miles

Tag Archives for miles.

Double United Miles for Tax Payments

by Gary Leff on January 16, 2006

Jan 16 2006

On Thursday I mentioned that the Starwood American Express is offering double points for tax payments. According to Free Frequent Flyer Miles the United Visa is offering double points on tax payments as well.

500 Free Delta Miles

by Gary Leff on August 2, 2005

Aug 02 2005

Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles, you can get 500 free Delta miles for requesting an auto insurance quote.

500 KLM Miles for Online Booking

by Gary Leff on July 16, 2005

Jul 16 2005

Click on this link by July 26 and choose “Reserve Your Free Gift Voucher” in the upper-right hand corner. You’ll get a voucher for 500 free KLM miles when you book a ticket on klm.nl between by January 1, 2006. Thanks to Free Frequent Flyer Miles for the link.

Reactivate expired American Airlines miles

by Gary Leff on June 30, 2005

Jun 30 2005

Through the end of the year, American is offer AAdvantage members the opportunity to reactivate miles that expired after December 30, 2002. There’s a fee — $50 for every 5000 miles plus $30 for ‘processing’. So really you’re just being allowed to purchase miles at a discount, one cent per mile, but that’s actually a pretty good value. (Hat tip to the MilesLink newsletter.)

Bonus Miles for Flying US-Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific

by Gary Leff on June 25, 2005

Jun 25 2005

You can earn triple Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles (August 1 – September 30) when flying from LA or San Francisco to Hong Kong on first, business, or qualifying (Y, B, H, K, L, M, V) coach fares. You could also choose to earn double American AAdvantage miles through August 31 on these flights, but only when flying first or business class (“I” business fares are not eligible for the AA offer). Personally I’d opt for the AsiaMiles, both because coach fares are eligible and because AsiaMiles are hugely valuable — they allow upgrade redemption on Cathay, American, and British Airways and 60,000 AsiaMiles gets you a business class award on BA from the US East Coast to most destinations in Europe (it would take 100,000 BA miles).

How Can Banks Afford to Give You Miles, Rebates, and Premium Services?

by Gary Leff on April 14, 2005

Apr 14 2005

A piece in yesterday’s StartupJournal explained credit card interchange fees. Interchange fees, what credit card companies charge merchants when you use your card, average 1.75% for Visa and Mastercard and 2.4% for American Express. Larger merchants, naturally, negotiate lower feels than mom and pop businesses, but those percentages are the average. If Chase, which issues the United Visa, pays United 1.25 cents per mile and awards a mile per dollar spent on the card then they’re making half a cent on each dollar transaction. That half cent, plus any annual fee, funds their operations and any additional perks that come with the card. It also turns out that which prestige level card you use may now play a part in determining what the merchant gets charged. If you’re using a ‘premium’ Visa (such as Signature…

100 Free American Airlines Miles

by Gary Leff on April 10, 2005

Apr 10 2005

Points.com is giving away 15,000 American miles each day, but perhaps more importantly you get 100 miles just for entering. You need to signup for a free Points.com account to enter, or if you’re already a member you can simply sign in for the points. Points.com has unveiled their new interface, and while it appears slick and streamlined there’s no new functionality that I’m going to find personally useful. What’s more, they’ve increased their fees to $10/month for a premium account!

The importance of credit card miles to airline bottom-lines

by Gary Leff on March 20, 2005

Mar 20 2005

I’ve written here in the past about the importance of frequent flyer miles to airline bottom lines, and in particular the importance of co-branded credit cards which are the single largest source of non-flight miles. When United entered bankruptcy, BankOne (since acquired by JP Morgan Chase) provided $500 million in debtor-in-possession financing. The bank needed the airline to survive because their most profitable credit card product is the United Visa. Now the bank is talking about loosening restrictions on loan covenants in order to allow the airline room to operate. American Express pre-paid the purchase of $500 million worth of Skymiles in order to keep Delta out of bankruptcy. Again, an airline is kept afloat because it’s needed to sustain a credit card business. Credit card miles are big business, and not just for the…

Quadruple Miles for USAirways Ticket Purchases

by Gary Leff on March 1, 2005

Mar 01 2005

A bit of a limited audience for this one, but still quite generous: Register to earn quadruple miles for your spending with USAirways (e.g. tickets, club memberships) when paying with the USAirways Visa between March 1 and March 15.

A small number of free miles in your choice of programs

by Gary Leff on February 25, 2005

Feb 25 2005

Through February 28 Frontier Airlines is giving all new accounts 1500 miles just for signing up. If you have a Points.com PointsPlus account (which you can get free) you can immediately transfer these 1500 miles into 675 eBay points, 349 American miles, 750 Asia Miles, 2250 Goldpoints, or one of several other choices.