The great thing about Priority Club is that they offer so many promotions, they’re usually marketed towards specific subsets of their members but usually anyone can register. I don’t plan stays based on my ability to actually earn these bonuses. They don’t always post. But more often than not they do Here’s one from Heels First Travel: I just got an email, apparently the first of four, to help me maximize my Priority Club points, offering 3,000 bonus points on my next stay. Use code: 7974 to register. On Sunday Loyalty Lobby outlined the different kinds of promotions that Priority Club offers and which are usually stackable. The best source for staying up to date with all of the bonuses offered is Priority Club Insider.
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for August 2012.
2-Day Offer to Buy United Miles at 2.3 Cents Apiece
In April United offered a 40% discount on purchased miles promoted to its Facebook and Twitter fans. The offer is back and only available through Wednesday at 11:59pm Central. If you purchase between 15,000 and 100,000 miles the cost is 2.1 cents per mile plus tax. You can’t use it for less than 15,000 miles so if you need just a few thousand for your next award this is no help. And the price is too high just to bulk up your account. But if you need some miles towards your next international business class award, and you have a reasonable likelihood of redeeming that award in the near-term, this is the lowest price that United offers to sell miles. Of course, it’s not that much less than you can straight-up buy points from Chase…
Understanding Starwood Preferred Guest: Hotel Awards
Key Link: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card Starwood Preferred Guest isn’t an especially rewarding program for earning points based on the money your spend at its hotels. It is, however, an exceptionally generous program for earning points from the money you spend on its credit card. Starwood hotels are your Westin, Sheraton, Le Meridien, W, St. Regis, and other associated brands. A non-elite member earns 2 points per dollar spent at a Starwood hotel property. It’ll take $5000 spending (without elite bonuses) to earn a free night at a medium category (four) hotel. Leaving aside even the top of the top hotels in the chain, it’ll take $15000 spent at a hotel to earn a free night at their very expensive properties. Compare that to Hyatt where a non-elite earns 5 points per dollar…
Why the Best Small Community Airport Subsidies Reveal We Should Shut Down that Program
Today Cranky Flier takes up the task of defending the undefendable — highlighting ‘worthy’ investments this year by the federal government’s Small Community Air Service Development grants. There were 61 applications from communities for money from the government, 33 were funded (“because the ones who know about the programs are the ones that get the money!!” said the late night infomercial…). Cranky highlights five and declares, “That’s it for my favorites.” Not a good ratio or one that the program can be proud of. And he promises that tomorrow we’ll hear about the silliest winners. But I wouldn’t even come close to giving him his wins for the program. They’re wasteful and silly. Here’s Cranky on giving Los Alamos, New Mexico (9) flights a day to Albuquerque. The Los Alamos Shuttle Lastly, there were a…
Why Government Travel Policies Make Sense For No One.. Except Government
Last week I posted that federal government per diem allowances for travel would stay the same in 2013 as in 2012. There was a big move afoot to reduce travel costs, in one model by excluding higher-end properties from the calculations of what hotels generally cost. The hotel industry enlisted its lobbyists, got Members of Congress to object, and the move was killed. Instead, the approach to ‘saving’ money was to ‘not spend more‘. Much to the disappointment (though relief) of members of Congress representing cities with the most hotel rooms in the world and with the most hotel rooms being sold at federal government rates in the world. This post led to some interesting comments, both in the original post and with folks over email. (Some of the ideas in this post are mine,…
Doing My Best, and Trying to Do Better With This Blog (or Why it’s Not 2002 Anymore)
When I first started blogging in May 2002 it was just sort of a way of chronicling my thoughts as I came across deals, learned more about frequent flyer miles, and wanted to share my enthusiasm with a small group of friends. I used to write something and get 30 hits a day. My ‘big break’ that led to a few HUNDRED views a day was when I started producing IMPEACH NORM MINETA bumper stickers back when he ran the Transportation department (which then had control over airport security). It was my ‘personal blog’ and I still think of it that way. And I often have the sort of filter that one expects from a blog that isn’t actually being read by anyone. Back in 2006 a New York Times piece covered me (with a…
Hotel Mistake Rate: Westin Times Square New York for $60
The Renew Your Soul package is pricing for $60+tax at the Westin Times Square. In addition to the link above which pre-fills in the relevant package, you can search for the “Renew Your Soul Package” rate in the “Promotions and Packages” section. Search for your desired dates. Pick the Westin Times Square and then “promotions and packages” and make sure you are searching one adult only. That will bring up the rate if the package is available. This is available on some but not all Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights between September and December. The package includes a $10 minibar credit, an in-room movie, a $10 Metrocard, and a $10 coffee card. As I say, this only comes up when searching for 1 person per room. If this is ultimately honored (don’t buy non-refundable…
250 Free American Airlines Miles for Signing Up With e-Rewards
e-Rewards will offer you 250 American Airlines miles for joining. 250 AAdvantage bonus miles are only available to newly enrolled members of e-Rewards in the United States and Canada. Members must complete their first survey within three months of enrolling in order to qualify for the bonus. Please allow four to six weeks for miles to post to your AAdvantage account. I have a long-standing account, that wasn’t joined through one of their partners. And that means I can redeem the points I earn for taking surveys with any of their partners. And this offer is for new members only, of course. My impression was that if you joined through a partner like American you would only be able to redeem points for American miles. That isn’t actually true, I signed up for an e-Rewards…
Using Delta Miles Successfully: Awesome Business Class Availability on Saudi Arabian Airlines
I laid out my arguments about why Delta miles are one of the least valuable currencies out there at Frequent Traveler University back in April when I debated The Points Guy. It’s no secret that I think Delta miles are worth less than miles with United, American, US Airways, or Alaska Airlines. Sometimes I think they’re worth less than Air Baltic BalticMiles and Ukraine International Airlines Panorama Club miles. I’m the guy who coined the term “Skypesos” after all. But I’m also committed to helping folks use Delta miles for business class international awards. I have a guide on how to make Delta’s miles work for you. And a couple of weeks back I outlined fantastic business class award availability on China Southern’s Airbus A380 from Los Angeles to Guangzhou. Today’s lesson: new Skyteam member…
Should We Use the Icelandair Purchased Miles Deal to… Fly to Iceland?
I mentioned yesterday that Icelandair’s award chart is really expensive for flights on Icelandair itself, it also happens to be quite pricey for flights on partner Finnair. And yet it is strangely inexpensive for flights on Alaska Airlines. (Roundtrip transatlantic business class on Finnair is 300,000 miles!) I thought, gee, I’ve kinda always wanted to visit Iceland. I shared the $61 Baltimore – Reykjavik fare about 8 years back but didn’t book it myself. It’s tough to get to with miles, Delta has a flight and up until recently there were no U.S. partners of Alaska Airlines. I could buy a ticket, and it’s a pretty short flight for ‘Europe’. I’m not going to redeem via, say, Frankfurt and then Scandinavia using Star Alliance miles just to get business class. I never went. So perhaps…
