Saturday Recap: Double American Miles, Hyatt Endless Possibilities, Starwood Caesars Partnership and More

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 the week.

Earn double American miles to Latin America: To promote its new flights to Latin America, American Airlines is offering double miles on the following routes:

• Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Bogota, Colombia (BOG)
• Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Roatan, Honduras (RTB)
• Miami (MIA) and Cozumel, Mexico (CZM)
• Miami (MIA) and Curitiba (CWB) and Porto Alegre (POA)

The promo is good for travel now through February 28, 2014) (last-minue Mexico trip, anyone?), but you must register prior to travel. Bonus miles are award miles only and do not count toward elite status.

10% Off Virgin America Flights: Virgin America is offering 10% off tickets in all cabins when purchased by 11:59pm PT for travel January 18-February 13. Tickets require 7 days advanced purchase and are only good on non-stop or connecting travel, not multi-city itineraries. Enter the promo code BREAK10 when pricing out your itinerary to see the adjusted pricing. Discount applies only to base fare, not taxes or fees. Find more details here.

Registration For Hyatt's Endless Possibilities Open: Registration is now open here for Hyatt's Endless Possibilities promo. With this promo a free night at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel after you stay five eligible nights up to 4 free nights. Free nights are valid through July 31, 2014). You can also choose bonus points. Earn 5,000 bonus points after your first five nights, 10,000 after 10 and so on up to a maximum of 50,000 points per the earning table below.

Register by March 31 for free nights or bonus points and stay at any Hyatt hotel worldwide January 15 through April 30. Be sure you make the right earning choice because once you’re registered, there’s no switching.

Starwood Caesars Partnership Goes Live: Last month, Starwood and Caesars Hotel Group announced a partnership where, starting January 9, SPG members can earn 2 points per dollar spent and redeem Starwood Preferred Guest points for stays at participating Caesars Hotels and Resorts, and Caesars Total Rewards members will be able to earn credit for Starwood stays (in addition to the Starpoints they already earn). The maximum amount of Starpoints you can earn per year is 100,000 and you must have your current SPG account set to earn Starpoints (not airline direct deposit) to be eligible for this program. Paid and award stays will count towards elite status, but will be capped at 10 nights (no stay credit) per year. For all the details, check out my post on the partnership.

Up to 30% Bonus on Purchased American Miles: Now through January 31, 2014, American is offering an incremental bonus of up to about 30% on purchased miles. Here's how it works:

So as you can see, the highest bonus is 15,000 miles and to max out the bonus percentage at 33%, you'd need to buy 45,000 miles for a total of $1,360 and 60,000 miles - a cost of about 2.28 cents per mile. Considering AA sometimes offers bonuses of up to 50% on purchased miles and its new merger partner US Airways offers bonuses of up to 100% (though we might have seen the last of those!), I might pass this one by unless you need miles immediately to top up your account for a specific award and don't have any other options like transferring Starwood points.

Wyndham Rings In 2014 with 2,014 Bonus Points: This is just a reminder that Wyndham is currently offering a promo where, when Wyndham Rewards members book and stay twice between October 15 and January 31, they can earn 2,014 bonus points after 2 trips and on 4 additional qualified stays, so you earn another 2,014 points each for your 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th stays as well up to 10,000 bonus points. Stays must commence by January 31 and check-out must occur on or before February 3 to count.

Rocketmiles 50% Tropics Bonus: Rocketmiles is running a cute little promo where for a limited time, you can earn 50% more miles on all stays between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. Make your reservation here. There is a limit of one bonus per customer. Don't worry if you don't know where exactly your hotel is. Qualifying searches will show a yellow bonus banner with the special bonus. Bonuses can not be applied to existing bookings, combined with other bonuses, or retroactively applied to bookings not made using the link above. Limit one bonus per person and one promotion per reservation. You must book before 11:59PM CT on February 12, 2014 to qualify.

20,000 Bonus Asia Miles for Flights to Singapore Via Hong Kong: The mileage program of Cathay Pacific is offering up to 20,000 bonus miles for flyers traveling from the US to Singapore via Hong Kong. Register here and fly Cathay Pacific round-trip from the US to Singapore via Hong Kong before 31 March 2014 – and earn 20,000 bonus miles in First Class or 15,000 bonus miles in Business Class. This offer is only applicable to round-trip flights marketed and operated by Cathay Pacific, originating in New York (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO) or Chicago (ORD) and traveling to Singapore (SIN) via Hong Kong. Newark (EWR)-to-Hong Kong route will commence on 2 March 2014, subject to government approval. Travel must be completed by March 31. This offer is only applicable to travel in eligible fare classes F, A (First Class) and J, C, D and I (Business Class). You can have an open jaw in the same country (so fly from LA but back to New York), and if you have a mixed-class ticket, you will only receive the bonus for the lower fare class. Remember to register prior to travel.

550 Bonus Points on Hertz 2+ Day Rentals: Now through February 7, Hertz is offering members 550 bonus points on rentals of two days or more. Register here before renting and keep in mind that to qualify, your rental must be $40 or more, and you must select Hertz NeverLost, SiriusXM Satellite Radio, Fuel Purchase Option or a Protection Plan on your next qualifying rental. Rentals must be made at participating Hertz locations including the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, U.S.V.I., United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand only. 550 Gold points is enough for a free Weekend Rental Day.

9,000 Club Carlson Points For Avis 3+ Day Rentals: Now through June 30, 2014, Club Carlson members can earn 9,000 total Gold Points from Avis on rentals of 3 days or more at participating Avis airport locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. Register here with Promo Code MUHA021 and provide your Club Carlson number at the time of reservation or at the rental counter to earn your bonus points. This offer is in addition to Avis's everyday savings offer of up to 25% when you use AWD # G639300 for Club Carlson members. The 9,000 total Gold Points offer reflects 8,250 actual bonus points plus the usual 750 base points earned.

Activate Chase Freedom and Discover It 5% Cash Back Categories: It's January, which means it's a whole new quarter for those 5% cash back categories on the Chase Freedom and Discover It cards. View Chase's current 5X categories on this page. If you just have the Freedom card, your points are good for cash back, but they can be transferred to Ultimate Rewards’ travel partners if you have one of the premium cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Bold or Ink Plus, including United, British Airways, Southwest, Korean, Virgin Atlantic, Hyatt, Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and IHG Rewards. Discover's 5% categories now through March 31 are: restaurants and movie theaters. Remember, each card caps the 5X earning at $1,500 per quarter.

Reciprocal Earning and Redeeming on American and US Airways: The big airline news this week was that as of Tuesday, flyers of both American Airlines and US Airways would be able to earn and redeem miles on either airline. Among the key points:

• AAdvantage and Dividend Miles members can earn and redeem miles when traveling across either airline’s network. All travel on eligible tickets on both airlines will count toward qualification for elite status in the customer’s program of choice.
• Elite members of each airline can enjoy select reciprocal benefits of both the AAdvantage and Dividend Miles programs, including First and Business Class check-in, priority security and priority boarding, complimentary access to Preferred Seats, priority baggage delivery, and checked bags at no charge, consistent with the current baggage policies for each carrier.
• Members of the American Admirals Club or US Airways Club will have reciprocal club benefits, providing them access to the 35 Admirals Clubs and 19 US Airways Clubs. In addition, American AAdvantage Citi Executive cardholders will have access to US Airways Clubs.
• Airport and Web check-in timeframes will be aligned for both US Airways and American.
• Boarding announcements will align to accommodate elites of both carriers.
• Airport ticket counters and gates at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport are now co-located.

Award availability for both airlines is now showing on each airline’s website, opening up more options, like using US Airways miles for AA's Off-Peak Saver awards, and flying to London on US Airways without paying hefty AA or BA surcharges. More to come!
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