American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation’s (AH&LEF) Big Apple Auction offers more than 250 hotels around the USA for one or two night stays. The auction ends Tuesday, November 13 at 3pm EST.

Sample hotels:

Renaissance St. Louis Airport Hotel

• Value $119.00
• Leading Bid$40.00
• Time Left 3d 22h

Pittsburgh Airport Marriott

• Value $160.00
• Leading Bid$55.00
• Time Left3d 22h

Sheraton Dallas Hotel

• Value $160.00
• Leading Bid$65.00
• Time Left3d 22h

Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport

• Value $229.00
• Leading Bid$80.00
• Time Left3d 22h

Indianapolis Marriott Downtown

• Value $300.00
• Leading Bid$90.00
• Time Left3d 22h

Grand Hyatt Washington

• Value $175.00
• Leading Bid$100.00
• Time Left3d 22h

The Westin Buckhead Atlanta

• Value $279.00
• Leading Bid$100.00
• Time Left3d 22h

Hilton Americas-Houston

• Value $338.00
• Leading Bid$120.00
• Time Left3d 22h

Westin Virginia Beach Town Center

• Value $315.00
• Leading Bid$125.00
• Time Left3d 22h

Hilton Portland & Executive Tower

• Value $360.00
• Leading Bid$145.00
• Time Left3d 22h

Mandarin Oriental, Miami

• Value $405.00
• Leading Bid$200.00
• Time Left3d 22h

There are hotels around the country. Some hotel packages include breakfast, added bonuses like food, wine and activities. Many of these offers are good deals at this time. With almost four days left for bidding, many of these hotels will be overbid. Keep an eye on the bids, compare prices with hotel website rates, bid smart and you may land a great hotel stay bargain.

AH&LEF Big Apple Auction website.

Bidding ends 3pm EST, Tuesday, Nov 13, 2012.

Priceline will buy meta-search engine Kayak.com for $1.8 billion. Readers of Loyalty Traveler may know I am a frequent user of kayak.com. Both sites rank in the Top 10 travel sites in the USA.

Priceline makes most of its money from hotel bookings. Kayak makes 80% of its revenue from flight search referrals according to the Financial Times.

It should be interesting to see how the Priceline/Kayak partnership takes on the Expedia online travel network.

Priceline.com is the biggest competitor to Expedia.com who owns TripAdvisor.com, hotels.com and hotwire.com.

Then there is Google who owns itasoftware.com.

The online travel market is consolidating into technology empires.

TopTenReviews has an informative article 2013 Online Travel Sites Comparison with reviews of leading online travel sites and a highly detailed chart of their features.

JohnnyJet is giving away 25,000 points as part of his SPG Amex Stars Starwood staycation at the St. Regis New York.

Leave a comment on JohnnyJet’s blog post: Win 25,000 Starpoints by sharing your dream destination.

Contestants must either subscribe to Johnny’s newsletter or follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
Only one entry per person, and a winner will be chosen at random. All official contest rules apply.

Johnny Jet 

Comment entries will be accepted by JohnnyJet through 6pm Pacific time Tuesday, November 13.

I’ll be living the 1% life with St. Regis in December

I am also a SPG Amex Star blogger for 2012. My planned time-spaced travel schedule initially included being at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Miami Beach last week, Boston’s Liberty Hotel at Thanksgiving and St. Regis San Francisco in December.

That has all changed.

I did not follow my advice I posted Monday, Nov 5 for a cheap mileage run to Boston to earn American Airlines Platinum status for 2013 on a single $280 roundtrip ticket from Monterey: Planning out AA mileage runs for 2x EQM/RDM. I opted instead for a trip to Kauai via San Diego for $410.

Loyalty Traveler is staying Coast to Coast to Coast in December

Now I am booked for three 2-night stays in December at St. Regis Princeville, Kauai, St. Regis San Francisco and St. Regis Bal Harbour. This will be my biggest ever dip into luxury hotel travel.

While I’ll be swimming with the 1 percenters, my plane travel will still be flying with the masses in coach.

Illogical cancellation policy at St. Regis Kauai

One of the strangest cancellation policies I have ever seen came to my attention with the St. Regis Kauai reservation.

Cancellation Policy

If you cancel between 11/09/2012 and 4:00 PM hotel time on 11/11/2012, there will be no forfeiture amount. If you cancel after 4:00 PM hotel time on 11/11/2012, the forfeiture amount will be a 3 night stay.There may be additional applicable charges and taxes.

St. Regis Princeville Resort

The cancellation penalty within 30 days of a reservation at St. Regis Princeville is the amount for a 3-night stay even if your reservation is only booked for a 2-night stay.

What’s up with that?

Anyway, I will be offering three Starpoints giveaways over the next seven weeks for 50,000 points, 25,000 points and 60,000 points associated with my three St. Regis stays in December.

Check out JohnnyJet’s 25,000 Starpoints giveaway now. Look for my 50,000 Starpoints giveaway blog post in a couple of weeks in conjunction with my St. Regis Princeville hotel stay.

Blogger disclosure: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express is providing me with the three complimentary St. Regis hotel stays in December.