This is how I roll.

I’m a sucker for just about anything on two wheels. (In fact, when I lived in New York City, I would frequently commute by Razor Scooter.) I’ve long been envious of the cyclist friendly ways of many large European cities. So, when a recent business trip took me to London, I was thrilled to be able to simply and inexpensively rent a bicycle and cruise around town. Sure, the tube is extensive and convenient. But there’s no better way to get to know a city than by getting lost among its windy streets. And there’s no better place to get lost than in London, which may have the most extensive bicycle rental system in the world. Check out this map with the locations of all the bike rental stations:

What’s so great about hundreds of bike racks? It simply means that anytime you want to park a bike and see a landmark, munch on some fish and chips, or talk about the weather with the locals, you won’t have to look far for a parking space. You also won’t have much trouble finding a bike to get you started on your adventure. All it takes is the swipe of a credit card and you’re off! Once you know what to look for, you’ll start to see them all over town.

Interestingly, the biggest sponsor of this cycling program is none other than Barclay’s Bank. The same bank that is getting pilloried in the press for its reckless pre-credit crisis practices but is now offering one of the more attractive credit card offers on the market. I like the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard, but I LOVE Barclay’s Cycle Hire. If you like cycling even a bit, I highly recommend checking it out.

At first, I was a bit hesitant to dive into London traffic. I’ve done quite a bit of cycling, but I knew my instincts for traffic patterns would be completely backwards in this brilliant corner of the world. I took things nice and easy for the first hour or so and tried my best to follow other cyclists through tricky intersections. It didn’t take long before I started to feel pretty comfortable riding on the wrong left side of the road. Compared to cities like New York or Hong Kong, London is a sprawling city and a near perfect environment for a cycling adventure. The first night I rented a bike, I only planned to ride for an hour. However, the later I rode, the lighter traffic got. I ended up spending nearly three hours meandering through London’s ever-enticing streets. The pictures I took aren’t great, but they give you a sense of how much ground you can cover and how beautiful London is at night.

Looking across the Thames towards Parliament and Big Ben

The Tower Bridge

Tower of London with the Gherkin in the background

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Shortly after my return, I was thrilled to learn that my current place of residence (SLC) will be getting a bike rental program of its own, Green Bike SLC. The program doesn’t officially launch until next Monday, but I signed up for my annual membership and managed to take a bike out for a spin this afternoon. It was a nice break from my perpetually growing email inbox.

Near Gallivan Plaza, Salt Lake City

At the Intermodal Hub

 
It feels good to ride.

We should have just stayed here forever!

We’ve added one to the family since the last time we dared to take a connecting flight. With the winter months dragging on, we have been anxious for a warm, sunny getaway. Foolishly, I tempted fate and booked airfare to Hawaii with a stopover in San Francisco. The trek there went reasonably well. Once there, we had a fantastic trip (someday I’ll find time to write about it…really). The return flight tested our mettle. Instead of rewriting the story, I’ll simply post the complaint I sent to United Airlines shortly after we arrived at home:

On February 16, I was scheduled to fly with my family (wife and two children) from HNL to SFO (flight 1166) and continue from SFO to SLC (flight 5643) that same day. The first flight went as scheduled, but the second flight did not. The flight was initially delayed due to the late arrival of the plane. Once we boarded, additional delays occurred due to weight and balancing issues on the plane. Finally, a mechanical problem prevented the captain from starting the plane. After some time, all the passengers were removed from the plane and offered an explanation that the mechanics would continue to work on the problem. A great deal of time subsequently passed with no updates. It wasn’t until approximately 9pm (four hours past the scheduled departure time) when the announcement was made that the flight would be cancelled.

 

It is upsetting that United wasn’t more proactive in offering to get us on another flight that would get us home that same day. This could certainly have been accomplished if action was taken sooner. Instead, we tried to keep two very tired children happy in an airport after having exhausted all the entertainment we had brought for them, used most of the diapers in our carry-on luggage, and gone through much of their food.

 

Once the announcement was made that our flight was cancelled, we raced to customer service to get rebooked on a flight (which ended up being the following day) and received hotel and food vouchers. Unfortunately, the hotel (Comfort Inn – San Mateo) didn’t have a room with enough beds that fit our family (one bed for four people). Also, the food vouchers were nearly useless to us since most of our family suffers from severe food allergies. We routinely travel with sufficient prescription medical food to meet our family’s needs, plus extra in case of delays. Due to the combination of TSA rules, United’s baggage restrictions, and the length of our delays we were running very low on food and diapers.

 

I am writing to let you know that we regularly find United (and other airlines) lacking in their ability to meet our family’s travel needs. We travel regularly and try to be well prepared for unexpected deviations from our travel plans. The shortcomings in United’s service were compounded by a travel delay well beyond our control.

I’ll spare you the details of leaky diapers, minor tantrums, and other kid related mayhem. That’s just part of the fun of family travel. It should be sufficient to say that by the time we got home, we were completely wrecked and in need of another vacation. I can appreciate that sometimes there are hiccups in air travel. Ultimately, United got us all home safely. Still, I wanted them to be aware that there was room for improvement in their service.

The first flight of the day is always fun!

I was pleased when they responded to my complaint and offered the choice of 7,000 points per person or $150 in travel credit. Bonus! That cash value award amounted to nearly a 50% refund on our initial airfare purchase (which, incidentally, was paid for by redeeming some Capital One points), and will go a long ways towards our next adventure.

Strangely, I’m afraid this sets a terrible precedent. Our family was compensated for our travel inconvenience – an inconvenience that I had previously committed to avoid by only taking children on direct flights. So what should I do in the future? Take a chance on the connecting flight? Or stick to the smart plan of keeping travel short and simple?

Certainly one moral of this story is that trying to constructively point out instances where service can be improved is appreciated. If you have a bad experience, let someone know how it could have been made better.

So, what have I been up to? Well…

As much as we like to make travel a priority in our household, we’ve hardly left the house in months and my card churning activity has been even slower. Admittedly, we’ve have had some other pretty important things happen lately:

• I took a new job;
• We moved to Utah;
• We’ve been looking to buy a new home (no luck so far); and
• Our precocious little girl was joined by a handsome little boy.

Pride and Joy

Yes, life is good. No, nothing about it is easy.

So although I’ve been incredibly busy and haven’t had time to blog about anything, I’m still playing the game. I actually surprised myself by not writing about my last churn. Those of you who have followed along for a while know that in November of 2011, I applied for 13 credit cards in one day in my Super-Mega-App-O-Rama. At the time, I expected I would wait for 6 months before applying for another card. As it turns out, by the time the six month mark rolled around, we were contemplating a home purchase again and I didn’t want to foul that process up. When the one year mark rolled around, we still hadn’t found a house and due to seasonal fluctuations in the housing inventory, it looked like Spring might be our best bet. So, in November I decided to pad my stash. I added five cards to my wallet:

• Amex Platinum card (100,000 points in a targeted offer)
• Amex Delta Gold card (75,000 points in a targeted offer)
• Citi American Airlines Visa and Amex cards (50,000 points each)
• Chase Ink Bold Card (50,000 points)

All in, the churn earned me 325,000 points and I’m just about done with the minimum spend. Kids play! Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, my credit score is back up in the range of 780 to 790.

Next up, I’ll have Melissa sign up for a few cards, just in time to do some spending where the weather is warm and sunny. Three weeks of below freezing temperatures are starting to take a toll. Flights are booked and hotel rooms are reserved, all on points and miles. Anyway, The Boy is more than three months old and it’s about time he starts seeing the world.

What do you mean we aren’t flying first class?

Still, this blog is about more than just travel; it is also about personal credit, how to use it, and getting the most out of it. Over the last several month I have tracked my credit scores in the aftermath of the Super-Mega-App-O-Rama. When I executed my 13 card application binge, I had no expectation that I would be applying for a mortgage in the next 6 to 12 months. However, in conjunction with our move we expect to purchase a new home. Fortunately, my card churning activities have had a fairly neutral effect on my credit score, given the amount of time that has passed since the last churn. After applying for a mortgage recently, a lender sent me information about my credit score and indicated that Equifax reported a score of 779. This is at the high end of the range of the estimated scores reported by various credit monitoring services and generally qualifies me for the best financing rates. Woohoo!

I suppose I got a bit lucky in the timing of my churns and my mortgage needs, but I figure 6 months is an adequate amount of time to let pass after completing a churn and applying for home financing. If your credit profile is a bit on the weak side, you will want to allow a greater amount of time. So far, nobody has asked me anything about adding 11 accounts in a short amount of time. Mortgage underwriting has certainly become more onerous in the aftermath of the credit crisis and Dodd-Frank. However, I don’t think anyone is weeding out the card-churning crowd.

So when will I execute my next churn? Probably the day after I close on a home purchase. Stay tuned.

The prepaid card works exactly like it sounds: load value on to the card, use it anywhere Amex is accepted, reload the card when needed. Easy enough, right? You even get the benefit of Amex purchase protection, among other things. Here’s a screenshot of the website, which offers a summary of the benefits:

The most important part is the fees: none (unless they’ve put something past me).

You can learn more about the product here. Click on the graphic below to go to the promotion website where a prepaid card can be ordered.

I haven’t used an Amex Prepaid Card before, but I purchased one to test out the service and the promotion. Ordering the card is pretty fast and easy, although, I will have to confirm I am the owner of the account used to fund the card. See the instructions provided below.

Overall, this is pretty easy. With about 5 minutes of work, you can earn $25. That’s a pretty good rate. I’ll let you know if any quirks or problems arise.

I don’t know if this promotion can be earned more than once. The T&Cs state:

“Limit of one $25 Gift Card per new Card User named on a Card.”

The wording seems a bit cumbersome and open to interpretation. I suspect Amex intends for an individual to get only one promotional bonus. Even if you used different funding sources, Amex still requires you to enter your SSN and can, presumably, keep track of who has earned a gift card.

The promotion lasts until June 30, 2012.