Travel Promo Year In Review 2012

The quest for free or very cheap airline miles and hotel points is always filled with intrigue and drama!  Here are a few of the most memorable promos of 2012.

1.  Huge credit card signup bonuses – lucky Americans got to collect hundreds of thousands of free miles via credit card signup bonuses.  I have a few of them in my series here if you missed out.  Remember to “learn how to fish” and check out each deal before you sign up for it.  Aussies have a few credit cards too but not as lucrative as the Americans.

2.  Discover America promos in April and May delivered a nice bonanza to those who were quick on the draw.  I am not sure if this will happen next year but I will blog about it if it does.  Meanwhile, read up on it via FlyerTalk.

3.  United’s 4 mile redemptions to Asia.  This was a mistake fare that only a few VERY quick people who were prepared to travel straight away actually got in on.  Many people tried, but when UA discovered the mistake, they cancelled all bookings of people who hadn’t traveled yet.  A few threatened to sue so it got really crazy!  Grab your popcorn and see this FlyerTalk thread!

4.  Club Carlson’s Big Night Giveaway.  What made this one special was that it was available worldwide.  Many people did “mattress runs” to cheaper hotels nearby to get the bonus miles which they could then redeem at an expensive hotel on a future trip or transfer to airline miles.  Lots of fun as most people got in on it!

5.  50% Bonus on Hotel Points converted to Dividend Miles.  Nice way to get rid of extra hotel points or make a huge profit on Starwood SPG points!

6.  The rise and fall of Bluebirds and Vanilla Reloads.  No, I don’t mean THIS bluebird!   I mean the frenzy of people seeking cheap Ultimate Rewards via Office Depot and various reload card options.

7.  Wyndham Rewards Phantom Phrenzy.  It was supposed to be a targeted promo but somehow a link got out and people were booking cheap Wyndham hotels and not even showing up to stay in them just to get the 16,000 point bonus.  I didn’t do it as I am wary of mistake promos as sometimes they are honored, sometimes they aren’t and this one you had to fork out for the rooms in advance without knowing if you would get the bonus or not.  It turns out they did get it after LOTS of complaints back and forth to Wyndham.

8.  Cartera Online Mall Mania.  Cartera is dodgy at best about giving you miles for your click-through purchases.  Unfortunately, they operate most of the airline’s affiliate shopping malls so you can’t really escape them.  Sometimes they stuff up and offer ridiculous bonuses that are obviously a mistake but people will try to get them honored.  This Flyertalk thread has one of the best ones that carried over from last year and had most people getting a “goodwill” bonus instead of the cheap miles they had hoped for.

9.  LifeMiles 250 miles per purchase bonus.  New kid on the block, Avianca Taca’s LifeMiles opened an online shopping mall and sent out emails to all members offering 250 bonus miles per purchase.  Of course savvy miles collectors wasted no time in finding the cheapest way to rack up the miles.  Those of us who are eco-friendly opted for online automatic transactions such as e-books, donations to puppies and e-gift certificates.  The worst of the bunch were ordering $1 shampoo bottles, each of which were packaged separately and shipped individually until the drugstore cancelled the unfilled remaining orders and withdrew from the online mall.  So far, no one has gotten their bonus miles but you can read all about it here.

10.  The demise of US Airways Grand Slam promo that had been going for 4 years previously.  This was the one we all waited for with breathless anticipation of cheap miles to be spent on exotic destinations all over the world.  The more experienced Grand Slammers would start saving a year in advance for hotel points and other “hits” to be used in September each year for this extremely lucrative promotion.  Last year, FlyerTalk had a whole forum dedicated to the Grand Slam! In August, we eagerly started following US on Twitter, playing with URLs looking for a hint of the 2012 Grand Slam…………….all for nought!  It didn’t happen!  Most people blame it on several beginner oriented bloggers who spell out the tricks and loopholes in such detail a two year old could do it and it no longer required finesse and intelligence to maximize the promo.  It would have been unsustainable for US to hand out so many miles to so many people.  In October, they did throw us a bone with a Share Miles promo that wasn’t nearly as good as the Grand Slam had been but allowed us to top up our accounts at a discounted rate.

What does 2013 have in store?  Of course no one knows, but if you follow this blog by rss feed or subscription (use the form in the sidebar to the right), we will be right on top of the new promos that come up so you can get to those wonderful ecotourism hotspots you are all dreaming about!