Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest were the two big winners at the Freddie Awards last week. Starwood actually did the best of any airline or hotel with 8 trophies on the night. Marriott earned 5. They were evenly matched, however, outside of the promotions arena where Starwood picked up 3 awards. Starwood certainly (and in my mind indisputably) had the richest earning promotion in the market for 2011, Free Resort Nights. Marriott took home the biggest hotel trophy haul in in the Americas, Starwood did especially well elsewhere in the world These two programs represent two very different competing philosophies for rewards and loyalty recognition. Marriott is everywhere, the most common word used to describe them and also their loyalty program is “consistency.” They don’t promise a lot but they deliver well across the…
About Gary Leff
Hey, Marriott, the 90s Called and They Want Their Fax Machine Back
Back in March I shared my frustrations with the Marriott Rewards program. I had some upcoming Marriott stays, I figured i would do an elite challenge and add a few nights to the reservations I was locked into, but I quickly realized the program wasn’t a match for what I look for in loyalty and rewards. Breakfast benefit only applies during the week (though some properties go above and beyond) Late checkout on request only, day of departure Suites are excluded from upgrades per terms and conditions Free health club access isn’t a top tier benefit Virtually no benefits on resort stays — late checkout (even based on availability) doesn’t apply, breakfast doesn’t even apply. And it’s those resort and leisure stays where I often care the most.. A Marriott Platinum at a resort still…
Bits ‘n Pieces for May 4, 2012
In the opening remarks of the May issue of Inside Flyer, Randy Petersen suggests that Delta buying an oil refinery should mean that they reduce fuel surcharges on their award tickets. Zing! Of course what they do is add fuel surcharges onto other airline awards (so they’re not even ‘recouping the cost of fuel’ on their own aircraft) and add international origination surcharges to tickets beginning in Europe, since most European carriers whack their members with similar fees. If only Randy’s wish were true. I’m not betting on it, my concerns with the Delta program were succinctly laid out in my debate with the Points Guy on the value of Skymiles. Inside Flyer has a Freddie Awards wrapup as well, including full results beyond just the winners. Here’s the week’s roundup of miles and points…
FOX Business Anchor Liz Claman Sits Down for an Interview on Business Travel
I had the opportunity to interview Liz Claman, anchor of Countdown to the Closing Bell on FOX Business Network, in between her own interviewing of a bunch of financial bigwigs. She was in Omaha for this Saturday’s Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting, and has interviewed Warren Buffett several times. I thought it would make an interesting conversation for View from the Wing since she’s a heavy business traveler. When I was up at the Freddie Awards and the Randy Petersen Travel Executive Summit last week, American Express Executive Travel shared a video with snippets from a conversation with 12 CEO readers of the magazine, about life on the road. What it means to travel, the joys and frustrations. To stay connected at home, to go out to eat with a spouse after eating out on the…
Air France KLM Flying Blue Releases New 50% Off Promo Awards
Air France KLM Flying Blue offers ‘promo awards’ at 50% off with the specific cities varying throughout the year. Several programs transfer to Flying Blue including American Express Membership Rewards, where points transfer instantly. (Back in February they even had a transfer bonus.) They add fuel surcharges to awards. I almost always find premium cabin awards to be a better value than coach, but airlines (like most non-U.S. frequent flyer programs) that add fuel surcharges to awards are almost never worth redeeming coach award tickets with. That’s because you wind up spending a good chunk of the cost of a paid ticket even when spending miles. Even with 50% off promo awards, coach redemptions aren’t a great value, but at least they’re somewhat more palatable. Business class awards become especially worthwhile, despite having to come…
30,000 Delta Miles for New Suntrust Bank Checking Account with Debit Card
Despite the Durbin Amendment, Suntrust bank appears to be getting back into the mileage-earning debit card game with Delta, albeit briefly. The card is available on several checking account products and has a $75 annual fee. It earns 1 mile per dollar on both PIN and signature-based purchases, 2 miles per dollar on Delta purchases. Through June 30 there are enrollment bonuses: Opening a new qualifying checking account with direct deposit earns 15,000 miles. (Direct deposit must be $100 or more per transaction, sometimes transfers in from Paypal count as direct deposit but that’s clearly not the intention here. The terms and conditions don’t specify how long direct deposit must be in place, likely best to leave it in place until these miles post.) Opening that account with this debit card earns an additional 15,000…
Kip Hawley Chat Rescheduled: Come Meet (Online) the Former Head of the TSA Wednesday May 9 at 9pm Eastern
Some of you speculated that the chat was being rescheduled for lots of interesting reasons.. For instance, He got scared. And he… …got delayed at the check in because of the need to take off shoes, jacket, throw away liquids that were 4 ounces etc… Well, it turns out the it’s been pushed to the same day and time, just the following week. The chat will be here and you can sign up for an email reminder as well. This is the guy who gave us the liquids ban. He seems to have had a change of heart. But he blames the bureaucracy for the security theatre we face today. I personally can’t wait to get online and have this discussion.
Kip Hawley Chat Moved to Next Week
Looks like a scheduling issue. This just in from Randy Petersen, “Will advise as soon as we get new confirmation but trying for same everything, just one week later.” Stay tuned and truly apologize for the inconvenience.
Tonight! Live Online Chat with Former TSA Head Kip Hawley
Don’t Forget! Tonight is the live Milepoint frequent flyer community online chat with former TSA Administrator Kip Hawley. The chat will be at… 9pm Eastern 8pm Central 7pm Mountain 6pm Pacific Definitely a can’t miss.
Strategic Use of Free Survey-for-Miles Websites
E-Rewards used to be much more lucrative than it is today, largely because they used to give more ‘e-Rewards dollars’ for shorter surveys, my impression is that compared to 5 years ago the payouts are lower. I admit I get bored of surveys, so I avoid taking them. And the one constraint I have over anything else is time. Survey sites aren’t especially lucrative relative to the time it takes to complete the surveys. But for folks with time on their hands, surveys can be a great way to earn ‘free’ miles. And there are several sites which offer it. What’s more, despite finding the surveys annoying, I actually do participate just enough to earn the minimum necessary to transfer to frequent flyer miles so that I can leverage the points as part of a…
