View From The Wing: "American AAdvantage now has more access to Alaska Airlines award space. You’re going to have success finding seats with your American Airlines miles when looking for Alaska’s flights in and out of California, going forward. In fact, more often than not you’ll be able to secure awards – if you’re willing to part with more of your miles."
"However adding variable pricing for partner award tickets brings with it risk of undermining the great value in today’s program, which is inexpensive awards on airlines like Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Qatar Airways. A shift away from that fixed pricing model may not be good for members."
Skift: "Hilton revealed Wednesday that it had signed an exclusive licensing deal with Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH), a group of 560 boutique hotels unaffiliated with the major hotel groups."
"Hyatt is a loser here. Small Luxury Hotels is ending its multi-year partnership with the smaller hotel group. World of Hyatt loyalty members could use their reward points to book stays at the group of boutique hotels. Last year, Hyatt lost a loyalty licensing deal with MGM Resorts to Marriott."
Points Wire Note:
I would expect the number of Hilton Honors points needed to book many SLH properties to be high. If you want to earn Hilton points and elite nights on SLH stays, you'll need to book via Hilton.
However, if you're not chasing Hilton status, you can book SLH properties via their preferred booking program withIN and get perks such as daily breakfast for two, a property credit, and a room upgrade.
File this one under transfer bonuses you can ignore. While a 60% transfer bonus is nice, in theory, IHG One Rewards points just aren't worth enough to make this a good idea. You can get much more value out of Chase Ultimate Rewards points by transferring them to airline partners or World of Hyatt. You can even get more out of them by booking via the Chase travel portal.
View From The Wing: "One of those is changes is redemption price changes for partner awards. American eliminated their ‘saver’ and ‘anytime’ award charts last year for flights on their own aircraft. Basically that means all of their awards for travel solely on American are now dynamically priced (what used to be called web specials). They did publish an award chart showing ‘starting at’ pricing but actual prices don’t seem to be reflected by that chart at all."
Points Wire Note:
The big question is how badly American Airlines devalues its award rates on partner airlines. I have a hard time believing it won't be a rough devaluation, unfortunately. I'd love to be surprised.
Miles Earn And Burn: "Alaska awards are only getting more expensive if the miles are earned from flying/organic credit card spend. But, the inflation in Alaska credit card bonuses since 2020 means most of these routes increased less than 10%. In fact many have become cheaper if you’ve earned your miles from well-timed sign up bonuses."
Points Wire Note:
Devaluations are never fun, but your ability to earn points also plays a role. For now, it seems you can come out ahead if you get an Alaska card (personal or business) when the sign-up bonus is at its peak.
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Bilt started the year off strong with a few mega transfer bonuses for the first Rent Day of the year. Now, they're back with one of their most exciting transfer bonuses to date.
On February 1 (Rent Day), you can transfer Bilt Rewards points to Air Canada Aeroplan and get up to a 75-150% bonus. Your Bilt status on February 1 will determine your transfer bonus.
If you have Blue status (just for being a member), the minimum transfer is 2,000 points.
To take advantage of this transfer bonus, you must transfer points between 12:00am ET on February 1 and 2:59am ET on February 2.
Double Points On Rent Day
Don't forget, you can earn double Bilt points on all purchases (not including rent) on the first of each month. This includes include the Bilt Card's bonus categories.
You can earn up to 10,000 bonus points on Rent Day. You must use your card 5 times per statement period to earn points.
Points Wire Note:
With Bilt expected to add the ability to earn points on mortgage payments in the future, I think it's going to earn a place in more and more wallets.
Executive Traveller: "Using Qantas Points to unlock an unlock an upgrade on Cathay Pacific, or tapping your Avios account for a bump to business or first class on Japan Airlines, should soon be possible as Oneworld finally launches alliance-wide upgrades later this year."
"However, Girkinger revealed the Oneworld-wide points upgrade program will launch with 'only a handful (of airlines) to begin with' rather than kicking off with coverage of all 13 Oneworld airlines (or 14, when Oman Air takes a seat at the table)."
Points Wire Note:
If oneworld rolls out alliance-wide upgrades similar to Star Alliance, expect only the more expensive fare classes to be eligible for upgrades. Maybe, they'll surprise us, but I wouldn't be surprised if the upgrade rules and rate aren't particularly compelling for most people.
Don't forget, booking the class of service you want outright is often a much better value proposition than upgrading. There exceptions, but they are not the rule.
One Mile At A Time: "As of May 23, 2024, Air France will launch a new year-round flight between Paris (CDG) and Phoenix (PHX). The flight will operate 3x weekly..."
"Air France will use a Boeing 787-9 for the service, featuring 276 seats. This includes 30 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats, and 225 economy class seats."
Points Wire Note:
Flying Blue has been making a play for a larger share if the US market so it's great to see another potential award booking option, especially from the western U.S. When you consider the fact that a one-way saver level business class award ticket to Europe is 50,000 Flying Blue miles, this could be quite useful for those out west. Even better, you can transfer points to Flying Blue from Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou Points.
Danny the Deal Guru: "Southwest Airlines is targeting select Rapid Rewards members with an offer to save 20% on one or two award bookings. Offers might vary from one account to the other, but its looks like only those who have a Chase Southwest credit card are targeted."
Many in the points community were disappointed when MGM Rewards and World of Hyatt ended their partnership. In its place, MGM Rewards has partnered with Marriott Bonvoy.
While some had hoped that this would allow Marriott elite status holders to match to MGM status, that's not the case. However if you have MGM status, you can match to Marriott status.
Marriott elite will receive some benefits at MGM properties. The frustrating part for many will be that only Marriott Ambassador status will provide waived resort fees as a benefit. Staying 75 nights and earning Marriott Titanium won't be enough.
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