Opinions on using Frequent Flier Points, Upgrades, etc.

[kyshel]

Bonnie--you'll have a few more recommendation for affinity cards. I just got the Starwood Amex and it began with enough points for 3 nights at their hotels (places like connection airports, ie: Panama City or Miami, etc. The points are can be converted to miles in more than one program. I had the Hilton Honors and the levels were so high for free rooms, they had to be converted to miles (low reard ratio). I can only spend so much money!! My husband uses his credit union and a reward$ back type card that goes into our travel fund. I do keep miles for Delta; when we want a confirmed seat, they come in handy for partner flights.

[omegaet]

kyshel.....did you notice the recent changes with the Starwood hotel program? Seems like whether it ismiles or points, the programs keep making it more and more difficult to qualify....guess that's the name of the game!




Starwood Category Shuffle
Starwood Preferred Guest recently published its annual changes to hotel award night categories that went into effect on March 4, 2008.** Most hotels that are changing categories will be moving up one level but of the 233 changes that were made, 14 hotels will be moving down a category or two and will require fewer points for stays. The Sheraton Orlando and Four Points by Sheraton Orlando Studio City are now category two hotels instead of category three and The Sheraton South Padre Island Beach Hotel & Condominiums and Four Points by Sheraton Historic Savannah now require 3,000 fewer points as category three hotels (from category four).

Stays at the Le Meridien at Beverly Hills doubled in points when the hotel jumped to a category six (20,000 to 25,000 points) from a 10,000-point category four hotel. And if you have plans to stay during peak season at the Hotel Prince de Galles - Paris Champs Elysees, be prepared to spend an additional 10,000 points now that it's a category seven hotel during peak travel periods. Le Meridien Bora Bora and St. Regis Grand Hotel, Rome have also moved into category seven during peak season and will require additional points.

[kyshel]

Omegaet--you betcha I saw it!! ARGHHHH
I was going to use Starpoints 2 different trips for 3 nights BUT the redemption increases have cut back options down to nights MAX. And, of course, just in time for me to use them in May. That stinks. Just my humble opinion...

[ShirleyT]

The devaluation of Starwood points has been discussed at length in the Starwood Hotels form on Flyertalk. My husband andI both charge almost everything on our two Amex Starwood cards, but we rarely use the points for stays at their properties. Their program allows you to convert Starpoints to AA miles at a ratio of 1: 1.25 --- 20K Starpoints gives you 25K AA miles. Then, we use the AA miles to either upgrade coach seats, or redeem them outright for Business Class seats to Europe. If you divide the cost of a ticket (whatever you plan to do), by the number of miles required you'll just about always find that the highest value/mile is on international Business or First tickets. Even buying the extra points/miles(if you need to) to supplement what you have is a more cost-effective way of staying out of coach on long flights.



And yes, it's getting harder and harder to redem the miles. The "330" rule does not always work; often airlines release the seats throughout the year. Even if you can find a routing that works well one way of your trip (and the other is less than ideal), you might want to book it and then keep checking to see if award seats become available for the other way. The $100/ticket change fee (on AA, anyway) is still a relatively minor cost to obtain a non-stop from or to where you're going (relative to the $3-4-5 K cost for these tickets).

[nomadbea]

Hi all!

My strategy for my frequent flier points has always been to use it off season. Because of it, I have a variety of options on how i want to use it, like maybe buy a regular seat and upgrade to a better one, or use it for a free airfare. When I try to use it during the peak season, the airlines usually go, didnt you read the fine print..blahblah..I find that when i use it off season, it saves me much hassle and annoyance

[goddessrita]

We charge everything on American Express (recently built a house using the card) and have tons of miles and they are the best at converting to almost any Airline. We just got the best points (miles) with Virgin first class flying to Rome through London. Any other airline was 2 1/2 times what Virgin was. We also have gotten a Starwood Card and secured a room with 20,000 pts for the Westin in Rome ($800+ a night). We also use Hilton and got a room in London converting Am Exp. points.

The secret is vigilance. Sometimes you have to call back until you get a creative person on the other end of the phone. It is a lot of work sometimes to put a trip together.

[shygirl724]

Caution on airline fees......



I, too, have found that talking with a live person when booking ff miles often gets you better routes / flights etc....



While booking a large trip for 2 with ff miles via Delta this AM, I was quoted a price for the "taxes and fees" more that $230 higher than the same flights were showing on the Internet. Needless to say, it took me 90 minutes to get the lower price (and save 40,000 miles on top of it). The reservationist's computer showed one amount and the online site showed another. I finally got the rep. to log in to their own site, select the flights as if a customer, and see what I was looking at. I happily then was given the lower rate.



I have to admit that in the past I have just paid all fees without question. This experience will cause me to find the fees online and confirm with the reservation center before finalizing. This may have been an anomoly today, but having not checked in the past, I have no way of knowing. So - check those fees! Anyone else have this experience?

[betsyv]

I have a ton of frequent flyer/guest miles. Almost every airline (including Cathay Pacific) and definitely almost every hotel. In a nutshell, I have found the following:



-Cathay Pacific the best and easiest airline to use miles to book trips but whew! what a service charge.



-better to call and talk to a rep then try to do online in most cases. I have found that a lot of times the online just says no (Hyatt, Delta, etc) but when I called and got a good, knowledgeable, HELPFUL rep they helped me not only get what I wanted but at a lower mile level.



-Starwood the easiest for booking hotel rewards



-Love my AmEx points as they can be transferred to hotels, airlines etc. Just wish all the airlines and hotels allowed the transfer.



Basically, I think that all programs have made it harder to use your points/miles. It is the nature of the beast-they don't want to give anything away. The sad thing is when I think of the number of nights stayed or the miles flown and the thousands of dollars spent while earning them, it should be easier.