Kinglobjaw's Blog

Archive for the ‘Promotion’ Category

Yes, I know. It’s an odd post compared to what I usually blog about. At the same time, I wanted to share that I just upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium and I only paid $30. Students and educators (and anyone else whose email ends with an ‘.edu’) can take advantage of the $29.99 price. More information can be found here. For the first time ever, I think the upgraded OS is actually faster than it’s predecessor- and get this- on the exact same computer. Maybe I’m overreacting since I’ve only used the new operating system for roughly 29 minutes, but I’m really enjoying the new experience. The taskbar is truly pheonomenal and everything looks so good with the Aero experience. No Windows 7 review here, so don’t even ask, but I told myself, a blog post from the new OS is on the short list.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Have you checked out my new bonus miles/promotions section on Kinglobjaw.com? It’s all bits and pieces of  a bigger project I’ve been working, hopefully which you will all see by the end of the year.

On to the newest promo which is also listed at the promos section. 2,500 bonus miles to winter cities, and 5% off. With the mileage running going around, if there’s a decent fare to Salt Lake City or Denver, you can make it 5% sweeter (think cheaper) with promo code MC5. Plus, you get a 2,500 bonus redeemable miles. Of course, you do need the US MasterCard.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

I don’t play baseball, but I do hit grand slams occasionally. In US Airways baseball, of course. I have just posted the first 12 suggestions on how to complete the US Airways Grand Slam 2009 promotion to your advantage. 12 hits gets you 12,000 redeemable miles + 4,000 preferred qualifying miles. Check back often as the list will expand. Good luck!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Race to Preferred status faster than ever
Get ready for the fastest, easiest way ever to get (or keep) Preferred status. All you have to do is fly between October 1 and December 25, 2009 on any US Airways or US Airways Express flight, and you can earn Preferred status for 2010 when you fly just 7,500 miles by the end of the year. Think of it as an end-of-the-year shortcut.

Already earned Preferred status for 2010? You can stretch to the next level.

We’ll determine and award your Preferred status on January 10, 2010. You don’t need to register (we’ll keep track of your flights). We told you it was easy!

It goes on to offer a link with more details. A rush of excitement came- Chairman’s Preferred after 30,000 miles flown. You cannot be serious, I thought. Can you take a guess how well I slept after that email? I didn’t! From 3AM to 7AM I covered the entire continent for decent routings to the maximize miles for the lowest price.

I’m currently booked on part one  of Kinglobjaw’s crazy run for Chairman’s Preferred. Does Chicago to Tampa, via Vegas, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Phoenix again, Philadelphia and back for $335 sound like fun to you?

An interesting way of getting to Tampa

Here’s some other key information about this unique promotion:

• Targeted, meaning you had to receive an invite from US Airways. You can’t just register for it or join Dividend Miles to be eligible.
• Fly between October 1, 2009 and December 25, 2009 on US Airways, US Airways Shuttle and US Airways Express only
• Class of service bonus or other bonus mile offers don’t count towards this promotion
• If you can’t cover 30,000 miles, fly 22,500 for Platinum, 15,000 for Gold or 7,500 for Silver
• New Preferred status level awarded in the second week of January 2010

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Just got a letter from US Airways MasterCard informing me that my card has been upgraded to Dividend Miles Select benefits. This is really nothing more than a snazzy way to tell me that I have two new benefits associated with my card. Benefits that make this great card a truly awesome and one of a kind airline miles card. Very similar to what Continental does with one of their credit cards by waiving bag fees for card holders. No bag fees waived here, which I don’t really care about since I already hold Preferred status, thus all my bags fly free.  Here’s what I can look forward to:

• A 5,000 mileage discount on all award tickets booked. This would indicate that a Domestic Saver coach award round-trip would cost 20,000 miles instead of 25,000
• Award processing fee waiver which equals to $ savings

I don’t feel like going over the full rules and restrictions, but I’ve attached a detailed scan of the brochure. It’s large and clear enough so you can read through all the rules here (2.2MB size).

Here’s a smaller version of the front and the back of the brochure,

Unfortunately, there isn’t a promo code one can mention when calling US Airways, so it’ll take some time for an agent to locate information for the new benefits. Involving a supervisor would be the best procedure, for now at least. A supervisor was able to assist and pull up information quickly, while a basic agent told me he never heard of this before, which is understandable given the benefits haven’t even started.

My Mom also carries this card, but hasn’t received this letter yet. I’m wondering if I should call Barclays bank to find out whether she is also a DM Select card holder.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

This is an update to the post on getting 10K Northwest miles the cheapest way.

Merchant #6 is FootLocker. You can search for keyword “sport bands” or look at item directly here.

The cost is $0.99+ tax and shipping is free. While checking out, they will inform you that shipping is $4.99, but select “Standard” and on the final page (before confirmation/purchase) you will see that the shipping becomes $0.00.

So that’s 6 merchants, 4 to go and I’ve confirmed with NWA that all 6 are pending and will post since I’m not returning anything.

How to make this US Airways related? Following the completion of the NWA promotion and Delta promotion I will dedicate an entire post to comparing online shopping malls for major US carriers and Marriott.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

This will probably be my final post regarding AMEX’s Advance Your World Challenge.

By now, all winners should have gotten an email stating the prize you won. Still, all participants should check their name against the winner’s list just to make sure they did or did not win. Sometimes spam blocking technology can misinterpret the email and block it out completely so you can’t even find it inside your ‘Spam’ folder.

In order to to get a copy of the winner’s list, send a blank email to WinListRequests@eprizefulfillment.com. Be sure to include a subject and at least one character inside the body. It’s an automated email so all they do is take down your email address and then they email you a copy of the list once the promotion is over. Technically, it isn’t over until after May 18, 2009.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Remember the Advance Your World Challenge brought to you (and cancelled) by Hilton & AMEX?

Guess what? I was one of 993 first prize winners. What does that entitle me to? 10,000 Hilton HHonors points and Diamond VIP status extended thru early 2011!

Was hoping to win the grand prize, but oh well! Better than nothing.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

NWA has an enticing promotion where you can get up to 10,000 bonus WorldPerks miles after just 10 purchases. There are quite a few partners out there, but I’m trying to figure out how I can make these 10 purchases spending the smallest amount of money and trying to buy things I can actually use.

So far I’m 50% done. What’s neat is I can earn 1,000 miles after each purchase, not 10,000 after 10 purchases. So in the end, if I can’t utilize partners to buy 10 times, I’ll still get some bonus miles.

1. Barnes & Noble $10 gift card (+ $0.95 for shipping). Miles earned: 30 base + 1,000 bonus.
2. Borders $5 gift card (+ $1.95 for shipping). Miles earned: 15 + 1,000 bonus.
3. Gaiam $1 tree donation certificate (no tax/free shipping). Miles earned: 6 + 1,000 bonus. (link of this item here)
4. NorthernTool saw/blade ($1.99 no tax/free shipping). Miles earned: 6 + 1,000 bonus. (link for this item here)
5. Sears $5 (free shipping). Miles earned: 10 + 1,000 bonus.

All this adds up to 5,067 extra miles added to my NWA/DELTA account. Of course, the NWA Mall probably takes the longest of all the airline malls. I won’t see those miles till July or August. Ironically, Delta’s mall posts miles the fastest (generally 5 to 6 days after transaction).

I buy magazines regularly at Borders/Barnes & Noble, so I’m really only spending extra on the shipping which would costs less than if I were to drive or take the bus. With Gaiam, I’m doing a good thing for the planet- I’m donating a tree. Sears has a lot of things like extra nozzles for my Dyson vacuum, so I’m sure I’ll end up using it soon. I’ll put good use of the blade from NorthernTool, I’ll no longer struggle with scissors when cutting boxes! What’s funny is that the blade is backordered. Many FlyerTalkers are probably onto this promotion and that’s the cheapest you can go at NorthernTool.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Just got off the phone with an US Airways Club agent to renew my annual membership. Since I wasn’t flying in March or early April of this year, I waited until today to renew. My membership is now valid through April 16, 2010. Same price as last year, $315 + no tax for basic Club membership. Was a pretty long hold until I got an agent (usually they pick up right away- very convenient 1-800-828-8522 with no menu tree, an agent picks up), so maybe a flurry of new members with the two added renewal promotions (either 2 months extra for free or 1,500 preferred qualifying miles, I chose the latter). Both promotions expire July 1, 2009. RNW15 is the code you use for 1,500 preferred qualifying miles which I blogged about a few weeks ago.

As usual, I asked them to email me a receipt and a printout of my membership just incase they want to card me (by card I mean, Club card, not driver’s license/ID). That actually happened to me once in a US Airways Club in PHX. Luckily I had the printout. Was promised card would arrive within 3-4 weeks.

While I connect in PHX next week, I will try out the re-opened lower ‘A’ gates Club (above A7/A9) which was severly damaged during a thunderstorm back in August 2008. Apparently they have brand new furniture in the Club. Anyway, here’s evidence of the damage. When I spoke to the Club agent a few days after the incident, I was told someone could have been seriously injured. Apparently, just seconds before the impact, a snob had to be repeatedly told to move to a different seating area away from the windows. After multiple pleadings, the agent yelled “Move away from the windows, NOW!” to which the passenger finally obliged. Literally seconds later, a big blow came in from outside and the result was this:

Something's Coming! US Airways A7/A9 Club in PHX damaged after August 2008 thunderstorm

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark