Unlimited Private Events with Palace Resorts

Whether its a family reunion, destination wedding or corporate meeting, Palace Resorts is offering several amazing promotions throughout 2010. There is the Palace Passports Promotion, Kids Free promotion and based on the number of rooms blocked you can get free unlimited private functions.

The Passport Promotion is valid on all bookings whether through a travel agency or a wholesaler and includes great discounts like: 30% off one round of golf with round trip transportation, 25% discount on Spa Treatments, a Buy One Get One Free Jungle Tour and a Buy One Get One Free Swim with the Dolphins. Vallarta Palace is offering unlimited tours per person and Riviera Nayarit is offering $15 off car rentals.

The Kids Free is a summer promotion valid for travel between June 1 - August 31, 2010. It does require a minimum 3 night stay and applies to children under age 12.

And lastly, one of the promos I'm most excited about is the group amenity offering. Book 10 paid rooms for 3 nights and you will receive a complimentary cocktail party. Book 20 paid rooms for 3 nights and you will receive an upgraded event instead of the cocktail party. But if you book 25 rooms with a minimum of 3 nights, you receive unlimited private functions.

The Palace resorts are a terrific all inclusive set of properties throughout the Cancun, Riviera Maya and Puerto Vallarta areas. I would recommend all of the properties!

Loving Southwest

Before you ask, yes I am touting my new found love interest: Southwest Airlines. I had the pleasure of flying Southwest from Denver to Vegas roundtrip this week for an industry grand opening event at City Center. My entire experience was terrific from curbside checkin to the gate agents, flight attendents and the pilot's continual updates on the Chargers playoff game, I couldn't have asked for more. Not to mention, its free to check your bags and there is no change fee. Granted I do still hate the cattle call lineup prior to boarding as well as the panic attack that strikes because I forgot to check in 24 hours prior to departure...please don't let me be in group C. But honestly, all can be forgiven after yesterday. The standard Southwest plane holds 133 passengers. Yesterday we had 148 passengers trying to get on the flight from Vegas to Denver. I'm guessing everyone did as bad at the tables as I did and were all trying to make a fast dash away from Sin City. But the gate agent handled it with calm and ease, offering a free roundtrip ticket, a $100 voucher and the reimbursement of your oneway ticket to Denver. And he even the mad dash to his counter didn't rattle him.

Airlines, Airlines, Airlines

Well, I was going to start off with my usual bemoaning of the airlines because we are only 13 days into the New Year and they have already announced increased fees. However, we also got some exciting news to report as well!

Southwest and United Airlines are offering a two for one sale for Colorado Customers. The United deal is this: 1) Tickets must be purchased by Feb 15th for travel by March 5th, 2) Travel must originate and end in Colorado and 3) It must be booked in a certain class of service meaning it may not be the cheapest flight out there. For Southwest you must purchase a Business Select fare in order for the two-fer promotion to be used.

In other good news, JetBlue has been offering a fantastic New Year promotion with $29one way fares. If you want to go somewhere, hurry up because you must book by 11:59pm tonight.

Ok,so now for the not so good news...both Continental and Delta have announced increased baggage fees. If you check in online 24 hours prior to your flight on their websites you can pay for your checked baggage in advance and it will be a discounted fee. And while Frontier did lower their change fee, it was conveniently offset by an increased baggage fee.

Virtuoso and Virgin Galactic Name New ASA's

In case you were looking for that random, out -of-box holiday gift for the person on your list that has everything, you might want to check out Virgin Galactic's specials with Virtuoso. Virgin Galactic, in partnership with Virtuoso, named 18 new "Accredited Space Agents" (ASAs) that join 56 other Virtuoso travel advisers to become the sole team responsible for selling space travel with Virgin Galactic. The travel agents had to go through a rigorous application process and intensive training process. All the 120 worldwide agents will be invited to Mojave, California, for the unveiling of SpaceShip Two which is the first space vehicle of its kind developed to take private passengers to space. Its sure to be a great program and we are thrilled that our affiliate agency, Andavo Travel, has an agent on the list.

Airline Wrap Up for the Week

There's good news and bad news, so let's start with the positive. There are expected to be fewer travellers this holiday season, so hopefully that will cut down on the lines at the airports, taxi cabs, hotel check-ins, etc. Even better, the airlines are all offering last minute fares! For example, I just booked a ticket for a client looking to travel this weekend to Denver and returning home to LAX on Tuesday...just $199 where as a week ago the price was closer to $300.

On the plus side, United is giving its image a complete overhaul from planes to customer service areas to Red Carpet lounges. According to the Chicago Tribune, United will be giving each airplane in its fleet a total makeover...this is the first one of this decade. The "tequila sunrise" theme will be thrown out; as well as any reminiscences of the Ted carrier. The previous one-cabin aircraft's will now offer a roomier first class seating and the 80's and 90's style overhead bins, and coach class seating will also be updated. Airline executives hope the image re-haul will help buffer it from poor customer service ratings and bashings receive by The Onion and YouTube.

Now on the bad side, I hope that many of you flying can steer clear of the New York area's three airports and any of its limited air space. For the first nine months of 2009, all three NYC airports respectively placed 1, 2, and 3 in the industry's worst on time arrivals rating scale. This rating compared all 31 major US airport hubs. In 2007, three quarters of all delays were traced back to issues surrounding these 3 airports alone. Modifications have been made from opening up additional airspace, changing the take off time between airplanes; but even on busy days planes waiting to land at La Guardia alone are often in line for a 40 mile stretch. Maybe DOT can add this to its list of current industry issues.

For all those who are flying this Thanksgiving season, I hope the skies will be friendly to you.

United to Introduce New Linebuster Option

Untied Airlines will be introducing a new technology called "Linebuster" at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport over the Thanksgiving weekend. United agents will be stationed in the post security customer service areas with a handheld device that will tell them if passengers have been rebooked if their current flight has been missed or cancelled. These United agents will be able to assist and answer limited issues, but the aim is to reduce the lines in the customer service desks during the busiest airport holiday of the year. If a passenger has been rebooked, they are directed to utilize the self service kiosks to reprint their boarding passes and head to their new gate.

According to United, about 75-80% of its passengers are rebooked immediately upon a cancellation or missed flight, but only 3 out of 10 customers utilize the kiosks. It will be interesting to see how well this new option will fly since its being introduced over Thanksgiving. Not the holiday I would personally pick to introduce a new device but if it reduces United's lines anywhere I'll take it! Let us know your feedback if you come across it during your travels.

American Express May Pull Frequent Flier Miles

American Express is notifying its customers of co-branded cards with airlines and hotels, that if you are late on your payment you will forfeit the miles you thought you might have earned during that billing cycle. In order to get your miles back, Amex will charge a $29 reinstatement fee, on top of the normal late payment fee and your interest rate on balances carried will increase to 27%. Apparently the move is to better align Amex's co-branded cards with other cards offered by Amex and other credit card companies. You might wonder if Amex is trying to dodge the new credit card rules that take affect in February.