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Up to 10x United Miles for Back to School on Mileage Plus X app

August 14, 2017 By Trevor 3 Comments





Other than credit card sign-on bonuses, I am convinced that shopping portals and things like the Mileage Plus X app are the opportunities to earn tons of miles with fairly little effort. United ran a similar promotion for Father’s day, this time its Back to School on Mileage Plus X app.

Getting Back to School on Mileage Plus X app

To find the Back to School Promotion you must first go into catalog:

United MileagePlus X App, Back to School on Mileage Plus X app

From there you’ll want to look for Back to School Promotion:

back to school on mileage plus x app

There you’ll see the options for promotion:

back to school on mileage plus x app

All of the stores with promotions are as follows:

  • Athleta – 10x
  • Banana Republic – 10x
  • Bath & Body Works – 10x
  • Buca di Beppo – 8x
  • Chilli’s – 8x
  • Cold Stone Creamery – 8x
  • Dell.com – 2x 
  • eBay – 4x
  • Gap – 10x
  • JCPenney – 6x
  • Kohl’s – 4x
  • Krispy Kreme – 8x
  • Nike – 10x
  • OfficeMax – 8x
  • Old Navy – 10x
  • Sears – 6x
  • Ulta Beauty – 8x
  • Xbox – 8x

Wrapping up

Leveraging Back to School on Mileage Plus X app is a great opportunity to increase your United Mileage Plus balances. There’s also been cases where you can get even more value depending on which credit card you use – search “MileagePlusX” on the FrequentMiler Laboratory to get some ideas.

Overall – you can generate a bunch of miles quickly, especially when you look at the amount of 10x opportunities.

Will you be leveraging this promotion? What store are you really happy to see on it?

Filed Under: Miles and Points Tagged With: Mileage Plus X, MileagePlus, Shopping Portals, United

Travel like a spy, gate check your bag, Amazing Opportunity with GOL Smiles

July 28, 2017 By Trevor 2 Comments

The Weekly Travel 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.

Travel:

  • Travel Caching – a Tim Ferriss concept similar to Jason Bourne; I’d love to do this, but I find I don’t travel to the same places nearly enough to justify it.
  • Is United getting it right or wrong with incentivizing passengers to check their bag. 
  • Pooling points can get you a lot of value, see how that happens with Citi Thank You points.
  • You’ve probably heard, enhanced screening is coming to domestic flights. This is fairly consistent most of the international places I travel, so it’s not terribly surprising. But you can avoid this with TSA PreCheck. 
  • Etihad lost some money this past year... only $2 Billion… I wonder how much of that was Alitalia though.. 
  • I haven’t done this myself, but it looks like this might be a one time opportunity to generate a ton of miles with GOL Smiles

Credit Cards:

  • AMEX updates it’s terms, makes them more aggressive against travel hackers.
  • More on Timeshare Strategies — I’ve been finding this series of guest posts as rather interesting.
  • Interesting potentials in this FrequentMiler post regarding the Chase Ink Preferred

Tagging Miles:

  • Highlighting The Speakers of ResellingDO 5
  • Earn 8,000 bonus miles from Airline Shopping Portals!
  • Earn 10,000 United Miles per night with PointsHound
  • Comparing the Hyatt Zilara Cancun and Jamaica
  • Monday Roundup: Business Wisdom, AMEX Offer, Great American Eclipse
  • Which Airline Serves 5% of the Worlds Caviar Supply?

Filed Under: Weekly News Roundup Tagged With: #ResellingDO, Etihad, GOL, Travel Caching, United

Earn 8,000 bonus miles from Airline Shopping Portals!

July 26, 2017 By Trevor Leave a Comment

It is back to school season, and so it is yet another opportunity to earn extra miles through airline shopping portals! I’ve written a bunch about the power of shopping portals, and how you can increase your miles and points balances through shopping portals. This is a great opportunity to do just that, thanks to American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines.

Delta SkyMiles Shopping 

Delta is unfortunately the least rewarding, requiring up to $350 spend to earn 1,000 miles, that’s only slightly more than 2x.

airline shopping portals

 

AAdvantage eShopping 

American Airlines is offering up to 2,000 bonus miles for shopping now through 18 August. Total spend is only $500, so you’re essentially getting an extra 4x miles if you get to that level.

airline shopping portals

 

Rapid Rewards Mall

Southwest is only slightly less rewarding, offering 2,000 after $550 spend, which is slightly less than 4x.

airline shopping portals

MileagePlus Shopping

United is the most rewarding offering 3,000 miles after $600 spend, or  5x.

airline shopping portals

Final Thoughts – Earn 8,000 bonus miles from Airline Shopping Portals

While 8,000 bonus miles is not a ton, every little bit helps toward accruing enough miles to redeem for awards. More importantly, shopping portals are in general a great way to keep miles balances active too, and with these bonuses, you get a little extra bang for your buck. 

Filed Under: Cashback Portals Tagged With: AAdvantage, Delta, Shopping Portals, Southwest, United

Priority Pass cards, United Devaluation, Wrong Journalists, 5/24 Rule

July 7, 2017 By Trevor Leave a Comment

The Weekly Travel 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.

Travel:

  • Doctor of Credit has a quick tip for differentiating Priority Pass cards that come with different benefits.
  • On July 4th this happened… At the time when I read in real time on twitter I was going through a variety of emotions, now I just shake my head.
  • Too Little Too Late from American for elite members… Gary received an offer, though I didn’t. I suspect that might be because I’ve had a total of 4 revenue segments on American this year as an Executive Platinum.
  • United announced another devaluation. It’s not horrible but it’s certainly not good news. I still need to dig deeper myself, but Gary has a good overview.

Miles and Points:

  • Matt shares Manufactured Spending at Sea, an interesting perspective if you’re going to spend a week or so on a ship and don’t want to let your manufactured spending drop off. It also sounds easier than going to Walmart. 
  • Ariana shares why the 5/24 Rule is no longer relevant. 

Tagging Miles:

  • Introduction to Today’s Manufactured Spending
  • Do this now if you have the Chase Fairmont Visa
  • Resellers: Long Term Storage Fees hit 15 August!
  • Observation Deck: 2017 Skytrax Airline Awards
  • Are Skytrax Awards Perception over Reality?
  • No more Electronics Ban for Abu Dhabi

 

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Weekly News Roundup Tagged With: American Airlines, Manufactured Spending, Priority Pass, Skytrax, United

Buy Alaska Miles at 2 cents per point!

June 20, 2017 By Trevor 1 Comment

I am not often an advocate of buying miles, but there are times when it makes sense to buy miles. This promotion may be a good time to at least consider whether its a good time to buy miles. 

Buy Alaska Miles at 2 cents per point

Right now Magazines.com is running a promotion where you can earn 50 miles per dollar when you shop through the Alaska MileagePlan Mall. You can also earn United miles through the MileagePlus mall, but, lets be honest, we’d all rather buy Alaska miles given some of the better options on their award chart and partners.

Buy Alaska Miles

You’ll see above that according to Cashback Monitor Alaska Mileage Plan is paying 50 miles per dollar for Magazines.com. If we dig a little bit deeper, we’ll also see that 50 miles per dollar is in fact the best that we’ve seen:

Buy Alaska Miles

Alternative options to Buy Alaska Miles

Alaska also has a targeted promotion right now where you can buy miles and get as much as 50% more:

Buy Alaska Miles

Of course the devil is in the details. You see, in order to get that 50% bonus, you have to be buying more than 50,000 miles:

Buy Alaska Miles

There is also a “Tax Recovery Fee” which can get pricey! 

The cool thing is that if you do buy 60,000 miles, you’ll get 90,000 miles and pay $0.0197 per mile which is inclusive of a $123.75 Tax Recovery Fee! Put a different way, you will pay 1.97 cents per point, a 3 hundredths of a cent savings over buying via Magazines.com. 

Wrapping Up

I would never advocate to purchase miles without having a use in mind. In fact, yesterday I just bought Alaska Miles for a very near term use in mind. All that said, sometimes there can be value in taking advantage of promotions. Just remember not to overwhelm your family or friends with magazines. You can, however, make real nice with your doctors and send some appropriate magazines to their offices. As an added bonus, you might have better reading material while you wait!

Will you be leveraging either of these opportunities to buy Alaska miles?

Filed Under: Airline Programs Tagged With: Alaska, Buy Miles, United

Is @FakeUnitedJeff banned forever?

April 21, 2017 By Trevor Leave a Comment

I think we’ve all enjoyed the purely parody account of @FakeUnitedJeff … Yes, he’s the parody of the “has been” United CEO, who was unceremoniously outed after a rather awkward outing of the Chairman of the Port Authority of NY-NJ’s flight to Columbia, South Carolina. 

It was an unfortunate event for Jeff Smisek, but 20 April 2017 marks the day that Twitter suspended the parody account of @FakeUnitedJeff. The writer behind @FakeUnitedJeff even wrote a medium post, entitled: Once upon a Parody, to outline his case to Twitter.

As of this writing, Twitter has not been responsive. Candidly, Twitter needs to be responsive. Perhaps you can help. I dare say, we should start a movement. We should start a movement, #SaveFakeUnitedJeff — because, clearly we can’t save the real United Jeff Smisek. After #BumpGate, I’m not even sure we can save the real or fake Oscar Munoz! Even when competing airlines made their digs at United, rather than supporting a comrade in need. 

In truth, I fully expected Fake Oscar Munoz to be the one to be removed. He supremely capitalized on #BumpGate, in magnificent fashion. But alas, he’s survived, and the former @FakeUnitedJeff is the one to take the heat. Was this related to #BumpGate? I just don’t know. In fact, I don’t really care. Rather, I focus on the humor and entertainment that the man–or woman–behind Fake United Jeff offered. So many times @FakeUnitedJeff stepped in to offer a humorous comment, or made light of an awkward situation.

Now, when we look for that silver lining, we will unfortunately be faced with this:

@FakeUnitedJeff

So I share with you my friends. This is a travesty. This is a pain that will no doubt be bourne by so many of the frequent traveler community. 

I finish with this:

Twitter – Please, give the parody account @FakeUnitedJeff life again. It only hurts to continue without his lighthearted nature, and unrelenting zeal for increasing profit, while cutting back on passenger comfort. Besides, maybe he’ll bring back the Tulip!

Twitter, Please.

Filed Under: Editorial Tagged With: Parody Twitter Accounts, United

My impressions of the United Polaris Lounge in Chicago

February 9, 2017 By Trevor 3 Comments

A few weeks ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the United Polaris Lounge in Chicago. We were flying on an award ticket from Liberia, Costa Rica, and weren’t quite sure if we could get in, but figured that we’d try none-the-less. It was a bit out of the way, but it was well worth the extra steps.

United Polaris Lounge

There were a variety of areas with places to sit and work.

United Polaris Lounge

The United Polaris Lounge also boasts shower rooms, which is a necessity for any world class lounge in my opinion.

United Polaris Lounge

Hallway of Bathrooms and Shower Rooms at the United Polaris Lounge.

There was also some self-serve food and beverage stations available (Some more plentiful on a Sunday night than others)

United Polaris Club

Perhaps the best part of the United Polaris Lounge was the bar, which was gorgeous. 

United Polaris Lounge

The bar at the United Polaris Lounge.

There was also a small area that was a self serve whiskey bar:

United Polaris Lounge

And the quality of beverages being served did not stop there. My wife enjoyed a wonderful glass of Laurent-Perrier Rose

United Polaris Lounge

It even had a special wall of lockers for the elite of the elite–I think Global Services, but I’m not sure if its even more exclusive than that–housing their preferred beverage.

United Polaris Lounge

Final Thoughts of the United Polaris Lounge

I have to admit, I was impressed. United has definitely set a new standard with respect to premium lounges. I really hope to see more of these lounges, maybe even one at my quasi-home airport of Washington-Dulles; which I hear is planned, just not sure whether we’ll see it before or after true United Polaris Business class seats fly to and from Washington-Dulles. 

Have you had the chance to visit the United Polaris Lounge? What did you think?

Filed Under: #Avgeek, Travel Tagged With: United, United Polaris Lounge

The Secret to United’s New Award Search Tool

December 3, 2016 By Trevor 3 Comments

If you’ve attempted to work with United’s New Award Search Tool, you know how much of a pain it is.

Perhaps the most prevalent screen is this:

United's New Award Search Tool

United’s New Award Search Tool

Now, some in the software industry would call this a feature. I would call this one of my most vexing customer experiences.

What causes the issue with United’s New Award Search Tool?

The easy answer is, if you do a search, then you chance anything but the date, you get the above error.

So how do you fix it? 

You can’t.

But, in the software development industry–at least the one I work in–we like to offer mitigation techniques, or even better, workarounds.

So, your workaround for this particular issue is going back to the united.com site and starting again. The good news is, that United.com should retain the itinerary you were trying to find. So when you go back to the home screen, it should have pre-populated like this:

United's New Award Search Tool

The positive news is that if you go back to this “home” screen, you should be able to click “search” and get what you were looking to search before the error message.

united-hell-4

Overall, there are significant challenges to consistent, easy searches on United’s New Award Search Tool. While this post doesn’t lay out a solution to avoid the errors all together, hopefully the mitigation strategy offered is at least something that reduces your frustration.

Filed Under: Airline Programs, Awards Tagged With: Award Search, Mileage Plus, United

JetBlue’s Retro Livery, Scary Reselling Risks, Travel Hacking Family Style

November 18, 2016 By Trevor Leave a Comment

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.

Travel: 

  • Dia talks about some key skills / attributes that, while she talks about Camp Mom, I think are integral for any travel hacker.
  • JetBlue unveiled their new retro livery – it looks awesome!
  • From Doctor of Credit, get Etihad Elite Status with a single flight.
  • The response to AirBnB runs the gambit, between being embraced by some localities, and being made illegal by others. Apparently, it’s not the thing to do if you have a flat in some parts of Singapore, for example.
  • The future with United sounds something like what American did a while back with banking flights… But, more interestingly enough, United seems to think that increasing connecting traffic in places like Newark, are the key to success. 
  • Joe asks, why are Hyatt Diamonds treated so unevenly? I would offer, that he might need to take some advice from this video 

Miles and Points:

  • Doctor of Credit reports that there’s an Amazon Wedding Registry completion discount, as much as 20% off of $2,500… not bad for folks in the midst of getting married.

Reselling:

  • The scariest thing I’ve read this week. Getting your account shut down by Google for reselling a Pixel phone. I’m sorry to say, I’m not even sure what it is, aside from what I’ve seen on Twitter from @Jonk, but, I’d never even consider reselling a google product after reading this.
  • Oren has some holiday tips for resellers.

Tagging Miles:

  • Primer – National Rental Car Elite Status
  • The Impact of Hubs on the 10 Best Airports For Holiday Travel
  • Five Things To Do in Sydney
  • Review: Park Hyatt Sydney
  • Attention Airlines and Hotels: Loyalty is a two-way street
  • Non Sequitur – Inspiration to be better

Filed Under: Weekly News Roundup Tagged With: JetBlue, Reselling, Travel Hacking, United

Is Elite Status Becoming Unobtainium for the Frequent Leisure Traveler?

October 27, 2016 By Trevor 6 Comments

I’ve held top tier elite status in hotels and airlines for the better part of the last decade. While I started out earning status mostly from business travel (aka Other People’s Money), I came to appreciate the top tier status at Marriott, then Hyatt, and United, then American. As I came to appreciate that status, I was more willing to spend a little extra to get that extra elite qualifying night or stay, and even have done a crazy mileage run or two.

Changing Tides – Airline Elite Status

The trend started in 2013, when Delta introduced their Medallion Qualifying Dollars requirement. United quickly followed suit, with their Premier Qualifying Dollar requirement. Both have programs tweaked their spend requirements over the years, but they remain largely intact. Starting in 2017, American will have an Elite Qualifying Dollar requirement. It has long been clear that airlines prefer passenger’s money over their loyalty. Gary Leff has often stated: “I am not my fare” yet the airlines clearly don’t care how many of us say it. They’re more thinking:

Airlines and Hotel programs say "Show me the Money" for Elite Status

Thus my point – Airlines are essentially telling us, that unless you are wealthy enough to spend significantly, or have access to Other People’s Money (OPM), you aren’t valuable to them. How much do they want you to spend? $12,000 or more. Wow.

Changing Tides – Hotel Elite Status

In 2012, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) introduced a bunch of new benefits, many geared toward members that qualified via Nights rather than Stays. They didn’t take anything away, necessarily from those Platinum members who qualified via 25 stays, but they certainly added benefits for members who stayed 50 or 75 nights. A year or two later, they introduced a 100 night level, where you get Starwood Ambassador status, including access to a single point of contact with SPG for all of your needs. This was and continues to be a positive.

Well, today we learn of rumors of Hyatt changes that I think people with OPM will like, however, for leisure travelers–and even folks who travel a bunch but are hamstrung by Hyatt’s smaller footprint–are sure to be disappointed. This new program, World of Hyatt is reported to have four membership tiers. For the top tier, what once required 50 nights or 25 stays to qualify for, will no require 60 nights or 100,000 base points. How do you earn base points? Well, you get 5 for every dollar spent. So, you can get World of Hyatt’s Top Tier Globalist status for either 60 nights (figure $6-10k if you vary it up), or $20k spend at Hyatt.

I think on the surface, this is a big indication that earning status through stays is likely going away as soon as the Marriott-SPG merger figures out things.

What does this mean going forward?

These developments hurt the frequent leisure traveler the most. For those that don’t have a business travel budget, and are not independently wealthy, the idea of having and maintaining status becomes significantly more unobtainium. To simply maintain airline status and Hyatt status, one would be looking at $20,000 in travel spend per year, and that doesn’t even include the time commitment that is also required — e.g. 100,000 equivalent miles flown, and 60 nights in a Hyatt.

The fact is, the economy is doing well–for the time being–and loyalty programs see that this is the time where they can make changes, and identify and best reward their absolute highest spenders. From a business standpoint, that’s great. My concern though, is that all of these negative changes will no doubt turn off loyal customers, who go out of their way to fly the airline that they’ve been loyal to for so many years, or who consider a destination based on the hotel chain they have loyalty to.

Loyalty may not be dead for the frequent leisure traveler, but, it is not for lack of trying.

What do you think? Do you still stay loyal to an airline or hotel?

 

Filed Under: Airline Programs Tagged With: Airline Elite Status, American, Delta, Elite Status, Hotel Elite Status, Hyatt, Loyalty, spg, United

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