 If you have ever thought of getting discount on your British Airways Flight ticket you would have come across AARP discount on British Airways flight purchase. As per AARP website anyone age 50+ can become a member and take benefits of variety of offers present. But in reality the age criteria is not enforced and anyone can become a member for a standard annual rate of $16 or discounted rate of $12 for the first year when you select "1 Year Automatic Renewal". Currently you can stack multiple offers to get great deal on membership. You can score 1,000 American Airlines Miles + 1,200 Swagbucks + Free gift for just $12. To top it you can meet some credit card spend using AARP Rewards or score some gift cards if you are in gift cards. Apart from above AARP have array of benefits available to member's including great travel benefits shown below.  Travel benefits of AARP membership!! So here is how the stacking would work:
 Earn 1,200 SB which can be redeemed for $12 of Amazon gift card! So, sign up for AARP rewards for free as well as earn a free gift and some AA miles in the process.
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 Radisson Hotels has launched a new promotion where you will earn 5k bonus points per stay till Dec 31st 2020. You need to register for the promotion before any of the stay's occurs to earn the bonus points and it can be done here. The best part of the promotion is the stay could be just "One night" and it is available for world wide stays. Both "award points" stays and "points + cash" stays will count for the purpose of 5k bonus points.  5k bonus points each stay! Since the promotion lasts till December 31st 2020, it might be useful for stays far off in Thanksgiving or Christmas time given most folks would put off travel in current COVID-19 situation. Radisson award night stay start at just 9k points so it would be of best use for those cheap 1-night stays where you get rebate of 5k points back . Do remember that consecutive nights at hotel count as single stay and would earn just 5k points regardless of the number of nights in that stay. You can earn maximum of 150k points during this promotion.
So, register for this promotion today even if you do not have any current plans of stay as the promotion lasts till December 31st 2020. Below are the important terms of the promotion: *By registering for and participating in the 2020 5K For Every Stay promotion (“Promotion”), you acknowledge, and you agree to these Terms and Conditions. To be eligible for the Promotion, you must: (i) Be a Radisson Rewards member (“Member”); (ii) Register online for the Promotion prior to checkout of the Eligible Stay (to become an “Eligible Member”) and (iii) Complete Eligible Stays between July 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 (“Promotion Period”). The Promotion is available at all Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson, and Country Inn & Suites by Radisson hotels worldwide (collectively, “Participating Properties”). Eligible Stays reserved prior to the Promotion Period are eligible for this Promotion, but must be consumed during the Promotion Period to be eligible and must have been booked via an eligible booking source with an eligible rate. Eligible Members will earn Bonus Points for each Eligible Stay completed at Participating Properties during the Promotion Period, not to exceed 150,000 total Bonus Points (“Promotion Bonus”). Bonus Points will be credited to the Member’s account throughout the Promotion Period, when the standard points are credited, usually within 5-10 business days after the Eligible Stay has been consumed. In addition to the Promotion Bonus earned for Eligible Stays consumed during the Promotion Period, an Eligible Member will earn the standard 20 points issued per U.S. Dollar spent and their Tier Bonus (Silver, additional 2 points per U.S. Dollar spent; Gold, additional 5 points per U.S. Dollar spent; Platinum, additional 15 points per U.S. Dollar spent). Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  As with most airlines and hotels facing cash crunch one of the easy way to raise cash is by selling miles/points at a discounted price. On that note Alaska Airlines is currently offering certain member's ability to purchase miles with additional "up to 60% bonus" miles based on the amount of points purchased.
 Offer to purchase miles with 60% bonus for certain members! Alaska Airlines partners with many airlines including best in class such as Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific. So if you have any planned trip for which you can find award space then it may be a good deal to top up or buy Alaska Airlines miles for this trip. To see what is your targeted bonus you need to use your Mileage Plan details and check here.
So, if you purchase 40,000 miles you will receive bonus miles of 24,000; so for a total cost of $1,100 you will receive 64,000 miles. For 62,500 miles you can travel one way to/from South Asia to Contiguous U.S. /Alaska in Cathay Pacific Business class! You can look up the award chart for different airlines here by selecting your region of travel. Below are the published terms for the bonus miles promo:
Purchase miles only if you have trip planned in near/distant future as speculative buying may not be the best bet at this time. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Due to COVID-19 most airlines are in survival mode and coming up with various promotions to keep them afloat or to get the much needed cash infusion. Etihad Airways is running a promotion which started on 10th of June and valid till 24th of June where you would get 50% more in value when you purchase a travel voucher which could be used for booking any flights starting 1st August 2020.
You can purchase the travel voucher in any amount from $250 to $65,000 and it would be valid for 2 years from the date of purchase. One of the best thing is that you can use the voucher for booking flights for any friend or family and till the end of schedule from the date of booking which could be the last date of expiration of the voucher. You can also book your tickets online and see the voucher value while booking so you do not necessarily need to call. You will need Etihad Guest Account to have travel voucher deposited to the linked travel bank account. You would also earn miles and elite points on the actual ticket purchase. Do keep in mind that although highly unlikely Etihad can also go out of business and you would wind up holding "zilch" or $0 in value for the voucher. Also you cannot use the travel voucher for paying taxes and fees for the award ticket. Below are the terms and conditions of the voucher:
You will need to call the Etihad call center here to make the purchase and in the process they will create the travel bank account for you loaded with the travel voucher purchased. More information on travel bank can be found here. Etihad has vast network of flights and has highly rated Business Class and ranked in top 10 of the world's best business class seats in 2019. So, there could be quite number of opportunities where you can travel with Etihad using the voucher. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  We wrote about Hilton Honors Aspire resort credit of $250 applicable to dining purchases going live on 06/01/2020 here. So, if you have not used your Hilton resort credit for the current year from now to 08/31/2020 is the best time to use your Hilton Honor's aspire card for the any dining purchase. The important point was that you can use that credit towards takeout / delivery service providers such as Grubhub, UberEats. DoorDash etc. This allows for potentially using these delivery service with any promotion's they present along with any points, cashback earning potential through various cashback sites or hotel programs.
So, below are the few things you can do to maximize your points/cashback for the reimbursed $250 dining credit on your Hilton Honors Aspire card (If you have not already used your resort credit!!).
Chase Sapphire "Pay Yourself Back" for Easy Cash-out at 1.25c (Preferred) or 1.5c (Reserve)!6/1/2020  Chase Sapphire cards has added an amazing feature called "Pay Yourself Back" effective 05/31/2020 where you can cash out ultimate reward points at value of 1.25 cent/point (Preferred card) or 1.5 cent/point (Reserve card) for your purchases made with the card in certain categories. For starters below categories are valid till 09/30/2020:
As per the media release the statement credit will post within 3 days after redeeming ultimate rewards for the said charges. You can access the special pay yourself back page here after logging in your chase account and redeeming ultimate reward points for either 1.25 cent/point or 1.5 cent/point value for the said categories depending on which sapphire card you have purchases on. Chase Sapphire Preferred comes with $95 annual fees whereas Chase Sapphire Reserve has annual fees of $550 (although Chase has lowered annual fees to $450 for any renewals from now till December 2020 instead of the regular fees of $550). Also Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with $300 annual travel credit which can now be redeemed against Grocery store purchase or Gas station purchase till Dec 31st, 2020. So, if you have huge stash of Ultimate Reward Points then having one of the Sapphire credit cards would allow you to redeem the points at a great value. You could also upgrade an existing freedom card to Sapphire card. Do remember though that if you go after Sapphire Reserve card you would have to probably pay regular fees of $550 instead of reduce fees of $450 or you could upgrade to Sapphire Preferred for $95 annual fees. So, do your math if it's worth for you to upgrade and to which card!! Hat tip (Doctor Of Credit) Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Due to COVID-19 situation lot of travel related credit card's with high annual fees are innovating and throwing in temporary statement credit redemption options. Hilton Aspire credit card comes with $250 resort credit each card member year for purchases at participating Hilton Resorts. They are making good on those credits by allowing to redeem them against restaurant charges for a short window from June 1st to Aug 31st 2020. Hilton Aspire is a great card with benefits worth its high fees of $450 if you are travel geek. Having an alternate option to redeem those $250 in resort credit's for restaurant purchases (including Grubhub / Seamless, UberEats etc) makes the credit card compelling and the one which you should hold on or can apply for here. Also the free annual weekend night which can be used at any property except few here is a great value. Below is the snapshot of the modified benefits of the card as per American Express. Also the terms are below for completeness.  American Express Hilton Aspire modified benefits  American Express Hilton Aspire Resort Credit Terms. As you can see you already earn 12 Hilton Honor Points at U.S. Supermarkets as modified benefit for time being. In addition you might notice additional point earning offers such as below on your "Amex Offers" which would make it useful card even in time of No travel.  New: Earning additional Hilton Honors points targeted to merchant Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.
 One of the best card's for extended warranty is Citi. While American Express extended warranty claim is much easier to get approved, AMEX only provides up to 1 year of extended warranty where-as Citi provides up to 24 months of extended warranty.
Citi's extended warranty adds 24 months to any original manufacturer warranty or purchased extended warranty from vendor/service provider with maximum vendor/service provider of 5 years. So effectively you can get total of 7 years of extended warranty. The best part is you can get this extended warranty with No annual fee Citi Reward+ credit card. Below are some of the baseline terms. For complete benefits guide you can look up "card benefits" section after login in to your citi online account:
So, let's say for example you buy a cooking range from Home Depot and you purchased extended warranty of 5 years. You will get additional 24 months of coverage extending your warranty to total of 7 years! If you do not want to pay for the extended warranty from Home Depot than you would still have 1 year of manufacturer warranty (usually) and additional 24 months of extended warranty from Citi. (Note: You need to have some manufacturer warranty provided or else Citi's extended warranty does not apply!) You also get reimbursed only for the amount paid with Citi credit card/Thank You points. so ensure that you put full purchase charge on Citi card to get the full benefit. One important thing to check is that even within Citi the extended warranty benefit is not available across all credit card's. For e.g. as of this writing this benefit is not available with Citi Double Cash Card . So do check the benefits of the card before using it for purchase. You can find all the Citi credit card's here. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  With most of the folks not looking to travel in next few months and uncertainty around travel some of us would be thinking of how to best preserve cash. Most of the flexible credit card points program in the U.S.A such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou points allows one to cash out the points for statement credit or cash in checking/savings account. If you have a big stash of these flexible points and no near term travel plan it may be prudent to cash them out. While Chase Ultimate Rewards makes it easy and gives a value of 1:1 (Every 1,000 points can be redeemed for $10 in cash) Citi ThankYou points gives a real bad value of 1:0.5 (Every 1,000 points can be redeemed for $5 in cash). How to maximize cash out of Citi ThankYou points? Citi ThankYou points allows few ways of cashing out the points.
Alternative option of gift card!! You can redeem Citi ThankYou points for gift cards at 1:1 ratio. While not as good as cold hard cash, you could still redeem for plethora of merchants such as Target, Lowe's , Home Depot, Best Buy etc. This would give flexibility of getting close to 1:1 value which otherwise you would not get. You can also sell this gift card at some of the online re-sellers and still get `~90% of the value of gift card as cash getting a redemption ratio of 1:0.9 (1000 points for a value of $9) which is better than 1:0.5.  Citi ThankYou cash out options Getting a Citi Rewards+ Card for Better Redemption value:
Citi has a no annual fee Citi Rewards+ Card which gives 10% back in points for any redemption of Citi ThankYou points (Maximum of 10,000 points back per year). If you have this card and redeem for gift card than you can potentially get close to ~1:1 ratio as you would receive 10% back in points. So, do remember alternate option as they might be better of than taking a direct "cash reward" or "statement credit" at reduced value. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. Lot of folks are currently looking to either change or cancel their near term travel as well as at the same time return to their home ASAP due to the outbreak of COVID-19. While most of the airlines/hotels are updating or changing their policy to accommodate the passengers/guests, there is lot of anxiety among the folks who are either currently travelling or have near term travel booked.
So, if you need to change / cancel your travel here is your to-do list in no particular order:
Be safe and hopefully the situation will get better sooner than latter. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. |
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