No Credit? No Problem! Archives

Awesome Deal Alert – Miami to Berlin, $503 round trip!

I know a lot of my readers are interested in Berlin for the music scene (Hello Berghain) and culture so this Black Friday deal might be right up your alley! Our friends over at Flight Deal found a great fare on Air Berlin from Miami to Berlin for $503! We found similar fares for many dates in both January and February 2016. Here is a sample fare from Priceline leaving January 21, 2016.

Air Berlin is a member of the Oneworld Alliance so you could credit the miles to either British Airways or American Airlines for easier use. Getting to Europe this cheap even during the off peak season is awesome! Fares this low usually go quickly so if you are interested, I would book sooner rather than later.

As always, reply with any questions and follow me on Google+, Facebook, Twitter 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!

6000 Bonus United Miles for shopping online!

This time of year brings a bunch of holiday shopping promotions where you can earn tons of extra miles! United MileagePlus Shopping just announced a promotion where you can get up to 6000 bonus miles on top of what you would normally receive. If you have never shopped online and earned miles then check out this article on Online Shopping for Mega Miles. Here are the details on this promotion.

Spend $150+ : 500 Bonus Miles
Spend $350+ : 1500 Bonus Miles
Spend $650+ : 3000 Bonus Miles
Spend $1250+ : 6000 Bonus Miles

This offer is cumulative which means you can get the bonus even if you shop over different orders and different merchants. The offer is valid from November 6th – 24th. This is a great time to get some Christmas shopping done and make a bunch of extra miles doing it! If you stack this with some of their current specials such as Nordstrom’s for 12 miles per dollar, then you could get 21,000 miles for $1250 in spending which is just about enough for a free ticket anywhere in the US!

Note, I don’t see a splash screen when I click on the link so here are the terms and conditions that were contained in the email I received. This offer is automatically applied to all purchases during the promo period so just shop through the portal and you are all set!

“*During the “Holiday Early Access” bonus campaign, which runs from November 6, 2015 through November 24, 2015 at 11:59:59 pm ET (the “Bonus Period”), Member will receive a one-time bonus of up to 6,000 bonus award miles on qualifying purchases, in addition to the standard miles earned from shopping online through MileagePlus® Shopping. Bonus miles will be issued based on Member’s cumulative qualifying purchases made during the Bonus Period: 500 bonus miles for qualifying purchases of at least $150; 1,500 bonus miles for qualifying purchases of at least $350; 3,000 bonus miles for qualifying purchases of at least $650; or 6,000 bonus miles for qualifying purchases of $1,250 or more. Returns, cancellations, shipping and handling, taxes, gift card or other cash equivalent purchases, and certain products are not included in the bonus award miles eligibility calculation; please see the MileagePlus Shopping site for details on product eligibility and/or any coupon code details or other usage restrictions. Please allow 8-10 weeks after the Bonus Period for bonus award miles to post to your MileagePlus Shopping account. The maximum number of bonus award miles that will be awarded to an eligible MileagePlus Shopping account through the “Holiday Early Access” bonus campaign is 6,000 bonus award miles. This offer cannot be combined with other offers or promotions. Please check the MileagePlus Shopping site daily for updates to increased earning opportunities. Void where prohibited by law. “

1000 Bonus Starpoints with any weekend SPG stay for 3Q2015

Starwood Preferred Guest just announced a promotion from now until August 31, 2015 where you can get a bonus 1000 Starpoints whenever you have a stay that includes a weekend night (defined as Fri, Sat or Sun except in the middle east where it is Thu, Fri, and Sat). This promotion can be a sweet deal especially if you have a low cost one night weekend stay to boost your points earnings. To maximize it if you didn’t mind moving properties a bit, you could do three different SPG properties on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights and get 3000 extra Starpoints plus you get to see different properties too!

I recently used 10,000 Starpoints a night to score this room in Detroit during the Movement music festival. Paid rates were $379 a night which gave me a value of 3.79 cents per point! This promotion will get you 10% of a free room like this every time you use it which is pretty nice!

Free points are always welcome. We will see what the other chains come up with this quarter to find the best value and let you know our thoughts!

1000 free points for e-Statements? Sign me up! Happy Belated Earth Day!

Sometimes they make earning points so easy! This is one of those times! Club Carlson (the loyalty program for Radisson plus some other chains) just sent me an email for a free 1000 points if I agreed before April 28 to take electronic statements via email and an electronic version of my membership card. Of course I will do that! Since I have Awardwallet, my membership cards are long thrown away anyhow and I hate junk mail so this is win-win! And if you don’t have a free Club Carlson account, then why not do our Getting Started page now so you can take advantage of the next special that comes around. Continue reading “1000 free points for e-Statements? Sign me up! Happy Belated Earth Day!”

Make 4000 Miles in Minutes with Staples

Staples has one offer running this week (through Saturday) and another next week (Starting this Sunday) that you can combine to earn 4000 Miles in Minutes and make $12 too! You would have to fly from New York to Rome to get this many miles but with this method you can get them in just 15 minutes without leaving your home town! If you read our article on the Secret to Savings on Southwest, you know that this is enough miles to fly you round trip from Florida to Texas! Or you could use 5000 miles to book a night at this amazing property in Tibet with the latest round of Pointbreaks!

Continue reading “Make 4000 Miles in Minutes with Staples”

The Second Secret to Savings on Southwest

If you read our article last week on the Secret to Savings on Southwest then you already know how to use to map search to find great points redemptions values on cities that Southwest flies to.

Continue reading “The Second Secret to Savings on Southwest”

The Secret to Savings on Southwest

What if I told you there was a secret spot on the Southwest web site where dirt cheap fares were hidden? I look at travel deals all day long, but I still didn’t know about this discovery until recently!

Continue reading “The Secret to Savings on Southwest”

Uber Users! Get Free SPG Hotel Points for Every Ride!

Starwood Preferred Guest is one of my favorite hotel chains due to the beautiful properties and especially the great value I am able to get on point redemptions. I regularly get 4 cents or more per point on my hotel redemptions which is incredible so I am always after as many SPG points as I can get.

I have been a big fan of Uber and Lyft since they entered the Miami market. In you haven’t signed up yet, you should! And if you use the links in the previous sentence then we will both get an extra free ride since I am referring you. 🙂 Both services are cheaper and more comfortable than risking your life in a dirty taxi (especially Uber.)

When I saw that Uber had announced a partnership with SPG I was thrilled!

The base level is 1 Starpoint per dollar spent on Uber, but you can get bonus points during days where you have an SPG stay (including the check in and check out dates). The bonus amounts vary with your status level with SPG.

Uber SPG 3 I love all of these partnerships that the various hotels and airlines have come up with because it means extra points which are always welcome.

Earn 1750 Miles by Giving Flowers to your Valentine!

Southwest Rapid Rewards and JetBlue TrueBlue are having a promotion until February 15 where you can get 1750 Bonus Miles for every single order you place of $29.99 or more at 1800Flowers.com! To get the bonus miles you have to enter the following promo codes when you order.

RR43 for Rapid Rewards
TB1750 for TrueBlue

Order some flowers for someone and make some miles too! What a deal! You can enter the Promo Code on the billing details page where you enter your credit card number.

Since shipping can sometimes kill deals like this, if you are planning on ordering multiple orders then make sure to sign up for their Passport program which gives you free shipping for a year for $29.99. It should pay for itself after just a few orders.

1750 Southwest Miles are worth approximately $26 in Wanna Get Away fares so you can see this is an awesome value and you are almost getting the points too!

Bad changes coming to BA Avios and why I don’t care.

British Airways just announced changes to their Avios Frequent Flyer program that are largely negative that take effect April 28, 2015. At the same time, the changes really won’t effect me with my Avios usage pattern. Let me explain:

The Changes

Changes to the amount of Avios you earn when you credit flights to BA (specifically 25% or 50% instead of 100% for cheap coach fares but more for business and first class)
Changes to the amount of Avios you spend when you fly Oneworld Partners in business or first class (specifically first class goes from 200% of coach cost to 300% and business goes from 150% to 250%)
Introducing peak and off peak award pricing when redeeming miles on BA operated flights (but all partner award flights will be booked at the peak rates)

Why I Don’t Care

I mainly use BA Avios to book American short haul flights. For example, Miami to Cancun for $72 and 9000 Avios, Costa Rica for $45 and 15,000 Avios, Panama for $62.50 and 20,000 Avios, and Chicago for $5 and 15,000 Avios. Since all of these flights are less than 3 hours, I usually just book coach and save my miles for the long haul flights to Europe and beyond. Well, none of these redemptions will change one bit with the announced changes! I just returned from the BPM Festival in Mexico and I will be able to buy the same cheap seat after these changes take place that I purchased before for just 9000 miles! So for me, the 50,000 sign up bonus for the BA Visa card is just as valuable as it was before this announcement.

I know some people liked the 50K round trip business class fares from Boston to Dublin and the 50K round trip business class from NYC to LA, those weren’t something that I used so it isn’t something that I will miss. If those bookings interest you then make sure to make them before April 28, 2015 to take advantage of the old prices.

While I hate seeing any negative changes at all, this is how the game is played and you are forever shooting at a moving target. That is why my advice to everyone is to earn miles as fast as you can, then burn them just as fast. See the world for free while you can because we never know what is around the next bend. But if you like to fly last minute like I do, don’t mind coach for short flights and are looking to travel around the Americas for a song, then in my opinion little has changed with this announcement.