March 24, 2015

Using Virgin America Elevate Points for Hawaiian Airlines Inter-Island Flights

A co-worker of mine is heading to Hawaii this summer and he smartly sought my advice on the best use of miles to get to Hawaii and also how to jump between various islands. When he brought up which miles to use to go from the Big Island to Maui, I remembered a great deal that I recently took advantage of for my trip to Hawaii next month – using only 3,000 Virgin America Elevate points for inter-island flights on Hawaiian Airlines.

Virgin America Award Price for KOA to OGG

Virgin America points aren’t like traditional miles found in programs like Delta, American or United. Instead, they are revenue based, more similar to JetBlue or Southwest’s frequent flyer program. On average, Virgin America points are worth about ~2.2 cents when redeemed for Virgin America flights, however you can also redeem Virgin America points on various partners including Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia, Hawaiian Airlines, Singapore Airlines & Emirates Airlines.

To start, it is important to figure out what other airlines charge for inter-island flights. For the same exact one way Hawaiian Airlines flight, Hawaiian charges 7,500 miles, United charges 6,000 miles, American charges 5,000 miles, Delta charges 7,500 miles while Virgin America only charges 3,000 points. Now while Virgin America is cheaper than the competition you do have to remember that if you do not have Virgin America points, you can transfer from American Express at a 2:1 ratio, so the cost is really 6,000 American Express Membership Rewards one-way in that scenario.

Virgin America Transfer from American Express

Personally, I like to use my United and American miles for bigger, more expensive trips such as business class to Europe or Asia so I would rule those options out as I want to converse those miles. Hawaiian and Delta both charge too many miles for my taste (and I try avoiding collecting miles in those programs as a general rule of thumb) so that leaves me with Virgin America as my top choice. If you want the absolutely cheapest option (assuming no Virgin America points) or you have some spare American miles leftover that you have no other intentions for, 5k on American Airlines would be my second choice on this list to book.

If you’ve followed my blog, you would have noticed I’ve posted several free or really, really cheap (under $1) offers for Virgin America points including this one for 500 points and how to spend 99 cents to get another 500 Virgin America points. So assuming you’re a loyal reader and followed my awesome advice (you’re welcome), you now only need 2,000 Virgin America points for this flight (or 4,000 American Express Membership Rewards points). Considering the retail value of these flights, which can range from $80 – $100 or more if you book last minute, redeeming points is a great deal. Especially if you have a handful of Virgin America points that you wouldn’t use otherwise!

My Flight in Late April

Random Flight in August

I recommend searching award availability on either united.com or aa.com before booking these flights. Virgin America should have the same access other partners have to the award space. From there, here is how to book these flights on Virgin America.

Once you’ve confirmed availability on Hawaiian Airline flights only, write down the flight numbers and call Virgin America at 1.877.FLY.VIRGIN (877.359.8474). You cannot book these flights online.
When you get to the phone prompt, choose Elevate and after selecting award travel, choose partner airline.
In my experience, Virgin America’s agents are very good. The agent I had was very knowledgeable and was able to find the flights after I read her the flight number.
Virgin America will NOT charge you the $20 phone booking fee since this is a partner award that cannot be booked online.
After collecting the taxes on your award, the agent will let you know they generally need 24 hours to confirm the flight with Hawaiian and issue your ticket. I received an email from Virgin America about 30 hours after I contacted them. In the email, it had both the Virgin American confirmation code as well as the Hawaiian Airlines confirmation code to select seats.
In the event you need to cancel or change the award, there is NO redeposit fee (at least according to my email confirmation). This was a pleasant surprise but good to know in case plans change.

Both Andrea and I had a little over 2,000 Virgin America points in our account from the promotions mentioned earlier in the post and one flight we took on Virgin America back in 2013. We only need another 1,000 points so it ended up costing us an additional 2,000 American Express Membership Rewards points each to save $125 per person on the quick, 33 minute inter-island flight on Hawaiian Airlines. We each got over 4 cents in value per Virgin America point which is better than redeeming points for flights on Virgin America. The next time you go to Hawaii I would strongly consider this option to cover your inter-island flights.

March 19, 2015

Quick Deal: 1,000 Free Copa Airlines ConnectMiles for Everyone

Sidenote: Apologies for the lack of posts the past week – between my eye surgery and some unfortunate events in my personal life, it has been a difficult past week.

Here is an offer for 1,000 free miles that everyone is eligible for. Everyone is eligible because this is a brand new frequent flyer program from Copa Airlines, a Star Alliance member, based out of Panama. While they are a standalone airline, they have used United’s award chart and mileage program. Starting this year, Copa Airlines is creating their own frequent flyer program called ConnectMiles and they are offering 1,000 miles to new registrants.

To get the free 1,000 miles, you must provide your email to Copa Airlines via this link here and wait until enrollment opens until May. Once Copa presumably emails you in May to tell you to enroll in the program, you will receive the 1,000 miles if you sign up for a ConnectMiles account with the same email address.

To sum it up, there isn’t much to do now except agree to receive some emails and you’ll later be rewarded with 1,000 miles once you can actually signup for a frequent flyer account. Not too bad for 10 seconds of work!

(HT View From The Wing)

March 13, 2015

Problem with a Flight or Hotel Stay? Don’t be Afraid to Say Something, You Might Earn Some Extra Miles

If you travel enough (and if you are reading this blog or any points/miles blog you probably do), inevitable there will be times where the service at a hotel wasn’t satisfactory, or there was an issue on your flight. In most cases, you should bring the problem to attention of the manager or person in charge in hopes they could accommodate you or at least provide a satisfactory solution to your problem. Ideally, at this point, the issue would be resolved but say it can’t be fixed or the solution didn’t work out as you hoped? My advice is to document everything and followup with customer service after your flight or hotel stay and you might be presently surprised to receive miles or points for your trouble.

Before I detail my situation, I recognize handing the situation after the fact only serves as a method to complain and can’t really fix the problem, since that problem is now in the past. However, if my problem wasn’t fixed to my satisfaction, I feel it is totally justifiable to raise an issue afterwards in hopes of getting compensation for your troubles. Sometimes that compensation will be actual dollars while other times it will be in the form of points or miles – it really depends on the situation.

My most recent travel issue a few months ago involved a red-eye Delta flight from Phoenix to JFK on a Sunday night after the #WestCoastDo. Being that this was a red-eye flight and I planned on going straight to work afterwards, I was really hoping to get 3-4 hours of sleep on this flight. The flight takes off as schedules and once we are allowed to recline our seats, I attempt to do so to maximize any chance of getting sleep. However, my seat was “stuck” and would not recline even a little bit.

No recline for you!

My first course of action was to immediately call over a flight attendant and let them know about the problem. Truthfully, she didn’t seem to care that much but noted she would write a note to maintenance letting them know the seat was not working properly. I then asked if there were any open seats on the plane I could switch to and of course, the flight was completely full. That mean I was stuck for the remaining four hours in an upright seat on a short, red-eye flight in which I really needed to sleep. Not ideal at all.

After the flight, I contacted Delta via email to explain my issues. I described the situation, what was done to fix it and most importantly, I asked for compensation for my troubles. I didn’t list out a specific amount but it was important to make it clear that since Delta didn’t provide their standard level of service due to a malfunctioning part on their plane which was their fault, I should be compensated for the hassle.

The next day, I got a response from Delta below:

I ended up with 3,700 SkyMiles for my trouble. I’m not sure how they determined that amount but I was happy with the resolution and considered the issue closed.

Here is a list of tips if you find yourself in a similar situation:

First try to have a manager/flight attendant/whoever is in charge fix the problem themselves
If not successful, ask them to document the issue so there is a record of it
Try to remember names of who you dealt and exactly how they offered to fix the problem
Upon returning from your trip, determine the best way to contact customer service to further discuss the issue
Describe the issue and how the manager/flight attendant/whoever is in charge attempted to fix the issue
Important: Ask for compensation since you didn’t have the typical experience (Delta/Hilton/Hyatt etc) strive for
- In my situation, if I had paid for an upgrade to economy comfort, I would ask for a refund of my upgrade fee
- Since I didn’t, I asked for “fair compensation since I was not able to properly utilize the seat as intended.”
Lastly, be professional and courteous with your response. That’s not to say you shouldn’t be stern and upfront about the issue but name-calling or cursing will not get you anywhere

If I didn’t complain about my issue with Delta, they would have not known about the seat malfunction and more customers down the line would been upset once they sat in that seat. Furthermore, while it didn’t solve the issue, I wouldn’t have received 3,700 Delta miles if I didn’t complain, which is worth about $37. Does that make up for a crappy flight experience? No, but it does make me feel better that Delta agrees there was an issue and wants to make me happy as a customer.

I’ve had similar experiences with JetBlue (when one of the bathrooms didn’t work on a flight) and on another Delta flight (where my TV didn’t work) and I got miles or a $50 credit in those cases. Have you ever got miles or money back for a bad flight or hotel stay?

Note: This is a scheduled post and I will be unable to answer comments or emails after undergoing laser vision correction eye surgery yesterday. I will respond once I am able to work on a computer again.

March 12, 2015

Now Live: 1,000 Free Hilton HHonors Points for Changing Your Password

Last month, Hilton announced a promotion in which they would give members 1,000 Free Hilton HHonors points for creating a password instead of using a 4 digit pin number to log in. However due to technical difficulties, this promotion was not yet effective until NOW as the Hilton representative on Flyertalk confirmed the promotion is now active. Basically, if you changed your Hilton HHonors password before today, then you need to change it again to get the free 1,000 points. You must change your password by March 25th to get the 1,000 free points.

Here is how to change your Hilton HHonors password:

Click here to log in to your account with your current username/membership number and existing password/ PIN
On the left side under the My Profile section, click Personal Information.
Select Change Password and choose a new password

That’s it. A pretty easy 1,000 points while making your account more secure. That’s a win-win.

For those interested, here is the complete information from Flyertalk:

March 11, 2015

The Citibank Prestige Credit Card: Why I Think It Is Better than the American Express Platinum Card

I recently applied for the Citibank Prestige credit card in branch after an offer for 60,000 Thank You Points for being a Citigold customer which is an offer all Citigold customers can get. If you read enough blogs in the points/miles community you’ll see the American Express Platinum card continuously mentioned and advertised while there is little to no mention of the Citi Prestige card. I’ve had various Platinum cards for the last 3 years but after looking at the benefits of the Citi Prestige, I believe the Citi Prestige card is a better fit for most people who want/need/have a premium credit card with a large annual fee. Here is my argument for the Citi Prestige over the American Express Platinum card.

Key benefits of the Citi Prestige:

Signup Bonus: 60,000 Thank You Points with a reduced annual fee of $350 for Citigold Customers with 15% Annual Relationship Bonus (otherwise 30,000 Thank You Points with $450 annual fee is the standard offer) for spending $3,000 in 3 months and $15,000 total within the first year
Type of Points: Thank You Points, which transfer to 11 foreign airlines and Hilton. The points can be used directly towards travel on American/US Airways at 1.6 cents per point and all other airlines at 1.33 cents per point. Note: Points do not actually transfer to AA, rather you redeem them at a rate of 1.6 cents per point via Citibank’s travel portal.
Airline Credit: $250 Annual Airline Credit with no restrictions (for example, you can buy airline tickets and use the credit that way)
Spending: 3x Bonus Category on Air Travel & Hotels, 2x Bonus Category on Entertainment & 1x on Everything Else
Airline Lounge: American Airlines Admiral Club Access for you and immediate family or up to 2 guests
Other Lounge Access: Priority Pass Select Membership for you and immediate family or up to 2 guests
Hotel Benefit: 4th Night Free on any hotel booked through Citibank’s travel provider, Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Elite Status: Avis Preferred (due to being a World MasterCard)

Other benefits include $100 Global Entry credit, 3 free rounds of golf annually, trip protection, price protection, concierge service, no foreign transaction fees and more.

Key benefits of the American Express Platinum:

Signup Bonus: 40,000 Membership Rewards Points with annual fee of $450 after spending $3,000. Some people earlier this year have reported success getting 100,000 point offer via the CardMatch tool but I wouldn’t expect many people to see this offer
Type of Points: Membership Rewards, which has a strong portfolio of airline transfer partners. There are also a few hotel transfer options, none of which are appealing. Points can be also be redeemed towards travel at a rate of 1.25 cents per point if you have the Business Platinum card
Airline Credit: $200 Annual Airline Credit. Must choose just one airline. Meant to be for actual fees but airline gift cards in specific dominations on some airlines will trigger the credit
Spending: 1x on Everything
Airline Lounge: Delta SkyClub access for cardholder only. Additional guests are $29 each.
Other Lounge Access: Centurion & Airspace Lounges. Priority Pass Select Membership though additional guests are $27 each.
Hotel Benefit: Fine Hotel & Resorts
Elite Status: Starwood Gold, Hertz Gold Plus, Avis Preferred and National Rent a Car Executive Status.

Other benefits include $100 Global Entry credit, free wifi via Boingo (personal card) or GoGo (business card), OPEN savings (business card), car rental coverage, concierge service, no foreign transaction fees and more.

So Which Card Would You Rather Have?

Looking at the various categories I defined above, it seems the Citi Prestige is a clear winner in 5 categories including signup bonus with lower annual fee, airline credit, spending, airline lounge and other lounge access. I will give the nod to the Platinum card in 2 categories including type of points and elite status while I’m calling the hotel benefit category a draw since both have their respective good uses.

I think for most people the Citi Prestige is better “premium” card as for $100 less annual fee, I think you actually get more benefits than the American Express Platinum. This is especially true if you are an American Airlines flyer as there is no way to transfer American Express points to AA. Being able to redeem Thank You Points at a rate of 1.6 cents per point and earn elite miles/redeemable miles for flying on American is a great perk. On top of that, I like that I can generate additional points with the category bonuses, making this card better for spending compared to the American Express Platinum.

The bigger selling points to me are the significantly better airline credit and lounge access program. Not only is the airline credit $50 greater, I like that I can actually buy an airline ticket to use my credit or that I can use my credit across many different airlines instead of just one per American Express. Additionally, the lounge access for me personally is better since I tend to fly American more and I can bring my wife in with me no problem. While I do lose out on the Centurion lounges, there are only a handful of them spread across the country and I’ve yet to visit one.

The Platinum card does still make sense for those loyal to Delta since it includes Delta SkyClub access and Membership Rewards points transfer to Delta. That said, the Platinum card should not be used for everyday spending since there are many better cards out there for spending (not just the Prestige). Admittedly, I do prefer the airline transfer partners in Membership Rewards over Thank You Points as I could only see myself transferring points to Singapore in the Thank You Points Program while I’ve transferred Membership Rewards to Delta, British Airways, JetBlue, Virgin America and Hawaiian in the past (mostly to top off for award redemptions). Lastly, the SPG Gold elite and rental car elite status is worthwhile if you frequently stay at Starwood hotels or rent cars frequently. I do wish the Prestige would add more benefits regarding elite status.

Bottom Line – The Citigold & Citi Prestige Combo is the Way to Go

While I opened my Citigold account to take advantage of the 30k American Airlines offer, I also did it knowing I was going to apply for the Citi Prestige in the next month or two. By applying for the Prestige now, I lock in a $100 savings on the annual fee as well as the 15% Relationship Bonus. Once the miles post, I will downgrade my checking account to Basic to avoid any fees. I don’t remember where I saw this but someone reported still getting Citigold benefits after downgrading their account and reps even thanked him for having a Citigold account, though it really wasn’t a Citigold account (if you remember who posted about it, please share in the comments). If that’s true, the net annual fee for the Citi Prestige after the annual credit is just $100 which is a fantastic price to pay for American Airlines lounges access and you still get to enjoy the other benefits of the card.

For opening one bank account and one credit card, I’ll gain 30,000 American miles + ~75,000 Thank You Points after hitting the minimum spending amounts. Just the Thank You Points alone are worth $1,200 if redeemed for American Airlines flights while I’ll conservatively value the 30,000 AA miles at $450. I’ll also earn $500 in airline travel credit (since it is a calendar year benefit I can take advantage of this benefit twice) and another year of AA lounge access (worth $450, which is perfect since I just cancelled my AA Executive card). My total benefits earned are about $2,600 and it only cost me $350, which is a great deal. For those considering an American Express Platinum card, I’d strongly consider doing this combination (there is also an offer for 40k Thank You Points) before pulling the trigger on the Platinum card.

Note: I have no affiliate links anywhere on my site. This post is an attempt to bring an undermentioned card some more publicity since the bigger bloggers tend to ignore it while pumping the American Express Platinum card even though I think the Prestige is a better card, especially when combined with a Citigold account. And when they do post about the Prestige, they do not mention the way to get this much better signup offer as well as the extra cash or miles from the Citigold account.

PointsCentric

Points & Miles Travel Consulting