Customer Reviews

The Penny Pincher's Passport to Luxury Travel: The Art of Cultivating Preferred Customer Status

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

All of the useful information in this book could have been condensed into a travel magazine article. The remainder of the book is comprised of the author bragging about his free upgrades.

The author has the annoying habit of constantly stating that he's about to divulge a secret to discount luxury travel; then, the author (a) fails to provide any tips on the topic, (b) provides general common sense advice (make friends with the gate agents) or (c) provides anecdotes too specific to his situation to be applicable to most readers.

This is a revised edition of a previous book. Yet the author will occassionally imply that the earlier edition contains additional luxury travel secrets -- so you should run out and buy that book, too.

I was not at all surprised to find on this web page a series of content-less yet five-star reviews which read suspiciously like the book itself.

Avoid. Your time is better invested learning the details of actual frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs on the various web pages devoted to the topics.

I found the book ok; not brilliant, not terrible. I notice a curious consistency in the other reviews. All five stars, yet strangely generic for people who supposedly liked the book so much. All about the same length, and written in what appears to be the same voice. My guess is they're all written by the same person. So consider this a review of another of the author's works too...

Instead of any "secrets" to luxury travel the author simply repeats the same common sense "if you just spend enormous amounts of money with travel providers and are nice to them, they'll be nice back" Well Duh. Of course they're nice to someone who's flown 3 Million miles with them. What about the rest of us? Further, the author shamelessly shills for all the major airlines and outright bashes Southwest and other discounters. His plugs for Delta should win him free tickets for life.
Save your money. This is a page of common sense jammed into 300 page plus tome that's not worth your time.

Being a luxury travel newbie, this book was very helpful in presenting information which I'm guessing must come to seasoned frequent travelers over time. On the first day after I achieved Premiere status for the first time on my airline, I called the reservation desk to change the details of my return flight. After finalizing the changes (which took over 15 minutes of discussion), the customer service representative told me he couldn't believe I had just achieved Premiere -for-the-first-time-. "You asked all the Pemiere questions," he stated. That was due to the strong start I got from Joel Widzer's book.

Here are some specific things which I do now which I didn't do before:

1) Concentrate my travel with one airline. It seems common sense in retrospect, but it wasn't something I did. I shopped price and was proud to do so. I flew the no frills airline which everyone in the southwest should know without realizing that other carriers could do more for me.

2) When speaking with any customer service representative, I ask for my current Premiere status. After emphasizing my loyalty by doing that, I then make whatever request I'm making. Even when I hadn't achieved Priemere the first time, this helped.

3) I use my miles to upgrade, not for free tickets. The common sense approach was to get things for free. Widzer points out that you don't get additional miles towards Elite status for award travel. Buy a cheap-as-possible restricted ticket and use your loyalty, leverage, and if necessary, ff miles to upgrade yourself. You fly the route without worrying about blackouts, fly first class, and get closer to Elite status.

Some things which Widzer doesn't mention:

1) At least on my airline, United, it seems pretty difficult to get a compimentary gate upgrade, though I have done it. That seems to be the exception. You usually have to use miles or upgrade coupons, especially when competing for upgrades.

2) You've got to study the planes flying the routes you're interested in. My LAX to Seattle flight was on an Airbus A320(?) which had something like 4 First class seats. That's damn tough to upgrade into.

3) As a million miler, Widzer probably didn't run into many other travelers with similar seniority when it came to upgrade priority. Persistant asking probably can get you confirmed on the upgrade list when you consistantly fly 100K miles a year. For those of us at the 25K level, getting confirmed into Economy Plus is usually guaranteed. Just asking a lot isnt' going to get us in first class.

4) The E-Fares which United advertises on their web site are billed as "non-upgradeable." True for Elite flyers? I haven't had the opportunity to try.

5) "After calling the marketing department..." is a phrase Widzer uses more than once. This isn't something a non-travel writer can do, so shouldn't be mentioned in the book.

To be clear, the book opened my eyes to the frequent traveling world. In Nov/Dec 2000, I found $500 fairs to London and Paris on my airline, and made my first trips to Europe, racking up 20K from Los Angeles in two trips. One round trip coast to coast later, and I'm an Elite flyer. I've flown a <500 mile segment with a comp gate upgrade, and a 2500 mile segment with a comp gate upgrade. I've changed details on restricted tickets, and had fees waived for me when using coupon upgrades. I didn't even know that such a thing as a concierge level at a hotel existed. I've stayed in them twice on special deals after reading the book, though I have yet to have Hilton volunteer an upgrade or agree to comp me an upgrade there.

I wouldn't have thought to do any of the above without the book.

The author of this book combines urban legend and outright myth in equal parts with common sense and obvious strategies.

Alas, nothing can avoid the mathematical reality that a typical plane has fewer than 10% of its seats allocated to first class, and of those seats, many have been already sold to 'real' first class passengers or allocated to people with upgrade certificates, coupons, etc. Sorry, folks, it just plain ain't possible to magically get upgraded because there just aren't enough seats on the plane!

Many years ago - in the 'good old days' - lots of people did get upgraded by 'schmoozing' and by various other strategies. But these days the airlines have realised that upgrades are both a major marketing tool and also a major revenue source. They have made upgrading such a rigorous and formal process that it is very hard to get something that you're not entitled to, no matter what Mr Widzer might claim to the contrary.

The author has flown over a million miles - because of this his experiences are totally different to those of the typical potential reader of this book, who does not have super/elite status, etc etc.

Lastly, I have a strong feeling that some of these five star reviews are being overly generous, and note that two of them are from the same person and are identically worded and two others from apparently different people on different days have identical errors in them. Hmmmm.....

the titled piqued my interest, of course with a title like that, but I was wary. So I flipped through this book at the library first. I also read his column at traveler's tales website. What a load of [junk]. Does he get paid by Delta? His answer to a letter specifically requesting how to get upgrades on Continental or Air France was all about how great Delta was. And his advice to ask nicely for upgrades? also [junk]. Continental has elaborate rules on upgrading and if you're not Elite, you ain't getting there first class! Hell, even Elite members don't just get it for free unless they're "Platinum" elite. Sure, Widzer may get all kinds of upgrades, but then he's basically ultra Elite status. Bottom line, if you're already rich and can afford to travel say 75,000 miles in one calendar year to attain the highest level of elite status, then you'll get upgraded. But it's still expensive to buy even the cheapest tickets to get 75,000 miles. Don't waste your money or time with this and find some legitimate travel books like using both a higher-end travel guide and a budget one to get the most bang for your buck.

...Very unrealistic. I tried his advice and just got laughs. We travel a lot and have learned that there is only one world in travel; you get what you pay for (or use legal upgrades). The writer also tells you things you already know to be true... travel off peak is cheaper. I do not need a book to tell me this. This book is the king's new clothes

This is, without a doubt, the dumbest book I have ever read - on any subject.

The core of the book is based primarily on the author buying the cheapest possible tickets and hotel rooms, and then magically being upgraded to first-class and oceanfront suites at no extra charge - every time. All he does is ask for it. Apparently he has the world's greatest personality because everyone he meets can't wait to give him free upgrades. It is truly unbelievable how many people all over the world are tripping over themselves to help this guy out.

The author also stresses that his loyalty to one airline makes him a valued customer, and therefore results in frequent upgrades. I find this hard to believe since he always pays next to nothing for his tickets (something he constantly brags about). If airlines track their customer's flying histories, like he claims they do, his airline would see that he is nothing more than a freeloader who generates very little revenue for the airline compared to the amount of service he consumes. Why would an airline continually reward him for doing nothing for
them? It's not like he actually pays for anything he gets.

Every time I fly I always ask the gate agent for a complimentary upgrade to first-class, and every time I am politely denied, usually with a little chuckle from the agent. We all know that in the real world things don't work like the author claims they do. So if you believe in Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy go ahead and buy this book. If not save your money.

This book would be great if you are a business traveler and are allowed to keep frequent flyer miles. However, if you work for a company or public service agency that books your trips and keeps any perks for the company, this was not a helpful book. If you don't travel for business you are out of luck because the book does nothing for the average vacation traveler. It was a disappointment

Amazon says to focus on the content of the book when writing a review. Unfortunately, there is no content to focus on. Be nice to people, ask for upgrades, frequent the same airline, hotel chain, etc? How many miles did the author have to fly to figure that one out? It took me about 2 trips to realize the benefit of loyalty. What exactly do they teach at Pepperdine?

I only wish Amazon would have some way to verify where the reviews are coming from. I am confident that the only thing left would be 1 star comments. Most of the positive reviews look quite similar, even where there are writing errors.

The good news is, publishers must be desperate, so if you want to write a book on pretty much anything, I am confident you will get published. I was thinking about writing a book on how to properly dispose of this so-called "book". It will be 2 pages long, then repeat itself for 148 more pages...