Archive for December, 2024

If you are not really convinced that the revenue-based accrual for British Airways flights works well for you – that is what you get not only in the Executive Club, but also as member of Iberia Plus or AAdvantage when flying on British Airways – an interesting alternative is now available, but you have to move quickly.

Qatar Airways is running a promotion in its Privilege Club, awarding double miles on all British Airways flights to the Middle East and to Asia Pacific until June 30, 2025 – provided you book by December 18. With double miles in a distance-based scheme, there are fair chances that you will be better off in almost all cases than with a revenue-based accrual.

As you can move miles freely between the Privilege Club and the Executive Club, this is really just about being opportunistic to maximise the accrual (what you can even handle differently from one flight to another), while deciding only later under which program it will be more beneficial for you to redeem them.

Accor already had three double dip partnerships with frequent flyer programs in different regions for its ALL program, with Flying Blue from Air France KLM, with the Privilege Club from Qatar Airways, and with the Frequent Flyer from Qantas. The latter is limited to the Asia Pacific region.

Like the other two partners, there is no geographical restriction with the latest partner either. The partnership with Brazilian Azul Airlines and its Tudo Azul program is only open to ALL status members, however.

Since ALL members can only change their double dip partner once a year, the consideration of who the best partner is becomes even more complicated, especially since there isn’t really a clear answer here, but rather depends a lot on your travel habits (more flights or more hotel stays?, average expenses etc.).

Last month, Norwegian introduced a new currency, Spenn, in its Norwegian Reward program. That currency is now also used by its hotel partner Strawberry Hotels.

The earn rates on Norwegian flights is identical to what you used to get with CashPoints, i.e. between 1 and 5% of the ticket costs depending on the fare category. The main difference is though that CashPoints had a fixed redemption value (1 point = 1 NOK), while Spenn points have a dynamic value, which is not transparent to anybody – which means that they will probably be less worth in most cases.

But it becomes worse: Spenn is only available to members in the Nordics and only for flights on Norwegian. On all partners, members continue to earn CashPoints and need to decide on each booking whether they want to use CashPoints or Spenn as partial payment since they can’t combine both currencies.

Initially, it was even communicated that members could rather opt for CashPoints than for Spenn for Norwegian flights, but that seems not to have come to execution.

If you live outside of the Nordic countries, Spenn are, for whatever reason, not an option for you and you automatically earn CashPoints only. What might actually be the better solution anyway in the end.

Of course, members are always free to change their address if they really care so much and want to benefit specifically of one or the other option.

As regularly in the past, Hilton starts the new year again with a no-brainer promotion.

Hilton Honors members earn double points for all stays until April 30. No restrictions, no nasty fine print.

So, there is simply no reason to ignore this promotion, whatever your usual engagement level with the program might be.

Not directly contradicting the above, one should ask at the beginning of the New Year which strategy to apply in the hotel sector.

If you a) plan a certain volume (at least 10 stays) and b) can bundle them into a chain without too much effort, hotel programs still definitely make sense. If these conditions are not met and thus notably an elite status in the hotel programs cannot be achieved, the various booking platforms linked to a Frequent Flyer Program are certainly the better choice.