Four Loyalty Programme Quirks That Defy Common Sense (But You Can Take Advantage Of)

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For many people, the complexity of loyalty programmes is a big turn off. But even though the writers at InsideFlyer UK are probably within the 0.1% of people who know the most about loyalty programmes, sometimes we just shake our heads and wonder WTF? Nonetheless, for a travel hacker, complexity = opportunity. So here’s a list of things I don’t really understand, but try my best to take advantage of…

1. Hilton Honors Promos Also Apply to Reward Stays

Most of the time, Hilton Honors runs double or triple points promotions and doubling zero points still gets you zero. But when they run per night or per stay promotions, even reward stays qualify. Recent examples include:

Why? I’m not sure. Most other hotel chains insist upon “eligible nights” – usually paid – in order to qualify for bonuses…

2. Iberia Plus Married Segment Logic

Most people assume that award seats are made available on specific, individual flights. Not so with Iberia Plus (and probably other programmes). Iberia Plus sometimes applies married segment logic to award availability. What does this mean in plain English? Well, sometimes you might search for an award flight from Chicago to Madrid and find nothing. But if you search for Chicago to London (or Lisbon or Paris or Bilbao, etc. etc.), award availability will magically appear on a Chicago to Madrid and Madrid to wherever itinerary…

Only “full-fare Economy” reward space appears to be available for a direct flight from Chicago to Madrid on 11 May. Add in a connection to Lisbon and suddenly you can book a Premium Economy reward…

It does make sense for a direct, non-stop flight to cost more than a connecting flight. After all, there isn’t much competition on many direct routes (i.e. Iberia is the only choice for a direct Chicago to Madrid flight) but adding a connecting flight brings competition from Lufthansa, Air France, etc. into the one-stop game. So, for some reason, Iberia’s award availability algorithm looks at that. Odd, because airlines are not usually competing to give away seats.

Why? Again I don’t really know. But when I don’t find award space on the direct Iberia flight, I start looking at a bunch of Spanish and European destinations. It might be worthwhile to spend the extra Avios (of a short connection) to be able to book the transatlantic leg. And, in case you are wondering, the Iberia call centre can’t (or won’t) do anything about married segments either…

3. Surcharges

If you book a return reward from the United States to London, you will pay more in taxes and surcharges than somebody who books a return reward from London to the States. In theory you are paying the same amount in government taxes, and surcharges should be the same for what are essentially the same flights, right? But… no. Americans pay more.

Although I’m tempted to claim that it’s schadenfreude for all of those 100,000 Avios credit card sign-up bonuses, but actually it’s just how the pricing of airfares seems to work. I recently showed how you can save on surcharges (and tax) by departing from Dublin or Copenhagen, even though you would be on the exact same flight to the U.S. as somebody departing from London.

So, if you are planning to book a reward on British Airways or Virgin Atlantic to the United States, try to book it as a return reward departing the United Kingdom or somewhere in Europe that is even cheaper… If you really must book one-ways, try to book your flight back to the UK or Europe using a mileage currency / airline combination (American Airlines (via AAdvantage or Alaska Mileage Plan), Delta Airlines (via Virgin Flying Club), Iberia, Air Berlin, Aer Lingus, etc.) that doesn’t have high surcharges to be paid…

4. Buying Hotel Points to Book Reward Stays

This one I do sort of understand, but the general public probably doesn’t know/care about how franchised hotels are reimbursed for reward stays.

But if we take the Hilton Honors 100% bonus promotion as our guide, we can stay at any Category 1 or 2 hotel (not that those categories truly exist any more) for £20 / £40 respectively, with the fifth night free. I don’t even have to screenshot anything for readers to know that paid rates are going to be much higher than £20…

Best practice is to only buy points during promotions for immediate needs. But of course if you know what you are doing you can speculatively buy points that you know you will use on big hotel savings…

Sometimes you don’t need to understand the reasons WHY something weird seems to happen. You just need to know that IT DOES happen, and adjust your plans accordingly. But is there anything else you don’t understand, but like to take advantage of?

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