US Airways Grand Slam Strategy

OK, we’re into our final 2 weeks of the US Airways Grand Slam promotion. So far, I’m 31 hits in, and they’ve been the following:

  • 2 US Airways card hits (1 credit, 1 debit)
  • 4 Hotel transfer hits 
  • 6 car rental hits 
  • 1-800-Flowers
  • Audience Rewards
  • Biscoff
  • Bought 1,000 miles
  • Dining
  • Dividend Miles Shopping Mall
  • E-Miles
  • E-Rewards
  • ING ShareBuilder
  • Magazines for Miles
  • Network Solutions
  • Office Max
  • Perform 3 searches with Dividend Miles Toolbar
  • Skymall
  • SuperShuttle
  • Swap other miles into Dividend Miles at points.com
  • Thanks Again
  • Twitter sign promotion
  • Vinesse
Here are some stats:
  • After the next hit, I will have spent $308.51 on 80,000 miles
  • I picked up another 11,503 miles from the above hits (Sharebuilder, for example, was an additional 2,500 miles)
  • My cost is .33 cents per mile right now.
  • US Airways normally charges 3.5 cents per mile
  • My Network Solutions hit has not posted yet and could take a few weeks.
  • I called Office Max, Super Shuttle, and Skymall to get those hits posted.
I’m pretty happy with where I stand right now. I just need to figure out if I’m going to stop at 32 hits or if I’ll go all the way to 36. My last hits would probably be FTD, Teleflora, TrackItBack, sharing miles, and a Choice hotel stay. Even at $45 per hit, those extra 20,000 miles would cost me less than one cent per mile. It’s a tough call, but I’ve got a couple weeks to figure it out. I hope you’ve at least gotten the cheap and free hits out of the way. Remember, the promotion ends November 14th!

100,000 Hyatt Point Contest

10 people will win 100,000 Hyatt points. There are 9 Hyatt facebook pages, and you can enter one time per page. Here they are:

  1. Hyatt (www.facebook.com/Hyatt),
  2. Hyatt Hotels (www.facebook.com/hyatthotels),
  3. Park Hyatt (www.facebook.com/ParkHyatt),
  4. Andaz (www.facebook.com/andaz),
  5. Grand Hyatt (www.facebook.com/grandhyatt),
  6. Hyatt Regency (www.facebook.com/HyattRegency),
  7. Hyatt Place (www.facebook.com/HyattPlace),
  8. Hyatt Summerfield Suites(www.facebook.com/HyattSummerfieldSuites),
  9. Hyatt Vacation Club (www.facebook.com/hyattvacationclub)

US Airways Grand Slam (Recap of First 31 Hits)

If you haven’t registered for this promotion yet, click here. The idea is to collect “hits.” Your hits will only count once you register. For every 4 hits you get, your miles multiply. This is the simple table of how it works:

Hits
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
32
36
Miles
3,000
10,000
15,000
25,000 
35,000
45,000 
60,000
80,000
100,000


Look at the rules here to see what qualifies as a hit.

    ***NOTE: For things like Netflix and USA Today, if you cancel your subscription before May 14, 2012, you will lose all Grand Slam miles earned.***

    US Airways Grand Slam – Hits 1 Through 20

    Already done with the first 15 hits. They are as follows:
    1. The twitter contest I mentioned here 

    2. Mags For Miles. Log into your US Airways Dividend Miles account page, go to “use miles,” “subscriptions for miles,” then “magazines.” I subscribed to a magazine which cost me 500 miles.
    3. I went to amazon.com via US Airways Shopping Mall and made a purchase
    4. I transferred 2,500 Starwood points to 2,500 US Airways miles
    5. I transferred 5,000 Choice hotel points to 1,000 US Airways miles
    6. I ransferred 10,000 Hilton Honors points to 850 US Airways miles
    7. I signed up at Thanks Again, Through the website, I went to restaurant.com and got a $25 gift certificate to a nearby Indian restaurant. The cost was $10, but I used promo code SAVE and paid $2.
    8. I bought a $10 item at Skymall via the US Airways Shopping Mall. Make sure you put your mileage number in at checkout.
    9. Downloaded US Airways Toolbar and performed 3 searches on Internet Explorer
    10. Used my US Airways debit card
    11. Answered Audience Rewards questions (the answers are: 8, False, Parker, Walter Kerr Theatre, Yale, True).
    12. Bought 1,000 miles
    13. Used US Airways Credit Card
    14. Bought Anna’s Trial Size cookies from Biscoff
    15. Super Shuttle – Made a dummy reservation from Phoenix airport to Aloft Phoenix airport hotel for $4, using code UYR59.
      (Note: I live nowhere near Phoenix and will not be showing up for this ride).
    16. Yes, I am the weirdo who takes surveys at e-rewards.com. And, yes, it is a pain. But I did just transfer $25 in e-rewards bucks to US Airways for my 16th hit.
    17. I spent under $20 (including shipping) at 1-800-Flowers for my 19th hit. Click the link and enter your mileage number on the checkout page where you enter credit card information.

    18. Sharebuilder here paid me 2,500 miles in addition to the hit.
    19. Transferred 5000 Amex Membership Rewards points to Best Western. Then transferred 5000 Best Western points to US Airways for 1000 miles (and my 21st hit).
    20. I’ve been doing tons of surveys at e-miles.com. Yes, they are tedious. But I finally hit 500 miles, and transferred them to US Airways for my 20th hit.

    US Airways Grand Slam – Hit 21

    This one was slightly complicated, but completely free…
    • Last week I exchanged 5 US Airways miles for 1 Frontier Airlines mile at points.com. 

    • That processed today, giving me a total of 1,001 Frontier Airlines miles (I already had 1,000 Frontier miles from a promotion that was posted on this blog).
    • I went back to points.com and exchanged my 1,001 Frontier Airlines miles for 184 US Airways miles. This will count as my 16th hit. The reason I had to go through all these steps is because you need a minimum of 1,001 Frontier miles to make an exchange.

    Note: If you have 25,000 American Airlines miles in your account, there’s an easier way to get the points.com hit. All you have to do is exchange 4 American Airlines miles for 1 US Airways mile. You can also exchange 4 Continental miles for 1 US Airways mile.
    When you log into your US Airways Dividend Miles account and click the Office Max link, Office Max will immediately ask for your mileage number and you’re good to go. I did this today, and it looks like I’m pretty much done with the “easy” hits. No free shipping under $50 though, so I ended up paying 18 bucks for some envelopes.


    Well, I jumped the gun yesterday when I said the easy hits were done. I consider “easy” hits to be under $30, so besides 1-800-Flowers, I still have:
    • The dining hit

    • Track It Back
    • Network Solutions
    • FTD
    • The 6 car rental hits

    I need to crunch the numbers, but I should be able to keep this rolling for at least 60,000 miles.

    So far, I have 22 hits which equals 35,000 miles (my total cost has been $126.34). I know this promotion is complicated so please email me if you get confused. One suggestion to stay organized is using an amazing spreadsheet that can be found here.

    US Airways Grand Slam – Hit 23

    Vinesse Wine Club is hit 23 in my quest for more miles. If you’re out of free hits, this is a good inexpensive option. Log into your US Airways Dividend Miles account and find Vinesse in the “Get Miles” section. Click “Vinesse Home” and select “Wine Accessories.” These start at $7.95, so just make sure you type your mileage number at checkout.

    US Airways Grand Slam – Hit 24

    Network Solutions. 3-year domain name purchase. I saved 70% using promo code TECHDOM3AF.


    US Airways Grand Slam – Hit 25

    Dining. Easy one.



    US Airways Grand Slam – Hits 26 through 31

    1. Go to Hertz.com
    2. Enter zip code
    3. Use CDP code 211762 and PC code 162330
    4. Rent the cheapest car for a day
    5. Make sure you enter your US Airways Dividend Miles number on the last checkout page.
    6. Pick your car up and hand the keys right back to them.

    I’m not thrilled to pay 21 bucks a pop for this hit, but all the cheapest/free ones are gone. You can do this one 6 times max, and you can’t rent them on the same day.


    Award Wallet

    I started this blog at the beginning of the year. Since then, I’ve made 1.3 million miles and hotel points (some still pending). When I encourage people to hustle miles for themselves, their most common response is, “It sounds so complicated.” I disagree with that. It takes about an hour per week and a little bit of organization. Nothing more.

    By far, the most helpful tool which helps me stay organized is Award Wallet. If you haven’t started using it, I can’t recommend it enough. They provide a great product and I’m happy to see them introduce a new product – the Award Wallet One Card. I don’t get paid to feel this way, I just hope their brand continues to grow. What they do makes it a whole lot easier to do what we do. 

    100 More Southwest Miles

    As I wrote last week, this is a 6-week contest. The answers for week 4 are:

    1. All
    2. You already planned on making
    3. True
    4. Restaurants
    5. Have fun