The only day last year I didn’t post to my blog was the day my grandfather passed away. It takes a lot for me not to post. But I’ve been really under the weather the last couple of days. I think I’m finally starting to come out of it, which is great because I have a tremendous amount to do. I just wrapped up the draft ballot for the Freddie Awards. I’ve had to remove programs that weren’t meaningfully active in 2013 (bmi, Kingfisher), upgrade program names (IHG Rewards Club instead of Priority Club, and my favorite — the new name for EVA Airways’ mileage program — Eva Airways Infinity MileageLands), pay attention to where a program may have switched co-brand credit card issuers, and incorporate all of the best promotions for the year. The…
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40% Bonus Transferring American Express Points to Virgin America.. And Should You Do It?
American Express is offering a 40% bonus on transfers to Virgin America through January 31. This isn’t unusual, they had a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin America in the latter half of September. A year ago they even ran a 50% transfer bonus. Should you transfer? Normally American Express points transfer 2:1 into Virgin America. A 40% bonus is significant, but it’s important to understand how Virgin America points can be valued. My rule of thumb is that Virgin America’s points are deflated, that one Virgin America point is worth about 2 points in a European airline frequent flyer program. Their points are reasonably good, then, for redeeming on partners (with fuel surcharges). You can use the points for about 2.2 cents apiece towards travel on Virgin America, or for fixed-point redemptions on their partners.…
Changes to United’s Premium Credit Card: Why United Doesn’t Like its Card Customers, and Avis Isn’t About to Start
United’s Legacy Premium Credit Card Still Exists — But You Can’t Apply for It The United Presidential Plus card can’t be applied for anymore. Back before the merger with Continental, Chase issued a fantastic premium credit card that allowed you to earn top tier elite status through spend alone, came with club lounge benefits, and threw in fantastic benefits with other travel providers like Avis Presidents Club (a status which gets you great upgrades and guaranteed availability, and which you cannot earn through rentals alone) and Hyatt Platinum status just for having the card. It had primary collision damage waiver for rental cars, too, so if you damaged the car you were driving you might not even have to let your insurance company know. Back when the card was introduced, the IT on it wasn’t…
The US Airways Card from Barclaycard is NOT Going Away Due to the Merger
The US Airways card from Barclays will take applications until US Airways and American combine into a single airline in early 2015. After that, the card will be re-branded as an American card. There will be two issuers of American Airlines co-brand credit cards. However, Barclaycard will not issue any new cards once the airlines have combined into one. That way Citibank will be the exclusive issuer of American’s co-brand card cards. That’s the news, citing Dennis Nealon, Barclaycard’s managing director of co-brand partnerships. Nealon specifically denied the rumor that existing US Airways cards would become Arrival cards (earning and redeeming Barclaycard’s proprietary points) as was done when they lost the Virgin America relationship. “We are not planning to rebrand any US Airways card member to Arrival,” Nealon says. “They will become American AAdvantage card…
Earn Up to 50,000 Bonus Airline Miles for New Marriott Rewards Members
Marriott has a new offer (that they’ve also run in the past) that’s available only to new members of the Marriott Rewards program currently — MegaMiles. While there’s an offer being sent out by Marriott’s airline partners like Virgin America, contra The Points Guy it is not actually targeted in that anyone can join as a new member and get the bonus miles being offered. In fact, even if you click a link to join sent to you by Virgin America, you can still select any mileage-earning partner of Marriott’s to use in earning bonus miles. MegaMiles is being offered to new members who join and opt to earn miles. For stays between February 1 and April 30, new members can earn 5,000 bonus miles with every other paid stay starting with the second stay,…
Delta Is Great for Award Availability If You Don’t Like Your Spouse
Last week we learned that Delta wants to keep your spouse out of their lounges — the $450 Skyclub membership fee will now require you to pay for guests. It turns out they also want you to travel alone, too. Delta has always been pretty good about releasing just a single award seat. I’ve not had too much difficulty finding one business class award seat to Asia on many Delta flights. The challenge has always been finding two (fortunately Delta has airline partners that are more generous with award space than they are). So I did something of a head tilt when I saw MileValue declare, “Not April Fools: Delta Has the Best Award Space to Asia I’ve Ever Seen.” Delta has been de-emphasizing connections through Tokyo, and they’ve been adding direct flights from their…
3000 United Miles for First Rocketmiles Hotel Booking
Rocketmiles usually gives you a 1000 mile bonus with your first booking when you are referred by an existing member. So it’s worth signing up that way. Rocketmiles is a hotel booking site with a limited number of hotels and in a limited – but growing – number of cities. It rebates you a potentially large number of miles for your reservations. (You generally won’t earn hotel points for your stays booked through the site.) You get to choose whose miles you want to earn for your stays. In addition to the standard bonus they are now offering a 3000 mile bonus for making your first booking by February 28 for a stay consumed by July 1 and earning United miles. Last month a first-time booking bonus excluded earning the referral bonus also in its…
Lots of IHG Rewards Promotion Codes to Earn You Big Bonuses for Your Hotel Stays
Two weeks ago I shared a list of IHG Rewards promotion codes you can sign up for. Piling on the points is something you can really do with this program because they run many concurrent promotions, ostensibly targeted but that are often in practice open to everyone and can often be stacked on top of each other. You don’t always know which promotions will post and which will not with this program, but in advance of a stay at one of their hotels (eg Intercontinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza) it’s wise to sign up for as many promotions as possible that you think you might be able to meet the qualifications for. Head for Points updates and adds to the list of known promotion codes you can register for. 4040 – New Stay Bonus (1,500…
American Wants You To Know That Their Cross Country Flight Was Revolutionary 61 Years Ago
Last month I poked around American’s new Airbus A321 that’s begun flying between New York and Los Angeles and that is scheduled to serve the New York – San Francisco market soon. I flew the inaugural Los Angeles – New York flight last week and loved it. It’s a gorgeous aircraft with great seats and a great entertainment system. It is light years ahead of the old product American offered on their 767s. Business class is at least as good as what Delta and United are offering, and they offer the best product in the market with a first class cabin offering 2 seats across (one in each window). During the inaugural flight, American’s Vice President of Marketing kept repeating the mantra that American “invented transcon service” and that it was great they were “re-inventing…
Did You Know That Pandas Fly Commercial? Here’s How One Flew Los Angeles to Shanghai
Not only do pandas fly commercial, but they have to connect. And they don’t earn extra any miles. Yun Zi was born at the San Diego Zoo, but isn’t a U.S. citizen. Panda politics are complicated and agreements with China are that when a Panda parent gives birth, the government gets to decide where to send the kid. Since Yun Zi is more than 4 years old, it was time to be taken from his family. In a Hunger Games sort of way. The panda flew to Shanghai onboard a China Southern 777 and then onward to Chengdu before making the rest of the trip to Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan. That’s apparently Yun Zi’s ancestral home, where his parents Bai Yun and Gao Gao were born. “He was calm, and when we first took…
