More Than Points

Expedia.com Misrepresents Offers and Lies Directly to Customers About It

morethanpoints@gmail.com (the*point*man) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:08:30 -0500

Usually I keep this blog targeted towards frequent travelers, but even road warriors need to take vacations. This particular incident hits a bit closer to home as my wife searched the web for a weekend getaway and thought she found a good deal until Expedia.com decided to pull a bait and switch. She even spent an hour with customer service just to have the agent repeatedly lie to her face on the phone. Buyer beware.

Here’s the run-down:

“Hey look, no additional hotel-imposed fees!”

“Wait a minute…attempting to book the room warns you of a $20 per room hotel resort fee!”

If you try and call customer service, you should just write off an hour of your life as they lie directly to your face. My wife was so steamed she posted the following on several rating/review websites. Her comments do a good job of summarizing the experience:

Expedia.com is simply horrible! Not only does the website contain blatant misrepresentations, its customer service is totally incompetent. I just spent an hour with a representative that didn’t even understand English. The website had stated that the it was providing an "Expedia Extra" of "No additional hotel-imposed fees at check-in or check-out" if I booked a certain hotel for a certain range of days. However, when I tried to book it, it gave me a total based on the room rates and stated that there will be additional hotel fees of $20/day added on. So, I called customer service about it, and all they told me was that the hotel fees were mandatory. So, I asked what’s with this "Expedia Extra?" The customer service rep could not provide an answer. He simply repeated that the hotel fees are mandatory even though Expedia.com plainly states "Expedia Extra! - This hotel has no additional fees imposed at check-in or check-out." At one point the customer service rep tried to pretend he didn’t see that written on the website. When I called him out on in (I had the website open as I was talking to him), he backtracked and again repeated, "the hotel fees are mandatory." So finally, I asked to be transferred to someone more knowledgeable about what this "Expedia Extra" is supposed to mean, he hung up on me!! Even if Expedia.com had the lowest price on the website, I’ll never use it again. The people behind it seem to have no integrity and do not appear to treat their customers with even a hint of honesty or decency. Never again!!

Don’t fall for the Expedia.com bait and switch.

Original article writen by the*point*man and published on More Than Points | direct link to this article | If you are reading this article elsewhere than More Than Points, it has been illegally reproduced and without proper authorization.

Southwest: Get Free Rapid Reward Points For Signing Up

morethanpoints@gmail.com (the*point*man) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:09:00 -0500

Go here, provide your Rapid Reward information plus an email address, and get 2 rapid reward points for each email update subscription. If you stay subscribed for 3 months across both email subscriptions, you will receive 4 rapid reward points. Looks like an easy way to get some free points with very little effort.

Starwood: Free Weekends Promotion (May 1 through July 31)

morethanpoints@gmail.com (the*point*man) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:56:00 -0500

Starwood recently posted the following promotion to Flyertalk:

Dear members,

I know there has been a lot of speculation and theories about SPG's Q2 promotion of late, and I'm excited to finally be able to announce what is planned! You're the first to get this information - SPG Free Weekends will kick off on May 1st and offer a Free Weekend Night Award for every eligible three stays through July 31, 2010 at any SPG property worldwide. There are no limits on the number of Awards you can earn. When you're ready to get away, you can use your Free Weekend Night Awards through December 19, 2010 at over 920 Category 1-6 hotels across all of our 9 brands -- like W, The Luxury Collection, and St Regis. And of course, there aren't any blackout dates on the Awards, and you can even combine them to use toward a long weekend or to extend a paid stay.

Go to spg.com/freeweekends(which will be put up in a few hours' time) to learn more about the promotion. We've included a full list of FAQ's. Registration will formally begin on May 1st.

Here is a simple summary I have prepared:

1(One) Free Weekend Night award for every 3(Three) eligible stays.
Registration begins 1 May 2010 and ends 30 June 2010. Only 61 days, so do not miss the window.
Earning period begins 1 May 2010 and ends 31 July 2010.
Redemption period begins 7 May 2010 and ends 19 December 2010.
Awards are redeemable only at Participating properties from Categories 1 to 6.
Free Weekend nights refer to any Friday, Saturday or Sunday except for properties otherwise stated.

Finally, we are ready so fire away.

Thyetus Lee

Southwest: Double Credit Promotion (April 7 to May 26)

morethanpoints@gmail.com (the*point*man) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:37:00 -0500

Southwest is offering a double credit promotion with some specific criteria:

Take advantage of our Double Credit Days promotion—one bonus Rapid Rewards credit on every flight you take on Southwest Airlines. That means you can earn two credits for every one-way flight (four credits when you travel roundtrip) from any city that Southwest serves. At that rate, you’ll earn a free flight* to any of more than 65 destinations after just four roundtrip flights!

Purchase a Business Select Fare with this promotion, and you’ll receive 2.25 credits for shorthaul flights and 3.0 credits for longhaul flights.

Register for this promotion between April 7 and May 26, 2010.
Book a flight for yourself between April 7 and May 26, 2010.
Complete your travel between April 7 and May 26, 2010.

Please note you have to register, book the flight, AND fly it within the specified time frame. Sign up now if you plan to fly Southwest. If you need to, take advantage of Southwest’s "no change fee" and re-book your flights to take advantage of the offer, if the fare hasn’t changed. It might be worth it even if the fare has changed a few dollars.

Who Visits More Than Points?

morethanpoints@gmail.com (the*point*man) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:22:00 -0500

For fun, I registered More Than Points with www.quantcast.com to understand who the readers of this blog might represent.

The results were not surprising as frequent fliers:

a largely male audience
an older age group
no kids
above-average income
graduate degrees

Older males without kids in households with good income, and a good education. Traveling is apparently not conducive to having kids, but you can make decent money if you’re willing to make the sacrifice. Most folks who currently travel have also had the time and money to spend on a higher education - perhaps we are doing it to pay off the loans :-)

Data is good.

Delta Lets You Roll Over MQM Balance

morethanpoints@gmail.com (the*point*man) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:50:00 -0500

This isn’t exactly recent news but worth calling out because I think it’s good for frequent fliers. Delta sent the following email to a co-worker:

The co-worker had this to say:

”Basically, I had 70,406 MQM (qualifying miles for status) in 2009, which qualified me for Gold status (50k) but short of Platinum (75k). To ensure the 20,406 MQM I had above and beyond Gold status weren’t wasted, they rolled the miles over to give me a head start for my 2010 status.”

That’s pretty sweet, anyway you spin it. Nice job, Delta.

Need a Ride? Try RideCharge.com

morethanpoints@gmail.com (the*point*man) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:18:00 -0500

A frequent traveler gave this review on RideCharge.com:

I’ve been using this website/iPhone app to book and pay for taxi’s in Chicago, and it works great so thought I’d pass it along. It provides the ability to reserve online and pay for the ride through your phone (linked to a credit card), and once the payment is completed, they send you a .pdf receipt with all the details about the trip (no lost taxi receipts). Also available on the Blackberry.

I’m sticking with my trustworthy cabbie, but if you don’t have a regular driver you may want to think about giving this service a try. The iPhone and Blackberry application and the ability to receive receipts in PDF seems like a big win for frequent travelers.

Starwood: More Nights, More Rewards Promotion (Ends April 15, 2010)

morethanpoints@gmail.com (the*point*man) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:14:41 -0500

Another late reminder on a Starwood promotion which started earlier this year.

Earn 2x, 3x or 4x the Starpoints on all your eligible stays.
Start out the year with rich rewards from SPG^®, where the more nights you have in your stay, the more bonus Starpoints^® you’ll earn. Receive double, triple or quadruple Starpoints for every night of each eligible stay — with no limits — between January 5 and April 15, 2010. For example, a three-night stay earns you triple Starpoints on each night.

Better late than never.

Airline WiFi Reference Chart

morethanpoints@gmail.com (the*point*man) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:58:00 -0500

Jaunted.com has put together a useful reference chart for Airline WiFi costs and availability. Check it out. Here’s a quick snap-shot but make sure you visit www.jaunted.com for the latest and greatest.

Starwood: Stay Twice at a Westin, Get Free $100 Amazon.com Gift Card Promotion

morethanpoints@gmail.com (the*point*man) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:49:58 -0500

If you’re staying at a Westin between now and May 13, 2010 then make sure you register before April 30, 2010 to take advantage of this promotion.

The conditions:

Register now and stay twice at a Westin^® hotel in the U.S. or Canada by May 13, 2010, and you’ll receive a $100 Amazon.com Gift Card. Use it on the new Westin Wellness collection or on millions of other items at Amazon.com.

Be sure to register by April 30, 2010, and stay by May 13, 2010, arriving Sunday–Thursday, to qualify for this exceptional offer.

Valid for Starwood Preferred Guest members on new bookings
made after registration.