Frequent Miler

Sonesta is a hotel program that’s tended to fly under the radar for most points and miles folks (including me). It’s been around since the 1930’s, but remained fairly small for several decades. That’s changed in the last ten years or so and it’s now become one of the fastest-growing hospitality companies in the US. In 2020, Sonesta had a total of 80 properties. Today, it’s grown to over 1100, in part due to its acquisition of Red Lion Hotels.

What are Sonesta points worth?

Mark your calendars: if you have Bilt points, Monday will be a great day to consider transferring them. If you’d like to fly Air France or KLM in business class, we published a couple of helpful tricks this week, whether that’s how to find a calendar of availability or how to book via chat with Virgin Atlantic. Read about all that and a lot more in this Frequent Miler Week in Review.

Bigness from Bilt, tricks for booking Air France & KLM, updated hotel point values and more [Week in Review]

Update 6/26/24: This increased welcome offer on the Chase Ink Business Preferred card is now available in-branch. There is a new offer out for the Chase Ink Business Preferred that is good for 120,000 points after $8,000 in purchases in the first 3 months. The Deal. There is a new...

(Now In-Branch) 120K points with new Chase Ink Preferred bonus

60K points after $3K spend within first 3 months and an additional 60K after $15K total spend within first 9 months. This card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (click here for details). Earning rate: 3X Southwest ✦ 2X Rapid Rewards(R) hotel and car partners ✦ 2X rideshare ✦ 1X...

Southwest Business Card 120K Offers: Get a Companion Pass with One Card (for two years?)

Save 20% when booking Southwest award flights and using promo code MAX20. Must book by June 30th and travel between August 20th and November 20th. 20 percent promotion code savings valid for one-way or round trip Wanna Get Away® and Wanna Get Away Plus® fares booked on Southwest.com® from June 28-30, 2024 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (the “Booking Period”) and flown between August 20-November 20, 2024 (“Travel Period”). Travel to/from Orange County (SNA) excluded. Promotion code savings are applied before government taxes and fees.

Southwest Sale: Get 20% Off Both Cash and Points Bookings

Earn double elite night credits at Hilton properties when enrolled in the Hilton for Business program. Direct link to join Hilton for Business. Offer is limited to owners and employees enrolled in the Hilton for Business program. Owners and employees who have successfully been accepted into the Hilton for Business program will automatically be added to this promotion. To register your business for Hilton for Business, you must first connect your Honors account here and then successfully create your business profile here https://www.hilton.com/en/business/login/.

Hilton for Business double elite nights promo – useful even if you have Diamond status

Virgin points are often the cheapest option for booking Air France or KLM flights. For example, for a trip to Paris I’m planning, I found a great Air France business class award that was available. If I booked through Air France Flying Blue, I’d have to pay 303,000 miles plus $225 per passenger. No thanks! Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic showed the same flight for 48,500 points plus $281 per passenger. Much better! Exciting right?

Solved: Problem booking Air France/KLM with Virgin points

Las Vegas, NV

Atlantic City, NJ

Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, NJ has long offered a status match for those with competing casino status all the way up to Ocean Prime status. We’ve covered that match pretty extensively in our post about How to get free cruises by gaming casino status matches. One of the other benefits of Ocean Prime status was a complimentary 2-night stay at Resorts World Las Vegas (I reviewed my complimentary stay at Conrad Las Vegas here). As of today (7/1/24), the partnership with Resorts World has ended, but some will be excited to see that Ocean is back to partnering with Wynn Las Vegas — so Ocean Prime members now get a complimentary 2-night stay at Wynn Las Vegas, which can be an incredibly valuable benefit.

Ocean Prime now offering 2 free nights at Wynn Las Vegas + $50 dining credit

Upgraded Points has discovered a ton of standard award availability at the Conrad Bora Bora Nui during the Summer/early-Fall of 2024. Rooms are available between June and October, including multiple 5-night blocks(meaning it will work for 5th-night free stays). When there was wide open standard award availability a few months...

Conrad Bora Bora: Great availability July-September 2024

(01:25) – How do I know how much my points and miles are worth (and are all points and miles worth the same?) (06:04) – I switched an upcoming trip to take a better flight the next day, which means I have to change Hilton/Hertz reservations. Both of them will re-price to higher costs than before. Any way to avoid?

How do you travel with young kids? | Ask Us Anything Ep68 | 7-3-24

Richmond, VA

Southwest isn’t the only one running a sale today. JetBlue is running one too, giving 25% off when using promo code FALL2024. You’ll need to be quick though as bookings have to be made by tonight (July 10). The Deal. Save 25% on JetBlue flights when using promo...

JetBlue sale: Save 25% with promo code FALL2024 (Book by 7/10/24)

New York City, NY

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Cheryl E Preston

Yesterday was the third time this year that an ad stating Chelsea Clinton lives in a beautiful Virginia home popped up on my laptop. My computer did not warn me this was a dangerous site, so this time, I clicked on the link.

Chelsea Clinton is rumored to be living in Virginia but probably still in NYC

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.

Hertz expiration policy now hurts even more

If those MastercardGiftCard.com deals aren’t appealing as you’d rather deal with Visa gift cards, TheGiftCardShop has a similar offer on VGCs instead. Get a 100% discount on $50+ Visa gift card purchase fees from TheGiftCardShop when using promo code 100GIFT. Direct link to offer. Key Terms. Expires July...

TheGiftCardShop giving 100% off Visa gift card purchase fees with promo code 100GIFT

Years ago, Greg wrote an excellent post about the “Earn and burn” fallacy. In it, he suggests a better strategy is to “hoard and cherry pick”. If you’ve been a Hilton hoarder for years, your cherry trees hit harvest season yesterday with Hilton’s wider launch of the partnership with SLH. Still, not everyone is a believer — a few readers commented about their disappointment with SLH. I’d argue that even if you didn’t make a great booking yesterday, the Hilton SLH partnership is sunny news for Hilton point hoarders who have been hunting for an opportunity to cherry pick.

SLH is a big win for Hilton hoarders

Hilton integrated hundreds more Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) properties today. We covered that here, but there’s a particularly notable development if you’re interested in staying in an overwater villa in the Maldives. Up until now, there were very few Maldives hotels where you could use...

3 more Maldives overwater villas now bookable with Hilton points & free night certificates

In April and May, there was a limited-time status match available to match from Caesars Diamond status to Wynn Rewards Platinum status. That was really notable for a few reasons: First, Caesars Diamond is easy-to-get; you only need to get the Wyndham Earner Business credit card (which has just a $95 annual fee) and then you can match the Wyndham Diamond status given to Wyndham Business cardholders to Caesars Diamond status and that made it possible to match to Wynn Platinum. Second, Wynn doesn’t often offer status matches (before this one, we last saw a match in 2021). Third, and the crux of today’s post, is that Wynn offers an opportunity for Platinum members to get a complimentary Holland America cruise. My wife and I both did the match in Las Vegas last month; this week, we booked two 2025 cruises (one each) using the Wynn Rewards offer. I’m happy to report that it was easy as pie to book this offer — and in the process, I learned a few interesting things that are worth knowing if you did this match (or ever get an opportunity to do one in the future).

Lessons from another “free” cruise booked: Holland America via Wynn Platinum status

In February, we posted about “enhancements” that were on the way for the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bold card. Now, those changes are live and along with them comes a best-ever welcome offer of 60,000 points and a 50k free night certificate after $2K spend. Given the minimum spend required, this is a very good offer, much better than the previous one of 30k points with no free night certificate.

Marriott Bonvoy Bold Card Best Ever Offer: 60K points + 50K Free Night Cert

MastercardGiftCard.com is running not one, not two, but three different promotions at the moment, all of which waive purchase fees when buying Mastercard gift cards. MastercardGiftCard.com is giving a 100% discount on purchase fees when buying Mastercard gift cards using the following promo codes:. Promo code 100MCGIFT – valid on...

Save 100% on purchase fees from MastercardGiftCard.com with 3 different promo codes

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...

$900 bonus with a new Chase checking and savings account

NewsBreak

Complete Guide to Sonesta Travel Pass

Sonesta is a hotel program that’s tended to fly under the radar for most points and miles folks (including me). It’s been around since the 1930’s,...

Complete Guide to Sonesta Travel Pass

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