One Mile at a Time mourns the loss of buying American Express travelers checks fee-free with co-branded American Express cards and earning the miles. I too am sad to see this go, and of late when you could buy them online even with under $6 shipping and save the trip to the Amex travel office it was even better. They’d mail you the travelers checks, you’d deposit them in your checking, and use the funds to pay off the card.. generating easy miles. A moment of silence, please.
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Northwest Shopping Promo
Northwest — which will soon go away and merge its Worldperks program into Delta Skymiles — continues business as usual offering regular bonus promotions. This time it’s “Miles in the Bag,” a shopping promo offering triple miles at a variety of merchants through January 30. 1-800-Flowers and FTD offer 30 miles per dollar (compared to the hidden 25 United miles per dollar that’s still active…).
United Charges You Cash to Upgrade and More Miles for Awards
Regular readers of this blog know that I’ve been predicting it for awhile. United announced changes to its frequent flyer program today. First, the minor change, they are restoring 500 mile minimum earning for elites matching Continental and American (leaving US Airways more or less out in the cold denying 500 mile minimums even to their elites). What’s more, they’re crediting the minimum miles retroactively so that elites won’t even be hurt by the change that took effect back in July. Second, starting July 1, 2009 they’re making mileage upgrade awards more like American — upgrade on any fare, but with a co-pay. Even domestic upgrades come at a $50 cost on top of the current 15,000 miles each way (I miss 10,000 mile confirmed upgrades!). Hawaii upgrades bump up slightly, to 17,500 miles each…
10% Bonus on Marriott Gift Card Purchases Through December 31
Through December 31, Marriott is offering a 10% bonus on the purchase of gift cards. You can use these to pay for your stays and, together with the bonus effectively receive a discount on your hotel rates. This is a ‘friends and family’ offer for Marriott associates, and they were encouraged to ‘pass it on.’ Use promo code MMF at MarriottGiftCardOffer.com. Update: Reader Rich points me to a Flyertalk thread which details how to get 10% off on the purchase of $1000 and $2000 Marriott Vacation Cards and also receive 1000 Delta miles per $1000. This requires a greater cash outlay (so you’d better have some Marriott stays lined up!) than the gift card offer above, but it comes with some Delta miles and a 10% savings rather than a 10% top-off to the card.…
Happy Birthday Frugal Travel Guy!
Congratulations to Frugal Travel Guy on his one year blogiversary! Rick’s site, along with One Mile at a Time are the two miles and points-focused blogs i find indispensable.
Show Your Papers, Your Gender, and Your Date of Birth to Fly
Last week final plans were announced for implementing ‘secure flight’ – the nomenclature for silly rules that all passengers will have to submit their gender and date of birth in order to obtain an boarding pass, starting in July of 2009. This applies to domestic US flights, flights departing or arriving the U.S., and flights overflying the U.S. Terrorists could easily find out if they’re on the list, simply with a dry run — that is, buying a ticketing for a flight they don’t intend to bomb to see if they have any problems getting their boarding pass. If they do face hassles, they could either turn the job over to someone else in their group or use fake documents (whether a fake boarding pass with their own name that matches ID or a fake…
25% Off Specific Routes on Virgin America
Virgin America is offering 25% off of flights booked by October 31 for travel on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Saturday using promo code 25OFF. The discount applies to: San Diego to/from San Francisco Los Angeles to/from Seattle San Francisco to/from Seattle Seattle to/from San Diego The discount applies to travel through February 25, 2009, and Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Presidents Day weekend blacked out.
5000 Miles for New bmi Account Signup
British Midland is offering 5,000 miles for new account signups prior to November 2nd. It’s also supposed to come with ‘Blue Plus’ status. If you don’t have a bmi account, this is the perfect time to sign up. It’s my favorite frequent flyer program at the moment, though if the program is eventually swallowed up by Lufthansa its special benefits could well go away. This is the account where I credit my short flights, now that United and US Airways give only actual miles flown rather than 500 miles minimum (bmi gives 600). bmi is the best place in my view to credit Hertz rentals and Hilton double dip miles. Gold members who have requalified for their status earn 625% mileage on paid first class travel. bmi offers one-way awards and a cash and points…
21% Hyatt Discount Code
Book by November 5, 2008 for stays between October 31, 2008 and February 1, 2009 and receive 21% off the ‘prevailing rate’ at Hyatt using offer code LTGP06. Rates are pre-paid, non-refundable.
Vegas: Caesars Palace from $75, Paris from $60, and Harrahs from $49
Harrah’s Properties are offering some deep discounts in November and December (offer valid through January 5). Their Vegas property offerings are rates at Ceasars Palace from $75, Paris from $60, and Flamingo, Ballys, Harrahs, and Rio from $49. For Laughlin rooms start at $22. There are even some Saturday and Sunday nights available at the lowest special rates. Hat tip to CalItalian.
