United Personal Device Entertainment: Programming List

Tonight was my first time on a United flight equipped with personal device entertainment capabilities. The airline has reportedly outfitted their entire Airbus fleet with the capabilities. Read on to understand how it works and view a full list of current programming so you can see if it strikes your fancy. 

How It Works:

If you see that your flight will be equipped with "personal device entertainment" that means you can bring your Apple device onboard and access free programming via a wifi signal from an onboard system. Content can be accessed via the United app. Alternatively, you can access content through your laptop computer's web browser but there is a much more limited library of compatible content.  Either way, you do not need to pay for the onboard wifi; the content will stream on your device for free.

Programming Choices:

My flight on an Airbus A319 from EWR to DFW on September 28 offered ~50 TV series and ~150 movies. Here's the full list.

United Welcome Screen in Web Browser

TV SHOWS
2 Broke Girls
Ancient X-Files 2
Austin & Ally
Birth of Europe
Brain Games 2
Criminal Minds
Downton Abbey
ESPN: 30 for 30
Friends
Good Luck Charlie
Gravity Falls
Happy Endings
House of Cards
Jake and the Never Land Pirates
Jessie
Megafactories
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Mike & Molly
Million Dollar Moon Rocket Heist
N.C.I.S.
Nashville
Once Upon a Time
Phineas and Ferb
Scandal
Shake it Up
Shark Tank
Suburgatory
The Big Bang Theory
The Mentalist
The Middle
The Vampire Diaries
The Walking Dead
Tribeca Film Festival Presents
Two and a Half Men
Untamed Americas: Coasts
Winged Seduction: Birds of Paradise

MOVIES
21 Jump Street
42
50 First Dates
A Dark Truth
A League of Their Own
A Thousand Words
Adventures of Tin Tin: The Secret of The Unicorn
Alice In Wonderland
Aliyah
Amour
An Officer and a Gentleman
Anchorman
Argo
Avengers
Barbie
Beautiful Creatures
Big Top Scooby Doo
Bolt
Broken
Bullet to the Head
Cars
Cars 2
Cinderella
Clandestine Child
Cloud Atlas
Coco Before Chanel
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Crazy, Stupid, Love
Curse Flower
Dr. Strangelove
Drive
First Wives Club
Foreign Letters
Forrest Gump
Frankenweenie
Free Men
From Here to Eternity
Funny Girl
Galaxy Quest
Gangster Squad
Ghostbusters
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Haywire
Here Comes the Boom
High Noon
Hit and Run
Hope Springs
Horrible Bosses
Hotel Transylvania
How to Train Your Dragon
In a Better World
Indecent Proposal
Iron Man
Iron Man 2
Iron Man 3
It Happened One Night
Jack the Giant Slayer
James and the Giant Peach
Katy Perry: Part of Me
Kung Fu Hustle
Lawrence of Arabia
Lincoln
Looper
Lucky
Madagascar 3
Major League
Mary Poppins
Matilda
Men in Black
Men in Black 2
Men in Black 3
Midnight in Paris
Mirror Mirror
Miss Congeniality
Mission Impossible
Mission Impossible 2
Mission Impossible 3
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Moneyball
Monsters University
Monsters Inc
Mulan
Nine Queens
On the Waterfront
Oz the Great and Powerful
Paranormal Activity 4
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Playing for Keeps
Premium Rush
Pretty in Pink
Pretty Woman
Puss in Boots
Raid: The Redemption
Resident Evil: Retribution
Robot & Frank
Roman Holiday
Saturday Night Fever
School of Rock
Searching for Sugar Man
Shine a Light
Shun Li and the Poet
Singin' in the Rain
Skyfall
Sleepless in Seattle
Sparkle
Star Trek
Sunset Boulevard
Tae Guk Gi
Taichi Hero
Teddy Bear
The Amazing Spiderman
The Campaign
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight Rises
The Factory
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part III
The Hangover
The Hangover 2
The Heaven...Single
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
The Iran Job
The Karate Kid
The Lives of Others
The Lone Ranger
The Odd Life of Timothy Green
The Pineapple Express
The Raven
The Social Network
The Vow
Think Like a Man
This is It
Thor
Top Gun
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Toy Story 3
Trading Places
Triad
Tribeca FF: Climates of Change
Tribeca FF: The Trotsky
Trouble with The Curve
True Grit
U2: Rattle and Hum
Volver
Wall-E
Wayne's World
Wreck It Ralph
Young Adult
Zero Dark Thirty
Zombieland

Right Flight, Right Time, Right Strategy: Cashing In On Oversold Flights

To me, scoring a travel voucher from an airline is like winning a lottery.  This past week, I secured a $500 travel voucher from United for taking a "bump" on an oversold flight (taking a "bump" refers to giving up your seat on an overbooked flight to accommodate another ticketed passenger and instead taking a later flight).  I was able to arrive at my final destination less than an hour later than originally scheduled, allowing me to proceed with my day as planned.

Here's my story and some tips to help you formulate your own strategy to try to score lucrative travel vouchers for taking a voluntary bump when flying:

1. Travel During Rush Hour on Business Routes: I was booked on an early Monday morning flight from Newark, NJ to Washington, DC.  It was painful to wake up early for a 6:30am flight, but it ended up being worth it.  Monday morning is a prime time for business travelers to begin their travel week.  Thursday evenings are often popular for return travel for management consultants, so that is generally another business travel day. Generally, business obligations for passengers mean they will have less flexible travel plans.
2. Fly Early: This is important for two reasons... Flying early in the morning means there is less of a chance that passengers on your flights will be dependent on a connecting flight to make it onto your flight.  That means it will be less likely that there will be passengers who've booked your flight and miss it.  Secondly, flying early in the morning gives you more options to take later flights the same day if you do in fact accept a voluntary bump, and more of a buffer to allow you to still meet your personal or business obligations.
3. Always Check-In (Again) at the Airport: Airlines may each have different protocols for how to volunteer for a bump.  If you're not sure what they are, ask an agent at check-in.  For United, if a flight is oversold, the first line of defense is asking for potential volunteers at the check-in kiosks at the airport.  Even though I check-in online 24 hours prior to departure time, I always print a paper boarding pass at the airport kiosk so I can register as a volunteer (and avoid being dependent on my phone's battery) if the flight is oversold.  It's important to note that you're simply expressing interest, not committing to give up your seat.  I always opt-in as a volunteer so I can at least learn what compensation is being offered, which is often significantly higher than what is indicated via the check-in kiosk.
4. Don't Check A Bag: It's easier logistically for the airline to bump someone from a flight if their luggage isn't always on board.  Sometimes there are multiple volunteers vying for the coveted travel voucher, so not having checked luggage can give you an edge.
5. Make Your Presence Known: Proceed directly to the boarding area for your flight and notify the gate agent that you've volunteered and are willing to explore giving up your seat if needed.  Be polite and seem easy going.  If there are multiple volunteers, you'll want the gate agent to know you're around before others show up.  Stay near the boarding area so that agent can speak with you if needed.  Don't pester the agent; she or he will outreach you if your seat is needed.  Often, seats will become available and no volunteers will be needed.
6. Have a Plan B in Advance: As soon as I new my EWR to DCA flight was oversold and I got myself on the volunteer list, I fired up the United app and explored options.  In the case of DC, there are two airports to consider since both are serviced by decent mass transit options.  I saw that there were several flights into DCA (where I was originally headed) and several more into Dulles (IAD) which would add another 30 minutes of ground transit to my trip.  I also noticed that a 6am departure into IAD was delayed due to maintenance and would be leaving 30 min later than my original flight.
7. Keep Exploring Alternatives:  My seat was indeed needed an due to lack of volunteers I was offered a $500 United travel certificate toward a future flight.  The agent confirmed a seat for me on a 1pm departure into my original arrival airport of DCA.  I asked about nearby Dulles Airport (IAD) and she was able to confirm a seat for me in first class on a 9:30am departure.  I accepted that so we could get that ticketed.  I then asked if she could place me on the standby list for an earlier 9am, currently oversold flight into my original destination airport of DCA, which she did.  I thanked her and then proceeded on my own to the 6am departure to IAD (that I'd researched earlier) now delayed to 7:15am.  I approached the gate agent to inquire about listing for a standby seat on that flight, which would allow me to get into Washington, DC only 45 min or so later than I'd originally planned, plus some additional ground transit time.  Due to the delay, the passengers the agent was assisting before me changed their travel plans and vacated their seats.  The agent was able to confirm me on the flight and I was a happy camper!

$5 shuttle bus w/ Wi-Fi connects Washington Dulles airport with the DC Metro

So, in summary, by planning flights during busy travel times, allowing myself enough time to still get where I needed to be, doing some research on my own, and exploring alternate options real-time, I ended up with a $500 United travel voucher and arrived at my final destination only an hour later than scheduled.  The stars aligned in my case, but it's not always so easy.  That said, you can increase your likelihood of a favorable bump if you have the right strategy.

What strategies do you use when trying to earn compensation for oversold flights?

TravStrat Checklist: Saving Money While Dining on Vacation

I love traveling, luxury hotels and great food and cocktails.  I just don't like paying luxury prices!   Here's the first installment of what will grow into topical quick reference checklist of strategies I've picked up to enjoy great experiences on the road without breaking the bank.  This first post will cover dining while traveling.

Truluck's Miami Happy Hour

Explore happy hour options

Check what your hotel offers onsite and email or phone the concierge to inquire about nearby happy hour specials.  You may have some luck researching this with some Google searches or Yelp browsing, as well.

• Example: In the Brickell neighborhood of Miami, Truluck's Seafood, Steak & Crab House offers a nightly cocktail hour with half priced appetizers and cocktails.  The appetizer options are hearty enough to build a small dinner.  Many nights also feature a piano singer.  They run the same deal at their other locations, including their Fort Lauderdale outpost which is only a 5 minute drive from the resorts that line the beach.

 

Check for discounted, prepaid vouchers online

Note that generally any heavily discounted vouchers are not able to be combined with other discount programs (e.g. restaurant week menus).

Restaurant.com Voucher Options

• Restaurant.com: Search for your restaurants to see if there are any prepaid voucher discounts, such as a $25 certificate for which you pay only $10. While you can score 60% vs. the value of the voucher, you also need to review the voucher requirements; the same $25 voucher referenced may require that you spend a total of $50 on your check before tax and tip so you'll earn 20-25% savings overall. 
• Example: Atrio at Conrad Miami offers vouchers worth $10 - $100 at 60% off.  To redeem the voucher, your total check before tax and tip must be twice as much as the value of the voucher.
• Travelzoo Local Deals: Travelzoo offers prepaid vouchers for restaurants as well as spa services and other experiences through their "Local Deals" portal which you can browse by major city.  The vouchers must be redeemed during certain times and do expire.  You can also check Living Social, Groupon, or Amazon Local Deals though deals tend to be fleeting on those sites.



Travelzoo Voucher for KTCHN

• Example: In NYC, Travelzoo currently has a voucher available to enjoy "KTCHN" restaurant in Hell's Kitchen (a 5-10 min walk from Times Square hotels as well as my personal favorite Kimpton Ink48 on the west side).  For $59 plus tax and tip, you get a three course dinner for two plus two glasses of wine or beer.  I've never been for dinner but we have enjoyed brunch at KTCHN.

 

Purchase the discount voucher from an online shopping portal

Simply start out at one of the airline, hotel or credit card company's shopping portals to accrue points or miles for your purchase of vouchers from Restaurant.com or elsewhere, regardless of payment method.

• Example: United Airlines has a MileagePlus shopping portal where, at the time of this posting, you could earn 8 miles for every $1 spent at Restaurant.com.  You simply log into the mileage/ points mall with your loyalty program credentials then click through the Restaurant.com link on the United portal to access the site.  Once you land on the Restaurant.com site, you can proceed with making your voucher selection and purchase as you would otherwise. 



MileagePlus Mall: Restaurant.com link for 8 miles/ $1

 

Check for "restaurant week" deals

Many major cities offer a designated week or month once or twice a year.  Participating restaurants offer prix-fixe menus at discounted rates.  Some restaurants exclude peak days of the week (e.g. Fri, Sat) from restaurant week promotions, though others extend their deals to the lunch menu as well.

• Examples: Atrio at the Conrad Miami participates in Miami Spice which runs during low-season of August & September and offer a 3-course meal worth $55 for $39.  Panzano restaurant at the Kimpton Monaco participated in Denver Restaurant Week and offered an appetizer, salad, entree and dessert for $30 per person (I loved their brussel sprouts).

 

Engage with the restaurants online

Some restaurants will publicize specials or post discount coupons to their social media pages, whether it be Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.  Others have email lists you can sign up for.  It's worth a quick look as you may simply need to "like" the restaurant to get access to the deal.

• Example: Yogurt Ur Way on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale offers a 20% off coupon through a link on their Facebook page.

20% off and other coupons are up for grabs through social media

 

Book your reservation online through OpenTable

You'll earn points towards just for making the reservation, regardless of payment method when you actually dine.  Once you accrue 2,000 points you can redeem them for a $20 certificate good at participating OpenTable restaurants.  Be on the lookout for "1,000 point tables" occasionally offered during off-peak times; securing such a reservation is like getting paid $10 to dine there.  Don't forget to check if the hotel's breakfast/ brunch venue is bookable on OpenTable, too.

• Examples: Atrio at Conrad Miami offers 100 OpenTable points for dining with them if you book online through OpenTable.  The Ca Va Brasserie by Todd English within the Intercontinental Times Square New York offers 1,000 point tables daily from 8-10pm.  For breakfast, you can score 100 points at Steak954 inside the W Fort Lauderdale or Area 31 inside the Kimpton Epic Maimi even if your room rate includes complimentary breakfast there.
  

  

  OpenTable 1,000 dining times for Ca Va at Intercontinental New York

 

Order from the bar menu

Many restaurants have a full service bar or lounge attached.  Some offer separate bar menus that present more affordable options.  

Bar at Level 25 at Conrad Miami

• Examples: Atrio at Conrad Miami has the adjacent "Bar at Level 25" which offers bar, booth and outdoor balcony seating.  We've arrived for our Atrio dinner reservation previously and opted to sit at the bar instead.  We were allowed to order from either the separate bar menu or the full Atrio menu while dining at the bar, and could mix and match.  If you try this option at Conrad Miami, give the goat cheese croquettes and lobster sliders a try.

 

Charge to your room

If you're dining at your hotel, sign the charges to your room so you can accrue hotel points on the purchase.  Many hotels offer multipliers or additional points if you've also reached a certain status level in their loyalty program, meaning even more value for those dining dollars you've charged.

• Example: Hilton, which is the parent company of Conrad Miami, offers 10 base points for every $1 of room charges.  You can then opt-in to for an additional 5 points per $1 (in lieu of frequent flyer miles).  If you have status with Hilton, you get a multiplier on base points.  In my case, Hilton Gold VIP status gets me an addition 25% bonus on base points.  That means that all-in, every $1 of spend at the Conrad Miami earned me 17.5 Hilton points, which yield a redemption value of around 0.6 cents per point. 

 

Order delivery vs. room service

If you've had a long day and want to enjoy in-room dining, you're not necessarily limited to the room service menu and related surcharges.  In major cities, there are a variety of online food delivery portals such as Seamless or GrubHub that you can try.  Use their convenient mobile apps or website to place your order.  With Seamless, you can also get $7 off your first order or $15+ using this link and with GrubHub you can get $5 off $10+ if you sign up here.  Note that many hotels will not allow the food delivery person beyond the lobby, so you'll need to head down from your room to retrieve it.

• Example: Last December at the Sheraton New York, we passed on room service to instead enjoy food delivery from a nearby restaurant offering organic, healthy fare.  We placed the order on Seamless and ate comfortably in our room.

 

Charge to the credit card with the best bonus

Based on what's in your wallet, either charge your dining and/ or overall hotel folio to a cash back card or a hotel's co-branded credit card, the latter of which is usually the better option.

• Cash back cards: Some credit cards offer quarterly bonus points or cash back for certain spending categories



Chase Freedom 5% Bonus Categories

• Example: From April to June, the Chase Freedom card offered 5% cash back for dining charges.  You simply had to enroll your card in the promotion in advance and then use the card when you dined out.  The 5% bonus caps out after you hit $1,500 in eligible spend for the bonus category for the quarter. Note that you still may be better off using the  next credit card option listed.
• Co-branded hotel cards: Most major hotel chains have a co-branded credit card with a major issuer like American Express or Chase that pay higher point rates for any spend at the designated hotel chain.  Some cards carry an annual fee, so make sure you'll use it enough to get the value.  If you have friends that may carry the card, ask them to refer you so that you can both get a points bonus for your application.
• Example: The Hilton HHonors Surpass card from American Express offers 12 points per dollar for spend at Hilton Worldwide properties (Waldorf, Conrad, Hilton, Curio, Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Hampton Inn, etc). When charging my meal at the Conrad Miami to my room, which is then charged to my Hilton Amex, I earn 12 points per dollar in addition to the 17.5 points per dollar noted above from the normal loyalty program earnings.

 

Final Analysis

After considering all of these angles, you can avoid paying full price for dining while traveling fairly easily.  And, when you're able to compound these strategies on top of each other, you can expect to save upwards of 30% as seen in the example below based on a meal at the Conrad Miami that doesn't even take into account restaurant week or happy hour deals.

Total savings of 34% through discounts and points at Atrio at Conrad Miami

What other travel strategies have helped you to save money on dining without sacrificing enjoyment?

Customization Hits Travel Booking: Hotel Rates Based on Your Social Network & Loyalty Programs

There's a new travel booking start-up that aims to capitalize on the popularity of social networking, loyalty programs and personalization.  The booking site, Hotelied, offers customized discounts on a limited collection of luxury hotels in select markets based on your social and loyalty footprint. 

When you sign up you're asked to link up your social network profiles as well as airline and hotel loyalty programs.  The amount of a discount you're able to receive appears to be based in part by how many program and networks you've linked up to your Hotelied profile.  The site is equipped with a personalization engine that appears to run algorithms to suggest hotels based on your profile.

According to the site, the personalization allows hoteliers to restrict their discounts to specific guest profiles they're aiming to attract while giving you access to unpublished lower rates:

Hotels are willing to offer discounts to influencers: individuals from high profile industries, desirable markets, or frequent travelers. The information you provide to Hotelied allows us to match you with those hotels that want you as a guest.

Hotelied's profile completion and personalized discount rate

While I haven't personally booked a hotel yet, I am intrigued.  After signing up tonight, the first hotel that was offered to me was Como Metropolitan in Miami.  It's a relatively new luxury hotel that friends of mine recently visited and have highly recommended to me.  In terms of discount, the site indicated that I'd have access to up to a 40% discount.

Through Como's direct booking engine, a stay of one night on October 5 was pricing at $330
excluding taxes and fees with a 72-hour cancellation policy (the $311 rate was pre-paid):

Como's direct booking engine offered a rate of $330

Via the Hotelied site, I was being offered a rate of $234 with the same 72-hour cancellation policy, for a savings of 29%.  While it's not as much the max discount cited, that's a hefty savings especially since it still honors the 72-hour prior to check-in cancellation.

Hotelied offered me a "personalized" discount of 29%

The site indicates that the participating hotels will be upscale or luxury class lifestyle brands and independently owned hotels.  You can't rely on it for all your travel needs since as of tonight I only saw hotels being sold for NYC, Miami, Los Angeles and Portland.

The company was founded by a former Cornell Hospitality Administration alum with hotel & real estate acquisition experience as well as a former Goldman Sachs portfolio manager.

I'd keep an eye on this site as it could be great for some luxury experiences at attractive rates, but at present the inventory is too limited to be used as a primary portal for hotel discounts.  I was pleasantly surprised that the first hotel recommended to me was one that I have been intrigued by recently and also offered at a 29% discount!

Tip of the hat to my friend Joe for making me aware of Hotelied.

Unused Points and Miles Can Be Big Business for Hotels & Airlines

United's MileagePlus program drives billions in revenue

There's a lot of chatter in the points and mile world regarding maximizing the value of the benefits we accrue from travel.  There are two primary actions that can cause the value of your miles and points to go to waste: expired miles/ points and frequent travel program mile/point devaluation (when the travel provider raises point levels required for the same type of redemption).  The first is in your control while the latter is subject to decisions by the loyalty program management teams.  In both cases, loyalty program member behavior and executive management decisions can have a big impact on travel provider profits, to the tune of billions of dollars.

To illustrate the magnitude of the impact that loyalty program point expiration and devaluations can have, let's look at an example form United Airline's 2013 annual report:

When you fly on United, a portion of the price you pay is put aside in a deferred revenue account.  Put simply, this means that rather than treating it that portion of the ticket price as revenue when you fly your ticketed flight, part of the revenue from the ticket has to be put aside to cover the future benefit United needs to deliver to you when you redeem the miles you earned from that flight.  As of the end of 2013, United had $4.9 billion in deferred revenue put aside in account for future redemption of Mileage Plus miles.

Monitor your miles & points online so they don't expire

United also discloses that they assume that a certain percentage of miles earned will expire before used.  As of the end of 2013, United assumed that 20% of miles would go unused.  For every one percent of total earned miles that go unused, United banks an additional $57 million in profits.  That means that because on average, those of us that have earned United MileagePlus miles let 20% of them go unused/ expired, United is able to recognize an additional $1.1 billion of profit from their loyalty program (note: this doesn't represent annual profit, but full benefit over the life of the current pool of outstanding earned miles).  That also means that if United increases the miles required to redeem the same award by 20%, they would also in theory generate $1.1 billion of additional profit.

United's 2013 Annual Report: Deferred revenue from frequent flyer miles & mileage expiration assumption

So, the bottom line is that mileage redemption, or lack of redemption, can be big business for airlines and hotels.  Make sure you do what you can so that 100% of the benefit of your points and miles earned ends up in your wallet rather than in the earnings reports of airlines and hotel.  Don't let your accrued points and miles end up in that 20% pool that goes unused before expiration.