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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts
12-09-2014, 05:37 PM
Repost of cheap award flights North America to Europe - gateways for US Airways are typically Philly and Charlotte.
*****
US Airways off peak award space to Europe is wide open. For travel between January 15 and February 28, 2015, you can pay as little as 30,000 miles roundtrip to tons of top cities like London, Paris, Madrid, and Dublin.
Reminder of US Airways Off Peak Awards
US Airways has incredible discounts on the miles needed for a roundtrip award to Europe and the Caribbean during off peak dates (January 15 – February 28 for Europe and September for Caribbean).
Off peak awards require finding Saver award space on all legs from your home airport to your destination, and flying all US Airways planes. That is, you cannot fly partners, including American Airlines.
The off peak price is 35,000 miles roundtrip to Europe. Folks with the US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® get an automatic 5,000 mile discount on all US Airways awards that fly only US Airways planes, which is a requirement of off peak awards. That means US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® cardholders pay only 30,000 miles roundtrip to Europe during off peak dates.
I've referral links for most credit cards, PM me for them & thanks if you use them
Strip away judeo-christian ethics ingraining sex is dirty/bad & the idea we're taking advantage of these girls disintegrates. Once you've lost that ethical quandary (which it isn't outside religion) then they've no reason to play the victim, you've no reason to feel the rogue. The interaction is to their benefit.
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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts
12-10-2014, 10:04 AM
Putting this in the thread also.
KLM has a flash sale to Kenya from several major US Cities. Very good deal
http://www.klm.com/travel/us_en/plan_and...hfares.htm
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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts
12-10-2014, 03:54 PM
Hey guys, I'm on the road in KUL at the moment but just wanted to let everyone know that there's another Orbitz promo out there.
Using VISACHECKOUT as the promo code, $100 off 2 night+ bookings.
I am in the process of booking a nice stay at 4* serviced apartments in an Asian city for $20/night.
There is no limit to the number of bookings available, and it's a great deal if there is a city you are planning on going to with a bunch of affordable, decent, non-chain hotels.
Vegas, Latin America, Asia are ones that come to mind. It's best to find a 50$/night X2 combo to make it a full free hotel.
This won't last, and although it's not $100 off a one nighter like the last round, it still is an amazing value.
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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts
12-10-2014, 05:52 PM
Cid,
These are great for those not chasing status, and even in some circumstances for those of us that are, or already have it. Awesome.
I've referral links for most credit cards, PM me for them & thanks if you use them
Strip away judeo-christian ethics ingraining sex is dirty/bad & the idea we're taking advantage of these girls disintegrates. Once you've lost that ethical quandary (which it isn't outside religion) then they've no reason to play the victim, you've no reason to feel the rogue. The interaction is to their benefit.
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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts
12-10-2014, 06:51 PM
The orbitz promo codes doesn't work anymore? It sold out that quick?? F me
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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts
12-18-2014, 06:42 PM
Okay, now that I have more free time in my life I feel like I can start tackling this...
I've got a Chase Sapphire Plus as my baseline card. I just applied and got approved for the U.S. Airways card to get those 50,000 miles with the $85 fee.
I'm thinking about getting the American Airlines card with 50,000 miles with $3000 purchases in the first 3 months, as I'm going to be doing a $3k purchase (that I'm getting reimbursed for) in about a month.
The points websites aren't the most reader friendly and I can understand why so many members are daunted by all the information.
But as I understand it, the main strategy is to have 1 good baseline card, and then apply for new cards and fulfill whatever requirements are to get those sweet 40000/50000 mile bonuses, correct? And then utilize those miles when US Airways runs specials on cheap miles flights?
What else am I missing?
My only interest is in flights. I'm not into hotels or car rentals.
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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts
12-18-2014, 07:20 PM
Veloce, welcome aboard.
I don't think having a main card is the main strategy. I think having cards to chose from that optimize your point-earning from whatever it is you do buy is part of a strategy, but there are many ways to earn points. Some things to consider are:
1. Buy through portals via the airlines - use EVrewards.com to figure out which portal is providing for the most points (this is free and doesn't change the price you'd pay by accessing the website directly).
2. Buy gift cards from office supply stores or other retailers to maximize point gain on shopping. I get five points per dollar spent on office supply stores, but 1 point per dollar (or 1.25 if you count the starwood 20K transfer bonus). So I am buying whole foods gift cards at Par (100 $ = 100$) at Staples.com and using them at whole foods, and earning 5 points per dollar, rather than 1.25 points per dollar (using Chase Ink Biz card, which has a nice signup bonus as well (not as good as before, though, when it was 70K). Another example of this is using a Chase Freedom card that gives a bonus for spending a supermarkets (which it will for the first quarter of 2015) and buying Amazon.com gift cards at the supermarket - Amazon has no points play on its own, though they do have a rebate branded credit card (3 percent back).) Still, this yields an extra two points per dollar, and I typically turn 1 point into significantly more than 1 percent because I fly premium classes on airlines).
3. Best to earn transferable points first if you can, via AMEX, Chase, Citi and Starwood (don't think of SPG as a hotel card, its a low cost AMEX that happens to give you low elite status for SPG, but more importantly, it transfers to 31 transfer partners, like the Baskin Robbins of credit cards). In your personal situation, I'd also consider that since you now live in Vegas, people will likely come visit you more often, and if you end up booking their hotel rooms at the right hotels, you might inadvertainly end up with decent earnings and SPG status as a result. Remember, Caesars is a partner to SPG.
4. Do your applications in chunks, if you're concerned about your credit being close to the line on a particular deal. Inquiries themselves bang your credit a little bit, so its generally advisable to apply for a few cards at the same time, so none of those applications bears the brunt of the simultaneous ones.
5. The US Airways card gives free FICO score access. For those without the card, perhaps sign up for a free FACO (estimated credit score) service like Credit Karma. Not the real thing, but may give you a ballpark and very instructive on how to improve your credit, regardless of the starting point.
I've referral links for most credit cards, PM me for them & thanks if you use them
Strip away judeo-christian ethics ingraining sex is dirty/bad & the idea we're taking advantage of these girls disintegrates. Once you've lost that ethical quandary (which it isn't outside religion) then they've no reason to play the victim, you've no reason to feel the rogue. The interaction is to their benefit.
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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts
12-18-2014, 07:48 PM
GE asked me to explain how to use the Avianca Lifemiles promotions to get reasonable Biz class tickets to Asia.
It's quite simple, with the only caveat being that their call center isn't so good if you can't speak Spanish. The other restriction is 150k is the purchasing limit per year (although there are 2 ways around this).
A one way to Europe is 75/78k from the USA. That means one needs to buy 39,000 miles which is about $1280 during a 2X1 promotion (they are common, and one ends tomorrow).
It's pretty easy to find availability on United's website, confirm its availability on the LM website, then buy the miles and book. Fuel surcharges aren't imposed with LM.
On a side note - I have recently started to consider miles for business class to Europe a bad redemption value. I have bought 2 business class tickets for $1500 each, one from SFO and the other from JFK to Europe this year. If I was using Delta miles I would have burned 250,000 miles for those two tickets. We always hear a blogger justifying their redemption saying oh this ticket would've cost me $5k. Biz tickets to Europe don't seem to cost much more than $2k now making the redemption values top out at 2CPM which isn't that good. That's now the equivalent of a $250 one way for 12.5k miles. When biz tickets to Asia run for $5k or so usually the mileage redemption presents a better value.
Stopovers and random small expensive places like Ljubljana make sense maybe, but Paris and London and Madrid are often never better than 2CPM, even in summer.
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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts
12-18-2014, 07:56 PM
I'd agree with this. and point out that its also possible to get the AARP (stop laughing) discount to fly BA from North America to Europe, which I think is an additional 400USD discount. Perhaps El Cid you've already done so, as the BA fares I saw that were cheapest were west coast USA.
I aspire to get no less the 3-4 cents per miles used when I cash in, unless I have miles that are stranded for some reason, in which case I'll go a penny a mile for a gift card or magazine or something. When I flew Cathay, I got a 13,300 dollar ticket (one-way, and this actually doesnt even include the flight from LAX to SLC, which would have been perhaps 500 USD more in a premium class) for miles I spent around 1265 USD on (1875 x 67500/100,000), which comes out to better than 10 cents a mile. Its always going to be easier to get higher returns for premium class airfare, but of course I wasn't gonna pay 13,300 to fly one way anyway. The math is of course then a little specious, but since its apples and apples, this calculation is worth doing.
I've referral links for most credit cards, PM me for them & thanks if you use them
Strip away judeo-christian ethics ingraining sex is dirty/bad & the idea we're taking advantage of these girls disintegrates. Once you've lost that ethical quandary (which it isn't outside religion) then they've no reason to play the victim, you've no reason to feel the rogue. The interaction is to their benefit.
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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts
12-18-2014, 08:40 PM
Please don't read The Points Guy. He sold his website 2 years ago and is 100% for profit with his postings and advice. Especially don't simply trust his opinions on credit cards (some stuff he is told to say since he has been bought out).
Chase UR points are great. There is nothing that beats their flexibility. I've used them for anything from Amtrak to flights on Avianca. Still, the CSP or the Ink cards both present basically equal value. As long as you have access to them it is good.
50k Delta miles are worth little. I think I am pretty much a master of finding availability with Delta miles, and can't find anything I want to use them for. Every time I want to use them, there is another currency with a better value and a better product.
I like to use them to go to Lima because they open up seats all the time last-minute since they fly a 767 down there. Of course, no upgrades, so you get to watch all the nonrevs file up into their business class seats since like 3 people pay for biz class to Lima. 45k it's a decent value. Still 10k more than AA though in economy. AA biz is only 30k to Lima. If you read the Delta forum on Flyertalk, people redeem 40k miles for domestic flights and are actually content with themselves.
Could talk all day about how AA is better, especially with US now to fill in the domestic availability issues. I'd get 5 AA cards before 1 Delta one.
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The Frequent Traveller Thread - Perks, points, and deals for beginners and experts
12-18-2014, 10:37 PM
Yes too late I imagine.
I guess it would depend on need. Also with sterling credit like a 790, probably it makes no difference. But when you're flirting with 750, it might, so I might bang out another application for something that has value to you, assuming you can meet the minimum spend (not sure which AA card you got). Independent of travel aims, considering what very little I know about you (I know you like to cook), I'd definitely consider the Freedom card, assuming you spend a lot of money on groceries (first quarter bonus is on groceries - 5 points a dollar and you can transfer them with your Sapphire card). No annual fee, so when the rotating bonus categories don't work for you, you just leave it in your wallet. When they do, its a good opportunity to rack of points on things you're already buying.
I've referral links for most credit cards, PM me for them & thanks if you use them
Strip away judeo-christian ethics ingraining sex is dirty/bad & the idea we're taking advantage of these girls disintegrates. Once you've lost that ethical quandary (which it isn't outside religion) then they've no reason to play the victim, you've no reason to feel the rogue. The interaction is to their benefit.
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