Tag Archives: American Airlines

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Rainy Weekend Trip to Portland, Oregon using Citi Thank You Points, British Airways Avios & Club Carlson Points

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I am heading to Portland, Oregon tonight for a short weekend trip.  I wanted to go over Memorial Day Weekend, but I thought about the trip too late and the prices were too high and the award availability was not available.  Therefore, I am going this weekend.  I like to plan 2 holidays in advance, so right now, I recommend people start making plans for Labor Day Weekend in early September.  People are only thinking about Memorial Day Weekend and Fourth of July Weekend, so now is the time to start planning your Labor Day Weekend trip.

Anyway, a few months ago, I wrote about a Bad use of Alaska Airlines $99 Companion Ticket & Codeshare American Airlines / Alaska Airlines Booking with Citi Thank You Points.  In that post, I showed how I booked an Alaska Airlines flight, that was a codeshare with American Airlines, with my Citi Thank You Points for 1.6 cents per point toward the paid ticket.  15,012 Citi Thank You Points is worth $240.19, which is a pretty good price for 2 one way tickets from SFO to PDX.

Citi TYP Booking AA Codeshare AS SFO-PDX

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My Retention Offers for Citi Forward, Premier, Prestige & AA Platinum Credit Cards

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Good morning everyone.  Yesterday, I called Citi to ask about a recent credit card transaction.  Toward the end of the call, the rep asked if I had any other questions and I said that I had just paid the annual fee on my Citi Prestige Credit Card, but that I was considering closing the credit card.  I told her that I use my Citi Premier Credit Card more often than my Citi Prestige Credit Card and I don’t take advantage of the 3 free rounds of golf or 4th night free hotel benefit, so I don’t get much value out of paying the *huge* annual fee.  She put me on hold for a minute and transferred me to the credit card retention team (actual department name may differ).

After talking to the rep for a few minutes, he offered me the following retention offers on my Citi Prestige Credit Card:

  • Spend $4,000 in 3 consecutive months and get a $200 statement credit
  • Spend $3,000 over the next 6 months and get 10,000 bonus Citi Thank You Points (TYPs)

The $200 statement credit sounded tempting, but spending $12,000 over the next 3 months seemed like overkill for a 1.67% bonus ($200 / $12,000 = 1.67%).  I decided to take the second offer which only required me to spend $3,000 over the next 6 months, or about $500/month.  Since I value Citi TYPs at 1.6 cents per point (CPP), I would be getting a $160 bonus after spending $3,000, which results in a 5.33% bonus ($160 / $3,000 = 5.33%).

Citi Prestige Small Logo

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Transfer SPG Points to Virgin America; Book Hawaiian Airlines Award Ticket with VX Elevate Miles

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Good morning everyone, greetings from Denver, Colorado.  I am working on a few upcoming blog posts about my recent trip to Lima, Cusco, and Machu Picchu, but in the meantime, this post will show you how to use your SPG Points to book a Hawaiian Airlines award ticket using Virgin America miles.  Back on April 13, 2016, SPG added Virgin America as a transfer partner, thus making this post possible.

Long story short, I needed a flight from Maui (OGG) to Kona (KOA) and this Hawaiian Airlines flight looked perfect.  The only problem was the $96 price tag for a 35 minute flight.  I reached out to my friends on Twitter and was told that the best way to book a Hawaiian Airlines award ticket was using Virgin America miles.  Here is the process I went through to book the Hawaiian Airlines award ticket using Virgin America miles.

HA Flight

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New CitiBusiness Platinum Select American Airlines AAdvantage World MasterCard with Chip + Sig

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Good afternoon everyone, I have a few short posts to get to this weekend.  There is nothing very special about this post, but if you currently have a CitiBusiness Platinum Select American Airlines AAdvantage World MasterCard, you should receive a new credit card in the next few days with an EMV Chip.  I did not request a new credit card to be sent out, Citi voluntarily sent out a new credit card with an EMV Chip.  If you would like your CitiBusiness Platinum Select American Airlines AAdvantage World MasterCard to have an EMV Chip and you haven’t received one yet, call the number on the back of the credit card and ask Citi to send out a new credit card.  The credit card number, expiration date, and CVV code are all the same.  The front and back of the credit cards have been slightly redesigned.  The top card is the old credit card and the bottom card is the new credit card.

Citi AA Business Credit Cards Front

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Cautionary American Airlines Devaluation Advice: Close-In Booking, Change & Award Redeposit Fees

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Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  By this point, everyone knows that the American Airlines devaluation is only a few days away.  Everyday, I see countless blog posts telling readers to redeem their American Airlines miles before it is too late.  I agree that now is a great time to use your American Airlines miles, but there are a few tricky fees to be aware of before you click the submit button.  Here is the link to view the full list of American Airlines award ticket fees.

21 Day Close-In Booking Fees

This is the dumbest airline fee ever invented.  If you book an American Airlines award ticket within 21 days of departure, you have to pay a $75 close-in booking fee.  This fee is waived if you are using miles from an Executive Platinum, Platinum and Gold members’ account.

AA Close In Booking Fees

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