AA lock out details, an indirect transfer partner, easier Star Gold and more

In today’s Frequent Miler week in review around the web, read about an indirect transfer partner to keep in mind, a detailed datapoint from the AA shut down that is worth a read, easy(ish) paths to Star Alliance Gold and more.

How To Transfer Points For Shangri-La Free Nights (From Amex, Chase, & More)

David at Point Me to the Plane points us to a potentially interesting indirect transfer path to move points from the major credit card currencies to Shangri-La for free night awards. While my bet is that this isn’t a great value in most situations, he points to transfer bonuses and promotions at the end that could potentially make a big difference if you’re able to take advantage of the right opportunity. I have no immediate plans to use this one, but it’s always great to file away knowledge like this for the day when it comes in handy.

Locked by AA – My Data Point with Details & Thoughts

This post from Middle Age Miles was widely shared by other blogs this week, but if you somehow missed it or didn’t read it yet, it’s worth a read whether or not you’re caught up in the AA shutdown shenanigans. I think it’s a particularly poignant data point for those who would brandish their pitchforks at those who “ruin things for those that play by the rules” since Craig’s activity wasn’t outlandish and his loyalty to and spending with AA seem to far eclipse the value he received from welcome bonuses. The fact that locked accounts are going so long without resolution seems to me like an indication that AA is manually reviewing accounts to determine where to draw their lines in the sand, but it’s somewhat surprising to me to hear that some customers affected haven’t received any communication at all from AA. Whichever side you find yourself on in this mess, this post was well-written and is well-worth a few minutes of your day.

Singapore Airlines launches “KrisFlyer Experiences”: use miles for money-can’t-buy experiences

This isn’t live yet, but I’m interested to see how this plays out. With Singapore not having a huge US presence and its poor mileage expiration policy (miles expire 36 months after being earned / transferred regardless of activity), I think it’s at least possible that there could be less competition for these “moments” type experiences when they go live. I’ll keep an eye out since it is particularly easy for US customers to put together Singapore miles — it’ll just be a matter of how many people are paying attention.

The Best Ways to Earn Star Alliance Gold

A couple of years ago, Greg searched for ways to get easy Star Alliance Gold status and came up short in his quest. In this post, Canadian blog Prince of Travel compiles the easier ways to get there via less travel / spend than would be required on United. I currently have United Silver status thanks to Marriott Titanium, but wouldn’t mind finding a way to pick up Star Alliance Gold for lounge access. Note that the Shangri-La status mentioned in this post from the Amex Platinum card comes from the version available in Canada / Australia / some other countries, but the other paths here look pretty good.

Best Brokerage Bonuses – Earn Up To $3,500

I wrote in 2019 about my intention to put more focus on going after really easy bank account bonuses and indeed I’ve been doing pretty well on them over the past couple of months. While I had racked up some experience with such bonuses years ago, I had completely ignored brokerage bonuses before Acorns started throwing around money and then ignored them again until the SoFi Money and SoFi Investing deal came around late last year. I’ve left some of SoFi’s money invested and been pleased with the results, so I’ve turned an eye toward other brokerage bonuses. I wrote just a few days ago about my experience thus far with Webull and its interesting targeted bonuses. While we have long linked to Doctor of Credit’s monthly best bank account bonuses resource page in our last chance deals posts, this new resource from Doctor of Credit summarizes many of the best brokerage bonuses available. Offers like these can amount to nearly free money if you can move cash around and it just makes sense to put some of your money to work this way if you can. Just keep in mind that this is a much slower game since some of the bigger bonuses require leaving money on deposit for a much longer period of time.

That’s it for this week around the web. Check back soon for this week’s last chance deals.

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