Sweet Spot: Booking flights for 0 points

I hope you enjoyed my introductory Haiku, not to be confused with Haikou - the Chinese city from which I’m currently writing to you!

But who cares about literature when you can learn about points and miles:

• 🌎 Sweet Spot: Booking flights for ZERO points

• ✈️ Earn status from AA award flights (targeted)

• 🎥 How you could earn 1 million+ UR points

🌎 Sweet Spot: Booking flights for ZERO points

Sweet spots are great. We’ve been highlighting some of the best ones recently here in the newsletter.

But they all have one problem: They cost points and miles.

I know that sounds obvious, but what if I told you that there was a way for ANYONE to get a free flight on any continent without spending a single point or mile?

As it turns out, such a thing is entirely possible. And it’s actually quite easy to do… 😏

I’m talking about the United Excursionist perk.

Here is a very short summary of this perk:

When you book an itinerary of at least three segments using United miles, you can get the middle segment for zero miles - as long as you follow a few loose rules:

• Your itinerary must start and end in the same “region” (but does not have to be the same airport/city)

• The middle segment must be WITHIN the same region, which cannot be the same region you started in

• You must book your flight with United miles - NOT cash

• The “free” middle leg is in the same class of service as the first segment (i.e., economy, business, etc.)

Okay… now that we’ve covered the fine print, let me explain this in a much easier way - by using some examples.

Here is how this perk is intended to be used…

Let’s say you fly this itinerary (Chicago-London-Madrid-Chicago):

Let’s compare this scenario to the rules I mentioned above to see if the Excursionist Perk would apply:

• ✅ Start/end in the same region (North America)

• ✅ The middle segment is within a single other region (Europe)

• ✅ Booked with miles instead of cash

Looks like we nailed it. So, let’s run an actual search on United to see if it adds up the right way.

First, log into your United MileagePlus account and navigate to the advanced search page, which looks like this. 👇

Next, let’s make sure we select a search with miles (not cash) and input all of the correct segments shown above.

Sure enough, when we get to selecting the second segment, we see something that looks like this:

Well, HOW ‘BOUT THAT? ZERO MILES.

In all, we’re saving 16,500 miles thanks to this unique perk.

But that’s not the exciting park…

As I mentioned earlier, this is how the perk is INTENDED to be used… But you can stretch it much further if you want to. 😉

Last year, I used this perk to book three flights, including a long 3-segment flight in Africa, for a grand total of just 11,450 United miles:

The free flight that I got from the booking above would’ve normally cost over 20,000 miles on its own, so the savings can really be massive when you get strategic with this perk.

One important thing to keep in mind is that you still need to pay the taxes and fees for your “free” middle flight.

And, of course, the only way to use this perk is to have a balance of United miles in the first place…

Thankfully, you can easily rack up some miles by transferring points from a credit card like this one.

✈️ Earn status from AA award flights (targeted)

Okay, this is an interesting one.

Generally speaking, you can really only earn airline status from flights you pay cash for.

Whether it’s Delta’s new MQD scheme (which literally earns status based on dollars spent) or other programs, award flights rarely will contribute anything toward your elite status goals.

American Airlines, however, has just launched a targeted promotion offering some members the chance to earn Loyalty Points (and therefore elite status) from flights booked with miles.

Here are the details:

• If you have the offer in your account, you must register for it

• You must book your travel by October 7th, 2024

• Travel must be completed by December 31st, 2024

• Only valid on AA flights (not partner airlines)

In terms of how many loyalty points you’ll earn, there are two versions of this offer:

1. Earn 100 Loyalty Points per 1,000 miles you redeem

2. Earn 50 Loyalty Points per 1,000 miles you redeem

For any AA loyalist or others looking to book travel before the end of the year, this is a great way to book your Loyalty Point balance.

In case you don’t know, you generally earn Loyalty Points whenever you earn AA miles.

While miles are redeemable, Loyalty Points are a different currency to track status and rewards.

And unlike traditional miles, there are tons of ways to earn Loyalty Points (like shopping online, using the AA travel portal, co-branded cards, and more).

Rewards start at just 15,000 Loyalty Points, so this promo could actually be meaningful to get you to that first milestone, even if you don’t earn crazy status in the end.

So here’s the bottom line:

AA has targeted some AAdvantage members with a way to earn even more Loyalty Points in addition to the other existing methods.

If you want to achieve elite status next year (or just get some nice benefits through their milestone awards), this is a great way to get a little boost.

Curious about how YOU could earn over one million UR points?! 😱

In this week’s YouTube video, Brendan lets us in on how he’s done just that.

He explains how maximizing everyday spending, asking for retention offers, using two-player mode, and leveraging referral bonuses (plus several other strategies!) have all played a role in helping him accrue a TON of points.

If you want some insider tips to do the same, check out the video 👇

That’s all for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed today’s tidbits from two of our biggest domestic loyalty programs in the U.S.

Have a wonderful day, and we’ll keep marching onward tomorrow morning.

Cheers,

20.0442° N, 110.1999° E