Tag Archives: AwardWallet

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My United Airlines Account & MileagePlus X App were Hacked, My Journey to Restore Access

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Good afternoon everyone.  A few weeks ago, Laura and I were driving to Lake Tahoe for vacation.  During the drive, I started getting emails from the MileagePlus X app (the app where you can earn United Airlines miles for buying gift cards).  The first confirmation email came in at 12:48pm for a $10 Apple eGC.  Then over the next 5 minutes, I received 4 more confirmation emails for $500 Saks Fifth Avenue eGCs.  Uhh oh, this was bad.  Then I got an email from United Airlines that said:

Your MileagePlus account information has been updated – We wanted to let you know your MileagePlus account information has changed. For your security, we can’t specify exactly what was updated, but it may include your address, phone number, password or other details.

Oh boy, now the hacker had signed into my United Airlines account and changed my email or password.  We exited the freeway and stopped at a gas station.  We changed seats so Laura could drive the car and I could call United Airlines about my hacked account and US Bank to report the credit card fraud.  This was the start of my journey to restore access to my accounts.

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Plusgrade Purchased Points.com for $385M and Points Loyalty Wallet Ending on September 6, 2022

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Yesterday, I went to the Points.com website and noticed a banner message at the top of the page that read, “Please note that the Points Loyalty Wallet is being retired on September 6, 2022.”  I also noticed a new logo that said Points, a Plusgrade company.  Have I been living under a rock not knowing that Points was acquired and closing their loyalty wallet in a few weeks?  I did some digging and this is what I found out.

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Valentine’s Day Giveaway: 10 AwardWallet Plus 1 Year Upgrade Codes [Winner’s Selected]

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Updated at 3:50pm PT on 2/15/22: Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway.  I loved reading all of your answers.  I selected 10 comments and will reach out to the 10 winners now via email.

Pam Travel hacking has allowed me to travel at a low cost for almost 30 years. I love that I’m able to explore different cultures and new destinations without breaking the bank.
maxwell1009a I get the physics of flight but it still amazes me that something as big as an airplane can get off the ground when I can barely jump 2′ in the air! And, as a hub captive, chasing status more than mileage allows me to give my “bride” of 40 years upgrades to first class much of the time.
Aleks Travel is a part of a lifelong education, it enriches and rejuvenates, brings new things into the view, and allows to connect to other parts of our beautiful home that we call Earth. Travel can expand your mind and fulfill your soul. It allows to look at one’s life from a different perspective, and connect with other people. And travel-booking skills or hacks allows me to do this wonderful activity more often, for less cost, and have better experiences (like upgraded flights and nicer hotels) – totally worth the time spent acquiring and using them.
Jayashree S I love that traveling opens up our mind and heart to people without boundaries of language, religion, country.
Scott G Collecting points has allowed me and my family to go places, both exciting (Italy) and mundane (State College, PA) for long stays or just short ones while en route to other places.
Gena I love to travel to eat all the amazing food the world has to offer — travel hacking just makes this all more affordable (I’m not really going to say easy here, it’s not always easy ha); but love seeing new places, experiencing new things, and learning more about the people, culture, and place.
YoLaViajera Travel hacking helps our family travel to places we otherwise couldn’t afford, since we’re 4 individuals. It also gives us the opportunity to share the world with our kids’ so that they don’t grow up thinking that their neighborhood, their city, their country is the only thing that matters in the world. Our hope is that they become global citizens, who care about the rest of the world and not just people who look like them or talk the same language.
BothofUs2 What I love about travel hacking is that it allows us to go to places and see things that normally we wouldn’t get to, because it would be too expensive.
Lauren I love travel hacking so that I can save enough money to take additional family members with me on vacation. Traveling is always extra fun when you can share the experience with others :)
Nate It allows me to share my love of travel with my wife (and soon) my son!

Good morning everyone, happy Valentine’s Day!  Since I love my Travel with Grant readers so much, I wanted to show my appreciation with a giveaway.  I have 10 AwardWallet Plus 1 year upgrade codes available.  If you are a free AwardWallet member, you can use this code to get a free 1 year upgrade to AwardWallet Plus or extend your current AwardWallet Plus membership by another year.  If you are not an AwardWallet member, sign up here for a free AwardWallet account.  To enter the giveaway, just answer this question:

What do you love about travelling and / or travel hacking?

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Transfer Times from Citi ThankYou Points to American Airlines: Miles Posted 12-13 Hours Later

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Yesterday morning, Frequent Miler wrote You Can Now Transfer Citi ThankYou Points To American Airlines, But Only For A Limited Time.  I decided to do a sample transfer of 1,000 Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs) to American Airlines to test the transfer times and see if the transfer was instant.  I submitted the transfer request at 9:19am and checked my American Airlines account a few minutes later.  Unfortunately, the transfer was not instant, so I set up an AwardWallet “Balance Watch” alert to see when the miles posted, so I could calculate the transfer time.  From my experience, the transfer took 12-13 hours to post.

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Award Wallet Feature I Wish Existed: Keep Checking for Account Balance Changes

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Good afternoon everyone.  I dreamed this up a few days ago and thought it was worth sharing to see if anyone else would find this feature useful.  If you guys like this idea, I will share it with my friends Howie and Alexi at Award Wallet (sign up for your free Award Wallet account here).  Here is an example use case:  I needed to book a Singapore Airlines (SQ) award ticket for travel on United Airlines (UA).  I needed 35,000 SQ miles, but only had 744 SQ miles in my account.  Luckily, I have plenty of transferable point currencies, so I decided to transfer 25,000 Citi Thank You Points and 10,000 American Express Membership Reward Points to my Singapore Airlines account.  As I wrote in July 2015, transfer times from Chase UR, Citi TYP, AMEX MR, and SPG to SQ are not instant – most take ~24 hours to complete.

With that said, I made the transfers from Citi Thank You Points and American Express Membership Reward Points and then occasionally checked Award Wallet to see if the SQ miles posted.  Insert cheesy infomercial “THERE HAS GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY!”  Here is what the process currently looks like:

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