Chris Holdren, Senior Vice President Starwood Preferred Guest described Crossover Rewards, the new alliance between SPG and Delta Airlines, as about “taking care care of each other’s best members”. We had a phone interview this morning.

Crossover Rewards launches March 1, 2013 for active members who belong to both Delta Airlines Skymiles and Starwood Preferred Guest. The innovation here is creating crossover benefits for elite members of an airline frequent flyer program and a hotel loyalty program.

SPG Gold and Platinum elite members earn one point for every dollar spent on Delta tickets. SPG Platinum members get some of the benefits of Delta Skymiles Silver Medallion like free bag, priority check-in and Zone 1 boarding.

Delta Medallion Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond elite members earn one Skymile for each dollar in Starwood Hotel rate. Delta Platinum and Diamond members receive many of the hotel stay benefits of SPG Gold like 4pm late checkout, free internet, and room upgrade. Read More…

Hilton HHonors has filled the last quarter of 2012 with bonus frequent flyer mile promotions for at least 26 airline partners. HHonors leads all hotel loyalty programs with over 60 airline partners for earning miles from hotel stays.

Double Dipping for HHonors Points & Miles means you can earn bonus miles from promotions while you also earn bonus points from the Q4 promotion. The primary HHonors points promotion for November 1-December 31 is 1,000 points per night Thursday through Monday nights. No bonus points for Tuesday and Wednesday stays.

Hilton 1,000 points per night for Thursday through Monday nights on stays November 1 – December 31, 2012. Check out the non-participating hotels carefully. Register here for the promotion. Loyalty traveler post October 16 Hilton 1,000 points per night Thursday to Monday Nov 1-Dec 31, 2012.

For many members airline promotions are likely the better value earning opportunity for the remainder of 2012 rather than earning Points & Points .

The main question is which HHonors airline promotion should you sign up for?

Each HHonors airline bonus miles promotion is different. Some of the airlines allow unlimited earning and some airlines apply bonus miles to only a few stays or even just one stay. Many of the frequent flyer bonus miles promotions started in October and a large set of new promotions started in November. Most of these offers end December 31, 2012.

Hilton HHonors bonus frequent flyer miles roundup.

Aeromexico Double Miles in Latin America Read More…

Hilton HHonors has another frequent flyer bonus offer for 250 Delta elite qualifying miles and double redeemable miles for 2-night stays from October 1 through December 15, 2012.

Registration is required at HHonors.com/deltamqm before hotel check-out to earn bonus MQM and double miles for your stay. This offer may be earned unlimited times during promotion period.

This is a relatively clear promotion for Points & Fixed Miles earners.

To be eligible for this offer, you must:

• (1) select Delta Air Lines as your preferred Double Dip® Points & Miles Partner in your Hilton HHonors account profile,
• (2) complete a minimum 2-night stay at a hotel or resort within the Hilton Worldwide portfolio from October 2, 2012 through December 15, 2012, and
• (3) register online at HHonors.com/deltamqm prior to check-out.

The fine print details get more confusing for Points & Variable Miles earners.

Bonus Delta Mileage (Variable Miles Members):

HHonors Delta Promotion: For qualifying stays at HOME2 Suites by Hilton hotels, earn up to 100 bonus miles per qualifying stay + 250 Medallion Qualification Miles (MQMs).

Loyalty Traveler Comment: Home2 Suites earns a maximum of 100 miles per stay regardless if choosing Fixed Miles or Variable Miles. Fixed miles guarantees 100 miles and 100 bonus miles with this offer. Since the bonus miles requires a two night stay, you will also earn 100 miles and 100 bonus miles with variable miles since you are almost certainly spending more than $100 for a 2-night stay.

HHonors Delta Promotion: For all other Hilton Worldwide brands, earn 1 bonus mile for every U. S. dollar spent on a qualifying stay + 250 MQMs.

Loyalty Traveler Comment: You will get more miles choosing Variable Miles when staying at Hampton Inn or Homewood Suites where the Fixed Miles rate is capped at 100 miles. You will almost certainly be spending more than $100 for an eligible 2-night stay so choose Variable Miles earning for Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites.

Bonus Delta Mileage (Fixed Miles Members): Earn 500 bonus miles per qualifying stay + 250 MQMs at Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton, Embassy Suites by Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn and Hilton Grand Vacations.

Earn 100 bonus miles per qualifying stay + 250 MQMs at Hampton Inn, Hampton by Hilton and Homewood Suites by Hilton.

Earn up to 100 bonus miles per qualifying stay + 250 MQMs at Home2 Suites by Hilton.

Loyalty Traveler Quick Guide to maximizing Delta Miles with this HHonors offer:

Choose Fixed Miles if estimated spend is less than $500 for your stay.   Choose Variable Miles if your spend is over $500 at

• Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts,
• Conrad Hotels & Resorts,
• Hilton Hotels & Resorts,
• DoubleTree by Hilton,
• Embassy Suites by Hilton,
• Hilton Garden Inn
• Hilton Grand Vacations

Choose Variable Miles if estimated spend over $100 for your stay.

• Hampton Inn 
• Homewood Suites

Home2 Suites results in no difference in earning for 2-night stays whether Variable or Fixed Miles since the bonus miles are capped at 100 miles per stay.

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.

Marriott Hotels has several promotion offers for gift cards now through January 8, 2012. Gift card shipping is $1 for U.S. addresses.

10% Bonus on Marriott Gift Card Value

Amtrak promotion code AMT or Marriott Associate Friends & Family promotion code MMT both offer 10% added value to a Marriott Gift Card. You can purchase any gift card amount from $25 and up. The 10% added value means the actual value on the card will be $1,100 when you pay $1,000 for a gift card.

Earn 10 Marriott Rewards points per dollar for buying Gift Cards - up to 25,000 bonus points.

Another gift card promotion offers 10 Marriott Rewards points per dollar in gift card value purchased, up to 25,000 bonus points. This could be a better than 10% value depending on how you use points. There are Ritz-Carlton Hotels for 30,000 points per night that are more than $300 per night.

Hertz Rental Car Marriott Gift Card Offer 

Get $50 Hertz rental car voucher with $250 Marriott Gift Card purchase. Promotion code = Hertz.

Save 10% on Marriott VacationCards and earn up to 10,000 Delta Skymiles bonus miles.

A Marriott VacationCard promotion with Delta Airlines gives a 10% discount in the cost of a $1,000 or $2,000 VacationCard and 1,000 Delta Skymiles bonus miles for each $1,000 in VacationCard value, up to 10,000 bonus miles. This offer is only available through January 1, 2012.

What is the difference between Marriott Gift Card and Marriott VacationCard?

See this FlyerTalk thread where Counsellor posted the difference between Marriott Gift Cards and VacationCards.

HHonors takes Double Dipping to a new level with two combinable first quarter 2011 promotions for up to 2,000 Delta SkyMiles and 3x base points with a three night stay. Stay four nights and earn quadruple points with 2,000 SkyMiles (40 points per dollar in hotel spend).

Delta SkyMiles – HHonors Promotion

Registration is required.

January 3, 2011 – March 31, 2011

• Stay 1 Night = Earn up to 1,000 SkyMiles (earn 200 SkyMiles for stays at Hampton and Homewood)
• Stay 2 Nights = Earn up to 1,500 SkyMiles (earn 300 SkyMiles for stays at Hampton and Homewood)
• Stay 3 Nights = Earn up to 2,000 SkyMiles (earn 400 SkyMiles for stays at Hampton and Homewood)

Bonus SkyMiles earned from this promotion do not qualify as elite mile MQMs.

Bonus miles can be earned on multiple stays at any of ten Hilton Worldwide hotel brands. There is no mileage earning limit during the promotion. HHonors members must select Delta SkyMiles in their HHonors Points & Miles earning preference guest profile.

Hilton HHonors-Delta SkyMiles-Q1-2011 Promotion

Loyalty Traveler analysis:

There is a bit of grumbling about Hilton HHonors Q1 quadruple points offer in this FlyerTalk thread.  There is certainly no promotion value on the points side of the Q1 promotion for one night HHonors stays this winter.

But now we have bonus Delta SkyMiles for one night stays with Hilton HHonors. HHonors hotel stays normally earn 500 miles per stay, except for a measly 100 miles per stay for Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites.

This Hilton HHonors-Delta SkyMiles offers double miles for one night stays, triple miles for two-night stays and 4x miles for three nights or more.

Sample HHonors-Delta promotion earnings: (3 one-night stays)

• $100 per night Hilton Garden Inn
• Assume three 1-night stays ($300)
• Earn 3,000 SkyMiles (1,000 miles/stay)  
• Earn 3,000 HHonors points ($300 x 10 base points).
• This is 500 bonus miles per stay over the normal miles earn rate of 500 miles per stay.
• No promotion bonus HHonors points earned for these 1-night stays.

Sample promotion earnings: (1 three-night stay)

• $100 per night Hilton Garden Inn
• Assume one 3-night stay ($300)
• Earn 2,000 SkyMiles (2,000 miles/3-night stay)
• Earn 9,000 HHonors points ($300 x 30 base points).
• This is 1,500 bonus miles over the normal miles earn rate of 500 miles per stay.
• This is 6,000 bonus HHonors points for a 3-night stay with $300 hotel spend.

To me, this looks like HHonors offers a win-win opportunity for HHonors members who can maximize SkyMiles being one-night King and Queen travelers or maximize earning HHonors points and SkyMiles through extended stays. You are maxed out at 2,000 SkyMiles per stay, but you can still earn 40 HHonors points per dollar in hotel spend for stays four nights or more.

Related post: Hilton HHonors 2x, 3x,4x points 2011 Q1 Promotion (Dec 28, 2010)

Earn Delta MQM elite miles and double redeemable miles at 3,600+ Hilton brand hotels worldwide when you stay two or more nights between September 1, 2010 and December 10, 2010.

Promotion registration is required at hiltonhhonors.com/deltaMQMs.

HHonors member must choose Points + Miles Earning preference. 

Points + Variable Miles will earn 1 bonus mile + 1 MQM for every U.S. dollar up to a maximum of 10,000 MQM during the promotion. 

Points + Fixed Miles earn 500 bonus miles + 500 MQM per stay. 

Despite the promotion print stating 500 MQM per stay, the past practice for similar Delta MQM offers has been to only award 100 MQM per stay at Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites. You may want to change your earning preference to Points + Variable Miles for stays at these two HHonors brands. 

Delta Silver Medallion requires 25,000 MQM in a calendar year.

Earn up to 60,000 bonus Delta Skymiles this summer at the rate of 5,000 miles for each Marriott brand hotel stay systemwide beginning with your second stay from May 1 through September 6, 2010.

Registration is required with Marriott Rewards. 

Important Note: Your earning preference for Marriott Rewards must be set to earn Delta Skymiles. The promotion page will not load correctly unless your Marriott Rewards account is set to miles. The promotion page will show “Promotion is unavailable”. It is a computer cookie thing I guess.

Bonus Skymiles are in addition to the normal miles earning rate of 2 miles per US$1 for J.W. Marriott, Marriott, Renaissance, and Marriott Vacation Club brands.

Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites, Residence Inn, and TownePlace Suites brands earn 1 mile per US$1.

60,000 miles for 13 hotel stays is a good deal for someone seeking airline miles with hotel stays.

60,000 Skymiles will buy one roundtrip anytime economy class ticket for continental US and Canada travel, or one low category level economy ticket to Europe or southern South South America, or one Business Class ticket to Central America, Mexico or the Caribbean.

Delta Skymiles award chart link.

Valuing Delta Skymiles at $10.00 per 1,000 miles ($250 for domestic ticket or $600 for Europe/South America) makes this offer effectively a $50 rebate on each Marriott brand hotel stay. And that is a relatively low valuation for miles that can easily be exceeded. Skymile award tickets at the low cost level may be difficult to find for some dates and routes, but like all frequent flier programs there are good values with a bit of flexibility in your travel plans.

A quick check of Europe awards shows mostly medium award level for all summer from San Francisco to Frankfurt, however, the Delta website shows award travel ticket options by month and it is not too difficult to quickly check multiple locations and dates.

International airfare is expected to rise in 2010 and 60,000 miles could prove to be a great value on your Marriott hotel stays.

Assume you spend $1,300 for 13 hotel stays and earn 60,000 miles. The Skymiles could potentially be a $1,000 value in airfare savings.

$1,300 in Marriott hotel spend normally earns as few as 13,000 miles with most airlines for 13 Fairfield Inn stays or possibly around 50,000 to 60,000 Marriott Rewards points with some good bonus opportunities.

Do the math – you can earn points for one or two free hotel nights at a nice hotel or a free ticket to Europe or South America. Well, not exactly free. The taxes for a sample Skymiles San Francisco – Frankfurt economy roundtrip ticket came up at $67.50 for a 60,000 mile award for November 2010.

This offer is a good deal for the budget traveler with frequent hotel stays this summer. You can travel and stay in Marriott brand hotels all summer and load up on the Skymiles for your next trip.

Marriott Rewards registration is required at  https://www.marriott.com/rewards/promotion.mi?promotion=DE10

Loyalty Traveler key ranking = 4 out of 5 keys.

Delta Airlines JFK

The loyalty race moves to the airlines with an offer from Delta for a fast-track to elite status promotion. We have seen the hotel chains trying to grab a loyal customer base with Starwood and Hyatt offering elite fast-track promotions already in 2008. I expect at least one other airline to follow pace in this competition for capturing 2008 market share for the traveling public.

Delta SkyMiles Promotion Terms & Conditions

Offer:

Earn double Medallion Qualification Miles/MQMs on all Delta-coded flights booked and purchased on delta.com between March 31 and April 30, 2008 and flown between March 31 and June 30, 2008.

Eligibility:

You must be a new or existing SkyMiles member with a U.S. mailing address in your SkyMiles account to take advantage of this offer. To participate in this offer, eligible members must register online between March 31 and April 30, 2008.

Travel Period:

Travel must be between March 31 and June 30, 2008. All travel must be completed by June 30, 2008.

Validity:

Medallion Qualification Miles are based on a multiple of distance flown and fare class purchased for qualifying flights and do not include bonus miles. Medallion Qualification Miles are used for Medallion status qualification and are based on calendar year activity.

Miscellaneous:

Medallion Qualification Miles will post to the SkyMiles account of the qualifying member 6-8 weeks following the end of the promotion, which is June 30, 2008.