Marriott’s regular, somewhat lucrative free night promotion returns in February (registration required by March 15). Every two stays between February 1 and April 30 earns a free night Can earn up to 3 free nights Free nights are good for hotels up to ‘category 4’ These are great in that two cheap one-night stays earns a free night on top of the regular points. But the value of those free nights are capped, since you can’t redeem them at the better Marriott properties. They generate the most outsized return at hotels which are extremely seasonal — expensive at some times of year, deserted and cheap at others, and the way demand averages they’re category 4 and yet pricey in-season. South Florida has a few of these, for instance. I’ve used mine in the past at…
The Wall Street Journal on End of Year Mileage Running and Elite Status Buy Ups
Pizzaman points to Scott McCartney’s piece in today’s Wall Street Journal on mileage running for (and straight-up buying) elite status. Do it for the Points wonders if all of this exposure — in the Wall Street Journal! — will wind up killing the golden goose of earning status cheap and leveraging it for huge benefit in the coming year. But the Journal piece begins with a headline cost of ‘$4000 to $7000’ which I think will scare most folks away. And indeed I wouldn’t spend that much to earn status, either. Indeed, if you have to start from scratch and fly a ton at that price point just to earn status, you probably aren’t doing enough flying otherwise where that status is going to be meaningfully worth it, and you can likely use that cash…
Why You Want to Get Started with the AviancaTaca LifeMiles Frequent Flyer Program Right Now
Even though I think that frequent flyer programs moving to a ‘revenue-based’ model (where the number of miles you earn is based on how much you spend for your tickets rather than how far you fly, and where the number of miles an award ticket costs depends on the price of the ticket rather than where you are flying from and to) could go a long way towards undermining the exceptional value of the programs we enjoy, I’ve decided not to worry about it — for one simple reason. If several U.S. frequent frequent flyer programs go revenue-based, we still have non-U.S. programs where we can achieve superior value. And the fact is that many of these programs offer superior value now, they’re right in front of us. The risk that our favorite programs like…
Suites, Treats, and Eats, a Malaysian Mileage Thanksgiving: Things to See and Do in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur Tours: Introduction: Constructing — and Re-constructing — the Award Trip American Eagle DC – New York and the New Nicest JFK Airport Hotel, the Hilton Cathay Pacific First Class, JFK – Hong Kong The Wing lounge in Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific Business Class Hong Kong – Kuala Lumpur Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Airlines Business Class, Kuala Lumpur – Langkawi The Andaman Langkawi Malaysia Airlines Business Class, Langkawi – Kuala Lumpur Intercontinental Kuala Lumpur Things to See and Do in Kuala Lumpur Korean Airlines First Class, Kuala Lumpur – Seoul and the Korean Airlines First Class Lounge Seoul Korean Airlines First Class, Seoul – Washington Dulles I had only two days to spend in Kuala Lumpur. It’s a city, not quite as friendly and easy for first time visitors and Singapore and…
United Eliminates Elite-Only Space for 3-Cabin First Class Awards
United posted on Milepoint that they will no longer offer extra award space for three-cabin first class flights starting February 1. I wanted to let you know about a change we’ll be making to the way we allocate MileagePlus award inventory for United Global First and United First on 3-cabin aircraft. As many of you know, we currently use the same fare class (ON) for both upgrades and Saver travel awards redeemed from MileagePlus Premier Platinum, Premier 1K and Global Services accounts. A consequence of this pairing has been fewer seats being available for upgrades. To remedy this imbalance, we will begin using ON exclusively for upgrades into United Global First and United First on 3-cabin aircraft effective February 1, 2013. Having a dedicated fare class for these upgrades will enable us to offer differentiated…
Hyatt Announces Changes to Award Categories for Some Hotels in 2013
Each year most hotel programs re-categorize their hotels. They have different categories, in the case of Hyatt it’s one through six (Starwood for another example is one through seven). And each category has a price per night in number of points. Usually on an annual basis – although sometimes less frequently and occasionally throughout the year — hotel chains will shift some hotels up or down in category, increasing or decreasing the number of points that specific hotels cost to redeem for. Hyatt has announced their changes for 2013. These changes go into effect February 7, which means until that time you book under the ‘old’ rates. If a hotel is going up in price, lock in your future reservations now to save points. What’s more, if you make a reservation now for a stay…
Instant Top Tier Platinum Status in Accor Hotels Program Just for Signing Up
Instant Platinum (top tier) status in the Accor Hotels loyalty program comes around with some frequency, each time it does the signup link won’t stay active for long — sometimes a couple of days, sometimes just hours. Here’s the offer for instant Platinum status. Note that the signup page is just a signup page, no indication on that page that accounts will start at the Platinum level, but indeed it’s currently working as of this writing. You must open a new account, it cannot be applied to existing accounts. And when you do so you must use an email address that’s not currently on file with them. (if you have a gmail account you can add a period ‘.’ in the email address somewhere before the ‘@gmail.com’ and it will still be delivered to you…
Marriott Makes Earning Lifetime Elite Status Easier
Word last month was that Marriott would be changing the rules for lifetime elite status, removing the requirement for number of years in the program, beginning in 2013. Now Marriott has posted details of their new requirements for lifetime elite status in their Marriott Insiders forum. The new requirements are: Lifetime Milestones • Platinum Elite: 750 nights + 2 million points • Gold Elite: 500 nights + 1.6 million points • Silver Elite: 250 nights + 1.2 million points The website isn’t up yet, but they’ll be promoting lifetime status (rather than having it as an unpublished benefit of the program) at MarriottRewards.com/Lifetime. There are no changes to the number of Marriott Rewards points earned during a lifetime to earn status. Instead, they’ve dropped the requirement for 12 years in the program before being eligible…
Injuries During Sex on a Business Trip Entitle Woman to Workers Comp
So rules an Australian Federal Court: A frisky businesswoman injured having sex in a hotel is looking forward to a bumper payout after winning her battle for industrial compensation. The civil servant was making love to a friend during a work trip when a glass light fitting was torn from its mount above the bed. ..[She] later suffered depression which forced her to give up her job. Her claim for worker’s compensation for her physical and psychological injuries was initially approved by government insurer Comcare, then rejected after further investigation. A tribunal agreed with Comcare that her injuries were not suffered in the course of her employment, saying the government had not induced or encouraged the woman’s sexual conduct. The tribunal also found the sex was “not an ordinary incident of an overnight stay” such…
American Codeshares With TAM and Improves its Codesharing with LAN
As if it weren’t already all but a foregone conclusion that LATAM — the parent of South American airlines LAN and TAM — would swing towards oneworld (LAN is a oneworld member, TAM is in Star), American has announced that they’ve signed codesharing agreements with both TAM and LAN Colombia. Oneworld is already the strongest alliance between the US and South America, even though Star recently picked up AviancaTaca as a member. When I’m looking to book awards between the North and South American continents I always prefer American and British Airways points for the bookings — American’s availability is reasonably good, especially from its Miami hub, and LAN’s is good as well. Further, as part of the announcement, American indicates that they’ll be launching more South American service — Dallas – Bogota to connect…
