How I am earning 15,000 American Advantage miles making my Mom and girlfriend happy!

First post in a while but this seemed like a great deal so here it is! American Airlines is having a promotion where if you perform 4 transactions with 4 of their miles earning partners then you can score a cool 10K bonus AAdvantage miles. Since this coincides with Mother’s Day it is a great time to consider it. Here is the bonus offer.

Now – June 15 you can earn bonus miles when you transact with more than 1 of our participating partners:

  • 2 partners, earn 2,000 bonus miles
  • 3 partners, earn 5,000 bonus miles
  • All 4 partners, earn 10,000 bonus miles

Here are the 4 partners you have to make purchases with.  Click on the icon to be redirected to the right site with the promotion code prefilled.
1.

30 Miles per dollar at 1-800-Flowers

2.

Get 6 bottles of wine and 3,000 miles!

3.

Shop at one of almost 1000 online stores and earn even more miles!

4.

Earn miles by eating! What a deal!

I think I’m going to take advantage of all 4 by getting some wine for my girlfriend, some flowers for Mom, going out for a nice meal, then doing some online shopping.  I’ll get 3,000 for the wine, 2000 for the flowers, 100 for the meal and 500 for the online shopping, then another 10,000 bonus miles for completing all 4 offers!

The easiest 1000 AA Miles you will ever make!

Every once in a while a promotion comes up that is so easy it is crazy!  How about a completely free 1000 American miles for 2 minutes of your time?  All you need for this promotion is a free American Airlines AAdvantage account.  No credit cards, no purchase, no muss, no fuss! This promotion is available from now to June 12, 2015 but do it right now so you don’t forget!

AA Plane LinkClick here to get easy free miles!

To show you exactly how easy it is we took a video and it took us a little over 2 minutes.  That is 500 miles a minute or 30,000 miles per hour! 🙂

Are these the easiest miles you have ever earned?  Let us know in the comments!

Make an extra 2250 AA miles by shopping online!

If you don’t know about the magic of shopping portals and how they can make you tons of miles then check out our article on How to Use Shopping Portals for Mega Miles.

American Airlines Shopping just announced a bonus from now until April 29 for up to 2250 bonus miles on top of your normal shopping earnings.AA Shopping Bonus 2250The first level is 250 miles for $125 spend, and it goes up to 2250 miles for $700 in spending.  The spending thresholds are cumulative which means you can spend the amounts at different merchants throughout the month and still get the bonus.  This represents an extra 2X or 3X on your spending which is great for stuff that you would shop for anyways.

An example:

You buy $300 worth of clothes at Macy’s which is currently paying 6 miles / $1 spent.  You will not only get the 1800 normal miles ($300 * 6) but will also get the 1000 bonus miles for a total of 2800 AA miles on only $300 in spending.  And this of course is on top of whatever miles or points you get for using your credit card such as the 1 Ultimate Rewards point you get for every dollar you spend with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

Shopping online is one of the best ways to turbocharge your miles earning and one that should be part of everyone’s strategy.

As always, reply with any questions and follow me on Google+FacebookTwitter and Instagram to make sure you don’t miss any great info!  And don’t forget to share this article with anyone who might be interested using the handy social share buttons right below this post!

US Airways American Airlines Merger March 28, 2015

American Airlines sent out an email this morning stating that existing US Airways Dividend Rewards accounts will be merged into the AAdvantage program on March 28.  We previously showed you how to make sure your American and US Airways accounts were linked together which will make sure that the miles get put into the right account. If you have done that you are all set!

Anything else I should do before this happens?

I have been telling everyone that opening a US Airways MasterCard before the merger finalizes is a great idea.  USAirFirst off, the offer is a great one, 50K miles after the first purchase!  Second, this card is eventually going away and is being transitioned into a new American Airlines card.  By getting the US Airways card now, you are still eligible to get the new card too when it is released (along with any bonus that it offers) Third, you can get both the 50K US Airways bonus, the 50K American Platinum Visa bonus (both are part of our Easy Quarter Million program) and once they combine the programs you will have a cool 100K miles all in one account which is enough to go anywhere in the world!

As always, reply with any questions and follow me on Google+FacebookTwitter and Instagram to make sure you don’t miss any great info!  And don’t forget to share this article with anyone who might be interested using the handy social share buttons right below this post!

Update on AA / US Airways Merger

It looks like the full integration of American Airlines and US Airways merger is chugging along.  When I logged into my AA account today I was shown the following message.AA US MergeOnce I put my Dividend Miles # in, it matched my accounts together and I received an email from both programs saying my accounts had been matched.

As you can see from the screenshot some time in the 2nd quarter of 2015 they will combine the miles and activity of both programs and then email you.  In the mean time you can continue to credit your miles to either American or US Airways.

US Airways Bumps Bonus to 50,000!

The US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® has always been one of our favorites for people to get started and it just got even better!  They have just bumped the US Airways 50Kbonus from 40,000 miles with your first purchase to 50,000 with your first purchase.  This means you can get this card, spend $1 on gas and then earn enough for two round trip flights anywhere in the US!  You do have to pay the $89 annual fee with this offer, but I would trade $89 for two round trip flights every day of the week.

This is really as easy as it comes for bonus miles.  Apply for the card, spend $1, get 50,000 miles!

Some other ways you could use these miles are for a ticket to Hawaii (40K miles), Off Peak to Europe in the winter (30K miles) or you could save up the miles and add some to it and get Business Class to Asia via Europe for 110K miles like I did when I went to Germany and China!

How you spend the miles is up to you, but the important thing is getting them while you can!  As you may know US Airways and American Airlines have partially merged and this card will probably be going away once the merger is completed (or at least rebranded to an AA card).

Some other benefits of this card are first checked bag free on US Airways operated flights, priority boarding, and one companion certificate per year.  If this sounds like something you are interested in (and it should) then click here to apply now.

As always, reply with any questions and follow me on Google+FacebookTwitter and Instagram to make sure you don’t miss any great info!  And don’t forget to share this article with anyone who might be interested using the handy social share buttons right below this post!

Awesome Deal Alert! 2000 AA Miles plus up to 9 Miles/$ with AA Shopping!

American Airlines Shopping is having two different promotions that when stacked add up to a massive points payday! If you are not familiar with how to make miles via online shopping read our Online Shopping for Miles primer first.

The first offer is good until October 16, 2014 and is a bonus offer when you spend certain amounts on any of the AA Shopping merchants:  AA Shopping 2K Continue reading “Awesome Deal Alert! 2000 AA Miles plus up to 9 Miles/$ with AA Shopping!”

Grab an easy 1000 American miles by pigging out!

If you have read our Make Miles for Meals article, you know just how easy it is to earn miles by just dining out.  Well if you haven’t signed up for the American AAdvantage Dining program then you can get 2000 miles for dining out from a list of selected restaurants and spending $30.  And if you are an existing customer like me then you can get 1000 more miles by spending $40 at a restaurant that you haven’t eaten at before.AAdvantage Dining 1KRead the miles for meals article for full details, but it is really simple:

  1. Sign up for the free program
  2. Register your debit or credit card
  3. Eat and spend the minimum amount and pay for it with your registered miles
  4. Collect Miles!

The bonus requirements will vary but in this case for the 1000 mile existing customer bonus, you have to spend $40 at restaurants you have never tried before with this program.  It is a great way to try someplace new and get miles at the same time!  And in addition to the bonus you will also get 3-5 miles for every dollar that you spend!  What a deal!

As always, reply with any questions and follow me on Google+FacebookTwitter and Instagram to make sure you don’t miss any great info!  And don’t forget to share this article with anyone who might be interested using the handy social share buttons right below this post!

Make an easy 1000 AA Miles by Shopping Online

This is another of our No Credit, No Problem series of articles which you can take advantage of with no special credit or debit card.

If you aren’t familiar with online shopping portals and how they work then stop everything and check out our article on How to use Shopping Portals to make Mega Miles. We have literally made hundreds of thousands of miles with them in the past, so if you don’t know, you are missing out!

From August 17-25, 2014, American Airlines Shopping Mall is having a promotion where if you spend $200 at any of the 1000+ stores listed on their site, then they will give you a bonus 1000 AA miles on top of whatever you get from the merchant (typically 1-25 miles per dollar).aadvantageshopping1K

Continue reading “Make an easy 1000 AA Miles by Shopping Online”

TWM, Take Me Away to the World Cup 2014 for free!

This is another in our Take Me Away series of articles.  We first showed you how to get to Bali for free and then tackled Costa Rica.  I took my own advice and ended up flying to Costa Rica last month for only $45!  If you don’t have miles yet, take 30-45 minutes and complete our free Getting Started page so you will be ready next time 

World Cup 2014World Cup madness is upon us and I wanted to see what last minute trips were available with miles to get you to Brazil.  Since the matches are scattered around Brazil over a large timeframe, this was a perfect opportunity to come up with some creative frequent flyer tickets!  Here are some of the options I found using my article on How to Search OneWorld availability using Quantas.com.  Once I found available flights I priced them out following the article on How to book OneWorld flights with British Airways Miles.  

British Airways is a transfer partner of Ultimate Rewards.  You can transfer miles earned from the 40,000 point bonus of the Chase Sapphire Preferred, or the 60,000 point bonus of the Chase Ink Bold, or the book directly with 50,000 Avios bonus of the Chase British Airways card.

Option 1:  Sao Paulo

SAO World CupThere is TONS of availability for this city.  You could use this as a jumping off point for many of the other cities.  To keep things simple (and the milage costs down), I am only going to focus on the non stop available awards.  For just 50,000 Avios + $88 you could fly down from Miami and see three world cup matches!MIA-GRU

For those of you not in Miami, British Airways may not be the cheapest option (but it probably still will be), so check out the American flights for 60,000 AA or US Airways Miles and $118 from anywhere in the continental US.  The Citibank AA Mastercard currently has a 50K sign up bonus and the US Airways Card has a 40K bonus after spending $1.  You would just need to find connecting flights from your city to Miami where there are award seats using the tools we linked to above.MIA-GRU AA

Option 2: Recife

RecifeFor the non stop there is only availability after the USA match but you could see the first match of the Round of 16. You could spend the rest of the time on the beautiful beaches of Recife! For only 40,000 Avios (the same amount as the sign on bonus for the Chase Sapphire Preferred) + $88 you could see this historic match!MIA-REC BAYou could do the same thing from anywhere in the US for the higher price of 60,000 AA miles + $118.

Option 3: Rio de Janeiro

Rio World CupHow does this sound for the ultimate long weekend?  Fly into Rio on Thursday night, July 3, arrive at 5 in the morning on July 4, attend the quarter finals that day at the famous Estádio Maracanã, then celebrate through the weekend in Rio then fly back out on Sunday July 6.  For only 50,000 Avios (the exact amount of the sign up bonus on the Chase British Airways Visa) or 60,000 American Miles, you can do it!  And there are two seats available so you can take a friend with you!MIA-RIO World Cup

Option 4: Brasilia

Brasilia World CupYou can’t make the Colombia match unfortunately for the cheapest miles price, but you can make it for 3 matches including the Quarter-finals in the amazing city of Brasilia for only 40,000 Avios (which you could get from the sign up bonus of the Chase Sapphire Preferred) and $91!MIA-BSB World CupLike the other options you could travel from anywhere else in the US using 60,000 American miles once you find your connecting flights to Miami.

Option 5: Belo Horizonte

Belo Horizonte World CupFor just 40,000 Avios and $88 you can leave in two days and see Argentina, Costa Rica, and England play, and also catch the first round of 16 match in Belo Horizonte, one of the most beautiful cities in all of Brazil!MIA-CNF BAAs with the others, 60K AA miles is also an option if you aren’t located in Miami.

Bonus Option 6 for my Colombian Friends

I have so many Colombian Friends I had to include an option to see your match vs Japan in CuiabáBrazil on June 24.  Since Cuiabá is such a small airport, I couldn’t find frequent flyer seats there so you would need to buy a ticket from Sao Paulo to there for $78.MIA-GRU One WayGRU-CGBYou could then buy another $65 ticket from Cuiabá to Brasilia to catch your frequent flyer ticket back from there.CGB-BSB BSB-MIA Colombia

This gives you a total cost of 45,000 Avios and $234.  Which still isn’t too bad to see your country play in the world cup!  A better option might be to predict where they will play in the Round of 16 and go there since I am sure they will be making it through!

Summary

You would still need hotels and tickets to the games but there are a ton of options available to you when you get the flights there for cheap.  Using the tools I have provided above you can look for the flights and cities that match up with your favorite teams.  That Rio option is looking awfully tempting to me.  I think those two seats are going to go quickly once this article is published!

Feel free to comment on what other good options you found and tell me which matches you think would be the best to watch! As always, reply with any questions and follow me on Google+FacebookTwitter and Instagram to make sure you don’t miss any great info!