Amex Sync Offers

Amex has a new Sync offer @ Whole Foods:

"Get a one-time $10 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to make a single purchase of $75 or more at Whole Foods Market by 6/30/13."

The offer was available on my Amex account page, on Amex Sync's Facebook page, and on twitter:

"Tweet #AmexWholeFoods, get $10 back 1x on $75+ purch at Whole Foods w/synced Amex Card! (RegLtd, Exp 6/30) Terms: http://amex.co/17UI0rV"

If you shop at Whole Foods, this is a great offer!

Hilton Honors Amex AXON Award Chart Changes

     Lots of fun stuff in my mail today, euros bought at below face on ebay, my Royal Ambassador welcome kit (through a referral), and a letter from Amex detailing the new AXON award chart.  On second thought, that last one isn't so fun.

    As everyone in miles and points land knows, Hilton recently devalued their general award chart.  No announcement about AXON (multi-night rate for Amex HH cardholders) or GLON (multi-night rate for elites) was made, but we all knew changes were coming.  Well, they're here.

On June 15, 2013 AXON 4-night awards will be "enhanced" as follows:

Category 5- up by 5,000 points to 130,000
Category 6- up by 35,000! points to 160,000
Category 7- up by 45,000! points to 190,000

Of course, as part of the devaluation, Hilton Honors added three new hotel categories, Categories 8-10.  The AXON awards for those levels will be as follows:

Category 8- 220,000
Category 9- 260,000
Category 10- 300,000

     That means that a four night stay at Hilton's top level hotels will run you 75,000 points a night.  And that's the discounted rate.  The crazy thing is that Category 10 properties on Hilton's regular award chart run from 70,000 to 95,000 points per night.  So in some cases, AXON awards could end up costing you more!  Thanks, Hilton.

Trip Planning- Ireland

Mrs. Pointsninja & I will be travelling to Ireland next month, and I'm doing some furious last minute planning.  Ireland presents a special challenge for the points enthusiast, because (outside of Dublin) major chain properties are either thin on the ground or undesirable.  For instance, Priority Club only has   four properties there.  Hilton has a whopping five clustered in Dublin and Belfast.  So, my go-to programs don't do me much good.  In fact, we'll only be staying at one chain property, a Radisson Blu in Dublin (thanks to the Club Carlson card).

Ireland is, however, very heavy on B&Bs.  We found a number of interesting places through Hidden Ireland, a site that features historic and architecturally interesting B&Bs and self-catering houses.  I plan on doing stay reports for each of them, so that will hopefully make for some interesting reading.

Getting to Ireland isn't too hard.  Back in December when I started planning, I was able to find Delta business award seats into Dublin with pretty good availability in May.  Finding them at 100K Skypesos apiece made my day.  Unfortunately, Delta flies 767s with the old-style "recliner" business seats.  I suppose we'll have to make do.

So, look forward to some "off the beaten path" stay reports in a couple of months.