August 19, 2014

American Express 25% Bonus on Point Transfers to JetBlue!

One of the key features of flexible points is the ability to transfer them to a bunch of different airlines or hotels instead of being locked into earning points with just one program. Sometimes there are bonuses to entice you to transfers points and currently, American Express has announced a 25% bonus on all point transfers to JetBlue from now to September 15th!

25% Bonus on Points Transferred to JetBlue

Normally, the ratio to transfer American Express Membership Rewards points into JetBlue TrueBlue points is 5:4 and you must transfer in increments of 250 points. Without this promotion, to get 10,000 JetBlue points you would have to transfer 12,500 Amex points but now to get the same 10,000 JetBlue points, it would only cost you only 10,000 Amex points!

Membership Rewards Transfer Page

Combining this deal with the separate 25% off JetBlue award flights deal I posted last night, there are some incredible deals to be had! One example is a trip down to Florida – this would normally cost 25,000 miles with all legacy carries (United, Delta, American or US Airways) but with these two promotions from Amex and JetBlue, a roundtrip flight is only 10,000 miles. That is less than a one-way domestic flight on most airlines (which is 12,500 points). That’s a really, really good deal.

This is only 10,000 JetBlue Points which means you could transfer 10,000 Amex MR points to JetBlue for this flight

Before transferring any points over to JetBlue though, research the cost in points on JetBlue’s website. There are no blackout dates so every flight is available for points but some are better deals than others. Once you have settled on the flights you want, at that point only, should you transfer your Amex MR points to JetBlue. Transfers between Amex and JetBlue happen instantly so you could book the flight immediately after transferring the points (you might need to sign out and sign back in to see the points).

Please followup with any questions!

August 18, 2014

Quick Deal: Save 25% on JetBlue Point Redemptions for Free Flights!

JetBlue announced a special promotion lasting only today and tomorrow (8/19) that will save you 25% on the amount of points needed for an award flight! The discount is applied automatically when searching for an award flight – there is no code to enter. There are a few restrictions (no Friday or Sunday flights) but this is an excellent time to burn those JetBlue points for some free flights. This promotion can be combined with the 25% transfer bonus from American Express for transferring American Express Membership Rewards Points to JetBlue (details here)!

The offical terms from the JetBlue website:

Save 25% when you redeem your TrueBlue points for an Award Flight.

Offer Details:

Book between now and August 19, 2014
Fly September 2 – November 20, 2014
Fly Mon. – Thur. and Sat. (not valid for flights on Fri. or Sun.)
When you search for an eligible Award Flight, the fare that you see will automatically include the discount. Fares will not be discounted below 5,000 points.

August 15, 2014

Award Trip Breakdown: Flights for a Long Weekend in Puerto Rico for $26!

Greetings from San Juan, Puerto Rico!

Andrea and I decided to get away for the weekend and decided upon San Juan to “relive” our first trip we took back together in 2008. That was before I was involved in the points and miles game so I think I spent over $1,000 for a 4 night stay + flights last time. Thankfully I’ve gotten a little smarter since 2008 and with the help of this amazing hobby of ours, Andrea and I booked our flights for a whopping total of $26 and ended up with a great rate on our hotel (and I used giftcards I acquired at 19% off to pay for the room). Here is how I did it.

Flights

Departing: American Airlines – Business Class – JFK-SJU for a cost of 20,000 miles plus $2.50 in taxes per person.
Return: American Airlines – Economy Class – SJU-JFK for a cost of $208.50 a person, paid with $200 of American Airlines Gift Cards acquired as part of American Express Platinum card each.

I will get into this some more in my trip report but I used British Airways Avios instead of American Airline miles because of the uniqueness of British Airways award chart. Since it’s distance based, it cost 20,000 Avios for business class or I could have used 17,500 American miles for economy – easy choice there. British Airways miles can be obtained via transferring either Amex Membership Rewards points (which is what I did), Chase Ultimate Rewards, Starwood SPG points or by having the British Airways credit card. In short, there are a lot of easy ways to rack up Avios.

For the return, I was focused on flights that left after 6pm on a Sunday so I could maximize my time in San Juan. By doing this, I limited my flight options and there was no award availability for either economy or business class on the way home. I ended up choosing a 7pm American Airlines flight that cost $208.50 each but I only ended up paying $8.50 of it per person.

That is because I am an American Express Platinum card holder and each calendar year you are entitled to a $200 airline credit. With this credit, you can buy airline gift cards (though the rules technically prohibit this but it still works) twice in a one membership year. In other words, I signed up for the card in 2013 (and paid the $450 annual fee) BUT I got $400 of that back when I bought $200 of AA gift cards (technically 4 gift cards at $50 each) in March 2013 and again in January 2014. I simply applied this gift card to these flight and paid the remaining $8.50 per person.

Hotels:

Courtyard (Marriott) Isla Verde Beach Resort- 3 Nights.

The Beach at the Marriott in Isla Verde

I know this isn’t the fanciest hotel on the nice strip of beach in Isla Verde as its right next store to the Ritz-Carlton San Juan and the InterContinental San Juan but it was far by the cheapest for our stay and I was able to use Marriott gift cards I acquired at 19% off to pay for the room!

AAA rates were only $122 for the first night and $139 for the remaining two nights so it didn’t make sense to redeem Marriott points for this stay since a free night would have cost 35,000 points a night resulting in a very poor value per point (.003 per point, not even half a penny!). Additionally, I had a $500 Marriott Gift card burning a hole in my safe that could be used for this stay. I only paid $405 for this $500 gift card via American Express Daily Getaways which typically happens once a year in which Amex partners with variouis companies to sell discounted travel.

Stay tuned for the trip report in which I’ll provide a little more detail on the flights and hotels and decide whether it was worth it.

August 13, 2014

How I Helped a Friend Save 6,400 Miles By Using Miles More Efficiently

As I’ve discussed previously in my Points & Miles 101 series, there are several different types of points & miles and not all points & miles are created equally. The general consensus was that flexible points (like Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards etc.) are the most valuable due to the many different ways they could be redeemed. The following example below shows how American Express Membership Rewards points can be quite useful but you need to use them the right way to get the most value out of them.

Last week a friend of mine was trying to book roundtrip tickets from NYC to Boston and was ready to spend either $154 or 15,400 American Express Membership Rewards points if she redeemed them through Amex Travel. Thankfully she talked to me first because generally redeeming points at 1 mile for $.01 cost ratio (a $500 flight cost 50,000 points for example) through Amex Travel is NOT a good way to spend your hard-earned points. The great value of flexible miles or points lies within the ability to transfer these points to different airlines or hotels. By knowing which airline partner to transfer the points to, you will usually save miles compared to using them via Amex Travel. In this scenario here, the best option for my friend was to transfer her points to her British Airways Avios account.

The Airlines You Can Transfer Amex MR Points to

You might be thinking why the heck would she transfer points to British Airways when all she wants to do is fly a simple US domestic flight!? The first reason is British Airways is a one world alliance partner with American Airlines and US Airways who both fly routes from NY to Boston and you can redeem British Airways miles for flights on their partners, like AA or US Airways. The second reason has to do the with the British Airways award chart which is based on the actual distance of the flight flown instead of a fixed amount like most other programs. As you can see in the chart below, flights under 650 miles are only 4,500 miles each way or 9,000 miles roundtrip! American Airlines, Delta, United and US Airways (the legacy carriers) would all charge 20,000 or 25,000 miles roundtrip for the same NYC to Boston flight. What a rip-off!

British Airways Distance Based Award Chart (one way)

Once my friend told me about her plans, I knew British Airways Avios was the right type of miles for this trip as LGA to BOS was only 184 miles in distance but she didn’t even have any Avios nor did she even have an Avios account setup (she must have missed this post where I advised to signup for all airline and hotel loyalty accounts). However, she did have a healthy balance of Amex Membership Points and they transfer instantly to British Airways Avios. She set up a British Airways account and once she confirmed there was availability for the flights she wanted, I instructed her to transfer the 9,000 Amex MR points to her Avios account and ten minutes later, her flights was booked. For a weekend in Boston she spent 9,000 miles and $11.20 in taxes.

NYC to Boston only 9,000 miles!

With US Airways flying the hourly shuttle between LGA and BOS, there was a ton of availability and she had the pick of the litter when it came to flight times. Her value per mile was 1.7 cents ($154 cost of flight if paid cash /9,000 miles used), so much better than redeeming for 1 cent via Amex Travel like she almost did. For a domestic redemption that was quite good value and one that everyone should keep in mind for shorter, direct flights.

August 11, 2014

Get Free Elite Status with Avis & National Car Rental!

Update: The Avis First hack will also work with MasterCard DEBIT cards as well!

There is a new travel hack out that allows you to get elite status with two major car rentals companies, Avis and National Car Rental, for FREE! The Avis elite status offer is intended for MasterCard World Elite cardholders, but it seems that as long as you have any Mastercard, you can still register to get Avis First. For National Car Rentals, there appears to be no requirements since there is a link in which anyone can signup for Emerald Club Executive status without any restrictions! I doubt this is intentional since Executive status requires 12 paid rentals or 40 rental days so I highly recommend taking advantage of this deal before they pull the link! Here is a summary of how to get the two offers.

Avis First Elite Status

1. Go to this link – Avis First Elite Status
2. Have your driver’s license and MasterCard (credit or debit) ready and register for an Avis account. It will look like you are signing up for Avis Preferred, which is correct. Once you get to the part where you input your MasterCard, it will recognize the elite status to be Avis First which is a tier higher.
3. If you already have Avis Preferred status (which you get if you have an American Express Platinum card and you registered it with Avis), click the small link on the bottom of the page and email Avis a request to be bumped up to Avis First.

Avis First will get you free upgrades of at least 1 category, free weekend rental after every 4 rentals of 2+ days, skip the line and go straight to your car access (Preferred status has this as well) and a special 1-800 number for assistance and reservations. In short, signing up for this is definitely worth doing especially if you are not already a Preferred member so you can skip the lines to pickup your car at the bare minimum.

I did this for Andrea and this is the confirmation page when you finish

National Emerald Executive Club Elite Status

1. Go to this link – National Emerald Club Executive Elite Status
2. Have your driver’s license and MasterCard ready and register for a National Emerald Club account. It is a direct link to Executive Club status so upon completion you should instantly be an Executive member.
3. If you have an American Express Platinum card, you are entitled to this same status.

Executive Status will get you the ability to pick any car in the Executive aisle if you pay at least a midsize rate, skip the line and go straight to your car (or aisle) access, and a special 1-800 number for assistance and reservations.

The confirmation page for the National signup

Again, I highly recommend signing up for these offers now in case they are pulled which they could be at any moment. Good luck!

(H/T to View From the Wing)

PointsCentric

Points & Miles Travel Consulting