tonrob

Are you talking about your lonely Chase Hyatt application?

At least one of the blogs I linked to lists cards in bank order, so when doing a multi-card application spree you (sort of) pick one from each section of the list!

My 'master' card spreadsheet contains not only a list of the cards I hold now (and have held and closed in the past, along with dates) but also has a 'shopping list' section of what cards I'll want to apply for in the future (along with a reminder to myself of what the minimum bonus is that I should consider).

Sometimes you can pick two cards from the same issuer in one round of applications, e.g. most issuers seem not to mind if you apply for a personal card and a business card both at the same time, and some have systems that are not good enough to spot when you apply for the same card twice at the same time (e.g. my two Citi Hilton applications that were both approved instantly and concurrently using different laptops).

coastieexpat

Yes !

This is a bit off topic.... The Britrail pass. I bought a 15 day one , and tripped around the UK for a couple of weeks. A nice alternative to renting a car.

http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/greatbritain.cfm

The Eurail pass is about the same price.

tonrob

Priority Club is the world's biggest hotel rewards programme, and covers a multitude of brands including:

Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn Express
Candlewood Suites
Crowne Plaza
Intercontinental
Indigo
Staybridge Suites

In addition to earning points for dollars spent on stays, there are always a ton of offers that - while from a marketing perspective are targeted to certain groups of members - are actually open for anyone to enroll in if you know what they are. I frequently earn points from about half a dozen different offers when I stay at one of their hotels, sometimes yielding 2-3 times the total number of points I would have earned had I just received the base points (like most people).

Priority Club Insider is a great blog that lists all the offers with details of how to enroll. I'll be earning a ton of points when I stay with them in one of their Indigo hotels in London later this week. I'm going on a business trip of 8 nights, and I'll easily earn enough points for, say, a free night in New York City (in a hotel normally costing upwards of $200) or even a 5-night stay at a property featuring in one of their list of 'points breaks' deals that's issued every quarter.

If any of you ever stay in one of the hotel brands I've listed above - you'll want to be jumping all over this.

tonrob

Home Depot's up from 3x to 5x at the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall. See all the changes for November in this summary from Frequent Miler:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/freque...ember-edition/

tonrob

View from the Wing reports a 6-day sale giving 25% off award bookings for itineraries originating in London. Starts tomorrow, ends after 6 days. Travel by May 2013.

Also American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 30% bonus for points transfers to BA's Avios programme. Not as lucrative as the 40% and 50% bonuses offered in the past, but a bird in the hand etc.

Combine these two together, and you can fly your friends and relatives over in the luxury iof lie-flat business class (from London to Chicago and points east) for a shade over 46,000 MR points (plus BA's not insubstantial taxes and fees), which is an absolute blinder of a bargain.

For US-originated travels, BA currently has an offer whereby you earn 15,000 bonus miles for your first roundtrip to the UK, 35,000 for your second and 50,000 for a third - register before travel and complete all travel by 31st January 2013.

tonrob

Many of us earn miles by paying for everything we can using our miles-earning credit cards. Everyone accepts credit cards, right? This is America after all.

But every year we still spend significant sums in transactions where miles are not earned. Our rent and mortgage payments. Our tax bills. Payments to workmen and contractors. Maybe some of our utility companies won't accept card payments. Maybe we could - in theory - pay some of these things with a card but we discovered that there'd be a hefty fee that would make it not worth it.

A new solution

Walmart - bless their warm little hearts - have teamed up with AMEX to launch a new financial services product. It's low-cost, doesn't (in itself) require any kind of credit score - and is designed to take market share from the banks.

What is it? (I hear you ask). It's a new kind of debit card called Bluebird, with very low fees (none in most instances) and with some unusual features not seen before in other pre-paid cards. The huge feature with this is it that it does free bill pay - either your desired recipient is listed in their existing database or, if not, a check is mailed to them free of charge on your behalf. This means that you can use Bluebird to pay all of the companies and organizations etc. that you wouldn't/couldn't use a credit or debit card for.


Where's the catch?

The catch is that setting up and maintaining this will require some small effort on your part and there is some out-of-pocket expense to get miles out of this. Bluebird itself does not earn you miles, points or any other kind of reward (save from the knowledge that you are supporting your friendly, neighbourhood Walmart). What you need to be able to do is earn miles or points when you load your Bluebird with money.


How do I load my Bluebird with money and earn miles or points?

Two ways (and if you can't do either of these then unfortunately Bluebird's not for you):

1. If you have a rewards-earning debit card then you can load up to $1,000 per day at the cash register at Walmart. There is no fee for doing this. Another feature if Bluebird is that you can transfer up to $2,500 per month person-to-person, so if you and your SO get a Bluebird each then you could load each one with $1,000 per day (if you needed access to greater funds and wanted to save petrol on trips to Walmart). I hold a SunTrust Delta debit card, so trips to Walmart earn me 2,000 Delta miles each time*.

2. Vanilla Reload Cards can also be used to load Bluebird. These reload cards can be purchased at pharmacies, grocery stores, gas stations and the like - you can load them with anywhere between $20 and $500 and you pay a $3.95 fee at time of purchase. When you get home you scratch a pin number on the back and use a simple website to load the money onto your Bluebird.

Two things: - It has to be worth your while paying the $3.95 fee. I have an AMEX Hilton card that gives me 6 Hilton points/$ when I shop at Pharmacies. Therefore buying a $500 Vanilla Reload nets me 3,000 Hilton points for $3.95. This process gets you rooms at nice Hilton properties in Manhattan for as little as $52... enough said. There are also cards out there that have bonuses for supermarket and gas station spend - so you need to do the maths to see what card/retailer combinations make it worth it.

I said there were two things - and here's the final complicated thing about this, I swear. Many retailers only accept cash to buy Vanilla Reloads - it's coded into the cash register. That's no good - you need to use your rewards-earning credit card. This part is so random - for example, there are several Walgreens in my area that sell Vanilla Reload cards- most will not accept a credit card, but a couple do - consistently. You basically need to shop around and use trial and error, but once you find one that will take a credit card you're golden. I was lucky and found mine on my second go. The same dynamics apply to supermarkets and gas stations too. This is the time-consuming bit, so might make a good money-making/saving project for a trailing spouse?

What else can Bluebird do?

You can use it like a credit card. You can withdraw money from ATMs (for a fee that's waived if you make a monthly direct deposit into Bluebird - however small). If you're going to do this then read up a bit first. Here's what Frequent Miler has to say (ignore the Office Depot references, they're out of date).

This method of earning miles takes a bit of time and a few hoops to jump through, but it's typical of the effort that schemes require in order to earn good quantities of miles and points for cheap. Only you can decide if it's worth it. I like to travel in style, so for me it is.

tonrob

Until the 24th... For every $100 you spend on Visa gift cards at Staples you get a $15 Staples gift card as a rebate. Up to 10 rebates per household.

Best method:

Buy $200 GCs (max. size they do) rather than $100s to save on fees. ($200 GCs have a fee of $6.95, $100s are $5.95). You can buy up to $1,000 in a single transaction - in which case your rebate will come as a $150 Staples GC (rather than 10x $15 individual ones). You can submit the rebate very easily online when you get home. I've done a ton of Staples rebates in the recent past and they're both easy and reliable.

The economics:

$1,000 purchased in GCs of $200 denominations costs you $69.50, so once you get your Staples GC in hand you are $80.50 up plus the miles you earned by buying them using a miles-earning credit card. Either take the profit, using the $200 GCs to shop normally wherever Visa is accepted and using the $150 Staples GC to - well - buy stuff at Staples, or use some of the $80.50 to cover the loss you'd make in selling the Staples GCs (to get cash) or 'unloading' the Visa GCs.

Also, if you happen to know other people who live in houses with numbers on the front door then why stop at $1,000?

To tell you the truth, I'm a little disappointed that the manager of Staples doesn't come round to help pack my bags and give me a lift to the airport, but I suppose they had to draw the line somewhere.

Barmy, I tell you.

coastieexpat

Dammit Wish I could take advantage of the Bluebird account, I will be getting one soon but I expect my usage will be pretty mild compared to yours, ( we only go to the big town once a month ).

On a brighter note I am writing this from Kauai after using our $26.00 flights

Kauai is gorgeous

tonrob

Hmmm.... now see that this is also for itineraries originating in the USA. Book by this coming Monday, travel by end of May.

Well tempted with a first class return Boston - Heathrow - Moscow, 150,000 miles, $1,000 in fees and all the champagne and caviar I can shovel in over several hours...

Bink

Got this in an email from BA today - 25% reduction on reward flights but only from now until November 19th:

"One year ago we introduced Avios to the Executive Club. Now, to celebrate our first fantastic year, we're inviting you to take part in our 25% off reward flights sale.*

This offer is an all cabin sale on British Airways operated flights to Zone 4 destinations and beyond. All you have to do is book a reward flight between 14 and 19 November 2012 and you'll need 25% fewer Avios, provided you travel before 31 May 2013. Of course, the sooner you book the better. Seats are limited. What's more, the 25% saving applies to reward flights booked with our partner airline Iberia, as well.

So celebrate our first anniversary in style with this wonderful opportunity to get reward flights that are just a bit more rewarding."

tonrob

That's what I was referring to above. It's a good deal (although it would be nice if they cut their fees by 25% too! )

Are you tempted?

Bink

Oops, sorry! Bit tired and clearly wasn't paying full attention when skimming through!

Would be nice if they just did away with the fees completely - oh well, one can dream! It's what I really liked about the airmils duo programme I had in the UK with Lloyds before it became Avios. It was really nice not paying anything at all out of pocket.

EDIT: Yes, I'm tempted, although I don't have a whole lot of BA miles right now and not sure it will fit my travel plans. Tempted to keep my BA miles for a business class trip at some point (going to try and arange my spending to hit $30k on my BA CC next year to take advantage of the 2-4-1 offer on reward flights so will probably keep them for that).

tonrob

The Points Guy posted a useful summary today on maximizing your mileage earning whilst Christmas shopping.

tonrob

Virgin Atlantic has announced the start of UK short-haul routes for next year, taking over some of the Heathrow slots vacated by BMI.

In seperate news, rumours are rife that they will finally announce that they're joining an alliance very soon - probably Star Alliance or Sky Team. This will be an interesting development from a miles perspective as it should mean that you can redeem miles earned in the programs of - for example - United or US Airways (in the case of them joining Star Alliance) or Delta (if Sky Team) on Virgin Atlantic flights in the future.

GeoffM

I forgot to do this. Within a couple of days of each other, I had one rejected (the business one), and the other approved ($8400 limit). Now I need to work out what it was I applied for and what I need to do to get the points!