Regular readers of this blog are certainly familiar with credit card signup bonuses (and in many cases, familiar with which credit cards will let you sign up over and over and receive the bonuses each time). I’ve earned many more miles than this from credit card bonuses over time, but Chris Guillebeau chronicles his stab at 300,000 miles from credit card signup bonuses in a single go. Pretty impressive in his own right, and worth reading for folks that haven’t gone down the credit card signup bonus route in the past. (I also highly recommend the credit card section on Gary Steiger’s website as well as archived posts here of course!) Hat tip to Cranky Flier.
Queens, New York Holiday Inn – Suites Available for Award Redemption
The brand new Long Island City (Queens) Holiday Inn “Manhattan View” appears to be making all of its room types available when booking an award. The “Kind Bed Manhattan View Suite” normally runs $650 a night but is available for 15,000 Priority Club points. I imagine this is a mistake in how they’d loaded the room types associated with award rate plans, this won’t last, but if I had to guess I’d say it will be honored. At least similar award bookings at other properties have generally been honored in the past.
Up to 2500 Miles for American Airlines E-Mail Signups
American Airlines has 5 separate e-newsletters, and they’re offering a new promotion where they’ll give you 500 miles for each e-mail you’re not currently receiving that you opt into. Sadly, I was already subscribed to all of them. I think I’ve gotten miles for this in the past. The lesson from the old days, when e-mail signup bonuses were commonplace, was to never accept an email subscription without getting miles for doing so. Offers are far fewer these days, so when something like this comes along jump on it. And a spam-collecting address from Yahoo, Hotelmail, etc. is always useful in this regard.
The Benefits of Just Joining a Hotel Loyalty Program
The Wall Street Journal explains the entry-level perks of some hotel frequent guest programs, which are offered to a member just for joining. The benefits are relatively modest but it is of course better to join a frequent guest program than not to do so. Some hotel chains offer free internet, others won’t charge for late checkout (but don’t guarantee its availability), and perhaps a free newspaper will be included. I usually roll my eyes when TV travel commentators talk about how great it is to be a member of a hotel’s program. And some guests bluster “But I’m an HHonors member!” as though that should grant them the Presidential suite. But for the beginner, it’s worth understanding that it’s worth joining a program, the little things count (attenuate expectations accordingly, membership generally affords some…
250 Free Priority Club Points
Via One Mile at a Time, Priority Club is offering 250 points for completing a short survey about the value of their program.
Free Goldpoints Silver Status
Goldpoints Plus is offering free Silver status and fast track to Gold. The offer was sent to customers of Orange. Based on that and the phone number given as an option for how to take advantage of the offer, I assume it’s intended for U.K. members. To take advantage of this offer, contact the Member Service Centre at goldpointsplus@carlson.com or call +44 207 949 0379 and mention the promotional code indicated in your Orange mailing. A promo code is required, and this Flyertalk thread gives it as SWSL06.
Freddie Awards Voting Has Begun!
Balloting for the Freddie Awards has begun. Polls close February 28th. Expecut much lobbying from frequent flyer and frequent guest programs, incessant emails from programs to their membership. Marriott’s surprising performance last year was, I believe, in large measure due to signfiicant “get out the vote” efforts and I expect other programs to learn from that result and plan accordingly. Such measures can only have an effect at the margin when over half a million people turn out to vote. But since several awards are ultimately decided by numbers closer than Al Franken’s Senate margin, such efforts can make a difference. One pecularity in how the votes are tabulated — which I admit I’m not keen on — is that the number of votes cast for a particular program only determine whether that program crosses…
No Changes to Intercontinental Royal Ambassador in 2009?
Further to Yesterday’s post on changes to the Intercontinental Ambassador program, the current speculation on Flyertalk is that there won’t be any changes after all to Royal Ambassador in 2009. Any changes would only come in 2010. That’s a good thing, a very good thing, a real reprieve for Royal Ambassador members…
Intercontinental Ambassador Program Changes Announced – Royal Ambassador Changes Still to Come
Changes have been announced for the Intercontinental Ambassador program (Flyertalk thread is here), they’re mostly ho-hum (though will wait and see how they function in practice). Still waiting to see what the changes to the Royal Ambassador program bring. We should find out within a few weeks tops. Plain-old vanilla Ambassador, which is what you can buy for $150 ($100 renewal, or 24,000 Priority Club points last time I checked), comes with late checkout, a one-category room upgrade, a free movie during your stay, and a welcome gift that at some properties is a nice little amentiy and at other places is a bowl of fruit. The announced changes are: 20,000 bonus points for every 15 nights at Intercontinental properties. This helps address the perverse incentive that non-Intercontinental hotels in the program (Crowne Plaza, Holiday…
Best Uses for American Express Membership Rewards Points
One Mile at a Time summarizes some of the best and worse uses of American Express Membership Rewards points. I agree that in general Air Canada and ANA are the best transfer options, though of course it’s best to keep the points in American Express until needed to preserve flexibility (and of course both of those programs have mileage expiration rules). But something not mentioned in the post is a really neat feature of the program — that via the Membership Rewards website you can link anyone’s frequent flyer mile account you wish and once so linked transfer points into that account. You can have more than one of a particular program linked at the same time. So drop 1000 miles in a friend’s account to top them off towards an award, and then 10,000…
