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2020 Datapoint: AMEX Airline Fee Credit for American Airlines Posted in 7 Days

Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well (despite the daylight saving time change).  Last week, I wrote Use American Express Chat to Change Airline Fee Credit Airline Choice (Almost 100% Automated).  In that post, I showed you how you could easily change your airline choice for the American Express airline fee credit by using the AMEX chat feature.  In today’s post, I will share my experience getting the airline fee credit for a few American Airlines seat upgrades.  As you can see by this email from American Express, my airline choice was changed to American Airlines on 10:16am on February 29, 2020.

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My Travel Philosophy for Redeeming Miles vs. Paying Cash for Flights (w/ Account Balances as of March 2020)

Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I just finished listening to the Miles to Memories podcast (latest episode) and enjoyed listening to them talk about Disney when they redeem miles vs. pay cash for flights.  I don’t have a hard and fast rule that I live by, so I thought it would be fun to share my travel philosophy of when I redeem miles vs. pay cash for flights.  I specifically mention flights because I plan to write a similar article about hotels and didn’t want to make this article too long.  Lastly, when I use the word cash, that could mean paying for the flight with a credit card, or paying with an airline gift card, or using credit card rewards to pay for the flight – basically anything other than booking an award ticket with airline miles.

I also think it is important to share how many credit card reward points I have, since my thinking would be much different if I had 1,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points vs. 1 million Chase Ultimate Reward Points.  With that said, here are my transferable points balances, as of March 2020, from smallest to largest:

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Changes to $250 Resort Credit & Point Transfers for American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card (Effective May 1, 2020)

Good afternoon everyone.  I was just going through my recent American Express credit card statements and stumbled upon this upcoming change to the $250 Hilton Resort Credit and point transfers for the American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card.  Effective May 1, 2020, American Express may reverse statement credits earned if your eligible purchase is returned / cancelled (aka, if you book a refundable hotel reservation to earn the credit, then later cancel the hotel reservation).  American Express may also reverse the statement credit for “abuse” or “misuse” of the benefit and if you do not maintain the eligible card for the entire year (aka, if you downgrade or close your card before the year is over).  These are some pretty specific warnings from American Express.

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Alaska Airlines 3 Day Hawaii Sale (Fares Starting at $99 One Way)

Good morning everyone.  I just received an email from Alaska Airlines regarding their 3 day fare sale to Hawaii (fare sale runs now through 11:59pm PT on 3/5), with travel between April 21 and May 20.  Looks like this sale is only for California cities and here are a few sample fares:

  • Los Angeles – Maui: Starting at $99 one-way
  • San Diego – Kauai/Kona: Starting at $99 one-way
  • San Jose – Kona/Honolulu/Maui/Kauai: Starting at $99 one-way

I looked at sample flights from San Jose (SJC) and there are deals to these 4 Hawaiian cities:

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2 Buy Miles / Points Promos Ending Soon: American Airlines (55%) & Southwest Airlines (40%)

Good afternoon everyone.  I was working on my Buy Miles & Points Page and found a few offers ending soon.  Always check the math to make sure that buying miles & points makes sense for you.  Do not buy miles & points speculatively unless you have a use in mind.  With that said, here are 2 offers that end this week.  Up first, American Airlines is offering up to a 55% bonus + 10% discount, depending on the number of American Airlines AAdvantage Miles you purchase.  This offer expires on March 6.

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