I just posted an article on Airline Miles and Income taxes. One of my readers, Tom, shared in a comment the fact that he had received a 1099 for the Miles he had received from Citibank for opening a bank account! This is surprising and disturbing. He also led me to an article on LA Times which the reporter, David Lazarus, wrote after hearing of this from Tom. He confirms that Citibank has sent out 1099s. They are valuing the miles at 2.5¢ per mile! I would like to point …

Airlines are going thru tough times and interesting times. (Boy, did I resist starting this post with – It was the best of times, it was the worst of times). The global economic slowdown has hurt airlines; they have an ageing fleet (at least all the older carriers do); they have an ageing staff looking to retire, that too with benefits; and they have liabilities that are beginning to exceed their revenues and the margins required to fulfill them afloat. On the other hand, we have become a truly global …

In Part I of this post I went over the process I use and recommend for planning out an year of earning and maximizing Airline Miles. (The very same process can be applied for Hotel Points too). In that post I showed how I came upon my ‘gap’ – miles that I had to work for; those that were not in my planned travel or covered by my usual travel run rate. This is where the work is and requires creative efforts to get to your goals.
As I maintained before, …

Today (Dec. 21st.) is the last day to make a purchase using your American Express Card and get a Gift in return! Few more hours to go. This is an excellent program. I have received a ShopRunner Annual Membership for free and fours $2 statement credits so far. Plan to make a few more purchases before the night is out.
You have to register for this program. See my earlier post on the AmEx Gift Chain offer.
If you are still shopping, see my post on Last Minute Gifts for Travelers.
Subscribe to …

When I was a kid, my dad ingrained the doctrine “Learn from and listen to everyone, follow no one” in me. I have found this to be the best advice one can ever get. This probably also holds true for credit cards.
A plethora of credit cards swarm the market with so diverse benefits that it is difficult to compare them. It is even more difficult to recommend cards to someone without knowing the exact economic condition and travel plans. For example, if a newbie asks anywhere on Flyertalk or Milepoint …

This is our 200th post! I was hoping to make this some sensational story that will rock the Airline Miles world, but no such luck… I want to thank all our readers and supporters for being with us on this journey. Thank you for all the feedback and support. Do keep coming back, reading and sharing.
Here is a look back at some our most popular and most read posts.
Top 10 posts (by comments, overall):

US Airways Sucks! …or does it?
Airline Alliances – Why all the fuss?
Airline Elite Status – the What …

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.

American Express Platinum Card needs no introduction. It is the premier card in the AMEX line up that is available to everybody (with excellent credit that is). Elite status in Hotels, Car rentals, airline lounges… the benefit list is pretty huge. The Points Guy covers it in good depth.
The standard offer for Platinum card right now is 25K Membership Rewards (MR) points. However if you follow this LINK and apply, you can get 50K MR bonus points (Bonus ID 6751). Note that there is a 100K MR points targeted bonus …

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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I had blogged earlier about how much I loved my Chase OnePass Plus card for its perpetual double miles promotions and 10K bonus miles for $25K spend in a calendar year. I just got a shock yesterday. Well, that is exaggerating the situation; but why would they advertise a benefit that does not exist? The roadside assistance on Continental OnePass card is a total joke!
To cut the long story short, I woke up yesterday morning to notice that I had forgotten to turn off the lights in my car and …