Triple Dip Update

UPDATE: It took 4 months for my Continental bonus miles to post!!

In my post "Possible Triple Dip with MileagePlus Shopping Portal" I said that I would try to triple or quadruple dip using the MileagePlus & Ultimate Rewards to purchase a $75 e-Gift Certificate from drugstore.com.

Here are my results:

- Received 300 miles with Continental MileagePlus Shopping Portal (awaiting the 500 bonus miles).
- Received 75 American Airlines miles for using the Citi AA Amex Card.
- Struck out with Ultimate Rewards, they don't award miles for purchasing or redeeming gift cards with drugstore.com

New Plan to Triple Dip:
I also purchased a $75 e-Gift Certificate with my husband's account in order to receive an additional 300 miles with Continental MileagePlus Shopping Portal and an additional 500 bonus miles with the promotion they had. I plan on using this e-Gift Certificate through BigCrumbs for 8.4% cashback.

Receiving:
800 United/Continental Miles
75 American Airlines Miles
$6.30 Cashback

Earn 100,000 miles with United or American Airlines & Delta & Apple Gift Cards with Fidelity

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Update 2: Offer Extended: Fidelity Delta 50,000 Frequent Flyer Miles 
Update 1: Earn 100,000 miles with United/Continental or American Airlines & Delta with Fidelity

Follow these steps:
Open a Fidelity individual or joint brokerage account, fund it and earn up to 50,000 United/Continental miles; register here until  October 1st, 2014 OR register for up to 50,000 American Airlines miles until September 30, 2012. According to the rules, you must be a new Fidelity customer in order to join this promotion with United/Continental or American Airlines. But I would suggest signing up even if you are not a new Fidelity customer and see if miles post to your frequent flyer account. Once you have signed up with UA or AA I suggest waiting until some miles from Fidelity post to your account. Once you see some miles from Fidelity you can then sign up for the Delta Fidelity Promotion which expires (February 14, 2012) now February 14, 2013 to earn up to another 50,000 miles. I have replaced the old link with the new one. With Delta, you can be an existing account holder, you just must fund it. Then, you can register for the Apple promotion by June 30, 2012 to receive an Apple Gift Card valued $100 (for deposits of $75,000), $300 (for deposits of $150,000) or $500 (for deposits of $300,000). But you must complete the transferring within 30 days of signing up for the Apple promotion. If you only have $25,000 that you are cycling, you can chose to do the cycling before you actually sign up for the Apple promotion. Because $25,000 will need to be cycled 12 times in order to receive the full amount of $500. This was an idea put out on Flyertalk, but if it will work in actuality, I will let you know.
You need to make a deposit of $100,000 to earn the maximum of 50,000 miles within the first 90 days (30 days for Apple) since you signed up for each promotion. You must at least deposit something within the first 30 days. See below for the exact amounts with each promotion. You do not need to keep the entire amount in the entire time. You need to TRANSFER (Fund) $100,000 all together . What Flyertalk members have been doing is funding and withdrawing $25,000 until they reach the $100,000 transfer. The first time you fund the account, you can't withdraw it back into your bank account until the bank account has been verified, which takes about 7-10 business days according to Fidelity. Otherwise it takes about 5-7 days for each fund/withdraw cycle.

Hat Tip TPG!

American Airlines Fidelity Offer

United/Continental Fidelity Offer

Apple Fidelity Gift Card Offer

$100, $300 & $500

Delta Airlines Miles Offer

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Use 25% less MileagePlus Miles for reward tickets to Europe & Africa

Book an MileagePlus economy Saver Reward by January 16th and use 25% fewer award miles when traveling on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and 20% when traveling on Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Travel dates must be between January 27, 2012 and March 22, 2012 with a Saturday night stay. If you only have Continental OnePass you may open a United MileagePlus account, link your two accounts and book on continental.com. See below for terms and conditions.

Possible Triple Dip with MileagePlus Shopping Portal

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Exciting News!!


I have double dipped with the Continental/United MileagePlus Shopping Portal. I purchased a $10 eGift Certificate from drugstore.com when they were 10 miles per dollar at MileagePlus Shopping and received 100 miles. Not only that, I didn't even use a Continental or United Credit Card! See below.

As you can see below, I used my Citi Aadvantage Visa Card and received 10 AA miles along with helping my minimum spend on this card towards my 75,000 bonus miles.

I can't guarantee that this double dip will work for all of you. I only have my experience to go by. But, I can say, that I have used my Citi Aadvantage Visa Card for other transactions, like from Famous Footwear and Vitacost and have received regular and BONUS miles. As you can see, this opens up lots of possibilities. Generally, Chase's Ultimate Rewards Shopping Portal is a much better place to do your online shopping as they are generous with their miles per dollar along with other reasons that I'm not going to go into now. But, a possibility would be to combine the two portals, using MileagePlus to purchase eGift Certificates and Ultimate Rewards to spend them in. Right now one can earn 10 points per dollar with drugstore.com going through the Ultimate Rewards mall. One can also purchase things from it's sister site, beauty.com in the same shopping cart. All you need to purchase for free shipping is $25. But I haven't even finished! You get 5% back from drugstore.com and beauty.com orders towards your next order!

Also, drugstore.com has many Gift Cards you can purchase through them, like Kmart. To get to the e-Gift Certificate you need to click on the drugstore.com logo, then on the right you will see "gift center", click on it. Then by "instant gifting" click on the buy icon.

My Quadruple Dip Gameplan:
So, I'm going to try purchasing an eGift Certificate from MileagePlus worth $75 to earn:
     300 (4x miles) + 500 (bonus miles) = 800 Continental miles (~10.67 miles per dollar)
Using my Citi Aadvantage Visa Card I will earn
     75 American Airlines miles
Using my $75 drugstore.com eGift Certificate through Ultimate Rewards I will earn:
     10 x 75 = 750 Ultimate Rewards points
I will also earn 5% back from Drugstore dollars towards my next purchase:
     .05 x 75 = $3.75 Drugstore Dollars


Anyone want to try this with Kohls? 
You can possibly earn...
225 miles (3x miles) + 500 (bonus miles) = (~9.67 total points per dollar) 650 Continental Miles for purchasing a $75 Kohls e-gift Card
Plus, (10 points per dollar through January 5th) 750 Ultimate Rewards Miles by using the e-gift Card  tgienger reports that using Kohl's GC's earn miles at Ultimate Rewards.




Will this work? A girl can only hope....


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Today's Deals

Continental Airlines Offers

Spend at least $75 at one retailer through MileagePlus Shopping and receive 500 bonus miles. That comes out to ~6.67 bonus miles per dollar, not bad. Bloomingdales is currently 8 miles per dollar.

No more foreign transaction fees with Continental Airlines Presidential Plus Card starting Feb. 15, 2012.

Share your location on Facebook and Foursquare when at the airport to receive 50 award Continental miles along with other special offers. Must first register for this offer.

Did you know that if you are a CT or NY resident and you register with Continental and then sign up with Energy Plus you can earn 3,000 bonus miles? You also earn 2 miles per dollar you spend on the supply portion of your bill.
If you are a Chase Continental credit or debit cardmember you will receive an additional 1,000 bonus miles and an additional 1 mile per dollar spent of the supply portion of your bill.

Earn 1,500 bonus miles when you sign up with Gilt and make a purchase for $50; enroll today. And receive 5 miles per dollar spent at Gilt for the first 6 months from day of enrollment. Offer available through December 31, 2012.

Discover More Card

Six Flags Thrill Pack for $75, offer includes 2 general admission tickets and 1 parking pass. Tip to inacents.com

Air Canada

50% off select flights, book by January 6th! Book your trip on aircanada.com. Tip to DansDeals.com

Earn 1,500+ Continental/United bonus miles with Gilt

First register for this offer at Continental.com; spend $50 at Gilt and earn 1,500 Continental/United bonus miles. To sign up, click on my Gilt Link and register. After your first purchase, you will get a $25 credit. Plus, earn 5 miles per dollar you spend for the first 6 months. This offer is valid until December 31, 2012. Gilt Groupe is a members only shopping website that sells luxury designer brands of clothing and delicacies at up to 60% off retail prices. This includes special deals at upscale resorts.

Best Credit Card Reward Cards 2011

Cashback Rewards Cards

I am not looking at these cards for the bonus offers, but what they offer per dollar in terms of daily spend. I got the United/Continental cards for their bonuses and probably won't end up keeping them since there are many other Chase cards I would rather have and I dont want to spend the $95 a year fee. But if I can get the fee waived, I might consider keeping them for a while. These 2 cards will soon turn into 1.

Here is how I use these cards:

Capital One Venture Card- Everything Else (2x)

Chase Sapphire Prefferred Card- Dining (2x) and online purchases

Chase Freedom Card- only up to $1,500 on rotating categ. each quarter = 7,500 miles

Penfed Premium Travel Rewards American Express Card- Travel (5x)

Continental/United- online purchases

Click on the links to read reviews I have already writen on these 2 cards:

Capital One Venture Signature Card

Chase Sapphire Preffered Card

Penfed Premium Travel Rewards American Express Card - Some experts don’t think that this is a good credit card, since you need to purchase the airline/travel purchases through their booking tool. But I beg to differ and think it’s a great deal, if you are willing to buy tickets through them when it’s not high season and only are interested in economy seats. When it’s high season the miles you need are astronomical! But if you purchase not during high season, tickets cost much less. When I travel between the US and the Middle East, normally I use 80,000 reward miles. With this card I only need to use up 62,500, plus I receive frequent flyer miles!! I charge this card for all my airline tickets since I get 5 miles per dollar spent ($1 on everything else) and now through the end of 2011 one earns 25% more on all earnings. This card has no transactions fees, no yearly fees and currently comes with a 20,000 miles bonus when you spend $650 in 3 months.

Ticket Cost: $350 : 21,875 points

Ticket Cost: $500 : 31,250 points

Ticket Cost: $350 : 46,875 points

Ticket Cost: $350 : 62,500 points

Chase Freedom Card - I don't have this card yet, but I am looking forward to getting it once I have waited 60 days since my last Chase credit card applications (United and Continental). This card offers 5 miles per dollar spent on rotating categories every 3 months up until $1,500 (and receive 7,500 miles) That's 30,000 miles/yr on $6,000 spend. I would recommend only using this card on the rotating categories up until $1,500. Currently (11/2011) the categories are charities, dining, department stores and movie theatres until Dec. 31, 2011. There is no annual fee and rewards never expire.

Continental/United Credit Cards- The $95 yearly fee is waived the first year. These 2 airlines are in the process of merging, so when you get your miles for both airlines, you can merge them. Instead of getting 30,000-40,000 miles for the Star Alliance Network you will be getting 60,000-80,000 miles. Earn 25,000 miles after first use, 5,000 after adding an authorized user who uses the card and 10,000 after $25,000 spend. The latest buzz is that in November (still waiting), United will be increasing their bonus miles from 40,000 to 60,000. I applied for both these cards at the same time and got approved for the Continental Card, but not for the United Card, the same goes for my dear husband . So, I just called up and got approved over the phone for myself. Now, I needed my husband to call to ask for the approval on the United Card, but he was out of the country. By the time he came back, I heard about the possible 60,000 mile offer so I haven’t called Chase, because I would like to go for the extra miles. If it doesn't increase to 60,000 bonus miles, I will probably not try to get the card for him and instead go for the Chase Freedom card for him instead. Generally one only gets one miler per dollar spent with these cards so I only use them for online shopping through their MileagePlus Shopping when they reward more than Chase does or have a store that Chase doesn't. This card offers priority boarding and a free checked bag each time you fly Continental or United and charge it to your card. My husband has become a Gold Elite so this doesn't help him, so therefore I don't charge this card for his travel.

Credit Card Hacking - How I earned 515,000+ free miles

My family of 5 need to travel between the US and Middle East this upcoming summer. So, how was I going to afford this? Since I love bargains and have always been on the lookout for them I thought, why not try to get some deals with travel? Boy, was I excited when I started reading the amazing deals that were out there. I started reading up on certain blogs and the most helpful ones were  http://thepointsguy.com & http://millionmilesecrets.com, and www.Flyertalk.com, which is an online frequent flyer community; thank you TPG & Daraius! 

Now, you only want to do this if you are very responsible at paying your bills on time. What I did was pay all the credit card bills with automatic payments so I wouldn’t have any issues with bills being paid late. I also created a spreadsheet to keep track of all the details of all the credit cards. I will be reviewing all these cards, so please follow my blog and you will get all the information you need soon.

Here are the cards I got and the bonus miles I earned with them:

Penfed Premium Travels Reward American Express- 20,000 Me

Chase Sapphire Preferred- 50,000 Husband

Continental- 30,000 Me (matched to 50,000), 30,000 Husband (not matched)

United- 30,000 Me (just requested a match to 50,000 Feb 10,2012)

Capital One Venture (Visa)- 25,000 Me (now the bonus is only 10,000)

Citi Select® / AAdvantage® American Express® card- 75,000 me, 75,000 Husband

Citi® Platinum Select® / AAdvantage® Visa Signature® Card- 75,000 me, 75,000 Husband

Some information about these credit cards:

Penfed Premium Travels Reward American Express Card- Some experts don’t think that this is a good credit card since you need to purchase the airline/travel purchases through their booking tool. But I think it’s a great deal, if you are willing to buy tickets through them when it’s not high season and only are interested in economy seats. When it’s high season the miles you need are astronomical! But more about this card and its benefits in a future post. I charge this card for all my airline tickets since I get 5 miles per dollar spent. See my post here about the special offer going on now.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card- 50,000 bonus points is quite a good deal, I applied for this card for my husband, but I didn’t apply for for myself, because I realized that since this is a Chase card, I need to wait a bit before applying for another one. I got 2 Chase cards recently (Continental & United). See my review here.

Continental OnePass Plus/United MileagePlus Explorer Credit Cards- These 2 airlines are in the process of merging, so when you get your miles for both airlines, you can merge them. Instead of getting 30,000-40,000 miles for the Star Alliance Network you will be getting 60,000-80,000 miles. The latest buzz is that in November, United will be increasing their bonus miles from 40,000 to 60,000. I applied for both these cards at the same time and got approved for the Continental Card, but not for the United Card, the same goes for my dear husband . So, I just called up and got approved over the phone for myself. Now, I needed my husband to call to ask for the approval on the United Card, but he was out of the country. By the time he came back, I heard about the possible 60,000 mile offer so I haven’t called Chase, because I would like to go for the extra miles.

Capital One Venture Rewards Card- This is a great credit card and I would recommend everyone getting it when the bonus miles increase because one gets 2 miles per dollar on EVERYTHING! This is good for people that are only interested in Economy class tickets. Since a $1,000 ticket uses up 100,000 miles, and a business/first class ticket would use up thousands of miles. You can purchase a ticket in anyones name and also transfer miles between Capital One accounts. A couple of months ago the bonus miles were 25,000 and unfortunately they have reduced it to 10,000. When it goes up, I would recommend getting it right away; this is my everyday spend card.

Citi Select® AAdvantage® American Express® card -
Citi® Platinum Select® AAdvantage® Visa Signature® Card –

If you haven’t already, please first sign up for the American Airlines Advantage Program here before applying for these credit cards.

You can only apply for these cards if you don’t have them already. I received 75,000 bonus miles with $1,500 and $4,000 spend with the instructions Dariaus gave here, but people have reported that this deal is dead and one can only get 50,000 bonus miles with it. Without the link the current offer is for 40,000 miles. I hope you can all get 50,000 bonus miles instead of 40,000. Please post comments and let me know if you have been successful.

Please read the following post here using the 2 click browser rule to learn how to apply to both cards and receive both bonuses:

Terms and Conditions for the 40,000 bonus miles offer for the
Citi Select® / AAdvantage® American Express® card taken from Citi’s website:
·     Annual Fee: $85.00 (Fee waived for first 12 months)
·     Purchase APR: 15.24% Variable
·     Balance Transfer APR: N/A

30,000 AAdvantage^® bonus miles after $750 in purchases in the first 4 months of cardmembership Additional 10,000 AAdvantage^® bonus miles after $5,000 in purchases in the first 12 months of cardmembership^.
One time $100 statement credit for the 1st eligible AA  purchase made in the first 12 months of cardmembership


Note: I do NOT make any money from these links.

Earn up to 150K bonus miles on travel between London and the U.S.

From Continentals website:

Register now and earn up to 150,000 miles for round-trip travel between the U.S. and London Heathrow (LHR) booked in F, J, C or D class of service. The more you fly, the more bonus miles you earn.

• 1st round-trip = 25,000 bonus miles
• 2nd round-trip = 35,000 bonus miles
• 3rd round-trip = 45,000 bonus miles
• 4th round-trip = 45,000 bonus miles
• TOTAL: 150,000 bonus miles

Offer may be earned once for a maximum of 150,000 bonus miles. Register now.
Valid Sun., Oct. 9, 2011 - Sat., Dec. 31, 2011 (Time Remaining: 84 days)
Posted Sat., Oct. 1, 2011

Terms and Conditions

Registration is required. To qualify for this offer, members must purchase and travel on a qualifying round-trip ticket for travel between the U.S. and London Heathrow (LHR) booked in F, J, C or D class on United, United Express®, Continental® or Continental Express® operated flights between 10/1/2011 and 12/31/2011.
Offer valid on qualifying paid, published fares in F, J, C or D class, purchased and flown between 10/1/2011 and 12/31/2011. Not valid on government fares. E-Ticket purchase required. Not combinable with other bonus mile offers.
Bonus may be earned for a maximum of 150,000 bonus miles. Registration is required prior to travel and travel must be completed on or by December 31, 2011 to qualify for the promotion.
Valid on United, United Express, Continental, Continental Express. This offer is not valid on United or Continental marketed codeshare flights operated by other carriers. Bonus applies to base flight miles only and does not count towards Elite status. Bonus is in addition to flight miles and any applicable Elite Qualification Miles.
Bonus miles will post to your OnePass account 4 - 6 weeks after travel has been completed.
All terms and conditions of the OnePass program apply, including Continental's right to modify or terminate the OnePass program.

Top 10 airlines for reward redemptions

Flier Crier published survey results for attempts to make award travel on the top airlines. Southwest came in first AGAIN at 99%

“The results, showing the percentage of successful award bookings for U.S./Canadian programs and the change from last year’s results:

1. Southwest – 99.3 percent (No change)
2. Air Canada – 82.1 percent (-11.5 points)
3. JetBlue – 79.3 percent (New for 2011)
4. United – 71.4 percent (+2.8 points)
5. Continental – 71.4 percent (No change)
6. Alaska – 64.3 percent (-10.7 points)
7. American – 62.9 percent (+5 points)
8. AirTran – 47.1 percent (-20.8 points)
9. Delta – 27.1 percent (+14.2 points)
10. US Airways – 25.7 percent (+15 points)”

The United MileagePlus® Explorer Card & The Continental Airlines OnePass® Plus Card Review

Due to the recession, this year the credit card companies have been trying to lure new customers with some amazing offers! Don't miss out on some of the best deals that have ever been offered from credit card companies. These cards offer free travel, cash, gifts and more. But these credit cards are only for you if you have good to excellent credit and will be able to pay off your monthly balances.

I just love the bonus offers from the United MileagePlus Explorer Card and Continental Airlines OnePass Plus Card. These cards offer the same bonuses and terms and conditions because the two airlines merged in 2010. They are still in the process of integration which we are reaping the benefits from. After you have received your 40,000 bonus miles from each of the cards you can merge them together for a total of 80,000 miles. That's a free return ticket from The Middle East to the US!! And if you have a partner, they can too take advantage of this offer! After your first use you earn 25,000 bonus miles, 5,000 bonus miles when you add an authorized user to your account and use your card, both within two months of opening your account. 10,000 Bonus Miles Annually When You Spend $25,000 on Your Card.
Besides Travel, you may use Miles for Car Rentals and Hotel Stays.

United MileagePlus^® Explorer Card
 Excellent Credit Needed

• Earn up to 40,000 bonus miles & first year free, a $95 value*
• Check your first bag for free on United and Continental-operated flights, up to a $50 value round trip
• Board your flight before general boarding with priority boarding privileges
• Visit the United Club with two complimentary day passes every year, up to a $100 value
• Earn 2 miles for $1 spent on tickets purchased from United and Continental and 1 mile per $1 everywhere else
• Enjoy exclusive access to once-in-a-lifetime events through Inside Access from Chase

Intro APR	Intro APR Period	Regular APR	Annual Fee	Balance Transfers	Credit Needed
N/A*	N/A*	14.24%*(Variable)	$95, waived the first year*	Yes*	Excellent Credit

Continental Airlines OnePass® Plus Card
 Excellent Credit Needed

• Earn up to 40,000 bonus miles & first year free ($95 value)*
• Now with priority boarding privileges on Continental and United flights
• Check your first bag for free on Continental and United flights, up to a $50 value
• Visit the United Club with two complimentary passes every year, a $100 value
• Earn 2 miles for $1 spent on tickets purchased from Continental and United and 1 mile per $1 everywhere else
• Your miles don't expire and there is no limit to the number of miles you can earn

Intro APR	Intro APR Period	Regular APR	Annual Fee	Balance Transfers	Credit Needed
N/A*	N/A*	14.24% *(Variable)	$95, First Year Free*	Yes*	Excellent Credit*