It’s the last weekend of the 2024 and we’re taking time to reflect on what’s really important…points and miles. This week on the blog we waxed poetic about our favorite hotels of 2024, talked about a new status match opportunity, surveyed some potentially scary Hilton Honors developments and opened the vote for the most important award of the year: the People’s Choice “Bonvoyed” Award for most disloyal loyalty program. In addition to spilling digital ink, Greg and Nick took to the airwaves to break down the optimal Alaska/Hawaiian credit card strategy and talk through their choice for 2024’s Deal of the Year.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
Vote for the 2024 Bonvoyed People’s Choice Award
This is the moment you’ve been waiting for! On last week’s Frequent Miler on the Air, Greg and Nick announced their picks for the 2024 Bonvoyed Awards. Now it’s your turn to give your take on most important award of all: the readers’ choice winner for loyalty Grinch of the year. Read through the nominees and then vote for the loyalty program that you think was the most disloyal to its customers in 2024 – the program that Scrooged us so much that they out-Bonvoyed Marriott.
Greg’s annual state of the business report
Since 2022 Greg has published an annual “state of the business” posts detailing how Frequent Miler has been doing in terms of blog readers, podcast listeners, revenue, etc. Now, once again, here’s your chance to peek behind the curtain.
Deal of the Year 2024 | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep287 | 12-27-24
In this week’s podcast, Greg and Nick talk through their nominees for the best miles and points deals we’ve seen in 2024 and give their takes on which ones came out above the rest. Do you agree with their choices?
Alaska / Hawaiian credit card strategy – which card should you get now? | Coffee Break Ep38
In this week’s Coffee Break episode, Greg and Nick talk through the Alaska / Hawaiian merger’s impact on each program’s credit cards. What’s the optimum strategy and which card(s) should you get now – if any?
The Frequent Miler Team’s favorite hotels of 2024
The Frequent Miler team isn’t just sitting around earning miles and signing up for new credit cards. Ok, we are. But we don’t just do that. We also travel a lot. Between all of us, we’ve spent at least a couple hundred of nights in hotels this year. But which ones stood out? Find out in this post that contains the 2024 lodging highlights for Greg, Nick, Stephen and Tim. It could be the location, the time of year, the particulars of our stay or a combination of everything, but each one of the properties in this post are still sticking with us at the end of the year.
Hilton Honors expands dynamic pricing and increases rates on high-end properties
Several days ago, folks in a flyertalk thread noticed that many high-end Hilton properties seemed to have gone up in price overnight. This also affected many expensive Small Luxury Hotels of the World properties as well. Not only that, but Hilton also seems to be expanding its use of dynamic pricing. Previously, almost all high-end Hilton properties had fixed standard award rates, regardless of the time of year. Now, many seem to have peak and off-peak rates. Despite all that dire news, the sky isn’t falling…yet.
Alaska / Hawaiian status matches are live
Alaska Air announced its acquisition of Hawaiian Air almost exactly one year ago. Since the deal closed in September, the airlines have kept up an admirably brisk integration schedule – you can now freely transfer miles between both programs, book Hawaiian awards with Alaska miles and earn elite-qualifying miles in both programs. It’s now also possible to match elite statuses between both programs online, allowing both Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles elite members to receive benefits regardless of which airline they’re flying.
Chasing points through bank account bonuses
Nick likes bank account bonuses. A lot. The money can really add up – during one year he and his wife earned about $6,000 through new bank and brokerage account bonuses along. Extra cash on hand can be useful for all kinds of things, but Nick likes to think of these things terms of the points you could buy with them — effectively turning that checking or savings account bonus into a part of a miles and points accumulation strategy.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep an eye on this week’s last chance deals to be sure you use the latest ones before they’re gone.
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Speaking of disloyalty, I came across an article by the New York Times regarding the broadening dissatisfaction of loyalty program elite members. In short, the benefits of tier status are becoming less realizable each year. In spite of this, revenues are at record levels and (according to airline spokespersons) co-branded credit card issuance is at record levels. It’s a brutal fact for the hobby but the only thing that matters to management is revenue and net earnings. Accept it. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. Ooh-rah.
Nice job guys on your year in review. I have enjoyed your research and comments all year and appreciate the value you provide! I personally have taken advantage of many of the offers you called out that I would never have known about otherwise.