Deluxe travel trappings such as first-class flights, personal butlers
and free-flowing French champagne may seem out of reach, but they can
come (relatively) cheap, or even free of charge, if you know where to
look and how to book.
Sun-and-sand resort chains such as Occidental and Melia
are pushing upgrades beyond the bedroom. Pay a flat fee of as little as
USD $320 a week before you visit, and you gain access to private dining
rooms with table service and à la carte menus, quiet pools and lounge
areas with dedicated staff and spas, and roped-off beaches with luxury
loungers and cabana bars that serve vastly superior umbrella drinks. In
addition to yielding a more pleasant stay, these extras can make a
mega-resort feel like an intimate, exclusive enclave.
Use your loyalty points and status on improving what you've already
booked. An economy flight, for example, can suddenly become business —
or even first-class by burning a few thousand air miles (sadly,
complimentary airline upgrades are pretty much extinct these days) —
while a standard hotel room can become a suite with a swipe of your
brand-backed credit card and a discreet inquiry at check-in. Want to
trade that rental Hyundai for a BMW? Membership can make it happen ...
for nothing.
If there's one frequent-flyer privilege that stands above all others,
it's access to private airport lounges. Amenities can include free
snacks and refreshments, plush seats, newspapers, magazines, free Wi-Fi,
and sometimes even showers and beds. If you can’t get in for free with a
business- or first-class ticket, the requisite loyalty status or a
friend who has access, consider paying the entrance fee (usually around
USD $50). Alternatively, programs like Priority Pass cover more than 600 lounges in hundreds of cities for an annual membership fee that starts at USD $99.
There is usually a glut of villas, penthouses and the like on the
market, sitting empty and generating no income for their owners. That's
where online luxury liquidators step in. Luxury Link,
for example, delivers discounts of as much as 75 per cent off the
retail prices of thousands of ritzy properties, ranging from intimate
Tuscan villas to India's gargantuan Leela Palace Bangalore (pictured).
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