TPG Contributor Max Bloom explains how planning meetings can earn you elite status at the major hotel chains. Last post he gave an intro to planning meetings.

Every major hotel chain allows meeting planners to earn elite status through meetings, though their criteria vary. Some award status based upon the amount of money you spend, while others award it based on the number of qualifying meetings held or the number of base points accumulated in a calendar year.

Registration

While hotels are usually good about awarding points and status to anyone planning a meeting, Priority Club, Starwood and Hilton require registration as a meeting planner. For all three, you need to already have a personal account in their respective programs. Registration doesn’t require any business details and is simply a process of identifying yourself as a planner. You can find  registration info for all three programs below. Just as a note: Hilton and Starwood claim to require registration, but I have seen them award points and status to planners who were not registered. Still, better safe than sorry.

Priority Club: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/1/en/mbmeetings/meet-rewards

Starwood: http://www2.teamhot.com/rfp/spp/index.cfm

Hilton: Call Hilton customer service at (800) 548-8690 and tell them you want to register as an event planner. You can reference code EVPL if needed.

How Elite Status is Determined

It’s very hard to make apples to apples comparisons because the accrual of elite status is so different between chains, but there are essentially three ways of deciding which program is will give you the highest status the fastest.

1) How much money you spend per meeting.

2) How many meetings you hold per year.

3) Whether or not your meeting includes sleeping rooms.

Today I’m going to discuss the first two, and will cover #3 in next week’s post.

Base Points

You’ll notice I will use the term “base points” to talk about Priority Club and Hilton. Priority Club rewards you three base points per dollar spent on an event. Hilton awards you just one base point per dollar spent on an event.

Elite Qualifications By Chain

I’ve put together this comparison table showing the requirements for elite status at the 5 major hotel chains with explanations below.

Marriott is unique in that they do not actually award elite status based on meetings, but elite qualifying nights instead. They award 10 elite qualifying nights per meeting, so instead of staying 50 nights to reach Gold, you could hold 5 meetings. The elite nights earned from meetings count on top of the elite nights you earn through normal stays as an individual, so this could be a really lucrative option if you’re looking to pad your points portfolio.

All things being equal, if you spend very little money on meetings you can earn elite status fastest with Marriott, where you will achieve Silver status after just one meeting of any value. Second to that would be Priority Club, since you get two bites at the apple: either 1 qualifying meeting or 20,000 base points gets you Gold status. However, Priority Club is the most restrictive in terms of what qualifies as a meeting (as I’ll describe in a later post).

If you spend a lot of money on meetings—by planning an expensive wedding or a large conference, for example—you will earn status fastest with Starwood, Priority Club, or Hilton. Although it’s uncommon for people who aren’t professional event planners to spend so much money at once, it’s possible to earn Starwood Platinum, Priority Club Platinum, or Hilton Diamond after a single very expensive meeting.

With Hilton and Priority Club, it’s all about the base points. You could earn Priority Club Gold by spending $6,667, but you would have to spend $60,000 at Hilton in order to earn Gold status. If you want to earn status by holding the fewest meetings possible and you aren’t spending at least $6K per meeting, your best bet will be Marriott (1 meeting), Priority Club (1 meeting), or Hyatt (3 meetings).

Sleeping Nights

Like earning elite status through individual stays, it’s important to pick one chain and stick with it. In order to choose the right chain, you also need to think about the number of meetings you have coming up, the amount of money you’ll be spending (or the amount of revenue generated by a room block), and whether or not you have sleeping rooms, which I will get to next week.

The Continental/United merger is quickly barreling towards finality – in a short time Continental will cease to exist as an airline, but many facets of the airline will live on with the new United. According to FlyerTalk’s UA Insider thread, news has come down that the last official flight of Continental Airlines will be #1267 departing from Phoenix at 11:59pm on March 2, arriving Cleveland, 5:46 am March 3. A red-eyed last hurrah!

Frequent Flyer Accounts

Come March 3, customers of both airlines are likely to experience some delays and headaches as the two companies’ systems are finally merged once and for all. That also means Continental OnePass accounts and MileagePlus accounts will be merged, so if you haven’t linked them, be sure to do so by then so the transition is as smooth as possible for you. It also looks like Continental miles won’t start expiring until September 30, 2013, so that might buy you some more time to use them (though keeping your miles from expiring is pretty simple).

Turns out the new airline has decided to go with Continental’s OnePass numeration system with letters and numerals, so if you have a Continental OnePass number, your new frequent flyer account number should be that, while if you were strictly a United loyalist before, you’ll get a new FF account number generated for you.

Elite status you earned back in 2010 will expire on March 2, 2012, so if you didn’t requalify, you have till then to enjoy the perks.

Site Issues

On the customer experience side, Continental.com is scheduled to automatically forward to United.com, though the site should pretty much look like Continental’s site used to…which is great, because as I’ve pointed out, Continental’s customer interface is a lot better than United’s, especially when it comes to booking award tickets.

Credit Considerations

Those of you thinking about getting the Continental OnePass Plus Card should also do so immediately since it the latest update is that the card will be going away sometime soon as well, possibly as early as March 3. You can find details on the card here (you can also try to get a 60,000 point offer via the process in this post). The Onepass card also gives you perks like a free checked bag, priority boarding, complimentary lounge passes, and double miles earned on dollars spent on airline tickets on United and Continental.

The End of Days

While I’m a little bit nostalgic about the end of Continental, which has been around since 1934, I’m interested to see what the new airline finally ends up looking like. Though I’m sure there are going to be a lot of bumps in the road in the coming months, in the end, I’m excited to see what the new merged airline looks like and that some of the uncertainty of the past months will be coming to an end.

While I’m mostly focused on flying Delta and American these days, we’ll have some new contributors talking about the new MileagePlus program soon, and what that will mean for United flyers, so keep an eye out for that coverage.

It’s already been a few weeks since the whirlwind Oneworld Megado came to an end, but stories keep coming out thanks to a few of the journalists who were along for the ride. For those of you who are interested in what goes on on one of these, both articles provide interesting insights to the activities and the participants.

The most recent appeared in the Associated Press today courtesy of writer Scott Mayerowitz, the AP Airlines Writer, and is titled: Fantasy Camp for Those Who Love To Fly. In it, Scott talks to a few of the personalities on the trip including Megado founder and organizer Tommy Danielsen. Scott also digs into the mindset of many of our fellow travelers who will do anything to earn the points and miles necessary to fly around the world in style. One of my favorite quotes, and a good characterization of what goes on: “In each row, stories were swapped of amazing meals and opulent hotels in faraway lands – all paid for with frequent flier miles. These travelers don’t just love to fly; they are obsessed with collecting frequent flier miles at the cheapest possible cost.” All in all, a great wrap-up piece on a great trip. You can follow Scott’s stories on Twitter at @GlobeTrotScott.

And in case you didn’t see it, one of the other journalists on the trip, Ben Mutzabaugh of USA Today’s “Today in the Sky” blog, also wrote a great piece last week called, Extreme Fliers: They love flying, they really, really do. Ben also talks to Tommy, who calls the Megado, “a travel junkie field trip,” as well as several other Megadoers, and discusses why this is so much more than a hobby for us. You can follow Ben on Twitter @TodayInTheSky.

So check out the stories, and I bet that when tickets go on sale for the next Megado, many of you will be anxiously poised in front of your computer ready to click that “buy” button.

Last week, I wrote about airlines’ business frequent flyer programs, and it turns out that American Airlines sent out an email offering 1,000 bonus points to members of its ExtrAA Business program for signing up for an online marketing company called Vertical Response with the following link and spending $5 or more before May 31,2012. The easiest way to get to the $5 spend requirement is to purchase credits for 334 emails at $0.015 each, and you’re there.

This is a lucrative offer because the BusinessExtrAA program normally 1 point per $10 spent on AA airfare (from most airports except Dallas and Miami), so 1,000 points would be the equivalent of spending $10,000!

The 1,000 bonus ExtrAA points you earn are enough for 3 Admirals Club day passes (300 points each), or half of what you need for the lowest flight award, a roundtrip domestic ticket, which takes 2,000 ExtrAA points to redeem. So for $5 and two minutes’ time, you’ve earned half a roundtrip ticket. Not bad.

The Business ExtrAA promo email American Airlines sent out.

Then you can either leave your account open if you plan to use it (or not, it doesn’t cost anything just to have), or close it once your ExtrAA points post to your account—which might be all the way in June if the T&C that claim it will be 6-8 weeks after the promotion ends, so keep an eye out.

Hat tip: TPG reader Matt!

Here are the other T&C specific to this promotion:

“This offer is available only to recipients of the email sent by American Airlines to select Business ExtrAA® members and is valid through May 31, 2012. Promotional bonus points available for new VerticalResponse customers only, who provide the requested information using the enrollment site provided via link from this email (www.verticalresponse.com/AABizExtrAA) and complete a qualifying purchase with VerticalResponse of $5 or more between January 26, 2012, and May 31, 2012.

Points will post to your company’s Business ExtrAA account 6-8 weeks after promotion ends. Companies earn two points for every $10 spent for all qualifying tickets on American Airlines®, American Eagle® and AmericanConnection® carriers. Companies earn one point for every $10 spent on eligible itineraries from Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Miami (MIA). For complete details on eligible travel, visit www.businessextrAA.com.”

500 Points Enrollment Bonus

According to this thread on FlyerTalk, If you haven’t enrolled in BusinessExtrAA, you can score an additional 500 points for signing up. The sign-up site is here, and when you create your account, enter the referral code FLYAA, and you should find the points posted to your account 60 days after the end of the quarter in which you enroll. This code was originally created in November 2008, so I’m not sure it still works, but can’t hurt to try!

Looking down the coast from Hanalei.

My trip this past weekend was my first time in Kauai, and I have to say that after just four days, I fell in love with this gorgeous island. That’s mostly thanks to the great suggestions I got from TPG readers about what to see, do and eat while I was there. Here are a few of the highlights from my trip, and thanks again to all of you who shared your tips with me!

Day 1: Polihale Beach, Shrimp Burgers and Shave Ice, and a Poipu Sunset

We got in on Thursday morning and spent the first part-day exploring the Grand Hyatt. We also picked up our rental car at Lihue Airport … only to discover it was a pick-up truck! That seemed a little odd, but little did we know that the next day—our first full day on the island—we’d be thanking our lucky stars because we decided to check out Polihale Beach on the west side of the island near Waimea.

The bumpy road to Polihale Beach. Thankfully our rental was a pick-up!

To get there, you need to take a bumpy dirt road for about 20 minutes, and it seems like it would have been practically impossible in a sedan. The ride was worth it, though, because the beach was beautiful. There was a stunning cliff falling to the water, the surf was beautiful (if a bit rough), and we had it practically to ourselves.  Though the surf was rough, we decided to chance it and took a swim, bodysurfed, and had a good time, though it was probably a little dangerous and not the best idea.

Getting to Polihale Beach was worth the bumpy ride. We practically had it to ourselves.

My suggestion would be to bring snacks since there’s literally nothing there. After a few hours, we had worked up an appetite, so we went to the Shrimp Station in Waimea, which several readers had recommended, and had a deep-fried lunch of coconut shrimp, shrimp tacos and shrimp burgers, which were my favorite.

Shrimp Station in Waimea. Loved the shrimp burger.

After gorging on all that fried food, of course we needed to stop at Jo Jo’s for some shave ice, which is basically a bunch of ice cream with shaved ice in various flavors. I had one with strawberry, coconut, pineapple, shaved coconut, coconut ice cream and macadamia nut ice cream, which was out of this world, and I’m still thinking about it.

Shave ice at Jo Jo's. I'm still dreaming about the macadamia ice cream!

On the way back to the Grand Hyatt, we were going to drive the Waimea Canyon, but we wanted to get back for sunset at the Beach House in Poipu so we could meet some friends who brought along pineapple champagne made in Hawaii so we could have drinks on the beach. It was the perfect end to the day. Dinner at the Beach House was also nice—excellent service and great view right on the water. The food was just good, not great, just fresh seafood.

Sunset from Poipu Beach near the Beach House restaurant. Perfect!

Day 2: Pools, Spas and a Decadent Day

The next day, we drove the 75 minutes between the Grand Hyatt in Poipu on the south shore of Kauai to the St. Regis Princeville (where we spent our next two nights) on the north shore, stopping along the way to see the Wailua Falls. They were beautiful, but no Iguazu. Just pretty waterfalls in the jungly hillsides.

When we got to the St. Regis, we spent a lazy day by the pool, which had awesome views of Hanalei Bay and perfect service. In the afternoon, I got a hot stone massage at the spa, which, like much of the rest of the experience at the resort was gorgeous but expensive. That night, we ate dinner at Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Kauai Grill at the resort, which I mentioned in my hotel review of the St. Regis.

Day 3: The Surfing Lesson

It was time for a more active day, so I had our St. Regis butler Alfredo book us a surfing lesson with Hawaiian Surfing Adventure in the morning for two hours for $75 a person. This was probably my favorite part of the trip. Our instructor was Shawn, a native Hawaiian who grew up surfing from the age of three. It was just my friend and Sean and me hanging out on the beach learning the basics. I was nervous about it because I’m so tall and don’t know what my center of gravity was going to be like, but Sean was a great teacher, and after 15 minutes of talking us through the basics on the beach, we got into the water, and I actually caught my first wave and rode it to the shore! Plus it was a great workout. Hanalei Bay was a fantastic place to learn since the waves were gentle, it’s got a sandy bottom, and it even started raining at one point, which was just beautiful.

Day 4: The Helicopter Ride

Everyone told me I had to see the Na Pali Coast, which has to be one of the planet’s most beautiful settings. To do so, you’ve got a few options: a rigorous all-day hike (which we didn’t have time for), a catamaran or zodiac boat ride, or a helicopter. I’m not a huge fan of helicopters because of a bad family experience, so I had originally made a reservation to take a zodiac ride while I was staying at the Grand Hyatt since they only leave from the south coast in winter. Unfortunately, it had been canceled due to rough seas, so in order to see the cliffs, I had to take a helicopter tour from the northern coast during my stay.

Our trusty ride for the morning!

I decided to pay $314 for a 45-minute tour with Sunshine Helicopters that departed from the Princeville Airport just a few minutes from the St. Regis. My misgivings were slightly assuaged by the helicopter itself, which was a beautiful, big new machine with four seats in back and three up front, as well as our outgoing pilot who said he flies eight flights a day.

The Waimea Canyon.

The weather was perfect with very little cloud cover, and our pilot took us along the coast of Hanalei Bay, through the Waimea Canyon (we finally got to see it!) and flew us along crevices in the landscape that were just unbelievable, then up to rainy Mount Waileale, where he literally flew us through a cloud.

Beautiful mountains in the interior.

There were definitely a few moments of turbulence that made me wish I was back on solid ground, but I have to say that the entire experience was worth it, especially when we flew past the coastal cliffs and out over the ocean for those famous views of the Na Pali coast. We could even see whales  breaching in the water below us.

The dramatic Na Pali Coast.

It was just incredible—one of those experiences where you feel vulnerable and have to take a risk, it’s pricey, especially just for 45 minutes, but those memories will last me a lifetime.  You can get a small glimpse of them yourself by having a look at some of the video I shot from the helicopter ride below.

My New Obsession

I think it’s fair to say that I’m obsessed with Kauai now. I’d always heard how gorgeous it was, but I had to go there myself to truly appreciate it, and luckily, I had all of you suggesting fantastic experiences along the way that made my trip really special.

As I mentioned in my post last week before I took off for Kauai, I wanted to reward one lucky TPG reader who commented or tweeted me with a suggestion for my first trip to the island.

The winner of the 10,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points is: Vishal, who also provided one of the most thorough list of comments I got on my trip, with lots of helpful advice. Thanks Vishal! I’ll be in touch soon with your points.

Take a look at the gallery below for my highlights, and let me know some of your favorite things to do on Kauai!

For the past year or so, the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card has had a 15,000 point sign-up bonus, but today American Express raised it to 25,000 after $2,000 in spend within the first three months and the $175 annual fee is waived the first year. While 25,000 isn’t exactly earth-shattering, it’s still a 67% increase. However, some TPG readers have gotten 50,000-75,000, so if you feel lucky, it might make sense to hold off for a targeted offer, though there’s nothing you can do to increase your chance of getting one. Also, if you’ve applied recently and only got 15,000 points, it could be worth a shot to send a secure message to Amex to ask for the 10,000 point difference in sign-up bonus.

If you are currently a Premier Rewards cardholder, you can refer friends and receive 5,000 Membership Rewards points by using this link (you must be logged out of your Amex account or else it may not load properly).

While 25,000 points isn’t the highest sign-up bonus out there, this card is all about the point-earning benefits. For me, it’s my #2 workhorse card after the Sapphire Preferred card because it’s the most lucrative earning Amex card out there and the $175 annual fee pays for itself if you spend enough and in the right categories.

Key benefits:
3 points per dollar spent on airfare booked through any site (including airlines directly) as long as the purchase is coded as airfare and 4 points per dollar if booked through Amex Travel.
2 points per dollar spent on gas and groceries
15,000 point bonus when you spend $30,000 annual. This essentially amounts to earning 1.5 Amex points per base dollar spent for the first $30,000 in spend (not including any bonuses for airfare/gas/groceries).
Purchase Protection

Main downsides:
2.7% foreign transaction fee. I never use this card abroad
$175 annual fee is steep compared to $95 on the Sapphire card

Related information: Comparing the Premier Rewards Gold vs. the normal Gold card

Offer Details:

Stunning sunset over Hanalei Bay.

As I mentioned yesterday in my review of the Kauai Grand Hyatt, I changed my trip plans once I got there and decided to spend the third and fourth nights of my stay on the island at the St. Regis Princeville instead.

I enjoyed the Grand Hyatt, but it was purely a points decision since my suite upgrade was only confirmed for my first two nights, and I would have had to use 54,000 Gold Passport points to stay in a club room for the second two nights, whereas I found award night redemption availability at the St. Regis for 21,500 a night, for a grand total of 43,000 Starpoints. Plus, with my SPG Platinum status, I suspected I would be upgraded to a suite. Plus, my award stay would count toward SPG elite status qualification, an aspect where Starwood has Hyatt beat.

The St. Regis lobby

Arrival

The Grand Hyatt is on the south side of Kauai, but the St. Regis is pretty much clear across the island on the northern coast overlooking Hanalei Bay and near the famous Na Pali Coast cliffs, so the scenery is just gorgeous and much more dramatic. It’s about an hour and 15 minutes from the Grand Hyatt, depending on traffic.

Compared to the Grand Hyatt’s 602 rooms, the St. Regis only has 251, making it feel a lot quieter, more intimate, adult and exclusive. Just what I was in the mood for.

The Suite

As I had hoped, though I only booked a standard room, when I checked in, I was upgraded to a Prince Junior Suite. Yes, it’s the lowest suite level but it’s still pretty spacious at 820 square feet and has a separate living room and bedroom. The lowest rate for it I could find in the next month is $773 a night, so I felt I’d scored a good point redemption. And like all the suites, it came with signature St. Regis Butler Service, so just an added bonus. I thought about calling our butler to mix me a drink using the mai tai welcome amenity in the room, but ended up doing it myself.

The living room of my Prince Junior Suite. Look at that view!

I loved the look of the room with original Hawaiian art, hardwood fixtures, custom-built furniture and plantation shutters, and a lot of marble in the foyer and the bathroom. It felt very colonial Hawaii. The Prince Junior suites are all oceanview, so it had those million-dollar views of Hanalei Bay, even from the bathroom.

The separate king bedroom in my Prince Junior Suite.

The main room had both a large sitting area with an upholstered sectional sofa, leather ottoman and coffee table, a small breakfast table with two chairs near the window, a stocked minibar, and a huge entertainment center with a 52-inch flatscreen TV and a Bose sound system.

The bedroom itself was also pretty large and had a pillow-top king-size bed, a big wooden work desk, another smaller minibar “wine cooler,” and another cool gadget: a smaller television that popped up out of a console when you wanted to watch TV from bed.

The Prince Junior Suite full bath suite with a window overlooking Hanalei Bay that you can shade or brighten electronically with a switch on the wall.

The bathroom was marble, marble and more marble, with two sinks and stocked with Remède bath products. I did find it strange that it had a bath-shower was a combo rather than separate bath and shower, but I couldn’t argue with the view. My favorite feature was the huge liquid-crystal window with that same stunning view that you could lighten or shade for privacy using an electronic switch on the wall. Great gadget.

The Resort

The resort is on the clifftops over the bay, so beach access is a bit of a pain (a transfer to two elevators), but the infinity pool is beautiful and was quiet even though there were a lot of other guests, so we spent some time relaxing there until a gorgeous sunset.

The St. Regis's gorgeous pool...folks enjoying the jacuzzi.

Dining

I thought the food experience at the resort was great, if expensive. We had brunch one day at the Makana Terrace, the resort’s main dining room, overlooking the bay and Makana Mountain. It was pretty expensive at $60 a person, and the total including tip for two people with a glass of wine and a couple coffee drinks came out to $180!

We had brunch with a view at this terrace table.

For dinner one night, we also decided to try the hotel’s Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant, the Kauai Grill. I’ve heard other people have been disappointed with it, but we had a great meal there. We got the tasting menu for $86 per person and wine pairings for an additional $48—if one person at the table orders the tasting menu, everyone at the table has to have it.

Dinner at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Kauai Grill at the St. Regis. This is sauteed lobster with butter cabbage, scallion and ginger.

It was five courses and included sautéed Kona lobster with butter cabbage, scallion and ginger paired with a pinot noir from Oregon, and caramelized Wagyu strip loin with grilled shiitake and black sesame mustard with a tempranillo from Spain. The white chocolate and yuzu Pavlova with Thai basil syrup for dessert was unique and delicious.

Another Level

What sets the St. Regis apart is the service. Shortly after I made my reservation, I had an email from Alfredo, the super helpful Butler Services Manager, who helped make my stay perfect. I love being able to make plans via email, so we went back and forth until I had a perfect schedule of plans for my final two days, which will be highlighted in a different post and included surfing lessons at Hanalei Bay and an aerial tour of Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali coast. Alfredo also took care of our restaurant reservations and each table we got was prime.

Even at Kauai Grill, the general manager Ashlee was more than helpful and the chef d’ cuisine Garrison also stopped by to talk about the food and his experience living in Kauai (he used to work at the Peninsula Chicago). All around the resort I was greeted by name and everyone was eager to help us with anything we needed. And it was never overwhelming, which sometimes gets on my nerves when hotels are too intrusive and overly inquisitive.

The only downsides are the high rates and lack of cash & points availability, though it’s a hot resort that was packed during my stay, so it’s understandable why they can charge a premium. I hope Starwood runs another free resort night promotion, because I want to come back for at least 5 days next time.

Another small pet peeve that doesn’t effect 99% of the population is that the ceilings and doorframes are pretty low. I’m 6’7″ and I whacked my head while walking into the bathroom a number of times and I even had to duck while walking down the hallways to avoid the exit signs.

Tall people problems

But overall, it was one of my favorite hotel experiences and each day I spend in Kauai it steadily increases on my list of favorite places I’ve been. More on Kauai in a separate post later this week!

Big news in the car rental business this week. Enterprise is launching a points system to go along with its Enterprise Plus loyalty program on March 1, 2012. The program used to be geared just toward business travelers hoping to expedite rentals and drop-offs, but now Enterprise has incorporated a whole points component. Though it doesn’t launch until next week, you can check out some of the features and rules here and should be able to join before the launch so you can earn points starting the first day.

Enterprise announces the new points component of Enterprise Plus on its web site. Log-in using your Enterprise account info to create a points account.

JOIN
If you’re not a member of Enterprise.com, you’ve got to join the general program first, create a profile, and accept the terms of use. Then you can “activate” your rewards by registering with Enterprise Plus. The registration page seems to be experiencing a malfunction at the moment when you go to register your Enterprise account, but hopefully they’ll get that working prior to the launch date next Friday!

Just FYI, per Enterprise’s web site: Members may not maintain more than one Enterprise Plus account. Only one individual may be enrolled per Enterprise Plus account. In the event more than one account number is assigned to the same individual, the duplicate account may be terminated, and Enterprise Plus Points, Qualifying Rentals and Qualifying Rental Days (see definitions below), may be transferred to the remaining account (excluding any enrollment or other bonuses that can only be earned a single time per member as specified in promotion terms and conditions).

EARNING
Members will earn one point per qualifying dollar spent on Enterprise rentals. According to Enterprise, here are the categories for qualifying rentals, and rentals that do NOT qualify.

“Qualifying Rentals” must meet the following:

1. “Paid Rentals”: An Enterprise brand rental during which the Member has paid time and mileage (base) charges for one or more rental day. A rental with one or more free rental days will count as a Qualified Rental as long as there is a minimum of one paid rental day.
2. A rental that was picked up from and returned to the same Enterprise Rent-A-Car location in the fifty (50) U.S., Canada or Puerto Rico
3. A rental that has a valid Member Number applied to it at time of reservation, regardless of booking channel. The full name on the member profile must match the full name on the primary driver’s license on the rental agreement. For Qualifying Rentals that are not associated with a Member Number, Members may request retroactive credit for up to six (6) months from rental return date.

“Qualifying Rental Days” are paid rental days associated with a Qualifying Rental. When points are redeemed for a free rental day, it does not count as a Qualifying Rental Day. For example, a four-day rental consisting of two paid rental days and two free rental days will count as one Qualifying Rental and two Qualifying Rental Days.

Qualifying Rentals and Qualifying Rental Days do not include the following types of rentals:

1. Insurance replacement rentals; dealer replacement, body shop or fleet replacement rentals.
2. Rentals that were included as part of a Tour or Travel package
3. Pre-paid rentals that were booked through a third party, including (but not limited to) third-party online OTAs
4. Rentals using government rate codes or a government contract ID
5. Discounted rentals by employees of Enterprise Holdings, Inc. and any of its parent company, subsidiaries, and affiliates and their family members who are eligible to receive an employee discount

As an added bonus, rentals from January 1 through the member’s enrollment date will count towards the new member’s qualifying rentals and rental days for the calendar year in which a new member enrolls, even though a member number was not included in the reservation. After enrollment, only rentals with a member number attached to them will qualify, though, so be sure to put it on all your reservations.

REDEMPTIONS
Free rental redemptions start at 400 points. Enterprise hasn’t yet posted the various redemption levels and point values yet, so stay tuned for further analysis once those are up.

However, you cannot redeem points for the following rentals:

1. One-way rentals where the pick-up and return location are not the same
2. Vehicle replacement rentals (rentals as the result of an accident, mechanical repair or theft)
3. Tour or Travel packages
4. Prepaid rentals booked through internet sites other than enterprise.com (.ca, .co.uk, .de, .ie)
5. Rentals using government rate codes or a government contract ID
6. Discounted rentals by employees of Enterprise Holdings, Inc. and any of its parent company, subsidiaries or affiliates, and their family members who are eligible to receive an employee discount

In addition, Members may not redeem any free rental days on rentals booked with corporate rates, but may redeem free rental days at the regular retail rates.

So there’s a fair amount of restrictions, but if you’re looking to use your points on a simple free rental, you should be okay.

BENEFITS
-Points don’t expire as long as you remain an active member with at least one qualifying rental every two-year period.
-Points are redeemable for free rental days for any available car on any day with no blackout dates (subject to availability), with rates starting as low as 400 points.
-New recognition levels based on rental activity (i.e. elite status)
-Members-only check-in at participating locations
-A dedicated phone number for expedited service

Enterprise Plus' new elite tiers.

ELITE STATUS
There are going to be four levels of membership.

1. Enterprise Plus: This is the basic level. Membership is free, and once rewards are activated, points are earned with any qualifying rental.
2. Silver: Qualify after six rentals,. You get a 10% bonus on Enterprise Plus points earned on qualifying dollars spent. And you get one free car class upgrade certificate per program year.
3. Gold: Qualify after 12 rentals or 40 days of rentals. 15% bonus points on qualifying dollars spent.  Two car-class upgrade certificates per program year.
4. Platinum: Qualify after 24 rentals or 85 rental days. 20% bonus on points earned per dollar spent. Four free car-class upgrade certificates per program year.

INITIAL THOUGHTS
Hertz has always been my preferred program for earning free rental days, however it looks like it may be easier to rack up free days with Enterprise. Hertz requires 500 points for a free weekend rental day vs. only 400 with Enterprise. You earn 1 point per dollar spent in both programs. The Enterprise site is not completely up, so I couldn’t pull up all of the redemption options, so I’ll save final judgement until I have access to that information.

The confirmed upgrade certificates are an interesting perk, though if it’s only a one-level upgrade, that’s not much to get excited about. Overall, I think it’s a step in the right direction, though I’m a little miffed that my Enterprise rental in Hawaii will just miss the March 1, 2012 start date for earning points!

Hat tip: TPG reader Lauren.

LAN, the premier Oneworld carrier servicing South America, just announced a pretty competitive fare sale for business class flights to South America.

From Miami, the airline is advertising roundtrip fares as low as $899 to Bogota, $1,399 to Lima and $2,099 to Easter Island, though the fare to Santiago is an inexplicably high $3,499.

From New York, you can score roundtrip seats to Quito or Guayaquil for $949, Lima for $2,499, Buenos Aires for $2,999, and Easter Island for $3,199, and Santiago for $3,499.

Roundtrip tickets from LAX include options to Lima for $1,999, Easter Island for $2,899, Buenos Aires for $3,199, and Santiago for $3,499; while from San Francisco, roundtrip fares include those to Lima for $2,299, Easter Island for $2,999, Buenos Aires for $3,399, and Santiago for $3,499.

Tickets must be booked by February 27 and travel must be completed between March 15-June 30, 2012.

I think some of these, especially the ones to Peru, Ecuador and Easter Island are pretty great deals, especially considering Premium Business on LAN can cost around $6,000 on some of these routes. I might even consider saving my Avios for some more lucrative short-haul redemption options and using cash to pay for a ticket down there instead, since it will count towards elite status qualification on American. LAN has a solid fully lie flat business class product, though I noticed many of the flights from NYC route through Miami and the domestic portions are on American Airlines.

There’s been a lot of buzz lately on taxing miles and points and I recently got a chance to talk about my position on Fox Business’ The Willis Report. The host, Geri Willis, is a fierce consumer advocate, so I had a feeling we might have a similar stance on this subject.
In case you can’t watch the clip, here are my thoughts summed up:
1) Citi is the only bank actively sending 1099s to customers who have checking and & savings accounts and received American Airlines miles as sign-up bonuses. To date, no company has sent a 1099 for miles/points earned on a credit card bonus (to my knowledge). American Express recently sent out 1099s for their Gift Chain promotion, but that wasn’t for miles/points and it was in very few instances.

2) I think Citi is opening up a can of worms by doing this. The IRS has never pursued the taxation of miles and points and it would be an administrative nightmare to enforce. I’d also imagine this issue would be terribly unpopular, so I  don’t see the government making this a top priority – especially in an election year – and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, the chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, went so far as to write Citi an angry open letter telling Citi to stop reporting mileage bonuses as taxable income.

3) Even if you think people should be taxed on points and miles bonuses, the 2.5 cents per mile valuation is out of line, in my opinion. 25,000 American airlines miles on their own can only get you a roundtrip MilesAAver domestic award, however Citi values those miles at $625. Where they got that number is anyone’s guess, because AA sells them on their site at 2.7 cents per mile, though most redemptions are closer to 1 cent a mile.

4) Consumers technically don’t even own airline miles – the airlines do. They can (and do) change the programs frequently and will even expire your miles if you don’t keep them active. I’ve seen some stats on mileage expiration and trust me, there are a lot of people who let miles and points expire.

5) If this becomes a trend, banks should inform consumers up front whether they will be taxed. And by that I don’t mean putting it in the terms and conditions that consumers who take advantage of an offer might be taxed for any prizes or incentives they might receive – I mean that banks should say in no uncertain terms, “by accepting this offer of 25,000 points, you will be liable for taxes equivalent to those on prize income worth $625.” I bet a lot of people wouldn’t have bothered with the Citi AA Checking accounts if they knew they’d get these tax bills. This feels like a bait-and-switch by the bank: offering an incentive to get you in the door, then slapping you with a tax bill for whatever value they deem their prize to have.

6) You should always consult a tax professional for advice. I am not one, but if I had one of these 1099′s I’d either dispute the value or not file it at all. Either way, I’d make sure to have documentation and clear reasons why I didn’t report the income (because I don’t see miles as income). This is a risk if you get audited, so once again – ask a certified tax preparer for advice.

The Lawsuit

Since the time people started receiving these 1099′s at the end of January, the situation has kept escalating, and now there’s even a pending class action lawsuit by consumers against Citi that I read about on AllGov.

Basically, two plaintiffs are suing Citibank for reporting the 40,000-mile AAdvantage bonus they each received for opening new checking accounts. Citi used its same 2.5-cent conversion rate and reported the plaintiffs for $1,000 of income each, which is taxable at 35%. That means consumers who scored this bonus would actually have to pay $350 for opening those accounts! It should be interesting to see how this one plays out in court.

What are your thoughts on the taxation of miles and points?