Priority Club’s email systems seem to have had a bit of a meltdown with this promo. Countless people targetted for the promotion did not receive emails. If you have any Priority Club status or participated in their “Hilton Luckiest Loser” promo and did not receive a “Crack the Case” email I’d get in touch with Priority Club.

The promotion has small amounts of bonus points for achieving certain targets and a much larger additional bonus if 4 out of 5 targets are met (or 4 out of 4 for those who live in a country without any Priority Club-aligned credit cards).  The targets include a (long) survey, getting a certain Priority Club credit card (where available), and numbers of nights, brands and Saturday nights stays between now and 31 May 2011.  The amounts of bonuses and the numbers for each target are personalised – for some it is very lucrative and for others not so much.

As usual, the promo is stackable with other general Priority Club offers as well as individual hotel offers.  For the period 20 September to 31 December there is also a “Sweet Dilemma” promo offering 1 free night every 2nd stay or double base points. (Asia-Pacific residents or stays at any Asia-Pacific hotels can only earn double base points but otherwise there is a choice to be made between these 2 options.)

In my case, I didn’t receive the email but following up with Priority Club I am targetted.  Including some hotel-specific promotions I should earn at least 1 free night for every night stayed at any Intercontinental Hotels Group hotel over the next few months, and as luck would have it I have a need for quite a few hotel nights.

With Mexicana shut down a few days ago there have been announcements by some airlines of new routes to Mexico and added frequencies.  From the excellent Airline Route blog, we have the following changes made in the past month (since Mexicana started dropping services):

• Aerolineas Argentinas – new route Buenos Aires to Mexico City
• AeroRepublica – new route Bogota to Mexico City
• Air Canada – extra Montreal to Mexico City flights, and new route Vancouver to Mexico City
• Alaska – extra Los Angeles to Mexico City flights
• Avianca – extra Bogota to Mexico City flights
• British Airways – adding codeshares on some American Airlines flights to Mexico
• LAN Peru – extra Lima to Cancun and Lima to Mexico City flights
• United – extra Los Angeles to Mexico City flights
• Virgin America – new routes San Francisco and Los Angeles to Cancun
• Westjet – new route Quebec City to Cancun

Further changes are expected in coming weeks.