US Airways is now having a sweepstake. You have to enter and register by 30th September 2012. This is a little more than 2 weeks left. Here is how it goes. The winner gets 100,000 miles. Runner up gets 50,000 miles. And there would be 4 prizes of 25,000 miles each. Click here to enter

This promotion ties in with their double miles purchases promotion happening right now. To recap, if you buy miles from US Airways now (for up to 50,000 miles), you will get double miles. That means that you could deposit 100,000 miles in your Dividend account if you purchase 50,000 miles today. You obviously have to plan to use the miles quickly and efficiently to make the purchase worthwhile. But 30th September is the deadline again.

Who knows, someone may get lucky and get 200,000 miles in their account by the end of this month!

On another note, US Airways is also giving away 25,000 mile if you get a Lasik procedure done through a referral from their site! I think I’d rather research who I’ll be going to for the procedure rather than search for an online referral just to get 25,000 miles. But you never know, the extra miles might be just be more important to you! It appears that the provider is LasikPlus. But, my eyesight is good and I’m really not familiar with this. So here is the link. Please read the fine prints!

For those of you in the loop, you would know by now that Jason Mraz is having a concert in Madison Square Garden on 11th December 2012.

Being a Chase Freedom card member, I just got an email from them telling me that I can book tickets starting from today 17th September (at 10am EST until 22nd September 10pm EST). The tickets are not available to the public yet. So if you hurry, you can get some great seats.

After tweeting about this post, Chase has informed me that all Chase cardholders (including debit cardholders) can book these tickets now. So for all you Chase credit or debit account holders, check your emails or go to https://madisonsquaregarden.chase.com/ to see concerts supported by Chase.

I just got an email from Citi’s PR folks that Citi and American Airlines have announced The Citi® / AAdvantage® Card Love the Journey Concert Series. This concert will take place in New York and Los Angeles this October. The main attraction is performances by Alicia Keys and Maroon 5.

These 2 concerts are to celebrate 25 year partnership or “journey” between Citi and American Airlines. And they will be held exclusively for Citi / AAdvantage credit card customers and will include the artist’s personal stories from their journey to stardom. Wow, 25 years of partnership! I’d say that is great and I might cheekily add that many of AA planes are just as old!

So here are the venues:

• Alicia Keys: Monday, October 15 at Avery Fisher Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center
• Maroon 5: Friday, October 19, 2012 at The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles

Only Citi AAdvantage Card holders can purchases tickets at www.citi.com/concertseries. They go on sale September 18, 2012 and are limited to two per Citi / AAdvantage cardmember on a first-come, first-serve basis. Many folks have churned and hold a couple of AA cards. So I’m just wondering if that means you can get more than 2 tickets?

Anyhow, if you live in NY or LA and are interested in this concert, this looks at quite an “exclusive” event for Citi AA card members. If you have always been thinking of getting this card, perhaps this is the right time as well!

From our site

Hyatt Credit Card Review Updated
Hyatt has just announced a couple of new changes to their affinity cards which will take place after 1st October 2012 (more on that below). As a result of this, we have updated our reviews to reflect the upcoming changes. We find the changes positive and have increased our rating for the card.

2 Free Nights Promotion Explanation and Value
While rewriting the Hyatt review, I looked into the 2 free nights sign up bonus more closely and found out that the definition of 2 free nights depended on your Hyatt Gold Passport elite status. The higher the status, the better the sign up bonus.

From around the web

Hyatt 65,000 points promotion through 30th November 2012
Guess it is all about Hyatt today. They are running a promotion now until the end of November. You have to register by end of October to participate. Between 1st September 2012 and 30th November 2012, you can earn 5,000 bonus points for 5 nights of stay, and 10,000 points for every 5 nights after that up to 65,000 bonus points. That means, you have to be staying at a Hyatt hotel for 35 days to earn this extra bonus (worth a suite for a night). To be honest, it is quite impossible for us mortals, but any extra bonus you earn is always good.

Hyatt announces enhancements to their affinity card
Hyatt yesterday announced some enhancements to their affinity card. Firstly, you can earn double points for restaurants, airline tickets booked directly with airlines, as well as with car rentals. Very few affinity cards have this feature, so kudos to Hyatt. Existing card members will also be automatically be platinum elite members.

Furthermore, they have also added nights and stays as bonus based on spending levels. Spend $20,000 and you get 2 stays/5 nights. If your spending goes up to $40,000, then you will get an additional 3 stays/5 nights. For those pursuing diamond level, this card will now be even more valuable.

US Airways 25,000 Bonus Miles Promotion with Star Alliance Network
This promotion is good until 15th December 2012. “Travel on 3 partner carriers to get 2,500 bonus miles, 4 to get 5,000 and 5 to get 15,000. Fly on 6 or more and you’ll earn 25,000 miles.” Guess this only applies to the hard core US Airways flyer.

Starwood and Aeroplan promotion
Between 10th September and 9th December 2012, you can earn extra Aeroplan miles for staying at Starwood Hotels. Stay 3 nights are earn 3,000 aeroplan miles. Stay 5 nights at earn 5,000 miles. Stay at a Canadian Starwood chain and earn an extra 3,000 miles. Registration is required.

SouthWest double miles promotion
From now until 15th November, you can earn double miles flying with Southwest. For example, according to SouthWest site: “You’ll receive 24 points (instead of the standard 12 points) per dollar spent on Business Select® Fares, 20 points (instead of ten points) per dollar spent on Anytime Fares, and 12 points (instead of six points) per dollar spent on Wanna Get Away?®”. Registration is required.

I sent my Macbook Pro to the Apple Store a couple of weeks ago to fix some issues and I ended up having to be without it for close to 10 days. It’s great to have it back. So here again are some highlights from the site and from around the web.

From our site

1. 50,000 Bonus Points From American Express.
Last week, Amex bumped up their sign up bonus for the business version of their gold card to 50,000 MR points. You would need to spend $5,000 within three months to get it. But this appears to be their annual ritual of giving huge sign up bonuses for a limited time. It is good until 25th November 2012. The only bummer is that this promotion is starting at a time when Membership Rewards is having airline miles transfer bonuses (and some of them end soon). For example, you can now get 40% bonus when you transfer MR points to BA Avios (ends 27th September 2012). And you can also get a 35% bonus for transferring points to Flying Blue miles. But it ends on 16th September 2012 (so no time to get the card and spend $5k so soon!).

But nevertheless, this sign up bonus is rather generous by Amex standard and you should take advantage of this.

2. The definition of Costco Gas Stations.
When it comes to earning gas cash back on regular creditc cards that earn cash back, many folks assume you can earn those rebates from all gas stations. It turns out that not all gas stations are equal. Some are considered to be “standalone”. Examples would include Sunnoco, BP, Shell etc. Costco, on the hand, is classified as a discount warehouse and so their gas stations are not considered “standalone”. That means no extra cash back from other gas cards. Only a Costco affinity would allow you to earn 3% cash back! So if you fill up at Costco, make sure you use their card to pay!

3. Update review of Macy’s Store Card
I just found out that one of our writers, Christina, actually has the Macys’s store card. So I asked her to update the review accordingly!

From Around the Web

Starwood Better By The Night Promotion Open For Registration
Starwood will have a “better by the night” promotion from 1st October to 20th December. When you book for one or two nights at eligible hotels, you can earn double points. If you book for three nights or more, you can earn triple points. So if you intend to stay at a Starwood Hotel, you should sign up now.

MR to BA 40% Bonus
Deadline is 27th September. Transfer MR points to BA Avios and get 40% extra bonus. If you sign up for the business version of the gold card (review here, you can get 50,000 bonus points if you spend $5k in a hurry. If you can convert them to BA Avois by the deadline, that would be sweet as well.

MR to Flying Blue (KLM and Air France) – 35% Bonus
The second MR promotion going on now involves Flying BLue miles (KLM and Air France). This ones ends on 16 September. Transfer MR points to Flying Blue and get 35% bonus. Here is a great post on ways to make use of FLying Blue miles.

Part 1: Introduction to ITA Fare Matrix
Part of a 3 part series by Hack My Trip. Great read for frequent flyers and also for FF beginners. After reading this series, you will probably take a jump to the intermediate status. Part 2 appears here

You can no longer check your skymiles at award wallet and many folks are pissed
Delta has joined American Airlines and SouthWest by not allowing award wallet to show consumers the status of their Delta Skymiles. Many frequent flyers are absolutely livid about this. And there are more than enough post today ranting about the topic. Here is a contrarian view