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Copa, the Panamanian Star Alliance carrier, has long been part of United’s MileagePlus program. That relationship will end June 30, and Copa ConnectMiles will launch on July 1, 2015. Copa has released two award charts in anticipation, which I broke down in Copa ConnectMiles, New Star Alliance Program and Award Chart Announced. What are the Sweet Spots?
To get members for its new program, Copa is offering an incredible sign up bonus: sign up for the ConnectMiles by June 30 and get 4,000 free miles.
- 1,000 immediately
- 2,000 more after completing two pages of information
- 1,000 more in 4-6 weeks according to Gary Leff quoting Free Frequent Flyer Miles (though I can’t verify this 1,000 miles)
My Experience
When I signed into my account, I had 1,000 miles and a chance to earn 1,000 more twice.
When I finished the information forms, I had 3,000 miles in five minutes. Hopefully another 1,000 points in the next month or two.
Why Do You Want 4,000 Copa Miles?
If these are the only Copa miles you ever earn, they are worthless.
But I imagine that Copa will partner with Chase, Citi, AMEX, or SPG at some point to allow point transfers. Or maybe they’ll sell miles cheaply like LifeMiles and US Airways have. Somehow I’ll get more Copa miles in the future and redeem them on a solid award chart, with no fuel surcharges, to take advantage of great Star Alliance award space worldwide.
I expect I’ll get $60 of value from these 4,000 miles that I got in five minutes of work. Maybe I won’t, and I’ll have lost five minutes. It’s worth the gamble for me.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
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Five minutes? More like 45 minutes!!!
The website is very slow and not intuitive. When I completed the first bonus section of the profile, I instantly received the first 1000 miles, with only one minor problem: my home city is not in the drop-down, and I could not override that, so my address contains the wrong city in their system. However, on the second and third steps, even though I completed all the mandatory (blue asterisk) fields, the progress showed as 88% and 67% for steps 2 and 3 and did not award those extra 2000 miles. After fiddling with it for a while, I called Copa and it turns out that you have to sign off the account and sign back on. He confirmed that I got the 3000 miles. On to the wife’s signup.
Note that on all their screens, when you hit “Update” at the bottom, the screen dims but does not refresh with a confirmation or scroll back to the top. You have to go back to the top manually or hit the black control on the right to see the small confirmation window.
Yes. The site stinks. Good tip about after hitting Update needing to scroll up to find the box.
Five minutes? More like 45 minutes!!!
The website is very slow and not intuitive. When I completed the first bonus section of the profile, I instantly received the first 1000 miles, with only one minor problem: my home city is not in the drop-down, and I could not override that, so my address contains the wrong city in their system. However, on the second and third steps, even though I completed all the mandatory (blue asterisk) fields, the progress showed as 88% and 67% for steps 2 and 3 and did not award those extra 2000 miles. After fiddling with it for a while, I called Copa and it turns out that you have to sign off the account and sign back on. He confirmed that I got the 3000 miles. On to the wife’s signup.
Note that on all their screens, when you hit “Update” at the bottom, the screen dims but does not refresh with a confirmation or scroll back to the top. You have to go back to the top manually or hit the black control on the right to see the small confirmation window.
Yes. The site stinks. Good tip about after hitting Update needing to scroll up to find the box.
[…] Brussels Airlines flights have fuel surcharges, so you want to book them with Star Alliance miles that do not collect fuel surcharges on any awards. Right now, that is United miles and Avianca LifeMiles. Hopefully Copa ConnectMiles will be the same next month. […]
[…] Brussels Airlines flights have fuel surcharges, so you want to book them with Star Alliance miles that do not collect fuel surcharges on any awards. Right now, that is United miles and Avianca LifeMiles. Hopefully Copa ConnectMiles will be the same next month. […]