Every time we enter an airport, my 4-year old son asks, “Daddy, is there a lounge?”. This hobby has spoiled my kids: they are used to showing up at the airport and having free food and drink and my wife and I have become accustomed to the sanctuary of a comfortable place to sit and wait for our flight. But getting the whole family into a lounge has gotten tougher, so I enjoyed reading Greg’s post about how to get access for all of us. Now if only we flew Delta….
Elsewhere on the blog this week, I cover my last dance with Caesars Diamond — otherwise known as “your chance to book a “free” stay at Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas which can occur after your status has expired. Read on for more on those topics as well as a great tip for using your Fine Hotels and Resorts credits, ways Marriott can improve its program, a devaluation in a popular program and more.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
How to get Delta Sky Club access for you and your family
Delta SkyClubs are a cut above other domestic airline lounges, so it makes sense that you’d like to bring your whole family when traveling on Delta. Unfortunately, it isn’t necessarily cheap to do — but in this post, Greg lays out how you can enjoy SkyClub access when flying Delta without breaking the bank.
Your ticket to the Delta Sky Club | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep290 | 1-17-25 | Podcast
If you’d rather listen to a discussion about the best ways to get Delta SkyClub access, you’ll want to check out the main event of this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air.
Last dance with Caesars Diamond
I’ve enjoyed having Caesars Diamond status for years — I think our first Diamond Celebration Dinner must have been circa 2018 or 2019. Unfortunately, that’s going to come to an end soon, but I’ll enjoy one last, err, “Harrah” before my status expires. One key takeaway from this post is that if you have Caesars Diamond status today, you can book your complimentary stay at Atlantis for dates later this year, even if your Caesars status will expire before your stay. I made sure to take advantage of that — and on an upcoming jaunt to Atlantic City for some forward-looking matching, I’ll take advantage of some of my remaining benefits before what might be my “forever and forever farewell” with Caesars.
Amex $200 Fine Hotels and Resorts Credit: What to do if you can’t prepay (hint: don’t leave a deposit)
At the end of December, I noticed that Amex seemed to have added many new Fine Hotels and Resorts properties to its roster. Unfortunately, there seem to be some growing pains and some hotels are charging a deposit instead of the prepaid rate that you need in order to trigger your Amex Platinum prepaid hotel benefits. The solution isn’t to pay the deposit, but rather to go through an agent to get that prepaid rate booked. See this post for more detail.
Our Marriott Bonvoy Wishlist | Coffee Break Ep41 | 1-14-25 | Podcast
Marriott Bonvoy is a program that I find both inevitable and inevitably frustrating. On this week’s Coffee Break, Greg and I discuss the small tweaks that Marriott could make that would instantly improve its program and make us choose Marriott over other options. I don’t expect that we’ll see these changes since Marriott seems content to rest on their ubiquitousness as enough reason for people to choose them, but they could have our loyalty rather than just our business with these small improvements.
Air France KLM Flying Blue award prices increase by 15-25% to/from Europe
Flying Blue is a program that I ignored for a lot of years because of its surcharges but which I’ve come to appreciate more in recent years thanks to easier award availability for a family, frequent transfer bonuses, and the 25% discount on long-haul award pricing for children. Unfortunately, prices have increased for awards between the US and Europe. That’s certainly a disappointment. Flying Blue claims that this is for the sake of being able to offer more award availability. We aren’t seeing that yet, but if that does turn out to be the case, these increases will sting far less.
Grand Hotel Central Barcelona (Hilton – SLH): Bottom Line Review
Tim highlights an SLH property in Barcelona, which in turns highlights how much better Hilton has become for nice well-located hotels in Europe. One of the things I’ve come to value most about redeeming points for hotels is being able to stay right in the heart of the city without sweating the cash cost. It sounds like this could be a great place if you enjoy the same.
Chasing hotel elite status in 2025 (Nick’s elite plans)
If you asked me two months ago about my 2025 elite status plans, I’d have probably told you that I was unlikely to chase Hyatt status in 2025. With Hilton’s excellent integration of SLH, a couple of trips to Europe on the books (where Hyatt is now really weak) and the fact that I’m a stone’s throw from Lifetime Platinum with Marriott, I just wasn’t sure that 60 nights at Hyatt would be in the cards for me this year. However, without much effort, I’m already looking at 30+ elite nights by mid-year, which might just be enough to make it worth chasing the rest of the nights for the milestone rewards. I highly value both free parking (I’ll use it on an upcoming trip to New York City and easily save a couple hundred bucks with that benefit alone!) and free hotel breakfast (particularly at nicer hotels) — and while I could get those with a Guest of Honor award, I like being able to use those and a suite upgrade at the same time (which I’ll be doing on that upcoming stay!).
The Seagate Hotel & Spa, Delray Beach Florida (A Preferred hotel bookable with points). Bottom line review.
Over the past few year, Greg has had some fantastic coverage of Preferred Hotels — both in terms of booking them through Choice Privileges and more recently with the added option of booking through iPrefer (now also a Citi transfer partner). Sadly for Preferred Hotels, each time I read a post about Preferred Hotels, I get a little less interested in ever booking one. I very much enjoy hearing about them, but I’ll continue to live vicariously through Greg here. Between the hassles before arrival and the service issues on-property, this really illustrates why I generally prefer the predictability of a cookie-cutter chain hotel. In fact, after I read this post and came back here to write this summary, I realized that I hadn’t even taken the time to look at the pictures of the property because I felt like it was such a hard pass after reading the review. Now that I’ve scrolled the pics, I’ll admit that it looks quite pretty. Hopefully they get the service matching the physical space, but in the meantime I remain pretty skeptical on Preferred Hotels.
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Complete Guide (2025)
I’ve long appreciated Alaska Mileage Plan for its many cool quirks, and Greg and I have been very enthusiastic on Alaska Airlines over the past few months, but I would never have said that I “know” the program. Thankfully, as a Seattle area resident, Tim truly knows Alaska Mileage Plan through and through! In this complete guide to Alaska Mileage Plan, Tim takes a deep dive with all of the important things you need to know if you want to jump in head first to a program that has really excited us over the past year.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
