Chase Ultimate Reward (UR) Points are extremely flexible. I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago comparing them to American Express Membership Reward Points. This post is on different options available for UR points that make them unique and Awesome!
Combining Chase UR Points
You can Transfer Chase Ultimate Reward Points to another Chase UR rewards account (another Chase Card). This can be another Chase Card owned by you or spouse/domestic partner. My wife has two Chase Cards – The Chase Sapphire and Chase Ink cards and I have a Chase …

As I blogged in my last post, 50,000 mile Credit Cards are becoming more and more common. It is still a good deal for a sign up with a spend requirement. I listed a few in my last post. Here are a few more I found since then:

The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard® – 20,000 award miles after first purchase. 30,000 points after spending $5,000 in your first 90 days. Companion ticket Annually. Annual fee of $79 ** NEW OFFER **
British Airways Visa Signature® Card – 50,000 Avios …

In my opinion, a mega-credit card bonus is something that gives you 100,000 Miles or Points. (Still waiting on my targeted 100,000 MR card, American Express!!). There have been a few off late – the 100,000 Avios British Airways Card earlier this year and the 100,000 point CapitalOne Venture Card last summer. Both offers are gone now. The current best offers are in the 50,000 point range. Here are a few 50,000 Point offers I found out there:

Marriott Rewards® Premier Credit Card– 50,000 points after spending $1000 in your first …

One of my readers Jack asked a question after I posted my post on Earning United Miles on Jet Airways flights. In the article I talked about how I did not pay attention to the booking class I was being booked into on Jet Airways and I earned no United miles, as a result. His question was how does one pick a booking class when using online search engines. The answer is that it depends on the search engine. If you are using a generic search engine like Expedia or …

I try to accumulate all my miles on United, my primary airline miles program. So when I learnt that Jet Airways was a United Partner (not a Star Alliance partner, but a code-share and miles partner), I was excited. I flew a domestic flight on Jet on my last visit to India and put in my United MileagePlus number to get my miles. Only, they never showed up. I filed a ‘missing miles’ request and was told that the class I was booked in did not accrue United miles! So, …

The two most flexible reward programs that are not locked-in to an Airline or a Hotel Chain are Ultimate Rewards from Chase and Membership Rewards from American Express. Both are excellent programs with great redemption opportunities and multiple ways to earn them. This post with compare and contrast some of the key points of these two rewards programs.
Whats Common:

The first thing that is common between these two programs is that they are both not locked to a particular Airline or Airlines (like Miles and More is to Lufthansa, Swiss and …

This question comes to me from readers every year. Are Airlines miles taxable (in the US)? Especially if you redeemed them (you claimed their value). Or if you earned them while traveling for company business (tickets paid for my the company – are the miles taxable as income). The answer to all these, to the best of my knowledge is, no they are not taxable. For specific scenarios, I always suggest you check with an accountant, especially if you got a 1099 from a bank for Airline Miles earned. For …

I am canceling my American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card. The fees is due and $175 seems steep, given the recent changes in my card strategy (more on that in a later post). Furthermore, canceling the card makes me (more?) eligible for other sign-up bonuses from American Express, including (fingers crossed) the elusive, by invitation only 100,000 point Platinum card. Don’t get me wrong, the American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card is an absolutely fabulous card with great features. (The current offer for a new card is 25,000 Membership Rewards …

I logged into United.com this morning and saw my lifetimes miles total – 500,024. I am half-way to become a Million Miler! For United MileagePlus, One Million Miles is a significant milestone (no pun intended). It gives you and a significant other Gold Status for life! No matter how many miles you fly in a year henceforth!
Most airlines and some hotel programs have a Lifetime Miles reward. It is their way of rewarding customers who have been loyal over an extended period of time. For airlines, it is typically at …

For all of us who are mileage junkies, getting the best value for the hard earned miles/points is of premium importance. I am of that camp too. But, when it comes to spending money, I work much harder to make a living than I do to earn miles. So, when I posted my recent article describing how to redeem American Express Membership Rewards points for airline tickets, the backlash I got was surprising. I gave my own example of how I redeemed 35,000 Membership Rewards Points for a $350 airline …