Admittedly, IHG isn’t really top of mind for many people when it comes to hotel chains. Their hotels primarily encompass largely low to mid-tier hotels without a lot of sex appeal. The only hotels that I would really care to stay at are Intercontinental or Kimpton Hotels but they tend to be few and far between in North America. I can say for certain that I have never given them much heed but I suppose that’s the point for these type of promotions.
The Offer
IHG is currently providing registrants with Spire status for 90 days so that you can get to know the chain. IHG lacks compared to some of the other big programs out there like Marriott Rewards or even Hilton Honors but IHG’s Spire status does give you complimentary room upgrades. One big hole in the program is the lack of free breakfast as a published benefit. There are certainly anecdotal reports of Spire members being given the option of free breakfast at check-in but it’s not in their benefits chart, which is a shame.
Extend Your Status
Once registered for the promotion, all you have to do is stay 5 times (instead of the normal 40) in your 90-day Taste of Spire period to get Platinum status for a year. If you manage to stay 10 times (instead of the normal 75), you get Spire status for a year.
Registration is required by October 31st, 2018 so you have a few days to make hay.
Either create a new IHG Rewards account or use your existing account. Once registered, you will receive a confirmation.
While I did receive the confirmation email, my status has not been updated as of yet so this may be a your mileage may vary situation but hey – it’s a pretty minimal effort for a potentially pretty good return.
Conclusion
If you happen to be planning some upcoming hotel stays where you are going to stay at IHG properties, you should register for this promotion. Even if you don’t have anything upcoming, you should register anyways because you never know when it might come in handy. Registration is easy, free and takes about 1 minute of your time.
I’ve been insanely busy with work and life and have been neglecting the blog a little bit but I hope to make it up to you by cluing you into a program that has very little fanfare in Canada but deserves some real attention.
What Are LifeMiles?
LifeMiles is the program and currency of Star Alliance Carrier, Avianca (AV). While Avianca is a Colombia based carrier, it has an excellent network within Central and South America with limited connections to North America and Europe.
The only routing that really pertains to Canadians (without repositioning) is from Toronto to San Salvador, the capital and most populous city in El Salvador.
San Salvador actually serves as a hub for Avianca, along with Bogota, Colombia and Lima, Peru, so connections throughout Central and South America are actually possible with one-stop out of Toronto.
Why Does This Matter?
Most of us don’t have Central or South America high up on the list, especially if you have to position to Toronto and then connect in San Salvador. So why do you care about LifeMiles if you aren’t planning a trip south of the 15th meridian?
The reason is that Avianca is a Star Alliance carrier, meaning that you have access to all Star Alliance carriers for award travel, just like you would with Aeroplan!
The biggest plus about this is that Avianca, and conversely LifeMiles, DOES NOT CHARGE FUEL SURCHARGE!
Before you even ask; YES – this means that you can fly Lufthansa First Class, Thai First Class, Air Canada Business Class and any other Star Alliance carrier without being charged fuel surcharge!
Pros and Cons
As with any loyalty program out there, you’re going to have positives and negatives and LifeMiles is no exception. I would say that generally, LifeMiles is a bit more complicated than something like Alaska’s Mileage Plan program but in my opinion, it’s worth learning due to the great value that is possible.
I’ll dive deeper into the program in the next couple of posts but let’s start by looking at the positives of the program at a high level.
Pros
No fuel surcharge when booking with Star Alliance airline partners that normally charge fuel surcharge.
Excellent ability to buy LifeMiles at a deep discount on a fairly regular basis
Flexibility in the program with Cash and Miles redemptions
No close-in booking fee (For example, United charges $75 USD if booking an award within 21 days of travel)
Mixed cabin awards are allowed
Even with the strong value proposition that LifeMiles provides, there are a few negatives that you must keep in mind. Again, I will cover this more in depth in future posts but let’s look at some things to keep in mind.
Cons
$25 fee to book an award, regardless of whether it is online or over the phone. Ultimately this fee is peanuts compared to the savings but some readers definitely hate fees.
There are no stopovers allowed
Some limited availability has been reported for Lufthansa (LH) awards in premium cabin
Any layover in excess of 8 hours is considered as stop and will then be considered a separate award, meaning you will pay more points.
There are many reports of a language barrier when calling in for assistance to the LifeMiles call centre. There are ways around this, which I will cover off in the next few posts.
Some reports of wonky behaviour on the LifeMiles website
How To Get Miles
If I haven’t scared you off with the cons, you can see the value that I see as a travel hacker. When there’s a program that doesn’t charge fuel surcharge regardless of the partner airline you fly, it’s worth the hassles of all the cons I’ve listed above. We’ll take a look at how to book these awards in the next post but first things first – how to actually get LifeMiles.
Unfortunately, there are no credit card transfer partners in Canada that directly transfer to Avianca’s LifeMiles program, nor is there a credit card that earns LifeMiles that can be readily accessed by Canadians. The only easy way to transfer miles into LifeMiles is through Marriott, either through the normal points transfer ratio of 60,000 Marriott Reward Points : 25,000 Avianca LifeMiles or through Marriott’s Travel Package.
The Travel Package used to represent a very good deal but after the SPG integration, not so much. You can read our take on the new packages here.
While both are viable options to those that have Marriott Rewards Points or Membership Reward Points from American Express that can transfer to Marriott, many people just don’t have those types of points.
Luckily, LifeMiles goes on sale – a lot.
Courtesy of https://www.pointhacks.com.au
We are actually working with LifeMiles to bring an even better deal to PointsNerd readers so stay tuned for that in the future.
What this means is that in a pinch, you can easily purchase points to make an award booking and save significant amounts of money rather than booking a regular revenue ticket. Keep in mind that award inventory is an airline’s distressed inventory so you often won’t find the most convenient timest to travel but still – it’s a huge amount of money to save.
Conclusion
There are lots of great programs for Canadians including Aeroplan’s Mini Round-the-World Excursions and Alaska Airline’s amazing Partner Redemptions but Avianca LifeMiles offers a unique value proposition to Canadians in that you can simply buy the miles you need when they come on sale and secure your award flight for much less than if you purchased the ticket at retail.
Stay tuned to find out how you can maximize the value of Avianca’s LifeMiles program.
It’s been a while since the IT merger of Starwood and Marriott accounts in the new Marriott Rewards program. There have certainly been some issues around the transition, most of which has been due to the lack of communication between Marriott and its members.
One perfect example of this is the Choice Benefits provided to members that stay at least 50 nights in a year.
Those members that have at least 50 nights in a year are given a choice of the following benefits:
Five Suite Night Awards™
The gift of Silver Elite status for a friend or family member
Five Elite Night Credits
$100 (USD) donation to UNICEF
40% off your favourite hotel bed
Those that hit 75 nights are given an additional choice of the above benefits but are also given the additional options of a Free Night certificate for any hotel (up to 40,000 points) or gifting Gold Status to a friend.
The free night certificate is good for a Category 5 hotel during Peak Season or a Category 6 hotel during Low Season. This only matters if you are reading this after January 1, 2019. If you are wanting to use the certificate during 2018, it would be good for up to a Category 5 hotel as seasonality only takes effect as of January 1, 2019.
Great Benefits but How Do I Get Them?
Like many others, I was waiting for the merger of accounts to be complete to finally access my benefits but nothing ever appeared in my account. Wait as I might, I was never given a choice of my benefits. I realized that I actually had to take action to get my benefits (which is ridiculous) and if I waited for Marriott to direct me how to do it, I might be waiting forever.
After much searching through forums and message boards, I finally found the URL that was needed in order to choose my benefits:
Simply log in and follow the instructions and you’ll be given the option to choose your benefits (assuming you have the required nights in the year (50 or 75 nights).
Suggested Choices
For me, the choice is clear for what you should be choosing at 50 nights and that’s the 5 Suite Night Awards. The other benefits are nonsensical to me. Silver status doesn’t really do anything for anybody, 5 Elite Night Credits don’t make sense because you’ve already made status at 50 nights, the donation to UNICEF is noble but an unlikely choice for most, and 40% off a bed seems like it would only appeal to a very select group of people.
The 75-night choice benefit is similar though you are given a couple more options. I would either go with an additional 5 Suite Night Awards or the Free Night Certificate.
Conclusion
For some reason, Marriott has made it exceedingly difficult for their loyal customers to be rewarded for their business. It’s an unfortunate situation that hopefully gets rectified with this post. Once you know where to look, choosing your benefit is incredibly easy.
One of the biggest new trends for hotels to fatten their bottom line is to add on additional “convenience fees” that they call Resort Fees or Destination Fees. These fees can be relatively small to quite egregiously large. Bottom line – they piss me off because they are a blatant violation of consumer trust. Hotels are hoping that you just pay the fee and forget about how much you are being ripped off.
As a Marriott Platinum Elite member, I’ve earned all the benefits that I actually need. The Resort/Destination fees often include things like free wifi, bottles of water and access to the fitness facility (really?). They also add in things like “free mini golf”, “free bike rental”, “free life as a housekeeper tour”, or something else that is virtually useless.
How To Avoid Fees
I’ve been batting 100% in getting my resort and destination fees waived and the way I have done it has been pretty simple. I will admit that having status certainly helps but generally the way to get out of the fees is to simply ask.
You need to be firm yet polite and give them the reasons as to why you feel the fees to be unfair. My normal go-to is to say that the only useable features in the fees that they charge are for benefits I have already earned with my loyalty. The additional “benefits” that were offered were things that I did not take advantage of during my stay, and thus the fees are not something that I am willing to pay for.
The agent may offer to reduce your fees but I have always said something to the effect of “thank you but I’m not asking to reduce the resort fee, I am asking to have them waived”.
Typically, they will speak to a manager who may come over to ask you how they can help. I reiterate my position and they have always relented. They may say that this is a “one-time gesture”, to which I thank them and move on.
Be Confident and Firm
Ultimately, this is a social engineering task to convince someone of your position so you need to be confident but don’t be a jerk – that will never get you anywhere. I have been in sales for many years and one of the first things that I started doing early on in my career was to figure out how I would respond to “no” so that I could steer the conversation. When I first started asking for fees to be waived, I would employ the same practice.
Manager: the fee is to cover off the cost of providing the services that our guests love Me: I understand that but as a Platinum member, I have stayed in Marriott branded hotels for over 400 nights in the past 2 years so I practically live out of hotels. When you offer someone like me things like “free high-speed wifi” or “free bottles of water” as part of the fee, it’s insulting because I earned those benefits.
Manager: the fees also cover you for free mini-golf and free bike rentals Me: I’m here to take my kid to his baseball clinic – we aren’t here to play mini-golf or ride bikes. These are benefits that have no bearing to my stay so I again ask that you kindly remove the fee.
Manager: we can reduce the fee to 50% of the charge for you Me: I appreciate the gesture but I must insist on having the fees removed completely. Please see this from my perspective. I’m a loyal customer that spends well over $25,000 a year at Marriott – if you were in my position, would it make you happy to have to pay additional fees, especially considering they have no relevance to you?
Manager: we very much appreciate your business so as a one-time gesture, I’m willing to waive the fees for you. Me: thank you very much
When to Request the Waiver
You really can make the request at any time but I typically do so just prior to checking out. I also like to pick a time where the front desk isn’t too busy. The reason for this is that I presume the manager of the hotel would rather not have other guests that are checking in/out hear the conversation and request the same thing.
I fully understand that hotels are in the business of making money so while I hate these fees, if I owned a hotel and could get away with it, I would likely charge the fee as well, especially if all my competitors were doing so. Understanding how a manager’s mind works certainly can come in handy in this situation.
What If I Don’t Have Status
Admittedly, this is going to be a tougher discussion for you but I would stay with the same argument except I would say something to the effect of “I’ve paid over $400 a night and the hotel charges an incredibly high fee for parking. Adding this resort fee on makes me incredibly unhappy and an otherwise pleasant stay has been completely marred by these fees”. Hotels earn business through reviews on things like TripAdvisor so they know an unhappy customer can cost them much more than the resort fee they are trying to collect so be sure they know that you would normally be leaving a great review but that would turn into a poor review because of the fees.
Alternatively, you could always ask for compensation in the form of points in return for the fees. While not ideal, at least you can get something out of it.
Manager: I’m sorry, we simply can’t waive these fees for you. You: well, that makes me incredibly unhappy because I feel that I’m not getting anything for those fees. I have a suggestion. Rather than sit here and argue about the merits of the fees, perhaps you could provide a goodwill gesture of 30,000 points (or pick a number) to help me feel much better about paying the fee. Manager: I think we could arrange that.
Conclusion
Resort/Destination fees are the same garbage fees that organizations like TicketMaster charge for giving you the privilege of purchasing a ticket and printing it at home with your own paper and ink, or a Aeroplan charging you a fee for making a telephone booking that would be impossible to book online.
It’s all horrible.
With a bit of an understanding of how to approach the situation, you too can get out of your fees. Hopefully, some politician can introduce a bill that outlaws the collection of these extortion-like fees but until that happens, make sure you fight each time someone tries to put a BS fee on your hotel bill.
