Delta used to have one of the most aggressive programs for mileage accumulation. Their constant promotions, either directly inside the Skymiles program or for converting points into Skymiles, made the currency a drug on the market. While Delta awards can be truly outrageously priced, some would argue that the ease with which miles are accumulated in the program more or less netted that out. In other words, it’s okay to spend double or more miles on an award when accumulate rates are similarly inflated. This year though Delta has been almost absent in the promotion space. That follows 2012 where the dearth of promotions was similar. Roughly speaking Delta bonused only a few small things like Hilton stays and responded to major competitor promotions such as offering big miles for full fare and premium cabin…
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for September 2013.
New Elite Benefits for Le Club Accorhotels
Le club Accorhotels has revamped its elite status program, adding new benefits — benefits which are not in and of themselves impressive, but that are much improved. This is the loyalty program for Sofitel, Novotel, M Gallery, and related hotels. For a chain with full service hotels, their benefits were about the weakest out there. Now they are a bit better or at least will be come mid-October. And this is also a chain of course that gives away its top tier platinum status just for signing up…! Specifically, new benefits include: Free internet for Silver, Gold,and Platinums Late checkout (subject to availability) for Silver, Gold,and Platinums Early check-in (subject to availability) for Golds and Platinums Lounge access for Platinums Golds have to choose between early check-in and late check out, if both are available,…
IHG Rewards Hotel Award Night Sale Up to 75% Off
The hotel loyalty program formerly known as Priority Club — which includes Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and other brands — is offering a one-day flash sale on award nights. (HT: Mommy Points) This reduces the number of points required for an award night between 25% and 75%. Book by 10am Eastern Tuesday morning for stays between October 8 and November 8. If there’s a hotel that’s participating which you think you even might need a night at, it’s worth booking, as award nights are generally cancellable for full refund of points up to a cancellation deadline. Even if you don’t have IHG Rewards points, you can more or less buy all you wish instantly (with a few steps involved) for seven-tenths of a cent per point. I’m not in love with award nights through…
US Airways Offering 100% Bonus on Fall Flights If You Complete An Additional Task
Len M. is my US Airways Dividend Miles news ticket this morning. He sends along a promotion to earn up to 100% redeemable mileage bonus on flights through November 17 if you also complete partner activity. If you do one of the following by November 17 then all of your qualifying US Airways flights through that date will earn 50% bonus redeemable miles. Field goal – 50% bonus miles on fall flights Spend $2,000 on your US Airways Visa or US Airways MasterCard® card** Book and stay with any of our hotel partners Book and rent from any of our car rental partners Even better, do one of the following by November 17 and your flights through that date earn 100% bonus redeemable miles. Touchdown – 100% bonus miles on fall flights Fly to or from Charlotte, Mexico City or…
US Airways 100% Bonus on Sharing Miles is Back – the Best Mileage Purchase Offer Returns!
US Airways is offering a 100% bonus on shared miles (miles transferred between accounts) through October 15. You can earn up to 50,000 bonus miles with the offer, which should appear instantly with the transfer. Share miles bonus For a limited time, when you share miles, the recipient will get a 100% bonus – up to 50,000 miles. Just share your miles by October 15, 2013. Share 10,000 miles, give 20,000 miles Share 30,000 miles, give 60,000 miles Share 50,000 miles, give 100,000 miles Transfers are available in 1000 mile increments, and each 1000 miles transferred — up to 50,000 — earns a corresponding 1000 mile bonus transferred into the recipient’s account. The cost for this is “$0.01 per mile plus a processing fee of $30 and a tax recovery charge of 7.5%” — transferring…
American’s Fantastic First Class Availability to Asia for the Whole Family
As a followup to my posts on how to find award availability for the whole family — I’ve written about the routes with four or more business class award seats on Star Alliance airlines (so using United, US Airways, Air Canada points etc) between the US and and Europe and between the US and Asia — I’ve put together an illustration of routes with best first class availability on oneworld between the US and Asia. To begin, recall basic principles. More seats are harder than fewer seats. If you can split up (a family of four might fly 2+2) that makes things much easier. Roughly six months out is a good sweet spot for searching award space. Shorter flights are in less demand. East Coast – Europe is far easier than West Coast – Europe.…
And The Award for Most Overrated Lounge in the World Goes To…
You can read my reviews of the B>British Airways Concorde Room at London’s Heathrow airport here, here, and here. The lounge is supposed to be super-premium, oneworld top tier elite status alone doesn’t get you in. British Airways has a first class lounge, elites are relegated there. This lounge is reserved for BA’s first class passengers and super-premium customers. So it should be nice, in BA’s home airport no less. And yet… the internet connectivity is poor, the service is poor, the food is bad, and the furnishings are becoming threadbare in the cabana shower rooms. Well-kept bathroom facilities Inedible burger It turns out, though, via Lucky, that the Concorde Room has more in common with a United Club at Washington Dulles than I even realized — a poor hygiene rating. Out of Date Ingredients…
A Loyalty Program Offer I Would Never Accept: FREE SPIRIT DINING
Spirit Air’s Free Spirit program now partners with Rewards Network (formerly iDine) and has introduced Free Spirit Dining. You earn 5 FREE SPIRIT miles per dollar spent at participating restaurants. So now you can choose to earn miles for your dining with United, American, US Airways, Delta, Alaska, Southwest, or… Spirit. Spirit’s miles expire after 90 days of inactivity unless you have their co-branded credit card and charge to it every month (although presumably charging somewhat less frequently can meet the 90 day requirement). Some airlines have close-in redemption fees. Spirit’s fees start within 180 days of travel. After Greyhound started a loyalty program in 2006, I coined the conundrum of having nothing good to offer “the Greyhound Road Rewards problem.” Spirit has this in spades. They do not have redemption partners. The reward for…
Hilton’s 4th Quarter Promotion — From a Lump of Coal Up to Quadruple Points
Hilton is now sending out ‘advance notice’ of their 4th quarter promotion, “More Nights, More Points” which is one they’ve run before. We’re giving you an exclusive first look at our Hilton HHonors™ More Nights, More Points promotion. Beginning October 10, 2013, stay two nights and earn double HHonors Points for your entire stay. Stay three nights to triple your points, and four nights or more to quadruple your points. Simply book and stay at any of the 4,000 hotels in 90 countries before January 31, 2014. It’s a quick ticket to unforgettable experiences. Folks on single night stays get nothing, but longer term stays get a generous bonus. The website URL in the email I received was unique to me and didn’t require entering my account number in order to register. The website —…
Did You Know You Could Check Your Wine for Free With Alaska Airlines?
Alaska Airlines offers to check a case of wine for free (even for general members) on flights departing Sonoma County airport in California, Pasco/Tri-Cities, Walla Walla and Yakima in Washington state, and any airport in Oregon. Apparently wineries found that checked baggage fees were a stopper for out of state passengers who didn’t want to make wine purchases and then have to add a cost to transport the wine home. Some wines of course are much more accessible at a winery, others can be obtained at home or by mail, and the checked bag fees can flip the calculation of whether it’s worth schlepping as well and emotionally grate on the customer. As a result of the program, Alasks has gone from checking 2 cases of wine per week per participating airport to 30 —…
