Tagging Miles

Travel Hacking, JAL 787, Hyatt Credit Card Devaluation, Cashback Monitor

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The Weekly Travel News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know.

Travel:

Miles and Points:

  • Virgin Atlantic has devalued their Delta partnership effective September 1. 
  • The Hyatt Visa Signup bonus will change drastically June 29th. Right now it gives you 2 free nights at any Hyatt Hotel in the world. I used my 2 nights for the Park Hyatt Sydney. Soon it will be a whopping 40,000 Hyatt points, which wouldn’t be sufficient for two nights at the Park Hyatt Sydney. Consider your travel schedule, this may be one to jump on (on the other hand, it might not be).
  • Double dip rewards are always the best. Link your credit card on the Drop App to earn rebates. If you choose to sign up, definitely consider using Chuck’s referral code (author of the link), or consider using mine: xff78. Either way, both you and whoever’s referral code you use will earn 1,000 points, worth $1 in a variety of gift cards.
  • Did you know that Cashback Monitor only updates their portals once per day? Neither did I.

Cashback Monitor

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.

 

JetBlue’s Retro Livery, Scary Reselling Risks, Travel Hacking Family Style

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The Weekly News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know.

Travel: 

Miles and Points:

Reselling:

Tagging Miles:

TaggingMiles Weekly Travel News Roundup: January 23, 2015

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The Weekly News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know!

Earn and Burn

From the Flight Deck

The Company You Keep

  • Lucky offers his thoughts flying with His Excellency, Akbar al Baker.
  • Traveling children can be cute – from a distance. Mapping Megan has created a complete list of the cutest kid wanderers around the world.
  • Speaking of good company: TaggingMiles was invited to participate (along with a number of familiar names you know) in a roundup of underrated credit cards at Doctor of Credit. We’d like to thank The Doctor for including us in a group of highly esteemed bloggers!
  • Finally: here’s all the interesting stuff that the TSA found trying to get past security checkpoints in 2014, as published by the TSA Blog. Joe’s favorite: weapons-grade enchiladas!

Is Hidden City Ticketing Bad For Everybody?

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True story: I actually got in a fight with a Delta agent about hidden city ticketing. The conversation ended with both of us using some pretty naughty language. I still feel a little bad about it.

It’s a commonly known hack among the initiated. Even Trevor wrote about how the “hidden city” trick can be good for the pocketbook. But is hidden city ticketing a bad practice that could create harm to the travel ecosystem? That’s what two recent lawsuits against a website specializing in hidden city ticketing are suggesting.

Skift recently wrote about the lawsuits against Skiplagged, by both Orbitz and United Airlines. Orbitz claims that booking these potentially cheaper fares threatens their relationship with a number of airlines that ban the practice, including all three American legacy carriers, as well as IAG-owned British Airways and Iberia. Meanwhile, United claims that the tickets “discovered” by Skiplagged are in violation of United’s ticketing rules, which prohibit hidden city bookings.

It’s important to note that Skiplagged, as it’s own entity, is not an OTA by the traditional definition. Flyers are still buying their tickets from Orbitz, CheapOAir, or other OTA websites. Although, as a result of the lawsuit, it seems that Skiplagged has turned off hidden city ticketing links for the time being.

While this lawsuit works itself out, it does require travelers to ask a bigger question. Is the practice of buying hidden city tickets really a bad thing?

The argument for hidden city ticketing

As many travelers have pointed out, hidden city ticketing is a good way to save money on an itinerary. By booking to a different destination than the one you’ll ultimately end up at, frequent fliers can save potentially hundreds of dollars. In Trevor’s example, a traveler going to Charlotte can save around $10 by booking through to Cleveland instead, but conveniently “missing” the final leg of the flight.

In addition, hidden city ticketing has not always been an outlawed practice. In a column written in 2001, George Hobica (the man behind AirfareWatchdog.com, who also wrote an excellent viewpoint about hidden city ticketing on LinkedIn) pointed out that several airlines didn’t expressly forbid the practice of hidden city ticketing. But of the airlines mentioned in the 2001 article, only Southwest and Frontier still exist. United merged with Continental, Northwest merged with Delta, AirTran is now officially Southwest, America West became US Airways, and ATA went flat out of business. And with those mergers came the rules that banned hidden city ticketing officially on all three legacy carriers.

Of course, there is always the argument of ethics in dealing with companies. To which some people may respond: “When have large, multinational companies been concerned with ethics?” That’s a personal decision every traveler must make for themselves.

The argument against hidden city ticketing

Aside from the ethics of potentially illegal ticketing, airlines have been known to push back against chronic hidden city travelers. In an active thread on FlyerTalk dating back to 2011, travelers have discussed hidden city ticketing warnings that include receiving warning letters from airlines.

In addition, it has been rumored that airlines can ban frequent hidden city travelers from booking with them in the future, and even (possibly) pursue damages. This can also include stripping travelers of their frequent flyer accounts (gasp)! Delta Air Lines spells it out very clearly: hidden city ticketing is against their policies, and those caught in the practice are subject to penalties, including (as quoted from the Delta website)

  • Cancel[ing] the remainder of the itinerary and confiscate any unused flight coupons.

  • [Refusal] to board the passenger or check baggage.

  • [Charging] the passenger for the difference between the fare paid and the fare for the passenger’s traveled itinerary.

Traveler discretion advised with hidden city ticketing

All of the information available suggests that, although strictly forbidden by airlines, hidden city ticketing is still a gray area that a penny-pinching flyer can still slide through. While it can be an easy way to travel on the cheap, it may come with some unintended side effects that could ultimately affect how you travel. As we often say in this business: your mileage may vary.

Have you tried hidden city ticketing? Have you received any blowback from it? I’d like to hear your take on the practice – leave me a comment below!

Revisiting my Star Alliance Identity Crisis: United Airlines

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Fourtails-TM

Last week, I wrote about the particular problem I have with Star Alliance. After having Aegean Airlines Gold Status for the past two years, I’m disappointed to find out that it will probably come to an end in 2015 thanks to higher requalification requirements. And I’m not sure that flying nearly 50,000 miles is worth it to justify my status on an airline I will most likely never fly.

In that spirit, I’ve begun investigating different options to help me retain some semblance of status when I fly Star Alliance – because when the choices from your home airport are the “Big Four” airlines (American, Delta, Southwest, and United), you need all the help you can get. This week, I’ll investigate the pros and cons of going for status from scratch on United Airlines.

Come fly the friendly skies?

According to Wikipedia, United directly flies to 78 airlines across the United States, and over 100 more around the world – not that you would want to fly United internationally, but you could. Once a leader in air travel, United serves more destinations than American Airlines, but less than Delta Air Lines. None the less, United offers a healthy mix of destinations and air routes that will allow me to get to where I’m going with relative ease.

As published earlier this year, the same 48,000 miles I would have to fly on United to requalify for Aegean Miles and Bonus Gold would get me most of the way to United Premier Gold Status. As a Premier Gold, I would benefit from many of the elite benefits that I enjoy today, including priority check-in and boarding, free checked luggage, and same-day flight changes. In addition, I would get the added perk of qualifying for upgrades – something that I don’t get as a Aegean elite.

Out of my home base of Port Columbus International Airport, discount award seats are often plentiful on United, allowing me to fly on miles nearly at will. With all of these perks, making United my new Star Alliance partner seems to be the best route.

Or is it?

But are they that friendly?

As I outlined in my previous post, there are several inherent flaws with United that I find frustrating – to the point where I’m not sure that United is the best partner for my flying habits. To begin, the new mileage earning system has lost all semblance of generosity. Instead of earning award miles based on actual air distance, I’m earning based on the amount spent on my ticket…with limitations. Let’s take this example fare for example:

United-MP-Problems2

If I were to buy this ticket as a mileage run with no status, I would earn 4,730 Premiere Qualifying Miles, but only 1,825 award miles. Makes perfect sense, right? Flying that route and price combination 11 times a year (roughly once a month) would get me to my Premier Gold mileage, but only earn me just 20,075 miles – which may not be enough for an award ticket.

On top of this is the minor detail known as Elite Qualifying Dollars – which you probably know about by now. In the same scenario outlined above, I would have spent an estimated total of $4,015 Elite Qualifying Dollars, leaving me $1,000 short of reaching Premier Gold Status. This now turns my planned 11 flights into 15, just to make status for 2016.

But, as always, there are ways around the system.

Are there alternatives to United elite status?

There are many alternatives that I can use to either help my quest to elite status, or simulate the benefits of being an elite. Let’s start with the credit card route.

In 2015, United is continuing the Elite Qualifying Dollars waiver for Chase United credit card holders who spend at least $25,000 in a year. Though creative manufactured spending, I can probably make that threshold without many problems. This solves two problems: allowing me to make up for the missing elite miles that I would have earned from flying and gives me some elite benefits (like a free checked bag and priority boarding) until I hit Premier Gold.

But this still doesn’t solve my problem of domestic lounge access – because who wants to sit among the hoi polloi? This can be solved by upgrading to the Chase United Club card, which comes with a 50% spending bonus and United Club membership. The card also comes with a $395 fee, which is less than the American Express Platinum, but more than I’m paying now for access to the United Club.

The Verdict: Pass (for now)

If I was convinced that I would be flying exclusively on United, then this plan could work to solve my Star Alliance identity crisis. The problem that I’m facing is that I’m spending more money annually for the same benefits I receive now, with no consistency in my product or experience. Not to mention that the price of award redemption- especially on premium products to international destinations – is going up. For now, it’s time to pass over this plan to see what else is available for my flying dollar.

Next time on Tagging Miles: solving my Star Alliance Identity Crisis with international partners – is it possible??? Stay tuned!

Are We Sustainable Into Our Retirement?

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Generally speaking, when we use the term “sustainable,” we refer to manufactured spending and points hacking, in order to make sure we don’t kill the best deals. Trevor writes extensively about being a good steward of the community, and “treading lightly” through our hobby. However, the sustainability I wish to write about today is our ability to travel well into our golden years.

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College National Retirement Risk Index suggests that half of today’s working families will not be able to maintain their standard of living once they retire. Additional data from the research center suggests that the Social Security trust fund will expire in 2033, with the disability insurance trust set to be exhausted in 2016. This leaves personal retirement accounts as the only sure thing left for future retirees.

Or does it? In January, Nomad Wallet cited studies by two major financial firms – HSBC and Transamerica – suggesting that one of the top priorities of retirement is traveling, but many are afraid that falling short of those goals. With the retirement picture uncertain for so many, are we sustainable to travel into retirement?

The good news is that, through proper money management and some creative spending tactics, one can still maintain mileage earnings well into retirement and beyond. This “hobby” that we all subscribe to allows us focus savings that would be reserved for travel to be adjusted to long-term retirement savings. 

Both Generation X and the Millennial Generation (including Gen Y) were born and raised on the 401(k) plan, and both see the value of saving now for a long retirement. According to research done by the Transamerica Center, 84% of Gen-X participate in their Employer-Sponsored Retirement plan. And the median age that Millennials began saving for retirement was 22.

While both generations understand that 65 may not a complete target to retire, these groups will continue working because they enjoy what they do – not because they have to. By preparing for long-term stability through wealth management, there may be hope that our generation can keep traveling well into our golden years.

But with the devaluation of points, continual adjustment of sign-on bonuses, and the occasional collection of debt, there’s nothing certain about how far points will carry in the future. Plus, there’s only so much that points will pay for. You can catch the flight and stay at the hotel on points – but how will you eat and play while you’re away?

How are you saving for your retirement goals? How do you plan on financing your retirement when you’re done working? What tips do you have for other Saverocity denizens? I’d love to hear your comments on the state of retirement!

Ed. Note: The Tagging Miles Sunday Editorial is a weekly reflection of the authors opinions. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of Saverocity.com, or any blogger in the Saverocity family of blogs. No compensation nor incentive was given to mention or link to any product or service in this article.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Adapted

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A couple of days ago, Chasing The Points wrote about an experience of his, and included a reference to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Abraham Maslow, in his 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motivation, proposed a 5 “level” hierarchy of needs for human beings. These ranged from physiological—basic breathing,food, water, sleep—to self actualization—morality, creativity, spontaneity.

So why does this matter for Manufactured Spend, Travel Hacking and Travel in general? Chasing the Points makes the proposes that if you’re doing MS or Travel Hacking, that you must be in the top 3 levels of the pyramid. I would submit that you need to be in the top 2 levels of the pyramid.

Highlighting the top two levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Highlighting the top two levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

 

 

Why do I not include “Love/Belonging?” Because, it’s not applicable to MS. If you look at the larger perspective of travel, it *might* be relevant because MS and travel hacking could lead to travel home to see family, or elsewhere to see friends; we’ll leave the mile high club out of this.

But really when you break it down, those of us that are in the various “methods” and “tools” of manufactured spend, and travel hacking, are in them to travel (because if we weren’t, we’d just play the stock market or something).

Esteem

So how can we equate Esteem to travel the tools we employ? For starters, Airline and Hotel status: for some, it is a huge self-esteem boost. Just think of yourself walking past all of those gate lice when they call Executive Platinums, or 1K status guests, of course the latter kind’ve lose that as they slink back to economy with the rest of the masses. More about esteem, let’s pull the thread of respect for others: When you get the opportunity to travel, whether it’s across the country or halfway across the world, you have the opportunity to immerse yourself in a different culture. You gain respect for that new culture, and you grow because of it.

Self-Actualization

Morality: By your very experiences, you learn to see more than a single side of an argument or a situation. Pick for example, the Military; in the US we have fairly porous borders, but for a country like South Korea, the Demilitarized zone is one of the most fortified in the world. Japan’s constitution for example, forbids an offensive military, rather keeping to country to a standing “Self Defense Force.” Finally, in some Muslim countries, you may be awoken by morning prayer.

Creativity: When you MS, you are forced to be creative. The game is ever changing. When you try to book award travel, you must be creative; you must know what airlines fly what routes, and expertly help airline customer service representatives (CSR)’s identify specific flights, to stitch together that itinerary you want.

Spontaneity: Having miles and points allows us to call up an airline, award space available, and fly anywhere in the world (if your miles account is large enough). Having the flexibility to go where you want, is absolutely huge, and a level of freedom that, I’m not sure many get to experience.

Problem Solving: In MS, how many times do you have to enlist the Scientific Theory to figure out whether you need to hit the yellow button, or the red button, or to ask the cashier to input a different code? Or perhaps, the US Air CSR doesn’t, won’t book a particular flight because they think it leaves before your flight from Asia gets in; part of it is problem solving, part of it is social-engineering (which I’m not sure was acknowledged fully during Maslow’s time).

Lack of Prejudice and Acceptance of Facts: Travel allows such amazing opportunities, that you do reach, at times, a lack of prejudice, you accept that the countries in the Middle East treat women differently; you accept that Indians treat Cows differently, you accept these things, because they are part of their culture. They may or may not be right in your view, but at least make the attempt not to be prejudice in a foreign land.

Shifting back and forth

It’s important to note that one does not reach Self Actualization and stay there indefinitely; they may fall back to Esteem; they may fall even further back. Rather these are levels that represent where an individual may be in their level of needs at a particular time.

I will note, that this post ended up significantly different from when I started it, I was initially focused on using this as a discussion of those workaholics that we all know and love, and how disappearing for a week’s vacation to recharge the batteries, will not cause the world to end. But when I looked into it deeper, my thinking moved in a significantly different direction, as you see.

What do you think?

Grabbing the Brass Ring

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Brass Ring

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have learned many lessons in life. I’ve learned many lessons from my father. But the most important lesson that I’ve learned from my father, is to always grab the brass ring – the idea that if there’s an opportunity, you need to grab it, because you don’t know when you’ll have that opportunity again. Many of my posts on this blog are my way of sharing those “brass rings” if you will.

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