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A Tale of Playing With Fire and Winding Up Upgraded on United Airlines

December 27, 2012

In September, I had an insane ticketing experience using United miles for a Swiss Airlines business class flight Miami-Zurich-Nice. In the end I was denied boarding due to inexplicable “United ticketing issues,” and since then I’ve contacted United on numerous occasions – formal complaints, emails to senior management, correspondence with their social media team via [...]

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United Blocks AwardWallet Access To Mileage Accounts

December 27, 2012

Joining the other airlines that have all blocked AwardWallet’s access to their customer’s mileage accounts in the past year – American, Delta and Southwest – United has announced that it will no longer make its MileagePlus members’ account information, mileage balances or reservations accessible to AwardWallet’s users. AwardWallet is a site that keeps track of [...]

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End Of Year Airline Miles Account Audit – Claiming Miles That Are Rightfully Yours

December 26, 2012

As the year comes to an end, and everyone is concerned about maintaining elite status, I wrote earlier this week about End of Year Hotel Point Account Audits, so today I look at how to make sure you received all the airline miles that you are due this year. Similar to hotel programs, I almost always find discrepancies in my [...]

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1,500 United Miles for Joining Gilt Groupe

December 18, 2012

As they did right around this time last year, United and Gilt Groupe (an online luxury retailer that discounts brand-name designer products) have teamed up to offer MileagePlus members who join Gilt 1,500 bonus 1500 United award miles with their first purchase of $50 or more, and 5 miles for every $1 spent during the [...]

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Cheap First Class Fares on United and American to China and Japan in 2013

December 15, 2012

Cheap is a relative term, but on a strictly percentage off normal pricing, United and American are in some sort of fare war and are now offering some pretty low first and business class fares to China and Japan in 2013. From Miami, United has fares around $3,000 total roundtrip to Shanghai for confirmed first [...]

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Last-Minute United Premier Status Qualification Ideas

December 12, 2012

Over the course of this week, I’ll be going through ideas on how you can score some last-minute elite-qualifying miles on the US legacy carriers to put you over the edge for elite status qualification before the end of the year. Posts so far include Last-Minute MQM Ideas for Delta Medallion Qualification, Last-Minute Elite Status [...]

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Sunday Reader Question: What Ever Happened With Your Swiss First Class @United Fiasco?

December 9, 2012

Travel blogger and friend Parag from @FrequentFlyerU Tweeted me this past weekend with “@thepointsguy What ever happened with your Swiss First Class @United fiasco?” For those of you who don’t remember, in September I was supposed to fly from Miami to Nice via Zurich on a United airlines business class saver award using 50,000 Chase [...]

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Sunday Reader Question: Getting Last Minute United Elite Qualifying Segments

December 2, 2012

I’m a big fan of the word “thrice” so I decided to select Novik’s question this week! “I fly from Newark to Boston thrice a month and started doing so since September. I am 24 elite qualifying segments short of silver status and was wondering if there is any way I can earn the segments [...]

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Saturday Recap: Bonus Hilton Points, United Club Price Increase, New Delta BusinessElite Wines, Cheap Hertz Weekend Rates

December 1, 2012

Here’s a recap of the interesting points and miles news from this week: American Express 35% Transfer Bonus to Virgin Atlantic: In case you missed this, we posted earlier this week about this new American Express transfer bonus. As a recap, now through December 29, 2012, American Express cardmembers who transfer Amex Membership Rewards points [...]

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United CEO Jeff Smisek Q&A At Star Megado

November 21, 2012

After all the jetsetting and antics on two continents, Star Megado 4 culminated with a Q&A session with United CEO Jeff Smisek on the 99th floor of Chicago’s Willis Tower. You might recognize him from the promotional spots they screen before the safety videos on all United flights – but it turns out the guy [...]

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How to Save Money By Redeeming Miles for Last Minute Holiday Travel

November 20, 2012

While airlines generally increase the price of tickets drastically in the days leading up to departure, they often take the opposite approach with award seat inventory – releasing a lot of saver (lowest amount of miles needed) availability, making last minute redemptions very attractive. So if you need to get someone at the drop of [...]

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Saturday Recap: Bonus United and Alaska Miles and Amtrak Points, Cathay Pacific Sale, Hyatt Home Sale and More

November 17, 2012

Here’s a quick recap of interesting miles and points news from this week: 2,500 Bonus United Miles For Shopping: Now through December 31, for every $250 you spend by shopping through United’s online shopping portal, you’ll earn 500 bonus MileagePlus miles, up to a total of 2,500 bonus miles. This is all in addition to [...]

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Star Megado Quick Recap – A Trip in Photos #smd4

November 16, 2012

As the fourth Star Megado winds down to a close later today in Chicago, I thought I’d give you a quick snapshot of some of the highlights of this crazy whirlwind trip so far that’s taken me from Zurich to San Francisco to Houston and now to Chicago. I met up with the Megadoers in [...]

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Saturday Recap: Bonus AAdvantage Miles with Avis, W Hotels Store Discount, United Upgrade Enhancements, American Airlines Flight Discount

November 10, 2012

Here’s a recap of the interesting points and miles news from this week: Bonus American AAdvantage Miles with Avis: Now through December 31, 2012, American and Avis have teamed up to offer customers 250 American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles per day on their next Avis rental up to 1,000 miles per rental. This offer is [...]

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20% Off United Saver Awards to Europe

November 8, 2012

This week United launched a MileagePlus promotion where you can save 20% on select Saver Awards in economy to Europe and 10% on hotel awards worldwide on bookings made now through November 15th for travel between January 15, 2013, and March 13, 2013. When it comes to the 20% on Saver awards, reduced award mileage prices apply only to travel [...]

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Earning and Using Points For Hurricane Sandy Relief Donations

November 1, 2012

Not only did Hurricane Sandy throw everyone’s travel plans into chaos, but it also claimed dozens of lives, flooded cities and towns up and down the East Coast, left 8 million people without power and caused billions of dollars in damage. I know a lot of you are thinking of contributing to relief efforts, so [...]

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Maximizing the Newest Business and First Class Products on US Airlines

October 31, 2012

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that recently I was disaapointed with getting the old British Airways first class (#firstclassproblems, I know). While it wasn’t the end of the world, it made me think that getting the “old” product was a much worse deal than “new” first class, which is the same price, [...]

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Up to 15,000 Bonus United Miles When Transferring Hotel Points

October 29, 2012

Now through November 30, 2012 United is offering a transfer bonus of up to 15,000 miles when you transfer points from various hotel programs. When you convert enough points for 50,000 United miles, you earn the full 15,000 bonus miles – a 30% bonus. The bonus miles should post by January 31. Here’s how the [...]

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Consolidated List of Hurricane Sandy Flight Refund and Change Policies

October 28, 2012

The East Coast is battening the hatches as Hurricane Sandy bears down on it, and airlines have already issued travel advisories and cancellation/refund policies. The bad news is that 900 flights have been cancelled up and down the East Coast today already, and airlines expect that over 2,500 will be cancelled for Monday. The good [...]

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Silly United Buy Miles Promo: Up to 60% Bonus, Maybe

October 17, 2012

Apart from truly lucrative buy and share miles promos like the current US Airways 100% Share Miles promotion, buying miles promos – even with bonuses – tend not to be a great value proposition. Case in point: United’s current “Power to the People” promo where folks who buy miles *might* earn up to a 60% [...]

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Download Shopping Assistant Toolbar for 1,000 United Miles

October 16, 2012

If I had a browser toolbar for every time an airline wanted to give me free miles for downloading one, I probably wouldn’t have any more space left in my window to see the actual web page. However, I wanted to put this one out there since I think United miles have some of the [...]

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My Chicago Seminars Presentation: Transferrable Points Programs and Credit Card Bonus Categories

October 15, 2012

Another year, another great Chicago Seminars! I had a fantastic time in Elk Grove, Illinois (about 20 minutes from O’Hare) meeting and greeting tons of other highly engaged (and slightly obsessed) frequent flyer and points hounds. My talk was on transferrable points programs and credit card bonus categories. In it I covered the big three: [...]

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Saturday Recap: Bonus Avios, American, Delta and United Miles Plus Cheap Ireland Flights

October 13, 2012

Here’s a recap of the interesting points and miles news from this week: 100,000+ Bonus Iberia Avios For Premium Tickets to Europe: Much like recent American and British Airways promos, Iberia just announced new bonuses for traveling on premium fares between North America and Europe. You must register by December 31, 2012, and fly between [...]

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United Offers Bonus for Premium Travel to London

October 10, 2012

Airlines love to mimic each other, especially when it comes to promotions targeting some of their most profitable customers: travelers paying for business and flexible coach fares. So it’s no surprise that after American and British Airways launched concurrent transatlantic flight promotions between the US and London where travelers in premium classes could earn huge [...]

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