I admit, I didn’t think they were bringing this one back. It used to be, perhaps before 5 years ago, that every year there would be a 100% bonus on transfers from Diners Club to British Airways.
And then they reduced the bonus to 50%, but they brought it back every year. It was usually a summer bonus. And this year summer came and went, and no word. I thought it was the end of the line for this lucrative bonus, and said so on Flyertalk. They’ve been slowly killing the card for awhile now, losing partners and taking away benefits, and you can’t even apply for a new Diners Club card these days.
So I was pleasantly surprise to read the news today that the bonus is back (or is about to come back..): a 50% bonus on transfers between November 1 and January 31.
Transfers aren’t instant with Diners Club, but the bonus is lucrative enough for many to be worthwhile.
Meanwhile they’re also offering a bonus of ‘up to 35%’ on transfers to Delta between October 15, 2009 and January 15, 2010. No bonus for transfers less than 10,000 points. A 15% bonus transferring between 10,000 and 19,999 points. It’s 25% between 20,000 and 29,999. And 35% for transfers of 30,000 points or more.
To my mind, seriously not worthwhile to give up the flexibility of Diners Club points to get a bonus with Delta, with Skymiles the most difficult to use in exchange for reasonable value of any North American mileage program.
In late 2002 I transferred 50,000 American AAdvantage miles and 50,000 United miles to 100,000 Diners Club points in both my Diners Club account and my wife’s account. There was a 50,000 mile calendar year transfer limit for AA and UA miles exchanged into DC Rewards points per account.
In early 2003 I made additional transfers of 50,000 United miles into DC points for both my account and my wife’s account.
At the time the exchange rate for Diners Club was 2 DC points = 1 airline mile in a variety of programs.
Basically the 300,000 miles we transferred into Diners Club could be turned into 150,000 miles in another program.
The 100% British Airways bonus started June 1, 2003. I paid something like $35 for a rush transfer of Diners Club Rewards points to British Airways and ultimately exchanged our 100,000 AA miles and 200,000 US miles into 300,000 BA miles.
By the end of the first week in June we had booked British Airways First Class tickets for travel during the entire month of July from Denver-London-Singapore-Melbourne/Sydney-Singapore-London with the Australia open-jaw for a two week stay and stopovers each way in London for one week.
Published airfare $26,000 for each ticket. Our cost $250 per ticket.
Also earned 115,000 Starwood points from our hotel stays in Australia during the stay in 5 brands earn 50,000 bonus points promotion for Asia-Pacific region.
What a killer summer vacation thanks to Diners Club and Starwood.
The only disappointment was not being able to blow a few hundred thousand HHonors points in Scandinavia that summer while Hilton HHonors allowed Scandic Hotel stays for 10,000 points per night. That was a missed opportunity. Too many deals and not enough days for travel.