Frequent Flyer tips

With no published award-price charts to refer to, members of Delta’s SkyMiles program don’t know when award prices are higher or lower than normal. That’s because there is no baseline to use as a reference point. There is no normal. Or rather, normal is whatever Delta chooses to publish as the price for an award ticket on a particular flight.

The Choice Privileges program has distinguished itself in recent years on both the upside and the downside.

Looking to escape the wintry weather blighting much of the U.S.? Maybe it’s time to change hemispheres.

Following is our regular summary of the latest travel news and best frequent traveler promotions reviewed during the past week.

Rapid Rewards members normally earn 600 points for qualifying car rentals. That’s 600 points no matter how long the rental, or how much the rental costs—not a very compelling proposition, especially for longer rentals.

While JetBlue’s new elite status-match campaign isn’t overtly directed at any single airline, its underlying goal is almost certainly to wean away current Virgin America elites in the run-up to that airline’s merger with Alaska Airlines.

Alaska Airlines has been much in the news lately, with its acquisition of Virgin America and the announcement that it will be severing ties with longtime marketing partner Delta.

With Marriott’s pending acquisition of Starwood, there’s reason to expect that as the former goes, so will go the latter.

Premium economy—upgraded coach service, typically featuring more legroom, priority airport services, and more amenities—is hot. And for good reason: At least in theory, it’s a win-win.

With Delta and United’s transition to spend-based loyalty programs last year, and American’s upcoming later this year, there’s no longer room for debate as to the industry standard. Travelers should now expect to be rewarded according to their spend, not according to the number of miles they fly.

On Monday, April 2, SmarterTravel’s Editor-at-Large and longtime frequent flyer guru, Tim Winship, passed away after a battle with cancer. We wish to express our deepest sympathy to Tim’s many friends, family, colleagues, and loyal readers who are grieving his loss.

Since its unannounced implementation on a Friday evening last February—strategically timed to avoid public notice and minimize media scrutiny—Delta’s policy of not publishing award charts has been a source of consumer frustration and outrage.

IHG Rewards today released its latest list of PointBreaks hotels that are available for booking for just 5,000 points per night.

Just a week after Hilton announced decidedly benign changes to its award pricing, Hyatt is doing the same.

Following is our regular summary of the latest travel news and best frequent traveler promotions reviewed during the past week.

Fly roundtrip to or from select Asian destinations for as few as 50,000 Delta miles in coach.

Spirit’s widely disparaged leader, Ben Baldanza, may be gone, but the airline’s cheeky, cheesy marketing flies on without him.

IHG Rewards members can make their points go farther when redeeming for award stays at 21 hotels in Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Wyndham’s Rewards program continues to impress.

When Hilton and Uber connected in September 2015, that connection was notably tentative. Unlike the Starwood-Uber link, which allows Starwood Preferred Guest members to earn points for Uber rides, the Hilton-Uber tie-up was limited to reminding Hilton customers to book an Uber ride during their hotel stay. Hardly a game-changer, for either of the two companies or their customers.

In the final stages of the duel between the Anbang-led investor group and Marriott to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts, two questions remain. The first is whether Marriott will counter Anbang’s latest offer with a higher-value offer of its own. The second is which of the two outstanding offers Starwood stockholders will vote to accept at the company’s shareholder meeting on April 8.