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What are Hilton points worth?
Hilton has a weird hybrid approach to free night awards. Like IHG, they no longer publicly assign hotels to categories and can therefore dynamically price award nights. But, really, they don’t. They do dynamically (over) price premium rooms, but not standard rooms. Behind the scenes, they maintain a categorization and assign standard room award prices to each property (or to each category… or something). They seem to also maintain an internal peak/off-peak type of approach in that some properties have different standard award prices at different times of year. Due to category-ish award pricing, it’s possible to get outsized value from Hilton points when cash prices are high compared to their relatively fixed award costs. That’s the good news.
JetBlue offering 3x points on hotel bookings using Paisly (but not worth it for most)
JetBlue has a travel portal called Paisly which is currently offering triple JetBlue TrueBlue points on hotel bookings. While that might sound good, it’s not really. As a result, it’s likely only people who are seeking JetBlue status who might get some value from this promotion and even then it’s questionable.
Earn up to 4,500 bonus points/miles with Southwest & United shopping portal promos
During the “Back-to-School Bonus” offer, which runs from 7/15/2024 through 8/12/2024 at 11:59:59 pm ET (the “Bonus Period”), Member will earn a one-time bonus of up to 2,500 MileagePlus bonus award miles on qualifying purchases made through the MileagePlus Shopping mall or from purchases made through MileagePlus Shopping in-store offers.
Alaska Airlines award sale: Save up to 50% on flights to Athens, Taipei, Rome, Delhi & more
Save up to 50% when booking award flights using Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles to the following destinations:. Global escapes pricing is offered on flights in Economy & Premium Economy class only. Travel has to originate in the US. Promo is valid on bookings July 10, 2024–July 31, 2024 for...
Podcast: Frequent Miler origin story – Carrie’s story | Coffee Break Ep18 | 7-16-24
(01:37) – Carrie saw Greg speak at Chicago Seminars in 2013 – the topic was Million Mile Madness. (02:10) – The next summer (2014) Drew and Carrie were invited to the “Ann Arbor Art Fair Do”. While in Ann Arbor, they met Greg for kayaking.
World of Hyatt promo: Earn 2x points on Hyatt Place & Hyatt House stays
Earn 2x points on stays at Hyatt Place and Hyatt House. You must be a member of World of Hyatt in good standing and register for the promotion between July 9, 2024, at 8:00 a.m. CT and September 15, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. CT to participate. To join World of Hyatt and to register for the promotion, visit hyatt.com/doublepoints. Only Eligible Stays completed after registration and between July 9, 2024 and October 15, 2024 (“Promotion Period”) will count towards this promotion. All Eligible Stays must be completed by October 15, 2024.
JetBlue Mint Airbus A321neo Review London to Boston
I wrote this review using JetBlue’s free wifi while aboard an Airbus A321neo flying from London Gatwick to Boston. My wife and I bought economy tickets and used Move to Mint certificates to upgrade (we had these thanks to a very generous but short lived status match from Delta last year).
Stealth devaluation: Hertz prices most days peak, doubling free day costs
Hertz has quietly doubled the rate to rent a car using your Hertz Rewards points during most of the year. A reader tipped us off to the fact that Hertz is pricing free night awards at the “Any Day” rate meant for “peak” dates for more than 2/3 of the year at every single Hertz rental location we’ve checked. That effectively doubles the number of points that you’ll need to use for a single free day on 249 days out of the year or more at every airport we’ve checked.
Hertz expiration policy now hurts even more
Hertz has repeatedly earned itself negative publicity over the past couple of years. Unfortunately, they are at it again. After previously reducing the expiration timeline for points from needing activity once every 18 months to once every 12 months, Miles Talk reports on a new restriction that came from Hertz via email today: now points expire 5 years after they are earned, regardless of activity. That’s a huge bummer that is no doubt tough to track and designed to create even more breakage in a system that’s already of marginal value at best.
Virgin Flying Club can’t book awards on Air France or KLM; “Expected” to work again at “the start” of August 2024
Last month, we reported about booking Air France and KLM flights through Virgin Atlantic by using the airline’s chat feature. Within a couple of days, readers started reporting that they were being told that Virgin Atlantic had a known problem booking Air France and Virgin Atlantic flights and those bookings would be unavailable until July 9th. We received one reader success report around the 9th, but then more recently readers have been told that Air France and KLM bookings would be unavailable until “the start of August” — and Virgin Atlantic has added messaging to its website to reflect the same.
15x Dell via Rakuten, 10x select IHG brands, 10x Choice hotels, more
Shopping portal Rakuten is featuring increased cash back rates at many stores today, including 15% back / 15x Membership Rewards points per dollar spent at Dell. Some people are targeted for “VIP” rates of 15% / 15x or better at many stores, but the Dell rate appears to be publicly-available.
Costco raises membership cost, Amazon removes gift cards in New York and free kayak tours in Copenhagen (Saturday Selection)
Costco is raising the cost of its yearly memberships, Amazon appears to be experimenting with removing gift cards from retail stores in New York, and Copenhagen is offering free lunches and kayak tours. All that and more in this week’s Saturday Selection, our weekly round-up of interesting tidbits from around the interwebs (links to the original articles are embedded in the titles).
AA award ticketing error? Try an award hold.
Last month, during our Flying by the Seat of our Points challenge, I ran into a problem booking my award home. I flew Japan Airlines first class from Tokyo to Chicago (with an onward connection to New York). In my review of that flight and during a Flying by the Seat of our Points live stream, I mentioned that I kept getting an error when trying to book online, so I put the award on hold and had my wife call to pay the taxes and ticket it. I had assumed the trouble was logging in from Morocco to buy the ticket, but JT Genter at Award Wallet reports that this is a known issue when trying to combine a partner segment and a segment on American Airlines — and that placing a hold and calling to ticket indeed the right workaround.
Why you might want to stop spending on Delta cards (and start spending on Hilton cards?), misAAdventures, and more [Week in Review]
A (perhaps over-inflated) claim was made last year about the volume of charges being put on Delta credit cards each year. This week on Frequent Miler, we encourage you not to contribute to that, discuss why (and, importantly, how) you might want to spend on Hilton cards given the partnership with SLH, Greg has a misAAdventure with AA, and a bunch of resources have been updated. Read on for more from this week at Frequent Miler.
$900 bonus with a new Chase checking and savings account
Receive $300 after opening a new Chase Total Checking account and setting up a direct deposit. Receive $200 after opening a new Chase Savings account, depositing a total of $15,000 or more in new money within 30 days, and then maintaining a $15,000 balance for 90 days. Receive $900 by...
Podcast: Hilton delivers luxury through SLH | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep263 | 7-12-24
Hilton has brought on their partner Small Luxury Hotels of the World which has been a bit more exciting than we expected it would be. In today’s Frequent Miler on the Air episode we’ll discuss more. Watch the full episode below, or listen on your favorite podcast platform....
Choice Privileges Mastercards: Increased 70K and 100K offers
Alternate Offer: Choice members may be targeted for a higher offer. Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Worth getting for the welcome offer and keeping for the 30,000...
New United Mile Play Offers: See If You’re Targeted For Bonus Miles
Earn bonus MileagePlus miles when completing United Mile Play offers. Member must register for this promotion on or prior to September 13, 2024. Only transactions initiated after registration and completed on or prior to September 13, 2024 will qualify toward satisfaction of the offer requirements. All flight activity for applicable...
Marriott Homes & Villas: Double points on 3+ night stays.
Earn double points on Marriott Homes & Villas stays of 3+ nights. A “stay” is defined as three (3) or more consecutive nights spent at the same property, regardless of check-in and check-out activity. Registration of Marriott Bonvoy Member’s Marriott Bonvoy account is required for this promotion. Members...
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