Danny the deal Guru: "American Express is targeting select cardholders with an offer to easily earn a bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. To earn this bonus, all you need to do is activate Pay Over Time. This is a feature that lets you carry a balance on Amex Pay Over Time cards (charge cards). But you don’t need to actually carry a balance, and pay interest so you can earn this bonus."
Check your Amex Offers for the offer to enroll in Pay Over Time. You can also use this link to see if your'e targeted with this offer. You must enroll buy August 1, 2024 to receive the bonus points.
Bilt has announced its Rent Day promotions for August 2024.
Virgin Voyages Promo
Bilt has partnered with Virgin Voyages to offer some extra benefits on bookings including the ability bring a second guest for no additional cost plus the following:
To take advantage of the offer, you must book by August 1, 2024 at 11:59pm PT.
From Bilt: "In order for a Bilt member to be eligible for the Bilt Exclusive Benefits on their cruise, they must request benefits in the Bilt app after making their Virgin Voyages booking. Members should activate the benefits by entering their name, email, and booking reference number in the Virgin Voyages Travel Experience tab of the Bilt app or website. "
Bilt x BLADE Summer Party
Blade will be hosting this party at their NYC lounges on August 1. You can start at BLADE Lounge West before taking helicopter over Manhattan to BLADE Lounge East. Once there, you'll be able to enjoy music, food, and drinks with other Bilt members.
There are 3 types of tickets:
Your Bilt status determines when you can purchase tickets on July 29, 2024:
Double Bilt Points
On the first of every month, you can earn double points on all non-rent spend up to 10,000 bonus points. This includes bonus categories:
Just remember you need to make 5 purchases per billing cycle to earn points.
Danny the Deal Guru: "Barclays and Hawaiian Airlines announced today the renewal of their decade-long co-branded credit card program. Under the newly signed agreement, Barclays will continue to issue the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard and the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Business Mastercard."
Points Wire Note:
The Barclays Hawaiian Airlines co-branded cards are niche plays with limited use for those who use points and miles to travel. They have their place, but these are not top priority cards.
One Mile At A Time: "Just under a year ago, the Lufthansa Lounge Newark closed, as it was undergoing a major renovation. This wasn’t just any renovation, though, as this lounge was intended to serve as the prototype for the carrier’s lounge concept going forward, in line with the new Allegris concept."
"Well, the Lufthansa Lounge Newark has just opened. While the airline hasn’t yet put out a press release about this, the Lufthansa Group station manager for Newark has shared pictures of the new lounge on LinkedIn, and has stated that the first guests have been welcomed to the lounge. Not only has the lounge been fully redesigned, but it has also been expanded compared to the previous setup."
Upgraded Points: "American Express will open its fourth Centurion Lounge at Mexico City International Airport (MEX) on August 1.
"The new lounge will be located in Terminal 1 and will feature 8,400 square feet of space. Here is a look at the various amenities travelers can enjoy when flying out of Mexico’s capital and most populous city."
One Mile At A Time: "Hyatt has just introduced an exclusive alliance with Under Canvas, opening up some unique new lodging options that many World of Hyatt members will appreciate."
"For those not familiar with Under Canvas, the company has 13 outdoor resorts, which are primarily at national parks and other notable outdoor destinations. Properties include Under Canvas Bryce Canyon, Under Canvas Grand Canyon, Under Canvas Lake Powell-Grand Staircase, Under Canvas Moab, Under Canvas Zion, and even ULUM Moab."
This new partnership is being rolled out as Mr. & Mrs. Smith properties. While you can redeem Hyatt points for stays at Under Canvas properties, it's often not a great use of Hyatt points.
The Amex Gold Card has been revamped as of July 25, 2024.
Welcome Bonus
You may need to use an incognito browser to see the 100,000-point offer. Some people are seeing 90,000 points. The public offer is only 60,000 points.
Some referral links seem to generate the 100,000-point offer if you open via incognito mode.
Use a reader referral
Direct link to offer
Bonus Categories
Benefits
Annual Fee
Update: Select referrals are showing a welcome bonus of 200,000 points. This is the best offer we've seen on the card.
Welcome Bonus
The welcome bonus typically sits between 70,000 and 150,000 Membership Rewards points. However, we just saw a 200,000-point offer for the first time.
Bonus Categories
You can earn 4x on your two most used categories per billing cycle up to $150,000 per calendar year.
You can earn 3x on flights and prepaid hotels booked via Amex Travel.
Statement Credits
Cell Phone Coverage
If you pay for your cell phone bill with the Amex Business Gold, you can get reimbursed for damage or theft up to $800 per claim up to 2 claims per rolling 12 months. There's a $50 deductible.
Annual Fee
$375
Points Wire Note:
STTP Premium members can submit referrals to the 200,000-point offer.
Loyalty Lobby: "Air Canada’s Aeroplan has a new redemption partner, Eurowings, which is part of the Lufthansa Group (Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, Brussels, Edelweiss, and Discover)."
"Eurowings was previously part of Germanwings before these two brands were consolidated. Eurowings operates short-haul flights from German airports other than Munich or Frankfurt."
Please note that Eurowings is not a Star Alliance member. That means other Star Alliance loyalty programs won't be able to book awards on Eurowings unless they have their own agreement.
Southwest Airlines has struggled since the pandemic and they're making some big changes to get back on track.
Seat Assignments
According to the survey data Southwest released, 80% of their customers want seats to be assigned. You can expect to see Southwest launch assigned seating in 2025.
Premium Seating
Until now, alls seats on Southwest had the same amount of legroom. Going forward, they plan to add extra legroom to about one-third of seats across the fleet.
Unless Southwest decides to remove some seats on each aircraft, that will mean less legroom for two-thirds of seats once this change is implemented.
Redeye Flights
Southwest will launch redeye flights starting in February 2025. These flights are already bookable online. The first redeye routes include:
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