Travelogues

Airline shopping portals have announced their back to school promotions. The payouts are as follows: AAdvantage eShopping : Earn 2000 bonus miles when you spend $700 by 8/13 United MileagePlus Shopping : Earn 2500 bonus miles when you spend $600 by 8/14 Alaska Mileage Plan Shopping : Earn 1200 bonus miles when you spend $600 by 8/14 Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping : 2000 bonus miles when you spend $500 by 8/14 Earn extra miles via American Airlines shopping portal until 8/13 Southwest shopping portal Looks like Cartera didn't waste time coming up with different graphics for different portal. Unfortunately, an easy way to achieve this previously via giftcards.com purchases is not available this time. Other options include finishing your Amex credits shopping like Saks or Dell or combining the portal bonus with a cashback offer from one of your cards.

Singapore had been on my list of places to visit for a while. It boasts a thriving multi-cultural community, a great economy, is known for its cleanliness and greenery, and has one of the best airports in the world with an equally great airline that serves it. Singapore allows visa free entry to citizens of USA and most other nations except those from some unlucky 36. These unlucky include India, China and Russia. The easiest way to get a Singapore visa is if you have a Singapore citizen or permanent resident apply for you online at  www.ica.gov.sg . The other option is to reach out to the Singapore consulate nearest to you for instructions. If you reside in USA, this depends on the state that you reside in. There are four Singapore consulates in USA : Washington DC (Email: singemb_was@mfa.sg) New York (Email: singcon_nyc@mfa.sg) Miami (Email: SGreen@sg-miami-consulate.org) San Francisco (Email: singcg_sfo@mfa.sg) For e.g., all western states in the US are served by the San Francisco c

American Express is currently running a promotion that awards 30% bonus Avios when you transfer your Membership Reward points to either British Airways or Iberia. That is a spectacular deal if you were eyeing redemption opportunities with any of the Avios currency airlines. Avios is the currency of 4 airlines including British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Qatar Airways and it is possible to move Avios around to use it with the airline you want. Although things can get tricky for some  transfers,  but British Airways and Qatar Airways behave very well together, and it is now possible to connect their accounts once and pool their points for redemption with either airline. The addition of Qatar airways brought incredible opportunities at using Avios for booking coveted Qatar Qsuites. For e.g. when available, Qatar charges 2 prices for its Qsuites business class from US to India - 80K avios off peak and 160K avios at peak. With this transfer bonus, those values come down to about 62K MR

Turkish Airlines is a Star Alliance partner with extensive network and a great product. Its points currency 'Miles & Smiles' is useful for booking domestic US flights on United to Hawaii which cost only 7500 miles and for booking award tickets on its own metal as it releases very few awards to its partners. To accumulate Turkish points you can either fly a lot on Turkish or spend on its scant credit card portfolio available only in Israel, Jordan and Azerbaijan , shop with one of its travel partners like Wyndham, Alamo and Plaza Premium Lounge, or you can transfer points from one of its financial partners in various countries. In United States, you can transfer the following currencies to Turkish Miles & Smiles at 1:1 ratio. Capital One Miles Citi ThankYou points Bilt Reward Points