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As of October 28, goldpoints plus, the frequent stay program of Carlson Hotels (Regent, Radisson, Park Plaza, Country Inns, and Park Inn hotels), has been thoroughly overhauled.
The most significant changes are in earning rates, which have doubled from 10 to 20 points per dollar spent at full-service hotels, and increased by 50% at limited-service properties, from 10 to 15 points per dollar spent.
Other changes include the addition of elite tiers with elite bonus points and best room availability among the featured benefits, and Points Plus Cash, which allows members to combine points and cash for hotel stays, beginning at $49 plus 5,000 points for one free night.
Members who are feeling charitable and environmentally conscious may donate their points to Carbon Neutral, a service which helps offset CO2 emissions associated with travel.
To promote the change, members are being offered 5,000 bonus points after every fifth night through January 31, 2008.
The upgrades put the program on par with the loyalty programs of the other major hotel chains, which is where it always should have been.
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Effective immediately, Delta is extending its online Medallion Marketplace to Silver and Gold Medallions, allowing all U.S.-based SkyMiles® Medallion members to redeem miles, or miles and cash, for merchandise and other non-travel awards. Previously, only top-tier Medallions were entitled to redeem for merchandise awards.
We're currently unable to assess the value proposition represented by Delta's merchandise awards because only Medallion members can access the Marketplace catalog. In the case of United, which also offers elite-only merchandise awards, we estimated the value of miles used for merchandise to be worth between $.005 and $.008 per mile redeemed. It's likely that Delta's award pricing is similar to United's, but we'll confirm and report back in a future newsletter.
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Marriott Rewards members can earn up to 25,000 bonus points by referring new members to the program.
Current members can sponsor up to five new members. Each time a newly sponsored member makes a stay, up to a maximum of five stays, the sponsoring member earns 1,000 bonus points. New members must enroll by March 31, 2008.
In addition to the bonus for the referring member, the new member will receive a 1,000-point bonus for up to five qualifying stays completed within one year of enrollment.
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Southwest has announced two changes to the Rapid Rewards program.
Beginning tomorrow, Rapid Rewards Members who have flown 32 one-way flights or 16 round-trips in 12 months will be awarded A-List status, which entitles them to be automatically checked in for Southwest flights in advance, thereby standing a good chance of receiving an "A" boarding pass and being among the first to board.
Secondly, Rapid Rewards now has an unrestricted award, allowing members to book an award "free of seat restrictions except for a few blackout dates around major holidays." So it's a rule-buster award, except that blackout dates still apply.
The so-called Freedom Award costs two Standard Awards.
The A List is Southwest's attempt to approximate other carriers' elite status. But the benefit, priority boarding, is hardly comparable to an upgrade, which Southwest obviously isn't in a position to provide. As with upgrades, the real value of priority upgrades will depend on their availability. And that remains to be seen.
It's hard to get too excited about the Freedom Award. For one thing, all Rapid Rewards awards were once Freedom Awards, but at half the price. And most other airlines' rule-buster awards are truly unrestricted -- i.e. there are no blackout dates at all.
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