Brand new name, more great content!

Hello, PointsHoarder fans. We’re glad to have you around and happy to announce that we’re changing our name this week. Why? Mostly because we don’t actually hoard points and we think that doing so is a bad idea. So we’re moving on.

Welcome to Dots, Lines and Destinations!

Dots are the airports we visit. Lines are the routes between them. And Destinations can be a bit of anything, from a city to an in-flight experience to, well, anything else. There’s a lot of potential here and we didn’t like being hemmed in by the idea of only really ever talking about points and miles. There’s too much more out there we all find interesting and hope that you will, too.

So, what does this mean for you?

We’ve got a new website: MoreDotsMoreLines.com. We’ve got a new Twitter handle: @DotsLines. And we’ve got a new home on Facebook. Assuming I did everything correctly the transition should be seamless. So assume that there will be a few hiccups along the way.

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SPG’s Take Two fall promo announced

The next round of points-earning promotions from Starwood has been announced. There are two components to the earning:

  • Earn double Starpoints on all eligible stays with no earning limits.
  • Plus, earn an additional 2,500 bonus Starpoints for every 5 eligible nights during the promotion- up to 10,000 bonus Starpoints and 20 nights.

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Like most SPG promotions there are a number of hotels which are not participating. They include pretty much all the options in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Registration is required and will open at the end of August.

Get 500 bonus United miles this week with PointsHound

Through the end of June PointsHound, the hotel booking site where you earn airline points for bookings, is offering up 500 bonus United points per booking.

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Not the biggest bonus, not a huge booking window and certainly nothing like the 5,000 Virgin America Elevate points bonus running through July 15th on RocketMiles. Still, if you are in to the PointsHound approach and United points this is a pretty solid deal.

Wyndham giving away 1 million United MileagePlus points (and more!)

Wyndham hotels is hosting a contest this summer where they are giving away 1 million points from United in the form of four prizes of 250,000 points each. Register by entering your Wyndham Rewards number on the contest site and you’re in.

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The drawings will be held July 15, July 29, August 12, and August 26, 2013. Register once and you’re included in all subsequent drawings.

You probably won’t win, but you have to be in it to win it, right?

UPDATE: Turns out there are similar contests for 4 different airlines. More details from Rapid Travel Chai.

Bonus AAdvantage miles for Portland-Chicago service

American Airlines is launching twice-daily non-stop service between Chicago and Portland, Oregon on 12 June 2013. To celebrate they’ve loaded a bonus miles promotion into the system offering double miles (100% bonus over the base earning) for coach tickets and triple miles (200% bonus over base earning) for first class tickets. The promotion is valid through 15 September 2013 and registration is required.

ORD-PDX Promo Details

The fares for the route are not at all spectacular (it is peak summer season, after all) so don’t expect to do great to/from Chicago but the promotion appears to be valid on the ORD-PDX segments for through fares, too. There might be some better fares with the connection available which bring it back into the realm of a decent mileage run.

Spotted on MilePoint

Radisson Blu, Miles & More want you to see the world

Want to win a 30-day around-the-world trip, complete with flights and hotels? Time to hone your writing skills.

Click to register

Radisson and Miles & More are running a contest through 15 August 2013 where the grand prize is 30 nights in Radisson Blu hotels and a pair of RTW award flights. The catch is that winning actually takes a bit of work. There is an essay requirement for the contest and, per the T&C, that’s how the winner will be chosen. On the plus side they are accepting entries in eight languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, German, French, English, and Chinese) and there is a max limit of 1200 characters (500 in Chinese) so you don’t have to write much. But that also makes clarity and creativity a bit more challenging. And those are two of the scoring factors:

  • Creativity: How well you describe why this is your dream destination: 40%
  • Ability to create excitement in the destination: 40%
  • Clarity of Writing: 20%

Good luck!

More details at the contest page.

Congratulations to…

As part of our last episode we hosted a contest giving away a North Face backpack to one of our listeners. Thanks to the fun which is a random number generator the winner was selected to be Joelfreak from the comments on the last post. Congratulations; the bag is on the way to you.

And, for everyone else, our next episode comes out tomorrow (I’m working on the edits right now) so there’s that to look forward to as a consolation prize.

Earn 50% bonus miles on United's new Denver-Tokyo route

United Airlines has announced a promotion for the new (and finally maybe actually flying) Denver-Narita route, scheduled to enter service on 10 June 2013. Alas, the promotion is only for 50% bonus miles and, even worse, only for the highest fare buckets. Oh, and the fine print says that it is also only valid for tickets purchased after the promotion was launched. DEN-NRT Promo from United

Among the important bits in the fine print:

  • Members can earn 50% more bonus award miles on paid qualifying roundtrips in United Global First℠, United BusinessFirst® and select United Economy® fares (J, C, D, Z, P, Y, B and H fare classes).
  • Offer is valid on tickets purchased between May 24, 2013, and September 15, 2013, for travel between June 10, 2013, and September 15, 2013.
  • Connections into and out of the U.S. or Japan are allowed, however the bonus is only valid for segments between Denver and Tokyo Narita.
  • You can earn the bonus an unlimited amount of times.

For anyone who got in on the sale B fare last year when the route launch was initially put on sale the fare class portion of the requirements will be met. For everyone else, well, odds are the promo actually won’t be very useful. The bigger question is whether the valid purchase dates part will be enforced or not. Historically Continental (whose systems are used for this stuff in the combined United) hasn’t been particularly good at keeping up with that aspect of things. I suppose I’ll find out in a few weeks after I fly on the inaugural.

Registration is required.

Double SAS points for one trip in Norway

The Norwegian government is allowing travelers to collect points on domestic flights in Norway for the first time in more than a decade and SAS is celebrating. Sortof. The carrier has launched a double points promotion for flights from 3 June – 31 August 2013. The kicker, however, is in the fine print: customers can only earn the bonus once.

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So, yeah, a nice nod to the fact that points can be earnt on the flights once again. Too bad they’re being so stingy with the promo.

Oh, and make sure you register if you’re planning on collecting the bonus. As noted above, registration is required prior to 3 June 2013.

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