Come to the Chicago Seminars Using only 17,500 AA Miles
Posted by Rick Friday, May 27, 2011, No Comments
Today’s AA celebration offers round trip domestic tickets for only 17,500 miles. You have until June 10th to book an award ticket. There is no registration for this promotion and the eligible flights are clearly marked when you do an award search on aa.com.
Now is the time to get your flights for the Chicago Seminars 2011 October 28th til 30th. Registration is only $75 and includes lunch for both days, two full days of speakers, that are in the know about the topics of the day, and a chance to meet and network with all your fellow travel crazies. We had a ball last year. This is by far the largest gathering of the year.
Here is the registration link for the Chicago Seminars 2011. Invest only 17,500 miles getting to Chicago with this terrific AA offer and you’ll earn them back many times over with your new found knowledge and increased network of fellow travelers.
How I Book Hotel Rooms, and Delaying Our Churn Date
Posted by Rick Monday, May 23, 2011, No Comments
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| Photography by Anne Cabo San Lucas |
We made it to Kos, Greece without a hitch. Room is very nice and overlooks the ocean in the distance. Our stay is on points and my Gold status gets us free Internet and I think breakfast is included. I tried to tip the front desk for a better room but they didn’t understand since they said they had already upgraded us. Oh well, I tried to help the economy. Tomorrow’s post will give first impressions of the island and resort.
How I Book Hotel Rooms
Remember from yesterday’s post that I do not have the luxury of a business expense account. I pay for every room night out of my own pocket. The techniques for business travelers would be controlled by different factors:
1. Company contracts with hotel chains.
2. Price limits for employee-done bookings
3. The best promos at the time that result in free nights and other benefits that pass on to the traveling businessman.
For us “Pay from your pocket travelers”:
This is a reprint of a post I did earlier this year. Try the technique yourself for an upcoming real or phantom stay.
All seasoned “travel hackers” have their own method for getting the best deals we can with hotel room bookings. I’ll describe mine step by step as I try a phantom booking in Indianapolis, Indiana.
I’m choosing Indianapolis because I’ve never been there, I haven’t done any prior research, and because I want to see how long the process would take (35 minutes, as it turned out). My hotel location will be determined by the availability of public transportation and the cost. I tried this booking for the evening of April 11, 2011. (I’m telling you this because deals change all the time. This was what I found that night.) My phantom meeting is downtown the next morning, with an evening departure that night. I am a three-star hotel kind of guy, so no Econo Lodges for me.
I start at my computer by opening some browser windows:
- Indianapolis Airport Official Website
- Kayak.com
- BiddingForTravel.com
- TripAdvisor.com (for unbiased reviews of hotels)
- SPG.com (Starwood Preferred Guest’s hotel offers and loyalty program)
- PriorityClub.com
Step One is the airport website and ground transportation. I hate renting a car in a strange city for one meeting downtown, and I’ve found that I can get an Express Bus for $7 each way. This information not only helps me get downtown, but it also opens up airport hotels and their shuttle buses back to the airport to catch the Express Bus downtown. Airport hotels are quite often cheaper than downtown hotels. I have that covered. Now it’s time to check out some prices.
So I head over to Kayak (www.kayak.com/hotels) where I can compare hundreds of travel sites at once. Kayak shows me that the least expensive, well-known, three-star chain hotel in downtown Indianapolis is the Sheraton at $129 per night. The airport search shows rates of $89, $87, $110, and $119 for hotels with shuttles.
I now have retail prices so let’s find the deal. So it’s time to head over to BiddingForTravel.com where page one shows accepted Priceline bids of $45 and $61 for higher-rated downtown hotels and $40 for a Radisson airport hotel. I may just stay downtown if it’s only $5 more, go the night I arrive, and be downtown already in the morning for my phantom meeting.
Now I have more work to do. I’d better do a TripAdvisor search on those three hotels to see if any of them are lemons. Since I’m a month out, I have plenty of time to bid on Priceline in the range of accepted bids, but I’d better have a back-up plan.
The next step: http://www.priorityclub.com/. I’m looking for Priority Club Points Breaks hotels for 5000 rewards points per night, and I find one: The Crowne Plaza airport location is a Points Break hotel for that night. My search may be over. I could also check Hilton Point Stretchers and the Marriott’s discounted awards as well, but I find that the Priority Club Points Break is usually the best deal in town.
So I decide on the Priority Club hotel where I’ll redeem 5000 points (which costs me $30 to obtain). Remember: The lowest retail price I found was $87. The airport has a 24-hour shuttle to and from the airport and TripAdvisor gives the hotel a solid thumbs-up. I think I’m done and happy.
This example is from this April but clearly shows the savings that can be had by a seasoned frugal traveler.
What if I hadn’t found the Points Break hotel? I could have gone with the Expedia Best Price match guarantee to take $50 off the retail rate of another hotel. The lowest retail rate was $87 for an airport hotel, so I could have gotten in for $87 minus $50 or $37. Or I could have bid in the high $30s to low $40s for a room downtown or at the airport on Priceline. And if those ideas hadn’t found results, I would have checked SPG.com (Starwood Preferred Guest) for cash-and-points or all-points redemption with Starwood. It’s tough to beat that Points Break deal, though, when you can find it.
I posted information on the blog about Expedia Best Price Guarantee and Priceline / BiddingForTravel.com. Good luck with great deals!
Delaying Our Credit Card Churn Date
After reviewing our credit reports and credit scores, we are delaying our churn date until June 20, 2011. My misguided attempt to get the Citi 75K card and Capital One card a month after a successful six-card churn in February leads me to this decision. Based on my on stupidity, greed, and Cap One’s triple inquiry, I have 12 inquiries between February 18 and March 17th. My inquiry total at present with Experian is 16 with one to fall off today. Katy has 15 inquiries on Experian with one to fall off on June 19th. Hence our new date.
The biggest mistake I see rookies make (and I made it myself this last time around) is trying to “get it all now.” There are indeed great offers out there for new credit card sign-ups but your credit is your most important asset. People are surprised by denials. You never should be surprised. You should receive all approvals if you play the game correctly. They want instant approvals, and that is just not always going to happen with every application.
By taking an extra month to churn cards again, I gain three things:
- My mass of February and March inquiries will all be 90+ days old. There will be no discussion of “too many recent inquiries” when I apply for cards again.
- I will realign myself with Katy’s schedule for applications and give her file a chance to shed that extra Experian inquiry.
- It will line us both up for a churn again in early October just after our September 2009 inquiries fall off our report.
Be patient. Protect that credit file. Accept the fact that you won’t get every big offer. Some just won’t fit in your churning cycle. Have a plan. Work your plan and, lastly, Don’t be Greedy. There are so many good offers. If you miss a nice one, there will be another right around the corner.
You are Going to Love this One
Posted by Rick Friday, April 22, 2011, No Comments
I just got a Private Message in my FT account from a newbie that wants to tell me how he got 125K miles in his account with three phone calls.
Catch this: He wants me to pay him for the information.
“125k points with 3 phone calls…want my story?
Hey FTG, wanted to know if you were interested.
I’m hesitant to release this on the messageboards but I just got 125k points with 3 quick phone calls. Would like to share my story with you, prob help you in the referral dept. Wondering if you have anything to offer. Perhaps points dropped into my aeroplan acct? Let me know.”
So this is what it is coming to?? We are paying for information on a free community forum??
This poster has truly distinguished himself with this one.
Sunday Funnies Coming To An End, Which Means Your Chance to Share Your Success
Posted by Rick Tuesday, April 05, 2011, No Comments
After two-plus years of aviation funnies on Sundays, you, the readers, have asked for a change. I’m all for it as I am running out of sources for aviation related jokes and cartoons. Thanks for speaking up and suggesting a change.
Let’s try some Sunday Success Stories. Here is your chance to be a travel blogger and share your best travel redemption, most exhilarating adventure, or a heartwarming travel story. Make it about as long as one of my typical blog posts and include some details on the “deal” part of the story so others can benefit from your success.
Send your entries to ingy104@gmail.com for future publication.
Here is a sample of a Success Story and format from my buddy Texas Yankee
The Planned Switch to WordPress is Now Scheduled for April 9th
If you have us saved as a blogspot.com address, that will change to a straight frugaltravelguy.com address on that date. Let’s hope all goes well and you like the new look. I’m sure Howie can fill us in on what the new RSS feed will be if it is changing. Way over my head.
Platinum Card for the Delta Transfer Bonus, Elite Status, Lounge Access, $200 Incidental Credit and More. Read my February 6th blog post for details.
My wife and I are traveling roundtrip to Singapore in Business Class on Continental Airlines! The added plus is that I am finally doing the status match from Delta to CO and will be Platinum for this trip which means extra bags for free! (We are going to a wedding hence the need to check bags ….) Booking the flights took some maneuvering on my part (and CO customer service) to score the lower fares – we end up traveling home from NRT by way of different flights and cities. The downside is my last 3hr flight is on a regional jet with no Fist Class – but hey, I will be sleeping!
Costs:
CO credit cards $85 x 2 = $170
Opened 4 checking accts at Chase (personal and business acct each) = opportunity cost of lost interest on $10,000 used to maintain free checking.
(These funds are from the “points fund” which is used to cover all points activity and would earn low interest anyway.)
A few meetings with various presidents 
= time in front of the TV drinking wine … (wine cost would happen regardless of activity. Is that a fixed cost?)
= time in front of the TV drinking wine … (wine cost would happen regardless of activity. Is that a fixed cost?)LATE EDIT: This may be “fuzzy” math as the bonuses from the cards and checking were enough for the trip cost! We do have extra CO points remaining …
Taxes for 2 reward tix = $169
Reward miles 125,000 x 2 +250,000
Total Cost = $339 + miles
Total value: $6711 each = $13422 for Business Class.
Actual value might be $2972 which is the cost for roundtrip tickets for 2 in economy class. Frugal travelers would really not pay for Bus Class … 
By the way Delta wanted 480,000 miles/points for the same trip … hence the status match!
And then there is the stay at the Conrad Singapore on Hilton HHonors points thanks to Amex and our Presidents = $50
= $50Here is your chance. Share your story and math, fuzzy or not, on how much you saved. Thanks Dave for the start up.
Rookie Travel Tips With Shannon, and the Capital One Reconsideration Phone #
Posted by Shannon Friday, March 18, 2011, No Comments
Friday we talked about e-Rewards surveys and how to use them to earn free bonus points. The winning tip goes to Issac. “G” also had a great insider tip that came in by email. (Issac, send Rick your email address!)
“Hi Rick
I am a great admirer of your blog. I just saw Shannon’s post and here are my two cents.
The surveys on E-rewards are long and often boring and you have to concentrate to get past the pages.
How do we maximize return for effort?
Two tips:
1. For surveys that have “e-rewards” even in the redirected URL where the survey is happening. This means, e-rewards hasn’t subcontracted this survey but is conducting it itself, and not just acting as a router. Do these diligently. Fooling around with answers on these may result in disqualification.
2. For other surveys, which are about 80% of them, clicking on the initial e-rewards link will take you to an external survey website. They take a long time and most people quit half way through. What do you do? Well. If you DO NOT qualify, you generally get 25 cents, sometimes more. It is easy to self-disqualify. Give absurd ages, say you don’t live in USA, say you never went to any school, whenever there is a choice – check “prefer not to answer.” In short, be a survey taker who is weeded out before they get to the main survey. It will take < one minute and you will get your 25 cents. I have racked up &got; $200 like this. Have received Skymiles, dividend miles, border bucks. Borderbucks are by far the best redemption option.
Hope that helps.
“G”
On to Opinionplace.com:
Opinionplace.com, like e-rewards. is another online survey provider who offers rewards for surveys completed by consumers. To join is free. I joined and found the process quick and easy.
On the Opinionplace.com main page, hit the “Get Started” button and follow the directions. Basically, first they want you to fill in some personal demographic information then set up a log-in. They will ask you if you want to receive survey opportunity alerts by email or not. If you don’t, you must log in and check your account for surveys.
After the demographics, you must answer a household survey, two short “check the box” segments asking you what items you make primary purchasing decisions for in your home and then a segment asking what industry you and those in your household work for. It takes 30 seconds. After that they check for available surveys. I had no available surveys so I will be checking my emails.
An important note before signing up: The site allows only ONE member per household to participate. If their system detects more than one person in the household with an account, they will terminate the whole household. After answering the household survey I think it would be smartest to have the person who makes all the major purchasing decisions for the house join because it will open you up to more surveys. They aren’t going to send surveys on electronics or financial services to someone who only checked that they only make major grocery buying decisions.
As you qualify for surveys, Opinionplace.com will notify you ahead of time of the subject, length and reward for each available survey. They say their surveys on average take 10-15 minutes, but they can take up to 25 minutes. And the longer the survey, the greater the reward. The rewards come from four places: Amazon.com, PayPal, AAdvantage, and an Opinionplace sweepstakes. Amazon.com rewards using claim codes that usually pay from $1-$5. PayPal gives credits of $1.50-$5. AAdvantage rewards 75-150 bonus miles per survey and you have an additional option to enter yourself into a $1000 dollar Opinionplace.com monthly sweepstakes drawing.
E-miles:
The E-miles program offers bonus points for “reading and responding to marketing messages.” From what I’ve seen you are exposing yourself to advertising in return for frequent flier miles. There are three ways to join: respond to an e-miles enrollment invitation, get referred by a fellow member, or simply join on the site. I joined from the site. They offer Bonus points for the following: AirTran, Alaska Airlines, Continental, Delta, US Airways, Frontier, and Hilton Honors.
They offer you 100 bonus points for filling out the enrollment information. It took 5-10 minutes to fill in all the demographic data as they were a bit more detailed than Opinionplace.com. This is also where you log in to your program of choice to receive your bonus points, so have your member number handy. After I was finished and logged in my balance showed 200 points! That was an easy 200 frequent flier miles! WAHOO!
E-miles will email members a weekly reminder with earning opportunities. From that email you can click the “continue” link to view your latest points opportunities. Some offers are only available for short periods of time, so respond, if interested, as soon as you can. The site keeps “profiles” of your personal information used as targeting (for the advertisements). The more up-to-date your information means the more opportunities you will be offered.
Under your “Account” you can also set the maximum number of emails you want to receive from E-miles. The miles are deposited into your chosen program account in 500-point increments. You must request they be deposited from the E-mile deposit page and they may take 7-10 days to show up.
The award points offered are to the right of the “opportunity.” Many of mine now offer five points and the profile updates are 15 points. I tried a few of my new offers available. The first one exposed me to a page advertisement then a pop-up window with a brief article. Then I answered three questions about my travel preferences. It took 30 seconds and I earned five points. The second one I did was a 30-second video advertisement, a pop-up to the company’s website, and a 10-question survey.
I wish you all many free bonus points!
-Shannon
Submit your Frugal Travel Tips this week for a chance to win a $100 gift card!
-title your comments Rookie Tips and include your first name and last initial.
Capital One Reconsideration Phone Number
John provides this phone number to a real person for the Capital One reconsideration phone # 1-800-955-1455
Platinum Card for the Delta Transfer Bonus, Elite Status, Lounge Access, $200 Incidental Credit and More. Read my February 6th blog post for details.
