Educational Posts on Loyalty Programs

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Delta Discounts Award Tickets, But Raises the Cash Cost; Donate JetBlue Points and the Airline Will Match

Delta is surprising us with a Cyber Monday mileage sale; it’s not often that Delta lowers the price of a mileage ticket. And JetBlue is helping us to feel extra thankful this season by matching our TrueBlue point donations to charity.

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Take a Tour of United’s Food and Beverage Offerings

If you fly the friendly skies, you’ll be pleased to know that United Airlines has made significant investments in its on-the-ground and onboard dining experience. In a way, United has been playing catch up with its competitors, but caught up, it has. Investments have boosted the flavors and quantity of food and beverages the airline offers its customers. Let’s take a look at what to expect when you fly on one of the founding members of Star Alliance.

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Hero Miles Helps Service Members Get the Medical Treatment They Need

charity

Hero Miles provides free flights to wounded, injured and ill service members and their families. You can give American, Delta, United, Alaska and Frontier miles to help support this worthy cause.

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Best and Worst Use of American Express Membership Rewards When Transferring Points to Airlines

membership rewards

We explained the best and worst redemptions for American Express Membership Rewards through the Amex Travel Portal. Now we look at the value of those points when transferred to frequent flyer programs.

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RentMoola: Pay Rent Online and Get Rewarded

Paying rent electronically is a relatively new idea that may become the wave of the future. Over $550 billion in rent was paid in the U.S. last year. Of that $300 billion was paid by check.

RentMoola aspires to make paying rent as easy and convenient as it is to pay other bills. RewardExpert spoke with Philipp Postrehovsky, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer to learn how the idea came about and how it all works.

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How to Use Portals for Holiday Shopping to Maximize Rewards

Black Friday officially launches the holiday shopping season, which is a great time of year to rack up tons of miles for next year’s travels. While the miles earned from the increased levels of spending are great, there are multiple ways that rewards can be increased using airline and bank shopping portals, Amex offers, and credit card bonus categories. You can even stack them. That’s right. You can combine these great earning opportunities to earn even more.

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When You Should Use Amex Membership Rewards Points Through its Booking Portal

amex rewards

The American Express Membership Rewards program offers members the ability to redeem points for all kinds of rewards. Like similar credit card rewards programs such as Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou, the best Membership Rewards value usually comes from transferring points to an airline partner. However, there are some exceptions that are worth considering like booking tickets through the Amex travel portal. Here’s a rundown of when that makes sense and when it doesn’t.

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Celebrity Chef Meals and Popular Brands on Delta Menus

The old adage that airplane food is bland and unexciting is no longer true, especially aboard Delta now that the airline has made significant investment in partnerships with celebrity chefs and well-known brands. We take a look at some of the latest choices available on board the airline.

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United Loopholes Allow for Some Creative Routings

When United recently overhauled its award ticket rules this past summer many saw it as a massive devaluation. United had relatively friendly award routing rules that allowed one stopover and two open jaws on roundtrip award tickets.Those rules are gone now though and have been replaced by the “Excursionist Perk,” which is essentially a free segment on an international itinerary. It comes with new rules. We bring you workarounds. Read on.

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United Introduces a New Economy Class and American Adds a New Perk For Elites

United has announced a new fare class that is especially restrictive. It is designed to counter ultra-low fare airline competition, but frequent flyers should be cautious before booking it. American is also giving its Concierge Key members a nice new bonus.

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Budget Airlines and Their Loyalty Programs: Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit

Budget airlines tempt you with cheap fares, but they charge extra for everything from seat assignments to carry-on bags. Is it worth it? Which low-cost carrier is the best? And what about their frequent flyer programs? Let’s take a closer look at Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit.

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How to Get In The Free Travel Game

free ticket

What if you could travel for free whenever you want to get away? It seems far-fetched, but some people do it and it may not be as difficult as you think.

Free travel, sometimes called travel hacking or travel rewards, is all about collecting points or miles and redeeming them for free airline tickets, hotel rooms, gift cards or cash.

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GlobalGiving Connects HHonors Members to Charity Projects

charity

In 2002 GlobalGiving introduced a new model of charitable giving that connects individual donors with grassroots nonprofits around the world.

Through this crowdfunding website, you can choose the projects you want to support, knowing that your donations will have a direct impact on those communities. And thanks to Hilton’s partnership with GlobalGiving, you can give HHonors points to help support these causes.

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How to Pick the Best Travel Rewards Cards

With so many travel rewards credit cards on the market, it can be difficult to decide which ones are worth getting and which should be ignored. If you get too many cards, you may end up paying more in annual fees than the value you get out of the cards. On the other hand, if you have too few cards you might miss out on programs and points that fit your travel needs.

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New Elite Qualifying Dollar Benefit on American Airlines Aviator Cards

Earlier this year American Airlines made the latest copycat move in the world of frequent flyer program devaluations when they announced the addition of an Elite Qualifying Dollar (EQD) requirement beginning in 2017. EDQ requirements mean that you must spend a certain amount of money with the airline in addition to flying a certain number of miles or segments to qualify for elite status.

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A Primer on Boeing 777 Premium Seats

boeing 777

The Boeing 777 is the most widely operated wide-body commercial jetliner in the sky today. There are over 1,100 of these planes currently in operation with orders for many more on the way. Here’s a rundown of who’s flying them and what they are offering.

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Faster Path to Elite Status on AA Through Card Spending and Free Marriott Points for Linking Social Accounts

There are some opportunities to score bonus points with many travel companies this week. Scoop ‘em up while you can! And American peeked in some good news announcing a partial waiver for the elite qualifying dollar spend requirement put into place for next year’s elite program. We have all the details.

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The Best Use of Allegiant Air Points

Allegiant Air’s reward program, myAllegiant, is a bit unusual. You can’t earn points by flying and the airline doesn’t offer elite status. In fact, the carrier’s gone out of its way to say that its program is for “infrequent flyers.”

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5 Must-Have Travel Apps For Holiday Travel

Mobile apps are all about convenience, and there is no better time for efficiency than when traveling. As you plan holiday travel, take a look some of our favorite travel apps out there to help you from planning to packing.

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Airport Layovers Don’t Need to Be Boring Anymore with Zipcar

Renting cars by the hourcar sharingis no longer just a city phenomenon where gas and parking cost make owning a vehicle burdensome. Now that Zipcar has vehicles available in 50 airports worldwide, air travelers can take a spin during a layover or delay.

Zach Ellard, head of Zipcar’s airports division, spoke with RewardExpert.com about the benefits of short-term car rentals and rewards for air travelers.

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