Tagging Miles

British Airways Gate 365 Shopping Portal

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There isn’t much chatter about the British Airways Gate 365 Shopping Portal, but there should be. Long time readers know that I’m a huge fan of shopping portals, because they allow you to get even more value from purchases you are already making. It should come as no surprise that British Airways Gate 365 portal has some nice finds.

About the British Airways Gate 365 Shopping Portal

British Airways officially renamed their eStore to Gate 365 in November of 2013, so it has been around for a while, but their US stores are somewhat limited. It does however have an excellent selection on the UK version of the site. Focusing on the US Gate 365 site, they highlight a few stores that are their “Most Popular” – and some are nice options to see:

Most Popular British Airways Gate 365 Stores

Most Popular British Airways Gate 365 Stores

I’m sure some don’t look terribly exciting, but on average Gate 365 is double or better most of the popular stores:

  • Best Buy, Ebay – 1x
  • Walmart, Target – 3x
  • Macy’s – 5x
  • L.L, Bean – 4x (quadruple other airline portals)

Wrapping Up

While none of the offers are the type that would spur me to start looking at a store for personal or reselling purposes, it is nice to see that Avios points an option to earn via British Airways Gate 365. Besides, it is always good to have alternative options when you’re shopping online. Even better, Gate 365 is showing up when you search for the best cashback at Cashback Monitor, one of my favorite reselling tools.

Have you made a purchase through Gate 365? Please share your experiences in the comments.

What is left In North America post-British Airways 4,500 avios award?

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roadstocompanionpass

Last week, I asserted that British Airways taking award the 4,500 Avios point award in North America was not the end of the world.

I may have been shortsighted. For my  personal travel patterns, this change sucks, but it isn’t the end of the world for me. But, my travel patterns aren’t yours.

Reader Jessica rightly stated that for some, this can be a big hit. I still personally believe that no award chart change or devaluation should be the end of the world, as, your mileage account is not your retirement account (believe me the past few months have seen the market issue big hits in that regard!). That said, Jessica makes a very valid point, in that this change will hurt some-perhaps many-more than others.

So what alternatives exist?

For those who can and do Manufacture Spend, hopefully you weren’t hurt by the demise of RedBird, but as long as you can still MS, then you just scale up (unless of course your chosen method can’t scale further), then you need to open the aperture. The Saverocity Forums level 2 have great options here.

For those that don’t MS as much

Credit card sign ups, I don’t often advocate them, but right now the Chase British Airways card has a 50k offer after $2k spend, and if you can do more, $20k spend will get you a total of 100k Avios points. That’s a lot of spending, but it is even more points. Even at 7,500 points per award, that at least extends your options.

Look at other programs

American Airlines AAdvantage saver awards, I think are 12.5k for contiguous North America.

Southwest, as reader Horace commented, could be an option. You can also get 2 Chase Southwest cards for 106k points after meeting minimum spend and spending another $4k doesn’t seem all that hard for organic spend. Just make sure you don’t earn the bonuses until January, then you get 2 years with a Companion Pass.

As an aside, last year, I got a Southwest Companion Pass without a single credit card application, but that isn’t for everyone.

You could open the aperture even more, let’s say you like Ultimate Rewards Points (and don’t we all love getting 5x points!), well they transfer to United Airlines Mileage Plus for 10-12.5k Saver in the contiguous North America. Or transfer to Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer, for again 12.5k saver awards.

Wrapping Up

So while British Airways takes away a great award, there a handful of other “cheap” options, none as inexpensive as the 4,500 avios point award. That doesn’t take away the sting of British Airways’s decision to remove the 4,500 avios point award. But hopefully these alternatives at least show where the proverbial goal posts now stand.

TaggingMiles Weekly Travel News Roundup: January 30, 2015

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The Weekly News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know!

Is There a Point To This?

Fifty Shades of Gray Areas

  • Angelina of Just Another Points Traveler shares the dark side of hidden city ticketing, specifically, how leveraging hidden city ticketing for international travel could go wrong due to visa requirements for your primary (or interim) destination. For what it’s worth, Joe is still undecided whether or not hidden city ticketing is good or bad.
  • Doctor of Credit asks the question – can you hide your manufactured spending from your credit report? What he finds is interesting.
  • Have the words “Do you know who I am?” ever come out of your mouth? Joe sometimes uses them – but often in reference to his past life. Carolina Travel Girl discusses her experience using DYKWIA as a leverage point.

Can We Have Some Plane Talk?

  • John Walton from Runway Girl Network discusses the challenges United faces with a decision to go for the 777-300ER. Will they emulate Emirates and American and go 10-abreast in Economy? Will they keep that horrible pre-merger Continental business class seat that you can’t get both feet in? Will there be a first class? (we doubt that last one).
  • Airways News’ Vinay Bhaskara analyzes the future of the A380. They make some interesting assertions.
  • Hail to the…747? The United States Air Force has identified the Boeing 747-8 platform as the next Air Force One – and neither of us were surprised. The real question remains: once Boeing has the contract (and that will still take a lot of time), will they start really talking about the future (or lack thereof) of the 747 production line?

To Everything, There is a Season…

  • Everyone at TaggingMiles (all two of us & our fuzzy children) would like to congratulate Summer of Mommy Points on the announcement of the newest addition to her family! We wish for many months of good health and joy ahead!
  • The godfather of miles, Randy Peterson is retiring. The print edition of Inside Flyer is also retiring. We’re not sure that there’s anyone that deserves the option to “slow down” more than Randy. Congratulations – and thank you for your contributions to the community.
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