United has lounges all over the world. The clubs are a pleasant place to relax in a comfortable chair, use free wifi, and enjoy free snack and drinks. Here are the amenities.
Comment below for a chance to win the passes. Include your real email address while commenting, so I can contact the winner. (Your email address will not be displayed and will not be used for any other purpose.)
Congrats to the winner: Jason. Enjoy the United Club.
Reader Susan has generously offered to donate a pair of United Club passes for me to give away. She got the United MileagePlus Explorer Card (now with up to a 55k mile bonus) but doesn’t have a use for the two free passes that come with the card.
Comment below for a chance to win the passes. Include your real email address while commenting, so I can contact the winner. (Your email address will not be displayed and will not be used for any other purpose.)
United has lounges all over the world. The clubs are a pleasant place to relax in a comfortable chair, use free wifi, and enjoy free snack and drinks. Here are the amenities.
I’ll pick a winner on Sunday night.
Don’t forget to join the 1,300 geniuses on Twitter and 2,400 mavens on Facebookwho follow MileValue for more chances to win.
I am giving away four American Airlines Systemwide Upgrades that expire February 28, 2013 (Thursday).
An American Airlines Systemwide Upgrade entitles you to an upgrade of one class of service on American Airlines or American Eagle operated one way itineraries if upgrade space is available.
This upgrade has tremendous value to you if you have a trip booked that meets the following conditions:
paid itinerary (not award)
operated by American Airlines or American Eagle (not partners)
with upgrade space
and the entire one way itinerary will be flown by 2/28 at 11:59 PM CT
2. Like the following facebook post and comment with your proposed itinerary.
At about 1 PM ET on 2/24, I’ll start selecting and contacting people. My strong desire is to get these upgrades used, so I will be contacting people fast and furious to find people with eligible itineraries who can be upgraded.
For full information on American Airlines Systemwide Upgrades, see AA.com on the subject.
I am giving away two Express Arrival Cards for entry into Australia and one Express Departure Card.
An Express Arrival Card gives you priority access to passport checks on international arrivals in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.
If you’ve answered “No” to the customs declaration form, you will also get priority Customs access.
An Express Departure Card will give you priority access to the passport check when you leave Australia.
Who are these cards useful for?
A pair of people traveling in economy to Australia. If you arrive in business or first class, your airline will probably give you a card, so you don’t need these.
I have scoured the cards, and they don’t say anything about transferability, so I will assume they are transferable.
How can you enter?
Leave a comment on this post. I will pick a winner by Monday (2/18) at the latest, since I need to send these out before I leave for Argentina.
And if you don’t win?
Anyone with Global Entry can get priority treatment when landing in Australia and New Zealand. You do have to bring the ID card you got in your Global Entry packet. I never carry it because you don’t need that card to use Global Entry kiosks in the US, so I didn’t get a chance to use New Zealand’s express lane.
Good luck!
Last year I was able to give away several lounge passes, gogo internet passes, a $133 worth of AA gift cards, and more. Some of that was from my own stash, but a lot was donated by generous readers. If you have something travel related that someone else could use, email me, and I will give it away here. (Maybe your expiring SWUs or your AA lounge passes from Citi cards when you already have an AMEX Platinum.)
Last Friday’s giveaway was a free oneway anywhere Southwest flies. I said I would pick the winner this way:
I want an expensive award to win, but I also want everyone to have a chance, so here’s what I’ve devised.
I will use a random number generator to select three sub-$170 entries to enter round two. I will take all over-$170 entries to round two. I will then use a random number generator to pick a winner from the entries in round two.
I’ll check whether the winner from round two has award space. If it does, that’s the winner. If not, I’ll select until I find an entry with award space.
There were only four entries sub $170, so I used random.org to eliminate one.
Sorry Som who wanted to go to Baltimore!
Every other entry moved to the final round including some very expensive itineraries like a $536 flight from Chicago (MDW) to Orange County (SNA) on December 30.
In total there were 62 comments, I used random.org to pick a potential winner from them. I say “potential” because any comment that wasn’t a valid entry or had been eliminated (sorry, Som) wouldn’t win.
Comment 8 was Anita’s. She wanted to go Jan 17, 1980, $176 (MCI-FLL). But there was no space on that flight.
Back to the number generator.
Comment 18 was from Boaz who wanted a oneway from Las Vegas to Newark in January. His flights were available, and after collecting his name, birthday, and gender booked his ticket.
Enjoy the trip, Boaz.
Hopefully the giveaway made a few more people aware of Southwest’s 19,200 point award that gets you two free oneways regardless of their price.
Follow me on Twitter and Facebook to make all your wildest dreams come true.
In case I’ve made any mistakes in my counting of comments, my decision is final, and Boaz’s award is booked. Best of luck to everyone in the next Free Giveaway Friday.
Today I’m giving away a free oneway award on Southwest Airlines that must be flown by April 20, 2013. Specifically, I am giving away half of a standard award–a capacity-controlled award on Southwest Airlines. Standard awards are a relic of the old Rapid Rewards program.
I did this because Southwest currently effectively operates two loyalty programs, a revenue based program and a chart-based program. The revenue program is the normal one where 60 points are needed per dollar of a fare. That’s a great program because cheap flights cost very few points–way fewer than domestic awards on legacy carriers.
Southwest’s other “chart-based” program is a relic of its old program and its merger with AirTran. Basically 19,200 points can be transferred to one standard award, which is good for two free oneways on Southwest. Here’s a video on how to do those transfers.
This program works out to be a way better deal if the price of your two oneways is above about $330 total–not a hard threshold to pass on two flights. The only drawback is that standard award seats are capacity controlled like awards on the legacy carriers whereas revenue redemptions are not capacity controlled.
I don’t find this to be a big deal in practice because Southwest has incredible availability on the capacity controlled awards.
So in April 2012 I redeemed 19,200 points for a standard award. That award gave me 12 months to fly two oneways. I used one from LAX-MDW for the Chicago Seminars, and I used the other to book a return from IAD-LAX on my Triangle Award for $10 Out of Pocket award.
But then I cancelled the IAD-LAX leg to book Bill a return from the LAX FTU. (Free cancellations are an awesome facet of the Southwest program.) Then we cancelled that for Bill when his plans changed. I reinstated my IAD-LAX. Then I cancelled again when AA offered a direct flight for $109.
That leaves me with a free oneway on Southwest that can be used on any flight with Standard space by anybody until April 20, 2013. I can’t use it since I am moving to Argentina. I’m giving it away as follows:
To enter, comment with the date, flight number(s), and price of the oneway award you would want. There could be more than one flight because this award has to be oneway but not one segment. For instance, here are three oneway award possibilities from LAX to Norfolk, VA on February 6, 2013.
So if you wanted the top one, you would comment February 6, 502/410, $207. If you wanted the second one, you would comment February 6, 2173, $198.
Also include your real email address where prompted; it’s not displayed, and I will only use the winner’s to contact him.
Comments must be made by 6:59 PM Hawaiian Time/ 11:59 PM ET on Monday December 10 to have a chance to win. One entry per person.
Picking the winner
I want an expensive award to win, but I also want everyone to have a chance, so here’s what I’ve devised.
I will use a random number generator to select three sub-$170 entries to enter round two. I will take all over-$170 entries to round two. I will then use a random number generator to pick a winner from the entries in round two.
I’ll check whether the winner from round two has award space. If it does, that’s the winner. If not, I’ll select until I find an entry with award space.
Good luck. I hope someone wins who can really use a free oneway trip somewhere Southwest flies.
I’m on vacation in Hawaii until Wednesday, so I may not answer email. If you are emailing about the Award Booking Service, email milevaluebooking (at) gmail (dot) com
Today’s giveaway is for a pair of lounge passes that expire 12/31/12. The winning commenter can choose a pair of United Club passes or a pair of American Airlines Admirals Club Passes. Last Friday’s winner chose a pair of AA passes, and luckily I had two pairs.
Keep in mind that if you have an AMEX Platinum card, you can get into the AA lounge for free when you are traveling on AA that day, so you’d probably prefer the United passes.
Leave one comment below, and indicate your selection.
For more free giveaways, follow me on twitter @milevalue.
Today’s giveaway is for a pair of lounge passes that expire 12/31/12. The winning commenter can choose a pair of United Club passes or a pair of American Airlines Admirals Club Passes. Last Friday’s winner chose a pair of AA passes, and luckily I had two pairs.
Keep in mind that if you have an AMEX Platinum card, you can get into the AA lounge for free when you are traveling on AA that day, so you’d probably prefer the United passes.
Leave one comment below, and indicate your selection.
For more free giveaways, follow me on twitter @milevalue.
Today’s giveaway is for a pair of lounge passes that expire 12/31/12. The winning commenter can choose a pair of United Club passes or a pair of American Airlines Admirals Club Passes.
Keep in mind that if you have an AMEX Platinum card, you can get into the AA lounge for free when you are traveling on AA that day, so you’d probably prefer the United passes.
Leave one comment below, and indicate your selection.
1. Your Platinum Card’s Membership Rewards will drop in value for Pay With Points redemptions on February 15, 2013 from 1.25 cents to 1 cent. This is pretty close to not being newsworthy, since Pay With Points is a bad deal at 1.25 cents. I’d rather transfer to Avios, Hawaiian Airlines, or even top off a Delta account before buying a cash ticket with Membership Rewards.
The Points Guy reports that you can call AMEX to cancel your Platinum card until December 30 at 800-525-3355 and receive a prorated refund of the $450 annual fee. My understanding of AMEX annual fees is that you can always call to cancel them and get a prorated credit for the “unused portion” of the annual fee.
2. Lucky reports Delta will no longer charge the approximately $300 surcharge for award tickets originating in Europe. There was never a good reason why New York to Paris roundtrip was $100 in taxes, and Paris to New York roundtrip was $400 in taxes.
3. Last Friday’s winner of the gogo pass was Joanna. Lucky her: she can read MileValue for free from 35k feet. Last Friday, there were only 15 commentors, so the chances of winning are pretty good.
Comment below for your chance to win a single-flight gogo internet pass that expires 12/31/12.
Gogo internet is available on select planes on Air Canada, AirTran, Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, United, US Airways, and Virgin America.
I have earned millions of points, primarily though credit cards, to travel the world in first class for pennies. This blog will show you how to earn and redeem points to do the same!
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I have earned millions of points, primarily though credit cards, to travel the world in first class for pennies. This blog will show you how to earn and redeem points to do the same!