My first experience with credit card points/miles
- Thread starter TurboMinivan
- Start date
- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
That's some flights! Cool trip for sure
TurboMinivan
Still plays with cars
- Location
- Lehi, UT
Great Barrier Reef, here I come
I had to comment, because I was perusing Wikipedia and came upon this remark:
"In November 2014, Google launched Google Underwater Street View in 3D of the Great Barrier Reef."
Wait... what??? So I followed the link to the relevant news story:
I didn't know this was a thing.
My wife and I both opened up Alaska airlines cards this past year. Got enough miles to get 4 of us to Alaska for free. Pretty sweet. I don’t think I will give up my Cabela’s card for business purchases. I like that I can get guns and nice optics with points. Sure, I could do that with cash back, but I wouldn’t. I would buy something lame like gas.
I told myself when I started in the AMEX ecosystem that points were strictly for fun experiences. Last year the wife and I went to Orlando for my 40th and stayed in a sweet hotel on points. This year we’re going to NYC and staying in a boujee hotel for her 40th. All on points, again. It really makes it easier for us to not feel guilty about going on a trip sans kids. That’s a dumb phenomenon anyways but it happens.
Then she is using some more to take my 11 y/o to Orlando. I actually pushed back on that one and said points are for us only but we don’t have any other trips planned so using the points is typically the smart move.
Then she is using some more to take my 11 y/o to Orlando. I actually pushed back on that one and said points are for us only but we don’t have any other trips planned so using the points is typically the smart move.
TurboMinivan
Still plays with cars
- Location
- Lehi, UT
In February, my wife is going on a cruise with her mother and an aunt. They are sailing out of New Orleans, so I've got to get my wife there and back. While I have already rebuilt my stockpile of CC points, I was initially not thinking of using them. The general consensus says it is difficult to fly domestically for much better than 1 CPP, so figured I would just pay outright for her flights... but after seeing the actual options for the dates needed, I decided to investigate my point options.
The down side: she is locked in to her travel dates. I know this greatly limits out options, but it is what it is. I decided to check out the Delta/Air France connection since it served me so well in the past. On a Delta plane non-stop from SLC to MSY, Delta charges $304 or 27,500 points + $6. Doing the math, that comes out to 1.08 CPP. Bleh. For kicks, I decided to check with Air France. For the same plane and the same flight, they only charge 16,000 points + $19. This works out to 1.78 CPP. Quite a bit better, and much closer to the 2 CPP which some YTers feel is the effective ceiling for domestic flights. What the hell, I'll take it.
I log into Air France, begin the ticketing process, then at the last minute (since the process cannot be reversed) transfer over 16,000 points. As I apply them to my purchase, Air France then offers me two other options: I can add another ~$20 cash and drop to 14,000 points, or I can add another $41 cash (for $60 total) and drop to only 12,000 points. Doing the math, the latter works out to 2.03 CPP and is the best of the three options offered to me. So I choose that one and complete the deal.
The only bummer is now I have 4000 points sitting in my Air France account and I cannot transfer them back. I'm a little miffed that AF didn't present this option until after I had transferred the 16k points, but I suppose they are catering to their loyal customers (ie, people sitting on a pool of AF points) rather than folks moving points in from outside sources. Oh, well, I'm sure I'll use AF to fly on points again in the future.
The down side: she is locked in to her travel dates. I know this greatly limits out options, but it is what it is. I decided to check out the Delta/Air France connection since it served me so well in the past. On a Delta plane non-stop from SLC to MSY, Delta charges $304 or 27,500 points + $6. Doing the math, that comes out to 1.08 CPP. Bleh. For kicks, I decided to check with Air France. For the same plane and the same flight, they only charge 16,000 points + $19. This works out to 1.78 CPP. Quite a bit better, and much closer to the 2 CPP which some YTers feel is the effective ceiling for domestic flights. What the hell, I'll take it.
I log into Air France, begin the ticketing process, then at the last minute (since the process cannot be reversed) transfer over 16,000 points. As I apply them to my purchase, Air France then offers me two other options: I can add another ~$20 cash and drop to 14,000 points, or I can add another $41 cash (for $60 total) and drop to only 12,000 points. Doing the math, the latter works out to 2.03 CPP and is the best of the three options offered to me. So I choose that one and complete the deal.
The only bummer is now I have 4000 points sitting in my Air France account and I cannot transfer them back. I'm a little miffed that AF didn't present this option until after I had transferred the 16k points, but I suppose they are catering to their loyal customers (ie, people sitting on a pool of AF points) rather than folks moving points in from outside sources. Oh, well, I'm sure I'll use AF to fly on points again in the future.
TurboMinivan
Still plays with cars
- Location
- Lehi, UT
This will make you feel better: there are no options to get my wife back home paying with points via AF--they have no reward flights available that match her travel date.
So I'll just be paying for that airfare outright.
Johnny Quest
Web Wheeler
- Location
- West Jordan
So…..stupid question- are you using the Amex for all purchases to get these points? All groceries, gas, clothes, everything?
I have The Amex platinum, but only use it for larger purchases and then pay it off. But we’ve got a family of 5 to fly around; trying to make it to the east coast next year, and we’re looking at $4k+ for flights.
I have The Amex platinum, but only use it for larger purchases and then pay it off. But we’ve got a family of 5 to fly around; trying to make it to the east coast next year, and we’re looking at $4k+ for flights.
- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Slight hijack....
Ever thought about Amtrak? Not nearly as quick, but should be way cheaper and a bit of a fun adventure.
Johnny Quest
Web Wheeler
- Location
- West Jordan
I would Love it. My wife would tolerate it. My kids would make me want to remove myself from the train at a high rate of speed, while crossing a very high bridge.
There are other options besides AMEX if you haven't dedicated yourself to their ecosystem yet. Capital One has some good cards and so does Chase. They all have shortcomings. That being said I'm all about the AMEX trifecta. For the Platinum and Gold you have to ask for a retention bonus every year after the annual fee posts. I've had luck so far.
Platinum for travel (5x on flights) and the couple random things it gives benefits on like fuel through Walmart+, the cell phone bill for insurance (which we've used before and it was rad) and it seems like a couple more things I'm forgetting.
Gold card for restaurants and grocery store (4x)... Walmart doesn't count as a grocery store FYI.
Blue Business Plus gets most of our spend as it's 2x on everything. Yes, you can open a business card even without a business technically. Reddit is the best for this info. I opened one for the 50k sign-up bonus and then the wife did the same for the same SUB. I thought we were done with new cards but then I got a targeted e-mail a few weeks ago with an invitation to open a BBP for 50k MR. So yeah now we have 3 of them lol it's easy cause they don't have an annual fee.
I don't recommend going down the stack of credit cards route to everyone as it can get away from you if you're not careful. We've always treated them as debit cards, never paid a cent of interest and maintain 820ish credit scores.
Platinum for travel (5x on flights) and the couple random things it gives benefits on like fuel through Walmart+, the cell phone bill for insurance (which we've used before and it was rad) and it seems like a couple more things I'm forgetting.
Gold card for restaurants and grocery store (4x)... Walmart doesn't count as a grocery store FYI.
Blue Business Plus gets most of our spend as it's 2x on everything. Yes, you can open a business card even without a business technically. Reddit is the best for this info. I opened one for the 50k sign-up bonus and then the wife did the same for the same SUB. I thought we were done with new cards but then I got a targeted e-mail a few weeks ago with an invitation to open a BBP for 50k MR. So yeah now we have 3 of them lol it's easy cause they don't have an annual fee.
I don't recommend going down the stack of credit cards route to everyone as it can get away from you if you're not careful. We've always treated them as debit cards, never paid a cent of interest and maintain 820ish credit scores.
TurboMinivan
Still plays with cars
- Location
- Lehi, UT
In my case, I decided if I was going to sit down at the rewards table then I was going all in. Since getting my CapOne Venture X, I have used it for everything--gas, groceries, utility bill, insurance bills, online shopping, basically everything that doesn't incur a fee for use. I no longer use cash for anything.
The truly dedicated people (generally) select one of the major three brands--CapOne, AmEx, Chase--and then completely dive into that brand's ecosystem. Each one has either a 'duo' or 'trifecta' of two or three cards which compliment each other and work together to maximize point earning. The user(s) then just need to keep track of it all, remembering which card to use for which purchase. Then they pool all the earned points to the card of the duo/trifecta with the best benefits and cash them out as desired.
For example: I'm told there is a decent CapOne duo between the Venture X and the Savor One. The Savor gives 3% cash back on "grocery, dining, entertainment and streaming services" and 1% cash back on everything else, and this cash back can be transferred to the Venture X and converted into points on a 1:1 basis. Meanwhile, The Venture X gives you 10X points on hotels and rental cars, 5X points on flights and vacation rentals, and 2X points on everything else. If I had the Savor, I would use it only for all my grocery, dining, entertainment and streaming service purchases, and use the Venture X for everything else. In this way, I would earn more points than using only a Venture X.
Having said all that, I have so far decided to stick to my Venture X. At this point, I am happy with the simplicity of using only one card. But if you want to really maximize your point earning and you can stay on top of it, a great duo/trifecta is the way to go.
- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
I just have the Best Western card so I can swing my Moab hotel stay. 5x and 10x points would make up for that quite a bit