Month: July 2017

Credit Cards, Credit Cards & Miles, Miles & Points, Uncategorized

Unlocking Value with Chase Ultimate Rewards: Part II

by milesforplaces3 Comments on Unlocking Value with Chase Ultimate Rewards: Part II
Unlocking Value with Chase Ultimate Rewards: Part II

Chase Ultimate Rewards

In an earlier post (you can read it here ), I went over the benefits of having the Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) or the higher end Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) when paired with the Chase Freedom and/or Chase Freedom Unlimited. You are getting the same rewards currency (Ultimate Rewards Points) and you can combine the points into a single pot. When you combine them into the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve account, you now have the ability to transfer to airline and hotel partners. You can also use the points to book straight from Chase. In this post, I’ll demonstrate when you’re better off using the points to book straight from Chase and when you are better off using a transfer partner.

Ultimate-Rewards-Transfer-Partners
A list of all the transfer partners for Chase Ultimate Rewards

For this example, we’ll do a round trip from Chicago (ORD) to Honolulu (HNL) from October 2nd-October 9th.  United is the only airline that flies this route non-stop from Chicago. If you’re sitting on 90,000 Ultimate Rewards points and assuming you have the CSR or CSP, these are your options:

  1. Book the trip with cash and avoid points altogether. This will cost you $913.40 per person

UnitedCash

 2. Book the trip straight from Chase’s Ultimate Rewards portal.

If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, this will cost 60,893 points per person. (Your redemption is 1.5 cents of value per 1 point). If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, this will cost you ~73,000 points per person (Your redemption is 1.2 cents of value per 1 point).

3.Transfer Ultimate Rewards points to United’s MileagePlus frequent flier program on a 1:1 basis.

This redemption is only 45,000 United Miles per person. This is obviously the clear winner. By avoiding Chase and booking this trip via United MileagePlus, you saved yourself 15.9k -28k Ultimate Rewards points. The savings can now be used towards a future trip.

Here is an example when it is more advantageous to book from Chase’s portal rather than transferring the points into MileagePlus.

For this example, we’ll use a round trip itinerary from NYC (LGA) to Chicago (ORD) from October 17th-24th. Assuming we have sufficient Chase points, here are our options.

1.Book the trip with cash.  This would cost $99 on American Airlines (that’s actually a really good deal paying with cash).

AALGA2ORD

2. Use the Chase portal to book with Ultimate Rewards Points. Since we’re using Chase’s portal, we can use the points on any airline that’s listed. For this trip, American Airlines happens to be the cheapest redemption since they happen to have the cheapest airfare for this itinerary. If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve (pictured below), 6,560 Ultimate Rewards points is all it takes for a round trip ticket. If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you would still get an amazing round trip redemption of 7,872 points per person. Also keep in mind, when you use Ultimate Rewards points to make a redemption, these flights are eligible to earn miles. Just add in your American Advantage frequent flier number and you would earn miles for this trip. It’s free to sign up so you have nothing to lose.

LGA2ORDChaseORD2LGAChase

3. Transfer the points into a Chase transfer partner such as United

For this itinerary, It would require us to transfer 25,000 points from Chase to United to book this trip via MileagePlus miles. Among the three options, this would be the worst. Booking with Chase we’re getting 1.5 cents of value per 1 point. With this redemption, you are only getting 0.4 cents per point. Unless you have elite status with United and you’re confident you’re going to get upgraded to first class, this is a redemption you should avoid. It will end up saving you ~18k+ UR points that you can use for something of greater value.

So, the take home message when redeeming UR points is check the redemption rates on Chase’s transfer partners as well as Chase’s portal itself. By doing so, you might save yourself hundreds of dollars in points.

Credit Cards & Miles, Miles & Points, Uncategorized

Earning JetBlue Points on Emirates

by milesforplacesLeave a Comment on Earning JetBlue Points on Emirates

For those of you traveling overseas on Emirates, don’t miss out on an easy opportunity to earn JetBlue points. You can make an Emirates Skywards membership and earn points  for Emirates but unless you’re traveling frequently or making multiple trips on business class, it will take a while to accumulate anything meaningful. Instead, you can enter your JetBlue number and earn miles for a program that doesn’t require a ton of miles for travel.  The number of JetBlue miles you earn is based on distance and class of booking. You can see the chart below

 

 

If you end up booking the cheapest fare on Emirates, economy saver, you will get 1 point for every 2 miles in distance that you have traveled. If you’re wondering how many JetBlue miles that will earn from your departure city, use a website such as http://www.webflyer.com and enter your departure and arrival city. I’ll use a round trip from New York City (JFK) to Dubai (DXB) as an example.

 

The round trip distance is 13,660 miles. Were you to book an economy saver fare, this would earn you half of that or 6,830 JetBlue points. If you booked economy flex, you would receive 13,660 JetBlue points and the amount increases as you increase your booking class. The most valuable aspect of JetBlue’s frequent flier program is that they allow a 2 adults and 5 children to combine their miles into a family account free of charge. The individuals do not have to be related so you can also share the points with a friend. If you have parents that are traveling overseas via Emirates, you can sign them up and have them earn points as well. And if they don’t intend on using them, they can book you an award ticket on JetBlue under their account.  So when you’re booking your ticket on Emirates, just remember to click the drop down tab under “frequent flyer program” and click JetBlue. Enter your TrueBlue number and those points will be credited to you in about 10-14 days after the conclusion of your trip.

When booking on Emirates.com, select JetBlue and enter your TrueBlue number on this screen. 
Hotels, Reviews

Airbnb vs Hotels

by milesforplaces2 Comments on Airbnb vs Hotels

airBNBEven though Airbnb has been around since 2008, I never used it to book an accommodation until 2015. For those of you who have never used it, it is a website where homeowners rent out their houses, apartments, condos, cabins, even tree houses. There are filters that allow you choose what type of accommodation you’re looking for such as an entire place or a single room. I have used it seven times since and all but one of my stays were excellent. Five of those trips have been in Europe where I strongly believe booking Airbnb was the better option versus booking a hotel. During our trip to Prague, decent hotels were going for $140+ in desirable locations such as Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square. Nonetheless, there were many excellent apartments and condos near these locations that were listed on Airbnb.  These accommodations were just a 5 minute walk away from Old Town Square or Wenceslas Square, which eliminated the need for taxis, Uber, etc. Including taxes and cleaning fees, our total for 3 nights came out to just $67/night. I’ve included pictures of the place we booked below.

 

There are a few things to keep in mind prior to booking an Airbnb:

1) Make sure the place you’re interested in has a minimum of five reviews that are spaced apart (I ignored this step once and ended up booking a place that had no reviews.  This resulted in my one below average experience using an Airbnb.)

2) If the owner has not posted pictures of the interior, that’s a red flag and you should avoid it.

3) Try to book a place that is a short walking distance away from as many tourist attractions as possible. By doing this, you’re saving money avoiding taxis and Uber.

So whether you’re traveling somewhere where hotels might be pricey or if you’re traveling with multiple families and want to rent out an entire house on a beach, Airbnb is a great alternative to hotels. If you use my link here you will also get $40 off your booking of $75 or more.  If you have used it before, feel free to share your experience in the comments section below. As always, thanks for reading.

– Shiraz

 

 

Credit Cards & Miles, Miles & Points, Uncategorized

Leveraging Your Routine Spending into Points: United

by milesforplacesLeave a Comment on Leveraging Your Routine Spending into Points: United

Unlike any other U.S. airline, United Airlines has a very useful application for iOS and Android that could help you earn miles by spending as you normally would. The app is called is MileagePlusX. You link your credit card(s) to the app and when you’re ready to purchase at a listed retailer or restaurant, it immediately generates a gift card for payment. So if you wanted to reload $10 on your Starbucks app, you would earn 20 United miles (in addition to the credit card points) by using the MileagePlusX app to purchase the gift card. The MileagePlusX app syncs really well with the Starbucks app so when the gift card is generated, it gives you an option to launch it via the Starbucks app. It’s noteworthy to mention that the current quarterly 5x reward category for Chase Freedom is restaurants. Starbucks happens to fall into this category so if you link the Chase Freedom with the MileagePlusX app and purchase the $10 gift card, you would get 20 miles from United for using the app, in addition to 50 points from Chase (5 points x  $10) for utilizing the Chase Freedom in the 5x quarterly category. That’s 70 points for a $10 reload you might have done anyway.

When you go to a retailer like DSW, you can enter the exact amount ($49.21 for example) once the cashier tells you the total and a gift card for that specific total will be generated. Some retailers like Amazon require you to purchase in increments of $5. United’s award redemptions are never lower than 12.5k miles per one way ticket so getting an award ticket exclusively from using the app would take a while. But if you’re a few hundred to a few thousand miles short or you have United miles that are expiring and need some type of activity to push back the expiration date, this app would be very useful.

Credit Cards & Miles, Getting Started

Earning Miles 101

by milesforplaces1 Comment on Earning Miles 101

Whether you are a college student planning your summer travels or a well established professional planning your family vacation, the first step you should take is making a frequent flier account for the U.S. legacy carriers (American, United, Delta, Southwest) as well carriers such as JetBlue and Alaska. Remember, to make a frequent flier account with any of these airlines is free. And if you happen to fly on any of them, all you have to do is plug in your frequent flier number and you earn miles for that trip. With all of these frequent flier programs, you don’t even need to fly to earn miles. Your routine spending habits might assist you and I will get to that in a future post.

Once you have accumulated enough miles, you can redeem them for a free flight.  Sometimes when I make this suggestion to friends,  they might respond by saying “that airline does not fly to my home airport so I won’t need it.” Never say never.  Over the last 16 years, mergers and acquisitions have resulted in airlines serving a locality which they may have not served before. For example, if you live in Minneapolis, a city not currently served by JetBlue,you might not give much thought into opening a frequent flier account with JetBlue. However, it might be just a matter of time before a larger airline such as American, Delta, or United becomes fixated with JetBlue and decides to acquire them. Or JetBlue might decide to expand to Minneapolis and if you are equipped with miles, you have a head start in accessing their network to different destinations.

Credit Cards & Miles, Getting Started

Applying for a Miles Earning Credit Card

by milesforplacesLeave a Comment on Applying for a Miles Earning Credit Card

Before getting started on posts detailing the advantages of various credit cards, I wanted to get a few important points across via a simple flow chart. This flow chart is aimed mostly for the younger mid-20’s and under crowd but I suppose anyone can benefit. It is important that you don’t rack up unnecessary spending on a credit card just for the sake of getting the bonus. My general rule is this: If your normal spending habits allow you to get the credit card bonus and you meet the criteria of the flow chart below, go ahead and get it. This includes paying tuition or buying a big ticket item such as a laptop or TV that you would have purchased anyway.  If you don’t see yourself spending the $2,000 or $3,000 that is required over the first three months to hit that bonus, wait until an opportunity arises. If you don’t pay off your monthly balance in full, the interest you will pay will negate the benefits you have earned from obtaining the credit card bonus. As the old adage goes, that is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Credit card bonuses are certainly the easiest way to earn a huge chunk of points/miles but a little discipline is required.  If you find yourself not being a good candidate to earn miles via a credit card, don’t be discouraged.  There are other ways and I’ll get to those in upcoming posts.

algorithm

Thanks for reading

– Shiraz

Destinations & Itineraries

Maldives: Miles Redemption Breakdown

by milesforplaces4 Comments on Maldives: Miles Redemption Breakdown

Boston to Dubai, via Toronto: 40k United Mileage Plus miles redeemed per person

First leg of our trip to Dubai was on an Embraer 190 flown by Air Canada. This redemption cost 40k miles per person. When I signed up for the Chase Sapphire Reserve back in September, they had a limited time offer of 100,000 bonus miles upon spending $4k in the first 3 months. Thanks to tuition, I hit that threshold pretty quickly. If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Preferred, you can transfer your points on a 1:1 ratio to United and then use one of their Star Alliance partners to fly. This is exactly what we did.

 2nd leg: Toronto to Dubai

This leg of our trip was on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner flown by Air Canada in economy class.  This was part of the redemption above. Air Canada is a Star Alliance partner of United.

Star Alliance
When using United MileagePlus miles, you can redeem them on any of their Star Alliance partners above.

 

Abu Dhabi to Male, Maldives: 30k American Airlines miles redeemed per person

My wife and I both signed up for the American Airlines Platinum Select credit card by Citi a few years back and received the bonus 50k miles after hitting the minimum spend threshold (that tuition again). American Airlines is part of One World Alliance but they also have several partners outside the alliance where you can find great redemptions. Etihad happens to be one those partners outside of One World. Others include, Hawaiian Airlines, Jet Airways, Alaska Airlines, and WestJet. One World partners are all below.

 

OneWorldAlliance
American Airlines AAdvantage miles can be redeemed on any of the airlines listed above. This is in addition to several that are not part of the One World Alliance

Male to Rangali Island: TransMaldivian Airways.  Partial cost offset by 55,000 American Express points.

When you book a trip to Maldives, there are two ways to get your island: by an expensive speedboat transfer or a ridiculously expensive seaplane transfer. Unfortunately, the sea plane transfer is offered by a single company, TransMaldivian Aiways,  which allows them to price the 30 minute flights for as much as they desire. They are not affiliated with any airline alliance so you can’t book them using miles. And it costs $546(!!) per round trip ticket to get to your island if it is only accessibly by seaplane. Since we booked the Conrad in Rangali Island, Maldives using Hilton points, our only option was taking the seaplane transfer. Since I couldn’t use miles and I wanted to reduce the cost burden of the seaplane transfer, I redeemed 55,000 American Express Premier Gold points for $550 in statement credit. AMEX Premier Gold has 20 airline transfer partners as well as the highly coveted Starwood hotels program as a transfer partner. Transferring to almost any of the programs would have given me significantly more value than the 1 cent per point I received by redeeming the points for statement credit. But I also hated the idea of spending $1,092 in cold hard cash for a 30 minute round trip flight. Redeeming the points made it a more palatable $273 round-trip per person. As for the experience itself, it was a very unique and scenic flight. The plane seats about 14 passengers in relatively narrow seats. The plane flies at around 4,500 feet so you get a great view of many islands with their over-water villas on the way to Rangali Island.

 

Conrad Maldives, Rangali Island: 620,000 Hilton Points

I’m not quite sure I’ll ever have another redemption in my life that will require as many points as I needed for the Conrad Maldives. This redemption took a lot of planning and required meeting multiple Hilton Card bonuses to have enough points for an award redemption. Back in 2015, My wife and I both applied for and got the Hilton Honors American Express credit card. It had no annual fee and the bonus was 75,000 Hilton points for spending $1,000 over the first 3 months. In 2016, we both got the Citi Hilton Honors Visa card. This offer was 75,000 points if you spend $2,000 over the first 3 months. I timed my car maintenance expenses and college expenses in a manner which I was able use the Citi Hilton card and get the bonus. My wife’s card was used in a similar manner. So if you’re keeping track, that is now 320,000 Hilton points we have accumulated between the two of us. Then earlier this year, American Express had a 100,000 point offer on their Hilton Surpass card. The annual fee was $75 but it came with automatic Hilton Gold Status. The benefit of having Gold status was significant. It ended up paying for the annual fee many times over. Both of us were able to achieve the 100k bonus due to miscellaneous spending + partial tuition.  Point count: 535,000 between the two of us. At this point, we had enough for 3 nights but due to the unpredictability of the weather (it was technically going to be rainy season in July), we really really wanted to get that in that 4th night. It was around this time that Hilton started a new feature in their Hilton Honors program in which you were now able to combine your points with 10 other people.  This was the break we needed. I asked my mom and dad if one of them was willing to apply for the no annual fee Hilton Honors AMEX card and get the 75k bonus after spending $2k in the first 3 months. Since they had a relatively large expense upcoming, they obliged and received the bonus. I was able to transfer those points into my account. Point count:  ~ 620,000.  Now we had enough points for 4 free nights at one of the best accommodations in the Maldives. Nightly rate if paid for in cash? $670. But the best part of this redemption is the Hilton Gold status that came with having the AMEX Hilton Surpass card. As Hilton Gold members, Conrad upgraded us from the superior over-water villa that we had booked to a retreat over-water villa. The cash value of the upgrade per night is about $130 a night. Multiply that by 4 and the upgrade is worth about $520. Hilton Gold members also had other benefits at the hotel such as free tea, biscuits, and lunch sandwiches between 4 and 5 pm and free mocktails between 5 and 6 pm. Buying lunch or mocktails at the Conrad with cash is not cheap. I’d peg this value at about $60 per day between two people. Multiply that by 4, that’s an additional $240 in value. For paying a total of $150 of annual fees between the two Hilton AMEX Surpass cards ($75 each), we derived about $760 in value. In addition, we both get a free night during our card member anniversary.

 

 

Male, Maldives to New York City, via Dubai

This was the part of our trip that really helped in reducing the overall miles/cash expenditure of our entire vacation. Sometimes you just get a little lucky. Back in early May, one of the travel blogs I follow sent out an alert on twitter about a mistake fare for a 1 way ticket from Maldives to NYC on Emirates. The mistake fare was $201 per person (!!!) for the 1 way ticket with dates extending as far out as December. Since Maldives was a trip I had been planning anyway, I thought I’d book the ticket and wait and see if Emirates would honor it. 24 hours after booking, I received an e-mail from Emirates that our tickets had been cancelled and that they would not be honoring the mistake fare. I was slightly disappointed but was prepared for this outcome. One week later, I received a call from Emirates asking me if I was still interested in that one way ticket. I told the rep I absolutely was. The booking/reservations agent informed me that there was a reversal in their decision and that they would be honoring the mistake fare. $201 per ticket from the Maldives to NYC is a steal. To put this into context, this flight would have cost $1,400 in cash per person or 70,000 Emirates miles (which I did not have)  and additional $100+ in taxes person.  Once this domino fell, everything else fell into place. Sometimes you just get a little lucky.

Airport Lounges, Middle East, Reviews

Review: Etihad Business Class Lounge Abu Dhabi International Airport

by milesforplacesLeave a Comment on Review: Etihad Business Class Lounge Abu Dhabi International Airport

Since I booked an Etihad business class flight from Abu Dhabi to Male, Maldives via American Airlines miles, access to the Etihad business class lounge was part of the package. Usually, I won’t make an effort to get to the airport early simply for lounge access. But since my wife and I had access to an exclusive lounge with many rave reviews, I felt like we would have missed out on a great opportunity if we arrived an hour before departure. So we arrived 2.5 hours before departure which gave us plenty of time at the lounge.

Our boarding passes were scanned upon entry and the staff gave us a tour of the lounge. The buffet area, business center, bar, lounge area, and of course the spa.  We purposely skipped the hotel breakfast to have the breakfast here and we were glad we did.There was a great selection of food with breakfast meats, traditional Middle Eastern fare, and a healthy selection that included a variety of fruits and oatmeal.

 

 

FruitsEtihadLounge

 

variety of meats

 

The lounge itself was very spacious and there was no shortage of seats.  There was also a dessert table which I really tried hard to avoid but I couldn’t.  It was basically yelling at me to come over and so I did

 

Dessert options at the Etihad business class lounge

 

The lounge area is perfect if you have to get work done and need a semi-quiet area. The six senses spa located in the lounge used to be complimentary for business class passengers but that is no longer the case. You can get a variety of massages starting at $25 for 15 minutes. If you’re traveling from Abu Dhabi via business class, be sure to stop by the business class lounge. You will be glad you did.

 

6 Senses Spa inside the lounge

 

This lounge is a perfect 5/5. It exceeded my expectations and has everything from top-notch food, dessert, and drink options to fast wifi and even a spa. There is plenty of space to spread out and during my time there, it was not crowded.

Airlines, Reviews

Etihad Business Class: Airline Review

by milesforplacesLeave a Comment on Etihad Business Class: Airline Review

Before I get to the review, let me explain the ways you can go about redeeming miles. For people that have accumulated airline miles, there are two prevailing thoughts on how to use them.  The first is redeeming for a product that gives you the most value. For example, redeeming 60k miles for a business class ticket that would cost $3,000 if you were to pay with cash. This gives you a value of 5 cents per mile ($3,000/60,000 miles = 0.05 cents/mile).  The second is using the redemption that costs the least number of miles so you can put the savings into another trip for the future. An example of this is using 30k miles to book a ticket in economy class  that would usually cost $600. This gives you a lower value of 2 cents per mile ($600/30,000 miles = 0.02 cents per mile) but now you have miles left over for a future trip.

Up until this particular trip, I have always fell into the latter. I usually preferred sacrificing comfort and indulgence for the opportunity to travel more. When I called American Airlines to redeem their miles on their partner airline Etihad, I did so fully intending to book economy for my wife and I. This would have came at a cost of 15k miles per 1 way ticket from Abu Dhabi to Maldives. When the customer service rep looked into my inquiry, she informed me that only business class redemption’s were available on this flight since economy was fully booked. The redemption was 30k miles per ticket. I thought about the opportunity cost the higher redemption might have for a future flight but  gave her the green light to book business class. And it was probably the best redemption decision I have ever made in terms of value.  Had I booked that same business class ticket using cash, it would have cost 6,345 AED or $1,727.47 per ticket.  Using this redemption, my wife and I got an incredible value. of 5.7 cents per mile.

The cash price of booking a one way business class ticket from Abu Dhabi, UAE to Male, Maldives

 

As for the product itself, you really feel like you’re getting the most for your miles when you book with Etihad.  When your flight originates from Abu Dhabi, you reap the benefits before you even arrive at the airport. Etihad offers a luxury chauffeur service for business class travelers where a Mercedes or BMW will pick up you up from your hotel/home and take you to the airport. This service was offered in various cities worldwide before Etihad pared it down to their hub city. Unfortunately, I had a one-way car rental from Dubai so I was not able to utilize this service. Upon checking in at Abu Dhabi airport, my wife and I had complimentary access to the Etihad Business Class lounge. You can read about that experience here.  After spending over an hour at the lounge, it was time to head over to our gate for our flight to Male. Our plane was parked on the tarmac away from the jet bridge and a shuttle would ferry us there. The first shuttle was only for first class and business class passengers. It was 75% empty and they could have easily fit an additional 30-35 passengers. At that point it became clear that Etihad really goes the extra mile in adding to the exclusiveness for their first and business class customers. Once seated on the plane we were immediately offered beverages and given a menu. The choices are seen below.

Business class breakfast

 

Scrambled eggs, chicken sausage, and a hashbrown
vanilla pancakes, fruits, croissant, and orange juice

I went with the scrambled egg option while the wife opted for the vanilla pancakes.  I’ve never had chicken sausage before and while I would have preferred beef, it still tasted pretty good. I took a bite from the wife’s pancakes and kind of wished I ordered that instead.  Both were delicious but the pancakes were a tad bit better.  The flight was about 4 hours long and the flight attendants came by routinely to ask if we wanted any beverages. The cappuccino was good but not much different than any other cup of cappuccino I’ve had.  And they gave a pouch with eye covers and socks.

Since we were flying in the Airbus A320, our seats were not the fully lay-flat seats seen in the Boeing 777 or Airbus A380.  They still reclined a great deal and were plenty comfortable. Just prior to landing, we were given an expedited customs card which allowed us to go to the front of the line for immigration/customs. Looking back on it, the value we received for the extra 15k miles per person was tremendous. Had I booked economy (if it were available), the 15k miles per person saved might have been enough for two one-way saver award tickets or one round trip ticket anywhere in the continental U.S. on American. Perhaps the total maximum value would be $450 on the 30k miles saved. By booking business class, the extra 15k miles spent per person netted us a benefit of $900-$1000 per ticket. That is called getting value for your miles. It may also have me rethink my strategy when booking future award flights.