any thoughts on the Starwood-Marriott merger?

my understanding is that you can link your accounts and transfer between programs at a 3MR-1SPG ratio.

also, if you link your accounts, you get the benefit of the higher tier. For example, I have gold at SPG because I have their Amex but I rarely stay there. I'm only silver at Marriott but if I link my accounts, then my Marriott rewards account becomes Gold.

(09-26-2016 12:03 PM)GreyFFM Wrote:  any thoughts on the Starwood-Marriott merger?

my understanding is that you can link your accounts and transfer between programs at a 3MR-1SPG ratio.

also, if you link your accounts, you get the benefit of the higher tier. For example, I have gold at SPG because I have their Amex but I rarely stay there. I'm only silver at Marriott but if I link my accounts, then my Marriott rewards account becomes Gold.

For the average gold level traveler, I think the merger is probably a net positive, as Marriott has a lot of hotels and the expansion will be a net benefit, as Starwood had a much smaller footprint.

I'm SPG Ambassador, as I travel 11 months out of the year. SPG rewards frequent travelers in a way that Marriott simply doesn't. I pretty much only stay in St. Regis, Luxury Collection and W Hotels, so Marriott has fairly little to offer me.

The only hotels that come even close are the Ritz-Carltons. Only a few Ritzs would be at the minimum standards of the St. Regis or Luxury Collection. The benefits for the equivalent of Platinum at Ritz are nowhere near what you'd get from SPG. (No free breakfast, no free laundry, no guaranteed upgrades etc.)

For those of us that are old enough to remember what Ritz-Carlton was like before Marriott bought them, the SPG acquisition is not encouraging. They gradually underinvested, and degraded the brand that was previously without peer and made it a hotel chain where most members aren't hotels I'd think are good enough to stay at.

The secret about luxury brands in service industries is that they operate at a lower margin, but have lower volatility of their revenue because of a loyal clientele. SPG was a relatively small network, so they had to offer better benefits and if you wanted to stay loyal, frequent travelers often had to pay more than they wanted to, or stay at shitty Sheratons when in certain cities.

Marriott is large enough not to care about volatility of revenue, so they will eventually try to increase the margins, which will fuck up the brand and eventually drive SPG's loyal customers away. Also, they overpaid for Starwood, so they will probably feel pressure to increase their margins to cover the additional interest costs associated with the merger.

They have indicated that their plan is to maintain the SPG program until 2018, but my guess is that they will start to meddle with it sooner than that.

There are a number of cards that grant instant SPG gold which you can now match to Marriott Gold, the equivalent of 50 nights spent. This equals free breakfast and lounge access to the vast majority of Marriott properties.

I'm averaging around 600k miles annually. For flights longer than 6 hours, I will generally fly business class, but otherwise I fly coach. I've got no status with any airlines because I never have enough miles with any particular one.

As a general rule, I find that for long haul difference between various airlines is frequently significant. For example, Looking at Ams to Bkk recently, prices range from $1050 to $2600. It seems like being loyal to one airline or network will mean paying a lot more sometimes. Is it really worth it?

Lance, I think its all part of an algorithm and the indicators are based on objective facts and also on your preferences. Can it make a difference? Yes. Does it always? No, not at all, which is why we want to have options. I have top status with OneWorld. Its definitely not as worthwhile as it once was, but its not valueless. I do enjoy the HKG and KUL first class lounges, even the lounge in LHR. If I was USA based, I would value it less as other than the F lounge in LAX T6, the AA lounges suck in general.

At the same time, I just flew United to Saigon because of the price (only 2hrs from HKG) and used my priority pass club lounge, and I also recently bought a shit load of life miles at 1.375c/point because the answer is, it depends. Depends on, when, where, how much.

Its surprising to me that with 600K actual butt in seat miles per year (thats an unbelievable amount, OMAAT dude does 400K - typo) that you don't have status with any program, or more than one. I like to credit miles to programs where they're worth most, but elite RDM bonuses should count in that equation, and there are still plenty of programs that give full credit + for a mile flown.

W/r/t the Marriot thing, its just the way things are. SPG hotels (not a sheraton brand fan) in general are preferable to me to Marriotts, but Ritz still has some nice properties. Being a platinum at SPG has its benefits, tho, on average, free nights at SPG take longer to earn than at a Marriot or IHG, neither of which provides the same level of other benefits as SPG.

I do think that Marriott went out of its way to make SPG's feel good about the merger and overcompensated, but whether that is neutral or to the detriment of Marriott elites, I don't know. We know many Marriott elites feel that got shorted. I have been pushing hard to keep my Hyatt Diamond status for next year as I expect the SPG elite benefits to be diminished, if not based on rules, then on availability (there are a lot of Marriott earners who would like some time at a St Regis, for sure).

(09-30-2016 04:39 PM)Vicious Wrote:  There are a number of cards that grant instant SPG gold which you can now match to Marriott Gold, the equivalent of 50 nights spent. This equals free breakfast and lounge access to the vast majority of Marriott properties.

Yep.

I travel for leisure, not for business. I have SPG gold via a credit card. I just linked my Marriott and now I'm Marriott gold. That is a very nice perq because it means free breakfast and lounge access, and occassional room upgrades.

that is a nice perq for free!

(10-03-2016 01:52 AM)Global Entry Wrote:  Its surprising to me that with 600K actual butt in seat miles per year (thats an unbelievable amount, OMAAT dude does 400K - typo) that you don't have status with any program, or more than one. I like to credit miles to programs where they're worth most, but elite RDM bonuses should count in that equation, and there are still plenty of programs that give full credit + for a mile flown.

I should clarify, as it's only this year that I've been living location independent. Prior to 2016, I had only 200k or so miles for the previous 4 years.

I fly a lot of discount carriers (Ryanair, AirAsia, Eurowings, etc except when I'm on long haul) and that is part of it. But, but still amazes me that with 501k miles in the first 9 months of this year, 57 cities and 23 countries, I only have, at most, 20-30k with any given airline's loyalty program. I have built an incredible number of Citi, Amex, SPG (175 nights this year) and Hilton points (although who gives a fuck about those - haha).

The lounge access that comes with loyalty would potentially be nice. I find that most of the priority pass lounges suck and usually don't offer much more than the terminal. The business class lounges for most airlines are better (Emirates in Dubai is incredible - can't imagine what the first class one is like.)

I'm now trying to figure out whether I should just continue traveling constantly, or just pick 4-5 different countries, as I pretty much fucking hate airports at this point... As long as I stay outside of the US for 11 months next year...

If I do keep traveling, from what I understand, the airlines never upgrade elite status people. I have a bunch of buddies that are Global Services with United and they tell me that they never get bumped up.

76 avios per dollar with a new match.com subscription

A match made in heaven for RVF travelers

https://www.shopping.ba.com/entertainmen...tch-com-us

Lance, I reread what you wrote previously. Are you cross-crediting between programs in the same alliance? Meaning, when you fly Star alliance, are you aggregating flights to a single Star Alliance member like Aegean or Singapore to attain status. Or are you crediting all flights that give EQM to the airline on which your flying. That could explain why you're not even a low level elite with any program after an astounding amount of travel during a single year.

GetDown - be careful with match they're notorious about continuing to charge people after they quit - and making it very difficult to quit. Not sure if they're playing the phantom reply game like Ashley Madison does. In any event, that's a free subscription to anyone who has the capability to use Avios, as Avios are clearly worth, on short flights, more than 1.33 c/Avios. At the value at which I often use them (not to mention OW emerald status with occasional free upgrade sand lounge access, probably would get effectively 2x the money back. And that's before any card earnings. Thanks for the post.


A few quick items.

New Marriott Platinums (via SPG and otherwise)- make sure to sign up for United Silver status for priority check-in, free bag, and Economy comfort seats. It ain't global style, but its something. Keep in mind tho, United changed their site, so if you fly cheap revenue flights and use your UA number to book your flight, etc., it is almost impossible to change your number to another Star Alliance carrier afterwards to earn more than the UA shitty revenue based earnings. They changed the functionality on the website to grey out ability to make these changes, and reports are that there is strong resistance by agents at check in to change the numbers. I can confirm that checking in in HKG, the gate agent told me he wasn't able to change my number from UA to SQ - and I wasn't even claiming any benefits - I only had a carry-on. Finally I told him to delete it, and magically, he figured out how to change it. Flyer talk has a thread or two discussing reports of this happening around the USA.

Still, apply for the status, because why not.

Malaysian is back with super cheap flights (not quite the QR fares ex colombo, but cheap). Lots of cheap stuff around Asia in J, and from Asia to Europe in J. Good for topping off your earnings and making that last stretch for elite status for 2017. I'm planning a jaunt to Jakarta soon, even though its so played out now.

AMEX has made some fairly significant (finally) changes to their Platinum cards, with better bonuses for on the personal card for booking directly with airlines (5x points) and other increases in redemption value for Business Platinum (and bonuses for large expenditures). I don't know its its enough to put AMEX back in the conversation for the best available cards, but its definitely an improvement. I unfortunately cancelled my personal Platinum (still have the biz one) so I won't be able to avail myself of 5x points for direct airline bookings. There are perhaps some situations where I might consider using 2x MR points to redeem for low cost economy or biz flights, but we'll have to run the math on that - the good thing about those redemptions is that typically they are earning decent or better EQMs as they are bulk purchase tickets. However there may be other issues with them - will need to see how those shake out before doing that - in general I do earn better than 2c/point on transfers, but I'm not getting a rebate by earning more points when using them. Its about the math. (I know this might be confusing - feel free to ask questions).

There are a lot of business class fares from all over China to the US for $1500 and under. All 3 alliances are covered.

(10-15-2016 01:38 AM)Global Entry Wrote:  I'm planning a jaunt to Jakarta soon, even though its so played out now.

Y'all homies played it out and ruined it for the rest of us It's too played out brah!

For the first half of 2017 to Asia

I ended up booking Malaysia airline flights from KUL-LHR (A380), HK to BKK (a380) and Thailand to Tokyo (with the KUL-NRT leg on the newly configured a330) for next year. All under 350 for a one way trip.

Now just waiting to find something good to east Africa for the summer.

As for getting over there I'm flying emirates from Chicago to HKG in business on a friendly standby discount.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some even better deals (especially Black Friday/cyber Monday) later this year. Holding off on using miles was a good decision

While in Asia, I look forward to buying GLOBAL and CID dinner for all the help.

(10-15-2016 05:37 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  For the first half of 2017 to Asia

I ended up booking Malaysia airline flights from KUL-LHR (A380), HK to BKK (a380) and Thailand to Tokyo (with the KUL-NRT leg on the newly configured a330) for next year. All under 350 for a one way trip.

Now just waiting to find something good to east Africa for the summer.

@Mentavious - the whole trip was 350? If you found that, I will buy YOU dinner.

This is the best end-on-end combination I found:

https://goo.gl/flights/hDRK
A one-way Phuket-London is going for $685, but adding a KUL-HKT brings the price down to $541.

Sorry I meant to say was the two inter-Asia flights were each under 350 for a one way.

The kul to lhr was at 650 for a one way.

I also found out the kul/sin to Jakarta/bali are about 200-250 for a one way on klm business class. At least when I booked them.

(10-15-2016 01:47 PM)elcidcampeador Wrote:  There are a lot of business class fares from all over China to the US for $1500 and under. All 3 alliances are covered.

Ive seen you say this before. I think regarding Wuhan.

I cant find these Business class tickets you are talking about. Could you post a couple and show us what you are talking about?

Ive looked at ORD to CAN/HKG/Shenzhen and not finding 1500 business class. Hell, ORD to HKG Cathay Pacific is 1300 for economy.

Is this all West Coast/LA/SF to Shanghai?

(10-16-2016 12:59 AM)ball dont lie Wrote:  

(10-15-2016 01:47 PM)elcidcampeador Wrote:  There are a lot of business class fares from all over China to the US for $1500 and under. All 3 alliances are covered.

Ive seen you say this before. I think regarding Wuhan.

I cant find these Business class tickets you are talking about. Could you post a couple and show us what you are talking about?

Ive looked at ORD to CAN/HKG/Shenzhen and not finding 1500 business class. Hell, ORD to HKG Cathay Pacific is 1300 for economy.

Is this all West Coast/LA/SF to Shanghai?

The best bet FROM ORD now will be Hainan to most Chinese cities for around $2000. These flights can easily be found on google.com/flights.

There's also the Seattle-Shenzhen flight on Xiamen Air for $1580. Link here: https://goo.gl/flights/DgKA

You'd need to buy another ticket to match up with this flight from Chicago, but shouldn't run you much more than $100.

The real deals are FROM China to the US and back to China. It will make a lot of sense to position yourself to buy the tickets EX-China and not EX-Chicago. Chicago is the cheapest city by far to fly into from Asia at the moment for some reason. Korea also has $1500 tickets to ORD available.

Hope this helps.

Guys wanting to fly from the US to BKK should look into flying from Toronto. I booked a fare for 2700 in business class:
Toronto to LHR on their 787
Lhr to HEL a321
HEL to BKK on their a350.

Availability is for the winter and spring. Possibility of more dates and other locations.

Delta has a new promotion for its credit card - 70,000 miles instead of 35,000. You have 3 months to spend $3,000. The annual fee is $195, but they'll credit you $100 the first year. Even at just a penny a mile, that is a $700 value for $95. You also get one free checked bag as a cardholder, which otherwise costs you $25 a bag. There is also an annual companion certificate but it requires higher coded fares and i've never found the companion cert to have any value.

The intro spend is on the high side, but if you are short you can buy an Amazon gift card and eventually find stuff to spend it on.

For those of you trying to get below 5/24 (five cards in previous 24 months) so that you can get the various Chase cards, while it is true that Chase's own affinity cards and Ink card are both subject to the limitation, you can still churn on business cards from many other issuers.

Keep in mind, authorized users also count as accounts on 5/24. Fucked up but true.

According to the pretty reliable Doctor of Credit website, the following banks do not report business accounts to the personal credit bureaus (meaning they don't impact 5/24):

American Express (except for Canadian Amex)
Bank of America
Chase
Citi
US Bank
Wells Fargo

and the following banks do report business cards on personal credit reports (and hence will count against the 5/24 limit):

Barclaycard
Capital One
Discover

There are some pretty decent sign-ups (you can PM me for a link if you're feeling inclined/generous), including some of the AMEX and Citi business cards.

Also, I thought this was a pretty good rundown of figuring out where you stand on 5/24.

http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/20...24-status/

Amex is targeting some Platinum card holders with a 50% transfer bonus of Membership Reward pts to SPG pts.

Seems like an incredible deal. I'm not targeted so I called in, but the representative said they couldn't find such an offer.

Amex to SPG

MR for SPG even with 50% bonus is just ok to me. 25k MR points gets you 12.5k SPG points. It depends on how one values SPG. I'd only do it if I had a specific need for SPG points right now.

Save your AMEX MR for ANA, great value for RT business class to Asia (under 100k), much cheaper then the US airlines. There is fuel surcharges though.

(10-25-2016 07:07 AM)Clint Barton Wrote:  MR for SPG even with 50% bonus is just ok to me. 25k MR points gets you 12.5k SPG points. It depends on how one values SPG. I'd only do it if I had a specific need for SPG points right now.

You're right, I misunderstood it. I was thinking 25k MR would get you 37.5k SPG

Has anyone gotten the Chase reserve card. 100,000 miles free

(10-26-2016 05:42 AM)Sourcecode Wrote:  Has anyone gotten the Chase reserve card. 100,000 miles free

Yes I have it. There is a 4K spend minimum to get the 100k points though.

You also get a $300 travel credit every calendar year when you spend $300 on travel. I got the credit right away when I hit that mark. I plan on doing it in January as well so I can get another credit. There is a 450 annual fee but this year the bonuses will more than pay for that.