Quickies: 2,500 Free Citi Thank You Points, 2,500 UA Miles For RT Flight, Marriott MegaMiles Promo

Citi Thank You Points: Unfortunately I do not have a Citi Thank You credit card, but I do know that many of my fellow points fanatics have one, so I'm delighted to share an easy way for you to earn free and easy Citi Thank You Points. You can earn 2,500 free Thank You points by going to www.thankyounetwork.com, linking your Facebook account, and "sharing". Many have reported that you can earn the 2,500 points just from signing up (without actually sharing). YMMV (Your Miles May Vary). (Hat Tip: MilePoint).

United Mileage Plus: Register here to earn 2,500 bonus United Mileage Plus miles just by taking a round trip flight. This seems to be a targeted promotion, but I did not have a problem registering- definitely worth a try to sign up if you have upcoming flights with United lined up. (Thanks to Online Travel Review).

Marriott MegaMiles Promotion: Marriott is running a promotion with some of the top Airlines allowing you to earn up to 50,000 bonus miles. After registering, you'll earn 2,000 bonus miles with every stay beginning after your second stay, and the promotion runs through April 30. Becky@ New Girl in the Air has a great post describing the details of this promotion and a strategy to also be able to participate in Marriott's current stay 2 get 1 promotion (a much better offer in my opinion).

Marriott Joins The "Free Night" Trend for 2012

According to an article just published by USA Today Travel, Marriott seems to have also jumped on the bandwagon and decided to launch a "stay 2, get 1" free night promo for early 2012.

The details of the promotion are: Marriott Rewards members who complete two paid stays between 2/1/12 and 4/30/12 will earn a free night at any category 1-4 hotel property. This promotion pairs very nicely with the Marriott Rewards Gold Challenge. ;).

The free night can be used up until Sept 30, 2012 & each member can earn a maximum of 2 free nights (after 4 stays).

Registration by March 31, 2012 is required to participate for this promotion. Please note that registration is not open to all Marriott Rewards members yet. Personally, I was able to successfully register. I wouldn't miss out on this one!

I am very excited about this because Kevin and I might be staying 4 nights at a fantastic Marriott International property in March, hopefully allowing us to break up the nights into 4 separate stays to earn us the 2 free nights!

Please refer to the official press release from Marriott for the complete details

-x0 Angelina

Hotel Status Match Success From Free Status Upgrades

I promised I'd post an update on my progress of hotel status matching using my newly-aquired free Platinum Accor Status and free Gold Marriott Status. Last week, I sent emails to Club Carlson, Omni, Best Western, & Priority Club asking if they could match status to my Accor A|Club Platinum status.

Here's a summary of the responses I received:

Club Carlson: 
"We would like to offer to match elite status that you have, with either 
Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, and Starwood only. We can match 
top level to Gold Elite and second level to Silver Elite. Our newest 
Concierge Elite level cannot be matched, it must be earned."

With that said, I responded back with a screen shot of my Marriott Gold Account & within 24 hours my Club Carlson account was matched to their Silver Elite level.

If you are interested in contacting Club Carlson about their status match program, please send an email to  goldpointsplus@carlson.com with your name, Club Carlson number, and a screen shot of your elite status with one of the accepted hotel brands. Responses are generally very quick.

Omni:

"At this time Omni Hotels does not offer tier level status matches.  Omni Hotels recently upgraded the Select Guest program to include a complimentary membership in GHA Discovery which gives members special privileges at all 12 luxury GHA brands around the world. In addition to earning tier night credits at all GHA brands, GHA Discovery offers an exciting ‘Local Experiences’ benefit.  More information can be found at www.ghadiscovery.com"

I'm not sure if I will be staying at a GHA property anytime soon, but I did sign up for the free status anyway just in case. It only took a couple of minutes to create an account.

Best Western: 

Best western has a promotion called, "Status Match, No Catch" where they will match any status from another hotel brand. You may email, mail, or fax proof of your elite status with another hotel brand and they will upgrade your account. Here is a direct link to the form you would use. I sent them an email containing a screen shot of my Accor A|Club Platinum status, and I was matched to Diamond status with Best Western.

Priority Club: 

I have not received a response yet. I will attempt to contact them again by this weekend.

If you currently do not have elite status with any hotel brand at the moment, please refer to my earlier post about how to get free gold status with Marriott. You can use the gold status as a way to receive elite status with the other hotel brands I mentioned.

Does anyone else have any hotel status match success stories? I'd love to hear!

-x0 Angelina

Marriott Rewards Facebook Sweepstakes: Win 1,000,000 Points

Update: 12/7: I was one of the daily instant winners of 1,000 Marriott Rewards points today! :)

Marriott has an exciting Facebook contest going on where you can enter daily for a chance to win 1,000 Marriott Rewards points with a grand prize of 1,000,000 points. Ric from Loyalty Traveler does a great job explaining the entire promotion on his post here.

I tried my luck twice today by liking both the Marriott fan page as well as Marriott International. No winnings for me yet, but I'll try daily.

Good luck! Let us know if you are an instant winner & I'll be sure to keep you updated as well!

Don't have a Marriott Rewards account? Allow me to invite you to enroll. Registration is easy as pie and you and I will both get 2,000 bonus points after your first stay at a Marriott property.


-x0 Angelina

Marriott Rewards "90 Day Gold Challenge": Free Status Upgrade

Today Kevin and I took advantage of a free gold status upgrade promotion offered by Marriott Rewards. It was as simple as calling Marriott at 1 (888) 236-2427 and asking for the gold upgrade and providing your membership number to the agent.

This is exciting for us because normally to obtain gold status with Marriott, you must stay 50 nights in a calendar year. Considering that Kevin and I potentially have upcoming travel at a JW Marriott, it'll be fun to be able to enjoy all of the perks and upgrades.

Another great thing that the agent told me was that with this free 90 day gold status, if I make 12 stays, I maintain the status for an entire calendar year. That's something to think about!

1/16/12 Update From a Commenter: If not planning on completing the 12 nights in 3 months, you also could have asked for and received platinum status. When I did it last month, no proof of other status was required. To extend platinum status, 18 nights within the same period is required. Awesome find!

Don't have a Marriott Rewards account? Allow me to invite you to enroll. Registration is easy as pie and you and I will both get 2,000 bonus points after your first stay at a Marriott property.

-x0 Angelina