35,000 Mile Signup Bonuses for American Airlines Visa, American Express, and Business Visa

Citibank is offering their various American Airlines co-branded credit cards with no fee the first year and 30,000 miles after $750 in purchases (a common but good offer) and now also throwing in an additional 5000 miles after $5000 in spend during the first 12 months you have the card. , 
now and improved offer of 35000 miles after spending $750 in 4 months (remember, you can buy US Mint coins!!!!) - no annual fee for first year. LINK

The most common cards have always been the co-branded Mastercards. That’s what most people have or have had. Citibank isn’t as generous with allowing people to get the same signup bonus over and over any longer. But if you haven’t had these other cards, you should be able to get signup bonuses for them even if you’ve had Mastercard products in the past. And this represents as much as 105,000 bonus miles.


I highly suggest getting these cards - 35000 x 3 - 105K AA miles - that's 2 tickets to Europe, multiple domestic or Caribbean tickets....the list goes on...what are you waiting for...

1500 Bonus Points just for joining US Airways Dividend Miles

US Airways is offering 1500 miles to new members who join by July 31. Just enter promo code NM15 when signing up.

This might come in handy since US Airways is rumored to be in merger talks with United. If I were you - get as many US Airways miles (shopping/flying/credit cards) and Continental miles (also rumored for merger with United) as possible. That way, when all these accounts are combined you are sitting on one huge mountain of miles.

I did the same when Northwest seemed to be talking to Delta - I got as many Northwest miles as possible - around 70K, when both programs were merged I all of a sudden had almost 200K Delta miles - a small part of that was used to fly to Japan for $40 each. So you see - planning & preparing pays!

50000 Miles for First Time United Visa Card Applicants

I saw several FlyerTalk posts this morning showing this new offer for first timers with United Mileage Plus Visa. 50K for a $250 spend is a crazy good deal!! First year annual fee is waived - after that $60.

Link for terms and conditions - UPDATE: deal might be dead, ask Chase representative for details....

You must do this by phone. Call 1-800-421-4655 and choose apply for a credit card option. Just to make sure - get the name and employee number of the customer service rep. Make sure you mention that this application is only for 50,000 point offer.

You cannot combine a referral offer (15000 for the referrer) with this. Only the 50K offer can be used.

HURRY - who knows how long this will be around. This will get you 2 domestic tickets or almost enough to go to Europe.

It had to happen eventually - Spirit Air starts charging oversized carry-on fees!

After years of paying for checked bags and consequently seeing more and more people trying to squeeze their humongous carry-on into the much smaller overhead compartments, the other shoe has dropped. Airlines see an opportunity to charge you for something else - they will go for it 100%.

Spirit Air has now started the latest fee-bonanza with a $45fee of trying to bring an oversized carry-on onboard. Tscha-tsching! :) :)
I bet Delta & American are next within the next 3 weeks. Anyone wanna counter-bet me?

Here's the story:

The discount carrier is going to start charging $30 for any carry-on item larger than 16 x 14 x 12 inches, according to the airline's online site, which would include most roll-aboard luggage. If you're a member of the airline's loyalty club, the bag will only run you $20, although if you try to check it at the gate, get out the credit card, because the gate agent is going to want $45 if you want to board with the bag.

The new fees start today and apply to flights on or after Aug. 1. Passengers are still allowed a free "personal item," a bag no larger than 16 x 14 x 12 inches that "must fit under the seat." Passengers also are allowed a few "excluded items," including an umbrella, camera, diaper bag, car seat or stroller, reading material, outer garments and food for the flight.
The move is the latest within the airline industry to increase the bottom line without raising the advertised price of tickets (a technique they no doubt learned from the cruise industry). Because online booking sites such as Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia offer side-by-side comparisons of fares, airlines are doing everything they can to keep the price that appears in the search lower than the other guys. They can keep rates artificially low by charging fees (ancillary charges) that don't show up in the booking cost, including luggage and, now, carry-on luggage.
Frankly, once carriers started charging for checked luggage, it was just a matter of time before this happened, if only because the checked-bag fee drove many more passengers to bring luggage onboard, a ripple that created longer boarding times and delays industrywide.
(It also led to a brand of passenger that tried to smuggle on bags the size of a steamer trunk, hoping that no one would notice, like an elephant trying to hide behind a tree. Hopefully, this will put an end to that particular brand of stupidity -- at least on this one airline.)
It's unclear if the move is in large part an attempt to discourage large carry-on bags -- you save $5 on domestic flights by checking the bag. Will other airlines follow? Count on it, although most will wait to see if consumer groups try to burn Spirit in effigy.

No big surprise here - it was a long time coming. Asian airlines already cracked down on it a while ago.

Simple, cheap 1000 Delta skymiles

From Frugaltravelguy:

1000 Skymiles

I saw this on slickdeals.net today and I thought others might like it: http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1925752

"1000 skymiles + 50 4X6 pictures --> $3.17 shipped. First post!

Shutterfly offers 1000 delta skymiles for those who register a shutterfly account and make a first purchase.

1 picture + 1000 skymiles = $1.90 shipped (PA taxes included)
- Go to: https://www.shutterfly.com/secure...c_code.jsp
- Register a NEW account with shutterfly (click "join" and fill out the form).
- On the next page, fill in your skymiles account number.
- add any 1 4X6 picture to your card
- checkout and select standard shipping
- Make sure that the following is selected: New user Sign-up offer - 50 free 4x6 Prints (valid for shipped orders only).

Can also be done for 50 pictures + 1000 skymiles = $3.17 shipped (PA taxes included). 50 free pictures are included with new shutterfly accounts.

Your skymiles will show up in your account within a couple weeks.

-----
Free 1000 skymiles YMMV

Two months ago they had the same promotion but there was an option to have the pictures shipped to a target store (and to pay there). The disclaimer did state that the offer wasn't valid for orders shipped to target but (un)fortunately, I only noticed this after I placed a target order for 1 picture. I never picked it up (and didn't pay) but the 1000 miles showed up in my delta account a couple weeks later. Free!

I tried replicating it this time around, but couldn't find the option to ship to a target store. If anyone has better success, let me know. "

36,000 Points for Free Amtrak Mastercard

Here’s the offer: 18,000 points with first purchase and an additional 18,000 points after spending $2000 on the card within the first 3 months.
Amtrak points can be used for train travel of course, or if you’re an Amtrak elite or spend $200 per year on the card on Amtrak travel you can transfer points out to Continental, Choice Privileges, or Hilton HHonors. 36,000 points are also enough for $350 in gift certificates with a variety of stores.

Continental MILEATHON

Continental’s new Mile-a-thon promotion is now live. You need to register between April 1 and May 31, 2010, and complete qualifying activities between April 1 and June 30, 2010.
It’s actually not that lucrative for most, you need to fly on at least mid-priced coach tickets to earn points by flying. There are good-sized bonuses for higher-priced tickets, for signing up for a credit card (which makes this a good time to do so — extra bonus miles on top of the usual signup bonuses) and for signing up for their debit cards. And there are small points for signing up for emails, or registering for Onepass if you aren’t already a member, or ordering flowers.
Here are the mileage-earning opportunities:

Purchase a full-fare BusinessFirst® round-trip ticket 20

Purchase a First Class or BusinessFirst round-trip ticket 12

Purchase a full-fare Economy Class round-trip ticket (but not for any tickets booked as Z, W, E, S, T, N or L fares) 12

Purchase an Economy Class round-trip ticket 6

Book online at continental.com 1

Book a car rental at continental.com 3

Book a Best Rate Guaranteed hotel reservation at continental.com 4

Purchase a Continental Airlines Vacations® package 6

Purchase continental.com cruises package 6

Acquire the Continental Airlines Presidential PlusSM World MasterCard® 30

Acquire the Continental Airlines World MasterCard® 20

Acquire the Chase Continental Airlines Preferred Debit MasterCard® 15

Acquire the Continental Airlines KeyMiles Debit Card from KeyBank 15

Purchase or renew a Presidents Club® membership 20

Enroll in the OnePass frequent flyer program 2

Sign up for Continental e-mail subscriptions 3

Make a ShopOnePass™ floral purchase 3

And here’s what the point milestones get you:

Milestones  Mileathon Rewards   5  500 bonus miles
   10  1,000 bonus miles
   20  2,500 bonus miles
   30  5,000 bonus miles
   45  10,000 bonus miles
   65  15,000 bonus miles
   85  25,000 bonus miles
   105  35,000 bonus miles
   125  50,000 bonus miles
   150  75,000 bonus miles or $750 gift card
   175  100,000 bonus miles or $1,000 gift card

Bottom-line is that it’s worth registering, it’s a great bonus to use to double dip on credit card and debit card signups, and if you fly higher-priced Continental tickets anyway you’ll get some bonus miles.

1000 Starwood points for stays in April

It’s not a publicly promoted, it was announced on Flyertalk: you have to register and then all stays in April will earn 1000 bonus points.
No need to rebook any existing stays, reservations you already have will qualify for the bonus. And in my experience, hotels sometimes even code award and cash and points stays as qualifying, so even if you only have an award stay planned it’s still worth registering ‘just in case’ it shows up as a qualifying stay.

1000 British Airways Mile Bonus Per Hilton Stay

Hilton is offering 1000 bonus British Airways miles per stay, on top of the usual BA miles earned for stays, from April 1 through June 30. Registraton required.
The bonus only applies to stays booked after registration. So if you want this bonus, and have already made cancellable bookings (and this price of those reservations hasn’t risen) you may want to cancel and rebook.
The bonus can be earned a maximum of 5 times, so 5000 miles max.
Personally, I’ll still credit my Hilton HHonors double dip miles to british midland: 1000 points per night (up to 3,000 points per stay) is the standard offer.