The Citi ThankYou Points program has long been a lagging competitor to Chase and AMEX transferrable points programs. However, Citi has added transfer partners and enough benefits to make ThankYou cards worth looking at, especially if you’ve already maxed out the number of cards you’re comfortable applying for with other issuers. Let’s take a look at the accounts that do earn ‘full’ points, the ones you can transfer. [continue reading…]
Ever since September of 2012 when Delta stopped collecting fuel surcharges on Virgin Australia award flights, using Delta miles for VA flights has been one of the best and easiest ways to get premium cabin award travel to Australia and New Zealand, particularly for families. We just got done booking our own trip (can’t wait!) but I noticed a really odd thing that I thought I’d share. [continue reading…]
Last week marked 6 months since our first blog post here at Miles4More! We’ve had a lot of fun with it, and even managed to put together some good stuff. These were our most popular posts by far: [continue reading…]
Just about a year ago, Citi gave us a perfect storm of offers with the American Airlines Executive card: a 75K miles bonus that then ballooned to 100K, statement credits that worked to reduce the annual fee, and best of all it was a churnable offer. Many of us got 5 or more. But a new wrinkle has surfaced in the past couple of days, and I’d pull your nearly-a-year-old card out of the sock drawer if you still have an Executive card from that offer! [continue reading…]
In our last post we went through the fun and not-so-fun parts of planning and getting to Israel and left off arriving at our hotel, the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame Of Jerusalem Center. Or as we called it, The Pope’s House. It’s a lot easier to say and it sounds cool. And, after all, it belongs to The Vatican. [continue reading…]
By the end of January 2014, all of our travel for 2014 was set. We had the summertime trip we wanted to Alaska, Christmas in Bonnie’s home country of Barbados, our anniversary trip to Roatan, a weekend with family in San Diego and the Milemadness DO in Charlotte all booked. And thanks to Delta’s Boxing Day mistake fare, we had Hawaii and Yellowstone trips squeezed in as well.
Of course I never stop planning trips, and in asking Bonnie and the boys where they would like to go (sometime further down the line, definitely NOT in 2014) they all loved the idea of going to Israel. [continue reading…]
Finally, a long-awaited feature that makes American Express Membership Rewards points more valuable is back. Through January 31, 2015 there is a 40% transfer bonus to British Airways, so for every 1,000 points transferred, you’ll get 1,400 BA Avios! [continue reading…]
In September I wrote about the disappearing Citi Dividend card that you can only get by downgrading other Citi cards. The article is here, and I’m happy to report that Citi is still allowing downgrades to this otherwise obsolete card product! The bad news is that drugstores are not on the 2015 calendar, so it may take a little more time than it has in the past to max out the $300 that you can earn each calendar year.
Today I want to look at our Chase card downgrade strategy and options available, as well as address some concerns I’ve seen voiced about downgrading Chase cards. [continue reading…]
Southwest offers update
I’ve written about application timing here and here, but Chase has brought back 50K offers on all three Southwest cards! So if you got a bonus on a personal Premier card within the past 24 months, you can go for the Plus card now. It is also possible to get both personal cards. Lots of options, just remember (if applying from late September to December) to NOT hit the $2000 spending threshold until AFTER your December statement posts if you’re looking for 2 years worth of Companion Pass benefits. None of these are affiliate links.
Personal Premier 50K card application, $99 fee not waived.
Personal Premier 50K card application, $99 fee not waived (our referral link good through 8/31/15, referral bonus for us is 5K points).
Personal Plus 50K card application, $69 fee not waived.
Business Premier card application with 60K bonus, $99 fee not waived via Miles to Memories
Business Premier card application from emailed offer, $99 fee not waived via Free Frequent Flyer Miles confirmed still working April 2015.
These offers come around regularly, so there’s no hurry unless you have planned travel on Southwest early in 2015. We have a trip to Cancun booked for February, so Bonnie got one card at the end of September and just got approved for the second one. Thanks to Southwest’s cancellation policy, the ticket we need is already booked with points. Once she gets the Pass, we can cancel that ticket for a full refund of the points and taxes, and then rebook using no points. We luv Southwest!
Yesterday ANA released a new award chart that appears to take take effect for travel booked after April 12, 2015. Travel is Free has done a great job introducing and breaking down some of the bigger changes, but there is one huge current family travel sweet spot that we lose. Fortunately we pick up a new one to sort of replace it, [continue reading…]
In summer of 2013 I made another attempt to book a surprise surprise trip for Bonnie – this one for our anniversary in February. This trip to the little island of Roatan is one of our favorite trips so far. Roatan has gone from from a random dot on the map to one of the places we can’t wait to go back to! [continue reading…]