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3000 Emirates Miles for One Hilton Stay in the Middle East & Africa
Since the refurbishment of its loyalty program a couple of years ago, it’s no longer possible to earn Hilton points and airline miles at the same time when staying at their hotels. However, they still run occasional promotions where you can earn bonus miles on top of the usual Hilton points.
There is now one such promotion, and you can register here.
- Register and book by 18th May
- Stay once by 31st August at participating hotels
- Earn 3000 Emirates Skywards miles
- Limit to first 1,000 registrants only
You need to select Emirates as your preferred travel partner in your Hilton profile.
All participating hotels are in the Middle East and Africa, so not many can take advantage of it. And unlike the previous Miles & More offer, you can only earn the bonus miles once.
Given the limited number of slots available, I’d recommend to sign up now if you believe there’s any chance you visit the regions this summer. Remember that you will still earn full Hilton points and night credits for the stay, so there’s nothing to lose.
50% Bonus When Buying Ascott Points, Plus Free Upgrade to Silver
Ascott’s points sale is back, this time with an enhanced bonus.
You can access the offer page here. This is to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Ascott Star Rewards, the loyalty program of the hotel chain. Note that the bonus awarded is tiered, and you need to purchase the maximum amount – 1000 SGD for 400K points – to get the 50% bonus.
In other words, you benefit from a 33.3% discount for the point purchase. Ascott’s redemption system is similar to that of Accor’s, where points have a fixed value and can be directly redeemed against most rates found on their website. This means, purchasing points now and use them on your future stays will save you 33.3% whatever the listed rate is.
However, there was an even better offer last year where points were sold for half price. Surely we have no idea whether or when it’s going to return, yet I wouldn’t encourage you to hoard the points now unless you have immediate use.
There are a few other promotions in addition. For example, Classic members can earn Silver status after completing only one stay – although there’s actually a route for instant Platinum.
Donate $5 and Earn 2000 Hilton Points & 250 Delta Miles
If you’ve ever been to the US, you must have heard of the name Lyft. Lyft is a major competitor to Uber in North America, and it has partnered with several frequent traveller programs which allows you to earn points or miles when you ride.
They have just launched a Lyft Up initiative to help those who can’t afford to travel to vaccination centres in the US. Any Lyft members can make a donation, and even better it comes with returns:
- 2000 Hilton points, and
- 250 Delta Skymiles (limit to first 15,000 members only)
The minimum donation amount is $5, and the offer runs until May 31. Even if you don’t travel with Delta, 2000 Hilton points are worth around $10 already.
To participate, you’ll need to link Lyft to your Hilton and Delta accounts first. A mobile phone number is needed to create or login to your Lyft account, and my UK number works fine.
Remember to add a credit card to the wallet before proceeding to the donation page.
It’s unclear how much time it takes for the points to post. But anyway, it may be worth spending a few minutes and $5 to bag the some points and miles.
IHG Fast Track – 5 Nights to Platinum
IHG has followed suit in the status match game, although it works a bit differently compared to Hilton and Marriott.
You need to sign up on this page.
- Register by August 31
- You have 90 days to complete the challenge
- Stay 2 nights to earn Gold status and 5 nights to earn Platinum
- The status is valid through 2021 and 2022
The challenge is open to everyone – you don’t need any qualification, nor any elite status from another hotel program. Only paid stays count though.
Don’t be too excited – IHG Platinum can be easily earned through various other routes already. You can pay $200 or 40,000 points to purchase an Ambassador membership, which comes with Platinum status. Spire Elite members can also gift Platinum status to someone.
And it doesn’t entitle you to any guaranteed benefits, although you could usually expect one-level room upgrade and 2pm late check-out for your stays.
If you intend to participate, remember to register to the IHG global promotion which earns you 2,000 bonus points for every two nights stayed by the end of March.
iPrefer Hotels Elite Status after One stay
Preferred Hotels is a less-known hotel alliance and we’ve written about their fast track offer last year. There is a new incentive for Mastercard holders.
You can access the offer here.
- Eligible payment cards include Mastercard World, World Elite and Black
- Valid for bookings through 2021
- Stay by March 31, 2022
- Use code MKTMPE when you book, and enjoy
- 25% off for a 4-night stay
- iPrefer Elite status after the stay
There are three participating hotels in the UK:
- THE PELHAM LONDON – STARHOTELS COLLEZIONE
- EDGBASTON PARK HOTEL & CONFERENCE CENTRE
- THE FITZWILLIAM HOTEL BELFAST
Upon enrolment all iPrefer members can benefit from early check-in, late check-out and room upgrade subject to availability. Elite members earn more points and also receive welcome amenity for their stays in addition.
Flash Sale – 20% off Ascott Hotel Points
If you have any longer-stay planned in the near future, you may want to consider buying some points in Ascott’s newest sale.
The offer page is here. Until March 4th, you can get a 25% bonus when buying any amount of Ascott points, which is equivalent to 20% discount.
Ascott has a similar redemption system to Accor – points have a fixed value when redeeming for hotel stays, which is the same as to when you buy them. So buying points now essentially means a 20% discount on your future Ascott hotel stays, which is on top of any promotional rate hotels already offer on Ascott’s booking portal.
Remember that there was a 50%-off sale last year, and we don’t know whether or when it’s going to return. Ascott owns many serviced apartments around the world, with a few in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
You can also sign up to Ascott Rewards via a special link, which grants you instant Platinum status with them.
1000 Free Miles (250 Accor Points) From Aegean Airlines
November last year, Aegean Airlines had a nice sign-up promotion where you could earn 5,000 miles for simply registering, and quite a lot of people took part.
If you are one of them – or if you a Miles+Bonus member anyway – you may be in for another nice surprise of 1,000 miles. A friend of mine received the following email from Aegean earlier:
A gift is waiting for you in the new digital environment of your account!
Something changed in Miles+Bonus!
Log in now to your Miles+Bonus account via aegeanair.com or AEGEAN app, browse the new digital interface and discover a special gift we have for you!
Seeing “a special gift”, I decided to try my luck as well although I received no communication whatsoever. And surprisingly, I saw this pretty banner when I logged into my Miles+Bonus account:
It appears that some people have received a variant of the offer, including 2,000 miles or 20% off a future booking to name a few.
Even if you don’t fly Aegean or Star Alliance, remember that 2,000 miles can be converted to 500 Accor points, which is worth €10 for hotel stays.
Earn Double Elite Night Credit on Marriott Reward Stays!
Marriott currently has a Q1 global promotion where you earn double elite night credits and points on paid stays. If you haven’t registered yet, sign up here.
Like all previous Marriott promotions, only paid stays are eligible for the bonus. There’s a trick to work around it this time though, if you read Marriott’s FAQ page:
Does a Cash and Points Stay qualify for this promotion?
A Cash and Point reservation for multiple nights comprising of both a paid rate and points.
Example:
Providing all Promotion terms were met and your Stay was for 6 Nights (5 Booked on Points and 1 Paid Night for a total of 6 Nights). You will earn a Bonus of 6 Elite Night Credits (5 for the Redemption Nights and 1 for the Paid Night) 6 for Base + 6 Bonus =12 Net Total. You will earn Double Points on the Paid Night
As it reads, your stay qualifies for double elite night credits as long as one of the nights is paid, and the rest can be on points. This is great news for reward stays.
To book such a cash and points stay, simply tick Use Points / Certificates when you book on marriott.com:
On the booking page, click Customise Payments and pick a day (with the cheapest rate) before proceeding:
All done! The cash rate appears to be equal to the lowest flexible rate available, which isn’t too bad. And of course it combines nicely with the “Buy 4 Get 1 Free” benefit for reward stays.