How to use Frequent Flyer Miles for Hawaii flights

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using frequent flyer miles to get to hawaii

How to use Frequent Flyer miles for Hawaii flights

I don’t believe in coincidences, so when 3 different friends recently asked me about getting to Hawaii using Miles & Points, I felt like the stars were aligned or the universe was trying to tell me something (or maybe Hawaii is just really popular). I needed to write a post about this. Hawaii is, so far, my favorite place on the planet (specifically Kauai, specifically-er the North Shore). While I am not an expert, I have planned 3 trips to Hawaii where all of the flights were free (so I guess that does make me an expert, right? Not really).

I will start by explaining how we have planned our Hawaii trips, and then will add some other options as well. For all 3 of these trips, we are originating from the East Coast, but wanted to break up the trip by flying to/from the West Coast and avoiding a super-long flight. We (and my in-laws) have family to visit on the West Coast and places we wanted to go before/after Hawaii, so this is how I chose to book our trips.

How we used miles for our next Hawaii vacation flights (#1)

1. Used British Airways Avios (their frequent flyer mile program) on Alaskan Airlines metal (this means the actual plane you will be flying on) to get from (OAK) Oakland, CA to (KOA) Kona Airport on the Big Island.

  • I knew we wanted a direct flight from the West Coast to the Big Island, so I looked here to see which airlines fly from which airports to get to KOA
  • British Airways uses a distance-based award chart, which makes it “cheaper” in miles to get from the West Coast to Hawaii than it would with any other Frequent Flyer program (it is 12,500 Avios per person instead of the more typical 20,000 miles in other programs)
  • Because BA is in the Oneworld alliance, you can “purchase” a flight on one of their partner airlines using Avios & use the Avios award chart (which is more generous for the short-haul flights)

TOTAL = 50,000 British Airways Avios for 4 people from Oakland-Kona

How can you get British Airways Avios?
  • By getting a Chase British Airways credit card (at the time of this writing, the bonus is 50,000 miles after spending $2000 within 3 months)
  • By transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards point 1:1 for Avios (you can get UR points by getting a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink Bold or Ink Plus Business Card)
  • By transferring American Express Membership Rewards point to British Airways (you can get Amex points from various Amex cards). Many times there are transfer bonuses of 20%-50% when you transfer Membership Rewards point to British Airways Avios
  • By transferring SPG points to British Airways (you will get 25,000 miles for transferring 20,000 SPG points). You can get SPG points by staying in their hotels or you can get an SPG personal and/or business card with a 25,000 point bonus
  • Shopping at the British Airways shopping portal

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2. Used Southwest Rapid Rewards miles to get us from Philadelphia to Oakland

(We will stay a couple of days before our flight to Kona)

  • Southwest reward tickets are based on the cost of the actual ticket (70 points per dollar, just recently raised from 60 points per dollar), so the lower fares will have lower miles “cost”
  • Southwest offers Companion Passes (maybe my favorite thing ever) – if you earn 110,000 miles in a calendar year, you get a pass where you can bring a companion on your paid OR reward flights & just pay the taxes (like, $2.50). So if you get 2 credit card sign-up bonuses at 50K bonus miles each, you just have to get an extra 6K miles (after the minimum spend requirements) to get a Companion Pass

TOTAL = It was about 20,000 miles total for all 4 of us

How can you get Southwest Rapid Rewards points?
  • Chase has 4 different Southwest credit cards (2 personal, 2 business) and they often offer 50,000 bonus miles for signing up and meeting the minimum spend requirement
  • Transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards (same as above)
  • Shop using the Southwest shopping portal
  • Transfer hotel points to Southwest
  • Earn Southwest points when renting cars
  • Rapid Rewards Dining  (see here for more information about earning miles & points for dining out)

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3. Used United Airlines miles for inter-island flights on Hawaiian Airlines – from the Big Island to Kauai (via Honolulu)

  • Each flight cost 5,000 United Miles (flown on Hawaiian Airlines) and $5.00

TOTAL = 20,000 miles for the 4 of us

How can you get United miles?
  • Chase offers United Airlines credit cards. When we got them a while back, the bonus was much higher at 65,000 miles per card (and we each got one)
  • Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points (as above)
  • United’s Dining and Entertainment partners
  • United shopping portal

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4. Used British Airways Avios to fly from LIH (Kauai) to SEA (Seattle) on Alaskan Airlines

  • Same as above. 12,500 British Airways Avios each to get from Hawaii to the West Coast

TOTAL = 50,000 British Airways Avios for 4 people

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5. Used United miles to fly from Seattle to Philadelphia

  • We were able to get first class saver tickets for 25,000 miles per ticket, which was the best option for the flights and dates that we wanted and needed

TOTAL = 100,000 United miles for 4 first class one-way tickets

So the total for 4 people is 240,000 miles for this Hawaiian vacation! 5 different flights.  And we only paid the taxes/fees!

This is how it breaks down for that trip in Credit Card sign-ups:

  1. British Airways Chase card (we got it when the bonus was 100,000 miles), but if you have 2 people you could each get it with a 50,00 mile bonus
  2. Southwest Chase card x 2 (we each got 2 Southwest cards – we booked tons of trips with these miles plus Companion Pass)
  3. United Airlines card (we each got one when bonus was 65,000 miles)

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PicMonkey Photo2

How my in-laws are getting to Hawaii (#2)

This is similar to what we did, with less credit card sign-ups and only 2 people.  They are only going to one island, so did not need the interisland flight.

  1. They got a British Airways Visa with the 50,000 mile sign up bonus.  This is enough for the 2 of them to get roundtrip from the West Coast to Hawaii
  2. They got a Southwest Visa with a 50,000 mile bonus.  This was enough to book the 2 of them to and from the West Coast

So, for 2 credit card sign-ups, they were able to get 2 people from the East Coast to Hawaii only paying for the taxes and fees.

 

How we traveled to Hawaii in 2012 (#3)

We pretty much followed similar steps as in #1.   We used British Airways Avios (that we had gotten from a 100,000 mile sign-up bonus) to book the 4 of us roundtrip to Hawaii from the West Coast on American Airlines (because of the partner alliance). We used American Airlines to get us to the West Coast so that we could spend some time at Disneyland before Hawaii and visiting family near Los Angeles after our Hawaii trip.

PicMonkey Photo3

 

Using other Frequent Flyer programs to get to Hawaii

In addition to what I have written about our experiences, you can also fly airlines such as American, United, USAirways, Delta, Alaskan, and Hawiian airlines to Hawaii from the Mainland.  Generally flights are 40,000 miles roundtrip.  They can be harder to book, and you may have various connections and layovers. There are also some direct East Coast to Honolulu flights as well, but these have not been practical for our family and our travel plans.

Here are the things to consider:

  • It can take time to apply for the card (and wait for a good bonus), get it in the mail, meet the minimum spend, have the miles post to your account, and then book the flights.
  • You may have to be flexible with dates, flights, airports (both on the Mainland and in Hawaii)
  • I have booked our 2 trips exactly on the date that the flights became available (11 months out), and my in-laws’ trip about 8 months out (they weren’t able to get the exact dates that would have been ideal, but it worked out)

What do you do if you don’t have much time to wait?

If you are looking to book a Hawaii flight, but don’t have much time to wait for the above considerations, consider getting a credit card that offers cash back for travel.  That way you can purchase your tickets and get a refund (statement credit) for your travel purchase.  I recently got the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard. This would be a great option for any travel that you have to pay for, especially if 2 spouses could each get a card.  With the current bonus, you would each get $440 worth of free travel. You could use this bonus to offset the cost of your flights. The 40,000 bonus points for this offer equal $440 worth of travel.

Here is the information for the Barclaycard:

barclaycard

barclaycard2

Universal Studios Orlando For Free!

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Universal Studios Orlando For Free!

Family Theme Park Vacation. For Free. During Holiday Break. Yes, we did it!

We generally like to travel around Christmas/New Years break because the schools are closed and it’s the perfect time for us to get away.  The time leading up to Christmas is the busiest of the year for me at work, and I am so in need of a vacation once Christmas is over!  Unfortunately, the rest of the world (at least those with kids or who work in schools) also seems to have the same idea! That leaves us with three chioces 1) plan ahead in order to use our miles & points for our vacation 2) be extremely flexible with where we are going to go or 3) pay top dollar.  Number 3 is not an option for us.

We really wanted to visit Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.  We have been to Disney World about a million times, but had never been to Universal.  Or, as they say on the Disboards, the “dark side” (I’m not joking, that’s really what they call it). Because we have been traveling so much in the past couple of years, we like to avoid paying for anything travel related, if at all possible.  So I sought out a way to get our flight home from Orlando (we had flown into Fort Myers to go to Marco Island), our Universal hotel for 4 nights, and Universal Studios tickets for the 4 of us.

This is what I did.  It worked out perfectly for us, YMMV (your miles may vary), literally.

1. Loews Royal Pacific Hotel

This is one of the 3 onsite Universal Orlando hotels.  There are major advantages to staying Onsite, especially if you happen to be a Harry Potter fan.  The main advantages that were important to us:

  • Get in an hour early (before parks open) to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  This perk enabled my HP-obsessed daughter to go on Harry Potter the Forbidden Journey seven times….yes 7 times in 2 days
  • “SKIP THE REGULAR LINES with Universal ExpressSM Unlimited ride access in both theme parks – a FREE benefit worth up to $89 per person, per day^ (valid theme park admission required). It’s the fastest way to ride – enjoy unparalleled access all day long, as often as you’d like!”
  • Proximity to the parks – we didn’t use our rental car for the entire time we were there.  We made the short walk or took the water taxi to the parks

How did we stay for free? We used our American Airlines AAdvantage miles to book hotels, which you can do here.  Make sure that you sign in to your account, because they somehow show much higher point amounts when you are not signed in.  We have also booked Disney hotels using this method & you can read about that here.  For our 4 nights (during a holiday, high-season period) we “paid” 21,000 – 23,000 points per night.  When I priced it out at the time, it would have been $1800.  It was so worth it for us.

This is an example of a search that I did for the Loews Royal Pacific using AA miles

This is an example of a search that I did for the Loews Royal Pacific using AA miles

 

2. Universal Studios Theme Park Tickets

Another major expense of any theme park vacation is the park tickets, especially when you have a family to pay for!  We were able to get our tickets for free using our American Express Membership Rewards points.  The price (in points) of the tickets can fluctuate, and sometimes they do run out.  When we got ours, we were able to get 2 adults passes and 2 children’s passes for 3 day park tickets.  I think it was about 12,000 points for the kids and 15,000 for the adults.  At the time, it was a buy 2 days get one free promotion at the parks.  There have also been times when you could get these tickets for just 5,000 MR points.

The current offerings on the Amex site for Universal Studios tickets

The current offerings on the Amex site for Universal Studios tickets

 

3. Flights from Orlando to Philadelphia

We were able to use our Southwest points to get from Orlando to Philadelphia.  My husband and I both have Southwest Companion Passes, which I will write about another time.  The basic gist of it is, if you get 110,000 Southwest points in a calendar year, you get to bring a companion on any of your flights (paid or points) for free.  It’s the best thing since sliced bread (which, apparently, is younger than Betty White, but I digress).  We only had to use about 18,000 Southwest points total to get all 4 of us home.

So, that is how we went to Universal Studios for free at one of the busiest times of year! And we had an amazing time & may even be considering going over to the Dark Side for good.

Hogwarts...Forbidden Journey...best ride ever

Hogwarts…Forbidden Journey…best ride ever

Some cool props from comics that the kids have never heard of...this SHOULD be Spongebob World

Some cool props from comics that the kids have never heard of…this SHOULD be Spongebob World

 

Is it a bad parenting to have your daughter's pic taken with the Duff Beer Guy, Duffman?

Is it bad parenting to have your daughter’s pic taken with the Duff Beer Guy, Duffman?

Pretty much my life motto, for real

Pretty much my life motto, for real. Thanks Dr. Seuss

 

Cheap Family Science Center & Museum Pass…..HURRY!

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Buy an Annual Pass for 4 for less than $50! Plus get admission to 300 other Museums!
Buy an Annual Pass for 4 for less than $50! Plus get admission to 300 other Museums!

How to get a cheap Family Science Center & Museum pass….limited time offer!

One of our favorite things to do as a family, whether at home or while traveling, is to visit family-friendly Science Museums.  Last week we went to the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore for the second time, and we had a blast!

I came across this deal today on Living Social for an annual membership for a family of 4 to the Maryland Science Center.  I used the code 15OFFMARCH in the promo code section to bring the total down to $52.70, which is a fabulous bargain.  On top of that, I will get 6% cash back by going through the Ebates shopping portal (if you are unfamiliar with shopping portals, see this and this).

This is a limited time offer, so I wanted to make sure that you all can take advantage of this if you are interested.

Now, here is the best part of this deal….

There is a group of about 300 museums that have a reciprocal relationship with one another.  Meaning, if you have an annual pass for one museum, you can use it to get into other museums & science centers within the group.  You can find the current list here, and I can say that we have been to several of the museums on that list (including our recent visit to the Franklin Institute).  We have a trip to Chicago coming up, and there are some places on this list that I was eyeing up for our visit.  I am excited about this because I am always looking for ways to save money on our family activities on our vacations. My plan is to bring the Living Social voucher with me (since we won’t be in Baltimore again before Chicago for me to get the actual pass in hand). I may also see if there is another way that I can get the pass in hand without going to Baltimore first. I have read from others that this should work, so we’ll see!

You can also read about the restrictions here. It looks like museums within 90 miles of each other are excluded, and possibly museums within 90 miles of your home.  I have heard from others that the enforcement of these restrictions is pretty non-existent, but YMMV.  The admission is good for general admission, so things like IMAX tickets will cost extra (thanks Captain Obvious).

So HURRY UP and get this deal while it is still available people!

What is Manufactured Spending? Hint: It’s Not as Crazy as it Sounds

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ManSpend2

What is Manufactured Spending?

In the Miles & Points world, there is this thing called “Manufactured Spending” that sounds really crazy and complicated, but it’s neither of those things when you really get to the heart of the matter.  Don’t get me wrong, lots of people go beyond the norm with their ManSpend efforts, but the average travel hacker can do this pretty easily as well. I have a job, kids, and a busy life.  Therefore, I can’t and don’t take it to the extreme.  I do participate in ManSpend to the Level 1.5 degree, I would say.  So what exactly *is* Manufactured Spending?

ManSpend** (as I like to call it when I’m feeling lazy) is essentially buying a form of “cash” with a credit card in order to get points/miles/rewards for said purchase. Normally we would attempt to get as many points/miles/rewards for the purchases we make everyday.  Like using online shopping portals for buying things, and using our credit cards where they get category bonuses.  What if you could purchase money, get your points for that purchase, and then use the money to pay off your credit card bill?  What if you could pay bills that don’t normally take credit cards (like mortgage payments) with your rewards-earning credit cards? That is the essence of ManSpend.

What are some easy ways to Manufacture Spend?

In this post,  I will go into detail about the methods that I personally use.  These are not top secret.  I have not been let in on any secret ManSpend societies (yet), and I pretty much stick with the basics because I am a wimp busy.

       1. Reload Cards

These are plastic cards that look kind of like gift cards and are on the gift card racks at places like CVS and Walgreens.  I like to think of them as the middleman, a place to ‘hold’ your money until you can get it into a usable form.  You purchase the Reload card (with your rewards-earning credit card), and then you have to move on to the next step before you can use your money.

My go-to reload card is called the Vanilla Reload, and I buy them at the local drugstore that starts with a C.  You are allowed to purchase $5,000 worth per day at that store, but I am never that desperate (not that there’s anything wrong with you if you are…or, on second thought…). I purchase them for one of 3 reasons: 1) I want to earn extra rewards on a certain card OR 2) I need to spend X amount of money in X amount of days to get a sign-up bonus 3) I want to pay a bill with a credit card & they don’t take credit cards.  The fee for buying this card is $3.95 no matter how much money you put on it, so it makes sense to ‘load’ the card with the maximum amount allowed ($500 per card).

So I bought my Vanilla Reload card at the store that let me use my credit card (a challenge for some to find stores like this)…now what do I do?

        2.  American Express Bluebird

Ok, so this should really be step one, I suppose. In order to access your credit card company’s money, you need to somehow get it away from the middleman (Vanilla Reload) and into your own grubby little hands (or to your mortgage company).  For this, I have an American Express Bluebird card.  There are 3 ways that you can get your very own Bluebird card (and you should if you are serious about this hobby):

  • You can purchase a Bluebird Account Kit at Walmart
  • You can order one online here (this is what I did)
  • Register through the Bluebird mobile app

You will be asked things like name, address, social security number, birthdate, email, user name, password, etc. Once you do the registration, you will get your card in the mail in about a week.  You then have to go online to activate it.  Note: you can only have one Bluebird account per person, but you and your spouse, parent, etc can each get one.

Once you have both your Amex Bluebird and your Reload Card (that you bought with your rewards-earning credit card), you “load” the money from the Reload onto the Bluebird by going to this website.  There is a scratch off silvery strip on the back of the Vanilla Reload (pretend you are playing the lottery!) with the code underneath it.  Put that and your Amex Bluebird number into that website and, viola! your money is available for you to use.

What can I do with my Amex Bluebird?

  • You can do online Billpay
  • You can send the money to your bank account
  • You can use it at an ATM to get cash (small fee)
  • You can use it as a credit card (why?)
  • You can use the money to pay off the credit card that you bought the money with

I usually withdraw it to my bank account and then pay bills with it (either the credit card or something like a mortgage or car payment).  You can load $1000 per day (up to $5000 per month) onto each Bluebird card, so it is limited.

       3. Amazon Payments

Are you familiar with PayPal? Amazon Payments is a similar concept.  You can send money to other people for goods & services. You can go here to sign up and learn more.  You will need the same information as for the Bluebird (name, address, social security number, date of birth, etc).  You can then set up your account with your banking information (for receiving your payments). You can pay another person using your rewards-earning credit card (up to $1000 per month).

 

          4. Buy and Sell Stuff

This method is definitely not for everyone, and I have only tried it minimally myself.  If you can find a really good deal on some items that you think you can sell for a higher price or break even (after fees), you can try re-selling those items on Ebay, Amazon, or Craigslist.  You can buy those items with your rewards-earning credit card, sell them & pay off the credit card with that money.  This can be somewhat risky because you may not be able to sell the items or make enough money to make it worthwhile.  I am planning to think about this a bit more when I have time, as I have sold thousands of things on Ebay (not re-sell things, but used) and have gotten pretty good at it.  I think I can use this method for some ManSpend when I have the time (wait, when will that be?!?!?!).

 

There are other ManSpend methods out there, and I will write more about them at a future date.  For now, I only wanted to write about my own personal experiences and not just things I have read about.

 

**Most in the Miles & Points world call it MS, but the real MS (Multiple Sclerosis) hits too close to home in my family for me to refer to ManSpend that way, so I just do my own thing, as usual.

What is Uber? And the Idiotic Uber Incident

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What is Uber?

Uber is a fabulous taxi alternative that is available in many cities in the United States and throughout the world.  I was introduced to it about a year ago in New York City by one of my friends who had been using it extensively in the Washington D.C. area, and we’ve been using it ever since.  I felt like such a VIP when she whipped out her cell and about 2 minutes later a nice black car (I suck at knowing car types, but it was nice) pulled up to whisk us away.  Come to find out, anyone can do this, not just the big-wig types.

Uber is an app/service that you can use in lieu of a regular old taxi to come to pick you up.  You set up your payment (via Credit Card) at sign-up, so there is never any need to pay at the time of service – your ride is automatically charged to your account.  When you pull up the app, you will see little tiny cars of various types (Uber has different types of car service available) driving around on the map.  It’s creepy (in a Big Brother kind of way) and cool at the same time.

One of the nice things is that there is set pricing, and there are also different types of cars that you can request.  The pricing is based on the city and the car type.

  • UberX = “Everyday cars for everyday use.
    Better, faster, and cheaper than a taxi.”
  • Taxi = “No whistling, no waving, no cash needed.”
  • Black = “Your own private driver, on demand.
    Expect pickup in a high-end sedan within minutes.”
  • SUV = “For those times when you need a bit more space.
    Seats up to six people in style.”
  • LUX = “The finest cars with prices to match.”

Basically, you go to the Uber site and sign up for an account.  If you use my link  we each get a $20 credit to use.  Get the app on your phone & then you are good to go.

These are the USA locations currently served:

  • Atlanta
  • Baltimore
  • Boston
  • Charlottle
  • Chicago
  • Columbus
  • Dallas
  • Denver
  • Detroit
  • Fresno
  • Hamptons
  • Honolulu
  • Houston
  • Indianapolis
  • Jacksonville
  • Los Angeles
  • Madison
  • Milwaukee
  • Minneapolis
  • Nashville
  • New Jersey
  • New York City
  • Oklahoma City
  • Orange County
  • Palm Springs
  • Philadelphia
  • Phoenix
  • Pittsburgh
  • Providence
  • Sacramento
  • San Diego
  • San Francisco
  • Santa Barbara
  • Seattle
  • Tucson
  • Washington D.C.

 

What was our most idiotic Uber incident ever?

So, we took a train from Denver to Emeryville, CA with a bus transfer to San Francisco.  Now, keep in mind that we were on the train for 30 hours and may have lost a few brain cells in the process.  We get to San Francisco in the evening, and we literally have NO IDEA where we are.  The bus pulls up to a (what felt like) random spot in a city we have never visited and drops us off. There is no one around who can answer our question about where we are & where we need to go (to our hotel).  So I think…”Hey! Why not use my favorite trendy car service, Uber?”  I pull out my handy-dandy app and call up a nearby driver to take us to our hotel.  I give him the address.  He looks at me funny, but he’s nice and in a nice black car.  He drives us across the street.  No joke. We were across the street from our hotel and took Uber to get there. Laziest tourists ever? Luckily we had an Uber credit (that we got just for signing up) in our account & did not have to pay actual money to drive across the street.

Point B is the hotel lounge across the street from Point A

Point B is the hotel lounge across the street from Point A

 

Moral of the story = try Uber but be smarter about it than I was….

The Ultimate Guide to Free Family Travel

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The Ultimate Guide to Free Family Travel – For the Rest of Us

AKA The Wannabe Business Travelers Guide to Never Actually Paying for Flights or Hotels by Earning Miles & Points the Hard Way

If you really wish that you were one of those business guys (or ladies…we are completely non-discriminatory around here) who gets to travel around all over the place on the company dime, putting things on their business credit cards and then getting reimbursed…well, me too.  Too bad for us that we decided to go into a human services field (oh, that’s just me?) and we have to earn our miles & points the hard way.  By not working.  Or maybe it’s the easier way actually.  Here are some non-business-y ways that we can go about earning our rewards so that we can travel for free just like the big guys (and girls).

Oh, and this guide is also to remind me about what I need to write about, so it’s kind of a rough draft.  If you can’t click on it, it isn’t written yet. You’re welcome.

LEVEL 1 Travel Hacking

(aka The Low-Hanging Fruit)

Definition: Targets or goals which are easily achievable and which do not require a lot of effort

 How to Travel for Free :

 Earn Free Travel for Doing Regular Stuff:

 

Stuff About Credit Cards:

 

Using Miles & Points We Earn:

 

 LEVEL 2 Travel Hacking

(aka Stepping Up Your Game)

Definition: improve your skills or talents

Manufactured Spending

I have the Credit Cards….now what?

  • Category Bonuses
  • How to meet Minimum Spend requirements
  • Should I cancel my card or keep it?
  • Retention Bonuses

Booking Travel..Tips and Tricks:

  • Airline Alliances
  • Elite Status

 

LEVEL 3 Travel Hacking

(aka You Are A Pro…You Do Not Need Me…Will You Please Adopt Me?)

 

 

There is a ton more, but we have to start somewhere, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Travel For Free with Credit Cards (Part 2) – Sign-Up Bonuses

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Free Travel Basics Painting

 How to Travel for Free – Getting Miles & Points from Credit Card Sign-up Bonuses

The truth is, for a person (like me!) who needs to earn miles & points without actually paying for flights or paying to stay in hotels, credit card sign-up bonuses are the way to go. You can read the first installment to learn the basics about travel rewards cards (How to Travel for Free – Credit Cards - Part 1).  Once you understand the basic concept of what a travel rewards credit card is & how it benefits the person applying, you can decide how to go about building up your own stash of miles & points to use for planning your cheap trip.  In this second installment, I will discuss how I go about deciding which credit cards to apply for at any given time.

Step One : Analyzing My Current Credit Situation

Is my credit score good enough to support some credit card applications?  See my information here about understanding and checking your credit score and credit report.  I generally want to make sure that my score is over 750, knowing that it will dip a bit temporarily when I sign up for some new cards.

One thing that many people who follow this hobby tend to do with credit card applications is an app-o-rama (or AOR).  An AOR is essentially the practice of applying for multiple credit cards all on the same day.  The reason for this has to do with the fact that a new credit application gets reported to the credit agencies.  You can get turned away (even with a stellar credit score) for having “too many inquiries” recently.  If you apply for a bunch of cards on the same day, each of the credit card companies does not see the information about your other inquiries for that day.  I use this strategy, and it works for me.  Some in the hobby have a set schedule of when they will apply for new cards (something like every 90 days for a new AOR).  I don’t generally do it that regularly, but enough to have the miles & points in my accounts that I want to use.  Which brings me to….

Step Two : Knowing my Travel Goals

I like to keep a running list of places we want to go and dates when we can travel.  See here to read about how I plan our travel, in general.  Planning ahead really helps me to narrow my focus about what types of miles & points I need to work on accumulating.  For example, I knew that I wanted to plan a trip to Hawaii, and I was able to research and find out that British Airways miles would get me there.  I then applied for a British Airways Chase Visa Card, which had a 100,000 mile bonus at the time of my sign up (not right now, but these things change all the time).  That one application was enough to get all 4 of us to and from Hawaii from the West Coast.  I also applied for some hotel cards after researching which hotels we wanted to stay in once we were in Hawaii (here is one example).

Step Three : What are the best Credit Card offers at the time of my application(s)?

It helps to know what the current credit card offers are, and for this I always go to Flyertalk and/or Milepoint for my research.   Those people on the forums know everything there is to know about reward travel.  I like to read this specific Flyertalk thread to learn about the different sign-up bonuses that are being offered.  I also try to jump on any really spectacular bonuses that come along, as many of them are very limited as to how long the applications are available.  For example, last year I was able to get in on a 100,000 point bonus for the American Express Platinum card that was only available for about a day, which was a great deal for us!

Some tips:

  • My husband and I generally both apply for the same offers if they are really good, so we end up getting double the bonus points in many cases
  • We keep a spreadsheet with all of our application dates, how much the bonus is, how much we need to spend to get the bonus, annual fee (usually waived the first year, but I like to know what it is), and when the bonus points post
  • I continually evaluate and reevaluate which cards I have, which ones I’m keeping, and which need to be cancelled before the annual fee hits
  • You can often get the fee waived or an offer for a retention bonus when you call to cancel your card (more on that later)
  • If you are denied, you can call the reconsideration line to plead your case & this works for us 99% of time (more on that later too)

 

Just like we do, you can put your credit to work for you and save thousands of dollars in the process.  Free travel with credit card sign-up bonuses has become a way of life for us at this point!

 

 

 

Vacation Planning 101 : Where Should We Go?

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Vacation Planning 101: Where Should We Go on Vacation?

Some of the questions we are often asked are: Where should we go?  How do you decide where to go? How do you plan your vacations? This is a general process (Vacation Planning 101) that we follow when we are planning our trips:

1. Think about your travel goals and dreams

One person’s dream is another person’s nightmare, so these desires, goals, and choices are highly subjective.  I may say that my dream trip is an African Safari and you may have pachydermaphobia (aka fear of elephants). Just because I love to frolic lay around on a tropical beach somewhere does not mean that it should be a goal for you.  I hate the snow, so a ski trip (even if it involved the Swiss Alps or someplace else that sounds really dreamy) is not on my travel wish list, but it may be at the top of yours.  So start by thinking of the places or experiences (even if they are vague, like going to the beach) that feel desirable to you and your travel companions.  Heck, even get a pretty little notebook (or use a google doc spreadsheet if you are a geek and/or a man) and write them down. My list was too long for an average American lifespan, so I came up with this travel goal.

2. Think about when you can take your vacations

Depending on your work and life situations, hopefully you have a good sense of some times throughout the year that you are able to take a vacation.  In our case, we knew that summer would be a good time for us.  We are also able to take some days surrounding various school holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter) and can also plan some weekend trips as well.  Knowing that we almost always travel during “high” seasons (because kids are out of school and family-friendly destinations are in high demand), we know that we have to plan far in advance for our longer and more specific trips.  In general, we plan our longer summer trips over a year in advance.  We are already in the planning stages for Summer 2015 (I know…I know…).

Sometimes we know WHERE we want to go (like very specific places in Hawaii for 2014), and sometimes we know WHEN we want to go (for example, our 15 year wedding anniversary in the Fall).  With enough advanced planning, those two conditions combine and the WHERE and WHEN come together perfectly.  Other times, we decide on our WHERE based on our WHEN….flexibility with one or both of those aspects is very helpful in this case.

For example, I have not yet planned our 15 year anniversary trip (which is much less than a year away).  We don’t have our exact dates yet, so I will have some destinations in mind and plan the trip around what is available at the time of booking.  I am flexible with my destination, but will probably not be very flexible with the dates.

Another consideration is the weather in specific destinations during the times you are able to plan your trip.  If you want to go to a warm and sunny beach, but can only go on a vacation in November, you will be limited (within the USA) as to where you can travel in order to meet that goal.  Because we have the goal of visiting all 50 states, we will try to match the desired locations, dates, and historic weather conditions to make a trip that is desirable to us.

For me, this is the most exciting part of traveling (besides the actual vacation, that is).  I love looking through travel guides, reading travel magazines, and scouring the internet for ideas.  It helps to have a partially photographic memory, so I can remember most of what I have read even after reading for many hours about various different places. I like to talk to my kids about where they might want to go (New York City is the number one answer) as well.

3. Think about your Vacation Budget

If you are using Miles & Points to fund your travel like we do, then you will want to obsessively check your AwardWallet balances to see which of your programs are going to fund your next adventure.  Sometimes I even choose the vacation destination based on my Miles & Points balances & not the other way around.  For example, I have some credit cards where we get a free hotel night each year (after paying the annual fee, so “free” isn’t totally free).  I recently had a situation where the “free” night was close to expiring, so we chose to plan a weekend getaway based on that hotel night.

If I know that we are going somewhere specific, then I will plan my Miles & Points accumulation strategy in order to gain the Miles & Points that I might need for that specific trip.  For example, I knew that we wanted to take the Amtrak California Zephyr train and needed 25,000 Amtrak points, so I planned my earning strategies accordingly.  This does take prior planning if you have specific goals in mind & lack flexibility.  I booked that Amtrak trip well in advance and planned for the points many months prior to booking.

If you are funding your trip with that other currency, you know, money…then you have to set up a vacation budget and plan your trip within those parameters that are appropriate for your individual situation. Almost all of our travel is funded through Miles & Points, but I do also plan trips that we have to (gasp!) pay for, cruises for instance.  In these cases, it helps to shop around, and in this internet accessible era, this is easy to do.  There are countless websites out there that offer travel bargains.  Here are a few that I like and have used:

Here are a few that I have been planning to use (or have an upcoming trip booked), but don’t yet have first hand experience:

 

TIP:  Do not forgot to check your Shopping Portals as you are planning your paid travel.  I was able to get 7% cash back at TopCashBack for a Hotels.com booking.  There are many opportunities to get cash back for booking travel (for example, on TopCashBack click on the ‘Travel’ tab on the toolbar and you will see various places where you can earn).

Do you have any Vacation Planning 101 tips that you use to plan and dream about your next vacation?

How to Use Shopping Portals : A Tutorial

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Tutorial: How to Use Shopping Portals, Step-by-Step

As I wrote about in this post, I always use shopping portals to earn extra miles, points, or cash back when shopping online.  And I try to always shop online if possible, even when I do the in-store pickup (as you will see below).  I had some questions from readers about using the Shopping Portals, so I am going to give you the following step-by-step tutorial showing how to use shopping portals.  This is a demonstration of a purchase that I am making for my niece’s birthday (don’t worry, she will not read this & it will not spoil her dollhouse furniture surprise).

The Easy (Level 1 Travel Hacker) Way:

  1. Go to Portal Finder (ex. CashBackMonitor) – I start by using a portal finding website to decide which shopping portal I am going to use. I know it sounds like a lot of hoops to jump through, but it does become second nature after a while. I used to use EvReward all the time, but after reading this post by one of my favorite Miles & Points bloggers (The Frequent Miler, definitely check him out) I started comparing the accuracy of EvReward versus another portal finder – Cashbackmonitor.  Although I prefer the look of the EvReward website, I can force my eyes to deal with Cashbackmonitor for the sake of all things accurate.  Plus it only takes a few seconds before you are on your way to spending your hard-earned money at your chosen store.
    CashBackMonitor results for Kmart and Bank Rewards points

    CashBackMonitor results for Kmart and Bank Rewards points

     

    EvReward search for Kmart - was not accurate for UR Mall today

    EvReward search for Kmart – was not accurate for UR Mall today

     

  2. I clicked on Chase Ultimate Rewards – As you can see, Cashbackmonitor gives me choices for Cash Back, Airlines, Hotels, and Bank/Credit Card Points.  Your decision about which you want to earn will be based on your own needs at the time.  Sometimes I am scrambling to add extra miles to top off a particular balance & sometimes I just want to pad my pockets with extra cash.  This time, I chose the Chase Ultimate Rewards (3x per $1 at the moment) just because I felt like it

    Will Chase UR make me as happy as these people?

    Will Chase UR make me as happy as these people?

  3. The Shopping Portal (my example here is Chase UR Mall) will take me to Kmart (my chosen store for this purchase). It will look exactly the same as if I just typed in Kmart’s website, except magically behind the scenes in the web underworld, they will know that you clicked through the Chase UR mall to get your 3 extra points per dollar (don’t worry mom, they are not stealing your identity…probably).  This isn’t a huge purchase (sorry to my niece), so I will earn about 75 bonus points ($25 x 3 points = 75 points).  Plus the 1 point per dollar I would get for putting the purchase on my Chase Sapphire Preferred card.  Total = 100 Chase UR points. If I went directly to the store to buy the dollhouse furniture, I would earn 1 point per dollar for using my credit card, so I get an extra 75 points by doing it this way.

 

 

The Crazier, but still easy, (Level 2 Travel Hacker) Way:

This is what the crazy people (including me) do: In order to earn even MORE points/miles, you can sometimes go through the portal to buy a gift card (sometimes an e-gift card that will be emailed to you) for the same amount of money as your purchase. For the sake of simplicity, I went through the Chase Ultimate Rewards shopping portal:

  1. Went to Staples (2x points per $1) to purchase a $25 e-gift card that was sent to me by email (total = 50 points)
  2. Used my Chase Ink Bold card to pay for gift card because I get 5x points at office supply stores like Staples (total = 125 points)
  3. Went (via portal) to Kmart to make purchase using my gift card (chose in-store pickup, so no shipping cost) for 3x per dollar (total = 75 points). As an extra precaution (usually for a big purchase when I really want those points) I will make the gift card value to be less than the total so that I can pay off the remaining balance with my credit card just, just in case.
  4. The total in this example (which I actually did) is 250 Chase UR points (which I will probably transfer to Hyatt for an upcoming redemption I am planning).

 

 

Some notes & tips about using Shopping Portals:

  • Sometimes the payouts are much higher, and it becomes especially exciting with a large purchase (we got lots of points for our refrigerator from Sears & television from Best Buy).
  • I will usually go to the store website first if I need to browse around before filling my cart.  Once my cart is full, I close the window.  When I go back through the shopping portal, my cart (always, in my experience) has the items in it still.  Then I can just click right on the cart to complete the transaction.  It may be paranoid, but I don’t like to take the chances with all of the random clicking around I do when I am browsing through online stores.
  • It can take several weeks for points/miles to post, so don’t panic.  Just make a note to check your AwardWallet balances several a few times an hour a week to see if your points have posted.  There are times when people have to get in contact with the shopping portal because the points aren’t posting, but that has not happened to me (or I missed it if it did).
  • Sometimes you can use coupon codes (I usually do) and sometimes you can’t, you have to read the fine print
  • If you return the items, you will lose your points.
  • If you are going to order the e-gift certificate before your purchase, make sure you aren’t in a hurry because it can take time before the gift certificate is emailed to you.

Free Disney Hotels : How to Use Miles and Points

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Free hotels at Disney using Miles & Points - it's possible!

Free hotels at Disney using Miles & Points – it’s possible!

Free Disney Hotels

We have been crazy lucky enough to visit Walt Disney World in Orlando about a million times.  One year in the not so distant past, we even had annual passes (and we live in Pennsylvania, so that’s some pretty hardcore Disney devotion).  One of the ways that we have made this work for us is by staying for free in our Disney hotels using our Miles & Points.  Many of the hotels have been off-property, and we are totally fine with that, often preferring to trade proximity to the parks for lots of extra space.  That is a whole debate in itself though.  I will show you how to  use Miles & Points for both on-property and off-property Disney hotels to make them free.  The following are places we have stayed & points we have used.  

Disney Hotels where we have used our Miles and Points to make them FREE -

Christmas in July at the Swan & Dolphin

Christmas in July at the Swan & Dolphin

1. The Swan & Dolphin

The Swan & Dolphin are 2 adjacent hotels that are located right in the heart of Walt Disney World, but they are operated by Starwood and not Disney.  This is great for you because it means you can use your SPG points  to stay at this hotel for almost free (you usually still have to pay a resort fee).  At the time of this writing, The Swan and The Dolphin are each 10,000 points per night, with the additional benefit of the 5th night free when using points.  40,000 SPG points for 5 nights at a Disney “on-property” hotel is a fabulous deal.  You can even call the reservations department to ask if they have any suites or larger rooms available.  If so, they will often let you use extra points (like 11,500 vs 10,000) to book one of the larger rooms.  We have stayed at both of these hotels a couple of times, and will be reviewing them in another post (But a little hint: Thumbs Up!).

Walking around the grounds at the Sheraton Vistana Villages in Orlando

Walking around the grounds at the Sheraton Vistana Villages in Orlando

2. Sheraton Vistana Villages

This is another great hotel near Disney World (and also near Universal Orlando) that you can get for free using your SPG points.  It is also 10,000 points per night or 40,000 points for 5 nights.  Although not on-property, you will get lots of space plus a kitchen.  You will need a car, as it is about 10 miles from both The Magic Kingdom (some of the other Disney parks are a bit closer), and 10 miles from Universal.

One of the pools at the Sheraton Vistana Villages in Orlando

One of the pools at the Sheraton Vistana Villages in Orlando

When we stayed at the Sheraton Vistana Village, it was a better deal for us to use American Airlines miles to “pay” for our hotel.  We had tons of AAdvantage Miles that we were not planning on using for flights, and the value was much better than using our SPG points at the time.   We were also able to choose a room type, since AAdvantage uses your miles to book through a travel agency.  The miles correlate to the price of the room, so you can sometimes just use more miles for a larger room type.  We were able to use our miles to get a huge 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo with a full kitchen and washer/dryer.

Liki Tiki Resort in Orlando, FL

Liki Tiki Resort in Orlando, FL

One of the pool areas at Liki Tiki in Orlando

One of the pool areas at Liki Tiki in Orlando

3. Liki Tiki Village

Similar to the Sheraton Vistana Village, we were able to book this timeshare resort hotel using our AAdvantage Miles.  It ended up being a very, very low amount of miles per night for the room that we booked (something like 6,000 miles).  We had a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom unit with a full kitchen, washer/dryer, living room, and lanai.  It was about 15-20 minutes by car from the Main Gate to Disney.  Not a bad drive at all.

The Pirate Pool at the Marriott Harbour Lakes in Orlando

The Pirate Pool at the Marriott Harbour Lakes in Orlando

4. Marriott’s Harbour Lake

Marriott has several properties in the Orlando area, and this is consistently ranked as one of the best.  Once again, we were able to score a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom unit with full kitchen, washer/dryer, living room, lanai.  It was one of our favorite places we have ever stayed, and we have friends who just got back and loved it as well. It is close to Sea World and Aquatica (so fun), and an easy drive to Disney and Universal as well. While you will need a significant amount of points to stay at this Category 7 property, you can often get 70,000 points just by signing up for the Chase Marriott card and completing the spend requirements, which is enough for 2 nights on a regular reward (or 4 if your significant other or travel companion gets the card too).

Nights Stay Points Needed
 Point Savers* 
One night 35,000 30,000
Two nights 70,000 60,000
Three nights 105,000 90,000
Four nights 140,000 120,000
Five nights 140,000 120,000

* Some locations offer these limited-time, reduced-point offers.

Using Miles to Book Disney Properties

You can also book some on-site, Disney-owned properties using your American Airlines miles.  This is something we almost did last time we visited Orlando, but we decided to (gasp!) go to Universal Orlando for the first time instead.  More on that later.  Here are some tips for using miles to book Disney Properties:

Assuming you have AAdvantage Miles in your account, you should make sure you log in to get the best prices.  For some reason, the price (in miles) always goes down once I log in (and I have no status of any kind on AA, as I haven’t paid for an airline flight in 10 years).  For example, when I go to the website (without logging in) and put in June 7, 2014 for Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, it gave me the cost of 27,467 miles per night.  After I log in, the cost is 16,500 miles per night…huge difference!

Here are some examples of some more of Disney’s own hotels that show up on the AAdvantage site, searching the random date of June 7, 2014.  (TIP: since there are hundreds of hotels in the area, type “Disney’s” in the search box, and the Disney-owned hotels will pop up like this):

Disney's Hotels on www.useaamiles.com

Disney’s Hotels on www.useaamiles.com

As you can see, the miles for each of Disney’s hotels vary widely, but so does the cost in dollars.  You have to make your comparisons for your dates based on many factors.  As an example, I checked the same date on the Disney reservations website for Port Orleans Riverside.  The price was $205 (which included a promotion discount).  The cost in miles would be about 19,000.  It’s not a stellar points redemption value, but maybe you have millions of AAdvantage miles that you earned on your company’s dime? Sometimes we are points-rich and cash-poor and we just would much rather use our miles.  We tend to save more money by using miles/points to stay offsite (and even more when there is a kitchen to help cut down on food costs).  We have paid to stay in many on-property Disney hotels though (Wilderness Lodge, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Port Orleans French Quarter, Boardwalk, Grand Floridian).  There are so many factors that go in to making the choice that is best suited to the family’s needs at the time, so it is helpful to evaluate all of your options.

The Wilderness Lodge - probably our favorite on-site Disney hotel

The Wilderness Lodge – probably our favorite on-site Disney hotel

There are also many, many more options for free Disney hotels using miles and points, and I will explore this further in a future post.

Have you ever used your miles and points for a free Disney hotel?