On Sunday I posted about the Northwest Visa and their 25,000 signup bonus miles offer. Turns out they’re also now offering a no fee the first year version with 20,000 signup bonus miles (in both versions, the bonus triggers after $500 in spend on the card).
4 Southwest Rapid Rewards Credits for New Members
Through September 30, Southwest is offering 4 Rapid Rewards credits for new members signing up via a La Quinta hotels promotion. The founer of La Quinta was an original Southwest board member. Reading Lamar Muse’s autobiography years ago, I seem to recall that the chain got its name because the founder went looking for the cheapest furnishings available. Those had a Southwest motif, thus the need for a Spanish name. Just don’t look it up in the Urban Dictionary. (Hat tip to Frugal Travel Guy.)
Northwest Visa – Get it While You Still Can
The Northwest Visa Signature offers 25,000 miles after $500 in purchases (the Platinum card offers 20,500). The annual fee is hefty — $90.00 for the Visa Signature or $55 for the Visa Platinum. But the miles are easy and it’s nearly your last shot before Northwest Worldperks folds into Delta Skymiles. It’s a 25,000 mile opportunity you won’t have again, a bonus opportunity in addition to the Delta co-branded Amex offerings.
US Airways Mastercard Now 25,000 Miles for First Use
The US Airways Mastercard offer is currently up to 25,000 miles. The offer changes occasionally, this time no annual fee waiver (or 50% bonus on spend). But it’s as rich a first-use bonus as you get, and there’s no minimum spend requirement to get it. Plus the card comes with a club pass and $99 companion ticket that’s actually usable in my experience. Well worth the $79 annual fee in my view. And there are reports that it’s churnable. This on top of the 25,000 mile offer for the Bank of America Visa and 25,000 mile offer for the Juniper Bank US Airways Business Mastercard. Now, all come with fees, but that’s 75,000 miles for three credit cards none of which have a minimum spend requirement. And since you can churn Bank of America as…
Double Miles for Delta Mileage Purchases (First-time Buyers Only)
Delta is offering double miles on mileage purchases through August 30th for first-time buyers. So if you buy 10,000 miles, you get 20,000. That brings down the effective cost of purchasing miles from 3 cents apiece to 1.5 cents. I haven’t ever purchased Delta miles before, so I’m eligible for the bonus, but 1.5 cents is still more cash than I’d part with to acquire Skymiles. Still, if you need to top off an account for an award this could be just the ticket. Presumably folks that have purchased miles in the past will be receiving a promo to buy miles again in the near future, since the offer says Already a Buy Miles customer? Then make sure that you have added an email address in your account profile so you don’t miss out on…
United (re-)introducing Star Alliance Upgrades?
Inside Flyer ran an interview in its August issue with Michael Schutzbank, the Director of Loyalty for Star Alliance. The news? Mr. Schutzbank says that United Mileage Plus members will soon (again) be able to use their miles for upgrades on participating Star Alliance airlines. We have made some major enhancements and we believe we have fixed the problems we had with UA, and we are currently testing the system. If it works satisfactorily, I expect UA Mileage Plus members to be able to upgrade in the next six to eight weeks. This was a feature of the Mileage Plus program and then pulled ‘due to technical difficulties’ and sure the technical challenges are great but at least half of Star Alliance airlines managed to make it work… Once re-implemented, it’ll take close to full…
Half-Priced OpenSkies Mileage Redemption
British Airways is offering half-priced redemption on OpenSkies between New York-JFK and Paris-Orly for awards booked by August 22 for travel through October 15. It’s 50,000 British Airways Miles round-trip business class or 37,500 BA Miles round-trip in Prem+. If you’re like me, you get your BA miles by transferring Diners Club points during 50% transfer bonus periods, which equates to 25,000 Club Rewards points ultimately scoring a business-like product (Prem+) for transatlantic travel. That’s what happens when you start a new airline and loads are understandably light. So I’ll be looking at whether a weekend in Paris makes sense (I didn’t manage to arrange my schedule for the inaugural flights, alas). In order to get the discounted pricing you need to book at ba.com and choose JFK and ORY airports.
Fight for Your Right to Party (with a free cup of coffee)
Starting today US Airways is charging for non-alcoholic drinks. For most people. Those that get confrontational, flight attendants are allowed to give those passengers their drink for free. Just don’t get too confrontational or they may have law enforcement meet your plane on arrival.
Continental to Restrict “EasyPass” (aka RuleBuster/Standard) Awards for Non-Elites
Continental seems to be dribbling out their Onepass program changes rather than announcing everything at once. In July it was no more award holds and greater fees. Now they’re putting an end to last seat availability unless you’re an elite member of their program. Used to be that if you were willing to spend additional miles (and recently on Continental it’s been a lot more miles) you could get any seat on any Continental flight. According to Continental’s Scott O’Leary in a post on Flyertalk they’re taking this away. For non-elites, EasyPass Rewards will have some capacity controls and may not be available on certain flights where demand is high. In these cases, availability of EasyPass rewards on Continental will be based on R class availability for front cabin rewards and M class for main…
Delta Miles for Free Hair Loss Consultation
Through August 25th you can receive 20,000 Delta miles for a free hair restoration consultation. If you actually graft (the minimum required amount of) hair onto your head that’s another 150,000 miles. But the consultation is free, and over at Flyertalk there are reports of folks with full heads of hair getting the consultation done in 10 minutes without pushback (“I have lots of hair but a family history of hair loss, I’m worried and thought I’d should talk to someone early.”).
