Tag Archives: Cash Back

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Warning: HSN Canceled & Refunded my $50 eGC Order Days After $10 AMEX Offer Statement Credit Posted

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Update 4/21 8am PT: The $10 statement credit was reversed as well.

Good morning everyone, I have a warning to share about HSN.  This morning, I received an email from American Express telling me that I received a $50 merchant credit (aka refund) from HSN.  That was weird since I purchased a $50 HSN eGift Card from them a few days earlier and already received my $10 statement credit for completing their AMEX Offer ($10 off $30).

HSN AMEX Merchant Credit

Here are my last 3 transactions from HSN on my American Express Old Blue Cash Credit Card:

HSN $50 Refund

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PSA: Book 2 One Way Flights on Southwest Airlines & Direct Message them on Twitter

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Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  The Easter Bunny took a liking to me and gave me a small box of See’s Candy, but enough about me and my love / addiction to sweets.  A few days ago, I needed to make a change to an existing Southwest Airlines reservation, but I booked it as a roundtrip flight (San Francisco to San Diego).  I wanted to change my trip so that I would be able to fly from San Francisco to San Diego, but return from Orange County and fly into Oakland (I know we have all done that a few times, right?).

Long story short, when you want to change a roundtrip Southwest Airlines flight, you cannot change the departure and arrival cities for a leg of your reservation.  I could probably change the return flight to fly San Diego to Oakland, but that wouldn’t work for me.  I also couldn’t cancel just the return flight either.  Lastly, if I canceled the entire reservation, I would end up paying much more since my outbound flight from San Francisco to San Diego had gone up in price since I originally booked the flight.

Luckily, I have a secret weapon when it comes to making complicated changes to Southwest Airlines reservations… Twitter direct message.  Unlike Ben who wrote Why I Don’t Bother With Airline Customer Service Via Twitter Anymore, I have gotten great customer service from Southwest Airlines, Virgin America, Alaska Airlines, and JetBlue (among many other companies).  I have sent direct messages to Southwest Airlines in the past and they were always very quick to respond and always provided great customer service.  In this instance, I clearly explained that I wanted to cancel the return flight but keep the outbound flight intact.  A few minutes later, my direct message was seen and my reservation was updated.  I then had a travel credit available which I used to book my return flight from Orange County to Oakland.  The entire process took about 20 minutes.

Southwest Airlines Direct Message 4-11-2017

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Award Booking Services are like 21st Century Travel Agents

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Do you ever use a travel agent? Maybe that’s a silly question to ask miles and points people, but maybe not! I came across a blog piece written by Christine over at Frugal Travel Guy. She points out that there are several situations where it’s “prudent and even beneficial” to use a professional. And I agree. I have two cousins who are long-time travel agents and are dedicated to their clients, but you know what I found out? Neither of them knew much at all about miles and points.

Christine’s reasoning for using travel agents got me thinking, and so much of what she said also pertained to using a miles and points award booking service like Juicy Miles. So let’s take a closer look at 4 reasons and see if you should EVER use an award booking service.

1. An event that’s too important to leave to chance is a good reason to use an award booking service. Special occasions are, after all, special. I’d say getting to safari locations, big events where you need multiple seats, and honeymoons, certainly qualify. I’m not saying getting multiple awards seats is always easy, but I’d certainly suggest that a professional has a bird’s eye view into whether or not that’s even possible given your miles/points, destination, and dates. Continue reading →

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Successful Credit Card Reconsideration Calls: Barclays Arrival Plus & US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express

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Good morning everyone, hoppy happy Easter!  As part of my March App-O-Rama, I was approved for 8 new credit cards.  In this post, I will talk about my successful reconsideration calls for the Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card and the US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express Credit Card.  If you are curious, I shared the other results of my credit card App-O-Rama here.  Long story short, I applied for both credit cards toward the end of my App-O-Rama and received pending responses for both credit cards.  At that point, I patiently waited for approval emails or denial letters.

Luckily, I received a call from Barclays a few days later regarding my recent application of the Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  The credit analyst told me that Barclays had already extended enough credit to me and she noted that I didn’t use my 2 other Barclays credit cards much (Barclays Lufthansa Credit Card and Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card).  She asked if I would be willing to move credit from one of those credit cards to approve the Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  I said yes, that would be fine.  I ended up moving $10,000 from my Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card (subsequently lowering that credit line down to $9,500) and having a $10,000 credit line on my Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  I thanked the rep for her help and asked if it were possible to get the credit card expedited to me so I could use the new credit card right away but I was told that there is a $15 cost to expedite the credit card.  I politely declined and agreed to the free USPS First Class Mail (snail mail) option.

Barclays Credit Cards Lufthansa JetBlue Arrival Plus

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Why I Converted Citi Prestige to Citi Dividend & Closed Citigold Checking Account

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Good afternoon everyone.  A few days ago, my Citi Prestige Credit Card statement closed and I confirmed that I did redeem all $250 of my airline travel credit for 2017 (I previously confirmed that Flights Booked with Citi Thank You Points + Cash do not Trigger Citi Prestige $250 Airline Travel Credit).  My statement also said that I would be billed the $350 Citi Prestige annual fee on my next statement.  I only pay $350 for the annual fee because I have a linked Citigold Checking account.  Without that checking account, I would have to pay the $450 annual fee.  Considering that I never took advantage of the 3 free rounds of golf, 4th night free on hotel stays, or needed an extra Priority Pass membership, I saw no reason to keep the credit card another year.  The only feature that I really liked about having my Citi Prestige Credit Card was the ability to redeem Citi Thank You Points for 1.6 CPP on American Airlines and AA codeshare flights, but that feature is going away in a few months too.

Citi Prestige $250 Airline Credit Posted Annual Fee Posting Next Month

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