An easy way of meeting credit card spend requirement for getting the sign-up bonus – American Express Gift Cards at no cost!
A lot of readers have inquired as to how to meet the credit card spend requirement within the stipulated time in order to earn the hefty sign-up bonus. I will talk about several of the options over my upcoming posts. For starters, I will begin with one of the easiest and hassle free ways to meet the spend - Buying American Express Gift Cards, at virtually zero cost.
American Express allows customers buy AMEX branded Gift Cards with credit cards (any credit card, not just American Express but also MasterCard, Visa and Discover). You can buy these cards in several different pre-set denominations as well a denomination of your choice. These AMEX branded gift cards work just like any American Express credit or charge card. it has most of the protections that a credit card would offer baring a few features. Thus, when you buy these cards, you are effectively charging your credit card to meet the spend requirement and have them loaded on these AMEX gift cards.
Please note that there is typically a purchase fee as well as shipping and handling fee. However, you can use the promo code CMOUS (expires 12/22/11) to get the purchase fee waived. Plus, you can sign up for a free 3-month trial of their Premium Shipping program which provides users with free next-day shipping for an annual membership cost of $99. With the free 3-month trial offer, you can go through 1-2 rounds of app-o-rama to meet your spend on new credit cards.
One caveat to this method is that your funds get locked up in the gift cards as you will have to pay off your credit card balance to avoid the hefty interest on the charges. However, with some smart planning, you can minimize such locking of funds. And there are ways to unlock these gift card funds which I will describe in one of the upcoming posts.
*Last Day* Earn 25,000 bonus miles (for each partner) when you convert partner points to Air Canada’s Aeroplan miles
Until tomorrow, you can earn up to 25,000 bonus miles when you convert partner points to Air Canada's Aeroplan miles. You can earn up to 25,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for points converted from each of the eligible loyalty programs (listed below).
| Convert your points to... | Earn a bonus of... |
| 5,000 Aeroplan Miles | 1,000 Aeroplan Miles |
| 10,000 Aeroplan Miles | 2,000 Aeroplan Miles |
| 20,000 Aeroplan Miles | 4,000 Aeroplan Miles |
| 50,000 Aeroplan Miles | 10,000 Aeroplan Miles |
| 100,000 Aeroplan Miles | 25,000 Aeroplan Miles |
Since you earn this bonus with each eligible loyalty program you convert points from, you can earn up to 25,000 bonus miles with as many partners of the following partners as you want. Thus, you can add up to thousands of Bonus Aeroplan Miles in addition to base Aeroplan Miles you converted to. For easier reference, here is Air Canada Aeroplan's Award Chart and discussion of their devaluation earlier this year.
This is particularly an excellent use of WorldPoints earned through Bank of America Fidelity Rewards American Express credit card that earns 2 points per $ on any spend and carries no annual fee. For WorldPoints conversion to Aeroplan, please note that there is a transfer limit of 50,000 points on each transfer. Not to worry. Remember that the conversion number is cumulative and not based on a single transaction. Thus, you will have to do the transfer twice to reach that 100,000 transfer and earn 25,000 bonus.
- Financial Cards: Convert financial card points for bonus miles.
- Hotels and Car Rentals: Convert hotel loyalty points with Best Western Rewards™, Starwood Preferred Guest®, Marriott Rewards®, Hilton HHonors™, Hyatt Gold Passport™, Choice Privileges®, Goldpoints Plus, Coast Rewards, Shangri-La Golden Circle, AClub, and Wyndham Rewards®! For Car Rentals, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program members can exchange their points for Aeroplan Miles.
This promotion ends tomorrow, December 12.
Terms and Conditions:
1. Maximum 25,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles can be earned per eligible partner loyalty program per Aeroplan Member.
2. For clarity, Aeroplan Miles per loyalty program will be issued by Aeroplan based on the thresholds outlined as follows:
- 1,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be deposited into the member's account when the total Aeroplan Miles earned by converting points from that partners program is between 5,000 – 9,999 Aeroplan Miles; or
- 2,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be deposited into the member's account when the total Aeroplan Miles earned by converting points from that partner's program is between 10,000 – 19,999 Aeroplan Miles; or
- 4,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be deposited into the member's account when the total Aeroplan Miles earned by converting points from that partner's program is between 20,000 – 49,999 Aeroplan Miles; or
- 10,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be deposited into the member’s account when the total Aeroplan Miles earned by converting points from that partner’s program is between 50,000 – 99,999; or
- 25,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be deposited into the member’s account when the total Aeroplan Miles earned by converting points from that partner’s program is 100,000 or more.
3. The calculation of the "total" Aeroplan Miles earned per partner that qualify for the bonus is based solely on conversions made by the member with the partner, in accordance with the partner's terms & conditions, between November 21 and December 12, 2011.
4. Aeroplan is not responsible for errors or omissions made by the partner while executing the conversion transaction on behalf of their member. Bonus miles will be credited into the member's account by Aeroplan as each threshold is reached, and may take up to eight weeks from the date the member makes his/her request with the partner.
No annual fee! Get 40,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points and 0% APR for 6 months with Chase Ink Cash card (can be redeemed for $400 cash back)
For a limited time, you can earn 40,000 bonus Chase Ultimate Rewards Points when you apply for a new Chase Ink Cash Business Card and spend $5,000 within the first 3 months. There is no annual fee for this card. It is not necessary for applicants to be a registered business owner. Any consumer can apply for this card under “sole proprietorship” and use their own name as business name and put in the SSN for Tax ID.
Some of the key highlights of this card include:
- Earn 40,000 Bonus UR Points when you spend $5,000 in 3 months. Can be redeemed for $400 cash back.
- To maximize the value of these points, it would be best if you have a Chase Ink Bold card or Chase Sapphire Preferred card which would give you the ability to transfer points to UA, CO, BA, KE, Amtrak, Marriott, Priority Club and Hyatt at 1:1 ratio. It is an excellent option to earn UA and CO miles (which are no longer easy to accumulate as AMEX points can no longer be transferred to CO as of October 1). I recommend converting the points to Hyatt points which are generally a better value than other Airline miles. An unadvertised benefit is that the points can be transferred to anybody else's account and names don't have to match making it easy to top-off the accounts for that elusive award.
- Earn 5% cash back or 5 points per $ on office supplies, cable and telecom services for first $25,000 spent in this category.
- Earn 2% cash back or 2 points per $ on gas and dining for first $25,000 spent in this category.
- Earn 1% cash or 1 point per $ on everything else.
- There is no limit on the number of reward points or cash back you can earn. These points will never expire as long as your account is open and in good standing.
- 0% APR for first 6 months.
- No annual fee and free employee cards.
- This is a Visa card and thus comes with the benefit of wider worldwide acceptance, wherever Visa and MasterCard credit cards are accepted.
Once again, please note that Chase INK Cash is a charge card and not a credit card, so you pay in full each month in order to accrue no monthly interest charges.
Please note that this is a business charge card meaning that you will have to pay in full every month. Further, note that Business Cards do not fall under the new Card ACT and thus will not offer the same protection under ACT that personal cards do. It is because of this reason that we will see more banks offering Business cards with hefty sign-up bonuses in the coming months and will not be enforcing strict application reviews at the same time. They have to make money some way after all! As long as you are aware of this and understand the implications and are going to be paying off the balance in full every month, you may want to consider this offer. For most savvy people who like to milk the sign-up bonuses, and who use cards as a mode of payment and not a mode of credit, this offer is golden.
This is a good card option for those who are strictly looking for cards with no annual fee. Of course, there are plenty of good options for card with annual fee, some of which I have already discussed and many more that I will be talking about in future.
Continental OnePass miles transfer to Amtrak Guest Rewards to end Dec 31, 2011
The ability to transfer Continental OnePass miles to Amtrak Guest Rewards program is going away after Dec 31, 2011 once OnePass program ceases to exists. In 2012, the combined program will retain United's Mileage Plus name and is expected to continue with features of existing United Mileage Plus program while those of the current OnePass program will be gone.
Continental has rather a very attractive feature of transferring to Amtrak at 1:1 with no fee. I have used this feature in the past and recently redeemed 20,000 AGR points for a trip in Superliner Sleeper Bedroom from Colorado Grand Junction to Chicago as described in this post.
The developments are rather unnerving for most Continental OnePass program loyalists. Continental has had a strong partnership with Amtrak which serves CO's hub in Newark and provides better connectivity for CO's Northeast customers. CO and Amtrak even have a seamless codesharing agreement between the trains and flights. Amtrak tried to keep the relationship alive transitioning into the new MileagePlus, but has failed. This suggests that we will be seeing more of UA MP's rules and features and not CO's and should serve as a warning for the CO loyalists.
There is reciprocity between the Amtrak and Continental lounge access and memberships which will also end February 2012. Simply put, the re-branded United FFP and clubs will no longer be accessible to Amtrak users and vice-versa.
I am predicting the relationship between Continental and Virgin Atlantic to also go away, especially with access to London Heathrow to the new United. CO's relationship with Virgin Atlantic was motivated by Cotinental's lack of access to Heathrow. Now that they do have access to Heathrow under the new united, the importance of that relationship is diluted.
So, with this merger, Emirates partnership was put to rest, now Amtrak partnership is being killed. It is just a matter of time when partnerships with Virgin Atlantic and Eva Air are terminated. The best case scenario I am foreseeing is a separate award chart for both the partners just like how it currently exists for other non-Star Alliance Airline partners of United Mileage Plus as described in this post.
Thankfully, we will still be able to use our Chase Ultimate Rewards points to top off our Amtrak Guest Rewards (and Continental/United as well) for our train travel needs.
If you want to earn Chase UR points, apply for Chase Sapphire Preferred and earn 50,000 Chase UR points. Apply for Chase INK bold Business card for another 50,000 Chase UR points. You can also apply for a no annual fee Chase Freedom card for 30,000 Chase UR points (Freedom card does not have ability to transfer to partners unless you also have Chase Sapphire Preferred card).
You can also apply for no annual fee Chase Amtrak World MasterCard for 32,000 Amtrak Guess Rewards points with first purchase.
SPG Cash + Points awards are an excellent value, especially for Categories 3-6
So, I had wanted to do this for some time. Finally, I got a chance to analyze the much raved SPG Cash + points awards to figure out the sweet spot in the award table. These awards are indeed an excellent value with Category 4 hotel reservations to be the best value.
A lot of people value SPG points (AKA Starpoints) higher, I value them at around 3 cents per point. SPG sells them at 3.5 cents per point with occasional promotional offers of 20% discount for point purchase as the one offered right now. However, there is an annual purchase limit of 20,000 SPG points. In addition, Starpoint purchases can be made by members whose accounts have been active for a minimum of 30 days. Accounts that are less than the required 30 days in age will have the purchase attempt cancelled.
So, lets look at SPG award table which also lists Cash + Points awards. In the table below, I have also included the value of the virtual points that are being replaced by the cash portion of the award when compared with a Points Only redemption.
Cash + Points vs Points only: We see from the above table that the points savings from the Cash + Points awards are substantial. For example, for Category 4 award booking, $60 cash portion is used in lieu of 6,000 SPG points. Thus, these $60 cash portion is substituted for SPG points at the rate of 1 cent per point. This to most is an excellent value.
For other Categories, please the table above.
Cash + Points vs 5th night Free: As can be seen from table,the points savings in this case are also substantial, despite of having the 5th night free. The value may not be as good as for the Cash + Points vs Points only awards discussed but still is an extremely good value.
Not surprisingly, SPG does not offer Cash + Points awards for their highest category of hotels, i.e., category 7. But overall, their Category 3-6 prove to be fantastic value.
It is because of this reason, in addition to the ability to transfer to most major Airlines at 1:1 (or better) that SPG points is most favored loyalty based program. And the reason why people prefer to keep SPG AMEX card in their wallets at all times.
You can get up to 60,000 SPG points right now by applying for SPG AMEX credit cards as described in this post.
Earn 32,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards® points with new Amtrak Guest Rewards® World MasterCard® from Chase® (after first purchase)
Apply for Amtrak Guest Rewards® World MasterCard® from Chase® and after your first use, you'll earn 32,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards bonus points. There is no annual fee for this card.
Features of the card:
- No Annual Fee
- 2 Points per $ for Amtrak purchases
- 1 Point per $ for all other purchases
- 5% point rebate on Amtrak Travel Redemption.
- Ability to transfer Amtrak points to other travel partners (transfer ratios are attractive).
Here is a review of Amtrak Guest Rewards program which I happened to use in October for a trip from Colorado Grand Junction to Chicago in Superliner Sleeper Bedroom. I should say every bit worth the 20,000 points for 3 people and no taxes or no fees and all meals included. Your Amtrak points can easily be worth 6+ cents per point when redeemed for travel on Amtrak.
As an added benefit, Cardholders of the Amtrak Guest Rewards MasterCard® issued by Chase with an Amtrak travel spend on the card of $200 or more per calendar year can transfer Amtrak points to other AGR's partners. There is no transfer fee, however there is an annual point transfer limit of 25,000. The list of partners include:
- Continental Airlines at 1:1 in multiples of 5,000 points.
- Choice Privileges points at 1:3 in multiples of 5,000 points. Thus, 5,000 Amtrak points get you 15,000 Choice points (a great value).
- Hilton HHonors points at 1:2 in multiples of 5,000 points. Thus, 5,000 Amtrak points get you 10,000 Hilton HHonors points (a good value too).
- Broadway Showpoints at 1:1 in multiples of 1,000 points.
Amtrak points can also be used for:
- Gift Cards,
- Hertz Car Rentals,
- Hyatt and SPG Hotel Certificates,
- Celebrity and Carnival Certificates.
This is a good card option for those who are strictly looking for cards with no annual fee. Of course, there are plenty of good options for card with annual fee, some of which I have already discussed and many more that I will be talking about in future.
*Hot* Earn 60,000 (30,000 x2) SPG points with new American Express SPG Personal as well as Business credit card
This as a hot offer, as hot as it has ever been for SPG points (Starpoints) bonus when applying for the SPG AMEX card. Summary of what you get:
- You will earn 10,000 bonus SPG points after your first purchase.
- You will earn another 20,000 bonus SPG points points when you spend $5,000 within the first 6 months.
- First year annual fee is waived.
- You can apply for both, a personal card as well as a business card and each of them has a similar bonus structure.
SPG points are considered among the most valuable points because of the versatility they offer.
- You can convert SPG points to 29 different Airlines across the world at mostly at 1:1 ratio with few like Continental and United at 2:1 (not so great!) and LAN Airlines at 1:2 (great!).
- When transferring in multiples of 20,000 SPG points, SPG will add a 5,000 point bonus to your transfer, which means, your receiving account receives 25K miles (or 12.5K in case of United and Continental and 50K in case of LAN Airlines). Transferring to LAN can be a great value for short-haul, non-stop, round-trip award flights as discussed in this post.
- SPG points are a great value when using for hotel nights, especially with their rather generous points plus cash redemption.
- Award nights booked with SPG points also count towards elite status which is an added bonus.
- You also have the ability to transfer SPG points for no cost within the same household.
As an example, you can book a Category 2 hotel for 1,600 SPG points plus $30, where a typical paid night could be as high as ~$200. A regular points award would cost 4,000 points on a weekday night or 3,000 points on a weekend night.
Here is a look at SPG's award chart. SPG has a plenty of great properties across the world in the lower categories offering a great value for your points. In many cases, one can get more 10 cents per point in value from their SPG points.
Transfer AMEX MR points to British Airways Avios at 1:1 plus 30% bonus
For a limited time, you can now transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to British Airways Avios points with a 30% bonus in addition to their usual 1:1 ratio. This means you can earn 13,000 Avios points for 10,000 AMEX MR points. This offer is good through January 31, 2012.
This means, if you have American Express Premier Rewards Gold Personal or Business Charge card, which earns up to 3X AMEX MR points on Airfare purchases, it is possible to earn 3.9 BA Avios points for every $ you spend on Airfare. Or, if you consider everyday spend that earns 2X AMEX MR points, you can earn 2.6 BA Avios points.
Remember, you need only 4,500 BA Avios points for a one-way, non-stop flight within 649 miles in distance. This means, you can get a one-way, non-stop flight within the US from any of American Airlines' and Alaska Airlines' hubs at JFK, ORD, BOS, MIA, RDU, DFW, LAX, SEA, ANC and PDX by spending only ~$1150 in airfare. Remember that BA does not charge expedited booking fee that AA charges (savings of up to $150) for booking within 21 days of departure. Thus, it can be a fantastic value if you consider a last minute flight on any of the non-LCC (Low Cost Carrier) routes, fares can easily be over $1000, for e.g., from ORD-YYZ for tomorrow has a lowest fare of $1072. That comes to more than 90 cents in return value for every $ spent on other airfares on your AMEX PR Gold charge card.
As an added benefit, AMEX MR points transfer over to BA Avios almost instantaneously. So, if you are looking to travel on those short-haul non-stop flights, consider this promotion and BA Avios points an excellent value with a possibility of getting as high as ~$1 in value for every $1 spent.
Earn 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points with Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card
You can earn 50,000 bonus Chase Ultimate Rewards Points when you apply for a new Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card and spend $3,000 within the first 3 months. The annual fee for the first year is waived after which you will be charged $95 every year at account anniversary. This is similar to 50,000 Chase UR points earned by applying for Chase INK Bold Business card discussed in a previous post.
Chase Ultimate Rewards is an excellent program especially for those looking to earn or top-up United or Continental miles. It is also an excellent program for earning Hyatt Gold Passport points.
Some of the key highlights of this card include:
- Earn 50,000 Bonus UR Points when you spend $3,000 in 3 months.
- Points can be used to purchase airfare at 1.25 cents per point. That’s $625 towards airfare when you redeem online through Ultimate Rewards website.
- Transfer your points to UA, CO, BA, Korean Air, Marriot, Priority Club and Hyatt at 1:1 ratio. This is an excellent option to earn UA and CO miles (which are no longer easy to accumulate as AMEX points can no longer be transferred to CO as of October 1). I recommend converting the points to Hyatt points which are generally a better value than other Airline miles. An unadvertised benefit is that the points can be transferred to anybody else’s account and names don’t have to match making it easy to top-off the accounts for that elusive award.
- No foreign transaction fee when you use this card overseas.
- Earn an 2 point per dollar on travel categories. You'll earn 1 point for each dollar you spend on all your other purchases.
- 24/7 Live Customer Service: Talk directly to a customer service agent anytime without pressing "#" or "0." Don't we all love a card that offers this.
- 7% Annual Point Dividend: Receive a 7% annual dividend on all points earned in a year.
- This is a Visa Signature card and thus comes with the benefit of wider worldwide acceptance, wherever Visa and MasterCard credit cards are accepted. Read about caveats of a Visa Signature card in this post.
- First year annual fee WAIVED, $95 thereafter at each account anniversary.
Travel categories that earn 2 points/$ have been rather generously defined and include:
- Airfares
- Hotels
- Dining
- Rental Cars
- Taxis
- Fast Food
- Trains
- Cruises
- Takeout
- Buses (?)
An interesting thing about this card is that the actual physical card is a lot heavier than other credit cards. The reason being that this card actually has a metal card sandwiched between two plastic layers. This makes the card feel exclusive. I have gotten interesting remarks from waitresses while paying with this card at restaurant. Perhaps, you may want to try using this card and report back the interesting remarks that people make after holding this card.
Get 50,000 Southwest Airlines points (worth up to $833.33 in Southwest Airfare) with Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card
This is a different flavor of Southwest Airlines Visa credit card than the one that I had described in a previous post. That card described was Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus Visa credit card with a sign-up bonus of 50,000 points after first purchase with an annual fee of $69 (no first year waiver). The card I am describing in this post is Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Visa credit card with a sign-up bonus of 50,000 points after first purchase having an annual fee of $99 with no first year fee waiver.
For a table of comparison between the two cards, please refer to this link on Southwest Airlines' webpage.
Basically, there are three main differences between the Premier version and the Plus version of the cards:
- Annual fee of $99 (Premier) vs $69 (Plus).
- 6,000 points (Premier) in anniversary bonus vs 3,000 points (Plus) at anniversary.
- Ability to earn Tier points with the Premier version (1,500 Tier Qualifying Points for every $10,000 in spend with a maximum of 15,000 Tier Qualifying Points annually) and no such feature with Plus version.
In my opinion, if you intend to not cancel the card within the first year and would want to continue using the card, Premier version makes a better sense as you get 6,000 bonus points which are equivalent to $100 in wanna get away fares, which essentially covers up your annual fee. With the Plus version, you only get 3,000 anniversary bonus which are worth $50 in wanna get away fares and thus will not cover the $69 annual fee in full.
Important: Please read about Visa Signature cards in this post.
Get Ameriprise World Elite MasterCard for free Prioirty Pass membership with unlimited airline lounge visits
Since posting my recent thread on Priority Pass and Airline Lounge access, one of the readers asked if there are any cheaper alternatives to AMEX Platinum credit card if all that he wants is a Priority Pass membership with no per-visit fee without paying the hefty $475 annual fee plus $175 add-on card fee of AMEX Platinum. And the answer to that is yes, there is one great alternative!
There are several credit cards out there that sponsor free membership to Priority Pass. However, please note that there are multiple levels of PP membership with varying types of coverages and charges as also noted in the previous post. Types of membership with corresponding examples of credit cards are as below:
- Standard membership which charges $27 to your sponsoring credit card for each visit to an Airline lounge covered in the Priority Pass network. Each accompanying guest also pays $27. This membership is typically $99 but is covered by your sponsoring credit card. Examples of this type of membership include AMEX Hilton Surpass card ($75 annual fee) and most MasterCard World Elite cards (Citi's World Elite cards are not included in this as Citi has opted into a different Lounge Access program).
- Standard Plus Membership which comes with 10 free lounge visits included every year of membership. After the free visits have been used, each visit is charged at US$27 per visit to the member's sponsoring credit card. Each accompanying guest also pays $27. There are cards that offer a customized Standard Plus membership in which the cardholders get first 2-3 visits free after which they pay the regular $27 per visit per person fee. Examples: Chase INK Classic with no annual fee (but includes Priority Pass with 2 free visits for first year only), Chase INK BOLD with first year annual fee waived (but includes Priority Pass with 2 free visits for first year only) and now defunct, Citi AMEX Platinum.
- Prestige Membership which provides unlimited free in-network lounge visits to the member and accompanying guests are charged $27 directly to the member's sponsoring credit card. Prestige membership typically costs US$399 but is covered by your sponsoring credit card. Examples: AMEX Platinum ($475 annual fee plus $175 for up to 3 add-on cards) and Ameriprise World Elite MasterCard ($150) with up to 3 free add-on cards.
This last one, Ameriprise World Elite MasterCard is a real gem. It provide free sponsorship to Priority Pass's Prestige membership, not just for the card-holder. But you can get up to 3 free add-on cards each of which will come with their own Priority Pass Prestige Membership. You just can't beat that (actually, for a limited time a while ago, this card came with annual fee waiver, for the life of the card account).
I will not talk about this cards rewards program as there definitely are better cards out there. Read my previous post about two great cards to have in your wallet.
Hawaiian Airlines fare sale out of NYC, as low as $155 each way using your 25% Off Coach Roundtrip for Two from Hawaiian Airlines Signature Visa Discount
This post is a follow-up on my post from a few days ago for Hawaiian Airlines fare sale to/from NYC-JFK for $212 each way for a round-trip total of $445 including taxes. If you recall, I had written about earning 140K Hilton HHonors points using Hawaiian Airlines Visa credit card sign-ups and also another post about best uses of Hawaiian Airlines miles. One thing that I had totally missed out is that the Hawaiian Airlines Signature Visa credit cards also come with a Certificate that offers 25% Off Coach Round-trip for Two Between Mainland U.S. and Hawaii. I was reminded about the certificate when my new credit cards arrived in mail this morning.
So, it turns out, the NYC fare sale can be had for even less. In my test booking, I could get the fare for as low as $155 each way, per person when booking for two passengers using this discount certificate.
Unfortunately, as we can see in the above screenshot, by now, the lowest fare of $212 each way is already gone for most of the days within the valid travel dates of June 4th-30th, 2012. However, the fare is still low enough as compared to what you can find out of JFK, especially considering that this is a non-stop on a wide-body airplane, with excellent entertainment system, food and drinks. Plus, if you make use of the 25% discount certificate, it makes the deal even more attractive. Basically, this certificate gives you 50% discount off the 2nd passenger (or 50%-off companion, if that is easier to understand).
See the above pictures for steps to unlock the discount. Just go ahead and use this certificate and grab your summer getaway to Hawaii!
Please note that the this fare sale ends tomorrow, November 20.
Additional points to note about this new route:
• Roomy, New Wide-body Planes
• Complimentary Meals Curated by Hawaii’s own Chef Chai Chaowasaree
• State of the art In-Flight Entertainment
• Award-winning Hana Hou! Magazine
The attractive part is that flight times are also very conveniently scheduled with arrivals at 3pm into Honolulu and arrivals at 6am at JFK for the return flight.
Validity of the sale fare -
Travel Period: June 4th-30th, 2012
Booking Period: November 16th-20th, 2011
Plan your Hawaiian Getaway for next summer at this low price. I doubt you will find a better fare to Hawaii from the Big Apple, during the peak summer travel period.
Welcome to AwardGuru.com!
Since I started blogging actively over past several weeks, I have received glowing reviews and the response from the readers has been all positive. This was an encouraging and so, I have decided to move the blog to our own domain, AwardGuru.com, which will provide me better flexibility than what was available under WordPress.
I thank you all for following my blog. I will continue on my mission of empowering readers to unlock their miles and points and to opti-maxi-mize their value!
Get 30,000 Ultimate Reward points or $300 cashback when you apply for Chase Freedom credit card (no annual fee)
Apply for Chase Freedom credit card and get 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $500 on the card. You can redeem these 30,000 Chase UR points for worth $300 cash or gift cards. There is no annual fee for this card.
Note that the UR points earned from this card cannot be transferred to one of the Airline or Hotel partners within Ultimate Rewards program as this card is ineligible for transfer. However, if you have another Chase card that earns Chase UR points like Chase INK BOLD (that also earns 50,000 Chase UR points, with first year annual fee waived), the points earned from this Chase Freedom card get consolidated to the same Chase UR account and are now eligible for the transfer. These transfer partners include UA, CO, BA, KE, Hyatt or Marriott, and you convert your points at 1:1 ratio for no charge.
This is a good card option for those who are strictly not interested in getting cards with annual fee. Otherwise, there are plenty of good options, some of which I have already discussed and many more that I will be talking about in future.
Companion Certificate program for Citi ThankYou Premier card results in savings of $229
My experience trying to use Citi ThankYou Premier card's companion certificate program was a pleasant one resulting in savings of $229 as compared to buying two tickets out of pocket at the market rate.
If I had bought the two tickets directly from the Airline, these would have cost me $637 total. I got the exact same flights for $408 through Citi Companion Certificate program by calling them at 888-428-4078. This comes to a net savings of $229, well over the annual fee for the card.
I simply love this card. A detailed analysis of this card can be found in this post. Best of all, you will earn miles on both the tickets!
Some points to be noted:
- Cardholder has to be one of the two travelers.
- Tickets have to be booked at least 4 days in advance.
- You may not have a choice of flights covered by the program.
- It is not a real companion certificate that gives you the second ticket for free. But in a few other test cases I tried, the savings ranged between 50-70% of the total cost of two tickets. That is fantastic in my opinion.
- You have to use Citi ThankYou card to pay for the tickets.
2x American Express Membership Rewards for Chicago
I just found an offer sitting in my emails that I had not looked at since it was originally sent to me. Chicago residents can earn 2x American Express Membership Rewards points until November 15, 2011 at the participating merchants simply by enrolling their AMEX card and using it to pay the merchant. This offer originally was from October 1, 2011 to November 15, 2011.
Although, it says that the offer is for first 1,000 card members who successfully I was able to enroll two hours ago. This means that the enrollment is still open and readers can still take advantage of this offer.
Terms and Conditions for the offer as copied and pasted from the offer webpage:
To be eligible for this offer, you must register a Membership Rewards program-enrolled American Express Card at americanexpress.com/getrewardedchicago between September 15, 2011 and November 15, 2011. You may only register one Card for this offer. Using the same registered Card for each transaction, you must make at least one purchase at participating merchants between October 1, 2011 and November 15, 2011. Registration is limited to the first 5000 registrants. You may earn a maximum of 1,000 bonus points during this promotion. Prepaid and corporate cards, and ExpressPay transactions are not eligible. If your Card is replaced during the promotional period, please call the customer service number on the back of your Card for assistance. Bonus points will be credited to your Program account within 10-12 weeks after charges appear on your billing statement. Some American Express Cards are not eligible for enrollment in the Program. Program terms and conditions apply; see membershiprewards.com/terms or call 1-800-AXP-EARN (287-3276). Participating partners and available rewards are subject to change at any time. Bonus ID 6966. Additional terms apply. See Registration Terms & Conditions for details.
Enroll in this 2x AMEX MR points for Chicago offer
List of participating merchants
Priority Pass Membership gets you over 600 Airline Lounges at over 300 Airports in over 100 countries
I was recently asked by a reader who was new to flying about Airline Lounges and how does one get access to them.
Generally speaking, most Airline Lounges are meant for the premium passengers who either hold a business class or first class tickets, or those who hold an elite status with the airline or their select partners, or if you have purchased a Membership for their lounges. Each Airline has a different set of rules for access to their Lounge. It is best to check what these rules for the Airline Lounge of your interest.
Holding a lounge membership in one Airline gets you access only to their own lounges and may be one or two additional partner airline's lounge. This can restrict the choice of lounges and may not be offer you the most options. An alternative to holding a membership in one Airline's lounge is a program called Priority Pass. Priority Pass is a program which partners with a lot of Airline lounges as well as independent airport lounges all over the world. Membership in Priority Pass gets you access to over 600 lounges at over 300 Airport in over 100 countries. You can search for the lounges at the airports of your interest on their website or on a smart phone. No matter what airline, what frequent flyer membership, elite status, or class of ticket bought, eligible cardholders will enjoy all of the convenience of an airport lounge.
Disclaimer: Please note that I am not affiliated or connected to Priority Pass or any any other websites in mentioned in this post in any ways, commercial or otherwise.
Membership in Priority Pass can cost you anywhere between $99 to $399 depending on the type of the membership you purchase. Following are the three types of memberships in Priority Pass:
- Standard membership which charges $27 to your sponsoring credit card for each visit to an Airline lounge covered in the Priority Pass network. Each accompanying guest also pays $27. This standard membership costs $99.
- Standard Plus Membership which comes with 10 free lounge visits included every year of membership. After the free visits have been used, each visit is charged at US$27 per visit to the member's credit card on file. Each accompanying guest is also charged at $27. Standard Plus membership costs $249.
- Prestige Membership which provides unlimited free in-network lounge visits to the member and accompanying guests are charged $27 directly to the member's credit card on file. Prestige membership costs US$399.
Apart from the above ways to access airline lounges, American Express Platinum card ($475 annual fee + $175 for up to 3 add-on cards) holders also get access to select Airlines' lounges which include American Airlines' Admirals Club, Delta Airlines' Sky Club and US Airways Club. AMEX Platinum card holders can also request free Priority Pass Prestige Membership to access lounges covered by Priority Pass. Thus, with AMEX platinum card, you can get access to most Airline lounges.
There are several credit cards out there that sponsor free membership to Priority Pass. However, please note that there are multiple levels of PP membership with varying types of coverages and charges. Examples of such cards are AMEX Hilton Surpass Card, most MasterCard World Elite cards, some other premium cards.