You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and get a 30% bonus until 11:59pm ET on June 15, 2024. American Express is also running a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through May 31, 2024.
Here are some of the best ways to use Flying Club points for business and first class:
Points Wire Note:
In general, I would avoid speculative transfers as you lock up points with a specific airline. Speculative transfers increase the likelihood that you won't have enough points to transfer to another program when needed and put you at risk of being impacted by a devaluation.
Avianca LifeMiles and Cardless will be launching two co-branded credit cards in the U.S that will use Amex has their payment processor.
The entry level card will have a $99 annual fee and the premium card will have a $249 annual fee. Unfortunately, that's all the info we have at this point, but I'll update this post once we have more info.
If you join the waitlist, you'll have the opportunity to apply with an increased sign-up bonus that's 5,000 or 10,000 miles higher. The extra points won't require additional spend beyond the usual minimum spend requirement.
Points Wire Note:
It's great to see additional co-brand options being launched by Cardless. In fact, Cardless recently announced they'll be offering co-branded Qatar Airways cards. Hopefully, these developments put pressure on legacy banks to improve their co-branded cards.
Previously, Banco Popular offered LifeMiles credit cards in the U.S., but that ended in March 2022. Hopefully, this partnership is more successful!
Hilton Honors is running a great status match/challenge promotion.
Before we dive into the details, keep in mind that you can receive complimentary Hilton status by holding any of several credit cards:
Here's how the status match works:
You'll be matched to Hilton Gold status for 90 days once approved. To maintain Gold through March 26, you'll need to stay 8 nights within 90 days. Even better, you can earn Diamond if you stay 14 nights within 90 days.
You can match from the following programs.
Other Important Terms
Award Travel: "What was first reported last week by AwardWallet as a rumor, has now been confirmed. Earlier today, when I logged into the AwardTravel Ramp Account, I saw, for the first time ever, the ability to transfer your Ramp Rewards out to nearly a dozen travel partners."
"Ramp is an all-in-one spend management platform for businesses. When you sign up for Ramp, you're issued a spending card, and also get access to their software that makes spend management incredibly easy."
Ramp Transfer Partners
Points Wire Note:
It's a solid list of transfer partners that overlap with other transferable points programs. Unfortunately, Ramp has a 1.5 to 1 transfer ratio to airline and hotel partners.
If they can find a way to make a 1:1 transfer ratio work, this would be a more interesting option. I'm not counting on it, but Capital One was able to improve their transfer ratios to 1:1 on all but one partner so there's a chance.
World of Hyatt is sending targeted offers via email. It's definitely worth checking your email just in case. Some of these offers are impressive while others aren't particularly exciting.
Some offers that people have seen:
Award Wallet: "On April 11, data points started appearing on Reddit indicating that Lufthansa First Class was no longer bookable through LifeMiles. Our LifeMiles contact confirmed there was a temporary issue that eliminated this booking option. However, as of today, we are once again seeing Lufthansa First Class bookable through LifeMiles."
Points Wire Note:
Of course, Lufthansa has only been making first class award space available to partner programs within 3 days of departure - if at all.
View From The Wing: "Hyatt is making any paid rate room at a participating Mr & Mrs Smith property available for redemption. In one sense, that’s better than some SLH properties, where availability was perennially a problem. But it suggests they’re really just using Hyatt points as a currency against prevailing room price – as opposed to offering outsized value like you can sometimes get redeeming a fixed number of points for a hotel when room rates are high."
"Many hotels offer their best rates when booking direct. You’ll need to book through Hyatt to earn points and stay credit, but Hyatt’s own Best Rate Guarantee doesn’t apply so you may pay more for Hyatt benefits."
Until just the other day, United required 121,000 miles for one-way first class ticket to Europe on Lufthansa or to Japan on All Nippon Airways (ANA). Well, FlyerTalker ChazzaBazza flagged that the new rates are as follows:
United no longer publishes an award chart so it's easy for them to slide in these changes under the radar. Of course, United's award rates were already unnecessarily high so most people shouldn't have booking either of these options with United miles.
It certainly feels like United is moving closer and closer to Delta SkyMiles - a program notorious for some of the worst award rates in the industry. I don't think we can be surprised given United's actions in the last several years, but it's disappointing nonetheless.
Perhaps, they think people love and stay loyal to discount programs like the ones you find at grocery stores.
Mainly Miles: "Avios is no longer just a cheap way to redeem Qantas flights in Australia - Virgin's new Qatar Airways partnership opens up a new option, and it beats using KrisFlyer miles by up to 54%."
"Now Qatar Avios should be your go-to redemption option for Virgin Australia flights, bookable wholly online at far more competitive rates than before, plus you can port British Airways Avios across for free, to unlock the same great deals with those too."
View From The Wing: "There has been an absolute rash of American Airlines AAdvantage account fraud lately. I must have heard from a dozen readers in the past two weeks who had miles stolen."
"The AAdvantage fraud team isn’t available over the weekend, making it easier to actually travel on fraudulent redemptions. They require you to fill out a police report and give them a copy. Only that’s not the easiest thing with some police departments."
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