Entries for the 'Frequent Flyer Cards' Category
Posted by
George on Friday, July 31, 2009
This is very interesting news. As the Wall St. Journal points out, if the acquisition goes through, Southwest would become an international airline (unless it drops Frontier's routes to Mexico). More importantly, a merger would eliminate yet another player in the domestic airline industry. Frontier has been a low cost leader, frequently launching fare sales that other airlines have to match. Taken to an extreme, as consolidation continues, there may be fewer sales and higher fares.
Posted by
Tracy on Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Listen up, AAdvantage frequent flyer members! American has now halved the points required to book a one-way economy class ticket, from 25,000 points down to just 12,500.
Also under the new One-Way Flex Awards program, Members may purchase as many as four one-ways at a time, making it a great option for those booking multiple destination trips, or travel for family members.
For details, visit the Aadvantage One-Way Flex Awards page.
Posted by
George on Wednesday, January 30, 2008
We've been wondering. Does it make sense to spend $25,000 on a frequent flyer credit card in order to earn 25,000 miles, which is typically what you need for a free domestic roundtrip ticket. If, that is, there are seats available to frequent flyers, which there often are not.
All too often, you have to spend 45,000 or 50,000 miles for a domestic ticket, right?
And what if that ticket would only cost you $179, or $225, the typical price that we often list for cross country fares when there's a sale?
Maybe you'd be better off with a cash back credit card instead. For example, after you've spent $6500 using your card, the American Express Blue Cash card pays 1.5% on all purchases, and 5% back on supermarket, gas station, and drugstore purchases. So let's say you take that same $25,000, and let's say $15,000 of that is "other" purchases, and $10,000 is gas, food, and drugstore.
The calculator please! You'd earn $225 plus $500 for a total of $725 in cash back. And then you take that cash and buy yourself a nice airline ticket without being told, sorry, there are no seats.
Honestly, seems like a no brainer to us.
Posted by
Tracy on Thursday, November 08, 2007
Delta Air Lines’ SkyMiles is offering a 20 percent bonus for members who purchase miles for themselves or as gifts for friends and family. For example, buy 10,000 miles and you (or your recipient) will receive an extra 2,000 miles for a total of 12,000 miles. This promotion is available through December 31, 2007.
SkyMiles costs $0.0275 per mile (with a minimum purchase of 1,000 miles, and a maximum of 30,000 miles per calendar year) plus a 7.5 percent Federal Excise Tax per mile. More information or complete rules and restrictions are available at www.delta.com/buymiles.
Posted by
Tracy on Thursday, November 08, 2007
Members of American Airlines’ AAdvantage mileage program can now reactive some or all of their miles that expired on or after December 31, 2002. There’s currently no limit as to how many expired miles you can reactivate, but it does come at a price. It’ll cost $50 for every 5,000 miles, plus a $30 processing fee per transaction, per account, and it must be done before December 31, 2007.
For example: to reactivate 24,500 miles from one account will cost $280 – that's a $250 mileage reactivation fee and a $30 transaction fee. To get that many miles, you’ll have to fly round-trip to Asia.
To reactive your miles, you can either call AAdvantage customer service at (800) 421-0600, or email your request to AAdvantage customer service by selecting the Contact AA tab at the top of www.aa.com.
Reactivated miles will be credited to your account as a mileage bonus and do not count toward elite status qualification, and it’ll take up to 72 hours for the miles to post to your account. You will have at least 18 months in which to redeem reactivated miles for an award. Reactivated miles will not expire as long as your account has qualifying activity in any 18-month period. Complete rules and restrictions is available here.
Posted by
Tracy on Thursday, November 08, 2007
US Airways is offering 10 percent off coach class tickets to Europe plus 10,000 bonus Dividend Miles for round-trip tickets to Europe. Or if you feel like splurging, you’ll receive 20 percent off their Envoy (aka business class) seats as well as 20,000 bonus miles.
Both promotions are valid to the following cities: Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Manchester, Munich, Milan, and Zurich.
To qualify for either promotion, you’ll have to use a valid MasterCard to book your ticket before December 31 for travel from November 27 through March 15, 2008. Blackouts on December 14 to December 29 and January 1 to January 8, 2008.
For coach tickets, use eCertificate MCEUROPE when making a reservation and MCENVOY for business class. You’ll have to register online first before making your reservation in order to receive the bonus miles. Complete rules and restrictions and to register for the bonus miles, visit their site.
Posted by
George on Saturday, October 13, 2007
Book a flight to or from New York JFK between Oct 11 and 31 and travel through Dec. 15 2007 and you'll receive triple points in JetBlue's frequent flyer program. You must register for this promotion.
In case you're not familiar with JetBlue's TrueBlue points program, you need 100 points to get a free flight. And for a limited time, you can get 50 of those points by signing up for a JetBlue American Express Card.
Posted by
George on Sunday, September 30, 2007
If you need a good reason to fly JetBlue or get an American Express card, here are 50: for a limited time, you'll get 50 TrueBlue frequent flyer points with your first purchase, and that's half the points you need for a free round-trip on JetBlue. And unlike with many airlines, your TrueBlue points won't expire. Use the card or fly JetBlue, and your points get extended for a full year.
Posted by
George on Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Airlines are increasingly offering more perks besides just miles when you sign up for their frequent flyer-affiliated credit cards. True, these cards are not free of annual fees, as some credit cards are. But the 15,000 bonus points that most offer may be worth trying them for a year.
Here's a run down of some of the special offers.
Continental Airlines Chase MasterCard
This card offers the usual 15,000 bonus points on first purchase, but in addition you get 5% off all Continental fares charged to the card. There's also a low intro 8% APR, two one-day Presidents Club passes (that's their VIP lounge, and this is a $90 value); and two vouchers for up to $200 every year after the first year (they can only be used on certain more expensive fares, like full fare coach and first class, but if that's how you fly, what the heck).
More information
United Airlines Signature Visa Card
Here you get 20,000 bonus miles, almost enough for a free economy ticket. You also get a one-way 1000 mile upgrade certificate although this can't be used on all fares, plus a $25 voucher good on any fare. There is, however, a limit of 60,000 miles that you can earn each year, other than bonus miles.
More information.
The business version of this card offers 17,500 bonus miles and 2 miles for every dollar spent on United purchases. More info.
British Airways Chase Visa Card.
15,000 miles on first purchase, plus unlimited free companion tickets in full fare premium economy, business or first class (they key phrase here is full fare, since there are discounted fares in these classes although they're seldom half the cost of full fare); 5% initial APR; 2 miles for every dollar spent on BA fares; $250 off advance purchase business class fares to London, $20 off of all BA fares purchased with the card.
More information.
JetBlue American Express Card
Until March 31, this card is offering free unlimited companion tickets when you buy one fare using it. You also get enough bonus points to be 1/4 of the way to a free ticket, not as generous as United's 20,000 mile offer which gets you 4/5 of the way. But an unusual perk is that you earn double points on restaurants, entertainment, sporting events, gym memberships, and some travel purchases. More information.
The business version of this card also offers 5% off of all JetBlue fares charged to the card and also offers a $50 statement credit.
American Express Gold Business Card
Although this Card costs $125 per year (it's free the first year) it does have its advantages. As with all Amex cards, you get emergency card replacement, sometimes the same day depending on where you are, a benefit that Amex should do a better job promoting. In addition, you can spend your points on a wide range of airlines, instead of just one. Then there are the bonus points. You get 5000 on your first purchase, 5000 when you reach $20,000 in spending each year, another 20,000 when you spend $50,000 and another 10,000 when you renew the first year.
More information.