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

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.

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

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 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!

 

 

 

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.

Miles for Dining : Free Travel Basics

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Free Travel Basics Painting

Miles & Points for Dining

There is another easy way to earn Miles & Points – The Rewards Network Dining Program.  Similar to the Shopping Portals, you can earn Miles & Points for doing something that you would normally be doing anyway…eating!  In order to earn miles from this program, you sign up and register the credit card(s) you will use to pay for your restaurant bill.   You dine at one of the participating restaurants, and you earn the miles per dollar listed on their website.  You can also often get bonuses from time to time for signing up for the individual programs.

This is how it works:

Join a Rewards Network program

1.  Join.  The Rewards Network has many different frequent travel programs as partners.:

- Alaskan Airlines

- American Airlines

- Delta Airlines

- Hilton Hotels

- IHG Hotels

- Southwest Airlines

- Spirit Airlines

- United Airlines

- USAirways

Decide which of these you want to earn (hint: you can sign up for more than one, but see more info about that below).  Sign up here.  You will want to make sure that you already have a frequent traveler number for the program(s) you want to use (more on that here).  You will sign up by giving your information (name, address, etc).  You will also have to give the information for the debit and/or credit card(s) you plan to use to pay for your dining.

Here is one important part: Only register any of your cards for ONE program.  For example, you can’t use your SPG Amex for BOTH the Southwest Dining and the USAirways Dining.  You can sign up for both Southwest Dining and USAirways Dining, just make sure that you use 2 different credit cards when you join.

Eat at one of the Network Restaurants

2.  Dine.  You can search for participating restaurants by zip code, city, state.  I have found that there are generally lots of choices in my area and also in places where I am traveling.  I have also been surprised by points showing up in one of my frequent flyer accounts after dining at a participating restaurant without even knowing it was in the network.  All of the restaurants within the Rewards Network will be the same, no matter which frequent travel program you sign up with.  Some are available for points earning every day & some black out the weekends or other days.

 Earn Miles & Points

3. Earn.  After you dine and pay with the linked credit card (don’t forget that part, it’s important), you will get your points…up to 5 points per dollar.   I usually get an email right after the payment processes saying “thank you for dining at xyz” and asking me to leave a review.

At different times, the programs will have sign-up bonuses as well, so don’t sign up for every program right away.  For example, at the time of this writing, Southwest has a 300 mile bonus for signing up for their program and completing the dining requirements.

How to Travel for Free – Credit Cards (Part 1)

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How to Travel For Free – Credit Cards 101

This is the #1 question that people ask us.  How do you afford to take so many trips each year?  How do you travel so cheaply? Can I do it too?  Yes, you probably can.  It does take some time and effort to learn the basics, but once you start it can be hard to stop!  In this post I am going to talk this through for you newbies out there in the most step-by-step way that I can.  It will take more than one post to go over everything related to travel credit cards, so I will keep writing installments until I have bombarded you with too much information.  Please feel free to ask any questions & I will answer if I can.

What are travel credit cards?

First things first…what are we even talking about here?  What are these travel credit cards you are talking about all the time?  There are tons of different banks that issue credit cards (ie Chase, Citibank, US Bank, Barclays, and more).  They partner with different companies to offer many different types of rewards.  Do you ever go to a store & the cashier asks “would you like to save 10% on your purchase today by opening our credit card?”  Same idea, except instead of getting $30 off of your $300 TV, you can often get a thousand bucks worth of free travel for each card you get.

As an example, Chase Bank has airline cards from Southwest, United, and British Airways (yes, I have each of these cards at one point or another).  They also have hotel cards from Hyatt, Fairmont, IHG, Marriott, Ritz Carlton and Disney.  One of my favorite types of points to earn are the Chase Ultimate Rewards points & they have cards that earn these as well (Sapphire, Ink, Freedom).  All of these banks have relationships with the various airlines and hotels, plus there are other kinds of ways to redeem for travel as well (I will cover that in another post).

How do I get one of these rewards credit cards?

Finance is not my area of expertise, so I am not going to claim to know exactly how one person gets approved for a credit card and another doesn’t.  Obviously things like your credit score, income, and debts are calculated in some kind of super actuarial formula & you are either jumping up and down for your potential vacation or you are doing the credit card walk of shame.  Luckily we have been on the free vacation end of things.  What we do is pay our bills and have incomes.

Here are the things I should probably say:  pay all of your credit card bills in full, don’t jump in too quickly and apply for fifty million credit cards all at once, check your credit score before you apply, realize that an application drops your score by a few points temporarily; therefore, be mindful if you have something credit-y coming up soon like a refinance, new mortgage, or loan application.

You can find the different online applications for these cards all over the internet.  The important thing to keep up with would be the current bonuses for each of the cards that you are interested in.  They change often, and there are also different links to the same credit cards floating around at times.  For example, there may be a link (the thing you click on to get to the credit card application page) for an 80,000 bonus point IHG credit card.  There may also be a link for a 60,000 bonus point IHG card.  You will get the bonus points for whichever of the links you click on in order to do the application.  Obviously you would want the higher one.  There are some cases when you may want a lower bonus (if there is a lower minimum spending requirement, for example).  This will all be dependent on your individual situation.

What do I have to do to get the Points & Miles?

Sell your first born child?  Not quite.  All of the cards will have some kind of requirement you need to meet in order to get your big bonus.  Some are very easy (like getting your bonus miles after your first purchase of any $ amount).  Others are more difficult if you are not a big spender (like spending $5,000 within the first 3 months).  You have to make the judgement about whether or not you can fulfill the spending requirement, especially if you are applying for more than one card at a time.

Once you complete your spending, the bonus points will appear in the Frequent Flier/Hotel Loyalty account you created and added to your credit card application (see here about doing that) at some point – these can be posted at different points within your billing cycle for different cards.

In addition to your bonus points for signing up, you also get points per dollar spent.  Some cards have a set amount (like 1 point per $1 or 5 points per $1), and others have special categories (like 2 points per $1 for gas, groceries, etc).  Most will also give you lots of extra points for using their card for their own products (for example, my Club Carlson card gives me 10 points per $1 spent at their hotels).

Is this too good to be true? A scam?

We have been doing this as a hobby for over 10 years now, probably closer to 15 years.  While things have changed a lot (bonuses go up and down, minimum spends change), this has been working for my family for ages.  It is a real, legit thing.  The credit card companies are giving you all of these points and miles because they really want certain people to sign up for their cards.  That’s really the bottom line.

This is an example of some of the bonuses we have gotten over the years:

100,000 British Airways miles (redeemed to go to Hawaii)

100, 000 American Express Membership Rewards points

$1100 in free travel from Capitol One

50,000 Southwest Miles (times a few)

75,000 American Airlines miles (times a lot)

2 free nights at any Hyatt

2 free nights at any Hilton

2 free nights at any Fairmont

80,000 IHG points plus a free night every year

and so much more……

Please continue to follow, as I will add more posts to this series with more free travel tips!

 

 

Amtrak California Zephyr with Kids : Denver to San Francisco

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Amtrak California Zephyr going around the bend

Amtrak California Zephyr going around the bend

Amtrak California Zephyr Train

As part of a larger National Parks Road Trip through 5 states in the Summer of 2013, we rode the Amtrak California Zephyr train from Denver, Colorado to Emeryville (near San Francisco), California.   The train originates in Chicago, but there are other spots to board along the way.  We were in Denver so that is where we got on.  The station is right in Denver & boarding was very easy.  We checked our larger bags (separated out whatever we needed for the journey in our smaller bags), and just waited in the waiting area until we were ready to board.  30 hours later we were in Emeryville, CA.  From there we boarded a bus for the short ride right into San Francisco (the bus ride is included with the train ticket). 

California Zephyr Family Bedroom

View from California Zephyr Family Bedroom Window

View from California Zephyr Family Bedroom Window

We had booked a Superliner Family Bedroom on one of the sleeper cars on the train, which was tiny but comfortable and big enough for the 4 of us.  Having never seen these types of rooms before, we were not sure what to expect.  It turned out that there were only 4 of these rooms on the whole train, so we were lucky to get one.  I booked about 8 months in advance (more on that below). According to Amtrak’s description, “The Family Bedroom spans the entire width of the car and has two picture windows. The sofa and two reclining seats convert to beds and the two upper berths fold down from above. Located on the lower level of Superliner sleeping cars, these bedrooms include two adult-sized berths and two child-sized berths.”  Berths are beds, in case you weren’t sure. The size of the room was tight 5’2″ by 9’5″, but Amtrak made decent use of the space.  The kids liked having the top bunks folded down, even during the day.  There was plenty of room under them for 2 adults to lounge around.  One of the best features was that there were windows on both sides, so we could see the scenery easily. These rooms do not have bathrooms (the smaller ones do), but there was a bathroom very close by, and our sleeper car was at the end of the train and kind of empty so there was never a problem using it.  If you are looking for luxury, turn around right now.  This is more along the lines of camping in a small motorhome than staying in a 5-star hotel (although the prices would make you think otherwise).  It is, however, an experience we will never forget & one we hope to repeat.

Next time I think we will get 2 of the smaller rooms with the bathrooms in them.  We are hoping to do one of the other long and scenic Amtrak routes at some point in the next couple of years.

California Zephyr Food

amtrak california zephyr dining car

Amtrak Dining Car – Much better than expected!

This was perhaps the most surprising part of all.  The food was actually really good and served in a lovely dining car with friendly services and great views.  Being that we were in the Superliner Family Bedroom (which is like first class), all of our meals were included.  Which was a great value for us because we got this for FREE (more on that below).  During set dining times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we would put our name in for a time we would like to eat & would be called when a table was ready for us.  There were lots of choices on the menu, even for a picky eater, and the food was good and more gourmet than I ever expected (things like mahi mahi and steak).  This is one of the menus for the train.  Alcoholic drinks are also available for purchase.  There was also a snack bar kind of area with foods for purchase.

Scenic Train Ride

View from Amtrak California Zephyr

View from the train

This was one of the best parts of this whole train ride – the views.  The California Zephyr passes through the Rocky Mountains & the Sierra Nevadas.  Much of what can be seen from these rails can be seen in no other way.  Some of the time there were no roads or anything else obstructing the sheer wilderness other than our train passing through.  There are lounge cars and an Observation car with large floor to ceiling windows to view this gorgeous scenery.  We also had a good view from our room, especially of the people mooning us from all along the banks of the Colorado River (true story).

California Zephyr with Kids – What to bring?

Playing games in the Amtrak California Zephyr Lounge Car

Playing games in the Amtrak California Zephyr Lounge Car

We made sure to bring lots of entertainment for the kids, because this is a long ride (ours ended up being about 30 hours, which was a few hours longer than it was supposed to be because of delays).  We brought card games, books, art supplies, handheld video games like the Nintendo 3DS, small toys (mini Lalaloopsies and Pokemon cards) and the iPad.  We made sure we had all of our chargers too.  This was a great chance for us to read Harry Potter together, as we had more downtime than we ever have!  We also brought some snacks and maybe even some wine (not for the kids).  Obviously we had comfortable clothes and our toiletries as well.

The Observation Car on the Amtrak California Zephyr

The Observation Car on the Amtrak California Zephyr

How much does the Amtrak California Zephyr cost?

Nothing.  Not for us, anyway.  At the time of our booking, the price was over $1200 for the Superliner Family Room for 4 people.  Say what?  I realize that is also around the same amount as 4 plane tickets, but I’ve never had to purchase (with money) 4 plane tickets so I don’t really know.  Our cost in points was much less than the miles needed for 4 airplane tickets. How did we do it?  We used Amtrak Guest Rewards points.  25,000 to be exact.  We got these points in 2 ways…one was was from the Amtrak Shopping Portal (more about that here) and the other was from transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Amtrak Guest Rewards points.  We got those Chase UR points from the Shopping Portal and from the Sapphire Preferred credit card.   As of this writing, the bonus is 40,000 points on that credit card, so more than enough for a ride on this train!

California Zephyr Verdict

Thumbs up! If you are not too picky or germaphobic & don’t need extreme high-class luxury and you want to have an unforgettable family bonding experience, see some great scenery, and possibly get mooned along the way…this is the trip for you! If we can do it, you can do it too!

Marco Island : How to Travel for Free

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Marco Island Florida How to Travel for Free

If we can do it, you can do it too!

How we went to Marco Island for FREE

Right after Christmas of 2013 we were able to to escape the cold and spend 4 nights in beautiful Marco Island, Florida.  It was our first time there, and it will not be our last.   We enjoyed the trip so much.  It was totally free (for flight and hotel and hotel breakfast), which made it even better!  How did we go to Marco Island for free, you ask?  I will let you in on the secret (it’s not a secret at all, everyone and their brother is doing it).   We saved about $5000.  Five. Thousand. Dollars.  We would not have actually SPENT 5 grand on this trip, as that is approaching our travel budget for a whole year & we can usually get 50 hotels nights out of that.  Because it was Christmas time,  the hotel and flights would have been particularly expensive if we had purchased them.

 

Hilton Marco Island Resort from the beach at the crack of dawn

Hilton Marco Island Resort from the beach at the crack of dawn

Hilton Marco Island Beach Resort and Spa

We chose this hotel because it was free, but I would stay here again in a heartbeat.   It was right on the beach.  We could walk out of our room and be on the beach within one minute.  Perfect.  There is a great pool that the kids loved.  They made tons of friends over our four days at the hotel, as this is a very family-friendly hotel.  There is a pool bar serving food and drinks.  There are plenty of pool and beach chairs to use.  I wish I was there right now.

Our room was large, with a king sized bed and a queen sized pull-out sofa.  The kids are still young enough that this works for us.  We know we are nearing the time when we will have to spring for 2 rooms, so we are taking advantage of this while we can.  The hotel was completely booked, so they did not have a 2 bed room available for our whole stay.  We could have switched rooms, but ended up being happy with the room we had, so we stayed put.

The pool at the Hilton Marco Island Resort

The pool at the Hilton Marco Island Resort

Hilton Marco Island Beach

I love love love seashells, and this beach did not disappoint.  In fact, we had gone to Sanibel Island for a visit on this trip as well.  It is supposed to be the shelling capitol of the universe, and I’m sure it usually is, but on this trip our Marco Island hotel beach proved to have even more shells (although Keewaydin Island had the mother-lode).  I loved being able to wake up, stumble out of bed at the crack of dawn (my kids are NOT the sleep-in types), and be on the beach searching for shells within minutes.

Early morning shelling on Marco Island

Early morning shelling on Marco Island

Funny story: my son thought it would be a fun idea to bring a bag of goldfish crackers to eat on the beach.  He was promptly attacked by seagulls.  Even after he threw the bag and ran for his life down the beach, they still kept chasing him.  I missed the whole thing because I was looking for shells.   He said “I wish you were videotaping that so I could win the grand prize on America’s Funniest Videos”. True Story.

Free Hotel Nights

The  top secret way that we got these free hotel nights is through applying for a couple of credit cards, meeting the minimum spend, getting the nights posted to our accounts, and then using them to book this hotel.

For 2 of the nights we used this card:

Citi Hilton Reserve Credit Card:

Earn 2 weekend night certificates each good for 1 weekend night (standard room, double occupancy) at select hotels and resorts within the Hilton HHonors portfolio after $2,500 in eligible purchases within the first 4 months of cardmembership

10 HHonors Bonus Pointsper $1 spent on hotel stays within the Hilton HHonors portfolio

5 HHonors Bonus Pointsper $1 spent on airline and car rental purchases

3 HHonors Bonus Pointsper $1 spent on all other eligible purchases

Enjoy the benefits of HHonors Gold status as long as you are a cardmember

This is also how we got free breakfast each day (the hotel gave it to us for having Gold status)

 

For the other 2 nights we used HHonors Points that we had accumulated from credit card spending, some hotel stay bonus points, and some other credit cards.

 

Free Flight to Fort Myers

We were able to fly from Trenton, NJ direct to Fort Myers, FL on Frontier Airlines using miles that we got from this credit card:

Frontier Airlines Mastercard -

Earn up to 50,000 bonus miles — starting with 40,000 bonus miles after spending $500 in the first 90 days.

That is enough for two roundtrip award tickets (plus fees/taxes from $10).

 

If you have an American Express card that earn Membership Rewards points you can also transfer those points to Frontier Miles if the value is better than using your points to “purchase” the tickets outright from Amex Travel.   It is often a better deal to transfer the miles, but each situation is different.

 

Shopping Portals : Free Travel Basics

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Free Travel Basics Painting

Do you ever buy things? How about shopping online? If you answered yes to either or both of those questions, and you are not using shopping portals, then you are leaving miles & points and/or cold hard cash on the table.  After you have signed up for your frequent traveler programs like I told you to do here, then this is your next step in earning miles & points for doing things that you would normally do anyway.

What are Shopping Portals?

Pretend you are shopping for a

very special Monster High doll that your daughter just has to have for Christmas.  You know about stores like Toys R Us and Target because, well, who doesn’t?  So you go to one of those websites and start shopping.  You buy the creepy doll for $24.99.  Done. If you added in just one simple step, you would get rewarded for making that same exact purchase.  This works with almost everything you can buy online!

Shopping Portals are websites that are kind of like online shopping malls.  They have lists of most online stores & you just have to click on the link to the store to get your reward.  The rewards can be, for example,  5 miles per $1 spent or 5% cash back.  You can search by categories in most of these Shopping Portals as well.  So if I am looking for a doll, I can look for “Toy Stores” and will be given a list of several to choose from.  The payout to you will vary from store to store and from portal to portal (a tip to help you with that is below).  The payouts also change frequently.  Sometimes there are amazing deals, like 30 miles per $1, which can add up to a lot depending on how much you are spending.

The Shopping Portals that we like to use give bonus airline points, reward travel points, or hotel points.  I also often use those that give cash rewards.  In fact, I just got an email yesterday saying my “Big Fat Check” for $18.56 from Ebates is on its way to me!  Hey, free money, I’ll take it!  So you go to whichever portal you will be using, find your store, click, and it takes you right to the store’s website.  You must be signed in to your portal (so you will sign up, just like you did for the frequent traveler programs – you just need an email address, mailing address, name) to get your reward.

Here are some of the portals that I use on a regular basis. They have all worked for me & I have successfully gotten my points/miles/cash from them:

Shopping Portals For Travel Miles & Points:

American Airlines:  Aadvantageeshopping

Amtrak : Amtrak Shopping Mall

Southwest: Rapid Rewards Shopping

United: Mileage Plus Shopping

USAirways: Diviend Miles Storefront

Shopping Portals For Cold Hard Cash:

Mr. Rebates: My Link

Big Crumbs: My Link

Ebates: My Link

TopCashBack: My Link

The cash back sites send your money to you in various ways.  Some pay out quarterly by sending you a check in the mail for your amount for that certain period of time & others will send money to your PayPal account.  I have successfully used all of these, some for several years, and have been getting paid (or rewarded with points) for almost every single purchase I make online.

TIP: If you don’t mind adding one more click to your online shopping spree, you should check EvReward first to see which Shopping Portal has the highest payout for each store.  For example, if I wanted to shop at Target I would go to EvReward and type in “Target” in the search box.  It will tell me (at the time of this writing…these things change) that Target is offering 3% cash back from Big Crumbs, 2.5% cash back from Ebates, 3% cash back from Mr. Rebates, 2 miles per $1 from American Airlines, 4 miles per $1 from Amtrak, etc, etc.  Then I can make my choice about which Shopping Portal to use by clicking on it.

 

Happy Shopping!

Residence Inn Denver City Center – Hotel Review

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Hotel Review: Residence Inn Denver City Center

We spent one night at this hotel as a part of a very long trip in which we visited 5 states and 7 National Parks.  We were able to do a lot in the short amount of time we had in Denver (see this post), and the location of this hotel was helpful for that.   The Residence Inn Denver City Center is located within walking distance to many of the attractions.  We walked to the 16th Street Mall (very close) and to Coors Field (a bit further, but we needed the exercise) from here.

Residence Inn hotels are Marriott’s all-suite style of hotels.  They are often marketed toward business travelers with extended stays, but I also think that they can be perfect for families.   This particular Residence Inn was very clean and updated.  The room that we had was very large, with a kitchen, living room, dining area, and bedroom.   I like these kinds of rooms because we can spread out.  I also like having a kitchen area because we can often save money on snacks (and some meals on longer stays).   The breakfast was included in the dining area near the lobby, and I thought it was great for a ‘free’ breakfast.  It is included in the price of your stay, which for us was free!

How did we get this hotel for free?

At the time when we stayed at this hotel (July 2013), it was 20,000 Marriott points per night.   At the time the hotel was going for about $275+ tax per night, so we got a great deal by using our points and getting it for free.  Note: you don’t have to pay the tax on free point redemption nights, so the savings is even greater than the room rate.

My husband had gotten this Marriott credit card from Chase.  At the time when he got the card, and at the time of this writing (these things can change quickly and often) the card offered:

- Earn 70,000 points after spending $1,000 within 3 months

- 1 free night stay now (at Category 1-4 hotel)

- 1 free night stay every year (at Category 1-5 hotel) after account anniversary (and after paying annual fee)

- $0 annual fee for the first year, $85 each year after

-  5 points for every $1 spent at over 3600 Marriott Locations

- 2 points for every $1 spent on airline tickets purchased directly with the airline, and at car rental agencies & restaurants

- 1 point for every $1 spent on purchases anywhere else

So just by getting this one credit card we were able to stay at this and some other hotels for free!