I’m excited to welcome the Million Mile Secrets readers to my travel blog! I’ve been following & reading Daraius’s blog for some months now. I really enjoyed taking part in the interview series and look forward to meeting all of you.

Please take a moment to subscribe to Have Points Will Travel and have a look around.

Cheers!

-Jason

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Chances are pretty good that you make at least a few purchases at Amazon.com every year. If you’re like me and you shop online almost religiously, then you’re probably making multiple purchases on Amazon every month. Amazon is great for their wide selection, incredible pricing, and reliable shipping. But if you’re a points and miles hoarder, the online retail giant can also be disappointing. In this post, I’ll walk you through a few options (and alternatives) for maximizing your Amazon.com purchases…

How Much Are Your Points & Miles Worth?

Before we get rolling, let’s get back to basics. It’s always good to start by reminding yourself why you’re collecting points and miles in the first place. This is mostly about how you VALUE each point and each mile in your rewards programs. The answer to this question is different for everyone and largely depends upon how you generally use your points.

But just for sake of argument, let’s say you value your points at about 5 cents each. If that’s true, then any purchase that earns you 1 point per dollar is effectively a 5 cents per 1 dollar rebate. In other words, a 5% savings. Obviously the savings isn’t immediate since you’ll have to wait to “cash in” your points until you’ve acquired enough to earn a free hotel or a free flight.

Points and miles valuation is super important to this whole process. If you haven’t already spent some time thinking about this and doing some personal calculations, I suggest you review my previous post on points valuation and spend 30 minutes figuring it out.

As you’ll see below, since Hawaiian Airlines is currently the only program offering 1 point per dollar spent at Amazon.com, you’ll want to spend some time figuring out the value of a Hawaiian Airlines award ticket.

Why There Are So Few Options For Amazon.com Points

The key to online shopping for travel points is finding an online shopping mall to offer you extra rewards points for your online purchases. So instead of just going straight to the online retailer’s website and making your purchase, you FIRST go to your favorite airline, hotel, or bank’s online shopping portal (like Chase Ultimate Rewards) and THEN click to visit the online retailer’s website. This way you get “extra points credit” for any purchases you make through this affiliate relationship.

Amazon is a discount retailer. They’re sort of the Wal-Mart of online shopping because they’ve created a powerful brand image as offering LOTS of stuff at rock bottom prices.

Since Amazon is in the “low prices” business, it’s difficult for them to offer kickbacks to Delta Airlines or Starwood Hotels in exchange for points. That, generally, is how this whole extra points arrangement works.

Also, I’m sure Amazon has its own private and internal reasons for not making their online store available on partner sites. I can only guess and speculate at these reasons. Maybe Amazon doesn’t really need the extra push from these affiliate relationships? Maybe they’ve had bad experiences with it? Who knows… We can only guess, but I suspect that their pricing and marketing strategy have a lot to do with it.

Use Hawaiian Airlines For Amazon.com Purchases

As of this writing, there is one airline offering extra points for Amazon.com purchases — Hawaiian Airlines. Even if you’ve never used Hawaiian Air I’d strongly suggest visiting their website now to create a free mileage account. Any purchases you make through the Hawaiian Airlines Shopping Mall on Amazon.com can earn you 1 extra mile per dollar spent.

You never know when Hawaiian Airlines could become an important part of your points and miles arsenal. Plus, Hawaii is a really popular and desirable place to travel. Free plane ticket to Hawaii? You can’t go wrong there.

So, we already know that Hawaiian Airlines offers an extra 1 point per dollar when you buy something on Amazon. Then we might want to start by finding out approximately how much an award ticket would cost for our desired trip to Hawaii.

Using Kayak.com I’ve found a First Class flight from my home airport SFO to Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines round trip for $1,320 per person. According to the Hawaiian Airlines website Award Chart, a saver award in first class would run me 40,000 HA points each way. That’s 80,000 points for a round-trip ticket.

If I pay cash for the ticket, I would be looking at a $1,320 purchase. If I pay points for the same ticket, I’d be giving up 80,000 points. In other words, each point (in this case) has a cash value of $0.0165 or about 1.6 cents per point.

Not looking good.

For an economy ticket, my cash price would be $387 and my points price would be 40,000 points. Now we’re looking at about $0.009675 or less than 1 cent per mile.

Even worse.

Comparison Shop Before Using Amazon.com

If my best option here is to get a 1.6 cent value per point for my Amazon purchases, then it definitely makes sense to look elsewhere for other options. For example, let’s say I’m interested in buying a new coffee maker on Amazon.com and the price is $24.97 on their website. If I use the Hawaiian shopping portal, my extra point per dollar really only amounts to about a 1.6% savings on my purchase. Then, my $24.97 coffee maker now costs $24.57 after subtracting my “travel savings” from acquiring HA miles.

So let’s say I find the same product via the American Airlines or United shopping mall for $29.95 (about $5 more than the Amazon.com version) on a different retail website. But on the United shopping mall, I get 3 extra points per $1 spent at this alternate retailer. (Again, this is just an example.)

Since I value United points at 5 cents each, I’m looking at an extra 15% rebate for these additional travel points (3 extra points X $0.05 cents per point = $0.15 cents per point or 15% total value).

In this case, it probably makes more sense to use the alternate route even though the cost is slightly higher for my coffee maker. In the long run, I’ll get more value for the points AND I’ll reach my desired award ticket levels much faster.

The Amazon.com Credit Card

Another option to consider in all of this is the Amazon.com credit card. I personally don’t have this card and don’t know very much about it, but some of my friends speak very highly about it.

As always, how you approach this will depend on your personal preferences and your unique situation. For example, you might PREFER immediate cash savings over future potential travel rebates. Or, you might live on the east coast. A first class flight from JFK to Honolulu on Hawaiian Airlines has a cash value more in the $3,000 range — more than 2x my flight costs from here on the west coast.

There’s a lot to consider here. The most important thing is to remember that your ultimate goal is to find the best strategy that works for you. And remember, even if you manage to get 10,000 miles in your Hawaiian Airlines account from Amazon purchases — they will have ZERO value until you actually get to use them!

Good luck and please leave your feedback below, especially if you have additional tips for Amazon.com and/or Hawaiian Airlines. Cheers!

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If you travel as often as I do, eventually you’re bound to come up against one of the most surprising airline industry policies: the dreaded “No Show Policy.” Let’s hope that unlike me you’re reading this information NOW instead of later when not knowing this could cost you hundreds, even thousands of dollars. If that doesn’t entice you to keep reading, I don’t know what will! Not knowing this information once cost me a whopping $600. Don’t let the same thing happen to you!

What Is A No Show Policy?

Although every airline has the right to choose exactly what its no show policy is, most airlines follow the standard rule. Simply put, a standard no show policy usually means that if you don’t show up at the airport for your flight, you forfeit the entire value of your ticket completely. So if your plans suddenly change and you decide to skip-out on one leg of your flight, you actually forfeit the entire ticket and your funds are non-refundable, non-exchangeable, etc etc.

No Show Policies For Round Trip Flights

Most people who learn about no-show policies the hard way usually share a pretty similar story. That story goes something like this…

“I booked a round trip flight to go visit a friend of mine. At the last minute, my plans changed and I ended up renting a car and driving the first leg instead. Then, when it was time to fly back home, I showed up at the airport only to discover that my confirmation number no longer worked, my ticket had been cancelled and I had to book a brand new one-way flight at full fare!”

Yup, the evil No Show Policy strikes again!

This same story comes in so many forms and permutations, but it usually starts with someone changing their flight plans last minute WITHOUT contacting the airline. Why would somebody do that? Well, plans can and often do change without notice. But the primary reason for not letting the airline know about a change is usually to avoid paying a change or cancellation fee.

If you’re booking a one-way flight only, then it doesn’t matter if you just skip out on your flight. But if you have another piece (or pieces) of a flight remaining, you risk losing ALL of it and being stranded.

Most Airlines Have Strict No-Show Policies

A quick browse across the web reveals some pretty consistent no-show conventions throughout the airline industry…

American Airlines:
“Customers who no-show a flight without canceling will lose the value of the remaining coupons.”

United Airlines:
“Inventory spoilage caused by the failure to issue tickets and/or cancel ticketed or unticketed reservations.”

Virgin America:
“Our no-show policy is simply that, if you fail to check in, Virgin America will cancel that flight reservation and all subsequent segments for continuing or return flights. On non-refundable fares, the fare or Elevate points spent for all such reservations will be forfeited. So please contact us within the appropriate time and we will gladly reschedule or cancel your flight. If the fare is refundable, then you can contact our call center for credit. Again, change/cancel fees may apply.”
(I especially liked Virgin America’s policy language.)

Southwest seems to be the only airline that does NOT strictly enforce a no-show policy, though this information I found on the FlyerGuide.com website (NOT on the SWA website)…

Southwest Airlines:
“On Southwest, unlike other airlines, you can no-show the outbound half and still keep your return reservation.”

What To Do If You’ll Be A No-Show

There’s a simple rule of thumb you can follow to avoid getting penalized by airline no-show policy — ALWAYS call the airline if you think you might miss your flight. Even if you sleep in or something happens outside your control, ALWAYS call.

Most airlines will work with you if you’re upfront about what’s going on with your travel plans. But truly the worst thing you can do is just not show-up. There’s no reason to miss an opportunity to salvage at least some of your ticket value.

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For a recent Southwest flight to Las Vegas, Stephanie and I spent several hours in Terminal 1 at the Los Angeles LAX Airport. Terminal 1 is served primarily by US Airways and Southwest so most flights are regional. That means you get fairly limited options within this terminal. If you’re a Lounge Club cardholder, you’re not going to find any partner lounges here.

We caught a late flight and had several hours to kill, so we grabbed a bite to eat at the only sit-down-and-be-served dining option, The Backlot Alley. The options were basic sandwiches and pretzels with soft drinks, beers, and cocktails available. One important note: there were some accessible outlets in the restaurant seating area so you can plug-in while waiting for your food and get some work done between bites if needed. As I’ve mentioned before, SFO is a much more “laptops and cell phones” outlet friendly airport than LAX but no surprises there.

The food at Backlot Alley is decent but nothing to write home about. Typical stuff for a quick airport bite.

There are also a few bars in Terminal 1 if you’re looking to relax with a drink before (or after) your flight. We each had a drink at the Camacho’s bar with good drinks and good service.

Like most airport terminals, McDonalds and Starbucks is on-hand as well as at least 2 magazine, newspaper, and candy shops.

Nothing too spectacular going on at Terminal 1 LAX but enough to keep you busy and occupied before your next short flight on Southwest or US Airways. If you’re looking for a good dining experience, Terminal 1 doesn’t offer much. You might be better served by some of the pre-security options before heading through the security checkpoints and into the “boarding pass” only area.

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Recently, the travel forums and blogosphere exploded with “hot tips” for a short-lived special promo from Chase — 60,000 bonus points for the Chase Ink Bold business card. Just a day or two after the buzz, the offer disappeared. This represented a rare chance to get 10,000 bonus points MORE than the already coveted 50,000 point bonus for the Ink Bold card. But since the offer closed so quickly, few people were able to actually catch the short window.

But here’s the good news…

If you got the Chase Ink Bold anytime during February, March, or April, (possibly even as far back as January) it may benefit you to try and contact Chase to get an extra 10,000 bonus points via their secured message center.

That’s what I did. And it worked!

First, I logged into my Chase.com account and went to the Secure Message Center. Then, I wrote a simple message to the Ultimate Rewards Program help desk. I mentioned that I just got the Ink Bold business credit card during the 50,000 bonus offer and that I noticed a recent 60,000 bonus point offer. I basically explained that I felt like I *just missed* a better opportunity and asked if I could have the extra 10,000 bonus points since I barely missed the special offer.

My message only took a few minutes to write and send. Then, only a few hours later, I received a very friendly response confirming my request…

And just like that, I got the extra 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points. And here’s the amazing part — the extra 10,000 bonus points posted to my account immediately! Apparently, in order to qualify for this extra 10,000 bonus points, you have to contact Chase Ultimate Rewards within 90 days of opening your account. (I’m actually beginning to wonder if I missed out on any other bonus offers???)

I’m really impressed with Chase customer service these days. I also had a similar VERY good experience with my Chase Business Banker here in San Francisco. My hat is off to these guys and gals for working hard to make Ultimate Rewards an amazing program.

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Value is a funny word. What do you VALUE? And exactly HOW do you go about assigning value? This can be a tricky process and very misleading if you’re not careful. Like most things in life, airline miles and hotel points can be assigned an objective AND a subjective value. That means you can usually calculate an EXACT objective value and you can also estimate a subjective value. The objective value is something all of us can easily agree on. But the subjective value is usually very specific to YOU.

A Basic Example of Points Valuation

Let’s start with a very simple example. Lately, I’m loving Chase Ultimate Rewards, so I’ll use their points system as an example. When you sign up for the Chase Ink Bold business card OR the Chase Sapphire Preferred personal card, you get a 50,000 point bonus after you reach the minimum spending threshold. So once you have those 50,000 points in your Chase Ultimate Rewards account, how much are those points worth?

The Objective Value of Your Points
To calculate the objective value of your points, you’ll need to determine a baseline. In other words, how much value could most people get with the same 50,000 points in their account too. For Ultimate Rewards, that’s an easy one to figure out since Chase allows you to use your points as cash to book hotels, flights, and rental cars via their online travel booking engine. For Chase, each of your points is worth $0.0125 (or 1.25 cents each) for booking travel.

So the objective value of 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points is $625 travel cash.

That means virtually ANYONE who gets a new Chase Bank credit card with a 50,000 point Ultimate Rewards bonus is basically getting a $625 travel voucher every time they get those 50,000 points.

And technically, since the Chase Sapphire Preferred gives a 7% annual dividend, we’re looking at 53,500 total points (that’s 50,000 x 7%) since Chase does in fact give a 7% bonus on the 50,000 point bonus. Pretty sweet, eh? So, really you’re looking at $668.75 in travel value. Chances are really really high that you will in fact use that $668.75 while you’re a Chase cardholder so getting that bonus is basically the same as getting $668.75 in free money.

The Subjective Value of Your Points
Now here’s where things get tricky. Calculating the subjective value of points can be ultra-confusing since everyone books travel differently and values travel experiences differently. But learning how to master this process of maximizing the TOTAL VALUE of your points is the real key to getting to the next level in travel points expertise.

Let’s say that instead of using those 50,000 points to get Chase’s $0.0125 per point cash value in travel booking, you decide to use those points for something bigger, something better! How about a business class flight? Or a luxury hotel room? Now we’re talking!

Since Chase is a 1:1 transfer partner of the United Mileage program, you could transfer your Ultimate Rewards points directly into your United MileagePlus account for no charge.

Here’s a screenshot I just took from inside my United account:

As you can see, I’ve loaded up an example of a booking I could make for a nonstop one-way flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Tokyo (NRT) in business class on United Airlines for 60,000 miles plus $77.50 in taxes and services fees. Look in the middle of that screen grab and you’ll see the full price I would have to pay to book that same exact ticket WITHOUT using miles — a whopping $3,919.70 for the same business class ticket. My total savings with my 60,000 Chase points is 3919.70 minus 77.50 which equals a total of $3,842.20 in savings.

That means my 60,000 Chase points could be valued at $3,842.20 total or $0.064 (about 6.5 cents) each. That’s MUCH higher than the Chase Ultimate Rewards value of $0.0125 cents per point.

Now, here’s one thing to keep in mind. A lot of people would never actually pay $3,842.20 for this one-way flight from SFO to NRT so saying that you’re getting almost $4,000 of travel value could be a bit misleading. In other words, it’s hard to say that 60,000 United miles “saved you” about four thousand bucks when you would never have actually spent that amount in the first place. More likely, you would have booked the economy class ticket at the $1,145.70 price (see the image) or something close to that.

Then again, some people definitely would pay $3800 or even more for business class tickets because they value them so much and they fly business class routinely, have plenty of cash, etc etc.

Obviously, we could even look at alternate routes, different airlines, discounted seats, status upgrades, and so many other factors. That’s why finding the TRUE VALUE of points and miles is pretty much impossible.

How You Value Points And Miles Depends on You

At the end of the day, valuation is a subjective thing and very hard to pin down. But there are a few critical lessons to be learned here…

1. It’s always best to stretch-out your points and miles for GREAT awards.
Sure, you could easily cash in your points by turning them into the most accessible award out there, but why do that when you can save, combine, and maximize your points for much higher value bookings. Regardless of how you value a one-way business class ticket to Japan, I’m sure we can all agree that the value is much greater than simply “throwing away” points and miles for a quick fix, an easy discount, or something else.

2. Focus on what YOU value to get the most bang for every point and every mile.
You can get top category rooms at the Park Hyatt Maldives for about 20,000-25,000 points. That’s worth a direct cash value of $1200 per night or more. That’s some MAJOR value. But if you’re not at all interested in going to the Maldives, then that value doesn’t translate for you.

3. Make sure you’re capitalizing on the points and miles you’re regularly earning.
Recently, a friend of mine asked me about my Chase Sapphire Preferred card. I explained all the great benefits of Ultimate Rewards cards and he got really excited. He then told me he had the Chase Southwest Visa and really loved earning points with it since he mostly flies Southwest. After I explained that the Sapphire Preferred card would allow him to CHOOSE whether to apply his credit card spending points to Southwest OR one of the many other transfer partners, he suddenly realized he was missing out on an opportunity. This is a classic example. Try to focus your regular earning strategy (credit card spending especially) on the best points & miles earning cards currently on the market.

Valuation will never be cut-and-dry. But that’s what makes the “Have Points Will Travel” lifestyle so much fun.

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Two of my newest cards are the Chase Sapphire Preferred (personal) AND the Chase Ink Bold (business). I’m a big fan of both cards and do most of my personal and business spending on them. The Chase Ultimate Rewards program is designed to attract good credit borrowers and compete with American Express in the “upscale credit card” market. Amex is still great and will always be great. But Chase is definitely offering some solid competition with their new Ultimate Rewards program. Here’s my review of the program so far…

What Is Ultimate Rewards?

Just like Amex’s “membership rewards” program, Ultimate Rewards to gives Chase customers points for making purchases. Those points can then be transferred to travel, hotel, and airline partners at a 1:1 ratio. You can also use those points *like real cash* to book travel via the Ultimate Rewards travel booking system.

Chase values Ultimate Rewards points at $0.0125 per point. So the 50,000 points equals $625 towards hotel rooms, airfare, etc. Personally, I value Chase points between 3 cents and 4 cents each since I prefer to apply points towards high-value hotel rooms and business class flights. Points values are always subjective, but the smarter you get about how you use points the more value you can get.

Still, it’s nice to know that at the very least you can always turn points into travel booking cash direct on the Ultimate Rewards website.

How You Earn Ultimate Rewards Points

My bonus for the Sapphire Preferred was 50,000 points. I also got another 50,000 points for the Chase Ink Bold card. Just like most travel credit cards, each card has its own points-earning formula.

Chase Sapphire Preferred:
-2 points for travel & dining
-1 point for everything else
-7% dividend on ALL your annual points earned (I love this!)

Chase Ink Bold:
-5 points for office supplies & internet/phone
-2 points for gas & hotels

Double Dipping In the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall

Another excellent way to earn Ultimate Rewards points is by double-dipping to get 2x, 3x, and up to 10x the points inside the Chase Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall. You can access the shopping portal by logging into your chase account and then clicking through to Ultimate Rewards. From there, you can browse by product, merchant, or special offers to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Transfer Points From Ultimate Rewards To Your Favorite Travel Programs

Since Ultimate Rewards is still fairly new, there aren’t quite as many travel partners as longer-running programs like AMEX. But the current list of partners is pretty darn good. Southwest, United, British Air, Korean Air, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, Amtrak, and The Ritz-Carlton are all currently listed as 1:1 transfer partners.

The big standouts here are United and Hyatt. For 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points, you can book a business class flight from the US to Singapore. For 20,000 to 30,000 points, you can book a high-category hotel room at a Hyatt collection hotel.

The Final Analysis

I love Ultimate Rewards. I’ll definitely be holding onto both these cards. I like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card for the 2 points on dining. Plus, any points I earn with the Sapphire Preferred get an additional 7% bonus with my cardholder points dividend each year.

And I’m a big fan of the 2x points for hotels on the Ink Bold. The 5x points for office supplies with the Ink Bold is nice, but probably not going to amount to much since I don’t purchase too many office supplies each year.

I’d love to see the Ink Bold get more travel points advantages. I’ll probably be adding the American Express Gold Business card to my mix soon since it gives a 3x points benefit for all airfare purchases. Combining that with the Ink Bold hotel benefit and the Sapphire Preferred dining benefit will make a great triple threat.

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If you love to travel and you’re serious about getting great rewards so you can travel more often, it’s time to kick things up a notch and get serious about becoming a “Have Points Will Traveler.” In this post, I’m going to let you in on 7 *must follow* strategies to get even more out of your travel credit cards. This is what separates the road warriors from the beginners.

1. Stay tuned in for great credit card bonus offers.

These days, credit card companies and banks are offering fantastic travel rewards bonuses for new customers. Your monthly, annual, and lifetime spend on these credit cards can amount to major revenue for the banks. They are very motivated to win your business and willing to offer you some lovely incentives to make that happen. From what I understand, the sign-on rewards we’re seeing these days are historically very high and — in some cases — may even be the highest on record.

Taking advantage of these bonuses means keeping your ear to the ground (especially by subscribing to this blog) and being ready to grab those new travel credit card offers as they become available.

Some of my favorite offers at the moment are for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the Chase Ink Bold, the US Airways Mastercard, Capital One and the Citi Aadvantage card. New offers are coming and going all the time, so it’s critical that you’re keeping tabs on what’s going on. (It probably wouldn’t hurt to follow me on Twitter too. Often I can announce things there much faster than here on the blog.)

2. Maintain a strong credit profile.

As a consumer, you’re greatest asset is your credit ratings with the top 3 bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. It’s super important that you keep a good watch on your credit reports and credit scores to make sure things are in tip-top shape at all times. Obviously, this rule applies to getting great credit cards, but it’s also important for keeping those cards too. Some credit card companies take routine “soft inquiries” of your credit reports to make sure you’re still a worthy borrower. Regardless of whether or not you’re making payments on time, paying your balance in full every month, some credit card agencies will suddenly decide you’re no longer worthy and close your accounts.

These days, banks and card issuers are mostly interested in good borrowers who have good credit and represent low risk for borrowing. Due to new regulations in the financial services industry, credit card interest rates are now capped for personal consumer cards. For this reason, credit card companies are focusing more on attracting low-risk borrowers so they can earn more money from merchant processing fees.

Every time you use your card at the local shopping mall or your favorite online shopping site or Taco Bell or wherever, the card issuer charges the merchant a small fee for processing the transaction. These fees range from 1% to 3% or higher. If you spend $100,000 on your credit card, that’s $1000 to $3000 in revenue for the card issuer.

This is why it’s SO important to become a good borrower and let the banks compete for your business. You deserve it for being responsible with your cash.

3. Never take no for an answer.

When you’re applying for new cards, your online application gets processed by a computer. If you don’t fit the computer’s approved borrower model to the letter, then your application will either end up “Pending” or “Declined.” When trying to secure a new travel credit card with an attractive sign-on bonus, it’s almost always worth your time to take additional steps to massage your application through.

Most all of the credit card companies have their own “Reconsideration Lines” where you can call in and speak to a real human being about your application. This is your chance to talk openly about your credit profile and explain some of the “missing pieces” to your overall credit-profile puzzle.

Even if a reconsideration line phone call takes 5 to 15 minutes of your time, and even if you do still actually get denied, it’s still worth every minute.

If you get approved, well… you get approved! And, the call was worth the extra steps to secure the sign-on bonus that could be worth $500-$2,000 in travel value. If you get denied, you can find out EXACTLY what’s wrong with your credit profile to make sure you fix those problems going forward.

4. Shop online like your life depends on it.

If you’re not shopping online for 90% of your major purchases and 50-75% of your normal everyday purchases, you’re missing out! I always try to remind people that online shopping is the best strategy for getting 10 times the points and miles and the best way to maximize your points second only to credit card bonuses.

I’m still trying to figure out how to get my daily lattes online.

5. Diversify your loyalty programs.

I love flying business class. But it can be a major challenge to build enough points in one single program for a complete round-trip business class flight with one airline. By building points across multiple programs, multiple hotels, and multiple airlines, you never have to worry about overpaying for a ticket or a room just to work towards your next award.

Being “blindly” loyal can cost you if done incorrectly.

6. Be loyal to what you love.

But.. if you know what you like, there’s usually no smarter decision than focusing on a specific program that rewards you in ways best compatable with your travel style. Having a lot of travel experience is indispensable for this strategy. You will only know what you really love by visiting lots of different hotels and flying with many different airlines.

Also, I’ve noticed that I can easily get carried away by cool-sounding loyalty programs and perks only to discover later that the company’s follow-through is not so great. This is where learning how to VALUE your points really becomes critical.

For example, I recently got Gold Status with Accor’s A-Club hotel loyalty program. I love Sofitel hotels, so I was pretty excited about the benefits. But after 3 separate stays as a gold member, I didn’t find the rewards as attractive or as advantageous as described. A-Club’s gold status doesn’t hold a candle to Starwood’s comparable level.

Sometimes figuring this out can be as easy as glancing at the published list of benefits. Other times, it’s more complicated. At the end of the day, only YOU can decide which programs you love.

7. Do something different.
Finally, make sure you don’t get stuck in old patterns simply because that’s what you’ve always done. I see this a lot with AMEX cardholders. Everybody perceives American Express as the credit card to have — and for good reason! AMEX card benefits are wonderful. But paying $450 per year for the AMEX Platinum card might not be worth it if you’re not actually using the benefits. Plus, you could be missing out on new opportunities to get new card bonuses AND keep using your favorite old cards.

It’s like anything else in life — if you don’t try new things, branch out, and break the mold, it’s all too easy to miss out.

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Yesterday I received my Lounge Club membership card in the mail. This is one of my favorite benefits of the Chase Ink Bold business credit card — a benefit that I believe stacks up very well against old standards like the AMEX Platinum Card (more on that later).

As stated on the Chase website…

The Chase Ink Bold includes “complimentary airport lounge access to over 350 VIP lounges worldwide. Lounge amenities include internet access, complimentary snacks and beverages, phone, fax, conference rooms and more. ($150 annual value)”

The lounge service Chase provides is a partnership with a company called Lounge Club. The lounge network provided by Lounge Club is not typically those swanky lounges provided by the major airlines. Instead, Lounge Club generally grants you access into the independent lounges operated by the airport and independent agencies. (There are a few exceptions to this, but browsing through the pamphlet I received in the mail I can see only a few airline branded lounges represented like Alaska Airlines boardrooms, for example.)

How Chase Ink Bold Lounge Club Works

To join the Lounge Club, first you must obtain the Chase Ink Bold Business credit card. Then, when you receive the card in the mail, you’ll also receive a special sign-up code with your credit card materials. You can use that code to sign up at the www.LoungeClub.com website. About one week later, you’ll receive your membership card in the mail.

There’s no fee to join Lounge Club, but as a member you must pay $27 per lounge visit. Your first two visits are free. In order to gain access, you only need to present the Lounge Club card and your boarding pass. You can also bring along up to 2 guests for each visit. Your guests must also have boarding passes, but guests are not required to have the Lounge Club card.

Chase Ink Bold vs. AMEX Platinum Cards

Both of the AMEX Platinum cards (personal and business) provide a lounge access benefit. The advantage for AMEX Platinum is the number of lounges available and the overall quality of lounges. AMEX grants access to over 600 lounges, while Chase Ink Bold only grants access to about 350. AMEX lounge access is also totally free for you and up to 2 guests. Chase Ink Bold, on the other hand, only provides 2 free visits per year and then $27 per visit thereafter.

AMEX Business Platinum and AMEX Personal Platinum are great cards with many other benefits! But they come with steep $450 annual fees which are never waived. The Chase Ink Bold’s first year fee is waived and is only $95 per year going forward. That means you could have the Chase Ink Bold card for almost 5 years before paying the equivalent of AMEX’s steep $450 annual fee.

If you’re a very frequent traveler, that $450 will definitely pay for itself very quickly. If not, you might be paying mostly for AMEX cachet and prestige.

My Review of the Lounge Club Benefit

While I’ve yet to use my new Lounge Club card, I’m excited to cash-in my two free lounge visits soon. I have an upcoming flight from SFO-DFW and I’ll be flying economy class on Virgin America. One of my employees and I are headed to a conference in Dallas, so having some time to chat about business projects together in the lounge will be an excellent way to spend an hour or so before our flight. I’m anticipating this first visit will be free, though I’m curious to find out whether or not my “2 free credits” will both be deducted since I’ll be bringing a guest.

This is exactly the type of scenario where I see the Lounge Club benefit really coming in handy. I’m not flying business class, so I won’t have automatic access to an airline lounge (which is always free with business class tickets).

I’ll be sure to report back after I make use of my new Lounge Club card, but I’m already excited about it!

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One of the best ways to maximize your airline and hotel points programs is online shopping. If you can simply change your shopping habits to making purchases online instead of offline, you’ll add some major points & miles to your accounts and get to your next flight award or free hotel stay much faster. In this post, I’m going to walk you through some basic and some more advanced strategies for doing exactly that. If you’re a beginner, this post is mostly targeted at you. But even if you’re more of a veteran, I’m sure you’ll find at least a few new tips.

Why Online Shopping Works

Virtually all major hotels and airlines have their own online “shopping mall” for you to browse and use to make purchases. Even the major retail banks that offer travel credit cards have their own virtual malls – Chase & AMEX are two very popular examples. So why do these shopping malls exist and why do they make sense for YOU and for the banks, airlines, and hotels?

The magic word here is affiliate. By having these online shopping portals setup, the banks and travel companies can make a small commission off your purchases — a kickback from the retailers for making a purchase. So when you log into the Delta Skymiles Shopping Mall and click on their shopping link to Target.com, Delta is getting credit from Target for sending them a customer. The commissions earned by Delta will vary from purchase to purchase, but I’d be willing to guess it’s anywhere from 5% to 25% of your purchase price. Then, to thank you for buying through their affiliate link, Delta will award you with Delta Skymiles.

The important thing to note here is that if you’re going to make a purchase at Target.com anyway, you might as well be using a hotel, airline, or bank shopping mall to make your purchase. Your online shopping experience will be exactly the same. You just have to make a point of FIRST logging into the travel shopping mall of your choice and THEN clicking through to the retailer you’d like to shop.

Most all of these online travel shopping malls have browse and search features so you can even use their shopping mall to find the best deal (both on price and on points) for the product you want to buy. I’ll dig more into this below.

How To Find The Best Points Value

Before digging into examples of online shopping and how to get major bang for your buck, first I want to introduce the very handy EvReward.com website. Using EvReward.com you can type in the website where you’re planning to do your online shopping and get a quick list of points and rewards provided by that online retailer.

For example, let’s say you wanted to make a purchase at Amazon. Here’s what EvReward shows for that retailer…

According to EvReward, Hawaiian Airlines is the only program where you can earn additional miles for using their online shopping mall. So if you’re an aggressive points collector, you’ll want to be sure you have a Hawaiian Airlines frequent flyer account already (or setup a new one for free) and then use their online shopping portal to make ALL amazon purchases.

Then, you can use your favorite travel credit card to double-dip. If I use my Chase Sapphire Preferred card, I could earn 1 point per dollar for my Chase Ultimate Rewards account and then an additional 1 point per dollar from Hawaiian Airlines. Keep in mind that even if you don’t have an upcoming Hawaii flight planned, those Hawaiian Miles could be used to redeem some other kind of partner award.

Of course, you would only want to follow this scenario if the product you’re looking to buy is ONLY available at Amazon or if Amazon provides the best deal on price, shipping, and a number of other factors. I recently made a purchase on Amazon instead of another higher points earning partner because I knew the product would arrive faster. The trick is to weigh all of these factors out to make the smartest decision for you.

Double Dipping With Online Shopping And Travel Credit Cards

“Double Dipping” is basically the strategy I described above with my Amazon example. Usually, to double- or triple-dip, you’ll need to make use of a travel rewards credit card. Anytime I’m about to make a purchase — any kind of purchase — I’m always asking myself, “How can I get the most points for this purchase?” This question leads me to 3 essential questions. First, where am I shopping? Second, which credit card am I using to make the purchase? And third, which points/miles program do I value the most?

Even if you could potentially get more miles with Delta Skymiles Shopping than you could with United’s MileagePlus Shopping, you might value United miles more than Delta miles. That’s always an important factor to consider. Then again, if the difference is dramatic, I would always choose the higher points regardless.

Focus On Major Purchases And Shopping Events

Personally, I try to do ALL of my shopping online that I can. You’d be surprised how many things you can buy online that you’d normally buy in your local supermarket or home store.

But if you’re not too keen on online shopping, at the very least you should make a point of making all of your major purchases online for double-dipping. Also, make sure you’re subscribed to all of your favorite travel shopping malls for email notifications so you can find out when big deals are being offered. Recently, British Airways offered 36 miles per dollar spent at Nordstrom.com — a huge points opportunity! Those are the kinds of deals and specials I look for so I can complete any upcoming holiday shopping, etc.

When to NOT Shop Online

Sometimes there are major disadvantages to online shopping that could negate the value of any points or miles you might earn. Here are a few online shopping pitfalls…

1. Shipping Can Be Annoying
Today, most shipping providers are pretty good about getting things to your door quickly and easily. But it does still take time to receive those things you’re really excited to get. Some patience is necessary to pull this off.

2. Shipping Can Be Expensive
Make sure your points & miles earnings are not being outweighed by additional costs in shipping. If the costs are small, I’d say it’s usually still worth it because time is money (and gas is expensive!).

3. Cardboard, Cardboard, And More Cardboard
The more online shopping you do, the more you’ll begin to notice the cardboard boxes piling up around your house. This is one part of online shopping and shipping I could live without. Then again, I’m starting to really prefer not having to step foot into malls and stores these days.

4. Avoid Making Purchases Solely For Miles And Points
It’s tempting, but just because there are major promos going on doesn’t necessarily mean you NEED to make purchases. Try not to get too carried away counting points and miles and forget to count your total cost.

The Bottom Line

Aside from travel credit card bonuses, online shopping is probably my favorite way to earn extra points and miles. It’s also a great way to keep your miles accounts active to avoid expiration. Even one small purchase activity can help you avoid losing thousands of accrued miles.

Take a moment after reading this post to add bookmarks to your favorite travel shopping malls today!

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