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Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for May 2011.
How Valuable are Hilton’s New Cash and Points and Upgraded Room Award Redemptions?
Last month we learned that Hilton is rolling out new redemption options: cash and points and use of points towards room nights above just the standard entry-level rooms. Both of these seemed like big advances for Hilton, though I did say at the time the question of value would be in the details. How many points would we save by spending cash? ANd how many extra points would it take to get a better than basic room? Starwood pioneered cash and points, Priority Club followed a couple of years back. It’s a way to stretch the value of your points, and in both of those programs it’s generally better to use cash and points when available than it is to use just points for a standard room. For me, if I don’t have status with…
New Priority Club PointBreaks List is Out! They Haven’t Gotten Rid of PointBreaks! (Yet?)
Via Priority Club Insider, Priority Club’s PointBreaks aren’t gone yet! It’s been widely expected that that the introduction of last minute reward nights would spell the end of PointBreaks, Priority Club’s offer of room redemptions for just 5000 points per night at select hotels. Instead, a a new list of participating properties is out for stays through July 30. I had personally hoped that Priority Club winning a Frequent Traveler Awards for their PointBreaks promotion would encourage them to keep it or make it more dificult to eliminate it. It’s a great offering, even if the number of top end properties participating is limited. It’s great to get an Intercontinental for just 5000 points instead of 30,000 or 40,000. Here’s hoping they keep the PointBreaks component of the program, after all!
Are there Ethics to Booking Frequent Flyer Awards for Clients?
Are there some award trips that I just shouldn’t book for clients on moral grounds? I’m not talking about routing rules and whether to push the envelope with a program over what is allowable for getting a stopover. I’m talking about some awards that I just shouldn’t book because of who they are for or where they are going? I received a request this morning that made me uncomfortable, though I fully admit that I don’t yet have all of the information about what’s motivating the trip. A woman wants two award tickets from the U.S. to Iran — one roundtrip for herself, and one one-way ticket for her 8 year old daughter. I’ve spent the morning thinking about this, and here are some tentative thoughts: I’m not a public utility. I don’t have an…
And the Winner of the Five Free Car Rental Days is…
The winner of the five free rental days from National Car Rental is commenter # 482, Corey, as drawn by random.org. Corey is headed to Disney World and will spend the rental car savings on the kids. Congratulations, Corey, I’ve passed your contact information along to the folks working with National to arrange your free rental days. And a big thank you to National Car Rental for providing the free rental days, the Executive Elite status in their Emerald Club, and the Victorinox carry-on bag to give away here on this blog. Nothing to me, great opportunities for my readers, and hopefully also worthwhile to National to promote themselves as a choice for savvy travelers, as I’ve shared I’ve long been a fan of their Emerald Aisle concept where you choose the car you want…
Tips on Buying Presidential Coins from the US Mint for the Miles and Depositing them Back into Your Bank Account
mrpickles is now blogging and recently posted an extensive explanation of buying coins from the US mint with your credit card to earn miles, and depositing the money back into the bank to pay off the credit card. The context for the post is how to quickly meet your minimum spend requirements for a credit card signup bonus, but the lessons are broadly applicable. I first covered the opportunity in June 2008. It’s not as easy as it used to be, there are limits on the amount of money you can do this with (no doubt thanks to the Wall Street Journal piece on the practice). Most folks have long assumed that the deal died after this article, but I pointed out last year that it was still alive, just no longer in unlimited quantities.…
Jeff Robertson, Head of Delta Skymiles, to Chat Online with Milepoint.com Members
The inaugural Milepoint chat with the head of a frequent flyer program or industry leader was a pretty rockin’ success. Maya Leibman, the President of American AAdvantage, was a good sport and shared some important details and explanations about the AAdvantage program and upcoming plans, like that those with current million miler status will have their accrued status miles continue to count even after any changes to the way they calculate those miles, and also that they’re planning to introduce online booking of partner awards by the end of the year. Over 800 people participated in the chat, my only complaint would be that it didn’t go on long enough. An hour is a good bit of time to get out of the evening of an executive running a billion dollar enterprise, but I wish…
Up to 25,000 for Northern California Residents Joining Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
Via Milepoint, Alaska Airlines is offering up to 25,000 miles for new Mileage Plan members in Northern California. 25,000 bonus miles if you fly roundtrip on a Northern California non-stop to Hawaii, or 12,500 bonus miles if you fly roundtrip between Northern California and anywhere other than Hawaii that Alaska flies. Travel must be complete by October 1, and the offer is open to members whose accounts “reside in a ZIP code that begins with 923, 932 or 934 – 961” Full details in this press release.
Secrets Revealed by the President of American AAdvantage in Tonight’s Live Milepoint.com Chat
Maya Leibman came off confident and at ease and really genuine in her answers during her online chat with Milepoint.com members this evening. While American has taken some heat for viewing social media as a distribution channel rather than an interactive one, her answers were anything but canned or produced. And she’s really quite funny, though I got to see that first hand at the Frequent Traveler Awards last week when she offered to Robert Wuhl to look into a “miles for sex” redemption option. Here were key takeaways from the conversation: There are more than 66 million members in the AAdvantage progam “Last year, AAdvantage members redeemed more than 165 billion miles to claim almost 7.2 million awards.” Any changes to the million miler program will be done with advance notice to members Already…
Priority Club Last Minute Reward Nights Makes Its Debut for This Weekend
Via Priority Club Insider, the very first set of last minute reward nights are out. That’s the new feature of the program, last minute award bookings for the coming weekend at a discounted points price. It’s only hotels in the US which are included at this point, and the current list which includes Intercontinental properties at O’Hare and in Dallas is for bookings the nights of the 6th, 7th, and 8th. It’s a throwback to the days of last minute e-savers which the airlines used to send out mid-week for upcoming weekend travel. To me, it’s of pretty limited use, a discounted redemption isn’t likely to get me on a plane and into a room that I hadn’t otherwise wanted unless it’s a monster discount at an amazing property and probably for an upgraded room…
