MilesBuzz! - Inside Flyer and the Starwood promo How many did you order?

I just called COS to find out when my subscription ends. They told me that I can extend mine for 2 additional years with the current promo.

And now to the big question:

Just how many subscriptions did you order?
AND...which promo did you take advantage of?

I hear someone ordered in the mid-100's http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif

Dan

Good post -- I was wondering the same thing.

I have ordered 2 so far, but have been planning to buy either 50 or 100 (or more?) once my credit card's billing cycle closes (next week). I went for the SPG promo.

When you say "mid-100's" do you mean approx. 150 or approx. 500 ???

Just one subscription to Inside Flyer. I went for the CO miles.

Sincere question: Please explain how this is a good deal. That's a lot of $'s it would seem.

I think this promotion should win the Freddie for Best Bonus.

I agree Nevsky. 40 so far but am thinking about another 40-100 before the promo is up.

I meant 150.

It's a good deal for Starwood points. There's no way you can get 2500 S points for $60.

Dan

Not to rain on everyone's parade, but I am not sure I understand why this is such a good deal. Is it correct that each subscription to Inside Flyer is $60 for 2500 Starwood points? If so then it would cost about $240 for 10,000 points which is what is needed at a category 4 hotel for one night's stay. I searched rates at a few category 4 hotels and most of them had rates far less than $240 available. Also, if you pay to stay you would earn points for that visit as opposed to not earning any for using points for a free stay.

Is it just having the points for an emergency situation that is attracting people to this offer or is there something I am missing here? Thanks -

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by matthewjbailey1:
Not to rain on everyone's parade, but I am not sure I understand why this is such a good deal. Is it correct that each subscription to Inside Flyer is $60 for 2500 Starwood points? If so then it would cost about $240 for 10,000 points which is what is needed at a category 4 hotel for one night's stay. I searched rates at a few category 4 hotels and most of them had rates far less than $240 available. Also, if you pay to stay you would earn points for that visit as opposed to not earning any for using points for a free stay.

Is it just having the points for an emergency situation that is attracting people to this offer or is there something I am missing here? Thanks -</font>

Exactly.I too evaluated the Proo based on *wood redemption. Certainly not a compelling deal. The Quantas/ Concord angle is far too convoluted & risky for me.
I'm a Yank. I dont need to get stuck with Assie miles.

Also , look at it this way, Amex membership rewards lets you buy *points at only a slightly higher rate. Amex has no 30 day window for this" opportunity of a lifetime"
It is permanant & and on going with Membership rewards. Dont get me wrong. I;m not alledging a bad, unfair deal. only a marginial , fair market deal. I dont see many people getting on the Concord with this

I ordered 52 so far.
I also do have some addresses of flyertalkers who would like to get those subscription, but best would be if there would be any hospital or other social institutaion that I can have those papers sent to and receive a donation receipt?
any idea?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by writetorich:
Exactly.I too evaluated the Proo based on *wood redemption. Certainly not a compelling deal. The Quantas/ Concord angle is far too convoluted & risky for me.
I'm a Yank. I dont need to get stuck with Assie miles.
</font>

I would agree that the Starwood awards do not represent the best value -- although the 70K "Nights and Flights" award does seem to represent good value depending on where you use them.

Like the Valuemags deal before it, the InsideFlyer deal seems to make the most sense for those who wish to use the miles to fly in premium cabins internationally. The Concorde award on Qantas is the most extreme example of this, but even if you're a US-based United flyer, the awards represent EXCELLENT value. For $1560 (26 subscriptions plus the 5K SPG bonuses for transferring miles in 20K blocks) you can get a business-class ticket from virtually anywhere in the US to anywhere in Europe.

If you have the miles or status to upgrade internationally already, or if you aren't concerned about travelling in premium cabins, this deal probably isn't for you. But if you DO fly in the premium cabins, particularly if you do it on your own dime, this represents about a 70% savings on the price of a business-class ticket. The savings on first-class international tickets are even better.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Like the Valuemags deal before it, the InsideFlyer deal seems to make the most sense for those who wish to use the miles to fly in premium cabins internationally. </font>

And domestically, too. That's the only reason I'm trying to build up my mileage bank. So far I've ordered only 5 subscriptions.

Travelling from ORD this summer:

econ=$900 CASH
Biz=$960 in subs (on AA or BA)
FC= $1200 in subs (on AA or BA)

So for $60 you get better food, seats, room etc. rt in biz and REALLY pampered for $240 more in FC.

Priceless!!!

I've ordered 40 w/ the Starwoods bonus in order to have a bank for some upcoming flights. I'm not so sure that is a real value for FC domestic, though. I priced domestic FC from WAS-HNL at ~ $2200, about the same w/ this promo.

Now if you throw in Flights and Nights, it starts to get much more interesting http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif 3 FC tixs to HNL and 10 nights (two rooms) Category 4 hotel in HNL for ~$2500/each which retails around $4000/each.

Mahalo and Aloha!

I'm with Jakster on this one.I ordered 21 subsciptions for 52,500 starwood points.
I travel out of my own pocket and will use the points for a first class ticket to europe
in September.If I can fly the Concorde great if not thats o.k. to.

8 to start, so that i get to the 20k Starwood level to get the extra 5k bonus. Only wanted to do 8 to start to make sure that it works and see how quickly/slowly all the points come through. I want to convert them to QF, not for the Concorde, but for Biz Class AKL-LHR-AKL flights for my parents-in-law later this year. (They have never travelled Business and for a 27-hour flight it sure helps, even at my tender age.)

I figured that 175,000 QF points (on Cathay) at 2:1 = 87,500 Starwood pts; [(60,000 + 15,000 bonus) + 12,500 ] means 72,500 / 2500 = 29 subs. At $60 each that's $1740. Cathay Biz fare on that route is about $2700, so I figure I'm saving at least $1000 USD per ticket.

I bought 4 and gave three away for birthday presents. I took the *wood promo as opposed to the CO because one can slaways transfer the points over making oit the more valuable promo. Not sure I can justify more $'s out to my spouse. ;0

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I bought 1 subscription as I am limited to a college student's budget. Hopefully, another offer like this will appear when I am better able to take advantage of it. I'm counting on FT to come up with several more of this type of deal http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.

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John

Please check out www.dealboard.com. (http://www.dealboard.com.) It is my venture into the web design world. Right now, the site is very basic and I pretty much just throw on anything I can find. However, I am getting some good suggestions and plan to improve the site often.

I used the promo to tip me over the 2MM mark on AA but as I look at the possibilities at the starwoods resorts the deal seems to have possibilities in that regard also. For example the new resort in Thailand costs $600 a night (or 26,000 baht) but the redemtion is listed as 10-14K SPG points. The Hotel Danielli goes for 6-700 Euro's a night vs. 10-14K points as another example and I read that unlike Hilton *woods puts all its rooms up for award redemtion not just a small portion.

Also apparently points can be used to upgrade to suites in *wood properties.

Either way I think this deal has value for the *wood properties too if used at the right properties.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong before I purchase another load of subscriptions http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I've bought 4 so far but am likely to add another 24. The purpose of the larger amount is to able to afford 5 nights at 14K points per night. I figure I'm paying $280/night for a property that cost more than $400K/night.

If I don't find a property that I like. I can combine it with the 10K in my account and get 100K miles. Either way, it sounds good to me.

I bought 15. For those asking if its worth it, my wife wants to go to Rome for our anniversary this year. The Westin in Rome is a Category 4 hotel that normally costs $400 a night. I got 40K SPG points that I can use for 5 nights at this hotel for $900. So I saved $1100 and I made the wife happy. Sounded like a great deal to me, so I took it.

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[This message has been edited by MileKing (edited 04-11-2002).]

Hmmmm, I just don't get it ... I ordered 1 subscription for 2500 points. What is the benifit of ordering more? Inside flyer is a good value in itself. But doing the math, $60/2500 = $0.024 per point. Buying miles outright is $0.02. If buying 8 subscription for $480/25000 points (which include 5000 bonus points) = $0.0192 which is only $20 cheaper than buying outright. But still $480 for a R/T domestic flight, coupled with the hassle and restriction of trying to redeem them for a flight that you actually want/when you want. Not the best value.
If one looks, one can usually find rooms on special/promo at the 4/5 star resorts that represent a much better value than purchasing points outright, with perhaps rare exception such as blackout periods or when the hotels are too booked (based on availability) to accept reward exchages.
Not trying to step on feelings here ... I just don't get it ... perhaps I am missing something.
I think I'll stick with promos like the NWA fly faster free to boost my mileage. That's value.

I just orderd one subscription to Inside Flyer. Looking forward for the first issue and 2500 points to my Starwood account.

Rhines: you are right to a certain extent. It's worth it if you use miles for international upgrades, premium cabin travel, last minute domestic RT's, or to stay in any *woods property that costs far more than $240 a night. Don't think too many people are going to use miles for a planned domestic RT with or without this promo.

I am already subscribed to this magazine until the end of this year and don't plan to renew it. Like many others when I first heard about this promo, I found it interesting not because of flying Concorde or First, which means little to me as I can do that with other means but because Starpoints have been one of the most difficult 'currencies' when it comes to cumulation. To quote Starwood Lurker, he has never seen an account with one million starpoints or more. That says a lot. But I have decided not to take part of this promotion at all with reasons. Let's look at it from two perspectives:

1) Qantas Frequent Flyer Program

As a side note, while I just went to QF site to get the award chart in question, I noticed the QF member application has been temporarily suspended:
Temporarily Unavailable.

Sorry. This Frequent Flyer application is currently undergoing maintenance. Please try again later.

We apologise for the inconvenience. coincidence?

It seems the major selling point of this BA/AA/QF award is the 5,401~10,000 actual mileage for 125,000 QF points in First Class. I say this is the award that 85% of FTers are going after. But other than that, many FTers unfamiliar with QF program don't know that QF was originally a KM based program. For this reason, a longer award can easily cost up to 300,000 points for something can could be had for 140,000 miles with BA or AA. So long as the 125,000 points for up to 10,000 miles in First/Concorde exists, it would seem people would see it as a good deal anyway simply because:

a) Even airlines themselves don't allow their members to purchase more than 35,000 miles a year fearing that they would simply buy points and pay the premium class tickets with it.

b) The $0.024/mile ratio is flawed, the $0.024 ratio is per Starpoint. Each Starpoint can be turned into 2.5 QF points, which means each QF point is $0.0096/mile. It is true that in reality QF mile = KM, but in the case of The 125,000 mile F Award, BA also charged the same amount in their own FF program. So in this and only this case, 125,000 QF points can be considerd the equivalent of 125,000 miles. Since the actual price of each order is slightly less than $60 and if you happent to pay with a Starwood AMEX card, you will earn even more points for an effective amount less than the rough estimate. So the earning ratio is closer to something like $0.0090/mile.

That sounds great, really it does. But, this is a very limited opportunity and is only good on paper when you compute how much it would save you had you purchase a full-fare ticket instead. However, more than likely than not, if this opportunity doens't exist, you still won't pay the $10K+ ticket to go to Europe/North America. Say you would have paid $900 for an Economy ticket instead had this occasion not presented itself. The actual value of the First class ticket is $12,000. Your gain is not 12,000-900 but rather the intrinsic value you receive from the extra comfort of First/Concorde Experience. That IV becomes very subjective and personal, some may value it at $500 while others may put a $2,000 ticker on it or whatever number they feel like. But safe to say, it won't be $12,000, otherwise, you would have bought the ticket with money. Note that you won't earn miles and status on a free ticket so you have to factor that too (approx. cost = 10,000 status miles and any FF bonus that go with it). For certain FF travellers, this can easily translates into an approx. cost of 20,000 miles (elite bonus and etc.) as they won't be earned even though money is spent. All of a sudden, the cost has increased a bit more than just the 125,000 miles or $1,200 dollars that people have estimated.

This is all right as long as the QF program remains stable and the award is unchanged. As a Qantas FF member for mroe than 2 years now, I won't bet on it. Many of you have not even heard of QF FF program before this promotion so you couldn't have known what about it but QF has just recently gone through a rather frustrating overhaul in their FF program. It was clear and obvious the intention of the managemnt was to reduce benefits while almost attempting to lie to their members through sophisticated camouflage. In other words, Qantas is a somewhat unethical company. With Ansett out of picture, I don't see any incentives for them to be more customer oriented. The award charts you see today...they weren't like that when the changes were first announced last year. Somehow, at first, it was able to fool most of the QF flyers as though they were good, but it didn't take too long for some of us including myself to point out all the traps in it including as maximum distance allowed for Oneworld award of only 31,000KM for something like 300,000 points! Qantas was caught switching the mileage/KM terms as they see fit and convenient at the expense of flyers. There were many other things. Qantas assigned a rep. here in Flyertalk, talking to us, and we had to apply huge amount of pressure. I got in contact with some of QF's very important customers and they were successful in making QF promising changes and they did. So the charts you see today were in part influenced by the opinions voiced here in Flyertalk.

So what's the moral of this story? What if QF decided to do something about this particular award as it may be costing QF and BA? They could eliminate the 1:2 transfer from Starwood claiming that they are now in a mileage based system so 1:2 transfer was for KM based time. They could temporarily suspend award booking using QF points on BA's transatlantic F/R classes as BA notices pax have been buying points to fly instead of paying full-fare. There are million other things they could have done to change the terms and conditions. As long as your points haven't got into your QF account and they haven't redeemed yet, any confirmed reservation can be cancelled even in Mikefly's example in another thread as its official status is a 'courtesy hold'. This is way too risky if your intention is to buy Inside Flyer magazine to fly Concorde. A small change in the rules would render your plan useless. Would I take the chance? No, that's why I have bought zero. Besides, I don't need those miles.

In answer to the original question - I ordered one, received my 2500 Starwood points, but my credit card got billed for two.

I'm going to buy 1 subscription. $60 to get the mag + a few Starwood points that I can turn into AA miles sounds like a good deal. But I'm buying the subscription because the mag sounds interesting, not because this is the Deal of the Century.

I look at it this way: the only thing out there that would tease me into buying $1000-1500 worth of subscriptions is that whole Concorde angle. But...I know there's some risk there, pushing miles around into programs I'm unfamiliar with, and then trying to eventually book a very difficult-to-get award on a small airplane that probably offers very, very few award seats on whatever dates I decide I'd like to travel to Europe. So, do I want to take $1000-1500 out of my favorite investment vehicle TODAY so that I can MAYBE fly the Concorde 1-2 years from now? Even if it all works out, and assuming that my favorite investment vehicle isn't a complete stinker, would I have paid $1000, 1500, 2000, or whatever to fly the Concorde to begin with? Well, probably not, because I'm used to scrounging tix to Europe for $400-600, using vouchers quite a bit, earning double miles over and back, and using miles to upgrade segments when I want the luxury experience.

Of course, if my financial habits were different, and I frequently paid $10,000 out of my own pocket to take vacations in F/Concorde, then this is clearly an outstanding investment opportunity, even in a bull market, and even with some risk that you won't get your ideal travel dates the first time you want to book the award.

I'm just guessing here - and I know some of you out there will disagree - but for 99% of us, buying a boatload of magazine subscriptions is NOT a strong investment. The wealthiest few among us DO have an opportunity to use this to save thousands on their next vacation. But for me, I'll just take 1 subscription, and maybe somewhere in there I'll learn ways to earn more miles from my $450 coach ticket...

Zero.
After throughly evaluating this, I did noyt view it as a compelling deal.

I have been dragging my feet....

Originally was overwhelmed with the thought of flying concord for under $1300.00, but after reading the pros and cons here, I now have 'cooled' down a bit.

Delta Skymiles Amex Card offers double miles for paying taxes (from 2/25 till 4/16-2002) with 2.5% service fee.
So, for tax payment of $20,000.00, the fee is $500.00, divided by 40,000 miles, gives 0.0125 per mile. Isn't this a much better deal?

(Btw, using Skymiles, Concord award RT on AF is 160,000 miles.)

Anyhow, I am still going to subscribe 8. (instead of 80 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif)

2 please.

1 subscription for me, 1 for my local public library.

edited to add, both earned the starwood bonus.

[This message has been edited by Sweet Willie (edited 04-13-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gbogo:
....Cathay Biz fare on that route is about $2700, so I figure I'm saving at least $1000 USD per ticket.</font>

@@ I wonder if one could get a consolidator fare on that route, if so, it would be close to 30% off published fare, no?

Haven't taken any yet, but am considering a large (IMO) punt on these.

Sure there are risks, but I calculate the standard 1:1.25 transfer to Virgin (for me in the UK) equates to c. 1300GBP for J class regardless of the current Qantas/BA/Concorde situation (which looks tremendously appealing). Other risks such as Starwood being taken over (thankfully Six Continents here in the UK decided against it - could have been bad news for us SPG fans) need to be factored in.

All in all, I'm going to mull over the situation over the next week, but current thinking is enough subs to pay for several years of J class travel, helping Randy out at the same time.

I ordered 40, enough for 2 Concorde tickets through Qantas. This seems like the cheapest and quickest way for me to fly the Concorde. If the Concorde flight does not work out for some reason, I can still use them for international upgrades and other things that I would enjoy.

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mylez2go
DTW
Worldperks/HHonors

Does anyone know when the 2500 Starwood points will post in our accounts? I ordered my subscriptions a good ten days ago and still no Starwood Points. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Neal:
Does anyone know when the 2500 Starwood points will post in our accounts? I ordered my subscriptions a good ten days ago and still no Starwood Points. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif</font>

Patience, patience! The promised delivery time is 6-8 weeks, so you really should give Starwood / Insideflyer at least that long before you start complaining.

For what it's worth, my points posted about three weeks after my order. Your mileage may vary.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Neal:
Does anyone know when the 2500 Starwood points will post in our accounts? I ordered my subscriptions a good ten days ago and still no Starwood Points. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif</font>

Soon. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum74/HTML/003560.html