Tag Archives: British Airways

Random News: IHG Set Your Sights Promo, 40% Transfer Bonus to British Airways, and AMEX Offers for Virgin America, Carters, and Healthy Back Store

IHG Rewards Club Logo

Random News: IHG Set Your Sights Promo, 40% Transfer Bonus to British Airways, and AMEX Offers for Virgin America, Carters, and Healthy Back Store

Good afternoon everyone!  I love waking up in the morning and having a ton of new travel promos and offers to talk about, it makes my job a little easier.  The first offer I want to talk about is IHG’s new promo called Into the Nights Set Your Sights (link) (hat tip to Loyalty Traveler).  It is very similar in structure to the Into the Nights promo.  Here are my offers:

  • Book 5 nights at any IHG property
  • Book a Mini-Vacation Package (see image below)
  • Book and pay with a Chase IHG Rewards Credit Card
  • Book a stay with a Bonus Points Package

I must complete 3 out of 4 offers to get 33,100 bonus IHG points.

IHG Set Your Sights Offers

The problem (or possible opportunity) with booking the Mini-Vacation Package is that it is actually a timeshare presentation, not a mini vacation.  Usually when I think of a mini vacation, I do not think of sitting in a sales presentation for 1-2 hours, but that is just me.  IHG is trying to make your mini vacation / timeshare presentation as enticing as possible by offering you a 4 day / 3 night stay at one of their 6 vacation properties (Orlando, Las Vegas, Myrtle Beach, Gatlinburg, Cape Canaveral, and Williamsburg) for only $199 + tax, with a $100 night credit or 20,000 IHG points (link).  Assuming you live/travel to an area with one of the 6 vacation properties, you might do pretty well.  Since you are required to attend the sales presentation, you must visit the property, you cannot call the front desk and tell them to virtually check you in.  I like your thinking though…

Holiday Inn Mini Vacation Package Timeshare

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Transfer Chase Ultimate Reward Points from the Chase App

Chase-Ultimate-Rewards

Transfer Chase Ultimate Reward Points from the Chase App

Chase recently updated their smartphone app for iOS and Android with the ability to transfer Chase Ultimate Reward Points to their travel partners.  I will show you how I recently transferred Chase Ultimate Reward Points to Southwest Airlines on my iPhone.  The process should work the same on an Android phone.  You can follow these steps to transfer Chase Ultimate Reward Points to any of their travel partners.  Without further ado, download the Chase app to your smartphone and log into your Chase account.

Log Into Chase App

Navigate to the Chase account that has Chase Ultimate Reward Points – either a Chase Sapphire Preferred (personal account) or a Chase Ink Bold/Plus (business account).

Select Chase Account

To read the entire post, please click here.  Have a great Thanksgiving holiday everyone!

Amtrak Coast Starlight Trip – Part 2: Transferring Points and Booking Trains

Sheldon Cooper Train

Amtrak Coast Starlight Trip – Part 2: Transferring Points and Booking Trains

Please read part 1 of my Amtrak Coast Starlight Trip (link) before reading this post.

To make this trip happen, I used 7,500 British Airways Avios to fly Alaska Airlines from Orange County, CA (SNA) to Seattle, WA (SEA) and 25,000 Amtrak Points for a 2 person bedroom on the Coast Starlight Amtrak train from Seattle to Irvine.  This was accomplished by using Chase Ultimate Reward Points and their instant 1:1 transfer partners (the chart is slightly out of date since it is missing Singapore Airlines).  To learn more about the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, click here.

Chase UR Partners

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Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card Worth the $95 Annual Fee?

CSP

Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card Worth the $95 Annual Fee?

Thank you Amanda for asking me why the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card was not used on my recent trip to Cabo.  Great question Amanda, let me explain why…

There is no doubt that the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great credit card.  Double points on travel and dining purchases is awesome.  Transferable points to many of the best airline and hotel loyalty programs is awesome.  No foreign transactions fees and no annual fee (for the first year) is awesome.  I think that if you could only have 1 Chase credit card, most people would say the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card (we will assume you are not a business owner).  I totally agree 100%.  But what about the second year and the third year and the fourth year when you have to pay the $95 annual fee.  Is it still worth it?

Yes and no.   Continue reading →

Random News: Ads Coming to TWG, Free Paper from Staples, Expiring Hotels.com Credits, Chase Marriott Retention Offer Letter, Uber Airport Rides, British Airways Avios Award Cancellations, and New AMEX Offers

960x250 TWG Logo

Random News: Ads Coming to TWG, Free Paper from Staples, Expiring Hotels.com Credits, Chase Marriott Retention Offer Letter, Uber Airport Rides, British Airways Avios Award Cancellations, and New AMEX Offers

Good evening everyone, let’s get to today’s random news…

First off, as I slowly transition under the Prior2Boarding / BoardingArea umbrella, you will probably notice some changes, like the Prior2Boarding banner showing up at the top of my blog.  I will remain self-hosted, so all my page URLs will stay the same.

Prior2Boarding Logo

I have some bad news for those of you who hate ads (probably all of you).  I have partnered with BoardingArea to show their ads on my blog.  You will see them in the coming days on the right hand side of my blog and toward the bottom of the blog.  If you use an ad blocking software/plugin, I won’t be mad.  I actually use Chrome’s Adblock Plus myself.  If the ads are really annoying, distracting, or obstructing content, please let me know ASAP and I will fix them.  Thank you for understanding.

Now to the good stuff…

Like clockwork, Staples has another ream of paper that is free after rebate and coupon.  These reams go for about $2 at garage sales, so stock up!

Staples Paper Rebate 8-17-2014

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