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Sitting in the Swiss First Lounge at JFK

By Darren MakSat, 08/29/2009 - 18:02

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Google & Tripit ItineraryAlthough my wife Joanne and I left Winnipeg yesterday afternoon for a whirlwind trip that will take us to Europe, Asia and back through Europe over the next 23 days, I really feel like our trip is only just beginning.

We left Winnipeg with a quick stop in Chicago for a beer ( Goose Island Honker's Ale) and an overnight in New York. Today we had breakfast at Whole Foods, did a little clothes shopping, had a quick trip to Central Park, then the 5th Avenue Apple store to pick up Snow Leopard. Currently we are sitting in the Swiss Airlines First Class Lounge at JFK awaiting our flight to Zurich.

And although, the past 24 hours would be an entire trip for many people, I feel ours is about to begin because of our first long-haul flight is about to board. The whole purpose of this trip was for me to attend DrupalCon in Paris, but because of new rules from Aeroplan, for a small amount of additional miles over just a trip to Europe, we were able to book a trip to Asia in First class, with a stop-over in each direction in Europe. Additionally the rules allow you to have connections on-route which are less than 24 hours, so this 23.5 hour stop in New York was possible.

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SPG Offers Free Live Nation Concert Tickets for Stays This Summer

By Darren MakFri, 07/17/2009 - 23:13

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SPG Live Nation PromoStarwood Hotels announced earlier this year that they were teaming up with Live Nation as their official Hotel Partner. It wasn't very clear when the announcement was made what this would mean for SPG members, but there have already been a few opportunities to redeem Starwood points for concert auctions and tickets, but today Starwood announced another promotion specifically aimed at flyertalk members.

Here is the announcement that was made earlier today.

For every eligible stay completed between July 15th - August 31st, you'll earn one online general admission code (up to 4 total) that can be redeemed through October 2009 for 100's of Live Nation shows at amphitheatres around the country like Verizon Wireless in California, PNC Banks Arts Center in New Jersey, and Charter One Pavilion in Illinois.

Codes will be emailed to registered SPG members within 5 days of each eligible stay, as long as you have an email address on file with SPG, and you opt into receiving emails about promotions in your SPG Account settings.

If you are not yet an SPG Member, go ahead and register, then sign up for this promotion.

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SPG Updates Account Summary Page with Lifetime Stay and Night Counter

By Darren MakFri, 07/17/2009 - 20:22

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SPG Status Stay TrackerToday, Starwood has updated their SPG website to include the number of stays and nights you have accumulated since joining the SPG Program on your Account Summary Page. Trivial information to keep track of is now available to you, however on my page anyway, there is a glitch showing the wrong number of stays to maintain status for this year, while the nights needed is correct.

To earn or maintain Platinum Status in the Preferred Guest program you need 25 stays or 50 nights in a calendar year. In my case, I have 18 stays year to date spanning 20 nights. Up until this new information was made available on my account page, those numbers were referenced properly, but now it is saying I need another 30 stays or 30 nights to maintain status. Rather than 25, it says that 48 stays are required.

Hopefully this is just a small programming glitch that will be rectified shortly.

Listing this lifetime stay and night information is also fueling speculation on flyertalk that perhaps they are going to implement a lifetime status program. Even if they do, I am sure I am many nights and stays away from achieving this, especially when they keep raising the bar on me ;-)

UPDATE

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Priority Club Updates PointBreaks Offers Through October 2009

By Darren MakTue, 07/14/2009 - 10:16

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Priority Club Point BreaksI have been anxiously checking the Priority Club PointBreaks page every day in hopes that new offers would be posted before my next few trips, where I am wanting to travel as cheaply as possible. Today the offers were updated!

Priority Club is the loyalty program for InterContinental Hotels Group which most people know more by some of the hotel brands in their portfolio, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Indigo, Crowne Plaza, InterContinental Hotels (IC) and others.

PointBreaks are the opportunity to redeem loyalty points to book a room for only 5000 points a night, regardless of brand or location. For the less expensive hotels like Holiday Inn Express, this is a point reduction from 10,000 points per night or 50% off all the way up to a discount of 35,000 points or a 87.5% discount for the most costly InterContinental Hotels, with the other brands landing somewhere in the middle. No matter where you book it is a fantastic deal, as Priority Club Points are pretty quick to earn when they have points promotions running (which is nearly always).

Last time around, I booked a Holiday Inn in Zurich Switzerland, and this time a Holiday Inn Express in Houston Texas. I may be booking a few more in the next few hours! Hurry and make your bookings, because most hotels have a limited number of rooms available at the PointBreaks rates.

Some Notable Hotels Available

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