up Korean Air? It's easy to find Business award seats on Korean air.

BD will make up other regions with its C+P award and one way redemption. I know BD has been taken over by LH, but until LH releases BD program ending, I will still accumulate miles on it.

Someone asked me How did I get those marriott points even when I hate them so much

I am not big fan of Marriott, that's right,235K are all I have. I got most of those points(130K) in 11 months when I was working full time with a company 2 years ago, rest of them from online shopping, occasional stay with various bonus offers.

How to get Marriott points faster? bonus promotion is a key and also online shopping if you have large purchase. Before Marriott change its redemption policy on Jan 15th 2009, Travel package award will get points to miles on 1:1 ratio, which means online shopping bonus reward will be higher than most airlines.

Wait on Delta Promotion!

Delta has pulled the promotion page, so there maybe some changes to T &C, don't transfer anything until the promotion link back up again.

I canceled my SPG points transfer because I don't have time to fight for my bonus.

Shame on Delta.

Friday, November 21, 2008

US airways will give Elite Bonus and min 500 mils retroactively

Finally, people at Save DividendMiles made victory, US airway is bringing back Preferred bonus miles and 500 mile segment minimums for Preferred members.

I can't believe how US airways management can approve drop Elite bonus at first place, they are really "creative", first Major carrier charges almost everything, first carrier drops 500 segment bonus and first carrier drops Elite bonus. Yes, they were FIRST MAJOR CARRIER DROPPED ELITE BONUS ON EARTH and hope other carriers would follow.

They finally realized they are stupid.

One week only, British Airways Half Off Redemption.

Gary posted this deal on his blog, offer valid until Nov 28th GMT, here is highlight of T&C

-Reductions on redemption fares across all cabins
-Available on BA Miles only (not Part Cash Part Miles or Miles for Upgrade)
-Book between 21-28th November 2008
-No travel period restrictions
-Pre-registration not required
-Offer on all routes on BA mainline scheduled services with a BA prefix, but not on services operated wholly or partly by BA’s franchisees, codeshare partners or oneworld™ alliance members.

right now it's a great time to travel overseas

With current Financial Crisis, many countries currency drop significantly.

South Korea dropped from 1USD:900 Korean Won 3 years ago to 1:1450

Indonesia: dropped from 1:8000 to 1:12000

South Africa: dropped from 1: 6 to 1:10

and many more such as NZ, Iceland, it's time to go somewhere.

Some Updates on Delta Promotion

1 For SPG transfer, the best way is to transfer 20000 SPG to Delta per day
because DL system can not accept more than 32K Hotel transfer per
transaction, 20K SPG will get u 25K miles, which is the best value

2 AMEX credit card signup bonus may not count because those miles will be posted as Bonus.

3 AMEX MR transfer doesn't count

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Delta Partner Activities Bonus Promotion

You need to register here, then complete partner activities for up to 150% bonus.

Base Miles Earned Bonus Total Miles
1,000-4,999 50% 1,500-7,498
5,000-9,999 100% 10,000-19,998
10,000 or more 150% 25,000 or more

I have Marriott travel package waiting to cash out 120K miles to AA, but with this promotion, I decide to transfer to Delta instead. I will get 300K miles for this transfer. Madagascar, here I come!!

Ritz Carlton Sanya

The hotel is located on Yalong Bay Hotel zone in Sanya and it's the newest and last one open at Yalong Bay area.


Hallway



Room about 60 Sqm



View from room


Another one



Swimming Pool

Overall, the hotel is nice and good for couples, not good for group of friends because the swimming pool has no volleyball or basketball like Hilton or Sheraton. The price is RMB1800 all in for a deluxe Ocean view room from local travel agent, and 2100+15% on Ritz Carlton website. Since there is no points program at Ritz Carlton hotel, local travel agent will be a good option.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

$50 off per night for booking at HotelClub.com

Gary mentioned in his blog, you can get $50 off by sign up hotelclub.com, offer valid to Nov 30th.

one $50 off per account per email address, you can use diff email address to sign up and separate ur booking into multiple one night bookings.

I booked two nights at Omni Orlando for $76 per night, not bad

Qantas 2 for 1 sale to Australia

Qantas offer buy 1 get 1 free on selected markets for travel btw Feb 1st-Apr 30th,2009, the lowest avaliable from Feb16th-Apr30th, 2009, book by Nov 17th,2008.

Sample fare:

Honolulu Sydney from $1,658 $0 from $1,658*
Los Angeles Sydney from $1,838 $0 from $1,838*
Los Angeles Melbourne from $1,930 $0 from $1,930*
Los Angeles Auckland from $1,758 $0 from $1,758*
San Francisco Melbourne from $1,976 $0 from $1,976*
New York Brisbane from $2,330 $0 from $2,330*

Not a bad deal

Thursday, November 13, 2008

A good news here on Delta Award

Delta has removed its award chart for Non us departure long time ago and imposed a new three tier award system few months ago. The good news is Intra Asia Business class award still remind at 30K as I checked yesterday from PEK-DPS, so still a great value for DL miles.


BTW, I am too busy right now, so not as many update as before. hope I can write more in few weeks.

Friday, November 7, 2008

United Award level change effective Jan 1st, 2009

I think many people already heard the change on United award redemption level on Jan 1st, 2009, I have to say, this change put UA program redemption level worse than AA's chart now.

Lots of Business award at 30K level jump by 66% to 50K, and Business Class to Asia from N.A jump by more than 33% to 125K.

The only positive change I found is Business award btw North asia and South Asia, drop from 60K to 30K, in line with DL, NW

Cheap premium cabin award time is gone.