Category: Airlines

  1. Do this now: Register for bonus British Airways Executive Club tier points for paid flights booked by February 14 for travel any time after March.

    British Airways Gold status traditionally was somewhat easy to game and had great value, but after March, the games are largely gone.
  2. United has a status match to Silver, Gold, or Platinum, and an accompanying challenge running through June 30. The match is good for 120 days once it’s activated; but to activate it you have to take a United flight within 90 days of the match approval. You can retain status through the program year (through January 2027) with some Premier Qualifying Flights (PQF) and Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) earning.

    Status is most useful for free checked bags, economy plus seating, and lounge access on international itineraries. In theory you can only match every five years, but also in theory: (1) communism works, and (2) the colors of gummy bears are evenly distributed. (Thanks to FM)
  3. The Chase Marriott cards have increased sign up bonuses:

    – Boundless: $150 statement credit + 100,000 Bonvoy points after $3,000 spend in three months, $99 annual fee
    – Bold: A free night certificate for up to 50,000 points plus 60,000 Bonvoy points after $2,000 spend in three months, no annual fee

    They’ve also introduced Pay Yourself Back on the cards at a rate of 0.8 cents per point, which is more than the market value of a Bonvoy point so actually pretty good. The bad news though? You’re limited to $750 in total redemptions annually. But at $750 + $150, you could turn the Boundless into a $900 sign-up bonus and convert it to a Ritz Carlton card after a year (a move we call the reverse Bonvoy).
  4. Yesterday we talked about a Chase IHG Premier sign-up bonus with five free night certificates, but David let me know that there’s a different version of the sign-up bonus:

    – Premier: 170,000 points after $4,000 spend in three months, $99 annual fee
    – Rewards: 100,000 points after $2,000 spend in three months, no annual fee

    I prefer points offers to capped free-night certificates approximately 122% of the time, but not everyone thinks like I do.

Theory doesn’t always predict the real world.

  1. The Chase IHG Premier Visa has an increased sign-up bonus of five free night certificates, each good for 40,000 points a night, with $4,000 spend in three months. The $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year.

    40,000 points in the IHG program is good for average, mid-tier hotels, and if you stack the free night certificates with fourth night free, you can make this effectively a six night free sign-up bonus.
  2. Qantas will devalue its points program on August 5, raising redemption costs between 5% and 20%. Redemption fees will increase too, because duh. (Yes, some short haul Qantas metal redemptions will decrease in cost; no, that doesn’t make it any better.)
  3. H-E-B stores have a digital coupon for a $20 H-E-B with every $100 Visa, Mastercard, or AmEx gift card purchased in-store through Tuesday, limit one per H-E-B account.

    If only it were possible to have multiple H-E-B accounts through some miracle of modern technology called multiple email addresses.
  4. Southwest has a fare sale for paid and award bookings made by tonight for travel between February 11 and May 22.

    No blackout dates are listed unless you’re traveling to Hawaii or Puerto Rico, then black out days are longer than an entire month.
  5. Breeze Airways has 50% off of base fares with promo code GONOW for travel through May 22, sort of. They took a page from Southwest’s book and added a blackout periods of over an entire month, but decided it’d be funner to apply it to all destinations and not just non-continental US destinations.

Techno-lord mug of the day.

  1. Do this now: Check for spending bonuses on your Chase Ultimate Rewards earning cards. I’d check each card in a new private browser tab to avoid error messages after one or two cards. We’ve seen:

    – 10,000 points on $400+ or $500+ in flights, rental cards, cruises, or activities
    – 20,000 points on $500+ in hotels

    These require booking through the Chase portal.
  2. Alaska has a fare sale on flights booked today for travel between January 28 and March 19:

    – Short haul: 4,000 miles
    – West coast to and from Hawaii: 7,500 miles
    – Long haul: 10,000 miles

    I usually call these the best sales that no-one talks about, but for some reason people are talking about it this time. Success! 🎉 (Thanks to FM)
  3. Breeze also has sale for 40% off of base fares on flights booked by tomorrow night for travel between January 14 and September 2 with promo code LOCKIN.

    It’s been awhile since we’ve played Breeze route bingo, but we can fix that today. Today’s Breeze bingo route is: Scranton-Fort Meyers! Congrats to today’s bingo winners.
  4. American Express offers has an offer for $100 off of $500+ or $200 off of $1,000+ in Delta Airlines airfare through March 31. Gamers gonna game, and the easiest of all of the games is to book a non-basic economy flight, wait 24 hours, then refund to a travel credit for future use. More complex games may yield better results.
  5. Korean Air first class award space is now available and has been since at least January 3 for the first time since 2020, and I missed it when talking about airline mergers on Monday. First class awards are 80,000 SkyPass miles each way from the US to Asia, so this could be the reason you need to transfer miles from Marriott Bonvoy to Asiana in anticipation of Asiana Club miles converting to Korean SkyPass miles this Summer.

January 2025 Breeze Airways Bingo prize: This paper airplane

  1. Two airline portals have bonuses for online spend:

    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 1,000 miles with $300+ through January 15
    – AA eShopping: 1,000 miles with $500+ through January 12

    Giftcards.com is on both of these portals, so you can take a Kudos college break.
  2. The Alaska Airlines business card has a heightened sign-up bonus of 70,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months, and the $95 annual fee is not waived in the first year. Pair a few of these with the personal 75,000 miles offer for more cowbell. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. Do this now: Register for double Hyatt elite night credits at Under Canvas Resorts for stays between March 7 and June 15. I hesitated to put a “do this now” on this one because y’all don’t seem like the glamping under a canvas tent type, but I mean you never know when you might accidentally end up in a tent I guess.
  4. Choice Hotels have devalued redemptions and added some dynamic room pricing. There’s still value to be had, but this change moves it from a secondary program to a tertiary program in my mind.
  5. Southwest has a fare sale for travel between January 28 and May 7 booked by tomorrow night, with some variability on those dates for Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Based on my extremely limited searches, early and late flights carry most of the discounts with mid-day travel at regular pricing.
  6. JetBlue has a fare sale for travel between January 11 and April 9 booked by January 14, and this one has teeth in a way that most JetBlue sales don’t, for example $89 LAX-BOS fares, $99 BOS-SAN fares, and $49 short and medium haul fares. Mint fares look higher than normal though, so there’s that.

How do we know this JetBlue plane isn’t Mint-equipped? Bees.

There are a couple of interesting airline mergers that were approved in late 2024:

Both are potentially even more interesting than watching a stampede of turtles overrun a Wendy’s drive through.

Lufthansa and ITA

Lufthansa has already said that ITA’s Volare frequent flyer program will be merged into Miles & More, and elite status will transfer too. I expect that by Q3 the frequent flyer programs will integrate, though that’s not set in stone. When the integration happens it means:

  • If you status match to ITA, it’ll probably turn into foreign Star Alliance status (UPDATE: The status match seems dead)
  • ITA Volare miles will probably turn into Miles & More miles

Foreign Star Alliance Gold status will get you access to the United Club when flying United domestically, free-checked bags, priority boarding, and a few lesser benefits.

ITA Volare is an interesting program because partner earning is based on class of service and mileage flown, not on ticket price. That means with really cheap Delta or Aeromexico tickets, you can mileage run way your way into Lufthansa Miles & More miles which can be used to redeem for Swiss Air First Class; the trad mileage run, it turns out, isn’t dead yet.

Korean and Asiana

Asiana never really recovered from COVID-era cutbacks, and its reputation was already suffering after the crash of Asiana 214 even before COVID. Facing Asiana’s bankruptcy, the Korean government approved a merger and EU regulators did in November too, leading to the deal closing last month. You’ve heard what this means before in another song:

  • If you have elite status Asiana, it’ll probably turn into foreign SkyTeam status this year
  • Asiana Club miles will likely be absorbed into the Korean SkyPass mileage program this year

Asiana doesn’t status match, so if you don’t already have status there I can’t help you much. But, turning Asiana Club miles into Korean SkyPass miles is really interesting, because:

  • Korean SkyPass doesn’t have major bank or hotel transfer partners
  • Marriott Bonvoy can transfer to Asiana Club miles at a 3:1 ratio (or even better in increments of 60,000 Bonvoy points)
  • Korean SkyPass members can standby for mileage upgrades to International First
  • Korean’s Business class award chart is extremely reasonable for off-peak awards

Keep your eyes open for Bonvoy transfer bonuses, there’s opportunity here in 2025.

Happy Monday friends!

Next time: McGold status arbitrage for fun and profit.

  1. Do this now: Enroll your American Express Business Platinum cards in the new $50 quarterly Hilton credit. A quick Q&A:

    – Will this work with HiltonGiftCards.com? Probably
    – Will this work buying gift cards at a hotel? Yes
    – Will this work at Hilton restaurant? Probably, stick to resorts to be sure
    – Will this work for a regular hotel to pay your bill? Yes
    – Is AmEx going to raise the annual fee? Probably not in 2025, but yes
    – Is Dell going away in 2H2025? We can only pray
    – What’s America’s favorite fruit? Banana
    – Did anyone make it this far? Yes

    If you’ve got a bunch of business Platinums, just make sure that you get an email for each card. Sometimes the site enrolls the wrong card, or reenrolls a card that you didn’t select.
  2. Avianca LifeMiles can be purchased for as little as 1.27 cents each with a sale running through the end of December.

    Conventional wisdom in the hobby says “never buy miles except to top-off your account for a redemption.” The wisdom is showing its age when transferable points are cashed out easily into interest bearing accounts, and points costs have dipped below 1.3 cents. For example, yesterday I was looking at an ANA First Class redemption that was 114,000 LifeMiles. I could have paid about $$1,447 to buy those miles directly rather than transferring miles in. Obviously, there’s more to come on this topic in the future.
  3. Southwest has extended its schedule for fall travel including Labor Day weekend through October 1. Booking a cheap flight that’s far out and within two weeks of a more expensive flight that you actually want to take is a great way to hedge booking costs, assuming flight schedule change between then and now.
  4. AA is retooling its AAdvantage program for 2025. The quick summary:

    – New million-miler tiers at four (Platinum Pro) and five (Executive Platinum) million miles
    – Systemwide Upgrades will last through the end of the elite year after March 1, 2025
    – Redeem miles for inflight food, probably at a terrible rate
    – New Loyalty Point awards, all low value

    You still can’t earn million-miler tiers with Loyalty Points, only with flown miles.
  5. Giant, Giant Foods, Martins, and Stop & Shop stores have 8x-10x points on Lululemon and Barnes & Noble gift cards, depending on chain through Thursday, December 19.

$50 breakfast at a Hilton Garden Inn in Lubbock (prolly, I can’t be bothered to fact check).

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 18 and December 31. After that, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2025 with the 2024 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms, but I guess it’s ok if you’re up in legs.

By popular demand, we’ll have at least a couple of guest posts during the break. If you’d like to write one, please reach out!

  1. H-E-B Stores have a $20 H-E-B gift card with the purchase of a $100 Home Depot, Lowe’s, and some other, stupider brands through Tuesday. Scale with multiple H-E-B accounts. Side note: H-E-B is one of the most annoying things that I have to type somewhat regularly.
  2. Chase Offers has 10% back on Frontier Airlines on up to $420 in spend through January 23. Watch for refund policies on Frontier. Side note: Frontier is one of the most annoying airlines that I never have to fly.
  3. The Bank of America Alaska card’s 75,000 miles after $3,000 spend in 90 days bonus is still around. Side note: Yesterday, some bloggers started pushing a 70,000 mile Alaska sign-up bonus instead because it pays them affiliate revenue, and based on the coordinated timing, it’s likely a higher than usual payout too; caveat emptor.
  4. Breeze has a 50% off fare sale with promo code GOALS for flights booked by tonight. Evidently, they saw that the other second tier US airlines had a fare sale yesterday and didn’t want to be left out.

Happy Thursday!

Even this brand of soda is easier to type than H-E-B.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 18 and December 31. After that, we’ll ring in the new year on January 1, 2025 with the 2024 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs though, so no need to be up in arms, but I guess it’s ok if you’re up in legs.

  1. Do this now: Register for the upcoming Alaska Airlines premium card’s waitlist and earn 500 miles instantly. You’ll also earn a bonus 5,000 miles if you apply for the card when it comes out using your waitlisted link. Apparently the premium card will have an annual fee of $395 and:

    – Earn 3x on foreign currency transactions and foreign USD transactions
    – Earn 3x on dining
    – Have a “Global Companion” pass for award tickets
    – Have free WiFi vouchers and reduced award ticketing fees

    The card arrives this summer. (Thanks to Esteban)
  2. Many US Airlines are running a holiday fare sale:

    – Alaska award and paid through Monday
    – JetBlue paid through tonight, 25% off with promo HELLO25
    – Southwest award and paid through tomorrow night
    – Avelo $40 off round-trip paid travel through tomorrow night with promo FLY40

    My tea leaves suggest it’s going to be a rough Q1 for second tier airlines, especially Spirit which couldn’t even afford to run a sale.
  3. Two of the three main Incomm gift card sites have new promos (the third one’s promo is still in effect):

    – VanillaGift.com: No purchase fees on $150+ with promo code VGHOLIDAY24
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: No purchase fees on $200+ with promo code HOLIDAY24

    Ok fine, the third one is MasterCardGiftCard.com with promo code NOFEES24. I don’t like repeating a deal, but I guess I can’t leave you hanging.
  4. American Express has a targeting offer for 75,000 Membership Rewards after $6,00 spend in four months on Blue Business Plus no annual fee card, available via your dashboard if targeted.

Happy Wednesday!

A typical MEAB reader left hanging, probably.