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Follow up to my previous post. I did end up using the 300,000 Chase Ultimate Reeards points and booked 3 RT flights to London over spring break (woo how) on Virgin Atlantic (operated by Delta). There was a small balance to pay, about $200, as I did not have enough points to completely cover all three flights.
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I use my points to buy tickets for my kids usually. I pay for mine as it helps increase my status with the carrier I use most. While it may be a bit of a hassle to use points compared to just buying them, it makes me recall a quote by Paul Newman in The Color of Money when he says "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned". I feel the same way about flying using hacks/points.Comment
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I love my frequent flyer miles and hotel points; over the years they've saved me significant money and spared me some real discomfort (flying trans-Pacific in Economy Class is not fun; going in business class actually makes the trip a pleasure). But it's getting harder to redeem miles for good tickets, so i think a lot of people will find a straight-up 2% cash back card is the way to go. Not as potentially lucrative, perhaps, but a lot less work!Comment
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We're on our third would-have-been-expensive trip in the last six months, all of which were nearly-free on American Airlines with bonus miles from Citi cards. Took the family of four to Guanajuato, Mexico, Hawaii, and now Honduras. 11 of the flights booked with miles and 1 with CME money.
I created a spreadsheet highlighting some of the best cards that is designed to help me better track which cards I have, what the perks are, when the renewal date is up, etc... and of course, wrote a post on making travel rewards simple. The spreadsheet is attached.
Credit Cards for People Who Love Travel and Money
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It's a lot of time, but can be useful and save substantial amounts of money, particularly in this specific case - long haul nonstop flights.
For example, from major hubs, it's much more costly to take a nonstop flight to Japan from DC (my hub). If I want to take the IAD to NRT, that routinely costs $2100 to $2300 for the roundtrip flight (almost any time of the year), because it's the only flight. If you use your Chase Saph Reserve points, you get 1.5x, so it would cost 140,000 to 150,000 points. But, because United is partners with ANA, that same flight utilizing United points is 70,000 round trip for each ticket. For the two us, we spent a cash value of $2100 to get $4200 worth of flights. To me, that's a good deal and it costs me very little time/energy to do that.
This works for Hawaii (book a United flight through Singapore's program), through Korean airlines to go to Seoul and various other places in Asia. It's not as valuable for Europe, but similar quirks happen - for whatever reason, the nonstop flight may be significantly more (even for a hub airport like Munich or Amsterdam or London). So, if you use points, it can be quite valuable.
It's also pretty good booking hotels from Chase's program, b/c at 1.5x, you're getting a nice deal.
If you have the time/energy, it's can be worth "nerding out" on The Points Guy or similar websites. Even if you have specific questions like "how do I use points to go to ___", they will have articles showing you possible ways to do it.
The real value is business class/first class (in terms of points -> dollars benefit), but I'd rather have more 2-3x more coach flights than a business class flight (although I'm jealous every time I walk past first class).Comment
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You may want to expand on the southwest cards to get the companion pass since you travel with four. With three cards per person and timing it right, you can have nearly continual coverage with it and plenty of points on bonuses alone to fund flughts. And Chase ultimate as backup transfers to swa.
We then use Hyatt place since it has two queens and a sofa bed for the four of us and breakfast too. Hyatt card like you have and again Chase Sapphire and ink to funnel additional points.
We used to be huge spg fans but moving away from them right now for hotel stays with the loss of the business card club access upcoming. Still will keep it for the point transfer bonuses though that Chase ultimate doesn't cover adequately.
One other thing not mentioned since I see american in there. British airways avios can be highly useful for direct hauls. Shame aa isn't strong out of San Diego. Cause we're million milers from the years back on spend credits ????Comment
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my CC gives me points to use on all kinds of stuff. i have used them for travel, gift cards, set of kitchen pots, rental car and I can get cash back as an option for the points. i like that flexibility. That said, because my son travels A LOT...all of us have registered accounts with nearly every airline, hotel and car rental agency (not credit cards...just the preferred member accounts). I use these up when I can. we have millions (yes i said millions) of hilton honors points...i have been starting to widdle away at those. you know it is bad when you actually get a holiday card from Hilton......Comment
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You may want to expand on the southwest cards to get the companion pass since you travel with four. With three cards per person and timing it right, you can have nearly continual coverage with it and plenty of points on bonuses alone to fund flughts. And Chase ultimate as backup transfers to swa.
We then use Hyatt place since it has two queens and a sofa bed for the four of us and breakfast too. Hyatt card like you have and again Chase Sapphire and ink to funnel additional points.
We used to be huge spg fans but moving away from them right now for hotel stays with the loss of the business card club access upcoming. Still will keep it for the point transfer bonuses though that Chase ultimate doesn’t cover adequately.
One other thing not mentioned since I see american in there. British airways avios can be highly useful for direct hauls. Shame aa isn’t strong out of San Diego. Cause we’re million milers from the years back on spend credits ????
which three cards for sw? thanks
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Do the airline memberships that everyone is referring to require a fee?
We love our Sapphire Preferred and are thinking of upgrading to the Reserve. However, I'm iffy on the $525 annually for my wife and I to have cards.Comment
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Do the airline memberships that everyone is referring to require a fee?
We love our Sapphire Preferred and are thinking of upgrading to the Reserve. However, I’m iffy on the $525 annually for my wife and I to have cards.
With the change from 100k bonus to 50k bonus, the CSR is not as valuable, however as someone who's primary interests are dining/travel, the 3x points are fantastic. Reserve gives you TSA pre-check (so does Preferred), Priority Pass (so does Preferred), CDW waiver for car rental (so does Preferred). most of the benefits are the same. The differences are that CSR gives you 1.5x value for travel, while CSP gives you 1.25, and 3x points for dining/travel vs 2x for CSP.
For one person, fee is $450. $300 will be refunded as travel credit. So, now the price difference is $95 for CSP vs $150 for CSR.
At about $3000 spending on dining and travel, you'd have 9,000 CSR points, and 6,000 CSP points. That 9000 points is $135 in CSR travel and $75 in CSP travel, so that's about where you hit your break even.Comment
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Do the airline memberships that everyone is referring to require a fee?
We love our Sapphire Preferred and are thinking of upgrading to the Reserve. However, I’m iffy on the $525 annually for my wife and I to have cards.
Where do you get $525? Unless something has changed, it's a $450 annual fee with a $300 travel credit apiece. Plus you can get Global entry ($100 each) reimbursed once, making it a $50 effective annual fee each if you don't have the Global Entry status yet.Comment
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I love the chase sapphire reserve, but also got it when it had the 100k bonus. Still worth the fee though, and I like that it automatically finds the travel expenses to refund the 300/year so I dont have to submit requests over and over again.Comment
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$450 for the first user, $75 for each authorized user.Comment
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Priority pass select is not for CSP, only for CSR.Comment
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Where do you get $525? Unless something has changed, it’s a $450 annual fee with a $300 travel credit apiece. P
You sure it's $300 per person and not per account?An alt-brown look at medicine, money, faith, & family
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