Odds and Ends

As I prepare for a month long trip to Thailand (with a 1/2 day stop over in Europe for a quick meeting) I am tying up last minute odds and ends.

As I’ve been booking some last minute hotels, rental cars, etc… I’ve run into some very odd things. Here are a few:

Booking a flight to New York on Chase Ultimate Rewards Website, I noticed a warning message.  The message says “This flight arrives at a different airport than the one you started your trip from.”   Hmmmm…..yes, of course it ends at a different airport.   Why would I take off from CHS go to CLT and return to CHS on the outbound portion of a round-trip?  Am I missing something here?  I got the same warning on the return portion of the round-trip.  Odd!

I needed a one-day rental in Charleston and went to book with National since I have Executive Elite status.  Look at the prices that came up for a one-day rental – $1,343.51 for an economy car. You should have seen the price for an SUV!  Convinced this had to be a mistake, I re-submitted my search and sure enough, the prices had changed…turns out economy was $134. That’s a little more like it.

Other Odds and Ends –

Starwood:

SPG Nice Choices Promo registration begins May 1.  Whose as excited as I am?  I have 28 nights at SPG in May alone and so I’m really looking forward to making my Nice Choice!  (I’d also like to thank VeryGoodPoints reader SB for breaking the news of the leaked promo details on my site at April 21, 2012 at 1:15 am  – I’m pretty sure that was the first posting about the details. )

Marriott: 

Make sure you register for Marriott’s Q2-Q3 promotion – my targeted promo was:

Stay 15 paid nights at any participating hotel between June 1 and August 31, 2012
Earn 20,000 bonus points, plus an additional 10,000 points after 20 paid nights, and another 10,000 points after 25 paid nights (up to 40,000 points). 

I’ve seen others getting this promo:

Register by June 30, 2012
Stay twice at any participating hotel between June 1 and August 31, 2012
Earn one free night after every second paid stay, up to three free nights

In addition to the Summer Promo, I registered for this one too:

Earn 7,500 Marriott Rewards^® bonus points after you enjoy two stays at Fairfield Inn & Suites® between May 1 and July 31, 2012.

Register by logging into your Marriott Rewards Account and going to Promotion Central.

Hilton:

Hilton is offering double points or double miles between April 1st and June 3oth. Register and choose wisely – you can’t change your mind on your earning preference.

Summary: 

There are a million other promos out there you can register for – but these are the ones that interest me!  Check out all the other BoardingArea blogs for more promo info.

Make sure you check back frequently in May! I’ll have trip reports from Thailand including a review of  Le Meridien Khao Lak, Sheraton Krabi, Royal Orchid Sheraton, and the St Regis Bangkok (so excited about this one!).  I’ll also post about my flight on US Air’s new Envoy “pod” configuration and my Thai Air flight in their old style business class.