What incentive would make you stray from your primary programs?
 

We all have our pet airlines and hotel & car rental chains. Most trips, I wouldn't think twice about who I was flying or with whom I would stay. Occasionally, I travel to a location where my main programs are not represented. Occasionally, someone else selects a meeting place and forces an out-of-program stay. Rarely, price drives an alternate.

This week, I have been incentivized to stay off-program despite a triple base points promotion with Hilton Honors. Priority Club (3 nights YTD) offered me 10,000 DL Skymiles for 1 5 night stay.

It wasn't an easy choice, but I decided 10,800 SM > roughly 21,400 HH.

Anyone else straying these days?

On AA I get double miles and free upgrades (unlimited domestic, eight overseas) and lounge access* (I paid to join, but that's a sunk cost). Match that, offer something additional like a better schedule for that particular trip at the same fare or a lower fare for a comparable schedule, and you have a chance. If the only reason is a lower fare, it has to be a whole lot lower.

That's tough to do, so it tends not to happen.

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*In theory I can use an AA Admirals Club lounge no matter what airline I'm flying, but in practice the layouts of most airports big enough to have one in the first place make it difficult or impossible to access them unless one is flying AA.

Hawaiian Airlines' highest elite tier, Pualani Platinum, may be earned by flying 40k butt-in-seat miles on HA metal. That's the lowest threshold in the industry, I think. Platinums are offered free inter-island u/g's to F, based on availability, and their choice to tender 15k HAmiles, or $150, for Y to F u/g's on all x-Pac tix, rev or non-rev, based on availability. Lounge access, priority boarding priveleges and double flight miles are some of the additional perq's. Gold status is earned with only 20k BIS miles. For kama'aina like us, whose destination needs are serviced by HA, that's tough to beat.

The first half of the year, not much. Right now, though, I have all the status I'm going to get (e.g., enough current and planned miles on AA to get Platinum, no chance of getting Executive Platinum, similar with Elite status on hotels) so I'm more open to incentives that offer additional points or other bonuses.

Basically its not worth it unless I'm changing programs. There is no benefit for splitting miles across accounts. My mileage, even at plat, can influence upgrade availability. Matching benefits would make me go to another airline if I was in the case where I had to go to another airline no matter what, but matching wouldnt' make a difference.

My preferred program is DL -- but in a typical year, I'll fly NW, CO, AS, AF (all credited to DL), AA, UA, HP/US, WN and some European *A carriers.

I also stay at IC, Hilton, Starwood, Marriott, Hyatt and hotels that don't belong to chains.

There is no way I can get to where I need to go and stay with my primary program. I'm not going to change planes in SLC to fly SJC-LAS, for example -- that's just crazy.

Also, if my company travel department decides that AA is cheaper than DL on a flight, I'll have to fly AA.

im planning to earn lifetime on AA, then switch to earning on CX for status

NH for *A flights and other partners, because it has the most of them

SQ when I fly business to work towards lifetime Solitaire

unless were talking astronomical bonuses or error fares, i won't stray. and even then, i don't plan to ever fly Skyteam.

i also see E0 as an alternative to VS/BA/SQ out of JFK.

The only thing that causes me to stray away from AA, UA, Hertz, National, Marriott, Starwood, or Hilton is availability. That is, there is nothing that any of the primary competitors to those companies has done recently to "win" me over.

One thing I've learned (the hard way): when I can't use the primary companies, I try and get as far away from companies like them as possible. All of the above make a big deal out of elite status and punish you severely if you don't have it. So I look for non-legacy airlines and boutique or small-chain hotels that are more welcoming to infrequent fliers/guests. (True, even the non-legacies have elite levels, but they don't use them to make you life hell.)

The exception is rental cars: if Hertz and National have no availability, I seriously consider a taxi or other transportation. Thankfully, this situation is so rare it's practically negligible.

i agree with the above especially in terms of hotels.

i like starwood points, as they are the most valuable. i also feel their chain is the highest quality chain (overall) that has a frequent stay program.

with that said, i will go with Park/Grand Hyatt or luxury chains with no FSP, depending on the city, and what i feel like spending at the time.

if I get IC RA in the future, i'll probably do occasional stays with them as well, depending on what upgrades are offered.

I may stray to get gold status on Hilton. 4 stays between now and February 28, 2007 gives me Gold status until 2008.

I will not make the 16 more nights on Marriott to hit PLT status, so what's the point?

This topic seems to be more appropriate for our MilesBuzz forum so I'll move it there for continued discussion. Ocn Vw 1K, Co-Mod TBuzz

I earn for status. Once I reach my status (or reasonably can predict I will achieve it), I stray to earn status elsewhere. But unless I can earn another status level, the points would have to be very skewed to stray otherwise.

I really try not to stray from my UA flights and in a pinch *A. My company has no strict travel policy on carrier (class=coach) so if a ticket is within 20% pricewise we can book whomever.

On hotels I am usually on comp or pre-paid rooms so not really applicable.

We are hard core UA flyers and will be until we hit million miler and retire in a couple of years or so.

We were AS MVP Gold for many years, but dumped them when their upgrade policies became untenable. We still fly them, however, SEA/SAN and SEA/LAS as they offer the only nonstops to those destinations with first class. Now, when we fly AS, we just buy one first class ticket and use a $50.00 companion cert for our other seat. It works out about the same as two coach fares.

The only other time we stray is when we are doing short flights within Asia or Europe. Last year we were able to purchase a first class ticket SIN/KLU for $120 US, and a return KLU/SIN in first for $119. Considering the amazing lounge amenities, those were incredible deals.

This January, we have purchased biz class tickets BKK/SIN on a two class Finnair flight for $174 US, which is pretty amazing because the same routing on Lufthansa in coach was $357. Go figure. :confused:

Thanks to FlyerTalk, we have learned how to find the best deals no matter where we travel. ^

I try to factor in the costs of the extras on the chain hotels against booking somewhere cheaper.

Usually you do get hotels much cheaper if you go off the chain and are only a leisure traveller like me - only roughly 40 nights but all on business.

If you do pay on your own it is hard to pay 250 dollar against 100 for a bed where you can sleep just to get perhaps some upgrades. I just booked two nights in london for nearly double the price becuase the HI have a promo running and I need two more for qualifying for the 10K bonus. This is done because i will be able to make a value of them on a later stay in new york.

I do factor in the costs of the points I am getting off price but still ...

inconvinience is the next. I do fly BA / AA but the problem is that they do not have the inter.european flights I need. I can go through London for a HAM-CDG trip but I would use 6times the time and triple the price - it is too much to pay for such a trip.

There comes a time when status is nice - but my time is valuable as well.