I know I was supposed to write a blog on how I booked my Japan/Thailand trip, but with everything going on it hasn’t been my priority. I am sure most of you are like me and haven’t been thinking about traveling at the moment. I will get around to it at some point. It would have been an awesome trip for my wife and I. It looks like I will be canceling it soon. Stay healthy!
New Blog Post Coming
I know that I was quoted in a USA today article yesterday. I probably should have had something new on my blog before the article was posted. I am sorry about that. I will be writing a long blog on how I booked my two weeks in Asia on Points instead of paying over $60,000 if points were not used. Hoping to have something this week, but if not this week then early next week.
Japan Airlines Giving Away 100,000 Seats To Foreigners On Domestic Travel
Japan Airlines is giving away 100,000 seats (50,000 round trip tickets) to foreigners on domestic travel inside of Japan. Here is how it works
Applications will open up in late February 2020 and are for travel from July 1, 2020 through September 30, 2020. If you are headed to the Olympics in Japan this summer then this could really help.
- This is only available to people who live outside of Japan.
- You must be a member of Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
- When you apply, they will then show you four possible destinations that you can fly to within Japan.
- Roundtrip flights depart from Tokyo Haneda or Osaka.
- You can apply for up to four people to fly.
- You must already have your trip to Japan booked and provide the flight number and date with your application.
Win A Free Year In NYC
Ryan from Million Dollar Listing New York on Bravo is giving away a free year of living in NYC. Watch the video to find out how. Must enter by end of day January 8th 2020.
The Agreement I Made With Amex To Restore My Wife’s Bonus Points
Awhile back my wife was offered an upgrade from American Express for her Everyday Card to the Everyday Preferred Card. The offer was to switch to the Everyday Preferred card and spend $2,000 in 3 months to receive 25,000 points. The Everyday card has no annual fee, but the Everyday Preferred Card comes with a $95 annual fee.
Last month the yearly fee posted and since we don’t really use this card, I had her downgrade back to the no fee card. A couple weeks later I noticed that 25,000 points went missing from her account. At first I couldn’t understand why, but after a little digging, I figured out that she didn’t keep the Preferred card open at least twelve months. American Express has a rule in the fine print that you need to keep a card open 12 months before canceling or downgrading or they take back their points. They do this to try and stop people from gaming the system. This is not a big deal because when the yearly fee posts, it has been 12 months since you opened a new card. You have 30 days to get the annual fee back after it posts to your account. I forgot this was not a new credit card account and that we had upgraded. I remembered they charged us a pro-rated annual fee when she upgraded and the yearly fee would come in under 12 months since her anniversary date was only 6 months from the product change.
I called American Express this weekend and asked them if we upgraded back to the Preferred card would we be able to regain the points back. This wasn’t just about the points. I wanted her to stay in good standing with American Express and it was my mistake. They told us that they could do that, but we would have to spend $2,000 in 3 months again to get the 25,000 points back. Also we would have to keep the Preferred version of the card open for the next twelve months. I was okay with these terms because I made the mistake and broke the contract.
American Express has always been good to me and I believe they have the best customer service in the industry. It never hurts to call credit card companies and ask for something. They are not the cable companies.
New Links & Information
You can now Activate Chase Freedom 5% for the first quarter of 2020
- Gas Stations
- Internet, Cable & Phone Services
- Streaming services ( Netflix, Hulu, Sling, Vudu, Fubo TV, Apple Music, SiriusXM, Pandora, Spotify, Youtube, & ESPN+)
Remember you can transfer Chase points between credit card accounts and that 5% cashback will become 5 miles per dollar. Transfer to the Chase Sapphire Preferred , Chase Buisiness Preferred Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Win 2 tickets to Taylor Swift at Gillette Stadium on July 31, 2020
Megabus: 200,000 Free Seats (For 1/8/20- 2/29/20)
Hilton is offering a 100% bonus when buying miles through 12/28/2020. I wouldn’t purchase miles unless you are trying to top off an account for a trip you are trying to book. You can buy as little as 10,000 points to receive double at $100. That makes each point worth .5 cents a piece and is exactly what Hilton points are worth.
Airline Shopping portal Bonuses
Buy $100 Netflix Gift Card Get $15 Amazon Credit use Netflix for code in checkout. One per customer
How I Had My Amex Gold Card Fee Waived
Today my American Express Gold card $250 annual fee posted. However, the card only costs $30 a year to me. The card offers $100 toward airline credit and the $120 toward food each year.
Anytime my annual fee posts to a credit card account, I call the credit card company’s retention line. I sometimes say I am looking to cancel because the annual fee posted, but lately I have been just asking if there is a retention offer on my account. I believe credit card companies software have offers on certain accounts by how much spending you did in a year. I seem to always get an offer on cards I use regularly. The cards that I hardly use don’t usually have any retention offer and I ended up canceling. There is also a chance you may not get an offer if you only had the card open for one year. I guess it depends on the company.
The Gold card is my go-to card because of 4 points on groceries and restaurants and I was definitely not planning to cancel it. When I called Amex, I just asked if there were any retention offers on my account. He played the game back at me and asked, “what don’t you like about the card?”. I replied, “The fee was raised last year because of the food credit and I don’t really care for that”. Honestly, I would prefer they just drop the annual fee down by $120 and not have the food credit, but it isn’t that big of deal. He then spoke about all the other great things about the card and I just sat and waited. When he was done talking about the card, he told me that there was a retention offer for me and I could either have 15,000 points or $100 credit after spending $2,000 in 3 months. Most people consider Amex points worth 1.8 cents each. Since I use all my Amex points on business class or first-class long-haul flights, I consider it worth a lot more. Even at 1.8 cents a point, that makes 15,000 points worth $270. Therefore, I obviously took the points.
Even if you have no plans to cancel a card, it is always good to try for a retention offer when your credit card annual fee posts. On $95 fee credit cards, they will sometimes just waive the fee.
UFC Tonight & Gold Card
If you have the American Express Gold card, you probably had an amazon offer the past month for 4 extra points per dollar with amazon. Make sure to add it to your amazon offers if you are buying the UFC tonight. If you watch the UFC through your amazon stick and make the purchase there then you will get the extra points.
WEB LINKS TO CHECK OUT
WAAF has your chance to win a trip for 2 to the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino!
There are two ways for you to qualify to win this grand prize: Listen all week for your chance to win a pair of tickets to the WAAF Big Gig featuring Godsmack, Halestorm, Theory of a Deadman, Dirty Honey, and Dinosaur Pile-Up OR enter below for your chance to win a pair of tickets!
Those who win tickets will be qualified for a chance to win a five-night/six-day stay to the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort and Casino for two, where you can explore and discover tropical bliss!
- Round trip flights on Southwest Airlines for the winner and a guest to Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport (LIR)
- Four nights of accommodations at the all-inclusive Riu Guanacaste
- Round trip airport/hotel transfers
Activate Discover IT 5%Cash Back For The First Quarter
- Earn 5% Cashback Bonus at Grocery Stores, Walgreens and CVS from January 1–March 31, 2020, on up to $1,500 in purchases Excludes purchases made at Walmart and Target.
The 10 Best (and Worst) Airfare Search Sites for 2019
Buy Air France-KLM Flying Blue Miles With A Bonus
Earn up to 10,000 Bonus Marriott Bonvoy points for stays at Atlantis, Paradise Island
Deal alert: Buy $250 in Delta gift cards, earn $25 Best Buy gift card
Hyatt Expands SLH Partnership To 300+ Hotels
Why The Hilton Hotel Aspire Card Can Be Worth It
Please use my link to sign up to the card if you are interested after reading the blog. As of 5/21/19 the link is for 150,000 bonus points. I will receive 20,000 points for a referral.
Recently American Express offered me to upgrade from the Hilton Ascend card to the Hilton Aspire card for 150,000 bonus points with $4,000 spend in 3 months; however, the Aspire card comes with a $450 fee! You might get frightened by the annual fee because there are plenty of no annual fee credit cards out there. Yes indeed $450 sounds a lot; yet, this credit card will make the $450 fee worth it in the first year with the bonus alone.
After reviewing the benefits you will see why this card is worth it.
- 150,000 bonus points worth around $900
- Diamond Status which gives you free breakfast at most Hiltons and room upgrades.
- 14 points per dollar spent at Hilton
- 7 points per dollar on on flights booked directly with airlines or amex travel, select car rental companies and at US restaurants. (I would rather use other cards on these purchases)
- Free weekend award night after opening your account and on your card-opening anniversary each year. You can get another weekend award night if you spend $60k per year on the card, but I wouldn’t bother with that.
- $250 Hilton Resort credit. This would be credit for spa, activities, food and drinks. Not on the room charge.
- $250 annual credit for airline fees. Purchases on airlines food, drinks, extra baggage, extra legroom and etc. Not for the purchase of the actual ticket.
- $100 property credit when you book at least a two night paid stay at Waldorf Astoria and Conrad properties through HiltonHonors.com/aspirecard you’ll receive up to a $100 credit for incidentals at properties.
- Priority Pass membership. This will give you unlimited visits to Priority Pass lounges at airports where you receive free food and drinks while you wait for your flight.
The sign up bonus of 150,000 points can be used to book any hotels in the Hilton chain and after a year you will receive the free weekend anniversary night benefit which could be worth $400-$700 if you book a higher tiered hotel in the Hilton chain.
One weekend night at the Grand Wailea Waldorf Maui
The Priority Pass that comes with this card would give you free snacks and light meals before you catch the flight which of course you don’t have to spend more money. Most lounges during breakfast will have buffet style of eggs, bacon, cereal, toast, potatoes. coffee and etc. Lunch and dinner would have more of small sandwiches and soups. They also provide soda and juices. On top of that they have a fully stocked bar. Moreover, the Diamond status would give you free breakfast and room upgrades, which could get a value of around $1000. For instance, if you stay at Hilton a couple times a year and fly 4-5 times a year, if breakfast costs $30 per person at the hotel and staying at a Hilton 4 nights twice a year $30 X 2 people = $60 X 8 breakfasts = $480. Flying four times a year would put you at the airport 8 times looking for lounge access to eat and a couple drinks. $30 meal X 2 people = $60, $60 X 8 visits = $480 + $40 for drinks = $520. $520 Priority pass benefit + $480 for Hilton breakfasts already gives you a value of $1,000. Now you get the idea.
Here is my experience using this card. I recently made a trip to Florida and stayed at a Hilton timeshare for 3 nights and received the $250 credit from drinks and food at the resort which brought the $450 annual fee down to $200. Then using a $200 airline fee credit for extra legroom on JetBlue flights for 2 travelers which brought the $450 annual fee down to $0. Wait a minute, this card offers $250 annual credit for airlines, that means I still have $50 airline credits to use toward my next trip. Therefore, each year I will be making $50 on the card without counting the rest of the benefits. I also enjoyed the benefits of the Priority Pass by having breakfast at Orlando airport at The Club MCO with all you can eat breakfast and drinks.
This card is great for someone that travels at least a couple times a year and is willing to stay at a Hilton. The $450 annual fee would be a wash with the credits you receive.
However, this card might not be for people who don’t accumulate airline fees or don’t want to stay at Hilton.
Please use sign up here to the card if you are interested. As of 5/21/19 the link is for 150,000 bonus points