Tag Archives: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

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Counter Point: Why I Currently Book Flights with Citi Thank You Points Instead of Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  First off, the title is not a typo, I have started using my Citi Thank You Points instead of my Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to book a few recent flights.  Secondly, the title is true for me now, but could change down the road.  And lastly, you are totally right to disagree with me and prefer using your Chase Ultimate Rewards Points.  But, let me share my perspective and reasoning with you so that you can see where I am coming from.

Long story short, I am planning an upcoming trip to Africa and will visit a few countries near South Africa.  After checking schedules and prices, I decided to book a South African Airways flight from Livingstone, Zambia (near Victoria Falls) to Johannesburg, South Africa.  Now the question was, should I book it directly with my credit card, or should I use my Citi Thank You Points or Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to pay for the flight?

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How to Book Aer Lingus Award Tickets with British Airways Avios (Call BA to Save $100+ on Taxes & Fees)

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  Yesterday, I was looking for a flight from San Francisco to Dublin and found this roundtrip, nonstop Aer Lingus flight for $895.36 in economy.  Aer Lingus is the only airline that flies this SFO-DUB route nonstop.  I wanted to see if there was award space on Aer Lingus (there was), award space on United Airlines (there was), award space on Iberia (nope), and award space on British Airways (yes, but not bookable online).  In this post, I will show you how I searched for award space, booked the award ticket using British Airways Avios, and saved hundreds of dollars in taxes/fees compared to booking the same flight using Aer Lingus Avios.

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Keep, Cancel or Convert? Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card ($95 Annual Fee)

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Good afternoon everyone.  As part of my “Keep, Cancel or Convert?” series, I like to evaluate and reevaluate credit cards to make sure they still deserve a spot in my wallet (or my fiance’s wallet, in this case).  Last year, my fiance was approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card and she used it heavily when she first got the credit card (to meet the $4,000 minimum spending requirement), but that credit card hasn’t gotten much use lately.  This is mainly because I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card that offers 3x on travel and dining vs. the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 2x on travel and dining.  And since my March App-O-Rama, I have been using my American Express Gold Card since that credit card offers 4x on dining.  Long story short, my fiance’s Chase Sapphire Preferred was not worth the $95 annual fee.  This is hard to believe since the Chase Sapphire Preferred was one of the best travel rewards credit cards just a few years ago.  We decided the best thing to do would be to convert her Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card into a Chase Freedom Credit Card, since we did not have a Chase Freedom between the two of us and the 5% rotating cash back categories would be easy to use.

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Dilemma: Spend $15,000 on Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card to Earn Extra Free Night Certificate?

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Good morning everyone.  In January, my fiance was approved for the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card (my referral link) that offered 25,000 Hyatt points after spending $3,000 in 3 months and an additional 25,000 Hyatt points after spending $6,000 total in 6 months.  We are planning a wedding, so spending $6,000 in 6 months was not a problem.  This credit card also offers an extra free night certificate (for category 1-4 Hyatt properties) if you spend $15,000 during the cardmember year.  So the dilemma is, after spending $6,000 on this credit card and earning 50,000 Hyatt points, is it worth spending an extra $9,000 on this credit card to get an extra free night certificate?  Here are my thoughts…

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New AwardWallet Plus Feature: Receive Alerts for Incoming Miles & Points with Balance Watch [Winners Selected]

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Updated 8pm PT on 3/15/19: Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway.  I wish I could give everyone codes, but I only have so many codes available.  Here are the winners: Mike Saint, Bill Pisor, LAURAPDX, Brandon, Priscilla Ennis, Seth, Will, Stephanie Woods, iwantmoremiles, and Jim F.  I will email the winners the codes.  Thank you.

Good afternoon everyone.  A year ago, I wrote AwardWallet Feature I Wish Existed: Keep Checking for Account Balance Changes.  In that post, I wished there was a way for AwardWallet to constantly check a specific airline / hotel account to see when miles or points posted.  This is super important if you transfer points from a transferable points currency (Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi Thank You Points, Capital One Points, or Marriott Bonvoy) in the hopes of booking an award flight before the award space disappears.  Some transfers are instant, while others may take several hours or several days.

I am happy to report that AwardWallet took my idea and added the feature to AwardWallet.  Here is a blog post describing Balance Watch and how the feature works:

“Balance Watch will monitor a loyalty account to let you know as soon as your points arrive. Once activated, AwardWallet will check your balance up to twenty-four times per day and send you a desktop, mobile, and email notification as soon as a change is detected.”

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Image source: https://awardwallet.com/blog/balance-watch/

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