Regular readers of this blog are certainly familiar with credit card signup bonuses (and in many cases, familiar with which credit cards will let you sign up over and over and receive the bonuses each time).

I’ve earned many more miles than this from credit card bonuses over time, but Chris Guillebeau chronicles his stab at 300,000 miles from credit card signup bonuses in a single go. Pretty impressive in his own right, and worth reading for folks that haven’t gone down the credit card signup bonus route in the past. (I also highly recommend the credit card section on Gary Steiger’s website as well as archived posts here of course!)

Hat tip to Cranky Flier.

The brand new Long Island City (Queens) Holiday Inn “Manhattan View” appears to be making all of its room types available when booking an award.

The “Kind Bed Manhattan View Suite” normally runs $650 a night but is available for 15,000 Priority Club points.

I imagine this is a mistake in how they’d loaded the room types associated with award rate plans, this won’t last, but if I had to guess I’d say it will be honored. At least similar award bookings at other properties have generally been honored in the past.

American Airlines has 5 separate e-newsletters, and they’re offering a new promotion where they’ll give you 500 miles for each e-mail you’re not currently receiving that you opt into.

Sadly, I was already subscribed to all of them. I think I’ve gotten miles for this in the past. The lesson from the old days, when e-mail signup bonuses were commonplace, was to never accept an email subscription without getting miles for doing so. Offers are far fewer these days, so when something like this comes along jump on it. And a spam-collecting address from Yahoo, Hotelmail, etc. is always useful in this regard.

The Wall Street Journal explains the entry-level perks of some hotel frequent guest programs, which are offered to a member just for joining.

The benefits are relatively modest but it is of course better to join a frequent guest program than not to do so. Some hotel chains offer free internet, others won’t charge for late checkout (but don’t guarantee its availability), and perhaps a free newspaper will be included.

I usually roll my eyes when TV travel commentators talk about how great it is to be a member of a hotel’s program. And some guests bluster “But I’m an HHonors member!” as though that should grant them the Presidential suite.

But for the beginner, it’s worth understanding that it’s worth joining a program, the little things count (attenuate expectations accordingly, membership generally affords some little things).

Via One Mile at a Time, Priority Club is offering 250 points for completing a short survey about the value of their program.

Goldpoints Plus is offering free Silver status and fast track to Gold.

The offer was sent to customers of Orange.

Based on that and the phone number given as an option for how to take advantage of the offer, I assume it’s intended for U.K. members.

To take advantage of this offer, contact the Member Service Centre at goldpointsplus@carlson.com or call +44 207 949 0379 and mention the promotional code indicated in your Orange mailing.

A promo code is required, and this Flyertalk thread gives it as SWSL06.

Balloting for the Freddie Awards has begun. Polls close February 28th.

Expecut much lobbying from frequent flyer and frequent guest programs, incessant emails from programs to their membership. Marriott’s surprising performance last year was, I believe, in large measure due to signfiicant “get out the vote” efforts and I expect other programs to learn from that result and plan accordingly.

Such measures can only have an effect at the margin when over half a million people turn out to vote. But since several awards are ultimately decided by numbers closer than Al Franken’s Senate margin, such efforts can make a difference.

One pecularity in how the votes are tabulated — which I admit I’m not keen on — is that the number of votes cast for a particular program only determine whether that program crosses the (if I recall correctly) 1% threshold necessary to qualify to win in a category. Then the actual winner is determined by the average ‘value vote’ given to the program by those who vote for it.

As a result, voting for any mid- or large-scale program just gives you a ticket to determine its value vote (the smallest programs likely won’t cross the threshold in terms of number of votes).

If you actually want a program to win in the category you’re selecting it for, a value vote of ’10′ is the logical choice. Perversely, if you want a program to do badly then it makes sense to vote for the program as the ‘winner’ in the relevant category and assign it a low value vote.

These oddities notwithstanding, the outcomes of the Freddie Awards do seem to point overall towards recognizing programs that are doing well by their members and when historically dominant programs in a category are upset in a given year, it’s usually for a reason — changes in a program, member dissatisfaction, etc.

Personally I cast a few symbolic votes. I picked All Nippon Airways as having the best website because it’s the single best when it comes to searching out award availability across its partners. The web tools aren’t totally comprehensive, Star Alliance partners Air China and Swiss are not searchable online and neither are non-Star partners like Virgin Atlantic, but their web functionality is a huge step forward for members seeking awards and really empower the consumer. Not to mention empowering the consumers of all other Star Alliance airlines!

I picked ‘best award’ for an airline program as British Airways’ 50% off award redemption sale…

Further to Yesterday’s post on changes to the Intercontinental Ambassador program, the current speculation on Flyertalk is that there won’t be any changes after all to Royal Ambassador in 2009. Any changes would only come in 2010. That’s a good thing, a very good thing, a real reprieve for Royal Ambassador members…

Changes have been announced for the Intercontinental Ambassador program (Flyertalk thread is here), they’re mostly ho-hum (though will wait and see how they function in practice). Still waiting to see what the changes to the Royal Ambassador program bring. We should find out within a few weeks tops.

Plain-old vanilla Ambassador, which is what you can buy for $150 ($100 renewal, or 24,000 Priority Club points last time I checked), comes with late checkout, a one-category room upgrade, a free movie during your stay, and a welcome gift that at some properties is a nice little amentiy and at other places is a bowl of fruit.

The announced changes are:

• 20,000 bonus points for every 15 nights at Intercontinental properties. This helps address the perverse incentive that non-Intercontinental hotels in the program (Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, etc.) earn more points for Ambassador members than their higher-end Intercontinentals do.

 

• Free water! “You will no longer have to request additional water, bottled water will be replenished daily.” At least I assume it’s free, they don’t actually say so…

 

• Weekend Night Certificates, which come in the Ambassador membership or renewal package and allow you to get one free night for a paid weekend night (generally a free second night with a paid Friday or Saturday night stay, though some locations such as in the Middle East have different definitions), will be valid for a year from date of issue instead of nine months.

 

• A new website. Umm, who cares?

 

• A new look. Great, they spend money on branding and graphic design instead of putting it into the program. Everyone gets new membership cards.

• Training in consistency. They say it means all their staff get trained, and sure there are some who ignore program benefits but consistency also means not delivering above and beyond so as not to set mmeber expectations above what’s guaranteed in the program. Frankly I don’t like it.

There’s nothing abominable here, and nothing all that exciting. Bonus points are good, but only kick in every 15 nights. The program already has lots of bonus points, and I suppose consistency in benefits can’t hurt for Ambassador members who don’t usually get much beyond what program rules require anyway. Upgrades are modest to begin with.

My consternation really stems from what this model means for the coming changes to Royal Ambassador, which does tend to provide ‘wow’ experiences and I’m afraid those will become far more rare. I’ve stayed in the Diplomatic Suite at the Intercontinental Bangkok, a Terrace Suite at the Mark Hopkins, Jimbaran Bay Suite at the Intercontinental Bali, had lovely upgrades in Atlanta, New York, and many many times at the Willard in DC. If amazing upgrades were delivered consistently to all members, sure that would be great, but don’t count on that being the outcome.

Am I just too jaded? Within a few weeks we’ll know. There is a rumor that Royal Ambassadors will consistently be given a choice of a suite upgrade with no club access, or club access with no suite. Again, I’m guessing the suite upgrades will be standardized to a basic suite, rather than the upper-echelon rooms I’ve frequently gotten. But time will tell.

One Mile at a Time summarizes some of the best and worse uses of American Express Membership Rewards points. I agree that in general Air Canada and ANA are the best transfer options, though of course it’s best to keep the points in American Express until needed to preserve flexibility (and of course both of those programs have mileage expiration rules).

But something not mentioned in the post is a really neat feature of the program — that via the Membership Rewards website you can link anyone’s frequent flyer mile account you wish and once so linked transfer points into that account. You can have more than one of a particular program linked at the same time. So drop 1000 miles in a friend’s account to top them off towards an award, and then 10,000 into a cousin’s, and finally more miles into your own. I believe this isn’t actually permitted under the rules, but it’s technically permitted by the website.

I previously mentioned that Citibank’s Thank You Rewards program was eliminating “fixed point redemption” which allowed members to derive up to 3 cents per point in value, leaving “variable point redemption” — which caps value at 1 cent — as the only travel rewards option. (Other redemptions such as for gift cards generally provide less than 1 cent a point in value.)

The Wall Street Journal picks up the story and notes that other proprietary bank rewards programs are cutting benefits — for example, American Express ending the domestic companion program for Platinum and Centurion members, and ending the Mandarin Oriental two nights-for-one program for Centurion members; banks generally reducing bonus opportunities on spend such as on gas and groceries; and requiring meeting spending thresholds before bonus point opportunities kick in.

The dramatic example of devaluation in Citibank’s Thank You Rewards program is the elimination of the domestic business class fixed point redemption option:

For example, eligible members in Citi’s ThankYou program can redeem 90,000 points for a business-class ticket worth up to $2,700. As of March, however, they’ll need 270,000 points for a $2,700 ticket.

Citi spins this by suggesting the ‘new’ variable point redemption option includes payment of taxes on tickets, while fixed point redemption did not. But (a) the variable point redemption is not new, it existed all along, Citi isn’t providing any new benefit to members and (b) while true, it doesn’t change that the potential reward value is cut by two-thirds in eliminating fixed point redemptions; while those did require paying taxes on the ticket that just meant that fixed point redemption didn’t allow a member to redeem for more than 3 cents a point in value (3 cents plus the value of the taxes), truly a red herring.

Changes to the Citi program in particular make it no longer compelling compared to competitor options. Holding the number of points earned per dollar constant, certainly a 2% cash back rewards card (on all spending) is superior to a 1% rebate option on travel a la Thank You Network. Now, those with cards that still earn more than 2 Citi points per dollar can still come out ahead relative to those cashback cards.

But the value proposition of Citi’s program (where up until the change you might earn 5 or more points per dollar and redeem those at 3 cents a point, yield a 15% return) is no longer competitive under their new rules — which cut redemption values by two-thirds — with traditional frequent flyer programs, at least with programs like Air Canada Aeroplan, bmi, US Airways, and American.

Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles, though the iDine (Rewards Network) dining for miles value proposition has been cut in half for its most frequent participants, it’s still worth noting that the US Airways dining program if offering a fast track to VIP status.

Registration is required, and then dining 5 times at participating restaurants by March 31st ($25 minimum spend each time) will yield VIP status in the program and future dines through 2009 will earn 5 miles per dollar spent. In addition, there’s 1000 bonus miles on offer for completing the promotion.

A long and growing Flyertalk thread outlines the changes to the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program that go into effect April 1. You’d almost think it’s an April Fool’s joke, it’s so bad.

Mileage earning gets cut back:

• Most fares will earn less than 100% of flown miles, with only “B” and “S” fares earning 100% of miles flown. Lower fares will range from 25% to 75% earning.
• Mileage earning for premium fares changes, ranging from a 25% bonus to a 75% bonus (advance purchase restrictive “Z fares” will earn only 25% class of service bonus).

First class redemptions get restricted:

• Only Elite members of the program can book first class awards. General members, no matter how many miles they have, will be ineligible for first class redemption.
• Those elites who are permitted to redeem for first class awards will have to spend a whole lot more miles, e.g. 400,000 for Paris-Beijing roundtrip.

As with any such changes, there are naturaly a few bones thrown out so that the program can claim benefits as well as cuts. Straight from the playbook, they throw out a minor sop to elites.

• Elite members will get extra award inventory of some kind for a 15% mileage premium.
• Elite will also get access to “extra leg room seats” but the details remain unclear.

I do my best to miniimize my participation in Skyteam programs generally, this doesn’t especially effect me. But I sympathize with Flying Blue (aka “Flying Poo”) members.

Continental is offering 2000 bonus miles for new members and an additional 5000 for those members who fly Continental by the end of 2009. No minimum fare class is required to earn the flight bonus.

The only restriction is that the address on the member’s account must list an address in the

Mid Pacific, South Pacific, China or South Asia (excludes Japan). Residency is defined by the address on the OnePass account.

The W Hotel Store is offering 35% off with promo code R5GC6 through January 31.

They semi-frequently run 40% off discounts on beds and bedding, so this isn’t the absolute best discount ever if you’re looking for a W Hotel Bed (I love mine). But for site-wide discounts 40% is much more rare.

I took the opportunity to replenish my supply of Bliss products, which with the discount are offered at a good price.

Via both SlickDeals and Flyertalk, Fiji Water is offering 2500 Delta Skymiles with an order of a 24 bottles of water.

Now, there’s some dispute as to the details of this offer. It’s being discussed on Flyertalk as though any purchase will work, including a one-time purchase with a 40% off discount code.

But I read the terms and conditions on the page with the mileage offers, and those say

on Monthly Recurring Orders> of 500mL and 1.0L bottle sizes only. This offer is not combinable with other savings or promotions

So we’ll see what ultimately turns out to be true in practice.

With the discount, the price is $22.50 without a cancellable monthly subscription and $17.97 with that subscription using promo code fijiblack which yields a 40% discount this week only. (Promo code giftfiji yields a 30% discount and should last beyond this week.)

Of course, the contract/subscription is fully cancellable so those who want to save the extra $4.53 just need to remember to cancel.

One Mile at a Time reports that while Continental reduced elite mileage bonuses (essentially aligning themselves with new partner-to-be United), they’ve offered a way back in that members who have their Presidential Plus co-branded credit card earn the old elite bonuses.

The card has a $375 fee, but comes with lounge membership and Avis Presidents Club membership so will be worthwhile to some — especially heavy flyers earning higher mileage bonuses.

An interesting demonstration (again…) of the power and importance of co-branded credit card partners. In many ways a high-volume credit card customer is as important or more so to a frequent flyer program than a high-volume flyer.

Fortunately, to the benefit of both types of customers, the two are frequently one in the same person and so can benefit mightily by this new reality with many airline co-branded card products in terms of faster elite requalification, extra bonus miles, and in some cases similar benefits to basic elite status just for holding such a card.

Through January 31, Tumi’s online clearance got even better, the top of the page now shows an ‘additional’ 30% off sale prices.

iDine (aka Rewards Network) which partners with several loyalty programs to provide miles for dining has just become half as valuable.

Used to be that all dining activity earned 10 miles per dollar via most airline co-branded relationships. A couple years ago they initially killed the 10 miles per dollar, implementing a new structure of 1 mile per dollar for those signed up for the program, 3 miles for those who create an online profile, and 5 miles per dollar for those who use the program enough to be called ‘VIPs’. After much outcry they added a bonus 5 milers per dollar for VIPs who ‘rate their dine’ after the meal, effectively returning the program to 10 miles per dollar for those who remain engaged enough in the program.

The ‘rate your dine’ bonus was not extended to 2009. It just disappeared off the website.

Initially it was there, a direct link to the offer said it was ongoing. The link on the Delta and United co-branded websites specifically said the offer would expire December 31, 2009, which menas they updated the end-date on the offer from 12/31/08.

In a Flyertalk discussion, though, the a purported representative of the company made the unlikely claim that this was just a web archiving glitch.

(W)e encountered a technical issue that was specific to archived links associated with the Delta SkyMiles Dining and the United Mileage Plus Dining “VIP Rate Your Dine Bonus”. The VIP Rate Your Dine Bonus for all Rewards Network dining programs ended on 12/31/08 – there was no special extension for Delta or United.

How an ‘archived links’ issue could have changed the end-date of the program is unclear. But it doesn’t really matter. The VIP rate your dining bonus has ended. Which means the most you can get out of the program currently, outside of limited-time specific promotions, is 5 miles per dollar. That’s half the earning I’ve experienced since first participating in the program over 10 years ago.

For 10 miles per dollar I’d go out of my way to eat at participating restaurants. For half that, I won’t. And since I’m not overly impressed with the current array of participating DC-area locations, I’ll probbaly even drop down from VIP status since the incremental different over just having an online dining profile is just an extra two miles per dollar.

Seeing the gutting of valuable programs like this is truly, truly sad.

Via One Mile at a Time, Hilton is again offering 10% off best available rate by booking through the Team USA™ Advantage link..