Just like the breakup between Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, the not unexpected breakup between Continental OnePass and Amtrak Guest Rewards is here. As of the end of this year, with the merger of Continental OnePass Mileage program into United MileagePlus, one will no longer be able to earn Continental Miles on Amtrak train trips or transfer miles between the two programs. According to Amtrak, they are in talks with United, but no deal has been reached yet to transition the relationship between the two programs from Continental to United.
For …

Yeah, I know there are websites that will track it for me all in one place – I have accounts with points.com and gomilies.com , but they just don’t seem to be right or enough. … Staying at a hotel (duh, again, but this can become complex if one earns hotel points, airline miles or hotel points AND airline miles) Credit cards eMiles.com eRewards.com MyPoints.com TopGuest Car rentals (for rental rewards or airline miles) Other sundry events, like filling out a survey, earning miles as compensation for a customer service event, etc.

This has been the year of changes. We have seen so many changes this year; I have seriously starting to forget what the situation was last year. The latest changes to United Mileage Plus (MP)and Continental One Pass (OP) have been surreptitiously introduced. However it is difficult to creep past the hawk-eye of frequent fliers.
Various fare classes on Swiss (LX) and Lufthansa (LH) now earn lesser EQMs (elite qualifying miles) and RDMs (redeemable miles). The details:
Swiss (LX)

L and K: 100% ® 0%
P: 0% ® 100% (MP) , 150% (OP) (LX …

By now, you probably already know about the new changes to Mileage plus, effective from 2012. In case you don’t, it’s good to gloss over them at the related Milepoint thread and Gary’s excellent commentary.

I am simply amazed at the changes. They are purely the work of a genius. Let us call him/her ‘anti-Joker’. Do I hear you asking why such a name? Well, my ‘inside sources’ informed me, this ‘anti-Joker’ asked all categories of United flyers ‘Why so Happy?’ and then made sure they leave disgruntled. I have ‘recorded’ …

Get another free 100 Miles from Continental. This time it is for checking out their in-flight DirectTV discount offer for using the Chase MasterCard.
Click here to get the Free 100 Continental Miles!
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One of the advantages of having the Continental (CO) OnePass Plus card was the access to the double miles at selected retailers when clicking through ShopOnePass. This led to excellent deals like 50 miles per dollar on floral purchases.

 
Thanks to the UA/CO merger, this benefit is ending on July 19. So get the deal before it’s too late. There are plenty of good deals to be had. For example, 4 miles/$ at Walmart, Best Buy; 10miles per $ at Kmart/drugstore.com; 2000 miles for Netflix subscription.
The best part is you don’t …

Chase Freedom is one of my favorite cards especially in 3rdquarter when they have 5% cashback on travel related purchases up to $1500.
I had written earlier about a 20K signup bonus Ultimate Rewards (UR) points for the Chase Freedom card. Recently they have been sending out a targeted offer for 30K UR points. If you have applied for the card in the last 3 months, it might be worthwhile asking them to bump the bonus on the card to 30K. The promo offer code is D1R.

Ultimate Rewards points are transferrable …

As Air India progresses on its ‘final approach’ to become a member of the Star Alliance, it brings to an end (if they do actually make this July-end deadline) of the longest any airline has ever taken to join an Alliance. This long drawn out path to Allianceship, if I may, has further tarnished Air India’s already not-so-great image. I personally have mixed feelings about Air India. In full disclosure, I have only flown Air India on an international trip on one round trip between the US and India AND …

Continental OnePass Plus Card is becoming my go-to card for dining purchases. I had blogged earlier about double miles opportunity on dining, gas and grocery purchases until June 13.

 
I figured out this would be a good time to call up Chase since the older promotion had ended. And I am glad I did. The Chase rep told me that most Chase OnePass cardmembers are getting 2X miles on retail, entertainment purchases from June 8 to Aug 8. No registration is required.

I asked for clarification on what ‘retail’ meant. I was …

I suddenly realized, we are into June 15. One step closer to integration of United (UA)/Continental (CO) and mostly inflated award charts. The major benefits of the changes are two fold
One-way booking is now allowed on continental (Fig 1)

Fig 1. One-way reward travel is now available on Continental (CO)
One-way reward booking offers huge flexibility. United (UA), American Airlines (AA) already offer it. Hope Delta and US Airways follow suite.
· Only 10K one-way in economy for trips smaller than 700 miles. Note that the total routing …