Tagging Miles

No man (or woman) is an island – Embrace the Community!

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No man (or woman) is an island; we must embrace the community to fully realize our potential.  

So what am I getting at with the idea that No Man (or woman) is an Island?

For starters, the mile and point community is an amazing group of people, and everyone helps each other out. In fact, I was truly proud to partner with the Rich Kerr and his Travel Hacking 101 Group to collect ~50 toys for Toys for Tots. And we will go even bigger next year!  

The fact is, that people want to help each other, I believe this is in our very nature. Our DNA. All too often I hear of folks that are doing amazing things, but may not realize that there are others doing similar feats. The goal of this post is to try to connect the dots. More to that point, there are very few self made women or men.

Frequent Travelers and Travel Hackers

There are a ton of communities that you can join!

  • Flyertalk is perhaps the one that has been around the longest
  • InsideFlyer – founded by many of the folks involved with FlyerTalk
  • Saverocity Forums – This is probably more focused on travel hackers, and Weekend Entrepreneurs. Matt, the founder–and also the host of this blog–consistently surprises me, looking at things from a different viewpoint. I’d argue that this is the community that will challenge your assumptions.
  • Travel Hacking 101 – Founded by Rich Kerr. I’ve been lucky to be a part of this community, and have been very impressed with it. Its not just about travel hacking, but its also about coming together and doing good. Rich also has a Travel Hacking Advanced, but I think it currently has a waiting list.
  • There are also meet-ups like Dia’s Family Travel for Real Life (FT4RL) series, where you can meet folks in person.
  • Jeanne and Ed also host less formal Geeky Pizza happy hours frequently in the DC area; there are similar meet-ups across the country coordinated by others.

Reselling for Miles, Points, and Profits

I think the phrase “manufactured spending” first came up and you will likely find some of those topics in the above grouping. But for me, I found that reselling was the logical path for generating miles, points, and profits.

  • I would be remiss, if I did not highlight Phil Hall and my Mile High Reselling Club (subscription based). We provide insight for new, intermediate, and long term sellers. We have also introduced a Deal of the Day, a pre-negotiated CPA, and various aids and guides (like for reseller certificates which get you tax exemptions).
  • Shawn of Miles to Memories recently started a Reselling Facebook group as well, which has had explosive growth. 
  • Similar to how Dia holds her FT4RL, I have hosted a number of ResellingDO events, and plan to continue to do so.
ReselllingDO, Embrace the Community

Networking at ResellingDO 3

Conclusion – Embrace the Community!

I have been blessed to have had the chance to meet and keep in contact with folks like Matt, Ed, Gary, Rich, Jeanne, Gideon, and many others. I won’t call them the titans of the community, but they are certainly some of the folks that have contributed a great deal, in many cases, with little personal gain.

We all have great potential. Individually, I am convinced that we can all do great things. But with the inspiration and advice from others, I think we can do even more. Helping each other, we can realize great things. I often tell folks that “a rising tide floats all boats.” This is a perfect case for that. Lets remember that not a single one of us started in a vacuum. Further, lets remember to help the next generation of travel hackers and resellers; to do that, we must embrace the community regularly.

Are there any communities that I’ve missed? If so, please share in the comments.

 

The power of a Retention Specialist – Verizon Wireless Edition

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I’ve written before that I see Big Wins as integral in all aspects of my life. Ok, maybe that’s an overstatement, but they really are important.

One area that I think a lot of us are finding Big Wins in, are retention offers on credit cards. But there are others! I mentioned in the past, that I call my cable provider roughly every 6 months to ensure that I have the latest promotion, which keeps my cable bill at a constant or slight increase, vs. the 10-25% increases that others might see after an initial sign up promotion.

Well, another area, that I don’t think has been talked about much, is cell phones. Especially lately, with the wireless carriers moving away from subsidizing cell phones, in exchange for signing a two year contract, it is harder and harder to get any sort of “retention bonus” out of them. But fear not, it is still possible.

Thanks to a Retention Specialist at Verizon Wireless, I was able to switch between the Verizon Plan (which I had only switched to a month ago), which has a $20 per line fee, back to a 2 year contract, which has a $40 per line fee, because the net result was getting two free phones.

You see, the way the new Verizon Plan works, is, they lower your per line fee, but then they charge you the full market cost of the phone you decide you want. In most cases, these are $600+ phones, and rather than paying all at once, Verizon is happy to break that out over 24 months, and just add it to your bill. So, imagine you want a $600 iPhone, you’d have to pay an additional $25 per month (plus the taxes). So, while, with the Verizon Plan, you’re saving $20 on per line fees, you’re actually paying $5 more per month for your phone. Over 24 months, you are paying a net $120 more! Now, there are some promotions that come and go, like the current one, which offers $300 for trading in an old phone, when you buy a Droid Turbo 2 by Motorola.

$300 credit when buy LG Droid Turbo

$300 credit when buy LG Droid Turbo

With the old 2 year contract approach, which folks who have had Verizon Wireless before the switch over, seem to be able to be grandfathered back into, you get up to a $200 credit for a new phone when signing up for a new contract. Sometimes you can get even more by asking nicely for something to “sweeten the pot.” In my case, I was ok with the $200 credit, since the phones I wanted were less than that (the Galaxy S5, which if you did the Verizon Plan, wouldn’t be less than $200, see below):

VerizonWirelessG5S

My new phone!

I also asked for the “upgrade charges” of $40 per line to be waived. The retention specialist could only waive one, but at this point I was kind’ve worn down, so I accepted it. Overall, I’m still saving money.

The Elephant in the Room

Many (but not everyone) that work the miles and points hobby, like to travel overseas. So I would be remiss not to mention Verizon Wireless’ new International plan.

VerizonWirelessTravelPass

Candidly, Verizon’s option sucks. It got released to a fair bit of fanfare, even covered by other bloggers, but, it just plain sucks. It sucks so much, that I’ll be keeping my $20 per month T-Mobile Data plan. The T-Mobile plan gives you 100MB’s of international 3G roaming at no cost. It’s good enough for me, and since I’ve started, I’ve found the freedom offered to be amazing. There’s no way I’m going to pay $10 per day, per device to Verizon, because I’m not sure I could get sufficient value to justify the cost.

Bottom Line

If you’ve shown loyalty to a wireless carrier, always talk to a Retention Specialist To do that, you’ll want to tell the automated system or person who answers, that you want to either change/reduce, or terminate your service to get to one. This is especially beneficial if your carrier has moved away from subsidizing phones, as sometimes a retention specialist can “grandfather” you in to a 2 year contract and subsidized phone arrangement, vs. the monthly payment plan for a new phone.

But above all, remember, the skills that we learn and exercise in the pursuit of miles and points can, and should be used in other aspects of life, and through them, we can all achieve Big Wins.

Conclusion: Last Minute Singapore F1 Weekend aka Our New Craziest Trip

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Our weekend trip was very hastily planned. In fact, from decision to plane, we had just over 12 hours, when all was said and done. We changed our flight once, for an even earlier flight, which proved to be a very wise move.

In hindsight, I’m not really sure that I could say there was a single goal of the trip. We wanted (in no particularly order) to (1) fly Cathay Pacific First, (2) return to Singapore, (3) see Sentosa Island, (4) experience the atmosphere of the Singapore Night Grand Prix, and overall, we really wanted to get away and focus on ourselves and our relationship. All of those wants were achieved.

Racking and Stacking the Costs

I’m not an accountant or bean counter, but, I do still like to know what I’ve spent for things (because award travel isn’t free!), and thought this would be a good way to lay things out:

Roll-up of costs:

  • $288.90 per person, one way DCA-BOS (last minute) – will earn AA miles on this at least.
  • 55k AA miles and $33.80 per person outbound
  • 5k AA miles and $75.50 per person return
  • 25k SPG Points for the W Sentosa (1 night) – Ouch! We had seen ~$250US a few hours before, but focused more on optimizing our flights, and in that time it more than doubled in cost to $561. Ultimately, we felt that we got good value out of burning those SPG points.
  • 80k Marriott Rewards Points for the Marriott Singapore (2 nights)
  • $7.55 for a one way rental (tax on a reward day) – originally BWI-JFK, changed to BWI-DCA
  • ~$18.00 for Uber from BWI to home.

There were other costs involved, such as eating, drinking, transportation around Singapore, but, I tend to think those things are budgeted for by the very nature of traveling, and probably add little value to the trip report, because how my wife and I do things may be very different than how you or another may do things. I will say though, that we did spend ~72.50 SGD for a round of Singapore Slings at the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel. That was our biggest splurge, and one that I’m not sure I’ll do again, but the rest of the costs fit into my $20 rule.

Conclusion

Overall, this trip proved to be exactly what we needed. Yes, it was 3 days off of work, which is more than I usually like to take, but, the fact is, for everything we were able to see and do, it was an incredible value. Flying Cathay Pacific was just as I’d imagined it, if not better. Seeing Singapore all done up for the Singapore Night Grand Prix was quite nice as well. I’ll call it a win, and hope also that this trip report helps others do something crazy, like booking a trip less than 12 hours before you’re on a plane!

Miles and Points helping us to come full circle

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This weekend, my wife and I returned to Bermuda. It is the place that has significance importance within my family.

My parents met in Bermuda. I’ll spare you my father’s story, although if we ever meet in person over a beverage, you may be able to get it out of me. I remember traveling to Bermuda as my earliest travel memories. In fact, we had a friend of the family, Jack, who was a pilot, who would occasionally change his schedule to fly the shorter route from New York to Bermuda. One flight, he left the cockpit to say hi, as you’d imagine, as a child, I made the obvious faux pas, but luckily those were different times.

Furthering the significance of Bermuda to my family though, it was a family tradition (or I suppose became a family tradition?) to honeymoon in Bermuda, so when my wife and I got married, my father had a small gift for me at our Rehearsal Dinner. It was a fusion of–at the time–my most recent address, and perhaps my first address.

So, all that said, in early summer, I had this wacky idea that maybe Labor Day weekend could be a fun time for my wife, and my parents to return to Bermuda. At first it was just pie in the sky, my folks said that it’d be outside of their budget, my wife said the same.

But then I thought to our hobby. I soon advised my father (and wife) to apply for the Chase Fairmont Credit Card. After meeting minimum spend, you get a 2 free night stay. For my wife and I, who have less vacation time than my folks, that was our entire stay. Next, it was a ~$300 American Airlines flight, and a drive to Philadelphia. My folks had to make a longer flight, but alas, they were able to make it work.

That Chase Fairmont Signature Visa saved my wife and I more than $1,000 bucks, and it got even better because you get a collection of vouchers that can be used at whichever stay you want, for breakfast, dining, spa, golf, etc. Yes, there is always an opportunity cost, but, when you incorporate emotion into it, the real value is when you can make something that you really want to work, work. The Fairmont Southampton Princess in Bermuda may be the only Fairmont I’ve ever stayed at, and I’m sure there may be more expensive Fairmonts, or better values for the 2 free nights, but, I would argue that if you get what you really want, the opportunity cost is minimal. Points are, after all, only a path to achieving your dreams, besides, it left more resources for the Rum Swizzles.

In this case, they have helped me achieve my dream, and helped me spend a weekend with my wife and parents. To steal from Mastarcard’s marketing campaign, I’d call that Priceless.

 

If there’s one piece of advice I could offer, this is it.

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In the words that Baz Luhrman made immortal, (Update: Mary Schmick actually wrote them, as Shawn was kind enough to share with me)

If there is one piece of advice I could offer you, it is to wear sunscreen.

If there is a second piece of advice I could offer you, get a 2% cashback card.

There has been a fair amount of digital ink spilled (borrowing a term from my friend Shawn), over the best everyday card. In fact, the reason for this post was primarily spurred by Freequent Flyer. But he’s not the only one. In fact Miles to Memories (note, there is no malware, just a rogue ad, so fear not by clicking the link), writes about the best card to use. Of course, he (Shawn) has more fish to fry than I.

The fact remains, unless you are the biggest of travel hackers, in which case I mean, churning credit cards, (even Chase), you are probably best having an easy to use 2% cashback card, because, cash can often be king. For example, you could have the Citi Double Cash:

Citi Double Cash

Or, the Fidelity American Express (which I call Fido):

Fido-Amex-Rewards-Card

Each of the two provide 2% cashback without an annual fee. This should be your lowest common denominator of a credit card. For those of you that are married, and have spouses that may not be crazy mile and point collectors, one of these cards is the one you give them and say: Use. These are the cards you use when you don’t know of a better card. If you’re not in a Staples (Ink), Target (RedBird), a Grocery Store (Old Blue Cash, Wells Fargo, AMEX Everyday), or a Gas Station (refer previous grouping), this is the card you use.

So I leave you with this: Always have a reliable 2% cashback card. It will never do you wrong.

Which 2% card do you keep in your wallet?

 

Announcing the Winner of a ticket to #ResellingDO

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Earlier this week, I posted that a reader let me know that they wouldn’t be able to attend #ResellingDO, but wanted the ticket to go to a good cause. The result was a contest of the weirdest item resold. Ultimately, there were too many weird things, so I had to narrow things down with Random.org.

Random dot org Giveaway 17 July 15

The winner was Beth, with this entry:

Beth - ResellingDO Winner

Personally, I had to google to remind myself what a VHS was (kidding!).

Congratulations Beth!

Your chance to win a ticket to the sold out #ResellingDO

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Jailbreak 1

We’re less than 2 weeks until the first ever #ResellingDO.

A reminder, ResellingDO will be held at JailBreak Brewing Company, in Laurel, Maryland.

There will be 3 hours of presentations, plus plenty of additional networking time, and of course, plenty of beer.

Here’s the Speakers:

Unfortunately, a reader who had signed up can no longer attend, and has graciously offered the ticket to a good home.

Here’s how you can win your ticket to #ResellingDO

Leave a comment about the weirdest product you’ve ever resold. Enter by midnight EST Thursday, 16 July.

I’ll announce the winner on Friday, 17 July.

Thanks to reader Hani for the ticket!

Welcome TBB Readers err… 2 United Club Passes to 1 Lucky Reader

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Ok, so, here’s my attempt to be funny. Over the weekend, George at TravelBloggerBuzz made a joke about the latest Million Mile Secrets (MMS) interviewee likely doing a $25 Amazon Gift Card giveaway.

Well, it will be no surprise that I was not an interviewee for MMS. And, I didn’t make 300 twitter followers yet (contrary to my hope posted on twitter a few days ago)… I have made a commitment to give my 300th twitter follower an American Airlines System Wide Upgrade (SWU), assuming they can use it (Update: My 300th follower was: @n_a_j, who was unable to use the SWU – so look for another give-away in the future). If not, I’ll probably do another giveaway on here. Its out there:

That said, I’m happy to report, I have 291 twitter followers! (A special welcome to the last 16! Aww heck, a special welcome to all of my 291 307 followers! Thank-you!)

Ok, enough beating around the bush. I have a handful of United Club One-Time Passes that are getting close to expiration and I’d rather them be used than just expire. This set of 2 is good through 2/28/2015, which I hope is enough time for folks to utilize.

Pair of United Club Passes

Pair of United Club Passes

You can win them rather simply: Leave a comment of an upcoming United Flight you have booked (anytime between now and 2/28/2015). Please leave comments anytime between now and 11:59pm Thursday 9 October 2014.

I’ll select someone randomly on Friday, 10 October 2014.

 

What credit cards are in your wallet? Here’s what’s in mine

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Credit card wallet

Whenever I grab lunch or a drink with a friend or colleague, I find myself curious of what card they choose to use and why. It kills me if they use cash, but, I digress. So, I thought I’d offer what is in my wallet with no links (affiliate or otherwise), because I think its a meaningful conversation to have. Below I lay out what I believe are the best credit cards for miles and points residing in my wallet and why.

So, What’s in my wallet?

A bunch.

  1. Chase Sapphire Preferred – I use this for dining (except on first Friday, because that would be so pas se) I also use this for travel costs, to include occasional overseas charges.
  2. British Airways – I feel like I get good value, at 1.25 Avios points per dollar spent, but increasingly I’m wondering if I’m better just putting those charges to my Starwood Preferred Guest.
  3. Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Personal – 1.25 SPG points for all spend, assuming I can transfer points in 20k increments. Its an easy card to rely on, but not my lead-off card, to use a baseball analogy.
  4. Chase Freedom – 5x quarterly rewards. This quarter its Gas stations and Kohls. It generally spends 4-5 months of the year in my wallet, when I’m home, just so I can hit the $1,500 to get the most of the 5x Ultimate Rewards (UR) points.
  5. Ink Plus (Visa) – This is a newer card to me. I’ve already gotten my 60k UR points, but I like shopping at office supply stores, so I keep it in my wallet.
  6. Ink Bold – I recently called about my annual fee and got a retention bonus offer to spend $5k and get 10k UR points if that $5k is spent in 3 months. I’m about a month in, I’ll meet it, then the card will become a back-up.
  7. Suntrust Delta Skymiles Debit – I don’t think there’s a whole lot to say about this card. This is in my wallet purely for MS reasons.
  8. American Express Business Platinum – I probably need to start thinking about getting rid of this card, but I got enough value to offset this year’s annual fee. Come next April, I’ll jettison it (unless AMEX can convince me otherwise). Until then, I’ll enjoyed the no foreign transaction fees, access to Centurion Lounges, and the Membership Rewards; but I don’t use it terribly often.
  9. American Express Blue (aka Old AMEX Blue), 1%/5% after $6,500 at supermarkets and gas stations. Its not a bad back-up card, and my first go-to when I’m at a supermarket (for MS or otherwise). If only I got 5% at Costco, then I’d be doing really well (hah!).
  10. Barclay Arrival+ – So this is my lead-off card. My goal next year, is to generate enough rewards with the 2.2% cash back, to cover generation of my status and most of my wife’s (she travels for work a bit which covers a handful of the 100k requirement for Executive Platinum).

Caveats:

Right now, I don’t have any minimum spending thresholds to meet. If anything, its the Chase Ink Bold to get the retention bonus.

Conclusion / Considerations

So, I realize I’m at a disadvantage because I’m not working toward a minimum spend threshold. I’m actually a few weeks off of my next churn, but really at a loss of what to bother with, other than maybe an Ink and an Alaskan card. But really, my focus on this blog has been less on sign-up bonuses, and more focused on how to leverage cards that you already have in your repertoire. The problem is, that for many cards, the bonuses are great, and then, really they just sit in my drawer until its time to cancel or negotiate for a retention bonus.

 

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