View From The Wing: "At the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference this morning, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom declared that the carrier’s plan to eliminate mileage-earning from some travel agency tickets is off. It was too confusing. They still care about moving to NDC (new distribution capability), which mileage-earning on agency tickets was a lever to push agencies to adopt, but it is something that will happen 'over time.'"
One Mile At A Time: "Qatar Airways intends to introduce Starlink Wi-Fi, making this the largest airline in the world to collaborate with SpaceX on Wi-Fi. Not only will Starlink offer speeds of up to 500 megabits per second for gaming, VPN access, sports streaming, and more, but Qatar Airways intends to offer this Wi-Fi on a complimentary basis, with one-click access."
Frequent Miler: "Avianca LifeMiles apparently began offering family pooling a couple of months ago. That’s a piece of news we had missed until the announcement of last week’s LifeMiles credit cards, which include automatic Silver elite status. One of the benefits of LifeMiles elite status is the ability for an elite member to pool miles earned by their under-18 children with their own miles for free, which is a nice benefit for families traveling on paid tickets."
Loyalty Lobby: "The new home for the Conrad New Your Midtown is now confirmed to be affiliated with Marriott, where it will be called The Luxury Collection Manhattan Midtown Hotel."
"The London NYC joined Hilton’s Conrad brand in 2019 but leaves it five years later to become affiliated with Marriott’s Luxury collection."
Hyatt "announced that ATONA, the modern hot spring ryokan (Japanese-style inn) brand, will open properties in Yufu, Yakushima, and Hakone. The ATONA brand was announced in 2022 under a joint venture between a Hyatt affiliate and Kiraku, a Japanese company dedicated to preserving valuable assets for future generations. The first ATONA ryokans are slated to open in 2026 across some of Japan’s top hot spring destinations and areas of natural beauty."
Disclosure: I serve on an advisory board for Bilt and may earn a commission if you use my link below.
Bilt Rewards announced that it's June Rent Day promo will focus on its Neighborhood Dining program.
The timing fits when you consider that Bilt recently added roughly 20,000 restaurants to the program. On June 1, 2024, members can earn 5cx or 10x bonus points at participating restaurants based on their Bilt status level.
This stacks with Bilt's recurring Rent Day promo of earning double points on all purchases. So, you could earn 6x at the restaurant (double the standard 3x) and up to 10x with Neighborhood Dining promo. That means Platinum and Gold members can earn 16x at participating restaurants on June 1.
If you plan to apply for the Bilt Card, using my link is an easy way to support Points Wire.
Hyatt sent out targeted promo offers in April, but has just sent out another round. Check the Hyatt app to see if you've been targeted for a promo offer this round.
Examples of offers we've seen:
Miles To Memories: "Southwest Airlines has launched a new promotion that can earn you the Companion Pass with just one round-trip flight to Hawaii. While it is quite easy to earn, this is only a Promotional Companion pass which lasts just under a month a half. It can still be quite useful, even if you take advantage of it just a couple of times. Let’s see the details."
You must purchase your flight by May 24 and it must be a cash ticket. Other restrictions apply.
Thrifty Traveler: "Basic economy has spread like the plague among the major U.S. airlines, luring in consumers with the cheapest price … in exchange for a bunch of restrictions. But now, American Airlines is taking things a step further."
"American Airlines has begun hiding these bare-bones fares under the cover of a regular “Main” cabin ticket in its search results online at AA.com and on its smartphone app. So while you'll initially see a $337 price tag on this roundtrip flight from Phoenix (PHX) to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) explicitly labeled as a main cabin ticket, click through and you'll see that's for an American Airlines basic economy fare – that better main cabin fare actually costs another $60."
Disclosure: I serve on an advisory board for Bilt and may earn a commission if you use my link below.
View From The Wing: "A year ago Bilt Rewards added a card-linked dining program that let you earn points at participating restaurants whenever paying with a card linked to your Bilt account (it didn’t have to be Bilt’s own co-brand credit card). They were only in larger cities, but the curated lists of restaurants was outstanding."
"Now they’ve done a couple of deals to hugely expand their presence to around 20,000 more restaurants in what they call their Neighborhood Dining program."
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