Bits: free Gold status in Global Hotel Alliance, triple Aeroplan miles with Air Canada

News in brief:

Get free Gold status in Global Hotel Alliance

GHA DISCOVERY, the loyalty programme for Global Hotel Alliance, has been making a name for itself over the last couple of years with a mix of easy to earn status, generous elite benefits and attractive promotions. Membership has shot up to 27 million people.

Global Hotel Alliance is a marketing group used by 45 upmarket hotel brands with a total of 850+ combined properties in over 100 countries. It is the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands.

Kempinski is the biggest GHA brand that most people will know.  Other major names include NH Hotels and sister brand nhow, Pan Pacific, Corinthia, Capella, The Doyle Collection and Anantara. You can find a full list of members in our review of the GHA DISCOVERY programme here.

There is now a way to get free Gold status in GHA DISCOVERY.

Gold isn’t worth much, to be honest, in terms of stay benefits. There are two hard benefits though – the rewards you earn increase from 4% to 5% of your ex-VAT spending, and the expiry date of those rewards increases from 12 months to 18 months.

The Pan Pacific chain, which is primarily active in Asia but has a very smart new-ish hotel in The City, has launched a ‘triple Dollars’ promotion. If you stay at a Pan Pacific hotel by 31st August you will earn 3x your usual rate of DISCOVERY Dollars.

GHA bonuses are based on the earn rate for your tier. This means that a top tier member who usually gets 7% back will receive 21% back under this offer! It’s very lucrative.

More importantly, everyone who registers for the offer will have their GHA DISCOVERY membership upgraded to Gold status for the rest of 2025.

If you already have Gold status, it will be extended by a year to 31st December 2026.

If you have a stay at a Kempinski, NH, Capella, Corinthia etc coming up, you should take this opportunity to upgrade your Global Hotel Alliance membership to Gold.

You can find out more on this page of the Pan Pacific website.

Hat-tip to Frequent Flyer Bonuses.

Earn triple Air Canada Aeroplan miles on flights from the UK

Air Canada has launched a rare limited-time offer for triple Aeroplan miles.

Here’s how it works:

• you must register before booking via this page of the Air Canada website
• you must book your Air Canada flight by 30th May
• you must fly by 15th December
• you must fly from a UK airport (Heathrow, Manchester or Edinburgh are your options) to any destination in Canada or one of the 50 cities served in the United States
• all fare classes except Economy Basic and all cabins are included
• codeshare flights are not included – you must fly Air Canada or one of its sub-brands

If you want to top-up your Air Canada miles after your flight, this article looks at how to earn Air Canada Aeroplan miles from a UK credit card.

You can see the full rules, and register, on this page of the Air Canada website.