Friday, December 16, 2016
Earn Extra Miles With Shopping Portals
If you still have more holiday shopping to do, you might want to use the portals with United, Alaska Airlines or American Airlines. For the next few days, they are offering bonus miles of up to 1,500 if you use the portal.
Spend $100, earn 500 bonus miles. Spend $200, earn 1,500 bonus miles. And you can double dip by using the right credit card.
Check it out:
1. Alaska Airlines through Dec. 21st at 11:59pm EST
2. American Airlines through Dec. 20th at 11:59pm EST
3. United Airlines through Dec. 20th at 11:59pm EST
Bottom line, it's money you were going to spend anyway, so make the purchase a bit sweeter!
Monday, December 12, 2016
Southwest Companion Pass Prep
Now that we are getting close to the new year, you are probably starting to think about how you can earn a Southwest companion pass for the next two years. This is one of the best deals out there. If you can collect 110,000 Southwest miles in a calendar year, you earn a companion pass. That means anytime you fly, you can take a person with you for FREE. And the pass is good for the year you earn it and the next year. So if you earn it in January or February, that's almost 2 years of FREE companion travel.
I had the companion pass for the past 2 years and used it to fly my son to Washington DC to attend a family event with me, used it for my daughter and I to tour East Coast colleges and used it for a one day trip to San Francisco for my son and I. Great trips and saved us almost $1000 in air travel.
The easiest way to earn the companion pass is to apply for 2 Chase Southwest credit cards. They offer a personal and business card. You don't need a bona fide business to get the business card either.
If you are maxed out on Chase cards like me, you can buy a Marriott vacation package good for 110,000 Southwest points and a 7 day stay in a Marriott. It will cost you 270,000 Marriott points. You can earn these by opening a Starwood American Express card with a bonus of 25,000 points which you can transfer to Marriott for 1:3 or 75,000 points. So if you get the personal and business cards and spend the minimum spend for the bonus of $3,000, you will have 168,000 points. And if your spouse does the same thing, you will have enough points to purchase the vacation package.
If this is interesting to you, start now, but remember if the statement closes in 2016, those points post to this year and not 2017.
Friday, December 9, 2016
Jet Blue Holiday Deals
I'm not a big Jet Blue flyer, but they are offering deals for the holidays that I can't pass up. Everyday at 1pm EST, they will release a new deal. Deals like $20 flights! Wow! Here's the link. Be sure to check back daily until December 16th 2016. And let me know what kind of deal you get!
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Get 3 FREE Nights At Wyndham Hotels
Barclays is offering the Wyndham credit card right now with a 45,000 bonus. That's good for 3 nights at most Wyndham hotels. Last summer, we used 30,000 Wyndham points for one night at the Wyndham Costa del Sol airport hotel in Lima. We are a family of 5 and needed 2 rooms. The hotel included breakfast and we were just steps from the airport so it was easy to catch our early morning flight.
Then we used the remaining 15,000 points to stay a night at the Days Inn San Francisco at the beach. I stayed there with 4 kids and it included breakfast so it was a great value!
My husband and I just applied for this card again and if approved, we will have 90,000 points. We plan to use them to stay at the Ramada in Prague next summer. 2 rooms for 3 nights and includes breakfast. It's at least a $650 value. Great deal!
Here are the details on the card:
- Earn 30,000 bonus points after
your first purchase. Plus, earn an
additional 15,000 bonus points after
you spend $2,000 on purchases within
the first 90 days of account opening.3 - Earn 5 points per $1 spent on eligible
purchases for every participating hotel
stay, Wyndham Vacation Rental North
America properties, and on-property
spend and maintenance fees at Wyndham
timeshare properties4 - Earn 2 points per $1 spent on eligible
gas, utility and grocery store purchases
(excluding Target® and Walmart®)4 - Earn 1 point per $1 spent on
purchases everywhere else (excluding
Wyndham timeshare downpayments)4 - Get PLATINUM! Automatically
receive a Wyndham Rewards
PLATINUM Membership and enjoy
these new perks5 - Earn 6,000 bonus points annually
after your account anniversary every year3 - No foreign transaction fees1
- $75 annual fee1
Friday, December 2, 2016
Buy $10 Starbucks, Get $10 FREE
Starbucks & Visa Checkout are once again teaming up to offer a very nice discount. I just did it and it worked!
The Offer
Receive a $10 Starbucks® eGift when you reload $10+ in the Starbucks® app using Visa Checkout.
How It Works
- Download the Starbucks app and create an account
- Reload $10 to the Starbucks app with Visa Checkout
- Receive your $10 eGift within 1 day
Key Terms
- Supplies are limited.
- Starbucks will give away a limited number of Bonus Loads to eligible customers between 11/29/16 and 12/22/16 while supplies last.
- To receive a Bonus Load, you must load your Starbucks® card in the Starbucks® app with $10+ using Visa Checkout as a payment method and meet the other eligibility requirements below.
- This offer is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C. who have a valid Visa Checkout account.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Save Big On Your Next Vacation, Here's How
So what do you do?
A great credit card to have in your toolbox is the Barclays Arrival Plus. Right now, you get 50,000 points bonus for signing up and spending $3000 in the first 90 days which is like a $500 travel credit. Then you get 5% back every time you use the card on travel purchases like airbnb, fees and taxes for airlines, hotels, train ticket etc.
So when we traveled to Costa Rica a few years back, we needed to fly on a certain flight on a certain day. Plus we were going with extended family and they wanted to all fly on the same Delta airlines flight. Delta is not my favorite airline and I don't usually collect miles or points for Delta.
But since I won't pay full price for plane ticket, I had to find a go around.
Here's where the Barclays card came in. I could buy 2 plane tickets and essentially get the 3rd ticket FREE with the bonus and 10% back in travel credit.
My mother in law opened a card too and knocked thousands off the cost of the trip since she picked up many of the hotels and meals.
It's been 2 years since I've had the Barclays card so I just signed up again. Plan to put my property taxes on the card to reach the minimum spend. Even though I will be charged 3% in credit card fees, it's worth it to get a $500 travel credit since I think I will have to buy my husband a one way ticket next summer to meet us in Europe.
That's how you do it....almost FREE family travel!
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Using the right credit card to maximize earnings
Once you apply for a few credit cards, it's important to use the right credit card to maximize the points earned. For example, the Chase FREEDOM card changes bonus categories every quarter. Right now, if you use the card at wholesale club stores like Costco, you earn 5x Chase Ultimate Rewards Points. Those points can be used for cash back, gift cards or travel. The travel is a little tricky since you need to have the Chase Sapphire Preferred to be eligible to transfer rewards points to airlines.
But earning 5x rewards points is huge!
The Chase Ink card Business Cash offers 5% cash back on office supply store, internet, cable and phone bills. So you should always auto pay those bills to your Chase Ink card to maximize earnings.
Starwood Points are super valuable because you can transfer them to lots of different airlines and get a bonus so I use this card as my default. American Express offers savings on their website so check those out every once in a while and add them to your card.
Especially helps during holiday shopping. Always, always use a portal when you do your online holiday shopping. I check a variety of them i.e. cash back and airline before I purchase.
In January, I may start using my Southwest card again to collect points towards a companion pass.
And for the rest of this year, I'll use my Marriott card since I'm hoping to buy a Marriott Vacation Package in January and gain a Southwest Airlines companion pass. Check my previous blog post to read about how to do this.
There are other cards that have bonus categories and some cards that are co-branded that will give you a bonus if you use that card to stay at the hotel or buy plane tickets on that particular airline.
I actually mark the physical card with the bonus category so I remember which card to use. Good luck!
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