IHG Rewards Club (Priority Club)

Mileage and Point Reward Status (May 2011)

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I have been working on compiling a list to track where we are among all of our miles and point reward programs. I started this process at the end of January 2011, and will attempt to update the chart once each month as well as a small recap of any changes.

[easychart type=”line” height=”300″ width=”350″ title=”Mile/Point Status (As of 5/12/11)” groupnames=”Delta,United,Continental,USAirways,American,Hilton,Intercontinental” valuenames=”Jan2011,Feb2011,Mar2011,Apr2011,May2011″ group1values=”69447,69447,70447,70947,70947″ group2values=”100043,100043,108043,108059,108059″ group3values=”67333,67333,67333,67333,67333″ group4values=”8018,8020,11759,13778,13778″ group5values=”0,300,600,600,600″ group6values=”11679,11679,21979,24479,24479″ group7values=”29271,29271,29271,29271,167571″]

Since January, we have amassed quite a bit of points and miles, and I contribute the big part of that to this blog as it has kept me accountable to finding the latest offers and promotions.

The following is a brief summary of the things we have done since January to build up our accounts.

Delta SkyMiles– added 1,500 miles between the Fedex promotion and other incentives

United Mileage Plus- both my wife and I opened Netflix accounts, earning 8,016 miles between the bonus and spend on our United credit cards

Continental OnePass- no change; other than possible credit card bonuses, Continental really has not handed out any free miles unless you are already a card holder.

US Airways Dividend Miles– opened an account for my wife; Dining promotions; Customer appreciation promotion; and toolbar use added 5,760 miles

American Airlines AAdvantage– opened accounts for all four of us to take advantage of promotions; only 600 miles in accounts and still waiting for receipt of other promotions

Hilton HHonors– added 12,800 points between their Facebook botched program, dining rewards, and the “Goodwill Hold Time” promotion

Priority Club Rewards- earned 138,300 points for the Crack the Case promotion

Note, we also have reward accounts with AirTran, Southwest, Choice Hotels, and Wyndham Rewards, but since we do not really use them, there is no point in including them in this list. I debated about including Southwest Airlines, since we do have some of the old credits from the previous Rapid Rewards program; however, after looking at what we would need to earn in the new point system to receive an award before they expire (old points still appear to expire), makes it unlikely that we will ever get anything out of the system.

Priority Club Crack the Case Promo Completion

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YES! Today was a great day for miles/points! Our stay, that wrapped up on May 1, in the Finger Lakes qualified me to meet all of my Crack the Case promo requirements that I previously talked about. So I have been anxiously awaiting the points to show up in my account.

The Crack the Case promo page showed that I received credit for the stays late last week, but the points had not shown up in my account until today. Therefore, from the time of checkout, it took 10 days for the points to show up in my account.

From the Crack the Case promotion, I have now received an additional 138,300 points since I unlocked my fifth bonus case of 125,000 miles. I could receive an additional 60,000 miles if I opened the credit card, or even 80,000 miles from a separate email they sent to me, but as I have discussed before, we are on hold for opening any new cards until after we secure a new mortgage.

For some reason the 750 points I received upon arrival to the hotel for spinning their wheel game have not showed up yet in the account. In addition, I had registered for several promos (for example, 3,000 bonus points for stays in April, or 3,000 points for your third night stay) ahead of the trip in hopes of double dipping on some of the bonus miles since I did not receive any stay points for the Friends and Family rate. I will probably give the system until the end of this week before I start asking where the 750 points are in my account. Any bonus points from other promotions will just have to be a loss (since they were a bonus anyways), except I am completely baffled why they have not gone through.

I have been keeping an eye on all of our American Airlines AAdvantage accounts also to see if any of the Fortune Cookie promo points have shown up but still nothing. I am beginning to wonder if those points will ever actually show up in the end only because of the nature of how the promo was conducted and allowing everyone to try multiple times with different email addresses.

Finger Lakes, New York Trip Report (Part 2)

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In my previous post I discussed our hotel, the Staybridge Suites in Corning, New York. We choose this hotel 1) because the price could not be beat; 2) it was part of the Intercontinental Hotel Group, which allowed me to meet certain criteria for the Crack the Case promo; 3) the hotel rooms each featured a small kitchen, which worked out perfect for us with two small children; and lastly 4) its proximity to the Finger Lakes wine region.

After our arrival into Corning, New York, we were too early to check into our hotel rooms. So we headed next door to the Corning Glass Museum. We had no idea what to expect at a museum about glass. However, I was more impressed by the depth of their collection and how it was presented. Below are just two small representations of the beautiful glass artwork they have on display.

The museum also features an in-house glass blowing presentation as well as lots of hands on activities to learn about the development and technologies associated with glass making. In the basement is an extensive gift shop with everything from table dishes to ornaments.

After the museum, we headed into downtown Corning to walk the main strip and visit the Corning Factory store. We made our way into several of the local shops and then to our early dinner at the Market Street Brewery.

We were there on a relaxing Thursday evening with few people in the establishment. We started off the evening with the…
Sushi Nacho’s and…

Hot Stuff Banana Peppers

Both dishes had excellent flavors. For our main dishes, I ordered the Veggie Batard, which featured roasted red pepper, zucchini, artichokes, and red onions aboard Romano batard with Swiss cheese and a smokey chipotle aioli.

The sandwich was accompanied with an excellent potato and sweet potato dish (not pictured) that was outstanding.

My wife had ordered the Beer-B-Q Burger, which featured Angus beef smothered in a homemade beer-b-q sauce, topped with bacon, caramelized onions, and provolone cheese.

Overall the Market Street Brewery was outstanding! We loved it so much so that we went back again on our last evening because we knew it was exceptional food!

After dinner we walked along Market Street visiting more of the local shops. Our server at the Brewery recommended Poppleton Pastries down the street for our desserts, so we gladly obliged.

I ordered the Finger Lakes Harvest Wine Cake, which was amazing! It was an almond butter cake topped with sweet apples and toasted almonds and soaked in a Finger Lake Riesling wine. When we arrived they were getting close to closing for the day. They apparently were extremely busy with everyone coming in to buy scones for the Royal Wedding the next morning. My wife had also ordered a cupcake, which was rather dry and bland, so I am glad I stuck with the Wine Cake.

Besides swimming later that evening back at the hotel, we all headed to bed relatively early because we knew we had big wine country plans for the next day.