GeoffM

One thing I've learned over the past year is that bonuses are the way to go; spending is a distant secondary objective. Between the wife and I, we've amassed just 25,000ish Delta Skymile points in actual spending but double that in sign-up bonuses, but that still only accounts for $750 off a ticket if I understand it correctly. That could have been an extra 5000-10000 ($50-$100) had I followed Tonrob's advice earlier in the thread re paying the landlady by a slightly convoluted but more prosperous way.

We've only had a Chase Priority Club since November and pretty much all we've got on that in value is from the sign-up bonus, not what we've spent! I noticed the wife got her first pre-approval last week (after 11 months here; she was less visible from a credit point of view than I). So it's probably time to think about some of the offers posted here.

I am bearing in mind that some rewards are better as upgrades rather than direct purchases though. My Chase Priority Cub rewards weren't much help in Las Vegas, which is pretty much the only place we've stayed overnight and had to pay, though maybe they'll help in South Padre in a couple of months.

Sorry - that wasn't a whinge, just an observation on the results of our own finances this year! Must try harder but it should be a bit easier with a bit of credit history behind us: now in year 2.

coastieexpat

A bit off topic but some of these are pretty good......

Flights From Hell....


http://www.flightsfromhell.com/page/3/

tonrob

The Venetian and Palazzo are two hotels on the strip where you can redeem Priority Club award nights, although as I've never tried I can't comment on availability.

Delta and Priority Club programmes are both on the lower-than-average side in the cents-per-point value game (maybe worth an average 0.5c each - sometimes more), so I wouldn't try to spend your way into riches in either of those two programmes alone - at least if you're just using them for "normal spend". Starwood and Priority Club points are worth at least 3 times as much, sometimes much more. You can do well with AMEX Membership Rewards too. I'd recommend mixing in some work on these progremmes if you have the time, energy and inclination.

These days though I do tend to get more miles and points through spending rather than bonuses, but the majority of this is through purchasing cash equivalents of some sort and then liquidating them.

GeoffM

Correct, the points required and availability were combined a no-goer for us. Of course, those hotels are expensive anyway, so it's not surprising the points required is much higher than many others.

tonrob

View from the Wing writes with tips on timing of booking award travel so that you can grab scarce award seats when they become available.

tonrob

AMEX is doing a fee-free promo, the Points Guy writes.

More than skipping the fee, he mentions using a cash-back site to get up to 1.4% back on your purchase, therefore making a small profit on your GC purchase. But why bother?

This should be of interest to those who gather miles through the purchase of monetary instruments that have a purchase fee attached (e.g. Visa gift cards, reload cards etc.) Typically these types of things have fees in the range of $3.95 to $4.95 per $500 load. This means that if you're buying them with a credit card that offers 1 mile per dollar, then 500 miles costs you in the region of $4-5. Many think this is fair enough, as it means that the miles component of a business class round trip to Europe (say, 100,000 miles) costs as little as $790 - a hell of a reduction on cash fares, that's for sure.

But mileage acquisition in this way comes with a risk, as you have no way of knowing when you will be able to use the miles at the time that you pay for them. I attempt to mitigate this risk by maintaining a good mileage balance across a range of different programmes in addition to ensuring that my cost-to-acquire remains as low as possible. One way of doing the latter is to off-set some of my out-of-pocket costs.

So instead of:

Mileage earning credit card buys monetary instrument

Mileage earning credit card buys AMEX GC (via cash-back portal)
AMEX GC buys monetary instrument

By doing this, the example business class round-trip to Europe drops from a cost of $790 (for the mileage component) to being free, in addition to which a profit of $610 is made (which could pay for the taxes and fees for the flight).

In reality AMEX would probably have a baby if I were to buy that quantity of gift cards from them in a short space of time, so I mix this method in with a bevy of other mileage-earning methods (most of which attract some sort of out-of-pocket cost which I actively manage).

tonrob

View from the Wing on his 10 best mileage award redemptions ever.

GeoffM

I'm wondering whether I've messed up here. Went down to CVS and got myself a Vanilla gift card with a points-earning credit card, the latter part being a bit hit and miss as to whether they accept them for gift cards... except there appears to be a OneVanilla prepaid visa card AND (not that I saw one) a Vanilla Reload card. Both appear to be the same company, same logo. Did I buy the wrong one? I'll hopefully still get the points but not as many as I hoped.

One other thing, tonrob, do you have any airline "status", ie Gold Medallion, Platinum, etc? Or are you simply a regular Joe with a lot of miles? Because you don't get status from spending alone, correct?

tonrob

You did buy the wrong one, but no real harm done.

Vanilla Reload can be used to load your Bluebird online. Easy.

One Vanilla prepaid visa can be used, with a PIN, to load your Bluebird in person at Walmart. One Vanilla's FAQs on their website have this to pay about using a PIN:
You get the same miles for the purchase of either (1 per $) - it's just the route you took cost you an extra dollar in purchase fee and also a necessitates a trip to Walmart. Note that you can just use it like a debit card and spend it on anything you like, but that's not the goal, is it?

GeoffM

Oops. I'll take a closer look at the rack in CVS next time . I did wonder at the time but - oh well.

No, I'm just going to make sure it does actually earn me the points - since technically it's not supposed to. Then I'll try it for the rent cheque and paying off stuff next month. Got to start slowly to make sure I'm doing it right, especially after stumbling at the first hurdle!

Cheers.

tonrob

From time to time I like to post what I've spent my miles on (rather than just post about collecting them), as I hope it in some way inspires others to get stuck in and start saving up for some dream trip they've had in the back of their mind. This is one such post.

One month from today I embark on a rather round-about trip to Portugal and back, which started off principally as a way of visiting Mrs tonrob and the sproutlet who are spending several weeks in Germany with her family.

Sidebar: I like trains. Not in the trainspottery sense - I just like traveling on them. Last year's Germany jaunt started with the train from my local station at Springfield, traveling with Wanktrak to Seattle for a Lufthansa first class seat to Frankfurt. This year's train element is a bit more low key than that, but it makes more sense if I say I like traveling on routes I haven't traveled before.

Travel to Boston
The first leg of my trip is the short hop with Amtrak on the last segment of the Lake Shore Limited, which is the only train of the day from Springfield to Boston. I actually (shock, horror) paid cash for this, which came to a bloody extortionate $19 (after AAA discount).

Overnight in Boston
After a few beers I'll be crashing at the Intercontinental Boston, courtesy of the free annual night that comes with the Chase Priority Club Visa.



Travel to Newark
I've never been on the Acela, and I've always hankered after a trip. Chase Ultimate Rewards points (transferred into Amtrak Guest Rewards) have funded a first class seat on the Acela to New York Penn followed by a short trip onwards to Newark Airport.



United to Frankfurt
I discovered that US Airways charges 150,000 miles first class round-trip to Europe, but only 120,000 miles round-trip to "North Asia". One stopover on an Asia trip is allowed, and that stop-over can be in Europe... Thanks! US Airways is a member of Star Alliance, therefore:

Flat bed on a UA 767 in F


Lufthansa to Porto
Last year, Mrs tonrob and I left the sproutlet with the in-laws and took a side trip to Hamburg (gorgeous Park Hyatt - points of course). All went well, so this year we are going a bit further afield and heading to (never-visited) Portugal.

Porto is the destination, as we were looking for somewhere nice to visit that had a good-quality chain hotel (therefore pay with points) in the city centre. Porto, with it's highly-rated Intercontinental hotel fit the bill. The flight there is Lufthansa economy class (shock-horror), funded again by US Airways miles (on the basis that LH short-haul business is shite and a waste of miles or money).

What they want you to see:


What it's really like:


Stay in Porto
4 nights in Porto at the Intercontinental were paid for with IHG points, which generally are very easy to come by with a combo of credit card sign-up, huge bonus points offers when you pay for stays (I do for business sometimes) and faulty IT.


After 4 days we head back to Germany for a few more days with the rellies.

Thai to Tokyo

Next up is Thai Airways first class to Tokyo Haneda. First it's the A380 from Frankfurt to Bangkok, followed by several hours relaxing in the lounge (private living room, top end Champagne, cooked-to-order Thai food, full-body massage at the spa etc.) followed by another F trip on a 747 from BKK to HND.





Stay in Tokyo

4 nights at at the Conrad Tokyo using Hilton points.



ANA to JFK.

The US Airways-funded first class round-the-world concludes with ANA's new "Cube Suites" aboard the 777-300ER back to JFK.



Overnight in New York
OK - I'm not proud of this. Well I am, a little. IHG has a Best Rate Guarantee that states that if you can find it cheaper after booking, the first night is free.

Funnily enough, I did. That's $300 worth of Holiday Inn gratis, then.

Wanktrak to Springfield.
I paid for this! $29. Last of the big spenders. I could have made this free, but Amtrak Guest Rewards zone-based redemption programme would have made this terrible value.

coastieexpat

Nice one mate

Southwest is having a 3 day sale http://travel.southwest.com/specialo...t=GNAVSPCLOFFR, I have 55,000 miles with them from a card bonus about 3 months ago. I had a look, and I can go from San Francisco to the East Coast for around 17,000 miles return, ( if I time it right ).

BTW you can exchange Chase rewards to Southwest Airlines.

Bink

Tonrob - I have a fairly large cash purchase to make (a swimming pool) and want to maximize my points earnings and use a credit card (if possible).
Am I right in thinking that if I can get the credit card company to issue me checks I would get the points that way? The pool builder says I can pay with a credit card and he has a machine (which he's never used!) but that I'd have to pay the fee which obviously I don't want to do as I'm only trying to put it on the card to get the points and any fees would negate that! I'm hoping the checks will circumvent that issue!

Have you ever done anything like this?

GeoffM

For the warm-up before the main event (Tonrob): Bluebird issue checks without a fee. I just started the Vanilla Reload method of buying with a credit card and topping up the BB account, in order to pay off some bills and the rent payment. Unfortunately 2 out of the 4 CVSs I went to today seem to have stopped selling them! And, at $500 a time, that's probably a LOT of VR cards to buy for your pool purchase!

tonrob

No, you wouldn't get points. The card companies threat those "convenience checks" like cash advances, and they come with the same heavy fees. Avoid like the plague.

That pretty much buggers you, I'm afraid - unless he's willing to split the fee to the extent to which you're happy with what you're paying for your miles (I'd consider paying 0.8% if it were United miles, much less if it were Delta miles, but he's probably not going to go anywhere near as low as that).

I think I may have posted something about how to value miles earlier... can't remember.

Will he take a debit card without charging you a fee? This would open up possibilities.

You can load a Bluebird card with a maximum of $5K per month (I run 4 cards for 4 different people so $20K), and you can get checks issued that way.

There are also other reload services that offer bill payment where you might be able to find places that will sell you reload cards using a credit card.

All of this is a lot of faffing when you're looking to pay for something as expensive as a pool, and you're still paying purchase fees of between $4 and $5 per $500 for the reload cards, which equates to a fee of 0.8% - 1%. In which case Bink's better off if he can negotiate a lower credit card fee with the pool guy somehow. You can also do all of these things and simply bill pay yourself (or your wife) which means that none of this needs to be connected to the pool purchase anyway.