Win emails to remind that March 30 is the last day to book Southwest award tickets at the ‘old’ rates. Southwest is reducing the value of its points for their best use, “Wanna Get Away” or discount advance purchase fares. They gave notice back in September, which is great but long enough ago that the need to act soon may well have fallen off of folks’ radar. There’s at least some notice given — bookings made March 31 onward will cost 70 points per dollar, rather than the current 60 points per dollar. With this change each point will become worth 1.42 cents apiece. That’s a 15% hit to the value of Southwest points. Here’s your strategy. Burn all of your points now on speculative bookings that you might need. Even though the number of…
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New IHG Rewards PointBreaks Hotel List to Be Revealed Tomorrow
PointBreaks cost just 5000 points per night to redeem and are a fantastic deal, especially for higher end hotels that may otherwise run 50,000 points per night. (And you can buy these points at 7/10ths of a cent apiece). But PointBreaks have to be on offer for a hotel you can use during the promotion period. And you have to act fast, the most desirable properties tend to get pulled down from the list rather quickly. From IHG: The new PointBreaks list will be posted on Monday, March 24 for bookings and stays from March 24 to May 31, 2014 (subject to availability). Each Reward Night at these participating hotels will be only 5,000 IHG Rewards Club points during the above mentioned dates. Here is a sampling of the more than 150 properties that will be featured: InterContinental Hotel – Marine Drive…
Everyone Is to Blame for Too Many Checked Bags On Board, They Just Didn’t Know It
I like Joe Sharkey, he’s one of those great curmudgeons in travel, and full disclosure he moderated a panel I was on a couple of years ago at the Phoenix International Aviation Symposium. But like so many curmudgeons, crankiness holds together their narrative more than argument. As with this New York Times piece on checked baggage fees. Sharkey manages to simultaneously offer us that: People carry on more luggage than they are permitted. It’s unfair for airline personnel to single people out to check the size of their carryons. An inability to carry all of the bags people bring on board a full flight is a problem with the aircraft. Here are some highlights. Attire Discrimination: Will How You Dress Determine Whether You Face Carry On Scrutiny? Michael S. Piraino, an elite-status flier on United,…
1000 Free Miles for Joining Delta Skymiles
They won’t give you points for the miles you fly starting next year, but they will give you points just for joining. Now that Delta has become frenemies with Alaska Airlines, they’re trying to build up their membership base in Seattle instead of just borrowing Mileage Plan members to support their flights. This offer is apparently being promoted to Hertz customers in Seattle, and the welcome text on the promotions page makes it available to Hertz customers (which can be anyone), the terms and conditions of the offer do not limit it in any way to people that have rented from Hertz or people with a Washington state address. Of course it’s only 1000 miles, and only for people who do not already have Delta accounts, but frequent flyer program signup bonuses from the major…
Vietnam, Cambodia, Macau and Hong Kong Trip Report: Vietnam Airlines Economy Class Danang – Siem Reap
Index: Introduction, Positioning Flight to New York, and the Hilton JFK British Airways First Class Lounge, New York JFK Cathay Pacific First Class, New York JFK – Hong Kong The Pier First Class Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City Park Hyatt Saigon Lunch at Pho Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam Airlines Business Class, Ho Chi Minh City – Danang Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa Vietnam Airlines Economy, Danang – Siem Reap Park Hyatt Siem Reap Angkor Wat and Other Temples Dragonair Business Class, Siem Reap – Hong Kong Turbojet, Hong Kong Airport – Macau and the Sheraton Macao Hotel The Venetian, Fernando’s, and the Ferry to Hong Kong Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Harbor View Suite Bo Innovation, Hong Kong Amber Restaurant, Hong Kong Cathay Pacific The…
Effective April 8th: 1 in 5 Marriott Hotels Will Require More Points to Redeem a Free Night
Marriott announced upcoming changes to which hotels are assigned to different award categories effective April 8 — and it’s pretty ugly. 27% of Marriott hotels are going up or down in category. Of those, 22% are decreasing by one category and 78% are increasing by one category One in five Marriott hotels are going to cost more points to redeem a free room night award. This is after last year’s devaluation which included the creation of a new, more expensive category 9 redemption tier, and an increase in points prices for 36% of Marriott hotels (while ~ 1% went down in price). You can find the full list of changes here. Book award reservations no later than April 7 to get current pricing, for stays 50 weeks into the future. One Mile at a Time…
No Changes Are Planned to Hyatt’s Diamond Trials and Toothpaste Returns By March 31
Hyatt hosted a happy hour for Milepoint at the Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile last night. I’ll review the property shortly. Jeff Zidell and a couple of other people from the Gold Passport program were there, and they picked up open bar (!) for the group along with all sorts of snacks and appetizers. So a big thanks to Hyatt Gold Passport! Towards the end of the evening Jeff took questions. Two of the questions were about the Diamond status trial and challenge, and about toothpaste. And the answers to both contained good news. Jeff said that they have no plans to eliminate or change the Diamond status challenge. They “accept refugees from all programs.” Hyatt will give temporary top-tier Diamond status to elite members of other programs, and offer an expedited way to keep that…
Track Down Your Paramour Seatmate Online, Take Your Kids Out of School, and Max Out Prepaid Cards (Today’s Bits ‘n Pieces: Part Duex)
Mews and Notes from Around the Interweb: @AmericanAir helps make a love connection. (HT: Point Me to the Plane) Ski holiday company will pay parents’ fines for taking their kids out of school. Free-quent flyer investigates limits to the JH Preferred Prepaid Visa. You can do more than conventional wisdom has supposed. Air Baltic BalticMiles is joining coalition loyalty program PINS. Scott Mayerowitz tells us that there are legitimate reasons for a plane’s transponder to be able to be turned off. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
Two-For-One Club Carlson Points Redemptions Now Work On Many Suites, Too
While Club Carlson has increased the price of some room redemptions, they’ve also introduced premium room redemptions — using more points for a better room. And unlike at some chains, it’s only a modest increment over a standard room. In fact, a premium room is a 50% upcharge over a standard room — that’s what Hyatt Gold Passport used to do. (Starwood charges double for a suite, Hyatt 60% more, and Hilton based on a poor valuation per point and the going rate for the room. With IHG Rewards premium room redemptions aren’t an option.) What’s more, several hotels offer better-than-standard rooms for less than a ‘premium room’ award. These can include family rooms (at a 25% premium), junior suites, and even sometimes one bedroom suites. (HT: Mommy Points) A tip for searching for these…
JetBlue Offers Status Matches… And Status Challenges If You Aren’t Elite With a Competitor Airline at All
JetBlue is offering a status challenge through April 18. If you have eligible elite status with another airline now, they’ll give you status through the end of 2014 — and if you complete a challenge you’ll keep it for 2015. If you aren’t already an elite frequent flyer with a competitor, you can just do the challenge — complete it and you’ll receive status through the end of 2015. The ‘challenge’ criteria to earn status for all of 2015 is 3750 base flight points ($1250 spend in airfare excluding taxes) in 90 days. Status levels where they will offer an upgrade to the JetBlue Mosaic level: Alaska Airlines®: Mileage PlanTM MVP® Gold or MVP® Gold 75k American Airlines®: AAdvantage Platinum® or Executive Platinum® Delta®: SkyMiles Medallion® Gold, Platinum or Diamond Southwest®: Rapid Rewards® A-List Preferred…
