InterContinental Offers Bonuses for Summer Stays

As the economy revives and consumers ratchet up their traveler spending, hoteliers will gradually scale back the unprecedented two-year-long run of continuous hotel promotions. At least that's the theory. With such a scenario in mind, I've been monitoring the end dates of recent offers from the major hotel chains, looking for signs that hotel marketers are finally ready to cut back on bonus points, free nights, and other sales incentives.

Hilton's current promotion is only in place through June 30. But Starwood's latest offer applies to stays through July 31, and Best Western's is in place through August 31.

Apparently confirming that hotel promotions will continue at least through the summer months, the new offer from InterContinental will also run through August 31.

Offer Details

Between May 14 and August 31, Priority Club Rewards members can earn one of the two following bonuses for stays at InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Express by Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites, and Candlewood Suites hotels:

• Double Priority Club points or airline miles for the second and subsequent stays. (Bonus takes effect with the first stay at Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.)
• A $50 gift card for the second and subsequent weekend stays, up to a maximum of $500. A weekend stay is either Friday or Saturday night. The gift cards are good at over 300 retailers.

Program members must register to receive one bonus or the other, but not both.

Deal or No Deal

The qualification hurdle—two stays by August 31—is reasonable, especially compared to competing offers. Among other current hotel promotions, Hilton's bonus requires four stays, and Best Western's requires three, as does Starwood's.

Double points or miles is a nice bonus, if an unspectacular one.

And at face value, the $50 gift card potentially represents a hefty rebate on the cost of a weekend stay. The usual caveat with gift cards applies: Be sure to confirm it can be used at a retailer you would choose to patronize; and redeem it before it expires.

Reader Reality Check

Have you taken advantage of the recent hotel promotions? Do you plan to take advantage of this one?

Hyatt Raises, Lowers Prices for Free Nights

I got a call yesterday from Jeff Zidell, chief of Hyatt's Gold Passport program.

The call was unexpected and Zidell is a busy guy, so I knew that there was bad news to be communicated, probably a policy change that Hyatt wanted to put into a more favorable perspective.

What's changing is the Hyatt Gold Passport award chart.

Effective June 4, Hyatt will require more points for award nights at 89 properties, and fewer points for award stays at 65 properties.

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Of the hotels being priced higher, 20 will be placed into an altogether new award tier, Category 6, which will cost 22,000 points per night.

The Hyatt portfolio includes around 424 hotels, so the change amounts to an award price increase in 21 percent of its properties, and a decrease in 15 percent of its hotels.

The net effect, obviously, is modestly negative.

I asked Zidell the same question I put to Hilton following its recent award-chart changes: With travel down across the board—and both occupancy rates and room rates depressed—is this the right time to be making changes that, on balance, negatively affect the value of Gold Passport points?

In response, Zidell pointed to the fact that Hyatt hadn't modified its award chart in more than three years. Perhaps more importantly, he alluded to Hyatt's long-term view of the program, arguing that such recent program enhancements as the elimination of award blackouts increased Gold Passport's value.

The specifics of Hyatt's changes aside, such "adjustments" are troubling to travel consumers. And they should be. The long-term trend is decidedly in the direction of charging more for award nights, which makes points less valuable.

And it's not only points earned in the future that will have less value. With such award chart changes, points that loyalty program members may have spent years accumulating are suddenly stripped of some of their value—value that consumers assumed would be retained when they first signed up to participate in a program. So there's a natural feeling that an implicit promise has been broken.

Of course, loyalty programs reserve for themselves the right to modify the schemes whenever and however they choose, so consumers have no legal basis for complaint. At the end of the day, the only constraint on travel suppliers' ability to devalue their programs is pressure from their members.

These are, after all, loyalty programs. And if consumers don't feel their loyalty is sufficiently appreciated in one program, they're free to earn their points elsewhere.

From Best Western: 1,250 American Miles After Three Stays

In times like these, with all major hotel chains in continual promotion mode, hotels without a special offer or bonus to advertise tend to get lost in the shuffle. That creates an incentive to maintain promotional activity—any promotional activity—if only to sustain visibility among the traveling public.

The latest offer from Best Western feels like one of those "Let's just do something" kind of promotions.

Offer Details

Best Western Rewards members who complete two stays between April 4 and May 30, and complete an additional stay between June 1 and August 31, will earn 1,250 American AAdvantage bonus miles. So, with the 250 miles normally earned, a member would earn a total of 2,000 miles for the three stays.

Registration is required.

Deal or No Deal

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With a high qualification hurdle and only a modest bonus, this offer isn't likely to cause many travelers to change their plans.

As a quick comparison, later this week we'll be reviewing a Marriott offer that features 5,000 Delta miles for the second and subsequent stays between May 1 and September 6. So: easier to qualify, and a bigger bonus.

On the other hand, if you're already a Best Western partisan, and you collect American miles, the bonus is icing on the cake.

Reader Reality Check

Do you find 1,250 bonus miles after three stays compelling enough to make a special effort to qualify, or to change to Best Western from another hotel chain?

United Discounts Summer Award Trips by 20 Percent

Award discounts are becoming a regular feature of United's Mileage Plus program.

United's last discount—the ninth in less than a year—was a modest 10 percent, but it was for its most popular award, the restricted coach ticket for travel within the U.S. and to Canada.

United's new award discount is also for travel within the U.S. and Canada, but it's different in key respects.

In particular, rather than discounting restricted award tickets—as United has done repeatedly in its past award promotions—this time it has put unrestricted awards (Standard awards, in United's parlance) on sale. United describes Standard awards as follows:

Standard Awards allow you to fly any time seats are available on the plane. There's no limit to the number of Standard Awards allowed on each flight, so you have more options at the times you want to fly—even at peak travel times when Saver Awards may be unavailable.

Of course, there's a price for that flexibility: Standard awards generally require twice as many miles as Saver awards.

Offer Details

Through May 18, Mileage Plus members can book Standard round-trip coach awards within the U.S. (excluding Hawaii), or between the U.S. and Canada, for 40,000 miles, a 20 percent discount from the normal 50,000-mile price.

The discounted travel may take place any time between May 12 and October 31.

Deal or No Deal

United's past award discounts have been no-brainers. If the award trip was worth the miles at the published rates, it was an even better value at the discounted rate.

This offer is harder to assess, because what's being discounted is a second-choice product. No savvy traveler would pay twice as many miles for an unrestricted ticket if a restricted award were available on the same itinerary.

Since standard awards are only booked under duress, the promotion will leave some with the queasy feeling that this is akin to the old retailer trick of offering aggressive discounts on inflated "suggested retail prices."

Still, the reality is that restricted award seats are going to be hard to come by this summer, as planes are expected to be flying almost full. That will force some Mileage Plus members who have the necessary miles and motivation to bite the bullet and book Standard awards. In that scenario, it's clearly preferable to pay 40,000 rather than 50,000 miles.

While the offer has its limitations, it's superior to past offers in two respects. First, it gives Mileage Plus members more than three weeks to plan and commit to an itinerary. United's previous modus operandi has been to force would-be discount travelers to make a quick decision.

And second, award travel at the lower rates can take place any time within a 5.5-month window. Previous award travel windows have been much less accommodating.

Whatever the promotion's merits, don't commit to a Standard award, even a discounted one, before trying to book the trip as a Saver award. If Saver seats aren't available through United's online booking engine, call the reservations center and see if an agent can help you. You'll pay a booking fee, but that still beats paying more miles for a Standard award. And the fee only applies if the booking is successful.

Reader Reality Check

Do you expect to use Standard awards for travel this summer?

If you were planning to use a Saver award and no seats were available, would this promotion be enough incentive to pay more miles for a Standard award?

Why the United-US Airways Breakup Is Good for Flyers

Yesterday's official announcement that merger talks between US Airways and United have been terminated is great news for anyone vested in the loyalty programs of either of those carriers.

If the merger had transpired, no matter which of the two airlines ended up with management control, there would be a lowest common denominator effect, with the worst practices of the least customer-friendly company dragging down the policies and procedures of the new company.

In this case, the lowest common denominator would be US Airways. And to be blunt, if the merger were a marriage, no caring parents would want their offspring hitched to US Airways.

US Airways is a company that never successfully made the transition to the current operating environment, in which the prevalence of low-cost carriers has forced mainline airlines to make difficult decisions about the relationship between customer benefits and ticket prices.

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Where most other airlines have found ways to balance the interests of all their stakeholders—customers, investors, employees, the community—US Airways has consistently given its customers' interests short shrift.

For years, the public face of the airline—at least as far as frequent flyers were concerned—was Ben Baldanza, who as US Airways' marketing chief was notorious for his cavalier lack of consideration for the needs of mileage program members.

Yes, that's the very same Ben Baldanza who now heads up Spirit Airlines, whose customers-be-damned approach was most recently epitomized by the announcements that it planned to charge for carry-ons and install non-reclining seats in its new jets.

While Baldanza is gone from US Airways, his legacy survives. I've long felt that his brand of ruthlessness has seeped into the very genetic makeup of US Airways.

Proof positive can be found in the airline's annual reports, where it is reported that in both 2008 and 2009, US Airways allocated just 4 percent of its seats to Dividend Miles members redeeming their miles. That's less than half the percentage of frequent flyer seats given away by United.

Meanwhile, the airline is giving away double miles on all flights, and offering a sign-up bonus for new members.

More miles. More program members. And possibly the industry's worst record of delivering on the promise of free flights. If ever there were a recipe for customer disappointment and frustration, this is it.

In US Airways' announcement, current chief Doug Parker continued extolling the supposed benefits of consolidation, even as he admitted that the United bid had failed.

My advice to other airlines: If US Airways comes knocking on your door, don't open it.

Reader Reality Check

US Airways customers, please weigh in with your comments, positive or negative. And if you're a United customer, would you have welcomed a tie-up with US Airways?

Starwood Offers Free Weekend Night After Three Stays

With the rebound in the economy, there are glimmers of an associated rebound in travel. That's good for the hotels, which have been mounting promotion after promotion for the past two-plus years, discounting rates and offering bonuses with unprecedented abandon. But good times for the hotels will be just the opposite for their customers, who will find themselves on the receiving end of stiffer hotel bills and fewer loyalty points.

While we may be approaching the tipping point, when increased demand shifts pricing power back into the hands of the hotels, the latest announcement from Starwood would suggest that we're not there yet.

Starwood's last promotion—up to quadruple points for multiple stays—ended on April 15. Would they extend it, roll out a new promotion, or boldly go forth with no extra sales incentives at all?

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The answer—good news for travel consumers—takes the form of a new promotion that will keep Starwood in promotional mode at least through the end of July.

Offer Details

Between May 1 and July 31, Starwood Preferred Guest members can earn a free weekend night after every three paid stays.

Registration is required, and must be completed by June 30. (The registration link won't be active until May 1.)

Deal or No Deal

The Starwood promotional copy promises "No limits. No catch."

That's not quite right.

• While the bonus can be earned an unlimited number of times, for stays at all Starwood properties, the free night cannot be taken at 16 Category 7 hotels (the highest-priced of Starwood's award tiers).
• The free nights are not transferable, so they can't be given away as gifts.
• And the free nights must be redeemed by December 19, 2010.

Quibbles aside, this offer potentially delivers significant value. By logging three one-night stays at lower-priced Starwood brands and taking the free night at an expensive property, a Preferred Guest member can leverage the promotion to get a nice return-on-investment, and enjoy a pleasantly high-end getaway as well.

Reader Reality Check

Anyone planning to execute the buy-cheap-redeem-upscale strategy? Which hotels are you planning to use to qualify, and where do plan to use the free night?

The Top Five Frequent Traveler Deals for April 2010

There are many, many promotions. But there are only a few really, really good ones.

In this monthly roundup, we highlight the five most lucrative offers (or categories of offer) currently available to members of airline and hotel loyalty programs.

(Promotions are listed in alphabetical order.)

1. Spring and Summer Hotel Offers

The two-year-long flood of hotel offers continues, extending the longest period of sustained promotional activity in memory.

A number of offers expire at the end of April, and thus far have not been extended or replaced. Could it be that the hotel chains are throttling back somewhat on their marketing initiatives as the economy revives? That remains to be seen. For now, there are still plenty of promotions worth taking advantage of. Among them:

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• Members of the Best Western Rewards program who complete two or more qualifying hotel stays between April 4 and May 30 can earn the following: 250 bonus points for bookings made online; 1,000 bonus points for bookings charged to a Best Western MasterCard; entry into a 100,000-point sweepstakes for bookings made by elite members; or a $50 Best Western Travel Card. The bonuses can only be earned once, and you must register before the first qualifying stay.
• Choice Privileges members who make two stays at Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay, Econo Lodge, or Rodeway Inn hotels between February 22 and April 30 will earn enough bonus points for a free night at more than 1,500 hotels. To qualify, stays must be booked at 1-800-4CHOICE or ChoiceHotels.com.
• Between April 6 and June 30, Hilton HHonors members can earn a free night or double base points after either four qualifying stays or 10 nights at participating Hilton, Doubletree, Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, Conrad, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites, Hilton Grand Vacations, and Waldorf Astoria Collection hotels. Registration is required, at which time program members must opt for either free nights or bonus points. The free night certificate must be used within one year.
• Through June 30, Hyatt Gold Passport members can earn a free night or 5,000 bonus points after every two qualifying stays. There's no limit to the number of free nights that can be earned, but they must be taken between April 1 and August 31.
• Between February 1 and April 30, members of InterContinental's Priority Club Rewards program can earn 1,000 bonus points or 200 airline miles for every qualifying night at InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, or Candlewood Suites hotels. Up to 20,000 bonus points or 4,000 miles may be earned during the promotion.
• Through April 30, Marriott has reprised for the umpteenth time its MegaBonus promotion: 2,500 points for the second and subsequent stays at Marriott, JW Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard by Marriott, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, Fairfield Inn, and TownePlace Suites hotels, up to a maximum of 25,000 bonus points.Members must register by March 31.
• Also from Marriott: First-time members of Marriott Rewards who enroll online will be automatically registered to receive a certificate for a free night at a Category 1 through Category 4 hotel after completing two stays between May 1 and July 31 at a Marriott family property. The certificate can only be used by the member who earned it—it's not transferable.
• And Omni is offering members of its Select Guest program triple United miles for qualifying stays through June 30.

2. Best Western Matches Elite Status

If you're a silver, gold, or platinum elite member of another hotel frequent-stay program, Best Western will accord you equivalent status in its Best Western Rewards program.

Elite perks in Best Western's program are modest, to be sure. But if you already have status in another program, and foresee one or more stays at a Best Western property, this is an easy way to upgrade the experience.

3. More Miles from Midwest

Midwest is offering double miles on a number of new routes: between Milwaukee and Raleigh/Durham, St. Louis, San Diego or San Francisco from April 15 through June 19; and between Kansas City and Columbus or New Orleans from May 3 through August 20.

Later this year, Midwest and Frontier will be merged and their mileage programs consolidated. So any Midwest miles earned today will ultimately be miles in a larger, more robust program.

4. Southwest Offers Double Credits for All Flights

Between April 7 and May 26, Rapid Rewards members will earn double credits on all Southwest flights booked on Southwest's website.

Business Select tickets earn 2.25 credits for flights less than 750 miles, and three credits for flights 750 miles or more.

The offer is for new reservations only. Registration is required.

5. US Airways Doubles the Miles

US Airways not only matched Southwest's double-credit offer (see above), they upped the ante by making the extra miles count toward elite status.

Between April 13 and June 15, Dividend Miles members will earn double miles for all flights on US Airways, US Airways Express, and the US Airways Shuttle.

Those double miles can be redeemed for awards as well as counting toward elite status.

Delta's New Sky Priority Is Much Ado About Little

On April 15, Delta launched a new benefit "suite" for top-tier elite members of its SkyMiles program, and for passengers traveling on business- or first-class tickets. Dubbed Sky Priority, it includes the following:

• Priority check-in
• Expedited security lines at select airports
• Priority boarding
• Expedited baggage handling
• Dedicated reservation line

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That seems pretty clear. Where things get murky is in the overlap between Sky Priority perks and the existing benefits enjoyed by Delta elite members. Consider the following note from Lynne, a Silver elite in Delta's program, who had just received an email notice of Sky Priority's introduction:

"This year, I'm only Silver. When I read the double-speak in this email today, I interpreted it to mean that my Silver status (which they hope I am enjoying) no longer offers me benefits beginning April 15.

"Then I went to check in for my April 15 flight, and my suspicions were confirmed. Silver no longer gets priority seats, no longer gets breezeway boarding... in fact, effective tomorrow, I'm not sure what I do get until I hit Gold once again because the web site only features the old information as of tonight!"

It would appear, based on Lynne's experience, that some Silver elite benefits were being sacrificed on the altar of Sky Priority. But when I suggested as much to a Delta spokesman, he stated categorically that "Silvers are not losing anything."

In a follow-up email, he elaborated specifically on the issues of priority check-in and boarding for Silver elites: "For check-in, signage will be clearly marked for Silver Medallions—in hub cities, they will have dedicated Silver Medallion check-in; in non-hub cities check-in signage for Sky Priority lists Silver Medallion members. For the boarding process, zone 1 will be dedicated to Sky Priority customers and zone 2 will be used for Silver Medallion members. Zones 3 and 4 will continue to be used for general boarding."

When the dust settles, it may well turn out that Lynne was simply the victim of an operational hiccup in the initial days of a new procedure roll-out. It happens.

So, what's the verdict on Sky Priority?

None of the benefits is new. This is a case of bundling and branding a collection of travel perks under the Sky Priority name.

It's probably smart marketing, in theory. If you can repackage elements of an existing service, give them a catchy name, and generate some goodwill and positive press, you'll earn the gratitude of company stockholders and justify an executive pay package.

The net benefit to travelers, however, isn't so obvious.

In practice, even the cleverest ideas should be subjected to an acid test: Can the benefit be communicated simply and clearly, such that the intended beneficiaries "get it"?

In this case, because of the confusion inherent in offering elite members what they were already privy to, but with a glitzy label, the communications effort so far isn't scoring very well. For elite members, there isn't much "it" to get. And suggesting otherwise creates more confusion than clarity.

The confusion could have been easily avoided, by linking Sky Priority to high-priced tickets (first, business, full-fare coach) and not to elite status.

It's too late now, however. Having very publicly promised that elite members will henceforth receive Sky Priority benefits, reverting to the old package of perks would appear retrograde—even though nothing would be lost but the name.

US Airways Offers Double Miles on All Flights

When Southwest launched its double-credit promotion last week, I wondered which airlines would feel compelled to match, and when.

We now have the beginnings of an answer to that question: US Airways has launched its own double-mile campaign.

Offer Details

Between April 13 and June 15, Dividend Miles members will earn double miles for all flights on US Airways, US Airways Express, and the US Airways Shuttle.

The double miles can be redeemed for awards as well as counting toward elite status.

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Registration is required, and only bookings made after registering receive the bonus.

Deal or No Deal

Double miles. For flights system-wide. That count toward both award travel and elite qualification. For two months.

So far, so good. What gives me pause is that they're US Airways miles. As I've mentioned elsewhere, US Airways gave away an industry-low 4 percent of its seats to award travelers in both 2008 and 2009—less than half the generosity quotient, as I call it, of airlines like American and United.

It's one thing to give away lots of miles. What makes those miles valuable, though, is the ease with which they can be cashed in for free tickets. And US Airways has proved to be a conspicuous laggard in this area.

With double miles now on offer from both Southwest and US Airways, the competitive pressure for other airlines to match the promotion has been intensified. With that in mind, I'd suggest putting off booking as long as possible, on the chance that other carriers will respond with similar bonuses.

Reader Reality Check

Dividend Miles members, how easy have you found it to redeem your miles for free trips?

From Marriott: Sign Up, Pay Twice, Stay Free

Typically, the airline and hotel promotions featured here require that you be a member of the travel supplier's loyalty program.

This offer, from Marriott, requires just the opposite: It only applies to travelers who are not currently members of the Marriott Rewards program.

Offer Details

First-time members of Marriott Rewards who enroll online here will be automatically registered to receive a certificate for a free night at a Category 1 through Category 4 hotel after completing two stays between May 1 and July 31 at a Marriott, JW Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard, Fairfield Inn & Suites, SpringHill Suites, Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites, or Marriott Vacation Club property.

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The certificate can only be used by the member who earned it—it's not transferable.

Deal or No Deal

Marriott Rewards is certainly among the world's premier hotel programs, so a rich incentive to sign up is a win-win.

Although the free night is limited to the lowest four categories of hotels (there are eight in Marriott's award structure), the bulk of Marriott's properties are in fact included in those categories, so there are plenty of desirable hotels to choose from.

And with a full three months to log the required two stays, the free night is well within reach of even occasional travelers.

Reader Reality Check

What's not to like? (And no, that's not a rhetorical question.)