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Jan 10 2019

Determining the value of the Southwest Companion Pass for your family

With the news of the new sign up bonus for Chase’s Southwest cards, people are understandably rushing to earn a new companion pass. The new cards all offer 30,000 Rapid Rewards points and a companion pass good through the end of 2019 after $4000 of spending in three months. Can’t get it if you’re over 5/24 or have earned a signup bonus from any of the three Southwest cards in the last 24 months. This probably is the closest I’ve gotten to consider actually getting the companion pass, but I’ve decided it just doesn’t provide enough (or any?) value for my family. Frankly, I just rarely fly Southwest. I thought it might be useful to look at the value of the Southwest companion pass depending on your situation.

Companion pass quick review

Most people know this by this point, but the Southwest companion pass gives a designated companion the chance to fly with you on any flight with seats for just taxes and fees ($5.60). Effectively, you cut your airfare costs in half. This also works when you pay for your flights with points. This is a GREAT deal for a lot of families. But I’d put the value for my family at close to $0. We just don’t fly Southwest often enough (read: ever) to make the companion pass worth it.

But maybe it’s valuable for your family. I’d like to posit a simple way to determine the value of a Southwest companion pass for your family. Specifically, let’s look at whether these new sign up bonuses are worth it for you.

Note: I’m just talking about rough back of the envelope calculations here. I’m sure Frequent Miler or Sam or almost anyone else could come up with a better formula. My main goal is to at least give families a framework to decide whether the hype is real for them when it comes to these new sign up bonuses (and it very well may be!)

Step 1: Make a demand schedule

If you’re not familiar with the concept of a demand schedule, take a look at this oldie but goodie from Milenomics. TL;DR decide how many times you plan to fly with your family in 2019. Then, determine how many of those frequencies are covered by Southwest.

Write that number down.

Step 2: Figure out how much your Southwest flights will cost you in 2019

The next step to determining how much value you get is to set a price for your Southwest flights. In generally, I ballpark $200 RT for domestic flights that cross one timezone or less and $300 for cross country flights. Honestly, you don’t need to get too into the weeds, for the purposes of this exercise I’m setting the average Southwest RT flight at $250.

So, just take your number from Step 1 and multiply by $250 – that’s the amount of money you’ll save with the companion pass on flights (remember, this is just back of the envelope!) Or, if you have a better sense of what your actual flights will cost, use that. Remember, the goal is to realistically determine whether these sign up bonuses are good for your family.

Step 3: Determine the value of the points you earn

We should also include the value of the 34,000 Southwest points you’ll have when you’re done meeting the sign up bonus. I honestly have no idea what the value is, so I’ll go with the experts. Frequent Miler says the reasonable redemption value is about 1.5 cents per point, so let’s go with that.

34,000 points X 1.5 cents per point = $510.00

Not bad!

Step 4: Determine your opportunity cost

The simplest way I see to determine opportunity cost in this scenario is to compare what you gain to what you lose by not applying for another credit card. Since we’re talking about Chase, let’s use good old faithful Chase Sapphire Preferred. It makes the math simple since it’s worth 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after $4000 in spend in 3 months, so we’re close to apples to apples here.

The 54,000 points you earn by meeting the sign up bonus would net you a minimum of $675 of value since you can redeem them for flights so let’s set your opportunity cost at $675.

Step 5: Decide the value of the Southwest companion pass for your family

To be quite honest, I came into this thinking the Southwest companion pass is overrated for more families than one might think. But…if the value of the Southwest points you earn is $510 you really only need to save $165 on a flight to come out ahead of the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Bottom line, one flight costing $165 or more using the Southwest Companion Pass would get more monetary value than using your sign up bonus spending on the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

So these new sign up bonuses and the companion pass maybe deserve more credit than I give them. But of course, if you don’t fly Southwest already, they aren’t as valuable to you.

Step 6: Count the hidden costs

While the new Southwest card bonuses might get you more in monetary value than the Chase Sapphire Preferred, there are a few more costs to consider. Is this card worth a shot against your 5/24 or 6/24 (Barclays) status? If so, would you rather have the CSP longterm? Is this going to push you to take more trips and cost you more money in other ways (like hotels)? That particular hidden cost affects me all the time with all the cards I sign up for.

Finally, don’t forget the cost of possibly being biased towards a certain airline. These back of the envelope calculations assume Southwest prices equal that of other carriers, but if they don’t, then it’s not as simple as comparing $510 to $675.

Final Thoughts

These Southwest companion pass offers are pretty good for a lot of families, especially if you have a lot of Southwest travel planned this year. Please don’t read this article as an attempt to dissuade you if you’re in that situation. But if you’re a more edge case, I do think it’s valuable to determine how much a Southwest companion pass would actually be worth to you.

And I just wanted to create a loose framework to think about these new sign up bonuses in a place where you know nobody’s trying to sell you on the card. Also, with this card or any card, I think it’s probably a valuable exercise to determine how much value you can get out of a bonus, even if you know the new sign up bonuses are no brainers for you. At the very least, you’ll get to brag to your friends exactly how much money you saved and they will hate you for it. 🙂

So – brag to ME – are you signing up for the Southwest cards with these new companion pass bonuses and how much value are you going to get out of them?

Never miss a post! Subscribe below and receive an e-mail once a day for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Or, if you’re looking for a miles, points, and travel podcast, check out my podcast the Saverocity Observation Deck on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or this Patreon page!

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Jan 03 2019

City National Bank Crystal Visa Infinite Card – Family Travel Review

One of my resolutions for 2019 here at asthejoeflies is to write more content that families that want to travel will find useful. To that end, I’ve decided to try on a new format for credit card reviews. In today’s installment we’ll take a look at the City National Bank Crystal Infinite Card, one of two cards I applied for after some reconsideration back in the fall. Since I don’t earn any commissions from the banks, I feel free and clear to give my honest opinions.

So let’s break down the aspects of the card I find most important for family travel. Note – I won’t be doing half stars, so bear that in mind. Also all opinions are my own yada yada yada.

Quick Scorecard

Overall family travel score

Bonused and Everyday Spending

Ease of use for family travel redemptions

Value for family travel redemptions

Family travel benefits

Annual fees and hidden costs

Fast facts

Card name: Crystal Visa Infinite Card

Issuing bank: City National Bank

Family travel redemption options: Redeem for travel or gift cards by paying with points through travel portal or on phone (up to 1.35 cents per point)

Bonused spend options: 3X points on gas, grocery, food, and most travel, 1X everything else

Key family travel benefits:

$250 annual travel credit for card member AND authorized users (up to 3)
Priority Pass Select card for card member AND authorized users, unlimited guests
No foreign transaction fee

Annual fee: $400, not waived

Sign Up Bonus

The current sign up bonus is 50,000 CNB reward points after $5000 in spending. While the sign up bonus has been has high as 100,000 points in the past (and 75,000 recently), 50,000 points is still a pretty good sign up bonus. You should be able to easily get $500 of travel out of the sign up bonus and close to $660 if you maximize your redemptions. I’d say that’s competitive with a lot of the cards out there right now, though not outstanding.

Bonused and Everyday Spending

The Crystal Visa Infinite Card offers 3X spending in a variety of categories. The most exciting categories are gas and groceries, which families obviously spend a lot of money on. You can also get reimbursed for restaurants, eating out, and travel. 3X is pretty good as an all around card, though individual cards out there can do better if you single out categories. Still, I put a lot of spend on this card just because it’s convenient and at the top of my wallet.

Ease of use for family travel redemptions

Redeeming travel for your family is very straightforward. You first need to set up a rewards account here, which probably is the most difficult part of the process. After that you can book your travel through their online travel portal or you can call 1-855-853-5496. Note every travel booking has a booking fee of around $15-$25 and this fee increases if you book over the phone. But for families looking for simple redemption options, you can’t beat this system.

Value for family travel redemptions

Your points have a maximum value of 1.35 cents per point (which actually comes out to a little less when you factor in the booking fee). So you’re never gonna get “book business class for coach prices” type value. However, what bumps up the value in my mind is the ability to book Disney vacations at a discount. You can apply the value of your points to essentially anything Disney you can book online through the Disney website including tickets, hotels, vacation packages, or cruises. See this post for details. Getting almost 1.35 cents per point for Disney provides a lot of value for families who want to cut costs going to visit the mouse. And of course, I’m biased towards loving a good family Disney vacation, so I find good value in the ability. 🙂

Family travel benefits

A $400 annual fee is nothing to scoff at, and airline travel incidentals generally just mean you’re paying for your travel with cash. However, the fact that every authorized user gets a $250 travel credit makes a huge difference. If your kids are 13 or older, you can make them authorized users. A spouse and two kids gives you $1000 in travel credits to offset the $400 annual fee.

The Priority Pass benefit is probably best in the business for two reasons. First, you don’t have to sign up it gets automatically sent to you, which means you have one less thing to worry about (looking at you, Chase). Secondly, you get unlimited guests, which means you won’t have to choose which of your children to leave in the cold, dark halls of the airport alone (looking at you, AMEX).

Annual fees and hidden costs

In terms of hidden costs, you have to factor in the booking fee if you’re calculating the value received from the card. The best thing to do is to avoid low cost redemptions. To offset the annual fee, see above. It’s still a high annual fee and families will have breakage which keeps this score lower.

Another thing that brings this score down is CNB’s sort of actually yes it indeed is quite annoying online system. You have to create three separate logins, one for your credit card account, one for your rewards, and then one to learn about your Visa Infinite benefits. The interface for the CNB based websites are a little behind the times, so that can be pretty annoying.

I probably buried the lede a bit, but this card also is very difficult to get. For starters, it’s only available to people who earn a lot of money (probably > $100,000/year) or people who have a lot of money. They go through a pretty thorough underwriting process that will require a bunch of your information.

You also cannot apply for this credit card online. City National Bank branches can only be found in a few locations (see the map here). However, a helpful banker reached out to me and helped me apply via e-mail. If you’re interested, I can put you in touch, e-mail me asthejoeflies AT gmail DOT com.

Overall family travel score

I know most people won’t even be reading this, but let me say right here and now that this is a 5 star card for me hands down. The multiple airline credit benefit, priority pass, and ability to book Disney trips with uplift make this an incredible family travel card.

However, since not everyone will be able to access the card and since it can be so difficult to use, I have to give it four stars. If your family can use it, the card is amazing, but if your family can’t get it then the card is useless to you.

Still, I would say if you can get this card, it combines both ease of use with great value – a killer combination for families.

Did you jump onto the Crystal Infinite bandwagon? What are your thoughts on the card? Let me know in the comments!

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Nov 15 2018

Preferred seating stinks – How to get seats together on a plane (maybe)

One of the most stressful things about family travel is figuring out how to get seats together on a plane. One thing that’s made this even more difficult is the move by airlines to charge more and more for “preferred” seating. The Miles to Go podcast got me thinking about this on their episode with Brett Snyder, the Cranky Flier, a few weeks back. Ed and Brett spent some time talking about the ludicrous nature of preferred seating.

Getting seats together as a family — For me, TSA’s got nothing on worrying about seat assignments stress wise

Brett, who is generally a fan of the a la carte model, wrote a pretty great post panning preferred seating. I highly suggest you check the piece out. He uses a great (albeit cherry picked) example of a flight where every seat left costs money or is a middle seat (in a 4 seat row no less). Here’s my favorite quote:

One of the touted benefits of buying a regular economy ticket is that you get seat assignments included. But you don’t. I mean, sure, you can get yourself a couple middle seats, but you’re probably better off just saving money and buying Basic Economy. Let them randomly seat you in whatever is left at the time of check-in. It couldn’t be much worse.

This hits families extra hard. You debate whether to pay for seats or be at the mercy of the airline and fellow passengers to get to sit together. I know Dia wrote that she does nothing and it’s always worked out, but I think things have changed over the last three years. It definitely hasn’t been working out for our family. This preferred seating thing is so stupid you end up with these kinds of dumb situations:

@AmericanAir split my family on flight (it happens). When I asked the gentleman next to me swap he agreed because the swap seat was… next to his brother! Good job splitting 2 groups traveling together. #seatAssignmentFee
— Hugo (@Made_By_Hugo) November 14, 2018

C’mon, now. I’ve had three flights in the last two years or so where I could only choose middle seats for my family. We ended up split up on all the flights and on one flight I had to ask a stranger to switch seats. Now that our family has grown, I expect things to only get worse.

Preferred Seating — The green seats are the exact same as the “free” ones. You pay $33 to sit one row closer to the front??

My solution that will probably never happen

Ideally you’d empower flight attendants to move people around to ensure people with kids 8 and under (or whatever cutoff) sit together. Except – since you made people pay for their “preferred seats” (which, by the way, aren’t even economy plus or anything with extra legroom or benefits) – you’re asking people to move from seats they paid for! This is all so, so dumb.

But enough ranting. I’m trying to stay positive here, so let’s take a look at what tips I use to ensure the best change that we get seats together. And sincerely, I would love to hear tips people have as well. Though let’s try to refrain from saying “fly Southwest exclusively” :). (I finally tried Southwest. It was fine.)

1. Book early

I hate recommending this since you don’t usually get the best prices when you book early. Domestically, I think 4 weeks out is generally the sweet spot. But if you book early, less of the “preferred” seats will be taken and you’ll have a better chance of getting seats together without having to pay. Of course, you’ll have to weigh whether paying a little bit more for the flight (probably) outweighs just paying for preferred seats.

In my mind, I’d rather deal with paying more than the stress. But paying more for “preferred” seats just makes me mad, so I’ll swallow booking early and possibly paying more for the original ticket.

2. Book different seat types near one another

If you can’t get seats together, my next recommendation is to get as many people in your family in the same row as possible. Then, for the others, book different seat types (aisle/middle/window) nearby. If you can’t pre-book the same row for your family, you’re going to have to rely on the kindness of strangers no matter what. (FWIW, we actually prefer being in two separate rows).

Since you might need to ask someone to move, it’s easier to ask someone to exchange aisle for aisle or window for window. If you can somehow get a window or aisle but need a middle to be near your family (unlikely), that’s usually fine since people like getting out of middle seats. Either way, pick seats that will be easier to exchange with other guests.

3. Get status

Having status in a frequent flyer program really helps. For some carriers, you can get the economy plus and preferred seats for free. As a family traveler, this is one of the few things I actually value about status (though I still don’t chase any status outside of Jetblue). Even lowly silver status helps a lot. Delta, United, and American all offer some sort of complimentary upgrade to preferred or plus seats at check in. For a family, if you fly certain airlines regularly, it might be worth chasing at least minimal status. If you fly Delta a lot you can spend your way through a co-branded card. While getting status isn’t ideal, at least it will ensure you get to sit with your young kids.

4. Check in with the gate agent as soon as possible

Gate agents, obviously, don’t want you sitting apart from your young kids. As soon as you get to the gate, check in with the gate agent and see if they can help you sit together or closer together. Ideally, they might even open up preferred seats for you, but at the very least as people move around they will keep an eye out. By the time I’m at the gate, I’ve basically resigned myself to the fact I won’t be sitting with my family – but a gate agent can definitely help.

5. Trust in the kindness of strangers

When you’re traveling with very young kids like we do, strangers will help you out. Heck, strangers begrudgingly move seats for adults to sit together. So unless you encounter a very rare situation, people will likely be willing to help you out and shuffle around. The reality is people don’t want your kids to be upset nor do they want to console your kids. We’ve never had too much trouble moving around, but I still always feel bad asking.

Final Thoughts

To be honest, the longer I typed in this post the more frustrated and angry I got. Why do we let the airlines get away with this? This whole preferred seat thing is BS, but it’s even worse when it splits up young families. Because the airlines want to make more money on “preferred” seats that aren’t actually better or more room, I have to ask random strangers if they would be willing to move. Those random strangers get imposed upon, my family gets stressed, and the flight attendants and gate agents feel in a bind as well. I hope the airlines figure this out sooner rather than later.

Ranting aside, I employ all five of the above strategies and generally have been successful getting to sit with my family. Sure, it increases my stress level, but it all works out in the end.

I’m curious, do you have any tried and true techniques for getting seats together? Let me know in the comments!

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Nov 13 2018

Capital One Venture card adds airline transfer partners – best programs for family travel

News broke today that the Capital One Venture card will be offering airline transfers at a ratio of 2:1.5. Since the card earns 2 miles per dollar (good for 2 cents towards travel), it essentially has become a 2 cents per dollar OR 1.5 miles per dollar card. Some outlets are now offering 75,000 miles for $5000 as a sign up bonus in order to promote the change. Let’s take a closer look at what Capital One Venture airline transfers mean for families.

Here is the list of transfer partners:

Aeromexico
Aeroplan (Air Canada)
Air France/KLM (Flying Blue)
Alitalia
Avianca
Cathay Pacific
Etihad
EVA Air
Finnair
Hainan
Qantas
Qatar

Ever since Capital One rejected me ten years ago before my honeymoon, I haven’t bothered with their cards. (I wasn’t even playing the miles and points game back then). Although I don’t worry too much about credit checks these days, I’m still salty they checked three bureaus and didn’t even approve me. Since many cards offer no foreign transaction fees (my initial reason to want the card back when I was a neophyte), I never looked back at Capital One.

Flexibility is always good, so the fact that the Capital One Venture card offers multiple options for using your miles obviously is a plus. I’m still not totally sold on the card because I don’t have the time and energy to deal with less mainstream programs today, though some transfer partners do jump out in terms of value for me. Here’s what I’m looking at – is it enough to get me to change my mind on yet another credit card?

Aeroplan (Air Canada)

It will be a plus to have another option for Air Canada airline transfers besides American Express Membership Rewards. Air Canada is great for families who want to travel internationally with their babies because they charge super low rates for lap infants. While most airlines will charge you 10% of the adult cash fare for an international lap infant, Air Canada charges a reasonable $50-$125 or 5000 to 12,500 miles for lap infants depending on the cabin. So instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a lap infant in business class on Eva Air, you just pay $100 or 10,000 points. A great deal for those families that need to travel abroad with a lap infant.

Avianca Lifemiles

This transfer partner is notable if you’re trying to get away from your family. It’s still one of if not the best Star Alliance partner out there for booking Lufthansa First Class. You can book 14 days out (which is when they usually open space) and Avianca doesn’t pass on any fuel surcharges. My days in LH F might be over, but I know a lot of people will be happy to have another program to earn Lifemiles with.

Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)

We really like flying Delta as a family, so if we were to get a Venture card it’d be nice to have another transfer partner to Air France/KLM. You can use those Flying Blue miles to book Delta flights, but if I need to combine miles from different programs (a regular occurrence for family travel), it’s nice to be able to pool between Capital One Venture and American Express without having to pay the excise tax (which I’d have to pay if transferring from AMEX to Delta).

Final Thoughts

It really does seem like the Capital One Venture airline transfers are more niche, which means they can represent a ton of value but also a ton of work. So I’d say for right now, I’m still going to pass on the card unless I have a specific trip in mind. More Air Canada miles are tempting, so 75,000 miles converted to 56,250 Aeroplan miles sounds pretty good – if I plan to use them. Avianca and some of the others are too niche for me at this point in my life, but I’m sure other families can extract a ton of value from them.

What transfer partners stood out for you? Does the Venture card seem more exciting? Let me know in the comments!

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Nov 07 2018

Please consider supporting the Saverocity Observation Deck podcast on Patreon!

TL;DR: Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon!

In case you missed it, I just wanted to make a quick plug for the podcast that Trevor and I have been working on for the better part of the last three years, the Saverocity Observation Deck. Around this time three years ago, I asked the Saverocity writers if anyone might be interested in doing a podcast. Trevor and Joe Cortez answered the call, and the rest is history. I’m writing this rare post about the podcast on my blog because Trevor and I have decided to start a Patreon page to ask for financial support for the podcast. And let’s get this out of the way – nothing will change for users who don’t support the podcast through Patreon.

If you’ve never listened to the podcast, we run the gamut of miles, points, and travel related topics. You can check out our latest episode embedded above. Every two weeks, we release and episode with two main parts – one destination focused segment and one miles/points focused segment. Sometimes the two sections blur, but our goal is to inspire our listeners (and ourselves!) to travel more and to find more and more ways to reach our travel goals for less.

For those of you who have been listening all these years and to those of you who have just started – thank you. Meeting listeners in person continues to be a weird thing, my own family doesn’t enjoy listening to me talk so it’s crazy anyone else would.

As we continue to try to evolve the podcast into the best it can be, we’ve decided to start a Patreon page. Patreon is a way for content creators to get paid for their work – that’s the crudest way you can put it. But it’s also a way to build up a stronger, smaller community within the larger community of our podcast listeners.

If you are enjoying listening to our podcasts, would you consider partnering with us? Patreon supporters will receive special bonus content and hopefully some other random surprises. Trevor and I both sincerely believe that Patreon supporters will fuel us to keep making the best content we can make and in return, we want to give our subscribers more.

So here’s the bottom line. If you’ve been enjoying our podcast, that’s awesome! Please continue to do so and nothing will change for you, we will continue to release episodes every other Tuesday and the content should remain exactly the same.

For Patreon subscribers, we will be releasing episodes 5 days early (on Thursdays) with bonus content, depending on what level of support you generously choose to give us. Don’t worry, there’s nothing exorbitant, our highest tier is $3/month.

We’ve started a new segment for Patreon subscribers, the Final Boarding Call, which we previewed in the last episode of the podcast (embedded above). There also will be Patreon only posts on our Patreon page with details about the tips we put in the Final Boarding Call. Like our podcast, the Final Boarding Call will touch on a variety of topics – hopefully you find them as interesting as we do.

What I’ve loved the most about the podcast is all the people I’ve met along the way, from guests to listeners, and of course – Trevor and Joe (moved on but never forgotten :)). As the host, it’s the best being the dumbest person on the call as I just soak in all the knowledge guests drop whilst trying not to make fun of Trevor too much. The same can be said for when I meet listeners in person, it’s jut a pleasure to have gotten to know some of you. Hopefully Patreon is a way we’ll get to connect even more with all of you.

Whether you choose to support or not, thanks so much for hanging out with us along the way. We hope we can continue to make a podcast worth listening to and welcome any feedback you might have. And special shout out and thanks to those who have already pledged! Thanks for indulging me, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

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