Tag Archives: Frequent Flyer Miles

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Last Call for Discounted FTU Online Membership & Reminder to Register for FTU Virtual Seminar (December 12)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  If you do not have any plans this weekend, I highly recommend attending the FTU Virtual Seminar this Saturday, December 12 from 11am to 3pm ET (8am to 12pm PT for those on the West Coast).  Here is the full schedule of speakers and presentations.  You can either watch the FTU Virtual Seminars live on Saturday or watch the recording later, but you need to register before the event begins.  Tickets to the FTU Virtual Seminar are free if you have a FTU Online Annual Membership or $25 for non-members.  I highly recommend signing up for the FTU Online Annual Membership (read Buy a $49 Frequent Traveler University (FTU) Online Annual Membership & Attend First Virtual Seminar December 12).  The FTU Online Annual Membership is currently $49 but will go up to $129 on December 12.

Assuming I persuaded you to attend the FTU Virtual Seminar or better yet, purchase a FTU Online Annual Membership, the next thing you need to do is register for the FTU Virtual Seminar before December 12.  I assumed (incorrectly) that I was automatically registered for the FTU Virtual Seminar when I purchased my FTU Online Annual Membership, but that is not true.  You still need to register for the FTU Virtual Seminar if you want to live stream or watch the recording.  In this post, I will walk you through the steps to register for the FTU Virtual Seminar.

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Reader Feedback: How Should I Spend 84K Citi ThankYou Points Before December 31?

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Updated at 6pm PT on 1/2/21: Thanks to everyone who answered the poll question at the bottom of this post.  Even though “Do Nothing Until 2021” was the second most popular answer, that is what I decided to do.  Hopefully I will be able to make some Citi TYP redemptions in 2021.

Good evening everyone, I need some help.  First of all, this post could be classified as a “First World Problem” or a “Good Problem to Have”, but I would still like to get some help on making my decision.  Long story short, I have a Citi Rewards+ Credit Card and one of the benefits of the credit card is the ability to get 10% of your redeemed Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs) back, on the first 100,000 TYPs redeemed per calendar year (10K TYPs rebate max).  Since there are only a few weeks left in the year and I have only redeemed a few thousand TYPs this year, I need to spend 84K TYPs by December 31 in order to max out the 10K TYP rebate.  In this post, I will discuss how I calculated how many TYPs I need to spend and go through all the various redemption options and my thoughts on each option.

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Buy a $49 Frequent Traveler University (FTU) Online Annual Membership & Attend First Virtual Seminar December 12

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I just received an email from Frequent Traveler University (FTU) about their new online annual membership.  I have attended many FTU events in previous years and “attended” the virtual Chicago Seminars organized by Stefan at Rapid Travel Chai a few weeks ago and had a great time.  The cost for the FTU online annual membership is only $49 and comes with a variety of benefits and a private Facebook community.  Read on to see everything that is included in the membership.

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My October 2020 Credit Card App-O-Rama Results

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Good morning everyone, happy Veteran’s Day!  At the end of October, my wife and I decided to do a credit card app-o-rama.  We have a few large bills to pay over the next few months (property tax, home insurance, holiday shopping, etc.) so we decided to apply for a few new credit cards to earn some miles and points.  Laura applied for 1 personal credit card (Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card) and I applied for 3 business credit cards (Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business Credit Card, American Express Delta SkyMiles Gold Business Credit Card, and Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card).  In today’s post, I will cover the Alaska Airlines Business Credit Card and the Delta Gold Business Credit Card application process.

I made sure to temporarily unfreeze our credit reports for a few days during the application process and we applied for all of these credit cards on October 25, so some of the offers may have expired or changed since then.  The Alaska Airlines Business Credit Card sign up bonus was for 40,000 Alaska Airlines Miles, a $200 statement credit, and the annual companion fare.  We need to spend $2,000 in 3 months and pay the $75 annual fee.

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Anatomy & Timeline of Cancelling an Avianca LifeMiles Award Ticket

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Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  Long story short, I planned an awesome award trip to Africa (Victoria Falls, South Africa, and Madagascar) for August 2020, but due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, we decided to cancel the trip and try again next year.  I planned / booked this trip in October 2019 and part of the award booking process involved booking an Avianca LifeMiles award ticket to fly in business class on Ethiopian Airlines from Toronto, Canada (YYZ) through Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ADD) to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe (VFA).  In this post, I will document the timeline of cancelling my award ticket, when my Avianca LifeMiles were redeposited and when my taxes/fees were refunded.  Similarly, you can read about my experience with Air Canada is my post Anatomy & Timeline of 2 Cancelled Air Canada Aeroplan Award Tickets.

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