PreCheck With Avios

There are 2 prerequisites to this post:

  1. Knowing that I love TSA PreCheck.
  2. Knowing that I love British Airways Avios even more.
My feelings have always been strong for Avios points. Hoarder that I am, I’ve built up a big pile of them. But in the last few weeks, my love has turned into full-on lust. Hmm…this might be getting awkward (again). Anyway, being able to use Avios for US Airways flights has me going gaga. Which brings me to the point of this post…
I just booked a US Airways flight to the east coast using some Avios points. Since British Airways is a foreign airline, I wasn’t able to enter my Known Traveler Number (for slackers – the magical little digits that give me my beloved TSA PreCheck access). This is a dilemma, right? I mean, I need my PreCheck. I can’t use regular security lines like some kind of commoner. What am I, an animal?!?
The solution is actually pretty simple. I just had to take the following steps (under 30 seconds):
  1. I went to the Finnair website.
  2. Clicked “Manage Booking.” It’s the big box right above “Check In Online.”
  3. Entered my last name and booking reference number. This pulled up the flight.
  4. Changed the frequent flyer information for the booking. It showed my British Airways number, so I just switched it to my American Airlines information. Obviously, my Known Traveler Number is in my American account.
  5. Done.
The lesson, as always…if you don’t want to suck, PreCheck is your friend. MileNerd out!

2 Tell-A-Friend Emails

American Express is offering a generous 5,000 points for telling your friends about their Starwood card – Personal and/or Business. At least that’s what they offered me. I’m not sure if these links will work for everyone. If you already have a Starwood card, check your email and spam folder for the offer.

As usual, Delta comes in behind the pack. Their small business program, SkyBonus, also sent me an email. It offered 5,000 points to anyone I refer who enrolls and flies by the end of June. Of course, since it’s Delta, they limited it to 5 people (and their SkyBonus points aren’t worth much).

Amex Repeat Card Bonuses

It’s simple math…there are only so many credit cards. Naturally, by doing a new round of applications every 91 days, you eventually run out of choices. Of course, this is where churning comes in. At a certain point, we need to re-apply for cards and get repeat bonuses. A couple years ago, I gave a general idea of how long to safely wait. Of course, those dates can vary, but it was a pretty good basic guideline at the time. Well, apparently the times they are a-changin’. American Express seems to be “fixing” their rules on applications starting May 1st. Going forward, it looks like you’ll only be able to get the bonus on a specific Amex card once. I just did my latest round of applications, and tried to plan around this strategy. We’ll see how things actually play out, but if there’s an Amex card you want to churn, it’s probably a good time to get on it.

2 Hotel Freebies

The early bird gets the worm (again). Take advantage of free Platinum status from Hyatt here. It’s working for everyone at the moment, but this supposed-to-be-targeted deal will soon be a thing of the past. Hyatt’s Platinum benefits are listed here. Nice deal!

If you have the InterContinental credit card, look carefully at the letter arriving in the mail this week. Who cares that it was just switched from a Visa to a MasterCard, right? Again, read the letter. Even though this card is probably going straight into a drawer, they’re trying to give you 1,000 points. All you have to do is use the new version once. For me, it was at a parking meter. I picked up my easy points…and then moved it into a drawer…

Starwood Status

There’s a really good post about Starwood’s Plus status here. I got late checkout and was upgraded to club level with “Plus” just last week. Actually, I planned to write about it today, but the link above says it all. So, yeah, Plus status is worth having if you have nothing better. It definitely isn’t the most spectacular thing in the world. As always, top-level status is amazing with Starwood (Platinum) and Hyatt (Diamond). Believe me, I understand that top-level is tough to get. Plus is a decent (and easy) consolation prize. Shockingly, Hilton Gold continues to be my favorite less-than-top-level hotel status.