There are a few noteworthy things to talk about from the beginning part of this week.. IHG released and opened up availability of their Point Breaks list, Citi released a 100,000 mile offer for their Executive Aadvantage Mastercard and Southwest extended their schedule and released their first international routes. Lets take a look at the Southwest announcement.
Southwest
Southwest announced the first step in folding in some of the AirTran international routes into the Southwest network. This means that Rapid Rewards members and those with the companion pass will soon be able to book these international routes. The initial routes which will start on July 1st are:
- Atlanta to both Aruba & Montego Bay
- Orlando to both Aruba & Montego Bay
- Baltimore to Aruba, Nassau & Montego Bay
As you can see the list is not extensive, but Southwest has also announced that other cities will be integrated by the end of the year. Those additional cities include Mexico City, Cancun and Los Cabos. As someone with a companion pass who lives on the west coast, having those Mexico routes available will be wonderful.
All of the new routes are bookable on Southwest.com for travel on or after July 1, 2014. Southwest has setup a page with more information about international travel on their airline.
Citi Aadvantage Executive Mastercard
As I wrote about yesterday, Citi released a 100,000 mile offer for their Aadvantage Executive Mastercard. The card comes with 100,000 miles and a $200 statement credit along with Admiral’s Club access. Apparently Citi received so many applications yesterday that their systems went down.
There are wide spread reports of delays of 1-3 days for Citi to process applications. My guess is that they may soon hit their quota and may take this offer down sooner than later. Visit yesterday’s post for more specifics about the offer and the application link.
As a side note, I applied for this card myself and am stuck in that processing queue. I think this is a wonderful deal since you are essentially purchasing 100,000 miles and Admiral’s Club membership for $250. The only down side is the $10,000 spending during the first three months. For some people that may be too much, but for the creative types I don’t think it will be a problem.
IHG Point Breaks
This is just a friendly reminder that IHG’s Point Breaks hotels are now available. While this list isn’t as sexy as some of the other recent ones, there are definitely a few decent properties. For a full list of the participating hotels, my analysis on which hotels on the list stand out and more information about Point Breaks go here.
To book any of the hotels on the list, follow the links from my Point Breaks post or go directly to IHG’s website.
Conclusion
While the main purpose of this post was to cover the new Southwest international routes, I thought it would be a good idea to hit on the Citi credit card offer and the Point Breaks list. I am excited about all three things since they all personally effect me. I will be booking one of the Point Breaks hotels, my companion pass will arrive by the end of the month and I hope to be approved for the card so I can pad my mileage account!
Not to emphasize this too much, but in my opinion the Citi offer is the best we have seen in a long time and something that almost everyone who loves to travel should get. For example, you can get 2 1/2 coach saver tickets to Europe or 2 coach saver tickets to Japan. For a traveling family, this is a great offer.
Like I said before, I don’t receive any credit if you apply and this is an offer I have personally decided to apply for myself. Happy Wednesday!
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[…] few weeks ago Southwest announced a couple of routes to the Caribbean. They also made clear that several new routes to Mexico […]