Tag Archives: American Airlines

How to Book British Airways Avios Award Tickets

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How to Book British Airways Avios Award Tickets

In this how-to guide, I will show you how to book a British Airways Avios award ticket.  In my demo, I will book an American Airlines flight, but the steps below will work with US Airways, British Airways, and most OneWorld Alliance airlines.  If you find a flight on AA.com but cannot find it on BA.com, you will have to call British Airways and have them book the award for you.  It will cost $25 for a phone booking fee.

The first step is to search on American Airlines’ website (AA.com) for award space.  In this example, I found an economy award from SNA to DFW during Memorial Day Weekend.

Find AA Award Space

To read the entire article, please click here.

Ask an Expert Interview Series: Casey from Points Away

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Ask an Expert Interview Series: Casey from Points Away

I know there are already a million interview series on miles and points bloggers, but my goal is to interview a handful of some of the smaller bloggers you may not be familiar with. My second interviewee is Casey who writes at www.pointsaway.com and has written a cool travel eBook titled The PointsAway – The Deluxe Edition (read review here).  Without further ado, here are Casey’s answers:

1) How did you first begin to discover the power of miles and points programs?

Luck, as much as anything. I was planning about a year in advance for a conference in Portland last Summer and was unhappy with how expensive airfare was for the dates I was looking to travel. Around the same time, I received an offer for a Gold Delta SkyMiles card by American Express with a hefty mileage sign-up bonus. I applied and was quickly approved and earned my sign-up bonus in the first month. Shortly thereafter, my first award trip was booked. Though it was scheduled for many months in advance, I didn’t need to set foot on a plane to be convinced; the itinerary confirmation in my hand reading $10 instead of the $460 or so the cash ticket would’ve cost was all I needed to see!

Casey Points Away Bio Pic

Casey @ the Beach

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What’s Up with Grant? CA Fires, CVS-AMEX, Citi Photo Cards, Update on Checkout51, and Hamburg/Copenhagen Planning

What's On My Mind

What’s Up with Grant? CA Fires, CVS-AMEX, Citi Photo Cards, Update on Checkout51, and Hamburg/Copenhagen Planning

Good morning everyone!  California has a had a rough couple of days deals with several forest fires.  I hope my friends/family/readers in San Diego County are all doing ok.  Thank you for all the hard work from the fire fighters and other respondents.  I am going down to San Diego on Saturday June 7 (3 weeks from today) to meet a friend of mine.  She is a big miles/points aficionado like myself, so I wanted to know if anyone would like to join us, a very casual miles/points meetup.  The time and place has yet to be decided, but it will probably be in the afternoon on Saturday.

Also, I have been a *really bad* blogger this week.  I haven’t posted anything in the last 3-4 days so I apologize for not keeping you up to date on the latest miles/points news:

  • Southwest Airlines credit card now 50,000 mile sign up bonus
  • Barclays Arrival Plus credit card now with chip and pin and the same sign up bonus
  • Chase Ink Bold/Plus credit card now with 60,000 Chase UR Points
  • American Express Daily Deals, maybe I should say “deals”, not too impressive this year
  • Evolve Pay now you can pay with some credit cards (mostly MasterCard)
  • Charlotte Mile Madness reviews
  • Whatever else I missed

Just because I haven’t been writing the last few days doesn’t mean I haven’t been experimenting with different topics/ideas.  I have some pretty good posts in the pipeline.  One post that’s been 1+ month in the making is my headache of a problem dealing with CVS and my American Express Target card.  Have you ever had a situation where neither company could help, but then you decided to do a 3 way conference call and have them speak directly to each other and solve the problem?  Ya, that’s what happened here.  I’m glad to finally have my $503.95 back.  More info to come shortly (P.S. crazy story).

Chargeback

Umm, what the heck is a reversal of chargeback and why do you do this to me AMEX??

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Retention Bonus Results for a Chase United, AMEX Delta, and Citi American Airlines Credit Card

Which Credit Card

Retention Bonus Results for a Chase United, AMEX Delta, and Citi American Airlines Credit Card

Good morning, here are my results from my recent three card retention bonus challenge (read the intro here).  If you want to listen to all three reconsideration calls (24 minutes long), please click the play button below.  Download link (3-Card-Reconsideration-Calls.m4a).

Here are my results and plans going forward…

Card #1: Chase United MileagePlus Credit Card

  • Asked for the $95 annual fee to be waived – no go
  • Asked for a statement credit to cover the annual fee – no go
  • Asked for 10,000 United miles to offset the annual fee (got this last year) – no go
  • I was offered 2 complimentary United Club Passes (see my post How much are 2 United Club Passes Worth? $29.99) – I will sell these on Ebay when they come
  • I will call back again after the United Club Passes arrive and see if I can get a better retention offer, otherwise I will close my card and move my credit line over to my other Chase personal credit cards

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4 Uber Rides in 24 Hours (FTU Seattle) and 3 Planned Retention Calls (Chase United, AMEX Delta, and Citi American Airlines)

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4 Uber Rides in 24 Hours (FTU Seattle) and 3 Planned Retention Calls (Chase United, AMEX Delta, and Citi American Airlines)

Sign up for Uber and get a $10 Uber credit on your first ride (link)

During my weekend in Seattle for FTU Seattle, I had the pleasure to try Uber 4 different times (within 24 hours).  For those unfamiliar with Uber, it is an on-demand taxi service, meaning you can request a taxi ride whenever and wherever (Uber is supported).  You need a smartphone and the Uber app needs to be installed.  Once you load the Uber app, it finds your current location and shows you all drivers nearby.  When you are ready to be picked up, just set your pick up location and the nearest available Uber driver will come pick you up.  The Uber app shows you where the car is and who the driver is along with the make of the car and their license plate.

See Who Uber Driver Is

You can read the whole article about why Uber is awesome here.   Continue reading →