The Miles Professor’s Top Stories: July 2013

Some readers have asked me to do a monthly ‘quick catch up’ post as an easy reference for some of the top posts the previous month. I think this is a great idea and will make finding the most useful posts much more efficient for everyone! And we all know I am all about efficiency so here are my top 5 posts for July 2013:

1. How to Add Free One-Way Trips on United Airlines Awards: If you’re using your United miles for an international round trip, you can add a one-way trip within the U.S. or North America without paying any extra miles. Great way to stretch your miles and get more free trips!

   

2. July 4^th Vacation: Adventures in Acadia National Park, Maine: Over July 4^th weekend, we took a 5 day vacation to Maine. Hiking, kayaking and the scenery in Acadia National Park were the best part!

   

3. Earn 64% Off All Travel Paying Bills with the Barclaycard Arrival: Vanilla Reloads can be purchased at CVS and some 7 Eleven Locations and then used to pay bills such as rent, mortgage, tuition, taxes, etc. They’re a great way to earn miles in ways you otherwise wouldn’t and the miles you earn with the Barclaycard can cover any kind of travel expense.

   

4. Using American Airlines Elite Status to Book Hotels with AA Miles or Get Big Discounts on Hotels: American Airlines Platinum and Executive Platinum members can sometimes great options on redeeming American Airlines miles for hotels and even get an option to pay with cash. I use this method to get a deal where I can pay 10,600 OR $142 + 1k AA miles for a $450 a night hotel in Zurich.

   

5. CVS Raise Vanilla Reload/Prepaid Card Limit to $5000/Transaction: With a previously ongoing limit of $1000 per transaction, CVS makes some changes and raises the prepaid card limit to $5000 per transaction. This opens up opportunities to make mile earning with credit cards much more efficient for those that have large bills to pay. Vanilla Reloads are a great way to earn miles paying your mortgage, rent, tuition or other expenses where credit cards are not usually accepted.

   

I will have a trip report to Milan and Zurich coming up and will do some more focused writing on travel within North America for my upcoming Frequent Traveler University talk. What would you be interested in hearing about in the next few months?

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