Blog Update: Joining the BoardingArea Community!

I know you’re always on the lookout for a great deal, so pardon the interruption as I bring you some blog news instead of a hot deal.

I’m excited to be joining the BoardingArea blog community!  In case you haven’t already been there, this is a website full of deals, tips, and more from some incredible bloggers.  You’ll find articles for every niche of travel and I’m honored to be joining as another blogger.

What does this mean for you, exactly?  Well, mostly that you’re going to have to check me out at a new address: http://www.newgirlintheair.com/  All of my new posts will be exclusively on the BoardingArea website, though this page will be here for awhile in case you forget!  My content won’t be changing at all – still some miles and points deals, some trip reports, and some of my thoughts and opinions, so stick around as I move over to BoardingArea!

Head on over to http://www.newgirlintheair.com/

Priority Club Last Minute Rewards

Looking for a last-minute getaway?  Priority Club offers last-minute reduced-points rewards the first weekend of every month.  Each month, 75+ hotels are available for booking at 50% fewer points, so a 40,000 point Intercontinental Resort will cost only 20,000 points…and some Holiday Inn Express are as low as 5,000 points!  These truly are last-minute deals: you book Tuesday-Thursday for a stay Friday-Sunday.  This month’s hotels are already listed, so book now for a stay February 3-5.  Check back each month for new offers (hotels are typically listed on the Tuesday preceding the first weekend of the month).

Since there’s not a lot of notice, you might want to stick to hotels within driving distance.  Last-minute airfare prices could definitely offset any savings on the hotel, although one exception might be if you have British Airways miles (which don’t come attached to last-minute booking fees on reward flights).  It’s worth perusing the list monthly in case something catches your eye.

Remember that Priority Club awards are cancellable/changeable at no fee, so if you had an existing reward reservation booked at a participating property, you can re-book at the lower points rate, thus saving 50% of the points you would have spent.

There are 120 hotels listed for this weekend.  Some of them aren’t very exciting – airport hotels or hotels out in the suburbs of cities like Chicago – but you could go golfing in Arizona, shopping at the Mall of America, or spend the weekend in luxury in San Francisco.  Want to head international?  The Intercontinental in Vienna caught my eye!

There’s nothing on my list this time around, but that’s okay…after a fun and busy weekend in Bethlehem, PA, I’m ready for a weekend at home!

Which First Quarter Hotel Promotion is Best for You?

With Hyatt finally leaking their information on their early 2012 promotion, we have a complete look at hotel promotions for the next few months, at least for the “Big 5″ (Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, Starwood).  Of course, it can be tough keeping track of all these promotions, and harder still to determine which is best for you.

Here’s a quick recap of the current promotions:

• Hilton: MorePoints (1000 Bonus Points per night and 5000 Bonus Points if your reservation includes 2 consecutive weekend nights).  This is stackable with their everyday bonus of 1000 Bonus Points for a 2-night weekend stay when you choose their “Any Weekend, Anywhere” rate (7+ day advance notice, prepaid, non-refundable).  Also stackable with Double Miles.
• Hyatt: Stay More, Earn More, which involves bonus points in a tiered structure, starting with 4,000 bonus points after you stay at least 4 nights and ending at 44,000 bonus points for 16 nights during the promotion period.  Hyatt credit card holders earn 25% more bonus points.
• Marriott: Megabonus, where you earn one free night certificate (at category 1-4 hotels, redeemable through September 30) after every two stays, with a maximum of two stays.  After you earn your free nights, you can switch over to the MegaMiles promotion for 2000 bonus airline miles per stay.
• Priority Club: Stay X Nights, Earn Y Points, where you can earn 5000 bonus points after 3 nights up to 15,000 bonus points after 15 nights.  This is stackable with “2x More“, offering double points starting with your second stay.
• Starwood: Better by the Night, which gives double points on 2-night stays or triple points on stays of 3+ nights, though many properties are excluded.

So which promotion is the best fit for you?  Let’s look at three potential scenarios and run the math.  I’ll be looking at what a standard visitor will earn, based on no elite status (at least at the start of this promotion), no credit card holder bonus, and the typical earnings rate (i.e. in cases where certain properties differ in earnings structure, I’m taking the most common earnings rate…such as 10 points per dollar at most Marriott-family hotels vs. 5 points at Residence Inn).  I’m assuming all rooms are at an average cost of $150/night, but when you do your own analysis, substitute in whatever metrics are most relevant to you!

1. The Couple Looking for a Few Quick Weekend Getaways (Total of 2 Stays / 4 Nights / $600 Spent)
If Jack and Jill spend two weekends away, each with a 2-night stay, which promotion is best for them?  Marriott

• Hilton: Total Earnings of 22,000 HHonors Points and 2,000 Airline Miles.  This includes 6,000 Base Points, 1,000 Base Miles, 14,000 “MorePoints” bonus points, 2,000 “Any Weekend, Anywhere” bonus points, and 1,000 bonus miles due to earning double miles.
• Hyatt: Total Earnings of 7,000 Gold Passport Points.  This includes 3,000 Base Points and 4,000 Bonus Points.
• Marriott: Total Earnings of 6,000 Marriott Rewards Points and 2 Free Night Certificates.  This includes 6,000 Base Points and 2 Free Night Certificates.
• Priority Club: Total Earnings of 14,000 Priority Club Points.  This includes 6,000 Base Points and 5,000 Bonus Points from the “Stay X Nights” promotion, and 3,000 points from the 2x promotion.
• Starwood: Total Earnings of 1,200 SPG Points.  This includes 600 Base Points and 600 Bonus Points.

My thoughts: Two free nights is a pretty hefty incentive from Marriott.  Being able to redeem these certificates at up to a Category 4 hotel offers tons of options on destination,which is obviously a huge factor in usability.  You can snag just about any Fairfield Inn or Courtyard property with these certificates, and in the right destination, you might be able to live it up at a Renaissance or even a JW Marriott.  The September 30 expiration may be a bit of an issue for some travelers, but given the amount of eligible properties, I’d guess you’d be able to use the certificates for something without a problem.  Plus, those 6,000 points are enough for a PointStretcher reward at Category 1 hotels, so you may end up with 3 free nights if you play your cards right.  Hilton is a pretty close runner-up if you are able to redeem your points at low-end properties (you have almost enough points for 3 nights at a Category 1 hotel, though the list of properties is quite short), and obviously a few airline miles won’t hurt your case either

2. The Family on a Week-Long Vacation (Total of 2 Stays / 8 Nights / $1,200 Spent)
If the Smith family is going on a vacation for a week and plans to spend Saturday – Tuesday nights at one hotel and then Wednesday – Saturday nights at another hotel, which promotion is best for them? Marriott

• Hilton: Total Earnings of 32,000 HHonors Points and 2,000 Airline Miles.  This includes 12,000 base points, 1,000 base miles, 18,000 “MorePoints” bonus points, 2,000 “Any Weekend, Anywhere” points, and 1,000 bonus miles.
• Hyatt: Total Earnings of 18,000 Gold Passport Points.  This includes 6,000 base points and 12,000 bonus points.
• Marriott: Total Earnings of 12,000 Marriott Rewards Points and 2 Free Night Certificates.  This includes 12,000 base points and 2 free night certificates.
• Priority Club: Total Earnings of 28,000 Priority Club Points.  This inclues 12,000 base points, 10,000 bonus points from the “Stay X” promotion, and 6,000 bonus points from the “2x” promotion.
• Starwood: Total Earnings of 3,600 SPG Points.  This includes 1,200 base points and 2,400 bonus points.

My Thoughts: This is where the promotions start to equal out a little more, depending on how and where you want to use your points.  If you can find a low-level hotel in your favored destination and combine it with rotating specials like PointStretchers or PointBreaks hotels, you’ll earn enough points for several free nights at any chain other than Starwood.  However, assuming you’re at more of a mid-tier reward level, Marriott still wins with 2 free night certificates and potentially 1-2 more low-level nights by using points.  This time, Hyatt comes in a close second.  18,000 points will buy you 3 nights at a Category 1 hotel, 2 nights at a Category 2 hotel, or 1 night at an incredible Category 5 hotel.

3. The Road Warrior (Total of 8 Stays / 16 Nights/ $2,400 Spent)
If Mr. Wilson is away on business during the week on a semi-frequent basis with a multitude of 2-nights stays, which promotion is best for him? Hyatt

• Hilton: Total Earnings of 40,000 HHonors Points and 8,000 Airline Miles.  This includes 24,000 base points, 4,000 base miles, 16,000 “MorePoints” bonus points, and 4,000 bonus miles.  Although you’d qualify for silver status during this scenario even if you started from nothing, you won’t receive an elite bonus if your earnings are set to miles (in order to qualify for the Double Miles promotion).  If you wanted to forfeit the double miles once you reach silver status in order to earn extra points (including elite bonus) instead, you would earn 6,90o Hilton points, which I’d value roughly the same as the 2,000 bonus miles you’d give up.
• Hyatt: Total Earnings of 56,675 Gold Passport Points.  This includes 12,000 base points and 44,000 bonus points.You’d also earn 675 elite bonus points because even if you started from scratch, you’d still reach elite status partway through this scenario.
• Marriott: Total Earnings of 12,000 Marriott Rewards Points, 2 Free Night Certificates, and 10,400 Airline Miles.  This includes 12,000 base points, 2 free night certificates, as well as 2,400 base miles and 8,000 bonus miles for switching over to the MegaMiles promotion.  Even though you qualify for silver status during this scenario, you won’t receive an elite bonus if your earnings are set to miles (in order to qualify for the MegaMiles promotion).  Forfeiting the MegaMiles results in 14,400 points, which in my opinion, are worth less than 10,400 miles.
• Priority Club: Total Earnings of 82,200 Priority Club Points.  This includes 24,000 base points, 15,000 bonus points from the “Stay X” promotion, 42,000 bonus points from the “2x” promotion, and another 1,200 elite bonus points.
• Starwood: Total Earnings of 4,800 SPG Points.  This includes 2,400 base points and 2,400 bonus points.  You haven’t yet qualified for elite status.

My Thoughts: When you stay this often, you’re bound to get several free nights with any hotel chain.  Hyatt offers a great deal – you’ll get enough points for 2 free nights at their top-tier properties along with enough points for 2 more nights at low-level properties.  If luxury’s not your thing, you have enough for 11 free nights at Category 1 hotels or a respectable 4 nights at Category 3 hotels (with points leftover)…with no expiration dates on the free nights.  That’s extraordinary flexibility!  Marriott remains a contender, with up to 4 free nights at low-to-mid level hotels and almost enough airline miles for a one-way domestic ticket.  Priority Club theoretically could offer 16 nights at PointBreaks hotels or 2 nights at an Intercontinental.  Compared to these options, Hilton and Starwood seem only mediocre.

It’s hard to believe, but I have no hotel stays planned for this time period – my vacation in February is already set and on a cruise ship, so no points to be had.  I guess I’ll have to wait for the spring promotions to come out to start strategically planning my hotel stays.

New Rules in Published Airfares: Full Disclosure or Hidden Agenda?

By now, you may have noticed that all advertised prices for air travel includes all taxes and fees – so the price you see is the price you pay.

For years, airlines have gotten away with advertising low prices for airfare and then surprising you at the check-out page when the price jumps to include taxes and fees in the final price.  New legislation taking effect today will mean all of these fees are wrapped into one price to reflect the true cost of the ticket.

There are a few other changes for consumers as well, including the disclosure of baggage fees earlier in the booking process, the ability to hold a reservation for 24 hours without payment, and the option to cancel a reservation without penalty for 24 hours (as long as reservations are made a week or more in advance).

I’ve found it interesting how different airlines are reacting to this legislation.  JetBlue is claiming the new pricing structure makes things “clear and simple”, and I agree.  I like the idea of receiving my email promotions with a price that actually means something to me, the way that European flights have been for ages.

On the flipside, Spirit wants you to “say no to hidden taxes”, claiming that the government passed this legislation so they could hide the taxes within your ticket so as a consumer you won’t know when the government raises taxes and fees on your ticket.  While this is a risk, I’m more inclined to believe that Spirit (and other airlines) will be deceptive if they are allowed.

What’s your take on the new legislation?  Are you happy that prices will be bundled or are you worried that this will ultimately result in fewer consumer protections?  I’d love to hear your take in the comments.

A Few More Resources for Mileage Redemptions

To conclude my mini-series on free websites that might help with your travel planning, I have a few other sites to share in addition to PointHub and MileWise.

1) Milez.biz

I had never heard about Milez.biz until infamousdx posted about it, but I love it for it’s simplicity.  It offers exactly one feature: telling you how many miles it will cost you to fly from one city to another on different airline programs, and all you have to do is enter a city pair.

The website doesn’t check availability, routing options, or anything else you may need to actually book, but will very quickly show you the different amounts of miles you need to get to your destination.  It does this well, since it has embedded information from 45 different airlines ranging from the common (Delta, US Airways) to those you may not have ever used (Ethiopian Air, Avianca).  My search resulted in 21 different different redemption options, across all three alliances and a few airlines not affiliated with an alliance.

Among other options for flying between New York and Lima, you could fly on LAN Airlines booking with either LAN miles or American Airlines miles.  You could be on the exact same flights, but who you book with will result in different prices.  Pretend for a minute you don’t have miles with either airline but you do have Starwood Hotel points which can be transferred easily to either airline.  To get enough AA miles for your Lima flight would require a transfer of 30,000 Starwood points but to book the same flight directly through LAN would require only 20,000 Starwood points.  Knowing your options can save you miles and points in the long-run, especially in the case of transferable/convertible points (including AmEx Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards) where you have several partners to choose from.  And that’s in addition to looking at options for airline programs where you already have miles accumulated.

There are a few kinks still in the program – for example, British Airways Avios were not listed as an option, although they should have been.  Still, a handy tool to keep on your bookmarks list.

2) Frequent Flier Redemption Options

Created by blogger The Wandering Aramean, this tool covers the same premise: searching for how many miles you need to book that award.  His site offers a key extra that I appreciate: the extra columns for off-peak awards and premium economy seats (when applicable).  Dates aren’t listed for off-peak awards, so you’ll still have to do some cross-checking on that, but those savings can be significant if you have the option to use miles in those programs.

This tool also allows one-way searches.  Note in this case the results will only show results for airlines that actually allow one-way awards at a reduced price; for example, it would cost a full round-trip cost to book a Delta award even if I only booked one direction of travel, so the tool would leave off Delta from the results (rather than showing the round-trip cost).  Something to keep in mind.

If you want to take it one step farther, he has also built tools to search inventory on specific dates for select airlines.

With the right tools, effectively using your points and miles is just a little bit easier.  Happy Travels!

Audience Rewards – Answers as of January 24

I haven’t given an Audience Rewards update in awhile.  These simple trivia questions will earn you a few extra bonus miles or points – great for extending the expiration date on your miles without spending a penny.  Plus, they’re a little fun.

I’ve done the Delta & US Airways questions a few times before, but I answered the SPG questions today for the first time based on MileageSaver’s answers.  Why?  Because I did the math the other day and realized SPG would help me with some of my longer-term goals and I hate seeing zero sitting in my AwardWallet balance!

Delta Q&A: 

1. The current Velma in Chicago has been in all but which of the following shows on Broadway? South Pacific
2. How many times has the theatre where Mamma Mia! is playing changed names since the show opened there? Three times
3. The current Elphaba in Wicked has been involved in what current Broadway show that began Off Broadway? Rock of Ages
4. Where is Diane Paulus from? New York City
5. How many Tony Awards did Abe Burrows win? 4

US Airways Q&A:

1. Prior to Nice Work If You Can Get It, which of the following shows did NOT play the Imperial Theatre? Shrek, The Musical
2. True or False? The original author behind How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying once worked in an ad agency on Madison Avenue.  True
3. Which Shakespearean role has Jennifer Lim portrayed in Mandarin? Ophelia
4. True or False? Only one of the Billy’s who starred in the show in its final weeks played the final show. False
5. True or False? Liza Minnelli is a character in End of the Rainbow. False
6. What character(s) sings “Summertime” in Porgy and Bess? Clara and Jake

Three Resources for Booking a Cruise

Last week, I shared a few of cruising’s top misconceptions.  It’s not the type of travel for everyone, but I enjoy it for very different reasons than I enjoy more traditionally-based vacations, and millions of other people must enjoy it as well, based on the number of cruisers expected in 2012.

If you’re just getting started in the cruising world, here are a few of my favorite resources for sea-based adventures.

1) Vacations to Go

There are thousands of cruises every year, so finding the perfect fit for you means a lot of digging through options.  Vacations to Go, an online travel agency, offers what I think is the best search engine.  You can search by cruiseline, specific ship, date range, duration of sailing, ports of call, budget, or more – making this a very comprehensive tool.  For basic searches, use their “Find a Bargain” option.

If you’ve ever wanted to sample the Hawaiian islands, you can search to find a great cruise for you.  Just fill in the options you really care about and then click on “Show Me the Deals!” to see your search results.

Their engine will return up to 500 cruises, so if you are getting more results than you want to wade through, be more specific in your search.  Usually, you can get a subset of a manageable number of cruises to look through.

Click to see more information on the specific prices for different room categories and the exact itinerary.  Notice that the advertised price on the summary page is the price of the lowest-category room and that upgrading to a better room will cost extra (just like in hotels).

By digging into the details of each itinerary as well as reading information on the ship (more details on that later), you’ll be better able to find a cruise that suits you.

2) Cruise Compete

Once you have a sailing that interests you, Cruise Compete is one of the quickest ways to get price quotes.  Cruise prices can vary significantly based on different promotions run through travel agencies, so it’s worth looking around for lowest prices and/or extra amenities.  Sometimes every place will have the same price (as advertised by the cruiseline) and sometimes you can get a better deal.

Getting a cruise quote is quick and easy.  Simply input the information you’re interested in sailing, and then sit back and relax while different agencies send you price quotes.

I’ve used two different agencies through Cruise Compete for my bookings, as well as Vacations to Go (highlighted above), as well as booking through the cruiseline, and all have been equally easy.

3) Cruise Critic

The last of the great cruise resources is Cruise Critic.  This website has a little bit of everything, but frankly I think the articles are quite basic, making the two best parts of the website the parts where individuals can share: Member Reviews and the Forums.

The member reviews are great for getting a feel on which cruise line, ship, and itinerary will work best for you.  Past cruisers share their experiences with accommodations, dining, excursions, onboard activities and even the nitty gritty like internet speeds, the cost of a martini, or which entertainers to watch out for.

The forums are even better, since they’re incredibly interactive and in a community that is friendly and welcoming toward newcomers.  Start reading to get the hang of how cruises work and feel free to ask questions!  You’ll easily find the answers on what tours are recommended in each port, what add-ons are worth the cost, and even which ships are the most eco-conscious.

Overall, these three websites are basically all you need to get settled with a great cruise – every step for finding a cruise, booking it, and then researching what to do while on vacation!  Enjoy your time at sea…I do!