Check Your MailBox

Yesterday, I received an interesting offer from Bank of America and Alaska Airlines. Earlier this year, I got the Bank of America Alaska Airlines credit card.

I used the card once and put it in the sock drawer. The new offer, ask me to make charge one monthly bill to the credit card by October 30th to earn a $15 gift card.

   "Thank you for your business. We appreciate you choosing Bank of America for your credit card
    needs, and as a valued customer we have an offer especially for you - a $15 gift card to Target,
    Starbucks, or Best Buy for using your Alaska Airlines Visa Signature credit card to pay bills
    automatically - a convenient option that saves you time and helps you earn more rewards each
    month."

The monthly bill needs to be in the following categories:

       - Telcomm,
       - Internet Service Provider
       - Cable/Satellite
       - Insurance.

My plan is to switch my cell phone bill for a month. Then I am switching it back to my Ink Bold card.

If all goes by plan, I should have my gift card by December!
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Earn Miles By Transferring from Points.com

This is again one of those "I don't know if this is the best value for your miles, please do your research, have your goal and see if this is the best way to earn miles" posts. Points.com is a website that helps track your point balances in your frequent flyer accounts.

The service is free and has helped me keep track of my account numbers for airline and hotel loyalty programs. One of the most unique features of Points.com is the ability to trade or swap points between two different loyalty programs. I will discuss both options below:

Trade Points

Points.com allows you the opportunity to trade your points in one particular loyalty program with someone else's points in another loyalty program. The trade could be 1:1 or another amount.  Here are some examples of trades that were offered to me:

To complete the trade you will have to pay a fee. As you can see, the fee gets more expensive as the amount miles being trade increases. Is this a good deal? It depends on the offer and your need at the moment.

Swap Points

The other options is to swap points from one loyalty program to another. The transfer rates depend upon the program. For instance, here is what you would need to trade to earn 1,000 United Mileage Plus miles:

None of the transfer rates are particularly attractive. If you have orphan points in a loyalty account transferring to another program might be a good idea. However, transferring points just to earn more Mileage Plus miles is a terrible idea.

Below is a list of loyalty programs participating with Points.com:

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Earn United Miles on Tickets - ScoreBig & Audience Rewards

Another way to earn United is by shopping for tickets to sporting events, concerts, and plays. United has partnerships with Scorebig and Audience Rewards that allows you to earn miles for each purchase through their site.

ScoreBig

Scorebig is a ticket website that sells tickets to sporting events, concerts, plays and family shows. The website acts very like Priceline.com. You pick the section that you want to sit and the amount you want to pay per ticket. For instance, I tried to buy tickets to an upcoming Nationals game and here is what they offered.

Next, you make an offer per ticket and the system tells you the likelihood of the bid being accepted.

Finally, you fill in your personal information, credit card information, and hit submit.

If your bid is not accepted, you can not make a bid on the same tickets for 24 hours.

Now where do the miles come into play. Well, you earn 5 points per $1 spent at ScoreBig.

Also, ScoreBig is offering a 1,000 mile bonus on your first order until September 30th, 2013. You must spend at least $30 in your first transaction to earn the bonus.

According to their website, you will never be charged fees for purchasing tickets with ScoreBig.

Audience Rewards

While you can buy a variety of different tickets with ScoreBig, only play and musical tickets can be bought at Audience Rewards.

Audience Rewards sells tickets for shows in NYC, Charolette, NC, Chicago, Los Angles, San Diego, Tuscan, AZ, Durham, NC, Wantagh, NY and Holmdel, NJ. 

Many of the hottest shows are eligible to purchase. 

The amount of miles you can earn depends upon the show. For instance, Kinky Boots is offering 100 miles per ticket purchased.

However, Potted Potter earns only 50 per ticket.

Frequently, Audience Rewards will have promotions offering additional miles for presales. For instance, Audience Rewards is offering 1,600 per ticket for orders of Janis Joplin.

Audience Rewards has partnerships with United, US Airways, Delta, Amtrak, Starwood, and Best Buy.

In full disclosure, I never used either ScoreBig or Audience Rewards. However, I may try out ScoreBig for sporting tickets like the Nationals or Capitals.  If you need to buy tickets to an event, it can't hurt checking these two websites out. 

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Exchange Gift Cards

Did Grandma give you a gift card to PETCO for Christmas, but you don't have a pet?

Well, United has a solution; Gift Card Exchange. United will allow you to exchange your gift card for miles.

To exchange your gift card, you needs to go to this website and complete three easy steps:

The amount of miles that you earn depends on the amount of the gift card and demand for that merchant. The website provides you with a chart to show you approximate number of miles one can earn.

Now the exchange is offering a 25% bonus:

I decided to try out the exchange with a $25 Best Buy Gift Card. The exchanged offered me 840 miles like the chart above shows.

Since I paid $25 for the card, the 840 would cost be 2.9 cents per mile. Not a great redemption value. However, if you get the card for free and don't want it then it may be a good redemption.

Here are a few additional things you need to know about the exchange:

Here is a list of most of the gift cards that they will exchange for miles:


Abercrombie & Fitch                Dick's Sporting Goods         Lowe's                              The North Face
Areopostale                             Disney Store                      Macy's                               TicketMaster
Armeine Exchange                   Domino's Pizza                   Nieman Marcus                  Toys R US
Banana Republic                      DSW                                  New York & Company        United Artists
Barnes & Noble                        EB Games                          Nike                                 Victoria Secret
Bass Pro Shops                         Ethan Allen                        Nordstrom                        Walmart
Bath & Body Works                  Finish Line                         OfficeMax                         West Elm
Bed Bath & Beyond                  Flemings                            OfficeDepot                      Zappos.com
Best Buy                                 Foot Locker                        Old Navy
Bob Evans                               Forever 21                          Omaha Steaks
Bon Ton                                  Four Seasons                       Orvis
Bonefish Grill                          Gap, Gap Kids                     Overstock.com                        
Brooks Brothers                       Guess                                 Payless
Buca di Beppo                         Guitar Center                      PETCO
Burton                                    Hollister                             Pottery Barn
Cache                                    Home Dept                          Puma
CB2                                        HP                                     Pipeline
Chico's                                   J. Crew                               REI
Coach                                    Justice                                Regal Entertainment
Columbia                               Kmart                                 Rite Aid
Converse                                Kohl's                                  Saks Fifth Avenue
Crate & Barrel                        L.L. Bean                            Sears
CVS                                       Land's End                           Target
Carrabbas Italian Grill            Legal Sea Food                    The Body Shop
Champs Sports                       Lids                                     The Container Store
Dean & Dulca                         Lord & Taylor                      The Great Indoors

I would not recommend this as a way to earn miles except if you have no use of gift card. There are cheaper ways to earn the miles than buying gift cards for the purpose of exchanging for miles.

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Tapping Out - I'm Done with US Airways Grandslam Lite

I'm done! I'm finished! I am tapping out! I can't take it any more....

Yes, I am tapping out of what I dubbed here as US Airways Grandslam Lite.  As a quick refresher, one earns bonus points for completing purchases at particular merchants. The more purchases one makes, the more bonus points that one earns up to a 100% bonus.

On May 23, Mommy Points wrote that she decided against participating based upon the unclear rules. Even with the unclear rules, I decided to move forward. Participate now; argue about the details later. I even had a plan to maximize the twelve hits to get earn the 100% bonus:

Hits 1-6 - Dining Rewards

Hit 7 - SkyMall

Hit 8 & 9- FTD/1800 Flowers - Mother's Day Gifts

Hit 10 - Wine Insiders

Hit 11 - Dividend Storefront (Best Buy)

Hit 12 - Dividend Storefront (Kiehl's)

My intention was to spend no more than $100 on unnecessary expenses ie things I don't need.

Now 45 days into this promotion, I have only completed 3 dining reward stays. 3 visits to the local smoothie shops and now I don't know if it is worth the money to continue.  

I forgot to send flowers for Mother's Day and I don't really need anything from the SkyMall. With that, I am down three hits and a ton of points.

On top of that, I was planning on counting purchases at Staples, Best Buy and Kiehls that I needed to make anyway. However, when I compare what I could earn with the US Airways Storefront compared to other shopping portals, I don't think its worth it. For instance, I could earn 1 point at Staples, 2 points at Kiehl's and 1 point at Best Buy with the US Shopping Portal. However, at the Ultimate Reward Portal, I can earn 1 point at Best Buy, 2 points at Staples, and 4 points at Kiehl's.  Some might argue that with the 100% bonus, I might be better off making the purchases through the promotion. I would agree except that I value Ultimate Reward points more than US Airways points.

For these reasons, I have decided to tap out and call it quits on the US Airways Grandslam lite.

Best of luck to all those still participating! 

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Why I Joined Best Buy's Reward Zone

Yesterday, I signed up for a new loyalty program: Best Buy's Reward Zone.

I have never had a Reward Zone account, weird because I shop at Best Buy often. I think that the reason why I never got an account was that it once had a cost to be part of it. I don't know when they stopped charging for Reward Zone, but ever since the program has had a bad taste.

Something changed yesterday. I don't what, but I now have a loyalty program that I am earning points for.

The main point of the Reward Zone program is to give rewards for loyal customers. For every 250 points, one earns a $5 gift certificate to use at Best Buy. One earns 1 point for $1 spent at Best Buy or BestBuy.com.

To join, go here.

Now one can earn points by completing activities or answering polls on the Reward Zone Facebook page. In addition, one can earn Reward Zone points by answering Audience Reward questions. Weekly, one can earn 12 points by answering 6 questions right (2pts per correct answer).

What really got me to sign-up is their current offer, spent $10 or more in-store or online, earn 500 points: enough for a $10 reward coupon. All one has to do is to complete a purchase over $10 (after discounts), by March 23, in store or online and provide your Reward Zone Number. 500 Reward Zone points will be deposited into your account shortly thereafter. Of course, one should use this promotion online and go through a shopping portal to earn extra points.

Why am I writing about Reward Zone on a travel points blog, first free money is free money and simple free money is a no brainer. Second, Reward Zone points can be transferred into airline points through Points.com.

1,000 Reward Zone Points (as of 3/16/13) can be traded into:

170 Areoplan Miles
131 AAdvantage Miles
255 Asia Miles
139 Frontier Miles
255 Priority Club Points
131 United Mileage Plus Miles
237 US Airway Miles
124 Alaskan Airways Miles
200 Amtrak Miles
107 Virgin Atlantic Miles

While transferring Reward Zone points into miles won't earn you a ton of miles directly. Many times airlines have promotions that give you bonus miles when you complete partner activities ie US Airways GrandSlam RIP, Delta's New Member Bonus, or United's 25% Bonus.

Since Best Buy's Reward Zone is free, it can't hurt to sign up. Worst case, I transfer all the miles to an airline through Points.com.





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