Earn United Miles by Investing on Lending Club

United and online loan marketplace Lending Club have launched a new partnership where you can earn miles for investing in loans on the platform.  Investors can earn 1 United MileagePlus mile for every $2 invested on the platform.  A minimum of $2,500 must be invested (maximum of $100,000) on the platform to receive the United miles.

I've been a Lending Club investor since 2009.  While the online loan industry (and Lending Club specifically) has been under pressure after Lending Club's CEO was fired, I've found Lending Club to be a solid platform and have been pleased with my returns over the past 7 years.

I value United MileagePlus miles at close to 2 cents.  That means, you're earning "an extra" 1% on invested capital on the platform.  While I wouldn't open a Lending Club account specifically for the bonus, if you are already putting money to work on Lending Club, earning an extra 1% is certainly a positive development.

Note that the bonus will only be applied to taxable LC accounts and miles will be credited within 90 days of the deposit and investment.  You can read the full T's and C's of the promotion at the bottom of this page.

American Airlines Credit Card 10% Mileage Rebate

At the end of 2015, I picked up the Citi American Airlines AAdvantage card for Emily.  The targeted offer provided 60,000 AA miles after spending $3,000 in the first 90 days.  The card also offers a 10% mileage rebate (up to 10,000 miles) on award tickets booked with American Airlines miles.

We were able to take advantage of this in late 2015 for our trip to London and Abu Dhabi in March of this year.

Citi AAdvantage Award Ticket Rebate

We were also able to take advantage of this benefit this year for our upcoming trip to Dubai.  While we booked separate tickets with miles from each of our accounts, Emily's 115,000 mile award redemption triggered the credit and the next day she had 10,000 miles back in her account.

This turned out to be a pretty amazing card offer.  We earned 60,000 miles from the signup bonus and 20,000 miles in the form of award ticket rebates.

Going forward, the 10,000 mile rebate more than offsets the $95 annual fee (waived for the first year).

Save $70 at Conrad & Waldorf Astoria Hotels

If you've been reading ATRP, you know that I'm a huge fan of American Express Amex Offers.  Over the last few years, I've saved over $2,500 by leveraging Amex Offers to obtain statement credits on stuff I was going to buy anyway.

20% off a Waldorf Astoria or Conrad stay

 The concept is simple - login to your American Express account online, scroll down to the bottom and you'll see the available offers. Scroll through the offers that make sense for you, and click "Add to Card."  Meet the spend requirements at that merchant and you'll receive the statement credit a few days later.

Recent Amex offer savings

Amex is out with a targeted offer that will provide a $70 statement credit after spending $350 at Conrad or Waldorf Astoria properties through 3/31/17.  We have an upcoming stay at a Conrad which will cost around $800 in total for three nights.  By splitting the charges on two Amex cards with the offer, we should be able to save $140 on the stay!

Amex Platinum Provides SPG Gold in One Day

Over the weekend, I wrote about upgrading Emily to SPG Gold via the American Express Platinum Business Card.

Well we didn't have to wait long.  Emily's SPG account was upgraded this morning to SPG Gold until February of 2018.  That's another 16 months of status.  I would imagine that will stick regardless of whether she keeps the Amex Platinum card or not

Kudos to Amex and Starwood for great IT here.  Emily will be putting her newly minted Gold status to work later this year!

Return to Al Maha: Planning & Booking

Introduction
Planning & Booking
British Airways First Class 747-400 Denver to London
British Airways Concorde Room
British Airways First Class 747-400 London to Dubai
JW Marriott Marquis Dubai
Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa Dubai
Park Hyatt Dubai
Hyatt Capital Gate Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways First Class Lounge & Spa Abu Dhabi
Etihad Airways First Class 777-200LR Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles

We're headed back to Dubai next month to spend a couple of nights at Al Maha.  While we've had an incredibly warm October here in Denver (it was 80 degrees today!) we wanted to head somewhere a bit warmer in November to relax and outside.  Southern Europe is nice but just not that warm.  We were just in Asia a few months ago so Dubai fit the bill.  Using our BA Travel Together Ticket to fly first class all the way to Dubai made it even more appealing.

Hotels:

As it stands now, we have 6 hotel nights planned.  We land late in Dubai so booked the JW Marriott Marquis for 35,000 Marriott Rewards points.  Dubai's hotel market is insane - we had so many options it was hard to choose.  But we'll be heading to Al Maha around noon the next morning so for 12 hours, we certainly don't need something crazy.  The JW Marriott Marquis is also the tallest hotel in the world so that clinched it for me.

JW Marriott Marquis advance purchase rate

How to Get SPG Gold With Amex Platinum

I recently upgraded Emily's Amex Business Gold to Business Platinum.  The offer was too good to pass up - 50,000 mile bonus after spending $10,000 in 5 months.  That's after receiving 75,000 miles for signing up for the gold card in the first place.

I was also able to pay a pro-rated annual fee (~$120) and received the $200 travel credit at Amazon!  One of the benefits of the Amex Platinum is the ability to receive free SPG Gold.

While not life changing, SPG Gold provides the potential for an upgrade, additional points (3x vs. 2x) on stays, and a welcome amenity.  Emily has a few SPG stays coming up in the next six months so figured it would be worth getting her status upgraded.  Since I've been SPG Gold, I've never actually leveraged the SPG Gold perk from Amex.

It was actually super easy.  First, go to this Amex website.  Click on "Enroll Now."

Login and confirm your SPG Number.

That's it.  The page states that status should be updated within 72 hours.  I upgraded this morning and still haven't seen the status change but will post once it's upgraded to Gold.

Trip Report Page Updates

I've long organized trip reports chronologically.  This made sense at the beginning of the blog with only a handful of trip reports.  At this point, the page is getting a bit crowded so I've added a few new pages to make it easier to find trip reports:

You can find lounge reviews by airport.

Or flight reviews by airline.

Or hotel reviews by brand.

Over the past few years, I've reviewed 14 different airlines, 16 hotel brands, and lounges at 14 airports.

I'm still working on trip reports from our most recent trip to the Maldives and will be working on our Dubai trip upon our return next month.