Find out how you can get bonus United miles!

You know how much I love shopping and cash back portals! Now this summer, American Airlines launched their mystery bonus offer on its shopping portal. Not to be left out, United just launched its own bonus offer.
This one is more straight forward. Spend $150 through the shopping portal, get a bonus 500 miles. Spend $350, earn a 1,500 bonus. The shopping period is 6/9-6/23.
To me, shopping and cash back portals offer FREE money! If you are planning to shop at those retailers anyway, why not get a bonus.
I shop through Ebates.com or my shopping club's cash back portal most of the time, but when bonuses come up like this, I take advantage to top off my accounts.
I am working on the American Airlines mystery offer right now so I'm directing all of my spending through that portal. I ordered my cat food, bathing suits for my children, new yoga pants for myself, and new headphones for my son. Will I reach the $500 minimum spend through the portal this month, maybe. Since I'm consolidating all of my spending through one portal, it's likely.
Those 2500 points will give me a free domestic ticket on American Airlines. Yes, I could have transferred Starwood points over to reach it too, but why?
Plus I am charging everything to my Southwest credit card because they offered me a deal if I spend $500 they will give me a bonus 500 miles. That deal is good for 3 months so I'm directing my spending onto their card.
I pay off my cards every month so it doesn't really matter to me which card I spend on.
That's how we do almost FREE family travel.

Find Out How To Get At Least 2,000 Bonus American Airlines Miles This Month

Need some American Airlines miles to top off your account or build up your balance? Here's an easy way to do it this month. American Airlines Eshopping is offering a mystery bonus event. You have to log in or join and click on the button to reveal your deal. I clicked and I was offered 2,000 bonus miles for spending $500 in the mall by 6/30/17. 

I usually shop through cash back portals where I earn up to 10% cash back. So if you compare the offers, I would value 2,000 American Airlines miles higher than $50. Especially since I have about 22,000 miles in my American Airlines account right now so this will put me really close to a free domestic airline ticket or even there since you actually earn more than 1 mile per dollar through the portal. I could transfer Starwood points and reach the magic 25,000 mark as well, but hey, if I can leverage some spending and do it without using Starwood points, then that's better. 

So I'm directing all my spending this month through the American Airlines shopping portal. I bought my cat food from Petsmart.com, bought new headphones for my son through Apple.com and I bought my replacement yoga pants through Oldnavy.com. 

These were all purchases I would make anyway, but now I am leveraging the buying power to fly free. By the way, I'm using my Southwest Airlines credit card to make the purchases since that card offered me double miles for the next 3 months if I spend $500 per month. 

That's how we do it at almost FREE family travel. 

Get 250 Bonus Starbucks Stars

Nice treat this morning when I checked my email and saw this from Starbucks. You can do it too if you are a Starbucks Gold member. Everyone should be a Starbucks Gold member because last year, if you made one purchase during a certain time period, they gave you automatic gold.
If you are a gold member, load $10 onto your Starbucks app and pay with Chase Pay and you will be rewarded with 250 bonus stars. Those stars are good for 2 FREE drinks.
When you open the app, choose reload, paying with Chase Pay. You may have to click on payment methods to click Chase Pay.
If you already have a linked credit card to Chase Pay, it's easy. Otherwise, you will be prompted to link a credit card in order to pay with Chase Pay. You do not need a Chase checking account, but you do need to be a Chase cardholder. Chase Pay is similar to Visa Checkout or Paypal.
Offer ends 6/7.
Good luck!

New Family Pooling From Norweigan Airlines

Norweigan Airlines launched their new family pooling program this weekend. It's just a BETA program right now, but they are inviting members to try it. I went ahead and enrolled myself as captain and my 3 kids into the account. We will be flying Norweigian Airlines this summer. I had already enrolled all of us in the frequent flier program, but of course, we are only flying two legs in Europe so we would not collect very many miles. 

So this family pooling caught my eye because if all of our flights are pooled together, well, then perhaps we would collect enough miles to do something. You can include family members and friends in your pooled account. 

Now Norweigian Airlines is a discount carrier and the rewards program is revenue based so their points or miles are not very valuable to begin with. But you can cash them in to cover luggage fees, combine them with cash to pay for flights and seat reservations. 

Most airlines do not offer family pooling at all. In fact, if you want to transfer miles to someone, you usually have to pay a fee. Some hotel chains like Starwood will allow you to transfer to a family member without charging a fee, but others do not permit it at all. 

I'll keep you posted. 

Easy Way To Earn The Southwest Companion Pass

If you do not have a Southwest Airlines companion pass yet, here's an easy way to get one. It's one of the most valuable perks out there. You earn the companion pass if you earn 120,000 Southwest points in a single calendar year. You can do that by flying, spending on your Southwest credit card or by earning the bonus. You used to be able to do it by transferring points from Marriott, but earlier this year, Southwest closed that loophole.
However, right now, Southwest Airlines is offering 60,000 bonus points when you open the credit card, spend $2,000 and pay the annual fee ($69 for the Plus and $99 for the Premium). Usually the bonus is 40,000 so this 60,000 offer is huge.
Plus here's the real bonus, if you were to open two of these cards (there are 3 total), you will earn 124,000 points and BAM, you will earn the companion pass. The pass is good for the rest of this year and all of next year. The pass means anywhere you fly, you can take a guest for FREE. The guest must fly on the same flight with you and you can only change your guest three times in a year. But, wow!
I had the pass for the past two years and flew to DC, East Coast, San Francisco and Seattle. Well worth it.
This year I have the pass again and will fly to the East Coast 3 times plus to Cuba.
It's a huge savings. Now you can only apply for these cards if you have not had them in the past two years.
Good luck and that's how you do almost FREE family travel!

20% Bonus on Gift Cards With Amex Offers

Have some extra American Express Reward points laying around? If so, you could use them for gift cards and right now American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 20% bonus on some of the cards.
For example, usually a Home Depot gift card for $25 will cost you 2,500 points, but through June 30th, that same card will only cost you 2,000 points.
A $50 gift card usually costs 5,000 points, but right now it will only cost you 4,000 points.
Now normally this is not the best value for membership rewards points, but with the 20% bonus, it gets closer to being a good value especially if you have some leftover points that you don't know what to do with or you plan to close an account.
You must use the points before you close your account. Use them or lose them!

Are you leveraging your spending for FREE travel?

I was in Trader Joes yesterday and everyone around me was paying with their debit card. Nothing makes me more frustrated than to see people paying for everyday items with cash or their debit card. Why you ask?
When you spend $5 on a coffee and pay with a debit card or cash, the money is just gone. Sure, you get the coffee so you are satisfied. But what if by spending that $5, you are now one step closer to a trip to Europe. What if you earn 3% cash back when you spend that $5. Wow, right?
Same $5, but now it's working for you. You are one step closer to almost free family travel or you just got a discount on that coffee. Both are a win.
I ask people why they pay with cash or debit and they respond with either I like to track what I spend or it hurts more when I pay with cash.
Those are great reasons, but when you pay with cash or debit, you are just spending. Imagine what life would be like if instead of just spending money, your money was actually working for you.
That's what I call leveraged spending.
Sure it's a bit of a change of mindset and habits, but it's worth it and anyone can do it.

Here's what you need to do to get started:
1. decide if you want cash back or if you want to travel and if you want to travel, where do you want to go. Then look at the top credit card offers out there and apply to 1 card to start. I recommend starting with the Starwood American Express, Southwest Rapid Rewards or the Chase Sapphire Preferred for travel and the Capital One or Chase Freedom card for cash back.
2. Once you get the card, set up the online account and put the card on auto pay. You do not want to incur late fees and you do not want to carry a balance.
3. Mark on your calendar the date 10 months from the day you opened the card. This is when you will need to review the card to decide if it's worth keeping or you want to cancel it.
4. Then start charging everything. Like my friend's husband told her "don't even pay cash for a pack of gum."

And you are on your way. Remember, if you want to travel on awards, book early! If you are earning cash back, look for the credits coming back to you or the check in the mail.
And if you shop online, be sure to utilize a cash back or airline portal so you can double dip. Good luck!