Intercontinental Ambassador (and thus Royal Ambassador) members now receive free internet at most Intercontinental properties.

Hyatt just rolled this out for their elites, so perhaps this is a response. And with a second program jumping on board there’s some momentum, and thus pressure on other programs to consider this as well. (Though these are smaller programs, not as though Marriott and Hilton made the offer with Starwood lagging behind.)

Not all Intercontinental properties participate, hopefully more will join in. And it’s always great when there’s a new benefit, without pairing with cutbacks.

Update: This Flyertalk post lists the currently non-participating Intercontinental properties, and points out that only roughly 1/3rd are currently listing as participating. Hopefully that number will grow.

Hilton is offering triple bmi miles through June 30 (Registratoin required.)

The usual offer is 1000 bmi miles per night, up to 3000 per stay. That makes bmi truly a favorite double dip mileage partner. With this offer it’s 3000 bmi miles per night, up to 9000 per stay.

Not all properties are participating, but the list that are is significant.

Over at Flyertalk there’s a discussion of whether booking a $45 AAA rate at the Las Vegas Hilton is worth it just for the bmi miles.

Gotta love low rates and per-stay (rather than per-dollar) promos.

As posted on Flyertalk, Fairmont is making their friends and family rate available to anyone. Some great rates available. (This is similar to the outstanding Priority Club offer.)

The promo is valid through the end of the year, and stays can be booked no more than 90 days out.

The promo code is NFAF and the person posting the offer provided Booker ID#13421516 which is a number you enter after searching for your room using the promo code above and selecting the room type. Employees apparently earn $10 per stay booked until their Booker ID.

Here’s the audio of the passenger who was recently detained at St. Louis airport for carrying $4710 in cash contributions to a political organization through security.

I have a hard time figuring out why carrying ‘a large sum of money’ makes someone a threat to airport security. Someone who is going to blow up a plane is unlikely to bring a large sum of money with them onboard, unless perhaps they’re attempting to single-handedly combat the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing… (Though even there, as Ben Bernanke drops money from helicopters, doesn’t it seem easier for a terrorist just to burn the money than the bring it onboard an aircraft?)

(Hat tip to One Mile at a Time.)

Southwest is offering a fast track to “A List” status: register and fly 10 segments between April 2 through June 15 for status through December 31.

Status normally requires 32 segments in a calendar year. It pretty much just gets you an A boarding pass (and in some cases priority security), but Southwest flyers are advised to take advantage of the offer.

(Hat tip to nsx.)

Hyatt is rolling out a revamped meeting planner rewards program.

(Hyatt has long offered a meeting planner program, I even mentioned it about five years back, but I don’t recall its details so can’t offer up what’s different in the new incarnation.)

The program offers one point per dollar, up to 50,000 points per event. Like Starwood you can split points up to three ways for each event. You can also cash in points for future event credit on the following scale:

This is unique to Hyatt as far as I’m aware (but not an area in which I’m an expert, so please correct me).  I’m also not sure this is a good idea for them.  The value in these programs is in luring meeting planners through personal benefit, in much the same way that frequent flyer programs attempt to lure flyers spending their company’s money. 

But if the points earned can be used by the company, that may take away the individual incentive for the meeting planner to use Hyatt since they might lose the personal benefit in doing so if the company is aware of the option to capture the value of the rewards for themselves. 

On the other hand it may distinguish the program and offer companies an incentive to constrain their meeting planners, so I suppose I can’t predict the net effect, but the premise of these programs is that the benefits accrue to the meeting planner, that everyone offers them, and there’s no way to capture the rewards for the company so it’s perfectly acceptable for the planner to take them.  Here Hyatt undermines this value proposition that’s standard in the industry.

Additionally, the Hyatt program offers elite status for meeting planners.  Three eligible events earns Platinum and ten eligible events earns Diamond.  In contrast, Starwood offers their top-tier based on spend — $100k in meeting spend for Platinum in the Starwood program.

Since the median event is likely above $10,000 in spend, Starwood offers an easier way to top tier.  And since events can run much much more (I’ve charged the platinum threshold on a single event before, sadly not with Starwood) the Starwood elite offering also makes it possible to both earn status more quickly and generate more total Platinum memberships.  But it’s a good offering from Hyatt, albeit one that rewards more small events than rewarding lucrative ones.

Hyatt has announced a new set of benefits, and it’s pretty big news .. but there are some open questions.

• No more blackout dates on award redemptions, a la Starwood and Hilton. (Are you listening Starwood? Your unique selling proposition has been eroded by the competition…) This makes Gold Passport points much more valuable.
• All elite members (Platinum and Diamond) will receive free internet.
• Diamonds get a club level upgrade with every stay, or guaranteed full breakfast and 2500 points.
• Diamonds will also receive (4) annual suite upgrades (previously Diamonds were mailed a single suite upgrade certificate that required paying a higher rate in most cases.). These will be electronic rather than paper certificates and are valid on stays of seven nights or less; and exclude the top-tier named suites (“Premier, Presidential and Diplomatic Suites”). It is an open question as to additional requirements — confirmed at booking vs checkin (USA Today says yes to confirmed, but I’m waiting to see), rates required to confirm, etc. Developing…

Hyatt is promoting the changes with a free nights giveaway, register at thebigwelcome.com.

This is big news for the program as a whole, and for Diamond members in particular who should now expect a stronger guarantee of a club room and more frequent access to suites.

The Hyatt suite benefit could be better or worse than Starwood’s — Starwood offers their top-tier elites upgrades to best available room at checkin, including standard suites. But it’s catch as catch can, some hotels have plenty of suites and Platinums can expect one while others are much more diffiuclt in this regard. If the Hyatt benefit is confirmed while Starwood’s is at checkin, score one for Hyatt even though it’s only four times a year.

Meanwhile, Intercontinental Royal Ambassador status still offers suites although I’m seeing more and more junior suites rather than the spectacular named suites of the past. Marriott and Hilton are behing the curve here…

Here’s the Flyertalk discussion thread for those wishing to follow the changes.

(Hat tip to Carol.)

This Flyertalk thread gave a nice heads up that Turkish Airlines is making first class awards available on their 77W aircraft leased from Jet Airways. Availability appears pretty good, even for two passengers, and that means seats between Istanbul and Hong Kong, Singapore, and Bangkok.

Definitely worth considering for those Star Alliance awards, this airliners.net thread has plenty of photos, and Turkish first class looks very nice…

Northwest is offering a 100% bonus on miles transferred between accounts through May 31. The annual maximum miles transferred into an account is 30,000 at a cost of $325, and yields 60,000 Northwest Worldperks miles in that account.

Naturally, Delta Skymiles is making the same offer, 30,000 miles transferred costs $330 (their transfer fee is higher, oddly enough) and yields 60,000 Delta Skymiles. The annual mileage caps are much higher than with Worldperks, 300,000 miles into any account and 150,000 out.

Of course, Northwest and Delta miles can be transferred back and forth between each other at will which means you can use Delta’s higher transfer limits to circumvent Northwest’s transfer cap.

Membership Rewards-earning personal American Express cards can earn double miles on gas and groceries for the next year (through March 15, 2010 anyway).

Registration is required, which is brilliant, only give the miles to those who are striving for them.

And they cap the bonus at 1,000 miles per month. Used to be similar sorts of offers might cap bonuses at 10,000 total. Here they spread the bonus out over a year, whch means you need to consistently use the card over time in order to max out. Habit-forming.

To me, annoying, I love promos I can get excited about in a single shot and go crazy with. This is just a good offer for gas and grocery spend over time, and I suppose some folks will exceed the cap or continue their spending habits using this card past March 15, 2010.

But if it you have a Membership Rewards Amex you should register, of course.