Summer is here, but you should be thinking about next summer!

Summer has arrived! I took my son to the beach yesterday and it was packed. You could smell the sunscreen and barbecue in the air. I love summer! And we have a big summer trip planned for next month. Woohoo!
But guess what? I'm already thinking about next summer's trip and the holidays 2018. Why? Because if you want to take advantage of award travel with a family, the secret is to plan ahead and I mean, way ahead.
I usually tell my clients to plan about 18 months in advance. You can change your plans or narrow your focus, but you need to make a generalized plan.
So my family and I were talking the other night about next summer vacation plans and due to the kid's summer plans, a big summer 2018 trip is probably out. So we moved on to the holidays 2018. My daughter is headed back east for college so a warm holiday vacation seems like a good idea.
Where should we go? I'm always on the hunt for new countries as a I have a personal goal of 50 countries by the end of my 50th year. Combine that with a warm climate for the holidays and we focused on Central America or the Carribean. Both great vacation spots and both are accessible using American Airlines.
Now our focus is narrowed so we can look around for credit card bonus offers that will help us reach this goal.
We have a big purchase coming up in July, first college tuition payment. Yikes! With any big purchase, I run through the pros and cons of putting that purchase on the credit card. You always have to weigh whether paying a convenience fee for using the credit card and is worth it. It's not usually worth it just to put a large purchase on the credit card for points if you will be charged a fee, but if you are eligible for a bonus then it may make sense.
So for her college tuition payment, I decided it would make sense to put part of the payment on the credit card and increase my American Airlines miles.
I'm over the 5/24 rule for Chase so those cards are out for me. I looked at other banks offering cards and the highest bonus right now is the Citi Advantage Platinum Select. That card offers a 60,000 bonus for $3,000 minimum spend and the $95 annual fee is waived for the first year. There is a business version and personal version, but you can only have this card once every 2 years and still earn the bonus.
If I put the minimum spend on the card with the college tuition payment, I'm looking at approximately $90 in fees. But 60,000 miles is worth 2 domestic air tickets or 2 tickets to Panama City from LAX valued at $682 each.
Now we are talking! $90 is a small price to pay for that value.
I also decided to have my daughter apply for her first credit card now that she is 18 years old through our bank. It's a student card, but comes with a $200 travel credit which will help pay for her flights home from college. It also will establish her credit history. More on this in another post.
Planning early pays off! Since you can book airline tickets 335 days in advance, you need to be ready with your stash of points and miles if you want to do almost free family travel.

Starwood Referral Bonus Goes Higher

If you have a Starwood American Express card, you can now refer friends and family and get rewarded with a bonus of 7,500 points. It used to be 5,000 points as a referral bonus so this is much better.
Starwood points as you know are so versatile and therefore very valuable. You can transfer them to dozens of airline partners plus you will be rewarded 5,000 miles bonus for every 20,000 miles you transfer.
And if that's not enough, you can use Starwood points to stay at any of the Starwood brand hotels which includes Sheraton, Westin, W and Four Points. Plus you can transfer Starwood points at 1:3 to Marriott.
Marriott and Starwood merged last year so it's just a matter of time before the two merge their loyalty programs as well so it's a win-win right now for people to open Starwood credit cards. There are 2 types of cards, personal and business. The personal card offers a 25,000 bonus for a $3,000 minimum spend. There is a $95 annual fee that is waived the first year. The business card offers a 25,000 bonus for a $5,000 minimum spend. It also has a $95 annual fee that is waived the first year. No foreign transaction fees on either card. I like the business card because you get FREE Boingo WIFI and FREE club access at any Starwood that offers a club level. Club means complimentary breakfast and happy hour. I have saved a ton of money over the years by eating breakfast and dinner at the club.

To refer a friend or family member,
1. log in to your Starwood account
2. Click menu and search for refer a friend
3. click the links until you find one that gives you the 7,500 bonus
4. enter your friend's email address
5. if you friend applies for the card and is approved, you will earn the bonus. Your friend will earn the same bonus as if they applied through a random website.

Good luck!

Find out how you can get bonus United miles!

You know how much I love shopping and cash back portals! Now this summer, American Airlines launched their mystery bonus offer on its shopping portal. Not to be left out, United just launched its own bonus offer.
This one is more straight forward. Spend $150 through the shopping portal, get a bonus 500 miles. Spend $350, earn a 1,500 bonus. The shopping period is 6/9-6/23.
To me, shopping and cash back portals offer FREE money! If you are planning to shop at those retailers anyway, why not get a bonus.
I shop through Ebates.com or my shopping club's cash back portal most of the time, but when bonuses come up like this, I take advantage to top off my accounts.
I am working on the American Airlines mystery offer right now so I'm directing all of my spending through that portal. I ordered my cat food, bathing suits for my children, new yoga pants for myself, and new headphones for my son. Will I reach the $500 minimum spend through the portal this month, maybe. Since I'm consolidating all of my spending through one portal, it's likely.
Those 2500 points will give me a free domestic ticket on American Airlines. Yes, I could have transferred Starwood points over to reach it too, but why?
Plus I am charging everything to my Southwest credit card because they offered me a deal if I spend $500 they will give me a bonus 500 miles. That deal is good for 3 months so I'm directing my spending onto their card.
I pay off my cards every month so it doesn't really matter to me which card I spend on.
That's how we do almost FREE family travel.

Find Out How To Get At Least 2,000 Bonus American Airlines Miles This Month

Need some American Airlines miles to top off your account or build up your balance? Here's an easy way to do it this month. American Airlines Eshopping is offering a mystery bonus event. You have to log in or join and click on the button to reveal your deal. I clicked and I was offered 2,000 bonus miles for spending $500 in the mall by 6/30/17. 

I usually shop through cash back portals where I earn up to 10% cash back. So if you compare the offers, I would value 2,000 American Airlines miles higher than $50. Especially since I have about 22,000 miles in my American Airlines account right now so this will put me really close to a free domestic airline ticket or even there since you actually earn more than 1 mile per dollar through the portal. I could transfer Starwood points and reach the magic 25,000 mark as well, but hey, if I can leverage some spending and do it without using Starwood points, then that's better. 

So I'm directing all my spending this month through the American Airlines shopping portal. I bought my cat food from Petsmart.com, bought new headphones for my son through Apple.com and I bought my replacement yoga pants through Oldnavy.com. 

These were all purchases I would make anyway, but now I am leveraging the buying power to fly free. By the way, I'm using my Southwest Airlines credit card to make the purchases since that card offered me double miles for the next 3 months if I spend $500 per month. 

That's how we do it at almost FREE family travel. 

Get 250 Bonus Starbucks Stars

Nice treat this morning when I checked my email and saw this from Starbucks. You can do it too if you are a Starbucks Gold member. Everyone should be a Starbucks Gold member because last year, if you made one purchase during a certain time period, they gave you automatic gold.
If you are a gold member, load $10 onto your Starbucks app and pay with Chase Pay and you will be rewarded with 250 bonus stars. Those stars are good for 2 FREE drinks.
When you open the app, choose reload, paying with Chase Pay. You may have to click on payment methods to click Chase Pay.
If you already have a linked credit card to Chase Pay, it's easy. Otherwise, you will be prompted to link a credit card in order to pay with Chase Pay. You do not need a Chase checking account, but you do need to be a Chase cardholder. Chase Pay is similar to Visa Checkout or Paypal.
Offer ends 6/7.
Good luck!

New Family Pooling From Norweigan Airlines

Norweigan Airlines launched their new family pooling program this weekend. It's just a BETA program right now, but they are inviting members to try it. I went ahead and enrolled myself as captain and my 3 kids into the account. We will be flying Norweigian Airlines this summer. I had already enrolled all of us in the frequent flier program, but of course, we are only flying two legs in Europe so we would not collect very many miles. 

So this family pooling caught my eye because if all of our flights are pooled together, well, then perhaps we would collect enough miles to do something. You can include family members and friends in your pooled account. 

Now Norweigian Airlines is a discount carrier and the rewards program is revenue based so their points or miles are not very valuable to begin with. But you can cash them in to cover luggage fees, combine them with cash to pay for flights and seat reservations. 

Most airlines do not offer family pooling at all. In fact, if you want to transfer miles to someone, you usually have to pay a fee. Some hotel chains like Starwood will allow you to transfer to a family member without charging a fee, but others do not permit it at all. 

I'll keep you posted. 

Easy Way To Earn The Southwest Companion Pass

If you do not have a Southwest Airlines companion pass yet, here's an easy way to get one. It's one of the most valuable perks out there. You earn the companion pass if you earn 120,000 Southwest points in a single calendar year. You can do that by flying, spending on your Southwest credit card or by earning the bonus. You used to be able to do it by transferring points from Marriott, but earlier this year, Southwest closed that loophole.
However, right now, Southwest Airlines is offering 60,000 bonus points when you open the credit card, spend $2,000 and pay the annual fee ($69 for the Plus and $99 for the Premium). Usually the bonus is 40,000 so this 60,000 offer is huge.
Plus here's the real bonus, if you were to open two of these cards (there are 3 total), you will earn 124,000 points and BAM, you will earn the companion pass. The pass is good for the rest of this year and all of next year. The pass means anywhere you fly, you can take a guest for FREE. The guest must fly on the same flight with you and you can only change your guest three times in a year. But, wow!
I had the pass for the past two years and flew to DC, East Coast, San Francisco and Seattle. Well worth it.
This year I have the pass again and will fly to the East Coast 3 times plus to Cuba.
It's a huge savings. Now you can only apply for these cards if you have not had them in the past two years.
Good luck and that's how you do almost FREE family travel!