Deals

After saying that the last promotion that was run would be the last big promotion of the year, Marriott Homes & Villas launched a new promotion over the weekend in which its offering Bonvoy members double elite night credits on select stays made by the end of the year.

Today has seen Qatar Airways launch a couple of promotions for departures from Europe which may offer good value if you're prepared to book in the next few days. The promotions cover dates well into next year (one covers travel through the end of June 2025), so there should be scope for quite a few people to make the most of these offers.

This is a reminder (for anyone who missed it when it first launched) that the World of Hyatt is currently still offering members the opportunity to earn double points on stays at Hyatt Place and Hyatt House properties world wide.

Alongside the resorts sale that we wrote about yesterday, IHG is also running two further deals, and these are for stays across the Middle East, Africa, India and South Asia.

It's a double promo day for Marriott because as well as launching a new promotion for select holders of its co-branded credit cards, it has also launched a new global promotion covering stays between 10 September and 26 November 2024.

A little earlier, we wrote about a new promotion that Hyatt has launched for holders of its co-branded credit cards, and it now looks like Marriott has followed that lead with its own promotion for most co-branded cardholders in eleven countries across the globe.

Hyatt has launched a new promotion for holders of its two co-branded credit cards, so for the next few months, anyone holding The World of Hyatt Credit Card or the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card can earn up to 20,000 bonus points on stays made at Unbound Collection properties worldwide.

If the last Marriott Homes & Villas promotion didn't tempt you into a booking or didn't cover the geographic area in which you're planning a stay, perhaps this latest offer of 24,000 bonus points per stay + 10% off at select properties worldwide will suit you better.

Today sees the return of "Big Give Week" on Rakuten, which sees the cashback site offering up to 20% back (or 20 Membership Rewards Points per dollar) at hundreds of participating stores and retailers. Better still, this promotion sees the return of some great cash back travel offers with the likes of Radisson and Viator.

Hilton's first major promotion of 2024 ended yesterday and in true Hilton fashion, its second global promotion of the year went live earlier today. This latest promotion runs to 2 September 2024 and, thankfully, is noticeably better than the one it is replacing.

As well as releasing at least 18 targeted offers (which we discussed earlier), Hyatt has also launched a new sale for stays in the 'Asia Pacific' region which covers properties in 224 locations across 20 countries.

Hyatt has brought back a series of targeted deals that we last saw published at the beginning of 2023. There seem to be slightly fewer targeted deals in this iteration of the promotion (18 deals in 2024 v 23 deals in 2023) and it looks like the target audience may be narrower in 2024 than it was in 2023, but some of the offers still look good so it will be worth checking to see if Hyatt lists you among the chosen few.

The IHG spring sale (for bookings at the chain's participating European properties) is now live and runs through to 5 March for stays into 2025. The sale is in two parts. For most IHG properties the sale is offering IHG One Rewards members up to 20% off a property's best flexible rate, while the Iberostar Beachfront Resorts have their own deal with savings of up to 15%.

Marriott's latest global promotion is now live and it's one of the best Marriott promotions that we've seen for a while. It isn't, however, quite as generous as a similar promotion that it has run in the past, so this is a gentle warning not to expect too much.

Rakuten is back with another good cash back offer with which you can earn 10% cash back or 10 Amex Membership Rewards Points per dollar on most IHG (InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, etc...) bookings. It's not clear how long this offer will last for so don't wait too long if you have an IHG stay that you need to book.

Rakuten is one of my favorite cash back sites because it allows users to choose between earning pure cash back or Amex points in place of that cash back, and as we wrote about how you can choose to earn Amex points through Rakuten yesterday, today seems like a good time to write about the referral bonus that Rakuten also offers.

Apparently, Amex wasn't satisfied with publishing just four rental car offers because after putting out deals for Hertz, Alamo, Avis and Budget, it has now launched a new targeted offer for spending on a Sixt+ subscription.

Outside of credit card welcome bonuses, one of the easiest ways to boost a miles and points balance without going to much effort and without spending any money that you wouldn't have otherwise spent is to make use of the various shopping portals which are operated on behalf of the major loyalty programs.

Following on from Tuesday's news that British Airways will be moving, in part, to a revenue based loyalty program, the airline has now also announced that it is again extending its offer of double tier points on bookings made through its British Airways Holidays subsidiary.

Delta and Starbucks have announced a new partnership that allows customers with SkyMiles and Starbucks accounts to earn miles and stars when they buy their morning coffee and when they fly.

Countries like the US and UK may still be struggling with huge coronavirus infection rates but some parts of the world are starting to see a bit of normality returning. One sign that Dubai is starting to see a return to normality is the welcome return of the 'My Emirates Pass' which sees an Emirates boarding pass turned into a discount coupon for spending at over 450 locations.

I hold top tier-status with Marriott and mid-tier status with Hilton and IHG but, more than ever, I'm now finding myself booking select hotel stays through online agencies like Hotels.com, Travelocity and Orbitz.

One of the things I love most about writing this blog is that the research I have to do means that I'm constantly learning new things about the travel industry and constantly discovering ways I can save cash when I travel. While I'm a big fan of making airline bookings way in advance I'm beginning to hold off from making any hotel/accommodation bookings until much closer to my actual trips - I'm finding that I'm getting better deals that way and, by delaying the reservations I make, I'm finding myself in a better position to make the most of any hotel promotions that come around.