IHG Hotels earlier this month launched its “Sandbox” deals for stays in Phuket that opened for vaccinated international visitors on July 1 and has now added the other island of Koh Samui opened for tourists in mid-July.
IHG Rewards members that book a stay a minimum of five nights can get bonus points, a discount, breakfast, F&B discounts, room upgrades, and early check-in/late check-out. The offer is valid for stays through December 23, 2021, but must be booked by August 31.
Tourists visiting the Phuket Sandbox might be in for an unpleasant surprise as Phuket just imposed tougher restrictions after the island is seeing an uptick in Covid-19 cases.
Although not as steep as the mainland, case counts in Phuket are now on the rise and that prompted government officials and private businesses to close operations in many areas.
Most of Europe has already opened for fully vaccinated visitors from the United States, and Canada is opening its border for US arrivals on August 9.
European Union and other countries from where entry to the US is banned at the moment hoped that the White House would change the rule that has been in place from 2020 banning arrivals from EU/EEA, UK, Brazil, and a handful of other nations.
Lufthansa has made changes to its Multiply Miles program that is a Miles&More feature with a partner Loylogic.
Multiply Miles now allows you to multiply the miles of any deposit made to your account for a set price and a maximum number of miles. If you max the most expensive package, you essentially pay 1.8 US cents per mile, including the 500 purchase bonus.
Emirates has brought back its Skywards+ program that allows members to subscribe to three different packages for a year from $399 to $999.
Skywards members can purchase Classic, Advanced, and Premium packages that each come with set benefits from bonus miles, award discounts, to lounge passes.
Today’s Airfare of the Day goes to Japan Airlines and their low(off-peak season business class excursion round trip fares between Singapore (SIN) and Chicago (ORD), USA.
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IHG has launched a new bonus opportunity for stays at the Avid branded hotels between August 2 – November 30, 2021.
IHG Rewards members earn quadruple points for stays consumed during the promotional period after registering for this offer.
Finland has today changed the entry requirements that allow fully vaccinated tourists to enter freely, as long as they can enter the Schengen area or hold a visa.
Also, the internal border checks from Schengen countries are no longer in place. Still, there are health checks to ensure that passengers comply with the entry rules of having been vaccinated, have a recent negative Covid-19 test result, or have recovered from the covid not more than six months ago.
I stayed at a rather horrible Candlewood Suites near LAX Airport this week using points and upon checkout the hotel handed me a receipt that was supposed to be internal – the reimbursement receipt for IHG Rewards Club.
Hotels pay a fee for all reservations that are made with a loyalty account attached and points credited but also receive an – often times low – reimbursement when a guest arrives with a points booking.
A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a question regarding a downgrade from business to the economy from San Francisco to Hawaii (not the best way to start a honeymoon).
Readers are encouraged to send us questions, comments, or opinions by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll try to cover them here several times a week.
Much like Marriott (read more here), Hilton offers a very competing team member discount travel program and something for Friends & Family of those employees as well.
Hilton calls the employee discounts “Go Hilton Team Member” and the rates are really low when available, Friends & Family “Go Hilton Family Friends Rate” and “Go Hilton Extra FFTP.”
Today’s Airfare of the Day goes to British Airways and their midweek first class non-discountable round trip fares between Houston (IAH), USA and Zurich (ZRH), Switzerland.
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There has been more information coming out of Italy and Brussels on how the Italian government plans to end the current misery of the loss-making Alitalia, which has been in administration since 2017, and form a new “national” airline of Italia Trasporti Aereo (ITA).
Brussels has given the green light for Italy to fund the new airline, but it cannot be merely a handover of assets from Alitalia to ITA, but they must be auctioned off. In addition, tickets issued for Alitalia flights past October 14, 2021, cannot be used for flights on the new airline.
Three years after a first mass exodus of Alaska Airlines Lounge locations from the Priority Pass network most lounges have rejoined in February but since yesterday all but one appear to have exited the system yet again.
As of today, July 24th 2021 only the New York JFK location will continue to accept Priority Pass, all others have stopped acceptance after a policy change that saw ties between AS/PP severed.
