Triangle Trip

Westin is offering 500 SPG points in exchange for you to make your own bed (or reuse your towels).  Another way to phrase it is:  “500 SPG points in exchange for saving them costs in labor and laundry.”  A third way to put it (as Starwood Corp. would like to tell its customers):  “Help the earth and enjoy a gift from us!”

Instead of the 500 SPG points, you can choose to get a $5 gift card to be used at the Westin restaurant, lounge or gift shop.  I was recently at a Westin in Pasadena, CA and the Westin in San Francisco, and saw the card with the following message upon arrival:

You tidy, we treat

You may choose to decline housekeeping service for the following day by hanging this card on your door before 2am. In return for going green, we will deliver a $5 gift card that you may use towards any Restaurant, Lounge, or Room Service purchase within the hotel. If you prefer, you may exchange unused gift card at the front desk for 500 SPG points.

The catch here is you will need to put the tag out by the door before 2AM.  I guess the Westin staff need to determine which room will not be serviced the following day and issue your card on time.  You will not qualify for this offer if you are only staying for one night.

While Statusmonger has most of the necessary travel essentials in his laptop bag, I would like to add two more items to his list. I believe a true global road warriors should have these two items because no road warrior can live without power. Having traveled across the globe for the past decade, I still cannot live without these two items. With these two items, you can leave all the AC power cords home. All you need is to take your USB cord and AC power adapter for your laptop!

The two items are:

1)  Universal AC wall adapter – Regardless of your AC power plug’s country of origin, this universal AC wall adapter allows your power plug to be connected to any wall outlet in any country. I have used this universal AC adapter in Europe, Asia and Australia. I’ve also lent this universal AC adapter to visitors to the US. The universal AC wall adapter is a cube shape – about 2×4 inches max and very light. The universal AC adapter has two sides. One side that has three different prongs to be plugged into a wall outlet. The other side is a universal wall outlet receiver for your plug power cord. You can purchase the universal AC adapter at Fry’s for less than $20 (or in China). Don’t buy it at Brookstone’s or airport stores because they are opportunists & will rip you off.

2)  Car lighter USB charger – Like the universal AC adapter, the car lighter USB charger allows you to charge your electronics wherever you are in the world. Car lighter chargers are standard across the world – probably the only universal power source in the world. This car lighter USB charger turns your car lighter socket into a USB port. All your need to do is plug one end of the charger into any car’s lighter outlet socket. The other end of the car lighter USB charger has a USB female connector which is for the USB cord (just like a computer USB port). When you are on the road or in another country, all you need is a USB cable to plug into the car lighter charger to ensure your mobile phone, iPod, digital camera, etc. are fully charged during your journey. You can leave the extra AC power cords for your Canon camera, Apple iPod, etc. at home. Leverage your PC or rental car for juice!

With double and triple Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) coming to an end next Monday, June 15, 2009, United has launched a Double Miles promotion (link to promotion) to try and keep its customers from going to another airline.  On surface, the double miles promotion seems like a sweet deal following the Double & Triple EQM offer. The double miles offer allows you to earn double miles on flights between June 15, 2009 to September 15, 2009, up to three round trips.

So what’s the catch?

If you read the fine prints in the Terms & Conditions, the double miles offer is only available for the following fares:

• United First (F, A, P)
• United Business classes (C, D, Z)
• United Economy (Y, B, M, H, Q)

This means you will need to travel on either First, Business or a Full Fare Economy ticket to earn double miles. This is a marketing ploy similar to Delta’s Triple MQM offer (see previous post). This is another “caveat emptor” offer (aka: scam).  It doesn’t hurt for you to register as you may have last minute travel plans which requires you to buy a full fare economy or business class ticket.