Tag Archives: United Airlines

Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card Worth the $95 Annual Fee?

CSP

Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card Worth the $95 Annual Fee?

Thank you Amanda for asking me why the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card was not used on my recent trip to Cabo.  Great question Amanda, let me explain why…

There is no doubt that the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great credit card.  Double points on travel and dining purchases is awesome.  Transferable points to many of the best airline and hotel loyalty programs is awesome.  No foreign transactions fees and no annual fee (for the first year) is awesome.  I think that if you could only have 1 Chase credit card, most people would say the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card (we will assume you are not a business owner).  I totally agree 100%.  But what about the second year and the third year and the fourth year when you have to pay the $95 annual fee.  Is it still worth it?

Yes and no.   Continue reading →

Weekend Cash Back Update: AMEX Offers (Bed, Bath & Beyond, Courtyard Marriott, and Five Crowns), Staples ($5 Chime Rebate + Easy Rebate Paper), Vons / Pavillions / Safeway (MasterCard Gift Card Promo)

Gift Cards

Weekend Cash Back Update: AMEX Offers (Bed, Bath & Beyond, Courtyard Marriott, and Five Crowns), Staples ($5 Chime Rebate + Easy Rebate Paper), Vons / Pavillions / Safeway (MasterCard Gift Card Promo)

Happy Sunday afternoon everyone, I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve been busy this weekend.  Busy saving money!

Yesterday afternoon, I stopped by my local Bed, Bath, & Beyond store and bought 4 $25 gift cards (Chipotle, Panera, and 2x Subway) to qualify for the $5 AMEX statement credit offer (link).  I used 4 different AMEX credit cards.

Bed Bath Beyond AMEX Offer

My iPhone was going crazy, thank you AMEX.

AMEX Offers iPhone

Continue reading →

Trip Booking Report: LAX-DUS-BCN with AA Miles and MAD-MUC-LAX with UA Miles

Award Booking Logo

Trip Booking Report: LAX-DUS-BCN with AA Miles and MAD-MUC-LAX with UA Miles

(Thanks to Josh for the idea of talking about booking my award tickets).

I’m not a huge fan or reading (or writing) trip reports, so I thought I would do a trip booking report – a report on how I used frequent flyer miles to find and book my current trip to Spain.  If you guys like this post, I will cover my recent trips to Utah (Delta SkyMiles), Seattle (BA Avios), Hamburg and Copenhagen (Virgin Atlantic economy and Air Berlin business class), Amsterdam (US Airways) or any other award trips.  For my current trip, here are my award flights:

  • Los Angeles to Dusseldorf, Germany to Barcelona, Spain (LAX-DUS-BCN) on Air Berlin with American Airlines miles (30,000 miles one way)
  • Madrid, Spain to Munich, Germany to Los Angeles (MAD-MUC-LAX) on Lufthansa with United Airlines miles (30,000 miles one way)

Airline Credit Cards and Frequent Flyer Miles

For my current trip, I am traveling with my parents and my younger brother.  We used 120,000 American Airlines miles and 120,000 United Airlines miles for 4 round trip economy tickets (I am such a boring travel blogger, I know).  My parents used their United Airlines miles that they acquired from their Chase United Airlines MileagePlus Explorer Credit Cards (50,000 mile sign up bonus with a 5,000 mile bonus for adding an authorized user).  They both got a Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card and topped up their United Airlines account balances to book the award flights.  As for the American Airlines miles, my parents have been long time users of the Citi American Airlines Credit Cards, so we redeemed miles from my mom’s account.  She recently got her first Citi American Airlines Executive Credit Card to replenish her stash of American Airlines miles.

To find the award flights, my dad was looking 330 days before the start of the trip and booked 4 American Airlines award tickets the day the award seats were released.  Then after waiting 2 weeks, he booked 4 United Airlines award tickets as soon as those seats were released.  I used the following steps to find the award seats, but the dates below are for future (imaginary) travel and for simplicity, I only searched for 1 award seat.   Continue reading →

I Closed my AMEX Gold Delta SkyMiles and Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Credit Cards Today

Which Credit Card

I Closed my AMEX Gold Delta SkyMiles and Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Credit Cards Today

This morning, I made two short calls to American Express and Chase to close two credit cards.  I tried asking for retention bonuses or to waive the annual fees last month (read Retention Bonus Results for a Chase United, AMEX Delta, and Citi American Airlines Credit Card), but wanted to see if I would have better luck calling again.  I didn’t expect much in terms of retention offers, I probably spend less than $1,000 total on both of these cards over the last 12 months, so I was prepared to close the cards if I didn’t get a good offer.  If you are curious, you can listen to the 9 minutes call below, or download it here: AMEX Delta and Chase United Recon Calls.m4a

After striking out getting a retention offer on my American Express Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card, I asked if it was possible to convert the card to an AMEX Everyday (or Preferred) credit card.  The agent said it was not possible at this time, so I instead asked for the $5,000 credit line be moved to my American Express Blue Cash Preferred Credit Card.  Instead of moving the entire amount, the agent was only able to move $4,500 over, keeping $500 with the Delta credit card.  I have to wait a few days for the request to be processed and wait for a letter in the mail from American Express.  After the credit line has been moved, I will call back and officially close my Delta credit card.  I wish American Express was instant like Chase…   Continue reading →

Retention Bonus Results for a Chase United, AMEX Delta, and Citi American Airlines Credit Card

Which Credit Card

Retention Bonus Results for a Chase United, AMEX Delta, and Citi American Airlines Credit Card

Good morning, here are my results from my recent three card retention bonus challenge (read the intro here).  If you want to listen to all three reconsideration calls (24 minutes long), please click the play button below.  Download link (3-Card-Reconsideration-Calls.m4a).

Here are my results and plans going forward…

Card #1: Chase United MileagePlus Credit Card

  • Asked for the $95 annual fee to be waived – no go
  • Asked for a statement credit to cover the annual fee – no go
  • Asked for 10,000 United miles to offset the annual fee (got this last year) – no go
  • I was offered 2 complimentary United Club Passes (see my post How much are 2 United Club Passes Worth? $29.99) – I will sell these on Ebay when they come
  • I will call back again after the United Club Passes arrive and see if I can get a better retention offer, otherwise I will close my card and move my credit line over to my other Chase personal credit cards

Continue reading →