Only The Hottest Deals And Free Stuff!
Reader’s Digest Magazine Subscription Linky
Today only, use the following code at checkout to drop the price down to just $4.49 per year for up to 4 years: DANSDEALS
You can also save 20% off other magazines on the site with that code.
Subscriptions can take 2-4 months to start. Subscriptions from DiscountMags will never auto-renew.
Please note: This is a paid advertisement which is stickied as the top post, please scroll down for new posts.
Limited Time Only-Expires 4/30/2013!
Chrysler 200 Limited Mid-Size Sedan $199 per month!
Features: Leather, Sunroof, Navigation, Power Seats, Bluetooth
36 months/ 7500 miles per year
Honda CR-V LX SUV $199 per month!
Features: Bluetooth, Backup Camera
36 months/ 7500 miles per year
Chrysler Town and Country Minivan $189 per month!
Features: Power Sliding Doors, Power Lift Gate, Backup Camera, XM Radio, Power Seats
36 months/ 7500 miles per year
All Leases – Due at signing: First month, applicable taxes, bank fee, registration fees
Restrictions: This deal is only good in the NY Metro area. For great deals specific to your area call 718-975-9000 or email esales@plazaautoleasing.com
For more great deals on any vehicle, make or model call 718-975-9000 or click here to see our specials!
P.S. For a chance to win Yankees tickets, check out this link to enter!
Sure you need to put up with a lot of acronyms and being told to search before you post, but DDF (DansDeals Forums) is the place where DansDeals becomes a community.
-In a Trip Report that had me rolling with laughter, DDF veteran AJK and his wife share the most entertaining trip report I’ve ever read. I don’t think too many of us guys could possibly hoodwink our wives like this but still…just awesome. Here are the links to part 2 and to part 3.
-yehuda S writes up an awesome trip report of his own to Sedona (it gets even better in part 2) and proves you don’t need to travel far to have incredible experiences.
-You can now find hundreds of other great trip reports from different cities in the Wiki in this master thread as well as links to destination threads in this master thread. DDF takes the stress out of trip planning!
-After multiple tries to get the 3rd card of a 3BM approved Aaaron’s wife has success via a well-written SM…
…Same story for jacobgo, SM magic.
-Get 50K for the business gold card now and then get another 25K on top of that instantly with no additional pull. That’s over 100K Avios.
-A 3BM without having to make a single call just a few months after an F/R…that’s impressive.
-And yet another 3BM for someone with new credit that was approved without a phone call.
-That $100 Lincoln test drive deal that was posted last year keeps paying dividends. HSS and others have received a Chicago city print, a space pen, and $329 towards awesome Maui Jim sunglasses for taking another drive. Wow!
-I’m not the only one to get an Ink Bold and Ink Plus card approved in one Recon call, many others have as well.
-DDF’ers are not only getting $50 Amazon GCs from the WSJ but refunds as well…yikes.
-An AOR from different banks is nice…
…But a 4BM from just one bank and one pull is the real prize.
-Nothing like picking up a 25K retention bonus on the Plat card…
…Except for a 50K retention bonus on a Plat card opened during the 100K bonanza!
-Are approvals for business cards easier than consumer cards for people with a large mortgage?
-Almost no credit? No problem for this Chase 2BM after some HUCA is applied.
-It took perseverance but MosheP completed his 4BM as well.
-50K AMEX signup bonus honored to not cause disappointment?
-And again.
-And even 68K.
Use the Seamless.com app on your smartphone or tablet to place an order from your favorite restaurant and save 10% off $10+ orders with code (Exp: 04/27): TAPTAP
Lots of kosher restaurants are on Seamless, where will you be ordering from?
Garmin nuvi 50LM 5″ GPS (With Free Lifetime Map Updates)
Use the following code for $20 off: VMEMOMDAY20
You must checkout with V.me for the code to work. V.me is Visa’s response to Google Wallet and Paypal. You can use any of your credit cards with V.me, it does not have to be a Visa. You’ll see the V.me option during checkout.
Additionally, a free Garmin Universal 5″ Premium Carrying Case will be added to your cart automatically when you add the GPS to your cart!
-This model is compatible with Garmin’s Israel maps.
-5-inch LCD display
-Speed limit indicator
-Memory Card Supported: microSD Card
-Free lifetime map updates with over 6 million points of interest
-Hear spoken street names
-Trip computer records mileage, max speed, total time and more
-Lane assist with junction view
Vente-Privee Signup Linky (And thanks for allowing me to refer you!)
Vente-Privee has some great deals on Toy Watch brand watches today for just $55-$85 for watches that retail at $160-$275. There are unisex watches as well as Ladies watches for sale.
Shipping is free for $100+ orders that are charged to your AMEX card. Otherwise shipping is $5.95. You can add items from other current sales to reach $100.
Returns are accepted for 21 days after shipping or of course if you buy on AMEX with return protection like the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express you’ll have 3 months to do a return.
“vente-privee is a joint venture between American Express and vente-privee.com. The site features member-only sales events with premium European and American brands at up to 70 percent off. Each day’s sale will begin at 10am EST and items will often sell out quickly!
Wittnauer Men’s Metropolitan Watch
-Retails for $995, on sale for $199, now just $109 shipped with code (Exp: 04/29): DANMETRO109
Ebel Women’s Beluga Manchette Watch
-Retails for $5,340, on sale for $1,695, now just $689 shipped with code (Exp: 04/29): DANBELUGA689
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-2-year warranty on all watches
-30-day money back guarantee
-100% brand-new, authentic watches
Spend $100 on Shoes, Handbags, and Accessories sold directly from Amazon and get 20% off with code: 20SHOE13
Spend $100 on Clothes sold directly from Amazon and get 20% off with code: APR20PCT
Find a great deal? Post a comment!
Related:
When Do My Miles Or Points Expire?
Extend The Life Of Your USAirways Miles And Starpoints For Free
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Redeeming miles is safer than the various methods of earning miles as point earnings don’t always post and it can turn into a fight in case your account expires. But as with everything else in life when you’re paying for something you can be sure that it will always post without any fighting required 
There are actually get some pretty sweet deals, like The Economist for 3,200 miles for a subscription that costs about $100.
Delta miles don’t require activity, but still 3,200 Delta “Skypesos” for The Economist isn’t bad at all!
Or you can just get a cheap magazine for 300-400 miles to keep your account active.
Alaska requires activity every 24 months.
Alaska Magazines
American requires activity every 18 months.
AA Magazines (Link 1)
AA Magazines (Link 2)
AA Newspapers
Delta miles don’t expire.
Delta Magazines (Link 1)
Delta Magazines (Link 2)
Delta Newspapers
Frontier requires activity every 18 months.
Frontier Magazines
Hawaiian requires activity every 18 months.
Hawaiian Magazines
Spirit requires activity every 3 months.
Spirit Magazines
United requires activity every 18 months. If you have the United Explorer or Club credit card miles will never expire.
United Magazines (Link 1)
United Magazines (Link 2)
United Newspapers
USAirways requires activity every 18 months.
USAirways Magazines
USAirways Newspapers
Related: When Do My Miles Or Points Expire?
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Audience Rewards: Starwood
Audience Rewards: Delta
Audience Rewards: US Airways
Audience Rewards allows you to answer trivia questions to earn miles from Delta, USAirways, and Starwood.
Delta’s miles are just about the worst out there besides for El Al and they never expire, so there’s not really any point to waste your time there.
But Starwood and USAirways require activity every 18 months to keep your points alive, so take 20 seconds and answer a trivia question and you’ll get 2 miles or points per correct answer.
You can only answer each question once, but you can answer one USAirways question for 2 miles and the other questions for Starwood points.
Here are the correct answers:
Q: At what theater does Newsies play? A: Nederlander Theatre
Q: The main character in Matilda The Musical has what skills? A: She is telekinetic
Q: Who starred in the movie version of Mamma Mia? A: Meryl Streep
Q: What song is not featured in the Broadway show Rock Of Ages? A: Pour Some Sugar On Me
Q: Motown The Musical contains mostly new music or covers of existing songs? A: Covers of existing songs
Q: Where is Jekyll and Hyde set? A: London
Macy’s Friends And Family Sale Linky
Enter the following code in the promo code box at checkout for 25% off (Exp: 04/29, Shipping will also be free on $99+ purchases): FNFMOB
-25% off all regular, sale & clearance apparel for him, her and kids.
-10% off all regular, sale & clearance electrics & electronics, furniture, rugs/floor coverings & mattresses.
There is also an In-Store Coupon (Valid 04/24-04/29)
Instead of selling 1 item for 24 hours, for the next 24-72 hours woot will be selling lots of stuff for very short periods of time-expect some very good deals-but don’t expect them to last more than a couple minutes!
Shipping is now $5 per order in your Woot cart.
Will this be the time you finally get a legendary BOC?
Update: Due to a bug this appears to be working for adult tickets only, so just book your kids as adults to receive the proper discount. If you have a lap child you can just add them at the airport for free on domestic flights.
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Jetblue The More, The Merrier Sale Linky
-Bookable on this promo search site only.
A party of 7 will pay as little as $135 for NYC-Fort Lauderdale roundtrip and as little as $213 for NYC-Los Angeles roundtrip.
Dan’s Note: It’s worth noting that if you are a searching for more than 1 airline ticket you should always search for fewer tickets to see if the price will be cheaper. Airfare works in buckets and there are only so many cheap seats in each bucket. A bucket may only have 4 seats left in it and it you search for 7 seats then you will be forced into a higher fare bucket for all 7 passengers. In that case you will likely come out ahead to book 4 passengers at the lower fare and then book the other 3 passengers in the higher fare bucket.
The more people on your roundtrip flight booking, the more you’ll save on the base airfare.
-Book travel by midnight tonight.
-Travel 04/30-06/19 excluding 05/23-05/27.
-Roundtrip travel required.
-A promo code will not work if your search deviates from the specified travel requirements in any way.
-The savings will appear only after you select both flights.
How much you’ll save:
10% off base airfare for 1 customer Enter promo code PARTYOF1
15% off base airfare for 2 customers Enter promo code PARTYOF2
20% off base airfare for 3 customers Enter promo code PARTYOF3
25% off base airfare for 4 customers Enter promo code PARTYOF4
30% off base airfare for 5 customers Enter promo code PARTYOF5
35% off base airfare for 6 customers Enter promo code PARTYOF6
40% off base airfare for 7 customers Enter promo code PARTYOF7
You must activate the pass by 07/04/13.
The nice thing about BJ’s is that (unlike Sam’s and Costco) they accept manufacturer’s coupons and they have a wider variety of items.
-Airline/Hotel credit cards where the points are deposited monthly into your airline/hotel account remain even if the card is no longer active, subject to the normal expiration dates listed in the chart below.
You will not instantly lose any earned Hyatt/Starwood/American/BA/Delta/Southwest/United/etc. points just for closing their credit card. Some representatives use scare tactics and say your points or tickets will be lost if you cancel the card but it’s just misinformation.
-Proprietary credit card point programs (American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou, Chase Ultimate Rewards) do not expire as long as you keep at least one card open that is enrolled in their respective program.
Below is a chart of 27 programs where you can easily see when your airline miles and hotel points will expire as well as where you can transfer points from which usually will extend the life of your points and miles.
See the chart and more info after the jump…
Click here to read the rest of this post!»
Brother Laser Monochrome Multifunction Printer, Scanner, And Copier
This sells for $161.49 direct from Amazon.
Plus you can get back 15% in Rakuten.com Super Point credit with code: SAVEONTECH
You will thus have a Rakuten.com credit of $17.85. You must use the standard checkout (not Paypal or Google, etc) to receive the Super Points.
This is sold from Rakuten.com, which was formerly known as Buy.com until the Japanese bought them out and decided to change the name of the site from one that anyone can spell to one that nobody can spell.
Be sure to select budget shipping on the final checkout page to receive free shipping!
Via Facebook:
AMEX Link, Like, Love Facebook Offers
Add the Whole Foods offer to you linked credit card and spend $75 in one purchase by 06/30/13 and you will receive $10 back by via statement credit.
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Via Twitter:
Sync your American Express card with your twitter account and get bonus savings.
Step 1: Tweet #AmexWholeFoods
Step 2: Click on @connect to confirm that you are registered.
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You may also be able to register on americanexpress.com, on Foursquare, or on the AMEX app.
If you are short of $75 on your next shopping trip just buy a Whole Foods gift card to get you purchase total up to $75.
Forgot which card is synced to your social media account? You can unsync and resync cards here.
HT: jmansour, via DDF
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Join the 13,500+ people who follow @DansDeals on twitter and you’ll get a tweet when a deal is posted on DansDeals.com!
You can even set up your mobile device to receive text messages (and choose which hours of the night not to bother you) and you’ll be the first to know about every deal. After setting up your device be sure to opt into mobile notifications from DansDeals (it’s in the drop-down menu next to the blue “Following” button), so that you will never again be kicking yourself for missing another deal!
Update: DEAD!
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Related posts:
-Having Fun Cashing Out Gift Cards
-Using Gift Cards From Chase To Meet Spend Thresholds For Free
-Is Bluebird The Next Dollar Coin Churn?
-Another Flavor Of Vanilla: My Vanilla Debit Card
-Today’s Escapades
-Meeting A Spend Threshold In One Night.
-Need To Meet A Spending Threshold Deadline? Send And Receive $1,000/Month With No Fees Using Amazon Payments!
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$100 Visa Gift Card Linky
You can buy up to 2 of these “per customer.” The $10.60 per card instant savings will be applied on the final checkout page.
The total for 2 $100 cards is just $190 shipped.
If you have one of the awesome Ink Bold, Ink Plus, or Ink Cash cards you will earn 5 points per dollar. If you order 2 cards that’s 950 points on the purchase, or more if you’re trying to meet the $5K spend threshold to earn the lucrative signup bonus. Plus of course you come out $10 ahead besides for the points earned. It’s also helpful to meet spend threshold on any other card.
You can create a pin by calling the number on the back of the card and then liquidate this card in Walmart by loading it to your Bluebird account (free), getting cash back on a debit purchase (free), by cashing it out for a money order (70 cents for up to 4 cards), or by paying off any bill ($1 for up to 4 cards).
Related posts:
-Chase British Airways Visa-Get 50,000 bonus Avios for spending $1,000.
-The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN-Get 50,000 bonus Membership Rewards points (plus 35% more Avios) for spending $5,000.
-Flying Round-Trip To Israel On Air Berlin For 45K American Express Membership Rewards Plus $81 Tax: A Tutorial
-Getting AA Benefits On A Flight Booked Using BA Avios
-Getting To Israel On The Cheap With BA Avios And Air Berlin
-Save $400 On Fuel Surcharges To Israel By Booking Avios Rewards Via Iberia Instead Of British Airways!
-Booking With Avios? Check Those Surrounding Airports!
-Breaking Down Which Miles To Use To Fly To Israel
-Using BA Miles To Fly In Business Class For An 80 Minute Flight Can Make Sense.
-Flying With An Infant With Miles In Business Or First Class? Start Collecting Air Canada Miles Or British Airways Avios
-Short-Haul Flights: BA Avios Versus LAN Lanpass.
-BA Miles Are Now Avios…For Better Or For Worse.
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-Through 06/07/13 you will get 1,350 Avios for every 1,000 Membership Rewards (MR) Points transferred to BA.
-There are no fuel surcharges for travel on American Airlines within the Western Hemisphere, There are also no fuel surcharges for flying on Aer Lingus, Air Berlin, Alaska, or LAN worldwide.
-There are no expedite or close-in fees for last minute award ticket bookings with BA Avios.
-You can book one-way tickets for half of the miles listed below!
-You can cancel tickets and redeposit miles the lower of $40 of the taxes you paid. That means you pay just $2.50 for cancel a one-way domestic itinerary!
-British Airways only charges 10% extra miles for a lap child flying internationally, even when traveling on AA. AA and other domestic carriers charge a whopping 10% of the full fare, which can add up to be a small fortune.
-You can transfer points from an American Express Membership Rewards account to anyone’s British Airways account, names don’t have to match.
-Points transfer instantly from MR to BA and there are no fees or taxes for transferring points to British Airways.
-You can borrow points by calling up Membership Rewards (800-AXP-EARN) and asking for a points advance. You then have up to 1 year to earn those points from signup bonuses or spending or else they will charge you 2.5 cents per point.
-British Airways charges double miles for business class and triple miles for first class. Beware that on AA’s domestic 2 class planes they charge first class rates for what is really just a poor excuse for business class.
-You can search AA and Alaska award availability on AA.com and looking for sAAver awards. BA can’t book AAnytime awards, but you should be able to find all AA sAAver awards on BA.com. BA.com does not display all available awards on all airlines, airlines like Alaska and Aer Lingus can only be booked over the phone. Additionally you will have to call BA to make a booking if you see a sAAver award on AA.com that’s not showing on BA.com.
Sample uses:
-7,000 MR points will transfer into 9,450 Avios, more than enough for a 9K round-trip short-haul ticket between New York and places like Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Montreal, or Toronto or between Miami and the Bahamas, on OneWorld partner American.
-12,000 MR points becomes 16,200 Avios, more than enough for a 15K round-trip flight between New York and Chicago or Florida or from LA to Cabo.
-15,000 MR points becomes 20,250 Avios, more than enough for a 20K round-trip flight between Chicago and LA.
-19,000 MR points becomes 25,650 Avios, more than enough for a 25K round-trip flight between the west coast and any of the Hawaiian islands, New York and the west coast, or New York and Costa Rica. It’s even enough for a round-trip flight between Boston and Dublin or Shannon, Ireland with no fuel surcharges on Aer Lingus!
-30,000 MR points becomes 40,500 Avios, more than enough for a 40K round-trip flight between Dallas and Hawaii or New York and London (though you’ll be hit with fuel surcharges for crossing the Atlantic on most airlines). It’s also enough for a round-trip flight between NYC or Chicago and Dublin or Shannon, Ireland with no fuel surcharges on Aer Lingus.
-38,000 MR points becomes 51,300 Avios, more than enough for a 50K round-trip flight between New York and Brazil or Argentina with no fuel surcharges. It’s also more than enough for a round-trip in a lie-flat business class seat between JFK and Vancouver on Cathay Pacific.
-45,000 MR points becomes 60,750 Avios, more than enough for a 60K round-trip flight between New York and Tel Aviv on Air Berlin with no fuel surcharges.
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Need some Membership Rewards points? You can always call American Express to borrow some if you have a charge card
-The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN ohas a limited time offer for 50,000 points for spending $5,000 and the first year is free. That will net you some 74,000 Avios.
-The American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card comes with 25,000 points for spending $2,000 and the first year is free. That will net you some 36,000 Avios.
-The Platinum Card® from American Express and the The Business Platinum Card® from American Express OPEN earns 25K points as well you can get $200 of airline fee credits (or airline gift cards in $100 increments) in 2013 and another $200 in 2014. It also comes with a $100 global entry expedited customs (5 year membership) refund, platinum card airline club access (American, Delta, and USAirways) for you and your entire family for at least 4 years, priority pass worldwide unlimited lounge membership, Starwood gold elite status, car rental perks at Avis, Hertz, and National, lost item (up to $10,000/item) refund protection, checked baggage protection, Regus Office Club Membership with worldwide locations on the business card, 3 additional Platinum users (with 4 years of free platinum card lounge access, priority pass membership, and global entry refund) for just $58 each on the consumer card, no foreign exchange fees, and many more free benefits. There is a $450 annual fee. As with all annual fees they are refundable if cancelled within 60 days, they are pro-rated if cancelled after 60 days and have another American Express card (i.e. if you have the card for 3 months and then cancel you would get a $337.50 refund), and they are pro-rated if you downgrade the card even if you have no other American Express card.
Galaxy Nexus Extended Battery Linky
Use the following code for $49.99 off: BATTERY1
The extended battery also comes with an extended battery door cover.
Update #2: The strike is now over. The Israeli government has agreed to subsidize 97.5% of El Al’s security costs…which is all but guaranteed to make El Al complacent once again.
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Update #1, 04/22: It seems from some of the comments that I have struck a wrong nerve. I respectfully think they are getting caught up in the small details and missing the bigger picture. I’m not the one that is being “anti-Israel.”
The ones who are actually harming Israel are the current strikers who want to keep a broken protectionist system alive which is causing massive damage to the Israeli economy. That damage is not just from the current strike, but it’s from trying to keep a system which drives away would-be tourists with artificially high airfares. The current system is the one in which El Al is unable to turn a profit and will not continue to exist unless they shake things up.
United will likely start serving second tier cities like Chicago or San Francisco to Tel Aviv when they start getting more 787s online. What exactly is El Al doing to modernize their fleet or to expand their service in North America beyond Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto?
The point of this article is merely to note some areas where El Al can improve itself so that it can start turning a profit and become an airline that is respected and not derided.
El Al and its apologists will likely have dozens of excuses, but excuses don’t work in business. Innovation and keeping one step ahead of the competition is how you win in a free market.
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Originally posted on 04/21.
El Al as well as other Israeli carriers are cancelling flights due to their unions striking to protest the approval of an “open skies” agreement with Europe. The airline had heavily lobbied against the agreement.
The open skies deal will be phased-in starting in 2014 and will be fully implemented by 2019.
The deal is sorely needed. Tourism in Israel lags far behind where it should be due to the high cost of flying there. Inviting more competition will drive down the cost of airfare and increase the number of tourists, who spend lots of money while in Israel propping up the entire economy.
This deal forces Israeli airlines like El Al to compete, something they’ve always struggled to do. Striking will just leave people stranded with a bitter taste in their mouth for Israel’s national carrier.
Rather than protect what’s broken El Al needs to fix itself. To do so it must finally decide if it plans to compete based on service, product, or on price. As of now it does none of those and that’s why it’s financial situation is so dire.
It’s unlikely that El Al will be able to compete on price. The unions aren’t about to accept massive pay cuts. All their whining about keeping a national carrier afloat is malarkey, what they really want to do is keep their overpaid salaries afloat. If faced with either taking large pay cuts to compete they would likely strike until El Al would be forced to liquidate.
I don’t know of any Israeli companies that compete based on service. Customer service and the idea that the customer is always right simply doesn’t exist in Israel.
Still they most definitely have to fix the customer service problems that exist among so many of their flight attendants and call center operators, even if they never will compete on service as the Far East carriers do.
So El Al will have to compete on product. Except that they are the only airline flying between the US and Israel without lie-flat seats in business class. How many business class seats do they expect to sell when Air Canada, Delta, United, and USAirways all have lie-flat seats in business class?
Sure El Al has the only first class to Israel, but if first class is priced higher than the competition’s business class but offers a product that’s worse than USAirways’ Envoy seat then how can it compete?
Frequent flyers, from businesspeople to leisure passengers, love earning miles on flights. But El Al’s Matmid program is the worst in the entire airline industry.
Mileage programs are massive profit centers for airlines. They sell their miles to the credit card companies and thousands of other stores that realize the huge incentive of being able to offer miles to their customers. In the past decade Delta and United were kept afloat in bankruptcy by American Express and Chase who prepaid for billions of dollars worth of miles to keep the airlines afloat. The mileage programs of these airlines are likely worth more than the airline itself.
And yet El Al doesn’t even try to compete for these dollars!
If you have United miles there are dozens of airlines that you can use them on, so even if there is no United availability there likely will be with a partner. With Matmid miles you are forced to use them on El Al (yes El Al’s website claims you can use them on American but none of their agents know how to do this and the rates are ridiculous anyway) which typically has terrible availability. This leaves customers regretting having accumulated El Al miles and teaches them a lesson for the future.
None of the US airlines charge a fuel surcharge when redeeming miles but El Al thinks they can compete while charging a $350 surcharge on award tickets.
None of the US airlines expire your miles if you have any account activity but El Al will expire your miles 3 years after your flight even with activity. Good way to reward loyalty.
El Al increased the transfer ratio from American Express Membership Rewards into their Matmid program (as they get cold hard cash from American Express when people transfer their points to El Al) but it’s still not competitive. A coach ticket is 70K, a business ticket is 150K, and a first class ticket is a whopping 250K points. 150K points plus $350 for an inferior business class product is just the height of stupidity and arrogance.
It’s nice that you can use American miles to fly on El Al (business class is 135K with no fuel surcharges) but with the upcoming American-USAirways merger the El Al-American partnership will likely end if American continues USAirways’ flights to Israel. And in all likelihood American will add flights from their JFK and Miami hubs as soon as they get the TWA pension situation squared away.
El Al can stop the Matmid madness by:
1. Changing over their ridiculous point system to a mileage based system that the rest of the world has.
2. Making customer friendly moves like the elimination of mileage expiration and fuel surcharges.
3. Making their award chart competitive.
And don’t even get me started with El Al’s website. In such a high-tech country you would think they would at least have done a good job on that front. Instead ElAl.com is one of the worst websites in the industry.
El Al recently was forced to roll out an Economy Plus section in response to Delta and United’s new comparable sections. It’s nice that they at least tried to match here, but why not innovate? Introduce the first true premium economy class between the US and Israel that would be affordable for leisure passengers (say 25%-50% more than coach rather than triple the price of coach like business class is) but could provide at least a semblance of bona-fide comfort, not just a few extra inches of legroom. That’s something (unlike a fare war) that can’t be easily matched by the US carriers and could provide El Al with a sorely needed competitive advantage.
A DDF member flew in first class to Israel and bumped into El Al’s CEO, Eliezer Shkedy, on the flight. The DDF member applauded the first class service and meal but expressed his dismay about the first class seat itself which lags far behind other first class seats. Shkedy only replied that “Nobody else has First Class seats from New York to Tel Aviv.” True in theory, but when your competition’s business class seats are better than your first class seats is that really something to be proud of?
It seems that such thinking is systemic within El Al.
The time to innovate is now, or they may not be an El Al much longer.
Related deal: Groupon NYC, 50% Off Schnitzel Express
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Groupon NYC: $55.50 For Up To $111.85 Of Food At Mendy’s
For $55.50 you will receive:
-One appetizer (up to a $15.95 value)
-Two entrees (up to a $39.95 value each)
-Two well drinks, glasses of wine, or beers (up to an $8 value each)
-Valid at 34th St location only.
-Expires Aug 31, 2013
-Limit 1 per person, may buy 2 additional as gifts.
-Limit 1 per table.
-Reservation required.
-Dine-in only.
-Not valid for happy hour specials.
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Save on all your Groupon purchases! You can buy Groupon gift cards at Staples with your Ink Bold, Ink Plus, or Ink Cash card to earn 5 points per dollar (worth roughly 9.5% back)!
Brother J430W Inkjet All-In-One Linky
Shop with your Ink Bold, Ink Plus, or Ink Cash card to earn 5 points per dollar (worth roughly 9.5% back)!
HT: AM
Update, 04/19: This deal has to be purchase by tonight!
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Wine Tasting For Two And $50 At Tierra Sur For Just $40 From Living Social
In my opinion Tierra Sur is the finest kosher restaurant in North America. It’s located in the Herzog Winery in Oxnard, CA, about an hour west of Los Angeles.
Going out there is always a very special experience, Chefs Todd Aarons and Gabriel Garcia do a phenomenal job with succulent, unique flavors and a menu that is always changing.
My wife and I were just there last month and if people would like I’d be happy to type up notes from that trip along with a review of the places we went to and ate at.
Anyway for $40 you get:
-Reserve wine-tasting flights for two.
-A pair of branded wine glasses.
-$50 to spend on food and wine in the Tiera Sur restaurant, which holds the highest ZAGAT rating in Ventura County.
-The paid value never expires but the promotion value expires 07/12/13.
-Limit 1 per table/party per visit
-Reservations required and subject to availability
-Valid only for dine-in
-Entire value must be used in a single visit
Starbucks stores nationwide are giving away free tall house blend coffees until noon.
No coupon is required for your free morning pick-me-up.
Update #3: Dead again!
Update #2: Alive again!
Update: Dead
Skagen Men’s Titanium Mesh Watch Linky
This is 63% off the retail price and it’s the lowest price that it has ever been at Amazon, grab it while it lasts!
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Save on all your Amazon purchases! You can buy Amazon gift cards (as well as gift cards for airlines, hotels, clothing stores, gas stations, and much much more) at any Office Supply store with your Ink Bold, Ink Plus, or Ink Cash card to earn 5 points per dollar (worth roughly 9.5% back)!
Update: DEAD!
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Makita 18-Volt Compact Lithium-Ion Cordless 4-Piece Drill Kit
This was $319 on Amazon yesterday.
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Save on all your Amazon purchases! You can buy Amazon gift cards (as well as gift cards for airlines, hotels, clothing stores, gas stations, and much much more) at any Office Supply store with your Ink Bold, Ink Plus, or Ink Cash card to earn 5 points per dollar (worth roughly 9.5% back)!
-Bookable on Priceline (with regular mileage earning and free cancellations until 11:30pm ET the day after you book, on Orbitz (with regular mileage earning and free cancellations until 10pm CT the day after you book, or direct from the airline.
- Earn 3 points per dollar with American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card, 3 points per dollar with The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN, or 2.14 points per dollar with Chase Sapphire Preferred.
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There are lots of dates available on American, Delta, and Jetblue from now through June for $276.40.
Sample dates are 04/21-04/25 and 06/09-06/13.
Read about using ITA Software to use their awesome month-long calendar search to help find dates with cheap flights.
No passport is required for travel to Puerto Rico.
Chabad of Puerto Rico operates a kosher felafel restaurant and also offers tons of other prepared kosher take out food. They even offer discounted hotel rates with several big name hotels.
Or you can use your Starpoints for hotels that range from a category 3 Sheraton, to a category 6 W Retreat and a category 7 S. Regis.
DansDeals.com and the DansDeals Forums will be down tonight from 10:30pm EDT until about midnight in order to upgrade the servers to keep pace with the rapid growth in traffic.
Thanks for your understanding and for telling your friends and family about DansDeals!
Netgear N300 Wireless Router With Detachable Antennas
Locate the $10 coupon on the product page and click on “Clip this coupon” to save $10 instantly.
The price after the $10 coupon and $10 rebate is just $17.90. The “trick” I use for rebates is to fill out the form and stick it in an envelope as soon as I make an order and then send it off the day you get the item with the UPC and receipt.
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Save on all your Amazon purchases! You can buy Amazon gift cards (as well as gift cards for airlines, hotels, clothing stores, gas stations, and much much more) at any Office Supply store with your Ink Bold, Ink Plus, or Ink Cash card to earn 5 points per dollar (worth roughly 9.5% back)!
-Updated 04/16/13 with current rates.
Note that there is a current bonus for transfers from Starwood to Air Canada.
Find more articles like this by clicking on the “Mileage Posts” tab on top of the DansDeals banner at the top of this site.
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This post will attempt to break down some of the best options for getting to Israel, along with listing whether a fuel surcharge (which can add anywhere from $100 to $1,000 onto the cost a free ticket) applies.
There are 3 major transferable point currencies and you can transfer points into various mileage currencies from the following credit cards.
(Typically if you apply for multiple cards from the same bank on the same day you will only get a single credit pull.)
-Starwood points are earned from the consumer Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express or the Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN.
20,000 Starwood points generally transfer into 25,000 miles, though the transfer can take between 2-12 days. Some partners (like USAirways) do not care if you transfer to someone else’s account while others (like AA) are stricter. There are no fees.
-American Express Membership Rewards points can be earned from consumer cards like the American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card and The Platinum Card® from American Express.
Business cards include the Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express OPEN.
Points generally transfer instantly (exceptions includes transfers to ANA and Singapore which can take a day or 2) and can be made to anyone, though a fee applies for transfers to domestic carriers like Delta.
-Chase Ultimate Rewards points are earned from consumer cards like Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Non-Preferred, Chase Freedom Visa, and Chase Freedom Mastercard.
They can also be earned from business cards like Chase Ink Bold, Chase Ink Plus, or Chase Ink Cash.
You or your spouse need to have either a Sapphire Preferred, an Ink Bold, or an Ink Plus to actually transfer points into miles.
Points generally transfer instantly with no fees.
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Tips for finding saver award availability:
Award tickets to Israel are always tough, though that’s a function of it being an expensive route to fly compared to the distance of the flight.
-Be willing to connect in Europe for much better availability.
-Availability can change at any time. If you are ready to fly on a whim airlines do typically open up awards the day of or the day before a flight. Otherwise a couple months in advance is a typical sweet spot.
-Realize that not all partners will be displayed and you may need to do your own research and call to find partner availability.
-Airline search engines are only so powerful. Use free stopovers and open-jaws to your advantage. If you are flying from somewhere besides NYC just search from NYC-Tel Aviv instead of from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv. You can always piece together an award by searching for Los Angeles-NYC separately then NYC-Tel Aviv, especially if you are willing to have a long connection, change airports in NYC, or are willing to stay overnight in NYC.
-The same goes for tickets from NYC. Search from other gateways like Toronto and Philadelphia and piece together the flights to get there afterward. Consider searching from NYC to European cities and piece together an award from Europe to Israel. You may find availability from NYC to London and then from Paris to Tel Aviv but a computer would never put that open jaw ticket together. Instead you can check out London and Paris on the way to Tel Aviv. Maybe you’ll even get to check out Venice and Rome on the way home. Sometimes you can even save miles by doing that!
-Don’t forget to book a free domestic trailing flight anytime in the year after you arrive back to your destination.
-Find award availability before transferring miles. Once they’re transferred they can’t be reversed!
-Need help? You can post your travel dates and which miles you have in this DDF thread and ask for help. Consider offering a monetary or mileage reward to the forum member that can come up with the best award ticket to meet your needs and you may find that suggestions will come flooding in!
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Round-trip rates NYC-TLV-NYC:
Star Alliance:
Nonstop flights from North America include Air Canada from Toronto, United from Newark, and USAirways from Philadelphia. These flights all have lie-flat business class seating and have no first class.
Star Alliance offers the best availability for flights to Israel by leaps and bounds. Besides for the nonstop flights from North America there are many options via Europe in coach, business, and first class worth looking into including Swiss via Zurich, Lufthansa via Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, and Munich, Brussels via Brussels, Austrian via Vienna, Turkish via Istanbul, SAS via Copenhagen, Singapore via Frankfurt, Aegean via Athens, LOT via Warsaw, or a mix of carriers like United from Newark to one of dozens of European cities and a European carrier to Tel Aviv.
By utilizing free stopovers and open jaws the possibilities are endless if you take the time to research your options leg by leg.
You can search for Star Alliance award availability on sites like United.com and Aeroplan.com.
Rates are for travel using the airline’s miles below for travel on any partner airlines. Remember that policies follow the miles that you have so if you have USAirways miles you can’t fly one-way on United, but if you have United miles you can fly one-way on USAirways,
Best overall for Star Alliance travel due to lack of fuel surcharges and flexible routing and change rules:
-United: 80K coach, 120K business, 150K first.
-Transfer partners: Chase Ultimate Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: None.
-Mileage expiration: United miles require activity every 18 months or none if you have a United credit card.
Having the United credit card also gets you access to expanded saver and standard award availability.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: United allows for 1 free stopover AND 1 free Open jaw.
-Changes/Cancellation: United allows free date and routing changes, but changes to the origin or destination city or cancellation costs $150 for non-elites.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: $75 within 21 days, waived for United Club cardholders.
-Infant fees: 10% of full fare.
-United also has a round-the-world award that includes up to 16 flights in a single direction across the globe for 180K coach, 260K business, 350K first.
Bottom line: United is awesome for having a robust website, free date changes, one-way tickets, and for never charging a fuel surcharge.
The lowest mileage rates for travel on United and USAirways flights without fuel surcharges:
-ANA: 60K coach, 90K business, 140K first.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio and Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply on all airlines except United and USAirways.
-Mileage expiration: 3 years after they are earned regardless of activity.
-One-way awards: Officially not allowed but there are “workarounds.”
-Stopovers: ANA allows for 4 stopovers, though each additional flight will add to the fuel surcharges.
-Changes/Cancellation: ANA allows free date changes, but other changes or cancellation results in a 3,000 mile penalty.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
Bottom line: ANA is awesome if you can find United or USAirways nonstop availability. Otherwise expect to get slammed with fuel surcharges. However bear in mind that fuel surcharges are the worst over the Atlantic, so if you can find United or USAirways availability to anywhere in Europe then the surcharges for a flight from Europe to Tel Aviv on any other airline should be relatively minor.
Best Starwood transfer option for Star Alliance flights besides for travel on United or USAirways:
-USAirways: 80K coach, 120K business, 180K first.
-Transfer partners: Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: None, although there is a $50 award ticketing fee.
-Mileage expiration: USAirways miles require activity every 18 months.
-One-way awards: Not allowed.
-Stopovers: USAirways allows for 1 free stopover OR 1 free Open jaw.
-Changes/Cancellation: There is a $150 charge to change or cancel an award ticket
USAirways is draconian in not allowing any changes to partner award tickets once travel has begun.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: $75 within 21 days
-Infant fees: 10% of full fare.
-Partner airline awards must be booked over the phone.
Bottom line: The miles aren’t as great as United’s but besides for their ticketing fee you won’t be hit with fuel surcharges. Note that USAirways will be merging with American and migrating to OneWorld over the next couple years.
Best American Express transfer option for Star Alliance flights besides for travel on United or USAirways:
-Air Canada: 80K coach, 135K business, 190K first.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio and Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
Note that Aeroplan points can be transferred to USAirways at a 10.84 ratio via points.com.
-Fuel surcharges: If you fly on these carriers you will pay a fuel surcharge: Adria, Air Canada, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, LOT Polish, Lufthansa, TAP Portugal, and THAI.
If you fly on these carriers you will not pay a fuel surcharge: Aegean, Air China, Air New Zealand, Avianca/TACA, Brussels, Copa, Croatia, EgyptAir, Ethiopian, SAS, Singapore, South African, Swiss, TAM, Turkish, United, and USAirways.
-Mileage expiration: Air Canada miles require activity every 12 months to keep them active. They also expire 7 years after they are earned regardless of activity.
-One-way awards: Allowed for about 68% of the award cost of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: Air Canada generously allows for 2 free stopovers, so you can check out 2 American or European cities in addition to Tel Aviv for the same amount of miles!
-Changes/Cancellation: There is a $90 charge to change or cancel an award ticket and a $180 charge to cancel within 21 days of departure.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
-Infant fees: Flat fee of just $50 in coach, $100 in business, and $125 in first.
Bottom line: Air Canada is very good due to generous infant and stopover policies, just beware of the airlines that they collect a fuel surcharge for.
Best for low one-way rates with no fuel surcharges on United and USAirways with very low change and cancellation fees plus the ability to fly on Singapore flights in business and first class to Israel via Frankfurt:
-Singapore: 75K coach, 115K business, 150K first.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio and Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply on all airlines except United and USAirways.
-Mileage expiration: 3 years after they are earned regardless of activity.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: 1 free stopover
-Changes/Cancellation: $20 change fee, $30 cancellation fee.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
Bottom line: American Express points transfer to Singapore faster than they do to ANA. Plus with Singapore miles you can fly on Singapore from NYC to Tel Aviv on Singapore to Frankfurt in business or first class and then to Tel Aviv on Lufthansa which you can’t do with other miles. Additionally you can book one-ay awards and change and cancel fees are very low.
Best option for Lufthansa and Swiss business and first class flights:
-Miles & More Group (Adria, Austrian, Brussels, Croatia, LOT Polish, Lufthansa, and Swiss): For departures from the USA nonstop to Tel Aviv: 80K coach, 135K business. For departures from the USA to Tel Aviv via Europe: 100K coach, 185K business, 290K first. For departures from Israel to the USA nonstop or via Europe for Miles & More accounts with an Israeli address on file: 60K coach, 105K business, 170K first.
-Transfer partners: Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply on all airlines except USAirways.
-Mileage expiration: Miles expire 36 months after they are earned regardless of activity.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: 2 free stopovers.
-Changes/Cancellation: There is a $60 charge to change or cancel an award ticket.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
-Infant fees: None except for airport departure taxes.
-Children ages 2-11: Receive a 25% discount on the mileage requirement on Miles & More flights.
Bottom line: The real beauty of Miles & More is the expanded award availability. If you want to travel in First Class on Swiss or Lufthansa then you’ll greatly appreciate the expanded availability as booking first class in advance on these airlines is nearly impossible with partner miles. However you’ll need lots of miles for an extremely expensive 3 region award if you are departing from the USA. Infant and children policies are excellent. Beware that fuel surcharges are a killer though!
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OneWorld:
Oneworld availability to Israel can be tough to find without fuel surcharges. Flights to Israel include Air Berlin via Berlin and Dusseldorf, BA via London, Iberia via Madrid, and Royal Jordanian via Amman. BA availability is good, but has high fuel surcharges.
El Al is not part of OneWorld (and therefore can’t be booked with miles from other airlines like BA) but they are non-alliance partners with AA. It’s more advantageous to book El Al travel with AA miles than it is with El Al miles (the miles received from the HAS Advantage card) because El Al adds fuel surcharges onto their own tickets, but you do not pay any fuel surcharges for booking El Al tickets with AA miles. However you can only book coach or business on El Al when using AA miles, first class must be booked with El Al points. El Al has nonstop flights from JFK, Newark, Los Angeles, and Toronto to Tel Aviv.
You can check OneWorld availability on flawed sites such as AA.com, BA.com, and Qantas.com. (BA or Qantas frequent flyer account required) You can check El Al availability on elal.com (Matmid account required). You can also check availability by calling AA.
Best OneWorld option for nonstop travel to Israel and for travel via Europe on El Al without fuel surcharges.:
-American: 80K coach off-peak (10/15-05/15 annually) via Europe, 90K coach on El Al flights from North America or peak via Europe, 135K business on El Al flights from North America or via Europe, 180K first via Europe.
-Transfer partners: Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply for flights on partners British Airways (very high) and Iberia (nominal).
-Mileage expiration: AA miles require activity every 18 months.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: Allowed at the North American gateway city.
-Changes/Cancellation: AA allows free date and routing changes, but changes to the origin or destination city or cancellation costs $150 for non-elites.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: $75 within 21 days for non-elites.
-Infant fees: 10% of full fare.
-Some partner airline awards must be booked over the phone.
-The best shot at availability without paying fuel surcharges would be to take AA to London or anywhere else in Europe and then El Al from London or anywhere else in Europe to Tel Aviv. This routing would be 80,000 miles between October 15-May 15 or the same 90,000 miles as the nonstop El Al flight from the US during the summer.
You need to call American to book travel on El Al. You should do your research first by opening a Matmid account and searching for awards on elal.com. Remember to search for flights from all of El Al’s cities in North America and in Europe as you can use other American and partner flights to reach those El Al cities.
-American has an alternate OneWorld Explorer award chart which allows for up to 16 stopovers starting from 90,000 miles in coach, 115,000 miles in business, and 150,000 miles in first, but the rules of this complicated award that require at least 2 OneWorld carriers besides AA and excludes partners such as El Al are beyond the scope of this article.
Bottom line: AA is great for El Al and is a decent option for connecting in Europe, though watch out for BA surcharges.
Lowest OneWorld rates to Israel without fuel surcharges on Air Berlin:
-British Airways: 60K coach on Air Berlin, 65K coach on other carriers, 100K business on Air Berlin, 130K business on other carriers, 195K first.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio, Chase Ultimate Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio, and Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply for all Trans-Atlantic flights except on Air Berlin and Aer Lingus via Ireland.
You can drastically reduce fuel surcharges for travel on Iberia via Madrid by transferring your BA Avios into Iberia Avios. You must have your Iberia account open for 3 months before you can do such a transfer.
-Mileage expiration: BA miles require activity every 36 months.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: Each leg costs additional mileage, but you can stopover at any connection city for as long as you want.
-Changes/Cancellation: $40.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None
-Infant fees: Instead of cash, BA charges just 10% of the adult mileage required on international segments.
-Some partner airline awards must be booked over the phone.
Bottom line: The infant policy is great and if you can find Air Berlin availability for your dates you can grab a real steal. See this post for help on finding Air Berlin availability.
Lowest OneWorld mileage rates to Israel:
-JAL: 50K coach, 80K business, 115K first.
-Transfer partners: Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Applies to most travel.
-Mileage expiration: 3 years after they are earned regardless of activity.
-One-way awards: Not allowed.
-Stopovers: JAL allows for 2 stopovers, though each additional flight will add to the fuel surcharges.
-Changes/Cancellation: JAL allows free date changes, but other changes or cancellation results in a 3,000 mile penalty.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None
Bottom line: The fuel surcharges will likely eat away at the low mileage requirements though if you’re short on miles it’s worth looking into.
The only no fuel-surcharge option to fly on British Airways:
-LAN: 112K coach via Amman, 154K coach via London, 224K business via Amman, 308K business via London, 385K first via London.
-Transfer partners: Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:50K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: None.
-Mileage expiration: LAN kilometers expire 3 years after they are earned unless you take a paid LAN flight.
-One-way awards: Not allowed.
-Stopovers: Each leg costs additional mileage, but you can stopover at any connection city for as long as you want.
-Changes/Cancellation: Date changes are free, cancellations carry a varying kilometer penalty.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None
-Partner airline awards must be booked over the phone.
-LAN is interesting due to the excellent Starwood transfer ratio and that they are the only airline that will book you on British Airways without collecting fuel surcharges. It may take about 155K Starpoints to fly from New York to Israel via London in BA First, but at least you won’t be paying fuel surcharges!
Bottom line: The only way to fly BA without fuel surcharges. Several DDF readers have flown to Israel via Amman using LAN kilometers without any problems.
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Skyteam:
Skyteam generally has the worst award availability. You can try searching some Skyteam availability on Delta.com and AirFrance.com. Options to Israel besides Delta’s nonstop JFK flight are on Czech via Prague, KLM via Amsterdam, Air France via Nice or Paris, Aeroflot via Moscow, and Alitalia via Rome.
Best overall Skyteam option:
-Flying Blue (Air France/KLM): 25K coach during a promo period, 50K coach otherwise, 50K business during a promo period, 100K business otherwise.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio, Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-You can check which cities have promo awards for select dates here. Fuel surcharges will apply.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply on all airlines except Delta.
-Mileage expiration: Flying Blue miles expire 20 months unless you credit a Skyteam flight to Flying Blue.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Stopovers: Flying Blue allows for 1 free stopover.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
-Infant fees: 10% of full fare.
Bottom line: Very low mileage rates, though fuel surcharges for airlines besides Delta are hefty. Delta travel can be a bargain though. Expanded award availability for travel on Air France and KLM.
Best option for some Skyteam travel excluding for Delta and some Air France/KLM flights:
-Delta: 80K coach, 120K business.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 1:1 ratio, Starwood transfer partner at a 20K:25K ratio.
-Fuel surcharges: Apply on select partners but generally won’t apply to/from Israel.
-Mileage expiration: None.
-One-way awards: Not allowed.
-Stopovers: Delta allows for 1 free stopover OR 1 free Open jaw.
-Changes/Cancellation: There is a $150 charge to change or cancel an award ticket. No changes or cancellations are allowed within 3 days of the flight.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
-Infant fees: 10% of full fare.
-It can be brutal trying to find Delta low award availability and Delta’s terrible website only makes it more difficult. Plus Delta used to be a good option for booking Air France/KLM but now availability when booking those direct with Flying Blue is much better than when booking with Delta.
Bottom line: Find availability before transferring to Delta.
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Only a good option for redeeming for ultra-expensive First Class nonstop to Tel Aviv:
-El Al 1,400 coach, 3,000 business, 5,000 first.
-Transfer partners: AMEX Membership Rewards partner at a 50:1 ratio, making a coach ticket 70K, a business ticket 150K, and a first class ticket 250K.
-Fuel surcharges: $349 for JFK-TLV.
-Mileage expiration: Points from flights and bonus promotions expire after 3 years regardless of activity and base points from partners and transfers do not expire.
-One-way awards: Allowed for half the amount of a round-trip.
-Expedite/Close-in fee: None.
Bottom line: Only transfer points to El Al if you need to fly in first class to Israel as AA can’t book El Al first class. In first class you’ll enjoy what’s likely to be the best glatt/mehadrin kosher food in the sky, but you’ll burn a lot of miles and be hit with a $349 surcharge for the pleasure. Plus the seat pales in comparison to every other First Class product out there, though it is at least lie-flat.
Know of a better way to get to Israel with miles? Find a mistake? Have something to add? Post a comment!
Update Sold Out!
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Vitagoods Digital Luggage Scale Linky
-100 lbs. Capacity
-Compact design is great for taking with you when you travel
-Select between kg and lbs.
Update: DEAD!
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Jabra WAVE Bluetooth Headset Linky
This is 56% off the retail price and it’s the lowest price that it has ever been at Amazon, grab it while it lasts! The price for this earlier today was $51.21.
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Save on all your Amazon purchases! You can buy Amazon gift cards (as well as gift cards for airlines, hotels, clothing stores, gas stations, and much much more) at any Office Supply store with your Ink Bold, Ink Plus, or Ink Cash card to earn 5 points per dollar (worth roughly 9.5% back)!
Use code (Exp: 04/16): TAXBREAK
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Related posts:
-ANA Not Charging Fuel Surcharges For Award Travel On United Or USAirways!
-Singapore Airlines Also Not Charging Fuel Surcharges For Award Travel On United Or USAirways!
-4BM Success! (2 consumer card and 2 business card approvals with just 1 hard pull!) .
-Want To Boost Your Credit Score? Spend On Business Cards Instead Of Consumer Cards.
-Which Miles To Use To Fly To Israel?
-Flying Round-Trip To Israel On Air Berlin For 47K American Express Membership Rewards
-Credit Score FAQs: Opening And Closing Cards
-Credit Card Reconsideration: Don’t Give Up!
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The Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN
Signup bonus:
-50,000 bonus Membership Rewards points for spending $5,000 in 3 months.
Plus this card offers 3 points per dollar spent on airfare, making this one of the best cards to use to purchase airline tickets. You also get 2 points per dollar at gas stations, on shipping, and for advertising.
This is being promoted as a limited time offer, but I do not know the exact end date.
Having consumer charge cards (Green, Gold, Platinum, etc) , consumer credit cards, or business credit cards will not stop you from earning this signup bonus.
If you have had a business charge card (Green, Gold, or Platinum) in the past 12 months the terms state that you will not receive the bonus. YMMV.
Offer Terms:
-Earn 50,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $5,000 in purchases on the Card in the first 3 months of Card membership
-Earn points even faster to get more rewards for your business.
-3X points on airfare purchased from airlines. 2X points at US gas stations.
-Up to $100,000 in each category per year, then 1 point.
-Terms and limitations apply.
-Reduce travel costs, show appreciation for employees and clients, and offset everyday expenses by using points to get something back and grow your business.
-$0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $175.
-Apply online to qualify for this offer. See offer terms for details
Spending $5,000 in 3 months:
Spending $5K isn’t what it used to be.
I have spent twice hat much at CVS in one night
With options like gift cards with pins that can be cashed out, Vanilla Reloads/Bluebird, Vanilla MVD cards that can be combined and cashed out, and prepaid gift cards sold at a discount there are lots of ways to help you meet thresholds.
And of course there’s trusty old Amazon Payments made even easier with free additional user cards.
No need to rehash everything, Here are articles I’ve already written on this stuff:
-Having Fun Cashing Out Gift Cards
-Is Bluebird The Next Dollar Coin Churn?
-Another Flavor Of Vanilla: My Vanilla Debit Card
-Today’s Escapades
-Meeting A Spend Threshold In One Night.
-Need To Meet A Spending Threshold Deadline? Send And Receive $1,000/Month With No Fees Using Amazon Payments!
American Express Benefits:
-American Express offers the best dispute resolution in the industry. If you have a problem with the item or merchant you’ll be glad if you made the chaarge on an AMEX.
Plus they offer incredible return protection, purchase protection, and warranty service.
With return protection you can return items up to $300 to AMEX for 90 days even if the merchant won’t accept returns.
With purchase protection your items are covered if they break or are stolen within 90 days.
With extended warranty you will have double the manufacturers warranty, up to one additional year, for free. Plus the AMEX warranty year is incredible as they will just refund your purchase price if you have problems with your item, without any hassle at all!
Additionally if you spend $1,000 at Fedex on this card for example you’ll get a 5% automatic cash rebate and 2,000 points (double points for shipping as stated above). $1,000 at HP gets a 10% automatic cash rebate and 1,000 points plus their awesome extended warranty coverage as long as you have any open American Express card at the time of the claim.
What can you do with the points:
-You can wait for another Avios bonus. These come by every few months and usually range from 30%-50%.
Last month there was a 50% bonus for transfers from American Express Canada to British Airways so hopefully that will come down to us soon!
With a bonus you can get to Israel for as little as 20K points each way instead of the normal 30K points each way.
-Once you’re done with $5K in spending you’ll have at least 55K American Express Membership Rewards points.
-A flight from NYC to short-haul destinations (like Cleveland, Detroit, Montreal, Toronto, and many others) on American booked via Avios is just 4,500 each way with no fuel surcharges. With 55K points you’d have enough for more than 12 short-haul flights. Or wait for the return of a transfer bonus and you’ll have enough for more than 18 short-haul flights!
-A flight from NYC to medium-haul destinations (like Miami) on American booked via Avios is just 7,500 each way with no fuel surcharges. With 55K points you’d have enough for more than 7 medium-haul flights. Or wait for the return of a transfer bonus and you’ll have enough for as many as 11 medium-haul flights!
-A flight from NYC to resort destinations like Cancun or Puerto Rico on American booked via Avios is just 10,000 each way with no fuel surcharges. With 55K points you’d have enough for more than 5 of those flights. Or wait for the return of a transfer bonus and you’ll have enough for more than 8 of those flights!
-A flight from NYC to stunning Costa Rica on American booked via Avios is just 12,500 each way with no fuel surcharges. Of you can fly from the West Coast to any Hawaiian Island for that rate. Or you can even fly from Boston to Ireland for the same rate with no fuel surcharges on Aer Lingus (you’ll have to call to book trips on airlines like Aer Lingus or Alaska). With 55K points you’d have enough for more than 4 of those flights. Or wait for the return of a transfer bonus and you’ll have enough for more than 6 of those flights!
-The only way to fly in Singapore’s First Class Suites, or in their awesome business or first class products, is with Singapore miles. Book on their website to save 15% of the miles needed. I flew to Europe in December in a couples suite with my wife for about 58K miles each.
-Air France/KLM Flying Blue charges only 25K miles round-trip to Israel during a Promo award or just 50K miles round-trip to Israel on Delta with no fuel surcharges. Business would be just 100K on Delta. Plus there are occasionally bonuses to Flying Blue as well, dropping those rates even lower.
-The only way to fly in El Al First Class, which includes the best glatt kosher food in the sky, is with El Al points.
-Air Canada can book you on other Star Alliance carriers, like United and USAirways and many more, with no fuel surcharges. Bonus: They also allow for 2 free stopovers, so you can checkout 3 different cities on 1 ticket.
-ANA and Singapore also charge no fuel surcharges on United and USAirways. You can fly round-trip to Europe for just 38K points or round-trip to Israel for just 60K points.
What do you do with your points? Post a comment!
Getting a business card:
Getting a business card is quite simple. You don’t need to be a traditional “business owner” as you might think of one.
For example if Joe Smith sells items on Ebay or on Amazon, or has any other side business/hobby and wants a credit card to better keep track of business expenditures he can just open a business credit card for “Joe Smith Sole Proprietorship” as the business name. You don’t need to file any messy government paperwork to be allowed to do that.
Just be sure to select “Sole Proprietorship” as the business type and just use your social security number in the Tax Identification Number field as well as in the social security number field.
I’ve had business cards since I turned 18 as a Sole Proprietor and never had a problem getting approved with reconsideration if needed. You can reach reconsideration at 866-314-0237.
Charge card:
This is a charge card without a defined credit line, so even when you’re ready to close the account you won’t lose that line of credit.
Plus it’s not subject the limit of 4 American Express credit cards per person, as charge cards are not limited in the way credit cards with a credit line are limited.
If you make zero income:
Then why are you applying for credit cards? American Express has the right to ask to see you tax returns at any time. While people have reported passing the financial review as long as they make something (DDF’ers have reported as little as $5K/year) it’s not a good idea to apply for this card if you don’t have income on the books.
Membership Rewards points transfer to:
Transfers are at 1K:1K ratios or are otherwise listed.
Airlines:
-Aeromexico (Skyteam)
-Air Canada (Star Alliance)
-Alitalia (Skyteam)
-ANA (Star Alliance)
-Asia Miles, Cathay Pacific (OneWorld)
-Avios, British Airways and Iberia (OneWorld)
-Delta (Skyteam)
-El Al (1,000 MR:20 El Al ratio)
-Flying Blue, Air France/KLM (Skyteam)
-Frontier
-Hawaiian
-Jetblue (250 MR:200 Jetblue ratio)
-Singapore (Star Alliance)
-Virgin America (200 MR:100 Virgin ratio)
-Virgin Atlantic
Hotels:
-Best Western
-Choice
-Hilton: (1,000 MR:1,500 Hilton ratio)
-Starwood: (1,000 MR:333 Starwood ratio)
You can apply for both consumer and business American Express cards on the same day with just 1 credit pull. Other cards from American Express include:
Consumer cards:
-Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express
-American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card
-The Platinum Card® from American Express
-Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express
-Blue Cash Preferred Card® from American Express
-TrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American Express
-American Express® Gold Card
-Blue Cash Everyday Card® from American Express
-Blue Sky from American Express®
Business cards:
-Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN
-The Business Platinum Card® from American Express OPEN
-Gold Delta SkyMiles® Business Credit Card from American Express OPEN
-SimplyCash® Business Card from American Express OPEN
Update: A free shipping code good on all orders can now be found below!
Stackable offers:
-25% off with code (Exp: 04/16): APR25
-$10 off $50+ orders with code: SAVE10
-Free shipping with no minimum order with code: RMNSHIP
-Receive free samples with every order with no code needed!
-Receive free shipping with any $50 purchase.
-$65+ orders will also receive a free Travalo Classic Fragrance Atomizer
For example, for the extra-large 4.2 ounce bottle of Light Blue for Men By Dolce & Gabbana Cologne, the price you would pay if you walked into Macy’s would be $78. The price from Perfumania is $76.99. With the 25% off code the price comes down to $57.74. With the $10 off code the price comes down to $47.74. Plus shipping is free with the code above!
You can also use just 3,744 Southwest or Chase Ultimate Rewards points for the Round-Trip ticket!
-Purchase by 04/15 at 11:59pm.
-Travel valid to/from Fort Lauderdale and San Juan on Apr. 16-20, Apr. 23-May 17 and May 21, 23, 24 & 27-29.
-Travel valid to/from Orlando and San Juan on Apr. 16-21, 23, 25, 27, 30; May 1-2, 7, 17, 30.
-Travel valid to/from Tampa and San Juan on Apr. 16-18, 23-25; May 1-2, 7-8, 26.
No passport is required for travel to Puerto Rico.
As always you get 2 free checked bags if booked on Southwest.com. Plus you can cancel revenue tickets with no charge and use the funds for a future flight. Point reservations can be cancelled for free with the points redeposited.
Chabad of Puerto Rico operates a kosher felafel restaurant and also offers tons of other prepared kosher take out food.
-Find more articles like this by clicking on the “Trip Notes” tab on top of the DansDeals banner at the top of this site.
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Continued from: Trip Notes Maldives: The Longest Flight In The World And 2 Nights In Paradise.
We arrived in Singapore from the Maldives on Friday morning. Thanks to the ghetto upgrade (lie-flat seating in coach thanks to an empty row of 4 seats in the middle of the Singapore A330) we were ready and raring to go.
Living on the edge.
More after the jump…
Click here to read the rest of this post!»
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