Tag Archives: American Airlines

Look Mom, I’m on the Home Page of Boarding Area and my Chicago FTU Advanced Review

FTU Advanced Badge Front

Look Mom, I’m on the Home Page of Boarding Area and my Chicago FTU Advanced Review

Greetings Boarding Area readers! This week, Travel with Grant will be a featured blogger on the Boarding Area home page (thank you Randy for inviting me to be a Prior2Boarding blogger). If this is your first time reading my blog, this is all you need to know:

  • I talk a lot about manufactured spend and have several detailed guides about Bluebird, Serve, and various money saving deals like AMEX Offers, Chime Card, and Staples Easy Rebates.
  • I am very disloyal when it comes to airline and hotel “loyalty” programs, but I prefer the term “free agent” instead. I have airline miles in several frequent flyer programs and hotel points in several hotel reward programs.
  • I fly economy 95% of the time and will redeem frequent flyer miles if award space is available *and* the cheapest paid ticket is more than I want to pay.
  • I believe in “earning and burning,” rather than hoarding miles/points for aspiration international first class flights or $1,000+ hotel rooms. Spending fewer miles/points allows me to travel more often.
  • Last but not least, I have 27 credit cards (link) and I am only 24 years old – pretty good credit card to age ratio, right? Credit cards are an amazing tool if used responsibly. To put it bluntly: if you pay interest or late fees on your credit cards, you are subsiding our travel lifestyle/hobby. Please don’t pay interest or late fees!

FTU

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Random News: Chase Fraud Warnings, 2 Admirals Club Passes from Citi, Happy Birthday from Chime, Fandango BOGO with US Bank FlexPerks, and Several AMEX Offers

Chase Logo

Random News: Chase Fraud Warnings, 2 Admirals Club Passes from Citi, Happy Birthday from Chime, Fandango BOGO with US Bank FlexPerks, and Several AMEX Offers

Good morning everyone, it is a very busy morning.  Alibaba (BABA) IPO opens today, lots of attention in the financial markets.  All the attention is overshadowing Apple’s iPhone 6/Plus debut.  My iPhone 6 should be arriving any minute now from FedEx.  I am catching a flight this afternoon to Las Vegas to attend Boarding Area’s Conference (BACon).  With that said, here are some random news from the past week…

Here is an email you never want to get – an email from Chase asking if you made the following purchases.  I didn’t make these purchases, uh oh.  I clicked the big red NO button and called Chase to ask for a new card.

Chase Fraud Email

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More Info Regarding Chime Card Loads After October 8 and my App-O-Rama Planning

Chime Logo

More Info Regarding Chime Card Loads After October 8 and my App-O-Rama Planning

Literally a few minutes before writing this post, I received the following email from Chime regarding the previously announced changes to debit card loads (link). Starting October 8, you will be able to load up to $200 per day, with a minimum load amount of $25.  If you use a debit card from Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Comerica Bank, or USAA, your debit card loads will remain free.  If you use a different debit card (including the PayPal Business Debit Card), you will *most likely* get hit with a “fee of up to 3%” per load.  We still need to wait and see what Chime does regarding the PayPal Business Debit Card.  If you use a debit card from one of the previously mentioned banks, the October 8 change will benefit you.

Chime Debit Card Updated Terms

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TWG is Flying to Cabo this Weekend on Southwest Airlines

SWA MEX

TWG is Flying to Cabo this Weekend on Southwest Airlines

Buenos noches amigas! (No need for Google translate) Good evening friends, I am taking a really early or really late spring break trip to Cabo this weekend.  As far as I know, Southwest only flies non-stop to Cabo from Orange County, CA (SNA) and Denver (DEN).  I got a good deal on my flight and it only cost 11,400 SWA miles and $85.48 in taxes/fees (Mexico apparently has much higher taxes than the US).

SWA to SJD Route Map

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Random News: 3 Retention Calls, 2,931 Southwest Airlines Miles, and 50% Companion Tickets on Hawaiian Airlines to Beijing

Which Credit Card

Random News: 3 Retention Calls, 2,931 Southwest Airlines Miles, and 50% Companion Tickets on Hawaiian Airlines to Beijing

Good evening everyone, here are some random news stories from today.  This morning, I helped my parents with their retention calls.  The only call worth listening to is the first one since my dad was able to get a $95 statement credit and a spending challenge on his Citi American Airlines Platinum MasterCard.  My dad used this card a fair amount during the last 12 months so I wasn’t that surprised with the generous retention offer.  Download Link

The only reason I told him to keep the credit card open is the 10% rebate on the redeemed miles.  For example, 2 one way business class flights to Europe cost 100,000 AA miles, shortly after booking the award flight, 10,000 AA miles are rebated and credit back to his AA account.  In essence, you are paying $95 for 10,000 AA miles each year if you max out this credit card benefit.

MT AA Balance

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