[quote]I am surprised that no one mentioned what I think was one of the best deals of all time. On the original award chart for Marriott they had, as their top item, award PZ for 360,000(?) points, which I earned my first year in the program (I took the award in 1987). Included in that award was *all* of the following:
1. Four airline tickets anywhere on the system (I took 2 TWA to Vienna and 2 Continental to Austrailia).

2. Three 10-day hotel stays, specifically allowing *reservations* for *suites*.

3. Three 10-day car rentals, mid-size.

4. AND, 2 people on a 7-day European cruise (we did the Greek Islands) because Marriott owned Sun Line Cruises for a brief period.
[quote]

I believe this was after you returned some parts of awards for points. It was an amazing period, and made me a fan of Randy for life.

Wow, freak, that's an amazing award. Was Marriott earning back then similar to today? (e.g., 10+ points/dollar) That is a HUGE pile of loot for $36,000 or less in hotel spending.

I still think Marriott's 250,000-pt. travel package (a week at any Cat6 Marriott in the world + 120K FF miles) is a pretty good award. There are only a handful of Cat7's, so "any Cat6" flies in most corners of the world.

Holiday Inn Priority Club's first year... I think it was 75 stays gets trip anywhere in world. (I could be wrong on # of stays/nights, but it was amazing)

I remember that one...one of my Sales guys got extremely active in that period and stayed at Holiday Inns. After his trip to Europe I found out how he got it. For whatever reason he really slacked off after the promo ended....

Ah, for the 1980's.

I agree about the Marriott reward with the cruise and the 4 coach tickets almost anyplace, including Australia.

As for Holiday Inn, yeah 75 points (one point for 1 or 2 nights, 2 points for 3 or more nights). We spent a lot of time moving between hotels. I got 150 points. Each 75 was worth 2 coach RTs almost anyplace (Pan Am), 2 weeks at a Holiday Inn, and free car rental for 2 weeks. (I got a Mercedes).

Even Avis had a deal. Maybe 7 rentals, and you got a free ticket to London, a 2 for 1 cruise, and other stuff. This was about the time of the Holiday Inn deal, so we also spent a lot of time returning cars and picking up another one.

Also great was the new Braniff offering to match your miles on any other carrier if you flew New Braniff 6 times. Spent a weekend going between Texas cities for a few $100, Braniff matched my Delta balance, and I received 2 business class to Hong Kong (via London and Dubai on British Caledonian), 2 F to London, and 2 coach to HNL (Transamerican Air IIRC). Also double dipped miles in United.

The original special deals were also great. United had something like take maybe 10 flights in a couple of months, and get a free domestic ticket without any mileage deduction. The great thing was that it included Hawaii AND in any available class, so we went F. And that was when F really was first class.

Just to respond to Piniped (and anyone else asking) - Marriott points were not only about the same, but somewhat easier. You got 20% bonus for the right car rental and 25% bonus for the right airline. So, with Elite bonus, normally about 15.5 points/dollar.

And the cruise on Sun Line was *great*. I forget the cabin category, but it was *not* for the worst. It was an outside cabin. And the quality of the food was excellent.

Also earned points for taxes, and there were plenty of opportunities for bonuses.

Both Air Canada and CPAir/Canadian Airllnes had some extraordinary awards in the early days of their programs [1984 to about 1990]. And with competition, lots of promos that made earning those miles much easier than these days. Logging 200K a year on one and 100K on the other carrier was quite common, with no Mileage Runs necessary. Of course, there was no such thing as elite status in those days, so a mile was a mile was a mile.

CP's best was 2 First Class tickets to any destination it flew for 160K points, or 2 Business Class for 140K. And besides the flights, one also received a week's stay in a suite at a partner hotel, and a week's luxury rental car. These could be taken any time, and not just in conjunction with the flight awards.

AC's best was 2 First Class seats to any destination for 150K, 2 Business Class for 120K. [CP also had this award.] And it came with the same hotel and rental car awards at no extra cost.

In both cases, the two tickets could be used by a couple travelling, or for two separate trips by the same person.

Ah, yes, those were indeed the days! My wife and I travelled the world in style for five or six years on such awards. And there were plenty of tickets left for family gifts too.

In more recent times, I think CP's best award was the 125K for a First Class BA or CX seat to South Africa or Australia/NZ. Each award required two longhaul overnights in each direction, a great way to sample these two carriers' superb front cabins.

And last summer AA ended its best award, which was 140K for a First Class CX award to these same destinations for the same reason.

It will be interesting to read the March issue to see what awards Randy decides rates.

In the late 80s Canadian Airlines had a great reward for 45,000 miles - Buy one ticket (any class) and get another ticket free in the same class. These awards were valid on British Airways as well as CP for First, Club or Economy. They could be used either as companion tickets or for sequential trips by the award holder.

Thanks everyone for your input. You will all be interested to know that the article is complete and you can read Randy's Top 10 selections at http://www.insideflyer.com/articles/...e.php?key=1585

Also, if you think he missed any good ones, please feel free to comment as such using the "Sound Off" feature at the bottom of the article.

Couldn't have done it without all of you...thanks again.

A great reward that just ended on Amtrak was the 1800 Flowers 3x points promotion. You received 10 points for dollar spent before the triple bonus...so a dozen roses would cost about $50, and then you'd get 1500 points...halfway to a free ticket (in the Northeast).

When you consider that a roundtrip tix between PHL and WAS nets you between 280 and 400 points while spending between $74 & $125 each way...the $50 for 1500 points is a heck of a deal.

My girlfriend has received TONS of roses during this promotion!

You know, initially I was surprised to see that someone had revived this thread two-and-a-half years after the last post. But then I read the new post and I thought, what a tragedy, the article was finished in 2004, and here someone comes along with the best reward/award ever, hands down.

wow, I'd love to try that one, and I guess one could call it a real mileage run!!

Anyway, I recall a few years back when US Air was about to merge into AA and for a short while, if you were going to book an award ticket on AA, you could give them any amount of US Air miles to add TO the amount needed for the award and they would combine the two when booking it! Example: If you had say, 56,843 US miles and you were going to book 2 RT tickets on AA that needed a total of 100k to fly, they'd take the US miles and the remaining 43,157 AA miles from your account and you were all set! I thought that was pretty awesome and I was also able to take advantage of a few flights using the system at the time.

MM

And those miles counted toward's AA's lifetime mileage requirements.

People may look back at today's starwood program - where for only 2,000 Starwood points per night you can get a level 1 hotel for weekend stays - with no black out days - as one of the best awards out there. Enjoy it while you can.