American Airlines same day change and standby is finally available through the airline’s mobile app.
Now that the things which are seemingly most important to the airline — things which extract more revenue from customers like Basic Economy, and which save the airline money like devaluing their miles or limiting the number of flights you can have in an award — have been accomplished, they can turn to things which make the travel experience better.
Chase Ultimate Rewards are among the most valuable points because of their flexibility, and because of the value of the programs that Chase partners with.
Here are my 8 favorite things to do with the points.
American AAdvantage has two banks issuing credit cards to members in the U.S.: Citibank and Barclaycard. Citibank advertises online, through direct mail, and in American’s club lounges. Barclaycard advertises in the airport and on flights.
Citibank is running limited-time 60,000 mile signup bonuses for its personal and small business credit cards. Barclaycard has a brand new card on offer.
You can frequently buy points for $0.006 or less, you’re better off doing that than transferring Chase points or pushing for bonuses. The IHG Rewards Club program is great for top tier elite member rebates, weak on elite benefits, weak for its inability to redeem anything other than a base room. Pick up bonuses for stays you’ll make anyway, but the low per point value is something they count on members not understanding when it comes time to putting actual spend on one of their credit cards or choosing their program over another for partner points-earning.
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Chase has just added two transfer airline partners. These are both Avios programs, and you already could transfer from Chase to British Airways and from British Airways to Iberia or Aer Lingus, however to do so your Iberia or Aer Lingus account had to have been open for 90 days and have had some points-earning activity.
No longer.
Planes are full with huddled masses of all sorts bringing their personal baggage, their behaviors and preferences, into a small metal tube that mixes us all together. That’s great for diversity, not so great for social cohesion, but amazing for people watching.
Marriott will give you 1000 points for answering a simple question on Twitter.
And here’s the answer.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a good partner promotion. These can be fun, picking up activity credits and earning progressively more miles, trying to do it at the cheapest cost by finding eligible partners you can buy something from for very little month — or partners you can transfer points from and earn credits — all while generating a big bonus.
Citibank keeps adding airlines as transfer partners for the ThankYou Points program so that your Citi ThankYou Premier Card and Prestige Card’s points are getting more useful. They don’t have any of the major US airlines as partners, but those are diminishing in value, they have niche carriers which offer value if you pay attention and look.
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 »
