Frequent Miler: "All five of the Cartera-run airline shopping portals are offering 1,000 bonus miles or points at the moment when installing their browser button and using it to spend $25."
Alaska Airlines
American Airlines
United
Southwest Airlines
Delta
As always, make sure you read the fine print.
In July, I reported that Qatar Airways Privilege Club had added a close-in booking fee by increasing award rates for award tickets booked within 40 days of departure. Mainly Miles now reports that Qatar Airways has added peak dates to/from Southeast Asia that increase the standard award rate by 20%.
I ran some awards searches from the U.S. on Qatar Airways and saw Off-Peak noted on some dates. Those dates had 70,000 Avios listed as the award rate as expected. Unfortunately, on dates without the Off-Peak label, I did see that the rate jumped to 94,500 Avios. That's a 35% jump!
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With a Rakuten in-store offer, you can earn 2.5% cash back or 2.5x Amex points at Safeway or Albertsons.
The key to earning 6.5x is the Amex Gold which earns 4x points at U.S. supermarkets. By linking the card to your Rakuten account and linking the in-store offer, you'll be able to earn an amazing 6.5x. Make sure you link your card and the offer before shopping.
Since offers can only be used on a single purchase and are typically active for 45 days, I would use this offer for a big trip to grocery store.
Rakuten is also offering 1x at Food Lion.
Sign up for Rakuten
There's a fantastic Amex Offer for targeted Hilton Business cardmembers. The offer is for 15,000 Hilton points when you spend $3,000 by March 27, 2024.
You can use this offer up to three times which means you can earn up to 45,000 bonus points for spending $9,000.
Great find by Travel on Points.
Points Wire Note: If you can spend this $9,000 in the Hilton Business Card's 6x categories, that'd get you 54,000 points and you'd earn a total of 99,000 Hilton points.
That $9,000 also puts you close to the $15,000 required to earn a free night certificate. If you want to do this, you'll need to wait until January 1, 2024 to start spending.
Earn 4,500 Amex Membership Rewards points when you spend $300+ on Delta gift cards on Delta's site. This appears to be a targeted offer.
Must purchase by January 31, 2024. E-gift and physical gift cards are eligible. Purchase must be made in US dollars.
Seems to stack with offer to get a $20 Starbucks gift card when you buy spend $300 on Delta Gift cards. Nice flag by DoC.
Link to Starbucks
Points Wire Note: If you're booking a Delta flight anyway, this could be an easy way to earn some extra Amex points. I suggest leaving little to pay with a card such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Capital One Venture X so that you have trip delay coverage.
My Points Life: "IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) has club lounges available at select IHG hotels and resorts. You generally will find excellent IHG club lounges at the InterContinental properties, though some IHG brand properties, such as Crowne Plaza, voco, Regent, and Holiday Inn, also have club lounges."
Some of the properties include the InterContinental London Park Lane, InterContinental Paris Le Grand, InterContinental Sydney, and more!
Frequent Miler: "A targeted offer recently appeared that may be of interest if you’re booking travel via the Chase Travel Portal: a new Chase Offer is out that is good for $50 back on $500 or more."
"Interestingly, I found this offer on my Chase Freedom Unlimited, which isn’t the card I would ordinarily use to book travel given the much better travel protections on other cards. I don’t know whether Chase is specifically targeting this to cards without its best-in-class travel protections, but it’s worth checking your offers to see if you have it available if you book through the portal."
"Get a one-time $60 statement credit by using your enrolled eligible Card to spend a minimum of $300 in one or more eligible purchases, when you pay for your stay at participating Wynn Las Vegas & Encore Las Vegas properties from 12/4/2023 to 4/1/2024."
Terms state that you must book directly via the Wynn Las Vegas site or through their mobile app.
Log into your Amex account to add the offer.
Points Wire Note: I'm curious if a Virtuoso booking would trigger the offer as it would be a direct booking and you'd pay at the property. You just wouldn't book on their website or app.
Virtuoso perks at the Wynn Lass Vegas & Encore include: Upgrade on arrival (if available), $100 spa credit, $30 daily breakfast credit per person, and early check-in/late checkout (if available).
Skift: "Alaska Airlines Group will buy struggling Hawaiian Airlines in the latest round of U.S. airline consolidation."
"In a deal valued at $1.9 billion, Seattle-based Alaska plans to maintain and operate Hawaiian as a separate brand."
I was recently approved for the Capital One Venture X Business Card. As Capital One is notoriously unpredictable, I made a quick video explaining why I applied and a few tips to make getting approved a bit easier.
Link to video
For context, the Venture X Business currently has a sign-up bonus of 150,000 points after $30k spend in 3 months. Yes, that is a steep minimum spend. As is often the case with steep minimum spend requirements, I timed the application to cover some necessary expenses.
For more details on the card, check out this quick review.
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