Free 1,000 Priority Club Points for Hilton HHonors Members

Priority Club, the frequent traveler program for the InterContinental Hotel Group, has taken a jab at the Hilton HHonors program for its recent devaluation of points. Recently, Hilton HHonors increased the number of points required to stay at many of its hotels by about 20%. In response, Priority Club, which includes the InterContinental, Crown Plaza, Holiday Inn and Candlewood brands, is giving away 1,000 points to their program in hopes of luring guests away from Hilton. All you have to do is register here before February 28th, and the 1,000 points will post immediately.

Airlines Seek to Unload Frequent-Flier Miles

From the Washington Times Monday comes a story discussing why airlines, United Airlines in particular, are suddenly choosing to unloading miles from their "books" at an accelerated rate. For example, United recently offered discount award redemption's, and effective August 1, 2009 eliminated all "close-in" processing fees. Are United Airlines and other carriers putting customer service back into focus, or is there something more at play here? Read the full story here.

Priority Club: Stay 8 Nights, Score 2 MLB Tickets

Here's a grand slam deal for baseball friends. Stay a total of 8 nights at any of the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Expresses worldwide, and earn a 2 Major League baseball tickets. Stays between now and September 30, 2009, will count toward the promotion. Register before your first stay. Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express are party of the Priority Club Rewards hotel incentive program.

Earn Bonus Air Miles at Radisson Hotels

Thanks to Tom at the *wood blog for bringing this new Radisson promotion to our attention. 

For a limited time, guests who stay at any Radisson property in the America's will earn 500 American or United Airlines frequent flier miles per night, up to four nights. Normally guests earn 500 miles per stay, regardless the number of nights. Valid for stays May 1-July 31, 2009. Guests must provide their frequent flier account number at time of check-in, in order to receive the bonus miles. 

Earn Bonus Points with Amtrak's New Spring Promo

Register today for Amtrak's "Crazy for Trains, Loco for Points" promo where you can earn double points on each of your first four Amtrak® train trips and triple points for your fifth trip and beyond, March 16 through May 8, 2009. Plus, earn quadruple points for any trip taken on National Train Day, Saturday, May 9, 2009. That's on all trains and every route.

Registration is required online or by calling 1-800-307-5000 (option 2), using registration code 31609.

Earn 1,000 Miles For Enrolling in U.S Airways FF Program

For a limited time, earn 1000 bonus miles for enrolling in U.S Airways Dividend Miles program. If you already have a U.S Airways frequent flyer account this does not apply to you. But if you don't, why not enroll? It's free!

Earn 3,000 Priority Club Points With Netflix

If you are considering joining Netflix be sure to sign up with one of the many frequent traveler programs to earn yourself bonus points/miles. The latest offer comes from Priority Pass, offering 3,000 bonus points for signing up when you start a new Netflix account.

Last month we posted partnerships between Netflix and United, American and Delta Airlines, awarding up to 3,000 bonus miles for new Netflix subscriptions.

In general, Netflix bonuses are for first-time customers only. But word on the street is if you open a new account with a different postal and email address, and a different credit card and frequent traveler number, you might just earn those bonus miles.

250 Priority Club Points for Completed Survey

From the email box this week comes an offer to earn 250 bonus Priority Club points for completing a short survey about the hotel's loyalty program. The survey takes about 2-3 minutes to complete. Offer ends February 28, 2009.

Earn Bonus Points in the Q1 Starwood Promotion

From the *wood blog, be sure to register for the SPG Night After Night Q1 promotion where you can score 500 bonus Starpoints per night, and a bonus 5,000 points for every 10th night you stay.

"If you play your cards right," says *wood, "you can get up to 1,000 Starpoints per night. However, make sure you hit milestones in increments of 10 nights to maximize the benefits of this promotion." 

The promo is open to all Starwood Preferred Guest members for stays between today and April 30, 2009. 

Mileage Runs: Who and Why?

By Mike Grasso

Imagine yourself crawling out of bed at five in the morning to catch a 7 AM trans-continental flight, arriving on the East coast with just minutes to spare before you make the trek back home. At its simplest form, this is a mileage run. Although likely fatigued from the all day journey, tomorrow will be better, particularly since you earned a whopping 6000 miles (or more) for your efforts.

The rules are simple: Fly as far away as you can, for the least possible amount of money. It makes no difference whether you embark off to Sarasota, Florida or Hilton Head, North Carolina, because a true mileage run means you will probably never leave the airport of your arrival city. Just enough time to visit the airport facilities and enjoy a fresh cup o' joe, before boarding begins for your return flight home.

A complicated question asked so many times of me: Why? Why do people do this?

Some view it as a necessity. Frequent travelers who find themselves just a few thousand miles short of maintaining their elite status need to find a way to earn some quick elite-qualifying miles before year end. A mileage run is perfect for them. A simple flight from point A to point B and back allows one to fancy their elite status for yet another year. The banking of useable miles, the ones used to redeem for free award travel, may be less of a priority for this type of mileage runner.

Some regard mileage runs as an opportunity to visit cities while creatively building off-the-beat routings, maximizing mileage potential. For example, San Francisco to Washington D.C is available non-stop, earning 4,820 miles round-trip. Instead, consider San Francisco to Seattle, to Washington D.C, earning 5,956 miles round-trip. For the clever and so-inspired, you could add stops in two other cities enrute to D.C, without adding a substantial cost, to accrue even more miles. These types of mileage runners seek to bank as many useable miles in their frequent flier account, enabling them to redeem for more frequent free trips in the future. (It's important to note that since the focus of the trip is to visit the city - meaning a stay of 1 or more nights is involved, some in the industry do not consider this a true mileage run.)

Finally, a smaller group of travelers view mileage runs as a sort of hobby, sometimes spending hours composing an exciting itnerary that includes four stops - in each direction, including visits to small regional airports that most would simply fly over. These extended mileage runs last upwards of 24 hours, and often include a red-eye flight. The exaustive journey yields huge mileage payouts, and provides avid travelers a chance to see parts of the country - at least the airports, they might not otherwise fly to. Some find themselves volunteering-for compensation on oversold segments, esentially paying for the cost of the mileage run.

But let's face it, if you have an aversion to flying, mileage runs are no friend of yours. But, if you find yourself a bit short of a status level (December 31st is the last day to accrue miles for next year's status), or you want to try your own mileage run, I highly recommend visiting the Flyertalk Mileage Run Forum (it's where I started many years ago), where a community of like-minded flyers can offer expert advice and recommendations on putting together a run that works for you.

American Changes 'Minimum 500 Mile' Accrual Policy

Change impacts non-elite AAdvantage members

Following in the footsteps of United and U.S Airways, American Airlines says effective January 1, 2009, it will award frequent flier miles based on actual miles flown, stripping away the minimum 500 miles awarded for short-haul flights less than 500 miles in length. For example, a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles - about 337 miles in length, would earn the 500 mile minimum based on the old policy. With the new change, only 337 miles are earned. United and U.S Airways recently adopted the same policy.

Unlike the United and U.S Airways policy change however, American airlines has exempted its elite members from this. Thus, AAdvantage Executive Platinum, AAdvantage Platinum, and AAdvantage Gold members will continue to enjoy the 500 mile minimum on most flights.

When Buying Air Miles Is A Bad Purchase

By Mike Grasso

Purchasing airline miles directly from the airline is often a poor method of accruing miles, both economically and practically. But purchasing miles for a near-immediate redemption opportunity can be quite beneficial.

First, the airlines usually price these miles at a premium, valued far higher than earning miles by most other means (flying, car rentals, credit cards, etc.)For example, let's say you are 10,000 miles short of a free flight to New York. United Airlines will gladly sell you 10,000 miles - but for $357 dollars. Instead, purchase a ticket to New York City for about the same price, and you'd earn 5,000 miles in the process. In that scenario, there is no direct value added when buying miles from the airline. Always weigh purchase price options with award redemption opportunities.

Also, redeeming miles into a capacity controlled frequent flier program means the airline will limit your redemption opportunities on days, flights or routes it chooses. If it's a popular route, high-season, or holiday, you will have a tough time finding availability. They would rather sell expensive tickets than fill the plane up with people redeeming miles. And guess what? You are not the only person trying to redeem miles on a flight. Many people are competing for what is often limited overall availability. Thus, buying premium-priced miles for use on low-value flights with the added uncertainly seats will even be offered by the airline, isn't very practical.

And simply buying miles to fill up your frequent flyer account, with no specific purpose for using them, would be like depositing money into a bank savings account that earns 0% interest. Worse off, if the airline goes under, your miles will probably vanish. Whatever you do, don't buy miles and let them sit.

But, buying airline miles can be situationally helpful. If you are 1000 miles short of 50,000 - enough for a free economy ticket to Europe on some airlines, you may want to fork up the $50-$60 cost. In this case, call the airline first - check for award redemption availability before buying miles. Another example is maybe you are 5,000 miles short of 90,000 - enough to fly Business Class on Singapore Airlines to Asia. The true value of that business class ticket is probably $6,000 or more. Paying $150 to cover your miles shortfall does seem tempting. Again, check for availability of award seats before buying the miles.

Lastly, as if they airline doesn't already have a strong-hold on these frequent flier programs already; buying miles is not a real-time exchange. United Airlines says it can take up to 48 hours to post to your account, American Airlines up to 72 hours. So while you are waiting for those purchased miles to post to your account, award availability may vanish from under your eyes. If you are in a situation like this, call the airline first, explain your scenario. They may do a courtesy hold if you provide them with your confirmation number of your miles purchase.

Cost of purchasing 10,000 frequent flyer miles (includes taxes, fees)*

• United $357.50


• American $298.75


• Delta $295.63


• Northwest $305.00

*price check performed on 7/28/08

Options For Low Balance Frequent Flier Accounts

Perhaps you flew an airline once and never plan to again, or maybe you just don't fly that often. Those pesky frequent flier miles sitting around with only a few thousand miles may actually be worth something. Though you are probably far short of a free trip, many airlines allow you to redeem miles for other products and services, such as car rentals, magazines and gift cards. Visit your airlines frequent flier homepage to discover redemption opportunities other than flights.

Remember, most airlines require a transaction (earn or redeem miles) to your frequent flier account within a 18-24 month period, otherwise you risk loosing the account completely.

Earn Bonus Miles At Northwest's Worldperks University

Northwest Airlines continues to offer these very brief lessons on the advantages of Worldperks, Northwest Airlines frequent flier program. If you have not done so already, I highly recommend you take these courses and earn yourself a few hundred bonus miles.

For each course, read a short description of a product or service Northwest offers, answer three (simple) questions and earn 100 Northwest Airlines Worldperks miles. Five courses are currently available. Click here to study and take your quizzes.

Earn 1000 Wyndham Rewards Points For Survey

Wyndham Rewards members can earn 1000 points for completing a short (less than five minutes) survey about the hotel's guest program. It may be a targeted offer to certain guests, but certainly worth a try. Be sure to have your Wyndham rewards account number handy.

Register for AAdvantage To Earn 1000 Miles

American Airlines has brought back the new member sign up bonus to AAdvantage, their frequent flier program. If you don't already have an account, now is the time. Earn 1000 points just for registering! Even if you never fly American, you can still redeem 1000 AA miles for a wide selection of magazines, including Conde Nast, Fast Company, and Men's Vogue.
Click here to sign up.  (corrected link)

Double Amtrak Guest Rewards Points Offer

Ride the Rails of Amtrak this Fall and receive double points.

If you have traveled by air or car any great distance lately, you realize how the cost of fuel has taken a toll on the pocketbook. More than ever, consumers are paying more to fill up the car, and paying extra fees so the airlines can fill up their gas tanks as well.

Have you considered the rail alternative? Although Amtrak offers extensive East Coast routes, some of the most scenic routes in the country are here on the West Coast. Click here for a .pdf route map. Plus, they operate a high frequency commuter route between the Bay Area and the State Capitol. More importantly, you escape the fuel surcharge.

If you haven't taken a ride on the rail, now may be a great time. Currently Amtrak Guest Rewards is offering system wide double points for travel between September 15 and December 12, 2008. Members of Amtrak's frequent travel program can register for the promotion by clicking here.

So forget about airport check-in, security lines, delays, luggage fees, fuel surcharges - consider Amtrak for some of your future travels.

250 Starwood Points For SPG Flights Feedback

This past Tuesday Starwood Hotels & Resorts launched SPG Flights, an exciting and valuable option for using points to book airline tickets. Now the company is offering 250 Starpoints for providing feedback to this new enhancement. Click here to complete the easy online survey.

Starwood Preferred Guest Introduces SPG Flights

Starwood Hotels and Resorts and its award winning hotel loyalty program Starwood Preferred Guest launched yet another enhancement to an already generous program.

Since 1999, SPG members have been able to redeem Starpoints with a no blackout date policy, and not subjected to a policy that limits the number of rooms set aside for redemption. Now, you can use Starpoints for flights, with any carrier, and still no blackout dates. Therefore, you can utilize Starpoints for both your airline reservation and hotel stay. And best of all, in most cases you can still collect frequent flier miles with the airline.

Examples of Starpoints to airline ticket conversion:
10,000 Starpoints allows up to a $150 airline ticket
15,000 Starpoints allows up to a $215 airline ticket
20,000 Starpoints allows up to a $280 airline ticket
25,000 Starpoints allows up to a $345 airline ticket
(there are several higher tiers available as well)

Starwood continues to offer a points-to-miles deal which allows members to convert 20,000 Starpoints to 25,000 frequent flier miles with many airlines (Starwood chips in the extra 5,000). But with capacity controls in place, the airlines have tightened up the number of seats released for award redemption, and simply having enough miles to redeem doesn't guarantee a "free" seat will be offered by the airline. Plus, unlike this new Star Flights program, you don't earn miles when you redeem airline miles.

Therefore, using this new SPG Flights program with Starwood Hotels and Resorts receives 2 thumbs up from inFLIGHTout. This is truly one of the best loyalty programs in the travel industry.



How do you earn some quick Starpoints? The Starwood Preferred Guest card from American Express earns you 10,000 Starpoints after your first purchase, with an option to earn an additional 15,000 points for spending $15,000 during the first six months. Plus you earn 1 point for each dollar purchased on the card.