In this weekend’s Frequent Miler Week in Review Around the web, we take a look at how Priority Pass is changing the game, where you can get outsized value from your Hilton points overseas,, a reminder to get out there and explore with your family and more. Read on for this week’s recap.
Priority Pass is changing the game for airport lounges
The first time I experienced an airport lounge, I was in awe. Not because of the free food or drinks (yet those things did amaze me the first time since I was in an airport and it wasn’t costing me an arm and a leg to eat). What amazed me was the quiet. I was surprised at how serene it seemed to have respite from the chaos of the terminal. I won’t lie that I do like that aspect of a lounge. However, I think that more often than the quiet place to sit and wait for my plane, I’d value a decent bite to eat since I probably had to get to the airport 2 or 3 hours before my flight. And that’s why I totally agree with Travis from Tagging Miles, who argues a counterpoint to Gary Leff’s question as to whether Priority Pass is killing airport lounges. I’d say that Priority Pass is innovating. As I’ll be flying out of JFK’s Terminal 8 this week, I’ll be happy to enjoy that innovation.
This Week In Bank Points: [Not] Booking Viator Tours Through The Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal
Over the past few months, I’ve heard more and more positive stories about travel activities like tours that people have booked through the Chase portal with points (though they aren’t always positive — like anything, there are positives and negatives). In this post at Milenomics, Robert covers why you might want to think twice before booking activities through Chase, lest you get stuck with a very poor value for your points. At the very least, this post reinforces the wisdom of Smokey Robinson: you better shop around.
Redeem Hilton Honors Points in Geography Sweet Spots for the Most Nights
This week, Greg and I explored which hotel programs are the most rewarding between Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott. In my analysis, I looked at how many “average” priced nights you have to stay at a Hilton to earn enough points for free nights at the bottom and top-tier hotels in the portfolio (Greg’s take was a bit different). This post from The Globetrotting Teacher gives you some inspiration as to where you could spend the points you earn for outsized value overseas.
Your Complete Guide To The Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Program
For the most part, I’ve never found rental car loyalty programs terribly interesting. Don’t get me wrong — I love my National Executive status for the ability to reserve a midsize car and often have my pick of vehicles, which has come in handy (and also been fun) on more than one occasion. That said, Hertz points can be quite valuable for free rentals and as such, their loyalty program might be worth a look if you’re a frequent renter. This guide from Upgraded Points tells you what you need to know if you’re looking for a rental car loyalty program.
On Aging Parents and Travel
In other of Mother’s Day, this post from Miles for Family is worth a read to at the very least remind us that in between maximizing each promotion and piling up our points, we should also remember that sometimes the best way to maximize your mileage is to use it on a memorable moment with those you love. I feel fortunate to have shared most of my travels with my wife, but even as a couple we’ve sometimes felt the Curse of the Traveler that Lucky wrote about at One Mile at a Time years ago. And so we’ve really come to enjoy finding ways to share travel with our families. This post reminded me that we need to get on booking the next trip — and I wish Leana and her family a trip to remember.
That’s it for this week around the web. Check back soon for this week’s last chance deals.
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Traveling with older parents….. well United totally screwed with my reservation a while back. I am a PLAT MP and booked the flight for myself and my InLaws under the same reservation record. When we boarded the UA NRT to SFO flight found UA had broken us up in three separate seats, in different areas of the aircraft, placing my Asian (non ENG speaking) in-laws in the back of the plane surrounded by a Chinese Tour group and placing someone else in thir seats adjacent to mine. We had been in row 45 of the 747 and this was adjacent and would have allowed them easy access to facilities and leg room. When I flagged this to the air crew they apologized but could do nothing as the seats assigned were basically mid row and terrible. No one wanted to exchange seats for the ones they had been moved to. My father in law actually was thrown a left over non-choice meal and later due to his prostate issue was unable to get to the restroom in time… He spent the rest of the 11 hr flight …. uncomfortable and wet as he did not want to bother anyone. When I contact UA they said they were sorry but I should have flagged them BEFORE the flight that my fellow travelers had “special needs” So put it back on me. They offered a few hundred certificates for travel but unfortunately these can not be used for travel from USA to their home city in BKK as UA uses ANA for the last segment and blocks certificate use based on this factor. This has caused me to “loose face” in the family’s eyes and really was a crappy way to treat elderly travelers. But I guess a ground staffer thought no problem sending a couple random passengers to the back of the bus, splitting a family reservation.
not sure why u are surprised. you are not GS or at a minimum 1K. thats is why you were treated like trash. pretty common. and lets not forget, this is the same airline that beat someone up for overbooking which led to a massive fallout. im sure you remember that.
I seating in the CDG T2 P lounge right now . Nice,Quiet , Clean 30 seconds from by gate but Warm the French don’t like air. Not much in the way of food but it’s Good and well taken care of .
CHEERs
few comments on the articles:
1) everyone needs to hold on and see what happens with the so called PP “innovation” in the long term. those active in Silicon Valley will notice the stark contrast between “innovation” and “experimentation”. these are two VERY different things (altho highly correlated). i cant imagine what the PP burn rate is from this project but they are funneling massive cash to test their hypothesis. they can do this because they are private and run by the Collinson Group in the UK.
PP wants to democratize private lounges just like WN democratized affordable domestic air travel.
this an interesting idea and this is why they are scaling with CC partnerships. if anyone understood the early Facebook strategy, it was straight to critical scale regardless of cost. this is textbook IMHO. i can imagine their revenue models showing more profitability over time via PP restaurant partnerships vs actual lounge space costs. could this mean innovation? maybe. could this destroy the status quo of airport lounges around the world? maybe. but the ultra lux and exclusive private lounges wont die. these will be even more needed when people are tired of the zoo which is why there are many cabin classes outside of just cheap domestic WM besides rev generation. so there may be a point when the PP restaurants credits make no more sense. we will see. but lets not jump to conclusions and honor their “innovation” just yet.
2) Hertz Platinum Club is missing in the guide. its a secret club but still. Also, deep analysis seems to be missing or incorrect. The difference between PC vs FS is not just the 25% bonus. its YMMV base on location esp at airports, but its a big difference in confirmed upgrades and etc if u rent cars often and Silvercar or others are not available. Also a comparison to Avis Chairman would have been helpful. no complaints, but its supposed to be a “complete” guide.
3) The Globetrotting Teacher has some nice info, but totally lost me when she didn’t price out the cash rates of the hotels to determine Hilton cpp for each specific redemption. skimmed the rest after that. to me, that is the single most KEY piece to determine redemption value. everyone has their own way if they are cash rich/poor or miles rich/poor and emotions comes into play, but im not going to redeem Zimbabwe pesos if i can spend a few bucks w/ USD. thats just me tho.