Via MilesAbound, the Virgin Atlantic American Express from Bank of America is back offering: 20,000 points after first purchase 25,000 more after $2,500 spend 2,500 points for each of 2 authorized users added to the account That’s an easy 50,000 Virgin Atlantic miles. You can also earn 7500 more points after $15,000 spend and then 7500 if you hit $25,000 spend within a year. And even though the card earns 1.5 miles per dollar on all purchases I don’t value Virgin Atlantic miles enough (because you can’t mix and match partners, their award chart can be quite expensive, and awards entail fuel surcharges) to justify the spend. So I view it as a 50,000 mile bonus card rather than one that generates 65,000 bonus miles. While Virgin miles are far from the most valuable, I…
Hilton HHonors American Express
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50,000 Mile Citi American Airlines Executive Mastercard Offer
The premium co-branded American Airlines Mastercard that can earn elite qualifying miles, offers no foreign currency transaction fees, and comes bundled with lounge access, carries a $450 annual fee. Most often I’ve seen the card offered with 25,000 miles as a signup bonus. But now there’s a 50,000 mile signup bonus offer for the card which requires $5000 spending within 3 months. It’s a lot of money for that annual fee but it’s also a lot of miles, and amounts to purchasing miles at less than a penny apiece (for the first year only). If you are shut out from other Citi cards you might want, such as AAdvantage Visa and the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Card (the latter offers referral credit to me) then this is probably worth considering. It’s a no-brainer if you…
Citi ThankYou Points Introduces Hilton as its First Transfer Partner
About 10 months back there was a great deal of speculation that Citibank was on the verge of introducing points transfers into other loyalty programs as a feature of its ThankYou Points program. That speculation was followed by a whole bunch of non-denial denials from Citi. I was confident it was going to happen, but it didn’t Until now, that is. Citi ThankYou Points can be transferred to Hilton HHonors at a rato of 1000 ThankYou points to 1500 HHonors, the standard American Express Membership Rewards rate which I don’t generally consider a good deal – and rarely consider to be a good deal when Amex runs transfer bonuses, either. This option now appears on the Hilton HHonors website. And it’s also on the Citi ThankYou site under Points Exchange (must be logged into your…
Hilton Changes Elite Qualification Requirements, Declares Gold and Diamond Benefits (Almost) the Same!
Last weekend I wrote that changing the qualification requirements for Gold and Diamond elite status that’s earned in 2013 for the 2014 member year. 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 change. It’s fascinating to me that you can now just get a credit card and have Gold status as long as you keep that card (the Citi Hilton Reserve Visa), or put $40,000 in spend on a credit card and have Diamond (both the…
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.
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…
35% Bonus on American Express Points Transfers to Virgin Atlantic Starts Tomorrow
Starting tomorrow and through December 29, the U.S. American Express Membership Rewards program is offering a 35% bonus on transfers to Virgin Atlantic. The bonus offer should show up at membershiprewards.com/virginatlantic by sometime mid-morning on November 27th. While it’s a good opportunity to top off an existing Virgin Atlantic account that already has a decent mileage stash (I have a bunch of points from signing up for Bank of America’s Virgin Atlantic American Express about six months ago, and I usually credit my one-day Avis rentals to Virgin for the 1000 miles per rental), it’s not necessarily a great deal otherwise. Not only does Virgin Atlantic add fuel surcharges onto its award tickets, e.g. a San Francisco – London business class roundtrip will currently add $896 in fuel surcharges in addition to already hefty taxes…
Hilton HHonors Launches New Online Shopping Portal
Just Another Points Traveler blogged this afternoon that Hilton HHonors had gotten out of the online shopping portal business (click through a program’s ‘online mall’ to the merchant you are going to buy from in order to earn points). She reported this based on an e-mail from the company which ran the old HHonors shopping portal, Hilton HHonors Earnings Mall has been discontinued, but your online shopping benefits don’t have to! To continue enjoying the savings and rewards of Earnings Mall, simply register for OO.com. It turns out, though, that there still is a shopping portal that lets you earn Hilton HHonors points for your online purchases. HHonors just isn’t working with that partner any longer. And the email simply came from the vendor that used to run the old shopping portal, trying to solicit…
Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends… Hilton HHonors Points Are Not Worth 0.8 Cents Apiece
In Ben’s initial post on the subject he argued Hilton HHonors points were really valuable because of the great hotels you can access at a strong cents per point ratio (compared to the cost of paying for that hotel room). His latest missive in the debate, though, is titled “Valuing miles and points is a futile effort.” Getting a precise value for a given currency is a futile effort, because the value is opaque. You can’t truly compare across currencies when each currency can be used for different things, rather than universally for the same things. And especially because there is also uncertainty. You don’t know which hotels will leave a brand’s portfolio. You don’t know when the points will be devalued, and by how much. When hotel programs adjust which properties are assigned to…
How Much is a Hilton HHonors Point Worth? (“Lucky Isn’t As Rich As He Thinks He Is” Edition)
Yesterday One Mile at a Time decided to throw down with me over my comparison of the value of Starwood and Hilton HHonors points. Roughly speaking, as summarized by Ben, he thinks that a Starwood point is worth a little less than 3 Hilton points, I think a Starwood point is worth about four Hilton points. That doesn’t seem like a huge difference but it actually is. It’s the difference between the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express (which earns 1 Starpoint per dollar) being a better card for everyday, un-bonused spend than the Citi Hilton Reserve Visa (which earns 3 Hilton points per dollar), or vice versa. Plus, it’s a blogfight. So it really matters(tm). But let’s put it another way. I think a Hilton point is worth between 0.5 and 0.6 cents, he thinks…
