Free Global Entry for kids, an underrated AA sweet spot & could Hilton be better than Hyatt? (Saturday Selection)

Hilton may be about to “surpass” Hyatt as the best hotel loyalty program, kids now get free Global Entry and a “hidden” sweet spot for AA flights. All that and more in this week’s Saturday Selection, our weekly round-up of interesting tidbits from around the interwebs (links to the original articles are embedded in the titles).

Will Hilton Honors soon “surpass” World of Hyatt?

In the world of points and miles, World of Hyatt easily tops most people’s lists as the most rewarding loyalty program…and specifically Hyatt’s Globalist status. Globalists get a fixed award chart (historically at very good value), waived resort fees and free parking on award stays, the ability to confirm suites at booking, legit free breakfast…we bloggers could go on and on (and we do). But, of late, Hyatt’s been a little, dare I say, disappointing? It’s added a ton of all-inclusive properties around the world, but the award pricing on those properties has quickly skyrocketed, often making them poor value. It lost Small Luxury Hotels pf the World (SLH), but then “replaced” it by purchasing Mr & Mrs Smith (MMS). We initially celebrated the acquisition – until we saw the award pricing. We’re used to getting something approaching two cents per Hyatt point in value, but MMS properties were sometimes below one cent per point (cpp) and now seem to average around 1.2cpp – but with less perks and elite recognition than we previously had with SLH. Essentially, Hyatt has grown, but much of what’s been added has arguably diluted the value of the program.

Despite all that, they’re still comfortably the best, right?

Feel those hairs stand up on the back of your neck, Hyatt? That’s Hilton breathing down your neck. After snatching SLH from the arms of Hyatt, Hilton has arguably done a better job of adding those properties to their own program, often with AMAZING value at the high end. I have an upcoming four night stay at Point Grace Resort in Turks and Caicos; a $6,000 stay that I booked for four Hilton free night certificates from credit cards. The attractiveness of the SLH integration, combined with the easy of earning Hilton Honors points, has even many die-hard Hyatt loyalists taking a second look, including Thrifty Traveler.

Spirit Airlines reportedly considering bankruptcy

Spirit has had a tough go of it recently. Things looked rosy for quite some time as the airline spent two years planning a merger with JetBlue, only to be blocked from consummating the bond when the Department of Justice filed a suit under the auspices that US consumers were better served by having access to two medium-sized, sub-par, budget airlines instead of just one, larger, sub-par airline. JetBlue legal didn’t help the situation when it accidentally released internal projections that prices on some routes served by Spirit would increase by up to ~40% post-merger, in contrast to public assertions that pricing would be lightly-affected. Spirit stock plunged over 50% after the merger died, leading some analysts to project that the airline was on its way to the afterlife (something Spirit denied). Since then, Spirit has tried to burnish its reputation as an upstanding member of the US airline community with the addition of premium seating and fare bundles that loosely-approximate most carriers basic economy, main cabin and premium fare classes. It also added free wifi for elite members, removed changed fees and is generally trying to put on its Sunday best for all those folks that had written it off as a ne’er do well. Unfortunately, it might be too late for the bottom line as the airline is reportedly in talks with bondholders over a possible bankruptcy filing. Spirit shares again plunged as the news broke

Don’t sleep on redeeming Alaska miles for AA flights

Alaska Airlines has had a long, on-and-off-again relationship with American. Back in the old days, when Alaska was a misfit, unallied bachelor with a plethora of individual partnerships and awards charts, it was an unusual domestic friend of AA, which allowed members of both programs to earn and redeem miles on each other’s flights. At some point, things became acrimonious, and American decided that it actually wanted to compete with Alaska on the West Coast instead of playing nice, so that partnership went the way of the dodo. Now, the old frenemies are on the up-and-up again as Alaska has become part of American’s oneworld family. Not only can you earn and redeem, but each airline also offers significant benefits to elites members when flying on each other’s metal. Alaska re-jiggered its award chart earlier this year, getting rid of all of those partner-specific award charts in favor of one that’s consistent across all of them. In the process, many of its old sweet spots went away, much to the chagrin of folks who enjoyed looking for that rarer-than-a-unicorn 50K business class flight to Australia. That said, there’s still great value to be had. One sneaky-good sweet spot, that both Greg and I have been harping on for awhile, is booking AA flights using Alaska miles. The various Avios programs have been steadily hacking away at the value of their domestic US charts, and now Alaska is the best way to book AA flights under 1,400 miles…often significantly less-expensive than AA itself. I just booked two flights from Miami to Turks and Caicos for 4,500 miles each way, while AA wanted around $300 or 20,000 miles each way for the same flights. Greg and I aren’t the only ones; Ben over at One Mile at a Time is enjoying using Alaska to book AA flights as well and wrote about it last week.

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