September 26, 2010

US Airways Grand Slam tips

Yesterday, I went to back to the States for a quick MR trip and had an afternoon to spend. I decided to look into the Grand Slam promotions that us airways offered this year, which you can earn up to 100K bonus miles for 36 hits. When promotion just launched, I wasn’t plan to do it this year because I thought it gonna cost too much time. After I took a brief look of FT master thread, I think it’s actually pretty easy, I finished them(except car rental and hotels) in an afternoon. below is the list for all my hits, some of them are from FT master thread directly

6 hits from hotels(max 6)– I have several paid and award reservation with starwood, those are money I would have to spent regardless. If you have paid stay with Hilton,use points+fixed miles, if it’s award stay with Hilton, use points+Flexible miles. If award stay with Marriott, change earning to miles, DON’T CHANGE to miles to paid Marriott stays unless you want to give up Mega bonus.  Finally, if you really have no place to stay, find some cheap Knights inn, super 8.

1 hit from SPG transfer- I am platinum, transferred 100 points.

1 hit from Goldpointplus tranfer- I transferred 2000 points for 250 US airways miles

1 hit from Hilton transfer-10000 points for 850 miles(I decided to use this because this is my last hit to reach 36)

1 hit from Goldpassport- 5000 points for 2000 miles

1 hit from shopping- If you really have nothing to buy, use itune, $1. see more notes here

1 hit from miles for magazine, the lowest 300miles is not longer on the list, so I choose 400 one. Do it early because miles don’t get deduct until 2 weeks later.

1 hit from points.com. I swap 20 miles AA to 5 Asia miles then swap to 1 US airways miles. Alternatively, you can swap 53 US miles to 18 Greenpoints, then swap back into 1 US airways miles

1 hit from Dinning- Plenty of Burger Kings on the list, just but a kid drink. $1

1 hit from 21 Century Insurance

1 hit from Supershuttle– Google” Super shuttle discount” $3 off coupon everywhere.

1 hit from Network Solutions- I need it.

1 hit from thanksagain- buy a $10 restaurant.com certificate for .80 cents during 80% off

Above are hits I would have to spend or cost nothing, below are hits I spend my money to get.

1 hit from Vinesse– buy pocket wine tasting guide, 4.95+2.5 shipping, you go to their website, find Gift section, then find book &CD section, this guide is there)

1 hit from Dividend Miles Wireless-Again, like last year, Cellphone wipe, 3.49+4.99 shipping

1 hit from OfficeMax– MMF wedgy scabbard antimicrobial pen refill – $0.59 + $7.95 shipping

1 hit from Netflix– If you want to do it, do it now, please miles won’t post until after the 1 month trial period, $9.99

1 hit from Lifelock- Same as above, miles won’t post until after the trial period.

1 hit from Skymall– Search  “Improvements”, then sort by price, you will find a item with $2.99 + $7.95 shipping

1 hit from Biscoff– cookies #0213 – $13.56 + $7.95 shipping

1 hit from Buy Miles– I have not done it yet because I haven’t decide to buy 1K or 100K. will do at last minutes

1 hit from Share miles- $40, but both my and my wife account got a hit

1 hit from FTD.com– boutonniere #D11-3904 – $16.95 + $14.99 shipping

1 hit from ChronoMed– Frequent Flyer Support Pack – $29.95 + $6.95 shipping

1 hit from Trackitback- 19,99 +4.95 shipping

and Finally 6 hits from car rental– I only have limited presence in the states before end of the year, but one of them is weekend day in PIT, so I rent 3 times from 3 diff company on 4 hours interval. With budget, use COSTCO BCD W852800, With Hertz, use CDG 706900 with Coupon code, 137771, with Alamo, use this link, all three cost $20 eachthe rest three I will rent from other places with $30 each. Total cost, $150 for 6 hits

So my total extra cost are less than $400 USD, I will get 100K bonus miles+ 10K from various sources. Not bad for an afternoon work, isn’t it?


Posted by Troy under US airways | 55 Comments to Read

  1. Alan said,

    i can only count 34 from your list.
    17 for what u need to do, and 17 for extra cost.
    did i miscount?

  2. Strategies for Earning 100,000 Bonus Miles Through the US Airways Grand Slam Promo - View from the Wing said,

    [...] Travel World has an excellent post where he lays out how he plans to get 36 ‘hits’ in the US Airways Grand Slam promotion [...]

  3. airdreamer said,

    Great work! I will try to follow this list.

  4. airdreamer said,

    I found you can buy $25 home depot gift card from skymall, no tax and free shipping. I know you can buy $25 gc for $20, but it’s still better than buying trash and paying shipping.

  5. Wei said,

    Great list!
    One question: did you get 5 Asia miles instantly after swapping? I did the same thing and it’s not posted yet.
    Thanks.

  6. dracs said,

    Nice list Troy!

  7. Troy said,

    @wei, it is not instant, I am still waiting for swap into asia miles. but DM swap for Greenpoints are instant

  8. Troy said,

    @alan, I forget to mention thanksagain.com and trackitback.com

  9. Grand Slam 2010 'OutSourcing' - FlyerTalk Forums said,

    [...] so read this. This guy is looking at spending ~$400… but he a) already has 6 hotel stays lined up, and b) he [...]

  10. Jennifer said,

    “1 hit from Share miles- $40, but both my and my wife account got a hit
    ”
    so you spend only $40 not $80 to earn 1 hit in each account? I thought only the giver earned a hit.

  11. Troy said,

    @ Jennifer, for sharing miles, both earn 1 hit, for gift miles, only giver earns

  12. Joe said,

    I have a question, where can I track how many hits that i have earned so far on the site to make sure they are all posted? I couldn’t find it on the usairway site. Thanks

  13. Troy said,

    @Joe, use a speadsheet, and match with US airways posting

  14. 大家对US airways那个10万里程的优惠很感兴趣呀 - 和乐飞游 said,

    [...] 我在英文博客详细的写了怎么去拿到36个大满贯，但是在中国的童鞋们，满贯是基本不太可能了 [...]

  15. airdreamer said,

    Doh, Network Solution is so expensive, cheapest option is $36, to buy 2 years email address…

  16. Nick said,

    Looks like Itunes won’t count. Have they posted for you?

    “Miles will not be awarded for iPhone 4, gift card, iTunes, one to one mac training and gift wrapping purchases”

  17. hong said,

    Hi Troy, how to find out list of the partners from usairways?

  18. Ron said,

    How can you get miles with your award hotel stays? I thought you are not allowed to earn miles with award stays.

  19. Ed said,

    Awesome post. You did a lot of work here and you shared it all. You are now my fave blog to follow.

  20. hong said,

    Hi Troy,
    pls skip my last commnet. find it from the rule.

    one question about online order. eg. Biscoff.com I don’t see the place to enter the divident mile number when checking out. how to make it be a hit? thx

  21. AG said,

    I donot see Burger King in the list of dining restaurants. Where do you see BK in the list?

  22. Troy said,

    @hong, there should be a place, http://www.biscoff.com/DirectionsWEB/webcart_miles4.php?sourcecode=MILES4, first thing it ask you is DM number

  23. Zakon said,

    Two other easy hits (YMMV)

    1. You can open a Sharebuilder account with ING. After the first trade, you will receive 2,500 miles plus a hit on the account. Total cost: as low as $14 ($4 for shares + $10 ING trading fee), depending on which shares you buy.
    2. For residents of select few states, you can get a no-obligation quote from Sentry Insurance, which will earn you 1,500 miles and another hit. Total cost: $0.

  24. Leo said,

    刘总
    sixt 有code可用麽

  25. sealiz said,

    This is great! Following this in <2 hours I have 12 hits! I have been using snag-it to take screenshots of every single thing that I've been purchasing or that is a "hit" so that I have a record in case USAirways denies anything (since they "took" 44K miles from me 2 years ago even though I proved I had activity on the account) I am a bit more cautious with this airline and miles. Thank you so much for the list; as I am already renting cars and staying in hotels this helped out a LOT!

  26. unscheduled said,

    刘总，怎样能不住店拿到1K goldplus积分吗？

  27. US grand slam and Country Inn 15000 points per say promotion - TMtravelworld said,

    [...] post here and here step by step instruction on US Airways Grand Slam promotion,  this is one more update, I [...]

  28. Colleen said,

    Just bought a Kmart Gift Card after selecting “earn miles” bonus option after selecting KMart at the DivMiles Shopping Mall site. Can be used also at Sears. Free shipping.

  29. Michael said,

    can anyone direct me to anything that makes sense out of the points.com transfers. That site is such a mess that it hurts just to look at it.

    I have the AA or US miles, but have no idea how to get to Asia or Greenpoints, let alone into US

  30. Grand Slam 2010! - Page 193 - FlyerTalk Forums said,

    [...] + "us airways grand slam", tons of ideas. More ideas at this website: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/tmtrav…tips/#comments You can also use the search feature to learn about specific hits that may or may not work. There [...]

  31. Sunny said,

    Great Post – I just wanted to update everyone that SPG will not transfer platinum amenity automatically so if you’re a platinum and get a room rate of $30 then only 90 would post and not count as a hit.

    i almost spent 45 mins reasoning with the paltinum desk and they confirmed only 3 points would be credited for Platinum (2 for regular and 1 additional for being platinum)

    hope this helps

  32. Troy said,

    @sunny, It will, It’s already done for my account

  33. Sunny said,

    thanks troy

  34. Jennifer said,

    can we earn miles for booking and paying for a cheap hotel but no showing?

  35. Troy said,

    Hi, Jennifer, members of FT have reported several Wyndham properties can do that.

  36. Jennifer said,

    @Troy, thanks so much! The cheapest one I found is super 8 in Vegas. Still it costs $40+ with tax. I saw several posts on flytalk about $28/night or something hotel rates but I was not able to find the ones they’re talking about.

  37. Troy said,

    @Jenifer, read the Flyertalk, Grand Slam master thread, read backwards, they are lots of discussion on cheap properties.

  38. divx said,

    I swapped 4 CO miles to 1 US miles, almost instantly

  39. Jennifer said,

    Oh no. I booked on wyndham for a room to earn a hit with no show. The hotel canceled the reservation. No charge. No miles, No wyndham. No mile, no hit. How do people earn with no show on wyndham. Do I need to call the hotel not to cancel? Very frustrating. I live in the expensive area in CA. $60+/night is the cheapest in my area. Otherwise I could book and check in/out without staying.

  40. Troy said,

    @ Jennifer, There are some knights inn or ramada like to keep your money and give you miles

  41. Jennifer said,

    I was wrong about no charge thing. They did charged my VISA after 4 days. The reservation was canceled for no show. So 0 pt posted and recorded as canceled reservation for that night on my wyndham account and of course no miles. What should I do? According to hotel policy, if the reservation is not cancel before the certain time, they have a right to charge. Please give me an advice. Thanks so much!

  42. Troy said,

    Hi, Jeniffer,

    sent a missing stay request via Wydham website, you should still get points even if no show.

  43. Jennifer said,

    Thanks so much! I talked to the hotel front desk person as well as the reward CS agent. They both said no show no point because the charge was the penalty for not staying. :(
    I’ll try to send a request on website to see if that makes a difference.

  44. Jennifer said,

    Just wanted to share this with you and all your readers that I contacted Wynham on the phone and the helpful agent filed a case for the upper management to review.
    She said the hotel can not claim as cancellation if they charge. Since they did charge, they have to give points even if it’s a no show. (I say boo to the other CS agent from Days Inn who said the charge is for penalty so no rewards). I love the travel blogs! Thank you..

  45. Jie said,

    我想请问，比如说像dinning这种，就随便走进一个麦当劳，然后买个饮料就好了？那US公司怎么知道我买了这个饮料？

    还有就是买那些网站的东西，US公司怎么知道我买了没有？

  46. Troy said,

    @Jie, 你应该先看看dining 是怎么work的，你需要先register 你的信用卡

  47. lance said,

    刘总，请问Vinesse不入会是如何拿到miles的？
    我买pocket guide to wine tasting到最后都要结账了也没让我输入DM memebership阿?

  48. Troy said,

    @ Lance, 打回重看，就在Check out 那页，after billing information

  49. lance said,

    哎呀刚才怎么没看到呢，多谢刘总

  50. 1250 US Airways miles for free for new members - MilesQuest said,

    [...] This counts as 1 hit for the Grand Slam promotion. If you get four hits, you earn 4000 bonus [...]

  51. Lance said,

    刘总，再问一个问题。关于租车，我能否让米国的朋友用我的DM号码来租，然后hit给我？问题就是租车公司是否会对驾照上的名字和会员名字

  52. Mary said,

    I need just 1 more to have 36 hits!!! Please anyone email me a cheap Supershuttle idea!! I am going to prepay and then not show. PLEASE HURRY!
    THANKS!!!

  53. Troy said,

    @ Mary, Dallas Airport to Hyatt DFW

  54. Hellohello1226 said,

    牛b

  55. worldtraveller2 said,

    need help: trying to figure out how to fund SHAREBUILDER! I opened 4 accounts (managing me and my family) but no one got the hit, so I was just going to fund the accounts, but I can’t figure out how to do that electronically, versus snail mail.

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