✈️ Earn 5,000 bonus AA miles
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There’s been a lot of talk recently about American Airlines miles and promos. Apparently, they’re making a big push to get our business because there is yet another way to earn some easy AA miles…
AA is targeting many new members with an email promo to earn 5,000 bonus miles after completing a few requirements.
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Here are the deets:
- Only new members who receive a specific email are eligible
- Register for the offer within 30 days of signing up for an AA account
- Book and fly two eligible flights to earn 2,000 bonus miles
- Earn miles through two eligible sources to earn another 2,000 bonus miles
- Earn 1,000 miles for doing both of the two previous components
So just to reiterate, this is only available to new members who sign up for AAdvantage AND receive an email with this specific offer. There’s no guarantee that you’ll be targeted, but many new signups this month have been successful.
As for “eligible sources” of earning points (from bullet point #4), here are your options:
- AAdvantage shopping portal
- SimplyMiles
- AAdvantage Dining
- Avis Budget Group (car rentals)
- Rocketmiles
I’ve told you about the first 3 of those options in recent newsletters, so go re-read if you need a refresher on exactly what those programs are.
Overall, this offer is great for anyone who needs to book travel soon and has AA as an option. But even if you aren’t planning on flying, you could still quite easily earn 2,000 miles from one of the shopping portals, dining program, or SimplyMiles.
5,000 AA miles are worth roughly $90, so this is definitely an offer to pay attention to if you fit the criteria and can take advantage of it. If you’re able to complete this promo in addition to the two that I mentioned earlier this week, you could earn a total of 10,050 AA miles, which is enough to book a number of different flights.
Hopefully, you see how by doing small things here and there to earn chunks of miles, you’ll start to build up a meaningful balance in the long term.
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This is getting exhausting… I feel like IHG is coming out with another promo every single week. I’m not complaining, but it’s coming off a little desperate… Like, why are you so obsessed with us, IHG? |
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They’ve decided to use the “red pill vs. blue pill” approach on this one. On the surface, the latter of the two choices (10k points) is obviously better. It’s essentially 1,000 points per night or 2,500 points per night. |
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Of course, the higher nightly bonus only applies if you will stay at least four nights in the next 3 months.
Here is why I think this is one of the better promos they’ve offered recently:
- There is no cap on the number of bonus points you can earn
- ALL properties worldwide are eligible for the promo
- The nights do NOT need to be consecutive, they can be spaced out until the end of the offer period
The offer is incredibly flexible and, if you funnel your hotel stays to IHG properties, you could earn a ton of points from the offer. Just from staying four nights, you would earn 10,000 points which is enough to book up to two more nights at lower-tier hotels. This is in addition to the points you’ll already earn from the stay, too.
There’s an important catch, though:
Once you’ve chosen your promo out of the two, you cannot switch to the other one. They make this very clear on the promo page and in the terms and conditions…
But don’t feel threatened. If you think you’ll only stay two nights at IHG then just pick the first promo. It would stink if you feel pressured into picking the 10k offer because of the finality of your choice but don’t end up staying the four nights required to get them.
Personally, I prioritize Hilton and Marriott over IHG. Both of these hotel chains currently have pretty good promos happening as well, so I don’t feel the need to shuffle my bookings around for this IHG promo.
Everyone has different plans, preferences, and preferred programs (pardon the alliteration), so always do what’s best for you.
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🍀 Aer Lingus, what are you doing?
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So in other weird travel news, Aer Lingus has decided to launch nonstop flights between Dublin and Cleveland beginning in 2023.
If you think this sounds like a weird choice, you’d be right. This will be the only transatlantic flight out of Cleveland when it launches, but not the first.
In the past, both Iceland Air and Wow Air (R.I.P.) have attempted to service this city with flights to Europe. After a lack of demand (and the company going bankrupt in the case of Wow), these routes were discontinued.
So why is Aer Lingus pursuing this lost cause?
The short answer? Cold, hard CASH MONEY, baby.
Aer Lingus will pull in contributions from Jobs Ohio, along with millions of dollars from the city, county, GCP, Team NEO, and Destination Cleveland. Oh, and to top it off, they'll get a $600,000 grant from UDAG.
Basically, even if the route has proven to not be economically viable, Aer Lingus is still going to make money. Of course, as soon as the subsidies stop flowing I'm sure we'll see this route join the others in the trash bin.
At the end of the day, airlines are in the business of making as much money as possible. As you might expect, they'll go wherever the money wants them to go. Even if that place is Cleveland.
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That's all I got for you this week, y'all. Next time you hear from me I'll be in one of my favorite countries in Europe - Slovenia! If there are any Slovenians reading this, please feel free to reach out with recommendations. Also, your country is beautiful.
Are you Cleveland folks excited about the new Aer Lingus route? Are you sick of all the hotel promos, or excited about having so many options? Let me know by replying to this email or reaching out on social media.
Have a lovely weekend,
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