New ‘buy points’ deals with United, Carlson, American, Hyatt and Melia

Buying miles and points is rarely a great deal at the standard pricing although it can (as with the IHG Rewards Club flash sale last week) make sense during special offers.

Of course, if you only need a few thousand points to ‘top off’ an account for a redemption, the price doesn’t matter anyway.

There is a little-known HfP page here which has links to the ‘buy points’ pages of the major airline and hotel schemes.

Here are three new offers which may be of interest.  There will also be a 50% discount on Air France / KLM Flying Blue miles starting this Friday, I can exclusively reveal.

IHG will also be running another promotion in March, but it will be capped at 60%.  That said, it is worth delaying any IHG purchases you are planning for a couple of weeks.

United Airlines

Until 14th March, you will receive a bonus when you purchase United Airlines miles.  The link is here.

The bonus is:

Buy 5,000 to 14,000 miles for a 25% bonus

Buy 15,000 to 39,000 miles for a 50% bonus

Buy 40,000 to 85,000 miles for a 75% bonus

I only mention this because United miles are hard to earn in the UK – although there is a United credit card – so this may be a decent opportunity to top up (and potentially empty out) your account.

Club Carlson

Until 15th March, Club Carlson (Radisson, Park Inn, Park Plaza) is offering a 10% – 25% bonus.  The maximum bonus only kicks in when you buy more than 30,000 points.  The link is here.

A 25% bonus is NEVER good enough to turn a bad deal into a good deal.  However, if you need to top up your Carlson account then this is better than nothing.

Don’t forget, though, that you can convert Amex Membership Rewards points into Club Carlson at a generous 1:3 ratio.

American Airlines

Until TODAY (1st March), American Airlines is having yet another promotion!  The link to buy is here.

You will receive:

7,000 bonus miles for buying 20,000 to 39,000

15,000 bonus miles for buying 40,000 to 59,000

22,500 bonus miles for buying 60,000 to 74,000

30,000 bonus miles for buying 75,000 to 99,000

42,500 bonus miles for buying 100,000 to 150,000

This is not the best AA deal ever but – if you buy exactly 100,000 – you would be getting a 42.5% bonus.

Hyatt Gold Passport

The Hyatt deal I wrote about last week – offering a 30% bonus – is still running until 7th March.

MeliaRewards

Finally, the MeliaRewards discount I wrote about back in December has been extended.  Due to end on 28th February, it now runs until 30th April.  You will only be paying €5 per 1,000 instead of the usual €8.  The link is here.

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