December 4, 2014

Point & Center: 1,000 Free Hyatt Points (Targeted), Double Points on Purchases at Small Businesses, Amex Small Business Saturday Credits Now Posting & Earn Miles for Parking

Here is a quick rundown of what you should know about in the points & miles blogosphere.

1) 1,000 Free Hyatt Points (Targeted) – Hyatt sent out emails to certain Hyatt members offering them 1,000 Free Hyatt points as a way to say thank you for being a member. If you got the email, all you had to do was click the link in the email by January 31st and you would receive the 1,000 points. It is widely speculated that the only members to receive the email from Hyatt were Chase Hyatt Visa credit card holders that were also Diamond members. I have the Hyatt Visa but I am not a current Diamond member (I was earlier this year) but I did not receive the email.

You can try to register for the free points at this link here but it wouldn’t work for any of the accounts I manage. Otherwise if you are a Chase Hyatt Visa holder and a Diamond member check your email folders, especially your spam folder as some people reported seeing their email in their junk folder.

2) Double Points on Purchases at Small Businesses for American Express Everyday Card Holders – If you have an American Express Everyday or Everyday Preferred credit card, you can register for a special promotion from American Express to earn 2x points on purchases made at small businesses. The link to register can be found here. This offer comes on the heels of Small Business Saturday (see next paragraph) so it is encouraging to see Amex entice customers to continue to shop small. 2x points won’t make you points-rich overnight but it’s better than nothing. Here is a map of small businesses that would qualify.

3) $10 Small Business Saturday Credits Now Posting – This past Saturday was Small Business Saturday and I mentioned earlier how for each American Express Card you have (including authorized users cards, prepaid cards like Bluebird & Serve and even store Amex card like the Macy’s American Express) you could earn a $10 statement each time you spent $10+ at a small business, up to 3x per card. So you could effectively make three$10 transactions per Amex card and receive $30 in statements credits thereby making your purchases free!

Andrea & I had a total of ten Amex cards between us and we scored $300 worth of free stuff! We bought $200 in gift cards at a small, local grocer (swiping $10 at a time) and then purchased a $100 gift card to our favorite Italian restaurant in the area (again swiping $10 at a time). While checking my statements online today, I noticed that all the $10 credits hit my account thereby confirming we received $300 free in gift cards! While Amex does say it can take 90 days to receive the credit, check your account to see if your credits have posted.

4) Earn Miles for Parking – I’m always interested in earning more miles, especially in cases where I am not currently earning any miles. There are several parking programs, Thanks Again & PreFlight Parking in which you can miles for parking, mostly related to airport parking. The earning ratio appears to be a mile per dollar spent on parking in most cases which isn’t a ton but if you frequently park at airports before your travels, you might as well earn some additional miles for it. Check out MileNerd’s post for more details on the different programs.

November 5, 2014

How to Save Over 10% on Hyatt Hotels in the US, Canada & the Caribbean!

Hyatt has announced a new promotion in which you can use promo code GPGIFT14 to save 10% on the purchase of physical Hyatt gift cards. The only requirement to use the promotion code is to be a member of Hyatt’s rewards program, Gold Passport, which is free to join (click here to signup if you haven’t already).

Use Promo Code GPGIFT14

Here are the quick and easy ways to maximize this deal:

First off, please be aware of which hotels accept Hyatt gift cards for payment. Almost all Hyatt Hotels in the USA, Canada and the Caribbean accept them but certainly not all of them. Please check the full list of participating properties here and only purchase the gift card if you plan on visiting one of these resorts. I will be returning to the Andaz Maui in April next year (which is noted as a participating property) so this promotion helps me save 10% on all my incidental costs (meals, drinks, activities). Do not buy these gift cards for Hyatts located abroad – they won’t work!
There is a $6 dollar shipping fee per order and each order is capped at $10,000. I doubt this will be an issue for anyone but try to just make one order to save on multiple $6 shipping fees.
Gift cards never expire. I would purchase these gift cards now based on your expected spending on future Hyatt stays in the next year or so to save 10%.In the event your plans change, there is only minimal risk as these gift cards do not expire so you can always use them in the future on a Hyatt stay or dinner at a Hyatt restaurant (see next bullet point)
You do not have to be a guest at the hotel to redeem gift cards. I interpret this as a way to eat at a Hyatt restaurant and you should be able to pay with a Hyatt gift card to save 10% on your meal. Anyone down for 10% off dinner at Morimoto Maui at the Andaz Maui or Wall & Water in NYC?

I noted in the title you can save over 10% on this promotion, which is true if you have an American Express Business Card that is affiliated with OPEN savings program. Hyatt is a member of the OPEN savings and if you pay for Hyatt stays with an eligible Amex Business card (Amex Business Platinum, Business Gold and Business Starwood), you can save an extra 5% off!

Now it is listed that only certain brands of Hyatt hotels qualify for this additional 5% off – it excludes the lower end Hyatt House, Hyatt Place and Hyatt Residences but Hyatt has confirmed on Flyertalk that buying physical gifts will trigger the 5% additional discount via the Amex OPEN Program! This is a great workaround to get the Amex OPEN 5% discount at non-participating hotels that don’t work with Amex OPEN. Stacking that 5% discount with the 10% discount leads to a 15% discount on Hyatt hotels in the US, Canada and the Caribbean!

I certainly plan on buying a sizeable balance of Hyatt Gift cards to take almost 15% off my stay at the Andaz Maui next year. I am staying on a Points & Cash reward so my co-pay is $150 a night but with this promotion, is reduced to essentially $127.50 plus I’ll get 10% off every time I eat, drink or buy anything at the Andaz. That’s pretty hard to beat!

August 23, 2014

Point & Center: ~$120 Flights to Hong Kong, Chase Freedom Loses a Key Benefit & Hyatt Fall Promotion

Here are the some of the key promotions and news you should know about in the world of points & miles.

1) ~$120 Flights to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific – Cathay Pacific is having a promotion in which they will sell 2,014 tickets at 100 HKD for trips to and from Hong Kong. I’m sure it will be competitive but it doesn’t seem impossible to get a ticket if you time it right. Below is a snapshot of the routes for sale (all to/from Hong Kong). The interesting ones are definitely the US to Hong Kong routes in premium economy. With taxes, the flights will be about 957 HKD or around $120 USD. Remember to set an alarm for Tuesday 8am on August 26nd when tickets go on sale.

I should mention this is intended for Cathay Pacific Asia Miles account holders who list a residence in HK. However, there is nothing stopping you from registering for a new Cathay Pacific Asia Miles account and to use the address of a hotel in HK…

(HT One Mile at a Time)

2) Chase Freedom Loses 10% Annual Bonus – The Chase Freedom is arguably one of the most valuable no annual fee credit cards as it earns valuable Chase points at 5x depending on the category each quarter and if you also hold a Chase Ink card or Chase Sapphire Preferred, you could transfer your Chase Freedom points to your Ink/Sapphire Preferred card and then transfer them out to airlines or hotels. One of the nice features of the Freedom card was if you were also a Chase checking account customer, you would receive an annual 10% bonus on all points earned from your Freedom card but this is being discontinued as of 12/31/15. This was a nice perk that required no additional effort or registration so it will be one I will miss (as I’m a Chase checking customer) even if it only resulted in a few thousands points a year. There are a few additional changes but none as noteworthy as this one.

3) Hyatt Fall Promotion Announced (Targeted) – Every quarter most of the big hotel chains announce a special promotion in which they offer bonus points, free nights or some combination of the two to entice guests to stay with them. Hyatt is the first hotel chain to announce its Q3 promo and there seem to be variety of offers that are targeted to individual users. Even if you haven’t received an email yet, I highly recommend trying to register for the promotion at the links below. I got the 2,000 bonus points after each stay so make sure you try to register so you don’t miss any extra points you might be entitled to.

Link to Flyertalk that summarizes the offers and registration links

June 5, 2014

Award Trip Breakdown: Long Weekend in Paris for $181!!

For Christmas this past year, I gave Andrea a lock for Christmas. Yup, that exact one below. Instead of being cliché and giving the plane tickets as the gift, I gave her the lock and led her through hints to what the lock was for – the Pont des Artes, the famous bridge in Paris. This was the very beginning of a romantic long weekend in Paris and here is how I did it for almost nothing.

Andrea’s Christmas Gift

Flights: Departure – JFK-London-Paris, economy class on American/British Airways. Return – Non-stop Paris-JFK flight on American Airlines.
Retail Cost: $1,000-$1,500 per person.
My Cost: 36,000 American miles + $181 in taxes per person.

American Airlines usually charges 30,000 miles each way for an economy class ticket to Europe. However, during the off-peak season, as defined by American Airlines to be October 15th to May 15th (that’s over half the year!), a one way flight to Europe is only 20,000 miles. For a nice fall trip or spring weekend in Europe, that is a bargain! You will notice my taxes were quite high at $181 and that is because I could not find award space on AA’s direct JFK to Paris flight, thus requiring me to make a connection on British Airways, who charges high taxes on all flights (both award and cash). If I could have eliminated that flight, the total taxes would have been~ $95 per person.

However, I said my net mileage cost was 36,000 miles, not 40,000. How? One of the benefits of the Citi American AAdvantage Platinum Select card is a 10% rebate on miles redeemed each year with American Airlines if you pay the taxes and any fees with this credit card when making the award reservation. So when I redeemed 40,000 miles for my award flight, a few days later I saw 4,000 miles added back to my account to make my net mileage cost 36,000 per ticket.

I obtained these miles via signing up for various American Airlines credits card. I’ve had 3 different cards (and my wife has had 3 as well) that offered anywhere between 50,000 to 100,000 miles as a signup bonus. Currently there is a 50,000 mile offer for the Citi American AAdvantage Platinum Select mentioned above but the better offer is a 100,000 mile signup bonus for the Citi Executive World Elite Mastercard. That’s enough for two tickets to Europe and you would still have 20,000 miles leftover towards your next trip!

Lodging: Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome.
Retail Cost: $800-$1,000 per night.
My Cost: 2 Free nights from Hyatt Credit Card + 22,000 Hyatt Points per night (for last 2 nights).

For this romantic weekend in Paris, I wanted to stay in one of the top hotels in the city and I settled on the Park Hyatt which right near the Palace Vendome. However, with rates usually hovering around 600-900 EUROS per night, a stay here was only possible on points. The Hyatt Visa by Chase offers 2 free nights at ANY Hyatt in the world as its signup bonus so I planned my application for the card to coincide with this trip.

With a signup bonus like this, it makes sense to maximize the redemption at high end luxury hotels (if that’s your thing). My thinking is simple – at these high end properties around the world, there is no chance in hell I could ever afford to pay cash for them. Sure I might get enough points for them but when the bonus is simply two free nights anywhere, I want to stay at a place I can’t normally otherwise. For the additional two nights, I transferred some of the points from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account which were achieved with my Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. This redemption highlights the flexibility of transferable bank reward points I discussed last week.

In the end, my long weekend in Paris cost me $181 out of pocket per person for flights and hotels. And the icing on the cake was Andrea loved seeing the bridge and adding our lock to it.

I think a long weekend at a top end hotel in Paris for under $200 is something we all could afford. Want help in making it happen? My consulting services and award booking services will do the work for you.

Stay tuned for more award trip breakdowns!

May 13, 2014

Some Tips from Our Trip to Paris

Bonjour from Paris! We’ve had great trip so far in Paris (that unfortunately ends today) and while I had a free moment, I wanted to share some tips I learned on this trip flying on American Airlines and staying at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome.

– For those traveling on the AirTrain to JFK and going to American Airlines (terminal 8), get off at Terminal 1 and switch to the inter-terminal AirTrain instead of riding the AirTrain all the way around to Terminal 8. You will easily save 10+ minutes.

– Interesting note on TSA Precheck. My wife changed her last name after our marriage and we even went to the Global Entry office to update her name there too. However, when checking in for our flight, I had TSA Precheck but she did NOT. I tried to sneak her past the TSA Precheck line with no avail but the agent said I could use the priority lane (usually reserved for elite or first class passengers). So we approached the priority line, I told the agent manning the line I had precheck and she didn’t and we were sent over here, all she replied was “That Sucks” but still let us through!. I was surprised this worked and honestly not sure the reason behind it but I’ll take it.

– If you fly AA internationally, try to take one of their new Boeing 777-300 planes. Even in coach, I fit fine (not always the case at 6’3”, 210lb) and it had a great entertainment system. Service was good too. For 20k miles one way to Europe, its unbeatable.

– First impression of Paris was not good. I almost got scammed by following what I thought was a taxi driver to his car as he told me all other cabs were “pre-booked”. I then realized this was a scam and promptly just ducked into the nearest actual taxi. Then checking into the hotel was fine but the concierge forgot to obtain a museum pass for us (after replying to emails before we left they would have it for us at checkin) and then tried to tell us we shouldn’t get one and it wasn’t a problem. I did not appreciate the concierge’s defensive attitude but it worked out in the end.

– After 4 days here, I can say I actually really like Paris and I look forward to returning. There is a ton to do and it is a great city to walk around in. Food is excellent as well.

– I will touch more upon this in a future post but I don’t think I would recommend the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome at 30,000 Hyatt points a night. Don’t get me wrong its a great hotel but with so many other options in this city, I don’t think its worth the high cost in points. The service (outside the concierge is great) but the rooms are small, the breakfast overpriced at 50 EUR and the place had a stuffy kind of feeling (that happens when people actually pay the 700-800 EUR nightly rate).

– Lastly, highly recommend taking a cooking class while you’re here if your into that sort of thing. We did a French desserts class and it was a blast! I swear my Creme Burlee was better then the restaurant’s where I had it the night before.

PointsCentric

Points & Miles Travel Consulting

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