Originally Posted by
SanDiego1K
I am only aware of Hyatt offering lifetime status of those I've commented on above. It requires a healthy spend over a number of years.
Hyatt and Marriott/RC are the only ones with lifetime status right now.
Centaurus(?) is formulating a lifetime plan but their properties are Southwest Asia based for the most part. I'll take a pass on that.
http://www.insideflyer.com/articles/...e.php?key=6717
Hyatt's lifetime is for 1 million BASE points (that's room rate only). It equals $200K spend. I'll be staying in hotel rooms on my dime for ~15 years as a pilot so that'd break out to $13.3K/yr spend if I only used Hyatt over 15 years. Not all that feasible of a goal but I didn't think I'd ever be LT Plat with Marriott either - rollover nights helped considerably. I've still got 3 yrs and 108K pts to go but I figure I can coast and pick up 108K pts in 3 yrs.
Originally Posted by
pinniped
re: Aloft and Element. Both are very new brands. As such, you're almost guaranteed a clean, fresh property no matter where you go. Both are priced moderately...about on par with the lowest-end Sheraton in a given city. (But...like I said...cleaner and fresher than a lot of the beat-up Sheratons out there.)
I cruised through the Aloft and Element near BWI shortly after they opened. Economy W came to mind. I don't think that either comps breakfast so although they're new hotels, that's a strike against them. Let's hope that they don't start remodeling old hotels and rebrand them as Aloft/Element. Fortunately, I should know that immediately from FlyerTalk.
I will say that the Newark Airport 4 Points still gives me nightmares. But the Newark Airport Sheraton was pretty nice.