The world of special offers was a bit strange this summer. With the resurgence of travel demand and the total incapability of the airlines and airports to deal with it, the opposite happened. Airlines zeroed out all booking classes except for the most expensive ones in Economy and Business to discourage people from booking flights that might not take place. That made a flight to places like London as high as €1,500 in some cases, a wonderful return to 1960s prices with 2020s nonexistent service. Hotel prices similarly reached ridiculous levels, presumably due to a lack of capacity because many properties were shut down during Covid. But it felt very much like price gouging for the most part, which could conveniently be blamed on the dynamic pricing structures utilised by most hotels and hotel chains.
So, the incentive to travel had been seriously curtailed and it was more than apparent that it might be wiser to stay at home or invent some alternative diversions. But in the normal world, travel during the summer months had already become an increasingly laborious burden for business travellers before the pandemic. I recall some Flyertalkers writing in 2019 about how the airport experience was becoming really unsupportable when travelling in July and August, even when holding lots of airline status cards. It was becoming a pain that nobody wanted to endure, with holidaymakers, children and inexperienced travellers clogging up airport infrastructures. Travel was already a tiring undertaking, but was doubly or triply so with all these people milling around. Small wonder that private aviation has really taken off and, having discovered a number of private airfields myself, I can only say that the pleasure of travel and flying knows no limits.
Only 500 bonus miles for booking a hotel or car rental on the overpriced Hotels & Cars platform at Miles & More
Award tickets using miles or other currencies were very much available, however, in some cases as regular special offers. For once, Miles & More award tickets within Europe were looking like a really good deal, in both Economy and Business, given the high cash prices for tickets. 15,000 miles round trip in Economy to Edinburgh, or even 25,000 in Business, were suddenly looking like an extremely good deal. The booking period was until 31st July, with the travel period being 15th August to 30th September. There were many other destinations but this one was of interest to me so I could get back to Scotland and visit family.
Another very tempting one-off deal came from Flying Blue at Air France KLM, whereby Hanoi was offered for 15,000 per direction in Economy, or 55,000 in Business. It appeared that the routing was via Paris CDG on Vietnam Airlines. Usually mileage fares to Asia are very high, given that Flying Blue now uses a dynamic pricing system which is related to the actual cash cost of the flights. I would be willing to bet that Vietnam Airlines offers good service in Economy class, unlike the European airlines these days. (Later on, this offer appeared to be rescinded with people getting their tickets cancelled).
Again, just 500 miles for buying something from Design Bestseller. This outfit appeared to offer design stuff for ridiculously high prices (I mean, who needs a €17,000 sofa??), but there were some decent items available at a lower cost base
On the ground, the 9 Euro ticket offered by Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) was an amazing offer, the ticket giving you the freedom of Germany for one calendar month as long as you used the regional trains and didn't board any intercity trains. It was also good for all city buses, trams and S-Bahn trains. I used it in early July to find my way from Basel to Ingelheim near Mainz, where I visited a winery for a wine tasting. I also used it to dot around Germany here and there and then used it for two further trips to Switzerland. It was a bit of an endurance because the trains were so jammed with people.
In Switzerland the SBB were offering Supersaver tickets for really cheap prices if you booked in advance. As I had cancelled my GA, a pass for unlimited travel in Switzerland, and bought a half fare card, I made good use of these offers. These offers are ongoing and available on most trains, including intercity trains, buses and now even regional transport associations.
The 9 Euro Ticket lasted from the beginning of June to the end of September, which made it a total of €27. I made huge use of it and calculated the total value to be €669.45
Hotel prices were generally really high and I had originally wanted to book the Hilton in Mainz, the one overlooking the Rhine river, but the price was too high. In the end I booked the Best Western in Mainz on hotels.com, making use of an offer for an extra stamp for booking during a 2 days window (collecting 10 stamps gives you a free night to the value of 10% of the value of all 10 nights).
It was a shame about Hilton, because they were offering double points on all stays throughout the summer. I am becoming a very infrequent guest at Hilton so I'm not getting much use of the complimentary gold status that comes with my Hilton branded credit card (which appears to never work properly).
IHG had a similar extra points offer whereby you got no bonus for your first stay, double points from your second stay and triple points starting from a later stay.
The other hotel offers did not apply to me because I am not a member of their programmes. If I want to book other chains, I do it through hotels.com and pick up a stamp for a night's credit.