New Website
 

is up and not reall working.
After loging in you see darkness:confused:

BTW. Talked to 3 Hotels I have the 2for1 or 4for2 nights reservations, they do honor those!!

Works Now
 

can see status and balance.
the elite offer (the only reasonable one, if you go back and forth others pop up like Tahiti, Bejing etc.) looks like this:

Stay 2 Nights Pay for 2 Nights :confused:
Savor Australia's Gold Coast - superb dining, scenery and more await.

Radisson Resort Gold Coast is ideally located amidst the lush surrounds of the internationally renowned Palm Meadows Golf Course. Avoid the congestion of Surfers and its concrete surrounds, and immerse yourself in a low rise resort with views of green fairways, lakes and trees.

Exclusive Offer Details

* Stay 3, pay 2 (minimum 3 night stay)
* Resort Golf View room
* 25% off buffet breakfast in Chelos Restaurant
* 25% off international seafood buffet dinner in Chelos Restaurant

The special rate is per room, per night and is valid for goldpoints plusSM members October 28 - December 30, 2007.

Terms and Conditions

Rate subject to availability.

So it looks like its very similar to the European version. :td:
The European version is crap. I stayed a few times and never got offered any of the gold benefits.

I can't even log in.

Logged in new site and has the (new?) benefits
 

Below the stated benefits and requirements. The main benefit (2 nights for 1 and 4 nights for 2) seems to be gone. The European members keep their 10% weekend discount (which never worked) and free item of laundry.

MEMBERS
15-20 Gold Points® per dollar/euro on room rate
500 points when you book online
Free hotel nights
Redeem 15,000 - 60,000 points*
Points Plus Cash Award Stays
Convert points to airline miles
Prepaid Cards
Exclusive hotel offers
Express Awards - in hotel awards**

SILVER ELITE 15 nights or 10 stays in a calendar year
All member benefits plus:
25% bonus on room rate or base points
Elite Member Service Center
Best available room
Late check-out
All member redemption options plus: Special Points Plus Cash offers

GOLD ELITE 35 nights or 20 stays in a calendar year
All member & Silver Elite benefits plus:
50% bonus on room rate or base points
Early check-in
72-hour availability guarantee
All member & Silver Elite member redemption options plus:
FlexNightsSM at base redemption rate

In Europe, you'll also enjoy the following Elite membership benefits: Elite Membership Benefits Silver Gold
10% off weekend rates X X
Complimentary bag guard X X
Double occupancy for a single rate X X
One free item of express laundry per night X X


Well, I cannot see any increased benefit, but maybe I miss something. Redemption rates seem to have increased too. Guess 20 stays is easier than 35 nights, but not sure worth the hassle.

Membership year
 

It is now calendar year but it does not say till when my gold level is valid. Under old programme it should expire end of July, but guess they make it till end 2008?

Radisson St. Petersburg, Russia went from 30K to 90K. In fact all European properties I checked went up. :td:

Rates at several NA properties look the same (at least for now).

On the other hand the exchange 100,000 points to 18,000 miles is a definite improvement. ^

On the main page, "Fly Fly Away" (transfer to airlines) isn't a link. Same on the redeem page.

On the actual request for airline transfer, the pull-down to choose an airline has "Aeroplan" instead of "Air Canada" (others are airlines).

Getting 18K instead of 12.5K airline miles is a nice benefit (works out to 5.56:1). :) I regret that I had them take 225K at the old rate during the last week of the old program, but the odds were they'd screw us.

It also looks like the transfer is on-demand again (since it doesn't require an agent) AND you can pick and choose, as before.

Minimum redemption is 2K (for 250mi), was it 1K (for 125mi) before? With my current total it's not an issue. :)

Auto-transfer to an airline is now every 10K GPs.

=aw

[Moved my "redemption inflation" post to a new thread here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=751096 since it wasn't about the new website]

=aw

Here's another change to the redemption rules, guess that's the end of hotels failing to take our points. ;)

In the past, the points were taken when you checked in.

=aw

Searching for Regent in Miami Beach FL returns a non-result. I'm surprised because (a) it's an option on the "Search for Awards" page, and (b) when a Radisson doesn't have award nights available, it says so and offers paid rates. I'd have expected Regent to do the same, or even say "doesn't participate, here are the paid rates".

=aw

Clicking on "Help" at page bottom returns an Error 500.

[I assume someone from GP+ will actually read these comments, it's easier (and more fun) to post here than to send messages to webmaster@...]

=aw

Here's the table of categories:

https://www.goldpointsplus.com/offer...fferId=1768223

I note that there are now 6 categories (vs. 4 before?): 15/25/30/45/60/90 vs. the earlier 15/25/30/60. Don't know if this is just to accommodate some European hotels (where we in North America had to request a certificate, as I understood it). Some inflation of course, e.g. Radisson Edwardians in London were 75K I think, now 90K (can someone confirm?). If we can just book and show up (vs. requesting cert) this is an improvement in process if not cost. I expect some (or all) former 60K properties in NA to move up to 90K over time.

Another enhancement (no sarcasm): 2nd and subsequent nights are 10% off, both in regular awards and FlexNights.

=aw

That's what is to be expected when the program is consolidated into the hands of an entity that is doings the bulk of its planning with (still weakening) US dollars foremost in mind.

I made my first award booking today. At a reduction from the same award at the same property last month, 30,000 less over the 2 nights (although the property is decent but with only flex rate options ever available was not really worth the rate of last month!)

Was unusual to see the points come out of my account immediately though!

Broken Again?
 

When I try to transfer to airline miles, the pull-downs for airline and the field for account number are there. But there's nowhere to specify what denomination (2K, 50K, 100K) I want to transfer. I tried pressing "SUBMIT" thinking it might come up then, but instead it just asked if I wanted to transfer 0 points to UA.

Am I doing something wrong? Tried in both Firefox and IE7.

Thanks!
=aw