How to See if You’re Targeted for the 50k Bonus Point Sign Up on the Premier Rewards Gold Card through CARDMATCH

Multiple sources are reporting that CARDMATCH has an offer for the Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express that comes with 50,000 bonus Membership Rewards after spending $1,000 in the first three months and has the annual fee waived for the first year.

Free Giveaway: Five American and United Lounge Passes

Update: The giveaway is closed. Congrats to the winners of all 7 passes. (Two more were generously donated in the comments.)

Generous reader Sam has donated five lounge passes that expire in the next few months for me to give away to three lucky readers.

60 Miles per Dollar at magazines.com: How to Buy American Airlines Miles for 1.43 Cents or Less Until 11/30/13

Huge Hat Tip to reader Daniel for emailing me about this deal. Email me your tips!

Today the AAdvantage eShopping portal tripled the earning rate on magazines.com to 60 American Airlines miles per dollar through November 30, 2013.

Stacked with the ongoing promotion that is awarding up to 2,500 miles for $250 in purchases through the portal (and fewer bonus miles for smaller purchases), you can buy up to 17,500 American Airlines miles for 1.43 cents each until the magazines.com promotion ends. And you even get some magazines thrown in for free.

Check to See If You’re Targeted for 50,000 Bonus Miles from the Gold Delta SkyMiles Card

Long time reader Les forwarded me his targeted offer for a Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card from American Express: 50,000 bonus miles after spending $1k in three months.

The normal offer is only 30k bonus miles after $1k in spending in the first three months, so this is a substantially better offer.

There are two ways to know you are targeted for the higher 50k offer.

Anatomy of an Award: Booking Incredible Singapore Business Class to Europe with Lufthansa Miles

The 50k mile bonus offer is back on the Lufthansa card mentioned in this post until 6/30/14.

Anatomy of an Award: Get a Roundtrip Business Class Award to Europe with Three Stopovers for 90k American Airlines Miles

The American Airlines Explorer Award is an incredible use of miles. An Explorer Award is a distance-based award that allows multiple stopovers, so it's a versatile award perfect for globetrotters on round-the-world itineraries or cramming many trips onto one award at a steep discount.

I want to illustrate how a relatively simple award routing to Europe can also be a great use of an Explorer Award by saving miles and adding free stopovers that wouldn't be permitted under normal circumstances.

I'm planning a trip to Sofia, Bulgaria this summer and uncovered a great value.

Anatomy of an Award: Roundtrip from Chicago to Lusaka, Zambia Plus a Later Free Oneway to Alaska in Business Class with United Miles

I just booked two clients of the MileValue Award Booking Service a roundtrip award in business class to Lusaka, Zambia and added on a free oneway to Alaska several months later.

The award cost 120k United miles + $118 in government taxes per person.

Roundtrip Award from Chicago to Lusaka in Red and Later Free Oneway to Anchorage in Blue.

I am writing an Anatomy of an Award on this particular booking to illustrate:

Considerations on bookings to Africa
How to book a free oneway on a United award
Trouble shooting "phantom" award space
Searching

How to Combine Miles from Many Star Alliance Partner Accounts to Book a Large Family an Award Trip to Europe

United, Lufthansa, US Airways, Air Canada, ANA, Singapore, and TACA/Avianca are all members of the Star Alliance.

With few exceptions, all of their miles can be used with equal access to any Star Alliance carrier's Saver award space.

You cannot transfer one type of miles to another. For instance, you cannot transfer your Lufthansa miles to your United account.

But you can combine the power of your miles by using miles from several different accounts to book awards on the same flight.

Trip Report: Swiss Business Class from Boston to Zurich

A few weeks ago I flew Boston to Zurich in Swiss business class. It was my first flight on a whirlwind trip to Asia. I documented the trip's booking in this post.

I was excited to try out Swiss' business class product for the first time.

At Least 12x Miles Per Dollar on Every Store in the AAdvantage eShopping Mall until December 2, 2013

American Airlines is offering 2,500 bonus AAdvantage miles if you spend $250 or more in its online portal between now and December 2, 2013.

Spend $75 to $149 and get 750 miles
Spend $150 to $249 and get 1,500 miles
Spend $250 or more and get 2,500 miles

All spending from all stores in the portal before December 2, 2013 will be added up to determine your bonus amount.

If you can spend just over $75, $150, or $250, you will earn at least 12x miles per dollar on every purchase because you'd get 10x through this