Category Archives: Points

Hertz Points Devaluation Coming – Make Award Reservations Before October 1st

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As of October 1st 2013, Hertz is devaluing their points by 10-15%. Here is their email they sent out to their members earlier this year:Capture

“To continue providing exceptional service to our members, we occasionally make changes to the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards® points program. We are pleased to announce that based on member feedback, coming soon we will be enhancing reward redemption options with new locations and expanded choices.

We also constantly strive to maintain industry-leading reward levels and availability. However, in light of rising costs, we find it necessary to implement our first reward redemption point increase since 2008. Beginning October 1, 2013, point redemption levels for Rewards will increase a modest 10–15% in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and U.S.V.I. This will allow us to continue providing both the quality and quantity of reward options our members have come to value and appreciate.”

The semi-good news though, is that awards booked prior to October 1st will be billed and honored at the current rates.

So if you have any Gold Plus Rewards Points you were planning to use, and know the dates of travel, I would suggest locking in the rates and booking your awards now, before October 1st when the rates are raised.

If you are unsure of your dates of travel, but know approximately, it may still be worth it to book now, as you may cancel them later if need be. Hertz’s Policy regarding award cancellations “Points are reinstated if you cancel at least 24 hours prior to pickup time.”

Hertz points can many times offer incredible value. For instance, basic rentals in NYC (or other expensive cities) can sometimes go for $150 + taxes & fess for a total of $200. Booking with Hertz points for that same rental will come out to just 500-600 points.

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You can book at the current 600-point level for weekday rentals or 500 points for weekend rentals. Once the new rates go into effect, an average rental day will go up to 660-690 points.

Below is the current award chart:

hertz chart

You earn 1 Hertz point per $1 (President’s members earn an additional 25%) on the base rate of a rental and optional service charges like gas, child seats, GPS etc; (not including any taxes or other non-optional fees), so you’re looking at having to spend an extra $60-$90 to achieve a standard free rental day that you book post-devaluation. Standard free rental weeks currently start at 2,500 points, but after the devaluation, that will go up to 2,750-2,875 points.

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Take A Spin With SPG Game – Win Up-To 250,000 SPG Points

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Take a spin with SPG game link

Starwood is having a take a spin game promotion. You can win instant prizes ranging from a Free Night Award Award, 5,000 Starpoints, 1,000 Starpoints, 500 Starpoints or a kate spade new york SPG tote. You will also be entered into the grand prize of 250,000 SPG points!

I played and instantly won 5,000 SPG points.

To play:

  1. Enter your Starwood Preferred Guest member number.
  2. Spin the virtual globe and you will land on a Starwood destination. If you are the first to play the Game at a randomly selected winning time or if no one plays at such time and you are the first to play thereafter, the screen will immediately open and a winning message will be displayed indicating that you are a potential Instant Win Prize winner
  3. Even If you are not a instant winner, you will you will automatically be entered into the grand prize
  • This game can be played once a day (Per account)
  • One (1) potential Grand Prize winner will be selected in a random drawing conducted on or about October 25, 2013.
  • One (1) Grand Prize: 250,000 Starpoints, which can be used toward Starwood’s Preferred Guest® Free Night Awards, suite upgrades, air transportation and merchandise awards.

Of course you can also get 30,000 bonus points by applying for the Starwood credit card.

New IHG PointBreaks List

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IHG/Priority Club has released the new PointBreaks list where you can snag discounted nights in their hotels for just 5,000 points a night for stays through October 31, 2013.
Hotels can sell out quickly.

IHG hotel brands includes InterContinental Hotels, Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, Hualuxe Hotels, Hotel Indigo, EVEN Hotels and Staybridge Suites.

There are many hotels to choose from, from all around the world, that are on the PointBreak List.

Below are some sample hotel’s;

Click here for a full list of all discounted properties.

All hotels on PointBreaks are just 5,000 points per night!

Priority Club points can be transferred at a 1:1 basis from the Chase Ultimate Rewards program if you have either the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold or Ink Plus credit cards.

US Airways 100% Bonus Miles Offer

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Update: This offer expires the 31st of august, so if you are planing on getting in on this offer you may want to do so soon.  Also, the Justice Department is suing to block the US Airways – American Airlines merger, so its possible the merger may not go through after all. If you are planning on purchasing these points to top off your AA account you may want to hold off…                                     ———————————————–

US Airways 100% Bonus Miles Offer LINK

US Airways via is offering for a limited time up-to a 100% bonus when purchasing miles! With this promo you can purchase up-to 50,000 miles, so with the 100% bonus you will end up with 100,000 miles!

Worth it?

Well it depends, if you like/wish to travel in business/first class for a fraction of what it normally costs, then this deal is for you.

Amongst many other possible redemption’s, with US airways miles you can travel to Israel in business class for 120k miles round trip or in first class for 150k miles round trip. Asia is 90,000 miles for business class, to the South Pacific it is 110,000 miles (which you can also route through Asia with a stopover). Also note that you get 5,000 miles off US Airways awards if you have the US Airways MasterCard.

The Math:

Each “mile” will cost you $0.035 cents to purchase. Assuming you purchase 50,000 miles (as you can only buy up-to 50,000 miles per time), together with the bonus you will end up with 100,000 miles for a total of $1,750 or 1.75 cents per mile. 50,000 x $0.035 = $1,750.

That means instead of spending $6000 for a business class ticket to Israel (or possibly more, especially to other destinations), it’ll come out to be under $2000! That’s a pretty solid deal, especially in light of the fact that regular economy tickets to Israel can cost sometimes upwards of $1,600!

Other points to bear in mind is that US Airways will seemingly merge with American Airlines sometime in 2014, this could very well be one of your last chances to get in on a 100% bonus on purchased miles. Additionally, most likely once the US/AA merger will be approved, these miles will eventually merge into your American Airlines AAdvantage account and AA almost never sells miles for less than 2 cents a piece, as you would be getting here.

Fine Print:

  • All purchases are non-refundable.
  • Bonus miles will be awarded upon completion of the transaction.
  • The maximum number of Buy and Gift Bonus miles that can be received by one member for this offer is 50,000 bonus miles.
  •  All miles purchased beyond this limit will not be eligible for a bonus.
  • Offer is subject to change. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer.
  • Share transactions are not eligible for bonus.
  • Only purchases made online are eligible for the bonus.
  • Your account must be at least 12 days old.

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100% Bonus on LifeMiles

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LifeMiles LINK

“Until August 30th, 2013, for each package of 1,000 miles you buy, you will get  a bonus of 100 % more that can be redeemed to fly to more than 1.300 destinations around the world with Avianca, AeroGal or Star Alliance member airlines.”

  • Applies only to members enrolled in the program prior to August 1st.
  • Maximum miles to buy per transaction: LM75,000.
  • Miles must be purchased in multiples of 1,000.
  • Miles are just 1.5 cents per mile once you calculate the 100% bonus.
  • Miles don’t expire as long as there is activity every 24 months.
  • Be sure to use a credit card that does not charge foreign exchange fees.

Combining Chase Ultimate Reward Points

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If you have any Chase credit cards which offer Ultimate Reward points you Capturehave the option to combine all the accumulated points into one single account.

The credit cards which offer Ultimate Reward points are the Chase Freedom, Chase Sapphire, Chase Sapphire Preferred, and the Chase Ink Bold/Plus/Cash/Classic.

Benefits of combining/transferring points:

1. The Chase Freedom, Chase Sapphire and Chase Ink Cash/Classic only allow you to redeem your points for cash-back and gift cards at a lousy 1 cent per point value or you can redeem them for merchandise at even a worse value. On the other hand the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase Ink Bold/Plus are premium cards which allow you to transfer to Airline or Hotel Partners where you can redeem them for free flights and/or free hotel stays where you may get many times the 1 cent per point value.

For example a free award ticket on United Airlines to anywhere in Europe is just 60,000 points round trip in economy, 100,000 in business class or 135,000 in first class, including on the legendary Lufthansa first class where those tickets could normally cost upwards of $10,000!

The Chase Ultimate Reward Airline/Hotel Partners are:

  • United Airlines
  • Korean Air
  • British Airways
  • Virgin Atlantic
  • Southwest Airlines
  • Hyatt
  • Marriot
  • IHG/Priority Club
  • Ritz-Carlton

2. Another reason you may want to transfer the UR points, is if you are planning on cancelling one of your card accounts to avoid the annual fee or if you just want to churn your card. You may want to keep the points as liquid UR instead of locking them into any specific Airline/Hotel Program. Keeping them as UR points gives you the ability to decide later how to use them.

To combine/transfer points:

  1. Log into your Chase account
  2. Click on “Go to Ultimate Rewards” in the upper right side of the pagescreen-shot-UR-Balance
  3. A pop-up screen will ask you if you would like to combine pointsscreen-shot-UR-Balance-2
  4. Click “Combine Points” and enter the amount you want to combine
  5. You will then need to confirm screen-shot-UR-Balance-3
  6. Confirm the transfer and Voila!

If you would like to transfer UR points from your spouse the process is slightly diferent.

  1. Follow steps 1 & 2 from above
  2. Click on Go to “Ultimate Rewards”
  3. Under the “Earn Faster” tab click on “Combine Ultimate Reward Points” which is found at the bottom of the drop down menuscreen-shot-UR-Balance-4

4. On the next screen you will see a transfer from and transfer to option. Select the correct card you want to transfer the points from. If the card is not linked to your account such as a spouse’s account, it will not appear in the “transfer to” drop down menu. What you need to do is select “other” and then type in the credit card number and last name.
Enter the amount you want to transfer and hit “Submit”.

(Note: Per Chase’s T&C’s when transferring from credit cards other then your own, you are only allowed to transfer from your spouse’s account or on Business credit cards you are allowed to transfer to employees. Chase has shut down accounts for breaking this rule.)screen-shot-UR-Balance-5

5. Enter the amount you want to transfer hit “next” then confirm and submit. Transfers are instantaneous!

500 Free Southwest Points

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The Dish Network is offering 12,500 Southwest points if you sign-up for their service. Here’s the kicker though, If you just give them your email address they’ll give you 500 Southwest points free!

On the bottom of the page in this link you’ll see a form to enter your name and email address, fill it out and about 8-10 weeks later you should receive your points!

dish network

Thanks Mosh for the tip!

Priority Club Points From Daily Getaways at 1pm EST

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Today at exactly 1pm EST you will be able to purchase Priority Club point from the Daily Getaways promotion. This deal is not as good as the previous one we had a few days ago, but is still cheaper than regular. These deals often sell out quickly. To purchase you will need a IHG/Pririty Club account number. If you do not yet have an account you can open one here.

If you purchase theses packages with an American Express card, you total will be discounted by 10%. The prices are as follows:

  • 15,000 Points for $100 (0.67 Cents per Point)
  • 25,000 Points for $167 (0.67 Cents per Point)
  • 50,000 Points for $325 (0.65 Cents per Point)
  • 100,000 Points for $630 (0.63 Cents per Point)

You can purchase up-to 3 packages. These points never expire.

These points can be used towards free night at IHG/Priority Club Hotels including Point Breaks (Where hotels are just 5,000 point a night)! That means a PointBreaks hotel can be as low as $28.35 a night with this promo!

– — – You can also apply for the Chase Priority Club credit card where you’ll get 60,000 bonus points (80,000 after sending a Secure Message) + a free room in any hotel worldwide each year! This free room can even be used for Intercontinental Hotels!

New Priority Club PointBreaks List!

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Priority Club has just released the new PointBreaks list where you can snag discounted nights in their hotels for just 5,000 points a night for stays through August 31, 2013.
Hotels can sell out quickly.

There are of course many hotels to choose from, all around the world.

Below are some sample hotel’s that are in NY, MD, MA and RI.

Click here for a full list of all discounted properties.

All hotels on PointBreaks are just 5,000 points per night.

Priority Club points can be transferred at a 1:1 basis from the Chase Ultimate Rewards program if you have either the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold or Ink Plus credit cards.

Today Only: Buy Choice Hotel Points For As Low As $0.42 Cents A Point Or Less!

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Update: Completely sold out.

Today Only: At exactly 1:00 pm EST, you can buy Choice Hotel points through the Discover America promotion for approximately 0.42 cents per point! Plus, if you pay with an American Express credit card, you’ll get an extra 10% off!

Here is the breakdown:

  • 20,000 Points for $102 (0.51 Cents per Point)
  • 32,000 Points for $134 (0.42 Cents per Point)
  • 36,000 Points for $156 (0.43 Cents per Point)
  • 40,000 Points for $166 (0.42 Cents per Point)

Chase Sapphire First Friday Of The Month 3x Points On Dining

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On the first Friday of every month, Chase offers 3x Ultimate Reward points for dining purchases, when you pay with your Chase Sapphire credit card. Normally the Sapphire earns you 2x points on dining.

Even if you do not plan on making any dining related purchase this Friday, you can still maximize this benefit by purchasing gift certificates to the restauraunts that you do plan on eating at in the future.

Chase Ultimate Reward points can be redeemed as cash back or for gift cards at a 1 cent value per point. However, if you have the awesome Chase Sapphire Preferred or either the Chase Ink “Bold” or Chase Ink “Plus” credit cards you can redeem the Ultimate Reward points at a rate of 1.25 cents each for travel using pay with points, or – where the most value is –  you can transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to one of the program’s travel transfer partners which includes: United Airlines, Hyatt Hotels, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Korean Air, Southwest Airlines, Marriott Hotels, Priority Club, Ritz-Carlton and Amtrak.

Miles Expiring?

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Extend the life of your US airways miles. Answer some trivia questions to receive 12 US Airways Miles and/or 12 Delta SkyMiles.

Here are the questions and their answers

1. True or False? My Name is Asher Lev has no intermission.
A: True

2. Which of the following songs is NOT featured in Motown, the Musical?
A: Thriller

3. Aside from the curtain call number, what is the last song in Mamma Mia!?
A: I have a dream

4. The musical Kinky Boots is most closely about which of the following?
A: An ailing company of high quality traditional men’s shoe manufacturers

5.The choreopgrapher of the upcoming First Date is also the choreographer of what show currently on Broadway?
A: Cinderella

6. At what theatre is The Last Five Years playing this spring?
A: Second Stage Theatre