Lufthansa runs a monthly promotion called Miles & More Mileage Bargains. They offer discounted award rates on select routes in economy, premium economy, and business class. The promo is similar to Flying Blue's Promo Rewards.
These Miles & More Bargains can provide 50%+ off the award rate for a round-trip ticket, but you'll be on the hook for the carrier-imposed surcharges. Unfortunately, the surcharges on flights operated by Lufthansa group airlines such as Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss, etc. are steep.
This means your total taxes/fees on an award ticket can exceed $1,900 for a round-trip ticket from the U.S.
Sure, 55,000 miles for a round-trip business class ticket to Europe is great, but you can find cash tickets in business class for less than what the taxes/fees on the award will cost!
If you've been considering a switch to T-Mobile, you may be able to earn 10,000 SkyMiles for making that switch. To be eligible, you need to have had a U.S. mobile plan for the previous 90 days. You'll receive the 10,000 SkyMiles after three months with your new T-Mobile plan.
Eligible T-Mobile Plans:
Points Wire Note:
Delta SkyMiles are among the least valuable miles in the world so I wouldn't change mobile plans just for the 10,000 miles. However, if you're planning to switch to T-Mobile anyway, you might as well pick up some extra miles!
Loyalty Lobby: "Qatar Airways has apparently prepared another Christmas present for some (not all) Privilege Club members, offering targeted elite members a three-month status extension through March 31, 2024."
"Qatar Airways Privilege Club ran the same campaign last year and ended up extending everyone’s status for the entire 2023 calendar year, though from the looks of it, this one appears to be more targeted."
British Airways launched Balance Booster about 6 months ago and it's now the cheapest way to buy Avios. Head for Points posted a reminder about this and I realized that many people don't even know it's an option.
What Is Balance Booster?
Based on the Avios you've earned in the last 30 days, you can buy up to 300% of that total. For example, if you have transferred 10,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to your British Airways Executive Club account in the last 30 days, paying for a 300% boost would get you an additional 30,000 Avios.
Eligible Avios For Boosting
You can "boost" Avios earned via the following methods:
Transfers from other airlines on the Avios platform are not eligible.
How Much Does It Cost?
While you can pay for a 100% or 200% boost, the best deal is at 300% Currently, you can boost your Avios for 1.2 cents per point when doing a 300% boost.
Points Wire Note:
Since it's so easy to earn Avios via transferable points in the U.S., it's important to consider whether you even need to buy Avios.
If you need more than you can transfer for a particular award, it could certainly be useful. Additionally, if you want to save some of your transferable points for another booking, this could be useful as well.
The Bulkhead Seat: "The Park Hyatt Marrakech was originally slated to open in 2024, but it finished ahead of schedule and is open now. The 130-room hotel is designed in traditional Moroccan style and offers three dining outlets, a spa, a fitness center, meeting spaces, and two pools. The 19-acre resort is located at the base of the Atlas Mountains and about nine miles from Marrakech’s historic Medina district. The Park Hyatt Marrakech sits adjacent to the Al Maaden Golf resort (offering guests easy access to the 18-hole course)."
Points Wire Note:
The Park Hyatt Marrakech is a Category 6 property which means you can book with 25,000 Hyatt points on Standard dates. On Off-Peak and Peak dates, you'll need 21,000 and 30,000 Hyatt points respectively. You can transfer Bilt Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt, so it's easy to earn the points you need.
Avianca LifeMiles is running a promo for award bookings on Avianca flights if you book by December 29, 2023. When your redeem points for two (four, six, or eight) passengers, you'll get a 50% rebate on the miles you redeem. This means you need the total miles for the booking, but you'll receive 50% back after taking the trip.
Some important terms:
Points Wire Note:
If you're planning some travel to or within South America, this is a fantastic deal. You shouldn't have any problem earning LifeMiles as they're transfer partners of Amex, Bilt, Capital One, and Citi. Plus, you can buy LifeMiles during a promo.
You can earn 2x Alaska miles on Lyft rides to an airport in the U.S. or Canada through January 14, 2024 at 11:59pm ET. You must link your Alaska Mileage Plan and Lyft accounts prior to booking a ride to be eligible. Additionally, you need to select Alaska Mileage Plan as your your travel partner in the Lyft app.
Bonus miles should post within 7 days of your completed ride.
Points Wire Note:
Personally, I prefer to link my Bilt Rewards account to Lyft as I value the flexibility of Bilt points more than Alaska miles. However, if you need to top off your Alaska miles balance to book a specific award, earning 2x during the promo might be useful if you have a few rides to the airport.
Of course, if you really wanted to scale things, you could offer to book friends and family who need rides to the airport then have them reimburse you.
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One Mile At A Time: "LATAM Pass is currently offering a pretty generous status match promotion. While this offer has been around for some time, what’s interesting is that the status through this offer is now valid through March 2025, so you’d have well over a year to enjoy this status."
"If you’re eligible and fly LATAM with any frequency then this is a great opportunity, though otherwise the benefits of this are pretty limited."
"Requesting a status match costs anywhere from $80 to $199 — it costs $80 for residents of Australia, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and the United States, $98 for residents of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland, and $199 for residents of all other countries."
Points Wire Note:
This won't make sense for most U.S.-based travelers but, if you plan to spend a lot of time in South America and flying LATAM, this could be useful.
One Mile At A Time: "Royal Air Maroc’s Safar Flyer program is offering a status match opportunity at the moment, which can easily score you valuable status (and lounge access with oneworld)."
"There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that you’re eligible for this offer even if you took advantage of the last one. The bad news is that there’s a substantial cost to take advantage of this, higher than the cost of any status match opportunity I’ve ever seen before."
Cost to match:
Points Wire Note:
Oneworld Sapphire is the sweet spot for most people, but the cost of this match is steep. Plus, you need a qualifying flight on Royal Air Maroc within 6 months to maintain the status for a full year.
For most people, I don't think this match will be worth the cost and effort. However, if you can take the qualifying flight and have a decent bit of domestic travel on American and Alaska, the access to AA's Flagship Lounges and Alaska Lounges could be useful.
Award Wallet: "The biggest hassle in using this free night certificate — besides finding award availability — is that you've needed to call Hilton Honors to redeem it. If you're traveling overseas, that could be an expensive call. Or, perhaps it's inconvenient for you to make a phone call. Maybe you just prefer not to talk on the phone."
"Well, the good news is that you can now book Hilton Free Night Rewards via Hilton's website chat function."
Points Wire Note:
While the Hilton free night certs are the most valuable hotel certs you can earn via credit cards, the fact that you can't easily redeem online is so strange. Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott all issue free night awards from credit cards and as elite status benefits while allowing members to use them via the usual online booking process.
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