News and notes from around the interweb:
- When IHG Rewards Club announces their discounted short-term 5000 point per night ‘PointBreaks’ redemptions, you need to act fast as the most popular hotels sell out quickly. Lots of folks put down points to cover any possible night they’d need, making separate reservations.
IHG is pushing back on this, and changing their terms to say you can only book 2 reservations per hotel using PointsBreaks during each offer period. The idea is to prevent folks from sitting on (or bartering) reservations. A pain for some, will help avoid too many cancellations for participating hotels, and should help others to get in on the deal too.
- 300 free Lufthansa Miles & More miles for adding your frequent flyer account to Facebook.
- New website for getting the best deals on hotel suites
- India is changing visa outsourcing companies again. I suppose it can’t be worse. Visa on Arrival for US citizens, if it actually happens, cannot come soon enough.
- Getting around Visa gift card issues at Walmart
- Aer Lingus cabin crew wanted 32 more days off
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I totally support the PointsBreak change! It always seemed so ridiculous to me that people would make tons of speculative bookings that prevented others from getting in on the deals.
Milevalue was a well known proponent of that strategy.
How long does it take for award nights to become bookable again after you’ve cancelled them? If it’s instantly then couldn’t you just do something like book 2 reservations for 2 weeks each. Then when you know the time better, cancel the needed reservations and rebook right after. I don’t remember there being any limit to consecutive days or the amount of times you cancel and rebook. Am I missing something?
Great Suite site! I’m a parent of kids who still take naps, so suites are a necessity for us! you should tell Mommy Points about this, I’m sure she would like the site too.
Because PB bookings are limited to x nights per hotel and then the system cuts off. The quota for good hotels fills in 3 hours. You have no chance of rebooking at the same rate.
You also cannot shorten an existing booking as it forces a reprice.