Best Strategies for Hotel and Airline Loyalty Programs

by Chris Owen on

Working loyalty programs for airlines, cruise lines, hotels or rental car agencies can be tricky business. Core benefits of one program are often overshadowed by promotional offers from another. Navigating our way around them in an organized manner to get the most benefit, then keeping track of what we earn can take a lot of time that few are willing to invest. Those who do not travel all that much often find themselves belonging to a bunch of programs with little value racked up on any of them. Still, the benefits of being a member can be worth our time, even for an occasional traveler, armed with the right strategy.

“To make sure you get more benefits, either in free flights or elite traveler perks, consolidate your miles into as few airlines as possible,” recommends iFly. “The more miles that you can build on one card, by using that airline or its partners, the faster you get your rewards.”

That strategy works for hotel chains as well and focusing on programs that offer more can help. Third-party web sites like FindTheBest rank airlines, hotels and others for us, consolidating benefits, perk thresholds and more to easily see which programs are a good fit for an individual’s travel profile.

“At FindTheBest, we present you with the facts – stripped of any marketing influence – so that you can make quick and informed decisions. We present the facts in easy-to-use tables with smart filters, so that you can decide what is best,”says FindTheBest on its web site.

Once points start coming in, another helpful website, AwardWallet, can make keeping track of them easy. AwardWallet is a free service that helps us manage reward balances, supporting over 400 loyalty programs. AwardWallet is also used by businesses to manage their corporate reward balances.

Loyalty pays off, but as new offers come along, getting in on them can be to our advantage as well. Another site, BoardingArea, features the latest offers for airlines, hotels and more.

Occasional travelers can also benefit from being a part of a loyalty program at work. Hotels are going after businesses with bonus programs that give top-tier benefits, normally reserved for heavy users to occasional travelers signed on under the company program.

Best Western, for example, has a new Business Advantage program where members get an across-the-board 10 percent discount off the hotel’s lowest rate, automatic elite-level membership benefits and a 10 percent bonus of all the points earned. When these programs initially roll out, expect extra value too.

A special bonus offer through April 8 gives Best Western Business Advantage participants who stay with the chain just one night during its Spring Promotion a free membership to Trip It Pro (normally $49), a personal program that helps business travelers keep track of their trips and their rewards.

Frequent traveler programs are a hot topic and relationships with hotel loyalty programs run deep, often causing members to lie, cheat or pose as someone else to get ahead said a survey Gadling reported on earlier this month.

In a survey by Starwood Preferred Guest respondents said they would try subterfuge to get upgrades and were not above telling little white lies to get a better hotel room or a hotel/airline travel upgrade,” Starwood said in TravelAgent. Nearly half of respondents claimed they would pretend it was their honeymoon to get an upgrade. 25 percent would pretend they had a family emergency and 20 percent would pretend to be someone important.

All they really had to do was have a strategy for their loyalty program participation that included joining the right program, keeping track of awards and taking advantage of other offers that may come along.



Flickr photo by Larry Johnson

Space travel Code of Conduct aims to limit junk in orbit

by Chris Owen on

Decades of space travel activities have the Earth’s orbit littered with space junk. As the world’s nations continue activity in space, the space junk pile increases and along with it the chances of a deadly collision. Now, the United States and other nations are doing something about it.

“Space is no longer an environment accessed nearly exclusively by two superpowers or a few countries. Barriers to entry are lower than ever, and many countries are enjoying access to, and the benefits of, space in unprecedented numbers,” said Frank A. Rose, the Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance in a speech at the 15th annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference last week.

The U.S. Department of Defense tracks about 22,000 objects in orbit, only 1,100 of which are active satellites. The rest are things like dead satellites, spent booster rockets or orbiting debris. Experts are concerned that the man-made debris increases the odds of future damaging collisions, a situation that will only worsen as more nations explore space travel.To reduce this risk to future satellite operations and space travelers, the United States has joined the European Union calling for a uniform code of conduct that reduces the risk of further debris-generating events, reducing the need to maneuver around debris, expending precious fuel.

“I believe that 2012 will be a defining year for space security, and the work we all will do in responding to the challenges in, and the threats to, the space environment can help us preserve space for all nations and future generations,” said Rose. “We look forward to partnering with the commercial space transportation industry in this effort.”






Flickr photo by AsylumSeaker

Photo of the day – Lisbon’s winter light

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Is Lisbon’s winter light a cure for the blues of the dark season?

It’s right about this time in the Northern Hemisphere that winter starts to feel like an imposition. It’s not getting measurably warmer, and even though it’s been getting lighter for almost two months, it’s not light enough, darn it. Not at all.

This is the time of year when it’s easy to forget that winter’s thin light can also very beautiful. Flickr user t3mujin reminds of this fact with the above Lisbon street scene, snapped in December just before the winter solstice. He nails the beauty of Lisbon’s winter light wonderfully, anchoring the image in the gaze of the lovers casting shadows on the street.

Upload your images of winter light to Flickr’s Gadling Group Pool. We choose our favorites from the pool to be Photos of the Day.

Photo of the Day: Duty free Flamenco

by Meg Nesterov on

After many years of international travel, I’ve learned that duty free isn’t necessarily a deal. Unless you’re a smoker or live in a country where alcohol is heavily taxed (like Turkey), you won’t find much value among the jumbo-sized Toblerone bars or rows of designer perfumes. But I still enjoy the ritual of browsing through the shop, trying some free samples, and maybe taking home a tasty piece of whatever country I’ve just visited. Some airports really step up their sales technique, like a flash mob in Beirut, or this pair of Flamenco dancers in Madrid, Spain spotted by Flickr user TaylorMcConnell. Not sure what they are selling, but I hope it’s a good bottle of Rioja.

See anything fun at an airport? Add your pix to the Gadling Flickr pool for a future Photo of the Day.

Trekking mobility chairs make planet accessible to all

by Chris Owen on

Travelers challenged with mobility issues often had to take a back seat to adventure travelers in the past, viewing dreams-of-a-lifetime from a distance. Now, dedicated companies and organizations are making destinations around the planet accessible to all, even in unlikely places.

Visiting Italy‘s iconic attractions can be a daunting task for the handicapped. Ancient ruins, preserved and protected to maintain their integrity, are far-removed from today’s accessibility laws that bring ramps, assistance and modified facilities. In the past, challenged travelers would most commonly view popular sites such as the Roman Forum, Pompeii and Herculaneum from a distance. Now, a specially designed trekking-wheelchair makes destination immersion possible for many disabled travelers.

“It is our great pleasure to make all of Italy accessible to everyone who would like to visit. This chair is the first of its kind and opens doors to those challenged by walking on our country’s ancient streets,” says Program Director Stefano Sghinolfi of Rome and Italy Tourist Services.

Using a one-of-a-kind chair, every Italian archaeological site can be visited by those with mobility challenges, no matter what the ground surface might be. Using a seat and frame with only one wheel, two arms in the front and back to support the chair when not in motion and allow for movement up or down hills.

The chair is easily rolled and carried by two trained guides and offers 360° degree maneuverability around obstacles such as centuries-old stones or holes and ancient streets or steps.

Another trekking wheelchair is the Black Diamond TrailRider, developed for the British Columbia Mobility Opportunities Society (BCMOS) in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

The single-wheeled TrailRider looks like a cross between a rickshaw and a wheelbarrow and has opened the door to wilderness areas in the United States, Canada and the Himalayas. Two times, this one has made the 19,334-foot ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.