Saturday Recap: Alaska Airlines Offers 10,000 Bonus Miles For Select Routes, Discounted Award Tickets to Hawaii on American, Amtrak Double Days Fall Promotion, Win A Trip To London With Virgin Atlantic

Here's a recap of the interesting points and miles news from this week:

Alaska Airlines Offers 10,000 Bonus Miles For Select Routes: Earn up to 10,000 bonus miles from Alaska Airlines when you fly 3 roundstrips (six flights in total) on any of the routes below, or fly 2 round trips (four flights in total) and earn 5,000 miles. The routes are between Seattle and Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia; as well as between Portland and Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. You must register your Mileage Plan number before your first flight and fly nonstop on an Alaska operated and marketed flight. The offer is open for travel between August 20, 2013, and November 12, 2013.

Discounted Award Tickets to Hawaii on American: American Airlines is offering some discounted award redemptions to Hawaii. Travelers can save 5,000 miles round-trip when they book a reduced MileSAAver Economy Class award. To be eligible, you must book between August 28 - September 13, 2013 for travel from September 11 - December 17, 2013. Economy awards usually cost 17,500 each way for a total of 35,000 miles roundtrip, but with this discount, your award ticket will only require 30,000 miles. Another way to consider getting to Hawaii is using British Airways Avios since their awards are distance-based, so you could head there and back from Los Angeles for only 25,000 miles in coach.

US Airways 100% Bonus On Purchased Miles Ends Today: As a recap from earlier this month, US Airways is currently offering a bonus of up to 100% for buying or gifting miles up to 50,000 (so 100,000 with the bonus) that ends today. Miles are normally sold for 3.5 cents each plus a 7.5% tax recovery charge. With this tiered bonus, you’ll receive a 50% bonus for buying 10,000-19,000 miles; a 75% bonus for buying 20,000-29,000 miles; or a 100% bonus for buying 30,000-50,000 miles. Although buying miles can be costly and usually only makes sense with a specific redemption in mind. Although the DOJ suit has slowed down US Airways' merger with American for the moment, the deal could still close by the end of the year or early next, so this could be one of your last chances to get in on a 100% bonus on purchased miles.

Amtrak Double Days Fall Promotion: Amtrak’s Double Days promotion is coming back this spring. Passengers will earn double points on qualifying Amtrak travel between September 9 - October 31, 2013. Registration will open on September 9th, so make sure to register prior to travel in order to be eligible. In order to score the bonus points, you must be a member of Amtrak Guest Rewards, so if you aren't already, you can sign up here, and you’ll earn 500 bonus points just for becoming a member.

Triple Gold Plus Rewards Points with Hertz: Hertz is currently offering triple Gold Plus Rewards on rentals in September. These are for rentals from September 1 - 30, and you must register prior to your rental. You must be a Hertz Gold member to register for this promotion, so if you're not already, sign up and then you'll be able to register for it 48 hours after joining. The bonus points should only take up to 5 days to post to your account. Hertz is also offering some other upcoming promotions as well. Now through September 30, 2013, they are offering renters ages 20-24 a full free tank of gas on a three day rental or longer by mentioning PC# 191951. If you're starting to think about holiday travel already, Hertz is offering discounted weekly rentals starting at $169.99 per week by entering rate code VSTPTW for US rentals or VSTPDW for Canadian rentals.

Win A Trip To London With Virgin Atlantic: Once again, the NFL is traveling to England this season for some exhibition games and you could win the chance to see the San Francisco 49ers play the Jacksonville Jaguars. Virgin Atlantic is giving away two roundtrip tickets to London plus two seats for the NFL International Series game at Wembley Stadium on October 27, 2013. Login with your Flying Club membership to answer a simple multiple choice question, and then e-mail your answer, name, address, daytime phone number and Flying Club membership number to gameday@fly.virgin.com to enter to win economy tickets on Virgin Atlantic (from the major airport nearest winner’s home serviced by Virgin Atlantic), 3-day/2-night hotel accommodations and transportation to and from the stadium. You must be a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club member as of August 25, 2013 and enter between now and September 22, 2013.

Starwood's Take a Spin Promotion: Starwood launched their Take a Spin promotion earlier this week, where you can win a number of instant prizes such as free nights or Starpoints, and be entered to win the grand prize of 250,000 Starpoints. You can enter online once a day now through October 10, 2013, or you can also enter onsite at several Starwood sponsored events. Each day, SPG will be giving away 46 instant prizes such as free nights or Starpoints including 5 chances at 5,000 Starpoints, 10 chances at 1,000 Starpoints, 25 chances at 500 Starpoints and two daily winners will receive a Kate Spade New York SPG tote. There will also be one grand prize winner selected at random who will receive 250,000 Starpoints. You might as well enter since it only takes about 30 seconds.

Qantas Announces Upgrades To Its Airbus A330 Fleet: Qantas announced that it will be will be upgrading its Airbus A330 international and domestic fleets throughout 204 with a new business class cabin and refreshes to economy. The aircraft is operated on flights between Australia and Asia, and between the east and west coasts of Australia. Improvements include new in-flight entertainment systems and increased space and comfort in all new seats. The new business class seats with have space for sleeping, working or relaxing, and recline into a fully lie-flat bed in a 1-2-1 configuration so that all passengers have direct access to the aisle. For the full details, read the fact sheet on the new upgrades.

Free Amex Bluebird Checks Extended Through January 1, 2014: Bluebird by American Express, a debit card-checking account alternative, has been one of the most powerful tools in every points collector’s arsenal. They've added a couple new features that increase its usefulness including the ability for account holders to get actual physical check books. These checks come in books of 50 ($19.94 + $5.94 shipping) or 100 ($26.94 + $6.94 shipping) usually. But for the first several months they were available, Bluebird allowed its account holders to order these checks for free (even shipping and taxes are waived), and while the discount was supposed to end in May, it was extended through August and now it has been extended again through January 1, 2014.
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