A Round Up of Points, Miles, and Deals

Wow, what a great weekend! It was so nice meeting everyone at the Freddie Awards and Frequent Traveler University in DC. I managed to get my hands on a lot of “swag” that I plan on giving away to some lucky readers. Stay tuned for a giveaway post.

In the meantime, let’s catch up on the latest points and miles offers, shall we?

• Club Carlson Category Changes: Starting May 1, a new award chart will go into effect with Club Carlson. Roughly 150 hotels will be moving down in category, requiring fewer points for booking a free night. On the flip side, about 100 hotels will be increasing in point-price. If your future travel plans include stays at Club Carlson hotels, you might want to take a look at the updated award chart. The good news is that if your desired property is one that will be requiring more points after May 1st, you can still secure your reservation under the old rates if you book your room(s) by tomorrow.
• $25 Off Alaska Airlines Flights: For a limited time, you can receive a coupon for $25 a future flight booking when you sign up for a new Mileage Plan account.
• American Airlines’ New 2013 Elite Rewards: I’m sure most of you already know the news about American Airlines’ new 2013 Elite Rewards, but I am still so excited about it. While I am on the road to United Premier 1K this year (already more than half way there!), I am still very much enticed by this and might even consider adding American Airlines’ into my future travel plans. Don’t forget to register!
• Marriott MegaBonus Promotion: Marriott’s new MegaBonus promotion is right around the corner, and it’s usually very lucrative if you’re a Marriott fan. The MegaBonus offer varies between accounts, but the most common seems to be the ability to receive a free night certificate valid at any category 1-4 hotel after completing two stays (that’s what I got). You may register directly here and see what offer you’ve been targeted for, or you can head on over to Loyalty Traveler for a complete post about the promotion.
• $23 Weekend SUV Rentals With Avis: In a couple of weeks, I’ll be attending the BAcon with other fellow bloggers over out in Colorado Springs. I’ve happily volunteered to transport a handful of bloggers between DEN-COS. Today was the day I decided to go ahead and book the car, and I remembered that Deals We Like posted about this great promotion. If you scroll down to the comments, you’ll even see that you can stack this offer with Southwest to earn bonus Rapid Rewards points. $102 total for a 3-day weekend SUV rental sounds like my kind of price, so I’m happy I was able to take advantage of this offer.
• 35% Transfer Bonus from Membership Rewards to Avios: If you have some American Express Membership Rewards points, from now through June 7, Membership Rewards is offering a 35% bonus on transfers to British Airways Avios. Every 1,000 Membership Rewards points you convert will equal 1,350 Avios. Check out Lucky’s post for the complete offer details. I included the American Express Business Platinum Card in my last churn with a 100K sign-up bonus, so I will definitely be transferring MR points to Avios!
• Speaking of 100,000 Membership Rewards points… I recently received a targeted offer in the mail containing a unique code for an American Express Business Platinum card with a 100,000 MR sign-up bonus. Since I already have the card, I’d be willing to pass the code along to someone else who might want to use it. Simply send me an email and I’ll get the code over to you. [EDIT: Code has been claimed, sorry guys!]
• The Results of The Freddie Awards: If you haven’t done so already, be sure to check out the winners of the 2013 Freddie Awards – there were SO many surprises this year…