Tag Archives: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

a blue letter on a white background

Park Hyatt Sanya Sunny Bay Resort (Cat 5) and Hyatt City of Dreams Manila (Cat 2)

Posted on by . 7 Replies

This week, Hyatt added 2 new properties to the Hyatt family: Park Hyatt Sanya Sunny Bay Resort (category 5 in Hainan, China) and Hyatt City of Dreams Manila (category 2 in Manila, Philippines).  According to the press release, the Park Hyatt Sanya is located on Hainan Island, “China’s southernmost province widely known as ‘the Hawaii of China.’  The hotel marks the fifth Park Hyatt hotel in China, as well as the 35th Park Hyatt hotel in the world.”  The Park Hyatt Sanya looks beautiful and has a gorgeous beach-front view.  Click here to view the home page.

Park Hyatt Sanya Home Page

Continue reading →

a close-up of a paypal logo

2 Quick Questions: Would you Pay for Advanced MS Strategies? What is your Zipcode?

Posted on by . 64 Replies

Good afternoon everyone, I just had 2 quick questions I wanted to run by you to get your feedback/opinion.  I really like what The Free-quent Flyer does in regards to his monthly blog subscription and what a few other bloggers do in regards to their weekly/monthly newsletter.  This is my thinking:

  • As a blogger, I have a responsibility to find deals and share those deals with my readers.
  • I also have the responsibility of not killing deals prematurely by drawing too much attention to various deals/tricks/loopholes.
  • There are many deals/tricks/loopholes that I discover over the course of the month that I do not post and that I only share with a very small group of people.
  • Some deals would be MS-related and some would just be simple cash back deals.
  • I would only share items that I discover and have personally tried.  I would not summarize ideas from other private forums.
  • I’m leaning toward a PayPal subscription, but I am not 100% sure on the implementation of the service (direct emails only or a password-protected section on this site?)
  • I will still continue to share normal everyday deals openly on my blog, nothing will change in those regards.

Continue reading →

a red and white sign with black text

Reminder: OC Meetup at In-N-Out Saturday January 31 at 6PM

Posted on by . 12 Replies

Good morning everyone, this is just a friendly reminder for all readers in the Orange County area.  Please join me and many others like me for dinner at In-N-Out as we discuss miles and points.  All levels of expertise are welcome, from beginners to experts.

OC Meetup:

In-N-Out Tustin District Map

Continue reading →

a woman holding her hands up with a man in front of him

Travel Challenge: Could you MS During the Week to Pay for a Weekend Trip?

Posted on by . 31 Replies

Updated at 9:30am PST on 1/31/2015: the winners of the contest have been chosen.  Scroll to the bottom of this post to see who won.

This is an idea that came to me a few weeks ago, but I never gave it much thought until writing my recent tell-all MS posts (Part 1: My Manufactured Spend and Redbird Loading Strategy and Part 2: My Manufactured Spend Strategy with PayPal, Chime, Meetups, Reselling, and More!).  If you assumed the miles, points, or cash back posted right away (rather than when the statement closed), could you MS during the week to pay for a weekend trip?

The Rules

To make things more realistic, let’s ignore credit card sign up bonuses and only focus on using the credit cards and prepaid cards you currently have today.  Timing is everything, so let’s assume today is the first of the month and all your monthly MS limits have been reset (Bluebird, Serve, Redbird, PayPal, etc.).  Your net out of pocket expenses should be $100 or less.

cash

Continue reading →

a close-up of a paypal logo

Part 2: My Manufactured Spend Strategy with PayPal, Chime, Meetups, Reselling, and More!

Posted on by . 29 Replies

Good morning everyone, welcome to part 2 of my Manufactured Spend strategy.  If you haven’t already, please read part 1 before this post.  This post doesn’t really have any new MS strategies, I just talk about various avenues of learning about MS strategies and clarifying some of the MS strategies that I *do not* participate in.  Most people assume I do every sort of MS out there, but that is not correct.

PayPal My Cash Cards, PayPal Business Debit Card, and PayPal Extras MasterCard

I used to buy PPMCCs to pay off my PPEMC, but PayPal told me not to do that anymore.  I used to use my PPEMC to pay my PPEMC via Evolve Money and get free PayPal Points, but Evolve Money closed that loophole.  I used to use my PPBDC for online debit card loads with Serve, but I might close my Serve Card soon.  The future of PayPal in my MS arsenal is unknown…

PayPal to Bluebird Logo

Continue reading →