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Alaska Airlines Buy Miles Mystery Offer: Up to 50% Bonus Miles

We all have our favorite airlines and miles programs. Maybe I’m biased because I usually start my travels from the West Coast, but I’m a big fan of Alaska Airlines and can never have too many Alaska miles. If your Alaska miles account is short on miles, Alaska has a mystery offer on purchased miles expiring on October 4.

I recently wrote about the best uses for Alaska miles. Alaska miles have great value for me. Why? I like that Alaska isn’t a part of an airline alliance, but rather that they have a long list of airline partners that offer incredible business and first class products. My two favorite Alaska Airlines partners are Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines. I recently flew Cathay Pacific Business Class to Asia. My first time flying Cathay Pacific was back in 2012, and even after all these years and having flown many different airlines, I’m still a huge Cathay Pacific fan. I have a Japan Airlines flight booked using Alaska miles, so I’m really looking forward to experiencing their current product.

Alaska Airlines Mystery Bonus Sept 2018

Alaska miles shine in yet another way, too. Alaska allows you to book a stopover on award tickets. That’s true even on a one-way award ticket! For example, say you were going from the US to Bangkok. You could use your Alaska miles on their partner Cathay Pacific and stopover in Hong Kong for a couple of days and then head on to Bangkok. This is just one example. Why not enjoy more destinations for the same award price, right?

Unlike other airlines, Alaska does not limit the total amount of miles you can purchase, only the total you can buy at one time. The mystery bonus offer ends on October 4, 2018. Check your mystery offer and see if this deal makes sense for you!

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Tarom Airlines Schedule Change? Email Reservations Department to Fix

Good morning everyone.  A few months ago, I booked a flight on Tarom Airlines (SkyTeam airline based in Romania) to fly from Chisinau, Moldova (KIV) to Bucharest, Romania (OTP) to Sofia, Bulgaria (SOF) with a 7 hour layover in Bucharest to explore the city.  I booked the flight directly on the Tarom Airlines website and all was good until I received an email from Tarom with the subject line “Schedule Change.”  If you get a similar email from Tarom Airlines regarding a schedule change, I will show you exactly what to do.  Since the whole email was in Romanian, and my Romanian is a little rusty, I used Google Translate to understand the email.

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75K Sign Up Bonus for Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Business Credit Card (Targeted Offer)

Good afternoon everyone.  My friend just forwarded me this targeted offer for the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Business Credit Card.  The standard sign up bonus is 50,000 United Airlines miles after spending $3,000 in 3 months.  With this targeted offer, the sign up bonus is 75,000 United Airlines miles after spending $5,000 in 3 months.  If you did not receive this email, you can see if you are targeted for the offer by signing into your United MileagePlus account here.

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Are Travel Mistakes Avoidable? Maybe!

We’ve all made them, though I don’t think we’ll ever avoid all of them. But more often than not, there are ways around the travel mistakes we make.  Sure, it might be way more fun to talk about all the room upgrades we score, the elite status benefits we enjoy, or the deal for flights that DIDN’T get away, but let’s face it, we’ve all made a bunch of mistakes. So let’s air them and have some fun laughing at ourselves and commiserating with each other.

No matter how much we plan or how well we assume we’ll carry out those plans, there’s always a lot that’s not under our control. I started asking around and found that some travel mistakes are more common than others. And some people agree on how best to avoid those mistakes, but not always. Based on my own experience as well as that of many other frequent travelers, here are the mistakes and how to avoid them. There are so many of them I’ve actually made this a 3 part series!

Not buying souvenirs right when you see them

I buy souvenirs, and by that I mean chocolate, for people from every place I travel. You’d be surprised how many times I don’t get back to that certain best chocolate bar store or to a certain area of town even though I say I will. So this mistake is easy to make and easy to fix! If you see it now, buy it now.

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Image source: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/souvenir-buying-guide/index.html

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Why Can’t I Remove Closed Barclays Credit Card from my Online Account?

Good morning everyone.  A few days ago, I called Barclays regarding retention offers on my Barclays credit cards.  During the call, I decided to close my old Barclays Lufthansa Miles & More Credit Card.  I had already redeemed all of my Lufthansa Miles & More Miles for a Turkish Airlines business class flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Istanbul (IST) to Athens (ATH).  That was 55,000 miles well spent.  A few months ago, I even downgraded to the no annual fee version of the Barclays Lufthansa Miles & More Credit Card, but I vowed never to spend another dollar on that credit card since I had 0 miles, so what would be the point in earning more miles?  Long story short, I decided to close the Barclays Lufthansa Miles & More Credit Card and move the credit limit to my Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card and no annual fee Barclays Arrival Credit Card.  Now that the credit card was closed and had a $0 credit limit, I was confused why the closed credit card continued to show up in my online account.  I was on a mission to find out how to remove the credit card from my online account, but I was not prepared for what I would find out.

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