Hyatt Gold Passport just announced three new changes: Discounted room rates for elites, 24 month expiration of points, and cash and points awards. Cash and points is the biggest news of the bunch. For category 2 through 6 hotels you’re “buying back” points at between 1.2 and 1.38 cents apiece, which is a good deal. And what’s more, it was announced that cash and points awards count towards elite status qualification. But it’s even better than that. Yesterday Hyatt clarified that since cash and points rates count towards elite status, they also count if you’re trying to earn status on an accelerated basis with a ‘Diamond trial’ (where you match your current hotel status with another chain and Hyatt gives you their Diamond status short-term and then has reduced requirements to keep the status). However,…
50,000 + 5000 Points for Chase Sapphire Preferred
Update: This offer on the main page for the Sapphire Preferred Card no longer comes up for me, I just get the 40,000 point offer. Others may have different experiences in the comments. Chase now has a bonus of 50,000 points after $3000 spend within 3 months for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. In addition, they are offering 5000 points for adding an authorized user to the card and making a purchase within 3 months. This is not my referral link, no credit to me, but it is the best current offer for the card. Now we know what Chase is doing to generate some excitement around the Sapphire Preferred card! Interestingly the annual fee is $0 the first year, and $125 after that. So the annual fee is $30 higher on this version of…
20% Off Virgin America Travel Between January 11 and March 6
Enter this giveaway drawing and receive a 10% off coupon code for use on Virgin America. Share the drawing (and they don’t verify if you’re sharing it with ‘friends’, with ‘enemies’, or with another of your own email addresses) and you get a 20% off coupon. Offer valid through November 26th for for non-refundable Main Cabin tickets only, for travel between January 11, 2014 and March 6, 2014. They don’t discount Friday or Sunday travel, and January 17 through January 20 and February 14 through February 17 are blacked out. Up to two passengers on the same itinerary may receive the discount. (HT: The Flight Deal) You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe…
Some Clarifications About Hyatt’s New Benefits
Hyatt Gold Passport posted the following clarifcations to their new benefits this morning. Greetings MilePoint members, We are looking forward for our members having different ways to redeem awards. Diamond suite upgrades will be available for the MyElite rate; however, it would not be available for the Points + Cash rate as it is considered an award stay. The MyElite rate & Points + Cash will be valid for stay/night credit at Hyatt Hotels & Resorts excluding all inclusive properties, Hyatt Residence Club, and Mlife properties. The MyElite rate and the Points + Cash option will count towards the Diamond trial offers. Cancellation policies will still apply, and as long as you cancel outside of the policy, all points will be returned. If you cancel inside the policy, the points will be returned but you…
IHG Rewards Flash Sale – Award Nights Up to 75% Off – is Now Live
IHG Rewards, formerly known as Priority Club, has brought back another reward ‘flash sale’ with hotel night redemptions 25% – 75% off at specific properties. Book here. The deal will last for 48 hours. About 125 properties are participating. For US hotels, stays can be from December 1 through December 20. Non-US hotels stays can be from November 20 through December 20, 2013. Even if you don’t have IHG Rewards points, you can more or less buy all you wish instantly (with a few steps involved) for seven-tenths of a cent per point. Deals here are pretty good if any of the participating hotels can work for your plans. You can join the 30,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per…
Leave a Comment Here for a Chance to Win 25,000 Emirates Miles!
American Express Membership Rewards has a new partnership with Emirates and indeed through this Friday they are offering a 25% bonus when you convert Membership Rewards points to Emirates Skywards miles. To highlight this offer, American Express asked if I would give one lucky reader 25,000 Emirates miles. Sounds good to me! To be clear, I do not receive anything for running this contest and giving away the miles. But American Express is providing the points. I covered the transfer bonus when it was first announced, along with the launch of the relationship between American Express and Emirates. See this post for more details on the ins and outs of booking awards through Emirates Skywards. The transfer bonus makes a business class roundtrip New York JFK – Dubai, normally 145,000 points, just 116,000 Membership Rewards…
Hyatt Adds Elite Discounts, Cash and Points, and Extends Points Expiration
Last week Hyatt announced a modest devaluation of their award chart — a new category 7 for their six most expensive hotels, a slight bump in cost for award nights in categories 5 and 6, and an increase in cost of upgraded rooms. This week starts again with news from Hyatt, and this time three new features to their program going into effect January 7. Discounted room rates for elite members of the Hyatt Gold Passport program. Cash and points awards 24 month expiration of points, instead of 12 months New Discounted Rates for Elites Hyatt is introducing “My Elite Rate” which will be 20% off the Hyatt Daily Rate, cancallable (not prepaid), and available to all Platinum and Diamond members. This will be a capacity-controlled rate, so not always available, but better than booking…
The Westin Diplomat’s Views Are Just as Magnificent But It Isn’t As Great as a Gold Than it is as a Platinum
I first wrote about the Westin Diplomat outside of Ft. Lauderdale as far back as the fall of 2005. My blog has been through a couple of moves since then and I don’t have the photos from that stay, but it’s been a property I’ve stayed at many many times since then. Here’s a comprehensive review, with photos. Long before Starwood introduced a free breakfast benefit for Platinums at hotels without an available club lounge and ‘Suite Night Awards’ for Platinum members who stay at least 50 nights in a year, allowing those members to express preference for when they’ll receive an upgrade, I recommended this hotel as probably offering the best Platinum treatment anywhere. That’s because the Westin Diplomat has a lovely club lounge space on the 33rd floor overlooking both the Atlantic Ocean…
Verizon LTE Data Plans Actually Only Offering 3G Speeds in Some Major Cities
Video streaming is apparentl overtaxing Verizon’s networks. If you’re a Verizon customer and you’ve noticed your LTE network isn’t as fast as it used to be, you are not alone – and you are not imagining things. …[U]sers in large cities including New York, San Francisco, and Chicago are starting to see a significant deterioration in throughput. In many parts of those cities, users are downgraded to 3G service, which is significantly slower, when there is simply no more capacity on Verizon’s LTE network. …Verizon says it will resolve the problems by the end of 2013 You can join the 30,000+ 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…
Europe on Track to Become Much More Generous than the US for Gate-to-Gate Electronics
The U.S. now allows airlines to certify so that its passengers can use electronic devices gate-to-gate. Large devices like laptops that could be projectiles must still be put away below 10,000 feet (but hardcover books can stay out). Electronics are supposed to be in ‘airplane mode’ once you start taxiing to take off (but not while taxiing to the gate upon landing, and not that flight attendants check anymore). I think this change is great, but so far I use my Android phone on the ground to answer emails (which I then connect to inflight wireless and send upon reaching 10,000 feet). I don’t use a tablet or iPad because I don’t want to lug around another device. I use my laptop, I’m not supposed to have it out at the beginning and end of…
