Through March 31, 2012, Delta is offering a 75% bonus on the purchase or gifting of SkyMiles.

Delta ordinarily charges 3.5 cents per mile plus the 7.5% federal excise tax, for a total of 3.76 cents per mile. Through this promotion the cost is brought down to about 2.15 cents per mile. You can purchase a maximum of 60,000 miles per calendar year, so once you factor in the 75% bonus the real cap is 105,000 miles.

This is by no means a rate at which I’d buy SkyMiles just because. But if you have a specific redemption in mind, this is one way to top off an account that won’t totally break the bank. I’m waiting for them to bring back the 100% bonus on transferred miles, which was essentially an opportunity to purchase SkyMiles for roughly 1.1 cents each.

(Tip of the hat to Apu)

British Airways’ shopping portal is offering 12 points per dollar spent at Nordstrom, though they’re also presently running a promotion whereby triple Avios points will be award on your first qualifying purchase of more than $50 in a single transaction at Nordstrom, for a total of 36 points per dollar spent at Nordstrom. While Avios points aren’t nearly as valuable as they were before the devlauation, you still have to value them at around a cent or so each, which makes this a 36% discount in the form of miles for Nordstrom shopping.

So the initial offer is:

And then the bonus offer is:

To access the shopping portal, first go to ba.com and log in to your British Airways Executive Club account.

Then on the next page select “Collecting Avios.”

Then on the next page select “Shopping.”

Then on the final page select “Shop with BA eStore now,” which should take you to their shopping portal.

The key is that once you select Nordstrom as the partner you want to shop with, you’ll have to enter promotion code NORDX3 on the following page:

And that should be it. Just make sure you make a single purchase of more than $50 and use the promotion code, and if you want to be on the safe side, even take screenshots. I can’t imagine they’re intending to be this generous, so if you’re interested I would take advantage of this offer sooner rather than later.

(Tip of the hat to The Points Guy)

Through February 29, 2012, American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 25% transfer bonus to Air France/KLM’s Flying Blue frequent flyer program. The bonus is built into transfers, meaning the 25% bonus posts immediately and can be used an unlimited number of times.

Generally speaking Flying Blue isn’t a program I would transfer Membership Rewards points to (despite the high degree to which Membership Rewards points been devalued recently). But there are a few instances in which transfer could prove to be a great value.

Air France just about has the best transatlantic business class award space, especially over summer. While Star Alliance and OneWorld have virtually no transatlantic award space over the summer, many of Air France’s routes still have excellent space. For example, Washington to Paris has tons of business class award space, sometimes even nine seats per flight.

But if you’re redeeming for a roundtrip ticket on Air France you’re generally best off transferring your Membership Rewards points to Delta SkyMiles, given that they don’t impose fuel surcharges on award tickets, which can be roughly ~$500 roundtrip. The downside is that Delta doesn’t allow one-way awards, while Flying Blue does. So while you do pay fuel surcharges, you’re only paying 40,000 miles for a one-way business class ticket to Europe, which is a pretty great deal, especially over summer. Given that most airlines other than Delta allow one way awards nowadays, I’ve found myself transferring Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue for clients quite a bit, as they mix and match between alliances on a single trip.

Furthermore, Flying Blue runs promotional 50% off awards, whereby business class roundtrip to Europe is only 50,000 Flying Blue miles on select dates/routes. Through this promotion the price is lowered even further, to only 40,000 Membership Rewards points. That’s a spectacular deal for business class to Europe.

As you can see, this includes routes like Washington and Detroit to Europe on Air France, or New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to Europe on KLM.

This promotion won’t (and shouldn’t!) work for everyone, though it’s certainly worth keeping in mind.

Via Deals We Like:

Yup, another Facebook promotion! The Westin Charlotte is giving away 250 starpoints for signing up for the “Charlotte Insider eClub” via their Facebook page.

You must sign up by February 1, 2012, but as we’ve seen before, Facebook promos can sometimes get pulled fast – DO NOT DELAY. These points won’t get you a free night, but every little bit counts.

The terms state that the bonus points will be awarded to your account by March 1, 2012.

Let’s hope they do a better job managing this promotion than they did last time. Based on the comments section of the post, it seems like they don’t ask for your SPG number, though I suspect they’ll email you at some point to request it (or make you email them).

Now I would’ve written this post on my own, but unfortunately I’m in the great People’s Republic of China, which means I can’t use Facebook, Twitter, etc. I was going to go on Twitter to bitch about not being able to use Facebook, but then I realized they blocked that too.

Here’s a great idea for a reality TV show. Instead of locking 12 strangers in a house for months, how about sending a dozen Generation Y’ers to China and seeing how long they last without being able to update their Twitter or Facebook? I’m not even that addicted to Facebook or Twitter, though I’m already experiencing withdrawal symptoms after just 12 hours. So if you try to talk to me on Facebook or Twitter, my apologies for not responding over the next few days.

Yesterday I posted about Alaska’s promotion offering double Mileage Plan miles for travel on Emirates between March 1 and May 31, 2012. Before I get too far into this post, let me say this post is simply intended to look at some of the more “fun” options for earning status, or at the very least paying for business/first class and getting a decent bit of value out of it.

Through this promotion they’re offering double miles for travel on Emirates, and it’s assumed that MVP Gold members will also receive the 100% elite mileage bonus for travel on Emirates. If you’re not an elite member with Alaska, it’s worth noting that they’ll typically status match mid-tier elites and above in other programs to MVP Gold status, so it’s not all that tough of a status level to attain.

Anyway, Emirates has some very reasonable premium cabin fares originating outside of the US that could earn you a ton of Alaska Mileage Plan miles during the double miles promotion. Of course positioning costs could negate the value of this, but if you’re thinking of vacationing somewhere anyway, it’s not quite as bad.

For example, take a look at this Cairo to Seattle business class fare on Emirates through Dubai:

When you do the math on that, that’s 17,856 flown miles. With the double miles promotion, that’s 35,712 miles. If you’re an MVP Gold member you get an additional 100% mileage bonus, for a total of 53,568 miles. Since this is paid business class you’re earning an additional 25% bonus miles, for a total of 58,032 redeemable miles and 22,320 elite qualifying miles (base miles plus 25%), nearly enough for MVP status.

Originating in Cairo is incredibly inconvenient, though I’ve been meaning to visit Egypt for a while, so I’d have to book an award ticket either way. I’m kind of tempted to pick up one of these fares, not just for the nearly 60,000 redeemable miles and MVP status, but also to try Emirates business class.

It’s also worth noting that since there’s an overnight in Dubai in both directions, Emirates will provide you with a complimentary room at the Le Meridien as a business class passenger.

More than anything else, though, I’m tempted to pick up a paid first class ticket out of Colombo, Sri Lanka, as outlined here. That offer is more lucrative than ever, now that you can actually credit miles flown on Emirates to a good frequent flyer program, not to mention earn double miles over the next few months.

Anyone else tempted?