Earning Free Miles with Airberlin's Referral Program

I've never flown Airberlin although I'd like to - they apparently have a solid product and award availability is decent from the US.  Their frequently flyer program (topbonus) is out with a fairly lucrative referral bonus where you can earn free points for referring your friends to topbonus.

You will 500 miles for the first referral and 1,000 miles for the next 9 (you can make 10 referrals per year and the bonus is good through 7/31/16).

That's a total of 9,500 topbonus miles - nearly good enough (10,000) for a free one-way economy flight within Europe.  Your referral will earn 1,000 bonus miles for signing up.  If you already have a topbonus account, you can create your own referral link here.

While I've had an Airberlin topbonus account for a few years (not sure why) Emily has not.  I went through the process of referring her and then creating her account.  Within a few days, the points had been credited to her account (1,000) and mine (500).

If you are interested in signing up for a topbonus account, feel free to use my referral link and we'll each earn 1,000 topbonus points.

Free points are free points and the ability to earn nearly enough for a free one-way is a great deal.  Flying within Europe is expensive and it's painful to burn hard earned United or BA miles (transferred from even harder earned Chase Ultimate Rewards) for an intra-Europe flights.  I'd recommend signing up for an account and if you have a handful of interested friends, refer them as well.

Getting the Most out of Hyatt Gold Passport Points

I've booked several iterations of a trip to Tokyo over the past few months.  Based on changing schedules, we've had to make a few changes and now Emily is going to join me!

I was waffling on where to stay given so many great options.  Patience won out and the Andaz opened up with Points + Cash availability a few days ago.  I quickly booked the reservation and couldn't be more excited to stay in what is supposed to be the best Andaz in the world.

Even though the date of the trip changed, the price remained roughly the same.  The two nights will run me roughly $388 and 25,000 HGP.  As a Platinum member paying with the Hyatt Chase card, I'll earn roughly 2,712 points which I value at around $54.  That brings my total "cash outlay" down to $334.

If I paid cash, the total outlay would be around $1,080 and I would earn 7,560 points valued at around $151.  That brings down the total "cash outlay" to $929.

So the 25,000 points are replacing $595 in cash.  That's a point value of 2.38 cents.  Redeeming points straight (50,000 total) and you receive a point value of 2.16 cents.  Either way, it's a great redemption and above where I value HGP points.  But the vast majority of the time, Points + Cash is going to result in a higher per point valuation.

If you are points rich and cash poor, than the calculation may be a bit easier.  But if you can afford to pay $155/night ++ than it's worth taking a look at the C+P valuation to see if you come out ahead.

Booking IHG Free Nights

The IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card from Chase is one of the best hotel cards on the market.  The initial signup bonus is good enough (currently 80,000 points - post coming soon) for multiple nights in a higher end IHG property.

But the best perk is the free night certificate good for a free night at any IHG property around the world.  Emily and I have rotated having this card and each year, the feee night has easily paid for the $49 annual fee.

We're in the process of booking another RTW trip and we're going to have a 12 hour layover in Singapore.  We've been to the city a few times and really enjoy visiting.  But we land at 8:30PM and depart the next morning around 8AM so we wanted to stay close to the airport in the event we just want to sleep and then wakeup early to explore Changi.

So when thinking about hotels, the Crowne Plaza attached to the terminal was the easy choice.  If we want to go into the city, a taxi will be ~$25USD.

Rates (prepaid rates were lower but generally we try and stay away from those rates just in case we have to cancel a trip) were going for ~$246USD!  We certainly didn't want to spend that on a quick overnight.  While we could have used IHG points (40,000) we opted to redeem an expiring free night certificate.  Again, paying the $49 annual fee to get a hotel worth $246 in a pretty awesome deal.

Here's how to book an IHG Anniversary Free Night.  First, login to your IHG account and on the left hand nav, click on "Free Night Status."

If you have a free night available, you'll see the screen above.  Click on continue to search for a property.  Once you click on a property, you'll see "Rooms from FREE."  Click on "Check Rates."

Chase Anniversary Free Night will be selected.  Scroll down to your desired room type (in our case King, Nonsmoking) and click "Book This Room."

That is it.  Finish the booking and you're on your way to a free hotel night.

Nothing beats a free (or $49) hotel room

It's pretty awesome that you can book the IHG free night online.  Hyatt allows you to do so with their Chase card, Hilton does not (you have to call) with their Hilton Reserve card free weekend nights.

I am getting closer to finalizing the trip and will have more details soon!

Review: Etihad Airways First Class Apartment A380 Abu Dhabi to New York

Introduction
Planning & Booking
Planning & Booking II
Washington Dulles (IAD) Lounge Hopping
United Airlines 777-200 Global First Washington to London
United Arrivals Lounge London
Andaz London Liverpool Street
Etihad Airways First & Business Class Lounge London
Etihad Airways A380 First Class Apartment London to Abu Dhabi
Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways Premium Lounge Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways A380 First Class Apartment Abu Dhabi to New York
American Express Centurion Lounge LGA

After a quick visit to the pre-clearance lounge, it was soon time for boarding.  At this point, it was 3AM local time and 11PM London time and we were both ready to relax onboard, have a great meal, and then get some much needed sleep.

Etihad A380 First Class Apartment 3K

We both woke up a bit as we made our way down the jetway to the upper deck of the A380.  This wasn't our first time flying Etihad's First Class Apartment and it certainly won't be our last.  We arrived at our seats (3K/4K) with me taking the rear facing 3K and Emily in forward facing 4K.  This would allow us to eat together (in my apartment) and sleep together as the divider is lowered and the two beds essentially become one.

United Airlines Targeted Spend Bonus

United's been on a role the last couple of weeks with the announcement of a new business class experience as well as an upgraded offer on their co-branded Chase credit card.

United's also out with a targeted spend promotion which could be fairly lucrative depending not the offer you receive.

Go to this site, enter your United MileagePlus number and you'll be taken to the page with your offer.  Note that flights purchased prior to registration won't count and then promotional period runs through 11/30/16. You'll then receive an email confirming registration and your specific offer.

Both Emily and I received the same offer on our MileagePlus accounts.  

• Spend $2,500 and earn 10,000 bonus miles
• Spend $3,000 total and earn 25,000 bonus miles
• Spend $4,500 total and earn 50,000 bonus miles

We're both unlikely to hit the lowest milestone as $2,500 in spend/flying is a lot.  That said, this is a pretty rich promotion.  At the high end, you're earning north of 11 miles per dollar spent.  Add that to (at least) 2x from credit card spend and 7x (for me as a United Silver) and I'd be earning 20 miles per dollar spent in terms of RDM (redeemable miles).  At my valuation of ~2 cents/United mile, that's 40% off the $4,500 spend in the form of United miles for future travel - not a bad deal at all.

It's definitely worth checking your offer and registration.  There are multiple offers - some with much lower spend requirements.  

Delta Gold SkyMiles Amex 50,000 Mile Offer

I'm not a regular Delta flyer but am working on diversifying my point balances a bit. In April, I was targeted for a 60,000 miles bonus after spending just $1,000 on the Gold SkyMiles Amex.  The offer also came with a $50 statement credit for making a purchase on Delta.  I bought a $50 gift card and resold for $40.

Delta's out with referral program this year that offers 10,000 miles to the cardholder.  The bonus on the Gold SkyMiles card is 50,000 miles after spending $2,000 along with the $50 statement credit.

If you're interested in applying for the card, I'd be most appreciative if you applied with this link.  Note that the card comes with an annual fee of $95 which is waived for the first year.

If you received the 60,000 mile offer, definitely go with that one but keep in mind the 50,000 mile referral offer is far better than the previous public offer of 30,000 miles.

United Launches Polaris Business Class

United's long lagged the other major US carriers (American/Delta) in terms of business class offerings.  While United "BusinessFirst" is pretty great on the upper deck of the 747, the product is 8 across on the 777 with a 2-4-2 configuration!  That means 4/8 seats have to step over a neighbor to get to the aisle.  Terrible.  I haven't flown Delta or American in a premium cabin but both products are supposed to be far superior to United.

United does offer first class which is marginal at best and being phased out as the 747 fleet gets retired.

Earlier in the week, United held a customer event in New York to launch their new business class experience dubbed Polaris Business Class.  I'm not sure the fancy branding is necessary but at least someone got paid millions of dollars to come up with the name.  The seat will begin rolling out later this year on new 777-300ER aircraft.  It is going to take years (maybe 5) to add the new seat to the existing fleet but they claim that after 12/1/16, you'll be flying "United Polaris Business Class" even if you have the old seat.  That means the soft product should be the same across the entire fleet.

Polaris features a completely redesigned lounge experience with preflight dining at 9 global locations.