Loyalty Traveler runs down the changes in hotel categories for Hilton HHonors and concludes that it represents a 19.3% increase in the average points cost of a room night. He crunches the numbers for US Hilton properties and finds the following category comparison between 2009 and 2010: Category 2009 2010 Opportunity 37 n/a Category 1 150 39 Category 2 1124 117 Category 3 1143 1334 Category 4 459 1109 Category 5 139 347 Category 6 57 121 Category 7 n/a 65 To a first approximation, just eye-balling, it does look like Hilton did mostly what was execpted: drop the opportunity level, add a new category 7, and shift most properties up a level. There remain 7 active categories, and each category has a similar number of properties in it. Category 2009 2010 Bottom 37 39…
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Alaska Airlines Up to 25,000 Miles for New Members from Specific States (and Counties!)
Alaska Airlines is offering 5000 miles for signing up for a new frequent flyer account, and another 20,000 miles after taking a qualifying roundtrip. Account must be opened by April 1, and the roundtrip must be flown between February 15 and April 1 and must not be purchased as a ‘hot deal’ (booked in G or T class). And most importantly, the deal is only available to residents of Oregon and Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, and Skamania Klickitat Counties in Washington. Someone needs to figure out where those counties are, or if they have friends in Portland whose home can become their permanent address. What’s up with all of these residency-specific offers of late, both here and in Europe? (HT: Lucky.)
Is There Such a Thing As Too Much First Class, and Not Enough Business?
Lucky says he doesn’t want to fly first class. What I think he’s saying is that he’s made travel decisions based on in-flight products and lounges, and chosen to visit some places at the expenses of others he might have wanted to go as a result. And since he’s accomplished most of his inflight goals — the First Class Terminal, the Thai First Class Spa, the Turkish Suites, etc. — it’s time to move on to visiting places he’s neglected because of the lack of quality first class products to get there. That’s reasonable. And I have advice for him. It’s two-fold. (1) Don’t despair, the amazing thing is htere are always new products to try! Just a year or so back there wasn’t a new Swiss first class product. Turkish didn’t have suites. And…
Reserve the Best Award You Can, Then Trade Up
One of the great things about United’s 1K status is that they let you make virtually unlimited changes to award tickets at no fee. Delta’s top tier doesn’t quite let you do that, you get a limited number of free changes annually. But free changes are great, and sometimes changes are worth paying a fee for. Something I’m often struck by is how, if I have patience, the seats I want are likely to open up. On most airlines, if a cabin isn’t likely to sell out (and if they aren’t overselling the lower cabin and need to preserve space for operational upgrades), eventually award seats should become available. This isn’t universally true, there are some airlines who won’t open seats and let a cabin go out empty. But more often than not patience pays…
I Have Only 1000 Hilton Points Left
Today is the last day to book under the ‘old’ award chart, before the January 15 devaluation. I made a bunch of bookings, some for myself, some for others’, and got my account down to almost zero before virtually every Hilton hotel in the world becomes a more expensive redemption. Now, some of these bookings will inevitably be cancelled, so I’ll get some points back. And I’m not really a chicken little here. I earn and burn pretty much in concert, I want to earn points in one period and spend them in the same period so I’m not really effected by inflation. And I can earn more points pretty well as quickly as I want to. But to get the most out of the points I halready have banked, redeem away I did… Y’all…
35% Off Beds and Bedding at W Hotel Store
Promo code V4NT8 is good for 35% off at the W Hotel Store. Some will prefer to wait until the 40% off offer comes back around, but if you were considering getting a W Hotel bed, and didn’t want to wait, this is still a perfectly reasonable offer.
Asiana Brings First Class Back to Frankfurt
Beginning April 1, Asiana returns 3-cabin equipment to Europe with a 777 flying Frankfurt- Seoul. Even though the 777 has only 8 first class seats, award availability is excellent, they release two seats up front on plenty of flights.
American Offers Miles for Donations to Haitian Relief
American is offering miles for donations to the American Red Cross to help with Haitian earthquake relief. Through February 28, the offer is 250 bonus miles for a minimum $50 donation, or 500 bonus miles for a donation of $100 or more. Contributions must be made online at the designated American Airlines site for the Red Cross. You then have to forward your email donation acknowledgment from the Red Cross to ReliefMiles@aa.com. They instruct, Please do not to change the subject line, but do provide your AAdvantage number in the email. Miles will post to the member’s AAdvantage account approximately 14 days after the receipts are received. And the name on the donation receipt must match the name on the AAdvantage account. (Via @LauraBly)
New Priority PointBreaks
The new Priority Club PointBreaks list is out. That’s the offer to redeem a specific limited set of hotels for just 5000 points per night. The following Intercontinental properties are on the list: Dallas Tashkent Nairobi Jakarta Cali Kiev Adelaide Of course, sometimes properties that start off on the list get pulled within hours or days rather than lasting through, say, the end of March. And at other times other properties pop up that weren’t on the initial list. If you want one of these hotels, or any on the new list, don’t wait and book now because the one you want could well disappear. At 5000 points per night it’s often worthwhile to just straight up buy the points necessary for a stay if you don’t already have Priority Club points.
5000 Free Spirit Miles for a Donation of $5 or More to Help Haitian Relief Efforts
I’m not usually a fan of Spirit. They’re staffed by the ex-US Airways people who first declared that loyal customers flying on low fares offered for sale by the airline weren’t valuable. And that same Ben Baldanza became famous for poor customer service skills. And I wouldn’t actually fly Spirit except as a truly last resort (though the 13-year old boy in me does like their advertising see for instance here, or this commercial (YouTube)). But Spirit is doing something really quite commendable, offering 5000 miles for making a donation to Haitian earthquake relief. Qualifying donations are those of $5 or more made to UNICEF, American Red Cross, or Yéle Haiti. And you have to complete and submit their form by January 17, 2010. The bonus will be awarded to the first 200,000 members who…
