As you might have noticed, it has been a while since my last blog post. I’ve been extremely busy preparing travel talks and hosting my own travel seminar in Brussels, Belgium. Last Saturday (Dec 1) was the big day, TravelMagic 2012. For the first time in Belgium, travel enthusiasts had the opportunity to learn and exchange tips & tricks on how to travel luxurious with a limited budget. With more than 50 participants and manyravingreviews, we can call the event a success. The next edition will be held on April 27, 2013.
Video: After movie TravelMagic 2012 at Holiday Inn Brussels Airport
Back in May 2011, I published an insight in my loyalty program statuses including the number of points and miles earned. More than a year has passed since then, so it’s time for an update:
How did I earn these points? I only stayed once at Hyatt this year and it was on points. During award stays you only earn points on food & beverage charges, in my case 452 points. Where did I spent points?
30K points for two nights at Club View King room at Grand Hyatt Seoul
How did I earn these points? Stays at Radisson Suites Bangkok Sukhumvit, Park Plaza Soi 18 Sukhumvit Bangkok and Park Inn Leuven. Check my Club Carlson post for more details.
* Points from my Park Inn Leuven still need to post (including 44K bonus) Where did I spent points? 50K points for one night at Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer Street Hotel (Opening weekend London 2012 Olympics)
How did I earn these points? One night stay at Novotel Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Interesting detail: I acquired free Le Club Accor Platinum status using a simple sign-up link. I posted this opportunity several times on my twitter feed, make sure you don’t miss it next time, follow me on twitter! Where did I spent points? No Le Club Accor points spent in 2012. Le Club points have a very low value, you need a minimum of 4K points to convert them to 2000 airline miles or 2K points for a €40 discount voucher (which can only be used to lower roomrates, not on F&B) In general, this loyalty program is really weak, with platinum benefits rarely honored. The only really positive experience I had as A Club Gold member was at Sofitel Paris La Defense back in 2010.
How did I earn these miles? I earned more than 280,000 miles in the past year.
150K miles were ‘butt-in-seat’ miles (by taking flights)
32K bonus miles for business flight to Rio de Janeiro
75K miles were earned using the Brussels Airlines American Express cards. 23K miles were earned from various sources like hotel stays, shopping, etc…
On what did I spent miles?
70K miles to upgrade GIG-FRA from Business Class to new Lufthansa First Class
How did I earn these miles? I bought 98,000 Wyndham Rewards points for $308 (€237,85) during the yearly U.S. Travel Association “Daily Getaways” campaign and converted them to 39,200 United Mileage Plus miles. I also bought 20,000 Mileage Plus miles for $451 (€347,86) via a facebook 40% discount sale.
Finally, during an award reservation, I was 1479 miles short, so I had to buy a set of 2000 Mileage Plus miles for $70 (€58,47).
Conclusion, in total I bought 61,200 United Mileage Plus miles for €644,18 On what did I spent miles?
70K miles on an itinerary including Singapore Airlines First Class & Business Class + Air New Zealand Business and Economy Class. More details to follow!
Pic: Deluxe room at Park Plaza Soi 18 Sukhumvit Bangkok (July 2012) Pic: Rooftop Pool Sunset at Park Plaza Soi 18 Sukhumvit Bangkok (July 2012)
Back in March 2011, the Carlson Hotel Group (Radisson, Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza and Country Inn & Suites) rebranded it’s loyalty program GoldPoints Plus to Club Carlson. In the past year, John Kennedy (Club Carlson Vice President) and his team did a tremendous job attracting new customers. First of all, there was the Club Carlson status match opportunity (still valid), then back in November they launched the Radisson Big Night Giveaway promo, which was unfortunately only valid for properties in the US, Canada and Caribbean. You basically had to stay one night at a Radisson or Radisson Blu hotel to receive a bonus of 50,000 Gold Points. Enough for a free night at the most expensive Carlson hotels (Category 6) or multiple free nights at cheaper Carlson properties. (free nights start at 9000 points, Category 1) The Radisson Big Night Giveaway promotion results must have been positive as the management of the Brussels based Rezidor Hotel Group Headquaters decided to launch a Worldwide campaign for their Radisson, Park Inn and Country Inn & Suites brands in May 2012. The Park Plaza brand was added to the campaign in June. If you didn’t sign-up for these promo’s, I need to disappoint you, as all of them have now expired. (Except the Park Plaza promo, but bonus is now limited to 15K instead of 50K points) If you don’t want to miss future promo’s like this, I recommend to keep an eye on my twitter feed. Pic: Radisson Suites Bangkok Sukhumvit Rooftop Pool (June 2012) I didn’t participate in the Nov 2011 Big Night Giveaway promo, as I had no travel to the US, Canadian or the Caribbean during the promotion period. For my first batch of 50,000 Club Carlson bonus points, I stayed at Radisson Suites Bangkok Sukhumvit on May 26. Room rate THB2329 (€60), upgraded to One Bedroom Suite as Club Carlson Silver member. On June 30, I stayed at Park Plaza Soi 18 Bangkok earning me another 50,000 Club Carlson Bonus points. Room rate THB2165 (€56), upgraded to Deluxe room. For my last set of 44,000 bonus points, I stayed at Park Inn Leuven (Belgium) on July 21. Room rate €75, upgraded to Business Friendly room (including complimentary wifi and breakfast). That makes €191 earning 144,000 bonus points. That total doesn’t even include all the other ‘regular’ bonuses like 2000 bonus points for booking via ClubCarlson.com websites, 25% silver status bonus points, 20 points per USD spent, etc…!
Pic: Complimentary Tuk Tuk Service at Radisson Suites Bangkok Sukhumvit So how am I going to maximize the value of my 144K bonus points? Here’s a first example: I burned 50K points for a free night at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer Street Hotel (ranked #48 out of 1,080 hotels in London) for July 29, 2012. Yes, that’s the Opening Weekend of the London 2012 Olympic Games! The cheapest rate for a standard room was £425 excl. tax (£510 incl. tax, €655) To makes things even better, Club Carlson now launched a number of new promotions, including one allowing you to redeem points at 50% the regular rate at selected hotels in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. And there’s more: Stay two nights or more at Club Carlson properties in Asia and get 10,000 bonus points, pay with American Express at EAME Radisson and Radisson Blu properties and get 3 nights for the price of 2 + 2000 bonus points. And as always, a complete overview of all promotions can be found at frequentflyerbonuses.com Pic: Business Friendly Room at Park Inn Leuven, Belgium (July 2012)
Conclusion: The majority of frequent traveler bloggers have highlighted the Club Carlson promotions as the best hotel offers we’ve seen in the past year. My personal experiences at Club Carlson properties in the past 3 months have been very positive (both hard and soft product) and I hope the Rezidor Hotel Group will continue their efforts and investments to become leaders in the hospitality industry. I was flattered to learn more than 10 readers of my blog have been staying at Park Inn Leuven to score their 44K bonus points. Always a pleasure to assist others to travel in luxury on a budget! Thank you.
Pic: Bart at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games(Aug 2008)
My interest for next year’s Olympic Games was low. Earlier this year, I didn’t managed to grab any London 2012 tickets in the disastrous Belgian London 2012 ticket sale nor did I have any luck with the international London 2012 ticket lottery. End of June, Eurostar announced they were selling 2012 return tickets Brussels – London at 99 euro each to celebrate the start of the London 2012 train ticket sale. Why not visit the City for the Opening Weekend of the Games to enjoy the atmosphere, I thought. I booked the ticket and challenged myself to find a reasonable priced hotel room for July 27 – July 29, 2012. “Impossible” is what most people said. If I failed, I could still CouchSurf or bail for 99 euro.
Today, just two months after I booked my train ticket, I can report success. I booked a room for the London 2012 Opening Weekend! And for the first week of the Games too! Eight nights at luxurious hotels in London City Centre… Best Of All, It’s FREE!* Pic: Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bird’s Nest(Aug 2008)
The InterContinental Hotel Group (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, …) loads it’s hotel inventory 50 weeks in advance. This happens every Sunday morning at 7AM (CET) Rooms are released per week, from Sunday until Saturday. Two weeks ago, IHG did something unexpected. They released reward rooms for the Opening Night of the London 2012 Olympic Games. And on Sunday August 14th, they loaded rooms for the whole first week of the London 2012 Games. Finally, this weekend (Aug 21) the second week of the Olympics was loaded. I didn’t really expected this. PriorityClub had always been very generous with reward rooms, but during the Olympics? The 5* InterContinental hotels in London were not available, but the 4* Indigo boutique hotels , some 4* Crowne Plaza’s and most Holidays Inn’s in the heart of London were available for both paid and reward bookings. The “best available” rates were highly inflated, somewhere between £400 to £800 per night. With 180.000 points in my PriorityClub account, I booked 7 nights (July 27-Aug3) at the Indigo brand at 25000 points per night. Two nights at Indigo London – Tower Hill and 5 nights at Indigo London – PaddingtonThose 7 nights would have cost me around 5000 eurobooked on the best available rate.
On Aug 21st, I had again 16000 points in my account thanks to my stay at InterContinental Bangkok and Holiday Inn Pataya earlier that week. Unfortunately no rooms were available anymore for Aug 3-4, so I booked an 8th night (15.000 points + $60) for Aug 4-5 at Holiday Inn Express London – Swiss Cottage. So that leaves me with one night open on Aug 3-4, 2012. HI Swiss Cottage has availability, but only on paid rates with the cheapest being around 400 pounds for just one night! I rather have a £400 party that night! You’re all invited!
What’s in it for you? If you don’t have a PriorityClub account yet, I suggest you create one now. Sign-up for allavailablebonuses. Stay a few times at IHG hotels. Soon, you’ll find yourself in a free hotel room at a World Event!
* Booked with PriorityClub points. 70.000 points were bought (out of 200.000 points required for this booking) 60.000 via the Discover America promo (253 euro) 10.000 via the points + cash option ($60 = 42 euro). Total cash: 295 euro.
Update 1 (24/08/11)
Last night I checked the Reward Night availability again for Aug 3, 2012 in London. I noticed Holiday Inn Express London – Swiss Cottage showed available nights at 25K points. As I had only 2500 points left in my account, I had no other option than to buy (expensive) points via the PriorityClub website. I bought 13K points for 162.50 USD and then selected the Points + Cash (60 USD) option to book the HI Express Swiss Cottage. In total I paid 222.50 USD (155 euro) for my Olympic night on Aug 3, 2012. Total cash: 450 euro. Update 2 (18/09/11)
This morning, Hotel Indigo London Paddington loaded award night availability for almost every day of the London 2012 Olympics. Consequently, I canceled my Holiday Inn Express London – Swiss Cottage booking for the second weekend of the Games. Canceling the 2 nights at HI Express resulted in a 50K points refund. For my new booking at Indigo London Paddington I used points+cash (15K + $60 per night). At the end of the transaction I spent $120 (90€) and recovered 20K points. Thus, I paid $120 for 20K points which are now in my Priority Club account. This keeps my total for 9 nights at the London 2012 Olympics on 450 euro.
So you want to stay for free at that fancy five star hotel? Or just want to pay the cheapest room rate and get upgraded to a suite? Travel industry fact: Be loyal, get rewarded.
To enjoy free nights, you’ll have to collect points…lot’s of loyalty points. To enjoy free upgrades and benefits, you will need to obtain an elite level. Different elite levels can be achieved by staying a certain number of nights/stays, by collecting a certain number of points or simply by buying yourself an elite level. The more precious the metal, the higher your elite level. (Silver, Gold, Platinum, etc..)
Before you can start collecting points, you’ll need to make-up your mind on which hotel chain you like the most. You’ll need to make an assessment on which brand matches your budget, travel frequency, destinations and personal preferences. Once you have selected a particular hotel chain (or two), stick to it. Sign-up for the loyalty program, enroll for all promotions and stay at their properties as much as possible.
Here’s an overview of 7 hotel loyalty programs with a global property network:
I included links to fast-track elite status offers for HHonors and Club Carlson. These will allow you to enjoy elite benefits from your first stay onwards.
Once you’ve signed up for the program it’s time to review the bonus offers of your favorite hotel chain. FrequentFlyerBonuses.com has an excellent overview of all point promotions per hotel program. Sign-up on as much promo’s as possible for your hotel loyalty program. Instead of those 2000 base points at your first stay, you might cash in 10.000 points! Yes, it requires some effort tracking all those offers, but it’s very rewarding. Soon you’ll find yourself addicted, checking your points balance on a weekly basis.
Not convinced? Here are some examples of point rewards I cashed in via my favorite loyalty program PriorityClub
Two free nights at the brand new InterContinental Kiev for just 10.000 points using PointBreaks (value: 400 euro) Effort: used points of two previous stays (on which I spent 150 euro)
Two free nights at Holiday Inn Munich City Centre during the opening weekend of OktoberFest 2009. (value: 500 euro) Cost: 30.000 points + $120. PriorityClub has no blackout dates, so even during festivals, new year, etc.. you can still get that free night! You can also combine points with cash to get rewards faster.
Aside from point promotions, hotel loyalty programs also frequently run “Stay X nights/times, get one night free” promotions. Last quarter of 2010, InterContinental’s PriorityClub had a promo called ‘Sweet Dillema’. For every two stays (a stay is defined as any number of consecutive nights at one hotel) you received one free night with a limit of 5 free nights. If you use this kind of promotions in a creative way, it can result in some great opportunities. In my case I stayed 10 times 1 night at cheap Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza’s. This resulted in 5 free nights which I could use at any IHG property from Nov 1,2010 until May 2011. Here’s what I received in return for spending 10 nights at IHG properties. (cost: +- 700 euro)
