What Is IHG Points Break?

Photo Courtesy: IHG.com

How to Travel Cheap Using IHG Points Break

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) Rewards Club is the loyalty program of hotels such as InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Candlewood Suites, and Staybridge Suites. IHG has over 5000 hotels across the globe.

Usually it costs to stay 10,000 to 60,000 points per night. However, IHG runs a promotion every three months (called IHG Points Break) that lets members to stay in hotels for 5000 points only. About 170 IHG hotels participate in this program.

A participating hotel can be booked for a maximum of two stays/reservations for unlimited nights. For example, you can book 2 rooms in the same hotel or book 2 different dates to stay as many nights as you want (if it’s available) and they will be considered 2 reservations. However, that same hotel cannot have more than two reservations/bookings. You can view the list of hotels under points break here.

There are several ways you can accumulate IHG points. I will not go into detail on all of the possible ways to accumulate IHG points in this article. You can find out easily by searching online. My favourite way to earn IHG points is to buy them when they are on sale. At the regular rate, 5000 IHG points cost $67.50 US. However, IHG runs points sales often with 100% bonus points, making it 5000 points for around $34. This means that you are staying at a hotel for $34 per night.

If you act right away when IHG announces their next segment points break, you maybe able to get a hold of an expensive hotel for 5000 each night. The steep discount sometimes can be as high as 90%. To make the most out of IHG points or their points break, learn the ins and outs of the IHG Rewards Program and here is a good article to get you started: The Complete Guide to IHG Rewards

The Best Cheapest and Worst Days to Fly

Best and Worst Time to Fly

There are various factors that affect plane tickets. If you are flexible to choose when you want to fly, picking some days over others may be beneficial to your wallet.

Worst Time to Fly

Christmas and New Year Season – Those two weeks around Christmas and New Years should be avoided. Peak worst days at this time can be the long weekend or the weekend before holidays.

Spring Break – Though this season can vary based on where you are, in general early March to mid-May can be hectic to fly.

Summer – Summer is a bit tricky. It can be the low season for hot destinations and high season for cold destinations. Long weekends are the worst time to buy tickets. June, July, and August are in general peak time for summer destinations.

Thanksgiving – A couple of days before and after Thanksgiving are the worst time to fly. But the day of Thanksgiving itself offers great discounts if you can fly.

Worst Days to Fly

Fridays and Sundays are the most expensive days to fly.

Best Days to Fly

First Cheapest Days to Fly – Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Second Cheapest Days to Fly – Thursdays and Saturdays.

Best Time to Fly

Fly when most people don’t want to fly due to inconvenience. For example, very early in the morning, overnight flights (red-eyes), lunchtime, and dinnertime.

Last Word

Sometimes no rules will work if you want to take certain flights that only operate once a week or only certain days of the week. Also, if you have several legs of a continuous trip and can’t match the full trip to one of the cheaper days, try to make at least half the leg of the trip fall on the cheaper time frame to save money.

Mileage Plan 101– Tips, Tricks, and the Basics

Alaska Mileage Plan - What You Need to Know

Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan is one of my favourite frequent flyer programs and I use this program to fly Business class across the globe paying very little. It’s no wonder Alaska Airlines and its loyalty program rank at the very top on customer satisfaction year after year.

This Mileage Plan is dynamic in the sense that it’s not part of any 3 alliances; rather it has a pool of partners from all 3 alliances and some non-allied airlines. Here are Alaska Mileage Plan partners:

- Aeromexico

- Air France

- American Airlines

- British Airways

- Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong)

- Delta Air Lines

- Emirates (Dubai)

- Fiji Airways (formerly Air Pacific)

- KLM (Netherlands)

- Korean Air

- LAN (South America)

- PenAir (Alaska)

- Ravn Alaska (formerly Era)

- Qantas (Australia)

Now, let’s look at some basics of Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan frequent flyer program.

Stopover Allowed on One-Way Trip - This is one of the most sought-after features in Mileage Plan rewards. It allows stopover on one leg of the journey or 2 stopovers on a round trip. So you can visit 2 countries instead of one on a one-way trip or 4 countries on a round trip if you use this feature wisely. However, some partners do not allow stopover. Visit alaskaair.com for more info.

No Mix and Match – The Mileage Plan does not allow more than one partner on a one-way flight or on one leg of the trip in a round trip. However, it is allowed to combine with one partner + Alaska Airlines.

Generous Mileage Chart – Unlike other programs, the Alaska Mileage Plan has different redemption charts for different partners and different regions. Usually required miles are a lot less to travel business class compared to other loyalty programs. I will provide some examples below.

Avoiding Fuel Surcharges – Avoid British Airways, as their Mileage Plan collects fuel charges on BA flights, which can be hefty (in the area of $500, for example) on even short flights.

Cancel, Change, and Phone Booking - Alaska allows you to cancel or change within 60 days of departure for a $125 fee and no fee if before 60 days. The phone booking charge is $15 per ticket.

How to Search/Book Flights – You can search and book all partners’ award space on the Alaska website except for Cathay Pacific or LAN. For these, you need to search on partners’ websites such as British Airways, Qantas Airways and then call Alaska to book over the phone. You can learn more on how to search for Alaska award flights by searching more online.

Collecting Alaska Miles – Bank of America and MBNA Canada offer Alaska credit cards with other perks and features. From time to time they will also offer Alaska sales miles on discounts.

Some Alaska Rewards Flights Examples

- Cathay Pacific (CP) to Asia on business class for 50,000 miles with a stopover in Hong Kong

- You can fly to Africa for 50,000 as well with a stopover in Hong Kong on CP. This is real, not a dream.

- CP to Australia or New Zealand with a stopover in Hong Kong for 60,000.

- Qantas business class to Australia or New Zealand for 55,000 miles. Or you can fly to Auckland and have a stopover on Sydney.

- Japan Airlines luxury first class to Asia with a stopover in Tokyo for 70,000 miles.

- Fiji Airways business class to Australia or New Zealand with a stopover in Fiji for 55,000 miles.

- Fly Air France business class for 60,000 miles to Tahiti from LA.

There are so many other possibilities the Alaska mileage plan offers that I find it hard to believe. With proper planning and research, you can see the world in style with Alaska miles.

Aeroplan 101– Tips, Tricks, and the Basics

Aeroplan – What You Need to Know

Today, I will give you an overview of the Aeroplan frequent flyer program. Keep in mind this is just some brief basics on the surface and there is a lot more to know if you really want to fly business class, pay very little, and make the most out of this program. In the section “Travel Miles | Points” I will discuss various hotel and airline rewards programs in the future.

What Is Aeroplan – Aeroplan is the loyalty program created by Air Canada and now owned by Aimia.

Aeroplan Value – There is no definite answer. It totally depends on how knowledgeable you are about the program and how you use it. The Points Guy values Aeroplan at 1.5 cent. Aeroplan sells each mile at 3 cents when you are short and need to buy from Aeroplan. Aimia CEO Rupert Duchesne mentions it can be worth 7 to 8 cents in some cases and nearly 30 cents for a business class trip. This is somewhat true; it all depends how you use it.

Star Alliance – Air Canada is a part of Star Alliance, which has 28 members, including Air Canada. In general, you earn and redeem miles within any airline alliance with any frequent flyer miles belonging to any member of that alliance. For example, you can earn/redeem Aeroplan on Swiss Air or you can earn/redeem Miles & More on Air Canada. Also, Aeroplan has some non-alliance partners and numerous retailers, banking and other partners.

How to Search for Flights – This is where you have to know your stuff. I will give you some basic tips. Start with Aeroplan’s website. However, not all rewards flights will be available on Aeroplan. There are some paid sites solely for search purposes. However, you can search on other alliance websites such as United.com (Saver Awards only, Standard Awards appearing on United may not be booked for Aeroplan) and Ana.co.jp for flights that won’t appear on appear on Aeroplan’s site. To book these flights found on other alliance member sites, you have to call Aeroplan to book over the phone and there is a $30 fee.

Avoiding Fuel Surcharges – Air Canada (and some other airlines) is notorious for charging hefty fuel surcharges when you use Aeroplan. Avoid these airlines and the unnecessary charges by simply flying with other airlines that don’t feature these charges. I will not go into details, as I have a video explaining this. View it here: How Not to Get Dinged by Air Canada on Aeroplan Rewards Flights

Do Not Fly Cash Free – Aeroplan encourages you to fly cash free by paying taxes and fees using Aeroplan. However, you will end up being the loser if you choose this option, as your extraction rate for paying fees will be only 1 cent per mile, whether your goal should be to redeem Aeroplan for higher value such as 5 cents or beyond. So when you have small taxes and fees to pay (if you can manage to avoid paying fuel surcharges by not taking those airlines as I mentioned in the video), use cash and save your miles from redeeming them for 1 cent each.

One-Way or Round-Trip – Aeroplan (and most other frequent flyer programs) offer booking a one-way trip for exactly half of the points required for a round-trip. One-way trip booking provides better flexibility, as you may want to book the other leg of your trip with another program or even cash if you get a good deal.

Stopover and Open-Jaw – One of the best kept secrets of Aeroplan is that it allows you to book a stopover in a different city along the way on a round-trip at no additional costs. Open-Jaw allows you to fly to one place and leave from another place (the arrival and departure cities are different) on a round-trip. If you know how to utilize this, you can actually visit 4 places on one round-trip flight on Aeroplan.

Cancel, Change, and Last-Minute Booking – Aeroplan allows you to cancel or change up to 2 hours before departure for a C$90 fee and you can also book up to 2 hours before departure.

What I discussed above is just the basics about Aeroplan. With any hotel or airline loyalty programs, you need to know the ins and outs to become successful. I will be discussing more on AhmedDawn.com about many programs in the future.