Last week, I took part in the #travelskills Twitter chat, which is normally held every Friday at 12pm Eastern time (it was on Thursday last week due to Good Friday). The topic of the chat varies from week to week, but this week, the topic was on Loyalty Programs and Miles and Points
Gary from View from the Wing and Ben from One Mile at a Time were “official” participants but I also took part (along with several other familiar faces).
Anyways, question 9 I thought was in interesting one
Q9 What’s the best rewards deal out there right now? #DailyGetaways #TravelSkills pic.twitter.com/lTAAh1ys3f
— TravelSkills (@travelskills) April 2, 2015
These chats move pretty quickly, so I didn’t have a ton of time to think about my own answer, but there were a couple of good answers thrown out there. I thought it was a great way to think about some of the top deals out there. Here were a few of my thoughts
British Airways close-haul flights
Because British Airways is a distance-based chart, the amount of British Airways Avios that are charged for an award flight depends on the mileage of the flight
So any flight that is 649 miles or less costs only 4500 Avios to redeem, and flights from 650-1149 miles only cost 7500 Avios! Even living in a non-hub city there are plenty of deals out there
I’ve used this deal several times, including on my flights to the Family Travel for Real Life conference.
Note that there is a British Airways devaluation coming up at the end of April, but it won’t affect this particular deal.
Southwest Companion Pass
Another great travel deal that was mentioned was the Southwest Companion Pass.
(SEE ALSO: What is the Southwest Companion Pass (and how to get it))
(SEE ALSO: Using your Southwest Companion Pass)
If you earn 110,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points in a calendar year, then you earn the Companion Pass for the rest of that year, AND all of the next calendar year as well. Most times this is done via 2 50,000 point signup bonuses (and then getting the remaining 10,000 points through other means), but there ARE a few options to get the Southwest Companion Pass WITHOUT credit cards.
Once you have the Southwest Companion Pass, then your designated companion flies free with you, on EVERY flight you take! It’s essentially doubling your miles
Honorable Mention: Club Carlson Bonus Award night
This chat was held last week, before Club Carlson announced that they were getting rid of the Bonus Award night. But until the end of May, if you have the Club Carlson credit card, any award night that you book with Club Carlson gives you the last night for free. If you book your awards in 2 night increments (and you’d be smart to do so!) then again, you’re doubling your points.
Alas, that offer is now going away
In the meantime, you’ll have to be content with getting nearly 500 points per dollar spent at Club Carlson. Remember to book any Bonus Award night bookings BEFORE May 28th.
So what else?
What else was there? One answer to the question during the chat was the Daily Getaways travel deals. I’m…. not so sure I agree with that. Oh, did I mention that the Daily Getaways sponsored the chat that week? I’m sure it was unrelated… 😀
Some others that I’d consider might be the SPG Category 1 or 2 hotels on weekends where they are only 2,000 or 3,000 points / night, or a Hyatt House Category 1 hotel that offers free breakfast and free dinner for only 5,000 points (even the Category 2 hotels like the Hyatt House San Juan where we stayed can provide really great value). But both of those are only good, not great I think.T
What else? Did I miss something obvious?
Points With a Crew has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Points With a Crew and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Recent Comments