Hey there! I’m a Clemson grad that travels quite a lot for work, and am the help of my lady working on traveling more for pleasure both solo as well as with my lady. This is a place for me to jot my thoughts… adventures… misadventures… fun products and the such.Before we get started, just a brief disclaimer: all thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are my own and not those of my employer. I will clearly identify all affiliate links as well. You don't have to use them, of course, but I certainly won't object if you do! :)If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me by email at... hari [at] traveling-tiger.comThanks for visiting!
For those not aware, Silvercar is a rental car agency who stocks only one type of car: the Audi A4. Every car comes with a premium package offering WiFi, GPS, Sirius XM, and they charge local pump prices instead of inflated rates for filling the car back up. Check out the full specs under their FAQs!
Fair Treatment? Madness!All the bells and whistles!
The rental process is unique in that everything is handled from your phone – including unlocking your car!
FlyMiler noted that they are currently running a promotion for Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Las Vegas where you can rent for only $49 per day!
I subscribe to Travel + Leisure’s print copy as well as a few of their email lists, and I’m glad I do! I received a message this morning indicating that to commemorate their anniversary, Canada is removing the entry fee to all 38 of their national parks for 2017. No entry fees for the entire year!
Further on the page, I came across a link to a Thrillist article on under-visited countries, and was a little shocked by a few of the mentions. While Belize and Austria, for example, aren’t as visited as Mexico or Switzerland, I’m not sure they can be classified as ‘overlooked’. All the same, the page should be presented with a wanderlust warning!
I might have to re-evaluate my bucket list, now, and move up visiting a few of my northern friends. 😉
I received an email late last night regarding another sale that Delta is offering for flights within the Continental US. So long as you book economy tickets on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday, you can get up to 30% off certain flights. The sale is limited to flights between September 28th and February 15th, and you have to book all flights by September 28th. Check the offer page for all the details!
While I was on the Delta deals website, I came across another deal – this between Anchorage or Fairbanks from many West Coast departure cities. This deal applies to both paid fares as well as award tickets.
I love Singapore Airlines (SQ). The very first 747-400 I flew on was on their route from LA to SIN, and I will never forget that experience. Though the bulk of my family was in coach, my grandparents were in business class and I remember seeing just how much care the flight crew took of preparing those seats. The thing that surprised me was that they took just as much care of those of us in economy!
Singapore Airlines has always had a stellar soft product (the experience), and their hard product (the tangible) has never been far behind. They have recently redesigned their premium economy and it looks phenomenal. To commemorate it, they have also released a sale for their premium economy product to Singapore from New York, LA, or San Francisco. For only $1,150, pre-taxes, you can experience it in person! If I had the time and spare change, I know I would be taking advantage of this. You can experience this new layout on their Airbus A380, Airbus A350, and Boeing 777–300ER aircraft.
If you would like to see more images of the premium economy hard product, head on over to ThePointsGuy.com – one of their contributors had a chance to experience it and they have me sold. I also look forward to seeing more reviews of Premium Economy products as they are a lot more accessible to the general public than Business or First Class products.
Update: Some additional information has been made available thanks to PointMetoThePlane on BoardingArea. Looks like you can use them together!
DoctorOfCredit, one of my favorite sites for impartial deals and financial advice in general, recently posted about a deal offered by Visa Signature for certain members of the Hilton family of hotels. It is the combination of two offers from Visa that might stack for some pretty awesome results!
The details can be found at the Visa Signature landing page for the deal, but at a high level, you receive a free night for a stay of two or more consecutive nights at a participating hotel (Waldorf Astoria, Hilton Conrad, or Curio – a full list can be found on the DoctorOfCredit website and the Visa Signature page). Additionally, you receive Hilton-lite benefits which are quite nice:
Room Upgrade, if available
Complimentary Wi-Fi
Complimentary continental breakfast daily
Late check-out, if available
Daily $25 food-and-beverage credit
The part where it gets kind of silly is when you combine it with a second offer from Visa Signature where you receive a $75 gift card! Granted, they might not let you apply both deals (they link to one another on Visa’s website, but they both say can’t be combined – only way to know for sure is to call and try), but a free night with premium perks is hard to beat. On top of this, the current Hilton promotion is for double points, which means faster free nights down the road. Be sure to add your number to the reservation when making the booking.
Delta is currently running a promotion where you can save anywhere from 10,000 to 25,000 miles per award ticket to Hawaii. Note that there is a separate booking option for Delta One than First Class, since it is possible to get lie-flat seats on certain routes! Also keep in mind that while you can receive complimentary Medallion upgrades from Economy to Comfort+ or First Class, you can’t to Delta One.
If you have any travel planned within the travel period, give it a gander! You can see the full details on the promotion website.
Though once codeshare partners, Delta and Alaska have been getting progressively aggressive in their battle for territory. Seattle is one of Alaska Air’s biggest cities, and and serves as a great routing city for Delta to cities in Asia. Since 2014, however, there has been a widening rift between the two.
There are currently two promotions available to flyers in Seattle, though one is available only to those not currently belonging to the SkyMiles program. You need to be living in Washington state to take advantage of these, though.
The first offers a starting 5,000 miles just for joining, and then doubles your earnings for the duration of the program (November 30th). If you complete two round-trip flights in that time, you get Gold Medallion Status through January 2017.
Hello, new members!
Meanwhile, 12status is a program that rewards fans of the Seattle Seahawks that are also SkyMiles members. You can see all that this entails at their website, but suffice it to say, it is quite compelling! Just be sure to do the first promotion first, as it offers quite a nice starting bonus (and double miles through the end of November).
Earning ratesPerks!One last perk…
Meanwhile, Alaska responded with a fantasy football driven miles program. Each passing yard added to Russel Wilson’s stats for the season equates to 100 miles to “the pot”. At the end of the season, three individuals will be selected at random to split it. The nice thing here is that you don’t have to be a resident of Washington state to participate!
While it’s unlikely that Alaska will be kicked out of their home airport (especially now that they are acquiring Virgin America to solidify their West-coast presence), competition is always good from a consumer’s standpoint! Who are you rooting for?
