This has been a great week here (Bluebird/Serve news not withstanding 🙁 )! First thing was that Running with Miles was promoted to being a permanent Featured Blog here on BoardingArea! If you come here directly to this blog, you will not notice anything different. Otherwise, you will simply notice any new posts that I write appearing higher “above the fold” on the homepage of BoardingArea and staying up there for a bit longer. So, hopefully, it should bring some new readers here to join all of us!
Speaking of new readers, this first full week of 2016 as been a pretty good week as far as traffic here. There was almost a 200% increase in visitors here this week versus the same week in 2015! So, thanks to all of you for visiting and welcome to the new readers! I have some plans for the blog for 2016 that I hope will make it more user-friendly and provide some greater reference accessibility. Also, I have some running trips planned as well as the plans to bring more of destinations and running spots to you so stay tuned for all of that! 😉
Anyway, here are the posts from this week here on the blog. It was a sad week for those who use Bluebird to carry your spending, or if you used Serve for the same. While some accounts have not yet been banned from further loading, this move by Amex against those who manufacture spending is a big blow. I have been doing some reselling for a little while and I imagine more people will be getting into that as the more common methods of spending have been drying up.
Miles, Points, & Travel
- New [Targeted] Amex Offer: $50 Back On Your Next Hotel Stay Of $250+ – Check your Amex Offers for this offer as this is a really good one if you have hotel stays coming up! Check further below for a nice offer that will stack with it.
- No-Fee Visa Waiver For US Travelers To Brazil [Other Travelers As Well] – With Brazil preparing to the 2016 Summer Olympics, they have made a very tourist-friendly move to eliminate the need for visas for US (as well as some other countries) visitors. The period of time is limited but should still help you if you want to visit Brazil this summer!
- Great Deal: Tickets From $34 On JetBlue – [Expired] JetBlue’s first sale of the year and it was a pretty good one if you were wanting to get away! They added more cities to the cheapest tickets so this was helpful for more people this time around.
- How To Match To Get Oneworld Sapphire And Lounge Access Quickly – If you value lounge access, especially when traveling domestically, check out this opportunity to match status to a oneworld partner and be able to receive oneworld Sapphire status!
- Flying Blue Running Website Closed But Can Still Use Miles For Races – A website not that many people actually knew about closed down this week – the Flying Blue (frequent flyer program of Air France and KLM) Running site. But, the real treat of that site had been the ability to use miles for races and that is still available. Not the best use of miles but it can get you in sold out races.
- Great Deal: How To Save $60 On Hilton Hotel Stays – This one is widely available and is great if you have Hilton stays upcoming this year! This could be stacked with the offer at the top of this list to get $110 off a $300 stay – not bad!
- Great Deal! Fly To Australia For 60,000 Miles Roundtrip – What normally costs 80,000 can now be had for only 60,000 miles roundtrip – US/Canada to Australia on United Airlines! This is a great deal and one you should check out if you desire to go to Australia sometime this year.
- How To Lock Up The Southwest Companion Pass For 2016 – 2017 – Without Even Flying! – The Southwest Companion Pass is likely the best airline perk around and this post shows you how you can lock it up for almost 2 years using only 2 credit card bonuses and the spending. Not bad at all to get 110,000 points for travel and have a friend/family member along for all of that travel!
- Starting Today, Use Netflix In Over 190 Countries! – While the content is limited in some of these countries, you can now use Netflix (without a VPN) in over 190 countries! Find out which ones here.
- Amex’s Customer Unfriendly (Minor?) Change To Bluebird & Serve – The first major move of the week by Amex – the immediate suspension of using Bluebird or Serve cards for international withdrawals.
- Review: Google Fi Data SIM With The iPhone For $10 Per 1GB – Domestic & Internationally – This is an overview and review on how to get and use Google Fi on your iPhone (or other smartphone/tablet) for data for only $10 per 1GB – in over 120 countries. It is a great service with some serious convenience.
- Just Barely Squeezing By With An Amex Offer – And Not With The Expiration Date – Amex Offers can be great but there are a few that can sometimes make you cut it close (or miss it altogether) when trying to make the minimum spending on an offer.
- Check Your Delta Skybonus Accounts If You Didn’t Re-qualify – My Points Are Still In My Account! – If you did not re-qualify last year for Delta’s Skybonus program, you have until tomorrow (January 11) to select your rewards before you lose your points!
- Now Open For All: 60,000 United Miles For Travel To Sydney – This is the same offer as above but they opened it up to all United members, not just credit cardholders and elite members.
- Amex Lowers The Boom On Bluebird & Serve Accounts For Manufactured Spenders – This was the bad news of the week – how Amex killed Bluebird and Serve for so many cardholders. If you have not yet received an e-mail, check out this post to see what the e-mail says and to decide what your action should be going forward.
- Important Reason NOT To Transfer Funds From Bluebird & Serve Yet! – If you don’t mind leaving some of your money in your Bluebird/Serve account for a little while longer, there is still a chance for you to get more money out of Amex before your account gets down to $0.
- When & Why Did Amex Decide That Manufactured Spending Was Against The Rules? – This post takes a look the terms of Bluebird and Serve to see when it was that Amex decided that manufactured spending was against the rules. Also, I look at some reasons they may have decided to make it so.
- Israeli Marathons No Longer Requiring A Doctor’s Letter From Runners – If you have ever thought about running one of the great marathons in Israel, now is a good time as they have waived the requirement to submit a doctor’s letter prior to picking up your packet – finally! 🙂
- The Man With The Most Credit Cards & His Reconsideration Strategy – This man has more credit cards than anyone else in the world (and likely more than everyone in your family and many of your friends combined!). Check out what his reconsideration strategy was!
- One Of My Favorite Perks Of Top Tier Airline Status – Top tier airline status can be a great benefit with all of the perks it comes with. This post looks at what is one of my favorite perks of the top tier elite statuses.
Summary
Thanks so much for following along this week! Hope you have a good week coming up and that you are able to continue generating miles and points. More importantly, I hope you are having opportunity to use them for some great travels and memories!
