Archive for December, 2010

It seems like a fitting topic for the last day of the year, as it will lead to new cards in the next year. I’m sure you all remember the Chase British Airways card we all signed up for last fall. It was the largest signup bonus I ever got for a credit card, and all for a $75 fee. My renewal bill came in the mail and the $75 annual renewal fee was on the statement.

This topic continues to be one of my most frequent email questions; “When do I cancel my credit cards?” My answer is “NOW. I just got the annual fee statement and I am not offered a satisfactory retention offer”

When I called to cancel my card and Katy’s the process was quick and easy. I was transferred to the retention department but was not offered a retention bonus. That is probably because I never used the card after reaching my minimum spend. I did not go for the companion ticket with $30K in spend because of the terrible fuel surcharges charged by BA. It was no loss for us, in fact, it was the continuation of a lifelong process.

1. Apply for a card.
2. Earn the sign up bonus.
3. Put the card away until the annual bill comes due.
4. Cancel the card when the annual fee comes due, if not offered a great retention bonus.
5. Have available credit with the card issuer again because of the cancellation of the old card.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat: Over and Over and Over again.

My income has not changed since a year ago. But the day after I canceled the Chase BA card, if the banks formula for available credit per income and credit score has not changed, I now have available credit again. Remember, Chase is almost always a card issuer I have to negotiate with to get a new approval. Now that I have 10K less of credit extended to me, the next approval should come without the call to the credit analyst department.

So it was goodbye to a great card offer, but the “Circle of Life” for a churner continues. How about another monster offer Chase? I had some inquiries fall off my credit report in November and December. I canceled my Chase BA card. I’m ready for another prosperous year in 2011

Happy New Year Everyone

Tuesday morning, on our return to Savannah, we had the pleasure of negotiating Atlanta’s Hartsfield airport, their crowds and security system.. The lines were long but moved very smoothly. We left the Airport Westin at 8:20 AM and found ourselves in the Skyclub plane side by 9:05 AM.

There were horror stories of passengers stranded for up to 5 days trying to get back to New York but in the time we were there, the process moved efficiently. It was all leisure travelers as the “suits’ were hard to find. I did notice it takes an extra step or two for leisure travelers, hunting in an extra pocket, forgetting your keys, where is my boarding pass? etc going through the line, but all in all: A OK. The TSA staff was friendly and upbeat. Maybe they realized the holiday rush was soon coming to a close.

The Skyclub was virtually empty. Leisure travelers don’t seem to be frequent guest of the clubs. I was using 1 day Groupon passes for my infrequent traveling friends and they seemed to enjoy the respite after the security lines. As always, these two guys were in the free food line. I found the Delta Skyclub to be stark and small in relation to the Red Carpet Clubs of United, but that could be just this one location. The morning snack offering was also sub RCC quality.

Although it all went smoothly, I can’t imagine spending an hour a week of my life in those lines. My condolences to the business travelers of Atlanta. A small town airport suits me just fine.

Tomorrow is the last post of 2010. It has been a very successful travel year. Lot’s of miles, lots of sites and no major traffic calamities or delays. I scored about $2700 in bump vouchers, a another $1000 in customer service related vouchers and went around the world again.

I’m looking forward to 2011 and the adventures we will all experience.

Chaing Mai Temple Photo by Andrew Ingersoll

Cockpit crews spend so much time just looking into a dark sky that telling jokes and anecdotes is a proven method to stay awake.

50,000 Membership Rewards Points, Lounge Access for One Year and $200 Airline Incidental Credit Annual Fee is $450

Here is the Delta 45,000 miles credit card link. It has been extended to 12/31/10


Big Crumbs

Some of you have been very successful with the Bigcrumbs cashback program. I have not. And my gift cards are only working after a long delay at the Mint, while my regular credit card purchases are working just fine.

It seems that Amex changed their website around the time I made my first order on November 19th. Still no cash back so today, per the instructions below, I am sending another ticket to them. It is time for me to order more gift cards, but I am being stubborn about this to my own detriment. I will not order more gift cards until they pay on the first order. This is a terrific opportunity and I want very badly for it to work properly. If I get my cash back credit, I will then apply for the fidelty credit card and add to the financial windfall with another 1.5%, moving up to 2% on purchases. But first, these guys need to get their act together.

Bigcrumbs response:

Hello Members,

We apologize for the delay in posting an update to this inquiry.

Thank you for making us aware of a potential issue with American Express Gift Cards. We contacted the merchant immediately after reading the post from astrophys, and recently received confirmation from American Express that they have indeed experienced reporting difficulties.

We appreciate the frustration that this issue must have caused, especially during the holiday season, and would like to assure our members that we are diligently working to ensure that all eligible member purchases are credited.

We have been notified that reporting should be corrected within the next few days, however if your credits are not posted by 12/27/2010, please feel free to submit a ticket to our support staff who will gladly assist in resolving any outstanding concerns.

Again, our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.

Well It’s Now December 28th

And here is their latest comment:

We apologize for any confusion that our previous post may have caused. American Express Gift Cards has confirmed that they experienced intermittent reporting delays between 11/13/2010 and 12/03/2010.

Members who made purchases during the affected period and have not submitted an inquiry, are encouraged to carefully review their accounts and submit a ticket if any discrepancies are noted. All credit inquiries are being processed in the order in which they are received.

We do ask members to refrain from submitting multiple tickets for the same missing credit, since multiple tickets may significantly delay the overall processing time. We will reply to all credit inquiries via email as soon as we get a response from the retailer.

Please also note that we are working very closely with American Express to resolve these tickets as quickly as possible. American Express greatly recognizes the frustration that the reporting delay has caused and has committed to making the approval process a top priority, so that all affected members can be appropriately credited in the shortest timeframe possible.

If you have questions specific to your account, we encourage you to reply directly to the email you received in response to your ticket. Due to privacy concerns, our support staff cannot respond to account questions posted on the forums, but will be happy to respond via email to any questions or concerns.

Again, we do appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience.

30,000 Miles on First Purchase, No First Year Fee, $50 Statement Credit, Two Lounge Passes

A Big Fee and Bigger Offer

This Christmas was a perfect example of an opportunity to use miles for something special, regardless of the cost. My buddy Kenny is a huge New Orleans Saints fan. In fact, he worked for them in the past running the food concessions at the Super Dome. His wife Lavern, told me he wanted to see the game with the Falcons in Atlanta tonight and she wondered if I could get him a ticket. She’d gladly pay for it. I did better than that.

My golfing buddy, Jeff, from Michigan is also down for the holidays. He is not much of a football fan but has never been to a pro game and said sure he would go. His kidney transplant this spring would make it umcomfortable to drive the 4+ hours over and then 4+ hours back. In addition his step mom is in poor health, lives in Alphretta close by Atlanta, so a well planned trip would accomplish much this holiday season. Jeff will get to spend a couple hours with her before game time.

I found three game seats on Stubhub at hugely overinflated prices but Kenny’s wife gave me the ok and she would reimburse me for Ken’s ticket. Now to get there. On short notice, the flights we needed for the extensive one hour flight were $683 each. Over Monday afternoon so Jeff could see his stepmom and back Tuesday by noon so Kenny could back to work.

Alas, miles came in to play. I took the 125K we had earned from the Suntrust deal and threw in 25K of my own and booked 3 high tier Delta Airlines tickets for 50K each.Was it the best use of miles on a price per mile basis? Hell no, but it was priceless for me. because of our hobby. We are going to the game, staying at the Westin on points and home Tuesday.

$2000 of airline tickets for 5 debit cards and a few hours of my time. Kenny gets his wish, Jeff sees his stepmom and our hobby lets me play Santa Claus.

It was my best Christmas present.

Look for us tonight. If they show the nose bleed seats, that’s where we’ll be

Thanks For the TripAlertz.com Referrals

Thanks to all of you that have used this link to let me refer you to tripalertz.com. We have a developed a nice stash of Trip Cash and will be giving some of it away in the near future. Tripalertz is a luxury travel website that lowers prices based on more and more members taking advantage of their offers. I can refer you here and you can learn more about their program at tripalertz.com. They now have over 10,000 members in juist a few short months.

Thanks for letting me refer you

30,000 Miles on First Purchase, $50 Statement Credit, First Bag Free and Two Lounges Passes

Roman Forum Photo by Andrew Ingersoll

Convert to Continental Miles One for One- NO First Year Fee

30,000 Miles on First Purchase, Free First Checked Bag, $50 Statement Credit, Soon to be United Miles

Jeff is here from Michigan, enjoying his school break and getting out of the snow. We’ll play golf three times while he’s here, but today is all about giving.

Most don’t think about Hilton Head Island as a place with those in need, but we do have many families in the service industry just getting by. In addition, there are many elderly without family in the area and they would be alone this Christmas Day if not for our two leaders.

Two lovely ladies, Barb and Lois, started a community Christmas dinner for anyone alone or in need of a meal on Christmas Day. Jeff and I have been volunteering since I moved down here. We are the “Stuffing Crew”, making cornbread stuffing for about 1200 each Christmas Day. Katy has always worked in the Emergency Room on Christmas so a Mom with small kids could have the day off to be with family. This year, she’ll be making stuffing and cutting turkey with us.

I started this tradition in our family 17 years ago when I sobered up. In Traverse City, I made stuffing on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter with the Community Meals program run by Sandra Svec for thousands every year. My kids are always there when in town. It is tradition now.

Many years ago when we had a place in Bonita Springs, Florida, we went with the Chamber of Commerce on Christmas Day to Immokalee, Florida where many of the migrant workers have jobs in the produce fields. My kids tell me still today that that day serving drinks and making salad for the migrant workers helped shape their desire for service work. You never know when you’ll hit the right chord with your kids. It was a very important day in my life and theirs.

My Christmas wish for you this year is as always, peace and good health to you and your family. And as an added bonus, I wish for you, the opportunity to give to others. It is a much more satisfying feeling than a new toy or gizmo you may receive. It it may start a tradition in your family as well. And that way, the whole world wins on this special day.

God Bless you all.

Rick and Katy

PS: I pulled the ad for the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Card because the offer was less than the offer on spg.com. The offer I was given was for 10,000 points after the initial spend but did not include the 15K bonus with $15,000 in spend. To get the full 25,000 point offer, go to SPG.com on the lower right hand corner.

The Holiday Spirit is alive and well among us here at the blog. I just got my first preliminary report from the Hilton Head Island branch of Suntrust in relation to the now winding down Suntrust/Delta deal. Working together with some terrific Suntrust folks we have generated in excess of:

43,000,000 Delta Airlines Miles with this promotion

This figure represents new account openings in the last quarter that have been funded. It does not appear to count deals done early in September nor deals still on their desks waiting to be funded. I think the final number will exceed 50 million miles. With the help of Megan, Kris and the OK from their branch manager, Heather, we have pulled off a stunning success this fall and I am so happy to have played my small part.

Working together: We Can See the World at Prices We All Can Afford

Happy Holidays and thank you again, Megan, Kris and Heather

Continental Credit Card Now? or Wait for Mileathon?

We now have a bit of a dilemma if you want CO miles in a hurry. The Chase Continental airlines credit card that was such a good deal recently, with 30K miles, two lounge passes, $50 statement credit and free first checked bag is still available, but I can’t remember when this promo ends? I think it is January 31, 2011 from something I remember reading , but will be damned if I can find it now. It is still a great offer, BUT would be even better if it lasts until February and would give you all a big bump up in the Continental Mileathon promo. (you can register in January but activity must start in February) This could be an ugh for all of us. If they drop all the goodies in the offer on 1/31/11, I have no idea what the offer will be like February 1st.

If somebody can confirm or find again the expiration of the offer, We All Will Appreciate it. Just post it in the comments section today please. I hav elooke devery where for them???

The Chase/Continental Debit Card Deal

Is set to expire on December 31st. There has been speculation online that with the upcoming UA merger, we may not see this offer in 2011. I’ll need help finding the linkif the promo continues, so keep your eyes open after New Years so we can post it for all interested. It is the easiest 50K you can earn if you do the biz account as well. In the past, debit card deals have counted for Mileathon as well.

So back to CO credit card miles, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card again appears to be the card of choice IF you need CO miles now. They start out as Ultimate rewards points but transfer 1:1 to Continental. Katy and I have both done this card and the miles are safely in our CO accounts now. And a real live person answers the phone.

Let me refer you to Tripalertz.com

Convert to Continental Miles One for One- No First Year Fee

And this is the Good Offer in Question? Mileathon? Maybe Wait. If not, Go For it Now

I’m just minding my own business waiting for Jeff in Charleston, SC and around the corner comes the Boeing “Dreamlifter”. This 4 engine pregnant monstrosity is carry the aft fuselage (or “barrel’ as the Boeing guys call it) of the new 787 Dreamliner to Everett, Washington for assembly. I had no idea the plant was even in operation.

The Boeing guys are celebrating in the airport lounge and a cheer went up as the plane took off. It seems they spent all day fitting the thing in the “Dreamlifter”

I’m a plane geek and thought it was cool. I hope the picture comes out alright for you.