Earn United miles by treating visiting friends dinners and using gift cards. (Also updates about United MileagePlus 50000 bonus miles)

August 10, San Francisco Giants won Orioles

Alex, a good friend of Isa flied from Ohio to visit us just for one weekend.  We gladly showered him with hospitality.  As he is a university visiting scholar first time visiting San Francisco Bay Area and a wine lover, we packed the weekend schedule with Napa, Stanford and Berkeley Universities tours.  Coincidentally, my company had free tickets to watch San Francisco Giants vs Orioles on August 10th. And coincidentally, Taiwanese are fanatics of baseball games.  I am not a baseball fan, but watching Isa and he rooting for Orioles Taiwanese player Wei-Yin Chen (陳偉殷) was amusing.  Simply, they like Orioles because of Wei-Yin Chen. 

Orioles Wei-Yin Chen

SF Giants took the lead starting early in the Saturday game (but lost both Friday and Sunday ones).  We decided to leave the game early to visit Fisherman Wharf.

Just another week earlier, a close relative family visited from Asia.  She used all my Macys, Gap, Banana Republic gift cards, and reimbursed me with cash.  At the same time, Isa fulfilled her recently approved Chase United MileagePlus card with 50,000 bonus miles after $1000 purchase in first 3 months, and the United MileagePlus Dining program with 1000 first-time bonus miles.  We gladly treated my visiting family a dinner in a MileagePlus participating restaurant, which we have been frequent patrons.

Chase United card does not seem to offer promotion with only $1000 spending requirement anymore.  The current promotion is $2000 spending in first 3 months.  A friend of mine has visited a local Chase Bank office and received approval of the United MileagePlus 50,000 miles offer by opening a Chase Bank account (not sure if he also receives $150 bonus).  I feel that United just upped the requirement to $2000 recently, so they are willing to approve 50,000 requests as long as the customer asks for the promotion.  I will apply my own Chase United MileagePlus card in October, at least 90 days from end of June when my Chase Ink card was approved.

Another 500 United miles promotion received from MileagePlus Dining program today, and does not seem to require a minimum expense.

Summer time is vacation time.  Instead of we fly out, this time, we host visiting overseas family and friends who used up our gift cards, and do not have U.S credit cards.  It is a convenience to all of us.