Several days ago I posted about the Fairmont Friends & Family rate. In the current low bookings environment, hotels are looking for ways to get incremental room nights. Fairmont has been promoting the employee friends and family rate, encouraging employees to have their friends book deeply discounted stays and even offering them a $10 per booking financial incentive for doing so. The goal of this sort of promotion is to spur incremental business, somewhat ‘quietly’ in a way that doesn’t detract from revenue bookings. In other words, sell a room that would otherwise go vacant for $129 without diverting someone to that rate who would have booked a room at $429. And since the friends and family rate is capacity controlled, with hotels only making rooms available that would go unsold at higher rates, this…
Intercontinental Offers Free Internet to Ambassadors
Intercontinental Ambassador (and thus Royal Ambassador) members now receive free internet at most Intercontinental properties. Hyatt just rolled this out for their elites, so perhaps this is a response. And with a second program jumping on board there’s some momentum, and thus pressure on other programs to consider this as well. (Though these are smaller programs, not as though Marriott and Hilton made the offer with Starwood lagging behind.) Not all Intercontinental properties participate, hopefully more will join in. And it’s always great when there’s a new benefit, without pairing with cutbacks. Update: This Flyertalk post lists the currently non-participating Intercontinental properties, and points out that only roughly 1/3rd are currently listing as participating. Hopefully that number will grow.
Triple bmi Miles with Hilton
Hilton is offering triple bmi miles through June 30 (Registratoin required.) The usual offer is 1000 bmi miles per night, up to 3000 per stay. That makes bmi truly a favorite double dip mileage partner. With this offer it’s 3000 bmi miles per night, up to 9000 per stay. Not all properties are participating, but the list that are is significant. Over at Flyertalk there’s a discussion of whether booking a $45 AAA rate at the Las Vegas Hilton is worth it just for the bmi miles. Gotta love low rates and per-stay (rather than per-dollar) promos.
Fairmont Friends & Family Rate for Everyone
As posted on Flyertalk, Fairmont is making their friends and family rate available to anyone. Some great rates available. (This is similar to the outstanding Priority Club offer.) The promo is valid through the end of the year, and stays can be booked no more than 90 days out. The promo code is NFAF and the person posting the offer provided Booker ID#13421516 which is a number you enter after searching for your room using the promo code above and selecting the room type. Employees apparently earn $10 per stay booked until their Booker ID.
Carrying Money Through Security Might Mean You’re a Terrorist
Here’s the audio of the passenger who was recently detained at St. Louis airport for carrying $4710 in cash contributions to a political organization through security. I have a hard time figuring out why carrying ‘a large sum of money’ makes someone a threat to airport security. Someone who is going to blow up a plane is unlikely to bring a large sum of money with them onboard, unless perhaps they’re attempting to single-handedly combat the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing… (Though even there, as Ben Bernanke drops money from helicopters, doesn’t it seem easier for a terrorist just to burn the money than the bring it onboard an aircraft?) (Hat tip to One Mile at a Time.)
Southwest Fast Track Elite Offer
Southwest is offering a fast track to “A List” status: register and fly 10 segments between April 2 through June 15 for status through December 31. Status normally requires 32 segments in a calendar year. It pretty much just gets you an A boarding pass (and in some cases priority security), but Southwest flyers are advised to take advantage of the offer. (Hat tip to nsx.)
Hyatt’s New Meeting Planner Offering – Elite Status for Meeting Planners
Hyatt is rolling out a revamped meeting planner rewards program. (Hyatt has long offered a meeting planner program, I even mentioned it about five years back, but I don’t recall its details so can’t offer up what’s different in the new incarnation.) The program offers one point per dollar, up to 50,000 points per event. Like Starwood you can split points up to three ways for each event. You can also cash in points for future event credit on the following scale: $200 Event Credit 15,000 Points $400 Event Credit 30,000 Points $600 Event Credit 45,000 Points $800 Event Credit 60,000 Points $1,000 Event Credit 75,000 Points This is unique to Hyatt as far as I’m aware (but not an area in which I’m an expert, so please correct me). I’m also not sure this…
Hyatt Announces Program Improvements, No Capacity Controls and Suites for Diamond Members
Hyatt has announced a new set of benefits, and it’s pretty big news .. but there are some open questions. No more blackout dates on award redemptions, a la Starwood and Hilton. (Are you listening Starwood? Your unique selling proposition has been eroded by the competition…) This makes Gold Passport points much more valuable. All elite members (Platinum and Diamond) will receive free internet. Diamonds get a club level upgrade with every stay, or guaranteed full breakfast and 2500 points. Diamonds will also receive (4) annual suite upgrades (previously Diamonds were mailed a single suite upgrade certificate that required paying a higher rate in most cases.). These will be electronic rather than paper certificates and are valid on stays of seven nights or less; and exclude the top-tier named suites (“Premier, Presidential and Diplomatic Suites”).…
Turkish First Class Redemption Seats Available
This Flyertalk thread gave a nice heads up that Turkish Airlines is making first class awards available on their 77W aircraft leased from Jet Airways. Availability appears pretty good, even for two passengers, and that means seats between Istanbul and Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bangkok. Definitely worth considering for those Star Alliance awards, this airliners.net thread has plenty of photos, and Turkish first class looks very nice…
Double Miles on Mileage Transfers From Person to Person with Northwest and Delta
Northwest is offering a 100% bonus on miles transferred between accounts through May 31. The annual maximum miles transferred into an account is 30,000 at a cost of $325, and yields 60,000 Northwest Worldperks miles in that account. Naturally, Delta Skymiles is making the same offer, 30,000 miles transferred costs $330 (their transfer fee is higher, oddly enough) and yields 60,000 Delta Skymiles. The annual mileage caps are much higher than with Worldperks, 300,000 miles into any account and 150,000 out. Of course, Northwest and Delta miles can be transferred back and forth between each other at will which means you can use Delta’s higher transfer limits to circumvent Northwest’s transfer cap.
