The New York Times carried a piece on the problem hotels face in trying to satisfy both Gen X and baby boomer business travelers. GenX wants hip (W) while boomers want classic (Ritz). GenX’ers are becoming increasingly important, the classic brands know this and are trying to graft onto their preferences without losing their core demographic. The gap isn’t just manifesting itself at the higher ends of business travel, either — Starwood is introducing a less-expensive version of a W to compete with the Hilton Garden Inn and Marriott Courtyard product (something that their Four Points brand fails at miserably).
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10% Kickback on Priceline Bookings?
It’s now possible to stick Priceline’s booking engine on your own website and, naturally, earn a commission for hotels booked through the site. A bit of trouble to set up, perhaps, but for the adventuresome it should yield a better return than the 3% offered by eBates.(Hat tip to Tripso Daily.)
Double Points on Amtrak
Register to earn double points on Metroliner and Acela Express trains through the end of the year. (Whenever there’s a bonus that requires registration, register. You may not think you’ll be getting on a train, or flying between two cities, but you may wind up surprised — registering for the bonus gets you the miles you never expected.)
500 Free Goldpoints
Sep
22
2005
A timeshare company is offering 500 Goldpoints for entering their sweepstakes. 500 Goldpoints aren’t worth much — you earn 500 points just for updating your email address every three months — but I figure it’s worth a sales call because every year I transfer Goldpoints into Northwest miles to complete a partner transaction in the Fly Free Faster promo for 10,000 miles… (Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)
Rockin’ Out with Holiday Inn
Sep
20
2005
Holiday Inn’s sweepstakes is giving away a free iTunes download just for entering.Website is crawling at the moment, but when it works all you have to do is fill out a form and you’ll get an email with an iTunes download code fairly quickly.
Double Marriott Points
Sep
18
2005
Marriott is offering double Marriott Rewards points on stays paid with Visa between October 1, 2005 and January 31, 2006 — beginning with your second stay during that period. Registration is required.
Improvement to the Merrill+ Visa
The Merrill+ Visa offers an interesting value proposition: a proprietary points program that can be used for coach airlines tickets or for merchandise, a la Worldpoints or a CapitalOne card. So far, not very interesting. But there are spending thresholds of $20,000 and $50,000 and at each threshold additional benefits kick in. $50,000 in spending on the card in a calendar year will earn 4 free nights at a Ritz-Carlton hotel. That’s a decent reward for $50,000 in spending, but since the proprietary points program wasn’t that useful to me I still preferred my Starwood American Express and Diners Club combo. Now they’ve introduced point transfers to British Airways on a 1:1 basis. So $50,000 in spending nets you 4 Ritz-Carlton nights and 50,000 British Airways miles. Not bad at all, actually an amazing return,…
Northwest and Delta File for Bankruptcy
Delta and Northwest both filed for bankruptcy this afternoon after market close.Both were expected to file in advance of bankruptcy law changes going into effect October 17th. Northwest did not receive any debtor-in-possession financing commitments, instead opting to operate with its existing $1.5 billion in cash. Delta received commitments of up to $1.7 billion in debtor-in-possession financing from GE Commercial Finance and Morgan Stanley and has received a separate commitment of another $350 million from American Express. Amex prepaid the purchase of half a billion Skymiles last year to infuse cash into the airline. One requirement of those funds was that as a first act Delta ask the bankruptcy court to reaffirm the airline’s frequent flyer program liabilities. I don’t expect immediate changes to either airline’s frequent flyer program. If anything I’d anticipate more mileage…
Hilton Downgrades Instant Gold Members
Sep
14
2005
Back in April I mentioned (here and here) a promotion code to instantly upgrade your Hilton Hhonors account to Gold status. It’s a code meant for Citibank Chairman’s Card credit card holders, but Hilton apparently made no effort to restrict up front who could use it. It isn’t even just a situation of a secret promo code that got out. I called Hilton one day and the promo code was mentioned in the voice tree without even reference to the Citibank Chairman’s Card. Now, however, Hilton is haphazardly going through their records and demoting the status of people who signed up using the code. I say haphazardly because some people who were eligible for the promotion (they had the Citibank Chairmans Card) were downgraded, and others who were not eligible still retained their status. What’s…
The Westin Diplomat
I spent Labor Day weekend at the Westin Diplomat on a cash and points award reservation — $60 and 4000 Starwood points per night. It’s located in Hollywood, Florida — North of Miami, not exactly in the middle of the action but right on the Atlantic Ocean. In the 60’s and 70’s the original Diplomat was frequented by Rat Pack types. The hotel closed in 1991 and was acquired by the International Brotherhood of Plumbers and Pipefitters in 1998, torn down, and rebuilt. A building project funded by a union pension to a tune just shy of $1 billion dollars seems like a good idea, doesn’t it? So it should be no surprise that the State of Florida managed to force the union to get an independent trustee appointed to oversee the money and to…
