Tagging Miles

Primer – National Rental Car Elite Status

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National Rental Car has been my rental car company of choice for the past few years. I started renting with National Rental Car, when my company gave me Emerald Club status, and have stuck with them since. Of course I later learned that Emerald Club status is pretty easy to get.

That said, National has some great benefits for members that rent a bunch, and even for those that don’t rent a bunch. 

National Rental Car Emerald Aisle

National’s Emerald Aisle provides a lot of basic benefits, but, when taken together, they really streamline the rental experience. Here’s a summary of the benefits:

National Rental Car

National Emerald Aisle

One key point is that to leverage these benefits, in general, you need to book a midsize car. This is where I think infrequent renters will see a lot of value. For starters, you get Emerald Aisle Access, so you can choose your car. For me, this is a big deal, because I like choice. I might find a car with heated seats – for me, that’s the thing I care most about. Heated seats. 

Of course, other benefits, like no second driver fees are especially great for families traveling. You never know when you might be too tired to drive, and knowing that your significant other can drive with the blessing of the company, well, that is peace of mind. You can also earn credits with Enterprise (who will pick you up!), there’s also the virtual aisle option, and of course you can earn a variety of rewards.

National Rental Car Elite Status

National has two published levels above Emerald Aisle. Those are Emerald Club Executive and Emerald Club Executive Elite. Here’s the high level overview:

National Rental Car

National Emerald Executive and Executive Elite benefits.

Generally speaking the Executive Aisle has nicer cars. The key here is that you should book a midsize or above rental. If you do that, then these benefits apply to you. Differences from the basic Emerald Club status includes earning free rental days faster, and access to nicer cars. Thanks to Executive Aisle status, I’ve driven Chevy Camaros, Cadillac CTS, and a variety of Ford SUVs, including Explorers and Expeditions, all of which were fully loaded.

For the most part, I’ve just been an Executive, which American Express Platinum holders can get for free. But, every so often, we rent enough to qualify for Executive Elite.

National Rental Car – The Hidden Status

While I think most would be happy with Executive Elite status, there are some that have a higher status. It is an unpublished benefit, which I only found through a bunch of searching on FlyerTalk, but it is called Emerald Club VIP. Via Tony King of Flyertalk, here’s the description:

Our Emerald Club Executive VIP tier is for close friends and associates of our CEO and founder, Andy and Jack Taylor. To achieve this status of rental service with us; you would have to be invited personally by our founder or CEO. Only 0.1 percent of our customers are members of this exclusive tier. Their benefits are exactly the same as all other tier levels of the Emerald Club with the exception of local delivery service. I hope I answered your question. If you should need anything further, please email us.

I suppose the answer really is, if you want to be the top 0.1%, well, then Emerald Club Executive VIP is for you… or if you happen to know the big wigs at National.

Wrapping Up

National Rental Car is my go to for rentals. My uses include airport transfers and sourcing trips. I’ve found that one-way rentals from BWI to Washington-Dulles or Washington-Reagan are not significantly more than an Uber would cost. As far as sourcing, I find that it is cheaper to pay for a rental car, than expense the miles, when I’m going to be driving more than 200 miles (assuming the $0.55 per mile). When I’m traveling, I find the Executive Aisle usually has a car that I want to drive, rather than just a car to drive. Because, at least for me, I’m always looking for the aspirational experiences. Even if you aren’t, National tends to have some low mileage car options.

American AAdvantage Program Updates – November 2016

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American Airlines continues to release AAdvantage Program Updates, as we move toward the “go live” of a few new aspects of the program, previously announced in June.

Just a brief summary of the AAdvantage Program Updates announced in June:

AAdvantage Redeemable Mileage went Revenue Based (for the most part)

AAdvantage RDM earn rates as of 1 August 2016 - courtesy of American airlines.

AAdvantage RDM earn rates as of 1 August 2016 – courtesy of American airlines.

Of course, we’ve learned subsequently that there are a handful of ways that you can accrue mileage based on miles flown, rather than the price of your ticket. For example, revenue tickets booked with Citi Thank You Points (TYP) categorize as a “Special Fare” and receive miles flown.

A New Status Level and I don’t just mean Platinum Pro

American AAdvantage previously made this chart available, highlighting their new mid-tier Platinum Pro, which will no doubt make many legacy US Airways elites happy.

Four AAdvantage Status Levels in 2017. Courtesy of American Airlines.

Four AAdvantage Status Levels in 2017. Courtesy of American Airlines.

Except that when talking about upgrade windows, AAdvantage snuck in the ConciergeKey level, as essentially another level of status, at least for upgrades.

AAdvantage Program Changes

More visibility for ConciergeKey

Time will tell, as to how much more information will become publicly available about ConciergeKey membership, but I think we’re seeing the early vestiges of a 5th status level.

Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQD) – The best part of these AAdvantage Program Updates!

We knew before what the required Elite Qualifying Dollar (EQD) requirements would be for the various status levels, those are here:

AAdvantage Program Changes

The interesting piece that AAdvantage highlights in the most recent update, is that it is possible to earn EQDs by spending with their AAdvantage Aviator Red, Blue, Business, and Silver cards. These are all issued by Barclays, however, not currently taking on new applicants. Gary Leff reports that will change.

AAdvantage Program Changes

Barclay Aviator Product Line

Here are the details from American with respect to earning up to $6,000 EQDs:

Reach elite status faster

AAdvantage® AviatorTM Red, AviatorTM Blue and AviatorTM Business MasterCard® accounts can earn up to $3,000 EQDs by spending $25,000 on qualifying net purchases during the calendar year.

AAdvantage® AviatorTM Silver MasterCard® accounts can earn up to $6,000 EQDs by spending $50,000 on qualifying net purchases each calendar year. They’ll earn $3,000 EQDs after spending $25,000 on qualifying purchases and another $3,000 EQDs after $50,000 on qualifying purchases.

I find it very interesting, that Citi, who has long had a very strong co-brand partnership with American, has absolutely no play in the EQD game. Recall that American did not make an exclusive credit card deal the last go-round, I assumed this was just a negotiating strategy. But for Barclays cardholders to be the only ones to accrue EQD’s through spend, that, sends quite the message to Citi, and not a good one.

Wrapping Up

American’s AAdvantage Program Updates are mostly positive, in my opinion. They’ve clarified things where we definitely had questions. American has also provided more insight into ConciergeKey, though I think there are still questions, as it starts to become as public as United’s Global Services. The real positive here is the way to earn Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) through spend on your Barclaycard Aviator cards. I think this is a huge positive, but it leaves open the big question: What about Citi AAdvantage card holders? I suppose only time will tell, whether Citi balks at this slight, or if there is something bigger in the works.

What do you think about the updates? Does the EQD announcement change your strategy for next year?

Is Elite Status Becoming Unobtainium for the Frequent Leisure Traveler?

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I’ve held top tier elite status in hotels and airlines for the better part of the last decade. While I started out earning status mostly from business travel (aka Other People’s Money), I came to appreciate the top tier status at Marriott, then Hyatt, and United, then American. As I came to appreciate that status, I was more willing to spend a little extra to get that extra elite qualifying night or stay, and even have done a crazy mileage run or two.

Changing Tides – Airline Elite Status

The trend started in 2013, when Delta introduced their Medallion Qualifying Dollars requirement. United quickly followed suit, with their Premier Qualifying Dollar requirement. Both have programs tweaked their spend requirements over the years, but they remain largely intact. Starting in 2017, American will have an Elite Qualifying Dollar requirement. It has long been clear that airlines prefer passenger’s money over their loyalty. Gary Leff has often stated: “I am not my fare” yet the airlines clearly don’t care how many of us say it. They’re more thinking:

Airlines and Hotel programs say "Show me the Money" for Elite Status

Thus my point – Airlines are essentially telling us, that unless you are wealthy enough to spend significantly, or have access to Other People’s Money (OPM), you aren’t valuable to them. How much do they want you to spend? $12,000 or more. Wow.

Changing Tides – Hotel Elite Status

In 2012, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) introduced a bunch of new benefits, many geared toward members that qualified via Nights rather than Stays. They didn’t take anything away, necessarily from those Platinum members who qualified via 25 stays, but they certainly added benefits for members who stayed 50 or 75 nights. A year or two later, they introduced a 100 night level, where you get Starwood Ambassador status, including access to a single point of contact with SPG for all of your needs. This was and continues to be a positive.

Well, today we learn of rumors of Hyatt changes that I think people with OPM will like, however, for leisure travelers–and even folks who travel a bunch but are hamstrung by Hyatt’s smaller footprint–are sure to be disappointed. This new program, World of Hyatt is reported to have four membership tiers. For the top tier, what once required 50 nights or 25 stays to qualify for, will no require 60 nights or 100,000 base points. How do you earn base points? Well, you get 5 for every dollar spent. So, you can get World of Hyatt’s Top Tier Globalist status for either 60 nights (figure $6-10k if you vary it up), or $20k spend at Hyatt.

I think on the surface, this is a big indication that earning status through stays is likely going away as soon as the Marriott-SPG merger figures out things.

What does this mean going forward?

These developments hurt the frequent leisure traveler the most. For those that don’t have a business travel budget, and are not independently wealthy, the idea of having and maintaining status becomes significantly more unobtainium. To simply maintain airline status and Hyatt status, one would be looking at $20,000 in travel spend per year, and that doesn’t even include the time commitment that is also required — e.g. 100,000 equivalent miles flown, and 60 nights in a Hyatt.

The fact is, the economy is doing well–for the time being–and loyalty programs see that this is the time where they can make changes, and identify and best reward their absolute highest spenders. From a business standpoint, that’s great. My concern though, is that all of these negative changes will no doubt turn off loyal customers, who go out of their way to fly the airline that they’ve been loyal to for so many years, or who consider a destination based on the hotel chain they have loyalty to.

Loyalty may not be dead for the frequent leisure traveler, but, it is not for lack of trying.

What do you think? Do you still stay loyal to an airline or hotel?

 

I burned two American Airlines Systemwide Upgrades for Business Class on an Embraer 175.

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A couple of weeks ago, following ResellingDO, my wife and I had a 0600 flight to Miami, with a continuing flight on to Liberia, Costa Rica. The upgrade on the DCA-MIA was at risk, given it was a Monday morning, and it was not clear to me, whether or not the Miami-Liberia flight was truly a complimentary upgrade. So when faced, with burning 2 (of only 4, as I’ve used all of mind for 2016) systemwide upgrades (SWU), which I received by requalifying for Executive Platinum status, I bit the bullet and did it.

American Airlines – DCA to Miami

Our first flight was nothing too special, however, our 737-800 was equipped with seatback In Flight Entertainment (IFE), which was a nice treat. As a result, I got to enjoy 95% of the new X-Men: Apocalypse movie. Having not seen the end, I found it to be interesting. The idea of rebooting a movie series through time travel seems to always make things interesting.

img_4451

The meal was your run of the mill eggs or French toast frittata. I enjoyed the frittata, but, it wasn’t really the type of breakfast you write home about.

img_4456 img_4457

American Airlines Miami to Liberia, Costa Rica

This was a first for us, we were flying out of D60Q. The D60 gates are affectionately referred to as “Ghetto Gates” by some we chatted with. You have to go down an escalator, you wait in a holding pen, then are released to an open air (but covered, thankfully) maze, where we then waited another 10-15 minutes to be permitted to board the plane.

The seats were more than sufficient for a sub-three hour flight, though I would have liked IFE.

img_4478

The meal was cold. I was concerned about this, primarily, because it was a mid-day flight, and I was quite hopeful for a cookie. I do like American’s cookies (though the older ones were better than the newer ones, but I digress). Alas, there are no ovens on the E175’s, so all was cold, and no cookie. The options were a market salad with a side of chicken, or a curry chicken wrap. Bonus for the Salad with a side of Chicken were the little Grissini bread sticks. The lemony pie was great too.

img_4493 img_4494

Wrapping Up

Ultimately, we were quite happy to have been confirmed in the pointy end of the plane, given the busy weekend. It didn’t help that I was fighting a cold too. I think if faced with this sort of situation again, I might not burn a SWU, but, I am glad I did this time. Interestingly enough, on the flight home, we received our complimentary upgrades at the gate in Liberia, at least to get to Miami, no SWU needed. Of course, the flight from Miami to Washington, DC was an entirely different story.

Food for Thought: 2016 Airline Loyalty

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American Airlines Elite Status

Matt has an excellent post, Rethinking Loyalty, that, has been at the tip of my brain for a number of reasons, not the least of which being American Airlines’s AAdvantage devaluation.

Background

I’ve been an American Airlines’ AAdvantage Executive Platinum for years. I first status matched from United 1K, back when United introduced the Premier Qualifying Dollars (PQD) requirement, and I had just changed jobs, where flying United wasn’t as feasible. Since then, I’ve requalified via Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs), and the following year, requalified via Elite Qualifying Points, I also shared a status update on that strategy, and I can tell you that I succeeded in July.

More and more I’m questioning whether I should requalify for AAdvantage Executive Platinum. I’ve got 1 trip booked that will give me 20k Elite Qualifying Miles under the new program, I’m trying to figure out what the opportunity cost is of getting the remaining 80k vs. just chasing whatever the best fare is, irrespective of airline. Up until now, my strategy was to attain AAdvantege Executive Platinum Status no later than the end of April, to ensure that I earn the most Redeemable Miles (RDMs) possible, before AAdvantage goes to revenue based earning, which would likely lead to fewer miles earned for me, despite the fact that I usually buy business class tickets (but cheap ones).

I was so close to pulling the trigger on this strategy, that over the weekend, I had found flights, that were crazy. Absolutely crazy. I was going to fly to Europe, so I could turn around and fly to South America, via the US, spend a weekend in Rio, fly to Sao Paulo (separate award), fly revenue to the US, then 2 months later, fly back to Sao Paulo, from there, fly to Europe via the US with a stop-over in the US for a couple weeks, then when I finally do get to Europe, I’d found another itinerary that would take us from Europe to Honolulu, via the continental US (I tried to go via Asia but it was much more), and back. Here’s an idea of what that would look like:

Courtesy of GCMap.com

Courtesy of GCMap.com

All told, that would generate in total, 100k EQMs, under American Airlines’ new program. Depending on my timing, I’d probably get a bit more than the standard RDMs, probably somewhere in the range of 200-350k, to be, well, not terribly exact.

Looking at the Opportunity Cost

If I pursued the above routing, it would take, nearly a week’s worth of leave, which I would say is my most precious commodity. The cost, even with all my travel hacking, would be $763 (for my existing Brazil-US fare)–lets consider this sunk cost, since it was paid before the devaluation was announced–plus probably $3-5k for the other fares, plus miles for repositioning to Europe (although that’s a push, since I need to use the miles to reposition to Brazil). The value of requalifying early means that I avoid any revenue earning, as I would have my status locked in by April.

Looking at the Alternatives and Associated Costs

So, looking at the alternatives, its kind’ve a hard decision:

  1. I keep an eye out for great mistake fares, or otherwise good deal premium fares that would get me to 100k EQMs before the end of the year.
    • Risk: I may not earn as many RDMs if I don’t reach 100k EQMs before AAdvantage goes revenue earning sometime around mid-year. I get greatest value as an Executive Platinum from the dedicated phone number and lack of any fees for making awards, so not getting as many RDMs is a huge hit.
    • Reward: I don’t waste leave / vacation time solely in pursuit of status.
  2. I consider giving AAdvantage Executive Platinum up, and chase the fares or destinations that most entice me, regardless of carrier.
    • Risk: My redeemable miles will be more diversified across multiple programs that may make it more difficult to redeem for premium air travel.
    • Risk: By going elite status agnostic, I’ll likely pay booking fees or cancellation/redeposit fees.
    • Reward: Potential for lower overall outlay for air travel for the year (but doubtful)
    • Reward: Diversified mileage balances, if in sufficient numbers, can insult me from future devaluations.

Food for Thought: 2016 Airline Loyalty

I’m not sure I’m ready to make a decision on the path forward. I think I’ve begun the process by identifying the risks and rewards of various courses of action. It’s perhaps not as in depth as I would like, but, I still have some time.

Circling Back

Of course you’re likely wondering why I’m linking to Matt’s post (if you took the time to read it, which I hope you will). Well, for starters, I think he raises a great point on the hamster wheel that is the pursuit of published status. The second part of Matt’s thesis, that is, finding ways to leverage the unwritten benefits, is something that I need to work on, and may eventually write a post on. Of course, I am starting to think that it is an annual thing for me to question the value of elite status, which I think is an important question to ask each year. It’s just, this year, the question isn’t nearly as clean cut–at least for me–as it was last year.

But for now, I ask the question:

Given the various options, what do you think is the best course of action?

TaggingMiles Weekly Travel News Round-Up: January 2, 2015

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Happy New Year from TaggingMiles! Our new year got off to a bang early, when we were nominated for “Best New Blog Of 2014” by Travel Summary! If you find our blog somewhat interesting (or just want to watch Joe embarrass himself if we win), click over to Travel Summary and vote for us – we greatly appreciate your support!

The Weekly News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know!

Spanning the Globe

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

Meanwhile, back in Atlanta…

In Remembrance of 2014

What’s the Value of Elite Status?

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American Airlines Elite Status

American Airlines Elite Status

Later this week, I’ll be flying for the pure purpose of making American Airlines Executive Platinum (EXP) status. I’ve done the math for how much this years’ status cost. It was much more than I wanted to spend, but, once you have status, and you get the benefits–the domestic upgrades, the Systemwides, and 2x miles per mile flown–its hard to give it up. The EXP line also helps a lot for awards, and really any other time you need to call American.

But what am I getting at?

I’m planning for next year, and I’m trying to find the most time efficient method for attaining EXP, primarily because time is just as important as money… in fact, I can manufacture cashback, but I can’t seem to manufacture time — and believe me I’ve tried. My options are pursuing EXP through Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs), or Elite Qualifying Points (EQPs). I’ve written about pursing status through EQPs, and quite simply, I’m still leaning toward that option.

A month or two ago, my brother sent me a link to an article about booking through international websites. I had been doing this for a couple of years but hadn’t really acknowledged that it was a “trick.” In fact, when I did the #milemadness competition (under my previous blog – QuickCityVisits), I spent a week in Thailand, and had booked Qatar Flights through their Brussels page to leverage a 2-for-1 Business Class fare that saved me at least $1,000 over booking from the US. I got to fly the QR 787 too, but that is beside the point.

How it works

I’m not an expert. But in my experience, there are a few different ways that you can leverage this trick.

1. Airlines do targeted deals. Qatar targets Europe and Egypt every so often with 2-for-1 Business Class offers which can push the cost down to the 6-8 cent per EQP.

2. You used to be able to find great deals flying from Brazil, because Brazil “outlawed” fuel surcharges. I leveraged one of these opportunities (HT to a FlyerTalk guy that I still owe a drink to), to fly:

Ex Brazil Flights - 2011

Ex Brazil Flights – 2011

It was a pretty awesome trip… The cost in the $2k range for a B fare which generated just under 50k Elite Qualifying Points on United. Unfortunately, airlines are getting smarter about baking the fuel surcharges into the base fare.

3. You can leverage other fare deals like Lucky is getting ~25k EQPs at 6 cents per point.

So what is Elite Status worth?

It is easy to talk about how to get status, but, putting a dollar value on what status is worth is a much harder challenge. Its highly subjective, and is based on a multitude of considerations. I’ll offer what my considerations are for assessing value, and would encourage you to comment on what you take into consideration.

  • Free (when available) domestic upgrades – Travel domestically in the US isn’t the most glamorous, but flying up front is more comfortable, and free drinks and food (when edible) certainly help.
  • Executive Platinum Desk (or other top tier elite desk) – They’re more helpful, less of a wait, and when irregular operations hit (bad weather, that FAA site at ORD going out, etc.) they don’t tell you to call back later.
  • Systemwide Upgrades – American’s are probably the best of the best in that they don’t require a specific fare class to be purchased.
  • Free mileage award redeposits – I book a lot of awards. Some speculative, just because I see the space and the trip might work for me. Cancelling those and redepositing them would add up quick at $150 a pop.
  • 100% Mileage Bonus on miles flown – This certainly helps replenish my miles for more awards.

What is Elite Status worth to you? What are your considerations?

Is Marriott the redheaded step-child of Points & Status seekers?

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(Ed. Note: I wrote and scheduled this before the onslaught of the 70k Marriott Rewards Premier offer “expiring soon” – I didn’t even know when the offer would be going away).

“Hi, I’m Trevor, and I am a Marriott Platinum member of 5+ years.” I say that tongue in cheek, but really, if you look at the blogosphere, I think you would be hard pressed to see much love for Marriott, except for the 70k miles after $2,000 spend in three months (and not nearly as much as you see Hilton mentioned).

More out of sheer curiosity, I tweeted to some of the titans of BoardingArea, Lucky and Gary.

Lucky responded:

Gary was slightly more verbose, so I’ll just type it: “Big hotel chains don’t need to be rewarding, smaller chains must be more rewarding.” He further noted: “extremely weak elite benefits, few special properties, poor credit card earn.” (emphasis mine)

About the Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card.

Right now the offer is 70,000 Marriott Rewards (MR) points after $2k spend. We’ll get to what that actually gets you in a moment. But lets talk about the credit card earn that Lucky and Gary mention: Anniversary benefits – Category 5-night, and 15 Elite Qualifying Nights (EQNs), that’s why I keep it. You also earn 5 points per dollar at a Marriott, 2 points on travel (airfares from airlines, rentals, and restaurants). On the face of it, that’s really not bad of an earn rate–in a vacuum. The real problem is Marriott’s award chart.

About Marriott

First lets look at the redemption chart.

Marriott Rewards Points for a free night

Marriott Rewards Points for a free night

You’re looking at 7,500 to 45,000 points a night at a Marriott property. But wait, there’s more! You can also stay at Ritz-Carlton Hotels.

Ritz-Carlton Hotel Redemption Rates with Marriott Rewards Points.

Ritz-Carlton Hotel Redemption Rates with Marriott Rewards Points.

So now we’ve gone from being able to get 9 nights with that 70,000 sign-up bonus, to potentially a single night. It’s pretty rough, but, I’m not sure it’s the roughest, but I’d have to refer to the monumental work that Scott at HackMyTrip has done.

Now lets talk elite status

Many highlight the super high requirement to maintain top tier status – a whopping 75 nights!

Marriott Rewards Elite Status Levels and Perks

Marriott Rewards Elite Status Levels and Perks

Yes, you read that right, 75 nights in a Marriott to get top tier status. I’ve had top tier status since 2009, so I am going on 5 years. It is quite the commitment, but I can’t say that I have been disappointed. Last year I didn’t make the nights, but participated in a StarMegaDO, where ironically I met my blogging partner, @JoeCortez, as well as the VP for Marriott Rewards, who did a lot of listening that week.

Where Marriott has potential

Marriott’s Hotel + Air Package is pretty cool. If you’re the type that spends 7 nights in one place (you might’ve guessed, that isn’t me), you can “convert” a portion of MR points to airline miles, and not just a few. 37 Airlines!

Marriott's Hotel + Air Packages, book 7 award nights at a Marriott and get 50,000-132,000 miles!

Marriott’s Hotel + Air Packages, book 7 award nights at a Marriott and get 50,000-132,000 miles!

Marriott’s “RewardsPlus” partnership with United gets you 10% more miles, over an above the Hote + Air Package 1. If you take the pessimistic approach, that you’ll get the 5th night free when you redeem, you’re actually burning points for 6 nights. At the lowest amount of miles, it looks like this:

Marriott Rewards Hotel + Air Package 1 Analysis.

Marriott Rewards Hotel + Air Package 1 Analysis.

What this boils down to is, if you’re looking to stay 7 nights at a Marriott Hotel, you’re looking at an even 1-1 exchange for a Hotel + Air Package 1. Avoid Ritz-Carltons! Just a brief review, you can transfer your 50,000 airline miles to Aeromexico, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, GOL/Varig, Hawaiian Airlines, Iberia Airlines, US Airways, Virgin Atlantic. 

Conclusion

The Marriott Rewards award chart is hard to defend, but I don’t think it really is that out of the ordinary, especially when you consider that top tier Platinum members earn a 50% bonus on points for stays, and if you pay for your stay with your Marriott Rewards Premier card, you get another 5 points per dollar. Ok, not the greatest. I’ll close with this though – Its not as good as the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) transfer program, but, I’d say a 1-1 conversion of some Marriott rewards points ups the value, when one has MR points in larger numbers (which, logically, you would if you’re either churning credit cards, or staying 75 nights a year).

 

When a hotel determines your destination

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As funny as this may sound, there are times that I will choose my destination based on the hotel. As you can see from some of our Saturday Specials, here, here, and here, we try to stay in hotels that we have status at.

To that end, I’m planning a trip for later this month, and my wife and I are having a hard time deciding where it is we actually want to go. What we do know, is that we’ll be flying Emirates to Singapore, and we’ll be flying via Korean Air from Singapore, but from there, we can jump to pretty much anywhere in Southeast Asia.

The Search

I’m not usually a “step by step” type person, but I feel like this post is needed in the blog-o-sphere, and no one else has done it, so, I am happy to step up and do it, but I may need your help (see below).

Marriott

With Marriott’s new website, they changed things up with how you can search based on destination. That said, I think Marriott’s website is the most user friendly of all the “major” chains. If you want to skip through the screen shots (below), I think this link works to get you right to the search. If you want to roll through, you’d click the upper left (3 lines – think a mobile website experience), then select “Find and Reserve, then “Browse by Destination.” This handy graphic helps too:

Marriott Landing Page

What you’ll get next is: Marriott’s Hotel directory. Here you can choose a state or country and look at all the cool properties Marriott has there. For example, here is Malaysia:

Marriott Malaysia Hotels

Hyatt

Hyatt is easier and yet not as thorough. You can search the country from the main reservation screen, or you can explore a selection of “featured destinations” if you click “Hotels & Resorts” from the main landing page. Other than that, I have yet to find an all inclusive page, similar to what Marriott provides.

Hilton

I don’t have as much experience with Hilton so I had to google this. It looks like this link gets you to the below page, where you can select a country and see the available hotels/resorts.

Hilton Worldwide Hotels

Starwood

Kind of surprising, but if you just go here, you can search by country. As far as a listing of hotels, you’ll want to check out here.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)

While their website isn’t nearly as strong, they do have a “Browse by Location.” Its a bit of a clunky interface with multiple clicks before you get to a particular hotel. Here’s a screenshot of where you start:

IHG Browse by Location

Radisson Blu

Radisson seems to have a pretty good interface too. You can find the link to that here. Note, you don’t have to select something in the “What would you like to experience” block if you don’t want to, you only need to select something in the “Where would you like to go.” area. Here’s a screenshot:

Radisson Worldwide Hotel Search

Conclusion

I know I missed some hotel chains (like Kimpton). I’ll try to circle back at a later date for those chains. I hope this brief post is helpful, if you ever are looking for hotels of a particular chain. I’ve found that these searches are really helpful for me, primarily because I seldom choose the destination first.

 

Re-qualifying for Elite Status

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Why do we pursue Elite Status with Airlines, Hotels, Car Rental Companies, Retailers? For me, it is because of the benefits that the status gives us. I’ll try to summarize the benefits of each elite status that I personally go for each year, and why, and also share where I am at the moment, in the hopes that my experiences can help you in deciding what to chase and what to let go.

American Airlines Executive Platinum

Renewing Top Tier Status.

First of all, 100,000 (butt in seat) miles are a ton, but I feel its worth it. Last year I did a status match from being a United MileagePlus 1K, and I could not be happier. It is literally night and day. If only for the fact that you get a really tasty cookie in First Class.

Great American Airlines Benefits.

Great American Airlines Benefits.

As an Executive Platinum member you get (note, this is the highlights not a comprehensive list):

  • 8 Systemwide Upgrades (without fare class restrictions).
  • Unlimited Domestic Updates (and I’m 11/13, but one of them was an RJ w/o First Class).
  • Acknowledgement of your status if you don’t get the domestic upgrade (e.g. a free beverage and snack) which takes the sting out of flying in domestic economy.
  • OneWorld Emerald status which offers access to OneWorld First class lounges when traveling internationally.
  • The usual checked baggage allowance (3), Priority Boarding, etc.
  • Oh and don’t forget the Cookies!
Cookie!

Cookie!

Right now, with a trip to Hong Kong on American’s new 777-300ER, I’m forecasting about 91,000 miles. I’ve got to find another ~9k or so miles, so I’ll be on the hunt for a quick weekend trip, maybe Anchorage, maybe Hawaii, maybe Europe. Or two transcons or maybe Panama?

Marriott Rewards Platinum

Marriott Platinum status is one of the highest top-tier hotel elite status requirements out there, at 75 nights. I really enjoy staying at Marriott’s overseas, or domestically when I travel for work.

Slow start to the year with Marriott.

Slow start to the year with Marriott.

Lately though, I haven’t been traveling a whole lot for work, so I’m not sure how I’ll make it work out for the status. I do have some ideas, but its still money out of pocket that I’m not sure I want to do.

As a Marriott Platinum member you get (note, these are just the highlights):

  • Platinum Arrival Gift
  • 50% bonus on points for stays
  • Upgrades (when available)
  • Guaranteed lounge access/breakfast
  • Complimentary United MileagePlus Premier Silver Status

The greatest benefit to me, is the lounge access. I find that I really enjoy the lounges.

Renaissance Seoul Hotel Lounge's evening selection.

Renaissance Seoul Hotel Lounge’s evening selection.

Hyatt Diamond

I status matched to Hyatt in 2011 when my wife and I were planning to visit Tokyo. Until that point, I had been a pretty loyal Marriott guy, but I was faced with a Courtyard or a Ritz, and neither had a lounge. Hyatt on the other hand had the world famous Park Hyatt Tokyo (from Lost in Translation fame among other reasons), as well as a Grand and Regency Hyatt. I timed the match so that we could hotel hop (we were going to anyway), and knock out part of the required stays.

Making reasonable headway toward re-qualifying.

Making reasonable headway toward re-qualifying.

As you can see, I’m nearly 40% of the way to the 25 required stays re-qualify based on stays. That’s actually pretty good considering how little travel I’ve done so far this year.

Here’s what a Hyatt Diamond member gets:

  • 4 confirmable suite upgrades.
  • 30% point bonus when choosing points for rewards for stays.
  • Access to the Regency Club or Grand Club lounge, including breakfast.
  • Welcome gift or points.

Again here, I like the lounges as the primary benefit, here’s the spread from the Grand Hyatt Dubai.

Spread at the Grand Hyatt Dubai lounge.

Spread at the Grand Hyatt Dubai lounge.

Conclusion:

While I’m forecasting myself at 91% toward Executive Platinum, my hotel stays have been below average. Should I stick to top tier status at two hotel chains? I don’t know, but I probably won’t make that decision until later in the year. Besides, I still need to finish getting the Southwest Companion Pass.

What elite status are you going for? How close are you?

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