American Express Membership Rewards will be losing Priority Club as a transfer partner after June 30th. While this wasn’t much of a value to begin with, you can buy all the points you want at six tenths of a cent apiece, it’s still a blow to Amex — having recently lost Southwest and Continental as partners, having lost US Airways before that, not partnering with Marriott. The additions to the program have been fairly weak. Priority Club is a Chase partner, one imagines that Chase managed to push Amex out here, certainly Chase’s corporate strategy has been to go after American Express and they’re generally opposed to allowing their partners to work with more than one financial institution. Even American Express’ remaining partners have been losing value — Aeroplan gutted their award chart and then…
British Airways No Longer Adding Fuel Surcharges to Awards Originating in Brazil
Last month I wrote that one of the many ways to avoid fuel surcharges when redeeming British Airways Avios points is to start your trip in Brazil, because fuel surcharges are contrary to Brazilian law. Shortly thereafter British Airways started adding fuel surcharges to awards starting in Brazil and there was much handwringing, including speculation that blogging about this ‘loophole’ killed it. Perhaps British Airways had figured out that award travel was exempt from Brazilian law? Certainly I am not expert on the subject. Turns out, though, that it really must have been a glitch. Because fuel surcharges are no longer being added to British Airways Avios awards originating in Brazil. It was a short-lived phenomenon to say the least! Taxes on a first class award are showing up at only $36, which is what…
Avis Extends 3000 US Airways Miles for 3-Day Rentals
Searching my own archives for an earlier post I realized I never wrote up that the Avis offer of 3000 US Airways miles on a 3-day (or longer) rental was still valid. It was supposed to expire March 31, 2011 and then March 31, 2012 — and it’s been extended again, this time through February 28, 2013. Use coupon code MUAA044 and provide your Dividend Miles number with the reservation. It’s my favor rental car promotion out there and has been for a couple of years.
Which Frequent Flyer Program to Double Dip With on Hilton Stays?
Hilton has long been known for “double dipping” — earning both points and miles for a single stay. It used to be you had to make a choice when staying at a hotel, I remember not even being a member of hotel programs back in 1997 and being pretty excited that I could give my United Mileage Plus number at the checkin counter and earn a few United miles for my stay. Hotel programs have so many airline transfer partnerships because historically they were the ugly stepchild of loyalty offerings, it was all about airline miles and it was difficult for them to make headway. They moved from just offering airline miles to offering their own programs, but the legacy mileage-earning options remained, and airline transfer options were a weigh station between the two programs…
New Android Phone Bleg
I recently wrote a detailed post on what’s in my laptop bag and the focus is predominantly on travel technology. Thanks to reader input, I updated my camera (to Canon S95) and my laptop (to a Lenovo u300s), and months later I’m thrilled with both decisions. But at the time I punted on the phone. And so now I’m coming back to y’all again for help. I’m still working off a Blackberry Bold 9700, it’s long been out of contract. I’ve been a Blackberry guy for years because my primary use is e-mail. Ever since 2006 I’ve found it to be a workable enough phone, so I condensed that way, I haven’t had a land line in about 10 years either. I know that Blackberry has been supposedly working on their next generation operating system,…
Has Hilton HHonors Quietly Gotten Better Than We Think?
One of the programs that was shut out at the Freddie Awards was Hilton HHonors. I don’t think they should have won Program of the Year, but I do feel that HHonors has been getting a bit of a bad wrap in the frequent flyer community. For a long time they deserved it. The features of their program were limited — On the redemption side, no ability to use points for a better room than standard, no ability to stretch your points through cash and points awards like Starwood and then Priority Club offered. On the elite benefits side, no suite upgrades. To me, that’s the kiss of death for a program. And a couple of years ago they went through a big devaluation of their points. But Hilton has made major changes in these…
More Free Accor Platinum Status
Le club Accorhotels frequently offers their top tier elite status just for signing up with the program, they’ll market it to a specific group of potential customers but anyone using the offer winds up able to sign up and get the status. The same Platinum offer that I’ve been posting about since February still works. I wrote that it was scheduled to last through end of May, but that I assumed it would be pulled early. It’s still going. Via Loyalty Lobby here’s another link offering the same thing. Even if you don’t frequently stay at Sofitel, Novotel, Pullman, Mercure, and oter related properties frequently, you never know when you might find yourself in one and having top tier status can’t hurt. Platinum status usually requires 60 nights or 25,000 points earned. It offers double…
Marriott vs. Starwood, What the Freddie Awards Voting Results Tell Us
Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest were the two big winners at the Freddie Awards last week. Starwood actually did the best of any airline or hotel with 8 trophies on the night. Marriott earned 5. They were evenly matched, however, outside of the promotions arena where Starwood picked up 3 awards. Starwood certainly (and in my mind indisputably) had the richest earning promotion in the market for 2011, Free Resort Nights. Marriott took home the biggest hotel trophy haul in in the Americas, Starwood did especially well elsewhere in the world These two programs represent two very different competing philosophies for rewards and loyalty recognition. Marriott is everywhere, the most common word used to describe them and also their loyalty program is “consistency.” They don’t promise a lot but they deliver well across the…
Hey, Marriott, the 90s Called and They Want Their Fax Machine Back
Back in March I shared my frustrations with the Marriott Rewards program. I had some upcoming Marriott stays, I figured i would do an elite challenge and add a few nights to the reservations I was locked into, but I quickly realized the program wasn’t a match for what I look for in loyalty and rewards. Breakfast benefit only applies during the week (though some properties go above and beyond) Late checkout on request only, day of departure Suites are excluded from upgrades per terms and conditions Free health club access isn’t a top tier benefit Virtually no benefits on resort stays — late checkout (even based on availability) doesn’t apply, breakfast doesn’t even apply. And it’s those resort and leisure stays where I often care the most.. A Marriott Platinum at a resort still…
Bits ‘n Pieces for May 4, 2012
In the opening remarks of the May issue of Inside Flyer, Randy Petersen suggests that Delta buying an oil refinery should mean that they reduce fuel surcharges on their award tickets. Zing! Of course what they do is add fuel surcharges onto other airline awards (so they’re not even ‘recouping the cost of fuel’ on their own aircraft) and add international origination surcharges to tickets beginning in Europe, since most European carriers whack their members with similar fees. If only Randy’s wish were true. I’m not betting on it, my concerns with the Delta program were succinctly laid out in my debate with the Points Guy on the value of Skymiles. Inside Flyer has a Freddie Awards wrapup as well, including full results beyond just the winners. Here’s the week’s roundup of miles and points…
