View From The Wing: "Star Alliance member Asiana is offering free lounge access to all coach passengers transiting through Seoul for all of 2024. Anyone with an airport transit of less than 24 hours booking their flights through a travel agent can take advantage of access to a Plaza Premium lounge at the Incheon airport."
Points Wire Note:
Many of us in the points community take a DIY approach to booking travel, but there are some perks available to travel advisors/agents. This is the first I've seen like this, but there are tons of perks available on hotel bookings (cash stays only).
You can receive instant Hilton Honors Silver status through April 29, 2024 with an option to earn Hilton Honors Gold Status if you stay 8 nights by that date. If you earn Gold status, it will be valid through March 2026.
As far as mid-tier hotel status goes, Hilton Gold is solid as you receive daily breakfast or a food & beverage credit (depends on the location and brand) as well as space-available room upgrades.
You can also get Hilton Gold status just by being an Amex Platinum or Amex Business Platinum cardholder.
Nice find by Miles Earn And Burn.
Traditionally, Chase would only allow you to refer someone to the specific Sapphire card you had. Now, you can refer someone to either Sapphire card regardless of which Sapphire you have.
So, if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can refer someone to a Sapphire Reserve and vice versa.
Currently, you can receive 15,000 Ultimate Rewards points per referral up to 75,000 points per year.
Hyatt Place properties aren't the most luxurious, but sometimes it fits the bill.
Check your Chase cards for an offer to get 10% back up to $40 back when you spend $100 at Hyatt Place. The offer expires March 3, 2024. Your payment must be complete by this date.
I found this offer on my World of Hyatt credit card.
My friend God Save The Points touched on something that has been frustrating me recently after a recent stay at the Viceroy Santa Monica.
He notes that "In travel, and particularly hotel loyalty, the gesture of buying someone breakfast has been a long standing tradition to honor those who book directly or show an amount of loyalty by earning a level of elite guest status."
Regarding his recent stay, he had this to say: "Like many leading hotel groups, Viceroy offers a preferred partner ‘Guild’ rate, which is bookable by top travel agents and provides a slew of direct booking benefits and perks for agents and their clients. A $50 hotel credit, “daily breakfast for two”, late checkout and a welcome amenity are among the rate benefits here."
In recent years, I've seen a breakfast credit offered at more and more properties for both top tier elites and those who booked via preferred booking programs (Hyatt Privé, Marriott STARS, etc.).
It's particularly frustrating since the credit often doesn't cover breakfast if you get a main course, coffee, and juice. This is especially true at many big city properties in the U.S. as the credit has to cover gratuity (20% is often standard) and taxes (10% in some cases) as well.
Let's take the Conrad Washington, DC as an example. Hilton Gold and Diamond members get a $25 credit ($50 for two people). A main course is $25, a regular coffee is $6, and juice is $7. Throw in 20% and 10% for tax and you've nearly doubled the credit.
In the case of the Hilton dining credit, you at least know the cap ahead of time even if it's absurdly low based on the prices hotel restaurants charge. However, in many cases, you don't find out that it's a credit (that's too low) until check-in.
Hopefully, preferred booking programs and loyalty programs will start requiring properties to cover breakfast fully - even just a main course plus coffee or juice.
In the meantime, make sure you confirm the breakfast details when you check-in so you're not caught off guard.
Staples is running a promo for no-fee $200 Visa gift cards. This means that the $6.95 activation fee will be waived.
Promo runs 1/7/23 to 1/13/23. In-store only. Limit 8 per customer per day.
Points Wire Note: If you have a Chase Ink Cash, you can earn 5x at Staples. You can then use the gift cards on purchases that wouldn't otherwise earn bonus points - 5x is better than 1-2x!
Alaska Mileage Plan is running an award sale to start the year. You can book domestic flights as was well flights to Mexico and Hawaii from 4,500 miles one-way. To get the promo award rate, you need to book by 11:59pm (time zone not specified) on January 5, 2024. It looks like flights through March are eligible.
Miles Earn And Burn flagged some more specific award rates (one-way):
Points Wire Note:
You can compare to Alaska's award chart to see if you're getting a promo rate.
While the Chase Freedom Flex (and Chase Freedom) officially offer rotating 5%/5x quarterly bonus categories, co-brand cardholders often have bonus offers. The kicker is that you have to add the offer to your card to activate it. Sometimes, Chase won't even let you know the offer is available so it's up to you to check.
Travel on Points flagged that a new round of offers is live. These offers run through March 31, 2024 unless otherwise noted.
So far, I've seen the following offers:
View From The Wing: "Seeing a ‘marketplace’ in awards develop so quickly points to the old adage, ‘why we can’t have nice things.’ It’s a great innovation to see awards become transferable. I love making it easier to extend my benefits and take care of family and friends. That makes status more valuable to me."
"Of course that transferability already reduces breakage, the likelihood of an award expiring unused. That means these program changes are expensive for Hyatt. A marketplace marginally increases that, but unless it does so materially it may just be noise – something worth doing for members, even with some portion of members breaking program rules."
Marriott Bonvoy and United MileagePlus top tier elites have offered some reciprocal perks for years, but this is the first time I've seen them run a promo.
Now, Marriott Ambassador and United Premier 1K members can special reciprocal benefits if they meet spend thresholds by March 31, 2024.
Sign-up for Marriott members
Sign-up for United members
Points Wire Note:
Naturally, this promo won't apply to tons of people as it only applies to top tier elites with each program. However, it's a good idea to keep an eye on how loyalty programs are operating.
For those eligible to participate, I don't think you need to make this a priority. The Marriott Suite Night Awards can be tough to use and some brands/properties won't even accept them. The 40 PlusPoints could be useful though.
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