You’re probably already familiar with the three big credit card award programs: American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou. They’re great because you can transfer the points you earn directly to frequent flyer programs. But there’s another very flexible program you should know about that also offers transfers to airlines partners: Starwood Preferred Guest.
One way to quickly build up a stash of frequent flyer miles is to take advantage of limited-time offers the airlines promote. Oftentimes, airlines like Avianca and banks like American Express will offer a bonus scheme when you transfer miles between accounts. That means you may earn a bonus when you transfer your miles to your husband’s account, or to a friend or child. Sometimes the deals aren’t worth it but when they are, you can leverage the promotion to earn plenty of free travel for yourself and potentially others. Let’s look at this method of earning loyalty currency.
World travelers are burdened with organizing a lot of details. But logging into numerous websites, keeping track of reservation emails, and juggling a dizzying number of apps doesn’t have to be part of your itinerary.
Traxo is an online travel service that tracks and organizes personal travel information, such as itineraries, loyalty account balances and receipts, and then displays it all on a convenient dashboard, either in the app or on the web. More than 200 travel sites are supported.
The Student Conservation Association (SCA) strives to inspire youth to engage with nature and to become lifelong stewards of the environment through hands-on service opportunities. Student volunteers learn important life skills while doing crucial work to help preserve national parks and other public lands. You can donate Southwest Rapid Reward points to this valuable organization.
There is a fantastic new way to give the gift of education to any friend or family member. And, it’s even a method to help you pay down your student loan while earning miles and points. Gift of College is a college savings registry of sorts.
You can purchase gift cards from the company that the recipient (or you) can use to pay off a student loan, or establish or contribute to his or her existing 529 plan. For miles and
Here’s the scoop on how to earn status on an alliance and not just an airline. The oneworld alliance may be smaller the other two major ones, but its 14 members (plus 21 affiliated members) can literally take you anywhere in the populated world.
If you regularly fly on Air Berlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Iberia, Finnair, Japan Airlines, LATAM Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines, or SriLankan Airlines, it’s a safe bet that you might benefit from oneworld tier status.
You may not be a New Year’s resolution type of person, but you’ll actually do yourself a disservice if you don’t make a few promises related to your travel hacking hobby. Earning miles and points that will help whisk you and your family around the globe in style isn’t easy, and it takes planning and organization.
Before you sing “Auld Lang Syne” at the dawn of the New Year, make a few resolutions that may help you get where you want to go in the next 12 months. Here are some resolutions shared by us at RewardExpert. You may want to commit to them as well.
Did you know you can get elite status on an alliance? Well you can. Here’s how to achieve it on SkyTeam. There are 20 member
In the two years since its inception, DUFL has changed the way savvy professionals travel for business. Voted Best New Travel App of 2015 by USA Today, this unique company eliminates the need to pack for a trip, check or stow luggage, even do laundry and visit the dry cleaner. They do it all for you.
Thousands of executives, salespeople, athletes, celebrities and others who use DUFL’s services enjoy a stress-free journey while the company’s staff carefully packs and ships their clothing, toiletries and personal items to their destination.
Part of an effective miles and points earning strategy is to take advantage of every opportunity to rack up extra miles. Here are some tips for earning miles in places you may not have thought of before.
Airline ticket and hotel prices go through the roof for the host city during big events like the upcoming Super Bowl, which is being held in Houston on Sunday, February 5.
One way to cut costs if you want to see it in person is to use points and miles where the price in miles is fixed regardless of the cash price of the ticket. Because tickets will be costly. You can expect to use 25,000 miles to get to Texas for the game though some airlines will cost more and at least one route is less.
Unless you’re a road warrior with elite status, chances are you earn more points and miles through credit card spend rather than actually flying. Hopefully, you have one or two credit cards in your wallet that earn
Now is a good time to review where you stand with your preferred airline and hotel partners.
If you don’t take action, when the clock ticks to midnight on January 1, your elite status fate for the coming year will be sealed. Since airlines and hotels base elite status and earned rewards on the calendar year, everything must take place before the end of the year.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Your credit score is one of your most valuable assets and you should nurture it and protect it. You want a healthy credit score to help you accomplish all of your life goals, including getting a mortgage or car loan (with reasonable interest rates) or passing a potential employer or landlord’s background check.
You also want a high credit score so you can fully participate in the lucrative hobby of collecting frequent flyer miles, hotel loyalty program points, or bank points (such as American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, or Citi ThankYou points).
It’s a messy relationship when it comes to airline partners, and this month sees Alaska end its on-again, off-again relationship with Delta and formally marry Virgin America. This is good news for Alaska fliers although Delta travelers lose a valuable earning and burning partner. Alaska also beefed up benefits for its Mileage Plan members; this is a net win for Alaska fliers.
The past year was one of non-stop change in the travel rewards industry with huge changes in major frequent flyer programs, bank credit card offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. We saw devaluations continue for all three of the major domestic legacy airlines. And the major travel rewards credit card issuing banks all imposed stricter sign-up bonus rules. There were several mergers between airlines and hotels that also lead to some big changes to loyalty programs.
Have you wished you had a special someone to explore the world with? You might want to check out MissTravel.com, an online dating site for travelers.
Headquartered in Las Vegas, MissTravel is among the new wave of dating sites that cater to specific lifestyles. Entrepreneur Brandon Wade founded the site in 2012 and serves as chief executive officer.
If Southwest Rapid Rewards is your main frequent flyer program, you need to be aware of Rapid Reward Shopping as well. This online shopping mall acts as a portal to all of your favorite online retailers, from Kohl’s and Old Navy to JCPenney and Ulta Beauty. All you need to do to earn extra Rapid Rewards points is visit the portal and click on the store you wish to shop at. Then, once you make a purchase, you’ll be rewarded with a certain number of Rapid Rewards per dollar spent. It’s that easy, but we’ll step you through the entire process.
The wait is over! Barclaycard has released the online application page for the Aviator Red Mastercard.
Barclaycard was the issuer of the US Airways co-branded cards before US Airways merged with American Airlines. When the merger occurred, existing cardholders were given the option to convert their cards to a variety of new Aviator cards in the lineup. Unfortunately, those cards were not available for new applicants at that time.
As we approach the holiday season, sign-up bonus offers for new credit cards are proving to be generous and rewarding. Also, read on to find out how Hilton is making lifetime Diamond status easier to achieve and how to bypass part of American’s new elite status spending requirements in the new year.
