Tag Archives: American Express

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Tonei’s 2016 Year in Review: A Record-Breaking Year of Travel and Reselling

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Buenas tardes from Cancun! I wanted to tell you all a little bit about how my last year went. In 2016, I blew past my previous record for miles traveled, went all in on gift card reselling, moved to Mexico, and picked up a handful of credit cards and bank signup bonuses along the way.

Travel

I flew just over 197,000 miles last year, a significant increase from my previous record of 125,000 miles in 2015. The change was mostly because I did a lot more flying across oceans – my 2015 trips were entirely in the Americas, but I spent a lot more time in Europe and Asia in 2016.

Tonei's 2016 flight map, courtesy of openflights.org

Tonei’s 2016 flight map, courtesy of openflights.org

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Lowe’s $10 Off $50 AMEX Offer = $200 Amazon Gift Card for $160

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Good evening everyone, I hope you are all having a great holiday season.  Tomorrow afternoon, I will fly from LGB (Long Beach) to JFK (New York City) to spend New Year’s in New York City.  But before I start packing all my warmest winter clothes, I braved the low 60 degree weather in SoCal to visit my local Lowe’s.  I had the below Lowe’s AMEX Offer ($10 off $50) added to 4 of my AMEX cards and I still needed to do some gift card shopping.  If you have this AMEX Offer linked to your cards and have not met the spending requirement, you only have a few days left since the offer ends on December 31, 2016.  As long as the charge is authorized on/by 12/31, you will receive the statement credit.

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I ended up buying a $200 Amazon Gift Card and doing a split tender at the register to charge $50 to all 4 AMEX cards.

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New Writer Q&A with Will (The Tactical Traveler)

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Good morning everyone, here is the third Q&A post from my new writers.  If you missed the first two, I highly recommending reading Tonei’s Q&A and Whitney’s Q&A.  I hope you are all enjoying the extra content this month, I have been very pleased with all the great blog posts and ensuing comments.  Hopefully there will be plenty more to come in the new year as well.  My next Q&A is with my friend Will…

Hello Travel with Grantians…my name is Will and I have agreed to become one of Grant’s new blog contributors! I am going to write under the pen name, The Tactical Traveler.

I met Grant through reading his blog and conversing via email, and eventually met him in person at an FTU (Frequent Traveler University – a travel conference) in Dallas. Grant and I have since become good friends, have traveled together, and met up at multiple travel conferences (Grant even spent the weekend at my house).

Hanging out in Amtrak sleeper car from Denver to San Francisco. Grant (left), Nigel (middle) and Will (right)

Hanging out in Amtrak sleeper car from Denver to San Francisco. Grant (left), Nigel (middle) and Will (right)

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A Travel Hacker Wish List for Santa (Reader Ideas Needed)

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Good afternoon everyone, here is the filler post of the weekend. Enjoy!

Usually this time of year, we look back at the predictions we made at the end of 2015 or early 2016 and see how many things we got right and how many things we got wrong. It is usually a little depressing to look back and see how much has changed (for the worse) over the last 12 months. I wanted to put a positive spin on the predictions this year and turn it into a Christmas wish list for Santa. If Santa had the power to make travel hacker lives better, what would you wish for?

Grant’s wish list (in no particular order):

  • I want Chase to create a “no 5/24 rule day” so everyone can be approved for the Chase credit card they really want (I have my eye on the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card).
  • I want the JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card to change the $300 travel credit (incidentals only) to match the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card $300 travel credit (paid airfare and hotels).

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AMEX Business Platinum Large Purchase Bonus Points Post Fast + Detailed Benefits Guide

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Good afternoon everyone, happy TGI Friday!  During my recent App-O-Rama, I was instantly approved for the American Express Business Platinum Charge Card that offered 100,000 AMEX Membership Reward Points after spending $15,000 in 3 months (50,000 points after spending the first $5,000 and another 50,000 points after spending another $10,000).  I also wrote about my experience expediting my new card here: Need to Expedite a New AMEX Card? Add Yourself as an Authorized User / Employee.  On December 10, I made a large purchase of $8,390.71 with my new card.

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