In addition to the new Continental award chart, there’s a thread on Flyertalk where a Continental representative outlines a whole sleuth of changes — most of them positive. In particular, discount tickets on Continental will earn full elite qualifying miles regardless of where they were booked (you don’t have to book on Continental’s website to earn full credit). And regular-priced awards will no longer have a Saturday stay requirement. There are plenty of other changes and confirmations. As expected, Continental Golds and Platinums will be Star Alliance Golds. Platinums get same-day change fees waived. Elite bonuses will be arned based on 500 mile minimums (rather than actual miles flown, so an improvement for short-haul earning). Elite upgrades on Northwest go away October 1. This is as expected, now ew have the date. Travel with Emirates,…
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Continental’s Star Alliance Award Chart is Out!
Continental joins Star Alliance at the end of October, and their miles become much more valuable as a result. Continental has long had a reputation for being terrible with award redemption, which was really a two-part problem. (1) They were always stingy with flights on their own metal, when awards were available they were at inconvient times. Continental has always been much harder to redeem, at least except close-in to departure. And with small international premium cabins those prized awards were doubly difficult. (2) Being a member of the worst alliance, with the worst partners. Continental wasn’t just stingy with awards, their partners were stingy with awards too. Northwest and Delta were almost as bad as Continental historically. Moreover they were aligned internationally with Air France and KLM and Korean (while finding a single transpacific…
United Threshold Bonuses for 2009
Via Lucky, United has announced their year-end bonuses for elites who fly beyond the minimum miles necessary for their status levels. Premiers who rack up 35,000 qualifying miles (or 40 segments) get a Red Carpet Club pass or 7500 miles. Take the miles. Premier Executives who rack up 75,000 qualifying miles (or 85 segments) get (2) Red Carpet Club passes or 15,000 bonus miles. Take the miles. 1Ks who rack up 125,000 qualifying miles (or 125 segments) get 2 Systemwide Upgrades, 25,000 miles, or a fee waiver on the $375 annual fee United Visa that comes with a free Red Carpet Club membership. Your travel patterns will determine whether the Systemwides are the best value (my favorite) or the free Red Carpet Club membership.
10% – 15% Discount on Marriott Award Nights
Through January 15, Marriott is offering a points rebate on PointSaver award night bookings. Registration is required Gold and Platinum members get a 15% rebate, and other members get a 10% rebate. The rebate will be awarded 6-8 weeks after the end of the promotion, so sometime in early March. And your elite status for the purposes of the amount of the bonus will be based on status held on December 31, 2009.
50% Transfer Bonus, American Express to Starwood
It normally takes 3 American Express points to transfer to 1 Starwood point with the US Membership Rewards program. Through September 22, the transfer ratio is 2:1 — a 50% bonus. This used to be a common promo, perhaps until 4 years ago. Since then the 50% bonus offers on transfers to Starwood points have more often than not been targeted. It’s still not a great deal in most cases, unless you have a strong need for Starwood points. (I did make a final transfer from Amex to top off my Starwood account years ago when I was booking an overwater bungalow at the then-Bora Bora Nui.)
Priority Club Offers Airline Flight Redemptions
Taking a page from Starwood’s SPG Flights, Priority Club has introduced a new pay for airline flights with points option. Frugal Travel Guy thinks it could be a decent deal if you could get the cost of points down low enough. There’s a Flyertalk thread on the new benefit. Bottom-line is that while more new options, without taking away other benefits, are always welcome. But the Priority Club flight redemptions generate a point value of about a third of a cent apiece. I generally value Priority Club poins at about two-thirds of a penny each. So while the tickets purchased with points are mileage-earning, they don’t get enough bang for the buck such that I could ever envision using the option. A $400 ticket is going to cost about 115,000 points!
Starwood to Make Award No-Show Policy More Reasonable
The Wall Street Journal‘s Middle Seat Blog reports that in response to criticisms on Flyertalk, Starwood will no longer charge a customer who no shows (or cancels past the deadline) an award night the hotel’s rack rate. Instead, they’ll charge the hotel’s prevailing rate. I still wish they would just forfeit the award points that would otherwise have been used for the stay, but at least this is less egregious than their previous practice.
The Growing Importance of Credit Card Spend to Airlines, All Over the World
Earning points towards elite status via credit card spend is mostly a US phenomenon. But the practice is spreading. The Global Traveller reports that you can get halfway towards your Air New Zealand status with their Global Plus co-branded credit card. I’ve written many times in the past (e.g. here) about how fundamentally important credit card spend is to an airline’s bottom-line, often much more important than frequent flying customers.
Starwood Double Qualifying Nights and Elite Rollover Nights
Taking a page from Delta’s ‘elite rollover’ play, and making it doubly valuable, Starwood hotels is offering current Platinum members the ability to have their nights between October 1 and December 31 count both for 2009 (requalifying for status valid next year) and for 2010 (requalifying for status in 2011). Registration begins September 9, and the FAQ is here. Meanwhile, Starwood is offering double night credits from September 15 through December 15. This offer is open to Platinums (who have to choose between this offer and the ‘nights advance’ offer above), Golds, and select non-elite members who are close to Gold. Registration for this offer will begin on September 9 as well, and the FAQ is here.
I Charged For An Award Booking
I’ve written in the past about how frustrating it is to offer help to people who don’t appreciate it. And for awhile I became disenchanted with doing the legwork for all of the folks contacting me that I didn’t know, whose awards I would make possible, but whom I would never hear back from with even a simple thank you. (Frankly, if I help a party of four book premium award tickets to Asia, a “hey, can I send you a nice bottle of wine?” might be an appropriate response.) I think readers of this blog will agree that I give away plenty of information for free. There’s very little that I know that is truly ‘secret’ or unique to me, though some certainly has been. I’ve just accumulated knowledge and through practice have learned…
