Loyalty Programs Year in Review

Some people like to review their financials or personal accomplishments at the end of the year.

For me, though, it's time to look at my airlines and hotels.

Alaska Airlines has three levels in their mileage plan. They are Member, MVP Member, and MVP Gold Member. The Member status is what you get for signing up.

To get to MVP, you have to fly 20,000 Alaska/Horizon Miles, 25,000 Alaska/Partner Miles, or 30 Alaska/Partner Segments.

To get to MVP Gold, you have to fly 40,000 Alaska/Horizon Miles, 50,000 Alaska/Partner Miles, or 60 Alaska/Partner Segments. I think I did that by August.

For the year I ended up with 61,500 Alaska/Horizon Miles, 90,302 Alaska/Partner Miles, and 84 Alaska/Partner Segments.

Factor in a few random flights on United, Frontier, and US Air (Non-Alaska Partners) and I flew about 110,000 BIS (Butt-In-Seat) Miles.

As for Hotels, Hilton is my program of choice. They have four levels to the program. Blue is the level you get just for signing up.

To get Silver level, you have to stay 10 nights in any Hilton property (Hilton, Hampton Inn, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Homewood Suites, etc.) or have 4 stays in one year.

To get Gold level, you have to stay 36 nights, or have 16 stays in a 12 month period.

To get to Diamond level, you may as well give up your apartment. You have to stay 60 nights, or have 28 stays in a 12 month period. You can also get there by spending more than $10,000.

During the last 12 months, I had 68 nights and 38 stays in Hilton properties. I'm Diamond until sometime in 2008.

Over the course of the year, I also managed to earn Silver status at Marriott on Accident, and I'm now apparently 5-Star President's Club with Hertz, though I'm still not sure what that means.

I may not have the cleanest apartment in the world, but at least I have pretty plastic cards in my wallet.