Starwood Preferred Guest 1st Quarter 2012 “Better by the Night”–promotion.

by
John Ollila
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3 Comments

Please note that the registration links won’t work before January 9th, 2012. They are all valid but Starwood has decided to take them down temporarily.

Starwood just announced their first quarter 2012 “Better by the Night”-promotion. The promotion runs from January 9th to April 8th, 2012. There are more than 750 participating properties in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Please note that Asia Pacific properties do not participate. There is currently promotion going on that is only valid at Asia Pacific properties for free nights.

spg-better-by-the-night-promo

Better by the Night promo is for double Starpoints for stays of two nights or triple Starpoints for stays of three nights or longer. There are no bonus points for one night stays. You need to register for this promo by March 15th midnight Eastern Time.  The link for registration is SPG.com/bythenight.

Stays of one night = 2 Starpoints per dollar (no promotion)

Stays of two nights = 4 Starpoints per dollar (double points)

Stays of three nights or longer = 6 Starpoints per dollar (triple points)

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Now You Can Use Marriott Rewards Points To Book Flights + Car Rentals. Not a Great Deal Points Wise.

by
John Ollila
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Marriott Rewards just launched the ability to use Marriott Rewards points to book revenue flights and car rentals. This is outsourced to ezRez Software. I think that is always good to have more options to use points, although one Marriott point under this program is only valued at around $0.005 dollars. Marriott has a dedicated website for this: www.marriottrewardsairandcar.com.

marriott-rewards-air-car

Even Marriott fully discloses that using points for hotel rewards continues to be the best redemption option of Marriott points. I have always used my points for travel packages, however.

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Southwest Airlines Launches Double Tier Qualifying Points Promotion 225dojup.

by
John Ollila
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I have a confession to make. I really don’t fly Southwest that often, maybe once a year or once every two years or so. They are, however, very good airline, but just doesn’t fit my travel patterns that well. I have been their Rapid Rewards members since early 2000.

rapid-rewards-double-trier

Where Southwest excels are those short and medium haul flights. As they don’t belong to any alliance, there is no way to use Raid Rewards for award travel in international premium class cabins on quality carriers, that is my favorite way of burning earned miles/points.

Apparently, Southwest feels that they need to react based on the AA’s recent offer of Double Elite Qualifying Miles on all routes until the end of January.

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How Do I Decide The Hotel Where I am Staying At?

by
John Ollila
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1 Comment

First of all, I don’t believe that there is a right or wrong way. I kinda have my rule of thumb. Since 2004, I have had more than 300 hotel stays early. Normally, I choose a hotel from Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott, or Starwood collections due to the fact that I have the top tier status with all of them.

Last night I was researching hotels in Kiev, where I was supposed to be later today. I will write about my experience with PS (Ukraine International Airlines) at some later date that made me change my plans at the very last minute.

Ukraine, where Kiev is the capital, is one of those interesting former eastern bloc countries that still have relatively low standard of living, but where hotels are very expensive. The city is hosting a football tournament next year and quite a few new hotels are coming online, including Fairmont, Hilton, and Sheraton.  Hopefully this will bring the prices down.

So, last night when I was looking at the hotels I had to make a choice between a Hyatt Regency Kiev and the InterContinental hotels. The Hyatt had a best available rate of 330 euros and InterContinental 295 euros per night. Both hotels had award inventory available as well. Hyatt at 18000 Gold Passport points and InterContinental at 30000 Priority Club points per night.

hyatt-regency-kiev-rate-sheet

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Lufthansa Has Reached an Agreement to Sell BMI to IAG (The Parent of British Airways and Iberia).

by
John Ollila
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bd-baFor the years, I have parked all my premium fares, flown on Star Alliance carriers, to BMI’s Diamond Club program due to generous multipliers for such fares.  Although the program has been devalued somewhat over the years, it has still been my number one for redeeming in international business class flights.

The British Midland International (BMI) has been, however, a loss making operation for years. Lufthansa was forced to buy the carrier back in 2009 when the owners exercised their option to sell.

According to the Financial Times article on this issue, the parties are expected the regulatory approval of this deal on the first quarter of 2012. It is not sure, however, how fast BMI is then forced to leave Star Alliance.

ft-bmi-lh-iag

Time to get the last redemptions in using Diamond Club miles in before they turn into Avios.

Hyatt December Sale Up To 30% Off – Rate Code C48H12

by
John Ollila
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Hyatt apparently loves these short term sales every couple of months. This time they are offering up to 30% off of 108 properties in United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. These are prepaid, non-refundable, and non-cancelable. Diamond members can use their suite upgrades on these rates, subject to availability of course. These rates need to be booked by midnight on 21st of December.

hyatt-december-sale

The following Hyatt web page has the list of all the 108 participating properties and the terms of this offer.

Sometimes these rates “work” and sometimes they don’t. You get a lower price but you give up the flexibility. I would only book the sale rate if my plans were absolutely set in stone.

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Kingfisher Airlines Set To Join Oneworld On February 10th, 2012.

by
John Ollila
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kingfisher-airlinesKingfisher, which has been mentored by British Airways, is set to join Oneworld on February 10th, 2012. The airline was invited to join Oneworld back in June, 2010. Recently, Star Alliance turned down the Air India’s application to join alliance at the last minute.

Kingfisher has been in the financial turmoil lately as is the case with most Indian carriers. Some of their planes are apparently grounded due to inability to pay for the maintenance. Some routes have been cut and others have seen decrease in frequency.

Here’s the route map that shows the already canceled routes as well:

kingfisher-airlines-route-map
Overall, Kingfisher would be a good addition to the Oneworld family and would open up lots of destinations in India. They do, however, need to get their financial house in order first.

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Marriott Rewards Gift Cheques Discontinued as of December 31st, 2011.

by
John Ollila
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Update. The general gift cheques were discontinued. Marriott Elite members can still continue redeeming gift cheques at discounted prices.

Exchanging Marriott Rewards points to Marriott Gift Cheques is discontinued as of December 31st of this year. It has been a good option to use Marriott Rewards points for incidentals using award stays or even pay for the stays.

marriott-rewards-gift-checks

The current offer is 135000 Marriott Rewards points to $1000 in gift cheques. Starting next year you need 190000 for $1000 in Marriott gift cards. The current award values Marriott rewards points at $.0073/point and the new one at $0.0053. This is a rather significant change that Marriott has tried to just bury on their website. You need 41% more Marriott Reward points to issue the same award in gift cards instead of gift cheques. Spa and dining certificates are being discontinued as well.

This year Marriott has unannouncedly cancelled their Elite Executive Offer (EEO) for a free weekend night when paid for one night, and their all inclusive awards at some Caribbean resorts.

Hilton Worldwide Rate Promotion “Save 25% with the Any Weekend, Anywhere Sale”-Book By January 31st for Stays Until December 30th, 2012

by
John Ollila
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Last year during the “Any Weekend, Anywhere Sale” there was some deals to be had in the Hilton Hotels in the EMEA region. Some rates were discounted up to 50% off:

Europe, Middle East and Africa: Participating hotels are offering up to a 50% discount. Participating Hilton, Conrad, Waldorf Astoria, Doubletree and Hilton Garden Inn hotels will relate the discount to the Best Available Bed and Breakfast Rate. Participating Hampton Inn hotels will relate the discount to the Best Available Rate.

This year the discount is 33%:

Europe, Middle East and Africa region: Participating Conrad® Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton™, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Garden Inn™ and Waldorf Astoria™ Hotels & Resorts properties are offering a 33% discount on Best Available Rate and Bed & Breakfast Rate. Participating Hampton by Hilton™ properties are offering a 20% discount on Best Available Rate only.

Hilton properties in the United States can be had for about the same price or lower during weekends using either AAA or MVP rates, that are normally fully cancelable and not prepaid.

hilton-any-weekend-anywhere-sale

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Starwood’s Latest Thailand Rate Offer – Unbeatable Thailand.

by
John Ollila
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2 Comments

During the flooding in Thailand, I was in and out of the capitol city three times and never saw anything unusual besides everything being really quiet. When I was there last time ten days ago, the city was already back to business as usual. None of the Starwood properties were affected.

Starwood has now launched a Thailand sale that will last until the end of January for stays from January 4th until 31st of March. The rates offered are up to 50% off the Best Available Rate.

spg-unbeatable-thailand

These are the rates listed as up to 50% off the Best Available Rate. Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit came at the offered price for weekends in January. For the dates I checked, the lowest rate I could find for the Le Meridien Bangkok was 3300 THB. The sale rate for the St Regis Bangkok was about 1000 THB lower than the 6900 THB rate listed.

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Conrad Koh Samui Resort & Spa, Koh Samui, Thailand – Review of My Stay at Villa 219

by
John Ollila
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11 Comments

Overall this is a very nice hotel and definitely worthy addition to the Hilton’s Conrad brand. There was only couple of small service issues that can probably be attributed to the hotel having been open for bit over a month when I was there. I had visited the island couple of time previously and both times stayed at the Renaissance hotel which is closer to the Lamai beach. This time I stayed also one night at the Le Meridien hotel.

[nggallery id=15]

I was going to be around Bangkok in late November, and realized that I could take advantage of Hilton Points Stretcher deal, that had the Conrad Koh Samui at 40% discount off of the regular point rates.  Considering that the regular rates at this all villa property are normally in excess of 16K THB + tax/service charge (around $600 per night) even the 50K/night is a reasonable deal.

conrad-koh-samui-point-stretcher-reward

If you stay for four nights (probably my ideal stay at this property), the best award would be AXON7  that would require 145K points averaging 36250 HH/night. For stays of six nights or longer (except 8/12/16 etc. nights) the VIP/GLON award is the best bang for the buck at 37500 HH/night.

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Start Earning and Burning Miles on the Latest Star Alliance Member Ethiopian.

by
John Ollila
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As I wrote a week ago, the Ethiopian was to officially join the Star Alliance on December 13th and they did just that. Ethiopian is a good choice for Star. It opens up new connection options and destinations in the horn of Africa. Ethiopian complements the two other African based Star Alliance carriers, South African Airways and Egypt Air, very well.

Ethiopian Star Alliance

You can already redeem on Ethiopian using other Star Alliance carriers programs, as the award inventory is loaded in to the system. Sometimes it is bit of a struggle first because not always the front line employees making the award reservations are aware of the newest members.

Had a quick look and United, US Airways, and Lufthansa had a chart for Ethiopian fare classes eligible for mileage credit. BMI, which if my favorite program to credit business class flights, haven’t published a chart yet. The elite qualifying miles earned on United for paid business class flights on Ethiopian looked rather low. You only earn 100% (125% redeemable miles though) when business class normally earns, depending on the program, up to 200%.

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Marriott Rewards Spring 2012 MegaBonus Announced – Few Variations of the Offer.

by
John Ollila
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4 Comments

Marriott has been very predictable when it comes to promotions they are running. Two weeks ago I wrote about the MegaMiles promotion that runs from January 1st till April 30th. The new MegaBonus dates are from February 1st to April 30th.

marriott-rewards-spring-2012-megabonus

The “generic” version of this promotion is for a free category 1 to 4 certificate after two paid stays. The maximum number of free night certificates one can earn is two. The limiting factor is the category 1 to 4 where the free night certificate can be used, and the relatively short expiration. Most of the category 1 to 4 hotels in the United States are not full service Marriott hotels. There are hotels in Asia like JW Marriott Beijing that is a very good value for a category 4 free night certificate.

marriott-rewards-spring-2012-megabonus-generic-version

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InterContinental Hotel Group’s (IHG) Priority Club Bonus Points Promo for 1st Quarter 2012

by
John Ollila
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3 Comments

Priority Club Offer RegisterationThe 2012 promos are slowly strarting to be introduced. IHG’s Priority Club just launched their stay/nights based bonus points promotion for the 1st quarter of 2012. Normally Priority Club member is targeted to one of these based on their stay history, but that doesn’t prevent them for registering one of the other offers if they decide to do so.

Please note that you can only register for ONE of these, and once you have registered you cannot change it.

Depending how many nights you expect to stay during the first quarter of the next year, you should choose 3, 7, or 15 nights version of this promotion.

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