October 2008
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Oct

American Airlines Winter Holiday Fare SFO-DUB $480 all-in

Posted by Ric Garrido

Puddle jumping across the USA and over the pond may not be the wisest idea during the winter holiday travel season, but it sure is a cheap fare.

American Airlines routing SFO-SNA-DFW-ORD-DUB-ORD-STL-DFW-SFO

Can you say “flight delays”?

San Francisco – Dublin, Ireland over the winter holidays

for $480 might be worth the weather delay risk

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Tags: Dublin Ireland low fare

Oct

IHG Priority Club PointBreaks Hotels Fall/Winter List

Posted by Ric Garrido

IHG Priority Club PointBreaks Hotels

IHG Priority Club posted its list of participating PointBreaks hotels this past week. The current list of hotels is available for 5,000 points per night for reservations through the end of February 2009.

This is one of the best redemption deals available through hotel loyalty programs.

IHG Priority Club hotel brands are Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, and InterContinental Hotel.

Even if these hotel brands are not on your regular stay list and consequently you do not have Priority Club points, the low cost of a free night using points makes these offers worthy of considering the option to buy points ($11.50 to $13.50 per 1,000 points and there is a 10% bonus on purchases made through November 6) or make a points exchange using American Express Membership Rewards (1,000 Membership Rewards points converts to 1,000 Priority Club points) or Diners Club Rewards (1,250 Club Rewards = 1,500 Priority Club points).

Loyalty Traveler analysis shows the Priority Club purchase option is a better value than the AmEx or Diners points transfer to Priority Club. Save your credit card points for airline miles or a better hotel points exchange value.

The current PointBreaks selection consists of 163 hotels:

· USA – 78 hotels

· Canada – 9 hotels

· Mexico – 5 hotels

· South America – 8 hotels

· Europe – 25 hotels

· Middle East/Africa – 14 hotels

· Asia – 21 hotels

· Oceania – 3 hotels

Generally the best values are for stays at InterContinental and Crowne Plaza hotel properties.

Here is an example of the savings using a PointBreaks award:

Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbor (Perfect for the night before your Mexico cruise)

Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbor PointBreaks Reservation

The same reservation paying cash will be double the price of just buying points for a PointBreaks award.

Paid Night At Crowne Plaza LA Harbour $145;

PointBreaks Night Buying 5,000 Points at $13.50/1,000 = $67.50

[Loyalty Traveler note: I find Priority Club has one of the most frustrating websites for getting reservation options. I constantly get locked into a reservations page with limited choices for rate types. I am not technically savvy enough to understand what is happening.

For example, when I am searching I can get locked out of AAA rates when looking at multiple properties. I have to close my browser completely and start again.

I am having trouble today accessing PointBreaks. I am not getting reward night options using the direct link.

I only get this option when linking to a hotel from the PointBreaks page.

PointBreaks links to hotels keeps taking me to this option and not the Reward Nights option

Clearing my cookies did not solve the problem.

I have more trouble with IHG Priority Club than any other hotel site. Today, I can’t access PointBreaks directly, but I did get to PointBreaks reward nights using an indirect hotel search route.]

List of PointBreaks Hotels Available October 25, 2008

United States

ALASKA

Holiday Inn Express Hotels & Suites FAIRBANKS

ALABAMA

Holiday Inn Express Hotels & Suites BIRMINGHAM-IRONDALE (EAST)

Staybridge Suites MONTGOMERY-EASTCHASE

ARIZONA

Holiday Inn Express Hotels & Suites FLORENCE

Staybridge Suites PHOENIX-GLENDALE

Holiday Inn Express TUCSON

Holiday Inn YUMA