United

April 16, 2014

750 Free United Miles + Potential for 750 More!

It seems almost every week there is a way to get some free miles out there and this week’s offering includes 750 United Miles for joining MyPoints. You will receive 500 miles for signing up and verifying your account and an additional 250 miles for completing your profile. I did both and it took approximately 5 minutes.

1,500 United Miles!

1,500 United Miles!

MyPoints is an online shopping portal that allows you to earn bonus points or miles for shopping online. So for shopping you might already be doing, you could be earning 2x, 5x or I’ve even seen 40x the amount of points or miles! I plan on discussing the benefits of online shopping portals in a future Points & Miles 101 post but to summarize quickly, instead of heading to say Macys.com or Target.com, you would first log in to your MyPoints account and click through to a store’s website from the MyPoints website. They will track any potential order you make and award you a certain bonus amount of points (typically ranging from 2x-5x) per dollar spent.

So for a quick example, let’s say you need to buy a new bathing suit for the upcoming summer season and Macy’s has a great one at $30. Let’s ignore tax and shipping for a moment – if you were to purchase this bathing suit normally, you might earn 30 points if you use a rewards credit card. However, for a few extra clicks and logging in to MyPoints first and seeing Macy’s is currently offering 4 bonus points per dollar spent, you would earn an  additional 120 points for buying that same bathing suit (4 points x 30 dollars)! 

I mentioned in the title for a potential of 750 more United Miles and you could earn that if you make your first purchase of $25 or more via MyPoints within 30 days of membership. Full terms below.

Terms & Conditions

Terms & Conditions

 

(h/t to Gary  via Mile Nerd)

April 15, 2014

Good Deal Alerts: 15% off Frontier Flights, $400 Flights to Norway & 12,000 Free Melia Hotel Rewards Points

Tax day brings up a trio of good deals in the travel industry. Without further ado:

1) Frontier Airlines is celebrating tax day by offering 15% off most domestic flights flown by June 12th if travel is booked by April 17th. A 15% discount on airfare is pretty rare so you might be able to score solid airfares here.

2) Via The Points Guy, you can find flights from the NY area to Norway for only $407!  Availability is greatest for travel between November 2014 through March 2015 (skiing in Norway anyone?) for flights on United and Norwegian Air. If you have a choice, I’d choose United to earn miles for flying vs Norwegian which I don’t believe has a frequent flyer program.

3) Lastly, most of you have probably never heard of Melia Hotels, but they are currently giving away 12,000 points for signing up for their rewards program. The downside is you only have until April 30th to use the points but 12,000 points can be a free night at some of their locations in Europe or Asia. They do not have a big North American presence (only 3 hotels in the US and some in the Caribbean) but if your travel plans over the next year take you near a Melia hotel you might get a room for free! Or if the 12,000 points doesn’t cover a free room, you could use a points & cash option, effectively using those 12,000 points to lower the price of a room.

Hopefully some of you can take advantage of these deals!

April 7, 2014

Good Deal Alert: Flights to Europe from $426 – $481!!

There are some amazing airfares to Europe right now from the NY area starting at $426 to Norway, $481 to Denmark and higher for other locations. See this post from Just Another Points Traveller with more info on prices to other locations.

The flights are via Air Canada, United or Norwegian Air (depending on the route) valid for travel from October 26th – December 11th or December 25th – February, 2015. You might have to overnight in Toronto for the Denmark flights but you can also think of this as a way to fly to Toronto AND Denmark for just $481!!

The best deal here though is the non-stop United flights from Newark to Norway for only $426! If you interested in skiing, this is a great time to ski Norway – see below for an idea of availability.

Calendar of Fares...plenty of availability!

Calendar of Fares…plenty of availability!

 

Denmark for under $500

Denmark for under $500

I have no idea how long these fares will last, so act fast! If you book via United.com you have 24 hours to cancel if you change your mind.

(H/T to The Flight Deal, Just Another Points Traveler)

March 15, 2014

30,000 United Miles for Signing up for DIRECTV

Updated: See revised post where you could earn United or American miles until 10/1/14 HERE.

If you were interested in switching to DIRECTV, you can now earn 30,000 United miles for signing up with DIRECTV. 30,000 miles is equivalent to one domestic round trip flight (with 5,000 miles leftover) or a one way flight to Europe or South America.

I’m not a DIRECTV customer but the prices seem fairly reasonable (especially if you want NFL Sunday Ticket). I obviously wouldn’t go out of my way to take advantage of this deal but if you already had some thoughts of switching, maybe this is the icing on the cake to do so.