Earn 1,000 Dividend Miles With Purchase Of $100 Best Western Travel Card
Quick summary
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Best Western and US Airways are running a promotion until November 30, 2013, where you can earn 1,000 Dividend Miles per $100 Best Western Travel Card you purchase. In order to be eligible for this promotion you must reside in the US or Canada, be enrolled in Best Western Rewards and have selected US Airways Dividend Miles as your earning preference in your Best Western Rewards profile. Only Travel Cards purchased online count.
The Travel Card is essentially a gift card and can be used just like cash at 4,000 Best Western hotels worldwide. If you're not already a member of Best Western Rewards, you can sign up for an account here. If you're already a member, you can register for the offer on the promo page, just be sure that Best Western is selected as your earning preference.
Once your account has been created, go into your account preferences and select "Earning preference: Airline/Partner Rewards," then enter your Dividend Miles account number and choose US Airways from the drop down box for airline. When you place your order for a $100 Travel Card, the 1,000 Dividend Miles will be credited to your US Airways account in 4-6 weeks and you will also earn Dividend Miles on Best Western stays.
I value Dividend Miles at roughly 1.8 cents apiece - although there are a lot of ways to get more value out of them if you use them for premium redemptions on Star Alliance partners - so essentially by spending $100 at Best Western and getting 1,000 miles as a bonus, you're getting $18 - or 18% - back in value.
More than that, Best Western is also listed on several shopping portals at the moment, including American Airlines' AAdvantage eShopping, where you can earn 2X miles per $1:
Meaning you can earn even more points or miles per dollar, depending on which online shopping portal you click through first, and then be sure to use a credit card that earns you a category spending bonus on hotel accommodations or travel in general, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred (2.14X per $1), Ink Bold or Ink Plus (2X points per $1), or the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard (2X per $1) since you're purchasing directly through Best Western.
Then when it comes time to use your Travel Card, you can go back through the same shopping portal (or a different one depending on the bonuses available at the time) to click through to Best Western and earn even more bonus points or miles when you use it.
For more information on maximizing points on hotel bookings, check out my post on Choosing The Best Site and Credit Card for Purchasing Hotel Stays.
I wouldn't just go purchasing Best Western Travel Cards speculatively just for the 1,000 miles, but if you do stay at Best Western and know you'll put the Travel Card to use, and you can maximize the bonus points you earn through a shopping portal and with a credit card that earns bonus points on hotel stays or travel, you could really rack up the points on these.