Five years ago, Hilton was about to launch its lifestyle brand Denizen. Plans got derailed after SPG sued the company for corporate espionage after two employees behind the W brand were hired by Hilton to develop it.
Part of that settlement, Hilton agreed not to launch a lifestyle brand for number of years, but now the provision has expired.
Hilton HHonors used to allow Visa Infinite cardholders to upgrade their status just typing some of the card numbers online, but this was soon discontinued (as many were just faking the card numbers).
The Hilton HHonors Gold status is still, however, benefit of having a Visa Infinite card in Central Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia (excluding Japan).
Compensation Clinic pays a visit to a car rental company for the first time, although most travelers have had negative experiences with them (myself included).
A LoyaltyLobby reader had reserved a Corvette using points and, when he arrived to the Hertz location at the Miami international airport, they didn’t have one.
One of the lesser known options for redeeming Choice Privileges points is to use them for award nights at Preferred Hotel Group hotels.
The number of points required varies from 30,000 to 60,000 Choice Privileges points per night. There are currently 504 Preferred Hotel Group properties were you can redeem your Choice points.
Marriott Rewards has a promotion for midweek stays in New Orleans (my former hometown) between January 10 and March 31, 2014.
You can earn 2,000 bonus points per stay from Sunday to Thursday. You must use promotional code MR5 and book the bonus points rate.
Air France-KLM Flying Blue has just released the list of their promotional awards for May 1 to June 30, 2014, period that are bookable between March 1-30. The discount is from 25% to 50% from the usual number of miles required
You can access Flying Blue’s web page for this award type here.
IHG Rewards Club introduced Rollover Elite Nights (read more here) in 2013 at the same time with the name change from Priority Club + some other new benefits. All your elite qualifying nights over 50 should have rolled over for 2014.
A LoyaltyLobby reader pointed out that there has been problems at IHG’s end calculating these correctly. He had had 61 qualifying nights in 2013 of which ZERO had rolloved to 2014.
Having grown up in Northern Finland, where it is usually VERY cold and snowy during the winter time, it never ceases to amaze me how ill-prepared the US airlines and airports are for cold weather and snow.
Many US travelers have had their flights canceled and travel plans interrupted. I have been watching some travel commentary on my friends’ Facebook updates about being delayed and rerouted.
SAS has quietly downgraded its food and beverage offering for intercontinental flights in Economy (GO fare class).
Previously, beer and wine were complimentary with the meal, but now they are only for sale.
Shangri-La’s Golden Circle has a new promotion for Club room awards and upgrades for stays between February 14 and April 29, 2014.
You can receive 50% discount on upgrades from standard rooms to Club rooms and 30% discount for redemptions directly to the club level accommodations.
Marriott Rewards has a promotion for stays at four participating Gaylord hotels between February 3 and April 27, 2014.
You can earn 2,000 bonus points per stays (can be as short as one night) by booking using offer code M11.
Emirates has announced a codeshare and frequent flier partner with Jetstar, which is a fully owned subsidiary of Qantas with whom Emirates started to cooperate in 2013.
Emirates will codeshare 27 routes and Skywards members can redeem miles on all Jetstar operated services starting at 7,025 miles one-way starting on March 1, 2014.
Expedia (US site) has a Best Price Guarantee program that matches the lower price and gives you a $50 coupon for future use, if you can find a lower price in USD from a website that is in English within 24 hours of making the purchase.
Now, I had a case, where Orbitz price was 2 cents less than Expedia’s. The room and the terms and conditions were all identical.
