Category Archives for Discounts & Deals.
A bit of a limited audience for this one, but still quite generous: Register to earn quadruple miles for your spending with USAirways (e.g. tickets, club memberships) when paying with the USAirways Visa between March 1 and March 15.
Register to earn double miles on all purchases with the Delta American Express from March 15 to April 15 (up to 10,000 bonus miles).
I have long recommended the Diners Club credit card because, despite limited acceptance and a hefty annual fee, the benefits were really unparalleled: an outstanding rewards program, two full billing cycles to pay, free iDine Prime membership, concierge services, and primary rental car insurance. Needless to say, the anticipated linkup between Diners Club and Mastercard had me very excited. If my Diners Club card would get accepted everywhere that takes Mastercard, it would rise to a spot as my #2 credit card (behind the Starwood Amex). However, I’ve been nervous. I assume that the linkup with Mastercard would mean lower interchange fees for Citibank, which issues Diners Club in North America. And with lower fees I imagined cost-cutting from the benefits budget. Diners Club has assured the contrary. I received an information packet in the…
Instapundit calls Amazon’s offer of an new annual fee for free two-day shipping on all your orders a frequent flyer program. Heh. Too bad the only shopping rewards program Amazon participates in is the Dividend Miles Mall.
Through February 28 Frontier Airlines is giving all new accounts 1500 miles just for signing up. If you have a Points.com PointsPlus account (which you can get free) you can immediately transfer these 1500 miles into 675 eBay points, 349 American miles, 750 Asia Miles, 2250 Goldpoints, or one of several other choices.
Chris Elliott has a piece in US News on hotels assigning their worst rooms to customers booking through discount channels. This absolutely happens at some properties, though I’ve never experienced it personally through scores of successful bids. The best advice is that discount sites aren’t the right venue when room selection really matters. If you can afford a nice hotel with an ocean view on your vacation, Priceline may not be the right answer given the risk of being assigned a garden view. You might want to pay to actually reserve the ocean view room. On the other hand, if money is an issue then a “Priceline room” at a four star property may be better than a regularly-reserved room at the two star property you’d have otherwise booked. Meanwhile, if you do go the…
Gratis Networks has a new free electronics offer (yes, another one!). This time it’s Free Playstation Portables. I’ve gotten the free iPod, the photo iPod, the desktop computer, the game system, the flatscreen TV, and the handbag. The Mac Mini has been shipped. Alas, I still have to wait for my free iPod shuffle — hasn’t shipped yet, and I want it. I’m not the most patient person in the world… It’s worth noting that these free offers probably mean a bunch of spam. If so, it all goes to my junkmail folder, but I assume that Gratis markets their customer lists. Their privacy standards have been roundly criticized. It seems a small price to pay for the great payoff in free electronics. I’d rather “sell” my information that way than give it away for…
Gary Steiger has returned from vacation and updated his comprehensive and indispensable Free Frequent Flyer Miles website. It contains links to a plethora of credit card, telephone, internet service, mortgage, and other bonus offers. I often use it as a reference myself — Gary Steiger catalogues the offers, so I don’t need to save them all when I want to refer someone to the best possible bonus.
Test drive a Buick through February 22 and get $100 towards a two-night Marriott stay.
Starwood is offering 25% off the points cost of award nights at several hotels in Southeast Asia for stays through the end of May. While Starwood seems to offer such discounts across the board for about a week during the summer, they don’t seem to often offer promotions like this: discounts at properties during their slow seasons. Of course, Starwood offers cash and points awards and properties that participate are usually facing their slow seasons. But it’s rare that they offer similar discounts on all-points awards. Good move, Starwood!
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
