I’m about to head off on another trip, which I’m somewhat ambivalent about because of how much I’ve been on the road lately. But I’ve also done vacation and I’m much happier to share that trip with you in the coming days. It was a return to cities I’ve been to many times, it was visiting with family at the back end on the other side of the world, but it was also some top notch airline products including first class on two A380s (taking an A380 to visit family for the holidays really improves holiday travel). Some great hotels, and amazing meals. Qantas, Singapore and Cathay First – Oh My! Late last year I stumbled upon two Qantas A380 first class award seats, Sydney – Los Angeles for the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
Monthly Archives
Monthly Archives for December 2014.
Delta Elites Now Get Elite Status With Hertz
When United inked a deal with Hertz, giving more bonus miles for Hertz rentals and Hertz status for United elites, Hertz (and its Dollar and Thrifty brands) became United’s exclusive car partner. In other words, the end of United miles for Avis rentals. But United didn’t get the same level of exclusivity from Hertz, it seems. Because Hertz has also inked a new deal with Delta. Here are the benefits of the Delta Hertz status deal: Delta’s Diamond and Platinum members get Hertz President’s Circle status Delta’s Gold members get Hertz Five Star status Presidents Club is the second-highest level in the Hertz program. It’s what United’s 1K and Platinum members get. United Golds get 5 star, and Delta’s similar elites get it too. United Silvers also get 5 Star, while Delta silvers do not.…
IHG Acquires Kimpton Hotels, Kimpton Guests Weep
IHG is acquiring Kimpton hotels for $430 million. Kimpton has been shopping itself. And they’ve fetched an impressive sum considering their size and earnings. The IHG Kimpton deal is a smaller one than what some had expected — there’s been rumors of an IHG Starwood deal, and a Wyndham IHG combination. I wasn’t a big fan of Kimpton’s loyalty program changes announced over the summer. Nonetheless, the chain offered a personalized experience and one where they tended to go above and beyond program rules. In general I find that the smaller hotel programs are the most rewarding. I’ve often said that it doesn’t take much effort to be loyal to Marriott or Hilton. When you turn up in a city you sort of fall into one of their hotels. It takes effort to be loyal…
American AAdvantage Will Award More Miles to Highest Spend Customers Than Delta’s Revenue-Based Program Will
… In some cases. And that mattters. Delta says their new program rewards their highest spending customers, but they cap mileage earning at 75,000 miles per ticket. This cap is inclusive of elite and class of service bonuses. For revenue-based earning that means Delta’s 125,000 mile a year Diamond members will not earn a single additional mile for business class tickets over $6818.18 (in base fare plus fuel surcharges). So let’s look at the most expensive tickets that different airlines offer, and see which ones will earn more miles (leaving aside for now that American miles are themselves worth more than Delta miles). If a Delta Diamond 125,000 mile flyer buys a business class ticket (Delta’s top cabin) from New York to Australia for $9280 in fare and fuel surcharges plus taxes, they’re not going…
Gaming IHG’s New Big Hotel Promotion
Yesterday I wrote about the new IHG Rewards Club Set Your Sights promotion set to go live today. The bonus is now up. The IHG Rewards Club Set Your Sights promotion is structured similarly to 2013’s The Big Win and the copycat ‘Into the Nights’ from fall 2014. IHG Rewards Club clearly finds
American’s New 2015 Mileage Bonus and the Big Strategic Move it Represents
American is introducing new bonus miles earning on top of the current program for purchasing premium cabin tickets. Already the AAdvantage program awards: Miles based on distance flown Bonus miles for elite frequent flyers Bonus miles for more expensive tickets In 2015 they will layer on more bonus miles for premium cabin tickets — more bonus miles for longer flights, and bigger bonuses for higher tier elites… up to 12,000 miles per segment, built into the program for the coming year. No registration is required, and these bonuses can be earned on American or US Airways flights or on codeshares operated by British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, Japan Airlines and Qantas. Instead of going revenue-based like United and Delta are doing, Alaska Airlines is awarding elites and premium cabin fares with more bonus miles. Alaska sees…
A New Upgrade Benefit for US Airways Top Elites Flying American
There’s a new improvement that rolled out last week for US Airways top tier elites traveling on American Airlines, per JonNYC at TravelingBetter.com. American and US Airways Reciprocal Upgrade Benefits are Limited American and US Airways started offering reciprocal upgrades to each others’ elite members back in June. These were upgrades available at check-in only. Since US Airways upgrades are complimentary, American elites would get them free too — provided there were seats left when the check-in window opened. Elites could also be added to the airport standby list. How to Maximize Chances of a US Airways Upgrade You don’t ever want to check in for a US Airways flights when there aren’t first class seats for sale if you’re an elite. Instead, just keep checking for a first class seat to open up. If…
Sheraton LAX Ups Its Game in the Most Important Way an Airport Hotel Can
Over the summer I wrote about the Sheraton LAX, a property I’ve written about before and stayed at many many times. Before my summer stay, I described the way to choose an airport hotel as: Book the one attached to the terminal, if one exists and price allows. If no property attached to the terminal, then whichever has been most recently renovated. After that Sheraton LAX stay I realized the number one thing is that an airport hotel needs to be able to reliably get you to the airport. (An attached hotel generally fits the bill most easily, but renovations don’t replace facilitated access.) The whole point of an airport hotel is that it’s easy to and from the airport. Once airport transportation becomes unreliable, you have to wait longer to get there and you…
IHG Rewards New 50,000 Point Bonus Promotion Goes Live Tomorrow
IHG Rewards has a new promotion going live tomorrow, and not all details are available yet, but you’ll be able to earn up to 50,000 bonus points. The ‘Set Your Sights’ promotion is available to all IHG Rewards Club members worldwide and is a great opportunity to kick start the new year with bonus offers for activity across IHG’s nine hotel brands. The more offers members complete, the more rewards they can earn. Registration for the promotion begins on Dec. 15 2014 >here. The campaign book- and-stay period starts on Jan. 1, 2015. Once registered, >IHG Rewards Club members can begin earning their rewards through April 30, 2015. 50,000 points is enough for as many as 3 free nights, worth 2 free nights at most hotels, and covers a free night at the chain’s most expensive properties. I value IHG Rewards Club points at $0.006…
Are Revenue-Based Frequent Flyer Programs, and Bonusing Premium Fares, Really the Same Thing?
It’s tempting to say that ‘going revenue-based’ and ‘rewarding premium cabin tickets more’ are two sides of the same coin. That’s actually wrong, for one simple reason. Both United and Delta next year will be rewarding miles for flights based on the cost of a ticket, rather than the distance flown. To paraphrase comedian Steven Wright, one mile no longer equals one mile. While Delta in particular talks about ‘rewarding hte right customers’ my contention is that this is really about planes are full, they don’t need (or in United’s case, don’t think they need) to spend much more to put butts into empty seats. They’re printing fewer miles. The break-even point in both United’s and Delta’s program, where you earn as many miles in 2015 that you earned in 2014, is spending 20 cents…
