PointsParadise
Posts
🏝️ Earn Hotel Nights Easily, Giveaway Winner Announced, and More!

🏝️ Earn Hotel Nights Easily, Giveaway Winner Announced, and More!

Discover the latest news in the world of points.

PointsParadise
September 14, 2023

👋 Welcome Back!

If you’re new to Points Paradise, welcome to the community! Otherwise: welcome back to your go-to source for points updates. Our community is up to 7,800 subscribers now!

🎁 As mentioned last week, thanks to everyone who joined the FB group and entered the giveaway! I just announced the winner in a post, I took all members, put them in Wheel of Names, and rolled.

If you didn’t win this time, stay tuned as I’m working on more partner giveaways for the group!

🇮🇹 In other news: I’m going to Venice next week on a trip and will have some awesome pictures to show.

The hotel is incredible, but the only reason I’m able to do this is by playing the points game, stacking my points, and looking for good redemptions to my best advantage.

⭐ The greatest part is that anyone can do this, by following the fundamentals of the points game and maximizing your own points value.

From messaging you all, I know some of you are beginners to the points world. Just know that if you stack your points, you’ll be on a awesome vacation in no time as well! And my goal is to make that happen.

🗞️ News From This Week

Get 5 Free Hotel Nights With New Offer From Chase Boundless

We’re all in the Points Game to get free stays right?

I love when cards actually give you usable rewards that translate right into a vacation. Nothing aggravates me more than when card companies give perks or bonuses that I don’t actually end up using.

That’s why I like this new Boundless offer. It gives you 5 Free Night Awards after you hit $5k in spend in the 3 months.

That’s like a free vacation. And: they can be used at most Marriot hotels including super nice ones in their collection.

Even better: each award is valued at up to 50,000 points, making this up to 250k in bonus points!

This is a fantastic offer and if I didn’t already have the Boundless, I’d jump on it.

Typically cards like this have higher annual fees, but this one is only $95.

👉 Pro Tip: If you have a location in mind that you want to go, and you have free night certificates like this, make sure to sort by tier on the Marriot website. This will allow you to book a higher tier hotel and get the most use out of your certificates!

Earn 2,500 points Just By Eating Out Using Your Capital One Card. Here’s How.

One of my favorite parts of the Points Game is accumulating points.

And I especially love when they make it easy for us!

A couple days ago, Capital One sent out a targeted email to holders. If you’re looking to earn the points, double check that you got the email.

In case you didn’t, contact Capital One and see if they’ll honor it for you (this has sometimes worked for me in the past with targeted offers). Not all holders were eligible for this one.

The details: Get 2,500 miles as a one-time bonus for a Capital One Dining reservation. Just make a reservation between Sept. 6 and Dec. 31, dine by March 31, 2024, and click the email link to explore experiences in 15 major U.S. cities.

Here’s the link to Capital One Dining if you haven’t used it before. It’s a web platform for reservations.

👉 Pro Tip: Always make sure you’re eligible for these offers before trying to use them. A lot will be targeted, meaning you’ll have to enroll or click specific links to make sure the points get added to your personal balance.

Save Up to 15% At Hyatt Hotels With this code AND get 3,000 Bonus Points

I typically stay at Marriot hotels, so I can pool the Bonvoy points after each stay into one, easy to track group.

But sometimes I’ll book with other hotel brands, if the deal is good enough!

This week, Hyatt launched two separate deals that are awesome, if you’re looking to book a stay soon.

Up To 15% Off At Hyatts With Code: Using promo code TOUCHDOWN at checkout gives up to 15% off, between now and February 28, 2024. That’s a long time, so even if you’re eyeing a 2024 vacation keep this in mind!

For example, I tried it on the Park Hyatt in NYC and it gave me ~$150 in savings (normal rate was $1400).

Get 3000 Bonus Points For New Hyatt Stays Through Promo: Members who register by Nov. 10 can earn 3,000 bonus points for every three eligible nights at 1,250+ hotels worldwide between Oct. 6 and Nov. 30, with a maximum of 21,000 points.

👉 The Points Pro Take: If you’re a Hyatt fan or looking for a deal on a hotel stay, these are both great promos to take advantage of.

🏖️ Resource Roundup

A quick roundup of the top offers, deals, and more that you should know:

Marriott Bonvoy ‘Go Your Way’ 1,500 bonus points Global Promotion: 1,500 bonus points per stay and an additional 3,000 points for staying at three different brands from September 12 to December 6, 2023.
ANA’s Business Class round-trip Asia offer: ANA Mileage Club offers a sweet spot for round-trip business class flights to Asia, with off-peak flights to Japan and other Asian cities starting from 75,000 miles.
SimplyMiles Boost Your AAdvantage Miles: Earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points for everyday shopping with SimplyMiles, a card-linked program for Mastercard users.
Alaska Airlines 70,000 Miles BoA Offer: Bank of America offers 70,000 miles with the Alaska Airlines card.
Chase Ink Unlimited In-Branch 90,000 Points Bonus: Rumor suggests a 90,000 points signup bonus for Chase Ink Unlimited Cash Cards, available in-branch.
AmEx Spend $200 & Get $50 Back on JetBlue: Spend $200 or more with JetBlue, get a $50 statement credit using your enrolled eligible Card by 11/30/2023.
Apple Card $100 for Adding Authorized User: Receive a $100 bonus when you add an authorized user to your Apple Card, offer is targeted.
IHG Rewards Earn Extra Avios with British Airways: Get 1000 bonus Avios per stay with IHG Rewards and British Airways, valid through October 31, 2023
Hilton Honors’ Gold Status Fast Track: Fast track your way to Hilton Honors Gold Status by staying 6 nights before the end of 2023.
Hyatt’s New Hotels 500 Points Bonus: Earn 500 bonus points per night at new Hyatt hotels through the end of 2023 as a World of Hyatt member.
Conrad Bora Bora Nui Points Booking: Conrad Bora Bora Nui has opened up award availability from December 2023 to March 2024, allowing bookings for 120,000 Hilton Honors points per night or free night certificates.
Marriott’s 20,000 Points for 3-Night Stay: Home & Villas by Marriott is offering a bonus of 20,000 points for stays of 3 or more nights from September 6, 2023, to January 26, 2024, with a minimum spend of $1,400.

🗺️ Pro Tip of the Week

How Smart Travelers Use Corporate Codes To Save Big

What Are Corporate Codes?

Corporate codes are special discounts given by hotels to businesses for their employees. When entered during a booking, these codes can significantly reduce room rates and sometimes include additional perks.

Note: Most hotels DO check your badge or id, to confirm that you work for the company. While most don’t care if you’re on personal or business travel, the majority will confirm you’re an employee through your badge. If you don’t have a badge, they’ll charge you the normal rate.

How Do They Work?

While making a reservation, you input the code in a specified field, and the system applies the discount. Please note that these codes are generally meant for the employees of the affiliated company, and hotels might ask for proof of employment.

An Example:

Imagine you work for IBM and plan to stay at a Marriott hotel in New York for a conference. IBM's corporate code with Marriott could provide you with a 20% discount on the standard rate, or offer extras like free breakfast.

Conclusion:

Corporate codes offer significant savings on hotel stays. Use them responsibly and within their terms of usage. Happy, budget-friendly travels!

✈️ Reward Reminder of the Week

What Are Credit Card Referral Programs And How Can They Earn You Free Points?

One of the easiest and most popular ways to build points, is through referral programs.

All major credit card providers (Chase, Amex, Capital One, Discover, etc) allow you to earn points through them.

What is a Credit Card Referral Program?

A credit card referral program is a system set up by credit card issuers to incentivize their cardholders to refer their friends, family, or colleagues to apply for a credit card from their portfolio. In return for a successful referral (i.e., your referee gets approved for the card), you receive a reward, often in the form of bonus points, miles, or sometimes even cash.

A Real-World Example: Chase's Referral Program

Take, for instance, the Chase referral program. As a holder of a Chase credit card, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Freedom, you can earn up to 75,000 bonus points per year by referring friends. For each friend who gets approved, you receive 15,000 bonus points. If you max out the yearly cap, that's enough points for a round-trip flight to Europe!

How Can You Get Started?

One way is through sending your link to your friends!

Another way is through submitting your link through the form here.

The Community Corner section below is all community-based referral links. We’re happy to feature codes from the community and each week, we add new links in!

🌎 Community Corner

I have some Hilton Free Night Certificates from my Amex over the past year and want to use them for an upcoming trip.

Any idea on I can best use these for max value?

- Question from a subscriber

My Answer:

Great question, free night certificates from the big brands (Hilton, Marriot, etc) are an awesome perk given from their credit cards and make any trip better.

For those of you that don’t know: a Hilton free night certificate is essentially a voucher that allows you to book a standard room at any Hilton property around the world without having to pay or use points for that specific night.

How To Best Use Your Certificates:

As they can’t be used for premium rooms, the easiest way to find if your favorite hotel accepts these is through going to Hilton.com, searching by “Standard Room Reward”, and seeing if the hotel has availability for those dates.

From there: Hilton requires you to call the hotel directly to actually use the certificates.

How To Maximize Your Certificates’ Value:

Redeem them at expensive / high tier hotels: Since they’re a free night no matter what, pick the highest tier within your location/date range.

This is an easy way to get hundreds of dollars more of value!

Combine with your existing trip: Some days (like during the weekend) are more expensive at hotels. By putting your certificate to use on the most expensive day (say Friday or Sunday), you can extend your current booking without paying that higher rate of points.

Whether you use your certificates for a stand alone trip, or have them extend an upcoming one, you can’t go wrong!