Two months ago I wrote that Avis was revamping its loyalty program. Avis has been just about to launch a revamped loyalty program for a long time. Years, in fact. Now they’re finally talking about it publicly so it’s probably actually close. The first sign was short expiration of new free weekend rentals that were being awarded to Avis First members. Now Heels First Travel tells us that Avis First will be renamed Avis Preferred Plus and restructured to earn points instead of weekend rentals. The Avis Preferred Points currency will be flexible, and you will have the ability to redeem points the way you want – on rentals, upgrades and optional products.” In the past, Avis First members (those who completed 12 qualifying rentals or 35 qualifying nights) would earn a two day weekend…
Why Revenue-Based Programs are Bad for You — and Why You Should Jump Ship Now
Joe Brancatelli offers mostly sound frequent flyer advice but has a real soft spot for revenue-based frequent flyer programs that seems undeserved. When Delta Air Lines announced plans to reward miles based on dollars spent, not the number of miles flown, critics immediately decided that so-called “revenue-based” plans were bad for business travelers. The cries got louder when United Airlines mimicked Delta and adopted the same strategy. Unfortunately, the complaints conflated two unrelated factors. Delta and United consciously used the switch to revenue-based accrual to mask devaluations of their programs’ total value. Revenue plans, by nature, should be better for business travelers because they recognize that we spend more than leisure travelers. …In the longer term, the smartest airlines and hotels will reward our superior revenue contribution with superior rewards. We should be ready to…
The Full PointBreaks List of Discounted IHG Award Hotels Leaked Early
Yesterday IHG Rewards Club reached out to let me know that the next round of PointBreaks — discounted hotel redemptions that cost just 5000 points per night — would be posted on Monday for stays between September 29 and November 30. They shared a sample of the ~ 150 properties that will be featured: Crowne Plaza® Hotel Huizhou – Huizhou, GD Crowne Plaza® Kumamoto – New Sky, Kumamoto, Japan Crowne Plaza® Dublin- Northwood, Ireland Holiday Inn® Sydney – Waterfront, Sydney, NS, Canada Holiday Inn Express® – Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico Staybridge Suites® – San Diego Rancho Bernardo Area, California, USA Candlewood Suites® – Washington- Dulles Herndon, Virginia, USA
Diners Club is Back and Open to New Applications! Here’s What You Need to Know
Diners Club — the original credit card, and once upon a time one of the real leading rewards cards for road warriors — has been closed to new applications for years. It’s back! There are still some strategic uses for the card. It’s a chip and pin MasterCard whose points transfer to a variety of airline and hotel programs, some of them unique. But the card isn’t what it once was, and I don’t think worth the price. Still, it’s intriguing and a welcome development that it is once again available for new cardmembers. There are two versions of the card.
Uber Driver Secrets, Ways to Use Your Miles, and an Airline Going Out of Business
News and notes from around the interweb: Six secrets your Uber driver won’t tell you Five things you should consider doing with your miles. Though it handled poor operations well in social media, the end appears at hand for the ‘reborn’ PEOPLExpress airlines. Restrictions on American Airlines ticket sales in Argentina Will Hyatt give you points if you don’t use your annual Chase credit card free night? Purchased mile bonuses are all the rage. They’re even spreading to Eastern Europe. (You don’t actually want to buy Czech OK Plus miles…) You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest…
The Airline-Hotel Partnership That Defies Expectations
Starwood and Delta introduced a pretty significant new partnership two years ago. It was a close relationship with bonus points-earning and some reciprocal status recognition. United and Marriott slid in behind them. I’ve expected, at some level, a tie-up with Hilton. Marriott and Starwood were taken. United and Delta were taken. Who was still free on the dance card? While I’d love to see American and Hyatt, Hyatt’s footprint doesn’t seem large enough for such a relationship with the world’s largest airline. And IHG doesn’t make sense either, since their program has no meaningful elite benefits to start with. American and Hilton are the two big players left on stage. And yet that hasn’t happened. Instead, we still see unique Hilton-Delta promotions running, despite the close relationship that Delta has with Starwood. Delta has been…
Domestic Upgrades are Getting Harder and Harder to Get
A reader that didn’t want to be identified asked me why it’s so hard to get domestic upgrades as an elite frequent flyer? It used to be that 100,000 mile flyers found themselves in first class nearly all the time, and even mid-tier frequent flyers found themselves in first class most of the time. Some still do of course, it depends on the routes they fly — and when they fly them. But there’s little question that upgrades are harder than they were 5 years ago and 10 years ago.
Should Frequent Flyer Programs Be Regulated by the Federal Government?
The Department of Transportation is conducting an audit of frequent flyer programs, focused on disclosure of program rules and costs associated with redemptions. The audits are being conducted at the behest of Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL), who wants to protect his 10 million miles. Frequent-flyer programs need more federal oversight, contends a Florida congressman. Representative Alan Grayson, an Orlando-area Democrat who himself has amassed about 10 million miles, says the airlines have turned their loyalty programs into dishonest profit centers that cheat air travelers by devaluing their miles and changing program rules without proper notice. …“We’ve crossed the line from a series of programs throughout the industry that are honest and constrained by competition to programs that are no longer constrained by competition,” Grayson says. He accuses airlines of being “greedy and deceptive” in how…
The Hilton HHonors Hotels That Are About to Cost You More Points — and Those That Will Require Fewer
After Hilton’s dramatic award chart gutting of nearly two years ago, there weren’t huge changes again this year. And Hilton decided to change the way they made changes to how they re-assign hotels to award categories. Instead of an annual change to tons of hotels (a schedule they really weren’t wedded to in the past anyway) they decided they would make rolling changes throughout the year. And instead of informing all members proactively of these changes, they would just post them on a web page in the name of ‘transparency’. At least they are announcing the changes. And savvy members could create a change detection for the page. Moreover, they’re informing folks on frequent flyer forums as well: 21 hotels are going up in category (and thus points price) while 12 go down. Towards that…
How to Survive a Plane Crash
Scott Mayerowitz attended the British Airways flight safety awareness course (£162 to attend) and shares the key takeaways for how to survive a plane crash. It’s all obvious stuff, things we’ve heard a hundred times, but it bears repeating since none of us actually pay attention to the safety video (except when Deltaline used to wag her finger at us). But since even then, all we saw was that finger wag, here’s what you need to know: [T]he key to survival is getting into the proper brace position: Bend forward as far as possible, keep your head down. Place your feet flat on the floor and slide them back. Your dominant hand goes on the back of your head. Protect that hand by placing the other hand over it. Do not interlock fingers. The goal…
