Rookie Travel Tips with Shannon

April 1, 2011 - Shannon

Last week’s Winning Tip goes to Bacc with the tip on Tripit.com. Thank you all for your stories and tips. They were Great!Our March $100 gift card winner was Angik S!!! Angik: Email your address to Rick to receive your gift card, and congratulations!I can finallysay I’m on my way to being 50,000 Continental Airlines Frequent Flier Miles richer. WAHOO!!!! I’m sick of watching all you “pros” get 100,000 miles here and 100,000 miles there, elite status, and lounge access — you make me sick! Actually you all make me jealous and hungry for more!As you may remember, I applied for the Chase Continental One Pass credit card months ago and received a denial letter. Not too surprising as I am just beginning to build my credit and do not have a ton of history, although my FICO score is 729, which I thought was pretty decent. I took two different approaches when pursuing my reconsiderations for these cards. For the Chase credit card, I called and spoke in person with a representative. I essentially told him the same information I would have in a written letter (see below). He updated my information and told me to wait for another response within 30 days. I was approved three weeks later.

Along with the Chase credit card, I applied for the Starwood Preferred Guest Card and received a denial. I have written a letter of reconsideration to the SPG people and am awaiting a response (hopefully an approval).

When you’re writing a reconsideration letter (see August, 28th 2010 post) you want to include a few key points:

1. I have NEVER BEEN LATE with a payment.
2. I’ve een gainfully employed for ______ consecutive years.
3. I have a credit score of ______, which I know is in the good range as I check my credit regularly.
4. I’ll take a small credit limit to prove my worth to you.
5. Think of the merchant fees you’ll be missing out on by not approving my application.

My letter to SPG:

To whom it may concern,

I recently applied for your Starwood Preferred Guest Card and received a denial letter. I am writing to ask for reconsideration on your position. I work for and I have been an employee there for two and a half years. My husband and I had a combined income in 2011 of dollars. I have a credit score of 729 and I monitor my credit regularly. I have never made a late payment in the past and I do not desire a large line of credit. Please take these facts into account and reconsider my application.

I look forward to hearing from you,

In case you missed the info on these two cards: The Chase Continental One Pass credit card link is located on the right hand column of the blog under Rick’s Top Eight Travel Deals #3. Many Rookies don’t know this but you can only receive a bonus once per card. This credit card offer will expire May 31st, so this is a great chance to get bonus points off a card that will never be offered again and save the other cards for later. The bonus miles are Continental frequent flier miles, which will be combined with United frequent flier miles once the company merger is complete. It’s a great chance to build up United points. Some details on the card:

50,000 bonus frequent flier miles after your first purchase
A waiver of the $85 annual fee for your first year
10,000 bonus frequent flier miles annually when you spend $25,000 on your Card
Two frequent flier miles per $1 spent on tickets purchased directly from Continental
One frequent flier mile per $1 spent on all other purchases

The Starwood Preferred Guest Card offer is at the bottom of the blog. That card gives a 25,000 point bonus, 10,000 after first purchase, and 15K more if I spend $15,000 in the first six months. That will be tough for me to do. I will use this card for my hotel stays.

Wish me luck!
SHANNON

Submit your best travel tips for a chance to win a $100 dollar travel gift card!

Platinum Card for the Delta Transfer Bonus, Elite Status, Lounge Access, $200 Incidental Credit and More. Read my February 6th blog post for details.

Anonymous

When you travel in sleeping accommodation aboard an Amtrak train all meals are included as standard.
Anonymous

How exactly would you book a trip like this – do you have to call and talk to customer service (or can you do it online)? Can someone explain why Amtrak doesn't charge more for the longer, two train trip that Chris took through many more cities, than for the direct trip that would have been just one train? How do you convince them to let you do this, when it is clearly more expensive for them?

-mk
chemist661

I believe that one can only transfer 25K CO miles to Amtrak per year.
Anonymous

Sorry to hear the "funnies" are going away. I really enjoyed them…especially the quotes from pilots and airline workers.
Anonymous

Help me understand this — is Chris saying that you still have to pay out of pocket for the base fare for two people from LA to Chicago, which is over $500?
gpapadop

Very interesting award! Looks like shoving 2 kids in this cabin may be way too close? Will they let 2 adults and 2 young kids be in it anyways and we all get meals or is 2 the max allowed? But with the 25k annual transfer limit per year we will consider leaving the kids at home, lol.
james

Today's column made me look at the Amtrak Rewards page for the first time in a long while…And lookie here! While American has reduced their ratio for a Hilton Honors transfer, Amtrak is still a 2:1 partner! 25k CO to Amtrak will give 50k HHonors points.
Chris

Chemist, I don't think that's true. You can only transfer 25k FROM Amtrak TO Continental, but I'm not sure there's a limit FROM Continental TO Amtrak.

mk, whenever you're booking a room/roommette, you have to call the AGR CSR. But generally speaking, if you can find a route bookable as a one-way or roundtrip fare on the website, you can book it with points. And there are some pretty roundabout routings…ABQ to CHI via PDX is certainly one of them.
Anonymous

How would it possible to take Amtrak from LA to CHI for 20K miles? On their website, the 3 region trip roomette costs 30K.
ArizonaGuy

@Anon: LA to Chicago is 2 zones, not 3. Western to Central. 20K Roomette, 30K Bedroom (en suite).
MisterToad

You can book Amtrak rewards online when traveling in coach on a single train. All other reward travel must be booked by calling Amtrak Guest Rewards.

Amtrak uses a zone system to determine how many points are required for a trip. There are three zones: West, Central, and East (there is also a Northeast zone, and there are shorter special routes, but for simplicity, we'll just call it three zones). Los Angeles is in the West zone and Chicago is in the Central zone, so that is a two zone trip. Any valid routing between the two cities can be redeemed for the same number of points. Basically, any routing you can find on Amtrak's website can be booked using points.

There is no limit on the number of Continental miles that can be transferred to Amtrak. I have personally transferred 75,000 in a year, and I know of others who have transferred many more than that.

Anyone interested in Amtrak travel should check out the Amtrak Unlimited discussion forum at http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/
B

Chris, can you clarify whether you still had to pay for the base fare, and how much?
Anonymous

Am I reading that correctly in that the top bed is just 24 inches wide?
Chris

B, it was 20,000 points all in. No other fees or costs.

Rookie Travel Tips with Shannon

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