Posted by Seth Miller on March 18, 2013 under frequent flyer, points, Promotion, trains | 
4 Comments to Read
Amtrak has a double points promotion which just went live this morning. And it covers EVERYTHING!
The only catch is that members are limited to only two one-way trips daily. Still, this is a pretty solid deal.
Posted by Seth Miller on February 1, 2013 under frequent flyer, News, PaxEx, points, Promotion | 7 Comments to Read
The oneworld alliance has added a new member today (or yesterday, depending on which time zone you’re in) with Malaysian Airlines being added to the group. Malaysian is the 12th carrier in the alliance and adds a route network covering more than 60 destinations to the oneworld alliance. Sixteen of these destinations are new to the alliance with no other member service. Plus Brunei has been added as a country with oneworld service now.
In celebration of the new member other oneworld member carriers are running promotions to encourage travel on Malaysian. Passengers will earn double points for travel on Malaysian when flying between 15 February 2013 and 15 April 2013. The fine print varies by crediting program so double-check with your program of choice before booking a crazy mileage run, but the bonus is definitely a nice touch. That said, I’ve found a few of the earnings charts and the numbers aren’t pretty. I discussed the JAL chart earlier in the week and lamented the minimal earning rates at the lower end of the fare spectrum. It seems that British Airways and Qantas have followed suit. Both are offering quite limited credit for lower fares and Qantas also adds a distinction between long-haul and short-haul travel, with better credit offered for short-haul travel. No doubt this is to discourage travel on a partner in long-haul markets where Qantas competes against them. Unfortunately earning details from American Airlines are not yet available.
And, finally, the alliance used the celebration of their new member to increase benefits for their top tier elites. Effective immediately oneworld Emerald elites will now receive an additional baggage allowance on all tickets and priority handling at certain security checkpoints. The baggage allowance will permit either one additional bag or an additional 20kg, depending on the system in use for the trip. Details on where the priority security access will be offered are not so clear right now.
The successful addition of a new carrier to the alliance is a great step forward for oneworld. The carrier had two rather notable losses in 2012, with Kingfisher falling apart just days before they were due to join and Malev liquidating early in the year as well. It appears that 2013 is kicking off on quite a different path, and that’s a good thing for everyone.
Posted by Seth Miller on January 28, 2013 under frequent flyer, points, Promotion | 2 Comments to Read
When JetBlue pulled their Go Big promo offer earlier this year they said there would be other bonus opportunities to replace it. Seems that the first has arrived in the form of the "High Five" bonus.
No fine print, no registration required, no details at all, really. Just a straight up offer of bonus points to customers showing even a smidgen of loyalty. Oh, and six one-way trips counts the same as three return trips, so that’s a nice bit, too.
Figuring that the three return flights should come in somewhere around the same price point as the $500-1000 range of the old Go Big bonuses, this 5,000 points is way better than the 1,500 you would have received for the $1,000 in spend. Of course, it doesn’t scale up the way Go Big did, but for many passengers this is a bit better. Heck, even I have a chance of getting it.
Posted by Seth Miller on January 2, 2013 under frequent flyer, Hotel, points, Promotion | 5 Comments to Read
The Q1 promo for Hilton is open for registration, as reported over at PointsHoarder. The promo – double points or double miles for all nights through 31 March 2013 – is neither particularly generous nor stingy. Still, it isn’t enough to sway my hotel spending. For one thing, I am not particularly inclined to sift through the list of 600ish non-participating properties when I go to book a reservation, just to see if I might get a few extra points along the way. Plus, I find the 15% back I get via hotels.com and their WelcomeRewards program to be far more valuable personally. Given the upped requirements to attain HHonors Gold in 2013 the program has even less value to me.
Still, I’ll be registering for the double miles version, just in case I happen to end up in a participating hotel. You never know…
Posted by Seth Miller on October 19, 2012 under frequent flyer, podcast, points, Promotion | Be the First to Comment
The latest episode of the PointsHoarder podcast is now online with Stephan and me discussing a whole bunch of events from the past couple weeks. Listen to our discussion of the new Middle Eastern carrier alignments/partnerships/alliances and also discussion of Delta‘s planned expansion of their Seattle connectivity to Asia. I still cannot figure out how they plan to fill up those planes, but they seem to have a plan. Oh, and a couple mistake fares not being honored.
Also on PointsHoarder this week:
Posted by Seth Miller on October 15, 2012 under frequent flyer, points, Promotion | 4 Comments to Read
United Airlines is now matching the American Airlines promo for double miles on flights to Mexico until November 13, 2012. The AA deal started just over a month ago and United was a bit slow on the draw to catch up. Plus the United version is limited to only the first eight (8) trips south of the border while the AA version has no limits. And the United version requires that the ticket be purchased after October 10th, the day the promo launched; tickets purchased prior will not earn the bonus per the T&C.
Qualifying routes are:
And I really thought that the old Continental route map out of Houston had a few more random dirt strips on it. Apparently not quite as extensive as I thought it was.
Hat tip to Brendan for noticing the new promo on the UA site.
Posted by Seth Miller on October 14, 2012 under frequent flyer, Hotel, points, Promotion | 18 Comments to Read
Both United Airlines and Delta (and Southwest, too!) are offering bonus miles when you purchase Marriott gift cards. Gift cards can be used like cash at more than 3,700 locations in the Marriott family. This promo offers a pretty good way to double dip on collection points in the two programs, though the value is rather markedly different between the two. Definitely look at the details to figure which is best (though no reason you cannot do both if you want).
For United the deal is valid from October 15 – November 26, 2012. It maxes out at 5,000 MileagePlus points earnt and the earn rates are:
To get the full 5,000 bonus points will require buying $1,050 in cards.
For Delta the deal is valid from October 19 – December 15, 2012. The earning rates are not nearly as good as what United is offering but the max number which can be earnt in 10,000 rather than 5,000. Here’s the earn rates for Delta:
That’s a $5,000 spend on cards to max out the deal.
For Southwest the deal is valid until November 30, 2012. The earn rates are possibly best here, though it depends on if you have use for the points. Here are the rates:
The maximum earn with Southwest is 12,000 points so that’s $1000 in spending.
Some folks have suggested clicking in through the Chase Ultimate Rewards online mall or other, similar shopping portals to further maximize earning on this deal. When I look it seems to be different sites/links and the promo isn’t available through the online portals so that may or may not work.
I don’t have any Marriott stays coming up and I don’t anticipate getting much value from the deal personally. That said, it is a pretty good promo if you’re a Marriott person and like the MileagePlus or SkyMiles points, too.
Posted by Seth Miller on October 2, 2012 under Deals, Flying, Promotion | 199 Comments to Read
How about 30 chances? Here they are!
Most everyone in the Boarding Area group of bloggers is participating in a promo this week. There are two seats to be won – next to Randy Petersen, no less – and entry is simple. Each of the individual blogs will have a post about the contest. Find it, answer the question posed and hopefully you get lucky and win. Each blogger will pick a finalist and then, of those, Boarding Area will pick two winners. There are more rules out there but those are the important bits. Check out homepage for the contest here for more details.
As for winning an entry from my blog, just answer the following question in a comment below:
Would you rather take more trips in economy or fewer trips but in premium cabins with your points (assuming points don’t exist in an infinite, free supply) and why?
Answer this week (contest ends 7 October at 11:59pm Mountain Time per the server clock) and I’ll pick a winner from the entries to be a finalist in the bigger contest.
Posted by Seth Miller on September 25, 2012 under frequent flyer, points, Promotion | 2 Comments to Read
If you’re flying between the United States and Europe this winter on American Airlines, British Airways or Iberia and you’re flying on expensive tickets then get ready to cash in with some major bonus AAdvantage points. American is offering a LOT of extra points for such trips, up to 50,000 per trip with no caps on earning. Here’s the break-down on earning rates for each trip:
Of course, there is the fine print. The promotion requires flying on the most expensive fares so these aren’t likely to be useful as fodder for mileage runs. That said, if you’re booked on Thanksgiving deals in I these bonus miles apply and that should make the trip just a bit better. Here are the eligible fare classes:
The deal is valid for all travel between September 25, 2012 and January 31, 2013. Only flights marketed and operated by AA/BA/IB count and only AAdvantage members registered in the US or Canada are eligible. Registration is required prior to travel.
Posted by Seth Miller on September 19, 2012 under frequent flyer, podcast, points, Promotion | 3 Comments to Read
I know that I have not been posting much in the way of "points" news here lately. That’s not because there is no news – far from it, actually. Truth is I’m moving more of the points content over to the PointsHoarder site. I’ve long debated the fact that I basically run something like three or four different blogs here all worked into one and sometimes I find that a challenge to keep focused and consistent. I’m not giving up on points or the frequent flyer game and I’m definitely not going to stop sharing deals and promotions when I find them. But, more often than not, they’re going to start out on the PointsHoarder site rather than here. I have no idea if this is a good idea or not (and hopefully some of y’all will let me know your thoughts on the move in the comments) but I am headed down that path, at least for now. I think that the end result will be better content, both here and there. We’ll see how well that plays out.
That said, there are a few deals and promotion which came up in the past 10 days or so definitely worth noting. If you’re reading about them here for the first time I’d be a bit surprised as I don’t think any of them are new, but still some decent (and some great) things going on out there. Here are highlights:
There’s more over there but these are the main ones worth highlighting. And there will continue to be more there over time. Check it out (and give the podcast a listen, too).
