50% bonus aeroplan miles on flights

in their new promotion, you can get 50% more aeroplan miles for 100% of their world. it's a great promotion, i think, where all flights and all booking classes are eligible provided it's on an air canada flight.

• register by 31, 2014;
• book between september 2 and october 31, 2014; and 
• fly between october 1, 2014 and april 30, 2015

it's only valid on new bookings. i personally think this is a very generous promotion.

intercontinental hotel group announces "into the nights"

the IHG group announced their new "into the nights prom." this is very similar to last year's the big win promo. in both of these promos, personalized offers are given, and if you complete enough offers, a large reward is offered.

this year, register here between september 4, 2014 and december 31, 2014 for your individualized offers. my offers this round were as follows:

• 8,800 points for 6 staying 6 nights
• 100 points for taking their short survey
• 5,600 points for booking 3 stays on the IHG app
• 4,800 points for 2 holiday inn hotel stays
• unsure if this means we need two different holiday inn hotels or two holiday in stays all together
• 2,000 points for booking one stay using the bonus points package plus breakfast
• 28,700 points or two free nights for completing 4/5 offers
• i can't find anywhere what "two free nights" really means. does this mean two free nights at any hotel (i.e., hotels that normally cost 50,000 points per night), or does it mean that the total number of points earned is enough to redeem for two nights (i.e., at hotels that normally cost 15,000 points per night).

last time, i ended up staying at a holiday inn right beside my house in order to get over 100,000 points. the amount that i spent was less than the value of the points that i earned in the bonus, so it was worthwhile for me.

this time, in order to get 41,200 points, i would need to book at least three nights.

• do the survey
• two holiday inn stay booked via the IHG app
• one IHG hotel stay with a bonus point package booked by the IHG app

if the two free nights really is for any two nights at an intercontinental hotel, then i'd be willing to play this game. so let's see if they can clarify this for me soon.

multiple aeroplan bonuses -- summer 2014 edition

aeroplan has multiple bonuses right now, all of which started early july. all of these require you to enter your aeroplan number to register. these are only for redeemable miles, not for status miles. these are valid only on new bookings. i've ranked the current promos (in my opinion) and listed them below.

1) 2,000 - 5,000 bonus miles per international round trip. register by august 26, 2014, and travel until october 31, 2014. these are valid for any round trip between the following city pairs:

these are only valid on non-stop air canada operated flights (i.e., no codeshares). tango flights are eligible, which makes up for the loss of redeemable miles now that most flights have tango fares and pricing. however, if you're trying to maximize the number of status miles because you're struggling to maintain status, you're probably either booking code shares on non-air canada metal or crediting miles towards other frequent flyer programs. in these cases, this promo will not be helpful.

2) double redeemable miles for select domestic round trips (or two one-way trips). register by august 29, 2014 and fly by october 31, 2014. there are many city pairs listed, but here is a small sampling:

note that these aren't generally large distances covered and the double miles are specifically for geographical area covered. so double miles on a trip from victoria to vancouver would yield a very generous bonus of 125 miles round trip assuming a tango fare. still, something is better than nothing.

3) 2,500 bonus miles to switzerland. register by september 12, and fly between august 1, 2014 and april 30, 2015

4) up to 30,000 bonus miles to london, england. register and book by august 24, 2014 and fly by september 30, 2014. in economy class (tango fares are eligible), you will receive 7,500 points per round trip.

50% bonus base miles on all american airlines and us airways flights until march 2, 2014

everyone knows that american and us airways are merging. we know that us airways is maintaining its own frequent flyer program before merging with american. we know that until march 1, us airways will exit the star alliance on march 30, 2014 and then join the oneworld alliance on march 31, 2014. at some later date, the programs will be merged into the american program. it's a unique proposition because this means that effectively, all star alliance miles can be credited towards a oneworld program.

in my e-mail, i received an offer from american airlines. for every us airways flight that you credit towards the aadvantage program, you will receive a 50% bonus on the base mileage (or minimum mileage, if applicable). this is only for flights operated by us airways and its subsidiaries. it is also good for flights marketed by american airlines but operated by us airways. registration prior to march 2, 2014 is required. the bonus is applicable for flights taken between january 13, 2014 and march 2, 2014. so it's best to register anyway just in case.

on the us airways website, there is a reciprocal offer for crediting american airline operated flights to the us dividend mileage program. same terms and conditions. registration is required and can be done so here.

what this means is that until march 2, 2014, when flying on either of these carriers, you get a 50% bonus. i think it's a great deal if:

• you currently have no status and will likely not achieve status for the year
• you currently have star alliance status and have enough travel planned to be able to safely divert some star alliance miles into the aadvantage
• you do not receive much of a elite bonus when flying us airways

i probably won't be taking advantage of this offer given that none of my destinations are really us airways destinations. also, i always cut it close when qualifying for star gold status with asiana airlines, so i can't really afford to lose out on any of those extra qualifying miles. despite that, i'm sure that this promo will be helpful for some.

starwood's 1st trimester 2014 promo is up

last month, starwood announced its first promotion for the 2014 year. it has been discussed here on flyertalk. registration is now open.

register by february 28, 2014 and for every 5 eligible nights you stay, you will receive 2,500 points to a maximum of 10,000 points for 20 eligible nights. if you stay an additional 5 nights after that, you receive a 5,000 point bonus instead. thus, the maximum earning potential of this promotion is 15,000 points for 25 eligible nights. only stays between jaunary 5 through april 30, 2014.

the last promotion (that wrapped up december 15, 2013) was slightly more generous where you got 2,500 points for every 5 stays and double base points. however, there was a sizable list of exclusions, including the four points by sheraton downtown seattle and the westin bellevue. this was big for me given that i typically stay at the former at least once a month. this upcoming promotion makes up for that by not having any property exclusions. thus, all properties are eligible. this makes for a good promotion.

intercontinental hotel's "big win" first quarter promo is up

IHG (intercontinental, crowne plaza, holiday inn, indigo, etc.) released their first quarter promo a few days ago. you can log in to their website for details. they ran a similar promo this year as well, which i didn't really participate in as i was gunning for platinum status with starwood.

all hotel programs have varying bonuses throughout the different quarters, and IHG has an interesting one for the first quarter. it gives you various tasks to complete (which typically involve staying at their hotels), and then collecting bonus points. what makes this offer neat is that it appears to be customized depending on your previous stay patterns. it could be that your offers are completely different than mine.

the promo runs from january 1, 2014 to april 30, 2014. the offers that i received were:

• stay more and earn: stay a total of 4 nights and earn 8,000 points
• explore our brands: stay at 2 different IHG brands and earn 16,000 points
• win in a weekend: stay 2 saturday nights and earn 8,000 points
• IHG mobile app booking: book 2 separate stays through our IHG app and earn 8,000 points
• stay smart: stay at 2 holiday inn hotels and earn 8,000 points
• survey the win: complete a simple survey and earn 100 points
• win big: complete 6 of your offers and earn 48,000 points

at the very least, everyone should do the simple 5-minute survey for the 100 points. if you are in a rush, the survey can be done in less than a minute by pushing random buttons. i don't think it cares.

for myself, i've already booked a stay at the crowne plaza changi airport for my 11-hour stay in february while i'm on transit in singapore. so in order to take advantage of this offer to its maximum, i'd simply need to:

• book 2 separate saturday nights via the mobile booking app for holiday inn properties -- luckily, i live 100 meters away from one
• book 1 other IHG hotel ... whichever one is the cheapest/most convenient.

in doing so, i'll earn 96,000 points. in my own experience, each individual point is worth roughly 0.5 cents (most major cities) to 1 cent (edmonton, alberta). sometimes they're worth more if you can catch their 5,000 point break specials. remember that when paying by points, it takes care of both the base cost of the hotel and the taxes.

at 96,000 points, that's worth anywhere from $480 to $960, all by booking 3 hotel nights. also, remember that you will earn points themselves for the stays themselves, usually at a rate of 10 points (5-10c) per dollar spent. it's something to consider.

starwood: complimentary unlimited domestic upgrades on delta, aeroplan bonus

two things that i found floating around yesterday, both of which regarding the starwood brand.

starwood's crossover rewards: now with unlimited domestic upgrades on delta
according to the starwood lurker on flyertalk, starting yesterday, platinum elite members of the starwood preferred guest program will now get complimentary unlimited domestic upgrades on delta's domestic flights. as your spg number is linked with your delta skymiles number, these upgrades should be automatic, should you get one.

SPG Platinum members are eligible for day of departure upgrades on most published economy fares on Delta and certain Delta-designated codeshare flights in North America within or between the United States (excluding Hawaii) and Bermuda, Canada, Central and South America, The Caribbean, and Mexico. Unlimited Complimentary Upgrades are subject to availability, may not be available on all flights or in all markets, and are not valid for travel to/from Hawaii, Transatlantic and Transpacific destinations. Complimentary Upgrades are not available on flights to/from South American cities that are serviced with our BusinessElite® product (i.e., Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Lima, Peru; Caracas, Venezuela).

this is an amazing step forward in the relationship, considering that recently top tier marriott rewards members would receive full premier silver status on united airlines. as a premier silver, technically, you get unlimited domestic upgrades. right behind all the last minute upgrades, the global service folks, the premier 1k, platinums, and golds. really, there aren't that many business class seats on board those planes.

and so likewise, with the starwood offer, platinums will get upgrades, although their priority level will be very low:

For eligible flights, you will be given priority behind Medallions, Medallion Companion, and KLM, Air France, and Alaska elite upgrades.

so almost not at all. but, there is always a chance, and that should be something worthy of mention.

aeroplan's fall promotion with starwood
SPG is offering 5,000 aeroplan points for 5 nights. for every two nights after that, you get an additional 2,000 points, for a total of 9,000 points for 9 nights (or 1,000 points a night). this is similar to the starwood promo where you get double points, and after every 5th stay, you get a bonus 2,500 points.

an important difference between the promo is that unlike the starwood main promo, i could not find a list of non-participating properties. so i feel like i can safely assume that all starwood properties qualify. this is important as my two go-to properties in seattle are both excluded from the main starwood promo.

also, if you're spending roughly $100 a night, you will get more points with the aeroplan version than the starwood version. if you get 2,500 spg points per every 5 nights, that works out to be roughly 500 points if you stay in multiples of 5 nights. so per night, your bonus is double points (in this case, $100 x 2 = 200 points) plus 500 points = 700 points. remember that 1 spg point = 1.25 aeroplan points (as you can convert 20,000 spg points into 25,000 aeroplan points. so per night, the spg promo will get you 875 points aeroplan points.


registration is required.

starwood's 3rd trimester promo registration is now live!

i must have missed this earlier, but registration for the third trimester promo at starwood is now live. you can register here.

nights stayed between september 1 and december 15 are eligible for this promotion. you get:

• double base points for each paid night
• 2,500 points after every 5 paid night.

you must register by october 31, 2013. a list of non-participating hotels are here. of note, my two go-to hotels in seattle, the four points by sheraton downtown seattle, and the westin bellevue, are not participating. boo! but ... register, register, register anyway!

links from the web: air canada promo edition

1. CIBC aerogold/adventura card first year free promo. this one is churnable, i've heard. if you're into collecting aeroplan points, this may be a cheap way to do so. it comes with a 15,000 point bonus after spending $500 a month for the first three months. 15,000 free points is a great deal, although i would value this at $150-$300 in travel discounts.
2. air canada has a double status mile promotion going on from may 27-jul 31, new bookings only. this is available for rapidair flights (YYZ - YOW/YUL), and from canada to various eastern seaboard. learn more and register here. i think this is a very valuable promo as a round trip flight from YVR to EWR (via YYZ) would normally give you ~5200 status miles (assuming a 500 mile minimum). with the double status mile promotion, you get 10,400. it's a pretty decent dent in earning air canada altitude 50k (star gold) status.
   
3. i really like view from the wing's commentary on delta's decision to no longer award qualifying miles on korean airlines, a full member of their skyteam alliance.  

Lucky reports Delta’s absurd explanation.

We’d like you to understand that each airline determines its level of participation in partnership with us, so there are varying levels of customer rewards when flying with our partners.

Because, of course, “we would prefer that your customers not get recognized for travel with us” is what Korean Air said never.

air canada's "earn your wings" challenge -- yvr-sea just became so much more rewarding

air canada has a new promotion called "earn your wings". for this promotion, certain flights let you earn "wings". you earn 100 wings for every time you take off or land at an airport serviced by air canada on an air canada marketed flight. you also get bonus wings for earning badges. there are certain criteria for these badges, for instance, arriving at a certain airport, or hitting a certain combination of airports between the promo period. only flights booked and completed from april 11 - june 16 count. registration is required.

the real value of these wings is that for every 2,000 wings you earn, you will get 1,000 aeroplan points. and for every 10,000 wings, you'll get a bonus 5,000 aeroplan points on top of that.

this promotion has led to great discussion on flyertalk about how to best maximize this promotion. one of the strategies was to use the yvr-sea route. both airports are heavily bonused in this promotion, which may have been unintentional by air canada, and remains highly lucrative.

YVR-YYJ-YVR-SEA-YVR same day trip, may 11, 2013, is selling for $453 all in. this is a flex fare (except for YVR-YYJ, which is tango), and so one will earn 750 status and 63 non-status miles. the real value is in the wings you earn in this promotion:

200 points for talking about this on social media
100 wings for taking off at YVR
100 wings for landing in YYJ (victoria)
100 wings for taking off at YYJ
100 wings for landing in YVR
100 wings for taking off from YVR
100 wings for landing in SEA
100 wings for taking off from SEA
100 wings for landing in YVR
500 wings for taking off specifically at YVR (the YVR badge)
500 wings for landing at YYJ (the YYJ badge)
500 wings for taking off at YYJ (the YYJ badge)
500 wings for landing at YVR (the YVR badge)
500 wings for taking off at YVR (the YVR badge)
1000 wings for landing at SEA (the SEA badge)
1000 wings for taking off at SEA (the SEA badge)
500 wings for landing at YVR (the YVR badge)
5000 wings for flying YVR-SEA (the TCA badge can only be earned once)
5000 wings for touching down at YVR (the olympic badge can only be earned once)
5000 wings for 3 take off/landings at SEA/YVR/YYJ (the pacific coast badge)
5000 wings for 3 take off/landings at SEA/YVR/YYJ (the pacific coast badge)

your total is 26,000 wings. under the rules, you would earn 13,000 points for having 13 x 2,000 wings, and 10,000 points for earning 2 x 10,000 wings. this means a net total of 23,000 bonus aeroplan points. for the entire trip, you will earn 23,813 aeroplan points. the cost per point is 1.89c/point. they recently changed some of the rules so that you can only earn some of the 5,000 wing badges once ... so before their correction, you could have earned tens of thousands more wings than before. for comparison sake, if you were to buy top up points from air canada, they would charge you 3.15c/point.

(by the way, if you just did a YVR-SEA run, you would have earned 13,400 wings, 11,000 bonus aeroplan points, or 11,500 aeroplan points in total for $371. the cost per point is 3.23c/point).

is this worthwhile? it simply depends on how much you value an aeroplan point. if you value your aeroplan point at 1.26c per point, those 22,813 points earned from this promo will only be worth $287 -- a net loss. if you value these points at 6c each, these same points will be worth $1,369 ... very worthwhile for its cost. the true value is somewhere in between. of course, you have to factor in the cost of a day's worth of travel as well. make sure you eat your meals in the lounge.

i won't lie: i'm kind of tempted.