View from the Wing

Goldpoints can no longer be earned after March 31. And if you signed up for your Goldpoints account through Radisson Hotels, your account was transferred to their separate (and continuing) Goldpoints Plus program.

But it’s still possible to earn points in the old program for about two months (which won’t transfer to Goldpoints Plus, but can be redeemed for various things like food at TGI Friday’s).

You can bring your Goldpoints account number with you to TGI Friday’s and get 2008 free Goldpoints by printing out a coupon. Copy the following URL into your web browser and replace the bolded text with your information:

http://tgif.rsys1.net/servlet/campaignrespondent?_ID_=tgif.111&name=YOUR_FIRST_NAME%20YOUR_LAST_NAME& e mail=YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS

Meanwhile, once the program ends, you still have plenty of time to redeem the points you’ve accumulated.

Meanwhile, NotiFlyer has details on a Goldpoints Plus (the Radisson program) instant win game for a chance to win 100,000 Goldpoints.

To enter the giveaway and receive the bonus points from your scratch card, go to www.goldpointsplus.com/checkin. You can click “what’s this” if you are entering the contest without a scratch card. Otherwise, enter the code at the bottom of the card. After typing in a code, you will need to type in your member number or you will be prompted to join the goldpoints plus program. If you are given an error because your membership number is too short, type in “601599″ in front of your member number.

After answering three exceptionally obvious questions, you get three online scratchoffs. If you don’t win, you can try again every day until April 6.

Alitalia is offering 1000 free miles for taking a quiz. The questions aren’t hard, but they’re all in Italian.

Flyertalk discussion is here.

Currently on the main bmi Diamond Club page is an offer to join the program (promotion code FF19KD) and receive 9,000 miles straight away.

Terms and conditions of the offer are pretty much as you’d expect: you get 9,000 miles added to your account within 3 business days of signup, and don’t you dare open up a second account for the purpose of taking advantage of this offer!
I’d save up my miles rather than just grabbing the free redemption this offers, however:

9,000 destinations miles is sufficient for 1 return direct flight with bmi or our Star Alliance partners in the UK, or between the UK and Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, Switzerland. All flights are strictly subject to availability.

The real value in the bmi program is cash and points awards. See the award chart for details. Premium economy is just a 25% increase in mileage and cash if applicable, business just 50% more, and first can always be had for double the miles (and cash).

Be patient with the website, it’s been known to be slow or glitchy, but it’s a pretty good program and 9000 free miles is certainly worth it. By the way, they’re a Star Alliance carrier and are the only non-US based member which regularly offers status matches. So possibly time to take a look!

MileMaven for the pointer.)

Priority Club has a short survey about their program for 250 points. Survey runs through February 29, 2008. Every bit helps!

Here’s one primarily for the Canadians. Signup up with Safeway’s Canada website to receive emails will be rewarded with 100 Air Miles.

I’ve previously written about the free Northwest miles opportunities at Worldperks University (here and here)

Two new courses, each with 100 free miles for reading short fact sheets about the program and answering ~ 3 questions about those fact sheets, are available. After completing each course there are also additional bonus miles opportunities available.

If you haven’t previously taken the courses, that’s 500 free miles. For folks who’ve tracked them all along, it’s another 200 free miles.

Thanks to Free Frequent Flyer Miles for the heads up about the new courses. That website summarizes the bonus mile offers on top of the free miles:

Complete the WP101: Introduction to WorldPerks course and quiz and earn 100 Bonus Miles
After completion, get EXTRA CREDIT MILES: Book and fly one paid, roundtrip itinerary within the next 90 days and earn an additional 2,000 Bonus Miles.



Then complete the WP102: My WorldPerks Number course and quiz and earn another 100 Bonus Miles
After completion, get EXTRA CREDIT MILES: Make two (2) qualifying purchases through the WorldPerks Mall within the next 60 days and earn an additional 1,000 Bonus Miles. A qualifying purchase is defined as two purchases at separate WorldPerks Mall merchants, each totaling a minimum of $25. The $25 minimum excludes shipping, service charges and applicable taxes.



Complete the WP200: A Global Perspective - SkyTeam course and quiz and earn 100 Bonus Miles
After completion, get EXTRA CREDIT MILES: Book and fly one paid, roundtrip itinerary within the next 90 days and earn an additional 2,000 Bonus Miles.



Complete the WP201: WorldPerks Mileage Parners course and quiz and earn 100 Bonus Miles
After completion, get EXTRA CREDIT MILES: Book and stay with a qualifying hotel partner in the next 90 days and earn an additional 1,000 Bonus Miles.



Complete the WP202: Earning Miles - WorldPerks Visa course and quiz and earn 100 Bonus Miles
After completion, click on the “View your extra credit Bonus Miles” link to see what you get. I was offered 500 miles for making a purchase on my Northwest Airlines credit card in the billing cycle following completion of the quiz.

Tomorrow you can cast your next vote to earn free Delta miles…

Via NotiFlyer, a new search engine is launching that’ll pay you miles (up to 1000 a month with your choice of Delta, Alaska, Midwest, Northwest, USAirways or Continental) for using it.

Sign up at Zoomiles.com for an invitation when the site launches.

I’m willing to try it, though I’m skeptical. Miles are enough to get me to try an alternative to Google, but 1000 miles a month aren’t enough to get me to accept an inferior alternative. So we’ll see.

Earn 2000 free Delta miles
in the SiteSeer Challenge.

Very easy miles, you register at the website and then vote four times for 250 miles each. The trick is you have to return on different dates for the voting, so you’ll need to set an Outlook reminder or similar. Then if you vote all four times you get an extra 1000 miles for a total of 2000.

Voting dates are

1. August 6,7,8
2. August 20,21,22
3. Voting September 3,4,5
4. September 17,18,19

The offer also includes double miles for Delta flights purchased at delta.com with any American Express Card between July 25 and September 19, 2007 for travel through September 30th. Check the box on the registration page to opt into this offer.

(Another one thanks to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)

From the August issue of Inside Flyer, AAVacations is offering 250 American Airlines miles for filling out a survey and agreeing to receive their emails.

Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles, Amtrak’s Pick Your Partners Promotion offers 250 free Guest Rewards points for selecting preferred partners (very easy! Just log in and the offer is under Hot Deals) and then 500 bonus points for each of your first two transactions through September 30th.

National Car Rental is offering 1000 free Air Canada Aeroplan miles for signing up for a free Emerald Club membership by November 30.

There’s also an additional 2000 miles on offer for your first rental with National by November 30 — but the signup bonus doesn’t require renting a car.

Looks like US and Canadian residents only.

LanChile’s LanPass program is offering a signup bonus of 5000 kilometers plus additional bonus points for booking trips on their website. Offer is valid through December 31, 2007 and is restricted to residents of Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Spain and Germany. (Hat tip to Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)

I took advantage of a similar signup bonus last year and the 5000 points posted instantly. While I haven’t much used the program since, there are some really nice options in it. LanPass is a member of oneworld (a partner of American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, etc.) and there are a few values in their distance-based award chart. Pointrs transfers from Starwood to LanPass can be especially lucrative.

Through June 30 Malaysia Airlines is offering 1000 bonus miles for signing up for their frequent flyer program, and 1 in 25 new members are automatically granted Silver elite status.

With Enrich Silver, you will be able to enjoy more benefits and privileges such as:





• Golden Lounge Privilege Programme
  
• Additional 5kg Excess Baggage Allowance
  
• Priority check-in at the Business Class counter
  
• Telephone check-in

Sign up for Delta Skymiles by June 15 and receive 5000 Delta Skymiles — no other activity required.

This doesn’t appear to be targeted. While there’s the usual boilerplate about taxes and fees on awards and Skymiles redemption seats being limited yadda yadda, the stuff that’s actually specific to this promo in the terms and conditions is quite limited:

Bonus mile offer valid for new SkyMiles members only. Valid e-mail address required for enrollment. Please allow 2-4 weeks to receive confirmation of bonus miles.

“Thanks Again” is a program that offers miles for shopping with small merchants that don’t have their own rewards programs, so far mostly dry cleaners. You register a credit card and when you spend with participating companies you get miles for the transaction, a la iDine (aka Rewards Network).

There aren’t a whole lot of companies working with them, at least so far, so it’s not that attractive. Plenty of folks may be skeptical of giving them credit card numbres, although they do appear quite legitimate. Personally I used a Visa gift card with about $7 left on it, although some might prefer to use one-time use credit card numbers. Why? Signup bonuses.

You can earn your choice of 500 United, Continental, or Delta miles just for signing up.

The program is also available with USAirways (I think) and American but the signup bonuses aren’t as attractive.

The South African Airways Voyager program is offering 500 free miles to promote voting in the Freddie Awards.

Since Freddies voting ends February 28, I imagine this offer will as well.

Through December 31, LanChile is offering 5000 points just for signing up for its frequent flyer program, no flight required.

If you’re already a member, the link suggests that updating your account information will get you the bonus as well, although details on this piece are unclear.

They’re a oneworld carrier, and have some outstanding award values. Starwood points transfer to them at 2:1 (with a doubling of the concommitant transfer bonus). For example 60,000 Starpoints yield 150,000 LanPass kilometers

.
You don’t necessarily want to park miles in LanChile’s program, as points expire in as little as 24 months and can only be extended by actually flying paid flights with LanChile. But it’s a useful program, and 5000 free points is a good start.

Sofitel is having a sweepstakes that offers 500 Lufthansa miles just for entering.

From Free Frequent Flyer Miles:

Continental Airlines OnePass members who have not created a OnePass Dining Login ID can earn 1,000 bonus miles for doing so here October 1 - December 31, 2006. It appears that you don’t actually have to dine to get the miles