Still Alive-Get 25,000 AMEX MR Points For Opening A Free Business Gold Rewards Card!

Anyone Can Easily Get A Business Card

25,000 AMEX MR points can be easily transferred into 25,000 Continental miles.
25,000 Continental miles is enough for a domestic ticket, or churn the card 3 times and use their 70,000 mile coach award ticket to Israel, or save up for the 100,000 mile business-first class ticket to Israel!

There is no fee for one year.

Other card benefits:
-Additional Baggage Insurance: Up to $1,250 for carry-on and $500 for checked.
-Event Ticket Insurance: If you can't go to a ticketed event due to a medical emergency, or if your ticket is stolen, you can get a refund.

AMEX Business Gold Rewards Linky

BREAKING NEWS! American Express Platinum Charge Card Now Allows Free Access To AA AAdmirals Clubs!!!

For those of you who got the AMEX Business Platinum for negative $250 during the promotion earlier this year, it just keeps on getting better!

Starting immediately cardholders and their spouses and children, or up to 2 guests can enter AA's AAdmiral clubs for free when flying with AA!

AA normally charges $50 for a visit.

Read more about some of the amazing benefits of the expensive (currently $395) and exclusive AMEX Platinum here:

Amex Plat Info Linky

American Express Financial Review-What Is It And How To Avoid It...

American Express occasionally freezes the credit card accounts of individuals with high-risk patterns.

They request lots of personal information, such as IRS returns, that most people are hesitant to fax away in today's age of security risks.

I personally have a dozen or so AMEX cards, and have never had a financial review, so I don't speak from my own experience, but here are some important steps you can do to avoid the dreaded financial review:

-Keep your credit lines on each of your AMEX's below $25,000.
One symptom commonly found among people who have been hit with a review is very high credit lines.

-NEVER utilize over 50% of the credit line of any of your AMEX cards.
If you have a Starwood card with a $10,000 limit, never have a balance of over $4,999, even if you pay it off every month on time.

-Keep your collective credit balances well below your stated annual income.
If you reported an annual income of $200,000, AMEX won't like it if you have $190,000 of credit available to spend in one month.


What if you do get hit with a financial review?

Immediately call up AMEX and ask to close down every one of your accounts.
If the AMEX financial review bean-counters close your accounts they will say closed by issuer, which is quite bad.
If you pre-emptively close them they will simply say closed at customer request, and will barely hurt your credit.

Suffering from Starwood AMEX withdrawal?
Don't worry!
Since you pre-emptively closed your accounts, just wait a few months and then you can apply all over again, and you will even get the signup bonus again!

SMOKING HOT! Vote On Videos And Get Up To 2,000 Delta Skymiles. Purchase Delta Tickets On Any AMEX And Get Double Your Actual Flight Miles!!!!

This offer is open to everyone (non-targeted!)
Delta Video Voting Registration Linky

"You watch the travel videos of the teams in each destination. Then, you vote for the video that most makes you want to travel to that place.
The team with the fewest votes gets eliminated from the Challenge! (Ouch.) The other teams go on to the next round.
There are four rounds in all.
You can get 250 bonus miles for every round you vote in.
Plus, you can get an extra 1,000 miles if you vote in all four rounds—for a total of 2,000 bonus miles.
Destination 1-Voting August 6,7,8
Destination 2-Voting August 20,21,22
Destination 3-Voting September 3,4,5
Final Destination-Voting September 17,18,19"

During Registration be sure to check the box that says "Sign up to earn double miles from American Express."

"As part of the SiteSeer Challenge, American Express Cardmembers can also earn double flown miles! Enroll between 7/25/07 and 9/19/07, and then use any American Express Card to purchase a ticket on delta.com. This offer is available for flights between 7/25/07-9/30/07. All travel must be completed on 9/30/07."

HT: Asher O.

Current AMEX Promos For The Month Of July!

Reminder: Apply for these special signup offers before it's too late!

Originally posted on 07/08
Related Links:
Google Credit Card Processing Linky
How Anyone Can Easily Get A Business Card


Consumer Cards:

Jetblue:
Annual fee=$40
Special Offer:
-Get 50 award points (instead of the regular 25) with your first purchase.
Neat card benefits:
-When you have a Jetblue AMEX you can keep all of your Jetblue Trueblue mileage account points from expiring simply by using your card or flying Jetblue!
-Double points for speding on entertainment, leisure, travel and dining!

Jetblue Amex Linky


Starwood:
Annual fee=Free for 1 year, $30 thereafter.
Special Offer:
-Get an additional bonus 15,000 points on top of the 10,000 signup points and the 15,000 points earned for the purchases when you spend $15,000 in the first 6 months of getting the card!
Neat card benefits:
-Ability to use Starwood points in so many ways, including transferring to airlines mileage at very favorable rates (20,000 starpoints=50,000 Lanpass Kilometers)
-90 day window to return any purchase up to $300 to AMEX regardless of the store's return policy.

Starwood AMEX Linky


Hilton:
Annual fee=None.
Special Offer:
-Get an additional bonus 15,000 points on top of the 10,000 signup points and the 15,000 points earned for the purchases when you spend $5,000 in the first 6 months of getting the card!
-Earn 2,500 points for each of your fitst 4 stays at a Hilton paid for on your Hilton AMEX.
Neat card benefits:
-Earn 5 points per dollar spent at Hilton, supermarkets, drugstores, gas stations, dining, U.S. Postal Service, and for wireless phone bills.
-Earn 3 points per dollar spent elsewhere.

Hilton AMEX Linky


Business Cards:

AMEX Business Gold Rewards:
Annual fee=Free for 1 year, $125 thereafter.
Special Offer:
-Earn 25,000 AMEX Membership rewards points after your first purchase-enough points for a free ticket when you transfer the points into miles on a US carrier!
Neat card benefits:
-Baggage Insurance: Up to $1,250 for carry-on and $500 for checked.
-Event Ticket Insurance: If you can't go to a ticketed event due to a medical emergency, or if your ticket is stolen, you can get a refund.

AMEX Business Gold Rewards Linky

Get ANOTHER 2,500 Starwood Points When You Are Activating Your Starwood Consumer Card!!!

Related Post:
Hot AMEX Signup Bonuses For July!


This is really simple, but it may not work for everyone.

I discovered this after activating a few family member's cards.

When you are activating your card, push "0" to speak to a live person.
They will run through a whole activation spiel with you.
As part of the spiel they will offer you the ability to add an additional card to your account and get 2,500 bonus starwood points for adding one cardholder, with no annual fee!

Getting an additional card should not affect your credit at all.

You do not have to give the other cardholders social security number, just a birthdate (Tell them that you don't know their social security number).

If you are not offered the additional card or the 2,500 points, just ask for it!

Good luck, and please post your experiences!

Additionally I was not successful in one try at getting this promo for an existing card, but if anyone is successful, please post that as well!

An Attempt At Clarifying People's Confusion Regarding Starpoints...

Note: Even if you didn't follow these steps and you signed for the starwood credit card before getting a starwood number, you will still have a starwood number, and possibly multiple numbers if you have more than 1 credit card.
Just call up AMEX to find out what it is, and then register it on www.spg.com
If you have multiple numbers then call Starwood to merge the accounts.

Many people have emailed me and commented that although I am always posting great uses for Starpoints, I do not make the process entirely clear.

Another point of confusion among some people seems to be where the points are stored.

For starters, here's a point of comparison:
Having points with Starwood is just like having miles on American Airlines(AA)!
-With both AA and Starwood you have a mileage account, in which you collect "miles" (AAdvantage miles with AA or Starpoints with Starwood).
-They both have affiliated credit cards, AA has one issued by Citi and Starwood has one issued by Amex.
-Every month Citi automatically transfers your miles over to your AA account, and every month Amex automatically transfers your points into your Starwood account.
-Both the AA and Starwood credit cards have signup bonuses and both cards can be churned (meaning that the signup bonus can be earned multiple times.)
-Both the AA and Starwood credit cards come in consumer and business versions.
The business versions generally have more benefits. (AA's business card earns double miles for AA tickets, and the Starwood business card saves you up to 5% on stuff like Delta or Jetblue tickets and Fedex with Amex Open Savings)

Having said that, here is a step by step process of turning starpoints into free tickets.

Step 1: Go to www.spg.com (SPG stands for Starwood Preferred Guest.)

Step 2: In the middle column it says, "JOIN STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST"
Enter in your Email address and click join!

Step 3: Fill out your personal information, make a spg.com user ID and password, and get a SPG Starpoints number.

Step 4: SAVE YOUR STARPOINTS NUMBER AND YOUR USER ID/PASSWORD IN A SAFE PLACE!

Step 5:Open up a consumer and business starwood amex card to receive 20,000 starpoints for signing up.(Links for the best offers can be found at the top of this site. The consumer version currently has a sweet bonus offer worth up to 25,000 starpoints!)
Be sure to enter in your Starwood number that you just received into the application forms!

Step 6: You will see the points from the starwood credit cards show up into your starwood account within a week of when the statement closes.

Step 7: Decide what you want to do with your starpoints! Read about the options in the knowledgebase!


Let's say that you want to transfer the 40,000 starpoints you have (because you have churned each of the starwood cards) into 100,000 kilometers on LAN in order to get a ticket from Chicago-Tel Aviv (cost=95,000 kilometers).


Step 8: Go to the knowledgebase and find the link to get 5,000 free kilometers for signing up for a LAN account.

Step 9: Sign up for the LAN account and keep you user ID, password, and LAN number in a safe place.

Step 10: Click on the following link to take you to the transfer points page: Starpoint Transfer Linky

Step 11: Go to Airline transfer, and click on "transfer now."

Step 12: Login to your starpoints account when prompted.

Step 13: Choose to transfer to LAN Lanpass, at a ratio of 1 starpoints=2 lanpass kilometers. You also get a bonus 10,000 kilometers for every 20,000 starpoints that you transfer, so (contrary to what the starwood site itself may indicate) 40,000 starpoints will net you 100,000 kilometers.

Step 14: When the kilometers show up in your Lanpass account call up LAN to book your mileage ticket to Israel. They should ticket you on British Airways via London.


Some tidbits that you may not know:
-You can transfer starpoints between any starpoint account in your household simply by giving starwood a call!
-You automatically become elite (preferred plus level) when you have the starwood AMEX card! With preferred plus elite status you get a free room upgrade upon check-in and a guaranteed 4pm late checkout at any Starwood brand hotel!
-You can sign up anyone in your family for a Starwood AMEX card and give AMEX your starwood number. All of the points earned will conveniently automatically go into your account!

SMOKING HOT! Get 25,000 AMEX MR Points For Opening A Business Gold Rewards Card!

Related Post:
How To Get A Business Credit Card

Amex Business Gold Rewards 25,000 MR Points Offer Linky
The first year on this card is fee-free!
25,000 Amex MR Points can be transferred into 25,000 miles on many airlines, including Continental, Delta, and Frontier!

BOILING HOT! BEST STARWOOD SIGNUP BONUS OFFER EVER!!!

-Earn 10,000 starpoints for opening up the card.
-Earn another 30,000 starpoints (15,000 for the 1 point per dollar spent, and a 15,000 point bonus) for spending $15,000 on the card in the first 6 months of having the card!
The Starwood Amex is currently churnable (you can earn the signup bonus multiple times)
Need some help getting to $15,000?
You obviously didn't read my previous post!
Starwood Signup Offer Linky
HT: Asher O.

Starwood Branded Hotels In Israel.

In the recent Starwood post an anonymous commenter asked about the Starwood branded hotels in Israel.
Less than 20 minutes later another anonymous commenter answered,
"Israel is one of the best places to use the starwood points (since they dont categorize them properly) - Le meridien dead sea 2-3000 points and the Herods Eilat which usually costs around 350 Dollars (cat 3) is only 7000 points in America it would be a Cat 6 - The Jerusalem Sheraton is also only 7000 points but not such a great hotel - still a unreal value."

Now that is how the comments system is supposed to work-other people answering questions that they know about!

Since I have a planned trip to go to Israel in August for the first time since I was an infant, I have been looking into this issue as well!
P.S. If anyone has any other Israel tips (cell phones, car rentals, GPS rentals, etc.) please leave a comment!


There are 13 Starwood hotels in Israel.

Category 1:
Le Méridien Dead Sea
Sheraton Moriah Dead Sea
Le Méridien Haifa

Category 2:
Sheraton Moriah Eilat
Sheraton Moriah Tiberias

Category 3:
Sheraton Jerusalem Plaza Hotel
Sheraton City Tower Tel Aviv
Sheraton Moriah Tel Aviv
Herods Forum Eilat
Herods Vitalis Spa Eilat
Le Méridien Eilat
Sheraton Herods Palace Hotel Eilat

Category 4:
Sheraton Tel Aviv Hotel and Towers


Again, here is the cost in starpoints by category,

Unrestricted:
Category 1: 3,000 points (2,000 on a weekend)
Category 2: 4,000 points (3,000 on a weekend)
Category 3: 7,000 points
Category 4: 10,000 points

Restricted Cash And Points: (Tentative-Launching June 28th.)
Category 1: 1,200 points + $25
Category 2: 1,600 points + $30
Category 3: 2,800 points + $45
Category 4: 4,000 points + $60

Launching June 28th: Improved Starwood Starpoints/Cash Hotel Awards!

Please note: This news has yet to be confirmed from Starwood, but the source is trustworthy enough to make a post about this already.

Good news!
It will soon be cost even less starpoints to stay in great hotels worldwide!

Here's a brief summary in order to understand what is changing.
There are 6 good uses for starpoints.

Use #1: Unrestricted, No Blackouts/Capacity Controlled Hotel Stays: See Below.
Use #2: Restricted Cash And Points Hotel Stays: See Below.
Use #3: Hotel Room Upgrades: Starts at 1,000 points.
Use #4: Nights AND Flights: 60,000 starpoints gets you 50,000 miles on the airline of your choice AND 5 nights in a category 3 hotel.
70,000 starpoints gets you 50,000 miles on the airline of your choice AND 5 nights in a category 4 hotel.
Use #5: 5th Night Free: When you book an unrestricted category 3-6 hotel award for 5 nights you only pay for the points of 4 nights.
Use #6: Transferring into Real Airline Miles. 20,000 starpoints=25,000 miles on numerous airlines.

Use #2 is what is dramatically improving.
Until now the cash and points option was only available at maybe 50 htoels worldwide.
Now it will become available for all hotels in categories 3-6 and for Asia/Pacific hotels in categories 1-2 as well.

Here is the pricing difference between an unrestricted hotel stay and a restricted cash and points stay.

Unrestricted:
Category 1: 3,000 points (2,000 on a weekend)
Category 2: 4,000 points (3,000 on a weekend)
Category 3: 7,000 points
Category 4: 10,000 points
Category 5: 12,000 points (16,000 in peak season)
Category 6: 20,000 points (25,000 in peak season)


Restricted Cash And Points:
These rates are tentative and not official yet-hopefully they will be confirmed by Starwood by June 28th!
Category 1: 1,200 points + $25
Category 2: 1,600 points + $30
Category 3: 2,800 points + $45
Category 4: 4,000 points + $60
Category 5: 4,800 points + $90
Category 6: 8,000 points + $150

Coming Soon: Earn Starpoints On Your House!!!

This is huge-pay your mortgage with plastic!!!
If anyone is able to pay for their mortgage on their Amex please post a comment!
AmEx Plans Mortgage Rewards

An Introduction To Cathay Pacific Asia Miles-Part 1.

One of the numerous uses of starpoints is the ability to transfer points into airline miles at a 20,000 starpoints=25,000 miles rate.

Cathay Pacific is arguably the best airline in which to transfer points to.
Note that Cathay Pacific has no US based credit card, so the Starwood Amex is the absolute best method to earn Asia miles from credit card spending.

People have been asking for months to help clarify the highly complicated Cathay Pacific Asia Miles program, so here's a start.

The confusion stems from the fact that the program is very different than normal US based mileage programs, but its primary value is owed to that uniqueness.

First of all, about the airline, Cathay Pacific.
-They operate with their hub in Hong Kong.
-They are part of the Oneworld (AA, BA, JAL, Qantas, etc.) Alliance.
-They consistently win awards for their top-notch business and first classes, and even economy is much better than US based airlines.

Cathay Pacific has 2 programs, the Marco Polo club and Asia miles.
Marco Polo club is only for recognition for frequent fliers. If you are just transferring starpoints you will never need to worry about the Marco Polo Club, so just ignore it.

US based mileage programs charge based on the country of flying. If you want to go from New York to Tel Aviv or Los Angeles to Tel Aviv on Continental it will be the same 70,000 miles in coach or 100,000 in business/first.
At the same token, Los Angeles to Hawaii and New York to Hawaii will always be 35,000 miles.

Asia Miles charges based on the distance of the flight. For regular mileage tickets there are 7 mileage zones.
Mileage Zone Chart Linky
Here's how it works:
First go to the great circle mapper to research the one-way distance of a flight.
For example type in ORD-LHR(Chicago/O' Hare-London/Heathrow) to discover that the distance is 3,953 miles, or that JFK-GRU(New York/JFK-Sao Paulo) is 4,745 miles.
Then plug the number into the Asia Miles award chart to discover that both of those distances will fall into Zone C.
While you use the one-way distance to figure out the zone, the miles shown is the price for a round-trip ticket in that zone.
So a round trip ORD-LHR on AA or British Airways or JFK-GRU on AA or JAL will be 45,000 in coach, 60,000 in business, and 90,000 in first.
These rates, especially for business class, are significantly less than if you have miles on AA, BA, or JAL.

Here's where the program gets really bizarre:
Look at the distance from LAX-HNL(Los Angeles-Honolulu) and SFO-HNL(S. Fransisco-Honolulu).
Believe it or not, LAX is further from HNL than SFO is. 157 miles further to be precise.
Because of that very small difference though, SFO-HNL falls into Zone B, while LAX-HNL falls into Zone C!

To be continued...



©2007 Ctownbochur.com
Questions, Suggestions, Errors? Please leave a comment!
Please do not post this article on any other website without explicit prior permission. Thank You!

American Express Business Platinum Card Adds 2 New Benefits; Annual Fee Will Increase Beginning May 1st.

The American Express Business Platinum card will be going up from $300/year to $395/year starting on May 1st.

Many readers of site were able to get the card for negative $250 during the last Business Amex promo.

The 2 new benefits, which are effective immediately for all cardholders, are Domestic companion tickets, and Regus Executive Club Membership Office membership.

With the domestic companion benefit, any ticket $299 and above($699-$899 for Hawaii and Alaska) qualifies for a free companion ticket.
What really is unique about this companion program is that it actually works.
-There is no special fare class that you have to book in, any old ticket on one of the Big 6 airlines qualify.
-If the ticket is under $299 Amex will round the ticket up to $299 so that you can get the other ticket for free.
-You can use this program up to 4 times per calender year.
-The cardholder must be one of the travelers.
-There are some blackout dates.

The other new feature is the Regus Executive Club Membership.
You can now access offices and get free internet and refreshments in offices around the world!

The other amazing card benefits have stayed the same for the most part, some of them include:
-Free Continental, Delta, And Northwest Airline Club Access.
-Free Starwood Gold Status.
-Free elite status with Avis, Hertz, and National Rental cars.
-If any item that you buy(up to $10,000)is lost within 90 days of purchase, the money will be refunded.

Double Miles On All Purchases With Personal Delta Amex Card Between 04/15 And 06/15 With Registration!!!

This offer is likely targeted and may not work for everyone, please leave a comment whether or not you were successful in registering for this offer.
You will need to have online Amex account management already set up to register.
Registration Linky

SMOKING HOT!!!!! UNLIMITED FREE COMPANION TICKETS FOR JETBLUE AMEX CARDHOLDERS!!!!!

Reminder: Free Companion Tickets Must Be Booked By 03/31!
There's still time to apply for a Jetblue card to catch this deal!

Have a Jetblue Amex?
You're in luck!
You can bring along 1 companion for every Jetblue trip you take between April 24 and May 23 for free!
This offer even includes international destinations!

Jetblue Route Map Linky
-Tickets must be booked by March 31st.
-The primary cardholder must be one of the passengers.
You must book tickets via the phone at 800-JETBLUE, just ask for the Jetblue Amex free companion deal.

Remember to use your Jetblue Business Amex to save get a 5% rebate off the cost of all your Jetblue tickets!

Don't have a Jetblue Amex?
There's still time to get one for this promo!
Just wait for a couple days after you are approved and then call Amex to ask them to expedite the delivery of your credit card.
Plus your Jetblue credits won't expire when you have any Jetblue Amex!
Jetblue Consumer Amex Linky
Jetblue Business Amex Linky

Read the Card Profile for a breakdown of card fees and benefits:
Jetblue Amex Credit Card Profile Linky

Jetblue LCC Roundup Linky

New AMEX/Amazon/Ctownbochur.com Half A Million Hits Promotion!!!

Update: Just 6 more days to take advantage of this special promotion! There's never been a better time for you and your friends to get a couple Starwood cards-even if you've got 'em already!

Be sure to read the More Promo Info Post...

Welcome to the ctownbochur.com 500,000 hits promotion! The 500,000th hit raffle will be held after the close of this promo, so that I will know how many tickets each person will get.

Apply and get approved for the following credit cards and get Amazon.com Gift Certificates and raffle tickets in addition to the bonuses for signing up for the cards!
The 500,000th hit raffle will include items such as MP3 players, MP3 Speakers, Bluetooth Headsets, Flash Drives, etc.
The only way to be in the raffle is with this promotion!
Already have some of the cards? I know that the Starwood Business can be churned, help everyone figure out which other cards can be churned!

Here is the reward scale:
1 Card Approval=$25 GC+1 Raffle Ticket
2 Card Approvals=$55 GC+2 Raffle Tickets
3 Card Approvals=$85 GC+5 Raffle Tickets
4 Card Approvals=$115 GC+6 Raffle Tickets
5 Card Approvals=$150 GC+7 Raffle Tickets
6 Card Approvals=$200 GC+10 Raffle Tickets
7 Card Approvals=Round-Trip Domestic Business Class Ticket+160 GB Hard Drive!!!

Rules-IMPORTANT!!!
1.You must apply for all cards between 1:30 AM EST on 02/07/07 and 11:59 PM EST on 02/20/07.
2.You must apply by clicking on the credit card images in this post.
3.Once you are done applying for all the cards you must email me the exact time and date that you clicked on each application image and the city that you are applying from.
4.You will receive your bonus immediately after I confirm how many cards you were approved for, the time frame is approximately 2-4 weeks after the date of application.

Email Address:


Learn more about some of these cards in the credit card profiles menu in the ctownbochur.com knowledgebase.

Starwood Consumer: 1st year free/$30 subsequent years.

Hilton Consumer: No Annual fee.

Delta Consumer: 1st year free/$85 subsequent years.

Starwood Business: 1st year free/$30 subsequent years.

Jetblue Business: 1st year negative $10/$40 subsequent years.

Delta Business: 1st year free/$85 subsequent years.


Discover Business: No annual fee.

Suggestions, questions, criticisms? Please leave a comment!

Today Only! Transfer Amex MR Points Into Continental Miles And Get 2,500 Bonus Miles!!!

2 Thumbs up to Continental Airlines for this gesture!

The Membership Rewards bonus mile offer on page 118 of our February inflight magazine is not valid and was due to a printing error. For those of you that have made any Membership Rewards transfers into your OnePass account between 1-Feb 2007 and this coming Sunday 11-Feb 2007, we'll make good on the bonus (one per account). To get the bonus, all you'll need to do is call the OnePass Service Center (713 952 1630) after your Membership Rewards transfer is completed.
Scott O'Leary
Managing Director, Customer Experience | Continental Airlines

Double Starpoints For Paying Taxes With Your Starwood Card!

You can receive up to 5,000 bonus starwood points with this promo.
Promo Linky
Even with the 2.49% processing fee it is still well worth it to use your starwood card to pay your taxes as I explained previously...

Buy Continental Tickets With Any Amex-Get Bonus Miles!

You must have a Continental Onepass mileage number to register.
To register call 800-554-5522 and mention promotion code 27001.
Get 10,000 bonus miles for tickets booked in J/D/A/C fare classes or 5,000 bonus miles for tickets booked in Y/H/K/N/B/O/V/U fare classes.
Travel must be flown between 1/15/07 and 4/15/07.
You can earn up to 50,000 miles for this promo.

Don't have an Amex? There's no excuse for anyone not to carry at least 1 Starwood Consumer and Business Card!