IHG is having a mid-life crisis

Yesterday we talked about how you can earn free hotel points from your normal, everyday dining. But did you know that you can also earn hotel points from your normal Uber and Lyft rides?

 

That’s right, both of these ride-share apps have partnerships. Specifically, Marriott has a partnership with Uber and Hilton with Lyft. Here’s how it works:

 

And here’s the rewards structure:

And their reward structure is a bit different:

The Marriott deal is definitely the more enticing option here, for a few reasons. First, it allows you to earn points on UberEats in addition to premium rides. Next, it gives bonus points for ordering food while staying at a Marriott property. The downside is that these bonus points only apply to rides and stays in the U.S.

 

However, you international folks shouldn’t feel down because Uber also has other international partnerships. 

 

For example, if you live in Canada like me, you’ll see that instead of Marriott Bonvoy, you can actually earn Aeroplan (Air Canada) points for both rides and food delivery with Uber. In addition, you'll get a $20 Air Canada voucher for every ten rides you take with Uber. All you need to do is go to your Uber app settings and link your Aeroplan account.

 

Overall, this won’t earn you a meaningful number of points in a short timeframe. But it takes two seconds to set up and, over time, can definitely make a dent in your points goals. Why not earn more free stuff from the rides you already take and the food you already eat? 🌮

You may have heard about IHG recently getting their database hacked (or maybe you just noticed that their website and app were down for 48 hours and weren’t sure why).

 

Well, some news has come out from the Vietnamese hacking group that infiltrated their systems… and it’s pretty embarrassing for IHG.

 

Basically, the hackers have shared exactly how they were able to infiltrate IHG’s system. First, they tricked an employee into downloading malware. Classic. As a result, they had access to the login information for IHG's systems.

 

It turns out they didn’t even need to trick any employees because the password for their whole system was QWERTY1234. Yup, that’s a true story, people. This one deserves extra face palms…

If you’re confused about why this is such a bad password, just look at your computer keyboard… See it? It’s basically the biggest no-no for cybersecurity, second only to using “Password1234.”

 

So that’s bad… very bad. But it might be good news for us. 😏

 

To make up for their downtime and to recuperate some of their lost business, they’ve launched a promo on European hotel stays (as if there weren’t already enough hotel promos going on).

Here are the deets:

Obviously, it makes sense to sign up for a free IHG account to get the extra 10% discount if you wanted to make the most of this offer.

 

This isn’t something to go very far out of your way to take advantage of, but if you were already planning a trip to Europe this fall, you could save some serious money.

IHG has over 6,000 properties worldwide, thousands of which are in Europe. With that footprint, you won’t have trouble finding a property to stay at in most major cities.

If you’ve been traveling a lot this year then you shouldn’t find this surprising. It’s not news that airfare is hella expensive this year. But 31%??? That’s pretty ridiculous.

 

According to data by Hopper, airfare for the upcoming Christmas travel season is at a 5-year high, hovering around an average of $463 for a round trip. This is a whopping 31% increase compared to prices in 2019.

Thanksgiving is a little better… but not much better, sitting at around 22% higher than 2019.

 

So, now is a better time than ever to start earning miles and points and avoid these ridiculous costs. Either that or stay at home and watch the chaos ensue from afar while sipping your hot cocoa (or spiked eggnog in my case).

That’s all for today, folks. Do you like charts and travel statistics or do you prefer deals and tips? Are you planning on traveling during the holiday season? Let me know by replying to this email or reaching out on social media.

 

Cheers,