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Just before the deadline, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines have overcome the final hurdle to their merger – the integration of their Frequent Flyer programs, Skypass and Asiana Club.

Korean Air has prevailed before the Korea Fair Trade Commission with its demand that miles collected with non-air partners in the Asiana Club will only be transferred to Skypass at a ratio of 1-to-0.82.

But Asiana Club members have ten (!) years to decide when they want to transfer their miles. Until then, they can redeem miles at any time at the currently valid reward values – but of course only on Korean Air/Asiana flights, as the collaboration with all Star Alliance partners (and presumably the handful of other partners) will be discontinued in mid-December.

However, if this network is sufficient for you, such a strategy can protect members against future price increases. The likelihood is high that by 2036, you will no longer be able to get a round-trip Business Class flight between Korea and Europe or North America for 105,000 miles…

At the same time, Korean Air is being forced to gradually increase the combined award capacity over the next few years.

As announced, Alaska Airlines will introduce the option in its Atmos Rewards program on January 01 to choose whether to earn flight miles based on the previous distance basis, a revenue basis, or a segment basis (500 miles).

This choice will then automatically apply to partner airlines as well, where instead of the revenue basis, a mileage basis with cabin factors will be used. Those are then also increased in Business Class, so you collect 250% of the flown miles. For many international members, this is likely the best option.

As of October 01, the program introduced another interesting initiative: annually changing Atmos Communities. After registering in one of the offered communities, you will receive bonus miles and bonus status points for flights to selected destinations, up to a maximum of 10,000 bonus points for ten flights. The first member to reach the ten destinations in a community will receive a bonus of 100,000 miles.

For the period until the end of 2027, six communities are available (with one reserved for members in Alaska and Hawaii). The “Global Local” community, for example, includes ten hubs of oneworld partners, and as a member, you additionally receive a bonus of 10% of the status points on flights between the USA and these destinations, including on oneworld partners.

A current offer from Qantas makes so much sense that you should plan hotel stays for the coming year by October 28 at the latest.

By that date, Frequent Flyer members will earn 7 points per AUD spent on hotel bookings through the Qantas Hotels site, which taps into Expedia‘s inventory, or about 10 points per USD. If you set the minimum value of the points at 1 US cent each, this equates to a 10% saving – which is more than you get in most hotel programs.

This offer is valid for stays until October 28, 2027.

And if you are in Australia over the next few months, an offer from the other major Australian program is probably even more interesting and justifies adding a local holiday trip to such a journey.

For bookings of a package through Virgin Australia Holidays with a minimum value of AUD 1,000, you will receive a bonus of 40,000 points in their Velocity program, in addition to the regular credit of at least 3 points per AUD.

The offer is so attractive that it is only open for bookings for one week, until October 18. The booked trips must be completed by June 26, 2027.

Various hotel programs have gone the route in the past year of transforming from recognition programs into rewards programs.

Langham, however, will go the other way on January 12: from then on, its Brilliant by Langham program will be converted to a full recognition program, and rewards will no longer be offered.

While you can still earn points until January 11, all points not used by January 12 will be irrevocably forfeited.

For the past few days, Flying Blue has been offering award flights on Air France and KLM flights in three fare categories, similar to paid tickets: Light, Standard, and Flex.

The old award prices now apply to the Light category. The Standard category corresponds more or less to the former award tickets with checked baggage and the possibility of rebooking/cancellation – but now costs around 30% more in miles.

It gets interesting with the Flex option, which costs almost twice as much as the Light option, but on long-haul flights, the surcharges are halved – further highlighting the arbitrariness of these amounts.

It should also be noted that with a premium ticket in the Business Light category, you no longer receive lounge access unless you are entitled to it through your status anyway.

For tickets with partner airlines, everything remains the same, making it often a more interesting option.

While most European airlines have still suspended their flights to Dubai (and elsewhere in the Middle East), Dubai is being served more or less normally by Asian carriers, albeit presumably often at lower load factors than usual.

At least, this is how the current offer from SriLankan could be understood, which offers its FlySmiLes members five times the miles for flights to Dubai, booked by September 25 and completed by November 30.

But we do not mean to insinuate that the FlySmiLes program is soooo attractive that one should now fly from Europe to Dubai via Colombo. However, if you are travelling from South India, it might be worth considering!

Global Hotel Alliance is known to be a coalition of smaller and medium-sized hotel brands that use a common loyalty program with GHA Discovery. Currently, the alliance includes over 50 brands – the Turkish Marmara Hotel Group is the latest addition.

To make this variety of brands understandable to customers, members will receive a bonus of 50 points (=50 USD) per stay of at least two nights in a brand they have not yet used in 2026, until the end of October.

Also until the end of October, there is a raffle for 10 times 5,000 bonus points and 10 lifetime Platinum memberships. For simply signing up for the prize draw, you get a ticket for the draw; for every stay, you get 5. Additionally, you receive a ticket per brand if you scan the promotion’s QR code in a participating hotel – without necessarily having to stay at the hotel.

Happy hunting!

The so-called preferred partnerships between Frequent Flyer and hotel programs are becoming increasingly popular. Often, however, they are limited to a status recognition between the two programs or weak status benefits on the other partner.

Only Accor stands out a bit here with ALL, which offers double dipping with its various partners, also available to base members.

The assessment of whether the announced switch from Hyatt’s preferred partner from American Airlines to Delta Air Lines represents an improvement or a deterioration is left to each individual. For most, however, it is likely to be more of a no-event.

At least with the major cruise lines, the loyalty issue has often been treated rather neglectfully until now. There are corresponding programs, but they largely serve only to differentiate status.

Carnival has now perhaps set something in motion with the transition of its Carnival Rewards program into a genuine loyalty program with an accrual currency and rewards, which could benefit many cruise customers in the medium term.

Carnival Rewards is only applicable on Carnival Cruise Line voyages, not on the various other brands of the Carnival Group, such as AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, or P&O Cruises.