DansDeals.com

BA Visa Card Linky

Gary points to a seemingly incredible offer from Chase: Sign up for a $75/year British Airways card and you’ll get 50,000 BA miles.  Spend $2,000 on the card within 3 months and you’ll get another 50,000 miles. Plus you get 1.25 miles per dollar spent.  In addition if you spend $30,000 on the card in a calendar year you get a voucher for a free companion award ticket when you book another award ticket.

Sounds incredible, no?
Ahh…but what Gary doesn’t mention are their outrageous fuel surcharges on BA award tickets.

BA Fuel Surcharges (not including actual taxes) per longhaul segment (A Round-Trip JFK-LHR-TLV is 4 segments):
Economy (Under 9 hours): $107
Economy (Over 9 hours): $141
Premium Economy (Under 9 hours): $128
Premium Economy (Over 9 hours): $177
Business/First (Under 9 hours): $157
Business/First (Over 9 hours): $205

Other taxes and fees that BA charges will typically add more than $100 to the award ticket in addition to the fuel surcharges.

A Business Ticket from LA to Tel Aviv will cost 130,000 miles plus over $800 in fuel surcharges and other fees and taxes!

I think I’ll stick with Continental’s BusinessFirst, at 115,000 miles and $50 in taxes.
AA’s card may only get you 30K miles, but it is easily churnable and you won’t have to shell out hundreds of dollars in taxes for an award ticket…plus AA has a sweet OneWorld chart with awards that cost less miles than BA and have no fuel surcharges.

Now that you’re equipped with the rest of the story you can decide whether this card makes sense for you. 100,000 miles is indeed an incredible offer, but I personally stay far away from programs that charge such high fuel surcharges…I enjoy free award flights, not discounted flights.

Offer Linky

USAirways Share Miles Linky

USAirways Buy Miles Linky

USAirways Gift Miles Linky

Until 12/31 you can get a 100% bonus when you buy, gift, or transfer USAirways miles.

You can’t buy, share, or gift miles unless your USAirways Dividend Miles account is 10 days old.

Officially you can get up to 50,000 bonus miles from each of these activities, although there are anecdotal reports that you may get the bonus past this point.

You can buy or gift 50,000 miles for $1,373 with all taxes and get a total of 100,000 miles with the bonus (1.37 cents per mile purchased)

You can transfer 50,000 miles for $567 with all taxes and the recipient will get 100,000 miles with the bonus (1.13 cents per mile “purchased”)

USAirways may not be the best airline, but they have a couple dozen great partners as part of the Star Alliance.

Their Star Alliance chart is actually quite good! For example a ticket from the US48 to Hawaii is now 40,000 miles in coach or 80,000 miles in first when using Continental or United miles.  When you use USAirways miles that same flight is only 35,000 miles in coach or 70,000 miles in first regardless of whether you fly on USAirways, Continental, or United.

You can also transfer miles from Starwood to USAirways at a 20,000:25,000 ratio.

Just beware that USAirways is notorious for their award fees and high baggage fees.

USAirways Award Chart Linky

USAirways Star Alliance Chart Linky

HT: FT

Starwood AMEX Linky (Free for first year, Earn 10,000 Starpoints With First Purchase, and 30,000 more Starpoints with your first $15,000 in purchases)

AMEX Platinum Charge Card-”The Grandaddy of credit cards” (Earn 25,000 AMEX MR Bonus Points after you spend $1,000.)

Just minutes ago Continental became the largest airline ever to change airline alliances.  In doing so it’s changing a number of its policies.

A Saturday night stay is no longer required for domestic rewards, but domestic rewards are rarely a worthwhile redemption so that’s not a huge deal.

There is a new award chart and it charges the same rate no matter what airline you fly on.  The chart has rates that are very similar to United’s chart.  However Continental has promised not to block partner availability like United has been doing of late which will make Onepass miles that much more valuable.

Continental Star Alliance Mileage Chart Linky

Interactive Travel Rewards Finder Linky

Continental Star Alliance Partners Page Linky

Continental Star Alliance Reward Rules Linky

Continental has a hidden bargain with their Round-The-World rewards which are valid on all 25 Star Alliance carriers as well as Continental’s other partners.  Coach costs 160K miles,  Business/BusinessFirst is 220K, and First Class on 3 class airplanes is 280K.

As Continental’s twice daily nonstop service from Newark to Tel Aviv has always been a popular award choice for Dansdeals.com readers I’m sure everyone will be happy to know that the cost of redemption on that route has gone down.  It used to cost 90K miles in Economy and 120K miles in BusinessFirst.  Now it will cost 75K in Economy and 115K in BusinessFirst.  In addition you can now redeem at the same rates for travel on Star Alliance partners Air Canada and USAirways which fly nonstop to Tel Aviv from Toronto and Philadelphia respectively.  Even more intriguing for some may be the new true first class service possibilities to Tel Aviv like Lufthansa offers for 145K miles on a ticket that normally sells for north of $10,000.

You can transfer AMEX MR points to Continental at a 1:1 ratio but unfortunately the Starwood transfer ratio is a lousy 20,000:12,500.  If you are desperate for Continental miles from Starwood you could always sign up to have all your Starpoints automatically go directly into Continental miles at a 1:1 ratio.

The other aspect of the alliance swap means learning about redeeming alliance partner miles for travel on Continental.  Below is a short listing of what some other Star airlines would charge to fly from Newark to Tel Aviv on Continental.  The only issue is that most international airlines charge a fuel surcharge on award tickets…

Continental EWR-TLV Round trip award prices on Star partners:

ANA (Starwood transfer partner @ 20,000:25,000, AMEX MR @ 1:1): Coach-60K, BusinessFirst-90K

Asiana (Starwood transfer partner @ 20,000:25,000): Coach-78K, BusinessFirst-115K

Lufthansa (Starwood transfer partner @ 20,000:25,000): From US: Coach-80K, BusinessFirst-120K

Lufthansa: From Israel with Israeli address: Coach-60K, BusinessFirst-90K

Singapore (AMEX MR transfer partner @ 1:1): Coach-60K, BusinessFirst-100K

USAirways (Starwood transfer partner @ 20,000:25,000): Coach-80K, BusinessFirst-120K

Virgin Atlantic (Non-Star partner, Starwood transfer partner @ 20,000:25,000, AMEX MR transfer partner @1:1.15 or 1:1 after 10/31): Coach-80K, BusinessFirst-120K

From now until 10/26 you are able to load up on Jetblue Trueblue points for just $2.50/point.

A free flight on Jetblue requires 100 Trueblue points.

Jetblue’s Trueblue 2 mileage program launches in November and will award points based on the amount of money that you spend on tickets instead of the distance of the flights that you take.  This is likely to be the last chance to buy miles to top up your current Trueblue account.

Just login to your Trueblue account on Jetblue’s website and click on “Buy Trueblue Points.”

-There is a 7.5% tax rate and a $20 transaction fee.

-There is a minimum purchase of 10 points per transaction.

-There is a maximum purchase of 90 points per transaction.

-A Trueblue member is limited to purchasing 95 points for themselves in a calendar year.

-A Trueblue member is limited to 150 points per calendar year between receiving points purchased by someone else and purchases made by themselves.

Update 2-10/14/09: The offer for 150 miles for watching a video and the 350 miles for an in-store demo both end today!

Update-10/02/08: This offer is alive again through 10/14/09! (Thanks to na nach for the comment!)

Originally posted on 10/26/08:

Offer Linky (Exp: 10/31/08)

Unfortunately AA/Citi has gutted this great program and no longer offers international destinations at the discounted rate.  Apparently from now on only domestic cities will be offered.  You can always call up the number on the back of your credit card to complain/threaten to cancel over the elimination of the discounted international destinations if you’d like them to know how you feel (or if you just want some mileage compensation…)

Q4 Reduced Mileage Awards Linky
Fly to select cities worldwide for 7,500 less miles than American Airlines regularly charges if you have the AAdvantage World Mastercard!

To book these awards just call AA’s AAdvantage desk at 800-882-8880 and reference the following award code:
7,500 miles off Coach: TG8X7A
7,500 miles off Business/First: UG21X2A

You may be able to avoid the $15 phone booking charge by first placing a reservation on hold at aa.com and then calling up AAdvantage to have them reduce the cost of the award by 7,500 miles and ask for the fee to waived since it was originally booked on their website.

Below is a sample list of some of Q4’s valid destinations, origination is allowed from any US48 City.
Open-jaws are permitted
(Note: You may be able to originate from any “destination” city and fly to any US48 city for the discounted rate simply by holding the ticket on aa.com and then referencing the award code above to an AAdvantage agent to get the required mileage reduced by 7,500…Be sure to report back here if you have success with this tactic or if it works for you to get to any international cities for reduced mileage!)
-Atlanta
-Cincinnati
-Colorado Springs
-Key West, FL
-Milwaukee
-New Orleans
-Houston/IAH or HOU
-Santa Ana, CA
-Santa Barbara, CA
-Salt Lake City

United Reduced Mileage Awards Linky

Fly anywhere in the US48 and Canada for just 20,000 miles!

-Book by 10/19/09.

-Fly between 01/10/10-04/30/10.

-Valid only on United/United Express.

Just spend 10 seconds and register your Continental mileage number for these promos and you’ll get 700 miles!

Promo #1

Promo #2

Promo #3

Note: The miles will takes 6-8 weeks to post.

Update-8:30pm: AA has just pulled this fare, so if you want to book now is your last chance!!

Offer Linky

To get the 10% off code you have to supply your email address and AAdvantage number and play the quick soccer game.  After the game go to your email address and copy the password that you were sent.  You can then paste the password into the “promotion code” box and you will be sent the 10% off discount.

You can get 1 code per email address.

Discount rules:

-Valid on all AA flights from the US48 to anywhere in the world.

-Book by 12/31, travel by 01/31.

Related: Get 8 Credits for enrolling in Rapid Rewards.

Double Southwest Flight Credits Registration Linky

Valid for flights booked and completed between 09/17-10/31.

As you probably know Continental is about to become the largest airline ever to change alliances when they go from 9 member Skyteam to 24 member Star.

They leave Skyteam on 10/24.  If you want to redeem Continental miles for Skyteam partner flights or partner Skyteam miles for Continental flights don’t forget to do it by 10/24!

Continental joins Star Alliance on 10/27.

Here are the major changes:

Current Continental Skyteam Mileage Chart

New Continental Star Alliance Mileage Chart, Effective 10/27

The nice thing is that for the most part with the new Star Alliance chart the rates are the same no matter which airline you fly on. Under the old charts the rates varied according to the airline. Also the premium cabin on any flight without a true business and first class is only considered business class!

The new Continental chart is basically the same as United’s chart except that a round-the-world trip is much cheaper with Continental miles (160,000 in coach, 220,000 in business, 280,000 in first) than with United miles (200,000 in coach, 300,000 in business, 400,000 in first) and Continental has promised not to block partner award availability when using Onepass miles on Star Alliance carriers, while United severely blocks partner award availability when using their miles.

Here are the rate differences when redeeming Continental miles on sample routes between the: Current Rate/New Rate.

(Most surprising is the drop in mileage for TLV flights, which were the only flights to go up for 2009, and are now amongst the only flights to go down!)

Newark-Chicago in coach with Saturday night stay: 20,000/20,000.

Newark-Los Angeles in coach without Saturday night stay: 50,000/25,000.

Newark-Honolulu in coach: 35,000/40,000.

Newark-Honolulu in BusinessFirst: 75,000/80,000.

Newark-Tel Aviv in Coach: 90,000/75,000.

Newark-Tel Aviv in BusinessFirst: 120,000/115,000.

Tel Aviv-Honolulu in Coach: 110,000/80,000.

Tel Aviv-Honolulu in BusinessFirst: 140,000/120,000.

Newark-Buenos Aires in Coach: 50,000/55,000.

Newark-Buenos Aires in BusinessFirst: 90,000/100,000.

Newark-London in Coach: 50,000/55,000.

Newark-London in BusinessFirst: 100,000/105,000.

Newark-Shanghai in Coach: 60,000/65,000.

Newark-Shanghai in BusinessFirst: 120,000/125,000.

Other integration news:

-Saturday night stays are no longer required for a domestic saverpass reward flight. (Eff: 10/27)

-Award redeposit, change, and expedite fees are $75 per passenger for non-elites, $50 for silver elites, $25 for gold elites, and free for platinum elites.  The fees are contingent on the status of the member redeeming the miles, not the status of the flying member. Date changes more than 21 days before the flight are still free. (Eff: 12/15)

-Continental Silver=Star Alliance Silver. (Eff: 10/27)

-Continental Gold and Platinum=Star Alliance Gold for international lounge access and 3 free checked bags. (Eff: 10/27)

-Continental Platinum members get free same day confirmed changes. (Eff: 10/01)

-All fares (even those not purchased on continental.com) will earn full elite miles.  Finally every domestic carrier offers full redeemable and elite miles regardless of where you purchase your ticket. (Eff: 10/27)

-Elites will earn their 25%-100% bonus miles based on 500 mile minimum segment miles even on flights under 500 miles.  Previously the bonus was based on the actual flight miles. (Eff: 10/27)

-

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PECxRHopf-Q[/youtube]

Lol…this looks like it should be right up my alley, but I’ve got way more wallet candy than they have

The minimum transfer amount is 1,000 AMEX MR points unless otherwise stated.

Hotel Program Specials:
Starwood
Transfer AMEX MR Points to Starwood Starpoints at a 2:1 ratio (Normally 3:1 ratio)
Exp: 09/22

Priority Club
Transfer AMEX MR Points to Priority Club points at a 1:1.2 ratio. (Normally 1:1 ratio)
Exp: 11/30

Airline Program Specials:
Delta
Transfer AMEX MR Points to Delta Skymiles at a 1:1.2 ratio (Normally 1:1 ratio)
Exp: 09/30

Virgin Atlantic
Transfer AMEX MR Points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles at a 1:1.15 ratio (Normally 1:1 ratio)
Exp: 10/31

Iberia
Transfer AMEX MR Points to Iberia Plus miles at a 1:1.2 ratio with a minimum 28,000 point transfer (Normally 1:1 ratio)
Exp: 09/30

Continental Mileathon Registration Linky

With the Mileathon the more activities that you do, the more miles you get!  Normally this is a targeted promo, but it currently has open registration!

Sample activities:
-Enroll in the OnePass frequent flyer program
-Purchase an Economy Class round-trip ticket
-Book online at continental.com
-Check in online at continental.com
-Acquire a Continental Airlines Credit Card

All activities between 09/01-12/31 count for credits and at the end of the period you can trade the credits for the corresponding number of miles.

Related: Double Southwest Credits For Flights To/From NYC!

Enrollment Offer Linky

Be sure to provide your email address and opt-in for all 3 email subscriptions to get the full 8 credits.
6 credits will post immediately upon enrollment. The last 2 credits (for the email subscriptions) will post within 7-10 business days.

16 credits are required to get a free systemwide RT ricket on Southwest.

Offer Linky (Sign up by 09/30)

HT: FT

Update: Offer ends tomorrow (08/15)!

Originally posted on 07/21:

Offer Linky (Exp: 08/15)

USAirways Award Chart Linky

USAirways Star Alliance Award Chart Linky

USAirways normally sells miles for 2.5 cents per mile.  With this offer you will get them at 1.25 cents per mile, plus a $30 processing fee.  There is a limit of 50,000 bonus miles when you purchase 50,000 miles.

50,000 miles is enough for a ticket from the US-Europe on any Star Alliance carrier in coach, and 80,000 miles will get you to Europe in business class on any Star Alliance carrier.

For Israel it takes 80,000 in coach and 120,000 in business class.

Continental is leaving Skyteam for Star Alliance in October…

HT: FT

Starwood AMEX Linky (Free for first year, Earn 10,000 Starpoints With First Purchase, and 30,000 more Starpoints with your first $15,000 in purchases) The US Mint should be able to help you there in no time!

AMEX Platinum Charge Card-”The Grandaddy of credit cards” (Earn 25,000 AMEX MR Bonus Points after you spend $1,000.) AMEX MR points transfer to Flying Blue miles at 1:1.

20,000 Starwood Starpoints transfer into 25,000 Flying Blue (Air France and KLM’s joint loyalty program) miles.

Updates/Notes:
-This recurring promotion is now valid for travel on Air France as well as KLM!
-New valid US and Canadian cities have been added.
-Currently, booking must be completed by 09/28 and travel completed by 09/30, besides for departures from Calgary which must be completed by 10/30
-Be sure to check on current availability before transferring points to Flying Blue.
-Bear in mind when comparing mileage requiremnts between foreign and domestic mileage programs that nearly all foreign carriers besides for LAN (Starwood transfers at 20,000 to 50,000 LAN) charge a fuel surcharge on award tickets.

Originally posted on 01/01/09:

S.B.S. previously made an excellent 8 page PDF examining every way of getting to Israel via Starpoints.

In that article he pointed ways of getting to Israel for 40,000 Starpoints or less (Via transferring Starpoints to JAL, British Airways, LAN, or Flying Blue)

The promo award cost between North America and “Europe” in flying blue miles is:
Coach: 12,500 miles one way, 25,000 miles round trip.
Business: 25,000 miles one-way, 50,000 miles round trip.
Business class is only available on KLM.

Valid North American cities for origin or destination on Air France:
-Atlanta
-Houston
-Montreal

Valid North American cities for origin or destination on KLM:
-Atlanta
-Calgary
-Dallas
-NYC/JFK

This is how Flying Blue defines Europe:
Europe 1: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, and Switzerland
Europe 2: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden
Europe 3: Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Libya, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Western Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia

As Flying Blue considers Israel to be part of Europe (zone 3), it qualifies as a valid origin or destination.

The promo awards can only be flown with KLM via Amsterdam or with Air France via Paris, they are not valid on Skyteam partners such as Continental or Delta (although nonstop travel to Israel on those carriers is allowed on the regular 40,000 Starpoints/50,000 Flying Blue miles award to Europe zone 3 in coach or 80,000 flying blue miles in business.)

Flying Blue Promo Awards Linky (Select Air France/United States/English/Enter Website and then return here and click on this link again)

Unfortunately, you cannot search online for mileage availability on Flying Blue unless you have the required miles in your account.

A stopover in Amsterdam or Paris is allowed and will make finding mileage availability easier.

The best bet for checking availability will be by calling Flying Blue at 1-800-375-8723

HT: SBS

Consumer Offer Linky

Business Offer Linky

With the consumer offer you get 10,000 miles after opening the checking account and making 5 debit card transactions within 60 days of opening the account.

You get another 15,000 miles after your first purchase on a Continental debit card.  The cheapest Continental debit card has a $25 annual fee.

If you have a Continental Airlines debit card, you and all of your traveling companions will get to check a free bag when flying on Continental regardless of which credit card is used to purchase the ticket.

With the business offer you get 10,000 miles after opening the checking account and depositing $500 within 30 days of opening the account, and another 15,000 miles for making a purchase on a Continental debit card.

HT: FT

Update 2: Last day to transfer! USAirways makes it clear in the terms and conditions that as long as the hotel records your request to transfer by 07/31 that you will get the bonus miles as long as the transfer is complete by 09/30.

Update: Chaim reports that his bonus miles have posted! The promo runs through 07/31.

Originally posted on 05/23:

Related: Starwood AMEX Linky

This deal was sent to all of our dansdeals.com facebook group members. Join the 1,098 people already registered on the Dansdeals.com facebook group to automatically receive similar alerts! If you are not receiving alerts then check your spam folder for the alert and be sure to mark it “not spam”

Every deal is sent to followers of the dansdeals twitter page!

USAirways Promo Registration Linky

USAirways is giving a 50% bonus on hotel points being transferred into USAirways miles through 07/31.

Normally 20,000 Starpoints transfers into 25,000 USAirways miles. With the promo 20,000 Starpoints will net 37,500 miles.

The 50% bonus miles post weekly.

USAirways begins flying nonstop from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv on July 1st.  They charge 80,000 miles in coach and 120,000 miles in business class for the round-trip.

USAirways also has a very competitive Star Alliance award chart which is far stronger than United’s due to lower rates and the lack of United’s evil Starnet alliance award flight blocking.

In addition you will be able to use USAirways miles on Continental when Continental joins the Star Alliance later this year.

So here’s the real question, what’s worth more to you, 1 Starpoint or 1.875 USAirways miles?
Vote now!

Offer Registration Linky

Double redeemable miles on all AA flights through 12/31/09 for CT, NJ, and NY residents based on the address on file for your AAdvantage account.

These are not elite-qualifying miles, but they will count towards lifetime AA million miler status.  With my lifetime Platinum status this means I could get 300% base redeemable miles on AA flights…

Update: Per request of Discover, all comments on this post have been removed and future comments on this post are not allowed.

Discover Current Debit Card Linky

Use the following code when applying to waive the $5 monthly fee for the first month: DM110810

The card is meant for a parent to give to their teens. You can open up to 3 teen debit cards per parental account.

Each of the 3 teen debit cards can be funded with up to $2,500 for a total of $7,500.  You can fund it with any Discover, Mastercard, or Visa credit card and the funding will count as a purchase.

Effective 07/30 you will no longer pay any expedite fees on United when booking or changing an award ticket!

Expedite fees originated in an era when paper tickets were the norm, and booking an award ticket close to the date of departure had real fees (overnight delivery, etc.) for the airline.

However as the airlines migrated to e-tickets the award expedite fees have stayed and even grown to as high as $150 on Delta.

United charged as much as $100 to book an award ticket within 21 days of departure or to change an existing award ticket to a flight to within 21 days.

What’s really nice about this change is that many airlines now only open up mileage seats at the last minute when they see that the seats won’t be sold and when they will reap an expedite fee.

Hopefully the other major airlines will go ahead on match United in eliminating expedite fees.

Here is a chart that I previously made before this change on expedite fees, based on how many days before departure the mileage ticket is booked (No airline charges an expedite fee for tickets booked 21+ days before departure, USAirways offers a $25 online discount through 08/12 and is the only domestic airline to still charge a fuel surcharge to all US originating award flights) :

Related: Transfer 20,000 Starpoints Into 37,500 USAirways miles.

-Between US/Canada and the Caribbean: Normally 30K in coach or 60K in First/Business. Only 25K in coach or 50K in first/Business for flights between 09/01/09 and 09/30/09.

-Between North America and Europe: Normally 50K in coach or 80K in First/Business. Only 35K in coach or 60K in first/Business for flights between 01/15/10 and 02/28/10.

The full details are just under the regular award chart.

Offer Registration Linky

Register by 08/31.

Book and complete travel between 07/16-10/31.

With the promo a Round-trip flight will earn 4 credits, 16 credits earns a free ticket.

For you New Yorkers who have yet to fly Southwest:

The good: 2 free bags and no change/cancellation fees.

The bad: No assigned seats, no true elite status/airport lounge system, no first class, and they don’t fly internationally so forget about using your miles for a “once-in-a-lifetime” first class international trip.

Offer Linky

Offer Linky

Valid only for economy saver awards on United flights.

Travel valid 08/18-11/18.

Book by 07/24.

Sale awards, from North America to:

North America (excluding Hawaii): 20,000 miles

Carribean/Central America: 25,000 miles

Hawaii: 30,000 miles

South America: 44,000 miles

Asia: 50,000 miles

Europe: 44,000 miles

Middle East: 60,000 miles

Australia: 64,000 miles

Well, I finally hit 2,000,000 AA miles which means that I now have lifetime Platinum status.

American Airlines is the only airline in the world that counts all earned miles towards million miler/lifetime elite status! Every other airline only counts actual flight miles to attain lifetime elite status.

I joined the AA program in 2002, hit 1,000,000/Lifetime Gold in 2007, and now have over 2,000,000 miles!

Between churning cards, a 14 flight/36 hour mileage run, and the alive and kicking US mint deal it was actually not so hard.

So, What’s in your wallet?

When you hit 1,000,000 you get 8 500-mile domestic upgrade stickers if you live in North America, or 4 one-way international upgrades certificates if you live outside North America.

When you hit 2,000,000 AA miles you get 4 one-way international upgrades regardless of where you live.

As the lifetime program is completely undocumented, it is liable to change at any time. There have been rumors for some time now that AA wants to go to actual flight miles for lifetime status, but lacks the technology to go back and see how every member actually earned their miles.

For now all miles earned, whether by flying, opening credit cards, or transfers from Starwood, count towards lifetime status. Even if you spend miles, your lifetime counter does not decrease.

You can check your own progress towards lifetime status on AA.com where it lists your total program miles to date.

I got a kick out of the first line of the congratulatory letter, “When you first became a million miler, you may not have thought about the next threshold…” Well they obviously don’t know their customer too well do they?

Copy and paste the following link:
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/onepass/promotions/registrationDetails.aspx?promoCode=A7319

Valid for the first passenger on an itinerary with a Onepass number listed.

Valid for tickets bought between 07/01 and 08/31.

Unfortunately AA/Citi has gutted this great program and no longer offers international destinations at the discounted rate.  Apparently from now on only domestic cities will be offered.  You can always call up the number on the back of your credit card to complain/threaten to cancel over the elimination of the discounted international destinations if you’d like them to know how you feel (or if you just want some mileage compensation…)

Q3 Reduced Mileage Awards Linky
Fly to select cities worldwide for 7,500 less miles than American Airlines regularly charges if you have the AAdvantage World Mastercard!

To book these awards just call AA’s AAdvantage desk at 800-882-8880 and reference the following award code:
7,500 miles off Coach: TD8X7A
7,500 miles off Business/First: UD21X2A

You may be able to avoid the $15 phone booking charge by first placing a reservation on hold at aa.com and then calling up AAdvantage to have them reduce the cost of the award by 7,500 miles and ask for the fee to waived since it was originally booked on their website.

Below is a sample list of some of Q2’s valid destinations, origination is allowed from any US48 City.
Open-jaws are permitted
(Note: You may be able to originate from any “destination” city and fly to any US48 city for the discounted rate simply by holding the ticket on aa.com and then referencing the award code above to an AAdvantage agent to get the required mileage reduced by 7,500.)
-NYC/LGA
-Cincinnati
-Columbus
-Atlanta
-Key West, FL
-Houston/IAH
-Santa Barbara, CA

Related: 18-22 years old? Fly without a ticket for cheap with Airtran U!

AMEX MR Offer Linky

The normal exchange rate for AMEX membership rewards points into Airtran credits is 1,500:1.
Between 07/01 and 08/30 you can transfer just 1,125 AMEX MR points for each Airtran credit.

A nice thing about Airtran is that they still don’t charge an expedite fee for award tickets, but beware that credit expire just one year from when you earn them unless you have an Airtran credit card or elite status.

With the discounted exchange rate the cost of Airtran rewards are as follows:
-One-way upgrade to business class (allows for upgrades to both nonstop or connecting flights) from any paid or award fare: 4 credits/4,500 MR.
-One-way “restricted” coach systemwide free ticket: 8 credits/9,000 MR.
-One-way “unrestricted” business class systemwide free ticket: 16 credits/18,000 MR.
-Round-trip coach ticket on Frontier in the US48 and Canada: 20 credits/22,500 MR
-Round-trip coach ticket on Frontier to Alaska and Mexico: 32 credits/36,000 MR
-Round-trip coach ticket on any airline to US48 cities Airtran doesn’t fly to: 32 credits/36,000 MR
-Round-trip coach ticket on any airline to Alaska, Hawaii, Canada and Mexico: 50 credits/56,250 MR
-Round-trip coach ticket on any airline to anywhere in the world: 100 credits/112,500 MR
-Unlimited free Airtran companion pass for a year: 100 credits/112,500 MR

Related: Great New Benefits For The Delta AMEX Platinum Card (Waived expedite fees, waived partner airline fees, online companion certs)

Delta AMEX Platinum Card Linky


Double Delta Flight Miles Offer Linky

With this promotion, not only will you earn double miles on the purchase of a Delta ticket, but you will earn double the miles for your actual flights flown for the rest of this year!

This offer is not targeted, it will work for any new or existing primary Delta AMEX cardholder.

Related: Get 10,000 MR Points with the AMEX Gold card or 25,000 MR Points with the AMEX Plat Card.

Note: You can also get enough Virgin miles for a US-UK ticket by transferring 20,000 Starpoints into 25,000 Virgin miles.

AMEX MR Offer Linky (Exp: 06/30)

With the transfer bonus you’ll be able to fly between the US and the UK for 22,000 AMEX MR Points!

You can fly between US cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, NYC and more to/from the UK for 25,000 Virgin Atlantic miles.

Beware that Virgin is notorious for high fuel surcharges on award tickets.

Related: Starwood AMEX Linky (Free for first year, Earn 10,000 Starpoints With First Purchase, and 30,000 more Starpoints after your first $15,000 in purchases).


US Mint Direct Ship Coins Linky


I received a shipment yesterday of $10,000 worth of coins from the US Mint!

When I first posted about the Mint deal last June there was a limit of $500 per President.  I wrote about my somewhat difficult experience depositing the coins in that post as well.

For those of you not familiar with the mint deal, you can buy coins at face value with free shipping and charge them to any credit card.

Since then I’ve switched to Chase bank where the tellers don’t even bat an eye at my typical $5,000 coin deposit. I’m in and out within 3 minutes.

More recently I noticed that the quantity limits for the Native American dollar coins were no longer listed on the site.

So I placed a $10,000 order and I got them less than a week later!

Sure I need to shlep 4 boxes each weighing 40 pounds to the bank, but hey, 10,000 Starwood points is 10,000 Starwood points!  (Using a past Starpoint redemption of mine that netted a return of 52 cents per Starpoint that’s worth $5,200, although more conventional wisdom would place a value of about $300 on them…)

This post is for all of you who don’t want to carry in 100 pounds of dollar coins into your local branch…

AMEX Gift Cards Linky

If you need to meet spending thresholds for bonus points (like 15K Starpoints for spending $15K within 6 months on the AMEX Starwood, 10K MR Points for spending $500 within 3 months on the AMEX Gold Rewards card, 25K MR Points for spending $1,000 within 3 months on the AMEX Platinum Card, etc.) but don’t have anything to buy right away than this may be for you!

Just buy the amount of Gift Cards you need to get you over the spending threshold bonus and then you’ll be able to use the GC as you need them on your everyday purchases.

You can use Visa, MC, or AMEX, and the GC’s are treated as a purchase, not as a cash advance.

You can only use one code:
For $5.95 off shipping use code (Exp: 07/31): AFL721
For waived card fees use code (Exp: 06/30): ENL55A

The most GC’s you can buy in one order is $5,000.  Depending on your order either of the previous codes may work out better for you.

Updates:
-This recurring promotion is now valid for travel on Air France as well as KLM!
-New valid US and Canadian cities have been added.
-Currently, booking on KLM depends on the city as to when travel must take place, but ranges between now and 10/31/09 and travel on Air France must be completed by 07/31/09

Originally posted on 01/01/09:

Starwood AMEX Linky (Free for first year, Earn 10,000 Starpoints With First Purchase, and 30,000 more Starpoints with your first $15,000 in purchases) The US Mint should be able to help you there…

AMEX Gold Charge Card Linky (Free for first year, Earn 10,000 AMEX MR Bonus Points after you spend $500.) AMEX MR points transfer to Flying Blue miles at 1:1.

20,000 Starwood Starpoints transfer into 25,000 Flying Blue (Air France and KLM’s joint loyalty program) miles.

That is all you will need to have to get to Israel or any other “European” destination through 10/31/09!

S.B.S. previously made an excellent 8 page PDF examining every way of getting to Israel via Starpoints.

In that article he pointed ways of getting to Israel for 40,000 Starpoints or less (Via transferring Starpoints to JAL, British Airways, LAN, or Flying Blue)

Through 10/31/09 there is a promo award to/from many cities in North America and Europe Zones 1, 2, or 3.

The promo award cost between North America and “Europe” in flying blue miles is:
Coach: 12,500 miles one way, 25,000 miles round trip.
Business: 25,000 miles one-way, 50,000 miles round trip.

For travel on KLM tickets the valid dates vary by city, so check the promo award page for the details.
For travel on Air France tickets must be booked by 07/29/09, and travel must be completed by 07/31/09.

Valid North American cities for origin or destination on Air France:
-Philadelphia
-Washington D.C.

Valid North American cities for origin or destination on KLM:
-Atlanta
-Calgary
-Chicago
-Dallas
-Detroit
-Houston
-Los Angeles
-Montreal
-NYC/JFK
-S. Francisco
-Washington D.C.

This is how Flying Blue defines Europe:
Europe 1: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, and Switzerland
Europe 2: Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden
Europe 3: Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Libya, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Western Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia

As Flying Blue considers Israel to be part of Europe (zone 3), it qualifies as a valid origin or destination.

The promo awards can only be flown with KLM via Amsterdam or with Air France via Paris, they are not valid on Skyteam partners such as Continental or Delta (although nonstop travel to Israel on those carriers is allowed on the regular 40,000 Starpoints/50,000 Flying Blue miles award to Europe zone 3 in coach or 80,000 flying blue miles in business.)

Flying Blue Promo Awards Linky

Unfortunately, you cannot search online for mileage availability on Flying Blue unless you have the required miles in your account.

A stopover in Amsterdam or Paris is allowed and will make finding mileage availability easier.

The best bet for checking availability will be by calling Flying Blue at 1-800-375-8723

HT: SBS

Offer Linky

When renting from Avis supply your Delta Skymiles number and use coupon code: MUAA088
-Valid through 07/31
-Valid for rentals of 2 days or more (a rental greater than 1 day but under 2 days should count)
-Maximum of 5 bonuses per customer
-5,000 miles are in addition to the normal miles earned per rental.

HT: FT

Offer Linky

Valid for travel to/from the US48 and Canada.

-Book by 07/21

-Travel by 09/02

-Blackout: 07/02-07/06.

Normally you can earn 500 miles when you stay in a Hyatt. Through 08/31/09 you can earn 3,000 miles for each stay, or 3 RR credits on Southwest!

Just register your Hyatt Gold Passport number or create a new Hyatt account with the airline of your preference!

AA Offer Linky

Air Canada Offer Linky

Continental Offer Linky

Delta Offer Linky

Northwest Offer Linky

Southwest Offer Linky (3 RR credits)

United Offer Linky

USAirways Offer Linky

Note:  Need AA Miles? You can transfer 20K Starwood Starpoints that you’ve earned from your Starwood AMEX into 25K AA miles. Or you can easily churn AA’s credit card from Citibank.

Effective immediately you can now book one-way awards on American Airlines for half of the round-trip mileage required!

AA is the first major US based carrier to allow for one-way awards.

Besides for the obvious benefit of being able to book a one-way flight when you only need to travel one-way, there are even benefits from this new policy if you are traveling round-trip.

Previously if you were flying JFK-LAX and there was a 25K MileSAAver on the outbound, but only a 50K AAnytime on the return, the ticket would cost 50K.  With the new one-way ticket pricing that trip would only be 37.5K.  Or you could just book the outbound for 12.5K and keep checking for a 12.5K return flight to open up.

Additionally AA has a number of off-peak awards to international destinations.  Previously if your trip spanned from off-peak into peak pricing the entire trip was priced at peak.  Now you will be able to mix peak and off-peak pricing.

The only casualty of this new policy is the loss of a free stopover in an international city, which will now be priced as an additional one-way flight.  Seems like a very worthwhile trade-off in my book though…

Between this very customer friendly policy change, the counting of all AA miles towards lifetime elite status, and the ongoing amazing availbility of AA awards at MileSAAver rates, AAdvantage miles are by far the most valuable domestic mileage currency today.