I’m just back from two amazing weeks in Europe – two nights in London at the Hotel Xenia (charming little boutique hotel with small rooms but a great quiet location in Kensington/Earls Court), two nights in a castle in Beaujolais, France, 4 nights in the Cap Corse region of Corsica (big ups to the Hotel Misincu which I’d recommend to anyone), a night in Porto Vecchio in the southeast of Corsica, and two wonderful nights in a grand suite at the Hotel Cervo in Costa Smeralda, Italy. I’ll review the Cervo later. There are four regal properties in Costa Smeralda all owned by the same person and all from 60,000 Marriott points through December.
Here are a few pics to whet your appetite. (Note that this suite would definitely be more than 60k a night and was given to me as a Platinum Premier upgrade.)
Since I won’t have any time this second to do all recent news justice, here’s a summary:
- Marriott relaunches the old SPG Gold/Platinum challenge. Read more
- Loyalty Lobby does a nice breakdown of what you get with Marriott’s Platinum Premier status vs regular old Platinum. Read more
- View From the Wing reports that Marriott has brought back the old SPG language and Platinums are again entitled to Standard Suites if they are available. This is great news.
- One more from Loyalty Lobby: Breaking down the new Marriott breakfast benefits for Platinums.
- Hilton has launched a Q3/Q4 promo for double points on all stays and triple points on Luxury and Resort stays. Sept 10 to Jan 3. Register now regardless if you have a planned stay or not because you never know.
- IHG’s Q3 Accelerate promotion is out. I’ve got a pretty lousy “double points” offer but you may have done better. Login to your IHG account to check.
- Doctor of Credit writes about a new Air France Flying Blue credit card from Bank of America. More interesting is his speculation about BofA’s various partners becoming transferable points via their Premium Rewards card. That would sure make things interesting!
- And CardMatch has been throwing that 100,000 point Amex Platinum signup bonus at people again. Check if you were targeted.
What else did I miss? Let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
New to all of this? My new “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available now.
