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Claim 1,500 free Etihad Guest miles
It’s Etihad’s 15th birthday this year and they’ve launched a promotion to celebrate.
You can check out the promotion page here. The sweet spot is, you only need to give your name, email address and Etihad Guest membership number, and 1,500 miles will be deposited into your account by September 15th. It appears to be open to all Etihad Guest members.
1,500 miles probably won’t get you very far, but it’s free! I actually collected some Etihad miles a few years back when flying Philippines Airlines and they are going to expire in five months. The 1,500 miles should extend their expiry by another 18 months of which I’m very grateful.
On the off-chance that you plan to book an Etihad award flight within the next few days, they are also running a Redemption Offer. Book an Etihad flight using miles by September 6th and you can benefit from a 15% rebate.
2020 welcome (and free) miles for new Emirates members
World Expo 2020 is happening in Dubai this year, starting from October 1 to March 31, 2022. Emirates has launched a few initiatives to promote this event, out of which one is particularly interesting.
You can check out its offer with Mastercard here. More specifically, anyone who signs up as a new Emirates Skywards member with invitation code EXPO2020 will receive a welcome gift of 2,020 miles instantly. No activity is required to trigger the bonus.
According to Emirates, 2,000 miles can be traded for a $20 discount when purchasing flights on their website. If you have accumulated enough miles of course, you’ll be able to properly redeem award tickets and also entry to sport events sponsored by Emirates.
If you intent to visit Dubai during Expo 2020 on Emirates, don’t forget to sign up to the other offer here. You will receive one bonus mile for each minute you stay in Dubai, up to a total of 5,000.
(H/T Frequent Flyer Bonus)
Travel business class from US to France and Caribbean for only 34,500 miles
I wrote an article to talk about the boomerang tricks for redeeming Flying Blue miles. Basically Flying Blue’s redemption chart is zone-based, and the pricing doesn’t change even if your interchange airport is out of the zone.
A reader just approached me about an interesting itinerary he found:
Instead of flying directly from Seattle to St Marin in the Caribbean, you can do it the long way by stopping over at Paris first. The flight time will be MUCH longer, however you get to travel in business class with both Delta and Air France. Even better, you only pay 34,500 miles plus €183 in fees which is dirt cheap!
As I mentioned, this is because the pricing is based on your departure / destination and Paris doesn’t play a role here. You can also book SXM-CDG-SEA the same way but surcharges will be much higher.
You may be able to use this itinerary to just travel to Paris (cheaply) and drop the second leg. If you are handbag only there shouldn’t be any problem, otherwise make sure there’s a long transit time so you can convince the airport agent not to check through your luggage to the final destination. Also beware that if you do this too often, you may be on Flying Blue’s radar and get into trouble.
Unfortunately the max stopover time is 24 hours so you can’t really break the itinerary into two proper trips. However, if you are very keen on going back to travel after having been trapped home for the last year, this can be an attractive deal.
7,500 Bonus Miles and Qatar Airways Silver Fast Track
Qatar airways has re-launched their sign-up offer from last year. It makes sense to sign up if you intend to fly with them in the next few months.
The offer page is here. To participate you need to enter code OALSMH121 (which is already pre-populated) during the sign-up process.
You’ll receive 2,500 bonus miles straightaway when your account is created. And after your first revenue flight operated and marketed by Qatar Airways, you’ll receive a further 5,000 bonus miles plus 50 Qpoints.
7,500 bonus miles is a good welcome gift, and 50 Qpoints is no doubt an icing on the cake – starting from scratch you need 150 Qpoints to reach Privilege Club’s Silver status.
Qatar Airways has recently reverted its huge devaluation to the Privilege Club program, and it’s not a bad idea to join if you fly frequently with them. You need to sign up by September 30, and take the first flight by December 31.
3x Avios or 9x Emirates Miles on Your Bicester Village Shopping
Thing are looking brighter in the UK and all shops are re-opening sooner than later. If you fancy a trip to Bicester Village for some luxury shopping, you may also want to bag some extra miles along the way as both British Airways and Emirates have ludicrous offers at the moment.
BA’s offer is here. You are entitled to triple Avios during the promotion period, which is 15 Avios per £4 spent.
Emirates’ offer is here, which is more generous. You earn a 8-time Skywards miles bonus, and that’s a whopping 9 miles per GBP spent! However it’s only valid once on the highest spend during the offer period, so be careful if you plan to make multiple visits.
Both offers run until 31 May. You need to bring your receipts to the customer service desk at the end of your visit, and remember to keep them in case the miles don’t post.
Earn Emirates Miles on Your Daily Shopping
Being a frequent traveller in the UK, I’m sure you are familiar with British Airways’ eStore and Virgin Atlantic’s Shops Away. Like many other platforms, they operate a lead-based affiliate model that gives you an award for purchases referred by them – which, in this case, is air miles.
What I didn’t know is, Emirates Skywards has a dedicated shopping portal for UK members too, which you can access here.
It doesn’t make much sense to collect Emirates miles in lieu of Avios or Virgin Points if you reside in the UK, especially the earning ratios don’t look great. However, they do have an instore section as well and you can top up your Skywards account when visiting the following shops:
Therefore it’s worth crosschecking all the platforms before you shop. Morrisons for example, is not listed on BA’s eStore, and only available to select members on Virgin’s Shops Away. The next time Morrisons’ discount offers pop up, you might as well earn some Emirates miles in the meantime.
3000 Emirates Miles for One Hilton Stay in the Middle East & Africa
Since the refurbishment of its loyalty program a couple of years ago, it’s no longer possible to earn Hilton points and airline miles at the same time when staying at their hotels. However, they still run occasional promotions where you can earn bonus miles on top of the usual Hilton points.
There is now one such promotion, and you can register here.
- Register and book by 18th May
- Stay once by 31st August at participating hotels
- Earn 3000 Emirates Skywards miles
- Limit to first 1,000 registrants only
You need to select Emirates as your preferred travel partner in your Hilton profile.
All participating hotels are in the Middle East and Africa, so not many can take advantage of it. And unlike the previous Miles & More offer, you can only earn the bonus miles once.
Given the limited number of slots available, I’d recommend to sign up now if you believe there’s any chance you visit the regions this summer. Remember that you will still earn full Hilton points and night credits for the stay, so there’s nothing to lose.
Donate $5 and Earn 2000 Hilton Points & 250 Delta Miles
If you’ve ever been to the US, you must have heard of the name Lyft. Lyft is a major competitor to Uber in North America, and it has partnered with several frequent traveller programs which allows you to earn points or miles when you ride.
They have just launched a Lyft Up initiative to help those who can’t afford to travel to vaccination centres in the US. Any Lyft members can make a donation, and even better it comes with returns:
- 2000 Hilton points, and
- 250 Delta Skymiles (limit to first 15,000 members only)
The minimum donation amount is $5, and the offer runs until May 31. Even if you don’t travel with Delta, 2000 Hilton points are worth around $10 already.
To participate, you’ll need to link Lyft to your Hilton and Delta accounts first. A mobile phone number is needed to create or login to your Lyft account, and my UK number works fine.
Remember to add a credit card to the wallet before proceeding to the donation page.
It’s unclear how much time it takes for the points to post. But anyway, it may be worth spending a few minutes and $5 to bag the some points and miles.