Point/mile opportunities: British Airways, Club Carlson

Yesterday, I posted how to get 500 free US Airways Dividend Miles.

Well, here’s a few more point/mile opportunities. The first two hit my email yesterday, while the third is credited to Slickdeals.

Club Carlson: Stay 2 nights at a Country Inn and Suites, get 25,000 points

In recognition of Country Inn and Suites' 25th anniversary, Club Carlson has launched a “25 for 25” promo. To participate, register here (you must be a Club Carlson member), then complete a two-night stay booking the 25 for 25 Promotion Rate at any Country Inns & Suites By Carlson hotel worldwide between Aug. 15 and Oct. 14.

Keep in mind that the “25 for 25” rate is higher than if you prepay in advance. I priced a room in the Dallas area for next weekend and the “Book Early and Save” rate is $69.70/night while the “25 for 25” rate is $82, which is the same as the “General Rate.”

After you complete your stay, your 25,000 bonus Gold Points will be deposited in your Club Carlson account within 4-6 weeks (my bonus points posted within a few days when I participated in a previous promotion).

I registered, but it’s highly unlikely that I’ll stay at a Country Inn before October 14. Still seems to be a cheap way to get some points—IF—the Country Inns in your area are inexpensive.

If you’re not already a Club Carlson member, sign up here to earn an extra 2,000 bonus points when you stay at a participating Carlson hotel in the next 90 days.

A second Club Carlson promotion: Sweepstakes entries+100 points per day

With Club Carlson’s Global Giveaway (that’s strangely only valid in the U.S. and Canada—excluding Quebec) you can enter to win one of six giveaways that include five nights at a Carlson Rezidor hotel, roundtrip business-class airfare for two and USD $5,000 in spending money. Carlson hotels include Radisson, Radisson Blu, Park Plaza, Country Inn and Suites, and Park Inn.

First, register here for one sweepstakes entry. If you book an eligible stay (any stay eligible to earn Gold Points) online at a Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group brand website and then complete that stay at any of the group’s hotels worldwide by Sept. 24^th, you’ll receive 10 entries for each night stayed. For an additional entry, view the week’s entire Vacation Look Book. A new Vacation Look Book will be unveiled each week of the sweepstakes.

The real meat of this promo is through the 100 points a day you can earn by viewing the Vacation Look Book. That’s 4,000 points. It does look like you have to view the same book over and over for a few days because it apparently only changes once a week.

If you have multiple family members with Club Carlson accounts, encourage them to participate and you can then combine the points into one account for easy redemption. Award nights start at 9,000 for Category 1 properties and go all the way up to 50,000 points for Category 6 hotels. Points+Cash awards start at 5,000 points.

You may recall this is the chain I scored 150,000 points from for just three hotel stays and a little over $200 this summer. This promo is more easy points and free at that.

Again, if you’re not already a Club Carlson member, sign up here to earn an extra 2,000 bonus points when you stay at a participating Carlson hotel in the next 90 days.

1,000 British Airways Avios points/miles

• Join the Loyalty program of British Midland International (BMI) here.
• Use Voucher code 1JA1KD when joining to get 1,000 free points.
• Go to your British Airways (BA) account and combine the BMI account to your BA account to transfer the 1,000 points over.

For additional points, up to seven accounts can be linked together. So if you have additional family members in your household, create accounts for them with BMI (use the code 1JA1KD) and with BA. Then transfer the points from BMI to their BA account using the steps described above. Then create a Household Account on BA and add all the members to your household account. This will combine everyone’s BA points into one account for a total of 7,000 Avios. To keep things on the up and up, I’d recommending only using actual people who live in your household for these extra accounts.

Avios flight awards are distance-based (the fewer miles you fly the fewer points you need), and one-way awards start at just 4,500 Avios. And since American Airlines is an alliance partner of BA, you can book AA flights within the U.S. using BA Avios thus saving yourself BA's high fuel surcharges and taxes on European award flights.

Click here to check out my ongoing list of free and easy frequent flier mile offers from all airlines.