FREE ShopRunner with Eligible American Express card

Posted on May 15, 2013 by oz

There is a great promo running right now at ShopRunner offering 1 year membership for FREE with an eligible American Express card. You simply enter your card info, and you will see if your American Express card qualifies or not. Currently, most American Express cards seem to work, including the Costco American Express, and OPEN Business American Express cards. This is a great deal, as ShopRunner will give you FREE 2-day shipping and free returns from many retailers online. If you do online shopping, you can’t lose with this promo. I signed up and you should too, to benefit from FREE shipping. Sometimes, retailers require at least $20 of spend, in order to get free shipping, but not with ShopRunner. Here is the link: https://www.shoprunner.com/americanexpress

Lufthansa Miles & More 50,000 bonus miles!!

Posted on May 8, 2013 by oz

Lufthansa has finally joined the band wagon of offering 50,000 bonus award miles on their Miles & More World Mastercard by Barclays. This is actually a great offer and let me tell you why.

First, this equals two round trip tickets on United Airlines and US Airways, which the miles can be redeemed for. United Airlines & USAIR are Star Alliance members, and Lufthansa is in the brotherhood. Secondly, there are NO FUEL surcharges when redeeming for domestic tickets. Third, this card is offered by Barclays bank, which pulls from Trans-Union, and if you have little inquiries from them, this will help you get approved. I do recommend a high credit score though, to receive this, however, you can still get the full 50,000 miles even if you are approved for the lesser platinum card, instead of the World MasterCard. In the past, Barclays use to screw you over by giving you the lesser card AND the lesser bonus, but not this time!

Okay, here are the details to get this 50,000 bonus miles. You need to spend $5,000 within 3 months (very much possible and I can show you how). You earn 20,000 miles after your FIRST purchase (can be anything….even a Twix bar at Fred Meyer or something)……….and you get the remaining 30,000 miles after spending $5,000 total in 3 months. There is a $79 annual- fee but you are getting basically TWO FREE round-trip flights, so this really pays for itself and then some. 50,000 miles on Lufthansa will get you a head start in redeeming for those hard to get first class seats on Lufthansa and Swiss Air, which are not available to partner airlines anymore. However, there are fuel surcharges when redeeming for international flights, so keep that in mind if that is your goal. Budget your trip(s) accordingly. If you have questions, please comment or email me and I will be glad to help you out!! I am personally getting this, as I do see value in it. It gives me greater flexibility for redeeming flights on United Airlines, as I have already gotten the United Mileage PLUS VISA card, which gave me 50,0000 miles. Holiday travel is expensive, and these miles will come in handy!! You may use the link below, or click on the image above.

The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard®

Card Review: The LaQuinta Returns Signature Visa Card – 20,000 Bonus Points after 1st Spend

Posted on May 3, 2013 by oz

I know what you are thinking. Why the heck would I get a LaQuinta VISA card? Before you unleash the hounds on me, let me justify why I picked up this card. First of all, its very colorful! Its a bright green, flashy looking card, that almost resembles something you would find in a Fisher Price money play set. I call it curb appeal for your wallet! However, that’s not why picked it up. See, my last churn, I needed to pick up at least 4 cards, and I already had 3 Chase cards, 4 American Express cards, and 4 Citibank cards. I needed something from a bank I haven’t applied from, and First Bank of Omaha was it. They are the issuing bank for this card. I had some offers in the mail from them before, for an American Express card they offered, but they offered no sign up bonus of any kind. Just no-annual fee, with a 0.0% APR for the first year. No good, because I always pay my balance in full. Interest is for suckers!

Here are some details for the LaQuinta Rewards Signature VISA card:

20,000 bonus points after first purchase
Automatic GOLD Status in their LaQuinta Rewards program
2 points per dollar spent on gas, dining, and car rentals
17 points per dollar spent at LaQuinta Hotels and Inn’s
Free nights start at 6,000 points

20,000 points can get you two free nights at almost any of the LaQuinta locations, but they vary from state to state. Once you sign up for a LaQuinta Returns account, you will be able to see how many points get you what. You can also redeem the points for gift cards, transfers to various airlines programs, such as American, Alaska, US Airways, Southwest, but the ratio is terrible, and I think you are better off using the points for free nights. The points will be handy to have in case you need to do an overnighter at a gateway city like LAX/SFO for an international itinerary, or a road trip to Cali or something. I’m sure you will find a purpose for it. The card has no annual fee, so you don’t have to worry about getting charged after one year of card membership.

https://www.firstbankcard.com/laquinta/87913/

Lounge Review: The Lounge Club at LAS

Posted on April 20, 2013 by oz

One of the many perks in having a Chase INK card, is you get free membership in the Lounge Club. Along with the membership, you get two free passes to any of the airport lounges, that the Lounge Club participates in. When you apply, you get a handy brochure that shows you which lounges you are able to get into. I had the privilege of going to Las Vegas this past week, and decided to stop by for a visit on my return Friday night, and check out the new Lounge Club airport lounge at the new Terminal 3. I was pretty impressed, as this was one of the few domestic lounges that felt like an international airport lounge. Although it was sort of inconveniently located across from gate E2 in terminal 3 ( a good 7 – 15 min walk from the Alaska Airline gates), it made the effort worthwhile, upon arrival. No room for attitude here, as the nice representative greeted us with a smile, and asked for our boarding passes, along with the Lounge Club card, which you get in the mail 7-10 days after applying.

Terminal 3

When we arrived shortly after 8:30PM, the lounge was packed with British Airways first/business class passengers, who were waiting to board their 9:10PM flight to LHR. Most of them were Italians, it seemed, as the room was filled with men in red tight jeans, and those new neon orange Nikes, along with beats headphones around their heads, while guzzling down Heinekins, and munchin’ on Fritos. About 8:45PM, the lounge cleared, and the only remaining folks were probably the Chase Ink card holders waiting for the AS 621, like myself.

The club hosted a bar, with free booze, munchies, and sandwiches made to order. There was also two hot soups, one a meat option, and the other a vegetarians option, which I though was kind of cool (Alaska…are you reading this???). Walker shortbread cookies, Mrs Vickie’s chips, and fresh fruit also were presented on the counter, all neatly arranged for your viewing and eating pleasure. It was nice to see a lounge so well stocked, even at this hour of the night. United, Alaska, Delta, don’t even do that. Heck, even the SQ lounge at SFO wasn’t this nice! Along with the culinary amenities, there was a business area with desktop machines for internet access, a printers and fax machine, and of course, free wireless internet, for checking The Value Traveler.

Another Only In Dubai Moment

Posted on April 11, 2013 by oz

I checked out my local news site today to check on traffic, and I stumbled on this article about a $550,000 police Lamborghini rolling on the streets of Dubai. Having been to Dubai, this article wasn’t all that shocking. After all, boasting the world’s tallest tower in the world, whats another half a million dollars?? Pocket change in the land of milk and honey and solid gold iPODS. It wouldn’t be all that practical here in the U.S., cuz it would probably get shot at and then the tax payers would have to foot the bill to fix it, and then swarms of protests over spending and then ……..well, you get the point. It wont work here.

Check it out! Looks awesome don’t it? You know you want to get pulled over, just so you can say I got pulled over by the Lambo Cops! Heres some reading on it, if you’re interested.

Barclaycard Arrival World Mastercard Bonus 40,000 points / $89 Annual Fee waived for 1st Year / 2x Miles on all purchases / No Foreign Txn fee / 0% Apr for 12months

Posted on April 3, 2013 by oz

Barclays has come out with new offer for their World Mastercard. It is a great offer and I urge you to jump on it, as its basically a $400 airline ticket, hotel, or cruise fare, and it’s good anytime. Annual Fee Waived the first year!!!

Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard – $89 Annual Fee Card

Earn 40,000 bonus miles if you make $1,000 or more in purchases in the first 90 days after account opening. 40,000 bonus miles equates to $400 off your next trip!
0% intro APR on purchases for the first 12 months after account opening. After that, variable APR, currently 14.99% or 18.99% depending upon your creditworthiness.
Earn 2X miles on all purchases
No mileage caps and no foreign transaction fees
Get 10% of your miles back when you redeem for travel
Use miles for a statement credit toward any airline purchase to any destination with no restrictions and no blackout dates
Easily redeem your miles for statement credits toward flights, cruises, car rentals, hotels and more
Complimentary Triplt Pro subscription – the mobile travel organizer that helps make traveling easier (an annual $49 value)
Annual fee waived first year!

Chase Ultimate Rewards offering 3 points per Dollar Spent on Air, Hotel, Car

Posted on March 27, 2013 by oz

Received an email from Chase Ultimate Rewards offering to give 3 points per dollar spent on booking travel. I believe you need to have one of the Chase cards that offer redemption into the Ultimate Rewards program, but if if you do have one, this is a great deal for booking travel that would book anyways, if you are going somewhere. After you log in to your Ultimate Rewards account, you can search for flights, hotels, rental cars, or vacation packages.

So when searching for flights, let’s use Portland to L.A. You will get your results and note it is almost the same amount as if you were to go through the airlines websites. I am looking at the United flight and its listing it at $317.80. If you were to book that non-stop flight, you will get $317.80 x 3 = 953 points!!! Also, if you are transferring your Ultimate Reward points into United’s Mileage PLUS program, you would be essentially getting 953 miles + 1600 miles (miles flown to L.A.), for a total of 2,553 miles!

Some of you are probably saying, that’s not a lot of points. In reality it is, considering you would only get 1,600 miles if you would’ve just booked the ticket on another credit card, other than a Chase Ultimate Rewards card. The only other card that will give you those bonus miles is the United Mileage PLUS Visa card itself. Of course, you don’t have to throw your bonus points into Mileage PLUS. You can use your points for other redemptions, such as gift cards, hotel stays, and other stuff. Check out ultimaterewards.chase.com for more details on that.

Alaska Airlines Now Allowing ONE WAY Redemptions

Posted on March 20, 2013 by oz

This is actually big news in the world of airline miles. Alaska Airlines, which has one of the best mileage plan programs out there, is now allowing you to redeem for one way awards using their miles. Before, you had to book a round trip and on the same partner. For example, if you wanted to fly to Paris, you would have to fly Alaska to the gateway city, and then Air France and only Air France to get to Paris, and back. Well, now you can fly Delta, or Alaska, and then Air France, or British Airways, if you like, and come back on Air France, Delta, or American. This makes it easier to find availability, and definitely makes things easier. Booking flights to Asia will be easier for sure. You can fly Korean Air and connect with a Cathay Pacific flight out of ICN, or Cathay to …well….you get the point. That means Alaska miles are now even more valuable, and the redemption chart is still one of the best out there in terms of miles. A premium class cabin on Cathay Pacific to Asia will cost you 100,000 miles for business class, and 140,000 miles for First class. Premium Coach will cost you a mere 70,000 miles. You can also use your Alaska miles for one-way segments flying American Airlines, and Delta Airlines too. There are many possibilities for redemption now. Thank you Alaska Airlines for doing this!

Drinks & Appetizers for TWO for $25 at Portland Hilton’s Porto Terra Restaurant

Posted on March 19, 2013 by oz

I received an email from Travel Zoo alerting me to a local deal ; Drinks and appetizers for two at Porto Terra Italian restaurant inside the Portland Hilton and Executive towers. I actually ate here once and the food was really good. They got really good desserts, and the ambiance is nice. Being that it is a Hilton property, you will get 6X per dollar if you have the Hilton American Express card. However, you can use any card. This deal is available from Travel Zoo and has some fine print. You can view the full details at this link below. Bon Apetit!

Chase FREEDOM 5% Cash Back Bonus Category

Posted on March 18, 2013 by oz

The bonus categories activation for the Chase FREEDOM card is now live. Looks like if you spend at Lowe’s, restaurants, and movie theaters, you will get 5% cash back on your purchases. There is a $1,500 limit though. I personally have never met that threshold, but not to say there are people who won’t. If you have a home project you are working on, now is the time to make those purchases for materials and get cash back. You earn 1% on all other purchases with this card anyways. The last bonus category I thought was nice, as you earned 5% on gas, drugstore purchases, and Starbucks®. If you do not have this card, you should add it to your portfolio of cards because the current sign up bonus is 10,000 Ultimate Rewards® points, which is $100 cash back, or 10,000 miles, if you throw it into your United Mileage PLUS, British Airways AVIOS, Southwest Airline Rapid Rewrds, or Korean Air SKYPASS account. The card has NO ANNUAL fee, and comes with great benefits courtesy of VISA. There is also a MasterCard verion of the card as well. A sign up link is available for you if you want in my Favorite Credit cards page.