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:
HOTEL LOYALTY PROGRAMS
1) PRIORITY CLUB
- Membership Level: Platinum Royal Ambassador
- Expiration date: Jan 2014 (Platinum) Feb 2013 (Royal Ambassador)
- Qualifying nights in 2012: 11
- Number of points: 117,574
- Points earned in 2012: 77,545
How did I earn these points?
Obviously by resting my head for 11 nights on qualifying rates at IHG properties in the first 6 months of 2012, but more importantly, by signing up for every possible Priority Club Promotion (check FrequentFlyerBonuses.com and FlyerTalk.com for more details) I also made some changes to my London 2012 Olympic Games reservations. I cancelled my 7 nights at Hotel Indigo London Paddington reimbursing me 175K points. I retained my two night booking at Hotel Indigo London Tower Hill for the opening weekend and added one extra night at Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer Street using Club Carlson points. This shortened my London 2012 Olympics trip to 3 nights instead of 9, but allowed me to use some of the points to book my upcoming French Polynesia trip.
Where did I spent points?
Past stays:
30K points for two nights at City Ocean View room at Holiday Inn Pattaya
25K points for one night at King Suite at Crowne Plaza Changi Singapore
5K points for one night at Crowne Plaza Venice East-Quarto d’Altino
Upcoming stays:
60K points for two nights at InterContintal Resort Tahiti
150K points for five nights at InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa
90K points for three nights at InterContinental Moorea Resort & Spa
Video: Intercontinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa
2) HYATT GOLD PASSPORT
- Membership Level: Diamond
- Expiration date: Feb 2013
- Suite Upgrade Award vouchers left: 4
- Qualifying nights in 2012: 0
- Number of points: 40,820
- Points earned in 2012: 452
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
3) HILTON HHONORS
- Membership Level: Gold
- Expiration date: Mar 2013
- Qualifying nights in 2012: 6
- Number of points: 3,066
- Points earned in 2012: 9,236
How did I earn these points?
Stays at Hilton Millennium Bangkok and Hilton London Tower Bridge. Interesting detail: I didn’t stay a single night at Hilton properties in 2011, still I managed to achieve Hilton HHonors Gold status for free. 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?
170K points for four nights at Ocean View Pool Villa at Conrad Koh Samui
Note: 153,435K points were bought for this stay, read the blog post for all details.
4) STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST (SPG)
- Membership Level: Preferred Guest
- Expiration date: N/A
- Qualifying nights in 2012: 4
- Number of points: 2,524
- Points earned in 2012: 4,040
How did I earn these points?
Stays at Honeymoon Suite at Sheraton Seoul D Cube City and Caroline Astor Suite at St. Regis Bangkok
Where did I spent points?
3K points for one night at Four Points by Sheraton Barcelona Diagonal
5) Club CArlson
- Membership Level: Silver
- Expiration date: Feb 2013
- Qualifying nights in 2012: 3
- Number of points: 64,214*
- Points earned in 2012: 108,722*
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)
6) LE CLUB ACCOR
- Membership Level: Platinum
- Expiration date: Oct 2012
- Qualifying nights in 2012: 1
- Number of points: 1,676
- Points earned in 2012: 452
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.
AIRLINE LOYALTY PROGRAMS
1) MILES AND MORE (LUfthansa)
- Membership Level: Senator – Star Alliance Gold
- Expiration date: 02/14
- Number of Award miles: 346,564
- Number of Status miles earned in 2012: 59,093
- Number of eVouchers: 2
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
2) MILEAGEPLUS (UNITED)
- Membership Level: MileagePlus member
- Expiration date: N/A
- Number of Award miles: 521
- Number of Status miles earned in 2012: 0
- Number of Award miles earned in 2012: 61,200
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! 🙂
Bart Lapers 
Bart, are you expecting to be part of the HON circle next year?
Hi David, not really. Earning 600K HON Circle miles in two years is almost impossible for a leisure traveller like me. As of Sep 2012, LH made it even more challenging with only Business and First Class flights counting towards HON status.
@Emmy Terms and Conditions are different for each program. Here’s an excellent overview of the most common loyalty programs and their points/miles expiration policies. If you have any questions on a specific program, let me know. http://www.travelbypoints.com/2012/08/04/miles-points-201-when-are-my-miles-points-expiring/
Hi, love your tips and tricks! One question: Is there a way of avoiding expiration dates if you have hotel loyaliteit cards but mainly collect points in other ways than actually staying there?
@Newsboy2004 You can request frequent flyer cards for free with each airline. I’ll have a post in the near future with advice regarding which airline program to choose depending on your travel and spending profile. Thanks.
Hello Bart, did you have already time a post on the different airline programs?
Thanks
Not yet. Thank you for your patience!
@M You are right, 2K Le Club Accor points can be converted in €40 voucher. Thanks.
From what I understand, Accor hotel vouchers are for 2000 points, not 4000.
Hallo Bart, welke luchtvaartmaatschappijen raad je aan om te vliegen en miles te maken? Ik zie dat je vooral Lufthansa, SNB,.. . Heb je tips? Hoe bekom ik de kaarten bij de Luvaartmaatschappijen?
Dank voor je advies