Early last week, I stayed at Hilton Grand Vacation’s newest property – Elara, in Las Vagas. The building itself is fairly new, but it very recently became a Hilton. I am told that the Hilton Grand Vacation sign was just put up a few days ago. Before that it used to be a part of Planet Hollywood. It is a Hilton Grand Vacation resort, which means you can buy up suites there, but also a hotel, which is how I ended up staying there.
The hotel is beautiful and its location …

As I blogged a couple of weeks ago, I just redeemed 480,000 United miles for four business class tickets to India. My mileage balance has now fallen below 200,000 miles. This has left a deep desire in my mind to ramp up some miles! With the large balance I had, I had started taking it easy and had been focussed on other programs and credit cards with points like Chase Sapphire. It is back to getting UNited miles now.
Here is what I have been doing:
Applied for the new United MileagePlus® …

With this post we are starting a brand new feature on UnRoadWarrior – News from around the web. This will be a weekly post with news from around the web. We will basically find interesting stories from around the internet are collect them in one post. We intend to keep these to five to ten stories. Let us know what you think of this new feature by leaving a comment below.
So, here goes:
Flying Through the Airport – From Wall Street Journal
This article talks about Qantas Airlines implementing paper free check-in …

Yeah, I know there are websites that will track it for me all in one place – I have accounts with points.com and gomilies.com , but they just don’t seem to be right or enough. … Staying at a hotel (duh, again, but this can become complex if one earns hotel points, airline miles or hotel points AND airline miles) Credit cards eMiles.com eRewards.com MyPoints.com TopGuest Car rentals (for rental rewards or airline miles) Other sundry events, like filling out a survey, earning miles as compensation for a customer service event, etc.

Also, I would like to break the news about the new fitness and recreational amenities for our guests: We are offering a P90X class every Wednesday at 6:00pm. … In addition, we have partnered with The Lakes at El Segundo , a local golf course close to the hotel, that will offer a complimentary medium bucket of balls for the driving range to our guests.

Author’s note: TopGuest has brought to my attention that ‘drive-by’ check-ins to their program can result in people being barred from TopGuest. My intention was never to promote anything that would be against their Terms and Conditions. This was supposed to poke fun at people who ‘drive-by’ for points. I encourage everyone to read my clarification post.
Who would not like to get Hotel Points for just driving by a hotel? No need to check-in. Heck, don’t even bother to park. Just drive by… and wear your seatbelt and obey the …

SC Flier reported on milepoint that the Bentley Hotel in London is showing up as a Category 8 hotel. Hilton is infamous for inflating award charts and adding new categories every year or so. Currently the highest hotel category is Category 7 which can be redeemed for 50K in low season. Redemption at the Bentley requires 60K HHonors in low season and 80K in high season.
While this may be a mistake, I think this is just a harbinger for more bad news. I would definitely consider ditching Hilton if there …

Takes less than a minute. Enter for the one million bonus point sweepstakes. LINK. Well, Hilton advertizes a lot of benefits but to me, the million points are more important.
The prize also includes

A trip for two to Beverly Hills, California
Four-day, three-night stay at the Beverly Hilton
First-class round-trip airfare
Tickets for two to the Universal Studios HollywoodSM VIP Experience
Tickets for two to an upcoming red carpet premiere of a Universal Pictures movie, including limo service to and from the event

You can get one entry by clicking on “Enter Now” and one entry …

Hilton’s Q3 promotion is a lame Double Points/Miles. You earn double base points/miles on your stays. This translates to 10points per $ if you choose double points and at least 1000 miles on most airlines if you choose double miles.
Choose your promotion judiciously since you won’t be able to change it later. If you are choosing double miles, remember to set your earning preference to Points+ Miles. Also, bear in mind that stays with Hampton Inn/Home2Suites/Homewood Suites earn 0-250 miles with most airlines. So it is better to choose Double …

Hilton is offering Visa Signature Card holders instant Gold status until Aug 31. However if you stay thrice within that period, and pay for it with your Visa Signature, you get Gold Status until March 2013. This is seriously good deal, though it’s not a once in a life time offer. Nevertheless, Hilton Gold is normally attained by 16 stays or 36 nights and this offer gives you Gold status for more than a year with only 3 stays!
To get this offer, go to www.hhonors.com/visasignature. Enter your card number and …