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

Another Resource: Milewise

Like Pointhub, Milewise will search your potential options for redeeming miles or points on awards on several different airlines.

Milewise also has a really easy to use interface with a few extras, including a flexible date search.

Using the flexible dates option, there seem to be lots of opportunities for low-level award space in the front of the plane.  And although only one rewards redemption is shown per date combination, clicking on your preferred dates will show you all of your choices.

Milewise also ranks your options, with a 100 signifying the best option.

Notice in this case, you have three options that all result in the exact same flights: either by transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points, using United miles, or using Continental miles.  Chase takes the lead in this scenario because the monetary value that Milewise assigned to Chase makes this option cost the equivalent of $685 (they consider United and Continental miles more valuable, thus more expensive options).

It’s also convenient how Milewise spells out the taxes & fees required on an award ticket.  In this case, it’s minimal across all airlines.  If you choose to pay cash instead of redeeming an award, you’ll also quickly see how many miles you’ll earn.  Milewise will add in any elite bonuses you qualify for if you link your account numbers (similar to using Award Wallet)

Just like with Pointhub, not all airlines are covered right now.  American Airlines has specifically excluded itself from the results (a shame!) and other airlines just haven’t been built into the system yet.  No hotel searches are currently covered.

Overall, I think this is a great tool for domestic flights and a good starting point for international redemptions.  It’s important to realize these may not be your only options, so if you don’t find the exact flights you want online, give the airline a call.

Using PointHub for Award Searching

Searching for ways to get value from your miles and points can be a tedious task, especially if you have miles in numerous programs.  I currently have miles with American, United, and Delta, so searching once instead of three times can be a time saver.

PointHub is one of the free tools out there to help consolidate your searches.  It has a really easy to use interface with lots of customization and sorting options, making it a great starting point.  Basically, it searches on major airlines’ websites to show you what award seats there are (based only on what is loaded on the airline’s website, which may not include partner awards or other options only available by calling) and how many miles each option costs.

Because it seems to be limited to whatever reward availability is loaded directly onto an airline website, it generally does best with domestic awards.  It’s convenient to see multiple airlines all listed on one search tool, rather than seeking each airline’s options out individually.

Searching for an award flight to Billings, MT in August resulted in finding NO low-level (25,000 points) award space for the dates I wanted, but did show some options on multiple airlines.

PointHub will also recommend when to use miles versus when to pay with cash.  Essentially, it’s assigning a monetary value to each point and then doing a quick comparison to see if the total value of the miles is greater or less than the cost of the ticket in dollars.  Whether you ultimately decide to use miles or points should be based on how you value your miles (do the math!) and what your personal circumstances are, such as if you are short on cash or if you are saving your miles for a larger future trip.

While these are handy features, there is one main reason why I like PointHub.  I find it faster to check on mileage costs using a PointHub search than by going to each airline’s reward charts (some redemptions I know by heart, but many I have to look up).  Delta considers Morocco as part of “Europe” but American considers it part of Africa, making for two very different mileage requirements that are instantly seen on PointHub.  Plus, it includes some airlines where I might not consider checking since I don’t have miles (such as Air Canada’s Aeroplan).  The upside to this?  You might be able to transfer credit card points (such as AmEx Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards points) to these airlines even if you don’t normally collect miles through those airlines – giving you lots of options to redeem your points.

The biggest downfall to this website is that it doesn’t include any availability for rewards not shown on an airline’s website.  For example, I could use my American Airlines miles to fly on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong, but since AA doesn’t hold Cathay Pacific reward inventory online (you have to call), it won’t show up on a PointHub search.  This is a significant issue because availability at a low-mileage level could exist for your desired itinerary even without showing up in your search results.

Another feature that I’d like to see is more participating airlines.  Currently, there’s no way to search for British Airways awards on PointHub, and that would be a great addition considering that you can transfer credit card points easily into the Avios program for award redemptions.

PointHub is also a great start when searching point for hotels.  In this scenario, their search function is much more complete since all award availability can typically be found online with no “hidden” inventory only accessible by phoning to book an award.  A few caveats: it only shows straight reward bookings (no point + cash options) and Hilton / Hyatt points are missing from their reward search (it will show cash purchase options but no rewards).  However, if you’re looking to decide between Priority Club, SPG, and Marriott, you’re all set.

I hope that PointHub strengthens its searching power to include more airlines and hotels in the future because I think they have a great start.

Add Double Miles to the List of Hilton Bonuses

On Thursday, I wrote about how you could earn 10,500 bonus points from a 2-night weekend stay at Hilton properties.  I’ve stayed at the Hampton Inn in Bowling Green (a Category 1 hotel) for just 7,500 points per night and there’s a decent amount of Category 2 hotels that cost just 12,500 points, so this is a pretty good deal.

Loyalty Traveler shares how to take this promotion even further: by getting double (or more!) miles as well.  Remember that with Hilton, all members earn a base 10 points per dollar spent.  You then choose to earn an additional 5 points per dollar OR you can choose to earn airline miles.

To get double miles, you’ll need to:

1. Register for the promotion with your favorite airline
2. Make sure your earnings preferences are set to airline miles
3. Make sure your frequent flyer number is in your Hilton account
4. Complete your stay by March 31

Several airlines are participating, so be sure to register for the promotion that partners with your preferred airline and make sure your preferences are set to earn miles with the same airline partner as the promotion you are registered with.

American Advantage: Double Miles
Aeroplan: Double Miles
US Airways: Triple Miles
Delta: 2,012 Miles with 2-night stay EDIT: As of January 23, this offer has been rescinded!

None of these stays need to be on the weekend, and even a one-night stay will qualify for the promotion.  However, to double up with bonus points and bonus miles, you’ll have to make sure you hit the requirements for each promotion.

As you are setting up your preferences to earn airline miles, you’ll have the choice to choose fixed or variable miles.  With fixed miles, you’ll earn 500 miles per stay (100 miles at Hampton Inn/Homewood Suites) OR 1 mile per dollar spent (including at Hampton/Homewood).  Be sure to choose the method that nets the most miles and remember you can change your preferences as often as every stay.

Thus, a 2-night weekend stay at a Hilton Garden Inn costing $100/night would net:
2,000 Base HHonors Points
10,500 Bonus HHonors Points
Plus Your Choice of 1000 AA miles, 1000 Aeroplan miles, or 1500 US miles
That’s enough for a free night at a Category 1 or 2 Hotel plus a headstart on your next free flight!

Anyone making plans yet?

Forget Alliances: Consider Partner Airlines!

I’ve talked briefly about alliances, but as we begin a new year and new travel is being booked, I think a little more needs to be said about funneling all your miles into one program.  There are two main reasons why you would want to consolidate all your miles into one place:

1. To gain elite status (typically the first level of elite status is earned after you fly 25,000 miles or 30 segments, with additional tiers of status in multiples of this: 50K flown miles, 75K, etc.)
2. To earn rewards faster

Based on my travel expectations for 2012, low-level elite status is unattainable even if I fly only on one airline, so that is a moot point for me…but I do think that earning rewards quickly is something we should consider very important.  By keeping one or two accounts really active, you can accumulate miles more quickly – letting you redeem miles for grander or more frequent awards.  You also take on less risk of having your miles be devalued before you get a chance to use them or having your miles accidentally expire.

Crediting all your miles into one program within an alliance offers a lot of options – for example, if you have an American Airlines account, you can credit your British Airways, LAN Airlines, and Cathay Pacific flights into your AA frequent flyer account (not to mention other flights from more than a dozen other airlines).  This is a nice benefit, but what if the majority of your flying is on United States based airlines?  I know that 95% of all my flights are on either Delta, United, or American Airlines.  It’s a rare event that I fly on a different carrier, and if I do, it’s usually on a free award ticket that doesn’t earn miles anyway, so the fact that I can credit a British Airways flight to AA doesn’t actually interest me that much.  I’d much rather be able to combine my miles from American & Delta, for example.

Well, lo and behold – you can do that!  In addition to crediting within an alliance, you can also credit most fares to a partner airline, so it pays to check what partners an airline may have even outside of their alliance.  Among others, American Airlines is partners with Alaska Airlines, so you have the option of earning Alaska Airlines miles with every American Airlines flight you take.  That’s cool, but not earth-shattering until you realize that Delta is also a partner with Alaska.  So in any given year, you can credit your miles from both American & Delta flights into one bucket through Alaska’s Mileage Plan.  There are a few other partners, too, which you may want to check out if you fly on other international carriers.

I really think the biggest perk is the ability to combine American & Delta miles, but there are a few other positives as well:

• You’ll earn a 500-mile minimum on every flight, which can actually be higher than what you would receive if you credited directly to AA or DL.  My flight to Atlanta next week is only 481 flown miles – so if I credited to Delta, I’d get 481 miles in my account instead of earning 500 miles with Alaska.
• Their miles are pretty valuable, since they have a wide variety of partners you can redeem with: Cathay Pacific and Korean Air to get to Asia, LAN to get to South America, KLM, Air France or British Airways for Europe and Africa, and Qantas to get to Oceania (plus a few others).
• Their award prices are really reasonable.  Most redemptions cost the same as if you booked through Delta/American (such as 25,000 miles for a domestic economy-class ticket), and there are some that are bargains.  A business-class award flight on Qantas to Australia would cost 125,000 AA miles, but the very same flights booked through Alaska would require only 110,000 miles.  Cheaper awards = more free travel.

Of course, there are a few downsides that you’ll want to heavily consider if you are seriously contemplating using Alaska Air as your program of choice:

• Their award chart is more complicated.  A reward to Asia on Cathay Pacific costs a different amount of miles than a reward to Asia on Korean Air, even if you have the exact same starting and ending points.
• You cannot mix partners on award flights.  If I book through American, I can fly on both British Airways and Iberia on a single itinerary.  Not the case with Alaska.
• There are no one-way awards.  Delta doesn’t offer one-way awards either, making that a scratch, but if you are used to the flexibility of AA one-way awards, this could be a dealbreaker for you.

Even someone who hops around from airline to airline (like I do!) could probably keep things simple by holding only two frequent flyer accounts: one with Alaska and one with a Star Alliance member (such as United or US Airways).  In all cases, if you’re flying a partner airline but want to credit to your main airline program (whether it’s “only” a partner or a full-fledged alliance member), check and make sure that your particular fare class and route will count for credit: there can be a few exceptions!

If you don’t already have an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, sign up here and complete your profile to earn 500 miles.  **If you already have an account but haven’t yet filled out your profile, you can use your exisiting number and still be eligible for the bonus miles**