May 9, 2011
Another round of Mega bonus is here, log in your Marriott acct to see. Just like their identical properties on earth, their promotion is identical year by year.
Registration must be done by June 30th, for stay between June 1, 2011, and August 31, 2011.
Earn 20,000 bonus points after 15 paid nights + an extra 10,000 after 20 paid nights.
stay 20 nights 25K and then 5 more nights 15K
or stay 2 get 1 free, max 2 for cat 1-4, redeem by Dec 31st, 2011
If you don’t like what you get, you can call to change if you are Gold or Platinum.
Posted by Troy under Marriott |
May 5, 2011
There are so many places I want to go,but getting to some places are not cheap, thanks to frequent flyer/guest programs and great airline alliances, so I can travel to so many places in comfort and cheap.
Back to one month ago, I mentioned my planned trip in May.Now, I’d like to share the process of booking all these awards.
The completed trip will be like this
PVG-FRA-ALA-IST-AMM//AQJ-AMM-JED-DXB-HKG-PVG//PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM-ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA-DYU-IST-FRA-PVG
all bold cities are places I will enter or at least attempt to enter.
Confusing? 
because they are 5 separate tickets using 3 different airlines miles, so let’s me break them one by one. All award search was done by kvstool
First part and last part, PVG-FRA-ALA//DYU-IST-MUC-PVG, Lufthansa A346 and A 330 First Class, Turkish Air B737 business class and Air China A340 First Class, Using US airways , taxes amount 100+ 50 processing fee. It only took 2 phone calls to get this ticket issued because first agent refused to let me backtracking. I did not have option to try any other airlines first class product on the way back because flight from DYU-IST only operates 2 times per week, Monday and Wednesday, and I needed to find a way connect back to China same day. Also, DYU-IST was the segment I booked as Economy and just moved to Business last week
Then I used BMI miles for ALA-IST-AMM(stopover)-ADD on Turkish Airways B737 Business and BMI A321 Business class. This was a easy one, 1 simple phone call finished booking。BD flight only had economy left, but since I am Gold member, revenue management released business award seat for me. Never been to Africa, always want to be there. Although days spend in ADD(Addis Ababa) will be very short, I don’t want waste a free stopover when using BMI one way award. Tax amount was very strange, I checked with ITA first with Point of Sale Boston, the taxes and fuel were not too high, but when I called to book the ticket, taxes and fuel were a lot higher than I checked. Then I went back to ITA again with POS London, exactly same kinds taxes line by line, but currency was UK AND amount was higher. I knew POS can affect the fare price, but I didn’t how this affected taxes amount. Total taxes include Cash + miles copay were 300+USD
Originally, I planed to tour around Jordan, Syria and Lebanon for around 3 weeks, but now Syria is not stable, so I decided to go back to home in middle of the trip. From middle east to China, the cheapest option of using miles was American Airline, but unlike above tickets, this one took me some checking and calling. I will travel in a single direction in Jordan, which means I will start from Amman and finish in Aqaba. When I called AA to book from AQJ-AMM-JED-HKG-PVG, flight AQJ-AMM was priced in addition to normal Middle East to Asia 2 business class. The explanation I got was there was no published fare btw AQJ-PVG. I then tried something like AMM-BAH-BKK-HKG-PVG and more such as via BOM, DEL, KUL, all came back with same result, 3 segments, correct pricing, 4 segments, miles increase. I mentioned before there are many restrictions with AA, so nothing to argue about it, move on. I eventually settled with AMM-JED-DXB(through flight)-HKG-SHA on Royal Jordanian A320 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class, but too bad, it’s regional A330.6 hours layover in JED, hopefully, I can get a transit pass to exit the immigration. As for AQJ-AMM, I bought a one way from AQJ-AMM for $75 on Royal Jordanian. Taxes were only 30+USD.
Return from China to continue my trip also used AA miles PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM on Dragon Air A330 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class regional and Royal Jordanian A320 in Economy. From Riyadh to Amman there was no way to get business class award(I did some checking) . Unlike above flight, I added a exactly 24 hours connection in Hong Kong and 17.5 hours connections in Riyadh. I picked Riyadh because of final arrival time in Amman to connect to ADD on the same day on BMI flight was perfect. All other options including Bahrain, Delhi, Mumbai and Dubai were not working either because of finally arrival time in Amman or India visa issue. I knew I should try different airlines, but for this one, I just had to stuck with Cathay. Total taxes for these flights were also only 30+ USD
The final part: ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA on Lufthansa A340-300 and A321 business class and Turkish airline B737 business class using BMI miles. This was an interesting part. Again, I don’t want to waste BMI miles one way stopover, but not too many options. I did not want stopover in Egypt, could not stopover in Europe according to BMI redemption rules, holding PRC passport, so need to find a country visa free and there was no *A flight from ADD continued to Southern Africa until Ethiopia airline joins *A. With so many restrictions, I decided Cyprus, which still part of Europe, but I did not think BMI agent had knowledge where it located. Then my friend suggested me to try to make agent believde Larnaca and Ercan airport were co-terminals. My luck was very good, first agent believed me LCA and ECN were co-terminals and she had no idea where the Cyprus was, so ticket issued, total taxes were 400+USD including cash portion for C+M.
let’s recap here:
US Airways for PVG-FRA-ALA//DYU-IST-MUC-PVG, Lufthansa A346 and A 330 First Class, Turkish Air B737 business class and Air China A340 First Class
BMI miles for ALA-IST-AMM(stopover)-ADD and ADD-FRA-LCA//ECN-IST-ALA, Turkish Airw ays B737 Business, BMI A321 Business class and Lufthansa A340-300 and A321 business class
AA miles for AMM-JED-HKG-PVG and PEK-HKG-RUH-AMM Dragon Air A330 and Cathay Pacific A330 business class regional and Royal Jordanian A320 in business and Economy
Cash paid for ALA-DYU on Air Astana and AQJ-AMM on Royal Jordain
Total miles used for all tickets: 115,000
Now, let’s go to hotel part, fairly easy and straightforward
Almaty: Hyatt just rebrand to different hotel, so I still have not decided where to stay yet
Amman: Le Meridien, C+P
Petra: Marriott, Cat 1-4 certificate
Riyadh: Marriott, Cat 1-4 certificate
Nicosia: Hilton, standard award redemption
Dushanbe: Hyatt, stay certificate, Classic level.
I hope I did not make you guys fall in sleep while reading!
Posted by Troy under 2011 Trip, Africa, American Airlines, Asia(Including Central Asia and Middle East), Award redemption, BMI Diamond Club, Hilton, Hyatt Gold Passport, Marriott, Starwood Hotels, US airways |
April 15, 2011
In the past, Marriott Gift Card was processed as Visa, but it’s no longer the case, they started to use a new processing vendor and the charge on your receipt will be showed as Gift card instead. What will happen?
1 Many hotels will have no clue how to do it, if it’s on the weekend when Gift card center is not open, you may end up pay with Credit card instead
2 Above situation will be even worse for international properties
3 You can no longer benefit from any promotion assoicate with Visa, especially Mega bonus
4 You can no longer use the card for Prepaid rate by adding 4 in front of rest 15 numbers. In theory, hotel can still process it offline for prepaid rate only if you contact hotel right way after the booking and they want to do it, but most likely they won’t.
I am sure this will affect Gift card sales and create many problems for us
Posted by Troy under Marriott |
March 4, 2011
Many people still remember this fast track Gold member offer last year, which you will get instant Gold status, then stay 8 nights within 90 days to get your status until 2012. Although my wife is Platinum member with Marriott, I decided to get a Gold myself in case we are not travelling together.
My fast track offer expired on Feb 28th, 2011, so when my last Feb 28th stay posted into my acct, the offer was not longer active. I gave MR a call today to manual change the status, they upgraded for me with a expiration date of 02/2013.
It was indeed a nice offer!
Posted by Troy under Marriott |
February 2, 2011
Marriott introduced Elite buy back promotion, which you can using your points to get your 2010 elite status back.
Points required to buy back Platinum status – 40,000 (a savings of 20,000 points)
Points required to buy back Gold status – 25,000 (a savings of 15,000 points)
Points required to buy back Silver status – 7,500 (a savings of 12,500 points)
I doubt if anyone will bother to buy Silver status back
offer valid until Apr 1st, 2011
Posted by Troy under Marriott |
January 28, 2011
I know there will be a JW open in Maldives in Oct 2010, but never paid attetion. Today, a friend mentioned this hotel to me again because it pre set as a Cat 5 hotel, which requires only 100,000 points for 5 nights, or if you have lots of Marriott points, you can do travel package, which requires 270,000 points for 120,000 miles +7 nights at this property. If you are doing travel package, US airways and Delta are best option because 120K miles can get you 1 business seat to Central Asia(including Maldives or Sri Lanka) consider business class on SQ from SIN is extremely hard to be found, fly all the way to Sri Lanka, then buy a cheap economy fare to Male is the best option.
Delta also has partner serve to MLE, but you need some creativity. award level is 120K per person in business class
you don’t get free Breakfast as Marriott Elite at resorts, but some Asia resorts do offer free breakfast to Gold or Platinum.
Personally, I think Maldives is not worth a trip all the way from US and I will be surprised to see the hotel stay at Cat 5 for more than 1 year
Posted by Troy under Delta, Marriott, US airways |
January 9, 2011
We all change our minds sometimes, we also make mistake such as booking wrong date, wrong hotel wrong rate plan etc, but you book a non refundable rate because it’s usually cheaper than standard rate. What should you do to keep the loss minimum when that happen?
First of all, Marriott nonrefundable rate has 24 hours cancellation policy, it’s not exactly 24hours, it’s before midnight of the next day after your booking. I think it gives you enough time to change your mind. Just like most US airlines, which you can cancel or at least change the reservation for free within first 24 hours of booking.
Other than that, most hotels are really non refundable the moment u click confirm. However, if you change your mind within first 24 hours, there are still ways to do it.
First, contact central reservation line, tell them you made a mistake, they may do a favor for you. If you just make wrong date or wrong hotel, it will be even easier, most likely they will change the reservation for you.
Second, if the reservation line is not able to solve the issue, try to contact hotel reservation department directly or a manager on duty and explain what happen. Most time, hotel manager or reservation agent is willing to help, because keeping a guest happy is more important than one or two nights revenue.
Please keep in mind, the reservation agent or hotel staff is doing you a favor, so ask them nicely and don’t get upset with them. If none of them can help you, lesson learned and move on.
Think again before you click confirm because these people may not like to do you a favor over and over again.
Posted by Troy under General Frequent Flyer Advice, Marriott |
December 13, 2010
SPG just released their new promotion, double points+500 bonus per night on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday with 10% of hotels don’t participanting. I would not say this is a great offer, but as always said, something is better than nothing.
Marriott will release their new Mega bonus 3 days later, as always, diff people got diff promotion, let’s see what we got this time
Hilton already leaked their promotion, which is similar to SPG last year Q1 promotion, 2 nights double, 3 nights triple and 4 nights Quarple.
so Hyatt, what will be yours?
Posted by Troy under Hilton, Hyatt Gold Passport, Marriott, Starwood Hotels |
November 21, 2010
This offer is brought up by one of my readers, sign up or register for the promotion for instant Gold status for 90 days, then stay 8 nights within next 90 days, get Gold status valid to 2/2012
Thanks to Xavier
Posted by Troy under Marriott |
November 20, 2010
Marriott partnered with Air china to offer new or existing member instant gold status for 90 days, if you can stay for 12 nights within 90 days, you will earn Gold status to 2/2012
Thanks to superdawg
I am back…..slowly
Posted by Troy under Marriott |
November 3, 2010
with a little variation. You need Delta flight activity to post into your delta account in order to get these bonus.
From now until Jan 31st, 2010, you will earn 5000 bonus miles per at stay Marriott properties worldwide including Ritz Carlton.
Registration is required, there is no limit on number of bonus you can earn. You need to change your Marriott profile to Delta miles
Please note: you will be no longer qualifying for Mega bonus promotion if you change your profile to miles.
Posted by Troy under Delta, Marriott |
