The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Printable Version

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-09-2014

Once again, a good distinction to make, Cid.

I liked BA Avios quite a bit because my home base airport was HKG. You can fly so many places in the world direct from a major int'l hub like HKG, and many SE Asian destinations were available on short haul direct flights on Cathay and DragonAir. So for me, I was right in the middle of several factors that gave Avios a lot of value.

Now, however, my nearest airport is Salt Lake City (SLC), and so Avios are definitely not going to be as dominant a currency for me to use. Delta and Southwest seem to have the most flights out of SLC, though Alaska has some too (and though not one world, is a BA partner, though I can't book tickets online, which sucks). My employer's probably going to gift me gold status on Delta (he's a Diamond so he can) and I'll take it from there, but I've like 12 revenue flights this month, including to HKG and back, and I think 9 of them are on DL. The new revenue requirements kind of suck, but it is what it is. I'll be leaving those miles in my Delta account for now, as I'd like to at least get to Platinum sometime early next year (new job has lots of flying, maybe some of which will be high ticket price, last minute type flights).

Again, this all emphasizes that not all plans are good for the same thing, and that you need to spread around your options and find the sweet spot.

Balls, any thoughts on the KM-M thing that Cid pointed out. 1.8 Km per mile, which makes 1.5 actually a bad transfer rate, but of course that depends on the chart. Since there are no YQ (fuel surcharges), maybe that comes close to leveling the playing field.

Quote: (10-08-2014 10:28 PM)elcidcampeador Wrote:  

My big issue with both BA and LAN are that they charge for each segment and don't do the overall distance (like ANA does).

Obviously a HKG-REP flight will present good value, but even a PEK-HKG-REP on CX will make BA be the same as AA, and definitely less valuable than UA (with all the cool tricks you can do with those miles).

GE: I'm pretty sure the 1.5 rate from SPG is because LA uses KMs, so the rates are about 50% higher. I'm guessing there's a bit of a value in some of those awards, but mainly the value will be from the lack of the YQ.

Looking at HKG-REP-HKG (1806m/2906km) ---> BA is 15k RT (15k straight transfer or 12k on the BA Visa spending) ----> LA is 27k KMs and requires a RT (that's 18K SPG).

The real value seems to be that the range is 2k-5k KM for that 27k redemption, so I guess one could do a HKG-KIX-HKG in that pricing bracket, but not HKG-SIN/KUL/CGK/TYO. Maybe the pricing is better from LHR where one could basically do everything for under 27k.

BOS-LHR creeps into the 10k KM bracket which prices at 60k instead of 35k. Maybe there's a good deal out there, but again I hate the segment-by-segment pricing instead of total distance.

Edit: LAN chart is here: http://www.lan.com/en_us/sitio_personas/...index.html

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - BallsDeep - 10-09-2014

Quote: (10-09-2014 12:05 AM)Global Entry Wrote:  

Balls, any thoughts on the KM-M thing that Cid pointed out. 1.8 Km per mile, which makes 1.5 actually a bad transfer rate, but of course that depends on the chart. Since there are no YQ (fuel surcharges), maybe that comes close to leveling the playing field.

1 mile is 1.6km. So it's pretty close.

LAN is peculiar. They have no online booking and you have to use another alliance airline to do your searches (I use AA).

Their phone agents speak little English. Aside from that they're flat morons. If you call five times, for any given segment, you will get five different tax calculations.

This can be good or bad. Bad in that it's a pain in the ass. Good in that if you have a bit of time and patience, you can get out of a lot of taxes. I had a Heathrow/Stockholm flight and got out of the dreaded Heathrow tax. I used matrix.ita.software.com to find the flight, and it breaks down the taxes line by line. When the lady said taxes were $280, I said "You are wrong, please check again, the XX tax of $220 is part of the fuel surcharge and is covered by LAN according to the guidelines on your website." She put me on hold for 5 minutes and removed that tax. Who knows if she even talked to a supervisor or just removed it herself, but it saved me money.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-09-2014

Anyone interested in going...thinking I might pull the trigger on this, and I've never been there. Could use a wing or an experienced guide (no Kamaki's need apply). Maybe Nov?. 4 day packages are as low as 630 USD including airfare from SLC (probably cheaper from many destinations, as my connect would be thru NYC).

Quote: (10-08-2014 09:41 PM)Global Entry Wrote:  

Cheapish packages to the DR...



Jet Blue link click here


Enjoy

And


Can you run a sample itinerary or two and price it out vs. a revenue ticket. If you get a chance, it would be a big help.

Quote: (10-09-2014 03:52 AM)BallsDeep Wrote:  

Quote: (10-09-2014 12:05 AM)Global Entry Wrote:  

Balls, any thoughts on the KM-M thing that Cid pointed out. 1.8 Km per mile, which makes 1.5 actually a bad transfer rate, but of course that depends on the chart. Since there are no YQ (fuel surcharges), maybe that comes close to leveling the playing field.

1 mile is 1.6km. So it's pretty close.

LAN is peculiar. They have no online booking and you have to use another alliance airline to do your searches (I use AA).

Their phone agents speak little English. Aside from that they're flat morons. If you call five times, for any given segment, you will get five different tax calculations.

This can be good or bad. Bad in that it's a pain in the ass. Good in that if you have a bit of time and patience, you can get out of a lot of taxes. I had a Heathrow/Stockholm flight and got out of the dreaded Heathrow tax. I used matrix.ita.software.com to find the flight, and it breaks down the taxes line by line. When the lady said taxes were $280, I said "You are wrong, please check again, the XX tax of $220 is part of the fuel surcharge and is covered by LAN according to the guidelines on your website." She put me on hold for 5 minutes and removed that tax. Who knows if she even talked to a supervisor or just removed it herself, but it saved me money.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-09-2014

10 dollars off of your next Uber for synching your AMEX with Twitter and following AMEX on twitter, which also provides other promotional sales and discounts for using your Amex. Follow the instructions here

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-10-2014

As promised, here is the first post on manufactured spending, which is a key element of generating points and miles, especially for those of us with limited budgets to spend because we live frugally, or spend money in ways that are not traditionally payable with cards that provide reward points or mileage.

I'm not going to reinvent the wheel here, but rather I'll post from various sources that I think are credible. Its important to keep in mind that the manufactured spending tricks are constantly in flux, because (1) occasionally the card companies sometimes catch up with spending that isn't really spending and do not want to grant points for this (unless they're getting their full percentage, in which case they usually don't care), or (2) more often because the companies providing the mechanism for manufactured spending figure out that people are gaming it and shutting it down.

Here's an overview of what manufactured spending is, and why to do it...from the points traveller website, edited to make it less wordy.


Intro to Manufactured Spending
***

What is Manufactured Spending?
Manufactured spending is the process of purchasing something that is the equivalent of cash such as gift cards, money orders, and other items with a miles/points credit card. The goal is to earn miles or points for these purchases and then quickly and easily liquidate the funds and use them to pay back the credit card. While it doesn’t necessarily have to be a cash equivalent, these are generally the easiest and most common methods.

Manufactured spending is an ongoing and ever-changing game. Many different methods come and go. The most well know example was purchasing $1 coins from the US Mint and then in turn depositing them into the bank to pay off your credit card. This deal has long since died but many new methods continue to rise up. The most prevalent in recent days are gift cards that can be liquidated via various methods.

***

Back to GE..me...

Often, credit cards come with significant sign up bonuses, but the bonuses are only granted on the achievement of a certain spending threshold over a certain period of time, e.g., get 50,000 United miles for spending 3,000 USD within three months on your new blah blah Visa.

Those bonuses have a cash value, and thus are desirable to obtain. However, for many of us who don't aggregate and waste money, 3,000 dollars of spending on things for which credit cards can typically be used (car and rent or mortgage payments, for example) is not our normal behavior. The MS approach would allow you perhaps to use the rent or car payments in some cases to qualify for these types of bonuses, or alternatively to make other spending qualify, or in some cases, to phantom spend by sending money back and forth between family and close friends (this was the usefulness of Amazon payments, but this opportunity closes on October 12 Amazon payments oppt ends). I want to note that this is still possible until the 13th, so if you want to send money to someone and have them pay the points earning credit card you used to send the money, you have two days to do so.

Here's what one blogger says still works in the world of pure Manufactured Spend. From mighty travels.com, and I don't know this blogger's work at all, so take it all with a grain of salt and use your own discretion

*****
from here

SO HERE IS WHAT STILL WORKS IN THE LAND OF 'MANUFACTURED SPEND'
Many supermarkets, pharmacies and gas stations are still happy to sell you Visa/MasterCard gift cards

These cards are issued by MetaBank and US Bank and come in variable sizes. Some stores will refuse credit card payments while others have no issue to accept whatever the register accepts. 'My' stores in the SF Bay Area haven't changed policy in a while.

While Walmarts in the SF Bay Area have stopped accepting these cards to buy money orders, they may still accept them to load your Bluebird card. I have yet to try this. Bluebird comes with rather low load limits so it hasn't been a focus of mine so far.

Paying your Citibank Credit Card bill with a Gift Card

This is currently THE best option to manufacture spend. If you buy US Bank gift cards in any supermarket or online you can make one debit card bill pay per day. Just call Citibank and apply your $500 payment. That's $15,000 a month right there.

PayPal Load Cards

The PayPal load cards come with a $3.95 fee for $500 and are widely available in the SF Bay Area.

You can transfer up to $2,000 to your PayPal prepaid MasterCard for free and get the money back through cashback in stores (Safeway allows up to $200).

American Express for Target

amex_target.jpg
These handy cards come courtesy of Target and American Express.

Believe it or not, you can load them with a credit card ($3 fee) and withdraw the money straight away ($3 fee for each $400 withdrawal; first one per month is free).

I never had an issue loading the $5,000 a month (you can have two cards per Social Security number).

The fees add up though, so for many this may not be worth it.

Amazon Local Register

This is rather new and is very much like Square. It allows you to charge a credit card and collect the receivables much like any merchant would do. It just takes a 1.75% fee instead of the 2.75% that Square charges.

The way to play is to register a merchant account and run the transactions. However, be aware that charges >$20,000 or 200 transactions will be reported to the IRS. If you have a small business it should be no problem to properly account for it (since the business bought gift cards in the first place) but for individuals, I'm not sure – this may get you in hot water!

Square/ PayPal

PayPal is extremely cautious and running even very legitimate transactions between account holders is a pain once you scale up. I would not touch this.

Square was initially very happy to get transactions going and I never had any issues but I haven't tried recently and have no plans to do so.

Buying Gift Cards from AAA offices with no fee

Some Flyertalkers have had success buying MetaBank cards online (with a fee) or offline without a fee. There are reports of MetaBank limiting the purchase amount. Worth a try!

Buying Reloadit cards or MoneyPaks with a credit card and loading them to a prepaid card

****

There's also some types of spending that can be similar to MS, but it really isn't. It basically involves buying things and then reselling them for the same price (or even returning them) and earning points that way.

One way people do this is to go to a discounter wholesaler, buy easily sold times, break up the bulk and sell on Ebay. For example, buying large quantities of Duracell batteries and then reselling them on Ebay for a break even price (including shipping). Is this worth your time? I guess that depends on you and how efficient you can be, and if you generate any profit doing it.

For international types like myself, Male Defined and others, there can also be ways to bring American goods to Asia and break even on them (or even make money), and use this to ManuSpend. For example, when I go to China, I can bring a load of health and beauty products, and sell them (I haven't done this, but I know its quite possible). So if I loaded my suitcase with American suntan lotion (hehe), I could probably bring it all to China and sell it, and it would actually cost more to buy that in China or in HK than the cost to buy it here. I do need to be concerned that Chinese buyers believe its not counterfeit, but assuming they believe its legit, selling it would be easy (a lot of Chinese believe that American sun tan lotion will not only prevent them from getting a tan, but that it will make them whiter, which is often considered desirable). The downside of this is that suntan lotion is fucking heavy to carry through airports etc. Perhaps I'll consider lipsticks (I don't want anything with metal, as when I enter China I have to put a suitcase into the Xray machine, though never my backpack). But you can do this with many types of items, and breaking even shouldn't be difficult. People do this with iPhones of course. Customs considerations can surmount the opportunity in many countries (Vietnam, I understand, for example). Getting a load of stuff seized fucks you hard, and then the points seem pretty darn unsubstantial compared to the money lost on the goods. HK is pretty easy for everything for foreigners, or at least it had been (I don't know if the protesting is having any effect on border entry from HKIA).

Anyway, I'll be posting more on this topic in the future. I'm definitely no expert on this, as I've not needed it particularly, but to some degree, its like money left on the ground. You just need to pick it up, and I'll probably start to take more advantage of the easier ways to generate MS.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - speakeasy - 10-10-2014

Another way to spend is to pay your taxes early and pay with your credit card. Even if the government owes you money, you'll be refunded that amount. If you have a few grand laying around and aren't paycheck to paycheck, waiting till next year to get refunded is not that long.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-10-2014

Thanks Speakeasy, its a good idea if you're close to a minimum spend to pay something early.

Another way to manufacture spend you reminded me about is Kiva, which is a micro lending website. Basically there is some credit risk involved, in that you might not be repaid. However, the repayment record of Kiva lenders is quite good, and of course, since you get paid back, you actually don't need to spend the money. You'll get interest, and Kiva picks up tha transaction fees if you fund via credit card. And in the event that you don't get paid back, you should be at least take heart in the fact you made a charitable contribution (you'll need to check your own tax situation to see if it would be deductible). That being said, I've made several Kiva loans and have always been repaid.

Quote: (10-10-2014 09:38 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  

Another way to spend is to pay your taxes early and pay with your credit card. Even if the government owes you money, you'll be refunded that amount. If you have a few grand laying around and aren't paycheck to paycheck, waiting till next year to get refunded is not that long.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Duke Castile - 10-11-2014

Global Entry, I started reading the thread but there's so much info. I'll be headed back to vegas soon, is the Hyatt hack still an open?

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-11-2014

Yes the Hyatt hack into MGM is still open. Starwood has a similar hack into Caesars properties.

The Hyatt hack is actually better, in that you get status benefits (some of them) with MGM, I believe, though experience with this tends to vary. You also get unlimited credit for your stays towards Hyatt status.

Starwood and Caesars relationship is more limited. Basically, its just giving credit for nights (but not for stays) and points for your time on a Ceasar's property. You don't get to use your status for upgrades or other benefits. It also allows you to use SPG miles to book Caesar's hotels, which might be the best benefit, in that LV has a few Westins, one on Flamingo at the Linq basically, which isn't that nice, an Aloft off of the 215 nearer to M Casino than the strip, and the Lake Las Vegas Westin, where I am writing this from (I'm in town this weekend and then a few days next week). The Westin Lake Las Vegas is actually cheaper this weekend than the Westin Flamingo, though that's not usually the case. This one is definitely a full 35 minute ride to the strip through cop-infested Boulder Hwy.

On the bright side, its got a gorgeous view of the mountains and the lake and two pools. Nice place perhaps to bring a gal. My rate is 128 a night this weekend.

Here's a photo this morning from my window... its an upgraded room with a pool view, even if you don't have SPG status (I do) you can try to request that on check-in if the hotel isn't busy.




One thing Westin does that I kind of like (maybe it would gross some people out) is for $5 for your stay, they'll give you a set of t-shirt, shorts and new balance running shoes. You can use them to walk around or work out, and if you're traveling light (for those of us who like to carry on luggage only), not having to carry a pair of sneakers for exercise definitely helps with bag space.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-11-2014

Here's an important pointer for travelers.

This is a SPG promotion of which I am currently taking advantage. Its called "More For You."

"Announcing the SPG® More For You global promotion. Earn double Starpoints® on eligible stays of two or more nights and triple Starpoints if your stay includes a Friday or Saturday night (Thursday or Friday night in the Middle East). Register by October 31, 2014, and stay between September 15 and December 15, 2014."

The thing is, I am staying at for two or more days including a Friday. 3X points. As a Gold member (this stay will make me Platinum) I get three points per dollar spent (three nights of the room, excluding room taxes, should be about 400 USD), a Gold welcome check in bonus (300 points at this hotel), the make a green choice bonus of 500 points per night I refuse maid service (2 nights, since after the third night they need to make up the room for the next guest). (If they apply the triple points across all of it, its possible I'll get an additional 2600 points, but I'm guessing that's not part of the bonus).

I'm not exactly sure which of the items is trebled, but at minimum 400x3+400x3 (if that's how they do it, rather than 400x3x3) + 300 +(500x2). That comes out to 3200 points for a three day stay. If I transfer those to an airline as part of a block of 20,000 SPG points, I get a 25 percent bonus, so it would be 4000, which, for example for Avios, will almost get me a free one way short haul flight. Not bad for spending 450 for a nice hotel stay for three nights, you get a free short haul flight (yes, yes, I'll pay 30 dollars in taxes or charges or whatever, most likely).

The actual point of this post is not to reiterate all of this which I've made a point of repeating, likely ad nauseum. Rather, the point I wanted to make is that if (1) I didn't subscribe to the marketing emails from SPG, I wouldn't know about the promotion, and (2) if I didn't register for the promotion, I wouldn't get the bonus points.

You have to register with the website (i.e. enter your account number and email) to get any SPG bonuses during their promotions. You also have to book through their website (and yes, sometimes their hotels are available more cheaply through another site, but I'm traveling for work, and I wouldn't get my room upgrades if I book through agoda, nor would I get any rewards, so on balance for me, I'll book through the site) or you won't even get stay credit or points for your stays.

Always sign up to get the emails about their promotions (and the same holds true for every hotel chain I know of, Hyatt, IHG, Marriot/Ritz, etc.) You need to register, or they'll happily deny you your bonus awards. You have to book through their site if you want your stays, points, and bonuses as well. If definitely sucks to stay, expect bonuses and points, and not get them to only later realized you failed to register for a promotion.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Duke Castile - 10-12-2014

Thanks GE. I may do the Hyatt hack then.

I have to say, all these points and where they go and conversions etc etc is overwhelming.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-12-2014

Fisto
One thing I suggest is adding an Award Wallet account.

Free to register, it keeps track of all of your points balances across all programs. Otherwise, its next to impossible to keep track of balances across this many programs.

They also make credit card recommendations for people to obtain bonuses, but I'd definitely take those with a grain of salt, as they, like other referrers, get paid for referrals.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-12-2014

Today is the last day to buy US Airways miles for 1.88 cents per mile, perhaps forever (given the pending integration of the US Airways miles program with the AAdvantage Program).

This from a popular blogger....

Last day to purchase US Airways miles with 100% bonus

Today is the last day to purchase US Airways miles with a 100% bonus. Originally the promotion was supposed to run through September 30, though they extended it through today, October 12, 2014.

US-Airways-Buy-Miles-1

Usually that’s not really noteworthy, since historically US Airways has had some bonus on the purchase of miles just about every month. However, according to Gary, US Airways will be changing the way they sell miles going forward. While we don’t know what exactly that entails (an annual limit on the number of miles you can purchase, raising the cost of purchasing miles, etc.), if you want to buy miles for ~1.88 cents each, this is apparently your last chance.

This would be a good opportunity to “right size” accounts so that you have the number of miles needed for your desired redemption. As a reminder, this is a tiered promotion, whereby the percent bonus you earn depends on the number of miles you buy, as follows:

1,000-9,000 miles = 25% Bonus
10,000-19,000 miles = 50% Bonus
20,000-29,000 miles = 75% Bonus
30,000-50,000 miles = 100% Bonus
The promotion expires at 11:59PM PT tonight.

So if you bought 100K miles, you'd pay 1880 USD for the mileage.

Just to give a sense of the mileage value, you can do some of the following:

1. Get two roundtrip economy tickets from the USA to Honolulu and have 20K miles left, or two roundtrip economy tickets to the Caribbean from the USA and have 30K left over.

2. Fly one roundtrip economy trip on Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlnes to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, or anywhere else in North Asia for 60K Roundtrip. Or find 10K more miles for Biz class (110K total) or 20K more for first (120K) class, including Cathay first class. You can also stopover one time en route, so you could go to HK with a stopover in Tokyo as part of a single award ticket roundtrip. (I've copied the award ticket restrictions at the bottom of the email).


3. Fly to Europe in Economy Roundtrip and have 40K left over (60K miles) or in business (not a great deal, but thats upto you).

Sweet spots are Asia and Hawaii, and Caribbean's a good value as well. Augment the purchase with the Barclay's US Air credit card, and add another 40K miles after the first spend, and now you're in position for multiple trips or first class with mileage left over.

Here's the award chart for partner booking (Cathay, BA, Japan Airlines, Qatar, etc). US Air OneWorld Partner booking Worth considering buying the miles if you've a specific trip coming up that you can book on OneWorld. US Airways for now is only roundtrip tickets, so the expatriates might not want to buy on this, although eventually the miles will merge into AA's program, at which point 1 way should be bookable.

Per US Airways website...
You must have enough miles in your account before you make an award reservation.
Open returns and waitlisting for award travel are not permitted.
Open jaw travel (flying to one city and returning from another) is not permitted when an en route stopover is included in the award itinerary. The distance between the 2 open jaw cities cannot exceed the distance of the outbound or return trip. Itinerary restrictions may apply.
Award levels are subject to change until the award ticket is issued.
Award travel is permitted when the distance in one direction does not exceed the maximum mileage allowed between the origin and destination. Certain itineraries are subject to mileage restrictions. Travel from North America to Europe is not allowed via Asia, and travel between Europe and Japan/North Asia/South Asia/Australia/New Zealand is not permitted via North America.
Award travel must be completed one year from the original date of ticket issue.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-15-2014

Here's a list of airlines providing award flights with no fuel surcharges. A fuel surcharge is an extra cost that can be assessed in addition to taxes on an otherwise "free" flight. Fuel surcharges vary greatly in size, so in some cases you might be largely indifferent to a minimum cost, and in others it may be a difference maker in the decision process.

Per the Points Guy....


While United Airlines has devalued recently, it remains one of the major airlines that doesn’t add fuel surcharges to award tickets.

First, here’s a list of major airlines that don’t impose fuel surcharges on any award flights:

Allegiant
Alaska
Avianca/Taca
Frontier
JetBlue
LAN
TAM
Southwest
Spirit
United
At least for the moment, you can use your points and miles on these airlines without carrier-imposed charges (though you’re still on the hook for government fees and taxes).

American Airlines adds fuel surcharges to award flights on its partners British Airways and Iberia.

Next, here’s a list of major airlines that impose fuel surcharges on some award flights, and an explanation of when you can expect those extra charges to be added:

Air Canada adds fuel surcharges to award flights on all of its Star Alliance partners except Air China, Brussels, EgyptAir, Ethiopian, EVA Air, Scandinavian, Singapore, Swiss, Turkish, and United.
Al Nippon (ANA) - When TPG examined taxes and fees on ANA last year, he found that there were little or no fuel surcharges on United transatlantic flights and those within the Americas.
American adds fuel surcharges to partner award flights operated by British Airways and, to a lesser extent, Iberia.
British Airways has some of the highest and most egregious fuel surcharges, but you can avoid them by booking award flights operated by Air Berlin, Aer Lingus, Alaska, and LAN. Also, American Airlines flights within the Americas do not incur fuel surcharges.
Delta imposes fuel surcharges on many partner awards originating from Europe, and has also been known to add fuel surcharges to award flights on Aeroflot, Air Europa, Air Tahiti Nui, China Airlines, China Eastern, Czech, Kenya Airways, Malaysia, and Vietnam Airlines.
Flying Blue reportedly does not add fuel surcharges to Aeromexico flights.
Hawaiian adds fuel surcharges to Virgin Australia flights, although those are lower than what Virgin Australia imposes on its own awards.
US Airways has adopted American’s policy of adding fuel surcharges to partner awards on British Airways and Iberia.
Singapore does not impose fuel surcharges on the following partner awards: Avianca/TACA, TAM, and Virgin America. Also there are no fuel surcharges on US Airways and Virgin Australia domestic flights, or United Airlines flights within the Americas.
Virgin America imposes fuel surcharges on its partners Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia, and Emirates. Thankfully, it’s one of the few carriers that discloses these charges before you redeem your miles. You can query their Redeem With Partners page to find out exactly what the charges will be.
Virgin Atlantic does not add fuel surcharges to awards on Hawaiian, Delta, ANA domestic, Virgin America, Virgin Australia domestic, South African domestic and short haul, Cyprus Airways, and Jet airways. For more details, see this post I wrote on how to use Virgin Atlantic miles without fuel surcharges.
With all other major carriers, you can assume that fuel surcharges will be imposed on all international award flights, and many domestic ones as well.

He makes some other recommendations on how to avoid fuel surcharges that are of questionable usefulness, except transferring BA Avios to Iberia Avios.

Here's the link...

Points Guy Link

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Chaos - 10-15-2014

Just bumped into this post about a guy who tried out Suites Class with Singapore Airlines from Singapore to New York.

Ticket : 23000$

http://dereklow.co/what-its-like-to-fly-...tes-class/

First thing that crossed my mind was that how long will it take before Global Entry writes a report and a hack about how to pull it off.

I'll be damned if we are not soon seeing pictures of him sitting there with a glass of Dom Périgon and a piece of lobster meanwhile a hot Singaporian stewardness is making his bed

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - tattiemasher - 10-15-2014

Quote: (10-15-2014 05:07 PM)Chaos Wrote:  

Just bumped into this post about a guy who tried out Suites Class with Singapore Airlines from Singapore to New York.

Ticket : 23000$

http://dereklow.co/what-its-like-to-fly-...tes-class/

First thing that crossed my mind was that how long will it take before Global Entry writes a report and a hack about how to pull it off.

I'll be damned if we are not soon seeing pictures of him sitting there with a glass of Dom Périgon and a piece of lobster meanwhile a hot Singaporian stewardness is making his bed

Me and my 20k current Avios accumulation just died a little inside...

On a serious note, fair play to the guy for using his points to get that flight. It would be easy to keep going for efficiency and getting loads of economy flights, but sometimes you can't help going for a bit of luxury.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - elcidcampeador - 10-15-2014

Quote: (10-15-2014 06:19 PM)tattiemasher Wrote:  

Quote: (10-15-2014 05:07 PM)Chaos Wrote:  

Just bumped into this post about a guy who tried out Suites Class with Singapore Airlines from Singapore to New York.

Ticket : 23000$

http://dereklow.co/what-its-like-to-fly-...tes-class/

First thing that crossed my mind was that how long will it take before Global Entry writes a report and a hack about how to pull it off.

I'll be damned if we are not soon seeing pictures of him sitting there with a glass of Dom Périgon and a piece of lobster meanwhile a hot Singaporian stewardness is making his bed

Me and my 20k current Avios accumulation just died a little inside...

On a serious note, fair play to the guy for using his points to get that flight. It would be easy to keep going for efficiency and getting loads of economy flights, but sometimes you can't help going for a bit of luxury.

This redemption isn't even that much nor that difficult to get!!!

Singapore is a transfer partner of I think all of the major transferable points currencies (AMEX, Chase, Citi, SPG). It's like 90k from LAX to NRT in the suites and probably not much more to SIN.

I'd say this cost 200,000 miles, which can be obtained in a year with a few CC signups and some clever manufactured spending on those cards at office supply stores.

The reason it looks so nice is because he had an open seat next to him so they were able to turn the other seat into a bed and combine them into that massive bed that is shown in the pictures.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - zatara - 10-15-2014

Quote: (10-15-2014 05:07 PM)Chaos Wrote:  

Just bumped into this post about a guy who tried out Suites Class with Singapore Airlines from Singapore to New York.

Ticket : 23000$

http://dereklow.co/what-its-like-to-fly-...tes-class/

First thing that crossed my mind was that how long will it take before Global Entry writes a report and a hack about how to pull it off.

I'll be damned if we are not soon seeing pictures of him sitting there with a glass of Dom Périgon and a piece of lobster meanwhile a hot Singaporian stewardness is making his bed

That's fantastic. His suite is like something you'd see on the old cruise liners going from NYC to London 100 years ago.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - speakeasy - 10-15-2014

I'm thinking about signing up for Chase Ink Business card for 70k points. The deal expires this Sunday. Thing is I already have two Chase cards. I tried applying for the Southwest card earlier this year and I was denied for already having two Chase cards with balances. Now I have the balanced paid off on one of them so maybe there's a chance they'll give it to me.

What worries me is that it has a pretty high mandatory spend plus the annual fee is not deferred. $5k in three months. I'm pretty new to the world of manufactured spending so not sure what I'd do. I already paid some taxes on another card. Any ideas? I have a pretty minimal lifestyle so I just don't spend a lot of money.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Mentavious - 10-15-2014

School loans? If you have any? It some other sort of loan

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - speakeasy - 10-15-2014

Quote: (10-15-2014 10:05 PM)Mentavious Wrote:  

School loans? If you have any? It some other sort of loan

I had some medical debt which I already put on card with teaser loans and maxed out the points I could get from that debt. I'm paying that stuff off now. I don't have any other debts than what I have on 2 credit cards.

I heard that people used to by vanilla reloads and then transfer them to an Amex Bluebird account, but as soon as I got the BB card, that's when they stopped allowing you to buy the reload cards.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-16-2014

Get the Ink Plus (I just got mine this week) if you've got a business (the definition is very low threshold). I have two other Chase cards and got it. Its not a problem. Its the best value out there (and make sure you get the 70,000 version with the 95 dollar fee, not the 50K without fee, especially if you're likely to fly premium cabins.

I'll try to write something up specific, a play by play for hitting the 5K with manufactured spend.

What I love about this card is 5x spending in points for telecom, internet and office supply stores (where, by the way, they sell gift cards that you can use so many different places).

Quote: (10-15-2014 05:07 PM)Chaos Wrote:  

Just bumped into this post about a guy who tried out Suites Class with Singapore Airlines from Singapore to New York.

Ticket : 23000$

http://dereklow.co/what-its-like-to-fly-...tes-class/

First thing that crossed my mind was that how long will it take before Global Entry writes a report and a hack about how to pull it off.

I'll be damned if we are not soon seeing pictures of him sitting there with a glass of Dom Périgon and a piece of lobster meanwhile a hot Singaporian stewardness is making his bed

This is absolutely something I plan on doing, and like ElCid said, its not really that hard to do. Chaos, while they're turning down my bed and laying out the caviar, I'll think of you on your Norwegian air flight and smile.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-17-2014

This is an excellent post discussing how to maximize your point aggregation on certain North American vendors. Using these methods can, with the right credit cards, give you 5x the number of points versus a direct payment via credit card.

I wholeheartedly would suggest you consider approaching your spending this way, and when applicable, by using Airline shopping portals (just make sure you're not overpaying).

To this second point, I just bought two pieces of deeply discounted Tumi luggage I needed for a total of 483 USD. I bought them on my SPG card, which gives my ultimately 1.25 x 483, so long as I transfer my points in 20,000 increments. But since I bought these items through a special promotion on the Alaska Milegage Plan website, which gave 6 Alaska mileage plan miles per dollar, I also just earned another 3000 Alaska miles also, which are valuable to me as they have a good award chart with several airlines (cathay is my interest in particular - good value for North America to HKG).

Do the math, but I'll get 3600 or so very usable miles (for me) for a 483 dollar purchase. It's not going to help me meet spending minimums, but it will add up way quicker to further award tickets.


Here's the repost.

Starbucks, iTunes and Amazon.com; I never use a credit card when I shop at these three stores…instead I always pay with a gift card. I do this because I earn more points/miles/cash back than if I use any credit card in my wallet purchasing directly.

While Starbucks may be considered a restaurant for bonus category purchases (2x with Chase Sapphire Preferred and Citi ThankYou Preferred/3x with Citi ThankYou Premier) I can always get 5x with my purchases. The same goes for iTunes and Amazon, unless they’re on a quarterly bonus of a card such as the Chase Freedom aren’t covered under any bonus category. You earn the same for shopping there as you would for shopping at your local department store…but I always earn 5x points/cash back when shopping at these stores.

I do this by purchasing gift cards at Office Max, Office Depot or Staples using my Ink Plus credit card. It earns 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar…even on gift cards. Staples is my favorite of the three; as long as I spend $200 or more per transaction I get 1% back on my purchase as a statement credit through Visa SavingsEdge.

When I’m not near one of them (or if they don’t have the card I want) I use my American Express Blue Cash to purchase the gift cards at grocery stores, pharmacies or gas stations. Convenient to me are a CVS and a Kroger; the latter which is my preference as I earn 2x fuel points which gives me a discount at the pump.

At the grocery store (or pharmacy or gas station) I’m earning 5% cash back with the Blue Cash; at the office supply store I earn 5x Ultimate Rewards…and I value the Ultimate Rewards at 1.7 cents/each…so I’m technically earning 8.5% back on my scale. What it then comes down to is convenience and that is where the office supply stores lose out. So yes, I really should only ever buy the gift cards at office supply stores, but sometimes it just isn’t convenient…and earning 5% cash back + double fuel points is nothing to scoff at.

I limit the cards I purchase to ones that I can load into an account and at stores that I regularly shop. I’m comfortable holding a $50 or $100 balance with Starbucks. While I don’t go there on a daily basis, once or twice a week is the norm and when I’m on the road it is more regular…the same holds true for iTunes and Amazon. I don’t want to be stuck with a pile of gift cards; even if I’m earning more points. The cost of laying out the money and possibly losing or forgetting the card just isn’t worth an extra 50 cents cash back.

My suggestion:

Take a look at what credit cards you’re carrying. Do any of them offer you a bonus or earning multiplier for shopping at a specific location?
Does that location sell gift cards to places you frequent? Might be time to pick up some of those cards to get some higher bonuses.
Make sure you don’t take it too far. Pick up only what you’re going to use…maybe take it to the extreme like when I bought $2000 of Amazon gift card at Staples to buy my Macbook Air.
If you’re not earning bonuses, it might be time to look at a card that’ll help you get a little more back…check out the gift cards you could be buying.

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 10-17-2014

Coincidentally, Chaos, ask and you shall receive. You can see, its not even that difficult to experience this.

Here's the direct link complete with photos, proper formatting, an of course giving TPG the traffic he's earned.

Via ThePointsGuy...

Despite more recent announcements like Etihad’s ultra-premium “residences” and a new first class from Emirates, not to mention the unveiling of Qatar Airways’ A380, the Singapore Airlines First Class Suite is back in the news due to a recent travel blogger review that became a viral sensation before being discredited.
Points and miles enthusiasts are giving the Suite another look thanks to the fact that Singapore Airlines’ Krisflyer mileage program recently became a 1:1 transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards, in addition to already being a transfer partner of Amex Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest. So even if you have never flown Singapore or even accrued a single Krisflyer mile, suddenly there are a lot more means to get miles into your account if you so choose.
Some of the reasons you might want to do so are that Singapore releases more business and first class award space to members of its own Krisflyer program and offers a 15% mileage discount for award reservations booked online on its own flights, meaning there are some pretty great bargains to be had.
The Suites and the Experience
What’s so special about these Suites? They were among the first such product introduced on the market, and Singapore launched them on its A380’s back in 2012.
The A380 first class cabin has just 12 of these beauties, which feel more like mini-cabins in and of themselves. They were designed by French yacht designer Jean-Jacques Coste.
The seats were designed by a French yacht designer.
The seats were designed by a French yacht designer.
The layout is slightly staggered, with just aisle seats in the first and last row of the cabin and then two rows with a 1 x 2 x 1 configuration in the middle of the cabin. The middle two seats able to combine into one larger suite if you are traveling with a companion.
Each Suite has a light Cognac-colored, hand-stitched Italian leather seat and its own closing sliding door with curtains for privacy. The seat is up to 35 inches wide when the armrest is down, and can recline up to 130 degrees. However, the crew offers signature turndown services that transforms the chair into a fully lie-flat 81-inch bed dressed with Givenchy linens including a duvet and full-size pillows. Passengers can change into their Singapore Airlines pajamas (Givenchy as well, of course) and hang their clothes in their personal storage wardrobe.
The middle seats convert into a single suite if you are traveling together.
The middle seats convert into a single suite if you are traveling together.
Suites have 23-inch entertainment screens controlled with a handheld remote, and a power panel that includes a universal adapter and USB port.
First class passengers can pre-order any of about 60 dishes that have been conceived by the airline’s “Culinary Panel” of celebrity chefs with the airline’s optional “Book the Cook” service. Meals are served on Givenchy tableware, and on the wine list, you can expect some of the world’s biggest names including Krug and Dom Perignon, not to mention a healthy allotment of Bordeaux and Burgundies.
The amenity kits handed out these days include French Sothys products such as moisturizers for the face and hands, lip balm, and your usual assortment of toothbrush, eye mask, etc.
Turndown service includes Givenchy linens.
Turndown service includes Givenchy linens.
The Routes
The Suites are available aboard Singapore’s A380. The airline is also introducing new business and first class seats aboard its new 777-300ER’s and refitting its current 777-300’s, but the new planes are only flying to London for the moment with plans to add either Houston or San Francisco into the mix. If you want to fly one of those planes, look for the denotation “77W” on your flight information. But for now, let’s just stick with the A380’s.
Singapore currently operates 19 A380’s and flies this big bird on the following routes (though as with all things air travel, this is subject to change):
Frankfurt to New York JFK
Singapore to Auckland (starting later this month)
Singapore to Beijing
Singapore to Frankfurt
Singapore to Hong Kong
Singapore to London
Singapore to Melbourne (starting in 2015)
Singapore to Mumbai
Singapore to New Delhi
Singapore to Paris
Singapore to Shanghai
Singapore to Sydney
Singapore to Tokyo Narita
Singapore to Zurich
Tokyo Narita to Los Angeles
As you can see, the preponderance of these routes are to/from the airline’s hub in Singapore. Also, unlike the airline with the most A380’s, Emirates, Singapore only operates a few non-long-haul routes with this behemoth, so it’s harder to find little tag flights that might require less mileage. However, there are still some very decent mileage finds here including using Krisflyer miles as well as those of some of its partners.
So let’s take a quick look at the likeliest routes and how many Krisflyer miles some of these routes require and what the taxes/fees look like, and the few instances it can make sense to use another mileage currency.
Note: Aeroplan levies fuel surcharges on many partners including Singapore (though intra-Asia and transpacific flights tend to have surcharges under $100), so I have only quoted the mileage amounts below. You can find a handy roundup of typical Aeroplan surcharges in this post.
Award Flights
One of the best ways to fly Singapore’s Suites is to take one of its interesting connection flights such as from Tokyo Narita to Los Angeles, or from JFK to Frankfurt, which will give you around 8-10 hours of fabulous flying time.
Both routes are pretty popular, so you do have to do some searching for awards on each of them, but as I mentioned Singapore releases more awards to Krisflyer members and they get a 15% discount for booking Singapore award flights online, so you could really luck out.
JFK-FRA
For instance, this flight from JFK to Frankfurt in first is just 57,375 miles and $240 in taxes and fees instead of the usual 67,500 miles.
SIN FRA
If you’ve been racking up the Aeroplan miles (also a transfer partner of Amex), you would need 62,500 miles for the same award. That’s just about 5,000 more miles, so if you already have a stash of these, it might be worth transferring more here instead.
To contrast that, you would need 110,000 United miles to fly this same flight, or even if you just took United on this same route (though it flies out of Newark), they would charge you 57,500 miles just to fly their business class and 70,000 to fly Lufthansa’s or Singapore’s. Why not spend fewer miles and a couple hundred dollars to fly one of the world’s premier products instead?
United would charge you more just to fly their own business class!
United would charge you more just to fly their own business class or Lufthansa’s!
LAX-NRT
And this flight from LAX to Narita will cost you 74,375 miles and $183 and lasts 11.5 hours.
LAX NRT
But if you were to take the other leg of this flight just from Narita to Singapore – which lasts just over 7 hours instead – you would only need 51,000 Krisflyer miles and $149 in taxes and fees. Not a bad value.
SIN NRT
United would charge you 60,000 for the same itinerary…provided you could find the award space using your United miles. Though that might be more difficult and if you had Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you could just make things easier by transferring to Krisflyer instead, if you just have United miles, this is still a viable option in my opinion.
I would suggest avoiding Aeroplan miles on the LAX-NRT route since first class will run you 105,000 miles each way!
However, if at all possible, Aeroplan is the program whose miles you should use on the route from Singapore to Tokyo (assuming you find the first class award availability through Aeroplan) . That’s because the program’s Asia Zone 1 is enormous and encompasses both Singapore and Japan, not to mention China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. This truly has to be one of the hidden gems in Aeroplan’s award chart since one-way economy awards are 10,000 miles, business awards are 15,000 miles each way, and first class awards are 25,000 miles each way!
That’s the same as you’d use flying business class transcontinentally in North America for a flight that’s just as long in one of the world’s top first class products. Before you get too excited, remember that Singapore does not release nearly the amount of first class award space – and especially Suites space – to partners, so you might be out of luck. However, it’s worth searching.
SIN-HKG
If you’re just looking for a short hop, the Singapore-Hong Kong route is probably your best bet. Krisflyer will charge you 31,875 miles and $50 to fly it.
SIN HKG A380
United would charge you 50,000 miles for the same service- and of course there’s almost never availability made available to partners.
Both these cities are also within Aeroplan’s Asia 1 zone, so the program will only charge you 25,000 miles each way to fly this route if you can find the award space.
SIN-ZRH
One of the little-known Singapore A380 routes is the flight from Singapore to Zurich. It does not seem to be much trafficked (so beware an aircraft type switch out in the next few months), so there are plenty of award seats in Suites class, and you can enjoy nearly 13 hours for just 91,375 miles and $245.
SIN ZRHYou’d be saving about 25,000 miles by transferring your points to Krisflyer instead of United on this one.
However, this might be another good use of those Aeroplan miles. Singapore is in Asia Zone 1, and Zurich is in Europe Zone 1. Each way in first class (assuming there is partner award space available) would be just 72,500 miles. Again, beware of possible fuel surcharges, but otherwise, that’s a nice low number for a 12+ hour flight.
SIN-BOM and SIN-DEL
A good way to split the difference between a minor long-haul and the shorter Hong Kong route is to fly to India via Singapore. The flights to Mumbai and New Delhi are each between 5-6 hours.
The flight to Mumbai requires just 42,500 miles and $184.
SIN BOM
While the flight to New Delhi requires the same 42,500 miles and $202.
SIN New Delhi
Due to a quirk of its award chart, United would require a whopping 110,000 miles for either route!
Aeroplan might also be out since it would charge you 60,000 miles on either route.
SIN-PEK
This is another good mid-range flight that lasts just over 6 hours where using your miles for an experience in the Suites might be worth it. This range of zones requires the same as flying to India: 42,500 miles and $184.
Screen shot 2014-10-14 at 10.57.28 PM
Not bad for a daytime flight where you could spend your waking hours taking full advantage of the Suites’ amenities.
If you do have United miles but no option of garnering some Krisflyer miles, you could always spend the 50,000 United will require for this route. Both these cities are also within Asia 1 on Aeroplan’s chart, so that first class ticket (assuming Aeroplan shows the partner award space) would be just 25,000 miles each way – a phenomenal value.
SYD-SIN
Finally, in what might be one of the best options out there, flying from Sydney to Singapore in a Suite will get you 8.5 hours of flying time for just 63,750 miles and about $275.
SYD SIN
However, this route is also one of the silver linings in United’s award chart devaluation, where some of the new values actually beat the old, including first class.
If you wanted to fly Sydney to Singapore, United would require just 40,000 miles – clearly the better value in this case. And then if you wanted to continue on to Japan, you would actually only need 55,000 miles total, so you might be coming out way ahead if you planned your travel accordingly.
Aeroplan would require 65,000 miles on this route, so it’s not terrible, but not great either.

Quote: (10-15-2014 05:07 PM)Chaos Wrote:  

Just bumped into this post about a guy who tried out Suites Class with Singapore Airlines from Singapore to New York.

Ticket : 23000$

http://dereklow.co/what-its-like-to-fly-...tes-class/

First thing that crossed my mind was that how long will it take before Global Entry writes a report and a hack about how to pull it off.

I'll be damned if we are not soon seeing pictures of him sitting there with a glass of Dom Périgon and a piece of lobster meanwhile a hot Singaporian stewardness is making his bed

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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - speakeasy - 10-17-2014

I've got an appointment with a Cadillac dealership tomorrow to test drive a car. They are running some promotion with American Airlines where you get 7500 AAdvantage points just to test drive a Cadillac for 10 minutes. If you have an AA branded credit card that's enough for a one way cross-country flight.

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