A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
The change focuses on business and first class awards. Business class awards between the US and Singapore go up 7000 miles each way. First class awards between the US and Singapore go up 10,000 – 12,000 miles each way.
Several online shopping portals are offering bonus miles right now. When one shopping portal has a bonus usually many do because they’re mostly run by the same company.
All of these bonuses are called “Extra Rewards.” However the earning from each for different merchants and the value of each currency varies.
Registration (required by March 15) isn’t yet open however the promotion page URL suggests that internally this is called “Multibrand 2019” so I imagine earning will be based on staying at different brands within the IHG Rewards Club portfolio.
And since the offer is to earn “at least 40,000 bonus points” I imagine that the actual bonus and requirements will be targeted, as most IHG promotions have been in recent years.
The JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort published a policy that they would not upgrade Marriott Platinum members to suites despite terms and conditions of the program saying Platinums are entitled to suite upgrades if available.
There are always going to be hotels that are more generous than others with respect to elite benefits. However this wasn’t just a non-compliant hotel, their policy not to comply was explicitly outlined on the Marriott website and in the Marriott app.
On New Year’s Eve I wrote about $675 business class roundtrips between Vietnam and the U.S. and about first class roundtrips for under $1000.
The amazing news for everyone who took a chance and booked these tickets is that Cathay Pacific is honoring the deal.
This doesn’t mean Chase will never implement such a rule. And in the meantime I continue to ‘sweep’ points from my no annual fee cards into my premium card accounts each month — just in case — I don’t want to be left with big points balances in less valuable places if the music ever does stop. However it appears this is not something to be concerned about in the immediate term.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
I just wrote about $675 roundtrip from Vietnam to the US in Cathay Pacific business class. Even if you just book a one way award ticket to Asia and use this for your flight back to the U.S. it’s an amazing steal.
However there are amazing (even better!) first class fares, too.
Oh my goodness this is an amazing fare. You can fly from Southeast Asia to New York in Cathay Pacific business class from $675 roundtrip. Even if you book an award ticket to Asia and use this as a one way ticket to get back (and throw away the return) you come out way way ahead.
You can fly from Vietnam – the cheapest fares originate in Da Nang, but other cities work as well – to Cathay Pacific’s US gateways starting at $675.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
