Lots of Loose Ends and Little Things:
- Is Hilton playing games with the cash portion of their cash and points awards?
- Loyalty Lobby details AviancaTaca’s 100% bonus on purchased miles which is running through the end of the month.
If you don’t already have a LifeMiles account you won’t be able to take advantage of it this time around, but may want to open for the next go-round of the offer which seems to come around with some frequency.
The airline is expected to join Star Alliance this year, making the miles potentially more useful.
- Accor is selling Motel 6 to Blackstone. I’m guessing not, but it would be interesting to see whether that portfolio is added to the Hilton HHonors program. For a limited time last year, Accor’s A|Club (now Le Club Accorhotels) allowed points redemption for Motel 6 stays, which led me to dub that an “anti-aspirational” award choice. Generally such a lower-end of the hotel market isn’t driven by rewards earning.
- As an update on the British Airways acquisition of bmi, I noted that British Airways is granting equivalent elite status to bmi Diamond Club members.
I waited until May 10 to request he match figuring that would get me an extra month’s status from British Airways (I do not intend to requalify, but BA Gold status will get me into American Airlines Flagship Lounges when I’m traveling domestically on AA). The match processed sometime between 6am and 11am Eastern time this morning, 12 days later.
As i noted earlier, “Folks who are British Airways flyers already, note that when you process a status match from bmi your membership year resets and your current elite status credits reset to zero.”
Currently my account displays Gold status, a membership year ending March 8, 2013, and a card expiration date of April 30, 2014.
Do you know what I should do if I have an existing BA account in terms of migrating my BMI account?
Well, actually membership year do not reset. They upgrade your status to Gold for your current membership year and grant Gold status for another year after that. So it is best to apply at the beginning of your current membership year so you could have Gold status for two years and another year for Silver.
Re: Conrad HKG C&P.
I fell victim to that one. I originally had a C&P rez at the Sheraton Tower HKG, and decided to move it to the Conrad. It took awhile to move the points, and when I finally did, I thought my brain was playing tricks on me because I could have sworn the $130 USD copay was higher than I had planned on.
Oh well, I’ll live. I got gold status from the Russian credit card thing or whatever, and did an AXON award for the first four nights. If I’m out $50, oh well. The breakfast is probably worth it (over the Sheraton where I now no longer have status.)
Depending on availability the LifeMiles offer can get you Business Class on Lufthansa between North America and Europe for $1800+tax. Not as good as US Airways buy miles deal but not bad nonetheless.
See:
http://blog.frequentflyerbonuses.com/2012/05/lifemiles-100-bonus-on-buying-miles.html