VIP Code on Thermostate - Worked at Hyatt

The VIP code I blogged about in this post worked great at the Hilton this summer. By entering the code it allowed me to override the thermostat temperature setting and reduce the temperature in the room as low as I wanted.

Tonight I arrived at the Hyatt in Atlanta and it was sweltering hot, so I checked to see if the thermostat is an INNCOM, and sure enough it was. So I tried out the code below, and it worked like a charm.

While holding down "display"
Press "off"
Then Press "Up" arrow
Release "display" button

You'll know it worked when you see a picture like this. Thats right, it says VIP!

















The Bottom line

Just because your not staying at a Hilton doesn't mean this code won't work. Check out the type of thermostat and give it a try, drop a comment if it worked for you.

How to Use Priceline to Name Your Own Price for Hotels

Priceline's Name Your Own Price feature can be a very effective way of booking cheap travel. But if you do a few easy extra steps you’ll be able to use this feature to increase the odds of knowing what hotel you’ll win, and to decrease the cost you’ll pay. In the past I used this method to book the Lodge Renaissance Sonoma Resort and had confidence I would get that exact hotel at around $100 a night.

First you need to Select your Area Carefully

The first step is to navigate to Priceline search for hotels and view the cities by star rating category in your area for hotels. The objective here is to find a category where there are very few hotels to select from in a star rating category. By selecting a star rating category in an area with few hotels, this will help narrow down the possibilities of hotels for your winning bid.

Example: I choose Napa, California. The Napa, CA area only has 1 category 4 star hotel, the Vino Bello Resort. By using this location in Name Your Own Price I can narrow down my chances that I will get this hotel if I place a winning bid. The Resort is selling for $328 on the regular priceline hotel results page. But we can do better than that using Name Your Own Price by just a few more steps.

Next Check Biddingfortravel.com for Winning Bids

Biddingfortravel.com is the site you will want to use to check out what recent winning bids are going for in your area. Navigate to the location you found on Priceline and see what the winning bids are going for.

Example: In Napa, CA the 4 Star hotel is selling in a range of $80-$95 based on prior winning bids. That is around a $250 savings off the advertised priceline price. So based on other traveler’s experience you can narrow down your bidding range to $80-95, always start low. Keep in mind winning bids are affected by dates, and how far in advance one books. Once you win make sure you come back to this location and place your winning bid so others can benefit from your experience.

Finally Name Your (Educated) Own Price

Now that you have (1) Found a location with a limited number of hotels to choose from, and (2) know what the winning bids have been going for, place your bid using Priceline's Name Your Own Price. In my example I would start with a bid under $80 in case the previous bidders were too high. Then you will be notified whether you won or not by email. If you did not win simply wait a day, re-check Better Bidding, and re-bid within the range for that area. If you did win, drop us a line and let us know this helped, we always appreciate feedback.

Bottom Line

Priceline’s Name Your Own Price is a great feature to get great hotels at low prices. To increase your chances of scoring that hotel you want at a low price check out what other people have done over at Better Bidding.

Maximizing the SPG Promotion

My current stay strategy has me earning 7500 Starwood points per week. That is enough for 1 night in a Cat 3 hotel or a few nights in the lower category hotels.

Maximize Your The Promotion

The recent Starwood Get Closer to Paradise promotion awards members 1000 points based on "stays". A "stay" is defined as a check-in and a check-out regardless at how many nights but consecutive nights at the same hotel don't count as separate stays if you check-in/out. So the trick is to make your trips a collection of 1 night "stays".

My total earnings for the week (assuming 4 nights in a hotel) are around 7500. Here is the breakout.

Sun Night = 1000 Get Closer to Paradise Promo, 500 Platinum Amenity, 370 Spend Points
Mon Night = 1000 Get Closer to Paradise Promo, 500 Platinum Amenity, 370 Spend Points
Tue Night = 1000 Get Closer to Paradise Promo, 500 Platinum Amenity, 370 Spend Points
Wed Night = 1000 Get Closer to Paradise Promo, 500 Platinum Amenity, 370 Spend Points
Total earnings = 7480 points per week

Bottom Line

Always read the T&C's of the promotion. This strategy may not fit everyone's preferences, I admit checking out is not the funnest process. But with the little extra effort you can really increase the pace at which you earn points and get you closer to that next award.

Earn Points Without Traveling by Buying Money

Most of us use our reward credit cards to earn points and miles towards trips by purchasing everyday items. Charging food, gas, groceries can add up quick.

In this Flyertalk thread some people have taken it to another level by purchasing US Mint dollar coins on their reward credit cards. The process goes like this. First wait until the beginning of your credit card cycle, purchase US Mint coins (with free shipping), receive the coins, deposit the coins into your bank account, then pay off your credit card statement.

This can be a great way to pad your airline or hotel account on a monthly basis. Be sure if you use this to use it responsibly by using the coins to payoff the credit card statement on a monthly basis.

Bumping My Way to Happiness: Checking Flight Availability

To improve your chances for bumping take a look at AMEX Class Availability. This site allow you to search flights to determine how many tickets are available. If you are able to locate flights that have limited seating then your odds of being bumped, obviously, goes up. This site is fairly easy to use but may have information that is not accurate (ie. some flights or airlines may not provide data to the site). This site should be a tool in your bumping arsenal but not necessarily gospel.

First, select your flight:

Second, review your results:

Example of flight with seats (2+2+2+1=7) available.

Example of flight that is likely sold out.

These two examples illustrate when a flight has seats (any set of non-repeating numbers between 1 and 9 next to the fare class letters) and is likely sold out (all 0s). If a flight has all 9s, 7s, or some other repeating set of numbers next to the fare class letters then the flight or airline likely did not disclose the flight's ticket availability information.

My Prescription

Use this free site as guide in your quest to be bumped. The information seems to be accurate for the flights I have searched but anything can happen so do not expect a bump opportunity every time you see all 0s pop up. As I have already stated, just use this software as a tool in you arsenal. To further improve your bumping chances, I will be doing a review of ExpertFlyer, a fee-based site that also checks seats availability, soon to see if it is worth paying for this service.

How to Use Hotwire to Find Hotel Identities and at Low Prices

Hotwire.com is a search engine that deeply discounts hotels from one star up to five stars. The catch is that the hotels are disguised preventing you from knowing what hotel you are going to stay at prior to the purchase. In this post I will attempt to show you a way around this to ensure you have a reasonably good prediction of where you will end up.

First Search an Area & Select Star Rating

The first step is to navigate to the hotel search page and enter your location and dates. In my example I will use Las Vegas center strip and select five star hotels. There are only two-five star hotels available to select from. The names on Hotwire.com are “5-Star Condo in Central Strip” at $79, and “5-Star Hotel in Central Strip” at $103 per night.

Next Check BetterBidding.com for Recent Booking Experiences

Betterbidding.com is a great place where you can share your Hotwire.com and Priceline.com bidding experiences with other travelers. Navigate to the Nevada section and see what hotels are currently being sold for in the five star category. In my example of Las Vegas, there are a few hotels that have been selling for in the five star category.

So now we have a reasonable idea that the hotel in the five star category we will end up with could most likely be including the Wynn, the Venetian, or the Trump.

Next Review Hotwire listing for Hotel Identifiers

This is where it gets tricky. The main thing I look for is a cross-reference of the number of Tripadvisor.com reviews listed on the Hotwire.com hotel description page.

Trip Advisor Reviews can Narrow Down the Possibilities

The number of Tripadvisor.com reviews is almost a dead giveaway in my opinion. Tripadvisor.com is where travelers can go and post reviews about hotels. Tripadvisor.com tracks how many reviews have been recorded for a given hotel, and they are fairly unique for each hotel. Go to the Hotwire.com hotel description and view how many reviews for each hotel. In my example of Las Vegas I choose the five star central strip which has over "+1780" reviews.

Hotwire.com

Tripadvisor.com

As you can see it has over "+1780" reviews and now I can cross reference this on Tripadvisor.com with the suspected list of hotels I got from betterbidding.com. Voila, the Wynn hotel has 1809 reviews while the Venetian has 2011 and the Trump has only 224. This is almost a dead giveaway, and since the Hotwire.com room goes for $103 per night compared to the hotel’s website price of $159 that is a $56 savings.

Bottom Line

If you follow a few simply steps using Hotwire.com, you can save big bucks and be almost certain of the hotel you will purchase.

Bumping My Way to Happiness: Your Rights for Involuntary Bumping

Although bumping can be an easy way to earn credit toward future flights, involuntary bumping can delay seeing a loved one, a missed opportunity, or a bad start to a vacation. To ensure you know your rights regarding involuntary bumping the following from DOT's website should help:

Involuntary Bumping

DOT requires each airline to give all passengers who are bumped involuntarily a written statement describing their rights and explaining how the carrier decides who gets on an oversold flight and who doesn't. Those travelers who don't get to fly are frequently entitled to an on-the-spot payment of denied boarding compensation. The amount depends on the price of their ticket and the length of the delay:

* If you are bumped involuntarily and the airline arranges substitute transportation that is scheduled to get you to your final destination (including later connections) within one hour of your original scheduled arrival time, there is no compensation.

* If the airline arranges substitute transportation that is scheduled to arrive at your destination between one and two hours after your original arrival time (between one and four hours on international flights), the airline must pay you an amount equal to your one-way fare to your final destination, with a $400 maximum.

* If the substitute transportation is scheduled to get you to your destination more than two hours later (four hours internationally), or if the airline does not make any substitute travel arrangements for you, the compensation doubles (200% of your fare, $800 maximum).

* You always get to keep your original ticket and use it on another flight. If you choose to make your own arrangements, you can request an "involuntary refund" for the ticket for the flight you were bumped from. The denied boarding compensation is essentially a payment for your inconvenience.

Like all rules, however, there are a few conditions and exceptions:

* To be eligible for compensation, you must have a confirmed reservation. A written confirmation issued by the airline or an authorized agent or reservation service qualifies you in this regard even if the airline can't find your reservation in the computer, as long as you didn't cancel your reservation or miss a reconfirmation deadline.

* You must meet the airline's deadline for buying your ticket. Discount tickets must usually be purchased within a certain number of days after the reservation was made. Other tickets normally have to be picked up no later than 30 minutes before the flight.

In addition to the ticketing deadline, each airline has a check-in deadline, which is the amount of time before scheduled departure that you must present yourself to the airline at the airport. For domestic flights most carriers require you to be at the departure gate between 10 minutes and 30 minutes before scheduled departure, but some deadlines can be an hour or longer. Check-in deadlines on international flights can be as much as three hours before scheduled departure time. Some airlines may simply require you to be at the ticket/baggage counter by this time; most, however, require that you get all the way to the boarding area. If you miss the ticketing or check-in deadline, you may have lost your reservation and your right to compensation if the flight is oversold.

* As noted above, no compensation is due if the airline arranges substitute transportation which is scheduled to arrive at your destination within one hour of your originally scheduled arrival time.

* If the airline must substitute a smaller plane for the one it originally planned to use, the carrier isn't required to pay people who are bumped as a result.In addition, on flights using aircraft with 30 through 60 passenger seats, compensation is not required if you were bumped due to safety-related aircraft weight or balance constraints.

* The rules do not apply to charter flights, or to scheduled flights operated with planes that hold fewer than 30 passengers. They don't apply to international flights inbound to the United States, although some airlines on these routes may follow them voluntarily. Also, if you are flying between two foreign cities-from Paris to Rome, for example-these rules will not apply. The European Community has a rule on bumpings that occur in an EC country; ask the airline for details, or contact DOT.

Essential Travel Sites for Your PDA

List of sites that may be beneficial to PDA users.

Airline and Rail Travel
Air Canada
Air-France
American
Amtrak
British Airways
Continental
Delta
JetBlue
KLM
Lufthansa Airlines
Northwest
Southwest
United
US Airways
WestJet

Air Travel Resources
Flight Stats
kayak mobile
Orbitz
SeatGuru

Hotels
Doubletree
Embassy Suites
Hampton Inn
Hilton
Marriott
Starwood SPG

"On the Road" Resources
City.mobi
Dictionary
Fandango
Gas Buddy
Hop Stop
Language Translator
National Weather Service
Starbucks
TV Guide
Wikipedia
Zagat

As we come across new sites that we believe may interest you we will add them to this list. If you have sites that may be of interest to our travelers email us: pointsandmiles@gmail.com.

Why I Hop

Every day I am on the road I sleep in a different hotel. Every day I check in. Every day I unpack. Every day I pack. Every day I check out. Every day is a trip in itself as I make my way from hotel to hotel. Sometimes the hotels are 30 miles apart. Sometimes the hotels are right next door to each other. Why, do you ask? Why would a sane person subject themselves to this maddening routine? Sadistic? Some obsessive-compulsive disorder? No. I do it for points and status and if you are serious about earning points then you should consider doing it too.

Benefits of Hopping

So how much of a difference can hopping really make? A lot. Most reward program benefits are based on stays not days. To maximize the points provided by these programs you need to transition from staying at a hotel for 4 nights into 4 individual single-night stays. Four 500 point platinum amenities, for the four individual stays, at Starwood will net you an additional 1,500 points for the week. At Hyatt, a 2,500 point MasterCard promotional award coupled with a G2 2,000 point welcome award results in an additional 13,500 points for the week. Not only will more points be earned but you will also be able to achieve program statuses faster and acquire free nights that are often given away after 2 stays.

Help for the Hopper

Having done the hotel hop for quite some time, I have learned a few things that might be of benefit to you:

• Unpack just what you need for that day. My next day's clothes and toiletry bag is all I take out of suitcase. I keep everything else in the suitcase so that I can get check out as quickly as possible in the morning.
• Try to pick hotels near each other. Sometimes this is not possible but when it is it will make your travelling that much easier.
• If you have the luxury of having a car on your trip then the transporting of your luggage between hotels is relatively easy. For those who do not have a car, I recommend bringing an empty duffel bag in your checked-in luggage. To hop between two hotels in downtown San Francisco, Hotel A and Hotel B, I would go to Hotel A on Monday with my all of my belongings. At checkout, I would check-in my suitcase at the hotel and carry with me my duffel bag to Hotel B. My duffel bag contained my clothes for the next day, my toiletry bag, and anything else I might need for the following day. When I return to Hotel A on Wednesday, I would retrieve my checked-in suitcase and then repeat the duffel bag shuffle for Thursday.
• Until you get into a routine I would recommend tracking where you are going to be each day. At the end of a long work day you might not be at your sharpest and as a result you may end up at the wrong hotel. Yes, it has happened to me.
• Hopping can be in the same hotel chain or it can be a combination of hotel chains. Beginning in September, I will be hopping every other night between two Hyatt properties for the pending Faster Free Nights promotion. This is in contrast to my time in Charlotte where I hopped between the Starwood and Hyatt brands in an effort to achieve Platinum and Diamond statuses, respectively.
• Stay up-to-date on promotions and be sure to read them carefully. When I first started hopping there was a Hilton promotion that I thought was going to allow me to earn a fair number of airline miles. After hopping between Hiltons a few times and not seeing any miles, I read the promotion more closely. I was dismayed to learn that the stays had to be at least two days in length. Check the fine print and be sure your hopping doesn't leave you hopping mad.
• I have been upgraded to suites numerous times while hopping. Arriving later in the evening seemed to improve my chances for the upgrade as any potential high-rollers would likely have arrived by then. With only a single night stay, hotels are more likely to give you the suite as opposed to a multi-day stay traveler since they will at least have a chance to rent the room the next day.
• There have been reports that hotels on the same system, such as Dallas Starwood hotels, may not recognize different stays in different hotels. I will look into this further and provide a comment to this post if I can find out more.

My Prescription

If you are serious about points, and what they can provide, then you should consider hotel hopping. It only took me a week or two to adjust to the hopping lifestyle. The transition was made a lot easier with the substantial increase in points, status, and upgrades. I am sure you will agree once you drink the Kool-Aid.

Diana's Travel Dilemma: ITA Saves the Day!

Last week, Diana, a colleague, was asked to take an impromptu trip with relatives to Guatemala City for a week in early July. After the initial excitement about the trip's possibilities her excitement quickly turned into frustration and sadness. Sitting next to her, I could not help but hear the frustration in her voice as she contemplated not taking the trip because the best rate she could find was with United Airlines for over $1,100, which would have exceeded her budget.

Knowing that there had to be a better fare out there somewhere, I asked her for the trip details (origin, destination, and time frame for her trip) and set about trying to find her a better deal. The challenge was on!

My Points, Miles and Martinis's partner, The Weekly Flyer, is an astute traveler and knows where to find great rates. Since I really only travel on frequent flyer miles I did not know where to turn so I asked him where I should start. ITA Software was all he said.

ITA Software - Company Background

Founded in the mid 90's by a group of computer scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ITA Software (ITA) is an airline IT and services provider at the forefront of a new generation of technology that is changing the way the travel industry works. Combining advances in computer science, innovative problem-solving, and deep industry knowledge, the company’s solutions deliver improved power and flexibility to the travel industry and greater efficiency for airlines, travel distributors, and passengers.

ITA Software - The Software

The Software ITA's software searches the public fares published by the airlines very thoroughly, and then presents the answers to you in a form that's easy to read and easy to reorganize, so that you can easily compare the features that are most important to you. We can find and organize more options than a traditional travel agent or travel web site. While we don't have any private fares and will not be able to list fares that are part of special deals negotiated by travel agents or travel websites, we can often beat these private fares with our solutions.

The Challenge

I pulled up Points, Miles and Martinis and clicked on the ITA Software link to enter in her trip information. After hitting the Go! button with her trip information, a few seconds passed by then a list of flights from a variety of carriers came back. Low and behold, there were numerous flights for much less than $1,100 she was originally quoted with several options in the $500 range. In a matter of minutes I was able to cut the cost of her trip in half.

She was ecstatic and I was sold on ITA. The site provided us with the market rates for flights which, in this case, where much less than the original price quoted. There is a reasonable chance that flights could be found for a lower rate (i.e. specials on the airline site, Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc.) and with this new information, we, and now you, know where to go to see if your flight's cost is on par with competitors or possibly could be lowered. In this case, Diana knew which airlines to investigate further and with the fares ITA provided she was able to find a flight for $50 less with one of the carriers. ITA saved her nearly $600 dollars and what will surely be an unforgettable trip in Guatemala.

My Prescription

Take advantage of this resource. ITA Software is a great place to compare easily and effectively the going rates for flights both domestically and internationally. I found the site easy to use for basic inquiries but for the serious traveler that wishes to use stopovers, open-jaws, or multiple connections through a particular airport learning and mastering the various query options will take some time. To take advantage of this software just follow the link on the right.

Seychelles, Mauritius and Paris Airline Trip Report

This spring we had the opportunity to redeem airline miles for a trip to the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Paris. A once in a lifetime opportunity. It was all possible by effective use of stopovers and open jaws.

Use of a Stopover and Open Jaw

Let me provide a detailed example how we used both the stopover and the open jaw with the SkyTeam alliance. It was difficult to decide where to celebrate the special ocassion, but we had narrowed it down to the Seychelles or Paris. Then we thought, why not go to both?

The flight to the Seychelles was going to be very long so we thought it would be great to explore an island near the Seychelles, then on the way home stop over in Paris. We settled on an itenerary that would take us through Paris to the Seychelles Islands, then by using an open jaw we'd go to Mauritius. On our return we would fly out of Mauritius to Paris and stay there for 5 nights. Then return back to Tampa by flying through Atlanta.

Our Itinerary

Once we settled on our destinations and routings we searched the SkyTeam network for available flights and came up with the following itenerary.

Outbound Segment(s)
Tampa (TPA) > Atlanta (ATL)
Delta Airlines First Class, 2 Hour Layover in Atlanta

Atlanta (ATL) > Paris (CDG)
Delta Airlines Business Elite, 10 Hour Layover in Paris at the Airport Marriot Hotel

Paris (CDG) > Seychelles (SEZ)
Air Seychelles Pearl Class (Air France Code Share)
6 Nights at the Hilton Seychelles (Trip Report)

Open Jaw
Seycheles (SEZ) > Mauritius (MRU)
This Flight was not included in the award ticket

Purchased 2 separate $220 Tickets on Air Seychelles in Pearl Class

4 Nights at the Luxury Collection Grand Mauritian Resort in Mauritius(Trip Report)

Stopover
Mauritius (MRU) > Paris (CDG)
Air France Affaires Class, 5 Nights at the Park Hyatt Paris (Trip Report)

Return Segment(s)
Paris (CDG) > Atlanta (ATL)
Delta Airlines Business Elite, 2 Hour Layover

Atlanta (ATL) > Tampa (TPA)
Delta Airlines Business Elite

(Great Circle Mapper)

Maximizing the Award Value

A Delta award ticket to Europe in Business Elite would have been 100,000 Delta SkyMiles by itself, and a Business Elite ticket to Africa would have been 120,000 SkyMiles by itself. Since I acomplished visiting Paris through the use of a stop over, and visited Mauritius & Seychelles using an open jaw, the ticket only priced out at 120,000 skymiles per person. This was a fairly complex award ticket to book. I used NWA’s Japan award availability tool to find the SkyTeam availability on each flight separately. Then I called the Platinum award desk to work with the agent to find the availability and put the award together, well worth the $25 over the phone booking fee.

When we issued the award tickets each flight was selling for a little over $9,000. I achieved a point value $.075 cents per mile ($9,000/120,000 miles = .075). Pretty good value for 240,000 SkyMiles. The only drawback was that Air Seychelles doesn’t issue electronic tickets. Our entire itenerary was issued as paper tickets which made us a little uncomfortable carrying around over $18,000 worth of airline tickets throughout our trip.

Bottom Line

Using the Stopover and/or OpenJaw can significantly increase the value of your award ticket and make your vacation more enjoyable by being able to visit multiple places in proximity to your destination. Each carrier has their own rules about these types of tickets so check into your carrier of choice prior to booking.

If you have any questions about your next booking email me and I'd be happy to try to help.

Saving on Airline Tickets Through Use of Stopover And Open Jaw

If you can’t decide between two locations or simply want to maximize your airline mile redemption value consider the use of a stopover or open jaw. Today I'd like to highlight two tricks we use often to maximum value when booking an airline ticket. You can use them separately or in combination to maximize the number of destinations you choose to visit and reduce the points or dollars required to get there.

Stopover

Booking a stopover allows you to fly to your destination and stay for a few days on either the outbound or return segments. This is a very effective dollar/mile maximizing strategy if you want to visit multiple countries or cities on a trip. For instance you could fly from New York to Rome through Paris, and on the way to Rome stay for 5 nights in Paris. Then after 5 nights you catch your continuing flight to you final destination of Rome. When your ready for your return trip home you will simply depart from Rome back to New York. Airlines generally limit stopovers to a maximum of 5 nights. Also keep in mind that its generally not considered a stopover if the layover is less than 24 hours.

Open Jaw

An openjaw is when you leave New York for Paris and return from Rome with no connecting flight between Paris and Rome. The trip from from Paris to Rome is not part of the ticket and it is up to you to arrange transportation between the locations. Getting between the locations is often accomplished on separate award tickets, lowcost carriers, trains, or rental cars. Alternatively an open jaw is when you leave from New York for Paris but return to Chicago. Generally airlines require the open jaw segment distance to be a shorter distance than the shortest leg on your journey.

Bottom Line

Combining the use of a stopover can be a very effective way to save airline miles. In my next post I'll demonstrate a recent example of how it can be used effectively.

Hilton: A Cooler Room And Cool Deals

Making Hilton Brand Stays Cooler

Ever get stuck in a hotel room where the thermostat just won't go cold enough for you? I've been there too, once the thermostat wouldn't go below 75 on a hot summer day. I'm here to help.

Next time you are in this situation at a Hilton brand hotel give this a try.

While holding down "display"
Press "off"
Then Press "Up" arrow
Release "display" button

If the screen shows "VIP" you are in! This will enter the VIP mode which turns off the motion sensor, and allows a lower range of the thermostat so you can get the room as cold as your heart desires. This only works for INNCOM thermostats.

Hilton Promotion - 1000 Bonus Points Per Night

Hilton has had this promotion out since mid-April and has been discussed in detail over at flyertalk. You will earn 1000 bonus points per night at participating Hilton hotels, but you must hurry, this promotion ends June 30th. I started using this promotion once I had accumulated my target amount of free nights at SPG. A good way to earn points to use at some of the new Hilton properties.

Hilton Discover Waldorf Astoria Collection - 10,000 Per 3 Night Stay

Hilton is also running a promotion from now until September 30th, 2009 offering 10,000 bonus points for every 3 night stay.