Year: 2012

Mileage and Reward Points Status (January 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. While we continue to be all about ways to earn really cheap or free airline miles and hotel reward points, we have shifted our “collecting” mindset into spending over the past months. What fun is earning all these rewards if you never spend them. With all the really great credit card rewards being offered for signing up for new cards, airlines have slowly been increasing their redemption rates and/or making it more difficult to spend those rewards. So we are trying to use some of our stash to help plan the next family vacation. 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.

We have really dwindled down a lot of our accounts because of the Hawaii trip, but that is what the miles and points are for, right? 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.

With our last credit card churn back in October, we are gearing up for our first official multi-card churn this month. United announced the merging of Continental accounts will start in March, so I want to get at least the United Explorer cards before my Continental cards try and convert. We will also probably be trying for several other cards too. Stay tuned later this month.

Below is where we stand at month end.

[easychart type=”line” height=”300″ width=”350″ title=”Mile/Point Status (As of 1/31/12)” groupnames=”Delta,United,Continental,USAirways,American,Hilton,Intercontinental,SPG” valuenames=”Jan2011,Feb2011,Mar2011,Apr2011,May2011,June2011,July2011,Aug2011,Sept2011,Oct2011,Nov2011,Dec2011,Jan2012″ group1values=”69447,69447,70447,70947,70947,70947,71007,71097,71197,71287,71377,71465,71555″ group2values=”100043,100043,108043,108059,108059,109059,109059,109059,110115,58569,58569,58570,117079″ group3values=”67333,67333,67333,67333,67333,67433,68433,68433,68433,0,0,45040,8″ group4values=”8018,8020,11759,13778,13778,13778,13899,13977,14090,28713,41516,46578,46678″ group5values=”0,300,600,600,600,4600,6500,9500,17000,19500,20000,20500,20500″ group6values=”11679,11679,21979,24479,24479,26297,26297,26297,26297,26547,26547,26547,26547″ group7values=”29271,29271,29271,29271,167571,169571,173571,173571,174071,174071,174071,1071,1071″ group8values=”0,0,0,0,0,0,16,34,294,294,360,360,360″]

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- The great Gilt.com promotion credited. The accounts also will seem skewed in relation to the Continental accounts, because we moved all of the miles over into United.

Continental OnePass- Again we cleared all of our miles out by moving them over into United. There is also a very small credit of 6 miles from converting our last Best Buy Reward Zone points from 2011 via points.com.

US Airways Dividend Miles– Audience Rewards accounted for most of the miles posting to each of our accounts. There also was a points.com conversion of Best Buy Reward Zone points that credited in January.

American Airlines AAdvantage– No change.

Hilton HHonors– No change, but this month I expect a bump because of the mobile promotion from January.

Priority Club Rewards- Every month I dread going to the Priority Club or IHG websites because they are horribly slow. Just trying to sign in to our account takes forever. No change.

Starwood Preferred Guest– Our account has not been credited with SPG points via Audience Rewards going all the way back to the end of Nov. 2011. I am trying to track down whether this is a local issue, or a system wide failure.

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.

1,200 Delta SkyMiles for New Dining Members

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Want a quick and easy way to stack your Delta SkyMiles account? Delta’s partnership with Rewards Network has increased the new member bonus for doing something you already probably do, eat at restaurants. Currently, Rewards Network is offering 1,200 miles for creating a new account, on top of the miles earned from actual spend.

SkyMiles Dining

The program is as simple as it gets for earning free miles. Credit cards registered with the program will automatically earn you free Delta SkyMiles after you use the card at partner restaurants across the U.S.

Start by going to the Rewards Network/Delta site.

Sign up for a new account, which is free.

Register any credit card that you might use at any of their reward network restaurants.

Now anytime you use that credit card at one of their partnered restaurants, you will not only earn any rewards as you normally would for using the card, you will also earn free miles with Delta. It truly is an awesome deal! The more you dine, the more you can earn. What I personally love about the program is if you find a restaurant you frequent, you can easily go there for lunch over several days and purchase something small.

Let me explain. There are several levels of membership.

  • If you sign up for an account, and do not provide a verifiable email address, you will only earn 1 mile/$1 spent.
  • If you elect to receive emails, you will earn an easy 3 miles/$1.
  • And if you have 12 or more transactions within a year, you can earn 5 miles/$1.

On top of everything, the Rewards Network offers bonus opportunities all year long for existing members. I personally use Rewards Network for several airlines to score additional miles eating at places we already would anyways.

I will admit, expect a lot of emails from Rewards Network after creating your account. Therefore, it is recommended to use an email account that is exclusively for junk mail. Although, you will want to monitor the email because they will send you a message when you dined at one of their restaurants and earned free miles.

Below are the typical terms on the 1,200 mile promotion.

SkyMiles® Dining Welcome Bonus Details

*This bonus offer is open to new SkyMiles Dining members or existing members without a dining profile at the time of registration. A dining profile includes creating a web login and opting in and remaining opted in to receive emails from SkyMiles Dining with a valid, deliverable email address. To qualify, your profile must originate through one of the “Join Now” links on this page. You must register by December 31, 2012, to qualify for this bonus. You must continue to satisfy other Online and/or VIP Member level criteria to earn this bonus.

To earn this bonus, you must spend a total of $25 or more (including tax & tip) in one dine at a participating restaurant, bar or club after joining SkyMiles Dining (via the link above). You must dine within 30 days of registering for the bonus, and complete your post-dine review within 30 days of your dine. You may earn this bonus one time for a total of 1,200 bonus miles. Please note that activity that occurred prior to registration will not be eligible for this bonus. In addition, the dine must occur during a valid reward period and be paid for with a credit or debit card registered in SkyMiles Dining. Limit one SkyMiles Dining Welcome Bonus (consisting of one $25 dine) per member. Offer is not combinable with other SkyMiles Dining bonuses. Please allow 4-6 weeks from your dines for any bonus miles to post to your SkyMiles account. All account inquiries related to this bonus must be received by March 31, 2013.

Greater Cleveland Aquarium Discounts and Coupons

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If you are interested in getting straight to the Great Cleveland Aquarium discounts and coupon information, please scroll to the end of this post.

Cleveland Aquarium logo

The Greater Cleveland Aquarium (GCA) opened their doors officially January 21, 2012. It is the first time we have had a stand-alone aquarium in the area, and we are pretty excited to get to make a trip down there to see it. The closest thing we had, prior to the GCA, was the small aquarium at the Cleveland MetroParks Zoo, which is old, in need of updating, and nearly impossible to get to with a double stroller since it is located at the top of a giant hill.

We will probably hold off on going to the GCA for a while until the initial crowds die down. The disappointing thing, is that despite our family being members of the Cleveland MetroParks Zoo, and the Port Clinton African Safari, the Greater Cleveland Aquarium has no affiliation with other facilities because they are not accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.

You may recall from previous articles that our zoo membership is an invaluable tool in our travels because it allows us free or 50% off reciprocal admission to over 100 other zoos across the United states and Canada. Reciprocal benefits alone save our family at least $100 or more per year in zoo admissions. Plus we love doing either short day trips to surrounding cities or including a zoo as part of our travels when out-of-state. The cost of the memberships easily pays for itself throughout the year.

I have been reading a lot of commentary on the new aquarium, and the biggest complaint is the high price of admission. At $21.95 for an adult and $15.95 for a child (2-12), it might be hard to justify for a family of four having to drop over $75 for daily admission, not even including parking and any other discretionary spending. A family would be better off spending $130 on a Family membership, which would start paying for itself after the second visit.

My problem with it is a membership only gets me admission to the aquarium, and not 100+ other zoos and aquariums across the area. It is a big hurdle for the Greater Cleveland Aquarium to overcome. Lots of the public have chimed in that they would rather go to Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium or some of the other substantial aquariums or zoos across the country.

I suspect once the initial attendance dies down at the GCA, discounts will start to become more readily available.

2012 Cleveland Aquarium Discounts and Coupons


Below is a list of current promotions offering discount tickets to the Great Cleveland Aquarium.

– Groups of 15 or more can purchase discounted tickets for $17.95 (Adults) and $11.95 (Children under the age of 12)
– Active-duty and retired military (with proper ID) receive a 20% discount
– Effective September 4, 2012, the GCA will offer Senior (ages 60+) pricing, receiving a $2 discount per ticket. Starting September 4th, the GCA is also introducing senior annual passes with the ability to add on children (2-12) for an additional $25/child. New Senior pricing for passes will be Senior Individual: $45; Senior Couple: $80; Grandparent Pass (2 seniors and 2 children): $130.

Unfortunately, with a large amount of public criticism and negative press, the Cleveland Aquarium refuses to offer discounts of any kind to draw people into the facility. Either demand is really high and there is no need for discounts, the Aquarium costs way to much to operate to validate any discounts, or the marketing people have no idea how to encourage families to visit the facility.

Expired Offers

– The Northeast Ohio Menchie’s Facebook page is offering a $2 discount off the price of single ticket admission if you purchase a limited time Deep Sea Blueberry frozen yogurt by February 29, 2012. The discount is only valid March 1, 2012 – March 30, 2012.

Menchie's Feb 2012 Great Cleveland Aquarium Discount

There is a $2 minimum purchase, of which you will also receive $1 off the purchase of your yogurt.

8/23/12- Added Senior Discounts
5/10/12- Added Group and Military Discounts
1/30/12- Originally published