In this weeks “around the web” we report news about friend referrals to Southwest cards and to Amex Platinum. We discuss BA first class awards and the lack of point transfers to Lufthansa. And last, but not least, the devil is back… for a moment.
Credit Card News
Refer any Southwest card
Doctor of Credit reports that if you have any Southwest credit card, you can now earn a referral bonus by referring friends to any other Southwest card, including the business card! This is especially awesome since the points earned from referrals count towards the Southwest Companion Pass. If you have a Southwest card, you can get referral links here.
Amex Platinum 75K offer via refer-a-friend
The Amex Platinum card usually has a 60K welcome bonus (details here). Doctor of Credit reports that some are seeing a 75K offer when they use a friend referral in an incognito window.
Miles & Points News
Point transfers to Lufthansa suspended
It’s not possible at this time to transfer points to Lufthansa from other programs. One Mile at a Time reports the reason behind this hopefully temporary situation. Apparently a recent German law has made Lufthansa question whether point transfers are still legal. It’s in their lawyers hands now (don’t hold your breath).
BA first class awards wide open
God Save the Points reported that British Airways appeared to have opened up first class awards so that they were widely available on most flights and dates. That was a few days ago, so I don’t know if it’s still true, but it’s worth pointing out a nugget of info hidden in that post: anytime BA first class awards are available, that means that Avios upgrades from business class are also available. Gilbert points out that the best option for flying BA first class is often to buy discounted business class and then use Avios to upgrade. You can use Google Flights to find discount business class fares (see: How to find great business class fares with Google Flights). And, if you’re flying from the US, you can stack discounts: Extreme Stacking British Airways, AA, and Iberia flights.
Miscellaneous
Travel is Free podcasts the Devil with an assist from me: Devil’s Advocate Unmasked and Podcasted. Julian is the guy previously known as “Devil’s Advocate” who used to write a regular series here on Frequent Miler called “Bet you didn’t know”. The title of the podcast is a play on the post where I introduced Julian to this blog a number of years ago: Devil’s Advocate stolen and unmasked.
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