Leave aside that hotels post their own bogus positive reviews, and competitor properties post their own bogus negative reviews. Sure, some people like to create an image of themselves as sophisticated, either by associating with a high status property or trashing a high status property — or by convincing people that where they stay is indeed high status.

The individual incentives aren’t necessarily to spread the word about great places a traveler wants to return to. It can sometimes be better to keep them a secret.

Or so says XKCD web comic..

(HT: Dan R.)

Daraius from Million Mile Secrets has been running a series of interviews of frequent flyer bloggers. He interviewed me last month (and I extended on the most asked about story from the interview here.).

For a new blogger, it’s a great strategy to bring in an audience I imagine, since the more highly trafficked bloggers link to you. Plus it happens to also be interesting, I’ve enjoyed the stories of the bloggers who are my daily reads.source a blog post!

Since Darius is a relatively new blogger, but whose posts have been interesting and useful, I thought that his story would be interesting. So I asked him to share it with me. Plus, I get to mostly out

And so I present The Million Mile Secrets Interview.

(In Rajasthan, India)

How and when did you start collecting miles and points?

I first started collecting miles when I went backpacking in Europe after graduating college. I successfully earned miles for the outbound trip on KLM, but didn’t sign up for an American Airlines frequent flyer account until after the return trip. So I didn’t earn any miles for that segment.

My first job out of college had me travelling a lot for work, so I would research point and mile bonuses on the web. That’s how I discovered Flyer Talk. But besides researching bonus offers, I didn’t get into miles and points in a big way.

I was (and still am) a personal finance junkie, so I would apply for credit cards with 0% interest introductory offers, and transfer money to a bank account which earned interest. While researching credit cards, I discovered that you could churn Citi AAdvantage cards and get the bonus again…and again…and again. I was hooked!

I’ve always been the type who loves to do taxes, read fine print, and understand rules. Frequent flyer programs are not as complicated as the US tax code, but are more lucrative to me when I find the right loophole!

Why did you start Million Mile Secrets? What’s special about it?

I’ve been collecting miles and points for a long time, and wanted to share how easy it is to travel for less with others. Emily and I agreed on a 3 month trial period – I’ll blog for 3 months at first and see how it goes. After a week, I’m addicted and can’t think of life without writing a blog!

At one point, I wanted to be a Professor of Economics or Finance, but decided not to pursue it. I like explaining arcane concepts, and the blog lets me do that. It also lets me share in their success. I am always thrilled to read comments or emails of readers’ successes!

I write Million Mile Secrets for folks who are just getting started with miles and points and don’t have a lot of time to spend earning miles and points. I write my posts to show those folks how to have Big Travel with Small Money!

It really is possible to sign up for a few good credit card offers and travel the world in style. You won’t believe it is possible until you do it. And once you do it, you don’t want to ever pay full price for travel again!

What are your 2 favorite posts?

• “Use The 2-Browser Trick To Earn 150,000 Free AAdvantage Miles” The 2-browser trick post was one of my first posts, and I am thrilled that it has over 450 comments and 44 Facebook likes so far. The 75,000 miles sign on bonus with the Citi American Airline personal credit card is the largest untargeted bonus currently available. And you can get all 3 cards by using the 2 browser trick. That’s close to a quarter of a million miles which will get you a LOT of travel!

• “July App-o-Rama. 6 Cards. 305,000 Miles & Points” I also blogged about my recent round of credit card applications, and I like this post because it shows how easy it is to get lots of miles and points from credit card applications. 6 cards got me 305,000 miles and points. Unbelievable, isn’t it?!

What’s the one single thing people can do to get more miles?

If you don’t have a big loan (house, equity etc.) in the next two years, apply for credit cards just for the sign up bonuses. It is the quickest and easiest way to get millions of air miles and hotel points.

For example, you can get 75,000 American Airlines miles by signing up for 1 credit card in 5 minutes.

To put that in perspective, it is ~8,000 miles from the US to Europe. You would have to fly from the US to Europe 7.5 times (including elite status bonuses) to earn 75,000 miles on 1 airline!

Think of how much time and effort 7.5 trans-Atlantic trips would take. And you can get the same amount of miles by signing up for just 1 credit card on your computer! Incredible.

Also, read the frequent flyer blogs. They are written by folks who are passionate about this hobby and have a lot of great information to share!

What’s your most memorable travel experience?

The most memorable travel experiences have been the experiences which miles and points have allowed me to give others. From visiting Emily’s grandparents, to having her dad and mom visit us (sometimes surprising them in First Class). It has been a great opportunity to repay our parents for all they did for us by taking them on holidays and getting them free tickets.

And I love seeing how happy Emily gets when we travel!

If I have to choose the trip which stands out, I’d choose my first trip to India with Emily. We stayed at the Lake Palace in Udaipur (yes, it really is an old palace in the middle of a lake in Rajasthan), went on a camel safari in Jaisalmer, slept in a clay tent, and visited the Taj Mahal in Agra. It was wonderfully romantic and we often look at the pictures to remind ourselves just how lucky we are.

(Picture at the Lake Palace)

What do your family and friends think of your miles & points hobby?

Most of my friends and family don’t get it. They understand that I travel a lot using miles and points, but they don’t see how they can do the same themselves. I’m working on them, though.

The few that get it, love it!

Is there any tool or trick which you’ve found especially useful in this hobby?

Be nice. I’m always amazed at how upset and personally affronted folks get when things don’t go their way. Stuff happens, and you’ve got to deal with it. And being nice and friendly will solve more problems than a gruff and adversarial attitude (easier said, I know).

Call center roulette. Hang up the phone and call back. There is a lot of variability in agents’ knowledge, competence, and experience so often times, it is best to hang up and call back if you don’t get the answer you’re looking for.

Research. Research is key, especially when you’re booking award travel. Use tools such as ExpertFlyer, ANA, and KVS to plan your trip. Then call in and book your flights segment by segment starting with the international legs first.

Patience. Your best laid plans will get derailed. But there’s always a work around. At the end of the day, you’re getting an enormous value by using miles and points to have Big Travel with Small Money, so expect to do a little work to get there.

What was the least expected way you’ve earned miles or points?

• Buying American Express Traveler’s Checks and walking around the corner to deposit them in my bank.
  
• Depositing $1 coins in the bank (the coins were worth more than my beat-up Ford Escort I drove to the bank.)
  
• Having a baldness consultation despite having lots of hair on my head. I explained that my grand uncle is bald and I’m worried it could be genetic! I still get junk mail from them 3 years later.
  
• Taking part in a focus group for American Airlines.
  
• Buying stickers.

What do you know now about collecting miles and points which you wish you knew when you started out?

Your credit score doesn’t take much of a hit if you churn credit cards properly.

Big deals occur rarely, but capitalize on them when they do.

Sometimes it is better to spend miles and save spending cash, than to just hoard them and not use them.

Airlines will (they don’t have a choice given the amount of miles introduced in circulation) increase the amount of miles needed for award redemptions. If there is too much supply of something it is bound to be devalued. Instead, have a back-up plan to use your miles.

What would your readers be surprised to know about you?

• That I used to teach Hap-Ki-Do and Tae-Kwon-Do.
  
• I’m very absent minded.
• I’ve eaten a whole jar of Nutella in one session in front of the computer!
• I got more than my 2,500 calories that day.
• That I am extremely happy and grateful for all the opportunities which I’ve been presented. I’ve been very lucky in life and wonder what I’ve done to deserve it all.
• I don’t like peanuts.
• I like bow-ties and suspenders.

Any parting words?

Mile and points are worthless by themselves. They have value only when used. So use them for a once-in-a-lifetime trip in First Class. Or for several trips within the US. Use them for the Park Hyatt in Paris. Or for the Holiday Inn in Dallas. Do whatever makes sense for YOU.

Research has proven that experiences make us much happier than possessions. So use your miles and points to meet family and friends, and travel to places you’ve always wanted to.

Say hi to grandma over the weekend, whisk your partner off to Bora Bora for an exotic getaway, and send the kids off to Europe for the summer using your miles and points!

You’ll remember those experiences for a long time and your loved ones will too.

(In a café in Prague)

Thanks for sharing your story, Darius! And check him out at Million Mile Secrets.com.

Mommy Points is giving away a free night at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort outside of Austin.

The place looks great, and while I don’t often post contests that others are running since the odds of winning are so low, as of this writing there are only 62 entries. Which means the odds of winning are really, really good.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment in her post answering two questions:

1. Why do you need a day away at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa? AND 2. What activity or amenity do you most want to experience at this resort?

Enter by Friday 11:59pm Central.

Often when I run a contest there are 800, maybe 1000 entries or more. The odds here are much better, and the place looks pretty good from the photos on the blog.

Yesterday I blogged that Starwood appeared to be rolling out award stays as qualifying towards elite status beginning October 1. It had been confirmed to me by two sources, but I hadn’t seen it in writing.

However, the following memo was sent out from Starwood Preferred Guest to hotel properties at the end of last week:

Update: In my original posting of the memo sent to Starwood hotel managers, I redacted some information that struck me as internal and proprietary. On reflection, more of the particular memo ought to be kept internal to Starwood, out of respect to them. In publishing the document itself I was looking primarily for confirmation and explanation of the changes. And the changes have now been publicly confirmed. So the memo itself is no longer necessary.

Key details of the changes are: Effective October 1, 2011, and onward, all SPG Award stays and nights will count toward elite status qualification, including Free Night Awards, Cash & Points and promotional awards. This is a permanent change to the program, not a temporary one as had been speculated by some.

All nights on these award rates count, however they will not count towards promotions (whether for bonuses, free nights, or accelerated status qualification).

And when receiving a gifted award stay, the person actually staying in the hotel will receive the stay/nights towards qualification (and not the person doing the gifting).

With the American Express-Continental relationship ending on September 30 (crazy to think that they gave us a full year’s notice of year, serious kudos to them!), if you have Membership Rewards points it’s worth revisiting whether to take any last minute steps to protect yourself.

Now, for me the first thing I think of is lounge access, since American Express Platinum (and Centurion) card members no longer will have access to Continental/United lounges beginning October 1. And Priority Pass Select members (which also happens to come with the Amex Platinum card) no longer get access, either. I’ll still get my lounge access via my British Midland Gold status.

And I’m not really too tinked at American Express here, either.

First, understand why the relationship is ending. Chase bank is the issuer of the co-branded credit cards belonging to both United and Continental, and will continue to issue the co-branded credit cards post-merger. They hold tremendous sway at the airline, since the co-branded credit card partner (then First USA, since acquired by Chase) provided debtor-in-possession financing for United’s bankruptcy. The bank provided the airline’s exit financing, too. And Chase pre-purchased half a billion dollars worth of miles to provide liquidity. You really can’t have a major relationship with both Chase and with American Express these days. So when Continental and United merged, the Chase relationship became stronger, and Continental couldn’t continue to play nice with Amex.

Second, American Express has been adding partners. For lounge access, they added American Airlines several years ago and US Airways in the time leading up to the expected loss of Continental. The US Airways lounge relationship doesn’t even require a same-day boarding pass on the airline. And they’ve introduced Priority Pass Select, which will get you into lounges around the world and also domestically into Alaska Airlines Boardrooms, something that the Amex Platinum and Centurion cards didn’t previously offer. So they’re trying.

They’ve added some points transfer partners, like Virgin America, but that’s really not meaningful. There are a whole lot of reasons to feel like American Express Membership Rewards is losing value, through no fault of their own, and not just because of the loss of Continental as a transfer partner.

• Air Canada Aeroplan was an amazing partner, and still is on some routes (like US to nearer Europe, just 90k miles per person roundtrip in business class). But their July devaluation was a killer for some of their best routes like US to Asia in First Class. They won’t put awards on hold and many destinations have become quite pricey.

• All Nippon now adds fuel surcharges to redemptions on Virgin Atlantic.

• British Airways is expected to announce a massive award chart devaluation in November.

These are three American Express transfer partners, whose points have gotten less valuable or are expected to do so. Which means that losing Continental Onepass hurts that much more.

If Aeroplan hadn’t devalued, I’d have said that they were usually a better option for transfers than Onepass anyway, except for places like Central Asia, Middle East, and aFrica. If British Airways wasn’t devaluing, I’d say that access to their award chart for oneworld partners was a huge benefit and reason not to move poins over to Continental.

And in fact I did advise that the option value of American Express points was too good a benefit to trade in, either for most transfer bonuses or to get over to Continental before the relationship ends.

Now the conventional wisdom seems to be shifting. The Points Guy is transferring about a third of his Amex points to Continental before the 30th. Ben Schlappig has suggested transferring at least some of your American Express points to Continental before the relationship goes away.

I’m going to push back slightly, though.

• Continental isn’t always the best place for your miles. Where you want your mileage balances does depend on the specific award you want. Continental is generally good for Europe and Asia, not so good for South America, Australia, or the South Pacific.

• American Express points will still afford flexibility. And their partners do remain strong. We don’t know what will happen, exactly, to the British Airways award chart come November. But US to Europe is actually likely to stay the same or get less expensive, depending on the specific city pairs. Aeroplan remains a good, strong option for many destinations. And there are always those juicy Delta transfer bonuses, like the current 40% transfer rebate which equates to a 67% transfer bonus, and even makes the Delta award chart not so outlandish.

• We don’t know what Continental’s future award chart will look like. Aeroplan has just devalued their chart, British Airways is about to, so we can probably count on their awards staying constant for awhile, at least a couple of years. But Continental really hasn’t done too much with theirs, only some tweaking. But goodness knows in the future there will be chart increases, there always are. I wouldn’t make all plans about future redemptions that may be years off based on the current reward chart.

So what I Would do is start by asking whether the current Continental award chart is best for your near-term redemption needs, and whether you need more Continental miles in your account as a result. And then transfer those points that you will need in that account in order to redeem those known awards. But not transfer more than that. Because the option value and hedge of having your points held by Amex, rather than in a single mileage program, remains a strong value proposition. Maybe not as strong as it was six months ago, but stronger than relying on the vagaries of a single carrier who doesn’t have the best award chart pricing to all destinations, or the best award availability to all destinations.

Consider transferring some points over if you have immediate needs, but my advice remains the same — Continental’s departure from American Express Membership Rewards shouldn’t change your behavior all that much, I wouldn’t go speculatively dumping a million Amex points over there without thinking through how and when those points will be used.

It’s been the subject of speculation over on Milepoint, and I’ve just had two different people confirm it for me: expect an announcement on October 1 that award stays and nights (including cash and points awards) will count towards elite status in the Starwood Preferred Guest program. We’ll wait until October to see whether this actually goes into effect, but there’s strong indication that it will.

Since January 1, 2003 this has been the case with Hilton HHonors but the other major chains didn’t follow suit. It looks likely that Starwood will be the second.

Last October, Starwood began awarding both two stays and five nights to American Express cardholder accounts (no spend threshold required). Folks who have both the personal and small business card get four stays and ten nights. Now heavy spending American Express card users, earning lots of points, can get a real chunk of the way towards top status by actually using their points.

Personally I’d rather see the option of earning status (or specificially, nights and stays) based on credit card spend instead of having to actually burn the points. But it still represents increasing importance of credit card customers in the overall elite value proposition for this program (as in most other programs).

This change will make it easier to mattress run towards status, since you won’t have to come out of pocket to do so.

Overall I do like the change, though of course Platinums who already earn their status through paid stays will on the whole not like it — since it means more Platinum members competing for the same room upgrades.

Two and a half years ago, Starwood introduced ‘Ambassador’ status which was an invite-only program for high value customers, and provided benefits beyond what Platinum does. I expected the program to roll out more broadly, possibly become even a new top elite tier, but things have been relatively quiet. And while at the beginning of the program there were reports of significant upgrades beyond what a Platinum would be entitled to, many of the more recent comments on the program have been about a disconnect between preferences expressed to one’s Ambassador representative and implementation at the hotel-level. So it seems like things haven’t been getting scaled up.

A new top tier would certainly be in order, provided that Starwood also offered new benefits commensurate (rather than simply devaluing Platinum). Perhaps making status easier to earn presages a new status level…?

Hilton is bringing back “Fast Ways to Free Stays” for the fourth quarter. Between October 1 and December 31, every 4 stays or 10 nights earns a free night — or you can choose double base points after 4 stays or 10 nights. There’s no limit to the number of free nights you can earn, but free nights will need to be redeemed within 6 months from being earned.

Registration is required and you have to choose at registration which offer you want, you cannot change later.

There’s a long list of excluded rates which are mostly third party rates (like Orbitz, Expedia, Booking.com) though not exclusively so. And there’s a long list of excluded hotels which won’t earn credit in the promotion, from the Homewood Suites in Clovis, California to the Grand Hilton in Seoul.

The fact that this promo requires four stays for a free night limits the possibility of pure mattress running. Sure, an extra stay to push you over the top to the next free night can make some good sense (a cheap airport one-night stay to earn a free night in the Maldives or Bora Bora). But it’ll be a stretch to make sense at say (4) $80 stays, spending $320, to yield a free night. There’s a highly limited number of redemption options where such a calculation could make any sense.

On the other hand, perhaps bringing back free nights — something Starwood offered at resorts after 3 stays back in the Spring — makes it likelier that Hyatt Gold Passport could re-introduce their Faster Free Nights (free night every 2 stays) sometime during the traditionally slow winter months.

As far as how to choose free stays versus points, the free nights will generally be much more valuable but if you don’t expect to have good use for free nights in the first half of 2012 you’ll want to demur and take the points. Similarly, if you have especially long, expensive stays the points could work out. Or if you’ll wind up with 7 or 11 stays and an unwillingness to mattress run for the 8th or 12th stay in order to get the next free night then points could make sense. For short, cheap stays there’s no question that free nights is the better deal.

Sadly, for those of us unlikely to give Hilton 4 stays during the promo period, the offer does little other than a bump to base points which I don’t value nearly as much (which I suppose I can’t blame them for!). And I’m guessing this offer won’t move the needle on my own hotel choice between now and the end of the year such that I earn free nights. I have two upcoming award redemptions, and though award redemptions count as stays with HHonors towards elite qualification, they don’t count as stays for this promotion unfortunately.

Update: A typo in the post, now corrected, suggested that double points begin only after the fourth stay. Sorry for the confusion!

Via Online Travel Review anyone can sign up for the Delta incentives program where you buy miles to give out to customers or others as incentives for doing business with you.

There’s a $75 setup fee, and then anyone can participate. The straight-up purchase price is 2.2 cents per mile with a 60,000 mile minimum purchase. That’s far less than the normal consumer price of 3.5 cents per mile. Through September 30 there’s a 100% bonus on purchased miles which brings that cost down in half (to 1.75 cents, but of course there’s also 7.5% tax on top).

Turns out that the Delta incentives program has a bonus going on too, through November 30th.

• Purchase 60,000 – 149,999 miles, receive a 10% bonus
  
• Purchase 150,000 – 249,999 miles, receive a 20% bonus
  
• Purchase 250,000 or more miles, receive a 30% bonus

With a 250,000 mile purchase with 30% bonus you get 325,000 miles at a cost of 1.6923 cents per mile (plus 7.5% tax).

Miles purchased in the Delta Incentives program must be awarded to Skymiles accounts within two years of purchase.

Now, I’m not rushing out to buy large quantities of Skymiles at over 1.5 cents apiece. But for anyone who was interested in the 100% purchase bonus, this is worth considering, and folks could certainly pool together to meet the minimum purchase threshold for best bonus. Living in DC as I do I would think it would actually be a reasonable deal, if I had frequent need to hope over to Europe, since Washington Dulles – Paris is available in business class as an award most days of the week, and Air France offers pretty good award availability for destinations beyond Paris.

Southwest is the next in the series of live chats on Milepoint.

Mark your calendars for Thursday, October 20 at 9:00pm Eastern.

We are pleased to announce another of our “A Conversation with …” live chat series event, featuring one of the most prominent leaders in the travel industry.

Join us and our special guest Jonathan Clarkson, Director of the Rapid Rewards Loyalty Program (and soon integration of AirTran A+ Rewards), on October 20 at 7:00 p.m. MDT for the live milepoint chat event.

You can ask questions online during the chat or pre-submit there here.

And you can sign up for a reminder on the event page.

Meanwhile, via Million Mile Secrets, you can get 500 Southwest Rapid Rewards points by signing up for their two e-mail newsletters and remaining subscribed for three months.

Via One Mile at a Time, American Airlines is giving away 100 free miles for ‘liking’ their Facebook page, watching their new commercial, and answering three questions about it:

1. Name the size, color and type of animal mentioned in this commercial.
   
2. What sounds seem out-of-place in the living room?
   
3. How is the Mom actually communicating with her daughter?

As Ben writes,

You just have to answer three simple questions about the big, green frog, how the captain makes an announcement in the lady’s living room, and how they’re communicating via IM.

You don’t enter your American Airlines number into the form, presumably you’ll get a followup message later for the miles.

You don’t need to speak Japanese to ‘get’ what they think is really going on.

(HT: Alan H.)

Scott O’Leary announced details of the new United Mileage Plus program for 2012 this morning on Milepoint.

Here are the key changes, which aren’t as bad as feared but which have a couple of real key negatives from my perspective.

• United will go to a 4-tier elite program as expected — 25,000 miles, 50,000 miles, 75,000 miles, and 100,000 miles (plus Global Services). They will begin requiring a minimum of 4 United, Continental, or COPA flights to earn status, so both people that are earning United status from Air Canada or bmi flights alone will no longer be able to do so. They are not introducing a minimum revenue component to elite status qualification, as had been speculated.

• Reduced elite bonuses. Elites flying 50,000 – 99,999 miles per year will receive less than their current 100% mileage bonus. 50k mile flyers will earn a 50% bonus and and 75k mile elite flyers will earn a 75% bonus.

• Increased class of service bonuses. Full fare coach will earn a 25% bonus, discount business 50%, full business and 2-cabin first will earn 75%, and 3-cabin first will earn 150%.

• The Continental method for determining what routes get complimentary elite upgrades. If it’s an international flight product, there’s no complimentary upgrade. If it’s a domestic premium product, it’s eligible for complimentary upgrade. So New York JFK – San Francisco/Los Angeles won’t get complimentary upgrades (as it’s been, though I wonder what will happen from Newark to these markets). Newark and Houston to Hawaii aren’t eligible for upgrades but the California and Chicago flights are. Intra-Asia narrowbody flights will become complimentary upgrade eligible.

• Elites will be eligible for instant upgrade at booking on full (Y and B) fares. 1Ks will be eligible for instant upgrade from M fares as well. Full Y fares will upgrade into revenue buckets, while B and M fares will be moved into upgrade inventory if available, though a new and more generous upgrade inventory than that used for other upgrade instruments or for complimentary upgrades.

• New upgrade windows. 1Ks will upgrade 96 hours out instead of 100; 50,000-mile flyers will upgrade 48 hours out and Premiers at 24 hours out.

• New upgrade hierarchy:

  Global Services
  Y/B/M instant upgrades that weren’t confirmed in advance (sorted by fare class then premier tier)
  Paid upgrades (i.e. GPUs, RPUs and mileage upgrades) sorted by status, fare class, and date of waitlist
  All remaining premier customers by status, then fare class

  So full fare trumps status and upgrades paid for with certificates or miles trump status. (Although status matters within each category). This, to me, is the worst change of all — a 100,000 mile flyer is upgraded after a non-status flyer using miles. A 100,000-mile flyer using miles or certificates is upgraded after a B fare 25,000-mile flyer.

• Premiers will get economy plus seating only 24 hours in advance, no longer at booking.

• Good news on the lifetime elite program. Miles from Continental and United will be combined, including all elite qualifying miles (not just flown miles) from Continental. Going forward it’s butt-in-seat miles only. And whereas Continental gave lifetime Silver at 1 million miles and United lifetime Premier Executive (mid-tier), they’ve determined that going forward 1 million gets lifetime 50,000-mile status, 2 million gets lifetime 75,000-mile status and 3 million gets lifetime 1K, and 4 million gets lifetime Global Services. And they’re adding a spouse benefit, spouse gets same elite level as the lifetime member. Further, Continental’s lifetime Platinum members from the old Infinite Elite program get lifetime 1K.

These changes will be rolling out over the first quarter of 2012, rather than all at once on February 1. That means they’ll be extending the current elite year slightly, details forthcoming, since the new program won’t be ready to roll out from an IT perspective when the new elite year is supposed to begin.

Bottom-line is a huge reduction in value for mere 25,000-mile flyers in no longer having access to Economy Plus at booking, this was the key differentiator for lower level elites who choose United for economy plus over regular coach on other airlines.

And a huge reduction in value for loyalty across the year rather than profitability on a single given trip by prioritizing full fare over status for upgrades, and prioritizing willingness for a member to spend miles on a single trip over status for upgrades.

I think these two changes are a mistake for United, certainly full fare occasional passengers will disagree. The rest of the changes, roughly speaking, make sense to me.

That’s the discounted redemptions of just 5000 points per night (which can be savvily purchased for $30).

Sadly the only Intercontinental properties on the list are Dallas, Malta, Bahrain, and Santo Domingo.

Get ‘em while they’re hot if your plans coincide.

(HT: Rene d.)

I usually don’t blog my average domestic stays, or even my average international ones, but when I snap a few photos and since I write more for myself than my readers much of the time (sorry!) sometimes I feel like it’s worth posting only to remind myself. I admit, I frequently search my own blog for links and offers. That’s one of the reasons I started the blog way back in 2002, as a way of memorializing the things I had learned about travel so that I could refer back to them later. So here I am, writing about of all things the Hyatt Regency Baltimore.

This was my first US Airways hit, as I mentioned yesterday. The one-night stay would have earned less than 1000 Hyatt Gold Passport points, so I wasn’t really giving up anything in taking 500 US Airways miles. I figured out on Friday that I needed to be up in Baltimore Saturday evening and Sunday morning, and I didn’t feel like making the extra roundtrip drive, so I booked a reasonable AAA rate at the hotel.

I just quickly booked the first room on the list, I saw it was a room with two double beds, but it was a one-night stay, I figured that as a Hyatt Diamond I’d probably get a harbor view and I put a request in the comments for a King.

When I checked in around 2:30pm I was told that I had been upgraded to a club floor room. I asked about a harbor view, they offered me one on another floor. But told me that in either case, view or no, they were sold out and had no kings available.

“But I am a Diamond Guest.”

(Kidding.)

I asked them to see what they could do, some typing away and they found me a Queen bed room that wasn’t ready yet, “We’ll call you once it’s been cleaned.” Ummm.. I gave a puzzled look and some more typing, they came up with a king-bedded room. I never mentioned status but the check-in clerk said, “We value our diamond guests.” Now about the giraffe…

No giraffe, but I was proactively asked at check-in whether I’d like late check out, I do much like that it seems to have become brand standard at full service Hyatts not just to honor late check out but actually to offer it. That leaves out any possibility, more or less, of a question of whether or not it’ll be honored and really puts Gold Passport a step ahead on the late checkout benefit. Now if only they’d mirror Intercontinental Royal Ambassador’s early check in benefit (see, I’m never satisfied!).

The room was fairly small but there was a nice couch in the window and a fairly modern bathroom, no complaints about the room.

The club lounge, on the other hand, wasn’t much bigger than my guestroom. Very cramped space! And the evening offerings were probably the sparsest that I have ever seen, just veggies and a single kind of cheese. That’s it. There were some beers and white wine in the self-service fridge, but it wasn’t really a space I wanted to hang out in.

Wound up ordering a late room service dinner, they brought it up in less than 25 minutes. When I pointed out that the order was wrong they offered to fix it right away, I admit I was tired and hungry and didn’t want to wait. Without prompting they offered to leave it and just waive the charges. More than fair.

I had been informed at check-in that I could take breakfast either in the lounge or I’d have a $40 credit in the restaurant. I went down to the restaurant around 9:30am on Sunday morning, but there was a fairly significant line to get in, and looking around I wasn’t that impressed with the buffet offering or menu, so I headed upstairs to the club lounge. No hot offerings but otherwise pretty standard Hyatt, lox, pastries, fruit, at least now there were two cheeses (one was clearly the leftover from the night before, it was the exact same size remaining as what I had seen). But the lounge is so small that it was pretty cramped, and loud. I had a quick breakfast, sat down by the window (bussing the plates from the previous guests), and waited in line four people deep for the coffee machine. I finished my breakfast, and when I went for more coffee another hotel guest took my seat, even though my newspaper was still sitting there. Ok, a good hint that it was time to get moving!

Overall, everyone was nice and the hotel did the trick, especially for location.

The event begins the evening of Friday, October 28 with some optional events, is in full swing on Saturday the 29th, and wraps up Sunday afternoon. Last year sold out. Over 400 people have registered, there are fewer than 100 spots left.

Speakers include Lucky a.k.a. Ben from One Mile at a Time, Brian a.k.a The Points Guy from.. The Points Guy, Rick a.k.a. ingy the Frugal Travel Guy, plus beaubo — the guy who once hired Thai rice farmers to mileage run in the Golden Triangle — and Randy Petersen, the famous Pudding Guy and also United’s Captain Denny Flanagan. My talk on booking frequent flyer awards is completely full.

Discussion and full details on the event can be found here. And here’s the page to register.

If you can make it to Chicago that weekend, you really should. The $75 cost includes all the seminars as well as some meals, with leftover funds donated to charity, this is about frequent flyers helping and educating frequent flyers. Fun in its own right, great friendship, and learning all the tricks and techniques that folks only share one-on-one.

Last month I outlined the US Airways Grand Slam promotion which began this past week. It’s come around each of the past couple of years, so lots of experience with it, every year they tweak the rules just a little bit but it still remains rather lucrative. But basic gist is bonus miles for transactions with various partners, starting at 3000 bonus miles for 4 partners and going all the way up to 110,000 bonus miles for 40 partners if you’re also a US Airways elite. And three of the milestones along the way even let you earn elite qualifying miles, too.

The hard thing is this — US Airways can often be acquired so cheaply, by straight up buying them, that it often doesn’t seem like it’s worth a lot of effort to earn them. So I tended to agree with Lucky that while fun, I wasn’t going to go all-in with this. Why spend, say, a penny per mile with a lot of work when you can just buy miles at less than 1.4 cents in single transaction when they’re running a 100% purchase bonus for doing so?

Except, there are plenty of transactions that I can make anyway in my daily life and daily travels, at some margin I’m induced to credit those transactions over to US Airways, and this bonus sort of gets me there. Plus, it’s like a scavenger hunt or road rally, it’s fun.

Here are the rules, registration is required, the promotion runs through November 14. This Wiki does a good job explaining the promotion and various ways to earn partner credits. This Wiki goes into great detail on the various partners.

Mommy Point described her first 10 transactions for under $50, getting her to 10,000 bonus miles. Then she posted about her strategy going forward. Darius from Million Mile Secrets is also on the case.

Here’s what I’m up to… I started with easy, quick hits.

Transferring points from other programs into US Airways miles. I have a bunch of hotel points, and this promo tempted me to move some of them over to US Airways. You need a minimum of 850 US Airways miles from a transfer for it to count as a hit, so no 1 mile transfers from Starwood for SPG Platinums. SPG Gold members transfer a minimum 1500 points, if memory serves general members have a 2500 point minimum. In addition to an SPG transfer, I did Marriott, Priority Club, Best Western, and Hilton for 5 hits. Then I moved 4 American Airlines miles into 1 US Airways mile at points.com for a sixth hit.

I redeemed — yes, redeemed — 500 US Airways miles for a magazine subscription I didn’t want with Magazines for Miles. I downloaded the Dividend Miles Toolbar and did 3 internet searches (before disabling the toolbar) to earn 1 mile. Boom, that’s 8 hits and enough for 10,000 bonus miles.

I’m checking into a Hyatt for a one-night stay this evening, I’ll earn 500 US Airways miles instead of about 650 Hyatt points, for a hit. If I do 6 one-night stays, that’ll be six hits. If I do six one-day car rentals, that’s another six hits — for things I’d be doing anyway. And that’s a total of 20 hits.

And that really puts me within shooting distance of 36 hits for 100,000 miles. (It’s possible to earn 110,000 miles for 40 hits if you are a US Airways elite member, but I am not — and while you can buy trial preferred, become an elite member, and earn a hit for doing so — it’s not worthwhile for just an extra 10,000 bonus miles.)

I’ve got at least 14 of the hits squarely in my sights. You’d think I would need only two more than my current list, then, but I don’t always trust the online shopping portals and though I track all of my activity in a spreadsheet and can follow up to make sure that things post, when I’m dealing with this many miles I want to have a backup partner or two in the chute just in case. So I want to come up with maybe four more ‘hits’ than I have.

Here’s what I plan to do:

• Track it Back. I’m nostalgic as can be for them, I don’t think their product is especially useful but they’ll get $25 of my money.

• Dividend Miles Mall. Sure, Amazon only earns one mile per dollar but I buy from them all the time.

• Netflix. My wife has been the subscriber in our household for years, it’s hard to imagine that I haven’t done the signup for points thing, right? But I’m going to sign up for six months even if I don’t use it.

• Office Max. Some folks are concerned that there’s no place to enter your mileage number, I haven’t checked it out yet but assume that being logged in to your US Airways account will track things properly.

• Super Shuttle. Mommy Points says that a trip from DFW Airport to the DFW Hyatt will post, even if (when) you no show your reservation. She used used coupon code UYR59 to take $3 off a one-way reservation, and then gave half the savings back in the form of a pre-paid tip. Update: Frugal Travel Lawyer suggests Phoenix airport to the Aloft Phoenix Airport for $4 with this coupon code.

• Thanks Again. When another 80% off restaurant.com coupon code comes out I’ll purchase that through Thanks Again registered to US Airways.

• Buy Miles. I didn’t go in on the purchase miles 100% bonus, I didn’t want to do 10,000 miles which was the minimum necessary to earn a big bonus. But that’s because I already have a pretty hefty stash. I’ll just do 1000 miles with no bonus, or wait a bit towards later in the promotion to see if another bonus comes out, this time on smaller purchase increments.

• Share Miles. My wife and I will each get a hit when I steal 1000 miles from her account.

• iDine/Rewards Network. I registered a credit card that wasn’t attached to a dining for miles account with any airline to the US Airways dining program. One lunch that I’d eat anyway will generate a hit.

• 1-800-Flowers, FTD, and Teleflora. My wife is special. She’ll get flowers.

• Audience Rewards. If I don’t get their trivia questions right for points I’ll just buy $10 worth of tickets.

• Biscoff. Mmmm, I can feel just like I’m on an Express carrier even when I’m home!

Normally I’d transfer e-miles over to US Airways, I signed up originally with that survey site via US Airways, but I haven’t been participating in it or e-rewards surveys because I’ve just been too busy. It’s always been convenient to be able to drop a few points over for partner promotions just like this but I’ve found myself a bit flat-footed with them at the moment.

So I’ll have to come up with a couple more at least. But 34 will be easy and cheap in terms of effort and cost at the margin.

Earlier in the week I wrote about my plans to redeem Hilton HHonors points for the Conrad Koh Samui (and switching up the reservation to score a two-bedroom ocean villa at the Conrad Koh Samui Residences).

Undoubtedly the property is one of the better reward values in the Hilton HHonors portfolio. When I first booked it, the hotel was category 6 (40,000 points per night, discounted on a 5-night elite multi-night stay award to 32,000 points per night). Then — even before the hotel opened — it was upgraded to category 7 (50,000 points per night, discounted on a 5-night elite multi-night stay award to 40,000 points per night). That’s for a $600 – $900 standalone villa with private pool overlooking the Gulf.

Unwind in a stunning Oceanview Pool Villa, with 65 sqm of indoor living space and 28 sqm outdoor space, overlooking a private 10 m infinity pool and the azure waters of the Gulf of Thailand. Decorated using a combination of contemporary furnishings and traditional Thai elements, this Villa is set amidst the dramatic landscape and offers an unforgettable luxury experience. Enjoy the latest in audio/visual technology, with a DVD, IPod docking station and high speed internet access. Luxuriate in the elegant marble bathroom with spa-quality amenities, a rain shower, and an oversized tub, which overlooks the private pool deck and ocean.

The median small town $100/night Hilton Garden Inn runs about 25,000 points per night, so it’s certainly good value per point. And perhaps at least as importantly, it’s one of the real opportunities for a very high end redemption without absolutely breaking the bank on points.

Hilton offers several of these — the upcharge isn’t astronomical to reserve rooms at places like Bora Bora Nui or the Conrad Maldives. In contrast, similar properties in the Starwood portfolio can run 70,000 SPG points per night — top category properties based on room revenue, which then require double points because they’re ‘all suite’ hotels (when of course the fact that they are all suite hotels drives their room revenue, and thus their high category, in the first place).

But other high end properties put you into the lowest category room on a reward, you may be able to luck out with an upgrade or buy up to a better room. But the Conrad Koh Samui works swimmingly on a reward, since the base room is the above-described villa.

Well, the value there got even better, at least for folks able to travel in the immediate-term. Conrad Koh Samui has been added to Point Stretchers. That makes the hotel just 30,000 HHonors points per night through November 30. Most point stretchers are for specific dates, at the Conrad Koh Samui point stretchers are available for any date that rewards are available in September, October, and November.

About six months ago some Hilton folks who would know told me that the hotel would be added to point stretchers. And I waited, and waited, and didn’t see it. Presumably they weren’t going to discount the award redemptions until the property had actually opened, which is did a couple of weeks ago, and as a brand new property — whose opening date kept getting pushed back but then was actually moved up — their occupancy right now is likely quite low. Hence a willingness to discount award redemption there. And a great opportunity to stay in a likely fabulous room, what’s usually cheap on points, at an even better value.

Plus, if you go during the Point Stretchers dates, you’ll be there before me and can report back so I can benefit from your experience…

One of the most frequent questions I get is, “Whose miles are really the best? I have a hard time using my miles and need to switch programs.” Or a common variation is, “I really should change credit cards, what credit card should I get to have the best chance of redeeming awards?” And there isn’t one true answer. There are some rough overall rules, but the best program for you depends on the award you want to redeem (and also the number of passengers, the class of service, willingness to take additional connections for better availability, requirements for inflight product, etc).

Since I found myself offering this insight to someone this morning, I thought I’d share it more broadly — there are rough and ready rules about best program based on where in the world you want to redeem awards to go.

• US Domestic. Unquestionably, compared to domestic counterparts, American has the best award availability inside the U.S. Of course, it much varies flight-by-flight but overall it’s not even close. Next best, surprisingly enough, is US Airways. US Airways takes a lot of flack for lack of award space, but in their domestic first class they’re really available. And while I’m rarely interested in redeeming for just domestic first class, most of the time that I would redeem a domestic flight on points it’s part of a larger, international itinerary. And that international itinerary is in a premium class of service, so the domestic flights in premium cabins are thrown in. So for my purposes, US Airways has just as good availability as American. From most cities and most of the time, I can shuttle someone from their home city to a US Airways hub (Philadelphia, Charlotte) and on to a Lufthansa flight to Europe. Or if they live in a US Airways city, I can get them mostly wherever they need to go in order to hit an international gateway.

• Asia. Star Alliance award availability is the best here, so United or US Airways miles. There are so many partners — Asiana, All Nippon, Singapore (ok, so you will not get premium cabin awards on Singapore departing the US), Thai, and then United/Continental offers its own flights. Plus United and US Airways allow routing to Asia via Europe, and from the East Coast at least and with many South Asian destinations it’s not even additional flying to do so, Lufthansa to Europe and then Thai to Bangkok or Asiana to Seoul are good options. American offers decent award availability on their own limited set of flights (Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing). And they do partner with Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific, Cathay’s award availability departing Toronto and San Francisco is especially good. But oneworld doesn’t come close to matching Star for flying North America to Asia.

• South America. American AAdvantage miles, every which way to Sunday. The Miami flights have outstanding availability, but even Dallas and JFK flights can be scored too, plus American partners with LAN as well. Getting anything with United (or US Airways) miles or Delta miles to South America is tough, American’s award availability is amazing.

• Europe. British Airways premium cabin award availability is unmatched, and they offer tons of flights from the US to London. If you want seven first class award seats to Europe, who besides BA will ever get that for you? I’ve seen that many times on their Houston flights. West Coast to London is quite doable, and when Los Angeles space isn’t open I find good luck with the Vegas and Phoenix flights. Using American miles you can get from the US to Europe in a premium cabin, though some routing, pretty much any day of the week (because American also has the best domestic award availability, you can even get to the international gateway city most of the time!). But the huge downside is that awards on British Airways incur fuel surcharges, which means nearly $500 in extra charges per person roundtrip. Ouch. As a result many will prefer Star Alliance, especially since Lufthansa award availability to Europe is pretty darned good.

• Africa. British Airways has great availability to Nairobi and Johannesburg, especially in first class. But those fuel surcharges, when flying two long-haul segments in both directions, really rack up. You can be all-in over $1000 per person on an award redemption. Skyteam availability, Amsterdam (KLM) or Paris (Air France) to Africa isn’t bad. But the award here has to go to Star, I can get someone to Africa almost all the time one way or another — on South African the US to Johannesburg direct flights can be tough to get but South African from London is often much easier. Between South African, Lufthansa, Swiss, and Turkish from London, Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich mean you can get there most of the time. In a real pinch there’s EgyptAir via Cairo. And then there’s Brussels Airlines to North Africa, and TAP Air Portugal even via Lisbon. So many ways to get there means that most of the time you can, even if routing or inflight product isn’t ideal.

• Australia and French Polynesia. I give Delta a really hard time, and deservedly so. But their miles happen to be the best-positioned for the two destinations from North America that I believe are the hardest awards to get. Naturally I’m not talking about actually securing premium cabin awards to Australia on Delta’s own Sydney flight, but on their partner V Australia — their Los Angeles – Brisbane flight especially, I’ve done multiple business class award seats even during the absolute peak of high season (though Delta does add fuel surcharges to V Australia awards, plan to spend $500 per person). Delta also happens to partner with both airlines that fly from the mainland US to French Polynesia, Air Tahiti Nui and Air France.

These are the general guidelines, based on having redeemed well over 100 million miles for premium cabin international awards. Does this match your experience as well?

Skymall is offering 25,000 Delta miles for a purchase of $500 or more (not including tax, shipping) made by September 18.

I admit, I could be tempted with this camera. Though the garden giraffe always seems like such an amusing idea on long flights when my laptop battery dies and I’ve already seen the movie…

(Via Darcie, an editor of Inside Flyer, in this Milepoint thread.)

Delta miles are called SkyPesos for a reason. Sure, I coined the phrase, but it stuck. Because they’re worth less than other major mileage currencies. Sure, there are uses, Air France business class to Europe is reasonably available from some gateways. And so are business class seats on V Australia, especially Los Angeles – Brisbane (though Delta adds fuel surcharges to the awards).

But the hardest thing about using Delta Skymiles awards on these partners can often be the domestic segments on Delta getting to the international gateway.

Delta tends to be the stingiest with award availability. And when they do release seats, it tends to be quite close to departure (but don’t count on trading your ‘high’ award of a lower priced one at the last minute, there are no changes whatsoever within 72 hours of scheduled travel.

To top it all off, the Delta pricing engine is hopelessly broken. Delta’s award charts don’t matter to Delta.com. They’ll price out awards hundreds of thousands of miles more expensively than their award chart promises. After a little bit of poking around you can sometimes figure out why — because one segment is available at ‘high’ price, another at ‘low’, and instead of just pricing the award as ‘high’ they will charge high plus low. Or what should by all rights price out as a legal open jaw will price instead as two separate one-way awards. And since Delta doesn’t offer one-way awards, except at the full roundtrip price, they’ll price the award as though it were two roundtrips.

Yes, people, Delta.com is very broken. (Other issues include spitting up during the booking process, or returning no flight results when plenty of flights exist, only to start the process over and on the next try some flights may come up. Often times, calling Delta agents gets no better results.)

So I propose a game. What’s the most expensive Delta mileage award you can find?

I’ll start off, here’s an award for 720,000 miles. Can you beat it?

Feel free to click on the image to get an up close of the details, if you don’t believe Delta.com can price an award at 720,000 miles!

(HT: Steven S.)