I recently downloaded the Award Wallet application for my iPad2 and was dazzled not at the app specifically, but at the oodles and oodles of hotel and rewards points I had accrued over the years without ever knowing it! I know you must be asking yourself why someone in my profession might not know he was accruing points when it’s so closely related to my full time job. But in truth, I never ask about or ask for points when I’m booking meetings. I collect a commission which I think, in most cases, amply and adequately covers my service. The hotel points I always defer to my end users. However, in so many cases, my end users are forbidden to collect points, particularly for meetings, and as a result, in a number of cases, unbeknownst to me, these points have defaulted to me. Hooray! Folks, hotel points are tremendously valuable. I’ve always been an advocate for airline miles – mostly because this is often the priciest part of personal travel. Flying for “free” seems like the deal of a lifetime if and when you’re able to circumvent the tribulations of the “no-storm” and actually get dates on which airline miles are valid. But hotel points, and any other awards systems can be equally valid in a pinch. Some brands even remove blackout dates and simply adjust the number of points required in order to glean a reward.
Anyone who travels should make doubly certain that nary a flight nor a hotel stay goes by without making sure you’re accumulating some type of point for it. Otherwise, what is the point(s)?