The Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives is my favorite resort, I’ve gone back each of the past four years. Here’s everything you’ll want to know about it, including five reasons why it might not be for you.
Star Alliance frequent flyer program Avianca LifeMiles is offering a purchased miles bonus through May 29 — a minimum of 100% bonus for everyone, but 120% for residents of certain countries. If your account is registered outside of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the United States it’s a 120% bonus instead. That would bring down the cost from 1.65 cents per mile to 1.5 cents per mile. The 20% discount doesn’t materially change the value proposition. It can be a good deal with a specific use in mind for the miles, and you can buy up to 75,000 miles (plus bonus — so receiving 150,000 for US residents). I don’t like investing in LifeMiles speculatively though. In the past they’ve tweaked some award prices without notice. When Avianca joined…
A collection of interesting links you’ll want to see, many you’ll want to click.
Starwood appears to be getting aggressive with targeted offers. For instance, they’ve got a double elite credit offer out there currently.
This morning I received an email offering me a targeted promotion. The email didn’t tell me what I would get.
It’s interesting they’re imploring me to ‘come back’. I haven’t stayed with Starwood in a month.
A memo was sent to all Target stores stating that — effective tomorrow — credit cards may no longer be used to load funds onto a REDcard.
That doesn’t mean all hope is lost — the card may still be very useful.
Through May 11 American is offering a discount on purchased miles – as low as 2.1 cents apiece. This will be worthwhile to some. Here’s when.
Late last monthEtihad introduced a promotion, 25% bonus on transfers in from Citibank through May 15.
They appear to be reneging on the way that offer was presented, however.
The promotion is now listed on a different page of he website. And now there’s a new restriction listed in the promotion’s description:
When Club Carlson announced that their co-brand Visa will stop giving second night free on award stays, they offered something of a sweetener to make the news go down more easily. They announced 30,000 bonus points on your next stay paid with the card by August 31. It turns out that any room charge even on an award stay is enough to trigger this bonus. Now Club Carlson is changing the points prices of a number of their hotels, and net net not for the better, I suppose it should be seen as part and parcel of their approach that they are offering elites 5000 bonus points per stay in June and July that’s booked this month. (HT: Flyertalk) I do expect the changes and this promotion are related — to get elites to continue…
A collection of interesting links you’ll want to see, many you’ll want to click.
Via One Mile at a Time it appears that award space is wide open for two passengers to fly Etihad’s first ‘apartment’ onboard their A380 between New York JFK and Abu Dhabi. This is the single most aspirational award product in the sky. The upper deck of the Etihad A380 has just a single aisle. There’s a shower onboard. There’s no product with as much personal space. You can find the availability yourself on the Etihad Guest website, you are looking for ‘Guest First’ availability. Or just call. But as of now most flights most days have the space open. American, for instance, charges 90,000 miles each way for first class between the US and Middle East or Indian Subcontinent. That means flying Los Angeles – New York JFK – Abu Dhabi in first class…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
