Next Year, Exchange Chase Ultimate Rewards Points for Southwest Rapid Rewards Points

Chase continues to add value to Ultimate Rewards, the loyalty program linked to its Sapphire Preferred (for consumers) and Ink Bold (for business) credit cards. The latest, from Southwest's website:

Effective January 5, 2012, Chase Sapphire, Ink and Bold Customers will be able to redeem their Ultimate Rewards points for Rapid Rewards Points. Point transfers via Ultimate Rewards are not eligible for status, including A-List, A-List Preferred, or Companion Pass Status. Ultimate Rewards points will be converted to Rapid Rewards Points on a 1:1 ratio.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card is already one of the most robust of the multi-purpose rewards cards. The addition of Southwest as a transfer partner, allowing a 1:1 exchange of Ultimate Rewards points for Rapid Rewards points, further solidifies its position atop the category.

The card's vitals:

• Annual fee: $95, waived the first year
• Annual percentage rate: variable, currently 15.24 percent
• No foreign transaction fees
• Cardholders earn one point for every $1 charged for most purchases, two points per $1 for travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, and up to 10 points per $1 for purchases through the Ultimate Rewards Mall.
• Cardholders earn a 7 percent dividend on points earned during the year.
• When redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards, points are worth 1.25 cents each.
• Points can be transferred 1:1 for miles/points in the programs of British Airways, Continental, United, Hyatt, InterContinental Priority Club, Marriott, and Amtrak.
• Customer service calls are "answered by people, not prompts."

And then there's the bonus: New Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders earn 50,000 points after charging at least $3,000 to the card during the first three months.

Assuming they are redeemed for travel—flights, cruises, etc., with no capacity controls or blackout dates—through Chase Ultimate Rewards, the bonus points are worth $625.

Other Posts of Interest

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• New Priority Club Credit Cards Come With a Big Bonus
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• Are Debit Card Miles an Endangered Frequent Flyer Perk?
• Is Hyatt's New Credit Card a Game-Changer?
• Earn Triple Base Points for JetBlue Flights
• Double Elite-Qualifying Miles From Frontier
• US Air Brings Back the Buy-Miles Bonus, with a New Restriction
• United Matches American's Elite Bonus for Chicago Flights
• Delta Puts Elite Perks Up for Sale
• Where Do My Miles Go If American Goes Bankrupt?
• Earn More American AAdvantage Miles for Holiday Shopping
• Earn More Delta Miles for Holiday Shopping
• Which Airline Programs Are the Most (and Least) Generous?
• Earn More Shopping Miles From United

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American Offers Double Elite-Qualifying Miles Through January 2012

2009 was a banner year for promotions featuring elite-qualifying miles (EQMs), with at least three of the largest U.S. carriers offering double EQMs for at least six months.

EQM-wise, 2010 was a bust. And this year was shaping up to be the same.

If you'd given up on a double elite-qualifying miles promotion before the end of 2011, as I had, it now appears we're in for a last-minute EQM deluge. Or at least a year-end trickle.

What's changed? American's bankruptcy.

Offer Details

Between December 13, 2011, and January 31, 2012, AAdvantage members can earn double EQMs on all American and American Eagle flights.

Bonus EQMs earned during 2011 will count towards elite status in 2012; bonus EQMs earned during 2012 will count toward 2013 status.

Only elite-qualifying miles are doubled—not redeemable miles or elite-qualifying points or segments.

Registration is required, prior to travel.

Deal or No Deal

This promotion is clearly a move by American to shore up loyalty among its most profitable customers as the carrier's bankruptcy creates a heightened level of uncertainty and anxiety.

Generally, a systemwide double-EQM promotion would be an ultra-compelling offer.

But this offer loses some of its value as a result of the timing: The first three weeks of the promotion period apply toward 2012 elite status; the subsequent month applies toward elite status in 2013. Practically, what we have here are two very short-term promotions, back to back. And neither is as rewarding as those EQM offers from 2009.

Still, if you're within striking distance of AAdvantage elite status, or are close to a higher elite tier, double EQMs will get you there twice as fast. And that's certainly a point in American's favor if you're considering the alternatives.

But the competitive advantage may be short lived. While so far there's no counter-offer from United, Delta, or US Airways, it's likely that there will be.

Reader Reality Check

Is American's double-EQM offer a game-changer for you?

Other Posts of Interest

• Earn Triple Base Points for JetBlue Flights
• Double Elite-Qualifying Miles From Frontier
• US Air Brings Back the Buy-Miles Bonus, with a New Restriction
• United Matches American's Elite Bonus for Chicago Flights
• Delta Puts Elite Perks Up for Sale
• Where Do My Miles Go If American Goes Bankrupt?
• Earn More American AAdvantage Miles for Holiday Shopping
• Earn More Delta Miles for Holiday Shopping
• Which Airline Programs Are the Most (and Least) Generous?
• Earn More Shopping Miles From United
• Fly to Tokyo in Business Class for 50,000 AAdvantage Miles

Stay in Touch

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Win 1 Million Rewards Points from Marriott

What to do with 1 million Marriott Rewards points?

If that's a question you'd like to wrestle with, enter the "Marriott Rewards" Facebook sweepstakes by December 31 for a chance to win the grand prize of 1 million Marriott Rewards points. Runner-up prizes include five first prizes of 100,000 points each, and 50 second prizes of 10,000 points each. Plus there are 3,720 instant-win prizes of 1,000 points each.

To enter, "Like" Marriott's Facebook page and submit the requested contact information.

The Fine Print

• Sweepstakes is open to legal residents of the 50 United States, including the District of Columbia, and Canada, excluding Quebec, who are at least 18 years of age or the age of majority in their state of permanent residence, whichever is greater, as of December 1, 2011.
• Limit: one entry per person/email address per day during the sweepstakes period.
• Approximate Retail Value ("ARV") of the grand prize: $12,500; first prizes, $1,250 each; second prizes, $125 each.

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• Fall Hotel Promotions, Compared
• Your Choice: Airline Miles or Hotel Points?

Stay in Touch

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New Miles-for-Gifts Site Not Ready for Holiday Shopping

In the spirit of the gift-buying season, and of earning the most miles for holiday shopping, I recently recommended evRewards as a site that will help consumers compare the shopping miles on offer from airline and hotel programs.

Planning to buy mom a sweater at the Gap? evRewards will show you which programs award miles for Gap purchases, and which programs offer the most miles per $1 spent.

That's on the earning side of the equation. What about using miles and points for non-travel awards?

Just in time for holiday shopping, there's a newly launched site that flips the evRewards proposition, showing would-be mileage users how many miles or points will be required for gifts, and how much those same items would cost in dollars.

Want to use miles or points to purchase a sweater for mom? Visit RewardingYourself.com and review your options.

There are two ways to proceed: Use the search box to find items of interest, or browse by category.

In my tests, neither worked as advertised.

A search on "sweater" displayed five options: two for ladies' cashmere sweaters, two for men's sweaters, and one for a Samsonite carry-on bag.

Both of the ladies' sweaters displayed are offered through Hilton's HHonors program, one for 72,500 points, the other for 62,000 points.

Good to know, but there's something missing here. Is it possible that ladies' sweaters can only be purchased for miles or points from one program, Hilton HHonors? And the sweaters shown for comparison, as buy-for-cash alternatives, don't appear to be the same as the sweaters available through HHonors.

Perhaps, I thought, browsing through categories would yield more robust, and more accurate, results.

Clicking on "Clothing" generated a first page offering test drives of Porsches and Maseratis, and Disneyland resort packages, but no clothing whatsoever.

And the searches were not just wildly inaccurate—they were painfully slow.

RewardingYourself.com is a clever idea that addresses a real need. But it is ineptly executed. In test-driving the site, I was left feeling I'd stumbled on an app that was in its early beta stage.

There's definitely a place in the frequent flyer toolbox for a service that delivers on the "Points or Cash" promise. At this point, RewardingYourself.com falls short. Far short.

Other Posts of Interest

• US Air Brings Back the Buy-Miles Bonus, with a New Restriction
• United Matches American's Elite Bonus for Chicago Flights
• Delta Puts Elite Perks Up for Sale
• Where Do My Miles Go If American Goes Bankrupt?
• Earn More American AAdvantage Miles for Holiday Shopping
• Earn More Delta Miles for Holiday Shopping
• Which Airline Programs Are the Most (and Least) Generous?
• Earn More Shopping Miles From United
• Fly to Tokyo in Business Class for 50,000 AAdvantage Miles

Stay in Touch

For more news like this, sign up to receive our free weekly newsletter. You can follow us on Twitter, too.

Redeem Marriott Points for Flights, Car Rentals

Marriott Rewards members may now use their Rewards points, or a combination of points and cash, to book airline flights and car rentals.

With Air + Car awards, members may book flights on "more than 400 airlines"—in other words, on just about any airline. Car rentals, on the other hand, are limited to Hertz.

As always with such features, there are two scales on which Air + Car awards must be assessed: convenience and value.

Convenience

The option to use Rewards points for flights and car rentals is an obvious plus, at least in theory.

The booking app itself (courtesy of ezRez Software, which provides similar functionality for United's MileagePlus program) is clean, easy to use, and quick to generate search results.

Limiting the car rental companies to Hertz, which tends to have the highest prices, is an obvious negative.

Value

Test bookings, comparing the price of flights in Rewards points with the market price in dollars, showed that points had a value of between one-third and one-half a cent each. So, for example, a $439 cross-country flight on American could be booked for 112,000 Rewards points, yielding a per-point value of .39 cents (39 hundredths of a cent).

Car rentals yielded slightly better value, between a half and three-quarters of a cent per point. A two-day intermediate car rental at Chicago International Airport, for example, would cost $224.71 or 44,000 Rewards points, for a per-point value of .51 cents.

To put those numbers in perspective, 112,000 points are enough for five nights at a Category 5 hotel (100,000 points), plus one night at a Category 2 hotel (10,000 points).

Picking a Category 5 hotel at random, the room rates at the JW Marriott in Miami for an early January stay are between $469 and $509 per night, and the total for the five-night stay would be $2,695.05. Redeeming 100,000 points for that stay translates into about 2.7 cents per point—almost seven times the value of a point redeemed for the aforementioned American flight.

Bottom Line

While Air + Car awards score well on the convenience scale, they deliver sub-par value compared to hotel awards. Rewards members will get much more bang for their buck by using their points for free nights.

Reader Reality Check

Will you be redeeming your Rewards points for flights or car rentals?

Other Posts of Interest

• 4th Quarter Hotel Promotions, Compared
• Earn A Free Night After Five Hilton Resort Nights
• From Wyndham: a Free Night After Two Stays
• Starwood Offers Double, Triple Points for Fall Stays
• Hyatt Adds Elite Perks, Changes Award Prices
• Get Texts to Get 500 Priority Club Bonus Points
• Book InterCon Stays by Smartphone to Earn a Priority Club Bonus
• Book Priority Club Hotels for Just 5,000 Points With PointBreaks
• Hilton Points Go Further With Point Stretcher Awards
• Your Choice: Airline Miles or Hotel Points?

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Earn A Free Night After Five Hilton Resort Nights

If resort stays are their own rewards, this new offer from Hilton can make them extra-rewarding.

Offer Details

Hilton HHonors members can earn a free night certificate after completing five or more consecutive nights at a participating Hilton resort booked by January 31, 2012, and completed by April 30, 2012.

There are more than 100 participating resorts, around 65 of which are in the U.S.

Program members may earn up to two free night certificates during the promotion period, after two separate five-night stays or one stay of 10 or more nights.

Free night certificates are valid at participating Hilton hotels for six months after the date of issue.

Registration is required, by January 31, 2012.

Deal or No Deal

The value of the promotion depends on two variables: the cost of earning the free night, and the value of the free night.

If you redeemed the free night certificate at the same hotel you stayed at to qualify for it, you're effectively getting a sixth night for the price of five, a 16.7 percent discount.

However, there's the opportunity to get a much heftier return by qualifying at cheaper hotels and taking the free night at a pricier property. For example, if you pay less than $500 for the qualifying five nights, and use the certificate for a night at a $250-a-night hotel, you'll be getting a 33.3 percent discount ($750 worth of hotel nights for $500).

Of course you don't have to do the math. If you're already planning a resort stay, the free night can just be considered icing on the cake.

Other Posts of Interest

• 4th Quarter Hotel Promotions, Compared
• From Wyndham: a Free Night After Two Stays
• Starwood Offers Double, Triple Points for Fall Stays
• Hyatt Adds Elite Perks, Changes Award Prices
• Get Texts to Get 500 Priority Club Bonus Points
• Book InterCon Stays by Smartphone to Earn a Priority Club Bonus
• Book Priority Club Hotels for Just 5,000 Points With PointBreaks
• Hilton Points Go Further With Point Stretcher Awards
• Your Choice: Airline Miles or Hotel Points?

Stay in Touch

For more news like this, sign up to receive our free weekly newsletter. You can follow us on Twitter, too.

Earn Triple Base Points for JetBlue Flights

The JetBlue webpage copy promises "triple TrueBlue points," although most program members will find themselves earning only twice the normal number of points.

Either way, this new JetBlue bonus offer is worth a look.

Offer Details

TrueBlue members can earn triple TrueBlue base points for JetBlue tickets purchased by December 30 and flown by February 15, 2012.

The bonus does not apply to flights taken between December 16, 2011, and January 3, 2012.

TrueBlue members normally earn three base points per $1 spent on tickets, plus an additional three points per $1 for tickets purchased on the JetBlue website, for a total of six points per $1.

The bonus only applies to the base points, not the extra points earned for booking online.

All in, you're earning 12 points per $1, instead of the six points typically earned.

Registration is required.

Deal or No Deal

Triple base points on any JetBlue flight. Good.

December 30 booking deadline. Manageable.

February 15, 2012, travel deadline. Generous.

Blackout dates. A definite negative.

Limitation to a single ticket. Also a negative, but it shouldn't affect the average traveler.

Overall: Definitely an extra reason to consider JetBlue for any trips during the promotion period (but mind the blackout dates).

Other Posts of Interest

• Double Elite-Qualifying Miles From Frontier
• US Air Brings Back the Buy-Miles Bonus, with a New Restriction
• United Matches American's Elite Bonus for Chicago Flights
• Delta Puts Elite Perks Up for Sale
• Where Do My Miles Go If American Goes Bankrupt?
• Earn More American AAdvantage Miles for Holiday Shopping
• Earn More Delta Miles for Holiday Shopping
• Which Airline Programs Are the Most (and Least) Generous?
• Earn More Shopping Miles From United
• Fly to Tokyo in Business Class for 50,000 AAdvantage Miles

Stay in Touch

For more news like this, sign up to receive our free weekly newsletter. You can follow us on Twitter, too.

Win 2 Million Wyndham Rewards Points

Frequent flyer programs and travel sweepstakes have something in common: Both feature free travel. That's why I profile the occasional sweepstakes alongside the frequent flyer bonuses.

Contests, on the other hand, are just that: competitions, where the prizes go to those who have outperformed others. In other words, they require work, which takes the "free" out of free travel.

This week, instead of a sweepstakes, I'm covering Wyndham Hotels' "My Horrible Holiday Gift" contest, because what it lacks in "free" it more than makes up for in "fun." And because the prize is worth working for.

Love That ... What Is it Exacly?

Enter Wyndham's "My Horrible Holiday Gift" contest by January 10, 2012, by submitting a photo of the worst holiday gift you've ever received.

Photos must be in digital form (.jpg, .jpeg, .gif, or .png), no larger than 10 MB.

The grand prize: 2 million Wyndham Rewards points. Four runners-up will each receive 25,000 Rewards points.

After the contest ends, the sponsor will choose five finalists, and the grand prize winner will be determined by a vote by Wyndham Rewards members.

Even if you don't plan to enter, it's worth having a look at some of the entries already posted on the contest landing page. Funny stuff!

The Fine Print

• Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and all provinces of Canada with the exception of Quebec, who are at least 18 years old at the time of entry. Void in Quebec, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and other U.S. territories and possessions, and where prohibited by law.
• You must be a member of Wyndham Rewards to enter.
• Limit: five entries per person.
• Approximate Retail Value ("ARV") of the grand prize: $10,000.

Other Posts of Interest

• Win a Three-Night Trip to London
• American Sweepstakes Features Two 150,000-Mile Prizes
• Win Up to 20 Free Hyatt Nights
• Fall Hotel Promotions, Compared
• Your Choice: Airline Miles or Hotel Points?

Stay in Touch

For more news like this, sign up to receive our free weekly newsletter. You can follow us on Twitter, too.

Double Elite-Qualifying Miles From Frontier

Double elite-qualifying miles (EQMs). System-wide. For an entire month. In theory, nice.

But we're not talking about United or Delta or American here.

As this Frontier promotion shows, sometimes bonuses are only as attractive as the companies that offer them.

Offer Details

Between December 1 and December 31, members of Frontier's EarlyReturns program can earn double EQMs and double elite-qualifying segments for any and all mileage-qualifying flights.

Advance registration is required.

Deal or No Deal

In the scheme of U.S. airlines, Frontier is a small operator. Which means fewer opportunities to earn miles, and to redeem them. And fewer opportunities to enjoy the perks associated with elite status.

There are also questions surrounding Frontier's future.

While Frontier now flies from three main hubs—as of October, 140 daily departures from Denver, 57 from Milwaukee, 21 from Kansas City—the airline's parent, Republic Airways Holding, has indicated that by April of next year the airline will be scaling back its Milwaukee flights by 49 percent and slightly upping its Kansas City frequency. When the new operating plan is in place, more than 80 percent of Frontier's flights will be to or from Denver.

So for travelers whose itineraries don't focus on Denver, the future value of Frontier elite perks is marginal.

Further muddying the waters, Republic has signaled its intention to sell Frontier, which it bought in 2009 and merged with another of its acquisitions, Milwaukee-based Midwest. Assuming a buyer is found, will Frontier end up being incorporated into a larger airline? Or will its new owners elect to continue going it alone as a small regional airline?

Bottom line: There's too much uncertainty surrounding Frontier's future identity to invest in long-term loyalty. If their flights meet your needs for December trips, book them. But don't give the bonus much weight in your planning—the elite perks on offer are of questionable value.

Other Posts of Interest

• US Air Brings Back the Buy-Miles Bonus, with a New Restriction
• United Matches American's Elite Bonus for Chicago Flights
• Delta Puts Elite Perks Up for Sale
• Where Do My Miles Go If American Goes Bankrupt?
• Earn More American AAdvantage Miles for Holiday Shopping
• Earn More Delta Miles for Holiday Shopping
• Which Airline Programs Are the Most (and Least) Generous?
• Earn More Shopping Miles From United
• Fly to Tokyo in Business Class for 50,000 AAdvantage Miles

Stay in Touch

For more news like this, sign up to receive our free weekly newsletter. You can follow us on Twitter, too.

US Air Brings Back the Buy-Miles Bonus, with a New Restriction

If you missed US Airways' last sale on frequent flyer miles, you now have another chance to load up on miles before the end of the year.

And given the history of this offer—which has been reprised over and over and over again—there's every reason to believe that there will be more such discounts in 2012.

But you just never know.

Offer Details

What we do know is that for the month of December, you will earn a 100 percent bonus on the purchase of US Airways miles, effectively halving their cost.

There is a new wrinkle in this iteration's terms and conditions. Whereas in previous offers, the 100 percent bonus applied to as many as 50,000 purchased miles, in this case the bonus only applies to the first 40,000 miles.

So, purchase 40,000 miles at the normal price of $1,505 (3.5 cents per mile), including the 7.5 percent "tax recovery charge," and receive 80,000 miles.

As always with these sales: "Dividend Miles accounts less than 12 days old are not permitted to Buy, Share or Gift Miles."

Deal or No Deal

In past mile-for-sale promotions, which generated 100,000 miles for the price of 50,000 miles, the standard evaluation approach was to compare the cost of the purchased miles to the price of a premium-class international ticket on one of US Airways' Star Alliance partners, say a Lufthansa flight to Europe priced at 100,000 miles. In that light, buying miles looked like a bargain.

This offer's maximum of 80,000 discounted miles subverts such easy assessments. With international business-class awards priced at 90,000 miles or more, the purchased miles would have to be augmented with miles already in your account to qualify for a pricey award flight and get outsized value for your purchase.

Otherwise, you're only buying enough miles for, say, a coach award ticket to South Asia.

A round-trip flight from New York to Singapore on Singapore Airlines can be had for $2,373, all in. Buying enough miles for the same flight for $1,505, and having to work around the restrictions associated with booking award tickets, just isn't a particularly compelling deal.

So the new version of US Airways' buy-miles promotion comes with a caveat. Before pushing the "Buy" button, check the Dividend Miles award chart, and the price of comparable paid tickets, to be sure that the discount still delivers superior value.

Reader Reality Check

Have you taken advantage of past US Airways buy-miles promotions? Will you buy this time?