Summertime brings on the travel sweepstakes with a purpose. There is one in this list of 10 that I would want to win so bad I can not stand it and entered as soon as I saw it! Do you know which one it is?

United has one for the Olympics + 17 runners up get free air HERE

Advance Auto Parts has a FB one HERE

Jaguar has one to England and a chance to be on Top Gear HERE

TravelSmith has a chance for a cruise HERE

Olive Garden has one to Italy HERE

Better Homes & Gardens also has one to Italy HERE

Comfort Inn has one to Florida HERE

Food & Wine has one to Barbados HERE

Turkish Airlines has a FB one HERE

And Monster Drink has one to Costa Rica HERE

So let’s do this, I am giving away to two winners today at 10:PM EST, a Delta Points t-shirts (2XL is all I have left but they are 100% cotton), a Delta “tail” key chain and a Delta Points luggage tag. One set will go to a CONFIRMED e-mail subscriber to Deltapoints.com. The other set,  just tell me the one sweepstakes YOU want to win.  AND, if you guess the one I want to win, you also get a GoGo one time pass ( found one more )! – René

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
American Express – RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
Click here for more information

Several readers took advantage of the lower cost spend requirement to get the 50,000 point INK BOLD card last month (a big thanks btw for using my link). The spend now to get the points is $10,000 vs the $5000 then. There was also, for a very short time, a 60,000 point link that went dead almost as quick as it came up. Here is a screen shot of it (in case you need it as proof of the old EXPIRED offer):

Just like I have blogged about before, it never hurts to ask, e-mail or beg for free points. It takes very little effort to try and all it costs you is some time and maybe some pride but for free points my pride can suffer a bunch!

My wife got in on the deal last month so she decided to shoot off an e-mail to the secure message center at Chase to see if they could match the bonus to the 60,000 offer now that the spend is almost done for the 50,000 points. Here is part of the response she received:

“…. as a gesture of our commitment to you, I have added 10,000 points to your rewards balance in order to match the 60,000 bonus points offer on your Ink Bold account.“

Bingo! An extra 10k Ultimate rewards points and one step closer to the 400,000 point all-in goal I have for my 25th anniversary cruise next year. So while YMMV,  if you have some time today why not see if you can score some free points today too. – Rene

◘Chase INK BOLD
50,000 point
Ultimate Rewards card
Click here for more information

Just like Mommy Points talked about last Friday, Fandango and Visa Signature have their 2 for 1 movie deal for today! Here is the info:

The Buy One Get One Free Movie Ticket is only for Visa Signature Cardholders

1 -  Click here for the offer
2 -  Enter the your Visa Signature card number to confirm you have a Signature card (your card will not be charged)
3 -  Find the movie you want and add two movie tickets to cart
4 -  The discount will be shown as you proceed through checkout

 There are lots of Visa Signature points cards you may have like:

Citi Hilton HHonors 40,000 point card

Chase United MileagePlus Explorer 40,000 point card

British Airways 100,000 point card

Marriott Rewards 50,000 point card

So while not 100% travel related, it is a good deal if you are going to the movies anyway today! – René

◘United MileagePlus® Explorer
Card – 40,000 point card
Click here for more information

Boy, you take a few weeks off from a Delta news update and look at what you miss out on. Sure the billion dollar airport is a show stopper. There is the koolest time lapse video for us all to enjoy day one at ATL if you click on the photo below:

But then, after that, the news is not quite so good:

• Pinnacle Airlines wins Delta debtor-in-possession financing approval by the bankruptcy court HERE
• Uh oh, Delta is making less money on bags… What do you think that will mean for us HERE
• Europe flights will be even more packed this fall HERE
• While the new airport terminal hopes to add 1000 jobs, Delta is cutting 2000 HERE
• The WSJ says Delta has the hardest redemption of miles HERE. Sure, but we know how to get those seats we want as DeltaPoints readers right?
• We all saw the possible overcharging IT bug I blogged about HERE
• Three more jobs are open at Delta thanks to drug smuggling HERE
• YO’ – Memphis you are #3 but you will not like it HERE
• At least we are not Ryan Air – even their FA’s have it hard HERE
• More flights from DTW to CDG it looks like at least HERE
• And Delta pilots and Delta are getting along HERE
• And lastly if you check in at AMS you will want to go to the right departure hall HERE

So that is the news roundup for now. I think I need to wander over to PM&M and see if he can mix me a drink! – René

spg*- Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card
American Express – 25,000 points
Click here for more information

 get both for 50,000+ points!

spg*- Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Card
American Express – 25,000 points
Click here for more information

The one hotel I love to stay with and probably blog too much about is IHG. I just love PointBreaks nights for 5000 points with 10% back when you have their Chase branded card.

Right now there is this promo going on that can get you $75 cash back for two stays.

Note you need to be logged in to your Priority Club account to see the above and register. You can also read all the T&C about the promo HERE. And once you have registered and stayed you submit your info for the rebate HERE. And last but not least there is a 1000 point bonus per stay from FB HERE. There are many codes you should try before you stay at an IHG hotel and they are all listed at Flyer Talk HERE.

Also, the current PointBreaks list is about to end on May 31st. Normally they come out with the new one any time from the 15th of the month proceeding the end date up to the last day of the old promo. All the blogs will post about it when it happens but it is good to be proactive and be ready as there can be big bonus points for booking right away as well as getting the nights for the hotels you want in June and July! – Rene

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
American Express – RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
Click here for more information

My fellow Boarding Area blogger Points, Miles & Martinis does a great job giving us a photo tour of day one of the new international terminal and company CEO has done the rounds on TV as well:

click photo to play video

The other big news for the day is that no one likes paying a higher price for the exact same product. Delta states on their web site about the “Best Fare Guarantee”:

“If you find a lower published fare for the exact same Delta itinerary as the ticket you purchased on delta.com, you have the choice of either receiving credit for the difference in fares and a $100 travel voucher or receive a refund for your ticket. For a claim to be valid under this guarantee, it must satisfy all Terms and Conditions and be submitted in compliance with the Claims Processing procedures.”

As it turns out a reported “IT” glitch “MAY” have cost Delta’s best and most loyal customers, elite Medallion flyers money as you can see in the Star Tribune.

Delta’s company spokesman Paul Skrbec told me this today:

“We have been investing in our website and the technology that supports it for over a year. Recently, we updated our search function as part of a phased approach to improve the site. Shortly after making the updates, we discovered that it produced inconsistent results for logged in and non-logged in customers. We evaluated the situation carefully and rolled back to our prior search function which resolved the issue.”

This all started with a CBS Minnesota piece you can see here.

As an elite Delta flyer, I am accustomed to the unique and somewhat challenging IT system that Delta has in place for trying to book award tickets. We like the fact that Delta gives more award space to elite flyers. Here is the core of this issue; Delta has yet to find out if beyond price checking, if purchased tickets are different over the three week period. So we do not know if medallions have been affected by this and have overpaid for tickets.

It will be up to you, Medallion flyers, to find out if you were bitten by this computer bug, how much it may have cost you, and then try, on a case by case basis,  to get credits back under the best price guarantee. Since the trip has already happened, you can not get money back. But you can maybe get an Electronic Travel Voucher for each ticket you were overcharged for, issued to your Skymiles account. These, under the new rules for ETV’s, can only be used one per ticket. If you have two or more instances you find where you were overcharged, you get 2 or more credits that can ONLY be used by you and ONLY one per ticket!

At this point, so much of this is just speculation. This story is far from over so stay tuned elite flyers! – René

One of the big perks about the Delta AMEX cards, all of them, is a buy one, get one free for the taxes coupon you get ($99 with the GOLD Delta Amex). With the Reserve card you can even fly first class this way but the cost is high so I never use mine that way. The paid for ticket earns RDM & MQM’s and the free rider gets nothing. Also, if you do book coach, even as a medallion of any flavor, you have no ability to upgrade. I used my wife’s coupon and changed it so that I was the one earning for this trip. We naturally did not fly direct DTW-MYR-DTW (1272 MQM’s), we flew SBN-DTW-ATL-MYR to rack up (3188) MQM’s round trip.

For years, phone reps could put you on the upgrade list with a companion cert, or the GA could override and get you into first if there was an empty seat. But apparently the Delta IT has had plenty of    free time   to fix this as no one seems to be able to do that anymore and an empty first class seat is better than upgrading a couple of medallions who are redeeming one of these coupons. I think these certificates, like the pay with miles, should be eligible for upgrades. Why not make these redemption’s bottom of the list, but at least make it possible, Delta! (guess they are too busy with the opening of the new international terminal today!)

We did make time to pop into the Skyclub, in B I think, with 3 hops each way they all start to look the same.

Normally a trip to the golf capital of the world would involve a ton of time chasing a little white ball all over lush green fairways, but it just did not work out this time. Plus, I have a fall golf trip with my buddies to Gaylord in August and can not wait to get back to play “The Tribute” again!

I know I sound like a broken record, but gosh I love the haul of Restaurant.com coupons I have from December. One night we went to a sweet local place called the “Hot Fish Club“. They make all the food in house from the great “chips” to the desserts that they bring in a local baker to make that I did not have room for. Our dinner for 3 pre 18% tip was under $15! Crazy good and I would go back in a heartbeat!

After a nice week with family, our return trip was an MD-88 out of MYR, exit row on the leg room was very good. If you have not been to MYR for a while, they are not building a new airport as was the plan for a while, but expanding the current one a bunch!

Next in Atlanta an internationally configured 767-300ER ATL-DTW and we got to try out the EC seats. I may have to rethink 10+ hrs in this kind of seat as it seems smaller than I remember. I will say the first bulkhead row has just about unlimited leg room if you can snag 16 F&G. There were lots of birds in maintenance and I did get a nice shot of DTW coming up from the south.

Then back to the good old CRJ200 to SBN. All went well and more MQM’s in the bank thanks to our AMEX Companion certificate. While I don’t use them every year, I really should as they are a great value in today’s ever climbing cost to fly (when paying for a ticket that is)! – Rene

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
American Express – RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
Click here for more information

We have our two winners! They are from the comments # 13 LKLY who says:

Too many to count – enough for gold status!

And our E-Mail CONFIRMED subscriber  was #279 rpatel

Congratulations and I will contact you to get the Laptop Backpacks on the way to you!

Keep in mind I have more giveaways to E-Mail readers this month as well as getting the blog sent to your inbox once a day! – Rene

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
American Express – RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
Click here for more information

They say the first million is the toughest, right? It took our beloved Delta 16 years to carry it’s first one million passengers, the one millionth being Mary Frances Carroll on this date in 1945.

So how long does it take Delta to carry one million passengers nowadays? It sure seems like at least one million were in Atlanta yesterday when I was flying. Think of this, even using 2010 statistics, Delta exceeds it’s one millionth passenger carried before noon on January 3 each year!

I wonder if Ms. Carroll got anything more than a corsage, wings, and a cake? With Skymiles still 36 years until inception, it’s not likely that Million-Miler Status was in the offing! Since annual silver medallion status, complimentary after a flyer reaches this milestone, ain’t all that it used to be maybe she was better off with the cake and flowers!

And how about some fun today. Have you been on a Delta jet yet this year? Leave a comment and tell us how many flights you have taken this year. Even ZERO counts. I will give away TWO of these new  HP Ultra Mobile Backpacks  with DeltaPoints luggage tags on them. One will go to those who comment, one will go to a DeltaPoints.com e-Mail subscriber. – Rene

EDIT: I will pick the winner at 10PM EST – I will be sure to update all comments before then!

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
American Express – RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
Click here for more information

Sometimes my brain hurts. I would love to know if it is just me that does this. What? Simply this: there is so much I assume everyone else knows. My wife sure tells me enough times that I need to tell her what is in my head. The latest question a reader sent me was:  “where (on the blog) are all the ways to get maximum Delta Skymiles if one wanted to” (say in one year)?

So here, once again, is a post I should have had up for a long time. Some caveats and a request not to flame me in comments. I am not saying that all these ways are the best use of the points. There are often transfer bonus deals that could result in more value for the points. This is to show all the ways to score MAX Delta Skymiles in just one year. All the cards below have no first year annual fee other than the Platinum business card, $450, but you do get up to $300 in credits back in incidentals and GOES rebate and you get Skyclub access free as well. Many of the cards have $5000 in spend needed to get the bonus points so keep that in mind too.

If you over one year applied for these cards you would get almost 200,000 Skymiles.

Application round one in January

Delta Gold Skymiles card  HERE
AMEX Platinum business card HERE
Earn 60,500 miles after spend

Application round two in April

SPG AMEX personal card HERE
SPG Business card HERE
Earn 60,000 points after spend that can be sent to Delta to earn 75,000 (SPG give you 5,000 bonus Skymiles when you send 20,000. You would want to send 3 batches of 20,000 points each ) Note your spend requirement is $5000 per card so you could switch for the Delta Gold Business below and do the SPG business card next round.

Application round three in August

AMEX Gold Premier personal card HERE
Delta Gold Business card HERE
Earn 57,500 points after spend

The net all in result is 60,500+75,000+57,500 = 193,000 Skymiles in less than one year! Also note this leaves you just 7,000 Skymiles shy of 2 free low level tickets to Europe in Business class. There are many many ways talked about in the blog to pick up those few points missing to make this happen all in just one year to take your next European vacation in style! – Rene

▲Delta▲ SkyMiles® Credit Card
American Express – RESERVE/PLATINUM/GOLD
Click here for more information

One of my favorite Boarding Area bloggers to read each day is Frequent Miler. He and I have talked now and then and I love how his mind works. Good or bad, he is brave, and tries things. Tries to make things work. If not, it costs a little but it’s worth the hunt. Fun. But sometimes his steps get my mind going as I now start to think of everything I do in ways like this:

“If I do this for step one, and then that for step two, I will earn 5000x points for step three!”

OK so maybe I am exaggerating just a tiny bit, but you get my point. It is the same with the cursed day I was taught Opportunity Cost in school. Every day of my life since then has been different. No matter what I do, I could be doing something else. It even haunts me when on vacation as I could be earning points doing something. And when earning points, I could enjoying them on vacation! AGGGGGGGGG.

If you had never know about opportunity cost before, I am sorry for ruining your life. But, in the spirit of Frequent Miler, here are some idea’s that hit me when buying some gift cards this week at Office Depot for 5x points on my INK BOLD card. First, I will use these gift cards to buy Walmart Gift cards, instead of my Delta AMEX, for shopping at SAMS CLUB to get max value in points.

Also, this week I talked about the fact that you can redeem, for now, 100 Coke Rewards points for $20 off a SW Air flight. A good deal if you have 100 Coke Rewards points. If you drink Coke products anyway, you can buy a 24 pack at Staples for $11.99 (obviously not the best price in the world). Staples is a office supply store. So, if you use your INK BOLD, you can earn 10x points on the purchase via the Ultimate Rewards shopping site and even get free S&H.

If you buy 5 of the 24 packs you will earn 100 Coke Rewards points worth your $20 for SW Air. The result. You spent $59.95-$20(SW AIR)-$7.50(UR points value)=$32.45 for 120 cans of Coke! If you have a Staples coupon it could cost you even less and maybe match the sale price most places have Coke for each week.

So I hope I’ve got you thinking now too and have a fun weekend earning and burning points everyone! – Rene

◘Chase INK BOLD
50,000
point Ultimate Rewards card
5x Points on Office Supplys
Click here for more information