Miles And Money
  • Miles And Money Blog
  • What We Do
  • Newbie Lounge
    • How to Get Started
    • FAQ - Miles & Points
    • FAQ - Money & Cashback
  • Travel Destinations
  • Contact Me
  • Miles And Money Blog
  • What We Do
  • Newbie Lounge
    • How to Get Started
    • FAQ - Miles & Points
    • FAQ - Money & Cashback
  • Travel Destinations
  • Contact Me

Redeem Citi ThankYou Points for 20% discount on certain gift cards (Including Apple) - 11/30/2020 Only!!

11/29/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Citi ThankYou points are useful for transfer to various airlines partners with most notable use for travel to/from Hawaii using Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program (7.5k points each way) if you have their Citi Premier Card or Prestige Card. Due to COVID-19 though most travel is down due to travel restrictions in place and so getting an alternate way of redeeming points is a great plus.

With Citi Premium card Ideally you could redeem your Citi ThankYou points for 1:1 ratio for gift card's. But on 11/30/2020 starting at 12 a.m. EST for 24 hours you can redeem your Citi ThankYou points for certain gift cards at 20% discount and more importantly it includes the "Apple gift card".

Since Apple recently changed their gift card so that it can be used for both Itunes as well as Apple products it could represent screeching deal to purchase those at 20% discount. In addition if you hold Citi Reward+ Card then you would get 10% ThankYou points back as rebate. So if you are redeeming for $100 Apple gift card with 20% discount you would pay 8,000 Citi ThankYou points which will further reduce to just 7,200 points if you hold Citi Reward+ card thus essentially making it 28% discount on Apple gift card (1000 points = $10).

Picture
Redeem Citi ThankYou points for 20% discount on Apple gift card!
So, if you have healthy stack of Citi ThankYou points and no immediate idea of where to use it this might be a great deal to redeem those points.

​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.
0 Comments

The Week of Thanksgiving!

11/22/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
With the onset of the week of Thanksgiving it amazes me how COVID-19 has affected us and people around us in this year of 2020. Yet, here we are resilient and giving our fight to this pandemic.

Although the commercial forces have made this week a week of shopping for ourselves and family, it should not pass away without we giving our thanks to all the lovely family and friends, the front line workers and all the people who strive for good and have made a difference to our lives!!

The number of journey's we take to travel and connect with people, understand without prejudice and all the expression of gratitude we have for what life brings to us is what makes us. This all is possible due to the numerous airlines, hotel's, B&B's, Public transport, consulate's around the world where people work to connect us and make our journey more meaningful.

Although these are challenging times for hospitality industry but the myriad changes made by the industry participants to make our travel more flexible and rewarding needs a big thanks! May we seek out the best of nature and the world has to offer and be ready for our next travel soon.

Thank You for being a part of my journey!!

​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.

0 Comments

Is your Airline / Hotel program account login secure?

11/15/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
In this digital age where everything is online most of the website including that of Airlines and Hotel program requires you to have a password. While most banking related platform's strive for multi pronged security the same cannot be said for most mileage/points program. So, for those of us who collect these virtual currencies it is more imperative to protect the account and thus it begs a question: Is your Airline / Hotel program account login protected?

One of the first things you can do is to have "strong password" to avoid your account being hacked! To begin with below are couple of things you should check:
  • Is your email being compromised?
  • Is your password being compromised?

The reason both your email and password might be highly likely being compromised would be because of past "data breach" or "hacks" which are now more norm than exception's. So, where do you start?

Here is one popular website "Have I been pwnd!" which not only gives information if your email was compromised in past data breaches but also allows you to check your password to see if it has already been known or compromised. 

Picture
Check the website for email and "Passwords"!
As you can see from above, you can just enter your email address and it will let you know if your email has been already compromised in past data breach or hack. It also has an option on the top "Passwords" which allows you to search your password to see if it is already a known password and thus something you should immediately change if its present in any of your accounts. Usually in data breach it's possible that your password is associated with your email and if your email show's up as compromised you account's which use those combination are already at risk.

One other thing you should do is to enable Multi-factor authentication of which Two-factor authentication is a subset. Though make sure you do not use your phone number as a Two-factor authentication method. As of recent past it has been possible for hackers to easily transfer your phone number to another device and thus easily authenticate the request going to your phone number. A more secure approach is to have a authenticator app such is Google Authenticator. ​

So, please check your email and password's and use additional authentication methods to protect your airlines miles and hotel points account from wrong-doers!!

​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.

0 Comments

Amazing Alaska Airlines Wallet Funds to Miles Offer at 1 cent/mile!!

11/8/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Alaska Airlines is running their amazing offer of converting your wallet funds to miles at 1 cent/mile again and it last's till November 13th, 11:59 PM (PST). They ran this offer earlier in Oct, 2020 and similar to last time this offer is only valid for folks who have funds in their wallet prior to the announcement of the offer. You can access the offer here and will see the offer if there are any wallet funds in your Alaska Airlines account.

​So, if you have funds in your wallet for any of your earlier cancelled flights this might be a great offer as it not only gives longer time to use your money/miles but also gives you are great value for redeeming the miles on some of the nice business class partner redemption's. Alaska Airlines miles do not expire for at-least 24 months from the account activity and this conversion is currently counted as account activity!!

Since they are running this offer the 2nd time it is also highly likely that they might run it again in the future. So, if you do not mind you can load up your wallet with Alaska gift cards or cancelled ticket amount in the hope of future offer to convert your wallet balance to Alaska Airlines miles at 1 cent/mile. 

Note: Alaska Airlines 
current peace of mind policy for changes/cancellation allows free wallet deposit for tickets booked till 12/31/2020!!

Picture
Alaska Airlines wallet credit to miles conversion offer!!
Here are the terms of the original offer:
Terms and ConditionsOffer valid through October 12, 2020 11:59 pm (PT): Qualifying members who receive this offer directly from Alaska Airlines via email can exchange Alaska wallet funds in increments of 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of their current wallet balance for Mileage Plan bonus miles at an exchange rate of 100 miles per $1.

Bonus miles are redeemable for award travel, but do not count toward elite status qualification. 

All wallet exchanges for miles are final, and wallet credit once redeemed is not refundable. If wallet balance at the time of debit is below what is needed to cover the exchange, the exchange will be canceled. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer. All Mileage Plan terms and conditions apply.

Mileage Plan miles do not expire, but if a Mileage Plan account is inactive for 2 years, Alaska Airlines may close the account; miles in a closed account can be reinstated for a fee for up to 1 year after closure.

Exchanging wallet credit for Mileage Plan miles pursuant to this offer does qualify as account activity, so your Mileage Plan account will remain active for at least 2 years after the effective date of the exchange.
This offer is not intended to apply to new purchases of gift certificates occurring during the offer period. If you acquire a gift certificate during the offer period, or receive a gift certificate acquired during the offer period, and exchange that gift certificate for Miles in violation of this condition of the offer, we will reverse the transaction, remove the Miles from your account, and re-issue the amount exchanged as wallet 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.

0 Comments

Should you go for JetBlue 100k points credit card offer?

11/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
JetBlue recently launched an awesome 100k JetBlue points credit card offer. The offer earns 50,000 points after spending $1,000 on purchases and paying $99 annual fee within the first 90 days after the approval and earns additional 50,000 points after spending total of $6,000 on purchases within the first 12 months. 

The card also comes with noteworthy perks some of which are listed below:
  • 5,000 bonus points at account anniversary.
  • 10% back in points when you redeem your points for travel on JetBlue operated flight.
  • Free first checked bag for primary card holder and 3 companions on same reservation with reservation made using JetBlue credit card
  • $100 statement credit after you purchase a Vacations package with your card.
  • 50% savings on eligible inflight purchases including cocktails and food.
  • Points pooling at 1:1 ratio by forming a pooling account with up to 7 members.

Picture
JetBlue 100k points offer!
One of the nice things about JetBlue points is they do not expire and since JetBlue program is revenue based you get ~1.4 cent/point value when redeeming for Blue Fare (The downside is that JetBlue does not allow to redeem points for Blue Basic fare which might ideally give even more value!!). JetBlue serves 90+ destinations with heavy presence on East coast and small presence on the West coast. You can find all the destinations in this route map.

So, if you live in one of the cities which JetBlue serves then the 100k points offer combined with other perks of the card is an amazing offer which you should definitely go for!! Do note that the JetBlue credit card is issued by Barclay's Bank which is not an easy bank to get an approval from if you have few recent inquiries. 

​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.
0 Comments

Redeeming Lifemiles at Amazon.com

10/24/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Since COVID-19 has disrupted travel in general various airlines have modified their mileage program's to either provide more value and flexibility while cutting down on alternative redemption values to preserve cash. Lifemiles though has added an alternative redemption option while Avianca Airlines re-structures its operation from reeling losses.

Lifemiles is famous for selling their points at great discount with recently ended sale of Lifemiles for just 1.1 cent/mile. Though Lifemiles has added an option to redeem the points for Amazon.com purchases although at not that great value of 0.555 cent/mile. But given the current situation if you are flush in Lifemile points with no mid term plans to use it, this might present a decent option to cash out.

Picture
The way to redeem your Lifemiles at Amazon.com at 0.555 cent/point value
  • The first step is to download the chrome extension which can be found here.
  • Once, you have the extension installed, it will ask for your Lifemiles login details so to enable the payment with your miles. 
  • You can add the items in your cart as you usually do and select one of the existing payment options in the checkout page. On the final page of purchase, Lifemiles will present an option to pay with points with the exact amount of points to be deducted from your account. 
Picture
Chrome Webstore for Lifemiles Amazon.com purchase extension.
Picture
Pay with Lifemiles point checkout page for $22.75 purchase.
Do note that as of now Lifemiles does not allow purchase of gift card sold on Amazon.com. Also any purchase where the $dollar amount exceeds equivalent available Lifemiles is not allowed. 

One downside of using the extension is that the extension pop up messages are in Spanish and you would need a translator if you do not know Spanish. But other than that it is a smooth operation of purchase using Lifemiles points. So, do keep in mind this option if you want to get rid of your available Lifemiles balance at 0.555 cents/point 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.
0 Comments

Maximize Amex Referral Offer

10/11/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
American Express Membership Rewards is one of the great flexible points currency which can be used by transferring to variety of Airlines / Hotels program and in the current COVID-19 situation you can even use it for gift cards redemption such as Home Depot or Best Buy. 

American Express Referral Offer is one of the best way to earn some valuable Membership Rewards points quickly. While American Express limits annual referral credits to $550 or ​55,000 Membership Rewards points or other co-branded points currency, it has variable offer per referral based on the type of card you have. One of the best offer's for Membership Rewards Points earning is on either of their Amex Platinum or Business Platinum Card or Amex Gold Card.

To top it currently till 10/28/2020 American Express has special offer for referrer where they can earn additional 3x points for next 3 months of their spend after the referred friend is approved. This is in addition to the fixed bonus points offer available for referral. For e.g. currently my Amex Gold Card would earn additional 3x points on all purchases for 3 months in addition to fixed bonus points of 25,000 Membership Rewards points after I have successful referral.  The best part is the referred friend usually also sees better credit card earning offer as well compared to otherwise available public offers and thus a win-win for both!!

Picture
My current offer of 25k MR points + 3x additional bonus points offer for referral!!
One of the great things about Amex Referral Offer is that the referred friend can open any other card from Amex portfolio and is not limited to the card which referrer refers him to. The referred friend just needs to "click on the referral link --> View all cards with referral offer --> All personal cards " and select the card for which he/she needs to apply. Also some of these credit cards now have "6 months to meet the minimum spend offer"

In addition Amex Cards comes with great Amex Offers program some of which we have covered here and here.  So, check your American Express cards and if you know of friend who is looking for a new credit card than now would be the best time to refer!!

​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.
0 Comments

Maximize your food delivery credit using Amex Offers..

9/27/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Food delivery services have been a boon in the current situation with more and more people ordering food and grocery online. Lot of credit card's issuers are providing higher earning for ordering from food delivery service such as UberEats, Grubhub, Doordash etc when using their credit card for the purchase.

Given that, American Express's current Amex Offers for Grubhub and Doordash can  provide additional discount's if you have it on your Amex card. Additionally it can be stacked along with Grubhub or Doordash provided promotions. So, here are the current offers and you should add it if you have it on your Amex card.
​
Grubhub / Seamless Amex Offer: Make a single purchase of $20 or more online at Grubhub.com or Seamless.com, or through the Grubhub or Seamless app by 11/25/2020 and get credit of $5. Limit of 2 statement credits (total of $10)

Doordash Amex Offer: Make a single purchase of $30 or more via the DoorDash app or online at doordash.com by 10/14/2020 and get credit of $10. Limit of 2 statement credits (total of $20)

Picture
Grubhub: Spend $20 or more and get $5 back
Picture
DoorDash: Spend $30 or more and get $10 back
So, do go ahead and add those offer's if you have it on your Amex Card and get a discount on your next delivery of food or groceries. 

​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.
0 Comments

Earn 250 American Airline miles for Award Travel Redemption from Oct 1st to Oct 31st 2020

9/20/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
American Airlines has a new promotion to earn 250 AA miles back for the award flight taken between Oct 1st and Oct 31st, 2020. 250 AA miles will be credited back to the AAdvantage account of the person who will be flying on the award redemption after the award flight has been completed. 

You can register for this promotion here till Oct 7th, 2020. The registration must be done before the award ticket is put on hold or ticketed. The promo allows to earn up to 2,000 AA miles. While its not a huge amount of miles to encourage to fly in this COVID-19 climate, it is still worth registering just in case you might take a flight on the award ticket in the month of October 2020.


Picture
Earn 250AA miles per American Airlines Award ticket redemption
The full terms of the promotion are below:
Promotion code:   R3Q20
  • Register by 11:59 p.m. CT on October 7, 2020, and before creating a flight reservation, redeeming miles and traveling in order for your award flights to count toward this promotion
  • Your AAdvantage® number must be included in your flight reservation for your travel to count
  • Promotion miles can only be credited to the account of the ticketed passenger
  • If booking tickets for another traveler, they must also register for this promotion during the registration window and before creating a reservation to be eligible for this promotion
  • Offer applies to eligible award flights created and booked between the day you register and October 31, 2020
  • You must register for the promotion before putting a flight on hold for that reservation to count
  • Eligible flights must be flown between October 1, 2020, and October 31, 2020
  • Award flights must be marketed by American Airlines and operated by American or American Eagle
  • Non-flight awards, including upgrade awards, aren’t eligible for this promotion
  • Award flights ticketed before registration aren’t eligible for the promotion
  • You’ll earn 250 promotion award miles for each eligible flight once it posts to your account
​
So, do register for the promo, just in the off-beat chance you might fly in the month of October 2020.


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.

0 Comments

Convert your Southwest Airlines travel funds (including gift cards till 09/07/2020) to Southwest RR points

9/6/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Southwest has a potentially great deal going on where if you have your "travel funds" which are expiring September 7, 2022 due to the COVID-19 policy can be converted to Southwest Rapid Reward points at a rate of ~1.28 cent/point. The conversion is available till Dec 15th, 2020, but only for funds expiring on Sept 7, 2022. Though, if you change your previously issued funds expiring Sept 7, 2022 to another ticket, your new expiration date would be 12 months from the date of issue of new ticket and you would lose the ability to convert them to points. You can find more details of the conversion here.

Here are the potential reason's why would you want to do the conversion:
  • The Rapid Rewards points do not have any expiration date.
  • The Rapid Rewards points can be used for purchase for ticket for any family member or a friend.
  • Tickets booked using Rapid Rewards points are refunded back as points and any taxes/fees "can" be returned to original form of payment without any penalty or fees and the points are available to make the booking for anyone in future. Thus the points are not "tied" to individual for whom the ticket was purchased.
  • The current conversion offer from Southwest Airlines is allowing to convert your travel funds at a rate of 1.28 cents/point which is a great value given you can redeem Southwest points for ticket purchase at rate of ~1.4 cents/point.
​
For limited time till 09/07/2020 due to COVID-19 policy of Southwest Airlines any purchased ticket which is cancelled would have travel funds issued with expiration date of Sept 7, 2022. So for now if you have discounted Southwest gift card available then you can potentially convert it to Southwest Rapid Reward Points by purchasing a ticket and then refunding as travel funds expiring on 09/07/22. So, if you have travel funds issued which are expiring on Sept 7, 2022 then now till Dec 15th, 2020 would be a good time to turn them into Rapid Reward points.

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.

0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>

    Author

    I love traveling / backpacking. This blog focuses on below 3 aspects of travel:
    1. Maximizing your travel experience .
    2. Sharing how to travel with miles in premium class or at discount in economy class.
    3. Great cash-back deals in travel.

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies
    NEWBIE LOUNGE

    RSS Feed

    Enter your email:

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012

    Categories

    All
    16000 Points
    50% Bonus
    Aadvantage
    Aeroplan
    Air France
    Airline Incidental Credit
    AirlineRouteMaps
    Airlines
    Airline Status
    Alamo
    Alaska Airlines
    Altitude Reserve Credit Card
    Amazon
    American Airlines
    American Express
    Amex For Target
    Amex Offers
    Amex Premier Rewards Gold
    Amex Sync
    ANA
    Asia Miles
    Asiana Airlines
    AT&T
    Audience Rewards
    AutoSlash
    Avianca
    Avios
    Avis
    Award Ticket
    Awardwallet
    Award Wallet
    Bank Of America
    Bluebird
    Blue Cash Preferred
    British Airways
    British Avios
    Cardpool
    Car Rental
    Carrentalsavers
    Car Ride Services
    Car Sharing
    Cashback
    Cathay Pacific
    Chase
    Chase Freedom
    Chase Sapphire Preferred
    Chime
    Chime Card
    Choice Privilege
    Choice Privileges
    CITI
    Citi Thankyou
    City National Bank
    Club Carlson
    Companion Fare
    Costco
    Costco Travel
    Credit Approval
    Credit Cards
    Credit Denial
    Credit Karma
    Credit Score
    Credit Sesame
    Daily Getaway
    Daily Getaways
    Data Breach
    Delta
    Delta Airlines
    Delta Skymiles
    Discover More
    Dollar Tree
    Doordash
    Drop
    Ebates
    Ebay
    E-miles
    Emirates
    E-rewards
    Etihad
    Exchange
    Expedia
    Faq
    Finnair
    Flightconnections
    Flight Deals
    Flyertalk
    Flying Blue
    Free Credit Score
    Free Travel
    Frontier
    GetAround
    Giftcard
    Gift Cards
    Gift Card Swap
    Google Flights
    Gowallet
    Greatfunonline
    Groupon
    Grubhub
    Hawaiian
    Hertz
    HHonors
    Hidden Award
    Hidden City
    Hilton
    Hilton Honors
    Hotels
    Hotwire
    Hyatt
    Ihg
    Ihg Big Win
    Instacart
    Ita Matrix
    Japan
    Japan Airlines
    Jet Airways
    Jetblue
    KLM
    La Quinta Returns
    Lifemiles
    Lufthansa
    Lyft
    Marriott
    Mastercard
    Membership Reward Points
    Mileage Credit
    Milesandmoney
    Miles And Money
    MILESLIFE
    Miles & More
    Mile Tracker
    Moneypak
    National
    Newbie
    Newbie Lounge
    Officemax
    OpenFlights
    Opinion Place
    Payless
    Platinum Select Visa
    Pointbreaks
    Points
    Points.com
    Points To Miles
    Priceline
    Priority Club
    Qatar
    Qatar Airways
    QuickTrip
    Radio Shack
    Radisson Rewards
    Raise
    Reconsideration
    RelayRides
    Retention Offer
    Rewards
    Roadside Assistance
    Schedule Change
    Sears
    Serve
    Simplymiles
    Singapore Airlines
    Skyscanner
    Southwest Airlines
    Spg
    Staples
    Starwood Preferred Guest
    Stay 1 Get 1
    Swagbucks
    SYWR
    Target
    Thanksgiving
    TheFlightDeal
    TIMITAC
    Topcashback
    Track Your Miles
    Transfer Bonus
    Travel
    Turkish Airlines
    TURO
    Twitter
    Uber
    Ultimate Rewards
    United Airlines
    United Mileageplus
    United Mileage Plus
    Upside
    Us Airways Dividend Miles
    U.S. Bank
    Usingmiles
    Virgin America
    Virgin Atlantic
    Visa
    Visa Gift
    Visa Gift Card
    Visa Infinite Travel Discount
    Walmart
    Wells Fargo Rewards
    Wildcard
    Wyndham
    Wyndham Rewards
    Zalyn

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.