2018 was a year of ups and downs. Most of the ups were improvements in the Hyatt program. The downs were mostly owned by Marriott. Here’s a brief look at my year in hotels and what I think the future holds.
Marriott will combine status history with Starwood Preferred Guest to determine lifetime status for members as a one-time offer this year.
The Best of the Rest is my effort to summarize all the travel/miles and points stories that interested me on a daily basis but didn’t have time to write about in length. Culled from over 100 blogs/authors I follow, some are passed along without comment, while I add my analysis to others. This is your shortcut to find out what’s going on in the travel world without having to read dozens of travel blogs to get all the best info.
What hotel status did you decide to shoot for in 2017? Did you achieve your goal? Was it worth it?
I knew that my January was going to be brutal on the road. It performed as advertised and I’m exhausted. There’s still 10 days left and I still have another business trip. Sandwiched in between I’ll need to find time to build two Pinewood…
Given my recent travel craziness, I found myself with a rare week at home. I still ended up at an airport to try and work on an airline ticket that I couldn’t change over the phone and we did the kids skiing, but the…
It’s been a few years now since Starwood introduces Suite Night Awards (to much fanfare, I might add). I was pumped when they announced it, but have been disappointed ever since.
SPG has gone back to the drawing board a couple times trying to tweak this benefit. They’re introducing new benefits again, and I think we’ll like these ones a lot more than previous choices. You might even choose one of the alternatives to Suite Night Awards!
This is always one of my favorite posts of the year. It’s not because I’m telling you about where I traveled. It’s because I get to remember all the fantastic places we were able to visit.
Most trips I take have remarkable elements, especially those that I take with my family. My wife has a much better memory than I do, though. So, this exercise at the end of the year is my reminder of those memories we made.
Today’s Best of the Rest includes cheap flights to Athens, getting a head start on status in the new year, a nifty way to generate $1,000 in spending and more.
Even though Marriott threw a major curve ball as it relates the face of hotel loyalty in late 2015, there’s still plenty of reasons to focus your hotel strategy. I focused mine in 2015 on Hyatt and SPG. Here’s my plan for 2016.