Points, miles and cards

Travel, Wine Tourism, and Restaurants Forum
41

I use 2 cards on a regular basis, but have multiple cards. It’s all about the sign up bonus. If I have to pay $95 in the second year (sometimes I cancel when payment is due), or even if the sign up isn’t waived the first year, isn’t $95 worth 50,000 points? That’s enough for 2 domestic tickets. This breaks down to $47.50 a ticket. Last I looked, most roundtrip tickets cost a lot more than that.

Taking it a step further… Let’s say you get the Chase United card, and 3 months later you sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Just between us, you can transfer your Chase Sapphire miles into your United account (as an example). Now all of a sudden, depending on how many miles you got for signing up, your account will have 100,000 miles in it plus the additional miles from minimum spend to get the points. Just between us, your two $95 fees ($190), got you 4 free domestic trips, or 1 seat upfront to a variety of foreign destinations. This means you paid $190 roundtrip (return) to fly in biz or first. Not such a bad deal. [cheers.gif]

You can thank me when we meet.

42

I think i have 6 or 7 cards at all times… sometimes dips to 4… but quickly replenishes back up to 6 or 7…
I like free flights/hotels… i don’t see a hit on credit… and i don’t find the process of applying for a card to be that much trouble, especially when i’m sitting in J/F… :slight_smile:

43

For example the 2 free nights with a new Hyatt card requires a 2 year wait but between time of application and NOT from time of cancellation to new application.

44

I’ll probably be carrying a third soon because I’ll want one with no foreign transaction fee.

Card 1 - Citibank AAdvantage since all my miles are on American
Card 2 - Amex Gold so I can get into La Paulee and La Fete du Champagne during the early sales period. Now that I’ve gotten my 50K point bonus I don’t anticipate using it for anything else.
Card 3 - something with no FT fee (I’ll probably reapply for the Chase Hyatt card unless a real chip and pin becomes available soon without having to jump through hoops like joining a credit union or moving to DC).

45

Barclay arrival plus, chip and pin card

No hoops, 40K point signup aka $400 towards travel statement credits

46

In his blog today, he shows you (walks you through) how you can make miles and points work to your advantage. http://millionmilesecrets.com/2015/04/29/fly-amazing-first-class-suite-to-europe-with-little-more-than-1-credit-card-sign-up-bonus/

A slow read, and a re-read for readers new to the credit card game, is advised. Have a question?? Post away.

47

Interesting!

I know this is going to be hard to swallow, Dan, because I know that the game of it is part of the fun for the pros like you, but this requires more patience and work than I am willing to put in. E.g, on our trip to Italy next fall, I would have to book several different flights, change planes (and waste airport time) three times – DC-NYC-Frankfurt-Rome (or Milan etc), and deal with at least 3 different miles programs. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

48

Neal, some of the travel bloggers offer booking services.
You’re right about one thing, I do enjoy the hunt; but the kill can be rewarding. [whistle.gif]

49

It’s the same with wine. The real deal is the bottle in front of you at dinner, but I’d be lying if I said the hunt to find the right bottle at the right price wasn’t part of it.

There are links to a couple of the booking services above. And I might take the lazy way out and do that.

But of course then the service is going to try to tell me that if I fly WN to Akron and connect to Aeroflat through Debruvnik, I can get double miles in the MALEV flyer program

50

I almost feel bad for people just getting into this hobby, jumping in head first and following blogs like these. I think it’s incredibly misleading to make it sound so easy, I’m surprised he even mentioned the difficulty of finding suites class award space, even on one of the routes where it’s usually more available.

These bloggers, MMS in particular love to sell a dream but fail to covey how difficult it can sometimes be to actually execute what they are describing. In between signing up for a CC, meeting minimum spend, transferring points, searching award space and finally booking. In the end they really could care less as its all about credit card referrals.

51

Though my understanding is that it’s not a full chip and pin though it’s an improvement over the chip and signature cards we’re mostly stuck with here in the US. Doesn’t it default to chip and signature unless you’re at an unmanned kiosk (which admittedly is where most of the potential problems occur)?

52

Bloggers are good for reading… but does anyone actually apply through those referral links??

53

That is my understanding as well, not true chip and pin euro style but will work as chip and pin where it is the only option like unmanned kiosks.

I plan on putting it to the test in a few weeks in France and Hong Kong.

54

I’ve always applied for cards using links of my ‘current’ favorite blogger. Do you think they would keep posting if it wasn’t worth their while. [wink.gif] About 2 years ago, one of the well known bloggers posted that he paid $10,000 in quarterly taxes on his credit card. Works out to 40k per year in taxes. You do the math. He just should have come out and said I make over a quarter million dollars a year blogging.

55

Or maybe he blogs for fun, and makes a quarter million running a chat forum? :wink:

56

Speaking of Todd, I’d like to respond to a PM that I received asking me who my favorite blogger is.

Use to be frugaltravelguy, but Rick sold his blog. My #2 was always MillionMileSecrets, followed by viewfromthewine and thepointsguy (very rarely read this anymore).

They all say the same thing, just re-hashed. Sometimes one of them will say something different. They all offer a different angle into the various programs. MMS did a long series on using the Southwest program and the Companion Pass. ThePointsGuy did a helpful British Airways Avios series. That helped me big time when I got the card, along with the 100,000 point bonus 3 years ago (and for my wife too!) BA allows you to combine family accounts. < Big thumbs up.

Gary at ViewFromTheWine is probably the smartest of the group, but sometimes comes off as arrogant.

Read em all or pick one. If you want to earn some extra miles and points, I would suggest getting your feet wet.

Wine translation > head to your local wine shop and start tasting different varietals of wine. Eventually, you’ll figure out what you enjoy.

57

Manufactured spending: frequent miler & miles to memories
Reselling and other misc MS: Big Habitat
trip reports, especially intl premium cabin: one mile at a time
General industry insider info: view from the wing

Everything at boarding area is pretty solid although when there is a hot deal or cc signup it gets old seeing everyone post basically the same thing.

Forget a miles and points thread, let’s start a manufactured spending thread, that’s where the real fun is. [drinkers.gif]

58

Doesn’t this pretty much cover it?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manufactured-spending-719/

59

I hate flyertalk, everyone is so bitchy [pillow-fight.gif]

60

Especially the psychotic moderator in CC…err i mean… no wait it’s also CC… :wink: