Archive for the ‘Debit Cards’ Category



World Renowned Dhammer53 of Brooklyn Reality Tour Fame

 If you have a good credit score, not too many inquiries and would like 100,000 British Airways miles for a $95 first year fee, you have this week only to apply.  The promotion ends Friday the 6th.

There is a link on the upper right hand blog column and I would appreciate your using my link if possible.

AA Adding Same Day Flights to Priceline Inventory

According to an unnamed source AA has been adding some same day inventory to the Priceline Name your Own Price inventory. If you have got to go today, it may be a source of a low cost fare. I can not confirm, but the info came from a regular reader that has a relationship with an AA pilot. Said to have been happening for the last couple of months.

Frequent Traveler University Best Tip for Me

My best tip from the FT University came from my buddy Beaubo, Steve Belkin. He benchmarked for the crowd when he went big in aquiring miles from promotions. If miles are one cent he is in. At 3/4 of a cent per mile you  really have his attention and if he can acquire miles for 1/2 cent or less, he is off to the bank to borrow the money necessary to get in a s big as he can on the deal.

Beaubo has acquired over 27 million miles so when Beaubo talks, I listen.

The next big get together is in Chicago the weekend of October 28, 29 and 30th. Come meet your fellow travel nuts, learn to see the world at prices we all can afford and have a great time with great enthusiastic people. Details and registration are at the top of the left hand blog column.

Here is the link to the Flyertalk thread that is an ongoing discussion of the event. We are six months away and already have 200 registrants signed up. Some of the seminars will fill up before others so if you want a complete choice of seminars sign up while there is still room in all your choices.

Here is a summary of the seminar topics:

Schedule:

Friday October 28th Early Bird Specials 7-8PM
“Maximizing Delta miles and Delta award tickets – from SkyPesos to SkyGold” with Fti and ffi or

“Technology Skills You Need To Know” with Dlouise37

Saturday October 29th
Breakfast 8-9AM
9AM to 9:45 “Rookie Bootcamp” with Bikeguy
9:45 AM to 10 AM Coffee Break
10AM to 11:45 “Award Bookings” with Gleff or “Hyatt and PC” with Lucky
11:45 to 1:00 PM Lunch (included in your registration)
1PM to 2:45 Priceline Bidding, Expedia BRG and Timeshare tips with GoMike or Lucky, SPG and UA Captain Denny Flanagan
2:45PM to 3PM Coffee Break
3PM to 5PM “Mileage Runs” with Wanaflyforless or “Credit Cards” with Ingy
5PM to 6PM Breakout Session for “Mileage Runs with Hands on Workshop” or “Meet the Speakers”
8:30PM to 10PM “Costumes and Cocktails”

Sunday October 30th
8AM to 9 AM Breakfast
9AM to 10:45 Sponsors Workshop
10:45 to 11AM Coffee Break
11AM to 12:45 “Pudding and Pickles or Moderated Breakout Sessions on AA, DL, CO/UA, US, SPG, Hilton, Marriott, Priority Club
12:45PM to 2PM Lunch (included in your registration)
2PM to 4PM “Cherry Pickin’ with Beaubo and the BOSS (Randy Petersen)”

This is the largest educational event in the travel crazy hobby. Registration is limited to the first 550 registrants. It is an all volunteer non profit event. We’d love to have you join us.

Platinum Card for the Delta 25,000 Membership Rewards bonus points, Elite Status, Lounge Access, $200 Incidental Credit and more.

This play requires owning or applying for two credit cards. The results are quite profitable. The cards involved are:

1. The Amex Delta Gold Card, Delta Reserve Card or Delta Platinum card. Your Choice. The Gold card is free for the first year.

2. The Platinum Card from American Express.

Here is why you need two cards: If you own one of the Delta co-branded cards, you can redeem Delta frequent flier miles for Amex gift cards, which, to me is the same as cash. The redemption rate is stupendously better if you have a co-branded card. Transferring Delta frequent flier miles to Amex cards costs 36,000 Delta frequent flier miles per $100 gift card, without owning the co-branded card. The transfer rate is 11,000 miles per $100 Amex gift card IF you have a co-branded Delta card.

Let’s play this one out.

1. Apply for the Delta Gold card and receive 20,000 miles on your first purchase and 5,000 more frequent flier miles with two authorized users. NO First Year Fee.

2. Register for the Delta getmore miles promo for a 50% bonus when transferring in Membership Rewards points as a first-time transferer.

3. Apply for the Platinum Card from American Express for 50,000 MR points on a $1000 spend and $450 annual fee.

4. Spend $1000 on the Platinum card and transfer the 51,000 points into Delta frequent flier miles for a total of 76,500 Delta frequent flier miles with the 50% bonus. Add to that the 25,000 DL miles you got from the Gold card and you now have 101,500 Delta miles.

5. With that 101,500 DL miles, use 99,000 miles to buy nine $100 gift cards from the Skymiles Marketplace. The redemption rate will change when you log in. Somehow they know you have a co-branded Delta card. It should look like this if you are logged in.

The results are $900 in gift cards, which recoups your $450 annual fee on the Platinum card. Your profit is:

1. $450 in gift cards remaining.
2. You also have lounge access for one full year. (from the Plat card)
3. $200 of incidental credit on your favorite airline (from the Plat card).
4. 25,000 MQM on Delta for the transfer on the Delta get-more promo (Silver status until Feb 2013).
5. And the leftover 2500 Delta miles you didn’t need in the transfer scheme.

Remember: You must have a Delta/Amex co-branded card to get the 11,000 frequent-flier-mile gift card price.

You must be making your transfer from Amex MR to Delta as your first transfer and the promo ends May 31st.

Somebody with a co-branded Delta card: Please comment on the redemption rate you see at the Skymiles Marketplace. Have fun with this one.

Here are the Two Suggested Cards

Village Scene Mali by Andrew Ingersoll

Is Your Credit Score Over 700? Check Here for Free with a Free Trial Offer

Photo: Franz Josef Glazier New Zealand

I feel left out with all you guys getting a new Starwood Personal card with the 10K sign up and 15K bonus for $15K spending in the first 6 months. When I got the card, there was no bonus offer based on a $15K spend.

So I wrote them Saturday AM:

“Dear Amex

I recently have started using my personal SPG card as my primary credit card partly because of your great service and partly because of the SPG points I earn. Psst (I started with the Thank You points were devalued)

My question regards the 15K SPG bonus for spending of $15,000 in the first 6 months.

I do not believe my card ever qualified for that bonus. Should I cancel my existing card and apply for a new one with that offer attached? Or is there some you way you can add that promotion to my existing card?

As always thanks for the prompt and informative reply I know I will receive.

The Frugal Travel Guy
A Happy Amex cardholder”

My guess is they will actually give me a few thousand SPG points for the inquiry and tell me to reapply for a new card.

Any guesses? I wrote the email on Saturday so I expect a reply any day and will post their response.

And You Wonder Why I Like the Starwood Card?

Here is their reply on the same day before noon:

“Dear Mr Frugal Travel Guy,

I can understand your concern regarding this matter. Please know that American Express values you as a Cardmember and will stand by you whenever you need assistance.

I have reviewed your Starwood Card and determined that you have spent more than $15,000.00 on your account.

As a gesture of respect to your relationship with American Express and our commitment for impeccable customer service, I have issued you 15,000 Bonus Starpoints on your account. Please be assured that these Starpoints would reflect on your upcoming statement.

I hope my action meets with your approval and I appreciate the opportunity to be of service. If there is any other way we may be of assistance, please contact us.

We really value your association with us since 2002 and assure you of our best services at all times.

Sincerely,”

That blows me away. And Monday morning they were in my account already

Two months ago I wrote about the missing business card referrals from a past promotion I was to receive and they made that right as well. I thought I had three referrals and they had paid me for one. Without question they put another 10K in my account.

Please be assured I am not making up false claims for more SPG points. My requests are sincere and real and these guys treat me with respect and the way a customer should be treated.

Besides having the most valuable reward point available today in the card market, this is the kind of treatment I get

And see now on their website, I can refer more people to the SPG personal card. Let me know if you are interested in this type of customer service.

Any questions why I am a Starwood fan? I’ll send you my whole list of reasons.

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I picked up this idea from Slickdeals and it makes great sense to me.

Earlier this year Priority Club made the decision to compete with Starwood with their own cash and points program offerings. You can book your rooms with full points or part cash and part points. Here is an example:

A room that costs 15,000 points per night can be had with 15K points, OR you can use 5K points and pay a $60 copay or 6/10ths of a cent per point for the additional 10K points needed. Priority Club actually puts 10K in your account so you can redeem for the room.

If your reservation is far enough in the future, after the points have posted to your account, cancel the reservation, and have the points redeposited in your account at a net cost of 6/10th each. This represents a 50% savings from straight points purchases.

As an added benefit, if you can find Pointsbreak rooms at the reduced 5K per night redemption, you are booking rooms in the future for $30 per night.

And 60K points earned in a year qualifies you for Platinum status. Last year I got mine from trades for 5K certs and it all counted towards my 60K requirement.

If this gets too wide spread on the internet, you can be assured that Priority Club will cancel this option.

Don’t be blatant with continual reservations and cancellations, but get in what you can in the reasonably near future.

Hawaii April 2010 at $280 Round Trip

I was able to score two tickets at $280 each from Atlanta to Honolulu on the recent United attempted fare war. It is now over. My $300 bump on this month’s earlier mileage run paid for my ticket and Katy still had a $208 voucher left over from the Thank You Points days.

When we leave Hilton Head next spring we’ll park the car in Atlanta and head to the sunshine for a week, then decide where else we want to go before heading home to Michigan. Having the car in Atlanta makes much more sense as the flight options to Europe will be much less from there.

I’m surprised that no one matched that fare, but, it worked well for us. Now for the upgrades.

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