Year: 2012

WestJet Kargo Kids Program- Child Free Cabins and 10% Discount

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Well everyone finally got their wish over the weekend, as the first airline officially announced a child free cabin program. No more crying kids or dealing with families that can no longer handle their children despite stressful times. The public has spoken and the airline industry is responding.

Per WestJet:

WestJet today introduced Kargo Kids, an exciting new program allowing guests to travel on select child-free flights, creating a quieter and more relaxing inflight experience, while children travel in a “special VIP” area of the aircraft.

“As Canada’s low-cost airline, we are constantly looking for innovative and fun ways to enhance the guest experience,” continued Richard Bartrem. “The initial feedback on Kargo Kids has been quite positive and we’re looking forward to the peace and quiet while we get families where they need to be.”

So thanks for the outcry childless travelers, as WestJet has made the “fool” in all of us.

Below is some information on the limited time promo to save 10% on your WestJet flight.

Save an extra 10% off* new online bookings everywhere we fly from April 1 to June 27, 2012. Blackout dates from April 5-10, 2012 and May 17-22, 2012.
How to get this offer

To redeem this offer, bookings must be made on westjet.com.
Both the Promo code LOL12 and Coupon code O5XHDAK are required at time of booking on the first page of the booking process.

*Bookings must be made by April 3, 2012 (9:59 p.m. MT).
Travel from April 1 to June 27, 2012. Blackout dates from April 5-10, 2012 and May 17-22, 2012.
Discount cannot be used towards the purchase of a WestJet Vacations package.

Mileage and Reward Points Status (March 2012)

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This is our monthly recap where we look at what reward programs we were able to add miles or points to over the previous period. Now that we have depleted a good amount of our rewards, I am back to looking to build them back up again. With all the really great credit card rewards being offered for signing up for new cards, the rewards are there for the taking. To read proof how collecting miles/points can work for your family, read our post on how we are going to Hawaii (and Disneyland) for $30 in total cost for the flights. So far, we have received our mainland flights and all of our hotel nights on Oahu for absolutely “free” using miles and points in various programs. I am also currently looking at the value of using airline miles to fund expensive vehicle rentals.

With our last credit card churn back in October, we are gearing up for our first official multi-card churn shortly. We just paid off some older credit cards and might soon be in a position to take advantage of some new offers. Now that we no longer carry Continental accounts, options become available to possibly score United Explorer cards, as well as other options. We will also probably be trying for several other cards too.

Below is where we stand at month end. Overall it was a relatively slow month with little activity.

[easychart type=”line” height=”300″ width=”350″ title=”Mile/Point Status (As of 3/31/12)” groupnames=”Delta,United,USAirways,American,Hilton,Intercontinental,SPG” valuenames=”Jan2011,Feb2011,Mar2011,Apr2011,May2011,June2011,July2011,Aug2011,Sept2011,Oct2011,Nov2011,Dec2011,Jan2012,Feb2012,Mar2012″ group1values=”69447,69447,70447,70947,70947,70947,71007,71097,71197,71287,71377,71465,71555,71615,71699″ group2values=”100043,100043,108043,108059,108059,109059,109059,109059,110115,58569,58569,58570,117079,120577,121408″ group3values=”8018,8020,11759,13778,13778,13778,13899,13977,14090,28713,41516,46578,46678,46726,47694″ group4values=”0,300,600,600,600,4600,6500,9500,17000,19500,20000,20500,20500,20500,20500″ group5values=”11679,11679,21979,24479,24479,26297,26297,26297,26297,26547,26547,26547,26547,27547,27547″ group6values=”29271,29271,29271,29271,167571,169571,173571,173571,174071,174071,174071,1071,1071,1071,1321″ group7values=”0,0,0,0,0,0,16,34,294,294,360,360,360,360,640″]

The following is a brief summary of the things we have done in the past month to build up our accounts.

Delta SkyMiles– Audience Rewards trivia questions in all three of our accounts.

United Mileage Plus- Continental accounts have now been officially merged into the United accounts. Continental has been deleted from the summary, and historical data for United does not include Continental numbers. We added miles for our Hawaii inter-island purchases on the Continental Business card.

US Airways Dividend Miles– Audience Rewards accounted for most of the miles posting to each of our accounts. The Grand Slam promotion issues I was having with the magazine subscriptions finally resolved itself in that the magazines finally showed up, but so did the miles.

American Airlines AAdvantage– No change.

Hilton HHonors– No change.

Priority Club Rewards- 250 points from voting in the Freddies.

Starwood Preferred Guest– I finally gave up on all my missing Audience Rewards points from the end of last year, even though I received emails back saying our account was credited. Our new questions have been posting fine though. We also received a 250 bonus from liking the Westin Charlotte on Facebook.

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Note, we also have reward accounts with AirTran, Southwest, Frontier, Choice Hotels, Wyndham Rewards, and various other programs, but since we do not really use them, there is little advantage in including them in this list.

The point of showing these reports each month is to show you that every little bit of miles and point collecting can really add up to big rewards. It is never to late to sign-up and start collecting for your future travel needs. Thanks for reading! Save Money, Travel More.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Bonus Reducing to 40,000 Points

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Update: 50,000 point offer is now expired. Please visit our credit card page for the latest offers.

Last week I thought the credit card bubble might be soon coming to an end. There are now signs of it being true, and officially all of the Sapphire Preferred links on Chase’s website have been updated to the 40,000 point offer. Our affiliate network notified us today that effective 4/3/12 at 10:00 AM EST, the 50,000 point Chase Sapphire links we are allowed to offer will no longer be available. What this means is that the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card will still be available, just the sign-up bonus will be lowered to 40,000 points, instead of the current 50,000 points.

What does this mean for the future of the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card bonus? Well no one knows for sure at this point. Will they start testing the waters with higher bonuses? I do not know, and certainly no one does except Chase.

What I do know is that last year Citi offered 75,000 mile American Airline cards, that you could apply for up to three different versions at the same time. Then Citi lowered the bonus to 50,000 miles, and the higher offer has never returned. I missed the boat, and highly regret not taking part in those offers last year.

Keep in mind though we were also in the midst of buying a new home last year, so there was too much in flux to worry about opening a new card(s) at the time.

I am really tempted to open the Chase Sapphire Preferred cards for our family, as 100,000+ points between my wife and I would really come in handy for future travel. However, at this stage, taking on a $6,000 minimum spend in 3 months ($3,000 per card) to qualify for the bonus makes me nervous. If a balance transfer qualified towards the minimum spend, I might pay the 3% fee ($90) to transfer the $3,000 to each card, but I do not want to be tied towards the minimum spend right now. It is just not a good fit for our family at this time unless I can come up with a great plan to get this accomplished.

Save Money, Travel More!