How To Max Out Points and Miles during Black Friday Shopping

 

This week marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season and specifically the Black Friday sales. Now this year is going to look very different with so many people just trying to make ends meet and retailers trying to save a dismal year. 

So whether you will be taking advantage of the sales a lot or a little, make each purchase count. One day, we will be traveling again, and why not, travel for FREE. 

So a few things to remember when you are shopping over the holiday season:

1. Use the right credit card - this year has been incredible for increased cashback percentages on certain types of purchases. For example, 

• the new Chase Flex credit card offered new credit cardholders 5% back on groceries for one year or up to $12,000. When you are shopping for that Thanksgiving meal ingredients, that would be the card to use. 
• Chase Southwest credit cards offered a targetted offer of 5x points on Amazon purchases this quarter so this would be the card to use at that retailer. And now there is a more general offer for 5x points on Amazon and groceries, you need to activate the offer with this link.
• Chase quarterly bonus categories on Chase Flex and Chase Freedom offer 5x points at Paypal and Walmart this quarter. 
• Cards like Sapphire Preferred and Reserve offer increased percentages at restaurants, travel and grocery stores. Both cards also offer a cash back program where you can erase purchases at an increased 25% and 50% value. 
• Discover offers 5% this quarter at Amazon, Target and Walmart. 

2. Shopping portals - I love shopping portals, this is FREE money. You can check out my guide to shopping portals here. The bottom line is never make a purchase online without clicking on a shopping portal. It costs you nothing and puts money back in your pocket. And right now, Rakuten will give you $40 FREE when you use this referral link. 

3. Amex and Chase offers - check your AmericanExpress and Chase account to see what offers are available. Honestly, I don't find the best offers here, but once in a while, there is a gem. A few months ago, I found $50 back on any Marriott hotel stay. Pretty sweet! 

4. Open a new credit card and use the purchases to meet your minimum spend and get the bonus. One of the best bonuses and cards is the Sapphire Preferred which is offering a 75,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus and 1.25 point cash back program. 

The bottom line is every time you make a purchase make it count twice or three times towards that FREE trip. I call it leveraged spending and in the future, we will call it FREE travel. Woohoo! 

How You Can Score A FREE Flight To Santorini, Greece

 

One of the most amazing trips I ever took was to the Greek Islands including the island of Santorini pictured above. I spent one month traveling from island to island enjoying the sun, ruins, blue-roofed homes and yummy food. This has to be on everyone's bucket list. 

Now Aegean Airlines is offering 5,000 award miles just for signing up for their program. The miles never expire so this is really a no-brainer. Aegean Airlines is a Greek airline and a Star Alliance partner. A quick check shows 5,000 reward miles are valued at approximately $72 and can get you a FREE flight from Athens to any Greek island. Pretty sweet!

Or you could use it for short flights to neighboring countries. A quick search of other flights shows that a flight from Athens to neighboring countries like Italy, Turkey, and Croatia cost about 7,000 reward miles and hop over to London or anywhere in Europe for 11,000 reward miles. 

Aegean Airlines has a shopping portal and reward mile earning deals with Booking.com and other booking sites for hotels and cars. So you could run this up pretty quickly and save hundreds on flights. Plus Aegean Airlines is a partner with Star Alliance so you could use the reward miles to book on United and other airlines. Aegean Airlines typically charges less miles for the same flights as United. 

Just use this link to register and open a new account. Once the promotion ends, you will see 5,000 award miles deposited into your account. You will also get 1,000 miles that count towards Elite status if that's important to you. 

Big Bonuses Offered To Small Business

 

Two great new offers from Chase for small businesses. Both cards carry no annual fee and a $750 bonus for a $7,500 minimum spend. That's the highest offer Chase has ever offered on these two cards. Remember many businesses and side gigs can qualify as a small business. 

So which one to choose? 

• Ink Unlimited offers 1.5% cashback on all purchases. It's the ultimate in simplicity. 
• Ink Business Cash offers 5x points on internet, cable, office supply stores and phone, 2x on gas stations and restaurants, and 1x on everything else. 

Remember both of these cards actually earn Chase Ultimate Reward points which you can use at dozens of hotels, airlines, in the travel portal, cashback or to erase certain purchases. And if you have a Sapphire Preferred or Reserve card, you can transfer your points to those cards increasing their value even more. Check it out here. 

Huge Bonus From The #1 Shopping Portal

 

If you follow me at all, you know how much I love shopping portals. Portals are FREE money and I love that! They are essentially a marketplace of retailers that offer cashback, miles, or points in exchange for being listed on the marketplace. What does this mean for you? I call it leveraged spending, it sounds like a very financial term, but it really just means getting more value out of each purchase. 

Picture this, you need to buy a new toilet from Home Depot. You can buy it straight from homedepot.com, you can walk into the store and buy it OR you can click on a shopping portal to reach homedepot.com and buy it there and get 3%-10% cashback. Woohoo! 

Most of the airlines and Chase offer shopping portals plus there are a few cashback portals including my favorite Rakuten used to be Ebates. 

Stores come and go and the cashback rates change all the time. I use cashbackmonitor.com to check the percentages for retailers. The best part is when you get the email from Rakuten saying you have a big fat check on the way. If you are not a Rakuten member yet, use this link to open your account and you will get $40 when you spend $40. Cha-ching! 

How You Can Score Another FREE National Park Pass

 

Do you have a fifth grader? If so, you now qualify for a FREE National Park Pass. Before today, the FREE pass was awarded only to 4th grade students, but now it has been expanded to include fifth graders too. 

So if you took advantage of the FREE pass last year when you had a 4th grader, well, now I'm assuming your child is in fifth grade and qualifies you again. 

Nice! 

There are 421 National Parks in the US including Yellowstone National Park pictured above and entry fees vary from just a few dollars to $35 per day. So the pass is a huge savings and it's good for the car not just for the people inside. 

Last year, we visited three National Parks in one trip, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons, the pass saved us hundreds of dollars. 

To get the pass for your 4th grader, you need to click on the official site, but for your 5th grader, you can just print the voucher and place it on the dashboard of your car. 

If you don't have a 4th or 5th grader, the pass sells for just $80 per year and is good for 12 months (the month you buy it in and the entire year). There are several days a year that are fee-free days too like Veteran's Day. 

Incredible Chase Sapphire Preferred 80,000 Bonus Offer Ends Sunday

 

Probably the highest ever bonus offer we have ever seen for the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, 80,000 points ends Sunday. Wow! 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be worth up to $1,000 in travel or right now, $925 in FREE groceries. 

So who is eligible for this card? According to Chase, if you have never held a Sapphire credit card before, you are eligible OR if it's been at least 48 months since you have held a Sapphire credit card, you are eligible. 

The fine details include a $95 annual fee which is not waived for the first year and $4,000 minimum spend in the first three months. 

The Sapphire Preferred is one of my favorite travel cards because Ultimate Rewards points are so flexible. You can transfer them to dozens of airlines plus several hotel chains. You can also use them in the Chase travel portal with a 25% bonus. Through the end of the month, you can also pay yourself back by using the points at a 25% bonus to erase grocery purchases. 

How You Can Earn Bonus Miles On Your Holiday Purchases

 

If you follow my blog, you know how much I love shopping portals! It's FREE money. And now, the airlines are offering bonus points on your purchases when you click through the portals. So how does it work?

Think of a shopping portal like Target or Costco, it's a collection of stores on the shelf. Except the difference is that you get a bonus every time you choose to buy a product. The retailers agree to offer cash back or points or miles bonuses in exchange for being displayed on the store shelf. 

Most of the airlines American, United, Southwest, Jet Blue, Spirit, British Airways, Delta, Alaska, Virgin Atlantic have portals. Hotels like Choice and Wyndham have portals. Amtrak has a portal too. And then Chase Ultimate Rewards, Wells Fargo, and Barclays have portals and then there are the cashback ones like Rakuten. I use cashbackmonitor.com to find the best percentage normally when I make a purchase OR I'll use the portal to top off an account. 

However, during the holidays, the airline portals launch bonus promotions that are great to take advantage of. 

The bonus right now can earn you up to 5,000 bonus miles!  

United - spend $100, get 500 bonus miles 

             spend $500, get 2,500 bonus miles 

             spend $1,000, get 5000 bonus miles 

Southwest - spend $100, get 500 bonus miles 

                   spend $500, get 1000 bonus miles 

                   spend $1000, get 3,500 bonus miles 

Plus United is giving up to a 1,000-mile bonus if you are a new shopper. So next time, you go to make an online purchase, check those portals first, and watch the miles/points/cash back add up.

If you use my link for Rakuten, a cashback portal, you get a $30 bonus when you make your first purchase!