Miles & Points

5x anywhere
September 21, 2013

I applied, and was approved, for a Chase Ink Bold card this past June. This was a business card, and when I applied I was given a pending status. I immediately called Chase, they asked me a few different questions (i.e. what was the business, how much money did I make last year, how much do I plan to make this year, etc…) and 5 minutes later I was approved. The sign-up bonus was great: 60K Ultimate Rewards – which can be instantly transferred to Southwest (worth more than $700 in tickets, or $1,400 in tickets if you have a Companion Pass), Hyatt, United or many other airlines/hotels. To put it in perspective, this credit card sign-up alone will most likely get me from Bali to Cleveland, in Business Class, on an upcoming trip.

In addition to the sign-up bonus, one other feature of this card is amazing for racking up points quickly: All spend at office supply stores earn 5X Ultimate Rewards Points. You might be asking why earning 5X points at an office supply store is such a good benefit:

The Amazing Gift Card Rack

All merchant gift cards can be purchased without any additional fees. Macy’s? Check. Southwest Airlines? Check. This can either be viewed as a 5% discount (since Ultimate Rewards can be cashed out at $0.01/point) or worth roughly double that for airline miles. I wouldn’t recommend the Marriott Hotel gift cards, because they can often be found for a 10%-20% discount at other places online.

It might not seem like a big number, but if you are buying a $300 flight Southwest flight, purchasing the gift cards at Staples/OfficeMax/Office Depot will yield you 1,500 points, more than 10% of the way to a one-way flight on United.

Adding this asset to your toolbox just allows one more way to maximize points. Don’t forget about the various Dining Networks that give you up to 5 bonus points per dollar spent at restaurants you might already be going to. It takes 5 minutes to link your credit card once, and then you never have to think about it again.

Through maximizing miles/points, I currently have over 200K Ultimate Rewards points, and before booking my trip to Alaska (for $30), I had over 750K miles across many programs.

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Cash Back  / Credit Cards  / Miles & Points

Vanilla flavored Bluebirds
September 16, 2013

Vanilla Reloads and the AMEX Bluebird Debit card is a no-brainer. Not engaging in this means you are foregoing tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of miles and points every year. There are tons of posts and directions/instructions, but at the end of the day, the concept is this:

  1. Purchase Vanilla Reloadable Cards from CVS with a credit card
  2. Go to the Vanilla Reload web site
  3. Enter the PIN from the Vanilla card and your Bluebird AMEX number
  4. Use the AMEX Bluebird and use billpay to make payments for things you would normally not be able to use a credit card for

What can you do with the AMEX Bluebird? Use the billpay feature to pay anyone for anything: Mortgage, rent, student loans…even the credit card bill of the credit card you used to purchase the Vanilla Reloads.

Have bonus categories at drug stores for any of your credit cards? My Citi World had 5% back at drug stores during Q1. So did the Chase Freedom. Between the two, I netted over $200 in cash and 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points.

How to get started with this:

  1. Go to Bluebird.Com and sign-up for a Bluebird Card
  2. Purchase these cards from CVS (only these cards, not others, even if they say “Vanilla” on them!):

    Vanilla Reload Cards

  3. Go to: Vanillreload.Com
  4. Enter the PIN on the back of the Vanilla Reload card and your Bluebird Debit Card number
  5. Click on the “Pay Bills” link on the Bluebird web site once you log in
  6. Enter who you want to send a check to and the address. The funds will be deducted from your account and a check will be sent to pay whatever bill you want

The Math (some advanced knowledge here, but not necessary to utilize Bluebird and Vanillas):
Each Vanilla Reload card has a $3.95 fee associated with it and can be loaded with up to $500. Bluebird can be loaded up to $1,000/day and $5,000 per 30 days. That’s $60K/year. If you max that out, you are looking at $474 to earn at a minimum 60K points. If there are bonus categories, you are looking at 70K-80K points. Throw in sign-up bonuses and you should easily crack 300K-500K points.

I personally don’t pay off my credit card bills with Bluebird, as even though I haven’t heard of people getting their accounts shutdown, it seems to me a little too risky. Due to that, I don’t hit the max loads each month. Rather, I make sure my mortgage, car payments, student loans and bills get paid with Bluebird billpays (and thus credit cards).

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Cash Back  / Credit Cards  / Miles & Points

Getting to Mama Bear Country
August 25, 2013

On Wednesday, NSPfiance and I are heading to Alaska for a cruise. How much did the pair of tickets cost us? How about $30 for the pair? How we are doing it:

  • CLE > SEA: Southwest – 12,000 points and $10. I received 100k points in January for 2 card sign-ups, and then with a little magic received a companion pass valid for 23 months. The one ticket was 12k points and $5 in security fees. The Companion pass gives NSPfiance an identical itinerary for only the $5 security fee.
  • SEA > JNU > SEA: Alaskan Air – 15,000 British Airways Avios and $5. I received over 140k Avios last year with one signup and some creative spending. British Airways are one of the best redemption values for short-haul flights in the US, only 4,500 one way for any flight under 600 miles and 7,500 one way for any flight under 1,151 miles.
  • SEA > CLE: United – 25,000 Miles (first class). We could easily have spent only 12.5k miles for economy, but 6 hours on a plane after a ridiculously awesome vacation warrants some extra pampering. Plus, earning miles is just so easy…

Total Costs for Two: 12k Southwest points, 30k Avios, 50K United Miles and $30. Pretty good value considering Alaskan Air is the only jet to service Juneau, keeping prices quite high. I`ll soon post pictures of the king crab, salmon and halibut that I catch!

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Luxury Airline Travel  / Miles & Points  / Travel

*G – On My Way
April 20, 2013

I spoke about Aegean Airlines about six month ago. The highlights:

    • Signup and receive 1,000 miles (counts toward elite status)
    • Earn 3,000 additional miles to receive Star Alliance Silver Status
    • Earn 16,000 more miles within 12 months of achieving Star Alliance Silver Status and receive Star Alliance Gold Status

    The cool part about this status? Most report the status is good for 2-3 years, and since it is earned through an International Airline (not United/US Airways), it gains you access to any Star Alliance Lounge in the world, provided you are flying on one of their alliance airlines!

    A few months ago I had to fly to New Orleans for work, and lucky enough, one of the cheapest flight options was on U.S. Airways (which earns 100% miles on Aegean). I now have 9,300 tier qualifying miles with 7 months to fly another 10,700 to gain lounge access for, hopefully, years to come!

    I`m thinking a trip to the west coast for a weekend is in our future. NSPfiance and I each have a $99 companion pass on US Airways that came with their credit card, so even a $400 fare turns into a $250 fare for each of us. It also helps that most flights route through CLT. That will net close to an extra thousand or so miles.

    Oh, and this came in the mail last month:

    Aegean Blue Status

    Free checked bags? Check. Priority security access at multiple airports? Check. Again, one of the best parts? Take a closer look at that expiration date!

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    Luxury Airline Travel  / Miles & Points  / Travel

    Once In a Lifetime: Take Two
    April 20, 2013

    Last November nspfiance and I traveled to Buenos Aires, Santiago, Colchagua Valley and Lima – flying first-class, hanging out in international first-class lounges, staying at 5-Star Hotels – pretty-much all for free. Almost $10K in value cost just shy of $300. This, by all accounts, should have been one of those “once in a lifetime” trips.

    Hilton, however, has tried to force our hand. This November, we are possibly looking at a repeat. On March 27th, at midnight, Hilton had a massive devaluation of their HHonors Points. That announcement didn’t sit to well with me or nspfiance, given her balance sat at 142K and mine at 103K. We had been eyeing a trip to Bora Bora or the Maldives, both costing 145K HHonors points for a 4-night stay prior to last Thursday, and both costing 395K after the clock struck midnight and our HHonors Points turned into a giant pumpkin.

    So what were we to do? After some research, we decided upon choosing Koh Samui, Thailand for a potential trip. The Conrad Hilton was hard to say no to:

    Bedroom overlooking the Gulf of Thailand

    Nspfiance was just under 3K miles shy of the award, so our 2 options were to buy 3K points for $37.50 or transfer them from my account for $25. After 32 minutes on the phone with the Hilton Diamond Desk, they told us there was no longer any availability for any dates for this property. As an apology, without even asking, they said they would give nspfiance 3K points just due to the fact that she had been on the phone for 32 minutes and wasn’t able to book a stay. That was really nice. And quite convenient.

    Nspfiance was frustrated, but I told her to give me her account numbers and I would call back up. Funny enough, 2-minutes later we were booked November 30 – December 4th. Long Live the power for Hang-Up & Call-Again!

    A quick search on United showed first-class travel on all segments going for 70K United Miles. That’s pretty easy, given Ultimate Rewards can be transferred immediately to United. There is also an American award from Tokyo to Cleveland for 62.5K miles. We haven’t decided where to spend our other 2-3 nights, but neither of us have been to Tokyo, and funny-enough, it’s on the way home!

    At this point the trip is purely speculation. But Tokyo for a few days, possibly using our Free Hyatt Nights from our annual credit card fee of $95 (rooms valued at $410/night) seems to be a pretty killer deal.

    Hyatt in Tokyo

    We can cancel our Hilton AXON Award with no penalty 30 days in advance. I don’t anticipate being able to fully book this until July rolls around, just so nspfiance and I can lock in some details surrounding our work. That gives us about 4 months to think about how we could make this trip even better.

    Any suggestions?

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    Credit Cards  / Luxury Airline Travel  / Luxury Hotel  / Miles & Points  / Travel

    Double Down: AA Style
    April 16, 2013

    I wrote about my double-dipping Citi Hiltons cards almost two months ago and how I received 100K Hilton HHonors points by applying for two cards at the same time. The method to receive two of the exact same cards was around for years, and only two months ago did Citi change their approach and allow only one card to be issued. Again, in the miles & points game, when a deal is around, you have to grab it. No time to think or it will be gone.

    American Airlines just re-branded themselves, but the coolest part of their redesigned web site, when I log in, is not their new livery. It is this:

    How did my account go from 0 miles in January to 105,840 in two months without getting on a plane?

    2 Personal AA Cards

    Immediately after signing up for both cards and being approved, I started two chat sessions with Citi to confirm the signup bonus. Nothing like two Customer Service Reps telling me at the same time that I would receive 50,000 miles after $2,500 in spend (for each card!):

    What to do with the 105K? Let’s just say that round-trip First Class to Asia is only 125K miles. So some additional spend on the cards for my rent, car payments and student loans and I’m there. For free. Again.

    If you are interested in AA miles, there are still links to receive 50K miles, $150 Statement Credit and two free Admiral Lounge passes. 91 days after you are approved for that offer, you can apply for their other personal card for an extrAA 30K miles. Not quite 130K miles, but 80K miles isn’t something to sneeze at either!

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    Credit Cards  / Miles & Points

    What Miles & Points Allow us to Do
    April 1, 2013

    What are points worth?

    There is a lot of talk about “the value of points.” Sure, you can figure out the straight economics of points (for example, each Southwest point = $1.67 cents on Wanna Get Away Fares – or twice that if you have a SWACP), but quite frankly, I don’t pay much attention to the economics of points (funny enough, I was an econ major!). The reason is that points allow much more than just not outlaying cash. Even if the economics didn’t make sense because I could have found cheapish tickets to Mardi Gras, the fact that nspfiance and I could both travel from round-trip between Cleveland and New Orleans for $10 total made the 23-hour foray worth it – and thus we booked it. If flights were as low as $200 round-trip, would we have pulled the trigger? That’s a toss-up. And that trip, and experience, is hard to put a dollar-value on.

    In addition, how would you value our trip to South America last fall, flying first-class on 5 segments, mostly international? Do you value it at the ~$6,000+ the flights themselves would have cost? Do you value it at the ~$1,800 it would have cost if we flew economy (given that we were taking the trip for a friend’s wedding regardless of price)? Or do you chalk it up that miles and points gave us an experience we won’t soon forget, allowing us to do things we otherwise would never have been able to do? That’s how I value miles & points.

    Smoking a cigar and having a glass of wine sitting on the courtyard deck above is hard to put a value on

    Last Wednesday afternoon I learned I needed to travel to St. Louis, quickly. Surprisingly, there are very few non-stop flights. There was one the following day that left at 7:30am, and luckily had Saver Award Availability. 10,000 Miles + $77.50 (due to United’s Close-In fee) and I was in St. Louis. I could have chosen to fly on United, Southwest, U.S Airways or American – all for miles alone if I had wanted/needed. This was a short-haul trip, so prices each way were in the $200-$300 range. But if I needed to go to Timbuktu, I could still have found a way to get there, essentially for free or for minimal costs.

    That’s how I value my miles and points.

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    Miles & Points  / Travel

    February Miles & Points
    March 18, 2013

    February turned out to be a fairly dull month; however, March should be quite the opposite! February Monthly Recap:

    • 1,594 United Airlines Miles – 1,350 mile bonus for purchasing flowers through United’s Shopping portal for nspfiance for Valentine’s Day, 79 miles for staying at a Marriott and linking my United Account and the balance for eating/drinking at one of my local hangouts that is tied to my MileagePlus Dining Rewards.
    • 8,902 Ultimate Rewards through purchases on my Chase Freedom Card including 3,974 bonus points from the Quarter 1 Spending Bonuses and the 7% Dividend Bonus that posted for my 2012 spend on my Chase Sapphire Card
    • 1,653 British Airways Avios for spend on my BA Card
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    Miles & Points

    Sacrificing United Miles
    February 23, 2013

    This coming up weekend nspfiance and I are heading to Tulum, Mexico for a good friend’s wedding. For the first time in a long time, this trip isn’t being booked with miles or points – like whoa! That doesn’t mean there isn’t some travel hacking going on, though. Moving to Cleveland last year, only a 2.5-hour drive away from the rents and ending a 3-year long-distance relationship (the distance part, not the relationship part) resulted in not attaining United Premier status for the first time in years. While no more complimentary upgrades is painful, the most pain comes from the lack of other benefits. Apparently airlines these days charge for checked baggage and don’t give everyone access to special security lines, how rude. Since I cancelled my United card in January to get approved for my Southwest card, I’m really treated like a pleb.

    So, what’s the quickest way to get some of these benefits back? Aegean Airlines gives you a 1,000 mile signup bonus when you signup for their loyalty program, Miles and Bonus. I got in on a 2,000 bonus in November. The cool think about Aegean? After only 4,000 miles you gain Star Alliance Silver status. And that signup bonus, yep, it counts toward status. You might be thinking how or why a Greek airline might be beneficial to someone who, say, has never been to Greece and doesn’t have plans to do so for the foreseeable future.

    That’s where the power of airline alliances comes in. US Airways flights can be credited to Aegean at a 100% rate. United does too on many fare types. So my 2,800 miles on United are going to my Aegean account, 100% on the way down and 50% on the way back. That totals 2,100 miles. Add that to my signup bonus and I’m a Star Alliance Silver member for only taking one round-trip flight. That gives me access to:

    • Priority Reservations Waitlisting
    • Priority Airport Standby
    • Access to Premier Access Security Lanes at select airports
    • Free Checked Baggage on select airlines

    And now I have 12 months from March 3, 2013 to earn an additional 16,000 miles and earn Gold Status. Those benefits include:

    • Priority Airport Check-in
    • Airport Lounge Access
    • Priority Boarding
    • Extra Baggage Allowance
    • Priority Baggage Handling
    • Priority Reservations Waitlisting
    • Priority Airport Standby
    • Access to Premier Access Security Lanes at select airports

    Meet-up in a *G Lounge anyone?

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    Miles & Points  / Travel

    Double Down
    February 11, 2013

    One of the great things about Citibank is that their IT infrastructure seems to have been built in an age that did not allow for updates. What exactly does that mean? Well, theoretically, when applying for a credit card, Citi’s system should have real-time ability to assess whether or not you already have one of their cards, and if so, reject you from applying for the exact same card, with the exact same sign-up bonus. But because today is 2013, with the googles and interwebs, and Citi seems to be using Altvista and dial-up, the following is possible:

    Yes, that is 2 Citi HHonors Signature Visa Cards. Yes, they both had a sign-up bonus of 50,000 points after $1,500 spend in 4 months. How did I sign-up for 2 of the exact same cards? I filled out one application form in Google Chrome and one in Mozilla Firefox, and then hit submit within seconds of one another.

    Yes, that is over 103,000 Points (and Gold Status due to a sign-up bonus from last spring) – all for spending what I usually spend (rent, car payments, insurance, food, etc…). I’m pretty sure I am going to go for the Hilton AMEX Card that gives 40,000 Points after $750 in spend on my next churn in April. That would put me at about 150,000 Points. The AMEX Card will give me access to AXON Awards, which would give me discounts on 4-night stays in a hotel such as:


    Hilton Bora Bora – 4-Night Stay: 145,000 Points with AXON Award


    Hilton Maldives – 4-Night Stay: 145,000 Points with AXON Award

    Add in that Liz will have 150,000 points as well within 60 days, I’m thinking a good use of those would be on our way to or way back from either Bora Bora or the Maldives in one of my favorite cities:


    Hilton Phuket – 4-Night Stay: 85,000 Points with GLON Award

    Throw in that my favorite custom-made suit store and panang-curry restaurant is within walking distance from the Hilton in Phuket, and I think this will be a trip-of-a-lifetime. 8 nights at some of the best hotels in the world, all free (including breakfast due to my Gold status). Stay tuned, and in a bit I’ll share how we are planning to fly Business Class for this trip. Total price-tag? A few hundred dollars for taxes.

    UPDATE: After this trick working for years, there are rumors running around that Citi just fixed this. While I have not confirmed the rumors, if you have tried this and get a pending status for one of the cards, don’t call up the consideration number. Just let the system work its magic. Let this be a lesson, though, that when deals present themselves, there’s no time to think. Just act.

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    Luxury Hotel  / Miles & Points