Saturday Recap: Discount Cathay Pacific Fares, 1,000 Bonus Hilton Points With Mobile App, National's One Two Free Promotion

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.

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

Chase Ink Cards Switching to Visa Signature Products: Since they launched, the family of Chase Ink cards for small businesses, including the Ink Plus and Ink Bold as well as the Ink Business Cash Credit Card and Ink Classic, have been World MasterCards, but over the past few days, several readers have written in and commented on posts that when they recently applied for the cards, both were now Visa Signature products. I reached out to Chase to find out what was going on, and was informed that all the Ink cards will now be Visa Signatures. If, like me, you have either or both of these cards, they will still be World MasterCards - you won't be getting a new card in the mail to replace your existing one - but when your current card expires, it will be switched over to Visa Signature. Check out my post on the Top 10 Visa Signature Cardholder Benefits and my post on the Chase Ink Visa Signature Changeover and What It Means For You.

Enter To Win This Week’s 10,000-Point Thursday Giveaway: This week’s Thursday Giveaway is for 10,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points. You can enter by leaving a comment on the original post telling me which of the perks of the Chase Ink Plus or Ink Bold is your favorite and why. It can be anything from being able to transfer to United for a first class Lufthansa redemption, to racking up tons of bonus points at Staples. Whatever it is, I want to hear it and I want to know why it’s your favorite perk. You have until 5pm ET on Sunday, September 15, to enter. Then Team TPG will choose a winner at random and announce it on Monday. The winner can then designate the travel transfer partner of choice for the 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points prize.

Earn 1,000 Bonus Hilton Points With their Mobile App: Now through December 31, 2013, Hilton is offering customers the opportunity to earn bonus points when booking stays through their mobile app. You'll earn 1,000 bonus Hilton HHonors points for stay booked through the app. To get started head to the App Store in iTunes, where you can download the app. To qualify you must book a paid stay through the app. The bonus points should post to your account with six to eight weeks.

Cathay Pacific Celebrates Newark Route Launch with Fare Sale: Cathay Pacific is launching new service from Newark Liberty International Airport to Hong Kong beginning March 1, 2014 on their Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. They currently offer 4x daily service from New York's John F. Kennedy to Hong Kong, so this new route will complement their existing service. To celebrate this new route, they are offering a fare sale on round-trip economy class tickets from Newark to Hong Kong purchased from September 16 - 23, 2013 from just $759 including all taxes and fuel surcharges, for travel between March 1 – April 30, 2014. To take part in this offer, just head over to their site where you can book these sale fares.

Up to Double Points - Including Elite Qualifying Points from Virgin America: Earlier this week, Virgin America launched a promotion that will allow you to rack up tons of points if you purchase Main Cabin Select or First Class fares and a decent amount of points if you purchase and fly in coach fares from now until December 31, 2013. To participate in this offer, you must register here, and then you will earn 10 points per dollar when you book First Class (J, C, D Fare Classes) or Main Cabin Select (W, Q, Z Fare Classes) fares. Then there’s a separate bonus of up to 25,000 additional points that is calculated on the base amount of points you earn from flights September 10- December 31, 2013 which includes Economy, Main Cabin Select and First Class fares. The best part is all bonus points earned during the promotion will count towards elite status.

Chase Freedom 4th Quarter Registration Begins: (No longer open to new applicants) Registration will begin on Sunday, September 15 for the 4th Quarter Chase Freedom Bonus Categories. This time around they will include select department stores (including Macy’s, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Barney’s, Sears and more) and Amazon.com purchases made from October 1 – December 31, 2013, so be sure to register if you have the Chase Freedom Visa card. Freedom’s 5X spending bonuses are one of the best ways to rack up bonus Ultimate Rewards points in my opinion especially since this card carries no annual fee. For more information, check out my post on the Top Current Credit Card Offers With No Annual Fee.

National's One Two Free Promotion: National’s One Two Free promotion began this week and will run through January 31, 2014. Renters can earn one free rental day with every two rentals of two or more days, and there is no limit to the number of free days you could earn, just that you can only use 3 free days per rental when it comes time to redeem. To participate in this offer, you must first register here. You'll still earn your normal reward benefits of either Free Days or airline miles in addition to this current offer. They are also offering an opportunity to earn bonus points for downloading their mobile app, or opting in to their emails to name a few. Keep in mind, National also status matches elite members of its competitors. Avis Preferred First and Hertz #1 Club Gold Five Star can match to National Club Executive Level, which normally takes 12 rentals or 40 rental days to achieve.

British Airways Announces Lifetime Elite Status: British Airways recently announced lifetime status. Customers who earn 35,000 Lifetime Tier Points, will receive lifetime gold status. Gold status offers priority boarding, first class check-in lines, a 100% mileage earning bonus, access to additional reward availability, and lounge access to name a few perks. To put this in perspective, gold normally require 1,500 points per year, meaning earning lifetime status is the equivalent to earning gold status for about 22 years. Currently they are only offering lifetime Gold status, so possibly in the future they may decide to offer lifetime Silver or Bronze.

Book One Room Get A Second For 50% Off With Starwood: For stays booked now through September 15 and completed by September 30, Starwood properties in Europe, Africa and the Middle East are offering guests who book one room 50% off a second room for their kids ages 21 and under. If different room categories are booked, the discounted rate is available on the room in the lower category. Kids under 12 also get breakfast free when the adults order the regular buffet breakfast option. When making your reservation, reference the Rate Plan SMURFS.

Register for Hyatt's Fall Promo: Don't forget that Hyatt's fall "Discover New Possibilities" promo is now live - where you can earn up to 50,000 bonus Gold Passport points on stays now through November 30, 2013. You’ll earn 5,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points after your 5th night, an additional 10,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points after your 10th night, an additional 15,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points after your 15th night, and an additional 20,000 Hyatt Gold Passport bonus points after your 20th night for a possible grand total of 50,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points.