Fly for FREE!!!

Summer promotions

2010-06-28T16:08:00.001-07:00

Hi All, all the miles from the previous promotions are finally hitting all my accounts. I hope all of you have transferred hotel points to either AA or USAIR to get a great bang for your points. These promotions are really a great way get the most for your hotel points. Have a great summer and I hope you are traveling some place wonderful and of course for free!!!

AA has new promo

2010-06-15T07:01:00.000-07:00

American airlines has a new promo very similar to the Usair promo I wrote about previously. AA is giving 35% bonus to transfer hotel points to AA miles. The promotion is over on JUNE 30,2010. They did not give us much time. Have a great summer. Will get back to you with any new promos.

USAIR has a great summer promotion

2010-05-30T17:45:00.000-07:00

I just received an e-mail from Usair for their summer promotion. If you have extra hotel points (such as Starwood) and you transfer them to your Usair frequent flyer account they will give you 50% extra. So as an example: transfer 20000 starpoints to Usair, they will give you 5000 so that will be 25000 and then they will give you 12500 on top of that. So for 20000 starpoints you will end up with 37500. The promotion just started and you have to register for it. Go on the Usair site to find the promotion or e-mail me and I will forward the link to you.

OUTCOME OF PROMOTIONS

2010-04-11T05:48:00.000-07:00

THIS WEEK I RECEIVED ALL MY DELTA POINTS FROM THE 2008 HOLIDAY PROMOTION AND MY FLY STAY AND DRIVE MILES FROM LAST MONTHS PROMOTION. THAT HAS PUT MY HUSBAND AND MYSELF OVER THE 200,000 MILES MARK WITH DELTA.

SOUTHWEST IS HAVING A PROMOTION THAT WILL GET DOUBLE RR CREDITS THROUGH MAY. CHECK THE ACTUAL DATES. I AM FLYING FROM SAN DIEGO TO SAN JOSE AND ACCORDING TO THE PROMOS I SHOULD GET 4 CREDITS FOR THE ONE WAY TRIP. BESIDES THE REGULAR PROMO SOUTHWEST IS ALSO HAVING THERE IS A PROMO FOR CALIFORNIA TRAVEL. NOT BAD FOR A $59 FLIGHT.

So Long overdue

2010-03-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

So sorry but I have not had any time to update this blog. Mom had a stroke and we had to move my parents up to NY in an assisted living. All is back on track, at least for this week, so here is an update.

All my miles arrived in my Usair account from the Christmas holiday promotion and I did very well. I received 75,000 miles from that promotion. It was a great holiday.

For under $1000 I parlayed that to the 75,000 miles. My husband and I love to go to spas when we are on vacation so I ordered from FTD.com at 20 miles per $, $700 worth of spafinder gift certificates and received 14000 miles for the purchase. Then I put $1 to open a sharebuilders account and received 3000 miles for that. The other purchases were just small amount at various stores but those 2 purchases I described above got me an extra 42500 miles. That was incredible.

I hope those of you who participated in that promotion did well.

I am still waiting for Delta to get its act together and give me my Christmas miles.

There are some new things that you should know: Southwest and Jetblue will not be partners with American Express membership rewards very soon. So if you have any intention of sending membership rewards to either airline do so now.

Delta is having the same promotion that Usair had last summer. Convert hotel points to skymiles and receive 50% extra. The Delta promotion has a small deviation, you must have at least 3 transcations and then all the transcations will get you the 50% extra miles. Here is an example: transfer 20000 starpoints from Starwood to your Delta account 3 different times(1 transaction per day) so that adds up to 60000 miles plus don't forget that Starwood will give an additional 5,000 miles for each 20000 transferred. Now you are at 75,000 miles and then Delta will give you 50% of that which will add up to an additional 35,000 miles bringing your total to 110,000 miles. That is a great return on 60,000 starpoints. Please check on the Delta site, you have to pre-register for this promotion.delta.com/marketing/staydriveride/

Starwood is having a promotion to earn extra starpoints, stay 2,3,or 4 nights and you will get 2X,3X or 4X's the starpoints added to your account over the amount you will all ready get.

Jetblue has changed their trueblue system. It is based totally on revenue, not sure I like it, for those of us who do not fly for business I don't think it is great. They are basing earned points on revenue as well as the amount of points it takes to use points for a free flight. Before 100 points equaled a free flight wherever they flew, so I would use it for a long haul. With the old program I would only use the card at restaurants or for theater tickets which would be doubled(it still is). Spending $10000 would get me a free ticket to anywhere they flew. Now with the new system the same $10000 will get me 20000 points which could get me 4 tickets around the corner (a very short haul) or I might not have enough to go anywhere. Each day and destination has a different redeemable value. I know this is confusing, go on the site and check out different destinations by using the trueblue button for your flights and it will show you the value of each trip. I can't even get to Burlington Vermont for less than 6100 points one way. I will keep you abreast of any changes.

Usair has also revamped their redemption schedule. It will cost us more miles to fly if you don't plan way in advance.

I heard a rumor that Southwest is also changing its ways. They are probably going to be basing their redemption to a revenue based system.

That's all for now. Keep earning those miles so you can fly for free.

USair holiday Promo

2009-12-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

Usair is having a holiday promo. Shop at 5 different stores and you will get 250% which is 2.5 times. The problem that has been discussed, is it based on the dollar amount spent as it says in the promo or based on the miles earned from the vendor. After many calls to Usair we still do not have a definitive answer. Every time I spoke to some one I got a different answer.

You could end up with a substantial amount of miles or a nice amount.

example:

$50 on flowers at FTD.com at 20 miles per dollar=1000 miles
$50 spent at Sears.com at 2 miles per dollar= 100 miles
$50 spent at Barnes and Noble.com at 3 dollars per mile=150 miles
$50 spent at track it back.com at 40 miles per dollar=2000 miles
$50 spent at Macy's .com at 3 miles per dollar =150 miles

If it is based on dollars spent 250x2.5= an extra 625 miles

If it is based on miles earned 3400x2.5= an extra 8,250 miles

There is a huge discrepancy. I hope it is based on miles earned.

We shall see.

If you decide to go shop on this promotion you now have all the fuzzy facts, have fun shopping.

Delta Christmas Bonuses

2009-11-22T07:10:00.000-08:00

So sorry I have been neglectful to this blog, but there is a lot of family stuff going on and of course that had to be top priority.

Delta has finally published its Christmas bonuses and it is great.

First thing you must do (if you do not have a skymiles number get one)is register for this promotion, it is called "TIS THE SEASON TO EARN. Delta is offering a 50% miles bonus for all partners listed under the terms ans conditions. So if you purchase something for $100 and you are to get 5 miles per $, that will give you 500 miles plus you will get an additional 250 miles for the same transaction. This will add up very fast.

I found a way to earn even more miles on the Delta site. Go on the skymiles site, ways to earn miles and then hit Featured Limited-Time offers, there is a plethora of offers.Giving someoone wine for the holidays, there is a wine club, getting flowers for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner,FTD has a 25 miles per $ offer. Skymiles dining has a promotion which you must register for earn a bonus 5000 miles. 500 miles for every $50 you spend up to 5000 miles. There are many more listed on this page.

The skymiles shopping mall is also having bonuses on many favorite stores. Barnes and Noble is giving 6 miles per $, k-mart is 3 miles per $ and there are so many others.

So now let's look at the possible earning potential.

Eat out 10 times at $50 each 5000 miles
eat out the same 10 times at 3 miles per $ 150 miles
plus 50 % bonus from 'tis the season promo 75 miles

Order a centerpiece for Thanksgiving at $50
at 25 miles per $ from FTD 1250 miles
plus bonus from 'tis the season promo 625 miles

Get books and music for kids at B&N.com
for $200 at 6 miles per $ 1200 miles
plus bonus from 'tis the season promo 600 miles

Order regular items at drugstore.com for
$50 at 7 miles per $ 350 miles
plus bonus from 'tis the season promo 175 miles

Spending $820 for all of the above will get you 9425 miles.
You had 10 wonderful meals with family and friends, bought beautiful flowers, got your kids some great music and bought all that cold and cough stuff we all need during this season.

Hope this information inspires you to earn, earn, earn.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Summer Reflections

2009-09-09T06:47:00.000-07:00

I am not able to travel during the summer because of the job I have so we only went away on the weekends.

Hotel chains had great promotions this summer, they wanted to bring people into their hotels so they offered pay for 2 and get 1 weekend night for free. I have not paid for hotels in a very long time but this promotion was well worth the price. Not only did you get a free night, the price for the rooms were so low (it didn't pay to use points)
NYC for $150 per night. We paid for 4 nights and we had 2 free nights which we used for another stay in NYC. We stayed at LeParker Meridian and this weekend the Westin in NYC.

Last weekend we went to Vermont for a free stay at the Equinox Resort and Spa. The place was lovely and the cost for a night over Labor Day weekend was $495 per night. We met some very lovely people, many of them were there using their summer promotion nights(above promotion), but there were many people that paid for their stay and had no idea that they could sign-up for free nights. They knew about airline frequent flier programs but had no idea that hotel chains had the same type programs.

When I told them of all the free hotel stays we have had they were very interested in signing up. Please sign up for every hotel chain, you never know when you might stay at one. If you don't want the hotel points sign up for the points to go into your frequent flier account. DO NOT let the money you spend at a hotel chain go to waste. For me I only need one hotel chain for points (Starwood is my choice) but then if I need to stay somewhere else I have those stays go to an airline frequent flier program.

1-Choice Hotels are still having a promotion stay 3 nights and get another 1 for free.
2-Marriott is having Mega Bonus which members can earn 2500 Mega Bonus points for every stay, starting with your second stay, up to a maximum of 25000 points. You must pay with your VISA card between 9/15-1/15/10 and register by 10/31/09.
3-IHG Priority Club Rewards promotion-earn double points beginning paid stay 9/15-12/15.Registration is required and check out all the details for the promotion on the site.

Please go on the the actual hotel site to read the actual promotion for all the details.

Summer reflections

2009-09-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

Because of the job I have I do not travel during the summer except for weekends, so my travels have been limited. We went to the Swan in Orlando over July 4th weekend for free. We used Starwood points. During the summer Starwood and other hotels chains had great promotions that if you paid for 2 stays you would get 1 free weekend night. We actually paid for 4 hotel nights

Back to School bonuses

2009-08-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

Every one of the major airlines are offering back to school promotions on their malls. Check them out before you buy in a store.

You will be spending the money anyway so you may as well get some miles for it so you can FLY FOR FREE at a later date.

Summer Update

2009-08-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

Hi, I hope your summer is going well, mine is very busy. Not traveling but having a great time.

Southwest has a great promo good until 8/31. Stay 2 or more consecutive nights at any Hyatt worldwide and get sextuple Southwest credits.

Marriott Rewards members can redeem three nights for the price of two at participating hotels through 9/7/09.

Delta's shopping mall is having a great promotion this month, check out the vendors.

New US Airways Dividend miles members can earn up to 200 percent bonus miles on nearly all activity for their first 30 days in the program through 10/15/09.

Starwood is giving an additional 1000 starpoints for every payed visit to participating North and South America resorts.

US air really wants your business

2009-07-15T02:03:00.000-07:00

Us air is having a great promotion: Earn double miles when you shop on their mall and at all of their other participating partners.You must shop between 7/6-8/31,2009.

So if the FTD.com usually gives 20 miles per dollar then they will double it to 40 miles per dollar. That is amazing.

So start shopping.

USAIR HAS GREAT PROMO

2009-06-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

USAIR is having a Dividend Miles Summer Blockbuster promotion.

If you have an abundance of hotel points and you transfer them to your Dividend miles account, Usair will give you an additional 50%. As an example: I transferred 20000 starpoints to Usair, Starwood gave an additional 5000 as they always do and then Usair added 12500 miles on top of that. So from that transaction I have 37500 miles in my Dividend miles account. I plan on doing this one more time this month.

The promotion ends July 31, 2009.

It requires registration. Hit Dividend Miles, then on the left side it says mileage specials, hit that and then on the left column last item, it says: Earn 50% more on hotel stays and car rentals, hit that, this is where the registration is.

It takes a few weeks for the miles to get into the account.

Starwood and Delta summer promos

2009-06-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that the Starwood hotel chain has a promo, pay for 2 stays and get 1 free night. Delta is also giving an additional 1000 skymiles per stay when you stay at 1 of at 300 participating Starwood hotels. This is double dipping.

We will have 2 free nights away and 3000 skymiles.

Miles Update

2009-06-15T07:48:00.000-07:00

We are half way into 2009 and I just thought I would give an update of what I have earned so far this year.

When we got back from the Bahamas I had a free Jetblue flight waiting for me, I charged all our dinners with the Jetblue card. The food is very expensive, we were 8 people each night and Jetblue gives double credits for restaurants.

Delta is having a great promotion and by the time it ends in 2 weeks I will have earned an extra 22,000 miles.

Starwood is also having a great promotion which we are capitalizing on. Stay and pay for 2 nights and get a free weekend night. I normally do not pay for hotel rooms but for this promotion I decided it was worth it. By the first week in July, I will have 4 free nights. We are planning to use them for a weekend in Washington D.C. over the summer. The room at the hotel is a category 6 and the price per room if I used cash would be over $410 per room. I stayed at hotels which averaged for the 2 nights $287 for the 2 stays so were are ahead of the game.

That is what I have earned this year, and this is what I have booked 5 first class tickets for trips through May of 2010 worth over $7100.

I hope you are all earning miles or points so you can Fly for FREE.

NWA and Delta

2009-06-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I almost miss this great and easy promotion. If you shop on-line and collect Delta skymiles this is an easy way to earn extra miles.

You need to have a NWA FF number and then go on the NWA mall and shop. Every time you shop at one of their vendors that is part of the promotion you will get an additional 1000 miles up to 10000 miles. YOU CAN NOT REPEAT VENDORS.

So I purchased me monthly order from Drugstore.com, a cd from Barnes and Noble.com,a gift certificate form spafinders for the day spa I go to, and my sports orthotics for walking at the Walking store.com. So by purchasing things I would buy anyway I am going to get an addtional 4000 miles.

After they arrive in my NWA account I will transfer them to my Delta account because they are merging.

Choice Privileges-cash in on summer

2009-06-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

If you are a Choice Privilege rewards member there is a great promotion this summer. Stay 3 separate times at any Choice hotel between now and August 13,2009, you'll earn enough Choice Privileges points to redeem for a $50 prepaid cash card.

American airline changes

2009-06-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

For those of us who have American frequent flier miles there is good news from corporate. You can now book a one-way award. You can also combine first class, business and coach one-way awards.

So if you only have 12,500 miles in your account you can use them to book a one-way award and then pay cash for the return flight. You will get mileage credit for the flight that you paid cash for.

This is a great addition for the ability to fly for FREE.

Hopefully other airlines will implement this perk.

Father's day

2009-06-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

Hi all, I have been sick and then on vacation. We had a great time. All the major airline programs are offering extra miles when you buy something for Father's day.
Don't forget your Dad.

Still waiting for all my Mother's day miles. It takes 6-8 weeks for the miles to post to an account.

The Miles Pile Up

2009-05-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

Now that Mother's Day is over, my airline account is starting to grow and grow. I bought 3 sets of flowers and we ate at Rewards Network restaurants so now I watch my account grow.

Since last week we had 6 dines.3 of them were on M-W so I got double points. I am at the 5 miles per dollar mark so on M-W the rewards are double so I got 10 miles per dollar and then there is a promotion to receive 2 additional miles per dollar and of course I used my Jetblue card which gives me 2 points per dollar so in total for those dines a received 14 miles per dollar, not a bad return for a hard earned dollar.

I hope your account is growing so you too can travel for FREE.

Playing games to earn FREE miles

2009-05-05T07:14:00.000-07:00

I found this great site: www.club.live.com this lets you play word games for FREE airmiles.

It takes a while to earn the miles you need 4300 tickets to get 2500 air miles.

The airlines that participate: American, Alaska, Delta, Hawaiian, Midwest, Early Returns, and Usair.

It is a great way to boost your account and the best part it is FREE.

Have fun and play.

Deals with other hotel chains

2009-05-03T17:13:00.000-07:00

The economy might be in very bad shape but for the person who wants to get deals when they ARE traveling, there are many. I was on all the major hotel chain web sites and each one is offering a great promotion. Pay for 2 nights get the third for free.(Priority Club)
Get double points for a paid stay.(Marriott)

Go on the web site of your favorite hotel chain and see the great promotions.

Don't forget the Mother's Day flower promotions.

Mother's Day Promos

2009-04-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

There are some incredible deals out there to earn miles.

United Airlines FTD.com 30 miles per $
American Airlines FTD.com 25 miles per $
Usair FTD.com 20 miles per $
Delta Airlines FTD.com 25 miles per $
Delta Airlines Flowers.com 25 miles per $
Delta Airlines Teleflora.com 20 miles per $
Continental Air Flowers.com 50 miles per $ code CNT26

Don't miss out on this great opportunity. If you are a Mother pass this on to your family because flowers are nice but flowers with miles are much better.

Staying for Free

2009-04-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

It's time to learn the other piece to the puzzle. Each one of us has a favorite hotel chain that we prefer to stay at. Whether it is Choice, Marriott, Hilton, Priority Club, or my favorite Starwood, there are many ways to earn hotel points.

My favorite credit card is the Starwood American Express. The first year there is no fee and after that it is $45. We pay all our monthly bills (cable, cell phone, storage units) with this card. I used this card to pay for my children's college education.

Except at restaurants, movies, theater tickets this is our card of choice. We use it for all our everyday living expenses (gas,supermarkets, drug stores).

In the past when we stayed in the city for a weekend we would pay for the room using our Starwood card. When we were looking at colleges or had to stay overnight for a bowling match, or a concert, we would pay. I decided that we would use the FREE nights to go on a real vacation, 5 nights at a beautiful resort. I could have used it for a FREE night stay but my logic was that if we had to stay somewhere overnight and there was no Starwood Hotel ( for a wedding,or a funeral, a match, a concert,parents weekend,etc.)we would be paying for it so I just implemented this for Starwood hotels as well.

I wanted to build up our Starwood accounts so we could use the starpoints for vacations we would only have dreamed of.

I wanted our FREE nights to be vacations not a trip. I hope you all understand the difference.

Our first free vacation was to Las Vegas, 2 free first class tickets and 5 nights at Caesar's Palace(which was then a Starwood resort).

We have had many other wonderful 5 night vacations all over the country.

There is a great promotion right now www.starwood.com to get the AMEX card. This card is great if you spend more than $15000 in a 6 month period. So if you can add up all your expenses I bet you spend $15000 in a 6 month period. The first time you use the card you will get 10000 starpoints then after you spend $15000 within a 6 month period you will get an additional 15000 starpoints so that will get you to over 40000 starpoints which is enough for a FREE trip somewhere.

There is a great resort in Puerto Rico that only requires 28000 starpoints for a 5 night stay. It is a category 3 hotel. There is a list of hotel categories on the Starwood web site.

Any time you use the Starwood card at a Starwood property or restaurant you will get double starpoints on your Amex card as well as double points because you will be a Starwood Preferred Guest.

Another great perk is the ability to transfer starpoints to airline miles. It is best to do this in increments of 20000 starpoints because Starwood will transfer 25000 strpoints (they give you 5000 for nothing) into your frequent flier account so you then have 25000 miles.

Starwood is having a great promotion now, pay for 2 stays(can be one night, 2 different times) and receive a FREE weekend night in any hotel category 1-6. That is one night in any major city worth $400-$600, or a beach resort. The room must be used by 9/27/09.

We booked a room in Orlando for $78 and a room in NYC for $152 so I will have a FREE night so we just might head down to Washington DC and stay in the St. Regis for a weekend. There is no way that I can afford to stay at a St. Regis if I had to pay for it. That's what makes this so much fun. We have stayed in resorts for FREE that I could never or would ever pay cash for.

When we got the Starwood Amex card with the above promotion I had to time it right, I knew I had 2 tuitions to pay in August and December so I got the card for the August tuition and then my husband got his to pay for the December tuition so we got the 40000 starpoints twice.

Those starpoints are being used for my 12 FREE nights in Italy.

I received an e-mail from a friend a few weeks ago, thanking me for telling her about the Starwood Amex card, she was e-mailing me while she was on her FREE vacation.

I prefer Starwood hotels and resorts but in future blogs I will discuss the other hotel chains.

New offers with Delta

2009-04-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Hi all, just got home from a few days in St.John, it was very restful and we met some very nice people.

When I got home there was a great e-mail from Delta that I want to share with you.

Earn an additional 25000 bonus miles when you use our non-airline Skymiles partners, well, that caught my eye.

here is the link: delta.com/pileonmiles

I will be able to earn an extra 6000 miles on my account from doing the following things:

1-buy half of my usual items at Drugstore.com
2-stay at the Marriott for a seminar
3-order flowers for Mother's day with FTD.com
4-order flowers for Mother's day with 1800flowers
5-rent a car when we go to Florida
6-eat out at a Rewards Network restaurant

I will be able to earn an extra 4000 miles in my husband's account from doing the following things:

1-buy the other half of my usual items at Drugstore.com
2-eat out at a Rewards Network restaurant
3-Get a quote for car insurance
4-order flowers for anniversary with Teleflora.com

Using the promotion for things that we would be doing anyway will net me an extra 10000 miles plus the miles given for each activity.

If you have any questions about the promotion or anything that has been addressed please feel free to ask.

OTHER WAYS TO EARN MILES

2009-04-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

As you hopefully started navigating the airline websites I hope you have noticed that there are many other ways to earn miles.

You can buy or sell a house and get a mega amount of AirMiles, put money (if anyone has any)in an Ameritrade account, join a wine club, join Netflix, and there are so many other ways.

What you all have to do is re-educate yourselves and think outside the box.

We earned 20000 points using the Ameritrade account.

We have 3 kids and each one of course needed a college education, one of the criteria when they selected their school was that we can charge their tuition on a credit card.
We paid the 2% charge for the ability to charge their tuition but I turned that fee and the AirMiles into 2 glorious FREE vacations that would have cost more than the 2% fee.

I will be away on a FREE vacation from Friday - Wednesday. FREE air and FREE hotels.
Life is good.

Coming up how to complete the picture with FREE hotel rooms......

Mother's Day

2009-04-15T06:37:00.000-07:00

As we all heard April showers bring May flowers when we were a kid, and May is right around the corner. And so is Mother's Day. I am sure many of you send flowers to Mom but are you maximizing your purchase? There are many ways to order flowers, over the phone, on-line and of course a store. But if you order them on-line or over the phone please go through the airline mall of your choice. You will receive anywhere from 10 miles -25 miles per dollar depending on the promotion.

If you send flowers during the year it is the same thing. I send flowers -5 times a year and each time I get at least 1000 miles per purchase.

Stop wasting your hard earned money.

For those of you who have been reading the blogs so far, could you please comment so I know you understand what I am writing about.

I hope all this is pretty straight forward and easy to understand.

If anyone has a specific question, I will answer it.

Eating Out for Flyer Miles

2009-04-14T05:18:00.000-07:00

The subject I am going to discuss relates to Southwest, Usair, American, Continental,Northwest,United,Delta and others.

On each of these airline sites there is a partner called Rewards Network. This is a site that I definitely recommend that everyone signs up for it. It is free to sign up and if you eat out this site is for you.

We use the Delta site to accumulate our miles on the Rewards Network.

The site lists restaurants all over the country.When I want to eat out at home or on vacation I enter the zip code to see if there are any restaurants that the family would be interested in going to. We have been to some amazing restaurants and of course some that we would never go back to.

Here is how the program works: Once you register your frequent flyer number with the Rewards Network you also have to register up to 5 credit cards.(any credit card)You may register your spouses cards under the same account. These credit cards on file are the ones you will use to pay for the bill at the restaurant you have chosen from the Rewards Network list.

The first 12 times you eat out you will receive 3 miles per dollar including tax and tip. After the 12 times you will go to the next level which is 5 miles per dollar (which the new level extends to the next year). That adds up very fast.

Have you ever gone out with friends and everyone wants to charge their portion of the bill?
Well, to get to 12 times fast, if the the bill is over $50, split the bill with 2 cards that are on your account it will get you to the next level much faster.

There is a promotion now on most of the airline Rewards programs that will give you double miles when you eat out on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The card I use all the time is my Jetblue card because as I stated before, one of the perks is double on all restaurants.This called double dipping.

Each program always has promotions going on, once you register you will receive e-mail updates from them, OPEN THEM,they can get you extra miles.

Delta had a promotion : eat out 25 time during a certain period and receive an additional 25,000 miles plus the regular amount for each dine. That was a great promo.

Last year Delta had a promotion that you had to spend $450 from May 1-June 30 and you would receive an additional 5000 miles. We went out (7 of us) for Mother's Day in NYC and we were planning to go the Uncle Jack's Steakhouse (very expensive but wonderful). We spent the $450 . At the time we were getting 10 miles per dollar (now it is 5) so that came to 4500 miles and then since we spent the $450 we also got the 5000 bonus miles and of course we used the Jetblue card so I got 900 credits for Jetblue. It was a very Happy Mother's Day for me.

My husband's Delta account is the registered account with the Rewards Network from just eating out and working the system(all the promotions) I booked him his first class ticket to Italy. So mine came from everyday living expenses and his came from eating out. I still can't believe we are going. It takes time but the miles add up.

Get Air Miles for Shopping Online!

2009-04-13T03:43:00.000-07:00

On the first of of my blog I started discussing Delta. Mostly everything I hold dear to my heart about Delta is gone. As the recession hit the wonderful Delta benefits also disappeared.

As I mentioned on the the first blog, every major airline site has a mall. I have become an on-line shopper.As many of you have .You will go to Macys.com, Nordstroms.con, Barnes and Noble.com,etc. But you only get your merchandise and 1 miles for using your credit card. That's where the new training must start.

I hope by now you all have gotten a frequent flyer number for all the major airlines. At this point please find the mall. To find it press find the name of the frequent flyer such as Dividend Miles, Skymiles, Worldperks, Aadvantage,etc. Navigate this part of the site. You will see numerous ways to earn miles. Look for partners (dining, shopping, etc) that will get you to the mall. Register your frequent flyer number with the mall. This is very important, because if you are not logged into the mall you will not get the miles. It is different than logging into the frequent flyer home page.

Now we are logged in, start looking at the stores that are on the site. It will show you how many miles you will get per dollar spent. This is a big part of how I travel for free. My favorite stores to shop on are Drugstores.com,magazines.com, shoes.com and many others.

This past month Delta had a promotion with shoes.com when you shop on the site through Delta skymiles mall you will receive 15 miles per dollar, no shipping , no tax, and a $20 coupon if you spend over $100. So I bought 2 pairs of sneakers for myself and 2 for my son and while I was sitting in my house in my PJ's I got 3000 skymiles plus the miles from using my credit card.

Drugstore. com also is having a promotion with Delta now, get 9 miles per dollar. So I purchased toothpaste, mouthwash, my shampoo and conditioner, q-tips, etc. I got discounts and used coupons and had no shipping fee and got 450 skymiles. It was delivered to my house the next day. I didn't use any gas and I shopped at 1am. Drugstore.com works like CVS when you are a repeat customer you get bucks back to use in the upcoming months. Last month I had $15.48 in my account to spend this month. So to me this is a fantastic way to shop.

I mentioned that I used a credit card to shop, an important piece of information is that you DO NOT have to have the airline credit card to shop on the mall. You can use any credit card.

Last Christmas season my Starwood American express card was targeted to recieve double points when I shopped on-line, well that was fantastic for me. During the holiday season starting sometime in October all the airline malls start their promotions( which is a great benefit to us because that means more miles for us). Barnes and Noble.com was offering through the Delta site 8 miles per dollar and they were allowing you to purchase gift cards on this offer. Every year we give out about $500 worth of gift cards to various people and plus my kids love the store so I purchased a few extra for a total of $700. When doing the math, I received 5600 miles plus the 2 from my Starwood card(1400) and then I took it a step further, once the cards came in I went on-line to shop on Barnes and Noble .com and used the $200 in gift cards to purchase merchandise at the store so I got an additional 8 miles per dollar for the books and CD's, which comes to an additional 1600 miles. Sitting in my nice warm house, no traffic, no crowds, I got 8600 points to put in my "travel bank".Not a bad return on my $700 I would have spent
anyway.

I will share many of these stories with you as we go on.

Just to give you food for thought, I booked us two first class tickets to Italy which cost me $90 for the taxes. Each ticket if I paid for them (which of course I can't afford) is $3800, yes that is correct, $3800 for one, that is $7400 for the two. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Southwest Rapid Rewards Program

2009-04-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

Today I will be talking about the Southwest Rapid Rewards program.

We flew out of Islip with Southwest for many years. Before I got the credit card I was able to get a free flight about once a year.

I linked my hotel programs(other than Starwood) to my Southwest account and I also linked the rental car programs to my Southwest account. So every time I had to stay in a hotel other than Starwood I wanted to make sure the stay was not lost so I linked it to my Southwest account.

A few years ago I found a site to get a free Southwest ticket the first time you used the card for any amount of money. www.southwest.com/flyfree was the link I used. So I had my husband and myself get the credit card. So we had 2 flights for $59 (the fee for the card)each. It was well worth it.

Here is how the Southwest card works: To get a Rapid Reward point you must spend $1200. You need 16 credits to get a free flight.
If you use your card to book any southwest trips and any of their partners you get double. A partner such as a hotel or rent a car.

Last year they had a great promotion, buy $500 worth of Southwest gift cards with your Southwest credit card and receive a free flight. So we each bought $500 worth of gift cards.
We just finished using up the gift cards for flights this year. So we had 2 more free flights.

I only use the card when a store does not take American express and of course when I use one of their partners.

This year the Rapid Rewards program has expanded to include the purchasing flowers on line through the Rapid Rewards site and the Dining rewards Network. So there are many other ways to get more points.

I have found booking with a free flight is hassle free and in most cases if booked early enough, Ihave never had a problem getting a free flight.

Once you get a free flight you also get coupons for free drinks on the plane which I share with my fellow passengers.

This year I have 3 free tickets with Southwest so far. The program works when used correctly.

The Jetblue Credit Card!

2009-04-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hi, just back, before I tell you all my secrets, I must say that this is for people who pay off their credit cards every month and do not carry a balance.

Just want to give you an update of my last year's travel plans.
2008

February - Florida FREE air with Southwest
March - Arizona FREE First Class ticket with USair
April - California 2 FREE First Class tickets with USair
May - Bahamas 3 FREE tickets with Jetblue & paid for the other 2
June - Florida paid $35 with Spirit
July - Orlando 2 FREE tickets with Southwest
September - Lake Tahoe 2 FREE First Class tickets with USair
October - Williamsburg Va, paid for the seats
November - Bahamas paid for the seat

As you can see I travel a lot. I can't afford to pay for all those flights but I can go if it is free.

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Today we are going discuss the Jetblue American Express Card.

American Express also known as AMEX

If you eat out often at any kind of restaurants, even at well known eating establishments such as, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, McDonald's, and others as well, then the best card to have is the Jetblue AMEX Card. Besides restaurants they give double points for theater tickets, sporting events, movies, and gym memberships.

So the only time our Jetblue card comes out of our pocket is at restaurants , movies, or Broadway show tickets.

Now let me explain how the Jetblue system works.
When you book your flights on Jetblue through the internet the value of the trip will be doubled. as an example a flight from NYC to Lax, Ca is 6 points one way so if you booked on line you will get 12 points for that segment.

The catch to Jetblue is that you need to get to 100 points within a year of your first travel date. So if you don't make it to 100 TrueBlue points you will lose them.

BUT the Jetblue American express will save those points. Every time you use your card all your points gets extended to that date plus one year.
here's an example:

I have 24 points from my flight in October 2006 so I would lose those points in October 2007. But with the AMEX card let's say I made a purchase September 2007 then the 24 points are now good until September 2008. So the one year to acquire 100 TrueBlue points is now NOT part of the equation. The next time you use the card is July of 2008 so everything is now extended to July 2009.

Using this card is a very easy way to get free flights. It adds up very fast.
If you are thinking about getting the card please e-mail before you apply for it and I will send you to a site to get the card. Jetblue is having a promotion for card holders to get referrals.

If you travel with a spouse or significant other you each have to have your own Jetblue American Express Card. (Otherwise the spouse will lose the TrueBlue points from travel.)There is a fee to have the card but it has paid for itself many times for us.

*Next time we will get back to Delta.*

How the Journey Took off!

2009-04-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

I was your typical traveler, saved and saved for a weeks vacation and this was to stay at a 2* hotel.

Then about 6 years ago, someone said to me "Pay for a coach ticket and upgrade to First Class using Air Miles". This is when I started exploring the web going to the websites of many of the Airline Companies.

Low and behold on every major airline site there is a mall and many ways to get Air Miles.

I registered for every Frequent Flier Program and every hotel chain program and every rent a car program. I had tons of numbers and learned how to link them together.

I figured I buy gas, shop in grocery stores, drug stores, Home Depot, and Lowe's so why shouldn't I get the Delta Credit Card. This card gave double points for every purchase at these places. We had to eat, get gas, and we had a once a week trip to CVS for something so why shouldn't I get an extra benefit for spending our hard earned money. It was amazing how fast the Miles started to add up just from our everyday living expenses.