Using air, hotel points on same trip? Good luck

Register now, it's free!
Log In | Customer Care

Using air, hotel points on same trip? Good luck

By CAROLINE WILBERT
Cox News Service
Sunday, April 23, 2006

ATLANTA — Both the airline and hotel industries are teeming with rewards programs for loyal customers. The trick is figuring out how to redeem all the chits for a vacation you actually want to take.

"The best advice," travel expert Bob Cowen says, "is to be very flexible."

Based on my own experience, I'd have to agree.

Having already accumulated a pile of Delta Air Lines frequent-flier miles, my husband and I registered a couple of years ago for Hilton Hotels' rewards program, figuring we'd soon be jetting off to a sandy beach for free.

We dutifully booked our travel at Hiltons and also signed up for a Hilton HHonors American Express, which allowed us to earn points when we bought groceries or made other charges. We accumulated 156,000 points, enough to stay several nights at some of the chain's top hotels.

So now we just needed to decide where to go. It wasn't as easy as we thought.

What about the Cayman Islands, where we'd honeymooned? That would be a romantic spot to spend our fifth anniversary.

Well, except there are no Hiltons there.

What about Bermuda?

No Hiltons there, either.

Any good beach locales?

Ah, with a quick search of Hilton's Web site, we found lovely accommodations in Barbados.

Bad news. No availability on Delta for SkyMiles customers.

We probably spent a total of five hours over several evenings working on the project on our laptop. We'd search the Hilton Web site for destinations, then investigate the feasibility. We looked into a half-dozen possibilities, but nothing was working out, either because we couldn't get a Hilton HHonors room during the dates we wanted to travel or because we couldn't get frequent-flier tickets.

After exhausting our beach options, we checked out Sedona, Ariz., which several friends had recommended. Though the Hilton wasn't available on our ideal weekends, we had, by this point, given up on those dates working out. We booked a Sunday-through-Wednesday trip.

We'll fly Delta to Phoenix, then rent a car for the drive to Sedona. We'll stay at the Hilton Sedona Resort & Spa. We look forward to exploring the town, checking out the scenery and dining in top-notch restaurants. I'm glad it worked out the way it did because I keep hearing how amazing and unique Sedona is.

Still, it wasn't our first choice. Like the expert said, flexibility is key.

If I were to do it again, I'd more thoroughly research the best hotel group to sign up with in advance. Starwood Hotels, I now realize, has more hotels in resorts we'd like to visit. When it came time to book, I would start out looking at Sunday-through-Wednesday availability. The long weekend was just too difficult to pull off.

Here are a few other ideas from Cowen, a hard-core business traveler who posts travel tips online:

Keep an eye out for new routes. There are often frequent-flier seats available on new routes.

If you are traveling to Europe, consider booking a direct flight to a major destination such as London through your frequent-flier program, then book on one of Europe's discount airlines to get to your final destination, such as Milan, Italy, or Vienna, Austria. To learn more, go to www.whichbudget.com.

Consider calling your airline. While consumers are often reluctant to book with a reservations agent because of the surcharge, the agents have access to more routes than we do at home. They can book you on flights offered by partner airlines.

With many airlines, including Delta, in financial trouble and trying to squeeze every last dollar out of flights, booking with frequent-flier miles isn't likely to get easier. As for hotels, you could sign up for a loyalty program at a chain with hotels in appealing destinations, but it's hard to know where you will want to visit several years from now. Therefore, Cowen says, don't get a credit card that allows you to earn miles or points. Instead, get a credit card that gives you cash back, then pay for your vacation outright.