Free Hotel Platinum Status with GHA Discovery

Reader Nils shares that GHA Discovery, the loyalty program for Global Hotel Alliance (14 hotel brands with 300 hotels in 53 countries) is offering mid-tier Platinum elite status at signup. Clearly one of the smaller programs, but status benefits you with chains like Anantara Hotels, Kempinski, Omni, and Pan Pacific amongst others. Benefits include free internet, bottled water, upgrade to next room category, guaranteed room availability with 48 hours notice, and 3pm late checkout. They also have ‘local experience awards‘ earned each time you stay at one of their brands for the first time. The offer is pitched to MasterCard World Signia Cardholders (their high-end version of the card outside the U.S. though rebranded in some places as World Elite). Status is valid for a year. Limited applicability, probably, but I rarely turn down free…

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50% Bonus on American Airlines Purchased Miles – Almost Worth It!

For the last six months of 2012, American offered up to a 50% bonus on purchased miles. For a purchase of exactly 40,000, 50,000, or 60,000 miles that meant a price of 2 cents a mile, the lowest price I had ever seen American sell miles direct to consumer for. Through February 28 that offer is back. For A Limited Time Only: Earn Up To 30,000 Bonus Miles, A 50% Mileage Bonus As we move towards the new American, and continue to modernize and innovate, we would like to share the excitement of our new look, with you – our valued customer. Now, through February 28, 2013, you can earn up to 30,000 bonus miles when you buy AAdvantage® miles. This is a price at which I’m almost a buyer. I won’t be taking advantage…

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Million Miler Lawsuit Against United Moving Forward

The Million Miler lawsuit against United is going forward. Via Milepoint, a judge refused to dismiss breach of contract claims, “It is undeniable that plaintiff claims he has and continues to suffer an injury based upon his lost benefits,” Leinenweber wrote. “At this stage of the litigation, the court finds it plausible that defendants had a contract with Million Miler members which differed from the contract they had with other Mileage Plus members.” So while United claims they a right to change the terms of conditions of their program, the argument here is that there are additional and separate commitments that were made to million milers. It’s unclear to say the least whether this suit will prevail on the merits, or even ultimately get to trial (now that United has failed to get the whole…

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Up to 30% Bonus on Purchased Hyatt Gold Passport Points

Hyatt is offering a bonus of 10% – 30% on points purchases through February 6. The more points you purchase the higher the bonus. 1000 – 9000 points gets a 10% bonus. Buying 9000 points means you receive 9900 points at a cost of 2.18 cents apiece. 10,000 – 29,000 points gets a 20% bonus. Buying 29,000 points means you receive 34,800 points at a cost of 2 cents apiece. 30,000 – 40,000 points gets you a 30% bonus. Buying 40,000 points means you receive 52,000 points at a cost of 1.846 cents apiece. Hyatt Gold Passport allows a maximum purchase of 40,000 points per year. I value Hyatt points at 1.5 cents apiece. I would not do this on a speculative basis. If you were going to buy some points to top off towards an…

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It’s a Great Time to Use Delta Miles for Travel on Virgin Australia

I consider using Delta miles for travel on Virgin Australia to be the absolute best use of Skypesos. Delta even allows online booking for Virgin Australia awards and has stopped collecting fuel surcharges when redeeming for that carrier. While Delta miles tend to be the toughest to use of any major carrier, award availability tends to be quite bad. They don’t permit one-way awards for half the cost of roundtrip (neither does US Airways). Their agents are clueless, their award booking website offers limited partners and is generally quite broken. International first class awards aren’t allowed. And yet ironically the miles are better for travel between the U.S. and Australia — one of the toughest frequent flyer awards there is — than anyone else’s. And that’s not just because they will let you go the…

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Malaysia Airlines Joins Oneworld Tomorrow – And New Oneworld Top Tier Alliance Benefits

Malaysia Airlines Joins oneworld Tomorrow Malaysia Airlines joins oneworld February 1. That’s not news, since it was long ago announced and is proceeding based on recently expected schedules. (It was originally set to join in late 2012, so even the first deadline was only missed by a wee bit.) It’s a great addition for folks using American miles in the U.S. — oneworld is light on Asian partners, this expands South Asian reach, plus it’s another option to Asia from the U.S. (Los Angeles – TaipeiTokyo – Kuala Lumpur). And they offer a great premium product. Hey, their satellite terminal first class in Kuala Lumpur even has lobster on the buffet. While American’s standard partner award rules will not permit travel from the US to Malaysia via Europe, or to destinations like India via Malaysia,…

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Where the Award Seats Are: Summer Travel to Europe via Brussels

Star Alliance remains the best program if you want to get to Europe or Asia in business class on points, largely because they have the most carriers with the most routes, and of course neither United nor US Airways adds fuel surcharges to awards on any of their partners. LufthansaFlyer wrote this morning that Brussels Airlines has announced 5 times weekly service between Washington Dulles and Brussels beginning June 18. Lucky discussed this morning his recent business class flight on Brussels. They have a new flat business class seat, though Lucky finds it a bit narrow especially at the feet. Flight times: Washington Dulles – Brussels, 10:35pm – 12:10pm+1, SN516 (Sun/Tues/Thurs/Fri/Sat) Brussels – Washington Dulles, 5:30pm – 8:15pm, SN515 (Sun/Tues/Thurs/Fri/Sat) Since I happen to be based in DC this was exciting news. I figured I…

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Frequent Traveler University Excitement Heats Up

jay said, brimming with excitement about the upcoming FTU in april… any news of when the agenda will be out? Frequent Traveler University has a new website and lists many of the speakers that are confirmed. I have a draft schedule, but haven’t released it yet because we’re working with the hotel on just how much meeting space we have … I’d love to be able to run as many as three concurrent sessions at times (although there will also be main sessions where everyone is together) but do have at least two sessions much of the time. How many rooms we have will determine how many ‘tracks’ folks can be on to choose their content. And thus the schedule isn’t done yet. Will get that nailed down as soon as possible! The event promises…

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Travel Blogs and Credit Card Signup Bonuses

I have no idea the broader answers to this reader’s question, or at least I won’t speculate, but I will offer perspective from my own experience. LIH Prem said, What would the travel blogosphere look like without credit card referral fees? (compared to the way it is today.) -David I’ve been writing this blog since May of 2002. When the blog first started there was an ad on it, but it wasn’t mine. I signed up for a free Blogspot account. After I had been writing a little while, Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) bought out that ad for me. I probably had gotten the most attention selling Impeach Norm Mineta bumper stckers, though I did so at cost (if memory serves, $2 apiece including shipping and I handled all fulfillment myself). I wasn’t making any money,…

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Is United an Airline or a Credit Card Program?

This is a bit of a long question, but it boils down to why in the world are these airline and bank relationships so close? Why does it seem like co-branded credit cards are the tail that wags the dog in the frequent flyer universe? Chris B. said, [H]ow does an airline decide which financial company they should form an alliance? If US and AA do merge, I’m curious which bank (Citi or Barclays) would win the relationship, how they would be involved in financing the merge, how the relationship affects both companies, and how it may effect the credit card offers. There is much chatter regarding the relationship between AMEX and Delta, and how much Delta receives from their co-branded credit card fees, miles, and services, and whether it is enough income to warrant…

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