Business travel: Hotels update rewards programs

By Joe Brancatelli

HOTEL HOT SHEET

Great News for Frequent-Guest Program Players: The Starwood Preferred Guest program has completed its annual property reclassification, which sets award levels for hotels based on average daily rate and other factors. The news is good this year: About 150 properties will charge fewer Starpoints for free rooms and only about 80 hotels will charge more… Marriott Rewards has added a spiffy new way to use your points: free membership in Priority Pass, the airport lounge program. Annual membership costs 20,000 points (pay per lounge visit); 55,000 points (ten free club visits); or 85,000 points (unlimited visits). … Fans of the Rat Pack era take note: The Cal Neva Resort has gone into receivership after defaulting on a $25 million loan. The property in Lake Tahoe was onceowned by Frank Sinatra and was a Rat Pack hangout. … The former Holiday Inn located a mile from the New Orleans airport has undergone a $28 million renovation and reopened as a Crowne Plaza hotel. … … The overcrowded Chicago hotel scene is losing two potential new properties. Shangri-La, the well-regarded Asian chain, has canceled plans to open a Chicago branch, and Marriott has exited a property meant to be the chain's first Edition hotel. Edition is a new brand Marriott is planning to build with boutique hotelier Ian Schrager.

AIRPORT REPORT

Say Goodbye to Palmdale… Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the bureaucracy that runs LAX and Ontario airports, has given up on Palmdale Airport. The one-time military base had a brief life as a commercial airport last year when LAWA paid United Airlines to fly from Palmdale to San Francisco. United abandoned the service in December and no other carrier is interested in flying to Palmdale, about 70 miles northeast of LAX. So LAWA has closed the terminal building and is surrendering the airport's commercial-service certificate. … A new terminal building has opened at Key West Airport, the primary gateway for flights to the Florida Keys. The 30,000-square-foot building includes 150 public parking spaces, escalators, elevators and other amenities. The airport's existing terminal, built in 1957, will now be renovated.

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