seat42e

DC-centric travel beat

[seat42e-blog]

Generic or specific, I'll try to find an answer.  

Wondering how to use your stash of miles?

Trying to find a convenient way to BWI?

Why on Earth do people insist on calling DCA "Reagan Airport"? (That I can't actually answer)

[seat42e-blog]

The cheapest Country Inns & Suites in the DC area (aka the cheapest way to 44K Club Carlson points)

Assuming you're in the DC metro area, I'll help you with scouting out the cheapest way to earn those 44,000 Club Carlson points in the Stay One, Get One promo happening now. 

The Country Inn & Suites in Dulles is generally $70-$90 for a weekend night, the cheapest CIS (Country Inns & Suites) in the metro area.  However when you book through clubcarlson.com or countryinns.com, make sure to then compare it on Kayak to all the other booking engines out there.  You can usually find it for less on the same night through Booking.com, Hotels.com, or other 3rd arty.  After you've booked it at clubcarlson.com, use their Best Rate Guarantee to then chop off 25% by completing the BRG form when you've found it lower elsewhere.  Believe me, it's almost hard not to find it cheaper elsewhere.

[seat42e-blog]

Southwest One-Day Sale has BWI-Ft.Myers & San Diego 35% off specific dates

Hey, if you were looking to get away this summer, maybe to Florida, maybe to So. Cal, and can make the following travel dates work:

May 22, May 30-31, June 5-6, July 4-5, 2012. (MUST travel only on these dates)

...then this will help you out.  Southwest is offering 35% off from BWI-Ft. Myers, FL or San Diego on those dates.  Go to Southwest.com, search flights from BWI-RSW or SAN on those dates and enter code SUMMER12 at checkout.  Pretty simple.

And since this coupon code will work if you purchase today only, book the flights today if you are even thinking about it and find a good itinerary that works for you.  You then have 24 hours to cancel for a REFUND online.

The complete rules:

35% discount valid for one-time use at southwest.com or SWABIZ.com off the total amount of a roundtrip Wanna Get Away Fare® purchase before taxes and fees.

Purchase must be made on 5/15/12 for travel on one of the following dates: May 22, May 30-31, June 5-6, July 4-5, 2012.

There are no Blackout dates.

Discount is only valid to/from any scheduled Southwest Airlines markets.

The discount is only valid with the provided Promotion Code and is not combinable with other Promotion Codes or fares available exclusively through the web tool DING!.

This promotion includes only Wanna Get Away Fares.

7-day or more advance purchase may be required.

Discount is not valid on reservations made using Rapid Rewards points.

Changes made to the itinerary after purchase may eliminate qualifications for this promotion.

Discount is not valid for travel between the following market pairs

Austin—San Diego Baltimore/Washington—Ft. Myers Baltimore/Washington—San Diego New York LaGuardia—Chicago Midway Kansas City—San Diego Chicago Midway—Oakland Chicago Midway—San Diego Chicago Midway—San Antonio Chicago Midway—Seattle Chicago Midway—San Francisco Chicago Midway—Tucson Minneapolis/St. Paul—Phoenix St. Louis—Tampa Bay

[seat42e-blog]

Club Carlson Bonus Registrations are LIVE

Already live this morning are the registration pages for two big promos from Club Carlson.  Club Carlson is the loyalty program for Radisson/ Radisson Blu/ Country Inns & Suites/ Park Inn/ Park Plaza.  You may have zero interest in staying in most of their domestic US properties as they're generally pretty average, but abroad, they can be extremely nice and very expensive.

1) By registering for the Radisson Big Night Giveaway, and then staying at any Radisson or Radisson Blu branded property by July 15, 2012, you will earn 50,000 Club Carlson points.  That's enough for one night at the highest end Radisson (or Blu) properties around the world, or up to 5 nights at the lowest tier hotels which start at 9,000 points per night.

2) Next, register for the Country Inns & Suites SOGO promo.  Same rules as the Radisson promo but you will earn 44,000 points instead.  Stay by July 15, 2012 at a Country Inn & Suites to fulfill this promo.  In general, they look like they're cheaper for your one stay than Radissons.  

With a combined 94,000 points after registering and staying two cheap nights (one at a Radisson, one at a Country Inn) you'll have invested maybe $100-$150 up front to earn many hundreds of dollars worth of nicer hotel stays down the road with any Carlson properties worldwide.  Some of the nicer Euro Carlson hotels run 300-400 Euros per night.

Now that I've registered, I should mention it makes sense to register for the Country Inn & Suites SOGO promo first since it's limited to the first 35,000 registrants vs the first 100,000 reigstrants in the Radisson promo.

There will be a 3rd promo for the Park Inn brand, but it's not live until next week and very hard to fulfill with only 10 US properties.  It's a much bigger brand abroad.  I'll still post the details on that one a bit later too.

Later, I'll highlight some cheap Radisson and Country Inns and dates in the DC area to help fulfill those two stays with minimal investment.

[seat42e-blog]

4 New Beyond-Perimeter Flights Coming to DCA soon

Ninety long days ago was the final day for airlines to submit detialed proposals for 4 new round-trip slot awards from National Airport (DCA).  Flights to/from the airport are restricted to destinations within a 1,250 mile radius, with 12 current exceptions.

Today the DOT announced the winning proposals.  This is awesome news for the cities and airlines, since DCA is the preferred Washington airport for anybody doing business in the District.

The Winners:

Alaska Airlines to Portland, OR (PDX)

jetBlue to San Juan, PR (SJU)

Southwest to Austin, TX (AUS)

Virgin America to San Francisco (SFO)

IMO as DCA homer, all 4 are awesome additions to the DCA route network.

They can start their new services at will though most will probably wait until late summer or early fall to allow time for initial flights to sell.

[seat42e-blog]

So, the registration requires your DL# and CC like most rental car membership programs, but through this link you get a free Executive level membership.  

Executive status at least gives you a free one-level upgrade with every rental, every time.  You may or may not be able to benefit from this, but it's better than a hole in the head!  Plus mine states it's valid through 2/2014.  Not baaaad.

Click on the "Passenger Enrollment" icon on the first page through the link above.

[seat42e-blog]

Google offer: $50 for a 50% off Main Cabin ticket to/from LAX or SFO

Another good deal from Virgin America (and Google offers).  Spend $50 for half-off the fare of a main cabin non-refundable round-trip flight from DC to either LAX or SFO (San Francisco).  Considering your $50 cash outlay here, you'll still be able to save at least $50-$150 or more on a ticket.  BTW, it doesn't matter that it's linked from the Dallas Google offers page.  

That being said, if you get in on the deal, you have to make the booking by April 30, 2012 for travel between April 11 and June 13, 2012.  If those dates don't fit your plans, don't waste your time here on an impulse buy.  I just did that with this bag of donut holes and regret it already.

In this area, Virgin America flies out of IAD (Dulles) only.  It's possible they may start out of DCA (National) in the near future but that's another story, and wouldn't be included in the fine print below anyway.

Thanks to OTR for the heads up.

Rules and details of the deal (Read them and don't blame me later thanks!)

Book by April 30 to travel between April 11 and June 13

*Restrictions apply

Fly between SF or LA and one of the following cities: Chicago, Dallas, DC, Philadelphia and Seattle

Limit 1 per person. 18 or older. Blackout dates are May 25 and May 28, 2012. Google Offers redemption code is valid until 4/30/12 (11:59 PM CST) for 50% off purchase for select round-trip, nonstop Virgin America flights between ORD-LAX, LAX-ORD, ORD-SFO, SFO-ORD, IAD-LAX, LAX-IAD, IAD-SFO, SFO-IAD, SEA-LAX, LAX-SEA, SEA-SFO, SFO-SEA, DFW-LAX, LAX-DFW, DFW-SFO, SFO-DFW, PHL-LAX, LAX-PHL, PHL-SFO, SFO-PHL. See full terms and restrictions that apply at https://sites.google.com/site/vaterms/.

[seat42e-blog]

Moscow RT for $480 from Dulles

I hear Moscow is beautiful this time of year.  Or not.  But $480ish for RT, non-stop flights to Moscow is a great deal.  I do hear that tourist visas are around $150 per person so look into that as well.

Here's the deal from Kayak.  Click through on the Moscow price to search for dates.  BTW, Kayak is turning into a great tool for flexible flight searches.  The Kayak Explore feature is a great visual tool for finding low fares across the globe.

[seat42e-blog]

BWI to the US West ~$222

Good deals this AM from BWI on United/Continental.  About $222 round-trip after tax.  Some of these Western cities include Las Vegas (LAS), San Diego (SAN), Albuquerque (ABQ), Tucson (TUS), OKC, Austin (AUS), and San Antonio (SAT).  Play around with cities and dates on the Matrix.  Then head over to united.com or continental.com to book it. 

Dates are varied and spotty but there are some there.  

Really good deals tend to last for a matter of hours.  And with airlines now forced to offer 24 hour cancellation policy regardless of ticket type; book now ask questions later.

Thanks to Flyertalk

[seat42e-blog]

DCA-Brussels for $260 Roundtrip - Book it asap

Search through Vayama.com

Possibly only Tuesdays and Wednesdays in Feb/Mar.  Not sure.  

Read more here or here

Book it tonight or it will be a gonner.

[seat42e-blog]

Washington Dulles nonstop to Honolulu! Coming 6/7/12

Wow!  To me, this came out of nowhere.  The East coast demand to Hawaii isn't anywhere near as strong as that from the West coast, and United/Continntal already offer Newark-Honolulu service.  I love Hawaii and would go whenever I could have the time off.  Granted, it was always free travel as an airline employee.

But this is awesome.  Nonstop from Dulles-Honolulu on a former Continental 767-400 is definitely do-able.  Yeah, it's 9 hours or so.  Yeah, Dulles is depressing (United's C/D terminal).  But the former CO planes are a big improvement in coach over United's own planes.  Take a look below, it's not ancient, and reasonably comfortable with personal TV's and audio.

If you're like me, focusing lately on earning United/Continental/Chase UR points, this is very interesting.  And the CO plane's have a nice business first seat if you can find award availability.  Any way you look at it, the new route announcement is exciting and hopefully signals United isn't planning to shrink Dulles to expand other hubs.

[seat42e-blog]

A Nice 20% Coupon Code for Virgin America

Thanks to Frugal Travel Guy for sharing this 20% off coupon opportunity for Virgin America Purchases, when you pay with a Visa card.  Virgin America flies out of Washington Dulles nonstop to the west coast.

Step 1: Sign up with your first/last/email here

Step 2: A coupon code will be emailed to you.

Step 3: Book flight on virginamerica.com with your Visa and use the code for 20% off.

Keep in mind:

Travel must occur between January 10, 2012 and February 29, 2012 or between April 15, 2012 and June 15, 2012. Blackout dates are February 17, February 20, May 25 and May 28, 2012.

Of course, this coupon doesn't have to be used on flights from Dulles so FW this to your non-DC friends also.

Here's the Virgin America route map from Dulles (reds are non-stop, blues are connections).

[kelmeetswest-deactivated2015012]

A bit muggy, but I’d take it. #kona #terminal (Taken with Instagram at Kona International Airport (KOA))

[seat42e-blog]

Kona.  My favorite.  One way ticket please.

[seat42e-blog]

A little Portland in your Springtime plans?

So there's plenty of availability on Delta this early winter and spring out to Portland, OR for only $222 r/t after tax.  Not a MUST BUY type of fare, but definitely a great deal.

Even some of this availability over holiday weekends.  Search either the ITA Matrix or Delta.com from WAS (all 3 Washington area airports) or pick your favorite, out to PDX.

Credit goes out to the FT Mileage Run forum.

[seat42e-blog]

Like airbnb but for bathrooms.  Awesome idea.  Quote from their site

How many public bathrooms are there in your city?

Answer: As many as you want!

For the cost of a latte, CLOO' turns residential bathrooms into bathrooms that you, your friends, or friends of friends can use.

[seat42e-blog]

Delta fares to San Diego/Las Vegas/San Antonio/Phoenix/NM $160 round trip!

Been a while since I've seen some good deals from the DC area, but Delta has good ones posted right now.  I think these are just out of BWI, so when you search, make sure to include it.

Fares are available certain dates from November-February.

Use the ITA Matrix to search dates for BWI-SAN, LAS, SAT, PHX, ABQ using their month long search.  

KEY:  Delta offers a free 24-hour cancellation policy EVEN ON NON-REFUNDABLE fares.  Book it now, then cancel tonight/tomorrow morning if you have to.  Why not?

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Hertz free points and Gold Plus

I haven't had much experience with Car rental programs other than an unsuccesful opportunity to use a certificate at Thrifty once.  It involved a paper coupon mailed to me and some manual verification if I wanted to use it.  Then it expired.

But this seems much easier.

By signing up with Hertz through their promo page HERE, you'll get free gold status and 500 points in your account.  Apparently that's enough for a free weekend 1-day rental.  Apparently.  Haven't tried, but I will soon enough.