Lots of folks have been successfully using the SkyGuide Executive Privilege Club for deeply discounted lounge access. A $20 membership buys 12 lounge day passes per year. And since the ‘per year’ limit has been per calendar year, and the membership is for 12 months, folks have even been able to get 24 (12 at the end of one year, 12 at the beginning of the next) lounge passes for their $20. Further, since a lounge day pass often costs $50, that’s as much as $1200 in (mileage-earning, credit card signup bonus-qualifying) spending that’s reimbursed. A great deal all around if you’re willing to fill out and mail in the reimbursement form. This continues to be a good deal, but of course it is too good a deal. So not at all surprising that they’re…
500 Free American Airlines Miles for Quick Survey
Via Lucky, American AAdvantage will give you 500 miles for “liking” both American Airlines and American AAdvantage on Facebook and then completing a brief survey. It’s one page, a handful of questions, basically what are your favorite loyalty programs and why? Miles should post in 6-8 or less. Easy and fast to take. The survey is on offer through December 17 or until 200,000 people complete it.
33% Bonus on Transfers of American Express Points to Hilton
American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 33% bonus on transfers to Hilton through January 31. You shouldn’t do this, though. This offer moves 1000 Amex points into 2000 Hilton points. Through December 29, American Express is offering a transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic. And Virgin Atlantic points transfer to Hilton at a ratio of 1:2. That offer yields 2700 Hilton points for each 1000 American Express points (by transferring American Express to Virgin Atlantic to Hilton). Even that I don’t consider to be an exceptional use of American Express points. It’s decent and can pay off when redeeming for some of Hilton’s top end properties. But at a minimum it’s more attractive than the straight-up transfer bonus to Hilton.
New Priority Club PointBreaks Hotels for Stays Through January 31
A new Priority Club PointBreaks list is out. These are the promotional awards where rooms at specific hotels are only 5000 points per night. While the offer is valid through January 31, the best hotels participating each round usually sell out quickly and are pulled in a few days. So if you want to redeem your points for one of these properties — or even might want to — it’s a good idea to make that booking right away. As of this writing there are no listed properties in Africa. There are 9 Holiday Inns listed in Europe. There are just 7 hotels currently listed in Asia including the Intercontinental Jakarta — which is the only included Intercontinental at this point (it’s possible that more could be added). I can only hope that the list…
100% Bonus on Buying Miles from AviancaTaca
AviancaTaca has brought back their 100% bonus on purchased miles, through December 28. You can purchase up to 75,000 miles and receive a 100% bonus (resulting in up to 150,000 miles). AviancaTaca miles are especially leveraged Since joining Star Alliance in June they’ve already run buy miles bonuses twice previosuly — they ran the offer in September, and one in July. This was a regular feature of the program prior to their joining Star as well. And each time the offer is limited to people that were members of the program prior to the start of the buy miles bonus. Which is why I suggest at least joining AviancaTaca Lifemiles speculatively, since the program is really valuable. The award chart is pretty reasonable One-way awards are available for half the cost of roundtrip They offer…
Priority Club Cracking Down on How They Calculated Points for Elite Status
Loyalty Lobby writes that a change to the terms and conditions of Priority Club related to how status will be earned starting January 1 was posted to the chain’s Chinese website. Previously, Gold status was earned after accumulating 20,000 points in a calendar year and Platinum status earned after accumulating 60,000 points in a year. The new system will distinguish between status points and non-status points. So purchased points, transferred points, and ‘promotional’ points will no longer count towards status. It is not clear, however, how ‘promotional’ points differ from “partner points from qualifying activities” which will continue to count towards status. One possibility is that all of the stackable promotions that can be earned for a single stay may not count towards status (I’ve earned as many as 40,000 points in one rather inexpensive…
100% Bonus on US Airways Purchased Miles Extended Through December 7
The current round of bonuses for purchasing US Airways miles was supposed to run through November 30th only. Of course I pretty much anticipated that once the bonus ended, there would be another one. Although sometimes it’s a smaller bonus, or targeted only to people that had purchased in the past. But most of the time US Airways does offer some sort of bonus. This time what they’ve done is extend the November 30-expiring bonus through December 7. It’s over 1.8 cents a mile to buy miles even with the 100% bonus, my personal approach is that I would certainly buy miles to top off an account or to make an immediate award booking (put a reservation on hold then buy the miles) but I wouldn’t buy miles speculatively just to stock up for future…
Hilton Quietly Increases Qualification Requirements for Elite Status
Hilton HHonors has just updated its terms and conditions with new requirements to qualify for elite status in 2013. The nights you’ve spent in 2012 will still get you 2013 status, this change isn’t retroactive. Rather, this changes the number of stays and/or nights you need in 2013 to earn status for the remainder of 2013 and 2014. There are no changes to the qualification requirements for Silver. Gold goes from 16 stays, 36 nights, or 60,000 base points to 20 stays, 40 nights, or 75,000 base points. Each qualification method increases. Diamond goes from 28 stays, 60 nights, or 100,000 base point to 30 stays, 60 nights, or 120,000 base points. Stays and base points increase, albeit less dramatically in percentage terms than they do for Gold, and the number of nights required doesn’t…
A Happy Wedding Day, Courtesy of a Points Redemption..
I’m not usually a fan of spending miles for things like wine glasses and walkie talkies. But this story about two grandparents who met at a grocery store saving up their grocery points for a wedding just seemed sweet. Strictly speaking they just used their points to feed their 140 wedding guests, and not to pay for the venue or other accoutrements. And I’d have preferred using points for a honeymoon. But I still wish the happy couple all of the best, and congratulate them on their redemption of Sainsbury’s points! (HT: sobore on Milepoint)
Double the Value of Your Club Carlson Points with New Club Carlson Credit Cards
Mommy Points writes about the just-released Club Carlson credit cards. They’re issued by US Bank, which is great because it’s another card option not from Chase or American Express (or Citibank). There are of course only but so many cards that most folks can get from Chase/Citi/Amex. My impression on first read-through was that there was a decent though not stellar signup bonus, decent though not stellar points earned, and that the card might be one I’d get for the bonus at some point but no much else. And then I read through the terms and conditions more closely and realized one killer app benefit. Which I’ll get to in a moment. There are (3) different cards that have been introduced. Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature 5 Club Carlson points per dollar on most…
