Perfect For Occasional Travelers! Milepoint Is Back With Another Awesome Premium Membership Offer
Milepoint is back with it’s second Premium Membership offering, and I think it’s a great fit for entry level travelers, those who travel a few times a year for business or pleasure.
Everyone knows air travel isn’t as luxurious as it used to be. Planes are full, seats are closer together. It’s not any easier when you land, with hotels charging more for extra services and rental car prices going up as well. When my co-founders Tommy and Randy showed me the list of partners for this year’s premium membership, my first thought was, “Wow! They really did an awesome job putting together a package for the regular traveler.” And, they did. Sure, there’s plenty here for veterans as well, but this is a great package for someone who only travels here and there.
Here’s a peak at the benefits you get with premium membership for $49 (registration link here):
United Airlines: 1,000 award miles. If you have a MileagePlus account, these will definitely come in handy for your next award.
Hilton HHonors: Complimentary Gold Elite Status. This is a big one for someone who doesn’t travel much. Gold members get free internet and bottled water, a 25% earning bonus on paid stays and the 5th night free on any award stays of 5 nights or more. You also get bonus points every time you check-in and late check-out subject to availability. This one benefit can likely pay for premium membership with one or two stays.
National Car Rental: Upgrade to Executive Status. That means you’ll always get at least a true one-car upgrade when you rent (you always pay for one car class less than the car you reserve). And you earn faster free rental days as an Executive member.
Hyatt Hotels: Probably my favorite benefit on the list. A 10% discount on Hyatt gift card purchases (limit $5,000 per member). That’s an immediate 10% discount on any rate, any F&B, any spa appointments at a Hyatt hotel in the US, Canada and Caribbean. Again, another easy way to pay for the premium membership many times over.
AwardNexus: Buy one, get one free award trip planning service.
AwardWallet: One of my favorite tools, an upgrade to AwardWallet Plus.
ExpertFlyer: 20% discount on annual service.
Frequent Flyer Master: A 25% discount on the Frequent Flyer Master guide from Chris Guillebeau.
Inside Flyer: Free online subscription or 50% off the print edition. I’ve been a subscriber for as long as I can remember, a great tool.
KVS Tool: 10% discount on this travel tool, geared more towards experts.
Lojack For Laptops: 25% discount.
Luggage Forward: 15% discount
The Parking Spot: One day of free parking every time you park a car at one of their facilities.
Points Hound: Bump up to level 2, earns a bunch more hotel points.
SCOTTEVEST: 20% discount on clothing geared towards travelers
UsingMiles: Free upgrade to Premier membership
WorldMate: Free Gold membership for organizing all your travel.
Look, I’m biased as a co-founder of Milepoint. No doubt. But, if you can’t find a way to get $50 in value out of this package then you’re probably not doing much travel. It gives you a bit of everything, so while some benefits may not be a huge value, others should be, whether it’s hotel status, car rental status or a discount on parking. All good things.
On the subject of good things, I’m also happy to note that at least 10 cents of every dollar collected will go to support Milepoint charities. We’ve dedicated a portion to Susan G. Komen For The Cure in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and will be supporting a variety of other charities such as Kiva, LIVESTRONG and United We Cares.
Last year’s premium membership sold out before everyone could get in on it. And, this year’s offer is likely to do the same. So, give it some thought. But, not too much!
With National – if you are already executive status will this perk run concurrently or will this perk be applied after your current executive status expires?????
Nick, you have up to a year to claim that specific benefit. So, you can wait until your current status expires as long as it’s less than a year from when you buy PM.
Hello, some of the benefits appear to overlap…like users wouldn’t use both AwardWallet and UsingMiles, right? Also, could you tell us briefly how some of these services are used…I think ExpertFlyer and KVS are almost the same, and what is AwardNexus?
David, I agree that it’s unlikely most people would use both AwardWallet and UsingMiles. But, there is a solid cross-section of people that like one or the other. So, offering benefits for both means that this package should appeal to more folks.
ExpertFlyer and KVS have some similarities. However, I think of KVS more as a tool for the internet before there were search engines. ExpertFlyer has good tutorials and a good help community to get newbies started, whereas KVS can be a bit more daunting. I use EF for a great number of things, including setting up alerts for different awards I’m hunting for, better seats on a flight, and also to search paid inventory to build mileage runs. Happy to go into more detail on any of these items.
AwardNexus is an award booking service. Essentially, you tell them where you want to go and what miles you have and they find your itinerary. If they find what you’re looking for, you pay them to book it. I prefer bookyouraward.com, setting any discount from Premium Membership aside.
What about Hyatt – do you get Plat membership or just the discount that is mentioned?
Nick, the Hyatt benefit this year is the gift card one. Hilton is the partner offering status (Gold) in this package. You get a discount at one chain and status at another!