August 12, 2024

Milenomics² NoAF Podcast Episode 75: Transfer Bonuses, Heightened Offers & Booking Partner Awards.

34 minutes

0:21 Transfer Bonuses

Chase UR to Marriott Bonvoy: 70% (through Aug 14, 2024) EXPIRES SOON

Amex MR to Avios: 30% (through Sept 30, 2024)

Amex MR to Hawaiian: 20% (through Aug 31, 2024)

CapOne to Qantas: 20% (through Aug 31, 2024)

08:24 United Premium Cabin Awards (on United Metal) Gets Even More Expensive (Live and Lets Fly)

We’ve talked a lot the past year or two about this being a bail out maneuver when there are no partner awards

200k pp one-way to Europe now as good as it seems to get for “anytime” awards (was 155k)

Discuss: The current state of AA, Delta, and United miles

15:21 JetBlue Plus 80,000

Direct Link

Found on jetblue.com

$99 AF not waived first year

$1k min spend in 3 months

Regularly 50k

16:14 Heightened Amex Bonvoy Welcome Bonuses

Bonvoy Bevy

155k for $5k in 6 months

$250 AF not waived first year

Bonvoy Brilliant

185k for $6k in 6 months

$650 AF not waived first year

Available through referral

Better offers said to end Oct 2, 2024

Main Topic: Partner Award Bookings

17:59 Qantas As An Alternative to British Airways for Domestic AA Partners Awards

Saw one-way flights from State College to Boston through PHL on AA for around 10k/12.5k

Flights were $300 pp one-way

Thought I might have to use some precious AA miles, but noticed there was partner availability!

BA wants 24k pp one-way in Economy

But Qantas wants just 8k, and what a pleasure of a site to work with…

They allow you to enter the FF # of AA/Alaska at the time of booking

They clearly lay out the change and cancellation terms at the time of booking

The record locator can be discovered (for seat selection) by checking your AA account (it just works!)

So much better than booking with BA ever was. Why did BA get so much press back in the day?

23:42 Booking JetBlue Mint with Qatar Avios

Space can be confirmed on ITA Matrix or Qatar’s site

Amex MR -> BA Avios: Instant

BA Avios -> Qatar Avios: Also instant. I established that link before.

One gotcha: I haven't been able to link P2's BA Avios to her Qatar Avios account. I suspect it might be because I have my mobile number listed for both of our accounts, and there's a lot of 2FA involved in all of this. Just a hunch.

Online booking w/Qatar Avios is pretty straightforward. They do ask for passport number and expiration dates, which is unusual for a domestic flight.

They have a field for adding Known Traveler Number at the time of booking, but it asks for the expiration date of KTN which I don't know so I couldn't add it

I didn't see a way to select a 3rd party frequent flyer number at the time of booking an award ticket. Non-related Qantas allows this which is really nice.

Record locator to manage the flights (add KTN and select seats) on JetBlue's side can be found in the individual receipt emails they send each passenger, or by chatting Qatar

Hardes

...more

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By Sam Simon and Robert Dwyer

4.4

5050 ratings