US Airways offering free trial elite status or bonus PQMs with Club membership

Looking to join or renew your membership in the US Airways Club? There’s a promotion available this week offering a free trial Silver Preferred status as part of any enrollment or renewals. Valid through September 30, promo code CLBTR will get you 90 days of Dividend Miles Silver Preferred status and enroll you in their challenge scheme which allows earning it for the full year without the full annual qualifying flying.

A full membership is $450 annually, plus a $50 enrollment fee. Just signing up for the challenge directly is only $200. So it isn’t a particularly great bargain if that’s the only reason you’re doing it. But if you were considering the challenge and a club membership to go with it this isn’t such a bad deal.

The Silver challenge requires 10 segments or 7500 miles on flights operated by US Airways or US Airways Express in order to extend the status benefit through February 28, 2014. And, like directly purchased challenges, it cannot be used by existing elites or someone who dropped out after not qualifying last year.

If you’d prefer to earn 1000 Preferred-qualifying miles as part of your enrollment or renewal that is also an option through the end of the month. Use promo code NM100 for new memberships or CR100 for renewals.

Final week for up to 40% bonus miles when buying from Alaska Airlines

Time is running out on the latest buy miles promotion from Alaska Airlines. The current deal – up to a 40% bonus – expires next Friday, September 28, 2012.

The number of bonus miles accrued varies on a sliding scale, starting at 20% for small purchases and maxing out at 40% for purchases of 30-40,000 points. Here’s the breakdown:

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Points are normally priced at $27.50 + 7.5% tax for every 1000 points, a smidgen over 2.9 cents each. With this promotion the rate can drop just under 2 cents per point which isn’t horrible but also not incredible either. Certainly easier than trying to find a 2cpm mileage run on Alaska though.

ANA offers bonus points for new San Jose route

ANA has announced a promotion celebrating the launch of their Tokyo – San Jose route, due to begin flying on January 11, 2013. The promo is not particularly rich – most ANA bonuses are not – but if you’re going to be flying the route may as well collect as many points as you can, right?

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Business class passengers will get an extra 2000 points flying the San Jose – Tokyo flight; economy passengers will earn 1000 extra points. Additionally, buying via ANA’s US website will earn 1000 more points. Passengers on the inaugural flight will earn 1075 points on top of the other bonuses.

Of note, the bonus only applies for US-based members of the program, only applies in the one direction and only for flights issued in North America and originating in North America. The fine print also suggests that there must be a return flight on ANA metal on or prior to 15 April 2013. That’s strange given that the promo only credits in one direction but that’s what is required.

Registration prior to travel is also required to get the bonus.

There is similar route-launch promos available for the new second daily frequency between Tokyo and New York City as well.

More double miles options from US Airways, with a catch

US Airways has three different double miles promotions available currently. Like always, make sure you check the fine print as there are some limitations and caveats which will affect just what you earn.

First up, buying miles earns double points through the end of September. This gets the points down to around 1.8 cents each, roughly $1800-1900 for a business class award to Europe from the USA, assuming you find inventory which works. Not a horrible deal and given that the Grand Slam promotion shows no signs of returning this is probably the cheapest way to accumulate Dividend Miles for the next several months. If you’re in the market to buy the points make sure to use the link which gets you double; you should see the bonus listed on the page when choosing how many you’re buying.

Next up, customers actually flying on US Airways flights have the opportunity to earn double points during the 4th quarter of the year. There is, however, a decent amount of fine print on the offer. First up, all purchases must be made using a MasterCard. And all purchases must be made between now and October 31, 2012. Travel must be completed by the end of the year and registration is required.

Finally, for customers truly dedicated to the cause in the form of the US Airways credit card, there is a slightly different version of the double miles promotion. Rather than double award miles tickets purchased with the card will earn double elite miles. Note: this is an OR option, not an AND option. You have to choose if you value award points or elite status points more and then purchase with an appropriate credit card to get the bonus you want. The registration link is the same.

US Airways offers bonus miles for flying their partners

US Airways has launched a promotion this week allowing Dividend Miles members to earn up to 25,000 bonus points. The total number of points earnt depends on flying with Star Alliance partners and crediting the flights to a Dividend Miles account. The promotion dates are September 10 – December 15, 2012. Registration is required.

There are four tiers of bonus earning available depending on how many partners are flown:

  • Travel on 3 partner carriers = 2,500 bonus miles
  • Travel on 4 partner carriers = 5,000 bonus miles
  • Travel on 5 partner carriers = 15,000 bonus miles
  • Travel on 6 partner carriers = 25,000 bonus miles

In addition to the partner travel at least one segment must be flown on US Airways metal. Only mileage-earning revenue fare buckets count for the promo and the bonus numbers are aggregate, not additive (i.e. the max bonus is 25K).

Getting that many partners – particularly on revenue tickets – can be a challenge but it is nice to see some bonus opportunities available.

Earn double AAdvantage points on JAL 787 flights

One interesting thing about the oneworld alliance is that there seems to be more partner bonus earning opportunities than other alliances offer. The most recent entry in that space is American Airlines giving away double points for flights on JAL’s 787 service between Tokyo and Boston or San Diego.

The promotion is valid for flights between December 2, 2012 and February 28, 2013. All business class fares are included but only select coach fares qualify. Here’s the list of eligible fare classes:

  • Business Class fares booked in J, R, D or I; Economy Class fares booked in Y, W, B, H, K, M, L, V or S on American Airlines marketed flights
  • Business Class fares booked in J, C, D, X or I; Economy Class fares booked in Y, W, B, E, H, K, M, L, V or S on Japan Airlines marketed flights

The promotion requires registration prior to travel.

Double points is always nice to see. The limitations on qualifying fare buckets aren’t horrible, but there are a few buckets excluded. Then again, the fares I’m seeing for the non-stop flights come at quite a premium – like $1000 – so even with double points and flying the 787 I’m not so sure it is worthwhile.

JAL has a similar promo in their JAL Mileage Bank program but apparently only for the San Diego route.

Bonus miles and tier points on offer from Virgin Atlantic this winter

Virgin Atlantic has a promotion running this winter offering customers both bonus miles and bonus tier points towards Silver or Gold status. The deal offers up 50% more award miles and 2 tier points for any round-trip ticket flown between September 3 and February 28. A second round trip flight will earn 100% bonus award miles and 4 tier points.

A new customer flying two round trip flights would accrue 10 of the 15 tier points necessary to reach Silver status with just two return trips. If you’re already Silver these same 10 tier points is enough to renew for another year.

The deal is valid only on revenue fares (J,C,D,I,Z,W,S,K,H,Y,B,R,L,U,M,V,E,Q,X,N or O) booked as a Virgin Atlantic-coded flight and operated by Virgin Atlantic. Registration is required.

Avios nudges some award prices higher

Avios, the loyalty program for British Airway and Iberia, is increasing some of their redemption fees effective October 8, 2012. And, believe it or not, they’re saving you more money than before. When I first saw the last part of that claim I was rather skeptical; turns out it is actually true.

The price increase is only on the cash portion of short-haul awards within Europe. These awards incur a fixed fee for taxes and such, making planning for redemptions much easier. And included in that flat-rate is the Airline Passenger Duty, the UK’s most egregious tax on airline customers. APD rates are going up so Avios costs are going up to. But Avios costs are actually increasing by less than the APD increase. SO you’re saving more money, even with the rate jump. They’ve got a chart on it and everything.

Fortunately the points costs are not changing and the total price difference is only £3 to £6 depending on the cabin you’re booked in. Overall, not such a bad deal.

Registration now open for Starwood's Better by the Night promotion

Starwood‘s fall earning promotion, Better by the Night, is now open for registration. The promotion offers double or triple points on all stays between October 1 – December 20, 2012, depending on the duration of the stay. Additionally, members booking online or via the iPhone app will receive 250 or 500 bonus points, respectively.

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There are a number of properties which aren’t participating so double-check the list before booking. Still, if you’re in to the SPG game this is a pretty reasonable promotion. And you won’t have to wait until January for the bonus points to post:

Bonus Starpoints will post to the registered members account within 2–4 weeks of each eligible paid-stay posting. Bonus Starpoints for web or mobile app bookings will post within 3 weeks of the end of the promotion period.

A pair of United MileagePlus contests

United may be screwing over some customers by taking away the detailed inventory data from their website, but that hasn’t stopped them from offering up miles in a couple contests this week. United MileagePlus Shopping and United Vacations are each currently running promos right now which offer up points as a prize; no purchase required.

MileagePlus Shopping is giving away 20 prizes of 25,000 points each. Registration is available here. Additional entries can be had for going back to the site daily to see what shopping specials are available or actually buying stuff. But if you’re going to be buying online I’d be hesitant to use the United portal; they are notorious for not crediting points in many cases and not having the best customer service when that happens.

United Vacations is giving away 10 prizes of 100,000 points each. Registration is available here. You can also enter by purchasing a Las Vegas vacation with 3 nights hotel through their portal. The United Vacations promo permits only one entry per person so no need to worry about going back for more entries.

Odds of winning either one are pretty low but the effort to enter is probably less. Good luck!

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