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Emirates Skywards 2,000 miles sign-up bonus
Emirates started a strategic partnership with China’s Ctrip just days ago, and launched a couple of inaugural promotions:
Eligible Ctrip members can fast track to Emirates Silver / Gold status after just one flight. I’m afraid this is probably irrelevant to the majority of our readership.
If you aren’t an Emirates Skywards member yet however, you could sign up using the invitation code CTRIP, to earn 2,000 miles immediately upon registration.
Earn 250 Avios and more with Red by Dufry
We wrote about Red by Dufry before, which is a loyalty program that gives you discount at duty free stores and other perks at airports worldwide.
In the Red by Dufry app, go to My Profile, scroll down to the bottom where you have the option to add a partner account. If you link your Iberia Plus account, you will 1 Avios per £1 / €1 spent at Dufry stores, and 250 bonus Avios on your first purchase.
It seems that British Airways is also a partner and the same earning rate / promotion applies. My account was already linked to Iberia Plus. I was trying to unlink and relink but I couldn’t see either Iberia or BA in the partner dropdown list anymore.
Historically Red by Dufry had some promo codes that gave away points or even Platinum status. Give them a try but I doubt any of them work anymore:
- RED300POINTS
- HAPPYBIRTHDAY2020
- REDPLATSMART0821
- AegeanMilesPlatinum
As a Red by Dufry member you get a guaranteed discount at many duty free shops and earn Avios with every purchase, so it makes sense to create an account.
5,000 bonus Avios for new Qatar Airways members
Qatar Airways’ sign-on offer is back, which is worth taking advantage of if you have an upcoming flight with them.
- Join as a new Qatar Airways Privilege Club member by December 31
- Use promo code PCAUNA23
- Travel by June 30
- Earn bonus after first eligible flight: 2,500 Avios if in economy or 5,000 Avios in business / first
The flight must be operated by Qatar Airways, and reward flights are exluded.
Qatar Airways tends to run such promotions frequently, so hold back from creating an account until you actually plan to fly with them.
Earn United miles on every Marriott stay, and vice versa
Marriott and United has had a long-term partnership which allows members to receive reciprocal benefits when staying at a hotel or taking a flight. They have taken a step further and launched a Dual Currency promotion.
It appears that the following members are eligible for the offer:
- Marriott Titanium Elite and Ambassador Elite
- United Premier Gold, Platinum and 1K
You need to link your Marriott and United accounts first if you haven’t done so yet. Once completed you can register to the offer, and:
- Earn 500 United miles for every Marriott stay
- Earn 750 Marriott points for every United flight
The flight and stay must be taken by December 9th. Only paid stays and flights count. You don’t need to change your earning preference, as the bonus is on top of what you normally accrue.
It is a great offer, even though for us who live outside the U.S. only the first offer is likely to be useful. Remember that you earn 1,500 bonus points for each stay as well in the current Marriott promotion.
In the United program it costs only 6K – 9K miles to redeem a short-haul flight in Europe and Asia, which is quite good especially since BA is constantly devaluing its partner redemptions. There is an ongoing offer to transfer Marriott points into United miles too.
Great offer preview: Marriott to United 30% conversion bonus
United MileagePlus are about to launching a great incentive for converting points in October, so hold on if you need some United miles!
The offer page is here. As it hasn’t started yet you will be redirected to a placeholder instead, however in Terms and Conditions you can see all the details already.
- Registration: To qualify for this offer, members must register for the promotion between October 1, 2023 and 11:59pm EST on October 31, 2023 (“Promotional Period”).
- Qualifying activity: A member must earn award miles as a result of one or more points to miles conversion transactions from any combination of MileagePlus hotel partner programs that offer a points to miles transfer program that are conducted during the Promotional Period (“Qualifying Activity”) in order to qualify for MileagePlus Hotel Points-to-Miles bonus miles (“Bonus Miles”). Qualifying Activity must be completed by 11:59pm EST on October 31, 2023.
- Posting of Promotional Miles: At the conclusion of the promotion, all miles earned by each member from Qualifying Activity will be multiplied by 30% to determine the eligible bonus up to a maximum of 25,000 bonus miles. Bonus miles will be credited into the member’s account on or before January 31, 2024. The maximum bonus miles that can be earned by a member under this promotion is 25,000. MileagePlus will not be responsible for technical problems with partner miles postings, or failures or delays in miles postings by hotel partners, that would render any points to miles converted as ineligible under this promotion.
Basically you’ll earn 30% bonus when any hotel points into United miles in whole October, after you’ve registered to the offer. The bonus is capped at 25,000 miles under this promotion.
Although a few hotel programs will be participating, the true value lies only in converting Marriott Bonvoy points.
3 Marriott points converts into 1 United mile, and as a permanent offer you are awarded 10,000 bonus miles when converting 60,000 Marriott points. With this new promotion on top, you earn 39,000 United miles when converting 60,000 Marriott points, which is an excellent deal. If you convert 180,000 Marriott points, you’ll get 115,000 United miles in total.
Unfortunately United devalued their U.S. – Europe redemption recently, and now a one-way flight in business costs at least 80,000 miles.
Good news is however, there’s no carrier-imposed surcharges. For the same route BA wants 80,000 Avios + £175, and 47,500 points +$977 from Virgin Atlantic!
Earn Skyteam Elite Plus after two China flights
China made a drastic response in cutting almost all its international flights during the pandemic, and the recovery didn’t really start until the end of 2022. Although most of its international routes have resumed some level of service, there are still very few flights to/from the U.S. as a consequence of political wrestles.
The ice seems to have started breaking finally, and China Eastern, a member of Skyteam, launched an interesting promotion.
- Book by November 15
- Travel by December 1
- Buy one return flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai and earn Gold or Platinum status
- The upgrade take effect immediately after your first flight
- Both Economy and Business Class tickets are eligible
Like most of the promotions you see in China, the terms and conditions are very ambiguous. My assumption is that if you travel in economy then you get Gold, or Platinum if you fly business. Both statuses are Skyteam Elite Plus though so there isn’t much difference. Lounge access is granted even on domestic flights when you fly China Eastern or Xiamen Airlines.
It’s restricted to certain fare buckets though, which isn’t specified. If you are interested, call their customer service line 1-626-583-1500 for more details.
500 miles and prize draw for Cathay Pacific new sign-ups
Cathay Pacific ran a campaign that gave away 1,500 miles for new sign-ups recently. If you missed it, there’s now a new initiative which isn’t bad either.
- Sign up as a new Cathay Pacific member by January 31st
- During registration, enter your referrer’s membership number on the referral page
- Both the referrer and referee will earn 500 miles, plus one entry into the prize draw
If lucky enough, you will win between 5,000 and 500,000 miles and the result is announced on February 15th. Nonetheless you are guaranteed 500 miles which isn’t too bad. For your information, my membership number is 1683490941 😉
Buy British Airways Silver Card for £600 in their sale
British Airways has announced yet another sale, and as usual it offers an opportunity to earn cheap tier points and thus elite statuses.
The easiest way to view all rates is via their Low Fare Finder. From the tier-point perspective, it’s most cost-efficient to fly Club Europe (short-haul European flights in business class) and here are some headline prices (return trip):
- Belfast £156
- Catania £264
- Dublin £166
- Edinburgh £152
- Glasgow £146
- Istanbul £300
- Luxembourg £136
- Reykjavik £292
- Sofia £240
- Tirana £278
Destinations in bold earn you 80 TP per way, otherwise it’s 40 TP only. Note that there will no longer be any qualification discount in 2023, plus airfares are getting more expensive now so it’s not as cheap to earn status as in the last two years. You can earn BA Silver (Oneworld Sapphire), which requires 600 TP, in four trips to Sofia which will cost you almost a thousand pound.
There’s a way to reduce your cost though, as BA Holidays has extended their double tier points offer till the end of 2023. All flight+hotel and flight+rental bookings earn double tier points, which means you only need two return trips (instead of four) to earn your Silver card.
For a two-night trip to Sofia, the minimum cost is just over £300 pp for two people, which is a great deal. (EDIT: apologies that my calculations were wrong. You need 5 nights minimum to earn double tier points – car rental should be cheaper).
My Gold card is expiring soon but thanks to the soft landing policy I’ll remain Silver for one more year, so I’m not rushing to any mileage run right now. But if you are interested you should considering booking some flights or holidays.