Triangle Trip

Similar to the airline offers, Marriott launched a fast track to Elite status program that goes from May 11, 2009 to June 26, 2009. You will receive double credit for each night at a Marriott. Here’s the link to register. It is hard to get Elite status at Marriott because Marriott Rewards do not count stays + nights. You can only achieve Elite status with actual nights – so checking in and out of Marriott hotels throughout the week will not get you Elite status faster.

To earn Marriott Platinum status, you will need to have 75 nights. Marriott’s current fast track to Elite status offer goes on for 7 weeks. If you are a weekly traveler with 4 nights per week, you will get 28 to 30 nights during this promotion period. With double nights, you will have 60 Marriott Reward nights — that will leave you 15 short of Platinum status. I don’t think this fast track to Elite status is worth it unless you have already been staying at a Marriott or are committed to staying at Marriott for the rest of the year.

From the promotion link, I also noticed Marriott has implemented Elite Rollover Nights. If I understand the term correctly, every additional night after the 75th night will count toward next year’s status. This would be a huge differentiator against SPG, Hilton and Hyatt. The hardest part is still getting 75 actual nights.

After a short trip to Vancouver and using my Sprint mobile broadband card for the very first time in Canada, I saw a $80 data roaming charge on my Sprint mobile broadband bill. I searched the Sprint website but was not able to locate international data roaming rates. All I could find was international voice roaming rates. I then contacted Sprint’s customer service to find out the details behind the $80 data roaming charges but could not get a direct answer from the representative. However the Sprint customer service representative was kind enough to give me an $80 refund due to the lack of information.

With the $80 refund, I was still not happy with the lack of information and requested to speak to a supervisor to get more information. I was transferred to several customer service representatives and finally found the location of international data roaming rates. I would like to share this information with my readers with Sprint or any other mobile carrier. Here’s the link to the Sprint site. Always check the roaming rates before you head abroad.

An update to my previous post regarding a quick way to get through SFO’s Terminal 3 TSA security lines (especially on Monday mornings), I would like to share some additional facts I learned today with our readers.

1.  The TSA security line in SFO Terminal 3 located between the domestic and international terminals (near gate 74), which is all the way on the left side of the United checkin counters, is only open from 7AM to some time in the afternoon. So if you are really rushing to get on a flight and your gate is in the high 80s, you might be better off finding a United employee to escort you to the front of the normal security line. My recommended TSA checkpoint can be out of the way if you have to to run to the back of Terminal 3.

2.  The SFO Terminal 3 TSA security line located between the domestic and international terminals is faster than (Fly) Clear. I have used Clear at SFO which I find somewhat inefficient. Since there are two main TSA security lines at Terminal 3 for United, one for Premier and another for regular travelers, Clear agents allow you to skip the United Premier line which has less TSA security screeners and X-Ray machines.

In summary, use my recommended TSA security checkpoint at SFO Terminal 3 when they are open from 7AM to some time in the afternoon. If you are on a 6AM United flight, you better have Clear or UAL status.