Tonight I’ll be recording another podcast with the folks at Upgrd.com. It’ll be a few days before it’s live, but in the meantime you can check out the most recent installment in the series on Star Alliance awards and how to successfully book them.
About Gary Leff
Starwood Preferred Guest’s Stealth Devaluation
Starwood Lurker confirmed the rumor today that Starwood Preferred Guest would not be making large-scale changes to the categories of its hotels for 2010. Each year Starwood has re-categorized hotels based on their average daily room rates. Those categories determine the number of points required for a free night. When rates go down, point requirements go down. When rates go up, the points price becomes more expensive as well. That’s the value proposition that Starwood has always followed, more or less, since the inception of the program. Then the hotel industry hit the worst revenue year it had ever seen. RevPAR decreased a whopping 17.3% in the first 11 months of 2009 as hotel chains lowered prices. This tops the 1.3% decline in revenue per available room that occurred from Jan. to Nov. 2008. Rates…
Three Priority Club Partner Transactions Earns 6000 Bonus Points
Dracs pointed me to a new Priority Club multipartner bonus. The offer is up to 6000 bonus points: 1000 for the first partner, 2000 for the second partner, and 3000 for the third partner activity. Register and complete eligible activity by March 31. All activity has to post to your account by June 15, and points should post in the second half of June. I just transferred 2 American Airlines points into 1 Priority Club point at Points.com for my first partner. I might transfer the minimum amount from American Express Membership Rewards or Diners Club and do one shopping transaction in order to hit my three partners. The last partner bonus offer was up to 4 partners and 10,000 miles, so this one isn’t as lucrative. Priority Club had a real problem correctly distinguishing…
My First Twitter Giveaway
As I mentioned the other day, having enjoyed giving away the free Hilton hotel night, I thought I’d try some other giveaways. And for variety, I’m testing out giveaways on Twitter. To see how it works out, I’m starting small, giving away a US Airways club pass. I just posted the following: RT this &follow @garyleff 4 chance 2win USAirways Club pass (exp July) on 3/1. Enter up2 5x/day. Follow @garyleff in order to keep up on my giveaways!
$69 Weekends at the Westin Dulles Including Breakfast
TravelZoo has the Westin Dulles Airport for $69 weekends including breakfast ($99 during the week) through May 22. Book by March 9. The deal is being promoted on the TravelZoo site through VistUSAHotels.com. Since the best rate during the week at spg.com seems to be $119, this $99 weekday rate should be good for a Best Rate Guarantee claim. The Best Rate Guarantee, which offers to match price and either beat by 10% or provide 2000 Starpoints as compensation (not to mention get you booked via the Starwood website for elite privileges), doesn’t apply to ‘package rates’ that include breakfast. So while the hotel offers a $69 rate without breakfast on weekends, and a more expensive breakfast-inclusive rate (where breakfast can be taken via room service or in the restaurant), there doesn’t appear to be…
Marriott Shuffles Hotel Redemption Categories Effective March 8
Loyalty Traveler details Marriott’s moving around hotels amongst various redemption categories. Bottom-line appears to be not bad at all. Approximately 350 hotels will decrease by one category and approximately 300 hotels will increase by one category. Ninety-five percent of the hotels changing categories are in categories 1-5. And clearly more hotels are moving down than up in categories 6, 7, and 8.
Continental Mastercard: No Fee the First Year, 30,000 Mile Bonus
I signed up for a Continental Mastercard back when there was a 46,000 mile signup offer. I considered that worth the price of an annual fee, especially considering that since Continental joined the Star Alliance their frequent flyer program has become one of my favorites. For the first time that I’m aware of, though, they’re now offering a no fee the first year deal which also comes with 25,000 bonus miles. Not 46,000 to be sure, but at no cost other than a hard pull on your credit it’s still pretty good. The biggest reason not to do it? Chase has become more and more difficult getting new credit cards if you’ve applied for other cards with them in the past six months. So if you’re considering in the future a Hyatt Visa from Chase,…
Overriding Your Hotel Room’s Thermostat Settings
Points, Miles, and Martinis describes how to override the settings of thermostats in many hotel rooms. INNCOM thermostats are quite common, and the blog has tested the technique at both Hilton and Hyatt properties successfully. You can make these thermostats go lower than their usual settings, and turn off motion sensors that turn off the air conditioning when you’re not in the room. While holding down “display” Press “off” Then Press “Up” arrow Release “display” button You’ll know it worked when … it says VIP! Good tip for those who like their hotel rooms cold..!
W Hotel Store Discounts
I have many times posted discounts for the W Hotel Store (such as here, here, here, and here). And I’m the happy owner of a W Hotel Bed (plush top with feather bed), purchased with a 40% discount code. This time, however, MilesQuest beats me to the punch: The W Store has a brand new promotion code for 35% off. Enter promo code QDG8Y Another promo code you can use is code Y6S2Q for 30% off bath towels and a free bath mat with a $50 order.
Iran Will Bar Airlines That Refer to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf
Ben Mutzabaugh covers the rather bizarre story that Iran has threatened to bar – and possibly impound – aircraft that fly into its airspace unless they use the name “Persian Gulf” on their in-flight monitors They’ve even revoked the immigration status of a Greek flight attendant working for an Iranian carrier who referred to the body of water as the Arabian Gulf — “Due to his inappropriate and irresponsible behavior.” Airlines have just a couple of weeks to comply, and if they repeat the offense they risk having their aircraft impounded when they reach Iran. The U.M. agrees with Iran’s naming convention, but this still rather smacks of a dictatorship’s enforcement of Newspeak.
