(10-26-2016 05:42 AM)Sourcecode Wrote:  Has anyone gotten the Chase reserve card. 100,000 miles free

Applied for it once and got denied.

Recently talked to my father and he mentioned he was instal-approved for it. Lucky bastard.

Will probably try again in a few weeks.

I just got it too. Getting the 2 $300 credits in the first 12 months more than pays for the card.

Just wondering what you guys think is the best use of "travel" charges. Does it make sense to buy miles with preferred airliners as "travel" expenses, or just buy revenue tickets outright?

don't have the card myself, but I have links for it, so if you're gonna apply, send me a message and I'll send you a link. . Might as well give it to a member of the community providing value, not Gary Leff that whining shit eater.

(10-26-2016 11:18 PM)Armogan Wrote:  I just got it too. Getting the 2 $300 credits in the first 12 months more than pays for the card.

Just wondering what you guys think is the best use of "travel" charges. Does it make sense to buy miles with preferred airliners as "travel" expenses, or just buy revenue tickets outright?

There are a lot of things that code as travel. Train/Subway tickets, taxi, car rental, AirBnb, Hotels. Virtually anything that's travel related. Gas stations are probably excluded.

You could also try using United's Mileage Plus X app and use it to buy gift cards to just about any business. It's codes as Airline on Amex so it probably would code as travel on Chase.

(10-26-2016 11:36 PM)Global Entry Wrote:  don't have the card myself, but I have links for it, so if you're gonna apply, send me a message and I'll send you a link. . Might as well give it to a member of the community providing value, not Gary Leff that whining shit eater.

Wow, you have CC affiliate links?? I thought they pretty much condensed the industry to the top 10 guys. I wrote around 50 articles for a B list blogger who's still around, but he almost folded when he lost all but his discover affiliate revenue.

Also, agreed on G Leff... that guy just gets fatter and whinier every year.

(10-27-2016 12:11 AM)booshala Wrote:  

(10-26-2016 11:36 PM)Global Entry Wrote:  don't have the card myself, but I have links for it, so if you're gonna apply, send me a message and I'll send you a link. . Might as well give it to a member of the community providing value, not Gary Leff that whining shit eater.

Wow, you have CC affiliate links?? I thought they pretty much condensed the industry to the top 10 guys. I wrote around 50 articles for a B list blogger who's still around, but he almost folded when he lost all but his discover affiliate revenue.

Also, agreed on G Leff... that guy just gets fatter and whinier every year.

Interested as well. Link below doesn't pull up anything for me with regard to Sapphire Reserve. Didn't think they had referrals for that card.

https://www.chase.com/referafriend/catch-all

Guys, appreciate the response. NM, these are affinity links, not referral bonuses I am talking about.

In general, guys, let me know what cards you want to apply for (I can see if I have them as links, but I have most), and I'll get you links for them. Mine are in subject to being shut down, as the industry is consolidating a little, so if you use mine, its one more small argument (cumulatively) for them to let me keep them. PM me and I'll send you the link.

New IHG pointbreaks list has been released on their blog: http://blog.ihg.com/ihg-rewards-club-poi...ks-preview

Some good ones:

Intercontinental Cali
Crowne Plaza Belgrade
Crowne Plaza Kathmandu-Soaltee

So I'm planning a major trip next year. Before I read through this monster of a thread, let me ask one question.

I'm already in the shallow end of the points game. I have some basic no-fee travel credit cards.

But for the lower budget traveller, is this whole thing worth exploring any further? I tend to aim for airbnbs, rather than luxury hotels.

^^I think its worth exploring to use the points for airline travel, primarily through accruing sign-up bonuses.

I'll be sure to use Global's referral links for the next card I get.

I'm pondering some other ways to manufacture spending. I believe earlier in this thread some methods were suggested, such as Plastiq, Visa Gift Cards, buying money orders, etc. I can't use my rent on Plastiq since its an unknown vendor and it will trigger a cash advance before it will start normal check distributions, which I'm not willing to do. I don't believe the money order method works anymore. I was going to buy around $1,000 - $1,500 gift cards. Anyone have direct experience with this, do they limit the amount you can buy towards the sign-up bonus? I haven't read any such language in the agreement.

Any other suggestions on manufactured spending? I've already bought all the useless random shit I wanted to buy.

Churros, you've kind of asked an unanswerable question. It it worth it? Well, that depends. You call yourself a lower budget traveler, which is fine. I have zero issue with that. But is that what you want to be? If you're cool to fly economy, and stay in hostels, then by all means, spend your time on something else, primarily. I mean, still, get a card that gives you 2 percent back on your spend in cash. That will be your game for when you use your card.

If you want to do the higher end side of travel, then the cards/points game is a huge rebate on cost. There are some quite easy steps outlined here and elsewhere you can take to significantly reduce costs on certain things.

Basic
By way of a basic example, just from flying Delta when I lived in the USA in 2015, I aggregated some DL points. Tomorrow I am off to Suzhou and then to Hangzhou. The flight to Suzhou is 12500 DL points one way on their partner China Southern. I didn't do anything other than just collect my delta points. The cash cost of the cheapest flight one day in advance, in economy, was 300+ USD.

Intermediate
When I get to Suzhou, I am staying in a hotel that costs 650 RMB (about 100 dollars a night) for free. But its a starwood/SPG, and I can get the room for 3000 starwood points, which I've earned through stays, SPG promotions, signing other people up to cards, etc. I have 130K starwood points and I'm platinum, which means free breakfast, upgraded room 4pm checkout etc. A little more involved here.

Next level (kind of).
Because I do a lot of hotel stays, and because I've wanted to get back on the road, I airbnb'ed my place out for all of November. I already knew I was gone for a trip from the 9-20, so renting it out on AirBNB subsidized my trip, the rub being that I'll have to travel the whole month or at least stay in hotels or rent my own Airbnbs (maybe December too if they extend). Keep in mind tho if I spend about the same, I've converted my rental spend into travel 3x or 2x points spend. Not a huge issue but other 2000 -3000 points, lets call it, with chase/Citibank

Where to go and where to stay - because of an SPG promotion where you get 11000 points for staying at all 11 brands, I'll stay at an Element hotel in Suzhou, my eleventh brand. As stated above, it costs 3K point. I'll get 11K back. Net negative cost there.

After that, I'm making a run at Hyatt Diamond for next year as well. I have 14 hyatt stays and one booked already. I'll need 10 more in addition to keep Diamond. But at the same time, Hyatt is running two promotions - points back on redemptions for rooms (both full awards and cash and points - not full awards DO NOT count as stays for Hyatt status, annoyingly) and a bonus points award that increases as you approach 25 stays during the fourth quarter. I'm double dipping on those while making a run for status next year which will drastically lower the points cost, net/net, of the 14/25 stays I've have had to rack up in the last quarter of 2016. However, because I have Diamond, I'll get free breakfasts, lounge access, and upgraded rooms while running those stays. And I just used my second suite upgrade for the stay I have coming up in HKG.

Summing Up.
You don't have to go all in, there are different levels. It can be easy to collect points on flights and stays. Its also quite easy to buy points when they go on sale (even as business fares get low, the timing of them may not always work for you, so if you want to fly premium, having miles you've bought can give you flexibility against trying to find a cheap revenue ticket). After that there are numerous other things you can take advantage of to get that points player high. Just up to you, man.

@Global Entry

That was a great explanation. My only issue is that sometimes getting to 4k on a card to get the promotion miles can be a steep curve at the beginning. I have some flights and hotels that will be reimbursed by work so that helps me with a lot of it.

Do you have any helpful ideas about manufactured spending?

Right now Im considering getting some Amazon gift cards since I know I will need to buy vitamins/supplements for myself and my parents this summer. I could always get a few $200 cards, that's $600 right there. It would be spent eventually.

After that Im not sure what to do for extra spending, since I don't spend much money overall. Ive looked at some of the sites for US dwelling people and it always involves some kind of money card that money gets loaded onto using the credit card and then sent back to a bank account later on. I cant do that living in China. Way too much hassle and probably not even possible.

Any outside the box thinking to drum up extra spending?

(11-02-2016 09:03 AM)ball dont lie Wrote:  @Global Entry

That was a great explanation. My only issue is that sometimes getting to 4k on a card to get the promotion miles can be a steep curve at the beginning. I have some flights and hotels that will be reimbursed by work so that helps me with a lot of it.

Do you have any helpful ideas about manufactured spending?

Right now Im considering getting some Amazon gift cards since I know I will need to buy vitamins/supplements for myself and my parents this summer. I could always get a few $200 cards, that's $600 right there. It would be spent eventually.

After that Im not sure what to do for extra spending, since I don't spend much money overall. Ive looked at some of the sites for US dwelling people and it always involves some kind of money card that money gets loaded onto using the credit card and then sent back to a bank account later on. I cant do that living in China. Way too much hassle and probably not even possible.

Any outside the box thinking to drum up extra spending?

Buy a refundable ticket for a year out. Maybe a business class ticket fully flexible. Then cancel for a refund once you have made minimum spend over the course of the next couple months.

(11-02-2016 09:03 AM)ball dont lie Wrote:  @Global Entry

That was a great explanation. My only issue is that sometimes getting to 4k on a card to get the promotion miles can be a steep curve at the beginning. I have some flights and hotels that will be reimbursed by work so that helps me with a lot of it.

Do you have any helpful ideas about manufactured spending?

Right now Im considering getting some Amazon gift cards since I know I will need to buy vitamins/supplements for myself and my parents this summer. I could always get a few $200 cards, that's $600 right there. It would be spent eventually.

After that Im not sure what to do for extra spending, since I don't spend much money overall. Ive looked at some of the sites for US dwelling people and it always involves some kind of money card that money gets loaded onto using the credit card and then sent back to a bank account later on. I cant do that living in China. Way too much hassle and probably not even possible.

Any outside the box thinking to drum up extra spending?

Manufacture spending was good a few years ago..bluebird and Amazon payments as examples. Most of these options are not as viable anymore. What i did recently was pay three bills in advance: cable, phone and EZ Pass. All three I was able to make sizable payments with a credit card.

As noted, a lot of the tried and true manufactured spending techniques have bit the dust. Shiet, I used to earn 2-300k points a month ordering $1 coins from the Mint and some other techniques that took advantage of 5x points at office supplies stores. These opportunities are long gone and most of the lucrative deals are kept hush-hush by individuals or private/closed member groups.

Can still eke out some signup bonuses through funding Kiva loans, paying utility bills with credit cards, buying/reselling gift cards, etc. These techniques involve fees (usually 1-2%) and/or a significant amount of float while you potentially tie up $1000's of dollars to get the bonuses. There are some grey areas that seasoned travel hackers use, but I'd advise against that for a beginner.

Check out "Frequent Miler" and especially "Point Chaser" blogs for more info. The latter especially as she does around $100k a month in MS.

Thanks Global. Seems like a long-term effort however you slice it. But I'll look into it.

Certainly the credit card game seems easier to get your head around.

What's up yall

idk if you guys were notified but Delta skymiles has a deal where if you get an Airbnb through their website, you'll get a 1 skymile for each dollar spent on an Airbnb https://www.deltaairbnb.com/?sm=9467616513

If anyone's interested:

Cairo to US flights are under $1000 in business class on Qatar and Etihad.

Cairo to Asia flights are as low as $500.

Cairo to Australia flights are as low as $1200.

Of course, you'd have to go to Cairo, but these fares are unbeatable. The miles accrued alone are worth at least $400.

They will probably be gone by tomorrow.

Head to a Homeland Security office, claim that you're an Egyptian illegal immigrant....boom, free flight to Cairo. Fedex your passport before heading out there.

You could name drop "ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al Shabab, jihad" but that'll probably land your upside down on a chair.

I did hear that DHS was deporting immigrants to third countries instead of Mexico to avoid having them cross again. You're from Salvador? Off to Colombia motherfucker.

(11-04-2016 11:31 AM)elcidcampeador Wrote:  If anyone's interested:

Cairo to US flights are under $1000 in business class on Qatar and Etihad.

Cairo to Asia flights are as low as $500.

Cairo to Australia flights are as low as $1200.

Of course, you'd have to go to Cairo, but these fares are unbeatable. The miles accrued alone are worth at least $400.

They will probably be gone by tomorrow.

Most likely due to the devuluation of the Egyptian currency.

Don't forget to use the promocode Holiday30 for Etihad.

Some of the 1k flights from Cairo to Asia are mixed business/first classt oo.

^^^40%+ devaluation has got to hurt, real bad.

delete, duplicate

(10-26-2016 05:42 AM)Sourcecode Wrote:  Has anyone gotten the Chase reserve card. 100,000 miles free

Yes, very nice set of perks, if you travel enough to offset the annual fee. If you fly, or even stay in a few hotels, it almost pays for itself. The 100,000 miles can also net you up to $1500 if you book through chase rewards. You can always head to a Chase location and get pre-screened if you dont want the hard hit on your credit.

(10-26-2016 12:06 PM)hooked_on_tonics Wrote:  

(10-26-2016 05:42 AM)Sourcecode Wrote:  Has anyone gotten the Chase reserve card. 100,000 miles free

Applied for it once and got denied.

Recently talked to my father and he mentioned he was instal-approved for it. Lucky bastard.

Will probably try again in a few weeks.

There is some really good data out there on what Chase looks for with this card, check the fico forums through google search. The big thing is the 5/24.

Is it better to use points through chases on rewards, or transfer to a 3rd party partner? (Like air France)