It’s a bit odd that in the same week that Marriott has launched new credit card offers that we’re seeing them nuke a useful benefit of their loyalty program. Also, it comes a few weeks after Marriott increased award pricing at many high end properties.
Marriott eliminates the ability to mix paid nights + award nights online
Frequent Miler writes about this annoying change by Marriott. I am really not sure why they made this change, but they just killed a handy feature on their website.
On January 16, 2025, the functionality to book a Cash + Points Reservation (allows Guest to customize their Points and Cash use by Night) on the Marriott website was ended.
If you wish to book this way, you will have to call in and speak with reservations over the phone.
Well, there’s no other way to put it. Now, you have to call in and wait on the line for minutes for a feature that was already available on the website, but has now been removed.
Aeroplan Award Chart Changes: Dynamic Pricing On More Partners
As per One Mile at a Time, Aeroplan is now set to go with dynamic award pricing on select partners. It may not affect a lot of people currently, as it only impacts flights with certain partner airlines.
As of March 25, 2025, Air Canada Aeroplan plans to make some award chart changes. Specifically, the airline will introduce dynamic award pricing on more partner airlines:
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In addition to Emirates and FlyDubai, dynamic award pricing will be expanded to two more global airline partners — Etihad and United
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Dynamic award pricing will also be added to Canadian regional partners — Calm Air, Canadian North, and PAL (Provincial Airlines)
While this is not a huge change, I’m watching with bated breath. I don’t wish to see this as the start of the new trend, with more partners being added in the coming years.
Apple AirTags Now Share Your Bags Location With Lufthansa Group and Virgin Atlantic
This is a cool feature. The Bulkhead Seat writes about how Apple’s AirTags can be really helpful when you travel. Now, more airlines are integrating and rolling out features to their customers.
This week, the Lufthansa Group airlines introduced a new service for their passengers across Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings. They are integrating the Apple AirTag location feature into their baggage tracking. Customers can privately and securely share the location of their AirTag or Find My network accessory via the airlines’ baggage tracking service. The group’s airlines integrate this information into their systems and track bags in real time. Virgin Atlantic also shared this week that it is now supporting this functionality.
A new iOS feature will help users locate and recover their items by securely sharing the location of an AirTag or Find My network accessory with airlines. Share Item Location is available now as part of the public beta of iOS 18.2, which will soon be available to all users as a free software update (on iPhone X or later models).
Points Transfer Bonuses
At the start of this month, Amex and Chase are offering two lucrative points transfer bonuses:
- Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic with a 30% bonus
- Transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Avianca LifeMiles with a 15% bonus
Alaska Miles with a 60% Bonus
Currently, you can buy Alaska Airlines MileagePlan Miles with a bonus of up to 60%. With the merger with Hawaiian and Alaska, Alaska miles are going to open up more options to redeem. This is a great promo if you plan to redeem Alaska miles in the near future.
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