Last Saturday marked the 3rd anniversary of Running with Miles. I have to say – I never thought it would grow to what it is today and am very excited to see what it looks like in the future! The other day, prompted by a year-end review of sorts from WordPress, I looked back at my traffic from last year and really couldn’t believe it. From November of 2012 to October or 2013, I had as many pageviews on the blog as I now have in one week! So, in just one year, the blog has multiplied many times over with visitors and I have you all to thank for that!
So, with that all said, here are the top posts here from 2014. Some of them I figured were the most viewed while there were a couple of surprise ones.
#10 – Some Of The Most Interesting Airplane Views Ever
Having done my share of flying various planes around the world, I can appreciated great views from airplanes. There are some really amazing places to see out there! But, not all great airplane views have to be from the airplanes. In this case, some of the most interesting airplane views are actually of airplanes.
#9 – A 70,000 Point Marriott Offer
I know – of all the credit card bonuses out there, I did not expect this one to make the top viewed list. But, this was the first time in a while the Marriott card had gotten bumped up (publicly) to the 70,000 point level and was available to customers that had already received the bonus! Having the language in an offer stating that past customers could get the card again was a welcome change from Chase and one that kicked off a whole stream of Chase cards being available to previous customers.
#8 – Manufactured Spending – The Amazon Advantage
This post actually had nothing to do with Amazon Payments, a formerly fantastic way to generate spend for credit card bonuses. Instead, it deals with buying deal items on eBay to relist elsewhere. Not only do you get some spending and bonus points (such as using gift cards purchased at office supply stores with Chase Ink cards), but you can also do more than just break even on the resale.
#7 – Complete List of Chase Cards Eligible For Repeat Customers
Here you can find a list of Chase cards that had their terms updated to allow for repeat customers to get the bonuses yet again. This was a great move on Chase’s part to welcome former customers back into their credit folds. Of course, many people were able to get the bonuses before without the language, but having language built-in works better for the majority of people.
#6 – Amazing Deal: Get AA Executive Platinum For As Little AS $725
This is a post that I know helped a lot of people to set a plan in motion to achieve AA’s top tier for very little cash outlay. It involved many long domestic flights to achieve the status, but hopefully many of you will get upgraded from the status you received as part of your trial offer. Unfortunately, US Airways no longer sells these trial preferred offers and the airline deal is also gone.
#5 – Singapore Airlines Suites Review
This post was probably the oldest of the posts in this top 10 most viewed list. I guess that would be due to a post that went viral from a blogger that wrote about his experiences on this plane. Most of this was from search traffic as people began to look into this fantastic airplane suite. While I have yet to fly Etihad’s new Apartment class (I will in a few weeks!), I am guessing that Singapore’s Suites will finally be bumped from my list of my favorite seats/cabins on an airplane!
#4 – I Just Booked Etihad’s A380 Apartment For 40,000 Miles!
Oh, and speaking of Etihad’s new Apartment class, here is number 4 on the list! When I first booked my seat, I saw a lot of availability for awards on this plane. But, they have since dwindled a bit so I trust that is because many of you have booked similar trips. If you have not yet, be creative and start putting together a trip! You can fly from London to anywhere in the Middle East or Indian subcontinent and use Etihad’s new Apartment class to get you on the long-haul of the journey – all for only 40,000 AA miles!
#3 – Amazing Deal: Amex Offers $150 Spend On AT&T For $150 Back
American Express really pumped out some great offers for their customers this last quarter! This one was by far the best – I mean, how do you argue with free?! If you have saved this offer but have not used it yet, never fear as you have until April 15, 2015 to take advantage of it.
#2 – Get Star Alliance Gold For Less Than $800
It is just amazing how fast things change in the miles and points world! This was an incredible (and comfortable) way to get yourself Star Alliance Gold status that would last for a very long time – until Aegean went and changed up their terms of the program. Now, it is a status that you need to retain each year. But, as far as status goes, not bad to get Star Gold for only $800 – on a trip that you could easily justify anyway!
#1 – Manufactured Spending Without Vanilla
Well, here is number 1 – and by almost double of the views that number 2 received! Again, a lot of this came from search traffic because only a couple of months after writing this, Vanilla reloads for Bluebird were no longer an option for manufacturing spend. So, many people began to search for how to manufacture spend without using Vanilla reloads! Actually, this way does not involve gift cards at all and does require some work, but it is a great way to generate some miles and points while doing better than paying only portions of a penny per point. In many cases, you break even and in some cases you even make a little money! This was a way I used to generate some miles and points with some things I was familiar with.
Summary
Well, that is it! Since I am a numbers kind of a guy, it was really fun to look at the numbers for year-end. It was interesting to note that of the top 10 most viewed posts, 2 dealt with fantastic airline first class seats, 2 dealt with elite status, 2 dealt with manufacturing spending for miles and points, and 2 dealt with Chase bonuses that can be earned by previous customers.
So, thank you very much for following along in 2014! It will be really interesting to see where we are at this time next year! For now, enjoy the entrance to the new year and thanks for reading Running with Miles!
