A Comparison Between United and Air Canada's Mid-Tier Programs

As mentioned in yesterday's post, I am looking to switch from United's Mileage Plus to Air Canada's Aeroplan. This involves switching from United as my preferred carrier to Air Canada.

Source: http://www.aircanada.ca

What's needed for Star Alliance Gold with Air Canada?
The Star Alliance Gold benefits begin really at the Altitude 50k level. In order to achieve this level, one needs to:

• Fly 50,000 miles, or
• Fly 50 segments; and
• Spend $6,000 CAD pre-tax

There's a nice chart that Air Canada has posted which simplifies things. There is no guarantee that this chart will be here next year; like United, they may opt for different status earning criteria next year. 

As you can see, achieving the equivalent of United Premier 1K requires a yearly spend of $20,000. Because no one else pays for my travel, this is absolutely not an option for me. So the toss up is either the 50k or the 75k levels.

What are the benefits?

For Altitude 50k and above, one will always enjoy the Star Alliance Gold benefits. These include things like priority check-in, extra luggage allowance, lounge access, priority boarding, and priority waitlist in case of flight changes or irregular operations. 

Benefits similar to United Premier Gold:

• Basic Star Alliance Gold benefits
• Preferred seats on AC with flex fares within North America (United has a more generous policy of economy plus seats on any fare on any flight)
• United's benefit is irrelevant if I have to fly mostly Air Canada in order to secure Premier Gold/Platinum status
• Opportunities to upgrade on the program's carrier within North America without any additional fee. Air Canada offers upgrade points which you would have to burn but will generally give you a higher probability of an upgrade. Near the end of my tenure with United, even as a Premier 1K member, complimentary upgrades were very, very difficult to score

Where United wins:

• Same day change on United flights. This is irrelevant if most of my flights are on Air Canada in order to achieve status
• Reward bookings do not incur fuel surcharges, but are generally more "expensive" in terms of points. This is likely the biggest strength of United's program. 
• United offers upgrade points that can be used on generally higher fares for international travel. Air Canada also makes you buy the higher fare in order to be eligible, and if you are successful with your upgrade, you'd have to pay anywhere from $500-$750 each way depending on which ocean you cross. In this sense, international upgrades are not really realistic 

Where Air Canada wins:

• Higher chance of an upgrade if you encounter an irregular operations, or if they need someone to upgrade for operational reasons
• Air Canada's Altitude 50k status allows you lounge entry everywhere; United's Premier Gold status only allows you into domestic lounges in the USA only if you're flying an international segment as well
• This is less relevant as our tickets will always somehow indicate a final destination in Canada, so I have always been allowed in the lounge. 
• While United does not charge fuel surcharges, rewards are generally cheaper in terms of the number of points needed to be redeemed with Air Canada. Furthermore, more points can be earned with medium to long haul flights compared to United. 
• Air Canada has more promotions to earn bonus miles than United does in general
• If one believes that Aeroplan miles are worth it, there are credit cards in Canada that can earn Aeroplan miles.
• If I'm flying mostly on Air Canada, it would be nice to have these points applied to their lifetime status program. 

So those are the ground rules ...

What's my plan to reach 50k and $6,000 in spending? That's for tomorrow ...

a change in star gold strategy -- asiana cuts points on united metal

i used to really like asiana's mileage club scheme because it was an easy way to access star gold status. you would need just 20,000 miles in two years in order to achieve asiana gold (star silver) status, and 40,000 miles in two years in order to achieve asiana diamond (star gold). This served me well: i have had 4 years of star gold status because of them, and have a membership card that's valid until the end of 2016 left to go. star gold status is really quite valuable.

a few years ago, air canada's flex fares (previously named "tango plus") were mostly cut down to 50% elite qualifying miles (EQM) even when they earned 100% in air canada's own program. their tango fares still earned nothing domestically.

 

(note that not the minimum mileage for international routes is not actually 250 miles as they will later state. i had a tango fare flight YVR-PDX that only earned 125 miles. they cited 500 x 25% = 125 miles and would not budge.)


therefore, around 2012, the vast majority of my transborder and international flights went to united, because all fares would earn 100%. that was until i saw their sudden change on march 1, 2015. now, most of their discount economy flights will only earn 50-75% elite qualifying miles.

therefore, for someone with travel patterns like myself (based in north america, the majority of my travel being based in north america), i would need to fly 40,000 actual miles a year on united or flex-fare air canada (40,000 physical miles x 50% = 20,000 elite qualifying miles per year x 2 year requalification period = 40,000 elite qualifying miles). if i flew just 10,000 more miles a year, i would get premier gold status.

the rule for elite status is to try to earn the highest level of elite status that you can. the next rule is to try to earn that status on the airline that you will fly on the most as they will generally give the most benefits.

so where do i go from here?
for this year, i have opted to credit my points to united. united offers me the benefit of:

• 100% status miles on united flights
• 100% status miles on all flex fares on air canada
• 25% status mile on all domestic tango fares (and 100% on international/transborder tango fares)
• 100% status miles on almost all ANA flights who i will be traveling on when i go to asia later this summer (they offer 25% redeemable miles on my K-fare, although this is no better than any other program).
• complimentary economy plus seating

let's see if we can make it to 50k this year.

rewardsplus: united and marriott announce reciprocal travel benefits

found on flyertalk initially, i saw that united announced rewardsplus: an extension of its existing partnership with the marriott group of hotels. this is very similar to the delta / starwood partnership that was announced months ago, whereby elite status on one program would provide benefits to non-elite members of the other. unlike the delta / starwood partnership, you actually get a full status level and all of its privileges.

the details of the partnership in a nutshell:

• united premier gold (50k), platinum (75k) and 1k (100k) members can sign up to get complimentary marriott gold elite status
• marriott gold status is normally earned after 50 nights per year
• marriott gold status gives you: free internet, complimentary room upgrade, continental breakfast, hotel lounge access, late check-out, 25% bonus points on hotel stays
• therefore, this is only a benefit if you're currently a marriott silver or basic member.
• marriott platinum elite members (top tier, 75 nights/year) will get complimentary united premier silver statu
• united premier silver status is normally earned after 25k premier qualifying miles and $2,500 annual spend for those with american addresses
• united premier silver status gives you: waived checked baggage fees for first or second bags on star alliance carriers, priority check-in/screening/boarding on united airline flights, complimentary economy plus seats, 500 mile minimums, and 25% bonus miles on united and certain partner flights. 
• this is probably one of the most generous star alliance silver programs in terms of benefits there are.
• this is only of benefit if you're not already a premier silver/gold/platinum/1k member.

in the future, the program will allow united mileage plus members to transfer miles at a 1:1 ratio to marriott points, which is probably a bad deal. asides from the starwood program, airline points are always more valuable than hotel points, provided you can redeem them. they will also offer a 20% discount when converting marriott points to united miles. i am not familiar enough with marriott points to say whether this is a good deal or not.

overall, i like deals and partnerships between programs. i feel like they open up opportunities for people who don't normally travel enough in order to earn status in all the various programs. i'm sure that the true frequent flyers and road warriors aren't pleased as it reduces the exclusivity of the club and dilutes the benefits. but as for my own habits, i think it's just another reason to pick united to credit miles to over aeroplan in the future.

priority club turns into the IHG rewards club

everyone was given notice a few months ago that priority club, the loyalty program for the intercontinental hotel group (intercontinental, holiday inn, holiday inn express, crowne plaza etc), would be rebranded and relaunched on july 1, 2013.

today, they updated the website. most of the changes, it seems, affect the way one earns status. i am currently a gold member without having stayed at an IHG hotel last year. by checking in online last year on foursquare using the topguest program, i earned roughly 16,000 points. i earned an additional 4,000 points by answering surveys from e-rewards, for a grand total of 20,000 points. until they recently changed the program, points from any source counted towards status. 20,000 points = gold status.

qualifying for various levels is still based on the number of nights stayed or the number of elite qualifying points earned. elite qualifying points are earned from hotel stays (excluding the elite bonuses) and various partners. as far as i can tell, e-rewards counts as qualifying activity.

• 15-49 nights a year, or 20,000 elite qualifying points = gold elite
• 50+ nights a year, or 60,000 elite qualifying points = platinum elite

there are a few slight changes to the new program including:

• free internet for every IHG member (even base level)
• like the starwood group, reward nights now officially count towards status
• if you achieve more nights than needed for platinum status, those extra nights will rollover to your next year. no rollovers happen for gold.
• fast track to elite: by staying at 3 different property brands, you can earn gold status for only 10 nights. by staying at 4 different property brands, you can earn platinum status for only 40 nights.

of course, we should not forget that you can simply buy their top tier platinum elite status for just $120 a year by holding their capital one affiliated credit card. so when i put things like that, asides from the free internet benefit, the program hasn't really changed at all ...

aeroplan adds "distinction" to its program, and TD may become aeroplan's credit card partner

so lots of news is happening in the aeroplan program. aeroplan is the spun off frequent flyer program for air canada, although to make things just that much more difficult, they are considered separate companies. their mutual contract runs until 2020, after which case, they can re-negotiate their terms or even part ways completely.

so it's with that in mind that i think aeroplan is adding a parallel status program called "distinction". there's some buzz on flyertalk about this new status program. instead of flight miles (as per air canada's altitude program), they have different tiers based on total earnings in a year from all coalition partners. it is unclear which partners count as coalition partners, although i'm sure it includes things like credit card spending.

• dSilver = 25,000 miles across all coalition partners in a calendar year
• dBlack = 50,000 miles across all coalition partners in a calendar year
• dDiamond = 100,000 miles across all coalition partners in a calendar year

different tiers offer different awards, according to the press release. their awards are also on the aeroplan website. 

what is probably the most important perk of this status is the air canada getaway bonus. receiving an extra 500-1500 points per eligible roundtrip flight finally puts air canada closer to par with westjet. remember that with westjet, you get 100% non-status miles on aadvantage, whereas previously, you would only get 25% non-status miles on air canada with aeroplan. but now a roundtrip YVR-YYC, if eligible, will give you 25% non status in addition to 500 bonus points for a total of roughly 712 miles roundtrip if you were a dSilver member (compared to westjet providing 852 aadvantage miles).

other major changes:

• replacing classic+ flights with "market fare" flights
• classic+ flights are based on the actual fare of the flight. using an unknown conversion rate, a certain amount of aeroplan points will be needed to redeem them. they are guaranteed to be at least 15% higher than classic rewards, although more is generally the norm (e.g., 800,000 points to fly to LHR in business ... plus taxes). they are now renaming it to "market fare" flights. in the benefits, when they say "up to 20% off" for dSilver members, it doesn't really mean anything to me.
• one way awards
• a big development is that one-way awards are now priced at half of round trip awards, which makes sense. it used to be 70% of a round trip price, but finally, that has changed. this is a great thing for which aeroplan should be given credit for.
• increase in classic rewards pricing
• they had just increased the prices of major awards a few years back, and they're doing it again. in the end, i suppose this makes up for the 50% one-way award change above. back when i first started with aeroplan back in about 1996, canada to asia (all of it) was 75,000 points in economy and 100,000 points in business. this was an almost free ticket -- no fuel surcharges to pay. now, with this increase, going to "asia 2"is 155,000 points -- an increase of over 50%. oh, and i forgot about the fuel surcharges.
• removal of the 7-year expiration policy
• while the 12-month expiration policy still holds (i.e., accounts with no activity in any 12-month period will be cancelled with all miles forfeited), not being forced to spend all the miles within that 7-year period is a nice touch. not that the value of those miles will stay constant, but at least you won't lose them due to time alone.

in summary, aeroplan distinction kind of reminds me of the airmiles gold program, except stronger as it offers additional benefits that members can actually use.

TD vs. CIBC for credit card partners
on an unrelated note from distinction, aeroplan and CIBC have been trying to renegotiate their current contract that is set to expire at the end of this year. CIBC had threatened to change things up if there were no significant concessions made by aeroplan. however, in a news release today, it looks like TD has put in a potential agreement with aeroplan. therefore, unless CIBC is willing to match, aeroplan may agree to partner with TD instead. from the news release, TD is willing to pay 15% more per mile, and a 100M upfront fee, as well as up to 400M to jointly market the card. TD really wants to play with aeroplan.

as with all new cards, i'm hoping for improvements above and beyond what is currently already offered. large sign up bonuses? baggage fee waivers? comprehensive and complimentary insurance packages (that exist with TD's existing credit cards)? mileage multipliers for gas/grocery/dining/entertainment (as per scotia bank's gold amex)? possibilities are endless.

united is adding a minimum spend requirement to their elite program

browsing flyertalk today, there is a lot of reaction from yesterday's announcement by united airlines about changes to their elite program. starting in 2014, in order to earn status for 2015, they have implemented minimum spend requirements.

what are the changes?

this is similar to delta's changes (well, actually, it's almost the exact same graphic that they've used). for the minimum spend requirements, flights taken with united/united express/copa will all count. flights taken on star alliance and partner airlines also count provided that it was purchased on a united flight ticket (i.e., the ticket number begins with 016). carrier imposed fees also count. people living outside of the 50 american states, and those spending 25k annually on their affiliated credit cards are exempt (the latter does not hold true for the 1k level). i suspect that a lot of people living in seattle will be getting mailing addresses in the vancouver area in the near future.

what is the cost?
this works out to be a minimum of 10c per mile spend in order to achieve the equivalent status (e.g., 50,000 miles / $5,000 spend = 10c/elite qualifying mile). when i've booked flights between canada and the US, i typically hit lower than that. for example, i typically get over 7000 miles going to hawaii round trip for a cost of 450-550$, on my sea-yow run, i received 6000 miles for $500. each time, ~100$ was due to government fees and taxes, which do not count for minimum spend. so in order to reach the minimum spend, i'd probably end up flying over the required flight miles.
 
this new policy restricts bookings to united flight numbers only. for flights on another airline but sold as a united codeshare, those flights are typically more expensive than what the operating carrier would sell it for. for example, yvr-sfo on air canada metal is usually cheaper when purchased on aircanada.com (i.e., does not qualify for minimum spend requirement) than the exact same flight booked as a united code share (i.e., does qualify for minimum spend requirements). so in the end, instead of flying 50k on a whole bunch of airlines, it forces you to concentrate on certain airlines in particular.

who's next?
over the next few years, i plan to transition from asiana airlines to a north american program as i suspect i will be traveling more. and while these changes don't impact me yet, there are no guarantees that canada will continue to remain exempt. i also wonder who will be the next to catch the minimum-spend virus. flyertalkers speculate american will be next, although i doubt that would happen anytime soon given the merger that's underway. my main concern is with air canada.

air canada has been eager to play catch up by raising its altitude elite qualifying program requirements. it used to take 35k to earn the equivalent of star gold status, but now they require 50k. their reasoning was so that "it would be more in line with other airlines." never mind the fact that:

• domestic tango flights earn 0% elite qualifying miles (compared to the north american programs which give 100% on all fares)
• international tango, which is similarly priced to the american counterparts, earn 50% elite qualifying miles
• there is this ridiculous thing called air canada rouge which offers 400-800 status miles on flex fares when the actual distance is somewhere between 5-6x that much, depending on where you start

if they were to implement the minimum spend requirement, i actually would be in a bind because i would be forced to choose between air canada and united as my main airline instead of just frequent flyer program. if i choose air canada, would i buy flex fares ($130+ round trip) on all of my domestic legs and try hard to get 50k despite 50% qualifying miles on international flights (limiting factor may be qualifying miles and qualifying dollars)? if i choose united, would i stick only with united on my international flights (poorer hard product compared air canada), and try to do as many of my domestic flights as possible via seattle instead of vancouver (limiting factor would be qualifying dollars)?

we will see ...

travel hacking -- obtaining free hilton hhonors gold status

it's a travel hack, but live from a lounge provides links and details on how to automatically get hilton hhonors gold status (space available room upgrades, complimentary wifi, water, late check-out, breakfast options etc). it normally takes 20 stays a year, or 40 nights, or 75,000 base points ($7,500 yearly spend). the offer is made to visa infinite card holders in certain countries. this particular offer is now for india. you can create your own indian credit card number via the generator that the blog links to. and then instant hilton hhonors gold

i haven't actually done this for hilton. i figure it's not something that i can maintain the following year, and i'm busy trying to consolidate all of my stays in the starwood program. there have been reports that this is still working. i did use a very similar hack for kingfisher airlines, an airline that was supposed to enter the oneworld alliance before suddenly suspending operations last year. with that trick, i obtained low-tier kingfisher status, which corresponded to oneworld ruby status and thus waived checked luggage on american airlines. i didn't end up booking that american flight, but it would have been nice to have to have.

note: i don't feel bad about posting this on the web ... this has gotten a ton of attention online already.

UPDATE: so i tried this one out, and i had trouble making this work. perhaps the trick has gone stale, perhaps the offer got pulled. however, i leave this up only so that i can link back to it in the future, when it works again :)

have frequent flyer miles dictated who you fly with?

i wrote about how i chase status on the star alliance a few days ago. i took a look at my booking patterns and realized that yes, frequent flier (FF) miles do actually dictate who i book with.

of my last 32 paid transborder/international segments in the last 24 months, i have:

• 3 segments with air canada (2 of which were re-bookings post cancellation)
• 2 segments with us airways (both of which were re-bookings post cancellation)
• 27 segments with united airlines

not surprisingly, i do have a booking algorithm that i have when booking. this assumes that both airlines:

• have flight times that fit within my desired schedule
• do not exceed a pre-determined maximum number of connections

1) domestic travel
if westjet (WS) and air canada (AC) are the same price (comparing WS fares with AC's tango fares), i'm pretty neutral. i'm willing to book on AC simply because of the bonuses of status and the in flight entertainment which i think is a lot more flexible than WS'. if westjet is a few dollars cheaper (my threshold is 5-10$ -- a very small threshold), i'll book with WS. at least with WS, i will get 100% non-qualifying miles via their partner, american airlines. (note: only valid on fare codes Y/V/B/Q/L/M/P/G/X/D -- they don't make it easy to find on their own website,  but fare codes can be easily found via expedia or the on the fly app on iphone). this is in comparison to the 25% non-qualifying miles that i can get with AC.

being based out of YVR, it's quite easy to drive to SEA and fly from there back home to canada, although it's certainly more inconvenient. recently, i flew to ottawa from seattle instead of vancouver so that i could earn 100% status miles on united (UA). on a semi-mileage run, i booked SEA-SFO-IAD-YOW to maximize the points while paying a cheaper fare than what YVR-YOW direct would have cost.

2) transborder travel
recently with AC, they re-arranged some of their booking codes to include fare codes T/L/K in their tango category for international flights. unfortunately, this means that for many other frequent flyer programs (like asiana airlines), all T/L/K booking codes, regardless of whether they are flex (previously tango plus) or not, now only earn 50% miles. flights within canada or between canada and america can be labeled as flex but are booked under fare code T/L/K. frustrating, really.

if i leave from vancouver, i will choose a star alliance carrier over a non-star alliance carrier. if the price is the same and i can get 100% status miles on asiana airlines, i will book AC. otherwise, i book with UA. non-star alliance carriers need to be 100$-200$ cheaper for me to book with them as that is the cost of a) baggage fees, b) extra time needed to travel without the benefits of status, c) cost of lost status miles.

3) international travel
AC has quickly made many fares for international destinations into tango fares. not that they made these fares any cheaper, rather, they simply reduced the mileage earned to 50%. UA, in contrast, still provides 100% on all economy fares. their prices, at least out of YVR, are close enough to AC's to justify the extra cost for double the status miles. therefore, in order to maximize mileage, i have started to hunt around on competing non-AC star alliance carriers. for instance, there is a trip to hong kong and another trip to mumbai being planned at the moment, and i'm finding myself looking more and more at UA rather than AC. for the same price, why not get twice the miles?

short conclusion:
yes -- the availability of frequent flyer miles really does affect which carrier gets my traveling dollar. what are other variables that you use to determine who you fly with?

earning star alliance gold for the less frequent traveler

one of the rules about airline travel is that by consolidating your miles on one particular airline (or even one particular airline alliance), you will get you more benefits than flying on a multitude of airlines. and of course, this is all within reason -- sometimes, price really is a determining factor.

almost all airlines have a reward system. and most airlines provide elite levels -- the more you fly with them (and their alliance partners), the more likely you will earn these elite levels, and the more benefits you get when traveling.

canadian travel is limited really to two major airlines: air canada, and west jet. air canada is affiliated with the star alliance, and therefore, benefits are extended to 27 member airlines. westjet is not affiliated with anyone ... and on top of that, there really are no benefits to their reward program asides from reward redemption. that's why when i talk about accruing flight mileage, i am more of a star alliance person.

air canada's (AC) altitude program (nicknamed "attitude" for their sometimes hostile customer policies), is the elite program for the airline. it has 5 tiers with various benefits based on the amount of status miles earned/flown. 25k, 35k, 50k, 75k, and 100k miles flown per calendar year. star alliance gold starts at the 50k mark. indeed, almost all airlines within the star alliance provide star alliance gold benefits at the 50k mark. (exceptions where the threshold are lower are: turkish airlines, greece's aegean airlines, and south korea's asiana airlines). the benefits of star gold/silver apply to all member airlines of the alliance.

the benefits of star gold are numerous:

1. at the airport: priority check-in (skip the line to drop off your bags), extra luggage (+1 free bag, usually to 3 free pieces of checked luggage), priority baggage (your bags come out first at your destination), lounge access (free food, drinks, internet), priority boarding (seated first, putting your stuff in the overhead compartments without worrying if space will run out).
2. in the case of irregular operations (e.g., weather delays, flight cancellations etc): priority reservation waitlist and priority airport standby (if your flight gets cancelled, you'll be higher on the standby list than other passengers with star silver or no status.
3. on certain airlines, like united, it's not uncommon for them to simply bump me to economy plus for free (extra legroom, less crowded) so that they can give non-status standby passengers my old regular economy seat. i've experienced this bump on the majority of my united airline flights.

the benefits of star silver are less:

1. you get same irregular operations benefits as above, except you're below the star golds.
2. on certain airlines, your first or second checked bag free is waived. also, on united airlines (UA), you get the priority boarding and check-in as well.

but really, how easy is it to earn 50k miles a year? if you're an infrequent traveler like myself, it's hard to do this on a north american-based airline program. so you have to hunt around.

in 2008, after much contemplation, i decided to join asiana airlines. their qualification period is 24 months, and their star silver and star gold levels are much, much easier to achieve. asiana gold status (star alliance silver) requires 20,000 flight miles on star alliance carriers in 24 months. asiana diamond status (star alliance gold) requires 40,000 flight miles on star alliance carriers in 24 months. lifetime star alliance gold status (diamond plus) can be had for 500,000 lifetime flight miles. in terms of earning, you will earn roughly the same number of miles from star alliance flights with asiana as you would with air canada or united (some exceptions apply: many of air canada's flex/tango plus fares still only earn 50% qualifying miles). the redemptions, i do acknowledge, are a bit more expensive than air canada for the same amount of flying.

  
so if you fly <10,000 miles a year, feel free to apply your miles to any one program you wish. even if not earning status, it's better to at least consolidate your miles in order to redeem for an award. if you fly 10,000-25,000 miles per year (20,000-49,999 miles every 2 years), credit to asiana so that you get star alliance silver or gold status. some status is better than no status. if you fly 50,000+ miles a year, ditch asiana and go for the airline program that you fly with the most as there are additional airline specific benefits that are only accessible by the members. upgrades are one particular example.

case example
my one and only mileage run occurred in 2010, just before my 2-year qualifying period was to end. i was 1,700 miles short of star gold status with asiana airlines (i.e., i had about 38,300 miles in my qualifying period). i ended up booking a 348$ same day, return trip from YVR-LAX (2,160 miles total). i had a 6 hour layover in the airport which i spent in the lounge thanks to my brother's single-use lounge certificate. i achieved star gold and have maintained that ever since.

asides from the non-quantifiable benefits of status (e.g., priority check-in, priority luggage, fast-track security at most major airports in north america, not having to gate-check luggage because of space limitations in the overhead bins, priority waitlist for times my flights were cancelled at the airport, the seat upgrades to economy plus), i calculated the quantifiable benefits. note: my memory is hazy now, so approximate but conservative numbers are being used.

1. checked luggage within canada. i made roughly 15 round trips between YVR and YYC between jun 2009 and mar 2011, and during those times, i was shuttling my bf's stuff to our home in YVR. all of those trips involved having two pieces of check-in luggage, two trips involved three. i saved 8 x 25$ second bag fees (200$), and 4 x 50$ third bag fees (100$). (originally they allowed two free checked bags within canada, but then pared that down to two). that was a savings of 336$ after tax.
2. checked luggage to the states. i made 6 trips to the states, requiring checked luggage on 4 one-way segments. i saved on 4 x 25$ first checked bag fee. that's a savings of 112$ after tax.
3. lounge benefits. during our trip to asia, we had a 10 hour layover in hong kong. so joe and i lounge hopped between the singapore airlines, united airlines, and thai airways lounges, showering before the flight and eating the equivalent of 4 meals. the amount of beer we lifted from the lounges over the years was impressive as well. that's a value of at least 50$.

for 348$ in spending, not only has life become easier when traveling, but also much more cost effective, having saved at least 484$. and now it's hard to justify losing status.

on the road to status: mattress run mar 30 - apr 1

a friend of mine from wisconsin was telling me over coffee last december about his usual summer ritual. during the spring/summer semesters, he goes back home to wisconsin to work. because it's not the most exciting place in the world, he takes weekly roadtrips to nearby chicago for the weekends. and because he consolidates all of his nights at hilton properties (he has a corporate discount with them too), he was bragging to me about his hilton hhonors diamond status. he hints at his room upgrades: "i usually get a suite with a jacuzzi," he said to me one time, sighing as if it were a burden to have.

and that's when i decided to make my own drive for status. i fly enough to know to consolidate my flight miles with asiana airlines, a star alliance partner. now every time i fly a star alliance partner, especially air canada, i don't have to worry about luggage fees, don't have to worry about trying to cram my luggage in the overhead bins, and i usually get to stock up with goodies from the lounge before flights. i used to not care about my hotel stays. until this year that is, after my friend made me realize that actually, i should probably be doing the same strategy with my hotels.

starwood preferred guest is the hotel program for westin, sheraton, four points, aloft, W etc. it's one of the smaller programs out there with just over 1,000 properties (compared with the intercontinental hotel group that has over 4500 properties over 100 countries, and where you can buy top tier for just 120$ a year). starwood's program has three tiers: preferred, gold, and platinum. the higher you go, the more benefits you get.

1) preferred: base level, no stays or nights required
2) gold: 10 stays or 25 nights per calendar year
3) platinum: 25 stays or 50 nights per calendar year

if i look at my travel patterns, i think i could easily get gold status in a year. if i am strategic enough, i may be able to get platinum. a stay is defined as the number of check ins. so if you stay fewer nights a year but take lots of road trips (which is my typical profile), it makes sense to qualify for status on stays. if you take long trips many times a year, it makes sense to qualify on nights. but just to make things difficult, check-ins at the same hotel on consecutive nights are all consolidated into a single stay. another caveat is that you have to book directly with the hotel website, and not via expedia or hotels.com. therefore, no chance for a best price guarantee with expedia.

and so this brings me to the idea of a mattress run, defined in the travel world as trying to earn as many qualifying stays or nights for as cheap as possible. it's the sister of the frequent flier's mileage run. a true mileage run/mattress run would look purely at price and opportunity cost in order to maximize the qualifying miles, stays, and nights in order to reach status. i like seattle. i know people in seattle. so i'm willing to pay a bit more to earn my qualifying stays and nights.

so this weekend is seattle. i checked in to the sheraton bellevue last night, and got a complimentary upgrade to the sheraton club level, which included the club lounge, free wifi, and breakfast. tonight, i drive back to my trusted seattle hotel, four points by sheraton seattle. two hotel stay credits this weekend, bringing my total for the year up to 4. and i do this again in a few weeks with the bf. i have a few free hotel nights which also count. rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. do this enough times and you'll be gold. do this once a month, and you'll be platinum.

let's see how this year turns out.

buying top tier priority club status for just 120$ a year

i heard about the changes to priority club on one of my favorite blogs, view from the wing, and went to go check it out.

priority club is the reward program of the intercontinental hotel group. these include hotel chains like the intercontinental, holiday inn, crowne plaza, and hotel indigo. it used to be the easiest hotel chain in the world to earn elite status with. staying 15 nights, but more importantly, earning just 20,000 points in a year, would have gotten gold status. platinum status, with probable room upgrades, required 50 nights or 60,000 points in a year. and as with all the programs, if you're able to concentrate your hotel stays into one program, it's best to do so in order to gain status. status confers benefits.

it used to be the easiest program to get status in (which i value just to get no-contest late check out). i didn't even have to stay at any hotels because any point earned would count towards status. last year, i earned status via the topguest program which would give me 50 points daily by checking in every morning on foursquare. it was easy for me because i live approximately 182 meters away from a holiday inn. starting this year, they closed up the loophole to make only certain points count towards status.

so i went to check out the website and found out more. this, of course, is what i had read about earlier. nothing really exciting in the announcement. reward nights count towards status (similar to my preferred program, starwood preferred guest), and free internet to every member regardless of status.

but then, probably more importantly, i found out about the newest credit card offering for canadians in the priority club. the capital one priority club world mastercard. for a 120$ yearly fee, you earn 2 points per dollar spent (each point i value at 0.5c each). but probably the most important part was the fact that you earn platinum elite status just for having the card. it's the only card in canada which gives you a program's top tier status just for holding a credit card. it totally dilutes the value of platinum status if anyone can just purchase it for 120$ a year. this, of course, is a different story from america, where their credit card offerings are so much more generous ...

in the end, it won't affect me too much. i don't stay at priority club hotels often -- it's just the backup for when there's no starwood property nearby. i was already miffed when i was trying to book my hotels in SFO for may, 3 nights for 75k points. i was waiting for my e-rewards to post when, within a week, they devalued their points such that i needed 105k points instead. i'm still kind of sore about that. maybe if i was planning on staying at more holiday inns this year, this card would interest me more. but maybe others might find it useful.