MilesBuzz! - US-Europe/Asia: Business $1740; First $2580....thru Aug 30

UNLIMITED British Airways miles at 1.7 cents.

Here's hopefully a relatively straightforward and layman's analysis of why 'Inside Flyer'/Diners Club/British Airways promotion is a pretty attractive deal:

www.milespy.com (http://www.milespy.com)

Thanks for the clear explanation of the value of the Inside Flyer Diners Club promo.

For folks with BA EC accounts and Diners Club cards already this is truly an outstanding deal.

For folks without a Diners Club card... well, since the transfer bonus ends August 31 I'd do the deal by signing up for a card immediately or not at all.

For folks without a BA EC account, it's worth noting that you don't actually need a qualifying flight for the account. Signing up for the BA Visa should be enough. (Of course, all good FTers have BA EC accounts even if they've never flown BA.. because they signed up for one before the cutoff, or because they signed up for one during the Jaguar promo).

Go Randy, and thanks Steve!

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View from the Wing (http://www.webflyer.com/blog): A blog about Free Miles and Free Markets

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gleff:


For folks without a Diners Club card... well, since the transfer bonus ends August 31 I'd do the deal by signing up for a card immediately or not at all.

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Is it 2003 or 2004? If you read the site and scroll down, it says you must purchase by August 31, 2004. I'd assume it's a typo . . . 2004 makes no sense.

Couldn't find dates listed in the Inside Flyer site.

[This message has been edited by StudentExplorer (edited 08-14-2003).]

When I said August 31 I was referring to what I believe is the end of the double transfer bonus from Diners --&gt; BA.

Of course, this bonus may well reappear again next year because it seems to be something of a regular annual event.

Was just saying that to take advantage of the bonus this year you'll need to act fast!

major typo......my bad!

Diners Club to British Airways 1:1 transfer that this promotion is based on, is over end of August 2003

Will edit site shortly.

Apologies to all.


The 'InsideFlyer'/Diners Club ordering home page at www.insideflyer.com/dcr (http://www.insideflyer.com/dcr) has 'limited time offer, August 31' in the upper right hand corner.




[This message has been edited by beaubo (edited 08-14-2003).]

Just a note for additional clarification:

I did the same analysis when I first heard of the deal. Looking at $2700+ for a ticket is a good deal when the ticket normally costs 7 or 8 grand - but of course you still have to come up with the $2700.

So I wondered if it would be cost effective to get, say, a coach ticket using DC points obtained this way. The answer is no. You're much better off buying a discounted ticket than trying this approach.

As far as business class, I believe there are sometimes sales whereby a ticket can be bought for between $1000-$2000. If this is true, the deal may not be so attractive. If not (i.e., biz class tix are never less than, say $4000), then you would have a winner.

Bottom line - forget about Y, check out J, F seems like a real deal.

I'd love for someone to confirm whether I'm right or not.

I'm against these promotions because they dilute the existing miles of the members, and result in mileage award increases. BA has already this year increased the number of miles needed for awards.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by BigLar:

Bottom line - forget about Y, check out J, F seems like a real deal.

I'd love for someone to confirm whether I'm right or not.[/B]</font>


Big Lar- Most discounted J fares (under $2000 USD) are typically heavily restricted with either long advance notice requirements and/or long minimum stays and of course very limited availability.

I think BA's track record with award redemption, makes the promotion pretty compelling.

PLus, no airline allows for unlimited mileage purchase, most are capped at low amounts between 25-40K. And no airline sells mileage for under 2.5 cents (vs. 1.7 w/ this promotion).

For people with little or no mileage balances, the chance to catapult into the ranks of the 'mileage nouveauriche' with LOTS of CHEAP miles, would seem very tempting to many non-veteran FTers!!

www.milespy.com (http://www.milespy.com) for breakdown of the promo
www.insideflyer.com/dcr (http://www.insideflyer.com/dcr) for those who are ready to take the 'mileage millionaire' (!!!) plunge



[This message has been edited by beaubo (edited 08-16-2003).]

You're right, baubo, but check out your own thread on consolidators. If they're selling J tix at under $2000, depending on the restrictionsthis may or may not be a good deal.

And, of course, it is a great deal for First!

From USA TODAY 'Talk Chat' session on Aug 19:


Tuesday, August 19, noon ET

The Wall Street Journal refers to Randy Petersen as "... the most influential frequent flyer in America," while The New York Times tagged him "the world's leading expert on airline frequent flyer programs." Randy is editor and publisher of Inside Flyer, considered the leading publication in the world about frequent traveler programs. He is also the editor of The Official Frequent Flyer Guidebook; a regular speaker at business travel seminars and conferences in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia; and is often called upon by the industry itself for his comments and suggestions about frequent traveler programs. Randy has been named to the "Frequent Traveler Hall of Fame" sponsored by the Hilton Hotel Corporation and has been named "One of the 25 Most Influential Executives in Business Travel Industry" by Business Travel News. Submit your your questions on air travel and travel in general to Randy Petersen.

Randy also writes USATODAY.com's travel section Ask Randy Q& A where he answers frequent flier questions.

• Get more travel information at travel.usatoday.com



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QUESTION:

I received an intriguing email from a website called www.milespy.com (http://www.milespy.com) about earning lots of Diners Club points and British Airwats miles by buying subscriptions to your 'Inside Flyer' magazine. 1. Are you aware of this website? 2. Are its claims of earning US-Europe or Asia First Class tickets for $2580 and Business Class tickets for $1740 for real? 3. Why does the offer end on August 31? Thanks

Randy Petersen:

Intriguing question. I am aware of milespy.com; the guys behind it are among the brightest members of frequent flier programs I've seen.

They are quite good at figuring out the value-add of select promotions and mileage opportunities.

We have a magazine subscription incentive promotion going on now. While we didn't really figure out the BA angle when putting it together months ago, we do see that their math is very good and that members can earn a ton of miles. That's a really good price for business class tickets no matter the source.

As for the August 31 date: That is a Diners Club program date for their promotion, we simply seem to have an overlap with ours that will last a few months more.

I do know that many people have called and had their orders processed the same day seemingly to get in on this deal and have the miles transferred in time.

Usually Inside Flyer reports on the news about frequent flyer programs; in this case it is the news.

I'm assuming that more info on this can be found on their Web site at milespy.com

Heads-Up from Diners Club....


Regarding the BA transfer, as long as the request for transfer is initiated
with Diners on or before August 31st, the promotional transfer rate will
apply even if the transfer has not made it into the members BA account.

The posting of points to a Club Rewards member's account is three weeks or
less. However, if a member needs the points deposited sooner, he or she can
call Club Rewards for a rush transfer, pay $35 or 5,000 Club Reward points,
and the points will be deposited within three business days.

From Joe Brancatelli:

http://www.zyworld.com/brancatelli/tt2003/tactical082103.htm


A Business-Travel Briefing for Aug. 21 - Aug. 28

ON THE FLY: Business-Travel News You Need to Know
Who's the biggest carrier of them all? If you go by domestic passenger enplanements, it's Southwest. For the first time since the Transportation Department has been keeping records, Southwest in May boarded more passengers than any supposedly "full-service" airline. ... Northwest says its new Airbus A330s will have an upgraded business class with seats that recline to an almost-flat position. The "bed" is 79 inches long. The seat itself is 20.25 inches wide with 60 inches of legroom. The new business class will debut next month when Northwest's first A330s go into service and will be retrofitted into the carrier's fleet of 747-400s. ... Four of the Big Six--American, Delta, Continental and Northwest--have now climbed down from the most onerous conditions of last year's "use it or lose it rule." American began the retreat earlier this week when it announced that travelers will have up to one year to reschedule and reuse nonrefundable tickets. Until this week, travelers who did not immediately rebook their travel when they cancelled flights lost the value of their tickets. ... Frequent flyer Steve Belkin has posted an interesting mileage-generation tactic at www.Milespy.com. (http://www.Milespy.com.) It entails buying bulk subscriptions to Inside Flyer and then converting the Diners Club points you earn for the purchases into British Airways miles. Belkin claims $1,740 in subscriptions will create enough miles for a business-class award on British Airways. The strategy will work until August 31.

Per the good folks at Inside Flyer....

We have just received a confirmation from Diners that all orders submitted by Inside Flyer to Diners Club on the 28th will be processed on the 30th and all points will be posted to accounts sometime on the 31st. At that point in time since there are not live Diners reps on the weekend, you will need to go online to the Diners site at
http://www.clubrewards.dinersclubus.com to make the transfer request for the BA offer.You would click on the Air Travel link on the left, then click on Points-to-Miles option which will display all of the current offers. By following this process and submitting your transfer request online by the midnight deadline (while the offer is still on the Diners Web site), your request will be honored and the points will be moved at the 1-1 rate.

Has anyone actually done this deal? If so, I'll take one of the Inside Flyer subscriptions (surely you don't want all 29 copies arriving in your mailbox?) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

29? How about an order for 429 (no typos); I'll email to see if he's nterested in flipping you a subscription!

Due to some quirks in Diners Club dollars to DC points AND DC points to BA miles posting cycles, the DC:BA 1:1 promotion effectively ends at THURSDAY AUG 28 at midnight for online purchases and FRIDAY AUG 29 at 1030a MT/1230p ET for purchases phoned into 'Inside Flyer' direct at 719-597-8880.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by beaubo:
29? How about an order for 429 (no typos); I'll email to see if he's nterested in flipping you a subscription!</font>

I'll take a half-dozen and pass them around to other road warrior friends in my neighborhood! Really! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif

I'll see your 6 and raise you 10. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Need an address to send a subscription to a worth ft-er? Send me some email!