Post: #326

Thanks Brisey, I'll be keeping an eye on that. A single intercontinental trip (which I'll definitely be taking) is 4 flight segments by itself, so it could easily be stretched into 5 or 6. But where are you getting this info? I'm looking at the promotion page and nothing is mentioned about partial bonuses: http://www.miles-and-more.com/online/por...id=1000390

Yes Global Entry, I'm (currently) in Croatia, even though spending less and less time there. I'm not sure how I feel about manufactured spending (given that the amounts involved often dwarf my normal spending, so imagine if something went awry), but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for deals like that.

Post: #327

Repost of cheap award flights North America to Europe - gateways for US Airways are typically Philly and Charlotte.

*****

US Airways off peak award space to Europe is wide open. For travel between January 15 and February 28, 2015, you can pay as little as 30,000 miles roundtrip to tons of top cities like London, Paris, Madrid, and Dublin.

Reminder of US Airways Off Peak Awards

US Airways has incredible discounts on the miles needed for a roundtrip award to Europe and the Caribbean during off peak dates (January 15 – February 28 for Europe and September for Caribbean).

Off peak awards require finding Saver award space on all legs from your home airport to your destination, and flying all US Airways planes. That is, you cannot fly partners, including American Airlines.

The off peak price is 35,000 miles roundtrip to Europe. Folks with the US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® get an automatic 5,000 mile discount on all US Airways awards that fly only US Airways planes, which is a requirement of off peak awards. That means US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® cardholders pay only 30,000 miles roundtrip to Europe during off peak dates.

Post: #328

This is seemingly esoteric, but it is important - it deals with awards tickets taxes and fees being miscalculated by US Airways. Its a reason why its important to be aware of fuel surcharges and which airlines charge them on awards (with which partners) - something which is eminently google-able.

In the instant case, it was a 950 dollar overcharge on two tickets, not an incidental amount. Perhaps US Airways is particularly bad at this, but its surely not only US Airways that is capable of such a mistake. Nice to see how to secondarily price a ticket using ITA Matrix to check tax and fees and double-check the airline employee.

Here's the link.

Post: #329

Putting this in the thread also.

KLM has a flash sale to Kenya from several major US Cities. Very good deal

http://www.klm.com/travel/us_en/plan_and...hfares.htm

Post: #330

(12-09-2014 05:30 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  Thanks Brisey, I'll be keeping an eye on that. A single intercontinental trip (which I'll definitely be taking) is 4 flight segments by itself, so it could easily be stretched into 5 or 6. But where are you getting this info? I'm looking at the promotion page and nothing is mentioned about partial bonuses: http://www.miles-and-more.com/online/por...id=1000390

Yes Global Entry, I'm (currently) in Croatia, even though spending less and less time there. I'm not sure how I feel about manufactured spending (given that the amounts involved often dwarf my normal spending, so imagine if something went awry), but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for deals like that.

Here you go mate, although this was different to the deals I had this year. It might change again for 2015
http://www.miles-and-more.com/online/por...82866&l=en

Post: #331

Hey guys, I'm on the road in KUL at the moment but just wanted to let everyone know that there's another Orbitz promo out there.

Using VISACHECKOUT as the promo code, $100 off 2 night+ bookings.

I am in the process of booking a nice stay at 4* serviced apartments in an Asian city for $20/night.

There is no limit to the number of bookings available, and it's a great deal if there is a city you are planning on going to with a bunch of affordable, decent, non-chain hotels.

Vegas, Latin America, Asia are ones that come to mind. It's best to find a 50$/night X2 combo to make it a full free hotel.

This won't last, and although it's not $100 off a one nighter like the last round, it still is an amazing value.

Post: #332

Cid,
These are great for those not chasing status, and even in some circumstances for those of us that are, or already have it. Awesome.

Post: #333

The orbitz promo codes doesn't work anymore? It sold out that quick?? F me

Post: #334

This is a hack I have kind of used, as I have a UK Expedia account as well as a USA one. But this article lays out some circumstances where buying via a foreign website yielded a 35 percent reduced airfare to South America. I've heard about this working for Chinese airlines, but you need to be able to read the websites, and be desirous of using the extra effort to find those bargains (pretty much all of my flights within China were paid for by someone else (work, etc.) and I needed an english language receipt, regardless).

Here is the article.

Post: #335

Okay, now that I have more free time in my life I feel like I can start tackling this...

I've got a Chase Sapphire Plus as my baseline card. I just applied and got approved for the U.S. Airways card to get those 50,000 miles with the $85 fee.

I'm thinking about getting the American Airlines card with 50,000 miles with $3000 purchases in the first 3 months, as I'm going to be doing a $3k purchase (that I'm getting reimbursed for) in about a month.

The points websites aren't the most reader friendly and I can understand why so many members are daunted by all the information.

But as I understand it, the main strategy is to have 1 good baseline card, and then apply for new cards and fulfill whatever requirements are to get those sweet 40000/50000 mile bonuses, correct? And then utilize those miles when US Airways runs specials on cheap miles flights?

What else am I missing?

My only interest is in flights. I'm not into hotels or car rentals.

Post: #336

(07-18-2014 11:44 PM)Global Entry Wrote:  Here's how this works. First, build up a small balance on a British Airways Executive Club account. You can do this by (1) flying either US Air or American in the USA and giving a BA frequent flier number instead of your AA/US Air number, (2) flying on any Oneworld carrier anywhere and giving your BA number, (3) transferring miles from a transfer partner like Chase or Starwood Rewards (transfer Starpoints in chunks of 20,000 to get a 20 percent bonus) or (4) sign up for a credit card that gives a British Airways signup reward, there are a few.

Once you've a balance, you can begin to take advantage of this arbitrage. Because British Airways Avios points has a distance based award chart, using British Airways Avios points to book on American Airlines/US Airways through the online BA booking system is fantastic.

It costs 4,500 British Airways Avios points for a 1-way flight up to 649 miles and 7,500 British Airways Avios points 1-way for a flight up to 1,149 miles. If you wanted to fly round-trip in coach from New York to Washington DC, you would only pay 9,000 British Airways Avios points. However, if you wanted that flight roundtrip and you booked directly on American, you'd pay 25,000 miles, almost three times the cost as by booking it using the British Airways arb. And if you have elite status on American, you can still get to add that number to the British Airways booking and get free baggage checks, and the other perks you've earned. I recently used 15,000 miles to fly HKG to Phnom Penh, round trip, using the same technique, except I booked on British Airways to travel on DragonAir, which is Cathay's sister airline (serving China and SE Asia only). Getting a 3 hour each way round trip flight international for 15,000 miles total is a great hack. I'd suggest everyone who flies short flights like this served by any OneWorld carrier bank some British Airways avios as the cheapest way to get these awards.

Sorry, I'm just getting caught up in this thread as I didn't understand any of this shit before.

When you're booking flights in one airline with points from another, how are you booking it, over the phone? Can you provide details of what you're telling the agent?

Post: #337

Veloce, welcome aboard.

I don't think having a main card is the main strategy. I think having cards to chose from that optimize your point-earning from whatever it is you do buy is part of a strategy, but there are many ways to earn points. Some things to consider are:

1. Buy through portals via the airlines - use EVrewards.com to figure out which portal is providing for the most points (this is free and doesn't change the price you'd pay by accessing the website directly).
2. Buy gift cards from office supply stores or other retailers to maximize point gain on shopping. I get five points per dollar spent on office supply stores, but 1 point per dollar (or 1.25 if you count the starwood 20K transfer bonus). So I am buying whole foods gift cards at Par (100 $ = 100$) at Staples.com and using them at whole foods, and earning 5 points per dollar, rather than 1.25 points per dollar (using Chase Ink Biz card, which has a nice signup bonus as well (not as good as before, though, when it was 70K). Another example of this is using a Chase Freedom card that gives a bonus for spending a supermarkets (which it will for the first quarter of 2015) and buying Amazon.com gift cards at the supermarket - Amazon has no points play on its own, though they do have a rebate branded credit card (3 percent back).) Still, this yields an extra two points per dollar, and I typically turn 1 point into significantly more than 1 percent because I fly premium classes on airlines).
3. Best to earn transferable points first if you can, via AMEX, Chase, Citi and Starwood (don't think of SPG as a hotel card, its a low cost AMEX that happens to give you low elite status for SPG, but more importantly, it transfers to 31 transfer partners, like the Baskin Robbins of credit cards). In your personal situation, I'd also consider that since you now live in Vegas, people will likely come visit you more often, and if you end up booking their hotel rooms at the right hotels, you might inadvertainly end up with decent earnings and SPG status as a result. Remember, Caesars is a partner to SPG.
4. Do your applications in chunks, if you're concerned about your credit being close to the line on a particular deal. Inquiries themselves bang your credit a little bit, so its generally advisable to apply for a few cards at the same time, so none of those applications bears the brunt of the simultaneous ones.
5. The US Airways card gives free FICO score access. For those without the card, perhaps sign up for a free FACO (estimated credit score) service like Credit Karma. Not the real thing, but may give you a ballpark and very instructive on how to improve your credit, regardless of the starting point.

Post: #338

You can be booking on the phone, or via the internet (or in person if you're unlucky enough to be trying to dispose of Philippines Airway miles). I hate booking via phone, but in some cases, its necessary. It will be less painful if you've status with the particular airline. Not all airlines have good internet award booking. BA has good ones, not perfect. Delta just upgraded theirs. Each airline has its own intricacies and there's a lot out there on these topics.

You'll be booking on the airline with which you've the miles, not the one you're flying on necessarily. Hence if I use AA miles to fly Cathay pacific first class (don't mind if I do), then you're calling AA, not Cathay (this cannot be booked online, and you actually find the award space on a third airline's website to see what award space was released by Cathay to its OneWorld partners).

What you're telling the agent is everything. I'd research and write down every element of your trip so they don't fuck it up. Dates, flight numbers, seats available even if possible, stopovers if they're permitted, etc. If the person you get is an idiot, and cannot get the ticket booked even though you're certain you've done the work right and the availability is there, best thing to do is to hang up and call back.

(12-18-2014 07:19 PM)Veloce Wrote:  

(07-18-2014 11:44 PM)Global Entry Wrote:  Here's how this works. First, build up a small balance on a British Airways Executive Club account. You can do this by (1) flying either US Air or American in the USA and giving a BA frequent flier number instead of your AA/US Air number, (2) flying on any Oneworld carrier anywhere and giving your BA number, (3) transferring miles from a transfer partner like Chase or Starwood Rewards (transfer Starpoints in chunks of 20,000 to get a 20 percent bonus) or (4) sign up for a credit card that gives a British Airways signup reward, there are a few.

Once you've a balance, you can begin to take advantage of this arbitrage. Because British Airways Avios points has a distance based award chart, using British Airways Avios points to book on American Airlines/US Airways through the online BA booking system is fantastic.

It costs 4,500 British Airways Avios points for a 1-way flight up to 649 miles and 7,500 British Airways Avios points 1-way for a flight up to 1,149 miles. If you wanted to fly round-trip in coach from New York to Washington DC, you would only pay 9,000 British Airways Avios points. However, if you wanted that flight roundtrip and you booked directly on American, you'd pay 25,000 miles, almost three times the cost as by booking it using the British Airways arb. And if you have elite status on American, you can still get to add that number to the British Airways booking and get free baggage checks, and the other perks you've earned. I recently used 15,000 miles to fly HKG to Phnom Penh, round trip, using the same technique, except I booked on British Airways to travel on DragonAir, which is Cathay's sister airline (serving China and SE Asia only). Getting a 3 hour each way round trip flight international for 15,000 miles total is a great hack. I'd suggest everyone who flies short flights like this served by any OneWorld carrier bank some British Airways avios as the cheapest way to get these awards.

Sorry, I'm just getting caught up in this thread as I didn't understand any of this shit before.

When you're booking flights in one airline with points from another, how are you booking it, over the phone? Can you provide details of what you're telling the agent?

Post: #339

(12-18-2014 07:20 PM)Global Entry Wrote:  Veloce, welcome aboard.

I don't think having a main card is the main strategy. I think having cards to chose from that optimize your point-earning from whatever it is you do buy is part of a strategy, but there are many ways to earn points. Some things to consider are:

1. Buy through portals via the airlines - use EVrewards.com to figure out which portal is providing for the most points (this is free and doesn't change the price you'd pay by accessing the website directly).
2. Buy gift cards from office supply stores or other retailers to maximize point gain on shopping. I get five points per dollar spent on office supply stores, but 1 point per dollar (or 1.25 if you count the starwood 20K transfer bonus). So I am buying whole foods gift cards at Par (100 $ = 100$) at Staples.com and using them at whole foods, and earning 5 points per dollar, rather than 1.25 points per dollar (using Chase Ink Biz card, which has a nice signup bonus as well (not as good as before, though, when it was 70K). Another example of this is using a Chase Freedom card that gives a bonus for spending a supermarkets (which it will for the first quarter of 2015) and buying Amazon.com gift cards at the supermarket - Amazon has no points play on its own, though they do have a rebate branded credit card (3 percent back).) Still, this yields an extra two points per dollar, and I typically turn 1 point into significantly more than 1 percent because I fly premium classes on airlines).
3. Best to earn transferable points first if you can, via AMEX, Chase, Citi and Starwood (don't think of SPG as a hotel card, its a low cost AMEX that happens to give you low elite status for SPG, but more importantly, it transfers to 31 transfer partners, like the Baskin Robbins of credit cards). In your personal situation, I'd also consider that since you now live in Vegas, people will likely come visit you more often, and if you end up booking their hotel rooms at the right hotels, you might inadvertainly end up with decent earnings and SPG status as a result. Remember, Caesars is a partner to SPG.
4. Do your applications in chunks, if you're concerned about your credit being close to the line on a particular deal. Inquiries themselves bang your credit a little bit, so its generally advisable to apply for a few cards at the same time, so none of those applications bears the brunt of the simultaneous ones.
5. The US Airways card gives free FICO score access. For those without the card, perhaps sign up for a free FACO (estimated credit score) service like Credit Karma. Not the real thing, but may give you a ballpark and very instructive on how to improve your credit, regardless of the starting point.

I track my credit through credit sesame, it's around 760 so I'm good on getting cards.

So would you recommend cancelling the chase sapphire preferred and switching to a new card? I've had it over a year (paid the annual fee) so I should be fine cancelling it without any penalties. I have about 25,000 Reward points that I could transfer to an airline before cancelling the card.

Post: #340

GE asked me to explain how to use the Avianca Lifemiles promotions to get reasonable Biz class tickets to Asia.

It's quite simple, with the only caveat being that their call center isn't so good if you can't speak Spanish. The other restriction is 150k is the purchasing limit per year (although there are 2 ways around this).

A one way to Europe is 75/78k from the USA. That means one needs to buy 39,000 miles which is about $1280 during a 2X1 promotion (they are common, and one ends tomorrow).

It's pretty easy to find availability on United's website, confirm its availability on the LM website, then buy the miles and book. Fuel surcharges aren't imposed with LM.

On a side note - I have recently started to consider miles for business class to Europe a bad redemption value. I have bought 2 business class tickets for $1500 each, one from SFO and the other from JFK to Europe this year. If I was using Delta miles I would have burned 250,000 miles for those two tickets. We always hear a blogger justifying their redemption saying oh this ticket would've cost me $5k. Biz tickets to Europe don't seem to cost much more than $2k now making the redemption values top out at 2CPM which isn't that good. That's now the equivalent of a $250 one way for 12.5k miles. When biz tickets to Asia run for $5k or so usually the mileage redemption presents a better value.

Stopovers and random small expensive places like Ljubljana make sense maybe, but Paris and London and Madrid are often never better than 2CPM, even in summer.

Post: #341

I'd agree with this. and point out that its also possible to get the AARP (stop laughing) discount to fly BA from North America to Europe, which I think is an additional 400USD discount. Perhaps El Cid you've already done so, as the BA fares I saw that were cheapest were west coast USA.

I aspire to get no less the 3-4 cents per miles used when I cash in, unless I have miles that are stranded for some reason, in which case I'll go a penny a mile for a gift card or magazine or something. When I flew Cathay, I got a 13,300 dollar ticket (one-way, and this actually doesnt even include the flight from LAX to SLC, which would have been perhaps 500 USD more in a premium class) for miles I spent around 1265 USD on (1875 x 67500/100,000), which comes out to better than 10 cents a mile. Its always going to be easier to get higher returns for premium class airfare, but of course I wasn't gonna pay 13,300 to fly one way anyway. The math is of course then a little specious, but since its apples and apples, this calculation is worth doing.

Post: #342

No, i wouldn't cancel the Sapphire. Its a solid card, and the transferable points are valuable. I'd consider getting a Chase Freedom card to go with it, which has rebates on selected items each quarter. Those rebates can instead be converted via your Sapphire into Ultimate Rewards, which can then be exchanged for airline miles and redeemed at a premium. But the Sapphire has its uses as well, for paid travel and some other things. The annual fee for your card is 95 USD - so look at what you anticipate getting for your 95 when it renews. Is it worth it? You can also try to call and see if they'll give you another bonus or credit or something if you tell them your thinking of dropping the card. That being said, I think to really play the game well you need a card that has Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Sapphire and Chase Ink Plus are the leading candidates.

(12-18-2014 07:45 PM)Veloce Wrote:  

(12-18-2014 07:20 PM)Global Entry Wrote:  Veloce, welcome aboard.

I don't think having a main card is the main strategy. I think having cards to chose from that optimize your point-earning from whatever it is you do buy is part of a strategy, but there are many ways to earn points. Some things to consider are:

1. Buy through portals via the airlines - use EVrewards.com to figure out which portal is providing for the most points (this is free and doesn't change the price you'd pay by accessing the website directly).
2. Buy gift cards from office supply stores or other retailers to maximize point gain on shopping. I get five points per dollar spent on office supply stores, but 1 point per dollar (or 1.25 if you count the starwood 20K transfer bonus). So I am buying whole foods gift cards at Par (100 $ = 100$) at Staples.com and using them at whole foods, and earning 5 points per dollar, rather than 1.25 points per dollar (using Chase Ink Biz card, which has a nice signup bonus as well (not as good as before, though, when it was 70K). Another example of this is using a Chase Freedom card that gives a bonus for spending a supermarkets (which it will for the first quarter of 2015) and buying Amazon.com gift cards at the supermarket - Amazon has no points play on its own, though they do have a rebate branded credit card (3 percent back).) Still, this yields an extra two points per dollar, and I typically turn 1 point into significantly more than 1 percent because I fly premium classes on airlines).
3. Best to earn transferable points first if you can, via AMEX, Chase, Citi and Starwood (don't think of SPG as a hotel card, its a low cost AMEX that happens to give you low elite status for SPG, but more importantly, it transfers to 31 transfer partners, like the Baskin Robbins of credit cards). In your personal situation, I'd also consider that since you now live in Vegas, people will likely come visit you more often, and if you end up booking their hotel rooms at the right hotels, you might inadvertainly end up with decent earnings and SPG status as a result. Remember, Caesars is a partner to SPG.
4. Do your applications in chunks, if you're concerned about your credit being close to the line on a particular deal. Inquiries themselves bang your credit a little bit, so its generally advisable to apply for a few cards at the same time, so none of those applications bears the brunt of the simultaneous ones.
5. The US Airways card gives free FICO score access. For those without the card, perhaps sign up for a free FACO (estimated credit score) service like Credit Karma. Not the real thing, but may give you a ballpark and very instructive on how to improve your credit, regardless of the starting point.

I track my credit through credit sesame, it's around 760 so I'm good on getting cards.

So would you recommend cancelling the chase sapphire preferred and switching to a new card? I've had it over a year (paid the annual fee) so I should be fine cancelling it without any penalties. I have about 25,000 Reward points that I could transfer to an airline before cancelling the card.

Post: #343

@ Global Entry

Discover actually gives you your free FICO score every month without having to pay an annual card fee like the US Airways card.

@ Veloce

Keep the Sapphire Preferred. If you wanted it again I think you have to wait 24 months before you can re-apply. Chase points are some of the most valuable and versatile around. The Chase online mall is great too. Sometimes I'll see something in a department store I like and then just go and order it through their portal on the Chase mall so I can get points as well. Those add up. Macy's and Nordstroms will give like 5x or 6x points on spending through the Chase mall. That card and the Barclay's Arrival Plus card are the two most valuable cards for travelers. The latter is the best for non-categorized spending as you get 2x points for everything while all other cards give 1 point per cent of non-category spending. The Points Guy swears by these two as your baseline cards(read everything on his site http://www.thepointsguy.com he's the authority on points hacking).

@ everyone

Delta is offering 50,000pts but you only have till Dec 21st: https://www262.americanexpress.com/apply...000/dal-97

Annual fee is deferred for a year and with only a $1,000 required spend in 3 months this is low hanging fruit if you have good credit.

Post: #344

I'm in agreement that the Sapphire is a good card, and the transferrable points and shopping portal through Chase UR is attractive. But travel and cards and all this, its a very personal thing. So I'm not of the opinion that one person can say that X is the best card, or YY are the best two cards. The real question is what you prefer, what you want to achieve, and perhaps most importantly, what are your spending patterns... and then thats a starting point. Go from there. Having an assortment of cards whose benefits (for you, given your individual desires and goals) outweigh the costs to keep them is the goal. That can mean you have two cards, or ten.

That Delta card is a good deal, but I'm banging out some minimum spend for my parents on their BA 50,000 miles cards, so the timing for me is unfortunately off. I imagine we'll see that bonus again sometime in the future.

If any of you want to apply for the US Airways 40,000 point bonus card (89 annual fee, points awarded on first $1 spent), I've a referral code and of course, would be happy to provide it under the right circumstances.

(12-18-2014 08:06 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  @ Global Entry

Discover actually gives you your free FICO score every month without having to pay an annual card fee like the US Airways card.

@ Veloce

Keep the Sapphire Preferred. If you wanted it again I think you have to wait 24 months before you can re-apply. Chase points are some of the most valuable and versatile around. The Chase online mall is great too. Sometimes I'll see something in a department store I like and then just go and order it through their portal on the Chase mall so I can get points as well. Those add up. Macy's and Nordstroms will give like 5x or 6x points on spending through the Chase mall. That card and the Barclay's Arrival Plus card are the two most valuable cards for travelers. The latter is the best for non-categorized spending as you get 2x points for everything while all other cards give 1 point per cent of non-category spending. The Points Guy swears by these two as your baseline cards(read everything on his site http://www.thepointsguy.com he's the authority on points hacking).

@ everyone

Delta is offering 50,000pts but you only have till Dec 21st: https://www262.americanexpress.com/apply...000/dal-97

Annual fee is deferred for a year and with only a $1,000 required spend in 3 months this is low hanging fruit if you have good credit.

Post: #345

Please don't read The Points Guy. He sold his website 2 years ago and is 100% for profit with his postings and advice. Especially don't simply trust his opinions on credit cards (some stuff he is told to say since he has been bought out).

Chase UR points are great. There is nothing that beats their flexibility. I've used them for anything from Amtrak to flights on Avianca. Still, the CSP or the Ink cards both present basically equal value. As long as you have access to them it is good.

50k Delta miles are worth little. I think I am pretty much a master of finding availability with Delta miles, and can't find anything I want to use them for. Every time I want to use them, there is another currency with a better value and a better product.

I like to use them to go to Lima because they open up seats all the time last-minute since they fly a 767 down there. Of course, no upgrades, so you get to watch all the nonrevs file up into their business class seats since like 3 people pay for biz class to Lima. 45k it's a decent value. Still 10k more than AA though in economy. AA biz is only 30k to Lima. If you read the Delta forum on Flyertalk, people redeem 40k miles for domestic flights and are actually content with themselves.

Could talk all day about how AA is better, especially with US now to fill in the domestic availability issues. I'd get 5 AA cards before 1 Delta one.

Post: #346

Except maybe if u wanna go surfing in Australia.

No doubt Delta is worth less as a currency than AA. Problem is, living in SLC, its the airline of choice here (gulp), and I'll end up using those miles. I won't pay a lot to get them, so it depends on the cost of the card in the deal (minimum spend isn't usually a huge hurdle for me, though since I'm doing two new BA cards at the same time now, I don't want to add even a modest third minimum spend).

Again, I'd emphasize that it depends on your circumstances. Delta miles have some additional value to me, because 60 percent of the flights out of SLC are on Delta.

(12-18-2014 08:40 PM)elcidcampeador Wrote:  Please don't read The Points Guy. He sold his website 2 years ago and is 100% for profit with his postings and advice. Especially don't simply trust his opinions on credit cards (some stuff he is told to say since he has been bought out).

Chase UR points are great. There is nothing that beats their flexibility. I've used them for anything from Amtrak to flights on Avianca. Still, the CSP or the Ink cards both present basically equal value. As long as you have access to them it is good.

50k Delta miles are worth little. I think I am pretty much a master of finding availability with Delta miles, and can't find anything I want to use them for. Every time I want to use them, there is another currency with a better value and a better product.

I like to use them to go to Lima because they open up seats all the time last-minute since they fly a 767 down there. Of course, no upgrades, so you get to watch all the nonrevs file up into their business class seats since like 3 people pay for biz class to Lima. 45k it's a decent value. Still 10k more than AA though in economy. AA biz is only 30k to Lima. If you read the Delta forum on Flyertalk, people redeem 40k miles for domestic flights and are actually content with themselves.

Could talk all day about how AA is better, especially with US now to fill in the domestic availability issues. I'd get 5 AA cards before 1 Delta one.

Post: #347

(12-18-2014 08:25 PM)Global Entry Wrote:  I'm in agreement that the Sapphire is a good card, and the transferrable points and shopping portal through Chase UR is attractive. But travel and cards and all this, its a very personal thing. So I'm not of the opinion that one person can say that X is the best card, or YY are the best two cards. The real question is what you prefer, what you want to achieve, and perhaps most importantly, what are your spending patterns... and then thats a starting point. Go from there. Having an assortment of cards whose benefits (for you, given your individual desires and goals) outweigh the costs to keep them is the goal. That can mean you have two cards, or ten.

That Delta card is a good deal, but I'm banging out some minimum spend for my parents on their BA 50,000 miles cards, so the timing for me is unfortunately off. I imagine we'll see that bonus again sometime in the future.

If any of you want to apply for the US Airways 40,000 point bonus card (89 annual fee, points awarded on first $1 spent), I've a referral code and of course, would be happy to provide it under the right circumstances.

(12-18-2014 08:06 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  @ Global Entry

Discover actually gives you your free FICO score every month without having to pay an annual card fee like the US Airways card.

@ Veloce

Keep the Sapphire Preferred. If you wanted it again I think you have to wait 24 months before you can re-apply. Chase points are some of the most valuable and versatile around. The Chase online mall is great too. Sometimes I'll see something in a department store I like and then just go and order it through their portal on the Chase mall so I can get points as well. Those add up. Macy's and Nordstroms will give like 5x or 6x points on spending through the Chase mall. That card and the Barclay's Arrival Plus card are the two most valuable cards for travelers. The latter is the best for non-categorized spending as you get 2x points for everything while all other cards give 1 point per cent of non-category spending. The Points Guy swears by these two as your baseline cards(read everything on his site http://www.thepointsguy.com he's the authority on points hacking).

@ everyone

Delta is offering 50,000pts but you only have till Dec 21st: https://www262.americanexpress.com/apply...000/dal-97

Annual fee is deferred for a year and with only a $1,000 required spend in 3 months this is low hanging fruit if you have good credit.

I already applied for the US Air card, too late to use the referral code?

Also, how many cards would you consider applying for in one block at a time with good credit? I just did the US Air card and the American Airlines card today.

Post: #348

Yes too late I imagine.

I guess it would depend on need. Also with sterling credit like a 790, probably it makes no difference. But when you're flirting with 750, it might, so I might bang out another application for something that has value to you, assuming you can meet the minimum spend (not sure which AA card you got). Independent of travel aims, considering what very little I know about you (I know you like to cook), I'd definitely consider the Freedom card, assuming you spend a lot of money on groceries (first quarter bonus is on groceries - 5 points a dollar and you can transfer them with your Sapphire card). No annual fee, so when the rotating bonus categories don't work for you, you just leave it in your wallet. When they do, its a good opportunity to rack of points on things you're already buying.

Post: #349

(12-18-2014 10:37 PM)Global Entry Wrote:  Yes too late I imagine.

I guess it would depend on need. Also with sterling credit like a 790, probably it makes no difference. But when you're flirting with 750, it might, so I might bang out another application for something that has value to you, assuming you can meet the minimum spend (not sure which AA card you got). Independent of travel aims, considering what very little I know about you (I know you like to cook), I'd definitely consider the Freedom card, assuming you spend a lot of money on groceries (first quarter bonus is on groceries - 5 points a dollar and you can transfer them with your Sapphire card). No annual fee, so when the rotating bonus categories don't work for you, you just leave it in your wallet. When they do, its a good opportunity to rack of points on things you're already buying.

I don't spend THAT much on groceries, maybe $400 per month at the most.

Like I said I'll be able to hit the $3000 deadline for the American Airlines card easily because I'm going to pay a moving company at least that much for the move to Vegas, and I'm getting reimbursed every penny. So that leaves another $3-4k deadline that I could easily hit within 3 months, especially since I'll be moving to Vegas (I haven't yet) and will likely have a few other expenses that I can put on a credit card.

So I've got The American Airlines card applied for, the United Airways already approved, so what 3rd card would you recommend with a $3-4k deadline? Even $5k is easily doable since I now know that you can pay rent with a credit card. Wish I would have known that all along...I'd have an extra 30,000 rewards points. I was thinking the Ink Plus but I'd have to consider dropping a credit card eventually, since that would put me at 3 cards (Sapphire Plus, Citi Aadvantage Platinum Select, and Ink Plus) with a $95 annual fee which seems excessive.

Global I hope we can link up next time you're in town so I can pick your brain in person, I have a feeling that will be much easier than re-reading every post you've made here (some of which I still don't understand). I'll cook for you or something in return

Post: #350

(12-19-2014 01:30 AM)Veloce Wrote:  I don't spend THAT much on groceries, maybe $400 per month at the most.

These are the best cards for groceries: http://thepointsguy.com/2014/10/which-cr...groceries/

You can get 3x points on those, but sometimes you'll get rotating bonuses giving you 5x points on groceries for a limited time. One of my Wells Fargo cards is doing just that right now.

That would be nearly 15000 points in a year just for buying stuff you normally need to buy anyway, enough for a one-way domestic ticket on AA.

Quote:So I've got The American Airlines card applied for, the United Airways already approved, so what 3rd card would you recommend with a $3-4k deadline? Even $5k is easily doable since I now know that you can pay rent with a credit card. Wish I would have known that all along...I'd have an extra 30,000 rewards points. I was thinking the Ink Plus but I'd have to consider dropping a credit card eventually, since that would put me at 3 cards (Sapphire Plus, Citi Aadvantage Platinum Select, and Ink Plus) with a $95 annual fee which seems excessive.

The British Airways card is a good one right now. 50k points with a $2k minimum spend. Their points can be used to book American Airlines trips domestically since they are partners.

Also, I plan to drop all my cards with annual fees before the fee comes due. The only cards you keep are the ones with no fees. It's actually good to have lots of credit cards, it raises your credit score since your debt to credit access ratio shrinks. Keep all your cards in a spreadsheet and keep track of when the fees come due then cancel before that date. You can re-apply for that card again in 24 months most the time and get another bonus. There will of course be some cards you should keep like the Sapphire. The price protection is worth it alone. I just used it last month on a jacket I bought online. I saw that it dropped by $30 on black friday and Chase sent me a check for the difference. Sweet! The annual fee is worth it if you use that service even a few times. Plus no foreign transaction fees when overseas. It's a solid card. If I could only have one points-earning card, that would be my pick.

I'm so glad I got into this stuff. One year ago I had 86000 miles total. Now I have over 300,000. I'll probably have another 200,000 by summer. If your credit score is over 700 and you're not doing this shit, you're just leaving money on the table. If I'd known about this years ago I'd have millions of miles by now.