United Miles Mystery Sale

Posted on November 11, 2017 by 2btravel

From now through November 20th, United is offering targeted, tiered discounts on purchased miles. To see what your personal offer is, log into your account on United.com and hover over MileagePlus.

From there click on Buy, Transfer or Give Miles and you’ll be taken to this screen.

Click on the Reveal Now button, which will bring up a pop-up window for you to enter your MileagePlus number (again) and your last name. Enter that info and the next screen will show you your targeted bonus.

Mine will allow a bonus of up to 100% if I buy 30K-75K miles. United allows up to 150K miles to be purchased in a calendar year.

The drop-down menu shows the base cost of each increment of 1000 miles from 1000 to 75,000. Selecting one of the entries will then cause the calculator on the right side of the page to display the full purchase price including the taxes.

Buying 75K miles has a base purchase price of $2625. So getting 150K points for that price brings the price-per-point down to 1.75 cents each before tax. Since taxes are almost $197, that raises the price to 1.88 cents apiece.

Is it worth it?

It all depends on your needs, of course. If you’re looking to top off your miles to reach a specific award, then it might indeed be worth it. But if you’re looking to buy miles speculatively, then no, it’s probably not worth it. As noted above, the best-case scenario is about 1.88 cents apiece. Ben at One Mile At A Time values United miles at 1.4 cents each while Brian, the Points Guy, says they’re worth 1.5 cents apiece.

So I’ll be sitting this one out since I don’t have an immediate need.

Categories: Purchased Miles, United | Tags: , | Leave a comment

1000 Easy Marriott Rewards Points!

Posted on November 5, 2017 by 2btravel

As they’ve done for the last few weeks, Marriott is offering 1000 free Marriott Rewards points if you answer their Twitter NFL trivia question correctly.

To get the points, first you’ll need to link your Twitter account to your Marriott Rewards account.  You can do that on this website.  Get 250 points just for linking your Twitter account. If you also link your Facebook and Instagram accounts you can get 250 points for each of those links as well.

Here is this week’s trivia question:

So Tweet the answer back to them by 8 PM ET tonight and if you Tweet the correct answer your Marriott Rewards account will be 1000 points richer!

Categories: Free Points, Marriott | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

$50 Statement Credit for $300 Spend at Hyatt Place/Hyatt House

Posted on October 3, 2017 by 2btravel

I’m a big fan of Hyatt Place and Hyatt House properties.  The rooms are like small suites with separate sitting and bed areas.  Some properties actually have suites as well.  When you’ve got three people, none of whom want to share a bed, these properties have rooms with two queens plus a pull-out sofa that make it perfect for me and my traveling buddies.

Now Hyatt is offering a $50 statement credit  when you use your Chase Hyatt Visa card to spend $300 or more at Hyatt Place/Hyatt House properties between the time you register and the end of the year.

To sign up for the promotion, check your email inbox for a link, or you can click HERE.  This will take you to a page where you can enter your email address, Hyatt Gold Passport number and your credit card number.  Once you’ve done that, you’re registered!

Don’t have a Chase Hyatt Visa?  You can apply for one HERE and a deserving blogger (not me) will get a referral credit.

Categories: Chase, Credit Card Promos, Hotel, Hyatt | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Multiple 100K Mile Giveaways

Posted on September 16, 2017 by 2btravel

Three different airlines are offering a chance at 100,000 miles + $2500 cash when you register through their shopping portals.  If you choose to do additional shopping through these portals you can earn more entries into the contest. Continue reading →

Categories: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, United | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Q4 Bonus Categories Announced

Posted on September 15, 2017 by 2btravel

As happens each quarter, three card issuers offer bonus categories for the following quarter.  As of today you can finally register for all three.

Discover Card

Discover is offering 5% cash back at Amazon.com and at Target.  Just log into to your account at Discover.com to register.  You must register before you’ll receive the 5% cash back. Continue reading →

Categories: Cash Plus, Chase, Credit Card Promos, Credit Cards, Discover, Freedom, US Bank | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Equifax Hacked – How You Can See If You’re Affected

Posted on September 7, 2017 by 2btravel

Earlier today we learned that credit giant Equifax had been hacked leaving 143 million people vulnerable to identity theft as social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, etc. were exposed.  Greg at Frequent Miler had this post about how to see if you’re impacted so I thought I’d pass the info along.

First, visit this Equifax link and enter the data shown below:

Then Greg and his wife both got this box displayed:

He takes that to mean their data is safe.  When he clicked the ENROLL button he was taken to a page similar to this:

Unfortunately for me, I did not get the second box above but went straight to this third box.  I don’t know if that means my data was affected or not but I will be monitoring it closely and visiting the FAQ site mentioned in the link to find out more as soon as I’m allowed..

Categories: Advice | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Hilton Amex 100K Sign-Up Bonus is Back!

Posted on September 4, 2017 by 2btravel

Every so often Amex offers a spectacular bonus for signing up for the Hilton Surpass Amex Card and now is one of those times. Sign up now, spend $3000 in purchases within the first three months after approval and earn a whopping 100,000 Hilton Honors points. Plus you earn a free weekend night award on the first year of membership.

This card earns 12x points for charges at participating hotels in the Hilton Portfolio like Hilton, DoubleTree, Hampton Inn, etc. There’s also a 6x bonus on spend at grocery stores, restaurants and gas stations.

While Hilton may charge a lot of Honors points for their award rooms, one nice thing is that you can redeem points for non-standard rooms.  For example, in 2015 I redeemed a boatload of points for what was essentially a 2 BR condo in Fiji.  Many programs only allow point redemptions for standard rooms or suites with only a single bed but we were able to get a room with a king + two twins.

View from the balcony of our unit at the Hilton Fiji

Just by holding this card you get Hilton Gold status and if you spend $40,000 on the card in a year you’ll earn Diamond Status though it’s not recommended to chase Diamond status this way as the benefits aren’t that much better unless you’re staying at Hiltons a lot.

This card does come with a $75 annual fee and it does incur foreign transaction fees so it’s not great for international travel.

Remember that at the present time Amex is limiting bonuses to once per lifetime for a given product so if you’ve already received the bonus for this card, you’re not eligible for it again.

If you’d like to get this card, feel free to use my link. The link is good through October 4, 2017 and I will earn points if you are approved through this link.

Categories: American Express, Credit Card Promos, Credit Cards, Hilton, Hilton Surpass | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

20% Bonus (or more) Converting SPG Points to American Airlines

Posted on September 3, 2017 by 2btravel

Starpoints, the currency of the SPG Hotel Chain, are usually considered the most valuable transferable points/miles currency out there. That’s because not only can the points be used at SPG hotels like Radisson, St. Regis, W Hotels, Westin, etc. but they can be transferred at a 1:3 ratio to Marriott for use at their hotels. In addition, SPG points can be transferred to a host of airlines at a 1:1 ratio – but when you transfer 20,000 points at one time, SPG gives you a 5000 mile bonus. Just take a look at all these partners!

From now through October 15, there is a promotion between SPG and American airlines where when you transfer points to AA, a 20% bonus will apply after the conversion. So if you transfer 20K points to AA, SPG gives you 5000 miles and you end up with 25K AA miles. Then a 20% bonus applies and you get another 5000 miles.

In addition, for each 100K miles transferred during this promotion, you get a 10K AAdvantage mile bonus. Now this must be done in multiple transactions over multiple days because SPG limits you to 79K points converted in a single day. So if on Day 1 you convert 60K points (resulting in 75K AA miles before the bonus) and on Day 2 you convert 20K points (resulting in 25K AA miles before the bonus) you’d not only get the 20% bonus each day (15K on Day 1 and 5K on Day 2), you’d then get an additional 10K bonus resulting in a total of 130K AA miles.

There are minimum transfer amounts based on your SPG status:

  • Preferred (basic) members have a 2500 point minimum
  • Gold members have a 1500 point minimum
  • Platinum members do not have a minimum

If you’re in need of AA miles this is a great way to boost your balance quickly. The transfers are not instant. Research over the past couple of years seems to indicate it takes a minimum of 2 days and perhaps as many as 4 days for the miles to show up in your AA account. But you don’t have to wait for the miles to show up to initiate another transfer. So with the example above you could transfer the 60K points today and the 20K points tomorrow even though you wouldn’t see the miles reflected in your account until mid-week.

If you’re ready to transfer points, follow the link in the email you should have received from American Airlines or click here.

Categories: American Airlines, American Express, Credit Card Promos, Credit Cards, SPG Amex | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Two Terrific Offers from Amex

Posted on September 3, 2017 by 2btravel

If you have Amex cards you know that each card gets targeted offers that can range from fixed dollars off a purchase, percentages off a purchase, bonus reward points for certain purchases or additional points per dollar spent. Recently two offers have shown up that I think are worth mentioning.

Spend $100+ at Supermarkets, get 1,500 Membership Rewards Points

This offer should be a piece of cake for just about anyone. Spend $100 in a single transactions or multiple transactions between now and when the offer expires on 11/30/17 and get 1,500 additional Membership Rewards points. There’s not even a need to do manufactured spending on this as even those of us who don’t cook can spend $100 in three months!

Spend $150 or more, get $100 back at AT&T Small Business Wireless

This one is highly targeted and I’m not 100% sure it will work for me but I’m going to try it anyway. As the title indicates, spend $150 or more in a single transaction with AT&T Small Business Wireless and get a $100 credit. My cell phone is a personal one, not for my small business so I don’t know if it will work or not and my cell phone bill is less than $150 but I’m going to try to pay a month ahead just to see if it will work. At worst I’ll still get one point per dollar but it’s worth a shot for $100.

H/T: Doctor of Credit for both offers

Categories: American Express, Credit Card Promos, Credit Cards, Membership Rewards, Premier Rewards Gold Card | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Buy AA miles for a Penny Apiece

Posted on September 2, 2017 by 2btravel

If you own one of the American Airlines Aviator credit cards issued by Barclays, check your account to see if you’ve been targeted for the new Flight Cents program. Flight Cents is a program where your purchase is rounded up to the nearest dollar and you earn one AAdvantage mile per cent.

So if your purchase comes to $17.46, your credit card statement will reflect $18 and you get 71 AAdvantage miles for your purchase: 17 for the purchase and 54 miles purchased for the 54 cents that were rounded up.

This pilot program runs October 1 – March 31 and you must register your account by September 30th by selecting the max number of dollars that can be rounded up in a month with the maximum being $500, which would net 50K miles.

This will certainly make me look at using my Aviator card more frequently during this time period despite the fact that my largest stash of airline miles is currently with American.

Were you targeted for this or a similar offer?

H/T: View From The Wing

Categories: AAdvantage Aviator, American Airlines, Barclays, Credit Card Promos, Credit Cards | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

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