When do we cross the line?
 

I was thinking about this as I laid out my schedule for the next couple of weeks.

Almost everybody's heard of frequent flyer miles. Plenty of people sign up for a card, and then diligently funnel as much of their spend as they can through that card and hope someday, usually in a couple of years, they will have enough for "free" flight to visit grandma in Tuscon. Hah!

Those are the "social drinkers" -- when do you admit you're a full-blown "alcoholic"?

1. The first warning indication is when you sign up for more than one credit card, just to get the bonus. When people ask me, I tell them I have a stack of cc's about an inch thick. They tend to look at me goggle-eyed. "Why do you need more than one credit card? Isn't that dangerous?" Sigh. They just don't get it.

2. The really definite sign, IMO, is the first time you hotel-hop. There is no reason on God's green earth to do that -- it's more than a bit inconvenient and it makes no sense -- unless you're a hard-core, well, FlyerTalker.

This summer -- about 45 nights, all in the same chain, no two consecutive nights in the same place. PITA? Sure. 250,000 points? Priceless!

To paraphrase Snoopy again, "Until it is demonstrated, it is not always clear, the difference between the true professional and the merely competent amateur."

Yes, you're in full-blown "disease" mode if you hotel-hop. It's even worse if you have to turn in hotel receipts for a business trip. :o

Fortunately, my experience with hotel-hopping took me down a category from our usual business hotels. (Usually folks book standard 3-star Hiltons and Marriotts; my hotel-hopping to hit Conquest bonuses took me to every Hampton Inn, HGI, and Embassy in the Tampa area. :D) So no one ever asked any questions...

Yeah, this year I qualified for top-tier status with Hyatt (25 stays, 21 nights, taking advantage of some double-credit promotions), Hilton (28 stays, 33 nights over the last year), Starwood (25 stays, 25 nights, also with some double-credit bonuses), as well as Marriott and InterContinental Group on nights (thankfully). Plus about 20 nights, often one at a time, at luxury chains or non-chains. I think that I've moved from one abode to another something like 180 times in the 300 days of the year so far. Painful at times -- and a sign of illness, or at least irrationality -- especially given that much of this was indeed business travel that required expense submission.

Of course, the plus-side is that I am now an expert -- having stayed at virtually every major hotel -- in a handful of cities (e.g., Albuquerque, Abu Dhabi, Amman, Istanbul) and have made quite a dent in some other places where one could not realistically hope to stay at every major hotel (e.g., Washington DC, Dubai, Atlanta).

Wow...that's a lot of hopping. Were you ever tempted to just call off the dogs and enjoy whichever one of those is your favorite top tier?

That's the dilemma I have right now. I could embark on some Starwood runs - decent promos are out there, and I do enough short stays that hitting Plat on 35-40 nights would be do-able. But I'm generally happy with the Marriotts in the cities I visit most, so why not just hang back and enjoy being Plat there for a while? So far, I'm sticking with the Marriotts... My 2008 mix of business travel will change somewhat to some different cities: if I start seeing a lot of great Starwoods and "average" Marriotts, that might be enough to make me switch.

Marriott is my "safe harbor". Their promos tend to be night-based rather than stay-based, so I'm finishing up a complete week at a Marriott this week (ahhhh :)).

Next week, though, it's back to the grind - 4 nights, 4 stays.

Oh, the horror! The horror!

And here I think I've gone overboard because I'm considering doing a mileage run in December. :rolleyes:

Hotel Hopping
 

Hotel Hopping is the sign of a problem. I did a jump between a Hyatt and a Starwood hotel for a week to take advantage of the FFN promo and Starwood promo.

See, you could look at it that way, or as just another example of your fantastic efficiency as a traveler. What is one of the big hassles for a flyer? Baggage. FFers know to only take a carry-on bag. What is one of the big hassles for hotel hopping? Baggage again! But with your small carry-on, you've already eliminated that problem...

Of course, self justification is probably one of the classic signs of having a problem ;)

Yes, hopping is a bit of a p.i.t.a. My project over the last 7 months has a Marriott, CY, Westin, Sheraton, and Hilton all within about 2 miles. Marriott stuck mostly to stay awards (double nights, double points - nice), but SPG and Hilton insisted on stay promos, so I did a lot of hopping.

I'm lucky that my Amex corporate card downloads directly to my T&E system, or it would be an even bigger pain.

Another sign
 

The other sign you are in full blown addict mode is when you consider vacation destinations by EQMs.

My wife and I got $300 certs from a trip this past May. Before I considered where to go, I checked both our EQMs for the year. Her's were more important, because she won't MR. We were both a little under 9K away from the next level. That left only one choice for last week, Hawaii. If the status had been locked in, we probably would have gone to SFO or AZ, or maybe to Caribbean.

Then, just to make it a no brainer, Hyatt comes out with FFN and I'm booking a hotel for both her and me for the same night, to save a trip to pay with the MC. Gave the second room away to friends.

I just look at this as a way of preserving domestic bliss. Married for 37 years this year and for the life of me I can't figure out why she is staying. Must be the front cabin flights and free hotel nights. Flying and hotel hopping has been in my blood for a long time but I won't do it on trips with my wife-take the most direct route and stay in one place for an extended period or risk marriage breakdown!:eek:

You likely have crossed the line when your force the spouse into this form of abuse;)

hahaha! classic thread!
 

firstly, this thread is genius and makes me crack up. I guess I should say, ^to the OP?... :D

Anyway, because MM likes to be different, I have a slightly varried version of addiction and since it's 4am, some of that need not even be explained (btw, that's 4am at my home, and not even on the road where it'd be ok to be up pacing around some hotel room or airport lounge)

==> I have jeaprodized jobs by feeling that CONSTANT urge to be on FT...

==> I have had to "do just one more thing on the computer, honey" to type my thoughts on FT...

==> I have missed great plays on the game to type about the last great play of the game on FT (the Yankees Red Sox thread, for example)

==> I have signed up for things I do not need, gotten too much spam from signing up for things I do not need, spend money on things I do not need and gotten credit cards that do give mile bonuses but do taint your credit and I have spent time calling companies and canceling things too.

==> I have spent valuable time chasing missing miles... and oh, I don't just mean the 4,500 from that flight credit you're missing from last month... I mean the 50 mile bonus or the 500 mile promo thing I printed out from something I did when I should have been outside enjoying the sunshine instead, but I now have a 10 page stapled 'packet' on and I need to call multiple levels of customer service all afternoon into some third party partner company that says it will take up to 10 weeks to give me the miles only to do it again when they don't. Chasing missing miles from scammy promos I always seem to run into even if they seem to work for everyone else on here is my thang. It consumes me. I do work it out and get my miles, but it's an uphill battle every day with every thing. Oh yes, people... I blame myself for picking ALL those battles, but FT is the culprit --hahaha. :D

==> I have dealt with Citibank for credit deals and missing mile offers (that one alone says it all, don't you think?)

I admit this and more!

My name is Jeff and I am a FT-olic

:DMM

Hi Jeff!

:D did the whole room say that in unison?

Finally a confirmation that I am not alone using precious hours and energies chasing the old mighty mile. For many sleepless nights I have been wondering if I should see a shrink to talk about my addiction to Miles!!!:eek:

My worst sin to get Miles? Mrs 2muchfun travels a fair amount for business and is required to book all plane tickets via the company's travel agent who uses a central corporate credit card, hence not giving Mrs 2muchfun Credit Card miles for these spendings. However, they also have the personal CC number of Mrs 2muchfun on file for her personal travelling needs and the always ask which card they have to charge for the trip being booked. Many many times I have gently offered Mrs 2muchfun to call the travel agent to book her (and her clients) expensive J fares as she is always too busy to do so.

And guess what? Many many times I have had to pretend to her that the travel agency used by mistake ;) her personal Visa Gold CC instead of the company central travel corporate credit card! :p. No mistake it was...just the old devil in me!!!

We have raked in hundreds of thousands of CC miles that way before the VP finance cornered my wife... and issued a company memo for that practice to stop.

I had to confess to Mrs 2muchfun of my little scheme... but fortunately my wife loves the free travel benefits and told me to ensure the travel agency makes less frequent mistakes :D for a little while until the dust settles...

I have also gotten her to do hotel hoping after telling her the hotels were booked solid (just a little white lie) and only available certain nights.

I have recommended her to some unknown restaurants for business luncheons just because these restaurants were paying miles via the Rewards Network. Fortunately, they have always been good restaurants.

I have sent many christmas basket to her clients instead of having her secretary do it. Again for miles given by the web portal and for the miles obtained via the spending on her credit card.

And the last one (I have fallen to a new low :D I confess): I gave out Quaker granola bars to the kids at Halloween instead of candies: the local food store had a huge sale on those bars with huge Air Miles bonus, Aeroplan Miles on the packaging and finally a BOGOF coupon on each box, making them virtually free before getting all the Miles. I got the Miles, they got the bars!
I am not sure if these kids will be back to ring our door bell next years!:D

Writing this, I feel I have spent an hour on the couch at the shrink talking about my addiction. I now feel better but I am sure I haven't solve my addiction problem...and maybe that's the way I like it!

2muchfun

Ok, I have to admit.....I've only been on FT for less than a year (best discovery this year, I must say). That makes me a relatively noob. But, I am proud to say I've already completed my first MR this summer on July 4th, and made status (GM) with Delta.

But hotel hopping?!?! Wow... I honestly must admit that I have not heard of this strategy yet. I spend most of my time in the Delta/MR forums, so I don't wander over to the "crazies" in the hotels, haha. Kidding!

Hmmm...this has me thinking though. I expect to be on the road for three months straight this winter, probably in one city, and probably in one hotel. I'm assuming that the purpose of hotel hopping is to qualify through Number of Stays, rather than Number of Nights, right? Ohhh boy, I don't even want to know, ha. This could be hard to explain on the T&E report! :)

I just MAY be in trouble. Not only did I hotel hop for the entire month of October, but I am making my hubbie hop with me next week in Phoenix in order to get enough FFNs for our trip to Orlando the following week...

AM I A BAAAAAD WIFE???

Coming from MR DebUA1K, here is my thoughts

When I first met Deb not only had I never heard of FT but the thought of free stuff and lots of flying was alien to me (at 37 when i met her i had flown 3 times in my life) After our 1st trip together (United PS to JFK and a 4 nights at the Marriot Marquis) i was HOOKED. now after nearly 2 years of marriage and many many FT do's listening to MRP Alert's mileage run stories nothing phases me. When Deb told me what her plan was to get us the free nights at Grand Cypress for our Disney trip, any normal persons reaction would have been "are you INSANE?" my reaction "ok baby whatever you need to do" since I only have to suffer thru it for a week i dont complain. The perks WAY out weigh any PITA that i might endure!

M

Hotel hopping is the only way I can make Diamond at HH, so to me the benefits are worth it. I do try to make it less traumatic by almost always scheduling my last night (and sometimes the first night) at the airport rather than downtown, so I always get 2 stays rather than one. That's not too painful.... usually....

Guess I just can't take that first step....

DiscoPapa
With 3 months, you should be able to get top status in a few hotel chains without too much hoping. Some chains give bonuses on stays, some on nights, some after 2, 3, 4 or 5 stays. Normally big bonuses for repeat stays. So you might want to plan your 3 months to max out your benefits and accept that hopping is good for you:p.

Remember that you can convert points from some chains to your airline FF account at a bonus (20K SPG points gets you 25K miles in most FF programs). You maximize your hotel points, you maximize you FF miles!

I see nothing wrong in explaining to your boss that you wanted to try a few different places during this long period. Just to change the environment. Finally I have read on FT that some programs limit their benefits to 30 days stay maximum but I can't remember which one though. Read the fine print of your program. Good luck!


debua1k
If next week your husband tells you, in a heated love exchange, that you have been a really Baaaaad Girl, you will know why :D

2muchfun

Ord-dfw
 

I knew I had crossed the line on Thanksgiving Day 2005, when I needed to get from ORD to DFW and I booked my ticket ORD-ATL-MEX-DFW with DL just so I could get all extra miles, instead of flying nonstop ORD-DFW with AA. It helped me make the decision the fact that AA's ticket was 700.00 and DL was 500.00 o/w.

When the immigration officer in DFW asked me how long I had been out of the country I said just a few hours. Crazy eh? I admit it, I'm hooked on the FF game.

Yes, plus some programs (eg Hilton HHonors) limit the amount you can earn from a single stay :td:

Thanks for the help! Looks like I need to spend some more valuable time on FT and hotel programs' websites reading up...I appreciate the info!

Right.

Or to take advantage of other promotions, e.g., Hyatt's Faster Free Nights, which gives one free night per stay, or recently I have taken advantage of some pretty generous InterContinental and Starwood offers of bonus points per stay. For the truly insane, one could even rack up more Platinum amenities (e.g., 500 bonus points per stay in the case of full-service Marriotts) by hopping. These are all relevant only for redeemable points, however, and not elite qualification credit. With the exception of Faster Free Nights, I don't find it worthwhile to hop just to accrue more points for redemption.

dont worry (pat on the back, look of concern) you are among friends. And there is no better shrink than us. If we were to download all of this to someone, either he'd go mad, or secretly start to lurk in FT and become addicted as well :D

i think you take the cake.

As much as its a mantra to gain miles I must admit I would treat my wife with a better stick than yours... potentially jeopardizing her job for miles in my book just doesnt cut it. No offense but Im somewhat shocked to be honest.

on the other hand, perhaps the ultimate mantra is:

life should be for life and travel and fun and family, not just about work. :D

The great thing about hotel hopping w/ HHonors is it's usually possible to do so by going just across the street. In Tulsa I'm able to hop between the Hampton and Embassy off of I-44 without even changing restaurants. The big thing is remembering to switch between "Points+Points" for the Hampton and "Points+Fixed Miles" for the Embassy.

I know I crossed the line when -
I'm hopping to London for the weekend for no apparent reason (to commoners). And no longer ashamed to tell people about my MR / bed hop, nor have the energy to explain.

I'm at my best friend's wedding and all I can think of is hoard as many coke caps as humanly possible.

I no longer get out of bed unless I know I'm earning miles / points for the day. :)

Was having a chat with the in-laws yesterday - the consensus is that the line is drawn when one flies for the sole purpose of collecting ff miles.

Flying for miles plus status is ok? :D

I love these posts that make me laugh out loud! We have some very eloquent and witty FTers.

Travel for work for me is a 25-mile drive to another company location, so I haven't gotten into MR's or gaining status with airlines. If I want to partake in the game, it's on my own dime. But I have done my fair share of hotel promos and have paid for many a room I've never sleep in. You have to do what you have to do when you don't travel for work. Many's the vacation where the family is thrilled to be staying in the same place for 2 nights. Usually they just say "where are we staying tonight?"

But this post has made me realized I've "crossed the line". This past fall I took my mother on a trip to visit parts of New England, 4 states in 11 days. We stayed 3 nights in Boston free at Hyatt, 1 night free at a Mass Holiday Inn, and 1 night free at Hawthorne in Burlington. But the rest of the nights were all at different places and NONE of them were brand/chain hotels. I couldn't find hotels in the places I wanted to visit using my various points. So the remaining nights were at independents or B&B's with no points or perks earned. The thought never occurred to me to stay longer than 1 night in each place, until after the trip my sister mentioned Mom commented it was a bit much changing hotels every day!

Because I got sidetracked reading & writing on this topic, it's now time to get ready for work. The new Marriott card I had finally talked myself into signing up for this morning will have to wait . . .

How about just getting the inlaws into the game itself...

I had always looked for a connection to add miles. Of course my goal at those times was 2p at ua. But hotel hopping started in the past couple years.

I have a co-worker who has the same name as his father... they share a DL SkyMiles account. Together they fly enough to make GM, where seperately one would make FO but the other would have no status. I'm sure this is a breach of the SkyMiles T&C but they've been doing it for the past 5 years with no problems.

This might be going too far, but I'd be tempted to give it a try if my father had the same name as me...

hotel hop
 

While on vacation I typically change hotels every 2 to 3 nights, especially if I haven't been to that area before.
By that time I'm bored with breakfast setting, done the gym/spa, and visited the bars/exec floor.
Time to try the next one !

Going to Thailand Wed for 5 nts, staying in 3 hotels.

You should see the account used by George Foreman and his 5 sons with the same name.

I suspect this could be a problem if they're both in the air at the same time. Other than that, I doubt they're the only father-son pair to do this. I suspect DL, and airlines in general, have bigger fish to fry.

now I know what name to give my son :D:D:D

I hotel hop all the time (except vacations when it's time to actually use the drawers/closets/etc :cool:). The Hilton Family options makes it easy to do ^

I don't know if it is crossing the line or not. My wife charged $10.14 to the room yesterday morning from the gift shop. Someone behind her in line complained because it took too long. Her response? They just don't get the points game, do they?