It’s great to take an objective look at award availability across different airlines, so much is shrouded in secrecy and certainly the airlines are far from transparent. That lack of transparency has worked to the advantage of several programs — especially the less rewarding ones — since few consumers know the difference, it’s quite common for the median program member tho think that “all miles are alike.”

I’ve certainly gained a great deal of experience through hands on practice, having redeemed over 200 million miles. I do know which airlines offer strong availability, which ones are weak. But even then I know the most important lesson is that the miles which offer you the most value are going to depend on your reward goals — cabin, number of seats, destinations.

One study, highlighted by the Wall Street Journal‘s Scott McCartney, tries to answer the question in an across the board way each year. It comes out of IdeaWorks, a .pdf of their release is here.

The problem is that in trying to come up with one answer that can compare across programs, they wind up generating data that does more to mislead consumers than to enlighten them.

Here’s how they go about their study:

Booking queries for a party of two travelers were made at frequent flier program websites during March 2012. Some airlines require a Saturday night stay for reward travel; all of the queries used date pairings that included a Saturday night stay. While the city pairs varied for each frequent flier program, the travel dates queried did not. 280 specific dates were selected for survey queries and only reward seat availability for travel on the date specified was recorded; any departure time was acceptable. Furthermore, reward travel had to be available on the outbound and return dates queried. Overly circuitous routings and layovers longer than 4 hours were not accepted. The top 10 routes longer than 2,500 miles and the top 10 shorter routes were selected for each airline. Due to a lack of long-haul routes, the top 20 overall routes were queried for these airlines: AirTran, GOL, JetBlue, Southwest, and Virgin Australia. Two mainland – Hawaii city pairs (out of 20) were substituted for Alaska Airlines to reflect the carrier’s increasing emphasis on longer-haul flights. Ten top Europe – Palma de Mallorca city pairs (out of 20) were substituted for Air Berlin to reflect the carrier’s major Mediterranean emphasis on holiday flights. When offered, online reward availability for partner airlines was always requested; rewards fulfilled by calling the airline were not.

(Emphasis mine.)

This seems really problematic, as though it will yield strange results (which it does, as we’ll see in a moment):

• They searched airline websites only. So even though US Airways and United have access to the same award space, United offers online booking of many partners while US Airways does not. Thus United ranks much higher — even though miles in each airline’s programs can access the exact same saver award seats.

• They’re searching different routes for each airline but over the same dates, which ignores the effects of high and low seasons.

• They’re making subjective judgments about ‘overly circuitous routes’ but not about departure time, consistently offering 6am flights or redeyes counts just as much as offering times many consumers would find more desirable.

I critiqued the study in 2010 when it offered the bad advice, “To get seats to vacation destinations, you typically need to book 11 months in advance, when airlines open up flights for reservations” which is wrong on many levels — some airlines open schedules 331 days out, some open them earlier, and they don’t all load award inventory at the same time. This year’s advice is “The results confirm what many travelers already suspect is true; booking later sometimes provides better results.” And yet not that much has changed with revenue management over the past two years.

Their methodology also:

• Ignores cost of acquiring the miles. It may be really easy to earn Skymiles, so it could even make sense to spend twice as many Delta points. But Delta’s any seat availability for extra points doesn’t count, while Southwest’s does.
  
• Ignores the value of a given redemption. Greyhound Road Rewards may give you a free bus trip every 10 trips, and if those bus seats aren’t capacity controlled then they satisfy their riders every time. But that doesn’t make Greyhound Road Rewards a more lucrative, rewarding, satisfying program than United Mileage Plus or American AAdvantage which all you to see the world, in a premium cabin no less (a travel style many would never be able to afford but for the points!).

The study concludes that points programs are better, effectively because you can buy any seat by spending enough points. But with several airlines like Delta and American you can as well (United now restricts last seat availability to elites and credit card holders). And this ignores the value of the seat you’re getting entirely.

They say British Airways award availability has gotten better, but this is just false. First class awards are much harder to come by than in the past few years. Business class has all but dried up on several routes. Is it possible that economy inventory has improved? Perhaps, but how useful is that when British Airways adds fuel surcharges to awards such that you still pay almost as much out of pocket when redeeming for a coach award as when buying a ticket (I’ve even priced out awards prior to November of last year where the out of pocket cash cost was higher when spending miles for a coach award than when buying that same ticket, because there were fares that included reduced fuel surcharges).

Ultimately different miles serve different goals. There are still some things we can say. As in the survey, Delta Skymiles availability tends to be poor relative to their competition. But those miles are still great for Air France business class redemptions, or for travel to French Polynesia since they partner with both airlines flying to Tahiti from the mainland U.S. United miles are great for business class to Asia and Europe. To South America, American miles are tops (and they’re quite good still to Asia).

If you want domestic coach redemptions,, then you might well be attracted to a points program. But then that implies other things as well – that you shouldn’t have a points-earning credit card, for instance, that a 2% cash back card will suit you best.

Sometimes in trying to demonstrate too much, a study can wind up confusing customers more. I had a sad conversation one day with a retired couple from Utah who had saved up a couple million Capital One points and planned to travel business class all over the world in retirement. Little did they know they had the wrong points for the job, even though of course any seat on any airline was open to them for redemptions. I don’t think seeing this IdeaWorks study would have helped to steer them in a better direction in time.

Delta’s charging logged in frequent flyers more for tickets has been all over the news.

Delta Air Lines may have charged some frequent fliers higher fares than other customers for almost three weeks because of a computer glitch.

Delta acknowledged on Wednesday that frequent fliers who logged into its website to search for fares saw different prices than people who searched anonymously. Delta spokesman Paul Skrbec said frequent fliers sometimes saw higher fares, sometimes lower. He said the problem has been fixed and apologized to travelers.

It’s easy to joke that this means earning Skypesos, already a devalued currency, now generates negative value.

In a test search of three airfares, it was reported that one logged in Skymiles member was given a price $168 higher than a non-logged in customer. Delta says they fixed the problem before they were contacted by the media, though this seems odd considering that the reporters working on the story were able to replicate the glitch.

Hotwire used to vary price based on the web browser being used to search, someone interfacing with the site using Firefox would often get a price about $2 less than someone logging on through Internet Explorer. Perhaps they figured that a Firefox user was going to be savvier.

I don’t actually have a problem with an airline charging a different price to different customers, that’s the very notion of yield management, they want to tailor the price to a customer’s willingness to pay — the nature of advance purchase and Saturday stay requirements are precisely tools to extract more revenue from customers who are price insensitive, value their time highly, or are desperate to travel.

But it’s not practical to run a strategy where logged in customers see a higher price than customers not associated with a frequent flyer account number. I rarely start my airfare searches on an airline’s website, I tend to begin with ITA Software while others may begin at Kayak. Either way, and while not everyone follows these behaviors, there’s too much transparency for this to be sustainable. Even if an airline required booking on its own site in order to earn frequent flyer benefits, one might book without their account number attached and add it later.

Of course Delta is a leader in its efforts to unbundle its products, they offer some fares without the ability to select seats in advance even for top elites. One could imagine that they would try to move to a model where benefits applied only on bookings made through their site, and at a higher price even.

In this particular case, though, what Delta did is problematic because it’s a direct violation of its promise to customers. Delta’s Customer Commitment, last updated in September, is very specific that they will offer each passenger the lowest fare that applies for their given itinerary.

1. Offering the lowest fare available
We will disclose on our website, at the ticket counter, or when you call our reservation center to inquire about a fare or make a reservation, that the lowest fare offered by Delta may be available elsewhere, if that is the case. Currently, fares offered through delta.com, at the ticket counter, or when you call Reservation Sales are the same.

Delta acknowledges that they failed to honor that commitment, that they discovered the problem on their own even before they were contacted by media. And yet there’s no indication they made any efforts to contact affected customers.

That, it seems to me, is the fundamental problem here — not this being “the equivalent of the soft drink machine that dispenses $5 cold drinks on a sweltering hot, sunny day and $1 drinks on a cold, dreary day..”

Delta should honor its customer commitment. It’s difficult to retroactively identify what fares a customer could have been offered based on availability at the time they searched for a given flight. (Part of me expects a class action lawsuit nonetheless.) Still it seems like all frequent flyers who purchased tickets during the three week period of the supposed glitch ought to receive something in case they were affected by Delta’s breach of its published promise.

Through Friday, May 18 at 11:59pm Pacific British Airways is offering business class roundtrip fares from select US cities to London and Manchester for $1952 all-in for travel between May 26, 2012 and June 9, 2012.

You are cordially invited to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s reign. To mark this historic occasion, we are offering a special all-inclusive Business Class fare for just $1952 round-trip in Club World (Business Class) to London and Manchester from select US gateway cities, coast to coast. Simply book your flights between now and May 18, 2012 for travel between May 26, 2012 and June 9, 2012. As a Club World customer, you can relax in our exclusive lounges before your flight and enjoy fully flat beds, gourmet menus, and other luxury amenities once on board.

Similar savings can also be found on American Airlines or on Iberia when traveling to Europe in Business Class. Plus, British Airways is offering other great fares to London in Business Class for July and August travel, too.

Available cities for the British Airways sale include New York, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Washington D.C., Seattle and San Francisco.

Some American Airlines top tier elites may want to poke around for sales on American fights, paid business class and then confirmed upgrades with Executive Platinum systemwides..

Just Another Points Traveler signs up for Miss Travel (“Who Needs Money, Beautiful People Travel Free!) and gives it a spin.

Over at Conde’ Nast’s Daily Traveler I highlight some of the best current credit card signup bonuses.

Intercontinental Hotels — Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental, etc. — is offering a $75 prepaid gift card as a rebate for spending 2 consecutive weekend nights by September 3rd. You have to register, there’s a rebate form, and a mail-in process… (Via Online Travel Review)

A Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General’s report identifies ‘vulnerabilities’ with the use of nude-o-scopes. In other words, the expensive machines for which we’re required to ‘assume the position’ do not obviously make us ‘safer’. (HT: Bruce Schneier)

Qantas is offering residents of North America 5000 – 20,000 bonus miles for roundtrips to Australia taken by June 30, amount depending on cabin class. Registration is required. (HT: @JayHawkNJ)

Club Carlson is adjusting hotel categories for 270 properties.

This begins May 31, and at first glance doesn’t represent any sort of devaluation.

First, at least there’s a couple weeks’ notice. I like more notice, but good to get this out there transparently and in one easy to read chart and in time for folks to make bookings at current rates if they’re interested in a hotel whose award cost is going up.

Second, kudos for making these changes before folks have made a whole bunch of stays in the monster bonuses which started running today.

Now, that Club Carlson was running huge bonuses was enough to tell me they weren’t going to undercut their own marketing investment by gutting the program just as that was getting underway. And the fact that they’re making this adjustment now also tells me that they won’t do it again right after the promotion ends, either! So we’re all good there, at least for awhile.

Looking at the spreadsheet it strikes me that not a whole lot is changing. Of the 270 hotels changing categories, 128 are going down and 142 are going up. Some go up or down more than one category, but on net adding together all the category drops and category increases generates a net +10 in category hikes. Overall that’s noise. Their award chart is staying constant, no stealth devaluation here.

Particular properties are going up of course, and so for people interested most in those it’s a personal devaluation for them (just as the program just got more valuable for others interested in hotels where categories have dropped, especially where they’ve dropped more than one notch.

Looking at the 142 properties going up in price,

• 17 were category 1s
  
• 59 were category 2s
  
• 35 were category 3s
  
• 22 category 4s
  
• 9 category 5s

So we’re not even looking at top-heavy increases, properties being pushed into the upper end of the redemption chart. And I especially like seeing 5 Radisson Blu properties dropping out of category 6!

(HT: Mommy Points)

Items that came across my virtual desk this morning, but that don’t necessarily warrant their own standalone posts:

• The link for the 1000 Priority Club point bonus for every qualifying night between June 1 and September 3 (up to 20,000 bonus points) isn’t yet live.

  However, via Pizza in Motion, it’s up on Facebook — and by registering through Facebook the promo starts right away instead of June 1.

• Sofitel is running a 40% off sale through May 20 for stays between June 25 and September 3. A great way to use the free Platinum status that many of y’all have.

• Frugal Travel Guy compiles credit card company account status and reconsideration telephone numbers. Bookmarked.

• American Airlines Admiral’s Club lounge passes are on sale for $30 (40% off) through Noon Eastern on May 16. (Via Destination David on Milepoint) At 12 airline pass reimbursements for $20, I still think that the Skyguide Executive Privilege Club is a better deal.

Update: Yeah, yeah, ok people I’ve fixed the year in the post title…

Club Carlson’s huge bonus point promotions of 50,000 points for a one-night stay at a Radisson and 44,000 points for a one-night stay at a Country Inns & Suites are now live (44,000 points for a Park Inn stay goes live on the 22nd).

Some folks stayed up all night to register, not me, when they ran the promo back at the end of 2011 the cap on registrations wasn’t reached for weeks.

Since I wrote about the offer over the weekend, it’s gotten even a little bit better — Frequent Miler reports that TopCashBack will now offer a 10% rebate on Radisson hotel bookings instead of their standard 5%. Nice!

The terms and conditions of the offer say that pre-existing reservations aren’t eligible for the offer — which is as I expected. They had previously posted on Facebook that those reservations would count, but pulled that answer off their Facebook page. I had a reservation at a Radisson which I cancelled and rebooked (at the same rate) just to be safe.

Links:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa
  
• Starwood Preferred Guest American Express
  
• American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card

Over at Conde’ Nast’s Daily Traveler I wrote a basic piece on rewards credit cards.

It’s the first post of a three part series. This one focuses on the best cards to put your spending on. The other two focus on the best signup bonuses and cards with the best benefits for carrying the card (as opposed to actually using it).

The basic principles I offered were:

The first piece of advice is to pick a reward goal. If you want to fly to South America, your best bet is American miles. If you want to fly to Europe or Asia then United or US Airways miles are best, followed closely by American miles.  For Australia and French Polynesia, I often recommend Delta (because Delta’s partner Virgin Australia has the best business-class award availability down under, and Delta partners with both airlines flying from Los Angeles to Tahiti).

Second piece of advice: Ignore the “proprietary bank rewards programs” like Capital One’s, especially if you’re interested in premium-cabin international awards. In these bank programs, the points do not transfer into actual miles; instead, the banks value the points at about a penny each (at the most), and then charge you in points for the ticket, based on its retail value. That means that a $5,000 ticket will cost you half a million points.

The third piece of advice is to know your spending habits, because different cards provide bonuses for different categories of purchases, including airline tickets, hotel spending, office supplies, gas, and groceries. So, if you spend most of your money eating out, it makes sense to pay with a card that awards double points on restaurant purchases.

The fourth principle is that flexible points are best—you want to be able to pick where you will use your points after earning them.

Those principles led me to recommend, for most folks interested in premium travel rewards:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa offering 40,000 points after $3000 spend within 3 months, no fee the first year, double points on all travel and dining, and transfers to United, British Airways, Korean Airlines, Southwest, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, Ritz Carlton, and Amtrak. And no foreign currency transaction fees.

• Starwood Preferred Guest American Express as a great all-around card with up to 25,000 point signup bonus, no fee the first year, and the ability to either use points for hotels (Westin, Sheraton, W, St. Regis, Le Meridien, etc.) or transfer to airline miles in a wide array of mileage programs. And with the 5000 point bonus for every 20,000 miles transferred, that’s like earning 1.25 miles per dollar instead of 1.

For folks who spend a lot on airfare, gas, and groceries, it’s worth considering the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card because that gives triple points on airfare, double points on gas and groceries, and Membership Rewards points are flexible (though many partners add fuel surcharges to awards) and they run frequent transfer bonuses as well.

In sum, my advice is:

If you’re going to pick a single credit card, it’s hard to go wrong with the Sapphire Preferred, and add the Starwood American Express if you’d like a second card. My suggestion: Use the Sapphire Preferred card whenever you’re abroad, making travel or restaurant purchases, or at a store that only accepts Visa. Everything else can go on the Starwood American Express card. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, gas, and groceries, substitute the Starwood American Express with the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card.

(Links to credit card applications in this post will provide me with referral credit, while you don’t need to use my links per se for these cards I certainly appreciate it when you do.)

Warm Cookies and Milk.

Back at the end of 2011, Club Carlson was running an outstanding promotion with 50,000 bonus points for a single Radisson stay, that basically meant making one cheap stay (I did mine at Washington’s National airport during true low season to get a cheap rate) would yield enough points to stay at any of their top tier properties in the world for a night.

Most Radissons in the U.S. aren’t especially nice or aspirational, though the Radisson Blu chain is changing that, and there are also tons of better (and more expensive!) properties abroad. So a great promotion.

While available registrations for it were capped, and I expected it to go quickly, it didn’t. They presumably impose a cap to generate excitement (It’s limited! Act now!) as well as to place a cap on their potential exposure for budget reasons. But there just aren’t that many Club Carlson members, so while I got around to playing quite late it wasn’t a problem.

They’re bringing back the promotion but imposing a few restrictions, like that you have to check-in in person (no getting your friends to do it, or doing it for 15 of your friends at once at a cheap location near your home). And they’re even saying you have to check out in person though don’t imagine that’ll be enforced. Basically they know the promotion is really lucrative, they want to limit the ability to game it. Towards the end of the last one they started warning hotels not to allow mass check-ins or check-ins for guests that weren’t personally present.

This time they have a version of the promotion for 3 of their brands, which increases the possibility of earning lots of bonus points for some. Of course some of their brands have fewer properties than others making it a bit harder to make a stay in person just for the bonus:

• 50,000 Club Carlson bonus points for a single Radisson stay. Register starting May 15, and then stay by July 15. Open to the first 100,000 registrants. (Later registrants will only get 15,000 bonus points.)

• 44,000 Club Carlson bonus points for a single Country Inns & Suites stay. Register starting May 15, and then stay by July 15. Open to the first 35,000 registrants. (Later registrants will only get 15,000 bonus points.)

• 44,000 Club Carlson bonus points for a single Park Inn stay. Register starting May 22, and then stay by July 22. Open to the first 20,000 registrants. (Later registrants will only get 15,000 bonus points.)

Check out the list of Park Inn hotels, there’s only about 10 in the U.S. I might be able to pop over to the one at DFW airport during a long layover for my check-in. But the terms and conditions do say you’re supposed to both check in and check out in person, I’m unlikely to do this.

There are plenty more Country Inns & Suites, for me the most convenient is probably the Dulles airport property though there are two that are closer than that to home. Again the challenge is whether it’s worth paying for the room night and potentially having to make two trips to the property, check-in and check-out, though in practice I’m guessing that the check-out requirement won’t actually be enforced.

I’ll at the very least make a stay at the Radisson near Washington National airport. In fact I already made a reservation there. The terms and conditions for the promotion that were leaked early and then pulled said that existing reservations would not count for the promotion, then on the chain’s Facebook page they said that those stays would, but then pulled that answer off their Facebook page. Assuming the low rate I secured is still around in a few days I will cancel and rebook just to be safe.

Last time around, cash and points award reservations counted towards the promotion since the cash portion earned points. The friends and family rate doesn’t earn points so didn’t work in most cases.

If you’re not already a Club Carlson member you can join and earn 2000 bonus points on your first stay (HT: miles and smiles on Milepoint.)

Mommy Points notes that Club Carlson will status match (which earns a 50% bonus on points earned for your room rate at the Gold level), email a screen shot of your current hotel status to goldpointsplus@carlson.com, include your Club Carlson number in the email, to request the match.

In addition to the booking bonus, potential first stay bonus, and elite spend bonus, there’s the online booking bonus. Base members earn 1000 bonus points for online booking, Silver and Gold members receive 2000 points, and top tier Concierge members receive 3000 bonus points per stay for online booking.

Frequent Miler points out that if you sign up for Club Carlson’s business program then you’ll earn an extra 10 points for dollar for every reservation booked online and linked to your business account.

He also points out that TopCashBack provides 5% rebates on Radisson stays (and also Country Inn stays), if you click through to Radisson and then go from there to Park Inn properties you should get the rebate as well.

There are several other rebate options, such as 3 Membership Rewards points per dollar as well as 5% back with Mr. Rebates, and 3.5% back with both Big Crumbs and Ebates.

This promotion is well worth it to me on the basis of “buy one cheap night get an aspirational, expensive night” but in a worst case scenario and if I wasn’t going to use the points for high-end Radisson stays, it would be worthwhile just to be able to transfer the points to miles. 50,000 Club Carlson points yields 8000 miles with your choice of 20 airline partners. I’ll probably ultimately transfer 2000 Club Carlson points into 250 US Airways miles during the Grand Slam promotion come the fall.

Priority Club is offering 1,000 bonus points for every qualifying night stayed between June 1 and September 3, up to 20,000 bonus points.

Registration required, though the link hasn’t yet gone live.

(Via the indispensable Priority Club Insider.)

The toughest frequent flyer award there that there is out there is North America to Australia/New Zealand non-stop.

There’s not a lot of flying to Auckland these days, Qantas has pulled their Los Angeles – Auckland flight and Air New Zealand tends to release business class award seats about two months out during peak season (if at all).

Meanwhile, getting Qantas seats to Australia can be a real challenge. They’re conservative about releasing award seats (though business class to Brisbane is among the most available). And seats released when the schedule loads are accessible by British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas’ own members, plus Alaska Airlines members, weeks before American AAdvantage members can access thsoe seats — because Qantas opens their schedule nearly a year out while American only books flights 331 days out.

United has been pretty darned tight-fisted on their inventory, until this week anyway when a whole bunch of non-stop business and first class space opened up.

Most of the time to get from the US to Australia in a premium cabin you wind up having to book via Asia.

Except that until recently Virgin Australia has had excellent business class inventory, especially for their Los Angeles – Brisbane flight. Even in the peak of high season.

I say until recently because of late award inventory for business class has pretty much dried up, you can search whole months at a time without seeing saver award space.

So wouldn’t you know that now is when Delta has chosen to improve their web capabilities with the ability to book seats on their partner Virgin Australia!

Check out those fuel surcharges though! The total taxes and fees on a Delta award flying Virgin Australia run about $800. Which is why it rarely makes sense to redeem miles for coach tickets when fuel surcharges are at play, a coach roundtrip is $800 even after spending 100,000 miles.

Nonetheless, seeing Delta bring on additional partners to their award booking capability is encouraging. The Delta online booking tool is one of the most frustrating out there, for its tendency to produce errors while making reservations and to misprice awards. But this suggests an investment is being made.

And it’s especially helpful for Delta to bring on partners like this one where award booking codes are non-standard and agents often don’t know what fare class to search for (hint, Delta agents, “F” is not a premium cabin award with this airline).. let alone that the airline is even a Skymiles partner.

Last summer I wrote about how to convince people that frequent flyer programs are worthwhile. They’re my passion of course, and I get stares and jealous comments from colleagues, people say they want to know ‘how to do what I do’ and yet most of the time they don’t follow through. It just seems so far outside their experience and comfort zone, they don’t make the leap.

And yet some people do, I did, many readers of this blog did, what made that difference?

That’s the very nut that Dave Code wants to crack in this Huffington Post piece.

He begins with the big value proposition of credit cards, making it sound simple to take your family overseas for free:

Parents, you may not realize you have a chance to dramatically increase your family’s quality of life. If I say you can take your family on trips to Europe or Asia, you might think, “Oh — we could NEVER afford that!” In fact, the banks will pay you hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer points for doing something you already do anyway — using a credit card.

Many parents use the same credit card out of habit. Initially, they may have enrolled with that card because it offered no annual fee, or cash back. But here’s the good news: at any given moment, the banks offer at least one card with a huge promotion that dwarfs the myriad of other offers.

But aren’t awards hard to get?

Some critics may say it’s a hassle to redeem frequent flyer points for flights, so collecting points just ends up being an exercise in frustration. For example, have you ever visited the airline’s award site seeking a super-saver award ticket, only to find that the dates you wanted were not available, or available only at double the points you expected to pay? Most parents make the mistake of giving up at this point, instead of taking just one more step to reach the Golden Gateway to Exotic Vacations. A simple Google search such as, “Redeeming award tickets on [blank] airlines” will take you to the sites of experts like View from the Wing and Million Mile Secrets, who can give you a straight-and-narrow path through the chaos of airline award availability.

I share the suggestion of using the British Airways and Qantas sites for checking award availability with American Airlines miles, that the United site is relatively good for searching Star Alliance awards (along with All Nippon and Aeroplan). I suggested airfrance.us for searching Skyteam awards but that didn’t make the piece.

For the folks entering our world, Code concludes:

Three of the blogs I most enjoy reading are Gary’s “View from the Wing,” Brian’s blog, “The Points Guy,” and Seth’s blog, The “Wandering Aramean”. Gary, Brian and Seth tip off their readers to new credit card offers, or their discovery of “mistake fares,” where the airlines goofed in, say, leaving a zero off a fare they post, such that a first-class fare from JFK to Tokyo ends up costing $1,000, instead of their intended $10,000.

To sum up: Many parents mistakenly believe they can’t afford to fly their families around the world. I invite you to take a leap of faith and apply for some of these credit cards with stellar point bonuses. Then, check in once-a-day with the bloggers I mentioned above, or join the Granddaddy of Points, Randy Petersen on MilePoint, a friendly forum for fellow point junkies. My prediction is that you’ll be amazed how quickly your family can be on a plane abroad, and you may even enjoy your new hobby in the World of Savvy World Travelers. All you need to begin is a willingness to dream big, and the persistence to try more than one airline site when redeeming your points.

(The piece contains shout-outs to Mommy Points, Million Mile Secrets, and Frugal Travel Guy as well.)

Yesterday I attended American’s event announcing new premium cabin enhancements. The biggest deal was their plan to reconfigure the business class cabins on all of their international widebody aircraft with the same seat they’ll be getting with their new Boeing 777-300 aircraft, the same industry-leading seat that Cathay Pacific has been putting in their planes.

That’s huge news, it’s a better seat in my opinion than anything that any other carrier (other than US Airways, which offers a similar seat in all its A330 aircraft) offers across the Atlantic.

But it’s going to take a long while to get the reconfigurations done, we won’t see the first one in service for about two years.

Buried in the discussion, along with rehashing all of the other improvements coming down the pike — pajamas in first class, new entertainment systems, better meals, inflight wireless even internationally, some coach seats with more legroom — was a discussion of what the ‘regular’ coach configuration would be on the 777-300 and 777-200 aircraft.

Legacy Continental lays out their coach seats 3-3-3, meaning 3 at each window and 3 in the middle, with aisles in between. Legacy United’s 777 version was 2-5-2, so a big wide middle section. In both cases, they do 9 coach seats across.

American’s Vice President of Marketing was asked about the layout of coach, and I don’t think he had the number handy, he gave some specs and then corrected himself.

Commenter jck asked on yesterday’s post, “Are you sure Econ is 3-3-3 ? Is that in some official press release ? The running rumor is that it might be 3-4-3…..”

And I replied,

I sorta believe that in the end it is 3-4-3. But they answered the question about configuration, actually said 3-4-3 and then CORRECTED to say 3-3-3. So they did specifically answer this question, and you sort of do the math I don’t think you get to the # of seats they’re talking about without doing 10 across in back. So we’ll have to see.

This prompted me to query American on the issue, and here’s what I got back:

777-200ER

American’s Business Class cabin onboard the 777-200ER will be arranged in a 1-1-1 or 1-2-1 configuration giving aisle access to all Business Class customers.  Main Cabin Extra seats will be arranged in a 3-3-3 configuration.  The Main Cabin seats will be arranged in a 3-4-3 configuration.

 

777-300ER

American’s First Class onboard the 777-300ER will be arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration; Business Class will be arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration; Main Cabin Extra seats will be arranged in a 3-3-3 configuration; and Main Cabin seats will be arranged in a 3-4-3 configuration.

There you have it.

This is the first confirmation I have seen that American is going to have more elbowroom in Main Cabin Extra than the rest of coach, and not just more legroom.

And it’s also the first time I’ve seen American acknowledge that they’re going to go 10 across in regular economy, not just 9 across.

That’s not unheard of worldwide (eg Air France, Emirates both offer 10 across in coach on the 777) but it’s certainly more cramped than what United, Delta, and British Airways offer at 9 across.

I’m loving the general direction that American is taking with their premium product investments. I’m looking forward to their new business class seat a lot and wish it would come more quickly. But I do think it’s worth noting that their going to cram a lot of seats in back as well.

Key Links:

• United MileagePlus Club Card with lounge access, Avis Presidents Club status, and primary rental car collision coverage. Earns 1.5 miles per dollar on all spend.
  
• British Airways Visa: up to 100,000 point signup bonus.
  
• United Explorer card with United travel benefits and primary rental car collision coverage.
  
• Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa offering 40,000 points after $3000 spend within 3 months, no fee the first year, double points on all travel and dining, and transfers to United, British Airways, Hyatt, Marriott, and other airlines/hotel programs as well.
  
• American Express Platinum card which offers lounge access with Delta, American, US Airways, and a Priority Pass Select for its worldwide lounge network, plus a $200 annual airline fee credit and reimbursed Global Entry.

At Frequent Traveler University, some attendees thought that my debate with Mommy Points was a put up job — sure, I beat her arguing on behalf of the British Airways Visa with its 100,000 point signup bonus. She was defending the United Explorer card, which is a good card, but several attendees thought she should have had the opportunity to defend the United Club card which for many folks is even better — and that (with apologies for the mixed metaphor) if she hadn’t had one credit card tied between her back, she’d have cleaned my clock.

The British Airways Visa leverages up by allowing multiple family members to sign up for the card and pool signup bonuses towards one person’s award, and for folks who put $30,000 spend on the card within a year to earn the companion award ticket, there’s the opportunity to use those miles twice (for two passengers on the same award itinerary). BA adds fuel surcharges to awards, which is more than a little bit annoying, some folks think of it as buying a discounted, non-mileage coach ticket and having a confirmed upgrade. Since BA is a 4-class airline, in the case of a first class award, that’s a confirmed three-cabin upgrade. (Some folks have luck making a mock booking on the BA.com website and getting an offer for 50,000 points now and 50,000 in a year – two annual fees but no minimum spend.)

But I make the point frequently that there are three different types of credit cards — those you get for the signup bonuses, those you get for the benefits of having the card, and those you get because they’re lucrative to actually put spending on.

The British Airways card, despite offering no foreign currency transaction fees, is clearly a card you get for the signup bonus. At up to 100,000 points on offer, it’s the current most lucrative signup bonus on the market.

The United Explorer card has a good signup bonus and has benefits for holding the card — United elites can be upgraded on domestic coach awards, general members get last seat availability on ‘standard’ double miles awards, free checked bag, and primary collision damage waiver on rental cars.

But the United Club card also has benefits — United lounge membership — and for many will be the single best card to put spending on.

I get most of my lounge access via the American Express Platinum card. It offers American and Delta access when flying those airlines same-day. It offers US Airways lounge access all the time. And it comes with a Priority Pass Select card that offers plenty of lounge access internationally and also Alaska Airlines Boardroom access (Frequent Traveler University participants will know that I love the pancake machine).

The Amex Platinum, though, doesn’t get you into United lounges. I’ve had that privileges as a Star Alliance Gold member with British Midland’s Diamond Club. But since that airline was acquired by British Airways, the benefit goes away May 31.

Another way of getting lounge access is the Skyguide Executive Privilege Club, it’s a pain to do the paperwork but there’s no cheaper way to do it.

Almost everyone who pays for a United lounge membership should get the United Club card instead. Existing club members can even get a pro-rated refund on their membership when getting this credit card.

The unique selling proposition of the card, though? 1.5 miles per dollar earned on all spending.

You almost have to feel bad for the product manager at Chase who runs the United Explorer card. Chase offers the Sapphire Preferred card which is actually better for earning United miles than United’s own Explorer card! Both offer 1 point per dollar spent. Sapphire Preferred offers a 7% annual bonus on all points earned, so it really earns 1.07 points per dollar. Edge Sapphire (barely, right?). But Sapphire bonuses more spend, earning 2 points per dollar on all travel and dining.

So a traveler who eats out frequently earns more points with the Sapphire card than the United Explorer card, and points transfer to United instantly. They even transfer to anyone’s United account instantly, not just the cardholder’s! And there’s the added flexibility of transfers to British Airways, Korean Airlines, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, Southwest, Ritz-Carlton, and Amtrak. Like I say, it must be tough to be the Explorer product manager, when your own company offers a more lucrative product to earn the points you’re offering.

But along comes the United Club card. It has a $395 annual fee, although there’s a $95 statement credit after first purchase, so net cost $300. (Some folks can get a code in person at a United Club to make the card fee-free the first year.)

• 1.5 United miles per dollar on all spend
  
• United Club membership
  
• Avis Presidents Club – a guaranteed 2 car class upgrade and guaranteed availability, you cannot even earn this status through frequent rentals
  
• Primary collision damage waiver — when you rent a car, the card’s collision coverage comes before your personal insurance
  
• Priority Check-in, security, and boarding and two free checked bags for you and a companion when flying United
  
• No foreign currency transaction fees
  
• Hyatt Platinum – free internet and avoid the worst rooms on property
  
• No close-in booking fees on United awards booked within 21 days of travel

These sweet benefits should allay the frustrations of the product manager working on the co-branded United relationship, because high spenders and folks who buy United lounge memberships may prefer this card over anything else Chase currently offers, including Sapphire.

1. Anyone who buys a United Club membership in my view should get this card instead, you get the club access plus Avis Presidents Club and 1.5 United miles per dollar on all spend.

2. Even if you don’t value the club membership at all, the 50% bonus on all spend will pay for itself for high-spenders, for example if you spend $40,000 on the card in a year then you’re earning an ‘extra’ 20,000 miles which you’re “buying” for the cost of the annual fee (really for the incremental annual fee beyond what you’d pay for another card). And getting free club access, Avis and Hyatt status, waived United fees, etc.

Folks who don’t value United club membership and who are not high spenders will, of course, not find the high annual fee to be worthwhile. But plenty of people will view this as a killer app.

Now, in many ways it’s similar to the old Continental Presidental Plus Mastercard — free lounge access, Avis and Hyatt status. This card doesn’t help you get elite status, though the Presidential Plus card’s status benefit has been diluted since you can no longer use that to earn top tier in MileagePlus. The Presidential Plus card, though, doesn’t earn 1.5 miles per dollar..

(The credit card application links in this post will provide me with a referral credit. As always, I appreciate it very much. I also provide details in the post above how some folks will prefer other current offers and link to instructions on how to get those if they’re more your cup of tea.)

I flew out to Dallas for an American Airlines media event focused on new premium cabin enhancements.

Folks were directed through the main security checkpoint in D, by the Grand Hyatt. Boarding passes were apparently a bit confusing at first for the TSA, since they read as being “from Dallas” and “to Dallas.” But American managed to straighten that out before I turned up.

An American widebody was parked at Gate 23 and our boarding passes got us on.

When I walked on the plane I immediately recognized one of the flight attendants from the oneworld Mega DO charter, and as it happened we had three of them onboard for the event.

Some American Airlines regulars may recognize her as well, from the safety video.

Rob Friedman, American’s Vice President of Marketing and a former head of the AAdvantage program, was onboard. So was Maya Leibman, Chief Information Officer and another former head of the AAdvantage program. They were joined by Virasb Vahidi, Chief Commercial Officer.

Maya was demonstrating American’s mobile devices, the Samsung Galaxy tablet for inflight entertainment and also talking up their mobile apps and the handheld they are trialing for flight attendants. Apparently 40 flight attendants are using them now, and they include customer information (elite status, connecting flight information, special service requests) and provide a way to input feedback for the airline on maintenance or other issues they run into.

There was a first class seat converted into a bed with mattress pad and duvet as well as the thinner blanket offerings. It — and all of the business class seats where we’d be sitting for the press conference — had pajamas and an amenity kit.

When the event was called to order everyone went over to their seats, I ran into The Points Guy in the business class seat across the aisle from me. First up was a drink service, the Marcus Samuelsson nuts, and a meal.

I had a chance to try out and review American’s new premium meal service on the oneworld Mega DO back in January and quite liked it, which is to say I am happier with the Richard Sandoval halibut than I am with anything being offered by a US carrier currently. I also love the Marcus Samuelsson nuts and wish American would replace their current first class nut mix with them. Fortunately when I was stuck in coach on the way to Dallas I grabbed a pack as my complimentary Executive Platinum buy on board.

We got breakfast, though, Richard Sandoval’s scrambled eggs over a buttermilk biscuit and topped with a creamy poblano sauce, with potatoes gratin on the side.

Then it was time for the press conference. The three American senior executives each spoke, reviewing the recently announced product improvements — the inflight entertainment, the meals, the pajamas, etc.

But the big deal was the new business class seat discussion. With American’s announcement of their plans for the 777-300 back in January, we learned that they had selected the current best business seat on the market — which is also Cathay Pacific’s business seat (a slightly earlier version of which was actually first introduced by US Airways, something they don’t get enough credit for, but the US folks still haven’t rolled it out across their entire international fleet).

The big question at the time, though, was what about the rest of the international fleet? Put a different way, when do we get rid of angled flat? I don’t see the current American business seat as behind the current Lufthansa or Air France seat — I hate them all — but they’ve been behind the curve doing true lie flat for awhile, something which United has (except on a few 777s still….) and something that Delta has and something that British Airways has.

Now we know — the full international widebody fleet is getting this industry leading business class seat, with about twice the space as the current business seat and aisle access for every seat (configured 1-2-1). It’s going to take awhile, the 777-300s will all get them fresh from the factory but the first refitted aircraft won’t have the new seats until first quarter of 2014. That’s two years away. The overwater 757s aren’t getting a new seat.

Here are renderings of the new seat:

This really is the best seat there is, and blows away any other business class seat I’ve sat in. But it seems a bit early to promote it — you don’t want customers expecting the great new product and being disappointed when their flight has the old seats. Goodness knows that I’m not looking forward to American’s current angled seats next week now that I have the “Cathay new seat-transplated-to-American” stuck in my brain.

United’s business class is a mess, with legacy United seats and legacy Continental seats and no intention to rationalize them even across the same aircraft type (not to mention that there are still United 777s flying with the old bucket recliner style seats out there!).

American will clearly best the competition, at least anything that’s been announced, but… not for several years.

I do understand American’s narrative in sending the message now, though, which is that they see their business plan succeeding as a premium carrier. They want to get that message out now. They want to offer a positive narrative during their Chapter 11 process. And they want to rally their employees around a positive future vision for the airline. Several times I heard about American’s aspiration as “worthy of being the nation’s flag carrier”

Some other tidbits, which may not be new:

• Over 400 aircraft will have inflight wireless internet by end of year, with the whole domestic narrowbody fleet fitted by summer 2013.
• The 777-300s and 777-200s are getting inflight overwater wifi, but they haven’t announced a vendor for that yet. The 767-300s will not get inflight wifi, they’re retiring the aircraft that aren’t being refitted but the rest of the ones that will be will stay in the fleet less time than the 777s will.
• Oneworld partner elites will get complimentary main cabin extra. Presumably this will apply only to partner elites that are equivalent of American’s Platinum level (e.g. which British Airways Silver is considered to be), since American will only be offering the product free to their own Golds through 2013.
• Cabin configuration is not final so American describes “up to” a number of seats in each category. They list the 777-200 as “up to” 45 business class, 45 Main Cabin Extra, and 170 coach seats. It will not have a first class. Coach seating layout across the fleet will be a a mix of 3-3-3 seating and 2-5-2 seating. Every seat, including coach, will have an AC outlet, USB jacks, and a touchscreen entertainment system.
• The refitted 767-300s will have 28 business class, 14 Main Cabin Extra, and 167 economy seats. Business class was described as “up to” but the coach cabin seat numbers were offered without that qualifier.
• Half the 737-800s are being refit with new seats and entertainment. 51 757s are being refit as well, along with 20 overwater 757s.
• They begin taking delivery of the first of 42 Boeing 787s in 2014

All in all a good day, the big news was that the new seats previously announced for the 777-300 would be rolled out across all international widebodies at the airline. But we won’t see the first retrofit for two years.

American Airlines invited me to their media event on premium cabin enhancements, and I jumped on it figuring any extra travel to Dallas means travel on American when I’m earning quadruple miles (from a post-oneworld Mega DO promotion). I looked up airfares, saw that without much advance purchase and for the flights I needed given work schedules, that I’d be staring down the barrel of a $1700 ticket. I wound up booked in T class instead, that’s a coach award. No miles earned, not upgradable. And last minute, so the available seats weren’t great either. Not a fantastic way to start a premium cabin improvements discussion, eh?

But I watched seat map availability (thanks, Expert Flyer) and an exit row opened up. And then an exit row aisle. I was all good. Great crew, I was proactively offered a complimentary drink and snack as an Executive Platinum member. And the flight had Gogo wireless internet. I might as well have been up front.

Unfortunately it wasn’t just airfares that were sky high. The event was taking place just beyond security on the D concourse, where the Grand Hyatt sits, that would have been my ideal hotel stay. But it was pricing at $479. Wow. For an airport overnight. The Westin was $279. The Hyatt Regency still pricey, but much cheaper, and I decided to grab the stay which helps towards my Hyatt Diamond requalification rather than burning 4000 Starpoints at the Westin.

I had stayed at the hotel before, for the oneworld Mega DO. It’s a fine property, second-closest to DFW, but I was nervous because on my last stay internet connectivity was almost non-existent. This time, not a problem at all.

The room was large and functional, my only complaint is a lack of outlets though I always assume that’ll be the case and bring my own compact power strip.

The room had a view of airport operations, albeit from a distance.

I stopped down at the restaurant for breakfast in the morning.

Not quite the buffet the hotel put on for the Mega DO but it did the trick.

As a Diamond, hotel breakfast is included. You sign the bill and the charge is taken off the folio. I had the $17.50++ breakfast buffet, put a $3 tip down on the bill, and left. When the hotel emailed me the bill, $1.50 was left on there. Apparently they felt my tip too generous.

The property was perfectly functional and I’d return, having allayed my fears that the internet problems I experienced in January were either an anomaly or have been fixed. If the Grand Hyatt were close to the same price point I’d choose it based on proximity, but it’s nice to be in the second closest airport hotel at least.

After breakfast it was back to the D concourse at DFW for an American Airlines event.

As the event wrapped up I grabbed a couple of sandwiches on the way out, samples of their coach buy on board to eat since I’d either be camping out in the Admiral’s Club for several hours or sitting in back on a flight where available food would just be the snack options.

I had half of a Marcus Samuelsson pastrami sandwich, which wasn’t the best Pastrami I’ve ever had but I’m a New Yorker or at least I grew up there. Still, for a sandwich on a plane or any sort of pre-wrapped sandwiches it worked perfectly well. Much better than other buy on board offerings I’ve seen, it had cole slaw and cheddar on a marble rye.

I also had half a Samuelsson chicken salad, again perfectly edible, and a full lunch, I ultimately ate it from my bulkhead seat as one of only two people to clear standby on the 12:55pm flight which had been booked full. Both went down well with the complimentary cocktail they offer Executive Platinums in back (and the flight attendant proactively offered me a snack but with the two half sandwiches I was plenty good).

A quick trip, American was gracious, and I must say I didn’t mind coach one bit, though I suppose an exit row, a bulkhead, and the ability to clear complimentary standby on a flight booked full due to elite status makes those things go down much easier. And a couple of flight crews that specifically recognized status in-lfight, that’s an important point to remember, that for all the money you invest in product your front-line people will either accentuate or undermine that investment. These two crews did good.

A Mega DO is the ultimate frequent flyer adventure — fly around on a chartered aircraft and party with the heads of your favorite airlines, hotels, and loyalty programs while taking advantage of once in a lifetime behind the scenes opportunities whether it’s a private party in Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt, visiting not open to the public parts of Boeing, or evacuating an aircraft on the slide and into the water.

The last event, the inaugural oneworld Mega DO, was covered in USA Today and also in an Associated Press piece that was picked up in about 70 papers around the country.

Here’s the Wall Street Journal piece on September’s Star Mega DO 3 and the Journal’s coverage of the first Star Mega DO in September 2009 which was also written up in the February 2010 Conde Nast Traveler.

Now details on Star Mega DO 4 are starting to come out. The Launch Party has been announced.

• Saturday June 2nd at 6:30pm at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City (a free shuttle ride from Washington’s National Airport)
  
• The event is limited to the first 80 people who RSVP at the Milepoint.com frequent flyer community, here is the Mega DO forum on Milepoint where you will find the RSVP thread to post in to secure your spot.

Why do you want to attend the launch party?

It’s a ton of fun, the launch for the Oneworld Mega DO was a pajama party (because American Airlines was introducing pajamas in their international first class) at the Andaz West Hollywood. Lots of great times with frequent flyers, lots of airline and hotel executives to hobnob with.

But the key is that the launch party is where the details of the trip are going to be shared first. And launch party attendees are traditionally given about a day’s head start to reserve a spot.

The oneworld Mega DO sold out in about 20 minutes. Launch party attendees all had the opportunity to buy tickets.

Here are some of the basics of a Mega DO:

• There are 3 classes of service — coach, “Tommy Class” (which will be economy plus seating with a blocked middle), and business class. Coach usually runs less than $1000, which includes flights and most meals and activities.
  
• Hotel nights are extra but there will be negotiated discounted rates. You’re not obligated to stay at the group hotel but it’s advisable. Hyatt is the co-sponsor, and there will be bonuses for staying with Hyatt and also there’s usually a status challenge as well.
  
• There are bonus miles opportunities, status miles opportunities, and lots of swag given out along the way.
  
• There’s plenty of free booze, at the receptions and on the planes, for the oneworld Mega DO I think the booze was quadruple catered.
  
• Much of the activities are kept secret until the last minute. There are surprises, and things are almost always far better than expected, although herding around 150+ frequent flyers can be a bit crazy at times

I don’t know of anyone who ever went on one of these that felt they didn’t get more than several orders of magnitude their money’s worth. There’s no profit in the trip, these are always done with any excess funds going to charity, and there are also several opportunities for charitable auctions along the way — in the past we’ve auctioned off time in flight simulators, maintenance suits, points, status, and more. The last trip raised over $80,000 for charity, hopefully this one will raise even more.

I look forward to seeing several of you at the launch party!

Update: to be clear, the Launch party thread on Milepoint is where you sign up.

Milepoint.com is hosting a live online chat with former TSA Administrator Kip Hawley tonight.

The chat will be at…

• 9pm Eastern
• 8pm Central
• 7pm Mountain
• 6pm Pacific

You can ask your questions live or if you prefer you can also get into the queue in advance since there’s a Milepoint thread to pre-ask questions.

I know I want to give him a piece of my mind… As I said earlier,

I call the 1 quart ziploc bag within which my 3 ounce liquids are supposed to go a “Freedom Baggie.” Others refer to it as a “kippie,” named for Kip Hawley. I know I’ll let him know what I think, and hear what he has to say, especially considering that he seems to have had a change of heart…

Please join us…!

Regular readers know that I’m generally unimpressed with Marriott Rewards’ elite program. Their Platinum level is the most stringent top tier status to qualify for of any major hotel program requiring 75 nights in a year.  And yet:

• Breakfast benefit only applies during the week (though some properties go above and beyond)
• Late checkout on request only, day of departure
• Suites are excluded from upgrades per terms and conditions
• Free health club access isn’t a top tier benefit
• Virtually no benefits on resort stays — late checkout (even based on availability) doesn’t apply, breakfast doesn’t even apply. And it’s those resort and leisure stays where I often care the most..

Several years ago Marriott added ‘excluding suites’ from the upgrade terms and conditions, the benefit once simply said best available room and there were often arguments over whether a suite was available and if so whether the top tier elite member was entitled to that room.

While Starwood and Hyatt and now even Hilton introduced the possibility of suite upgrades, Marriott went in the opposite direction by specifically excluding them.

Now it seems that Marriott has taken the exclusion even farther. Here’s the current upgrade language for Platinum elite members of Marriott Rewards:

Room Upgrade

For Platinum Elite members, the best way is up! So every time you check in, we’ll do our best to upgrade you – at no additional charge – to our best-available guest room in the next room category level. Suites are excluded. Not available at Marriott Vacation Club.

(Bolding is mine.)

The Gold level benefit, incidentally, is exactly the same:

Room Upgrade

For Gold Elite members, the best way is up! So every time you check in, we’ll do our best to upgrade you – at no additional charge – to our best-available guest room in the next room category level. Suites are excluded. Not available at Marriott Vacation Club.

What’s most interesting to me — aside from there being no differentiation at all in the terms of conditions of the program between upgrades for Gold and Platinum members — is the new language “in the next room category“.

Individual hotels will often go above and beyond the bare minimum required of them by the program. So this isn’t a post claiming that Marriott Platinums never see a suite, please don’t reply letting me know when you were treated well by a specific hotel or that properties in Asia are overall much more generous than in the U.S.

What’s striking here is what the program promises and requires of its hotels. And that appears now to be even less.

Whereas once the requirement was the best available non-suite room, the requirement now appears to be only a one-category room upgrade.

Plenty of properties only have a couple of non-suite room categories, but others have several, and Platinum (and Gold) elites no longer have a beef per the program’s terms and conditions if they aren’t upgraded to an otherwise-available room that’s more than one category above what they’ve booked though still less than a suite.

While it seems all the other major programs are moving in the direction of giving their elites a better experience, I’m continually surprised that Marriott doesn’t get nudged along and in fact finds ways to dial back their offerings — especially in terms of room upgrades, because a better room or even a suite that would otherwise go empty doesn’t actually cost a hotel anything. Confirmed upgrades might displace revenue by upgrades to an available room at checkin almost never will.

(HT: Reader Bill W.)