Starwood's Q1 2013 promo announced

Starwood has announced their Preferred Guest earning promotion for the first quarter of 2013. This time around the additional earnings will be based on number of nights stayed in a SPG property between January 15 – April 15, 2013. Here are the details, straight from the horse’s mouth:

With the SPG® Power Up promotion, you’ll earn 2,000 bonus Starpoints® for every four eligible nights you stay (up to 8,000 bonus Starpoints and 16 nights). Top it off with an additional 10,000 bonus Starpoints when you hit 20 eligible nights. And keep in mind: Nights will accrue across multiple stays. Looks like you’ve got real staying power.

Two very nice aspects of this promo are that the nights accrue across stays so you don’t need longer stays to benefit and it seems that all SPG-participating properties are in on the deal.

The promo will require registration at some point in January; we’ll be sure to post again when the time comes.

Double EQMs in December on Frontier

Passengers flying on Frontier and crediting their flights to the EarlyReturns program can earn double elite miles throughout the month of December. I’m assuming that this promo has been out for a while since it started at the beginning of the month but I only just noticed it today. It requires registration prior to travel. For folks looking to top off their accounts before the end of the year this is a great opportunity. More details in the screen grab below:

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American Airlines announces Q1 '13 reduced mileage award destinations

Got an American Airlines co-branded credit card? You might be eligible for up to 7,500 off on some award redemptions in North America. And the destinations for Q1 2013 were just released. There are more than 120 destinations covered by the discount. Even if you’re not inclined to redeem on domestic awards it is nice to see the broad selection of cities available. Here’s the complete list:

Northeast

  • Watertown, NY   
  • Hartford, CT   
  • Boston, MA       
  • Reagan National, Washington D.C.   
  • White Plains, NY   
  • NY LaGuardia, NYC   
  • Harrisburg, PA   
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Pittsburgh, PA       
  • Rochester, NY       
  • Syracuse, NY       
  • Newark Airport, NJ

Southeast

  • Alexandria, LA       
  • Atlanta, GA       
  • Birmingham, AL       
  • Nashville, TN       
  • Baton Rouge, LA       
  • Columbia, SC
  • Chattanooga, TN       
  • Charlottesville, VA   
  • Charleston, SC       
  • Charlotte, NC       
  • Charleston/Dunbar, WV   
  • Columbus, GA       
  • Fort Smith, AR       
  • Gainesville, FL       
  • Gulfport/Biloxi, MS   
  • Greensboro, NC       
  • Greenville, SC       
  • Washington Dulles, VA   
  • Jackson, MS   
  • Jacksonville, FL   
  • Lake Charles, LA   
  • Little Rock, AR       
  • Memphis, TN       
  • Monroe, LA       
  • Norfolk, VA       
  • West Palm Beach, FL   
  • Pensacola, FL       
  • Raleigh/Durham, NC   
  • Richmond, VA       
  • Savannah, GA       
  • Shreveport, LA       
  • Tallahassee, FL       
  • Texarkana, AR       
  • Knoxville, TN       
  • Fort Walton Beach, FL   
  • NW Arkansas Reg, AR

Southwest

  • Abilene, TX       
  • Albuquerque, NM       
  • Waco, TX       
  • Brownsville, TX       
  • College Station, TX   
  • Colorado Springs, CO   
  • Corpus Christi, TX   
  • Eagle, CO       
  • El Paso, TX       
  • Fresno, CA       
  • Longview, TX       
  • Lampasas, TX       
  • Houston Hobby, TX   
  • Huntsville, AL       
  • Houston George Bush, TX   
  • Lawton, OK       
  • Laredo, TX       
  • Midland-Odessa, TX   
  • McAllen, TX   
  • Montgomery, AL   
  • Mobile, AL   
  • Monterey, CA   
  • Minneapolis St Paul, MN   
  • Oklahoma City, OK   
  • Roswell, NM       
  • Rochester, MN       
  • Santa Fe, NM       
  • Santa Barbara, CA   
  • San Angelo, TX   
  • Orange County, CA   
  • Wichita Falls, TX   
  • Tulsa, OK   
  • Tyler, TX

Midwest

  • Kalamazoo, MI       
  • Bloomington, IL       
  • Cedar Rapids, IA
  • Cleveland, OH       
  • Columbus, OH       
  • Champaign/Urbana, IL   
  • Cincinnati, OH       
  • Mosinee, WI       
  • Dayton, OH       
  • Dubuque, IA       
  • Des Moines, IA       
  • Detroit Wayne Cty, MI   
  • Evansville, IN       
  • Fargo, ND       
  • Sioux Falls, SD       
  • Fort Wayne, IN       
  • Green Bay/Clintonville WI
  • Grand Island, NE
  • Grand Rapids, MI
  • Gunnison, CO   
  • Hayden, CO   
  • Wichita, KS   
  • Indianapolis, IN
  • Jackson Hole, WY
  • Joplin, MO   
  • Lexington, KY   
  • La Crosse, WI   
  • Kansas City, MO   
  • Manhattan, KS   
  • Moline/Quad City, IL
  • Marquette/Sawyer Int’l, MI   
  • Omaha, NE       
  • Peoria, IL       
  • Rapid City, SD       
  • Springfield, MI       
  • Springfield, IL       
  • St. Louis, MO       
  • Toledo, OH       
  • Traverse City, MI

Canada

  • Ottawa, Ontario   
  • Montreal Trudeau
  • Vancouver Intl’, Canada   
  • Calgary, Canada  
  • Toronto, Ontario

United joins the haters, cuts off 3rd party aggregators

The four largest US carriers have now all chosen to block 3rd party points aggregation sites as of this week with United Airlines joining the party today. TripIt was the first site to share that the have been cut off and that they will be complying with the request; it is expected that others will follow. United joins American Airlines, Delta and Southwest in disallowing such access.

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Like the other airlines, United is hiding behind their website terms of service and suggesting that any site wishing to offer up such data should pursue a “formal agreement” with the carrier to gain access to the data. In other words, it is all about the money.

United issued cease and desist letters to certain mileage management companies that market to MileagePlus members. We encourage each of these organizations seeking to extract data from united.com on behalf of our customers to enter into a formal agreement with United in order to ensure compliance with the Terms, Conditions, and Legal Notices contained on united.com. United is happy to explore these formal partnerships. In fact, we already have a relationship with one such organization – UsingMiles.

It is somewhat interesting to note that Randy Petersen has been rather vocal in the past in supporting the airlines as they cut off the 3rd party sites and he is listed as a member of the Advisory Board of UsingMiles, the only program United has acknowledged as signing an agreement to access the data.

I’ve reached out to a couple other similar sites and the first I heard back from confirmed that they have received similar communications from United; they are still weighing their response.

At the end of the day the airlines run these programs and they own the websites and the data. Doesn’t make it a customer-friendly move, but they probably are within their rights to do it. A shame, really, that they’ve decided to take this approach.

Buy Hawaiian Miles with a 20% bonus

Hawaiian Airlines is the latest program to offer up a bonus for purchasing miles this month. Their offer is quite limited – members may only purchase up to 10,000 points and the bonus is only 20% – but at least it is there.

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The promo is only running through 19 December 2012, not to the end of the month, so don’t wait too long if you’re going to buy.

Up to 1000 free United MileagePlus points from Bckstgr

A few weeks back United Airlines announced a deal with social media marketing company Bckstgr which will allow customers to earn and redeem points by participating in various social media activities. The first of those opportunities is now live. The front page of the bckstgr site is now offering 1,000 MileagePlus points for signing up.

https://bckstgr.com/?q=signup

I only earned 400 points for enrolling and I’m guessing the other 600 come in 200 point increments from linking a Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare account to their tool. We’ll see.

Booking a Singapore Suite with points

Since Singapore Airlines installed their Suites product as the first class seating on some of their aircraft getting one reserved using points has been rather difficult, if not ridiculously expensive. When they initially started to release the seats the reward cost was more than a half million points from Singapore to Sydney or London.

In the past two years the availability of the Singapore premium award seats has slowly increased, including opening up to some partners. And, with an update to their award chart today, the Suites are now available at the saver level rather than requiring the Standard or Full awards. For Australia to London the cost is 115,000 points one-way; drop of 15% off that rate if you book online. From JFK to Singapore expect to pay 110,000 points in an A380 Suite.

Remember that you can transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards to the KrisFlyer program; that’s generally going to be the easiest way to redeem for these awards. Also remember that getting available inventory on these cheaper versions of the awards is still going to be a challenge.

Nod to Hilary over at TravelSort for noting this one.

Up to 50% bonus when buying AAdvantage points through the end of 2012

There always seems to be a promo available for buying points from American Airlines. Just as quickly as the last one ended this one started, with a bonus up to 50% this time around, depending on how many points you buy. Here’s the table:

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At roughly 2 cents each it isn’t a horrible deal but also not so tremendous. Through the end of the month US Airways points are running with a 100% bonus which is a slightly better value in general, though if you’re an AA member then there are obviously reasons it isn’t such a bad deal. Also, don’t forget the max of 60K to buy in any given calendar year; if you’re going to max out this is almost certainly the best value you’ll get for the transaction in 2012.

Related posts:

Last call on the latest US Airways 100% buy miles bonus

The latest round of 100% bonus miles for buying points from US Airways is coming to an end. The last day to take advantage of this offer (this time around) is 30 November 2012  7 December 2012. Including taxes, booking fees and other costs this is still a pretty great way to get a round-trip award ticket in business class to Europe for less than $2000. Obviously some limits on flexibility and availability but still worth considering, especially if you cannot take advantage of the glory which is the credit card churning fun.

LIMITED TIME OFFER - Buy miles and get 100% bonus miles up to 50,000 miles - that's double the miles! Hurry, this 100% bonus offer ends November 30, 2012

American Airlines is also running a similar promo if you’re more oneworld-inclined.

Bonus US Airways miles for hotel stays & car rentals

If you’re inclined to collect airline points for your hotel stays and rental car bookings then US Airways has a promotion running through the end of 2012 worth looking in to. Dividend Miles members who post their car or hotel credits to the program will receive bonus points based on the number of unique transactions between November 12 and December 31, 2012.

Registration is required.

Here’s how the bonus will be calculated:

  • 1 – 2 hotel stays/car rentals = 25% bonus miles
  • 3 – 4 hotel stays/car rentals = 50% bonus miles
  • 5 – 6 hotel stays/car rentals = 75% bonus miles
  • 7 – 10 hotel stays/car rentals = 100% bonus miles

It is important to note that only the first 10 transactions, as defined by the activity date, will count towards the bonus. If you have a lot of transactions which might post but the bigger earning ones are after #10 then it might be worth looking at other places to post those. Here’s more of the fine print:

Only qualified transactions that earn Dividend Miles with participating partners will count toward a cumulative transaction bonus. US Airways will track the cumulative transactions during the promotion period and will award the appropriate bonus miles based on the total qualified cumulative transactions during the promotion period. Only the miles from the first 10 eligible transactions (based on activity date)may be earned for this promotion during the specified period. Please note that hotel points to miles conversion transactions are not eligible for this promotion. Bonus miles for this promotion will post on March 1, 2013.

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