American Express occasionally runs limited-time promotions that increase the transfer rate from their Membership Rewards points. To see these bonuses, visit MembershipRewards.com. Currently promotions:

• British Airways 20% Bonus. That makes 1,000 Membership Rewards® Points = 1,200 Avios. Points must be transferred in increments of 1,000. Promo expires December 31, 2013.
• Virgin Atlantic 30% Bonus. That makes 1,000 Membership Rewards® Points = 1,300 Flying Club Miles. Points must be transferred in increments of 1,000. Promo expires November 30, 2013.
• Choice Privileges Hotels 20% Bonus. That makes 1,000 Membership Rewards® Points = 1,200 Choice Privileges® points. Points must be transferred in increments of 1,000. Promo expires November 30, 2013.

Link your American Express card, write an approved review on TripAdvisor, get $5. Details at sync.americanexpress.com/tripadvisor:

Get a $5 statement credit when you connect your eligible American Express Card with TripAdvisor and leave one posted review (approved by TripAdvisor) before 23.59 (EST) on December 31, 2013.

You must connect your American Express Card to TripAdvisor to be eligible to receive the $5 statement credit. Quantities are limited. Only one $5 statement credit per connected Card. Your Card must remain connected until the statement credit is applied. Statement credit may not be received if a review doesn’t meet TripAdvisor’s qualifications and is not posted by TripAdvisor.

Groupon is currently offering a $50 Gradsave gift card for $30, which can be redeemed for a $50 deposit into any national 529 college savings plan. So if you’re already meaning to contribute some money towards a 529 plan, it’s basically at least $20 in free money. Thanks to reader Jon for the tip. Gradsave ran a similar promotion earlier and I successfully got it transferred to my daughter’s existing Ohio CollegeAdvantage 529 plan. It may take a couple of weeks.

Expires 60 days after purchase. Limit 1 per person, may buy 3 additional as gifts. Limit 1 per customer, beneficiary, account, savings plan, or 529 plan. Online only. New customers only. Cannot be combined with any other discounts or offers.

You can save a little extra on your Groupon deals with cashback shopping portals like eBates ($10 new customer bonus), Mr. Rebates ($5 bonus), and BigCrumbs. This should also count towards the Alaska Air promo I posted yesterday.

Also, 529 contributions can be taken out without penalty. If you withdraw any earnings for unqualified expenses, then you will be subject to income taxes as well as a 10% penalty. You can even set yourself up as the beneficiary if you have qualified educational expenses now or coming up (computer equipment counts if you’re a student). I’m just tucking it away for the kiddo.

The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Shopping program is like other cashback shopping portals (eBates $10 bonus, TopCashBack, etc), except that they give you Alaska Airlines miles per dollar spent as a reward.

They just sent me a new promotion where if you just sign up to receive marketing e-mails, you can get 250 bonus miles. (Stay signed-up until the miles post, and then unsubscribe if you wish.) For an additional 500 bonus miles, make a cumulative spend of $25 or more before taxes and shipping fees with any participating online retailer. Overstock.com, Kohl’s, LivingSocial, and Staples are some examples.

Earning miles this way will also reset your miles expiration date, which for Alaska Air is 24 months from most recent activity. Offer expires 10/31/13. Bonus miles will post 8-10 weeks after that.

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Get $10 off any $50+ purchase at Lowes home improvement stores in-store or online. Expires 11/15/2013. Sign up for AmEx Sync first if you haven’t already. Then tweet anything with #AmexLowes. You should get a confirmation reply quickly. Details here.

You may also be able to access these discounts via Facebook, the AmEx smartphone app, or by simply logging into your account online. Twitter has worked reliably for me. I post a lot of smaller and time-sensitive deals like this on my Twitter feed @mymoneyblog, which are echoed on my Facebook page.

Many of the major airlines partner with Rewards Network (formerly iDine). You give them your credit card, and when you pay with that card at participating restaurants (which I believe have to pay for inclusion) then you get a certain number of miles per dollar spent. The good news is that you don’t have to use any coupons, show an app, or do anything that indicates you’re getting a discount. I don’t let this determine where I eat, but a few places I already eat at do participate so it is basically free miles.

Earning a few miles this way will also reset your United miles expiration date, which is 18 months from most recent activity. So it’s good to have it set up ahead of time, even with a seldom-used card.

Right now, the United MileagePlus Dining program is running a special promotion where can you can get 1,500 United miles if you join by 10/31 and spend $40+ at a participating restaurant, bar or club within 40 days of joining, plus write a quick review. If you do this twice, you’ll get the max possible 3,000 bonus United miles. Again thanks for reader Jessica for the tip.

AAdvantage eShopping Mall is like other cashback shopping portals (eBates, TopCashBack, etc), except that they give you American miles as a reward. If you visit this promo link, it shows an offer that will get you 2,000 miles after you spend at least $35 at any store.

Now through 9/30/13 11:59 PM EST receive an additional one-time bonus of 2,000 miles when you shop through this email and spend a cumulative amount of $35 or more online in the AAdvantage eShoppingSM mall. […] Please allow 8-10 weeks from end of promotional period for bonus miles to post to your account.

Earning miles this way will also reset your miles expiration date, which is 18 months from most recent activity. Via reader Jessica, who also points out that Peapod is an eligible store, so if you get grocery delivery from there that’s an easy way to get 2,000 points.