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Select IHG One Rewards members can earn 12,000 bonus points after they complete two stays within 60 days. An eligible stay is one in which you pay $30+ per night.
If you're booking a stay at one of IHG's luxury brands (Intercontinental, Regent, Kimpton, etc.), I would consider booking via IHG's Luxury & Lifestyle program to get additional perks such as daily breakfast for 2, room upgrade, a $100 property credit, and guaranteed 2pm checkout. Benefits vary by property.
Travel on Points: "It seems like another St. Regis property is trying to pick up where the Chicago St. Regis left off. The problem in question is the St. Regis New York elite breakfast that Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador Elites are entitled to. They are trying a new loophole to deny members breakfast this time around though. They are not claiming that their restaurant is a third party entity, like the Chicago property did, but instead, are saying it is because their restaurant is under renovation. Except, you can still order room service, and there in lies the rub."
Points Wire Note:
The variability of benefits across Marriott brands has often been a point of confusion for Marriott Bonvoy members. The fact that this confuses those with Platinum, Titanium, or Ambassador status (re. the most familiar with the program) shows you just how confusing it can be. The fact that properties feel they can ignore the terms of the Bonvoy program make it much harder for customers to trust the brand.
Virgin Atlantic is out with another round of discounted award tickets. This time the discount is 20% which a bit lower than what we saw during four promos last year.
Important Terms
Considering the excessively high carrier-imposed surcharges on Virgin's award tickets, this will only be useful in select circumstances. For example, if you need to travel on a specific date, award space is sparse to nonexistent on other airlines, and Virgin has made award space available to only its own members.
You can get Virgin points by transferring Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou Points.
Points Wire Note:
If you include a connection on a SkyTeam partner from a European city (outside the UK) to London, you seem to be able to get the discount on the Virgin Atlantic flight to the US. This also reduces the total taxes/fees since you avoid the Air Passenger Duty (APD) fee flying out of the UK - $200+ on business class tickets.
For example: Amsterdam (AMS) to New York (JFK) via London (LHR). The KLM flight from AMS to LHR won't be discounted, but the Virgin Atlantic flight from LHR to JFK will be. Since you're not originating in the UK, you avoid the APD and some of the carrier-imposed surcharges. Rather than paying $900+ taxes/fees, you'll owe ~$430.
Delta is offering up to a 20% bonus on Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) on flights to/from the Pacific Northwest. Clearly, Delta is going after people who would typically fly Alaska Airlines.
How The Bonus Works
Eligible Pacific Northwest Airports
You can fly to/from the cities to other cities in the U.S.
Important Terms
Points Wire Note:
If you're a road warrior who regularly flies Delta or you're going to be close to the next status level and could use a bump in MQDs, this could be useful. There's no reason not to register for it, but I wouldn't rework travel plans in the vast majority of cases.
Disclosure: I may earn a referral bonus or commission if you use the links below. I serve on an advisory board for Bilt.
If you have American miles and need a flight within the US or to Canada, you can book economy class tickets for as few as 5,500 miles one-way. The promo says "as low as 7,000 miles" but I see plenty of options lower than that.
As an example, I just pulled up Washington, DC (DCA) to Los Angeles (LAX) via Dallas (DFW) for 7,000 miles one-way so it's not just short non-stop flights.
Important Terms
Points Wire Note:
When booking award tickets, it's always a good idea to check cash fares to use as a point of comparison. You might find that you're better off paying cash and saving your points and miles for a future flight that you're confident will be much more expensive.
If you want to earn American miles with credit cards, you're limited to the Bilt Card and co-branded American cards from Barclays and Citi.
Loyalty Lobby: "Hilton has launched the Hilton for Business program aimed at small and medium-sized businesses that currently don’t have corporate partnerships with Hilton."
"Hilton for Business receives 7,500 bonus points after the first stay under the discounted rate and 5,000 bonus points for every 10 nights consumed using the negotiated rate plan."
Points Wire Note:
We'll see what kind of discounts it offers, but it could be a useful program. You'll even earn bonus points with your Hilton for Business account that can be transferred to your personal Hilton Honors account. You can also give points to your employees.
Alaska Airlines' shopping portal is running a promo in which you can earn bonus miles. Specifically, you can earn:
These are not cumulative. Rather, if you spend $300, you will earn an additional 800 bonus miles which bring you to a total of 1,200 bonus miles. For those doing the math, 1,200 Alaska miles for $300 spend is 4x per dollar. That's on top of what you'd earn shopping with a particular merchant.
This offer expires at 11:59pm ET on January 26, 2024.
Let's Get Nerdy (And Earn More Points)
The Alaska Airlines shopping portal is currently offering 4,500 miles for a purchase of The Motley Fool Stock Advisor. There's a promo code (SALE60) that will drop the price to $79. However, you don't want to use that code if you have the Amex Offer for $50 back on a $99 purchase from The Motley Fool (expires May 5, 2024).
If you have that Amex Offer, you will have $99 spent toward the $300 necessary to get 1,200 bonus miles. Your out of pocket will only be $49 once you factor in the Amex Offer statement credit.
Assuming you spend another $201 via the Alaska shopping portal, you'll end up with at least 5,700 miles for $250 out of pocket. Even if you were to only earn 1x on the remaining $201, you'd end up earning 23.6x Alaska miles per dollar.
Points Wire Note:
For those looking to earn more Loyalty Points with American Airlines, you can use the AA shopping portal with the Amex Offer to earn 6,200 AA miles and Loyalty Points.
One Mile At A Time: "Today (Tuesday, January 16, 2024), the Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club has opened at New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA). The two-floor Chase Sapphire Lounge New York LaGuardia is 21,800 square feet, and it’s the largest lounge in the network to date."
"Well, it seems to be like the Chase Sapphire Lounge New York LaGuardia really takes the lounge network to the next level — the lounge is massive, and features complimentary spa treatments, amazing food and drinks, and even barista coffee. While I haven’t visited the lounge yet, this sounds to me like it might just be the best credit card lounge in the United States to date."
Chase Sapphire Lounge Access Rules In The U.S.
Two cards provide unlimited access with two complimentary guests via Priority Pass:
If you have a Priority Pass membership via another credit card or that you've purchased, you can access a Chase Sapphire Lounge in the U.S. once per calendar year. Additional visit will cost $75 as will guests. Without Priority Pass, you can pay $100 per visit.
Finally, you can only access a Chase Sapphire Lounge within three hours of departure. However, this restriction is waived if you are connecting.
If you'd like to get a jumpstart on earning top-tier World of Hyatt Globalist status, this one is for you.
Before we get into the details, please note that this is a targeted offer that's only available to select members via their employers. To register, you'll need to use your corporate email address. If I were to guess, employees at companies with a corporate rate for Hyatt will be the ones who are eligible for this promo.
Promo Details
If eligible, you will be given Explorist status for 90 days.
To retain Explorist status until February 2026, you must stay 10 qualifying nights at Hyatt properties within that 90 days. Even better, if you stay 20 qualifying nights, you will earn Globalist status until February 2026.
Please note that the qualifying nights must be earned via hotel stays. Elite nights earned via credit card spend on the World of Hyatt Credit Card or World of Hyatt Business Credit Card will not count.
You must register by December 31, 2024. Ideally, you'll do this early in the year so you can earn and then enjoy Globalist for as long as possible.
You may only register for a promo from Hyatt Sales Force once every three years.
Disclosure: I may earn a commission or referral bonus if you use the links below.
American Express is running two Amex Offers that can help you save on Marriott stays. Unfortunately, these offers are targeted so not everyone will see them. I didn't get them on any of my cards. Hopefully, you'll have better luck!
On personal cards, you can find an offer to get $100 back after spending $300+. On business cards, there's an offer to get 20% back up to a $60 back which you'd hit after spending $300.
Important terms for both offers:
You can get extra perks via Marriott STARS and Marriott Luminous when booking participating properties!
Book your luxury hotel stay with perks!
Points Wire Note:
If you're like me and don't enjoy manually adding every Amex Offer one by one, take a look at CardPointers+. I use their Chrome extension to automatically add all of my Amex Offers to each card so I never miss an offer.
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