2-Player Mode in the Travel Hacking world

This article has been added to Suitesmile’s Learn page, along with other travel-hacking guides that will help you travel smarter.

What is 2-player mode?

“Two-Player Mode”, “P2 Mode” and “Player 2 Mode” are terms used in the travel-hacking world when you and your travel partner team up to enjoy double sign-up bonuses, benefits and savings.

This can be achieved with promotions from hotel loyalty programs, credit cards and frequent flyer programs (FFP).

Hotel loyalty programs

Personally, this is where 2-Player Mode is the most exciting.

Hotel promotions often reward members on a “per stay” basis. To fully maximize a promotion, members would have to check out of a particular hotel after a night or two, and stay in a different hotel for it to count as 2 stays to receive double the bonus points or nights.

Marriott Bonvoy example

An example is the ongoing Marriott Bonvoy promotion where members are awarded 1,500 points (worth S$13.50) per stay. By teaming up with your partner, you wouldn’t have to move between hotels to enjoy 1,500 points every single night!

On top of that, Marriott Bonvoy members get up to 1,000 welcome points every stay. That would give you guys over of 2,500 points per night (before the usual points accrual) with 2-player mode!

Hilton Honors example

Let’s now look at an extreme example.

Earlier this year, Hilton Honors had a promotion that rewarded users 2,000 points per stay and 5,000 points after every 5 nights.

You may already know about the amazing Hilton Honors sweet spot that is Hilton Garden Bali Ngurah Rai Airport. This hotel charges just 5,000 points per night for award stays. Gold and Diamond members could also choose to receive 750 points per stay instead of breakfast.

With 2-player mode and milestone bonuses, members could stay in this hotel for as little as 250 points (worth S$1.75) per night! During my 3-month stay a few months back, I met a couple of guys who stayed in this hotel for over a year to ride out the pandemic.

Accor example

Accor is running a great promotion right now where members will receive 6,000 points (worth S$188) after just 3 stays of min. 2 nights each!

Refer each other

You or your partner should also take advantage of new-member sign-up bonuses by referring each other. For example, with Marriott Bonvoy’s Refer a Friend promotion, you and your partner will receive 2,000 points each after every stay, for up to 5 stays!

With Hilton Honors, new members will receive 5,000 bonus points after just 2 stays.

Luxury hotel programs

Luxury programs like Virtuoso and STARS reward guests with additional benefits per stay. This is a fantastic opportunity to activate 2-player mode as you can receive up to US$100 hotel credit every single night!

Check out my Virtuoso stay at The Ritz-Carlton Bali and W Bali – Seminyak.

Click here to compare the best hotel loyalty programs in the world right now.

Credit cards

I’d like to think that my readers are smart enough to already be doing all the following, but let me quickly summarize how it works.

Double monthly limits

Specialized Miles cards often have monthly limits ranging from $1,000 to $2,000. With 2-player mode, you can of course, double these limits by combining your spending with each other’s cards.

Sign-up bonuses

Like hotel loyalty programs, you and your partner should also take advantage of amazing credit card sign-up bonuses to receive hundreds of dollars worth of cash and gifts each!

Unfortunately, credit cards in Singapore are not as generous as those in the USA where cardholders can receive hundreds of thousands of miles/points with new credit card sign-ups.

But hey, that’s probably why we have much better hotel benefits in this part of the world! 😝

4th night free on hotel stays

My favourite credit card, Citi Prestige, offers 1 free night (rebate) for hotel stays of 4 nights or more. However, cardholders can only use the benefit again in the same city when there are at least 7 nights gap in between both stays.

With 2-player mode (both Citi Prestige cardholders), you can stay up to 8 consecutive nights in the same city and receive 2 free nights!

Check out my recent hotel stays that were booked with Citi Prestige benefits.

Frequent flyer programs

Unlike hotel loyalty programs where both of you can enjoy the benefits of 1 hotel stay, frequent flyer programs are harder to game.

Other than sign-up bonuses, like the 5,000 free Qatar miles one that I wrote about last month, there is not much else that 2-player mode can squeeze out of frequent flyer programs.

And unlike hotel loyalty programs, I don’t feel that there are any FFPs that are worth being loyal to, from this region at least.

Where 2-Player Mode doesn’t make sense

In the following scenarios, it makes little sense to activate 2-player mode.

• When you need the nights to your name to re-qualify for a hotel status.
• When hotel promotion is spend-based, like Hilton’s ongoing one.

Bottom line

Two players are better than one, especially when you don’t care about loyalty. There’s plenty of juice to squeeze from 2-player mode. Be sure to use it on your next travel!