Marriott may be on the verge of announcing an end to blackout dates and capacity controls for award night redemption, as well as other benefits.

Loyalty Traveler writes that Marriott posted an announcement about changes to their program coming in 2009. In addition to an end to capacity controls (matching Starwood and Hilton), the annoncement included pay for 3 award nights and get the 4th free and an increase in Platinum elite bonus points earned for hotel spending.

Loyalty Traveler wonders what will become of Marriott’s award chart which includes substantial discounts for progressively more redemption nights, speculating that 4th night free will mean more points required for the first three.

The announcement was pulled from the Marriott website after a few hours, and Marriott now says they have nothing to announce at this time. But if this was a bit early out of the chute, there’s clearly something close to this in the works.

This may be one more reason that Starwood is planning to come out with new benefits.

For the month of September, Budget is offering 8500 Continental miles for a 5-day car rental from airport locations other than Birmingham, AL (BHM); Memphis, TN (MEM); Kansas City, MO (MCI) and Omaha, NE (OMA) which do not participate.

• Sign in to your OnePass account at time of reservation to qualify for OnePass mileage.
• Go to the Advanced Car Search tab and enter BCD number U072500 and coupon number (promotion code) MUAZ041.

 

There are some changes coming to Starwood Preferred Guest, and instead of burying the news in a Friday afternoon press release and blaming high fuel costs (ha! they’re a hotel…) they’re actually touting the news. Starwood Lurker says it really is good, not the way loyalty programs usually use the word ‘enhancement’ to me ‘gutting the program’.

In fact, it’s been my understanding that Starwood has been working on some new benefits, in particular focused on their elite members, for quite awhile. But the driver of the project was lured away to market and brand the lauch of Starwood’s new aLoft hotel brand, and things stalled. Presumably this is the announcement we’ve been waiting for.

No, I don’t know for certain what the details which were finally decided upon actually are. So I’ll be tuning it. Starwood is inviting everyone to participate in the news.

Details on the conference call/webcast are here, and there will be two opportunities — 8 a.m. Eastern and noon Eastern on Tuesday. Bummer is we’ll have to wait and see…

Personally I’m hoping for one or two confirmed upgrades a year for Platinum members. That is, it’s currently possible to spend extra points on an award stay to secure a suite (generally double). It would be nice if Platinums got such a confirmed upgrade as one of their benefits, which would come out of the very same inventory. (If the relevant category ‘Suite Upgrade’ ie SPG[category #]SU inventory is available, it would be given to the member, and should cost Starwood roughly the same as what they spend when a member redeems those extra points. The infrastructure is roughly speaking already there.) I’ve written about this and suggested it several times over the years, and Starwood has supplied this benefit inthe past as a promo reward. So it would certainly be doable…

But perhaps there will be additional points-earning for in-hotel spend, since Starwood was never particularly competitive in this regard to begin with and as a result of redemption category increases the past few years it’s become increasinly hard to earn award nights based on hotel spending. (The Starwood American Express sure comes in handy, though.)

Starwood knows it has to do something, since what once set them apart totally from the pack — award redemption without capacity controls — is now no longer unique, since Hilton has introduced it as well. Starwood’s elite benefits are still superior to Hilton’s, but they offer real redemption opportunities now and at a generally lower cost (adjusting for differences in currency) in spite of a series of award chart increases the past few years.

Here’s hoping Starwood really hits back!

This thread on Flyertalk is reporting that Cathay Pacific’s first class award inventory has opened wide up on the Toronto-Hong Kong route over the next year. I haven’t checked this out myself yet, but thought I’d offer the tip.

Return flights will still be hard, but mix it up and fly Japan Air Line on the way back or even American if you have to.

If accurate, it’s a huge award redemption opportunity. Take those American Airlines miles (or other oneworld partner miles), fly first to Toronto and on to Hong Kong, Cathay’s First Class is surely worth it. And the opportunity surely won’t last.

Update: One Mile at a Time adds more:

I wouldn’t call it “wide open,” but availability is still good. Usually a couple days a week are open for the time I was looking, although during busier travel I often found nothing.The best part about this, and what makes it so incredibly rare, is that some flights have two F awards available! Keep in mind that this is on the 777-300ER, which only has six seats in first class, not to mention that this is the new F cabin.

Through November 30th Virgin Atlantic is offering 3,000 bonus miles for a roundtrip in coach, 6,000 bonus miles for a roundtrip in premium economy, or 9,000 bonus miles for a roundtrip in Upper Class.

Registration is required and since the promotion is linked to Hyatt the rules technically require you to be a Hyatt Gold Passport member and if asked (I can’t imagine you will be) to show your membership card at checkin (checkin online if you don’t have it…). Of course, if you aren’t already a Hyatt member just join and print out your temporary membership card just to be in total complaince with the rules.

Continental codeshares on Virgin don’t earn the bonus, but otherwise it appears that all paid tickets will.

The only program I’ve ever been inclined to buy miles from is British Midland, because with their cash & points award chart and unfiltered access to Star Alliance first class awards those miles have an especially high value. Members can purchase up to 20,000 miles during a 12-month preiod, and until September 30th they’re offering a 10% bonus for doing so.

The current signup bonus for new members of the program is 3,000 miles.

So a new member maxing out on the purchase transaction with bonus will have 25,000 miles at a cost of ~ US$480, which along with a roughly US$340 co-pay, is enough for a one-way international three-cabin first trip between Japan, China, or South Korea and Hawaii.

Add in 16 Hertz rentals at 3400 miles apiece and you can fly international first class roundtrip from the US to Asia or Australia using the cash and points chart (co-pay: US$540, total cost probably around $1800 plus taxes, a lot of money to be sure but really quite cheap for tickets with retail prices of $10,000 to $15,000).

British Midland is also the only program outside of North America with a regular status match program. Their Gold status is especially valuable.

Sheraton is a hit or miss brand at best. In Asia many of their properties are truly outstanding. Some U.S. properties are quite nice. But especially in some of their U.S. locations outside major metropolitan areas the properties have gotten pretty run down. Outside of the Sweet Sleeper bed, which I’m quite happy with, the brand has become quite hit or miss.

Apparently Starwood is doing something about that. They’re kicking out 38 hotels, requiring all Sheratons to have lounges with breakfast and afternoon snacks (great for Platinum members who are guaranteed lounge access…!) and introducing new restaurant standards to ramp up the food and beverage offerings as well.

Sounds like progress on the horizon for what has been an inconsistent brand in North America.

I can’t imagine going to Ikea over Labor Day weekend, but they’re offering free breakfasts each morning to induce you to do so. Of course, the breakfast is usually just 99 cents as is the coffee. So trudging through the back-to-school masses over a three day weekend nets you a $1.98 savings on breakfast.

I still like crediting my Hilton hotel stays to British Midland, but there’s currently an offer of 3000 Virgin Atlantic miles per stay through October 19th at Hilton properties in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Europe, Middle East and Africa plus specific hotels in:

- New York
- Los Angeles
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Washington DC
- Las Vegas
- Boston
- Atlanta
- Miami
- Chicago
- Denver

(Registration required.)

Combine that with the standard Avis offer of 1000 Virgin miles per rental (even on one-day rentals, this is where I usually credit my Avis rental days absent a special promo) and the Virgin miles do add up quickly, topped off in my own case with transfers in from American Express Membership Rewards. But for folks doing points transfers remember that the Virgin award chart requires quite a few points, whereas you can redeem ANA points on Virgin flights at an often lower rate (eg transfer 63,000 Amex points — or 53,000 Starwood points which yields a 10,000 point bonus — into ANA and redeem for an Upper Class roundtrip between New York-JFK and London Heathrow) as compared to 90,000 points in Virgin’s program.

Frugal Travel Guy points to a British Midland bonus for Hertz rentals.

Hertz rentals booked here using Promotional Coupon 123631 from 20 August through 30 September 2008 earn 3400 bmi miles rather than the standard 1700 (which is easily the best standard offer to start with).

British Midland points are generally the most valuable, and they’re also the hardest to earn due to limited number of partnerships especially outside of Europe. They’re the best place to credit Hertz car rentals and Hilton hotel stays.

This summer American Express Membership Rewards added Iberia as a transfer partner in its US program.

For quite some time the oneworld alliance was a real hole in Amex transfer options. Then transfer partner Mexicana aligned itself with American (after falling out of Star Alliance, though some individual partnerships remain), and linked up with oneworld carriers. But their award chart is pretty brutal for many awards.

Now Amex has a second oneworld option in Iberia. While many of their awards are pricey, it not makes sense to compare award charts with Mexicana when looking to redeem on oneworld partners and transfer to the more advantageous program.

Wandering Aramean outlines some of the pluses and minuses in the Iberia award chart.

It’s nothing like having American or Cathay Pacfiic as a transfer partner. And the best transfers for oneworld redemption ln most cases come from Starwood, where the ratio is 1 Starwood point = 2 LAN points plus transfer bonus. But it’s a great new option to have in the arsenal.

Meanwhile, I’m curious to see how this partnership evolves and whether it lasts. There’s some likelihood that Iberia merges with British Airways. If that happens, and the program is folded into Executive Club, I think the option becomes more useful. On the other hand, British Airways has Chase as a co-branded credit card partner and Chase hasn’t been one to share partners other than Continental. All comes down to how the contracts are written, whether it’s possible to partner with Amex while also partnering with Chase. So will the option morph into a British Airways transfer option? Or will the option turn out to be short-lived? (Or will an Iberia-BA deal simply not come to fruition?) All speculation of course.

United is offering 10% off international flights in economy originating in the US when paying with Visa.

Ticket by September 30, 2008 for travel between September 9, 2008 and November 20, 2008.

Just the other day I noticed that BAnk of America’s Alaska Airlines Visa product was advertising on the site. I haven’t spoken with them, and I didn’t know it was coming, but all I can say is, “cool!”

I’m a fan of the Alaska Airlines program, their recent changes notwithstanding (just use the miles for international premium class awards on partners, the partner fee is worth it, and their miles are especially flexible given their partnerships across both oneworld and Skyteam carriers…).

And the Bank of America Visa comes with a true gem in the form of its $50 companion ticket, my personal favorite tool for traveling domestic first class cross-country (and to Hawaii even) with my wife.

I have no idea if any of that Bank of America cash apparently being spread around the internet will ever find its way into my pocket but I’m perfectly pleased to see them here nonetheless!

Randy Petersen offers US Airways a face-saving way to bring back elite bonus miles — something pretty much every other carrier still features: return the bonus miles for those elite members who carry a Barclays bank co-branded Mastercard (and, ahem, provide retro credit of the missing bonuses back to August 6th).

Given the importance of the co-branded credit card relationship (funding for the America West – US Airways merger was greased by the new credit card partner), this is certainly a plausible idea… made more so by the fact that no other carrier has followed US Airways’ lead on this one.

Certainly a constructive suggestion from the guy who brought you Save Dividend Miles.

Meanwhile, I recently suggested getting the Northwest Visa Signature card before the US Bank relationship disappears with the Northwest-Delta merger (the best current bonus is probably this one).

Certainly the US Bank-issued Northwest Visa will go away. But Randy continues his post with the suggestion to Delta and American Express that the exclusive credit relationship not crowd out the possibility of a co-branded debit card, something that Amex does not offer but the Northwest currently has through US Bank (and which they could of course offer via a different provider as well). If I’m American Express, I’m not ok with it, I like my exclusivity the way it is thank you. But it all depends on the details of the contract between Amex and Delta…

Way to keep that thinking cap on for creative ideas — perhaps the incremental revenue to Delta from Skymiles purchases associated with a co-branded debit card would provide the Skymiles program with enough revenue to reverse their fuel surcharges. A guy can dream, can’t he?

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a big fan of the All Nippon Airways Mileage Club. Not that I fly ANA frequently (though I’ve flown them in first class before, have an upcoming reservation to do so again, and it’s truly lovely).

First, because for some specific redemptions such as US East Coast to Europe in business class their award chart is quite favorable, e.g. New York to London in Virgin Upper Class for 63,000 miles or Washington-Dulles to Frankfurt on Lufthansa for 68,000 miles. (And of course you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to ANA, but when actually booking your ticket do be aware that they charge much higher taxes and fees than US-based programs.)

Second, and most useful for most, is that their website lets you check award availability across the Star Alliance. You don’t have to have any miles in your account to look for award seats, you just have to have an account. Their website will show the seats being offered as awards on most Star Alliance carriers. (United, though, will sometimes refuse to book awards where their partner is actually offering the seat — one reason I buck the conventional wisdom and currently actually prefer accruing US Airways miles for non-flight activity.)

Notably absent from the All Nippon Airways Star Alliance Award website is access to Air China and Swiss. If you want to check availability of awards on Swiss, you can call your frequent flyer program of course. Or you can sign up for ExpertFlyer, a paid service. But the only way to do it online for free is via Lufthansa (and Swiss’) frequent flyer program, Miles & More. But you can’t just sign up for a Miles & More account and search Swiss availability. You actually have to have credited a flight there first. Bummer.

Turns out there’s a workaround for checking Swiss award avialability online. You can register for Jetfriends, the children’s version of Miles & More. And this gives you access to check award availability without the need for a flight first. You just have to wait for the registration welcome letter to come in the mail with your account number and PIN.

(Hat tip to this Flyertalk thread.)

Cathay Pacific is offering a bonus of 8,000 Asiamiles (for most coach booking classes; 10,000 miles for business or first) for flying roundtrip San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York to and from Hong Kong.

Registration required by November 15 for travel between October 1 and November 30, and the bonus can be earned as many times as you can fly roundtrip during the promotion period.

Hyatt is back with Faster Free Nights, among the best hotel bonus promotions ever. And this time they’re topping off with bonus points as well, which is great because Hyatt points are among the harder points to earn (few partners).

Earn a free night after every two eligible Hyatt stays at any Hyatt worldwide between September 1 and December 30, 2008. Plus, earn 2,000 bonus points after every two eligible Hyatt stays paid with your MasterCard card.

Registration is required.

Now, once upon a time a cheap Priceline stay counted as a stay for this promotion, and you could charge something minimal like a phone call to your room on your free stay and have it count as one of your two stays towards your next free stay. Ah, memories.

But many Gold Passport members still do seek out those $69 room nights near home or hotel hop a bit in order to secure free (capacity controlled) rooms at the priciest properties.

Downside to the Faster Free Nights award is that there are some restrictions on use, such as that it must be redeemed by February 28 (no banking these!) and

minimum of a three-night award stay is required for Faster Free Nights Award(s) redemption in non-resort hotels during mid-week (i.e., Monday through Thursday). One or two-night stays at non-resort hotels are available on weekends only. A weekend is generally defined as Friday through Sunday, but may vary to conform to local custom and practice in certain countries.

Frontier is increasing the number of miles for an award ticket and imposing ticketing fees, citing rising fuel cost even as oil has fallen substantially from its highs. Cutting frequent flyer program benefits usually doesn’t happen while a carrier is in bankruptcy. In general we’ve seen the opposite — print funny money (miles are a currency) while in bankruptcy and reduce the value of those miles once exited from Chapter 11. So this turns the usual expected practice on its head.

The upshot of the changes is that Frontier

will charge customers $25 per award ticket, and $75 per award ticket for flights booked within 14 days of travel.

Redeemable tickets will jump from 15,000 miles to 20,000 for a domestic round trip ticket.

More details in this Flyertalk thread.

Via Free Frequent Flyer miles, two surveys each offer 1000 Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles: here and here.

One Mile at a Time points to United service cutbacks. Those changes appear to be as follows:

Effective Sept. 2:

• 2-3 hour flights, killing biscoffs and pretzels in coach and replacing with buy on board.

Effective Oct. 1:

Increasing Buy on Board Prices

• Shelf-stable items increase from $5 to $6.

• Fresh items increase from $7 to $9.

Other meal changes:

• Eliminate free meals in coach, Dulles Departures to Europe (except Kuwait). Will offer Buy on Board.

• Three-class planes, business class gets free Buy on Board rather than separate meals (!!)

• Eliminate Second meal service on p.s. flights — replace with beverage service.

Other changes:

• Reduce flight attendant staffing to FAA minimums

These will be a real ouch to some, I can live with them (but won’t like it!), as long as the cuts don’t come to my beloved Mileage Plus program. Unfortunately, I’m still predicting that the cuts will come to Mileage Plus… (but I will love them forever if they do not.)