Upgrades on The Status Carousel

Hold the Front Page 🤡🤮💩

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:59:53 +0000

No later than yesterday, some status Samaritans — bless them, I’d kiss their fingers — gave Kal Kalych’s content the rating it deserves.

They showered him with emoji from the heart 🤡🤮💩

Whereupon, naturally, our status dung beetle blew his ~~top~~ bottom.

Rove: Travel the World for 👌🏾

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 06:45:43 +0000

Rove’s slogan on its Y Combinator pitch page sounds defiantly implausible: "Travel the world for free."

No sooner said than done.

Remember the IONOS wheeze?

Today 7,846 miles landed in my account.

But that’s not the juicy bit.

When I signed up, I already had several ancient IONOS accounts.

Marriott Bonvoy

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 21:11:59 +0000

O Marriott, Marriott, wherefore art thou so stingy with the nights? And, while we’re at it, did anyone remember the status match?

Since last year, the British banking market has been busily rolling out quasi-miles products.

Brexit brought not only a new wave of emigration but changes to banking regulation too.

Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16 🫶

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:26:17 +0000

Bonjour, bloody hell.

My favourite hotel in Macau, damn it. It was.

The hotel is old — from 2008, the same age as the Grand Lisboa.

But location plus view — top, top tier.

I’ve already covered the price and the set-up.

QR Q → U → R 🤨

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 10:37:31 +0000

On 31 March there was a whole saga issuing tickets for Qcredits.

One day, when the mood takes me, I’ll write it up.

Three tickets were issued:

PVG - DOH - MAN SOF - DOH - PKX PVG - DOH - BCN

Air China, the National Carrier 😑

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 07:20:48 +0000

With a European account, it shows prices through the roof.

So I registered on the Chinese version.

Of interest: there are flights and connections you won’t find on Trip or Google Flights.

It can pull in flights from “the Southerners”.

Prices are five grains of rice cheaper than Trip. Five dollars in every hundred.

Hyatt House Yinchuan 2️⃣

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 05:40:17 +0000

Second set, going for the points.

Hyatt merges consecutive bookings if you don’t actually check out.

You have to split them with a one-day gap.

That little trick is where Marriott does most of its business.

If Hyatt ever fixes this, the Marriott chain can be closed down as surplus to requirements.

Grand Hyatt Athens 🏺

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 13:07:47 +0000

$67.54 — booked two weeks before arrival.

The sort of price at which Hyatt usually pretends you’ve come to the wrong hotel.

Arrived at 12:00.

While they were prodding at the computer, it emerged, quite by accident, that a Globalist had arrived.

Bourdain, Anthony 🫡

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 17:46:57 +0000

I have a lot of namesakes.

But it was this particular Anthony who took his own life on 8 June 2018, in a room at the Le Chambard hotel in Kaysersberg, France.

I’ve passed through that village many times. Often stayed nearby. I know these parts near Colmar well. I know all the main paths into the local vineyards.

Hyatt on the Bund 🎀

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 05:38:16 +0000

A famous hotel. Cult, even. On paper it sits in the Grand Hyatt portfolio, but it markets itself under its own name.

At check-in, a trainee under the watchful eye of a senior colleague uttered the magic word “upgrade”. He said it with a Shanghai accent, which drained some of the magic out of it. The room turned out to be perfectly ordinary. I didn’t have the fight in me to go back and argue the toss.

Hyatt House Mexico City / Santa Fe 😁

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 20:02:12 +0000

I stayed here two years ago. Last time they upgraded me to a room with a balcony, clouds, rain and a view of Walmart. Practically the Lake District.

This time I decided to test a booking made through Rove: would the status magic still work with a middleman in the mix?