The new Upgrd Podcast is posted, and Grace from Fly Gracefully joins us to discuss airport security (nudo-o-scopes and the ‘tampon paradox’), how to detect a terrorist (a ‘supposed’ 1K who needs to ask a flight attendant about United’s meal times), and avoiding United’s domestic reservations agents — or human agents altogether — when ticketing squirrely awards. Check it out!
So Far So Good! 100,000 Mile American Airlines Credit Card Signup Bonus
Last night I wrote about an offer for 50,000 American Airlines miles after $750 in purchases on a new credit card within 4 months and an additional 50,000 miles for spending $10,000 on the card within a year. There’s also a nice 75,000 mile signup bonus offer for those who don’t think they can meet the $10,000 minimum spend requirement — this one requires just $1500 in spend on the card within 6 months. All of these offers come with first year annual fee waived. But they’re being sent out by email, and the links in the emails take you directly to an application. That’s leading to plenty of teeth gnashing on Flyertalk, and much speculation on blogs, that the offer is targeted and that folks using the links may not get the bonuses. To…
300 Free Priority Club Points Instantly
I’ve long resisted installing the Priority Cliub toolbar on my computer, their 300 point offer for doing so just wasn’t lucrative enough for me to bother downloading software and uninstalling it. And the last thing I want or need is more clutter on my laptop (not to mention the eternal ire of my IT department). But Frugal Travel Guy points out that you don’t actually have to download the toolbar to get the points — you just have to enter your Priority Club number and PIN and your name and e-mail address. Click submit, the points post instantly, and you’re just taken to a screen where you have the option to download the toolbar. Works like a charm. So no reason not to do it.
United and Priority Club (Very Modest) Online Shopping Bonuses
It’s not just US Airways jumping on the mileage mall bonus train, United and Priority Club are offering bonuses, too. Though they aren’t as lucrative as what US Airways has come out with. Priority Club is offering 1000 bonus points if you spend between $100 and $500, 1500 bonus points if you spend between $500 and $1000, and 2500 bonus points if you spend $1000 or more at their retail partners through the Priority Club shopping mall by September 7. For a $100 purchase that’s a bonus 10 points per dollar, not bad. If you spend $500 it’s a bonus 3 points per dollar. “Meh.” And of course you don’t get any incremental bonus for spending more than the minimum for each level while not reaching the next bonus level. Plus of course the most…
Shanghai Airlines Departs Star Alliance October 31
The Global Traveller has the details on Shanghai Airlines’ departure from Star Alliance. Shanghai Airlines will leave Star Alliance at 31 October 2010. The alliance status of some of the Chinese airlines has been up in the air for a while due to the complicated and evolving cross-ownerships in each other – Shanghai is in the process of being merged with China Eastern, which earlier this year announced an intention to join Sky Team. China Eastern is itself partly owned by both Cathay Pacific (Oneworld) and Air China (Star Alliance). So it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Shanghai Airlines would leave Star Alliance. Travellers on Shanghai Airlines will now have a period of a year or two without alliance benefits but existing Star Alliance awards on Shanghai Airlines for travel after October will be honoured.…
Possibly Up to 100,000 American Airlines Miles for Citibank Co-Branded Credit Card
I haven’t found a web page detailing the offer, but American is sending email solicitations for their co-branded products from Citibank offering 40,000 American AIrlines miles after $750 in spend, first year fee waived, and two lounge passes. The previous best offer I was aware of was for 35,000 miles, fee waived, but without the lounge passes. Here’s the Visa link, the American Express link, and the Business Visa link. (Oddly they didn’t send along a similar link for their Mastercard or their Business Mastercard.) Now, these links take you straight to the application. So you can trust me (and Citibank) as to what they are promising. But that’s the offer from the email. Passing along in case it’s useful, and would appreciate your hitting the comments if you find a web page dedicated to them…
Best Mileage Earning Flowers Promo Surprisingly Still Alive: 30 United Miles Per Dollar PLUS 1500 Miles Per Order
Back in December, FTD offered a lucractive mileage-earning promo with United: 30 miles per dollar plus 1500 miles per order. That link is still active and should continue to provide the offer as long as it is. Obviously most lucrative with smaller orders, .e.g a $29.99 purchase yields 2400 miles. But not worthwhile for most on a straight points-purchase basis because of the shipping charges that FTD adds to orders (~ $15 in most cases). Still, it’s far less expensive to order flowers through a deal like this than to buy miles. And oh yeah, you get flowers too! And if you’re going to buy flowers online anyway, it’s the best current offer that I’m aware of, so I thought I’d bring it forward from the December archives. Love it when deals last longer than…
American Eliminating Close-In Award Booking Fees for Elites and Change/Redeposit Fees for Executive Platinums
Via Lucky, channelling the Traveling Better forum’s Jon NYC, it appears that American is eliminating their ‘close-in’ award booking fees for elite members. United eliminated these fees for everyone last summer (after introducing them in the fall of 2006. Delta got rid of these fees for everyone, but they’re apparently considering bringing them back, at least for non-elites and folks who don’t hold a Skymiles co-branded American Express card and who aren’t booking with a Saturday night stay. The driver for eliminating these fees is that accounting rule changes don’t let the programs recognize revenue from sale of miles until those miles are redeemed (or expired). So the programs really want to see members booking awards when ‘low’ priced seats are available, seats that are very inexpensive to the program. And the close-in booking fees…
United’s Online Game for 10% Discount Codes
United has new online games with prize drawings, what’s most interesting though is the good chance of instant winning 10% electronic discount certificates. Folks on Flyertalk are racking up the discount codes. Plus the games are actually pretty well-done, at least as far as these gimmick marketing online games go.
Spanair: Every 3 Flights Earns a Free Flight One of Their New Routes
Here’s one for my blog readers in Spain. I realize that this blog often has a North American bias in the extreme, but those nifty Google stats pages do tell me I have friends (or at least frenemies) on the other side of the pond. So hopefully someone finds this useful! Via Frequent Flyer Bonuses, Star Alliance member Spanair is offering a free flight on one of their new routes for every three flights taken on any Spanair route. Qualifying flights must be taken by December 31, and redemption flights must be flown by March 31. New routes include Barcelona to Belgrade, Dubrovnik, Edinburgh, Malta, Marseille, Naples, Nice, Nador, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Venice, Zagreb; Madrid to Belgrade, Edinburgh, Dubrovnik; and Alicante to Algiers.
