Hyatt has been very generous. They have an absolutely great promotion running (details later in this post), but they have also made points available to bloggers to give away to their readers. I am going to give away 22,000 points each to 2 lucky readers!

Let’s start with the Hyatt promotion. Here are the details of this awesome promotion – it is truly one of the best in the market:

• For every 4 nights between February 1 and April 30, members earn additional points and Hyatt Visa also earn an extra 25% bonus on top. Registration required by March 31.
• 4 nights earns 4000 points (+1000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
• 8 nights earns an additional 8000 points (+2000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
• 12 nights earns an additional 12,000 points (+3000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
• 16 nights earns an additional 20,000 points (+5000 for Hyatt Visa cardholders)
• Members staying 16 nights during the three months of the promotion, who also have a Hyatt Visa, will earn 55,000 bonus points in addition to their regular earning.
• Register here for the promotion.

The promotion has already started, so register ASAP.

Here is my giveaway – Two lucky winners will get 22,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points each!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below on this post with the name of the Hyatt property you would like to go to this summer for your vacation. Here is the link to the page where you can search for all the Hyatt properties. Pick the one you want to visit and leave the name and location in a comment below.

The fine print:

• You can enter as many times as you want. I am going to steal an idea from my fellow blogger View from the Wing here and use his method – you can leave as many comments as you want, just make sure you let someone else leave a comment after you, before you leave another comment. Two consecutive comments from the same person will result in disqualification. (I moderate the comments so you may experience a delay between the time you post and your comment appearing, the first time you leave a comment.)
• Comments entered from now thru Midnight EST, Sunday, March 4th, will all be included in the contest. All comments after that time will be considered invalid.
• Any comment that does not reference an actual Hyatt property will be considered invalid.
• I will use random.org to pick the winners. Two winners will be picked and declared on this blog on or about March 5th. I will then put them in touch with Hyatt.
• The Points will be handed out by Hyatt and any points and account related matters at that time will need to be addressed to them.
• All decisions of winners are final and mine alone. Hyatt has no influence on determining the winners.

Have fun and may the best person win!

Disclosure: I have received 22,000 points from Hyatt for my personal use, as a part of running this giveaway.

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The Airline world is made up of three alliances:

• Star Alliance
• SkyTeam
• OneWorld

Understanding the alliances and the airlines that make them up, and which airlines do not participate in an alliance, is key to maximizing miles and status. What alliances allow you to do is pick one airline per alliance and earn miles on that one airline’s frequent flier program no matter which airline in the alliance you fly. That way you can maximize miles. Airlines not only give redeemable miles but also status miles across alliance partners, so this also maximizes Elite Status earning.

Another associated tip is to avoid airlines that do not participate in an alliance – Southwest, Emirates, Alaska Airlines, etc.

Related articles are:

• Airlines Alliance: Why all the fuss?
• Why I never fly Southwest
• Airline Alliances: The Next Generation
• Codeshares, Alliances, Partners
• Choosing and Airline or Alliance: Why hubs matter?

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Just like getting delayed, flights get cancelled – whether it be due to weather, mechanical aircraft issues or unavailability of crew. In an earlier Expert Tip (#3), I gave tips on how to potentially get compensated for delayed flights. Those tips hold equally good for cancelled flights. In this post, I give detailed steps of what to do if your flight gets cancelled, irrespective of the reason or potential compensation. Here is what you need to do:

1. Call your airline

As soon as you hear that your flight has been cancelled, call your airline. In all likelihood they have booked you on a later flight. Call them to ensure that and to make sure that the flight they have you on works for you. You can have then book you on another flight, if the flight they chose is not conducive.

2. Check if there is a Waiver issued

You should also ask them or check online if there is a waiver in place. Waivers are issues for several reasons – weather, a strike at airport, unsafe conditions at airport/destination country, etc. A waiver may allow you to reschedule your entire trip with no penalty.

3. Check for alternate flights and routes

When the airline books you on an alternate flight, they tend to keep your routing. There may be other flights available that may have different routing (may be one-stop instead of non-stop) that may be more conducive for you. Make sure you ask them to check or check online yourself and have the airline use the better flights. I was recently on a flight from Austin to Washington, DC (AUS-IAD). When the flight got cancelled, United booked me on the next non-stop – 24 hours later! There war several one-stop flights that were much earlier than that. They did not even consider them till I asked. Also have them check for flights for near-bye airports that may work for you.

4. Check for alternate flights with Partner Airlines

While your flight may had been cancelled, partner airlines may still be flying. Or they may have a better alternate route than what your Airline booked you on. Check for such flights and ask your airline to put you on a partner flight. In my earlier example of the UAS-IAD flight, I found a US Airways flight thru Charlotte (CLT) that got me home sooner than any United option.

5. Check for delayed flights

Once you have secured your seat on the next flight that works for you, start looking for flights on your route that may be delayed but may work for you. These have to be searched separately as such flights will not show up on any website when searching for next available flights. If the flight was scheduled for 2:30PM and you search at 4PM, it will not show up as an ‘available’ flight even if it is delayed and still available for you to board. This is tricky to search. The best option is to go to the airport and check on the departure boards there. This is obviously not always possible. The next best option is to check on flight status websites like flightstats.com. See if there is still a flight for your destination that has not left. Call your airline and have them put you on that flight, if it is their or a partner flight. If it is a flight operated by an airline not associated with yours see step 6.

6. Check other Airlines

If have to get where you need to, check with other airlines – those which are not partners with your airline. This will only work if you are willing to purchase a brand new ticket. Check both for scheduled and delayed flights. In my earlier scenario, there was a delayed Southwest flight flying Austin to Baltimore (AUS-BWI). It was a delayed flight from 3 hoards earlier. If I lived any closer to BWI, I would have considered buying a fresh ticket and getting home the same day.

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Ever wonder who else was on your flight? Is there someone you would like to sit next to – or sit as far away as possible from? Ever wondered if there was someone on the flight who you shared friends with or your taste in obscure Sci-fi books with? Now you can, at least on certain long-haul KLM flights. KLM is launching ‘Meet and Seat‘, a service to pre-connet with your flight mates via your social networks.

Here is how it works – KLM allows you to link your FaceBook or LinkedIn profiles to your reservations. You can then go see the profiles of others on your flights (and they can see yours) who have also linked their profiles, and decide who you want to sit next to. Is it worth giving up your exit row seat to get next to someone else who also likes ‘Firefly‘?

This, of course, also brings to flights the ultimate in social network snubs – when someone else moves their seats because you chose the seat next to them…

As of now this is only available on KLM flights between Amsterdam (AMS) and New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO) or Sao Paulo (GRU).

What do you think? Will this sink or swim? Would you use this service? Share by leaving a comment below.

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I just posted an article on Airline Miles and Income taxes. One of my readers, Tom, shared in a comment the fact that he had received a 1099 for the Miles he had received from Citibank for opening a bank account! This is surprising and disturbing. He also led me to an article on LA Times which the reporter, David Lazarus, wrote after hearing of this from Tom. He confirms that Citibank has sent out 1099s. They are valuing the miles at 2.5¢ per mile! I would like to point out that while I received miles from Citibank last year for opening a credit card with them, I have not received a 1099 (yet).

This can end up being a big hit! If someone collected 100,000 miles from the recent CapitalOne card promo (I plead the 5th), they may suddenly be on the hook for $700 in taxes! (100,000 * $0.025 * 28% tax rate = $700).

Is this a one off? Is Citibank doing this only for certain types of accounts? Is Citibank the only bank doing the? Has anyone else received 1099s?

If anyone has received a 1099, please leave a comment below. If anyone has more information, please share. Let’s see if we can get to the bottom of this. I will post an update once I have more information.

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It’s that time of the year again. The 1099′s, W2′s and other tax forms have started showing up in the mail or email. This is also about that time I start getting questions form my readers and friends about the tax implications of all the miles they have earned or redeemed. I posted this article on taxes last year and to the best of my knowledge, there have been no changes to the tax law that would impact your taxes in any way, by way of miles. Read on…

From April 2010: Airline Miles and your Income Taxes

See also: Are Banks sending 1099s for Airline Miles?

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Flights get late. Be it due to weather delays, Air Traffic congestion or Aircraft Technical issues. Whenever you are on a flight that is late, ask why it was late. If the delay was caused due to a fault of the airline’s – such as Mechanical Issues, crew getting stuck in traffic, jammed cockpit door (that has actually happened to a flight I was on), the airline will compensate you, but only if you ask them to. You need to ask for the cause of the delay as there is no compensation for delays caused by reasons beyond the airline’s control – weather, air traffic, airport runway repairs, etc. The compensation you get will depend upon the length of time your flight was delayed by and your Elite Status. You do have to ask for the compensation. Call your airline after the fact and ask. Do not ask at the gate. The Gate Agents cannot help you. Your mileage may vary (YMMV) as to how much compensation you get, but if you don’t ask for it, you will certainly not get it. Compensation is typically in the form of miles or a voucher.

Read more about Weather Delays and your Elite Status in my earlier post.

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There are some unique cities around the world when it comes to flying. While they may be excellent destinations themselves, for long haul travelers, they are best known as being key transition hubs. Two cities that have earned this reputation are Dubai and Singapore. They are both in this position due to their unique geographical location but more importantly because they are hubs for two very large, world-class airlines that have a worldwide reach. Dubai and Singapore are not the only cities in their neighborhood. Both have other cities that are not too far away that are as large or larger (Mumbai and Doha for Dubai and Bangkok and Kuala Lampur for Singapore), but it is their airlines that have made them winners.

I reviewed Emirates Airlines of Dubai in this earlier set of posts. Let me talk a little but here about Singapore Airlines. Truth be told, I can only talk about them in a limited fashion as I have never flown them. But their reputation is excellent. You can search for Singapore flights from pretty much any major city in the world and you will find flights serviced by Singapore Airlines (my local airport – Washington Dulles IAD is an exception).

Singapore Airlines also have two very unique flights that have always been on my list to fly on one day:

Newark – Singapore (EWR – SIN): This is the longest flight in the world. At 9,535 miles, I want to earn those miles in one hop. More uniquely, the flight is operated using an A340-500 aircraft, in an all-business class configuration! Singapore airlines also operates its Los Angeles – Singapore (LAX – SIN) flight using a similarly configured aircraft, but at 8,770 miles, the flight is much shorter.

Singapore – Moscow – Houston (SIN – DME – IAH): Just the interesting route makes me want to take this flight – also long at 11,154 miles. What was the thinking behind this route – big oil? Big money? The Russian Mafia? I wonder…

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Focus all your Airline Mile earnings – from all sources (flying, credit card, surveys, etc.) – on one airline or no more than one airline per Alliance. The thinking here is pretty simple and straightforward. If you do not do this, you end up diluting your miles earned and also potentially lose your ability to get to a higher Elite Level in one airline. 25,000 miles earned with one airline’s program is worth much more than 10,000 miles spread out over 5 or even 12,500 over two. If you have the miles on one airline, they may be enough to get you are free roundtrip ticket and if earned in one year, enough to get you to an Elite status level. Spread out, the miles are not worth much at all.

Read my earlier posts to learn more about the reason to pick one airline and how to pick an Airline and an Alliance.

You may also want to read: Expert Tip #1: Never take a ‘Free Trip’ Voucher

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Starbucks, has a great program in conjunction with Apple called ‘Pick of the Week’. The program started with Starbucks offerring a free song for download from iTunes, every week. The program has since added Apps, Videos and Books. The ‘Pick’ for the current week is ‘Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2012‘ iBook. The book retails on the iBookstore for $10.49. You can get this book for free by going to a Starbucks and finding the ‘Pick of the Week’ card. The card for the book has a code in the back that you can redeem on iTunes to get your free copy. Other ‘Picks’ this week also included a Tetris iPhone App.

I will review the book once I have had a chance to go thru it. Stay tuned…

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