** Chase are announced new links and the older offers in this post are now obsolete. Please visit my updated post on Chase Ink Offers **
There have been multiple offers for the Chase Ink cards floating around. Some thru affiliate links and some directly from Chase. (I wish these credit card companies would keep thing simple and run only one offer at a time. Life is complex without having to check out and compare every credit card offer out there!) Anyways, for the Chase Ink cards, I am consolidating the …

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 …

Part I: The cent value of miles/points

Let us consider a hypothetical situation. Consider the case that you had every cashback/miles/points Credit Card possible. How would you maximize the value of rewards on your spending? This is a complicated question and requires detailed analysis of various credit cards along with the valuation of various miles/points that these cards award. I realize every person might assign different values to miles and points. Nonetheless, to get a reasonably accurate analysis, it is imperative to assign some value (Cent Value – CV) to all …

British Airways is one of the few airlines that is notorious for having extremely low ‘earn rates’ for their discounted economy fares. I highlighted this in my article Fast Track to Elite Status. I actually earned 25% of actual miles flown as both redeemable miles (RDM) and Elite Status Miles (EQM) on an 15,000 mile round trip. This had made British Airways one of my least favorite airlines to fly. Now, don’t get me wrong, they are not alone. There are many airlines that even give zero miles for some …

Agreed Starbucks is not an airline or a hotel chain. But they recently re-launched their Rewards program. So, it falls under the scope of my coverage of Loyalty Programs. Anyways, its my blog and I want to write (read rant) about this. Also, as a traveler, Starbucks has become a staple of my travel routine. They are ubiquitous and there are very few airports and even hotels out there that do not have a Starbucks in them. Washington National (DCA) is one of the few Starbucks-free airport I go thru.
Program …

On occasion of the Memorial Day long weekend, I would like to go down memory lane and post a list of the top five most popular articles I have written till date. These are ‘rated’ as the top five based on pageviews of these articles.
5. Maximizing Airline Miles : This post was Part Three in my series – The Economics of Airline Miles.
4. Airline Elite Status – the What and the How: What is Elite Status? What are Elite levels available? How do I qualify and What do I get …

When does a Mileage or another Loyalty program make cost effective sense for you? When do you become a ‘Mileage addict’? As I have written all the posts that I have on Airline Miles, I have often wondered that myself. I wrote an article earlier this year as a part of my Economics of Airline Miles series titled Is Earning Miles really worth it? When does it not become worth it?
I just read this excellent article on CNN.com by Christopher Elliott titled – Confessions of a frequent flier skeptic. He …

The Win a Trip for Two to Australia’s Gold Coast contest generated tremendous interest. As I was getting all the entires in on my blog (I approved each and every one after reading them), I was just amazed by the vast range tips and experiences my readers shared in their comments. While the winner was selected using a random number generated on random.org, I decided to bring to the attention of my readers some of the most unique comments I got. I of course do not expect anyone else to …

G’day Mates,
Its here! The contest to win a trip for two to Australia’s Gold Coast starts today! This is an all expense and ALL taxes paid trip. The contest is being arranged by BoardingArea.com and is sponsored by American Express Gold Card. And in the true Mileage earning spirit of this blog, this will be a trip that earns you full miles!
Here is how you enter

Leave a comment to this article with your answer to this question:
What’s your top tip for travelers who want to earn and use their loyalty …

The contest is live! Go to my post on Win a trip to Australia contest to enter!

My fellow blogger on BoardingArea.com – MilesQuest has already broken the news. There is a special readers contest coming to BoardingArea.com.
The contest will run from March 22nd to March 28th. Be sure to come back to this blog to learn how to enter for your chance to win an all expenses AND all taxes paid trip for two to Australia’s Gold Coast!
UnRoadWarrior – proud to host the BoardingArea.com contest!
You can also …