The verifiable facts are Club Carlson has two webpages with countdown clocks for Radisson and Country Inn & Suites promotions. These two promotions, and supposedly a Park Inn promotion, launch next week for stays May 15-July 15, 2012 in what looks to be a blockbuster follow-up to last November’s Radisson Big Night Giveaway. And I was just lamenting in my InsideFlyer column for June that summer promotions were back to 2008 levels – except for Marriott Rewards. And now Club Carlson. Read More…

Will I fall in love with New York City? American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Amex Stars program has tempted me with some New York City travel this year and I wonder if New York is going to suck me in?

Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck and John Lennon all ended up living in New York.

New York is a foreign land to me. I have spent more time in the vicinity of the Queen’s Buckingham Palace than I have Queens New York. I have walked the Brooklyn Bridge across Las Vegas Boulevard many times, but never stepped foot on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.  Read More…

The Venetian and The Palazzo Las Vegas are celebrating one year as the charter members of the InterContinental Alliance Resorts with a May 8 one-day redemption sale today-only for reward nights at  25,000 points per night for stays from June 10 to August 16, 2012. This special offer ends at midnight eastern or about 9pm Pacific time May 8.  Update May 8: The countdown clock for this offer is not working correctly. An hour after I posted this the clock still reads 13 hours, 44 minutes remaining for the sale.

• Only Sunday-Thursday nights June 10-June 30.
• Any night of week July 1-August 16. Read More…

Marriott Rewards Summer Bonus promotion is MegaBonus with a seasonal name change. From June 1 to August 31, 2012 Marriott Rewards members can earn one Category 1-4 hotel free night certificate for every two Marriott hotel brand stays. The big change with this promotion is the earning limit is 3 free night certificates after six stays. Certificates are valid for one year from date of issuance which is an expanded benefit to recent offers that required redemption within six months.

This is my kind of promotion. Read More…

U.S. Travel Association and American Express sponsored Daily Getaways today offers 10,000 Best Western Rewards points for $67 or $60.30 with American Express. Maximum purchase limit is 5 sets of points for 50,000 points at $301.50 (Amex price).

Presale at 12 noon eastern (Access Code = 03C70) and main sale at 1:00pm eastern. Read More…

This is day three of the 32nd annual Steinbeck Festival. As I read and hear more writings from Salinas native John Steinbeck (1902-1968), I recognize my surroundings here in Monterey County through descriptive words from decades past that still apply to the places and people of the region today.

The Salinas Valley is 100 miles of premium agricultural land in about a ten mile wide strip of valley land sitting between the Gabilan Mountains to the east and Santa Lucia Mountains of Big Sur to the west. The center of Monterey Bay is where the Salinas River meets the sea. Read More…

There are so many deals I have written about on Loyalty Traveler that I lose track. Sometimes I start to write articles a second time. This week I saw a press release on a Hyatt discount rate and made a note to blog it.

Turns out I already blogged about the Hyatt Hotels Free Time offer back in March. So here is the article again that I posted in March analyzing the Hyatt Hotels Free Time Rate. Read More…

The Global Traveler Silent Auction 2012 crashed yesterday just as the auction for 1,000,000 Priority Club points was minutes from ending. The price was $3,810 when the auction site server crashed and the bid is still at $3,810.

About a dozen items, mostly flights, that were ending bids yesterday have now been extended to tomorrow for bids.

Thank you for your patience as we restored our 2012 auction. We apologize for the inconvenience this afternoon as we resolved unforeseen technical issues caused by an overwhelming number of bids. The bids were received at a much higher volume than in previous years. Please note, all auction items affected by the earlier problems are being extended. Bids will be accepted for an additional 24 hours and new close times have been posted next to each affected item. All other items will close as originally scheduled.

Global Traveler Silent Auction 2012

Here are some of the auction leading bids at this time 3:00pm Pacific Thursday May 3.

Travel Products

Flights

Hotel Auctions ending Thursday May 3 in the next three hours:

Hotel auctions ending Friday May 4

The hotel deals are the best value in my opinion.

Here is my previous post Instant Karma got me at the Global Traveler Silent Auction 2012.

U.S Travel Association and American Express sponsored Daily Getaways has Choice Privileges points for sale Thursday, May 3 beginning at 12 noon eastern time for pre-sale and 1pm regular sale.

You can like Choice Hotels on Facebook to get the pre-sale code that will be posted shortly before noon to allow access to the noon pre-sale. Read More…

I had some pretty valuable knowledge I kept from Loyalty Traveler readers since March. My dilemma was whether to share some great travel deals for airline flights, hotel stays and 1,000,000 Priority Club points with readers and thereby the travel deals blogosphere or remain silent and improve my chances at landing some great deals for myself. I was planning to charge thousands of dollars today and win flights around the world for the next year and possibly buy one million Priority Club points for under $4,000. Read More…