The Ultimate Travel Hacking Sin

I've been working on putting together an end of year trip to Asia for awhile.  Originally we were going to take a bit more time off and head to multiple areas of the continent but for a variety of reasons that wasn't in the cards this year.

So we decided to head back to our favorite place (Hong Kong) and add a few days in Taipei over New Years.  The issue has been finding saver award availability over the holidays.  We're fortunate to have millions of frequent flyer miles across all the major alliances but I kept striking out on finding space for two on the dates we needed.

Looking across Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island

As I posted about a few weeks ago, we did find space on the direct United San Francisco to Hong Kong flight the day after Christmas.  While there are certainly better hard/soft products to get you to Asia, the flight time is convenient and we took this exact same flight two years ago (in business class) on our honeymoon.  Plus we get to fly in the nose of a 747.  Something I've always wanted to do.

Using British Airways Avios, I was able to snag two seats on Cathay Pacific for the two hour hop between Hong Kong and Taipei.  We'll get to try Cathay's business class on the way there and first on the return.  A new airline and multiple classes!

But getting home was proving impossible.  We had everything set including our hotel reservations.  There was availability on American's Hong Kong to Dallas route featuring their new 777-300ER product and new flagship first class.  The only issue was that the flight was only bookable at the "anytime" level.  American charges nearly 3x to book these awards!!  So instead of 67,500 miles/person/each way they charge 210,000!

We had over 550,000 American miles thanks to some amazing 2014 credit card bonuses and we really wanted to make the trip a reality.  So I pulled the trigger on two "anytime" first class seats at 210,000 AA miles each and committed the ultimate travel hacking "sin."

I am keeping my eye on availability to see if anything "cheaper" becomes available but at least we have something.  And that is what makes this game/hobby fun.  Everyone has a different reason for playing but at the end of the day making a trip possible is what it's all about.

What's in My Wallet - October 2014 Edition

This is the next post in my periodic series outlining the cards in my wallet and my rationale for spending on each.  I try to be as purposeful (and organized) as possible about the cards in my wallet and when each one comes out.  The best analogy is really a swiss army knife.  You want to have a handful of tools for different jobs and understand which tool to use for a specific job (purchase).  This will help you maximize your earning on spend.

Here are the four cards (in addition to my debit card) in my wallet this month:

1)  Starwood Preferred Guest American Express

I put half of my non-bonuses everyday spending on this card and the other half on my Chase BA card.  Starwood points are among the most difficult to earn yet the most valuable.  Putting non-bonuses spend (i.e. non dining and entertainment which go on the Sapphire card) is a great way to earn incremental Starwood points.

2)  Citi Executive AAdvantage World MasterCard 

I've already earned the bonus on my first of these cards.  I'm working on the second at the moment and should be complete in October.  After I complete the minimum spend on this card, we'll have earned 327,500 American Airlines miles from these cards this year.  We'll be using the miles to help us get home from Hong Kong later in the year.

3)  Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa Card 

No minimum spend needed on this card.  Just my workhorse everyday card earning 2x (actually 2.14X when you include the annual 7% dividend) on travel and dining. This card is also linked to my United dining program account.

4)  Chase British Airways Visa Signature Card 

I've already met the minimum spend on this card as well as the incremental bonuses (25,000 points after spending $10,000 and another 25,000 points after spending $20,000 in the first year of card membership).  I am now working on reaching $30,000 of spend this year in order to earn the British Airways Travel Together Ticket which is basically a 2 for 1 certificate.

How to Find Saver Award Tickets

Over the last couple of weeks, a few readers have asked how I find "saver" award tickets.  To answer the question, I'll focus on United MileagePlus since that is my go to carrier/frequent flier program.  Earlier in the year, I posted on how to book a United award ticket so that's a helpful guide if you're not familiar with United's booking engine.

In my opinion, booking any award ticket thats not a "saver" ticket is a waste of miles.  While programs have certainly made it easier to accrue miles/points over the last few years, paying more than 2x is equivalent to paying 2x at a restaurant you really want to go eat at but can't get a reservation.

Take this hypothetical example.  Let's say you want to fly (one-way) from Los Angeles to Seoul in December or January.  Here's a screenshot showing the search.  If you want to fly economy, you are looking for yellow or green.  If you want to fly business/first, then you are looking for green or blue.  The days that show up as white only have "standard" award availability.  You want to avoid those dates.

As you can see, besides the two weeks around Christmas, there is saver award availability pretty much everyday.  Maybe you want to spend New Years in Korea so let's take a look at the options for December 30th.

There are a couple of good options.  You can fly Thai Airways direct to Seoul in economy for 35,000 miles or you can fly Asiana's business class for 80,000.  Either way, you'll notice that the standard awards are priced at 2x+ that of the saver awards.  Not that you could also fly through San Francisco on United's metal (United's own plane) in first class for 80,000 miles.  I would definitely select United first over Asiana business if given the choice for the same amount of miles.

Keep this in mind as you're searching for award availability.  The more flexibility you have on dates and routing, the more likely you are to find saver awards.  The more saver awards you book, the more value you'll get out of your hard earned miles.

Another 100,000 Mile Bonus from Citi

Earlier in the year, I posted about the amazing Citi Executive AAdvantage card.  Citi was offering 100,000 American AAdvantage miles after spending $10,000 in 3 months.  In addition, they were also offering a $200 statement credit to offset the $450 annual fee.  In recent months, I've read stories about dozens of people getting their second (and sometimes even third and fourth) version of this card along with the bonus.  I've also read that the offer was slated to go away (which seems to have happened) so I applied for another card a few weeks ago.

Citi Executive # 2

Typically, I apply for cards in chunks every 90 days or so.  But this offer was too good to pass up so I applied for it "off cycle."  I value 100,000 AAdvantage miles at $2,000 so earning $2,000 for a $250 annual fee is a no-brainer for me.  Hitting the minimum spend requirement is a bit challenging but with Amazon Payments and  couple of big expenditures (estimated taxes, car insurance) coming up in the next 90 days, it shouldn't be an issue.

So I applied for the card and wasn't approved immediately.  I was on vacation and then have had a busy few weeks so just forgot to call Citi and see if they would approve my application.  Last week I received a letter from Citi stating that they would approve me for a second card if I cut my credit line on the first card by 30%.  That wasn't a big deal to me so I signed the letter, sent it back, and receive my card in the mail yesterday.

Once activated, I wrote to them to confirm the bonus and received a nice confirmation back from customer service.

110,000 AAdvantage miles (with the minimum spend miles) is enough for a roundtrip business class ticket to Europe or a one-way first class ticket to Asia with 42,500 miles leftover!   Thanks to Citi for offering such a great deal!

American Airlines Passport Challenge Miles Posted

A few months ago, American Airlines offered an online game called the Passport Challenge  Basically, you had to complete a few online activities and engage with social media to earn free miles.  I earned 685 miles (worth about $14 to me) in about 5 minutes.

Well 10 weeks later, my miles finally posted.  I just logged on to my AA account and looks like they were credited as of 6/1.  Yay for free miles!

My Latest Round of Credit Card Applications

As I discussed in this post, I apply for a new round of credit cards every 90 days.  Remember, this is not for you if you are a) working on improving your credit b) planning on applying for a loan such as a mortgage in the near future or c) if you periodically carry a balance on your cards.  The rewards that you'll gain in these cases will be heavily offset by either not being able to qualify for the lowest lending rate (due to recent inquiries on your credit report) or actually paying interest if you carry a balance.  Each application will typically ding your credit 2-5 points (those inquiries fall off over time and your score will go back up) thus the reasoning for applying for cards every 90 days on the same day.  The inquiries fall off roughly at the same time and on the day you apply, the other banks don't see that you applied for a card earlier in the day.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way...Here's an overview of my most recent card application including what I applied for and why.

1)  American Express Everyday Preferred

This is a new card from Amex that offers 15,000 miles after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days.  The annual fee (not waived for the first year) is $95.  Even though this sign-up bonus kind of sucks, I needed a quick way to rack up some Membership Rewards points to top off my account for an award and wanted to try out the new offering from Amex.  I value MR points at $.02 teach so this bonus is worth $300.

Result:  Instantly approved

2)  Chase United Explorer Business

This card offers 50,000 United miles after spending $2,000 in the first 90 days after approval.  The annual fee is normally $95 but is waived for the first year.  It is essentially the same version as the consumer card which I have had a couple of times in the past.  I wanted to pick up a couple of cards for my business and also need to work on replenishing my United mileage balance.  I value United miles at $.02 each so this bonus is worth $1,000.

Result:  Application pended but was approved without a call after a couple of days

Chase MileagePlus Explorer Business Card Welcome Email

3)  Citi AA Advantage Business

This card offers 50,000 American Airlines miles after spending $3,000 in the first 90 days after approval.  The annual fee is $95 and is not waived for the first year.  I value American miles at $.02 each so this bonus is worth $1,000.

Result:  Approved after a quick 10 minute call to Citi

Summary:

So I went 3/3 on this round.  After spending $6,000 (should be a slam dunk thanks to Amazon Payments) in 90 days and paying $190 in annual fees, I'll earn 115,000 points/miles that I value at $2,300 which will be put to good use towards future airline and hotel awards.

Free AA Miles with the AAdvantage Passport Challenge

Certainly nothing earth shattering, but you can earn free miles by playing the AAdvantage Passport Challenge game on Facebook.  This is essentially a Facebook trivia game (don't worry you get two chances to answer each question and they are pretty easy) about American's product offering.

To play the game, click this link, register by adding your AAdvantage number and name, and you're off to the races.  It will probably take 10-15 minutes to earn ~700 miles.  Certainly notable if you are bored over the weekend (or on Friday afternoon at the office).

There is also an additional component to the promotion that includes bonus miles for flying on American and OneWorld partners over the next couple of months.  Certainly worth checking out if your plans require travel on USAirways, American, or oneworld partners during the promotional period.

Citi Executive AA 100,000 Miles Posted

As I posted about here and here, I applied for the 100,000 mile Citi Executive World Elite MasterCard offer in late January.  Well a couple of months later, the 100,000 total bonus miles have posted to my AA account.  Since I initially applied for the offer when it was just 75,000 miles (which Citi later adjusted to 100,000) the miles posted in two separate transactions.

I should note that the $200 statement credit and the $450 annual fee have both posted to my account.   So I did net 107,500 miles (including the $7,500 in spend) for $250.  Keep in mind that this card offers a 10% rebate on AA awards per year up to 10,000 miles.  A roundtrip first class flight to Asia is 135,000 miles.  Subtract the 10,000 mile rebate and that's 125,000 miles.  So this offer will get you pretty darn close to the amount of miles required to redeem for that ticket that retails for $5,000 - 10,000!

This is one of the best credit card offers in market today and I'm glad that I was able to take advantage of it.  There are rumors that the offer will be pulled by the end of March so if you're interested in taking advantage of this offer, now would be the time!

Emily's Latest Round of Credit Card Applications

Last weekend, Emily applied for her quarterly round of credit card applications.  If you haven't already, check out these posts for my last round as well as background on the whole process.  Here is the overview and results.

1)  Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card

One of the best all around cards out there.  The current bonus is 10,000 SPG points after first purchase and an additional 15,000 SPG points after spending $5,000 in 6 months.  I will also receive 5,000 SPG points from the SPG Amex referral offer I posted about last week.  The $65 annual fee is waived for the first year.  30,000 total SPG points is good enough for 2-3 nights in a high-end Westin or W hotel in the US.  Or you could use 28,000 points for 5 nights (fifth night free) at the Le Meridien Bangkok!  I value SPG points at around 3 cents each so the value of this approval is $900.

Result:  Pended and then approved after waiting two days

2)  Citi Executive American Airlines World MasterCard

After getting in on this offer last month, I wanted to make sure Emily got to take advantage before the offer expires in March.  The $450 fee is not waived for the first year but the offer comes with a $200 statement credit and 100,000 AA miles after spending $10,000 in 90 days.  The annual fee and minimum spend are steep but it's well worth it in my book especially given the statement credit takes almost half the "sting" out of the annual fee.  100,000 AA miles is good enough for a free roundtrip business class ticket to Europe!  I value AA miles at 2 cents so the value of this approval is $2,000!

Result:  Pended.  Emily had to call, answer a few questions and was approved over the phone in about five minutes.

3)  Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Card

I got in on this offer as well last month.  Emily was able to pick-up 30,000 miles with no spend requirement for a $75 annual fee.  For some reason, the offer is not showing up so the link above drives to an offer that provides 25,000 miles and a $100 statement credit after $1,000 in spend in 3 months.  Both pretty good deals.  We'll use these Alaska miles for a future first class flight on Emirates.  I value Alaska miles at 2 cents so the value of this approval is $600.

Result:  Auto approved.

Not a bad haul (three for three!) for about 30 minutes of work on Saturday.  Total "value" of approximately $3,500.  We'll need to spend $15,000 in 6 months but $6,000 out of that will be taken care of by Amazon Payments.  So $1,500 per month for 6 months is easily done.  And the end result will be well worth it.  Including minimum spend, we'll earn 175,000 miles and points for $325.

A very successful quarterly round of apps!

Citi American Airlines Credit Cards provide 10% Discount on Award Redemptions

I've long been a loyal United and Star Alliance flier but over the past year or so, I've started to diversify my mileage balances to provide more flexibility and enable us to experience new carriers and places.  One of the great perks of the American Airlines credit cards issued by Citi is the ability to receive 10% off an award booking.

I recently picked up the American Airlines Citi AAdvantage Executive Card which is one of the cards offering the 10% discount.  One other (which I also have) is the Citi Platinum AA World MasterCard.  I booked an award over the weekend (total price was 45,000 miles) and the credit posted automatically after the award ticketed.

You can earn the credit up to 10,000 miles per year.  I value AA miles at 2 cents each so if you take full advantage of this each year, it's like a $200 bonus!  Yet another great way to stretch your miles even further.

Citi AA cards provide a 10% discount on award redemptions

Buy American Airlines Miles for ~2 Cents

In one of my first getting started posts, I provided an overview of how buying miles direct from an airline can be a useful tool.  To that end, American Airlines is offering a substantial discount on purchased miles selling them at about 2 cents each.  This is the cheapest I've seen them offered in a long time.  Keep in mind, you can only (at the moment) buy 80,000 AA miles per year per account.

Apparently, American wants you to go surfing and rent a VW bus

To put it in perspective, you can fly one-way to Hong Kong in first class on Cathay Pacific for 67,500 miles.  You can essentially "buy" that fare for $1,350 by purchasing miles during this promotion which is way cheaper than the $4,000+ the ticket would retail for.  I wouldn't recommend purchasing miles just for fun but if you are close to an award, this is an easy way to get there.

I will be taking advantage of this promotion (purchasing around 20,000 miles) so I can book an award for later in the year.

Earning Miles for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is less than two weeks away and you're probably going to end up sending flowers to someone (your significant other, parent, grandparent, etc...).  You might as well earn miles/points for your purchase so here's a recap of the best earning offers I've seen thus far:

• Earn 30 United miles/dollar through FTD which could be stacked with the American Express offer to receive 25% off your purchase.  
• While not as good of a deal, you can earn 15 AA miles/dollar through FTD.  If you're an elite member, you'll earn an additional 200 bonus miles
• Earn 9 AA miles/dollar through ProFlowers plus receive 20% off 
• Earn 30 AA miles/dollar through 1-800FLOWERS which is stackable with the Amex offer providing a $15 statement credit after spending $50

Earn 30 United miles/dollar through FTD

The best deal is the combination of the United promotion through FTD and the American Express offer.

If you spend $75 AI ($50 on flowers and $25 on tax/delivery/service fees) you would pay a net total of $56.20 and receive 1,500 United miles.  I value the miles at $30 thus reducing your total "spend" to $26.20.  The AA 1-800FLOWERS promotion would net you the same number of miles but cost roughly $3 more. 

Obviously the flowers and the thought are more important than the cashback/miles but it's always nice to get a bonus when doing something you were going to do anyway.

Update on Recent Citi AAdvantage Executive Application

As I wrote about here and here, I applied for the Citi AA Executive card with a 75,000 and $100 statement credit.  Three days after I applied (and was approved) Citi bumped the public offer to 100,000 miles and a $200 statement credit for $10,000 in spend.  Unfortunately timing I guess.  So I emailed Citi last night to see if they would honor the "better" offer.

Surprisingly, they offered to honor the "better" offer without increasing the minimim spend requirement.  So (factoring in the $200 statement credit) I will now earn 100,000 AA miles for $250.  Not a bad deal given that the miles can be used for a roundtrip business class ticket to Europe!  This is one of the best deals I've seen in a long time and I'm glad I was able to take advantage of it.

The full text of the response is shown below:

Better Citi Executive AAdvantage Bonus - 100,000 Miles

The Citi Executive World MasterCard AAdvantage offer I posted about over the weekend just got even better.  Via The Points Guy at this link, you can earn up to 100,000 American Airlines miles after spending $10,000 in three months.  The offer also comes with a $200 statement credit reducing the annual fee to $250 for the first year.

I've had a few people ask me if they should pull the trigger on the offer (I already did on Saturday at the lower bonus).  I absolutely think you should.  These types of offers only come around a few times a year so if you have plans to book a trip on American (or OneWorld partners) this could be a huge help.  The minimum spend threshold is steep but there are ways to minimize the impact.  The offer likely won't last long so take advantage if you can.

Sorry for all the posts on the same (or similar) topic.  I will try to mix it up over the next couple of weeks.

Fly to Hong Kong in First Class for $350

Last weekend, I completed my quarterly round of credit card applications.  Perhaps it was fortuitous timing or just luck that a phenomenal offer came out yesterday.

Via The Points Guy and available at this link you can earn 75,000 American Airlines miles for spending $7,500 in the first 90 days.  You can also earn an additional $100 statement credit by spending $100 on American Airlines within the first year.  The annual fee is $450 and is not waived for the first year so this certainly won't be for everyone. 

The card does get you Admirals Club Access (and USAirways clubs given the merger) which is a nice perk if you fly American a lot...especially given that membership can cost up to $475.

When these offers come around, if you are in a position to apply, you have to do so quickly.  In many cases, the offers are pulled quickly (sometimes hours) so if applying for the card makes sense, don't think just apply.  In this case, there was some speculation that offer was targeted but early reports proved that not to be the case. 

Since I had just completed my quarterly apps a few days earlier, I decided to apply.  Here are a few of my thoughts on why I pulled the trigger:

• Yes, $450 is a VERY steep annual fee.  
• Yes, $7,500 in spend in 90 days is a lot.  But there are some tricks to getting to that amount without "spending more" than you normally would that I'll share in a future post.  
• 75,000 miles will get you three (3) round trip economy tickets on American to anywhere in the US.  So if you live in NYC and want to travel to LA, this will get you there and back three times.  
•  I value AA miles at $.02 each so the bonus with the spend will net you 82,500 miles worth $1,650 for $350 in "cash."
• 75,000 American miles is a ton.  67,500 will get you one-way to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific First Class. 

For me the value is really in "buying" a one-way first class ticket (last bullet above) to Asia for $350 cash (annual fee - statement credit).  Everyone will think about it differently but that was my logic.  I applied for the card last night, received a notification that I needed to call to verify a few pieces of information, and was approved in 5 minutes.  I was able to verify the offer with the super nice Citi CSR and was on with my weekend. 

Getting Started: Buying Miles & Points

This is the fifth in a series (post one, two, three, and four) of posts on getting started earning, managing, and redeeming points and miles.

One easy way to “top up” your accounts is to buy miles direct from the airline.  Many of you likely have accounts with many of the major US carriers.  From time to time they will sell you miles at a discount.  I recently purchased a few miles from United to top up my account for an award for about 2.1 cents (I value them at 2 cents each so paid only a small premium) apiece. 

United miles are expensive but are often sold at a discount

It costs (until 2/1/2014) 100,000 miles to redeem for a roundtrip United business class ticket to Europe.  Let’s say you currently have a total of 80,000 miles (easy to rack up quickly) in your United and Chase Ultimate Rewards (transferable to United) accounts and want to go to Paris.  You need 20,000 additional miles for the award ticket in business class.  In this example, you could purchase the incremental miles needed for $420 and fly business class or shell out roughly $1,250+ for a roundtrip coach ticket.  Seems like a no-brainer, right?

Right now, through January 31st, American is running a promotion where you can purchase (buy 45,000 get 15,000 free) miles for 2.27 cents each.  It costs 67,500 miles to fly (one-way) from Chicago to Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific First Class.  In most cases, this is a $5,000 - 10,000 ticket.  As you can see below, you can outright buy the American miles for $1,457.50 and redeem them for a Cathay one-way First Class award. Cathay First is supposed to be fantastic.  Ben has a great review over at One Mile at a Time.  We haven't flown it yet but hope to in 2014.

Not a reality for everyone as that is a pretty big cash outlay and you still need to get back from Asia.  But it's a great illustration of how buying miles from time to time can be a great deal!

Buy 68,000 miles from AA for $1,457.50

Keep an eye out (on this blog) for notifications about new "buy miles" promotions.  There is rarely a price in which I would speculatively purchase miles but if you have a desire to go somewhere and are short miles, this is a great way to get you there.

Getting Started: Online Shopping Portals

This the third in a series (posts one and two) of posts on getting started earning, managing, and redeeming points and miles.  Everyone shops online and it’s one of the best ways to earn incremental points and miles.  Most airlines (United, American, Southwest, etc…) have shopping portals that enable you to earn points by clicking through their affiliate links.  Many Chase issued cards also have their own shopping portal through Chase Ultimate Rewards called the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall.

Sample United Shopping Offers

It’s really simple…click through one of the links above, login using your AA/United/Southwest/Chase credentials, find a retailer, click through to their website and shop as you normally would online.  During an especially big promotion earlier this year, we spent a few hundred dollars at eBags when they were offering 35 miles for each dollar spent.  We earned over 10,000 miles in about ten minutes buying Christmas presents and a new suitcase for Emily.  

Holiday Shopping yielded a ton of AA miles

In some cases you can “double dip” to really maximize the points earned.  I’ve been able to go through a shopping portal to buy a gift card earning 4x points.  Then I used that gift card to pay for something I was going to buy anyway through the same portal earning another 4x points.  Everyone has a different “valuation” for how much their miles are worth.  I value most of my airline miles at $.02 each.  So earning an incremental 8 miles per dollar spent is like getting 16% off your purchase for a few minutes of work.