First Amtrak reduces the value of points transfers to Choice Hotels with no notice whatsoever. Now the option to transfer to Choice is gone entirely, a matter of days later. This just piles on the history of customer unfriendly business practices for this program (limiting the number of points transferred out of the program in a year with no notice, dropping their partnership with United with no notice). The Carlson folks run the program like a true clown operation.
Presidential Primary Loyalty Points
According to Inside Flyer magazine (subscription required) the Barack Obama campaign has launched a points program for volunteers. Earning opportunities include marching in a parage or signing a supporter card (or getting someone else to do so) for 25 points, and working a phone bank for 50 points. They haven’t published a redemption chart, and BaltimoreSun.com cites the campaign’s online organizer as saying the points system is primarily a way for supporters to measure they impact they are having on the campaign. But really, this just formalizes a process that all campaigns have — what you give is a primary determinant of what you get. They could easily partner with the custom rewards engines at American Express or Diners Club, where enough points could be redeemed for a dream experience… Like Secretary of Commerce in…
Priority Club Redemption Sale
Dec
04
2007
Priority Club offers ‘any hotel, anywhere’ as an award — you redeem your points for an Amex Gift Card for use on hotel purchases. These can be used to pay hotel bills anywhere you wish. The idea is that you aren’t limited to Priority Club hotels with your Priority Club points. The usual downside? You get less than half a cent in value per Priority Club point. Standard hotel redemptions offer far better return. However, through December 15th, Priority Club is offering these ‘Any Hotel, Anywhere’ redemptions at half off. You can get better than 4/5th of a cent per point (double the value). This actually makes for a pretty good deal. First, because you’re paying for your room instead of redeeming points. And that means whatever hotel you’re staying at should be earning you…
Spirit Air Figures Out Marketing
The front page of Spirit Air’s website is currently advertising a MILF sale — “Many Islands, Low Fares” — and an airline that’s really not otherwise worth writing about finally gets some buzz. (Hat tip to Rick Seaney.)
Reader Wants to Know Whether to Use the British Airways Transfer Promos
Dec
03
2007
Reader Keith asks: One of your latest posts, about the Starwood to BA bonus, made me wonder whether you think it would be worth moving the miles from Starwood to BA even if I have no current plans to use an award. I generally park miles in Starwood, but a 30% bonus seems tempting, so I was thinking about moving over enough for a business class ticket. I’m not sure how I’d use them, but I live in Chicago, so I wouldn’t think redemption options for BA would be that hard. I wouldn’t. BA miles just aren’t a great place to park miles, or a value even with a 30% transfer bonus. These are all great bonuses if you need to top off a BA account, or need an award for which only BA miles…
Amex Improves Award Flight Finder Tool by Adding Two New Airline Partners
Via InsideFlyer (subscription required), American Express has added Hawaiian Airlines and Virgin Atlantic to its ‘Flight Finder’ tool which allows you to search for award seats, transfer books, and book the flight in a single transaction.Previously, Airtran’s program was the only one incorporated into the Amex tool. If they keep adding partners, this will be an enormously useful technological improvement — simplifying the award booking process for Membership Rewards members. (Folks like me still don’t mind separating out award search from points transfers, especially with Amex partners that are ‘live’ – meaning that the points transfer happens instantaneously.)
Bonuses for Transfers into British Airways
Dec
03
2007
Transfers of Starwood points to British Airways generate a 30% bonus from January 1 to March 31, 2008. The bonus applies both to the base points transferred and to the 5000 bonus points for each 20,000 transferred. So 40,000 Starwood points become 65,000 BA miles instead of the usual 50,000. (In order to maximize your bonuses, don’t transfer more than 60,000 Starwood points in a day.) Through February 29, Diners Club transfers to British Airways come with a 50% bonus. I long for the days of the 100% Diners transfer bonuses to BA, but those are long gone. At least they’ve stabilized at 50% coming along regularly. Also through February 29th is a 30% bonus on Hyatt transfers to BA and a 30% bonus on Hilton transfers to BA.
10,000 Delta Miles for T-Mobile HotSpot
Dec
02
2007
T-Mobile is offering 10,000 Delta miles over the course of your first year. Subscribe to an Unlimited National Annual or Month to Month subscription plan and earn up to 10,000 miles over your first year of service by earning 500 miles per month of paid service and 2,000 bonus miles for every six months of paid service. This is better than the standard 5000 miles they’ve offered, though not worth signing up just for the miles. If you’d subscribe to T-Mobile anyway, I haven’t seen a better bonus.
Alaska Airlines Offers 10% Off to Newark
Dec
02
2007
Talk about a non-event. Through January 6th, Alaska Airlines is offering 10% off to Newark as part of its gay travel promotions. Of course, you don’t actually have to be gay to get the discount. You just have to use the promo code EC06607. This is similar to Orbitz gay hotel discounts and $100 gay discounts. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… And yet Alaska is taking heat for their marketing, with an activist portraying the airline as imposing a 10% tax on heterosexuals. “They are giving preferences to male passengers who want to wear dresses on the planes, and giving them preference over married couples,” Now, of course, this isn’t true or a reasonable way to describe Alaska’s marketing efforts. But if Alaska wanted to impose a surcharge on bigots I’d personally favor…
Amtrak Reduces Value of Transfers to Choice Hotels
Back in October I singled out Amtrak Guest Rewards for real shame because of their poor customer service and history of making changes to their program with no notice whatsoever. Then, last month, I did flag Amtrak for offering something new of real value — transfers out to Choice Hotels at a ratio that would allow members to convert their points 1:1 into most airlines (because Choice hotels has a variety of airline transfers). 5,000 Amtrak yielded 25,000 Choice and then 5,000 miles in many programs. That was huge. Though, given Amtrak Guest Rewards’ history, I suggested anything of value like this couldn’t last. Then, yesterday, with no notice whatsoever Amtrak reduced the value of their transfers to Choice Hotels. Instead of getting 25,000 Choice hotel points for 5,000 Amtrak points, you now get only…
