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 $85.48 in taxes/fees (Mexico apparently has much higher taxes than the US).
Some quick random news stories before I head out to Buffalo Wild Wings…
Just a reminder, I am holding another OC Meetup at the Tustin District In-N-Out this weekend. I believe Travel-Summary will be joining me and maybe some LA bloggers who want to come down to the OC *hint, hint*
I have some very good tips and tricks to share, so good that Marathon Man would not approve if I shared them online. Please let me know if you can/will try to make it to dinner.
Good evening everyone, TGI (Thank Grant It’s) Thursday. I will be flying up to San Francisco Friday night and coming home early Monday morning from Oakland. I will not be blogging this weekend, but I will bring my phone so I can respond to emails and blog comments. Since the collective knowledge of TWG readers is far superior than just my knowledge, I need your help. I am working on compiling a page on best credit cards for downgrades or conversions. For every annual fee credit card from a bank, there is a related no annual fee credit card.
Do you remember that kid in school who always asked the teacher if there was any homework due next week when the teacher clearly forgot to assign any? Well, you can all thank Dan P for the suggestion (link):
I think a blog post about all the “good downgrading cards” would be great. Include the BoA Better Balance Rewards and the Citizens Bank Green$ense (pays you $0.25 per transaction, up to $20 per month; great for purchases under $5) in addition to other cards. Although other than those two I haven’t found any really useful, zero annual fee cards.
Steven got the ball rolling with this comment:
Best practice is to convert the Alaska card to a Better Balance card which will award $100 a year for minimal spending. I have 6 of them. :)
Followed by Jivepicnic’s comment:
I only have one Better Balance Card, so I have some work to do to catch up to Steven! I purchase an Amazon eGC for $0.50 each month, so I spend $6 per year to get $100. Actually for me it’s $120 because you get a $5 bonus per quarter if you have a BofA checking account as well.
Clearly, I have been living under a rock since I was unaware of this card until a few days ago. I have closed several Bank of American credit card in the last 2 years to avoid the annual fee, when I could have earned $100 a year for keeping a credit card open (link).
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.
MSing (not to be confused with PMSing) is one of my specialties. When I tell people that I have to spend $2,000, $5,000, or $10,000 on credit cards, they look at me funny. “Wow, that is a lot of money, how are you going to do that?” I do a quick calculation in my head; 4 stops at CVS, a quick trip to Albertson’s or Ralph’s, 2 visits to Walmart, carry the thousand, “I’ll be done with that later this week.” I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks like that. Since I do not have any real bills to pay (no mortgage, student loans, auto payments, etc.) I would say 95% of my spending is MS, and the other 5% comes from restaurants (I <3 food).
Anyway, enough about me. My Hilton HHonors account has been dwindling as of late thanks to stays at the Hilton San Francisco Airport and Hilton Vienna in January, the Hilton Copenhagen Airport and the Hilton Seattle Airport in April, the Hilton Los Cabos Resort and the Hilton Portland next month, and my DoubleTree Scottsdale reservation for #westcoastdo in November. Needless to say, it is time to replenish my stash of Hilton Honors Points.
Over the weekend, I compared the perks and category bonuses of my Citi® Hilton HHonors Reserve Card and my Hilton Honors™ Surpass® Card from American Express. After I finished analyzing those credit cards, I decided that I would also include the other 2 Hilton HHonors credit cards that have no annual fee. It is unfortunate that the transfers from Hawaiian Airlines and Virgin Atlantic are no longer 1:2 (they are now 1:1.5). That was a quick way to get a ton of easy Hilton HHonors Points.
With that said, here is the master chart (please let me know if you spot any mistakes and I will fix them right away). The yellow boxes represent the information given on the credit card information pages. The white boxes are inferred values based on the “Everything Else” category. The red font represent the best deal(s) for each type of transaction. For example, the best credit card to use for stays at a Hilton property depends on whether the hotel is in the United States or abroad. Since only the Citi® Hilton HHonors Reserve Card has no foreign transaction (FOREX) fees, that is my go to card for international stays. If I am staying in the United States, I use the Hilton Honors™ Surpass® Card from American Express.
