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 - 01-16-2017
Yea, you can get both. And someone can get a sign-up referral bonus, if you let them and use their link (hint, hint). I have a link - too bad tho, the 100K bonus is gone now. (I didnt get it either as I'm over 5/24).
I believe Chase will also let you get sign-up bonuses once every two years, per card.
Quote: (01-13-2017 03:20 PM)churros Wrote:
Question about the chase reserve. If I apply for a preferred in addition, will I still get the sign up bonus? Will probably ditch the reserve after the first year, before the $450 fee kicks in again
I was very lucky, because I will have gotten the $300 travel credit twice, and only pay the fee once.
Quote: (01-13-2017 05:43 PM)Scott Free Wrote:
Quote: (01-13-2017 03:20 PM)churros Wrote:
Question about the chase reserve. If I apply for a preferred in addition, will I still get the sign up bonus? Will probably ditch the reserve after the first year, before the $450 fee kicks in again
I was very lucky, because I will have gotten the $300 travel credit twice, and only pay the fee once.
I'm still a bit new to this game, but if I understand this correctly, you should be able to get both bonuses, since they are 2 different cards. I believe it was 100,000 UR for the Reserve (up until Jan 11) and 50,000 UR for the Preferred, provided that you can meet the minimum spend on BOTH cards.
One thing to watch out for, as has been mentioned, is that Chase has a 5/24 rule. If you have applied for more that 5 credit cards (no matter if it was with Chase or not (excluding non-Chase business credit cards)) within a 24 month period, Chase will automatically deny the application. It would be better to avoid that hard denial on your credit history.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - churros - 01-16-2017
Will happily use the link! Only thing that prevented me last time was that I have difficulty getting pre-qualified as a non-national. Usually have to go into the branch. But if the code still works there, let me have it.
Just to clarify – having got the 100k on the reserve, I can't get the 50k on the preferred. Is that correct?
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - BallsDeep - 01-16-2017
![[Image: AMU2Eu.jpg]](https://snag.gy/AMU2Eu.jpg)
The ultimate travel hack. Fly on standby.
This startup is launching an arena where you bid on last minute unsold flights at steep discounts. It sounds like a hybrid between Priceline and eBay--similar to Priceline in that you're bidding on discounted unsold seats but you're bidding against other people instead of a computer system.
Seems interesting, it launches in March and you get a $10 voucher if you sign up to their waitlist before then.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Scott Free - 01-17-2017
Quote: (01-16-2017 03:00 AM)Global Entry Wrote:
I believe Chase will also let you get sign-up bonuses once every two years, per card.
Wow, I didn't know that G. How does that work? Call 'em up after two years and ask for the 100k UR if you spend another 4k over 3 months?
Also, I didn't realize you had referral links or I would've used that! After my next trip in March (New Zealand, SG and Pinas, in case you're around) I might get the Chase SouthWest card or the SPG Card. Do you have referral links for those?
Quote: (01-16-2017 03:19 AM)churros Wrote:
Just to clarify – having got the 100k on the reserve, I can't get the 50k on the preferred. Is that correct?
Churros, I believe that is not correct. Even if you got the 100k on the Reserve, getting the Preferred will allow you a chance to get the 50k as long as you spend the minimum required amount on that card within the duration... ($4000 within 3 months on your Chase Preferred card) so you could end up with 150k UR points.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - AlphaRN - 01-17-2017
Quote: (01-17-2017 01:28 AM)Scott Free Wrote:
Quote: (01-16-2017 03:00 AM)Global Entry Wrote:
I believe Chase will also let you get sign-up bonuses once every two years, per card.
Wow, I didn't know that G. How does that work? Call 'em up after two years and ask for the 100k UR if you spend another 4k over 3 months?
Also, I didn't realize you had referral links or I would've used that! After my next trip in March (New Zealand, SG and Pinas, in case you're around) I might get the Chase SouthWest card or the SPG Card. Do you have referral links for those?
Quote: (01-16-2017 03:19 AM)churros Wrote:
Just to clarify – having got the 100k on the reserve, I can't get the 50k on the preferred. Is that correct?
Churros, I believe that is not correct. Even if you got the 100k on the Reserve, getting the Preferred will allow you a chance to get the 50k as long as you spend the minimum required amount on that card within the duration... ($4000 within 3 months on your Chase Preferred card) so you could end up with 150k UR points.
Scott is correct. It is not one bonus every two years total, it is one bonus per card. You can get one bonus for the reserve and a separate bonus for the preferred.
Also, it is worth calling and asking if you can still get the 100K. Worst they can say is no.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 01-19-2017
Scott,
You can check before each annual fee and see if they'll give you a retention bonus for sure. People post their retention bonuses online, so you can see what is typical. This works across issuers.
Separate and apart if you cancel a chase card, then wait 24 months, you can get the bonus again. Makes sense to do this.
Here's a post from a blogger who I don't follow, but it discusses the issue. http://thepointsguy.com/2016/07/earn-sec...ard-bonus/
Quote: (01-17-2017 01:28 AM)Scott Free Wrote:
Quote: (01-16-2017 03:00 AM)Global Entry Wrote:
I believe Chase will also let you get sign-up bonuses once every two years, per card.
Wow, I didn't know that G. How does that work? Call 'em up after two years and ask for the 100k UR if you spend another 4k over 3 months?
Also, I didn't realize you had referral links or I would've used that! After my next trip in March (New Zealand, SG and Pinas, in case you're around) I might get the Chase SouthWest card or the SPG Card. Do you have referral links for those?
Quote: (01-16-2017 03:19 AM)churros Wrote:
Just to clarify – having got the 100k on the reserve, I can't get the 50k on the preferred. Is that correct?
Churros, I believe that is not correct. Even if you got the 100k on the Reserve, getting the Preferred will allow you a chance to get the 50k as long as you spend the minimum required amount on that card within the duration... ($4000 within 3 months on your Chase Preferred card) so you could end up with 150k UR points.
Quote: (01-17-2017 06:24 PM)AlphaRN Wrote:
Quote: (01-17-2017 01:28 AM)Scott Free Wrote:
Quote: (01-16-2017 03:00 AM)Global Entry Wrote:
I believe Chase will also let you get sign-up bonuses once every two years, per card.
Wow, I didn't know that G. How does that work? Call 'em up after two years and ask for the 100k UR if you spend another 4k over 3 months?
Also, I didn't realize you had referral links or I would've used that! After my next trip in March (New Zealand, SG and Pinas, in case you're around) I might get the Chase SouthWest card or the SPG Card. Do you have referral links for those?
Quote: (01-16-2017 03:19 AM)churros Wrote:
Just to clarify – having got the 100k on the reserve, I can't get the 50k on the preferred. Is that correct?
Churros, I believe that is not correct. Even if you got the 100k on the Reserve, getting the Preferred will allow you a chance to get the 50k as long as you spend the minimum required amount on that card within the duration... ($4000 within 3 months on your Chase Preferred card) so you could end up with 150k UR points.
Scott is correct. It is not one bonus every two years total, it is one bonus per card. You can get one bonus for the reserve and a separate bonus for the preferred.
Also, it is worth calling and asking if you can still get the 100K. Worst they can say is no.
Agreed, worst they can say is no. But they will probably say no, unless perhaps if you have extensive business with the bank (commercial or residential loan, car loan, etc.) Check flyertalk for feedback from other people attempting this.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - churros - 01-19-2017
On earning x2 bonuses
Quote:Quote:
I’ve earned a bonus for signing up for the Sapphire Preferred card less than 24 months ago, can I get the bonus for this card?
Yes. The Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Preferred cards are considered separate products.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Sourcecode - 01-20-2017
I got the preferred card last year and the reserve card this year.
You get both bonuses.
Also... If you get the bonus from the preferred..move the points to the reserve card.
You gain like 25 percent more.
I built 100k on preferred and had then transferred over instantly.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - AlphaRN - 01-20-2017
Word on the street is you can still get the 100K bonus on CSR if you apply in person at a Chase branch and ask for it. I have not tried this myself, but it was on one of the flyer boards.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 01-21-2017
Quote: (01-20-2017 05:48 PM)AlphaRN Wrote:
Word on the street is you can still get the 100K bonus on CSR if you apply in person at a Chase branch and ask for it. I have not tried this myself, but it was on one of the flyer boards.
As they say in Thailand, "Never try, never know."
Its just a slightly different context.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Scott Free - 01-21-2017
So, like I've mentioned, I am still new to this game, but GE's thread has helped me a lot in understanding how to play it. Wanted to share a bit of my experience. The experts here will already know most of this stuff, but I hope to illustrate how advantageous it is to set things up ahead of time for trips that readers may be planning to take, and perhaps to learn if there are any suggestions on what I could've done to gain more value out of the points for future experience.
A while back, I applied for the following cards one at a time and met the minimum spend on each credit card by paying for stuff that I would normally have to pay for through my checking account anyways. (Cell phone bills, rent, car insurance, etc.)
Delta Amex Gold = amassed ~100k Skymiles
Hilton HHonors thru Citi = amassed ~140k HHonors Points
Barclay Arrival Card = amassed ~60k points
Citi Prestige Card = amassed ~60k Thank You points
Disclaimer: I have pretty great credit. Applying for each card knocks it down a bit due to the hard credit pulls but keeping your debt-to-credit limit ratios low, maintaining a history of on time payments, limiting open lines of credit, etc etc helps keep the FICOs high. After acquiring each of these 4 cards above, I have been closing the accounts on other lower limit cards that serve me no purpose in order for me to maintain about 4-6 credit cards at a time.
Before all this, I was clueless about strategic spending. Now, I see the value in it. As an example, last November I took a trip with my Czech girl out to NYC to meet some of her German and Polish girlfriends flying in from Europe. It was the perfect opportunity to use the annual travel credit that the Citi Prestige card offers. My R/T to NYC cost almost nothing after the $250 credit Prestige gave back upon purchase. (Disclaimer: The Prestige Card does have a hefty $450 Annual Fee, so it may not be for everyone. But being that 2017 has begun, I can use another $250 travel credit before I have to pay the Annual Fee again if I decide to keep the card. So in my mind, I still come out ahead.) My Citi Hilton card awarded me 2 nights of free stay certificates which was not limited to any value. This meant that I can use this for any Hilton or Hilton property with very few exceptions. Naturally, I decided to max it out on whatever was the best category property I could find. Most hotels have a category system to differentiate the point cost of a stay. Category 9 Hilton Hotels could cost 190k per night, so the value of each of those free night stay certs could get you this much. As a nice bonus, my HHonors card makes me an automatic gold member (gold member *snickers*) for as long as I am an account holder.
This is where I recalled back in the 80's the movie Coming to America. You know, the one with Eddie Murphy, who plays an African Prince who comes to Queens, NY to find his... well... Queen. His father, King Jaffe Joffy (played marvelously by James Earl Jones) stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria, a famous and historic luxury hotel that lived in my dreams since I was a kid in the theater.
![[Image: bec54550f1ffd51f2cb9f4c1ee93435c.jpg]](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/be/c5/45/bec54550f1ffd51f2cb9f4c1ee93435c.jpg)
So, over an amazing weekend, I got to Czech in for 2 nights (lol) at the Waldorf-Astoria for free, meet a bunch of new German and Polish chicks, try the first American Pizzeria (allegedly), ferry over to the Statue of Liberty (this time as a US Citizen), see the solemnity of the 9/11 memorial grounds, traverse the Brooklyn Bridge, etc etc for a lot less than I would have normally spent.
Now the REALLY fun part.
I haven't been to the Philippines in over a year now and it's past time. Also, I plan to hit up New Zealand to visit some friends. So, I've booked a trip to Auckland, NZ. Flying from California on Air New Zealand, I used my Barclay Card points to redeem back the cost of the purchased ticket. The cool thing about the Barclay card is that you don't really transfer points through to a limited number of carriers or alliances. You outright purchase the travel expense on it, such as an airline ticket, and use your points to redeem. My 60k was worth about $600 which covered the cost pretty much. Another cool thing is that when you redeem Barclay points, they will reimburse you 5% of your points back (It used to be 10% but I missed out on that train...) so, I got 3k points into my hoard to use towards my next redemption.
After spending about a week in NZ, I tried flying directly to the Philippines, but wasn't satisfied on ticket prices. Philippine airlines seemed really pricey to me. So, I searched for flights that leave from Auckland airport and found that Singapore Airlines operates there. Coincidentally, I have a fraternity brother in SG that I can hang out with so I tried to look for a connecting flight from Auckland to Manila that would let me spend a bonus overnight stay in SG. I checked my point roster and found out that I can transfer points from my Citi Prestige to Singapore Airlines. It only cost around 20k Thank You points (and ~$150 in fees and taxes) to fly to SG, spend the night with my buddy and fly to Manila late the next day.
After spending a couple of awesome weeks in Pinas (Planning to meet with some RVF folks and take trips out to hit Subic and Coron) I'll fly Delta back to the US. With my Delta points, I found a nice trip back for 80k Skymiles that connects through China. The icing on the cake is that it's business class!
So all in all, I am excited to take this trip and instead of spending a lot of money on flights, I can use all that cash for other things.
Currently, I am working on meeting the minimum spend on the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card in order to end up with ~110k or more after a few months. This is not a problem especially since I plan to use solely this card for all possible expenses during the trip so it should rack up points and meet the min spend easily.
Man, talk about the power of synergy and strategic spending! Pulling off stuff like this is quite fun! Thank you to GE and all the experts here!
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - swuglyfe - 01-21-2017
Right on Scott Free, you've inspired me to post my own latest points and miles success, a week long jaunt to the Phils, mostly Cebu and one day in Manila, first week of March. Time limited purely because of the amount of PTO accrued from work.
I had about 59K Skymiles banked up, but the lowest level for TPAC round trip awards is 70K. Ok, so I transferred 20K Starpoints from my SPG account. Note, I only needed about 11K miles, and they transfer at 1:1. So why did I do 20K? Because at every 20K SPG chucks in an additional 5K bonus. That's points you're leaving on the table if you don't.
Next problem, timing. Booking a round trip at 70K was impossible in the timeframe I wanted it. This would have been AUS-MNL. Ok, so I'll break it into 2 35K one ways and see what happens. Turns out it was the return trip fucking things up.
I book AUS-MNL, 35K. I know that I'll be going from MNL to CEB after a day or so, so what about returning from CEB instead of having to go back to MNL at the end of my trip? As it turns out, Korean, a Skyteam partner, flies out of CEB to ICN. So now I need to see 35K availability from ICN-AUS on my desired return day. It works! I book that for 35K.
Now I need to get from CEB-ICN, and Chase UR is my desired way to do it. I see that booking as a rev ticket will cost a little over 22K UR points. But, on the Korean website, I see that same itin costs 20K Korean miles. Since UR is a 1:1 transfer partner, it makes sense to transfer 20K miles over and book award. The only argument against would be if you were going for elite qualifying miles and dollars on a US legacy carrier and needed the spend to hit a level. I don't give a shit about Korean otherwise, so saving UR points was the obvious choice here.
What about a place to stay? For one day in Manila, which is just a chance to load a couple of plates from my last time and run train on them, I'll stay at Resorts World, literally across the street from the airport. Only major US chain there is Marriott which is charging an ungodly 250 USD per night rate or 70000 MR points per night. Sometimes earning points or getting the stay just isn't worth it, I book a refundable rate on Hotwire at the Remington next door for 95USD.
Now Cebu, I go onto airbnb and get a nice looking modern condo near Ayala Mall for ~250 for the whole rest of the stay. I book using deltaairbnb.com, which gets me skymiles for booking on Airbnb. Nice!
This story pales in comparison to some of GE's legendary runs, but it's my first real exercise of points arbitrage and working across multiple rewards currencies. Hopefully people find it useful and illustrative.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Hypno - 01-22-2017
Great post, Scott Free.
The automatic upgrade to gold is the best thing about the hilton card. You get free breakfast for you and a guest, and you tend to get a better room when redeeming points. In Hawaii (Big Island), we were ground floor next to the pool with the best ocean view in the house. flew there for free on Delta too! Hiltons have some great executive lounges with free drinks (yes, alcohol) and snacks, and the ones in europo have nearly full meals. but I don't put my spend on that card because the points are less valuable than other alternatives.
For Marriott, if you get a starwood amex you can get gold status on marriott. Marriott is less consistent with the free breakfast and lounge status (at hilton, its a carved in stone promise for business travelers), but I have scored some amazing suite upgrades.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 01-24-2017
Aw, you guys.
Seriously, though, thanks for the kind words.
A couple of pointers.
Barcaly's is a great card primarily for those who prefer not to spend extra miles on business class tickets. Cash back cards that give a fixed 1-2 percent of purchases back as credits don't give the same value as a card where the points are usable for redemptions in premium classes (where you'll typically see 3-5 percent for biz class redemptions, and much higher theoretical redemption values for F seats). However, in the era of the falling biz class ticket, these cash back cards (and I include the AMEX plat. biz card, which offers 2c/ point on redemption for biz/F tickets), there are extra uses for these cards now - they make a lot of sense for cheap long distance business class seats, especially, as Swug alluded to, when pursuing status via elite qualifying miles/dollars (Swug, don't limit status considerations to American carriers - there can be benefits even in some cases for pursuing foreign carrier status - it may be easy to achieve and give you lounge access, while the equivalent level of status with the american carrier in the same alliance often will not).
Redeeming points on a Barclay Card or Amex, in the era of these cheap biz class tickets - its really, in my eyes, affecting the relative values of cards. AMEX has made a huge comeback against Citi and Chase, with 5x points earned on airline tickets on your AMEX personal platinum (3x on the gold one), and then the ability to use each of those points as 2c towards any (no availability like an award ticket) revenue ticket in premium class. Thats truly an amazing deal. Easy to get the points, easy to use them, and you even earn miles and status on those tickets.
Boom.
By way of example, I've been in Bali most of January. I left from Bangkok, and had a 400 RT biz class ticket on Malaysian to and from Bali. Rather than paying the cash, I redeemed 20,000 MR points for the ticket, and will earn about 12,000 AA miles (I'm still an exec platinum with AA, so I get bonuses, and since they don't know what I pay for my MH, QR, CX tickets, I get awarded miles on distance flown, rather than based on the cost of the tickets (which would be the case if I was flying on an AA ticket under the new revenue based program - makes no sense but AA is awarding guys like me for flying their alliance partners more than they award people who actually fly their "metal." Hey, I don't make the rules, I just exploit them). Anyway, net net, I've used about 8K miles to get from BKK to Bali, in biz, with a stop in the F lounge in Kuala Lumpur. Plus a small but decent chunk of EQM towards next years status, if I pursue it.
On the issue about closing cards - length of credit history is part of your score too. Good to have some no fee cards which you'll leave open indefinitely to help increase the number. Also, the overall credit avail to you is also a more important factor - as well as your overall utilization. I agree with closing low limit cards, but pick up a few cards with low fees (or with fees whose value is offset by an equivalent or greater value benefit like the Chase IHG (49 bucks but gives a free night at any IHG hotel annually, Chase Hyatt basically the same for class 1-4 Hyatts). Those cards don't need to be cancelled and thus help your credit history length and available credit (to the degree you haven't already maxed out your chase overall credit limit, which Chase allocates amongst your open cards).
Quote: (01-21-2017 07:47 PM)Scott Free Wrote:
So, like I've mentioned, I am still new to this game, but GE's thread has helped me a lot in understanding how to play it. Wanted to share a bit of my experience. The experts here will already know most of this stuff, but I hope to illustrate how advantageous it is to set things up ahead of time for trips that readers may be planning to take, and perhaps to learn if there are any suggestions on what I could've done to gain more value out of the points for future experience.
A while back, I applied for the following cards one at a time and met the minimum spend on each credit card by paying for stuff that I would normally have to pay for through my checking account anyways. (Cell phone bills, rent, car insurance, etc.)
Delta Amex Gold = amassed ~100k Skymiles
Hilton HHonors thru Citi = amassed ~140k HHonors Points
Barclay Arrival Card = amassed ~60k points
Citi Prestige Card = amassed ~60k Thank You points
Disclaimer: I have pretty great credit. Applying for each card knocks it down a bit due to the hard credit pulls but keeping your debt-to-credit limit ratios low, maintaining a history of on time payments, limiting open lines of credit, etc etc helps keep the FICOs high. After acquiring each of these 4 cards above, I have been closing the accounts on other lower limit cards that serve me no purpose in order for me to maintain about 4-6 credit cards at a time.
Before all this, I was clueless about strategic spending. Now, I see the value in it. As an example, last November I took a trip with my Czech girl out to NYC to meet some of her German and Polish girlfriends flying in from Europe. It was the perfect opportunity to use the annual travel credit that the Citi Prestige card offers. My R/T to NYC cost almost nothing after the $250 credit Prestige gave back upon purchase. (Disclaimer: The Prestige Card does have a hefty $450 Annual Fee, so it may not be for everyone. But being that 2017 has begun, I can use another $250 travel credit before I have to pay the Annual Fee again if I decide to keep the card. So in my mind, I still come out ahead.) My Citi Hilton card awarded me 2 nights of free stay certificates which was not limited to any value. This meant that I can use this for any Hilton or Hilton property with very few exceptions. Naturally, I decided to max it out on whatever was the best category property I could find. Most hotels have a category system to differentiate the point cost of a stay. Category 9 Hilton Hotels could cost 190k per night, so the value of each of those free night stay certs could get you this much. As a nice bonus, my HHonors card makes me an automatic gold member (gold member *snickers*) for as long as I am an account holder.
This is where I recalled back in the 80's the movie Coming to America. You know, the one with Eddie Murphy, who plays an African Prince who comes to Queens, NY to find his... well... Queen. His father, King Jaffe Joffy (played marvelously by James Earl Jones) stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria, a famous and historic luxury hotel that lived in my dreams since I was a kid in the theater.
So, over an amazing weekend, I got to Czech in for 2 nights (lol) at the Waldorf-Astoria for free, meet a bunch of new German and Polish chicks, try the first American Pizzeria (allegedly), ferry over to the Statue of Liberty (this time as a US Citizen), see the solemnity of the 9/11 memorial grounds, traverse the Brooklyn Bridge, etc etc for a lot less than I would have normally spent.
Now the REALLY fun part.
I haven't been to the Philippines in over a year now and it's past time. Also, I plan to hit up New Zealand to visit some friends. So, I've booked a trip to Auckland, NZ. Flying from California on Air New Zealand, I used my Barclay Card points to redeem back the cost of the purchased ticket. The cool thing about the Barclay card is that you don't really transfer points through to a limited number of carriers or alliances. You outright purchase the travel expense on it, such as an airline ticket, and use your points to redeem. My 60k was worth about $600 which covered the cost pretty much. Another cool thing is that when you redeem Barclay points, they will reimburse you 5% of your points back (It used to be 10% but I missed out on that train...) so, I got 3k points into my hoard to use towards my next redemption.
After spending about a week in NZ, I tried flying directly to the Philippines, but wasn't satisfied on ticket prices. Philippine airlines seemed really pricey to me. So, I searched for flights that leave from Auckland airport and found that Singapore Airlines operates there. Coincidentally, I have a fraternity brother in SG that I can hang out with so I tried to look for a connecting flight from Auckland to Manila that would let me spend a bonus overnight stay in SG. I checked my point roster and found out that I can transfer points from my Citi Prestige to Singapore Airlines. It only cost around 20k Thank You points (and ~$150 in fees and taxes) to fly to SG, spend the night with my buddy and fly to Manila late the next day.
After spending a couple of awesome weeks in Pinas (Planning to meet with some RVF folks and take trips out to hit Subic and Coron) I'll fly Delta back to the US. With my Delta points, I found a nice trip back for 80k Skymiles that connects through China. The icing on the cake is that it's business class!
So all in all, I am excited to take this trip and instead of spending a lot of money on flights, I can use all that cash for other things.
Currently, I am working on meeting the minimum spend on the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card in order to end up with ~110k or more after a few months. This is not a problem especially since I plan to use solely this card for all possible expenses during the trip so it should rack up points and meet the min spend easily.
Man, talk about the power of synergy and strategic spending! Pulling off stuff like this is quite fun! Thank you to GE and all the experts here!
Quote: (01-21-2017 11:42 PM)swuglyfe Wrote:
Right on Scott Free, you've inspired me to post my own latest points and miles success, a week long jaunt to the Phils, mostly Cebu and one day in Manila, first week of March. Time limited purely because of the amount of PTO accrued from work.
I had about 59K Skymiles banked up, but the lowest level for TPAC round trip awards is 70K. Ok, so I transferred 20K Starpoints from my SPG account. Note, I only needed about 11K miles, and they transfer at 1:1. So why did I do 20K? Because at every 20K SPG chucks in an additional 5K bonus. That's points you're leaving on the table if you don't.
Next problem, timing. Booking a round trip at 70K was impossible in the timeframe I wanted it. This would have been AUS-MNL. Ok, so I'll break it into 2 35K one ways and see what happens. Turns out it was the return trip fucking things up.
I book AUS-MNL, 35K. I know that I'll be going from MNL to CEB after a day or so, so what about returning from CEB instead of having to go back to MNL at the end of my trip? As it turns out, Korean, a Skyteam partner, flies out of CEB to ICN. So now I need to see 35K availability from ICN-AUS on my desired return day. It works! I book that for 35K.
Now I need to get from CEB-ICN, and Chase UR is my desired way to do it. I see that booking as a rev ticket will cost a little over 22K UR points. But, on the Korean website, I see that same itin costs 20K Korean miles. Since UR is a 1:1 transfer partner, it makes sense to transfer 20K miles over and book award. The only argument against would be if you were going for elite qualifying miles and dollars on a US legacy carrier and needed the spend to hit a level. I don't give a shit about Korean otherwise, so saving UR points was the obvious choice here.
What about a place to stay? For one day in Manila, which is just a chance to load a couple of plates from my last time and run train on them, I'll stay at Resorts World, literally across the street from the airport. Only major US chain there is Marriott which is charging an ungodly 250 USD per night rate or 70000 MR points per night. Sometimes earning points or getting the stay just isn't worth it, I book a refundable rate on Hotwire at the Remington next door for 95USD.
Now Cebu, I go onto airbnb and get a nice looking modern condo near Ayala Mall for ~250 for the whole rest of the stay. I book using deltaairbnb.com, which gets me skymiles for booking on Airbnb. Nice!
This story pales in comparison to some of GE's legendary runs, but it's my first real exercise of points arbitrage and working across multiple rewards currencies. Hopefully people find it useful and illustrative.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Onto - 01-24-2017
Quote: (01-21-2017 11:42 PM)swuglyfe Wrote:
What about a place to stay? For one day in Manila, which is just a chance to load a couple of plates from my last time and run train on them, I'll stay at Resorts World, literally across the street from the airport. Only major US chain there is Marriott which is charging an ungodly 250 USD per night rate or 70000 MR points per night. Sometimes earning points or getting the stay just isn't worth it, I book a refundable rate on Hotwire at the Remington next door for 95USD.
Nice post swuglyfe. I just wanted to mention you can also stay at the Hyatt City of Dreams in a Club room for 12,000 pts. I transferred my UR rewards to do that instead of paying the $200+/night fee. I think the Club features (breakfast, day snacks, evening cocktails/food) for "2" are worth the extra 4,000 pts.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Hypno - 01-24-2017
Global Entry, good post about the value of miles relative to cash back.
I mostly use cash back cards because I have a Visa that gives me 2% cash back on everything. For my loyalty cards, that is hard to beat. I know frequent flyers like you can get better than 2 cents per point when redeeming in J or F, but in most cases you have to have loyalty status with the airline in addition to the points for those redemptions. Are you aware of ways for the infrequent or leisure traveler without airline status can redeem at better than 2 cents per mile?
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - kinnikinik - 01-27-2017
For anyone that wants to get the Delta Business Amex, I have a link that allows you to get 70K miles bonus, rather than the usual 35K (Yes, I also get 10K).
PM for the referral link.
-d
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 01-30-2017
Hypno - thanks for the shout out. But NO, you don't need any status to use those points for redemptions. You can redeem in almost any program (there are a few exceptions). Guys regularly buy Alaska miles and Lifemiles to redeem - they never even fly those airlines, perhaps, but redeem through them to fly them or their partner airlines and get well over those redemption values.
For last minute travel, or travel thats less flexible (lets face it, some of you chained to a desk cannot always get away during that amazing fare's booking period of availability), points still have great value. Even in the era of cheap premium fares.
One other snippet of advice. For status oriented reasons, if you're flying friends, girlfriend, family around. Book them award seats. Fly revenue for yourself. One or two long haul flights can someones get you to status within an alliance, depending on where you credit the miles.
Quote: (01-24-2017 09:58 AM)Hypno Wrote:
Global Entry, good post about the value of miles relative to cash back.
I mostly use cash back cards because I have a Visa that gives me 2% cash back on everything. For my loyalty cards, that is hard to beat. I know frequent flyers like you can get better than 2 cents per point when redeeming in J or F, but in most cases you have to have loyalty status with the airline in addition to the points for those redemptions. Are you aware of ways for the infrequent or leisure traveler without airline status can redeem at better than 2 cents per mile?
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Hypno - 01-30-2017
Quote: (01-30-2017 07:53 AM)Global Entry Wrote:
Hypno - thanks for the shout out. But NO, you don't need any status to use those points for redemptions.
Oh sure, i have redeemed plenty of miles without airline status, but I have to work hard to get a value equivalent to 1.3 cents per mile. So while i have a Delta and an American credit card, and pay the annual fee since its worth it for the free baggage allowance alone, I tend to accrue miles on my cash back or hotel cards.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Brodiaga - 01-30-2017
New IHG Point Breaks (5K points per night through Apr 30)
https://blog.ihg.com/ihg-rewards-club-po...ks-preview
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - asdfk - 01-31-2017
Hey everyone, since I'm continuously traveling by plane and staying in hotels... Are there any frequent flyer programs Europeans travelling internationally can benefit from?
I know this is a n00b question, couldn't find any post on the subject. (feel free to redirect me)
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Global Entry - 01-31-2017
Quote: (01-31-2017 04:01 AM)asdfk Wrote:
Hey everyone, since I'm continuously traveling by plane and staying in hotels... Are there any frequent flyer programs Europeans travelling internationally can benefit from?
I know this is a n00b question, couldn't find any post on the subject. (feel free to redirect me)
ASDFK - here's a post for how to choose hotels and benefit from stays. Its a few years back, but you should get the idea.
Quote: (03-21-2015 04:07 PM)Global Entry Wrote:
This is a bit of a primer on booking hotel rooms.
There are a lot of options for booking hotel rooms these days, including a million apps, the hotel websites, intermediators, and even just walking up and booking at the hotels themselves. All these need to be weighed against each other, AirBnb, and even Couchsurfing.
The best route for you is going to depend on a few factors:
1. Do you have or are you pursuing status with a particular hotel chain? Approach this reasonably, if you don’t have much travel planned for the year, then pursuing status based on staying 25 or 50 nights at a chain may not be realistic. For those traveling more frequently, this choice will be based on how much you value things like bonus points, free breakfast, lounge access and upgraded room opportunities (which are typically what is afforded by status). Wifi is pretty much out of the calculation at major chains, as they’ve all jumped on board and are providing it free in exchange for registering for their programs.
2.Do you want to use points in some way to pay, or book using a credit card (which card), or some combination of the two.
3.What is the most important factor to you? Status (as discussed above), getting the absolute minimum price, or perhaps earning airline miles or free rooms in the future.
There are obviously a lot of other factors that go into choosing a hotel, such as location, guest friendly policies, and security. Obviously, you need to weigh these factors apart and aside from the above criteria, and only you can decide how they rate, relative to the more objective factors I’ve mentioned.
You may also want to consider AirBnB, not only for reasons of price and ease of access, but also because of the impression it gives to local people about your permanence in the area (I did this in the Philippines, and no one ever asked how long I’d stay in the apartments, which is a very different reaction from when you tell a new friend that you’re staying in a hotel).
It may also be relevant to you whether an employer is paying for the hotel, as you may be indifferent to an employer spending a marginal amount of money extra, and that may affect your decision regarding how to book.
Going for Status
Basically, looking at the options, one pursuing or optimizing based on attaining or retaining status, the first option is always going to be to seek out a hotel in their network in your intended destination. If one exists, check the rate on the website for the hotel chain (spg.com, ihg.com, hyatt.com, etc.) and see what the rate is. This is, in general, the only way you’ll earn points and status with a hotel chain (points being used to book future stays for free or at a discounted rate; status giving you business lounge access, free breakfast, room upgrades, bonus points for spending/stays, and other benefits potentially, depending on the level of status, the chain, and availability). That being said, I’ve had hotels give me stay credit and points for non-website bookings, but it was a mistake on their part, and an anomaly (it happened with SPG early in my points player days last year). Don’t count on this happening, so if you’re resolute about pursuing status, look at what must be achieved to get the status that includes the perks that are important to you (e.g., if you’r employer reimburses for breakfast, maybe you don’t care about getting the free breakfast provided by the hotel (looking at you Cid)), and if its within reason that you can achieve it, then book through the website if that chain is available and in your price range.
Its generally a good idea to look at your stay as a single stay, and then if you have time, look at the rate of each individual day. Sometimes you’ll see a rate for, e.g., 159 per day for each day of a three day stay but when you check day by day, you’ll see the rate at 159, 159, 149 or something like that. It’s a bit of a fuck you built into these websites, assuming people don’t check prices day by day. You wont get additional stay (how many times you checked into the hotel during the year on distinct stays) credit (just the one stay credit for the consecutive bookings at the same property) towards elite status if you stay consecutive nights on different reservations, but perhaps you can save a few bucks. Honestly, I usually don't bother.
What I do sometimes bother to do is to switch hotels within a city during a visit, to bang out 2 or even three different “stays” towards status on a single trip. For example, in Vegas, SPG has the Las Vegas Spa and Resort, the Element (in Summerlin) and the Westin on Flamingo across from Caesars. I’ll often stay a day or two at one hotel, before switching to another for the balance of the stay. These get treated as separate stays, despite being consecutive and in the same city. If you’re trying to reach status based on stays, this is an effective way to short cut the process.
The chains also usually each have a quarterly promotion (sometimes only targeted to certain members of their programs, or providing varying offers) which allow you to earn bonus points, nights and/or stays. SPG does double night bonuses towards status for people approaching status levels gold and platinum to encourage you to stay more with them. As the incremental cost to hotels of status is not particularly high, it makes all the sense in the world for them to help you achieve status if that means future stays are much more likely coming their way.
There may also be promotions whereby status with one chain will get you status with another, through a status match. Hyatt has offered me status match to Platinum bc of my SPG status, and I’ll probably take them up on it around October (not before, because i want the match to last through the whole next year, not just til the end of 2015). Check the website statusmatch.com (airline status matches are also available, e.g. Air Berlin just mentioned a match for non-One World Elites).
The Cards.
The big chains all have credit cards issued by banks, and some of these cards give some head start towards status, and some give status right off. They all give bonus points for spending, and significant bonuses for spending at the hotel chain which is the co-issuer.
To me, the best of these cards is the SPG card, as it has 31 transfer partners, including most airlines, and at 1:1 ratios. It also gives a 25% bonus for transfers in blocks of 20,000 points, and also provides 2 stays and 5 nights credit toward gold status (and platinum, gold being pretty mediocre). Club Carlson has a card that basically gives you a bonus night for every stay, which basically amounts to a 2 for 1 for every short term stay. Thats a very high end benefit - unfortunately they lack desirable properties in many of my intended travel destinations. IHG has a low annual fee card ($49) that occasionally has decent signup bonuses, gives Platinum status to holders and gives one free night per year at any IHG property (that can easily be worth more than $300 in exchange for the 49 annual fee). Marriott’s card also provides status, and Hyatt has several cards with varying bonuses and perks.
If you plan on pursuing status with a chain, it may make a lot of sense, if you have the flexibility to pay however you’d like, to get the co-issued card. It provides a headstart towards status in some cases, can more than double the points earned by a stay at the hotel in question, and again, cards like SPG and Hyatt transfer points to multiple partners (though not always at good ratios in the case of the Hyatt card). Keep in mind that chains like Hyatt don't have that many hotels compared to IHG and Marriott, and so your opportunities to earn stay and night credit may be tougher to come by if you choose to pursue Hyatt (check your intended destinations and see if the chain in question has a hotel or two in the vicinity).
Otherwise paying with a card that gives bonus points for spending on travel, such as Citi Thank You Rewards cards, or the Chase Sapphire, are your best bet.
Which Rate?
Apart from using cards to pay to maximize earnings in points, hotel websites typically allow you to pay in points earned in your frequent traveller account with them, or in some combination of their points and cash.
Typically, this is just the same exercise as one would make with airline points. Check the cash rate of the hotel on their website, divide by the number of points required to book using points and see if the trade is worth it. If an SPG hotel is 220 per night, and the cost to book in points is 10,000, then you’re getting 2.2 cents per point. Consider whether that return is sufficient by comparing it to the return you’d get from using those SPG points to book airline tickets. Similarly, using cash and points is a similar calculation - just subtract the cash portion from the cost of the room, and then do the math based on the reduced cost and points. It used to be that many hotels didn't give nights and stay credits, and didn't provide perks, on awards stays, but many chains have now moved towards providing all benefits on paid and award stays. If the chain with which your pursuing status doesn't give credit for full awards, but does for mixed cash and points stays, during your “push” for status, you may opt toward these mixed stays to earn the nights/stays credits.
There are also bonuses available with certain points to buy their points cheaply, and IHG does a quarterly program, PointsBreak, where they mark certain hotels down to 5000 points per night (an amount that can be acquired for $35). By subscribing to their email updates, you can keep aware of these possible deals and see if they fit your intended travel.
Other Booking Methods.
If you’re not pursuing status or there isn't a hotel at your destination that fits your budget/needs and is part of that chain, then you have several other options for booking.
hotels.com has its own award program. Basically, ten nights earns you a free night, which is a pretty good deal, as it allows you to stay in whatever hotel you want, so long as you book through them. Orbitz apparently has a good rewards program, and I’ve found some value (and good pricing) on agoda.com, which give credits against future spending. (Actually I’ve found very low rates for US hotels on Agoda’s website, probably because its mostly marketing to frugal asian customers).
There are also three primary websites that provide hotel booking and give airline frequent flyer bonuses for booking through them. They have varying amounts of inventory, and the prices tend to be pretty similar to those of expedia, etc., but not nearly the amount of hotels available. These sites are Kaligo, Pointshound, and Rocketmiles. It doesn't take long to compare the bonuses for a specific hotel between the three sites, and these are my primary choice when I’m not booking into a chain.
For example, there are very few chains in Sri Lanka (just Hilton mostly, and a single Shangri-La) so I was not booking through hotel websites. Instead, I checked agoda (via Kayak), and the airline miles hotel sites. I ended up booking between a combination of these, with some through Agoda, and some through Kaligo. Typically, Kaligo, PH and RM will give bonus points for your first booking (up to 10K bonus miles) on any number of airline partners, and its worth checking that out, particularly for longer or more expensive stays (the more you spend, the bigger the bonus, not surprisingly). I earned 4000 AA miles for stays in Sri Lanka (four nights of booking) and around $75 cash back on around 12 more days of bookings. Not huge, but I didn't pay more for those rooms than I would have on a site like expedia.com, whose award program is largely useless. I also earned airline miles for recent stays at RVF favorite Napolitano Hotel in Santo Domingo, and for several recent stays in China.
If you have a sapphire or ink card from Chase, and you book through chase.com, you’ll get a bonus point for each dollar spent through the portal. You can do the math yourself to see if this is worth it for a non-chain stay. I do find Chase to show significantly higher rates on many things than other consolidators, so I’d definitely check around.
Finally, there are apps like Hotel Tonight that show last minute rates for unoccupied hotel rooms same day. Deep discounts may be available and that may more than make up for not getting the perks awarded by status, or earning airline miles/consolidator awards. You can also walk into many one-off/boutique hotels in various cities in Asia and ask them to give you a walk in rate. In countries like China and the Philippines, that rate can be higher or lower than the published rate, and is often negotiable (even if the rate isn’t, perhaps they’ll give you breakfast buffet access, which in some Chinese hotels is quite extravagant, or in manila/cebu, a free filipina(not really) ).
Quote: (01-30-2017 01:08 PM)Hypno Wrote:
Quote: (01-30-2017 07:53 AM)Global Entry Wrote:
Hypno - thanks for the shout out. But NO, you don't need any status to use those points for redemptions.
Oh sure, i have redeemed plenty of miles without airline status, but I have to work hard to get a value equivalent to 1.3 cents per mile. So while i have a Delta and an American credit card, and pay the annual fee since its worth it for the free baggage allowance alone, I tend to accrue miles on my cash back or hotel cards.
Delta is seemingly trying to force redemptions on its own metal to 1c/point. However, sky team redemptions from asia at 70K-80K one way in business have a higher value than the amounts your quoting And in general premium class redemptions should be above 2.5-3c/point. If they're not, I'd probably buy the ticket. Flying economy only, I guess 1.3 is as fair a number as any for someone in one programs using those miles for all purposes. If you want to fly economy, a cash back card is a fine choice (or a hyatt card, etc. if you value that).
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - Onto - 02-01-2017
I'm trying to book a flight from Saigon back to the US Northeast and have found an itinerary that I want to take using Cathay Pacific.
I wanted to use part of my 130k in Alaska miles to do this, but after waiting 45 mins on hold I gave up.
I called AA and got a person on the phone right away. Unfortunately all they had was Business class available and for only 1 day this month, so I put a 24 hour hold on it. I only have 73,000 AA miles, which is enough for the biz class ticket, but can either buy or transfer SPG to make up the difference for a First Class ticket. Problem is there is no First Class availability in February.
I've read that CX Biz class also has lie-flat seats and is a good product. Has anyone used that product on a long haul?
I really want to fly first class though. I suppose I can try Alaska again and see if Japan Airlines has any availability. Problem using Alaska miles, despite the hold time, is I need to take an AA regional flight after landing and I read that Alaska award tickets are only good for One partner on an itinerary so I would have to pay cash for the regional and pickup/re-check luggage, and probably not get admittance to the lounge.
I'm open to ideas? I suppose I could extend my stay here in Saigon until a first class ticket is available.
I've also got 190k in Amex pts, 200k in UR, and 75k in SPG
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - AlphaRN - 02-01-2017
Onto, did you try breaking up the segments? Did you try getting Cathay Pacific just for your long flight, then using AA or another carrier for the other segments?
Also, try using British Airlines reward search engine (they are a Cathay partner). You have to sign up, its free, but if something is available, they will usually find it.
You can also do a search on United if you have UR (chase points). ANA and EVA are their higher rated partners and both fly into the United States. EVA is great with last minute rewards.
The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts - AlphaRN - 02-01-2017
delete, duplicate