Getting half off your airfare for the next couple years thanks to Amex

So Amex lured me into getting an American Express Platinum card a few years ago with a stellar bonus.  I was lucky another 150,000 points for signing up for the Business version of the Platinum card.  This Business Platinum card currently has a publicly available bonus offer of 100,000 Membership Rewards points--not shabby at all although the spending requirements are quite hefty.  But here's why it might be worth it:

Make $1,950 immediately with minimal outlay

Why might you sign up?  Well, you'll make $2,000 off the bat.  Amex recently enhanced the Business Platinum card so that you can use Membership Rewards points towards airfare at 2 cents per point.  So that sign up bonus of 100,000 points is worth $2,000 in airfare.  Nice.  The annual fee of $450 is more than offset.  And it's pretty easy to get the effective first year annual fee down to $50 per the post in the first link.  Except it's even easier now that you don't even have to buy airline gift cards but instead can buy Amazon gift cards through the MileagePlusX app.  You might balk because to get the full 100,000 point bonus, you need to spend $15,000.  Here's where the next step comes in.

Get half off your next $12,500 in airfare purchases

Why is this even more lucrative?  First, along with making Membership Rewards points more valuable for Business Platinum cardholders, it also made them easier to earn by awarding 1.5X points on purchases over $5,000.  Second, through the end of the year, Amex is offering 2X points on small businesses, including a neat website called Plastiq.  Plastiq lets you earn credit card points by paying bills using your credit card, for a fee.  That includes mortgages, rent, and (better yet) home equity lines of credit.

So draw you could draw down a home equity line, and pay it back using Plastiq.  On a $4,878 payment (i.e. $5,000 including the 2.5% fee to Plastiq), you will earn 12,500 Membership Rewards points (5,000 base points, 5,000 small business bonus points, and 2,500 large purchase bonus points). Your out of pocket cost for the 12,500 points is $122 (that 2.5% fee).  Remember, those points are worth 2 cents each toward airfare, so essentially you are buying the points for a little less than 1 cent each and redeeming them for 2 cents.

The only limitation?  The 2X Small Business Saturday promotion is limited to 250,000 bonus points and runs until the end of the year.  You can shoot for 625,000 total points using this 2.5X opportunity, which is worth $12,500 in future airfare, not counting the sign-up bonus which adds another $2,000 worth of bonus points.  These $14,500 worth of points would cost $6,097.  If you are good at redeeming miles, you could use the points as miles and get even more value.

Fly to Hawaii via Iceland (Air) for just $200, first class for $300

(DEAL EXPIRED - IcelandAir stopped redemptions on Alaska Airlines on August 29)
(bonus expires September 28)

Travel blogs have been abuzz lately over the following deal for cheap tickets to Hawaii on Alaska Airlines by redeeming miles earned from the Iceland Air Saga Club.  Here is how you do it:

1. Sign up for a Saga Club frequent traveler account.  I recommend you do this ASAP, because it take some time to get one established.  I waited 4 days for mine, and another is taking over 1 week.
2. Buy Saga Club miles -- currently 50,000 miles costs 77,000 Iceland Krona and comes with a 10,000 mile bonus.  That works out to ~$320 per 30,000 miles.
3. (optional) Transfer miles to someone else, and for a limited time, earn a 20% bonus on your miles.
4. Redeem 30,000 miles for a first class round-trip ticket and 20,000 miles for a coach ticket on Alaska Airlines.

Caveats include:

• These are award seats!  Check Alaska airlines for "saver" award capacity before you buy miles.
• There is no guarantee that Saga Club won't change its award chart
• There is no guarantee that Alaska Airlines won't restrict capacity, preventing you from booking that first class flight.

United Airlines sale on award travel

(expires July 24)

Redeem your United mileage for award travel in the next week and a half, and you'll give up 20% fewer miles for those hard-to-find seats.  Don't worry about United's notorious Starnet blocking (where they tell customers seats on Star Alliance flights are available even though they are), because this promotion applies only to United flights.  It's true they bumped up the mileage requirements just recently, but some rates are the lowest in several years (especially Hawaii!)

Just start your booking from this page, and you're good to go!

• Hawaii for 30,000 miles (vs. 40,000)


• Central America & Caribbean for 25,000 miles (vs. 35,000)


• Europe for 44,000 miles (vs. 55,000)