Yesterday, American Airlines revised its frequent flier mileage redemption amounts for some awards, increased some ticketing fees and took away some baggage benefits. But the worst news was that they removed the ability to tack on a free one way trip to an international award. Luckily, you can still book a free one way ticket in the US and I’ll share how on, you guessed it, United Airlines.
Two questions that people often ask me is “Where can I find great travel deals?” and “When is the best time to buy an airline ticket?” Although the second question is harder to answer because it’s much more subjective, I certainly have some helpful advice when it comes to where and when you can save money.
Finding a super low price on an airline ticket (or even a mistake!) is getting easier and easier with one of my favorite tools: Twitter. Sure, it primarily serves as a way to keep up with your favorite celebrity and look at people’s selfies, but if you follow the right deal sites and travel bloggers, you’ll never miss a low price. I’ve listed four of my favorites below; if you’re not on Twitter, consider creating an account or if you prefer, you could also stick with visiting their corresponding websites. Continue reading…
Back in December, I wrote that the American Express Platinum card would no longer allow you to get into the American Airlines or US Air Clubs so I called to “complain” and got $100 statement credit to use toward airline incidentals on American Airlines. Although the terms & conditions state otherwise, you can use this statement credit – along with the regular $200 statement credit that come as a card benefit – on gift cards from American Airlines, which you can then use to pay for flights.
I recently explained how to use Amazon Payments to meet minimum spending requirements or increase your spending on credit cards in part 1 of my series on manufactured spending. In part 2, I’ll walk you through using Vanilla Reload Cards and a Bluebird Account in order to exponentially increase your spending activity. If you haven’t already opened a credit card to earn miles, do so. For some large sign up bonuses, I recommend the British Airways or American Airlines credit cards. If you feel comfortable getting both, you could very quickly amass over 150,000 miles in your coffers.
Many credit cards offer large, attractive amounts of bonus miles on new accounts after spending a minimum amount of money within a certain period of time. The amounts vary: sometimes they are as low as $2,000 or $3,000 but as high as $20,000. The timeframe in which you must spend this amount is typically 3 months but it can be as long as the first year of account ownership. To meet the minimum spending requirements (or just plain increase the amount of miles or points that you earn) on credit cards like the recent American Airlines or British Airways offers, there are some ways that you can achieve this without having to spend much or any of your own money. This practice is known through blogs and various forums as “manufactured spending” and I’ll describe two of the easiest and most common methods in a posting today and tomorrow. As with anything, moderation will be the key to your success. Continue reading…
Have you ever been running so late that you’ve missed your flight? I cut it very close the other day on the United Airlines 6:35pm departure from Newark to Milan. I wasn’t able to complete online check in because I was randomly asked to have a United Airlines ticket agent double check my passport before issuing my boarding pass. I got into a cab at 5:05pm – the middle of rush hour – and didn’t make it to Newark until 6:10pm, well past the one-hour-before-departure cut off for international check in. If I had my boarding pass it would have been plenty of time. But I still had to check in, so I quickly scanned the ticket agent faces and looked for someone who seemed friendly and potentially sympathetic. I found one and politely asked her if there was any way that she could get me onto the flight to Milan. She initially, with a lot of regret in her voice, said no, but then I asked the magic question which had me sitting on the plane 10 minutes later:
A few days ago, one of my favorite blogs, The Points Guy, posted that Citibank is running a promotion on the Citi Executive AAdvantage MasterCard and awarding 100,000 American Airlines miles after you spend $10,000 in 3 months. Although the card comes with a hefty annual fee of $450, you will receive a one-time $200 statement credit after you make three purchases on the card. In addition, the card includes membership to the American Airlines Admirals Club (and now US Air Club).
British Airways is currently offering a Visa card through Chase with a 100,000 50,000 Avios sign up bonus. The usual bonus is for 50,000 Avios but from time to time larger offers like this appear. I recently wrote about the advantages of booking short flights on American Airlines by using British Airways Avios. I have also used British Airways Avios to book business class seats to and from Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific Airlines and friends of mine have used Avios to fly Qantas Airlines in Oceania. Ironically, what I wouldn’t use British Airways Avios for is to fly British Airways! Why? British Airways imposes very expensive fuel surcharges when you fly them which make an Avios redemption almost just as expensive as paying for a ticket. In fact, I just priced a ticket from New York to London on January 16 and returning January 21 on the British Airways site for $890 versus spending 40,000 Avios and $687 in fuel surcharges. In my opinion, redeeming 40,000 Avios is hardly worth the $203 savings.
I am in the midst of a 15 day trip wandering across Asia that cost me $1,521 to book. It also required a lot of miles and points – 216,750 to be exact – but considering I have a first class ticket from the US, a business class seat home, coach flights intra-Asia, and 14 nights at Starwood and Hyatt properties, it was completely worth the effort amassing the points.
So how did I book it? Continue reading…
I received an email today from American Express that neither my personal Platinum card nor my business Platinum card will allow me complimentary access to American Airlines Admirals Clubs or US Airways Clubs as of March 22, 2014. It’s a shame because the benefit was a great perk and helps to offset the steep $450 annual fee on each one of the charge cards. Of course, in the email from American Express, they reminded me that the Platinum card comes with a $200 credit each calendar year toward airline incidentals like baggage fees or lounge access, so I could use that to help offset the cost of a lounge membership to the Admirals Club, currently priced at $500 a year. Continue reading…
If you hold an American Express Platinum card, you are eligible for an instant upgrade to Hilton HHonors gold status. Just call up Amex, give them your card number and Hilton HHonors account number before December 31, 2013 and you’ll be all set. According to Hilton’s website, benefits of gold status include a 25% bonus on all points earned, free high speed internet access, late check-out and access to fitness centers. Some properties even offer upgrades to preferred rooms.
Virgin America is running a buy one get one free sale today only on fares between Newark, NJ and several other cities. Be sure to wander over to this page and enter code VXFOR2. The sale applies to main cabin tickets only, there are some blackout dates, and is valid for travel between November 6 and November 26.
I wander from New York to Columbus, Ohio frequently on American Airlines and have not paid for an airline ticket the past several times – 13 times, to be exact. Earlier in the year, I was targeted for 100,000 American Express points if I applied and was approved for their Platinum card. The offer was too good to pass up so I applied and a few weeks later I had the points.
T-Mobile announced last Wednesday that they will offer unlimited data coverage in over 100 countries, free texting, and phone calls at 20 cents per minute. The savings begin on October 20 for new customers and October 31 for existing customers.
The data will be free but not fast – expect Edge or 2G speeds. However, for 4G speed, T-Mobile will sell on-the-go packages: for $15, you get a single day’s worth of high-speed data up to 100 megabytes, while $20 gets you one week at 200 megabytes and $50 gets you two weeks and 500 megabytes.
On several occasions after wandering the world I have come home to $1000 phone bills so this is great news!
Read the press release here or browse the specifics of the new plan here.
A friend of mine emailed me a link and offer code for free gold elite status on American Airlines through the end of the year. Even though I probably won’t enjoy most of the benefits, I signed up anyway. Here’s how:
The code worked. Thank you Wandering New Yorker!
Did you know that American Airlines is giving away free one way flights in the US? No, it’s not too good to be true and it’s very easy to do on aa.com! One of American’s routing rules allows for a free stopover for up to 1 year from an international gateway city on a one way or roundtrip award reservation.
You have it all figured out!!! Thanks for making the time and effort to share.