Hilton just launched their latest ‘Resort Escapes’ promotion. You can get a free night certificate after five night contiguous stay at any of the more than 100 participating properties or two certificates after ten night stay. Alternatively you can complete two five night resort stays. This promotion is valid from December 1st, 2011 to April 30th, 2012. The free night certificate(s) are valid for 6 months after earning them.
This promotion is nice because you don’t have to hotel hop. The current free night certificate promotion is for a free night after every four stays or ten nights. It encourages people to switch hotels every night if they wish to maximize the number of free night certificates earned.
Starwood is again running MasterCard affiliated promo ‘Two Days of Happy’ 4MCFN in the Asia Pacific region. After five nights during the promotional period the SPG member will receive one promotional fee night award, or after nine nights two promotional awards. The stays must be reserved and paid using a MasterCard, and must occur between November 29th, 2011 and 15th of March 2012. These promotional awards can be redeemed from January 1st, 2012 and are valid until 10th of April 2012. The full terms and conditions of this promotions can be found at
The short answer is nothing at least not in the short term. Now all the so called legacy carriers have been to bankruptcy protection and some even more than once. Continental Airlines, now part of United, went through this cycle twice in the 1990’s, and all the other legacies United, US Airways, Delta, and Northwest, now part of Delta, all went through this same process in the last decade. Some have suggested that AMR made a mistake of not going through this process when all of their competitors did.
Over the years I have visited the United’s Bangkok City Ticket Office (CTO) several times for various reasons. In the past, one had to sign a so called “bluey” when upgrading someone else using one of the Systemwide upgrade instruments. Also, issuing an award ticket to someone who doesn’t share the same last name with you, used to require this very same process. I have always received very good service either over the phone or during the visit. They had just received some award from United for their 25 years of service.
It never hurts to have a Gold status with Accor just in case you happen to find a great price at one of their hotels or to be in a place where you don’t have your favorite chain represented. Accor has pretty good coverage in South America, Europe, and in part of Asia.
