1). Trip: Upgraded suite at Hilton Capital Grand, Abu Dhabi.

Well priced weekday alternative to when Yas Island is not 50% off. The suites are good and executive lounge has delicious items to sample.

Access the trip HERE.

2). SAA Voyager devalues on Star Alliance awards.

With very little ( or no information) given from SAA Voyager, the awards for Star Alliance redemptions has already been changed for much higher amounts of miles. Initially the awards devaluation should only come in to play on 1 Dec 2015, SAA call centre staff finally confirmed this after consulting their management for the past 2 weeks.

Here is the old Voyager Star Alliance chart:

Here is your new updated Star Alliance chart:

What does this mean?

You will have to earn a chunk more of miles per person and pay the high taxes and fuel surcharges on top of that. Do the math on your methods of earning Voyager miles whether it be credit card spend, their re-invention earning or transfer. Europe for eg: from 60, 000 to 105,000 is a 45,000 mile increase. Times that by R6.00 per mile you may earn and you might think you in a bad dream.

What alternatives are there?

SAA Voyager has not changed their upgrade amounts on the Star Alliance network nor have they changed their amounts on their SAA metal network ( they did this in February) nor their partner network ( Emirates, Etihad, Virgin, Jet, etc – good luck finding availability here). JourneyBlitz table seems to be the same as before as well.

For months I’ve been writing on which airlines are the best vs the worst to earn, burn and credit to.

What does TraveLoyalty advise?

I credit to Etihad because of their low threshold of miles needed + low surcharges.

New York for R1065 in taxes … Im on this !

Mumbai First Class Suite Apartment, best cabin in the sky, available from May. Im booked.

Etihad First Class.

After emptying my account for a few First class flight redemptions with only 80 AED / R260 tax before July 8th changes. I’ve quickly gained many more from their lucrative promos with 2x, 3x and 4x miles promotions and family bonuses. Read my First Class trip HERE.

Access the Voyager’s Star Alliance page HERE.

3). Club Carlson double elite nights offer.

Access the offer HERE.

The most wise way to go on holiday is to have your spend as an investment with plenty to show and use for after check-out. All other travellers get nothing on check-out. Travel wisely. Travel the TraveLoyalty way.

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more free stays, more often.

TRAVELOYALTY