Frequent Flyer Bonuses

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Virgin America enhances its Elevate program

In a move not seen too often, Virgin America has made some changes to their Elevate FFP that have made the program better then what it was before.

The biggest change comes in mileage expiry, previously Elevate points would expire 18 months after the were earned, now as long as you have a earning or redemption activity once every 18 months your points will remain in your account. This technically means the points have no set expiry date.

The Elevate program has also expanded point earning methods with the launch of The Red Store, Virgin America's online shopping portal where members can earn points for shopping at various retailers online.

Source: Virgin America

Monday, March 15, 2010

Bonus Offer Picks of the Week: Mar 8 -14, 2010

Here are our picks of the week for offers posted between Mar 8-14, 2010. We hope you enjoy these and that you are able to take advantage of some of them:

Bonus Offer For Flying
Kingfisher King Club: Double King Miles + up to 5,000 Bonus Miles for flights between Delhi and London. All flights will earn double miles and Kingfisher Class will earn an extra 2,500 bonus miles while Kingfisher First will earn 5,000 bonus mile on top of the double miles. Full details. Mar 28 - May 28, 10

Bonus Offer For Staying (Airline Miles)
Miles and More: Double Miles and More Miles when you register and stay with the Wyndham Hotel Group family of hotel brands Worldwide. Full details. Mar 15 - May 15, 10

Bonus Offer For Staying (Hotel Points)
Hilton HHonors: Double HHonors Points for stays at 8 Hilton locations in the Washington D.C. area. Full Details. Until May 31, 10

Bonus Offer For Driving
JetBlue TrueBlue: Triple TrueBlue Points when you rent any vehicle from Hertz for one or more days in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada. Provide CDP 1790143, PC 141466 and your TrueBlue number at time of booking. Full Details. Until Jun 15, 10

Bonus Offer For Other Activities
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: 5,000 Bonus Miles when you take out a Virgin Tracker ISA. To qualify for the offer, you must make a minimum investment of £50 per month by direct debit (for a minimum of 6 months) or you can invest a lump sum of £500 or more. Full Details. Until Apr 30, 10 * UK Residents only

Bonus Page Updates: Mar 8-14, 2010

Friday, March 12, 2010

Marriott changing reward night levels at 20% of hotels

As of this past Sunday (March 8) Marriott changed the points requirements for free nights at 20% of its Worldwide hotels. 300 of the hotels (roughly 9%) will increase by being moved up to a higher category level while 350 (11%) will decrease by being moved down to lower categories. Approximately 95% of the 650 hotels affected fall into the first 5 redemption categories.
Visit this thread on FlyerTalk.com to see a compiled list of the individual hotel changes

Source: Hotel Check-In

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Marriott matches Starwood with Free Internet for Elite Members

Starting on May 7, Marriott Gold and Platinum Elite members will have free Internet access at nearly 450 locations across the U.S. and Canada. The benefit will be available at Marriott Hotels & Resorts, JW Marriott's and Renaissance Hotels. All other brands will continue to offer free Internet to all guests.

The move comes after Starwood Hotels announced that their elite SPG members would be receiving free Internet access.

Continental to offer extra legroom in Economy, for a fee

Rather then rehashing it, this is what I got in my recent email from Continental:

"On March 17, 2010, we’ll be introducing a new option allowing you to purchase seat assignments for unreserved, Economy Class seats that feature extra legroom. Depending on the type of aircraft and row, seats with extra legroom offer a minimum of seven additional inches of legroom.

You will have the ability to purchase seat assignments when checking in at continental.com or at an airport kiosk during the normal check-in period, beginning 24 hours prior to flight departure. The price of these extra legroom seats will vary depending on a number of factors, including the length of the flight and market.

Consider this choice when you want extra legroom for more comfort on your flight.

We appreciate your business and thank you for choosing Continental."

Monday, March 8, 2010

Bonus Offer picks of the week: Mar 1-7, 2010

Here are our picks of the week for offers posted between Mar 1-7, 2010. We hope you enjoy these and that you are able to take advantage of some of them:

Bonus Offer For Flying

Austrian Airlines Miles & More: Double Miles & More Miles when you fly Austrian between Vienna and Barcelona, Berlin, Bucharest, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Innsbruck, Milan, Moscow Munich, Nice, Paris, Rome, Sofia, Stockholm, Stuttgart or Zurich. Register online then book online at Austrian.com Mar 26 - May 31, 10

Bonus Offer For Staying (Airline Miles)
Virgin America Elevate: Double Elevate Points for every qualifying stay at participating hotels within the Hilton Worldwide portfolio of brands in the Virgin America destination cities of San Francisco
Los Angeles
New York
Boston
Washington D.C.
Seattle
San Diego
Las Vegas
Orange County
Fort Lauderdale
Full Details and Registration Until Mar 31, 10

Bonus Offer For Staying (Hotel Points)
Marriott Rewards: 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points when your stay includes a Sunday night at dozens of Marriott's across Europe. Full Details Mar 30 - Jun 21, 10

Bonus Offer For Driving
United Mileage Plus: 1,500 Mileage Plus Miles for any Sixt rental of seven days or longer at participating locations Worldwide. Full Details. Until Jun 30, 10

Bonus Offer For Other Activities
Continental OnePass: Earn up to 100,000 Bonus OnePass Miles with the Mileathon Promotion. Complete qualifying credit-earning activities at continental.com. Credit-earning activities include using online flight bookings, hotel stays and car rentals and more. Full details. Apr 1 - May 31, 10

Bonus Page Updates: Mar 1-7, 2010

Friday, March 5, 2010

Choice Privileges adds fourth tier to Preferred Hotel reward levels and reduces amounts on first three

Choice Privilege members have had an option for many years to redeem their points for select luxury/preferred hotels outside of the Choice Hotels brands. The redemption rates were set in three tiers depending on the property and those rates were increased not too long ago along with certain properties being excluded.

Now Choice has introduced a fourth tier to the redemption levels which has allowed them to bring back some of the properties that they took away from being able to redeem for. As well for the first three tiers they have dropped the points required value back to what they were before they inflated them.

The points requirements for the tiers are as follows:
Tier 1 - 30,000
Tier 2 - 40,000
Tier 3 - 50,000
Tier 4 - 60,000

For more details and to see all the participating hotels please visit Choice Hotels

WestJet reveals Frequent Guest Program

I have done a complete review of the WestJet program, it is quite long so I will not post all of it here, as well you can see in the previous post a quick overview. However please post your comments, good,bad or neutral below. WestJet does read our blog and they are known as a very proactive company when it comes to comments from their Guests.

The complete review is on our main Rewards Canada site, you can read it here

Here is an excerpt:
Key Features
The biggest feature with the WestJet Frequent Guest Program is no black out dates. As long as seats are available (ie for sale on the website) then you will be able to redeem for them. There are no black out dates and there is no limit to number of seats per flight or per route like legacy frequent flyer programs. Although most legacy programs have introduced access to all seats at all times it requires more miles, typically double the base requirement or more whereas with WestJet the value of your rewards remains the same regardless of the ticket value.

Jet-Away bonus rewards are an interesting way to reward members without giving away tons of dollars and relatively unique to the Frequent Flyer Program industry but again they are taking a page from the credit card industry where numerous cards offer complimentary companion tickets. With these rewards however WestJet is keeping revenue in mind as you have to buy a ticket to go along with the companion ticket.

The WestJet Frequent Guest Program allows for transfers between members for a flat $20 fee, compared to most frequent flyer programs that have a base fee plus a certain amount of cents per miles transferred.

Overall what is good about programs like the WestJet program is that you don't have to have a lot of points to redeem and get some sort of reward versus the set point programs like most frequent flyer programs where you need a minimum amount of points to redeem for a flight.

Downfalls
The $1500 annual spend level will keep the ultra-leisure traveller away unless they get the RBC MasterCard. The spending is also per person, so if you think, by booking your family of four a trip and spending $1600 in base fares reaches the first level, think again, each person will only have $400 towards the first level.

The main downfall of the credit card type or WestJet type of program is that value is lost when you have to redeem for expensive/non-seat sale flights as you have to redeem more points versus the set point programs which require the same amount of points for a flight regardless of what it is selling for (of course this is the best case scenario not taking into account black out dates, availability etc)

As well the credit card is right in the middle of the pack as the 1.5% return on the World MasterCard version falls below cards like the Capital One Miles Plus and Diners Club MasterCards, but is equal to cards like the TD Travel Visas.

The 12 month annual spend levels will make it tough for the less frequent flyer to accrue WestJet Dollars. While Aeroplan has a 12 month inactivity rule, all you have to do is earn 1 or redeem 1 mile to keep your account and balance active and growing. With WestJet if you don't hit that $1500 in the 12 month period, say you spend $1350, you won't get anything.

The 5 Year expiry on your earned dollars is about average for the industry but only for programs that have life span regulations on earned miles/dollars. Many Asian frequent flyer programs have a 3 year life span and in Canada Aeroplan has a 7 year life span while others have no life span as long as you have activity in your account.

No online capabilites for redemption yet, that will come soon but in the meantime it means calling WestJet to take care of bookings when you want to redeem WestJet dollars.

Once again, you can read the complete review here

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