A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a note about a booked stay at the InterContinental Sydney that the hotel has decided to cancel because they deem that a rate of $2,000 for five nights is “too good to be true.”
Remember to send us your questions and comments by email, and Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll try to cover them here several times a week.
Seychelles is one of the first countries that has fully opened its borders without quarantine requirement for those with one of the four widely used Covid-19 shots. They still need to provide a negative Covid-19 PCR-RT test, however.
The country appears to have a very aggressive vaccination schedule and plans to have the majority of its citizens and residents inoculated by mid-March when only a negative Covid-19 PCR-RT test without quarantine is required for foreign arrivals.
I often end up extending stays at hotels; my plans either change, or I like the hotel so much that I rather stay there longer.
This often creates issues with getting the correct number of nights, stays, points, and Milestone bonus points posted correctly in Hilton Honors’ case.
Accor has now extended its sale of Turkey and the Middle East to Africa, and it is valid for stays through May 11, 2021.
Accor Live Limitless (ALL) members save 30% on their stays if booked by March 31. You also save on F&B and SPA expenses.
There have been very mixed signals coming out of Tokyo whether the 2020 Olympic Games will go ahead in 2021 in just six months or scrapped altogether.
The Japanese population, in general, have turned against having the Olympics at all, although the country’s Prime Minister tries to keep up a brave face that they will go forward.
The new U.S. administration has started off their term by putting new rules in place that concern travel to and within the United States including touting a self quarantine period for all international arrivals and a new federal requirement to wear masks on planes.
Or course the airlines already require passengers to wear masks for months now and asking people to self-quarantine isn’t really enforceable in any way so in practice not much will change.
Marriott launched a “secret” little-publicized website called What To Expect late summer (read more here) that allows members to check what hotel facilities, from F&B outlets to in-room dining, club lounges, and elite benefits are available in the current environment.
Some hotels, but not most, provide a link to this website that all guests should check before booking and checking in to any Marriott hotel. Marriott affiliated hotels have been very slow at bringing back benefits than Hilton and Hyatt (book away!).
Emirates last week abruptly canceled all of its passenger services to Australia except two weekly flights to Perth.
The airline has decided to backpedal on the decision it made and will reinstate services to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane next week.
There are plenty of scam phone calls (see the piece earlier in the week) going around, but emails are going out as well.
A LoyaltyLobby reader forwarded us an email supposedly coming from Hilton Honors offering 20,000 points and asking you to log into your account (don’t do it!).
Norway’s government has tried not to prop up failing airlines in the country indicated on Thursday morning that they would be open for a hybrid load if other investors were willing to chip in to save Norwegian.
Norwegian is going through restructuring/bankruptcy proceedings in Ireland and announced last week that they would end all long-haul flying concentrating regional flights to/from the Nordics, as they started their business.
IHG has launched a new Winter Sale for stays at its Kimpton Hotels worldwide through September 7, 2021.
Members save 25% off of their stays if booked by February 7. Some hotels may have a two-night minimum stay requirement (see the list below).
Hong Kong SAR government is considering new methods to lower Covid-19 and new mutations’ potential spread by requiring all crews arriving in Hong Kong and staying more than two hours to quarantine for 14 days.
The new rule would require local Cathay Pacific cockpit and other crew members to quarantine at local hotels for 14-days after arriving from a foreign trip.
World of Hyatt dropped me an email yesterday, and there was a notice on the app that I had requalified for Globalist status in 2021.
This is not quite the usual achievement because Hyatt cut the qualification requirements in half (read more here) and decided to roll over select nights from 2020 into 2021 and double count the nights consumed for qualification purposes until February 28, 2021.
