Halfway through the year and I can gladly say I've traveled way more than I expected. As of the day of writing, I've flown a total of 33 flights both on budget and full-service airlines. I can't believe I'm saying this but I admittedly got burnt out from all the traveling. In February alone I took 12 flights!
I didn't write about it but I did set some travel goals for myself this year. Here is how I'm doing so far halfway through the year and my strategy to achieve them.
Ibis Styles Manila Araneta City
Goal: Maintain Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite
I'm currently a Platinum Elite from last year when I took the Platinum challenge. I'm currently sitting on 34 nights thanks to Marriott's double nights and points promotion. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take full advantage since during the promotion period I was mostly staying at my friend's houses in the US and Canada.
I'm lacking 16 nights to maintain my Platinum status for next year and will probably take 2 separate trips to hit the 50-night mark. I might also take advantage of the fifth-night free award redemption as that would add up to my elite nights and hopefully, I won't need to do a mattress run later in the year.
Goal: Accor Live Limitless Gold Status
I decided to make Accor my secondary hotel program since it just made sense with my travel patterns, especially with Accor Plus. I'll talk about Accor Plus in more depth next time, but essentially it is a paid program that gives substantial discounts to rooms and dining in Accor hotels in the Asia Pacific Region. Plus it automatically grants you Silver status with 20 status nights awarded to you upon joining.
Platinum status is really the sweet spot for the program but it requires 60 nights to achieve and realistically I won't be able to achieve it this year. I am highly considering switching to Accor as my primary hotel loyalty program next year since Marriott hotels have noticeably been really expensive as of late and Accor has more budget-friendly brands like Ibis.
I'm currently booked to achieve Gold status with stays in Ibis Styles Manila and Mercure Bangkok Surawong for the next 2 months.
Goal: Mabuhay Miles Elite
Being a Premier Elite for the first time really enhanced my travel experience and it's honestly going to be hard going back to being just a classic member. This year alone I got upgraded 4 times from Economy to Comfort and Business class including my companion because the flights were overbooked and Elite members are placed first in line for upgrades.
The real value in my opinion comes from the lounge access benefits, which I've truly enjoyed in my travels here and abroad. Priority check-in and boarding have been useful too while the bonus points seem negligible.
I've currently flown 19 flights with Philippine Airlines this year with 5 flights booked and I've only set my goal at Elite and not Premier Elite status unless they launch another fast-track promotion later in the year.
Goal: Travel to a New Country
I've already achieved this when I went to Canada last March and I'm still planning to visit some friends in Australia later this year. I still have to fix my visa (which I absolutely hate doing) so I'm not sure yet when I can go.
This goal of traveling to a new country every year is also not a big priority for me since I do enjoy going back to the same destinations and discovering new experiences each time.
Goal: Continue to earn Mabuhay Miles and KrisFlyer Miles through Spending
This should come as no surprise as Cebu Pacific's Go Rewards remain to be unappealing when redeeming for flights. It also doesn't help that every time I fly with Cebu Pacific I never get credited my points and I have to email the Go Rewards team all my boarding passes which is what happened on my last trip to Osaka last February. It took customer service more than a week to reply and 2 months before I got credited my points. Talking to a real-life human agent has also felt nearly impossible to achieve with Cebu Pacific as I keep getting redirected to their chatbot which can't help me.
Singapore Airlines' co-branded credit card remains to be the fastest credit card for earning miles in the Philippines at a Php 12 spend-to-mile ratio for online spending so there is no reason to stop that. For Mabuhay Miles, I use my Metrobank Travel Platinum Visa.
Bottomline
Aside from everything I've mentioned, I am looking at redeeming more points and miles since I don't want to wait until they eventually get devalued so I'm still figuring out where and when to redeem them.
Midway through the year, I can say I've been very fortunate and blessed to have traveled so much so far and hopefully continue to do so with more meaningful and enjoyable travels.
Follow me on Instagram @gerald.quintos to see what I'm up to!