Monthly Archives: August 2013

Why I Blog and my Future use of Credit Card Affiliate Links

Quick Note

Why I Blog and my Future use of Credit Card Affiliate Links

Before I was a travel blogger, I was a travel blog reader.  I started playing this crazy travel game a few years ago after reading a post on Frequent Miler’s blog and continue to read his blog everyday because I love his content and writing style.  If you read other blogs on Boarding Area and elsewhere on the internet, you probably notice that Greg (aka Frequent Miler) does not have affiliate links in his postings… ever.  Unfortunately, that makes him different from other travel bloggers and makes him stand out in the crowd.  For that reason, I have applied for several credit cards through his links and recommended my family and friends use his links as well.

I believe in the philosophy that if you write good content that others want to read, the money will follow.  Just like an artist, you paint because you love it, not because you want to get rich.  If money follows, great.  If it doesn’t, oh well, at least I did something that I enjoyed.   Continue reading →

Update Award Wallet in Less than a Minute (iPhone App)

Award Wallet Logo

Update Award Wallet in Less than a Minute (iPhone App)

Award Wallet is my best friend for keeping track of all my frequent flyer accounts, hotel loyalty accounts, and credit card reward programs.  If you are unfamiliar with Award Wallet, please read What is Award Wallet?

I don’t know about you, but I keep track of 60+ loyalty accounts in my Award Wallet and it takes about 8-9 minutes to update all of my programs.  To update all my accounts in under a minute, I use the Award Wallet iPhone App.

iPhone/iPad App – here

Apple App

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a woman holding her hands up with a man in front of him

Grant’s Credit Cards

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Updated 8/10/2015: New cards added and existing cards updated.

Grant’s Credit Cards

Keeping track of your credit card numbers, expiration dates, customer service numbers, sign up bonuses, annual fees, and more is important.  If you want to keep track of all your credit cards, feel free to download and use my Credit Card Organizer Template.xlsx file.

Chase:

  1. Hyatt Hotel – opened in November 2012, paid $75 annual fee for free night certificate
  2. IHG Hotel – opened in November 2013, paid $49 annual fee for free night certificate
  3. Freedom – converted from Sapphire (Basic) in December 2013 (post)
  4. Ink Bold Visa Business – opened in March 2014 (post), paid $95 annual fee and received 10,000 bonus Chase Ultimate Reward Point retention offer (post)
  5. Ink Plus Visa Business – opened in September 2014 (post)
  6. Ritz-Carlton – opened in December 2014 (post)
  7. British Airways – opened in March 2015 (post)
  1. Amazon – opened in January 2012, closed in November 2012
  2. British Airways – opened in April 2012, closed in November 2012
  3. Ink Bold MasterCard Business – opened in April 2012, paid $95 annual fee twice and received $95 statement credit retention offers twice, closed in September 2014
  4. United Airlines – opened in May 2012, paid $95 annual fee and received 10,000 bonus United Airlines miles retention offer, closed in May 2014
  5. Marriott Premier – opened in August 2012, paid $89 annual fee twice and received free night certificate twice, closed in March 2015
  6. Sapphire Preferred – opened in August 2012, downgraded to Chase Sapphire (Basic) in August 2013
  7. Southwest Airlines Premier – opened in August 2013, paid $99 annual fee and received 3,000 bonus Southwest Airlines miles retention offer, closed in March 2015
  8. Sapphire Basic – converted from Chase Sapphire Preferred in August 2013, converted to Chase Freedom in December 2013
  9. Southwest Airlines Plus – opened in June 2014 , closed in July 2015
  10. United Airlines – opened in September 2014, closed in August 2015

Citi:

  1. Forward – opened in April 2012
  2. Hilton HHonors Reserve – opened in February 2013, paid $95 annual fee twice and received free weekend night certificate twice
  3. American Airlines (MC) – opened in June 2013 (post), paid $95 annual fee and received 3,000 bonus American Airlines miles retention offer
  4. Double Cash #1 – converted from Citi Dividend World Elite in February 2015 (post)
  5. Prestige – opened in Citi Branch in April 2015 (post)
  6. Premier – opened in April 2015 (post)
  7. Double Cash #2 – converted from Citi American Airlines Executive in July 2015 (post)
  8. American Airlines Business – opened in July 2015 (post)
  1. ThankYou Premier – opened in February 2012, closed in February 2013
  2. American Airlines (AMEX) – opened in November 2012, converted to Citi Dividend World Elite (MC) in December 2013
  3. Dividend World Elite – converted from Citi American Airlines (AMEX) in December 2013, converted to Citi Double Cash in February 2015
  4. American Airlines Executive #1 – opened in March 2014, closed in April 2015
  5. American Airlines Executive #2 – opened in June 2014, converted to Citi Double Cash in July 2015

American Express:

  1. Mercedes Benz / Personal Platinum – opened in November 2013 (post)
  2. Old Blue Cash – opened in September 2014 (post)
  3. Blue Cash Everyday – downgraded from AMEX Blue Cash Preferred in July 2015
  4. Everyday – opened in July 2015 (post)
  1. Delta SkyMiles Gold – opened in September 2011, closed in August 2012
  2. Blue Cash Everyday – opened in May 2012, upgraded to AMEX Blue Cash Preferred in May 2013
  3. Starwood Preferred Guest Personal – opened in May 2012, paid $65 annual fee, closed in April 2014
  4. Delta SkyMiles Gold Business – opened in July 2012, closed in November 2012
  5. Starwood Preferred Guest Business – opened in July 2012, closed in December 2012
  6. Premier Rewards Gold Business – opened in November 2012, closed in December 2012
  7. Hilton HHonors – opened in November 2012, upgraded to AMEX Hilton HHonors Surpass in November 2013
  8. Hilton HHonors Surpass – upgraded from AMEX Hilton HHonors in November 2013, closed in November 2014
  9. Premier Rewards Gold – opened in June 2014, closed in May 2015
  10. Blue Cash Preferred – upgraded from AMEX Blue Cash Everyday in May 2013 (post), downgraded to AMEX Blue Cash Everyday in July 2015

Bank of America:

  1. Virgin Atlantic – opened in March 2015 (post)
  2. Better Balance Rewards – converted from Bank of America Alaska Airlines in May 2015 (post)
  3. Alaska Airlines – opened in July 2015 (post)
  4. Spirit Airlines – opened in July 2015 (post)
  1. BankAmeriCard – opened in August 2012, closed in December 2012
  2. Hawaiian Airlines – opened in December 2012, closed in November 2013
  3. Virgin Atlantic – opened in December 2012, closed in November 2013
  4. Alaska Airlines – opened in November 2013, closed in November 2014
  5. Alaska Airlines Business – opened in March 2014, closed in March 2015
  6. Alaska Airlines Platinum – opened in June 2014, closed in March 2015
  7. Alaska Airlines – opened in March 2015, converted to Bank of America Better Balance Rewards in May 2015, $75 annual fee refunded

US Bank:

  1. Club Carlson Personal – opened in November 2013 (post)
  2. FlexPerks Visa – opened in March 2014, took 2 weeks to approve card (post)
  3. Club Carlson Business – opened in July 2014, required a bank visit for approval (post)
  4. FlexPerks AMEX – opened in March 2015 (post)
  5. Cash Plus – opened in July 2015 (post)

Other Credit Cards:

  1. PayPal Extras MasterCard – opened in June 2012 (post)
  2. Discover It – opened in March 2014 (post)
  3. Ebates Cash Back Card – opened in July 2015 (post)

If you need help planning your next App-O-Rama or finding the perfect credit card for your wallet, please fill out my Credit Card Questionnaire.

Using British Airways Avios on Partners Air Berlin and Niki

Air Berlin Niki

Using British Airways Avios on Partners Air Berlin and Niki

Point Me To The Plane wrote an interesting article about Avios Awards on Hidden Partners – Trip Report Monarch Airlines London – Mallorca today (August 15) that highlighted some of the lesser known Avios partners.  That reminded me that I booked a few flights for January 2014 on Air Berlin’s partner airline Niki.  According to Wikipedia, “NIKI Luftfahrt GmbH, also known as flyNiki is a scheduled semi-lowcost airline and a subsidiary of Air Berlin.”

To use British Airways Avios on Niki flights, just search BA.com as you normally would on the routes that Niki flies (complete list provided at the bottom of this post).

Niki-VIE-FCO-Short

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(DEAD) $500 Chase Gift Cards

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As of September 22, this deal is dead – no more Chase gift cards without fees.

Raining Money

Buy $500 Chase Gift Cards with Chase Credit Cards for no Fee

I’m not even going to pretend like this was my idea.  I read Jared’s blog this morning (Online Travel Review – famous for his IcelandAir Deal to Hawaii) which links to this lengthy FT post.  I was able to order $1,000 (2 x $500) of Chase Gift Cards with my new Chase Southwest Airlines Credit Card that arrived this afternoon for no fee and no shipping.  Essentially getting 1,000 points for free.  Here is how I did it…

Go to this website and buy a gift card up to $500.  There is a strange rule that people who live in Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont cannot order these gift cards (not sure why, but sucks to be them).  The $4.95 shipping cost is waived for this purchase.

First Screen

Enter your Chase credit card information on the payment screen.  Only Chase Credit Cards can be used to buy these Chase Gift Cards.

Enter Payment Info

Verify your order is correct and click Submit Order.

Verify Order

Congratulations, your order has been successfully submitted.

Order Successful

You will also receive a confirmation email from Chase.

Order Confirmation Email

After logging into my Chase Southwest Airlines Credit Card account, I am able to see the charge.  Reports are that the charge goes through as a purchase, not a cash advance.

SWA CC Charge

Jared has already typed up the steps:

Here’s how it works:

– Chase will sell you gift cards up to $500 each with NO SHIPPING CHARGE (at least for the time being there is no shipping charge) and with no service fee at this website.

– You must pay for the purchase with a Chase credit card (so you can’t use this for minimum spends on cards issued by other banks, which is a bummer for my last churn).

– You can purchase up to $2,600 in cards in a rolling 30 day period on a given card.

– When you receive the card, you call the number on the back to activate it. Use the automated activation and they will assign you a PIN.

– Unfortunately you have to call each time individually to activate each card. IE, you cannot activate multiple cards in one phone call – you’ll have to call once for each call.

– Oh, and you’ll want to change the PIN on each card, because you’ll never keep all of those PINs straight.

– Wait to hear confirmation on the phone that the card is activated and the PIN has been changed.

– Go to Wal-Mart and load your Bluebird account with the Gift Card (it will work because there is a PIN — you cannot load a Gift Card with no PIN).  Read this post.

Don’t thank me, thank Jared for the great work.  Happy shopping everyone!