Most airline cards come with an annual fee. But they also usually come with signup bonuses worth more than the annual fee — and the difference in earnings between no-fee cards and fee cards is usually enough to justify the fee. (Many airlines offer no fee cards that only earn 1 mile for every 2 dollars for instance). So the cheapest card isn’t always the best — it just depends on how much you use the card and how you value miles versus money. One no-fee airline card exception is the Lufthansa Visa (which also offers a 6000 mile signup bonus). Right now, Northwest is offering a 15,000 mile signup bonus and fee waived the first year but this offer expires August 31. Call (800) 360-2900, extension 2677. Delta offers fee waivers on it’s Amex…
Free Money from Internet Bank
ING Direct is offering $50 for opening up an internet savings account. There’s no minimum balance and no minimum time the account must remain open. I signed up for an account awhile back with their old $25 bonus. I put $5 into the account and then withdrew my $30. So, in my experience, this works.
United and American: American Express Membership Rewards conversion partners?
One of the biggest complaints about the American Express Membership Rewards program is that, while you can transfer points into several different airlines, United and American are not partner options. How can they leave out the two largest airlines? If you want to redeem Membership Rewards points for United flights, you can transfer points to United partners USAirways, ANA, or Mexicana (and to Delta as well, but Delta points can only be used to redeem United flights domestically). And you can transfer Membership Rewards points to Continental which, as I explained in my last post, you can then transfer on 1:1 into United. This last option is especially good, because Membership Rewards seems to offer 25% bonuses for transferring points into Continental about once a year — so you can really transfer Membership Rewards points…
Earning United Miles No Matter Who You Fly
This is the first in a series of posts on managing your accumulation of miles. You can generally earn miles with whomever you wish. This post will explain how to earn United miles if that’s your preferred currency. If you’re a United frequent flyer, and you really just want to accumulate United miles, but you’re forced to fly another airline odds are you can still earn the miles you want. In fact, you can fly Delta, Continental, Northwest, USAirways, or Alaska and earn United Mileage Plus points instead of receiving points from Skymiles, Onepass, Worldperks, Dividend Miles, or Mileage Plan. How? If you’re flying USAirways, you can credit the miles directly to your United account. Just give USAirways your United frequent flyer number. The same holds true for Delta. You can earn Continental miles for…
Your REAL patriotic duty — savings bonds mean free miles
Gary Steiger has done a good job of outlining how to earn miles more or less for free by purchasing savings bonds online with a points earning credit card. You can transfer the balance to a no interest special offer card, too — thereby earning the miles and the interest at no cost.You can buy up to $60,000 worth of bonds this way. If you use a double miles earning credit card (such as the Delta Amex which offers double miles through July 15) you can earn 120,000 miles for free. That’s enough for a first class ticket to Australia or two coach tickets to Australia or 5000 miles short of five domestic coach tickets. Click on the link above and choose finance from his menu on the left hand column of the page.Update: Gary…
We’ll make up for someone else’s screwup
A five-star hotel in England is giving away a free night stay to the 150 folks with stories of the worst vacation experiences. Just email the story in 50 words or less to enter. (Link via David Rowell‘s weekly newsletter.)
Thanks, Eugene
I have new visitors coming from all over today, it would seem, since this site was featured in MilesLink and mentioned over at the Volokh Conspiracy. So for all of my new visitors, let me suggest that you take a look at the ‘Greatest Hits’ list on the column to the right. In particular, consider checking out: Discounted travel Rental car discounts Four star hotels on the cheap Free upgrade certificates Concentrate all your flying on one airline Instant Starwood Gold Spend miles or money? And, of course, bookmark this page and visit frequently! If you have any questions you’d like answered about travel or miles and points, drop me a line.
No More Lost Bags on Delta?
In April I noted that Delta seems to have an information technology advantage over other major carriers. Now they plan to test radio frequency identification technology this fall to better track passenger baggage and air cargo shipments.
Avoiding the Budget Axe
The TSA is utterly incompetent, and Congress is finally pressuring it to cut costs. So the Federal Air Marshall Service wants to be relocated out of the TSA and into the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Great way to avoid budget cuts!
Welcome MilesLink Readers!
Randy Petersen was good enough to link to me in the most recent MilesLink newsletter. I hope all of today’s visitors enjoy the site, bookmark it, and come back often. And if you prefer, there’s a nightly email that goes out to all interested readers with the all of the day’s posts. Just enter your email address and click the “subscribe” button underneath my picture to the right. (I do not and will not use your email address for any other purpose whatsoever.)
