In light of British Airways' recent changes to elite status qualification, Virgin Atlantic has launched a new status match + challenge promotion.
Once you meet the qualifications, your new elite status will be valid for 12 months. Since Virgin Atlantic is now part of SkyTeam, you'll also have benefits when many partner airlines.
If you have mid-tier or top-tier status with any of the following 12 airlines, you are eligible to participate: American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, El Al, Emirates, Hong Kong Airlines, Iberia, Lufthansa, Pakistan International Airline, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, or United Airlines.
How It Works
Direct link to status match offer
Earn Up To 10K Bonus Points
If you book a round-trip Upper Class ticket by February 18, 2024, you can earn 10,000 bonus Virgin points. You can also earn 5,000 bonus points for premium economy or 2,000 bonus points for economy.
Travel on Points: "Flying blue promo awards just got more lucrative, or user friendly at least. In the award travel space, flexibility is paramount and equates to value."
"Flying Blue offers monthly promo awards, where they publish a list of city pairs that they offer a promotional, discounted award flight offering. Previously, these promo awards were very restrictive. No changes or cancellations were allowed on them. However, Flying Blue recently amended this policy and now allows changes or cancellations to Promo Rewards for a €70 fee plus fare difference."
Disclosure: I may receive a referral bonus or commission if you use the links below.
Rakuten is running one of their famous 10x promos on select brands. If you haven't linked your Amex Membership Rewards account to Rakuten, you can still earn 10% cash back.
Some travel brands that stand out include IHG and Best Western. You can stack this with the Best Western promo to earn a free night. This promo could also help with IHG's fast track to Diamond status offer or the promo to earn a ton of bonus points on Iberostar stays.
Join Rakuten, earn $30 (or 3,000 Amex points).
Disclosure: I serve on an Bilt advisory board and may earn a commission if you use the links below.
In December, Bilt revamped how you earn status and announced that Milestone Rewards were coming in 2024. We now have the details on these rewards.
While you can earn Bilt status with eligible spending, Milestone Rewards are achieved when you earn a certain number of qualifying points. You will earn a Milestone Reward when you reach each of these qualifying point tiers:
At each tier, you can select one of the Milestone Rewards options. Please note that Milestone Rewards do not stack. You can only use one at a time. Additionally, Milestone Rewards do not stack with other promos such as double points on Rent Day.
Milestone Rewards must be be claimed in the calendar year in which they are earned.
Milestone Rewards - 25,000 Points
Milestone Rewards - 75,000 Points
Milestone Rewards - 100,000 Points
Milestone Rewards - 150,000 Points
Milestone Rewards - 225,000 Points
Milestone Rewards - 250,000 Points
If you're interested in applying for the Bilt Card, you can learn more here.
Points Wire Note:
I certainly won't turn down opportunities to easily earn bonus points. I already use the Bilt Card for dining, auto-payments, and on Rent Day to earn double points. However, these Milestone Rewards aren't enough to make me chase them.
Don't get me wrong, I like earning Bilt points to take advantage great transfer partners, transfer bonuses, and other promos. This new perk just won't change my strategy.
Travel on Points: "If you have ever carried a Delta card and been looking at those new welcome offers longingly, then I have good news for you. There are some new Delta no lifetime language offers going out to targeted individuals. These no lifetime language offers are mostly sent out for business cards like the Business Gold and Business Platinum card. One of the exceptions are these Delta no lifetime language offers that come around from time to time. The cool thing is there is a link to check if you are eligible."
Loyalty Lobby: "IHG has launched a targeted Diamond Fast Track offer valid for stays between February 8 and March 24, 2024."
"After registering for this offer, eligible members who consume 8 nights during the promo period get a Diamond status through the end of 2024."
Danny the Deal Guru: "American Express has been introducing this bonus eligibility restriction on multiple family of cards recently. It started with Delta credit cards, then Platinum cards, Cash back cards, and more recently the American Express® Gold Card."
"When the Gold Card rules were introduced, putting it in the same family as the Platinum cards, it was strange that the Green Card wasn’t included as well. So American Express has done just that."
The new Amex Green Card's welcome bonus restrictions are as follows:
You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Platinum Card®, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley, the Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab, the American Express® Gold Card or previous versions of these Cards. You also may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer based on various factors, such as your history with credit card balance transfers, your history as an American Express Card Member, the number of credit cards that you have opened and closed and other factors. If you are not eligible for a welcome offer, we will notify you prior to processing your application so you have the option to withdraw your application.
Points Wire Note:
If you want to get welcome bonuses for all of the personal charge cards that Amex offers, you now need to get them in this order:
Update: The devaluation will take effect on February 15, 2024.
Last week, I received word that Turkish Airlines was going to devalue their Miles&Smiles award chart any day now. Well, it seems that day is today. Prince of Travel noticed that the new charts are now on the Turkish site.
For context, a one-way business class award ticket on Turkish Airlines between the US and Turkey is increasing from 45,000 to 65,000 Turkish miles. That's a rough 44% award rate increase.
On Star Alliance partners, a one-way business class award ticket between the US and Europe 1 and Europe 2 will be 85,000 and 90,000 miles, respectively. Both are increases from 45,000 miles. Those are 98% and 100% increases!
To make things worse, Turkish will now require additional miles for each segment which will really spike award rates.
You can see the new award charts here.
Points Wire Note:
While Turkish miles aren't as tough to earn as they once were with Bilt, Capital One, and Citi as transfer partners, this is a rough devaluation. For a program that was already niche given that they pass on carrier-imposed surcharges on award bookings, this reduces its usefulness even further.
One Mile At A Time: "Choice Privileges has just revealed the details of its first major promotion of 2024, and it’s a pretty typical offer from the program. While probably not a reason to switch any stays to Choice, it’s worth taking advantage of if you were planning such a stay anyway."
The Mile Lion: "Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer has come a long way in 25 years, and now boasts more than eight million members worldwide. It’s hard to imagine SIA without it, even though the airline has actually existed longer without KrisFlyer (27 years) than with it!"
"Award prices have, of course, gone up in the time since, but I was surprised to see that Economy Class redemptions have only appreciated modestly- perhaps even decreased, if you factor in how easy it is to earn miles now."
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