April 22, 2016

You Can Refer Others for the 75k American Express Hilton HHonors Card & Earn 10k Points

I’m not here to entice you about the the “amazing offer” on the American Express Hilton HHonors card which is currently at an all-time high of 75,000 Hilton HHonors Points – fellow bloggers with affiliate links have done well doing that. Instead, I got an email from Hilton yesterday letting me know current cardholders can refer others for the same 75,000 point offer and earn 10,000 points for themselves. I knew you could refer others for the American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass card for 10,000 points but the refer a friend offer is available for this no annual fee card as well.

To refer someone, visit this link for American Express’s refer a friend site. From there enter your card information or your American Express log in and you should see the offer to refer others that will look like the below.

If anyone would like a referral, please shoot me an email at ralph@pointscentric.com or let me know in the comments (don’t worry only I can see your email address). I’ll also allow readers to leave their referral information if they so choose in the comments. With American Express’s once a lifetime policy for signup bonuses, you should only apply for Amex cards at their peak signup bonuses. This card qualifies but make sure the Hilton card is a good fit for your travels.

April 21, 2016

My Favorite Daily Getaways Deal – It’s Not What You Expect

It is fair to say this year’s Daily Getaways offering have been pretty weak – in fact I’ve yet to write a word about them until now as I am finally in sight of my favorite Daily Getaway deal. For those who know about the Daily Getaway deals, you could (and probably would) argue that Hyatt points deal on 4/29 is the best deal for most people. It is certainly isn’t a bad deal for most but those packages will be gone in literally .05 seconds so it is a true lottery to get them. Instead my preferred deal, which I’ve purchased for the past two years, is for the Hertz Points which will be available this Friday starting at 1pm ET.

Here is a summary of the packages available:

5,500 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards for $250 (~4.54 cents per point, 45 available)
13,200 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards for $560 (~4.24 cents per point, 35 available)
16,500 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards for $698 (~4.23 cents per point, 50 available)

For comparison, this was last year prices – it looks like they unfortunately raised the price on the middle package to be more in line with the others.

5,500 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards for $252 (~4.58 cents per point, 45 available)
13,200 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards for $428 (~3.24 cents per point, 35 available)
16,500 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards for $698 (~4.23 cents per point, 50 available)

And to understand what these points get you, here is their reward chart with the main rewards shown below.

Let’s assume you get one of the packages that sells the points at 4.24 cents – that means a rental day cost around $28.62 while a weekly rental costs only $116.60 by buying points today. A specialty vehicle weekly rental (which is defined as minivans, convertibles and certain SUVs) costs $186.56. A three day weekend rental would cost only $69.96.

Obviously rental prices vary greatly based on the market, but those weekly rates are great deals in most major markets, especially for the specialty vehicles which is great for large families (or for couples looking at the convertible option). For my last few trips to Hawaii I’ve been able to get a convertible rental for just $142.56 (using the cost of the points I purchased last year). That’s a fantastic deal for a weekly convertible rental in Maui as usually convertibles rates are nuts. Even the free rental day isn’t terrible as in the last week of the Daily Getaways Avis is offering a one day rental for $30 – this Hertz deal is better than that for even the basic one day rentals.

My cost – $142

The reason I like Hertz points and this deal in particular is that it is a guaranteed way to get a discounted car rental without the hassle of finding discount codes, searching multiple sites, or renting from discounted car rental car agencies (Fox, Payless etc.). The last two years I’ve rented almost exclusively with Hertz and I have had nothing but great experiences. I never have to wait in line to get my car as I am Gold Rewards Plus member (which anyone can become) as I always get a text with the car’s location when I land and I drive right out of the lot. I’ve been upgraded several times over the past two years including a brand new Camaro (when I only reserved a base convertible) on our trip to the Big Island last year and a Pathfinder on my last trip when I only reserved a mid-size SUV.

New Camaro Last Year on the Big Island, HI

Now trust me I understand there are ways to get cheap rentals including using tools like AutoSlash but when I’m on vacation I want a quick and easy rental car experience. The ability to avoid lines and not having to deal with discounted car rental agencies with the endless upsells and crappier cars is worth it to me to lock in my price as shown above for my future rentals. I’m sure several of you will disagree with my approach on car rentals but this works for me and my style of travel, especially since I tend to rent premium vehicles (convertibles, large SUVs) on my trips.

Depending on your rental car habits, this deal is not for everyone. If you are an infrequent renter, I wouldn’t want to tie up cash in Hertz points that have already devalued once in 2013 and might again soon. The infrequent renter will be better off using Priceline, Costco Travel or the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal most of the time. Paying over 4 cents a point sounds like a lot but if you know how to redeem Hertz for high value rewards in the right markets, then this is an excellent way to get a discounted car rental.

April 13, 2016

250 Free Virgin America Elevate Points

The big news of the day was Virgin America being added as Starwood’s newest transfer partner a solid 1:1 ratio (unlike the American Express Membership Rewards transfer ratio which is 2:1). To celebrate the new partnership, Virgin America is having a contest, along with Starwood, to win a trip to Hawaii and you can earn 250 Virgin America Elevate points just for entering.

You can enter the promotion by filing out the form on MakeYourHawaiiscape.com by May 27, 2016. The prizes for the contest seem pretty solid as well including airfare and hotel for a trip to Oahu or Maui. Everyone who enters the contest gets 250 points.

It took all of 30 seconds to enter (you don’t actually have to fill out a reason why you need a vacation, just select one from the list) and I’m not one to turn down free points. Even if you have no need for Virgin America points, I expect these points to turn into 250 or 500 Alaska miles down the road, depending on the final conversion of Virgin America points to Alaska MileagePlan miles.

P.S. I just got back from a nice 9 night vacation/babymoon to Hawaii which is why I haven’t posted at all in the past weeks. I’m still in the process of catching up so expect a more normal posting schedule to return next week.

March 31, 2016

Alaska Airlines Severely Devalues Emirates Awards with No Notice

I’m running out the door to work but I wokeup to the news this morning from Lucky that Alaska Airlines overnight made a HUGE devaluation to Emirates award reservations. I’ve copied the new chart below but some first class awards have literally doubled in cost!

Compare this to the old chart – look at the jump in business class as well. It’s not just first class awards that are affected though the impact is certainly greater there.

And here are the results for a JFK to Dubai flight showing the increased cost.

While I understand devaluations are most likely inevitable, to provide no notice whatsoever ever is unacceptable. Say you have been saving up your 100k Alaska miles for your trip and then overnight being told you need double that amount in some cases. Completely and utterly unacceptable to make this type of devaluation with no notice.

I’m glad I got in at least one Emirates first class flight last fall and I just helped a coworker of mine book a first class flight for his honeymoon – talk about good timing. But this is definitely awful news to wake up to for many of us who aspire for first class awards.

Sadly this is NOT an early April Fools joke.

March 25, 2016

Confirmed: Downgraded Citigold Accounts Still Qualify for a Reduced Annual Fee on Citi Prestige Card

Last year, I applied for the Citi Prestige card with a 60,000 point signup bonus and over the past year, I’ve made great use of the some of the features of this card including the $250 airline credit, 4th night free, AA lounge access and more. In fact, one of my top posts from last year was why I thought the Citi Prestige was better than the American Express Platinum card – something I still believe to be true.

Anyway, the annual fee on the Citi Prestige is a hefty $450 annually though if you are a Citigold checking customer with Citibank, you get a reduced annual fee of $350. Last year, I was a Citigold member for about 3 months when I signed up for a Citigold account to earn 30,000 American Airlines miles and then I immediately downgraded my account to a Basic checking account (no fees if you keep a daily average balance of $1,500) once the miles posted. When the annual fee on my Citi Prestige became due this month, it should have been $450 since I was not a Citigold customer anymore but instead I was still charged the reduced annual fee of $350.

$350 Reduced Annual Fee

I have been speculating that this exact scenario was going to happen with the reduced annual fee and I’m glad I was ultimately correct. The reason I knew this had a decent likelihood of happening was that every time I called Citibank about the Citi Prestige card, I was thanked for being a Citigold customer, even though I was really no longer a current Citigold account holder. There is some sort of glitch in Citibank’s system that shows my Basic checking account which was a Citigold account, as an active Citigold account to Citibank representatives and is linked to my Prestige card resulting in the reduced annual fee.

This is my only Citibank bank account

Many of us became Citigold customers at some point in the last 12 months due to the various great offers for a Citigold account including 50,000 AA miles or Thank You Points at the peak. Unless you planned to keep a large amount of money in the account, most people downgraded their account to a Basic checking account or closed their accounts completely. If you happened to convert your Citigold account to a Basic account and it is still open, you should be able to get the reduced annual fee on the Prestige card.

I’ll happily continue to park $1,500 in my Basic checking account instead of a savings account if it continues to save me $100 every year on this card. I am keeping the card as after the $250 airline credit (which I will use to buy domestic flights I would normally pay for anyway), I am effectively paying $100 for AA lounge access, Priority Pass lounge access, the 4th free on hotel stays, and more which is a good value to me. I do think Citibank will catch on at some point and fix this glitch but let’s hope I’m wrong on this!

PointsCentric

Points & Miles Travel Consulting