3 Reasons Why I am Not Participating in US Airway's Fall Kickoff

US Airways sent out an email announcing their fall bonus, called Fall Kickoff. The promotion offers you bonus miles on top of miles earned for flights on US Airways between September 30th & November 30th, if you complete a partner activity.

As you can see, if you complete an activity from the left list, you will earn a Field Goal (50% bonus). On the other hand, complete an item off the right list and earn a touchdown or 100% miles bonus.

Here is why I am not participating:

1) Completing a partner activity to qualify will be unnecessarily spend for me

•  As written here and here, I have targeted spends on other credit cards
•  Most hotels allow you to earn miles or their points, not points. My hotel stays tied up     with IHG's The Big Win  
•  Don't need a rental car in the next two months plus rental car companies charge to earn airline  miles
•  Don't need to fly to Mexico City or to Boston or NYC (Shuttle Flights)
•  Annual membership in US Airways Club is outside my budget

2)  I don't have any planned trips on US Airways in the next 60 Days

• The bonus only works if you fly on US Airways during the promotional period
• No flights = no bonus miles
• 100% bonus on earned miles is nice, but no enough to mileage run

3) No Time to Plane

• US Airways sent the on the first day of the promotion. That gives very little time to plan to maximize the promotion. I am flying over the next 60 days heavily, but the trips were planned many months ago.

The promotion is kinda of lame compared to past US Airways promotions. If you are flying US Airways in the next few months, then this promotion is great. Participate, because leaving points on the table is never good. For me, I am going to register, because you never know what might come up. However, I am not going to go out of my way to participate.

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Earning United Miles Through Hotel Stays

If you are traveling on United and earning miles that way there is a good chance that you might be staying at a hotel in the process. Many of the major hotel brands offer earning options for some combination of United miles and their hotel points. United has a page that shows all of the hotel partners that they have that you can earn United miles on. Often they will have specials for specific hotel chains that can be great to use if you are traveling and need a hotel. In my case I stay often at Hilton branded hotels and Hilton has an option to earn both points in their HHonors program as well as miles in an airline program, in my case United.

Hotels

Earn award miles with partners such as Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and many more.

Learn more 

View hotel offers 

There are also ways to transfer hotel points TO airline points, but this is most often not a great value. For example you can transfer SPG points to United, but at a 2:1 ratio which kills all of the transfer value as you automatically loose half of the points you are transferring. But the option is out there if you need to consider it as a way to earn points, just tread carefully, do your research and make sure it's actually a good deal for you.


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Follow us on Twitter @doit4thepoints! Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com