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How to Set Up Mistake Fare Alerts and Earn 50k AA Miles
- 2. Overview • How to set up mistake fare alerts • Last chase for an easy 50,000 AA miles • A new strategy for meeting minimum spending requirements • Paying taxes with your credit card • Avoiding Financial Fees while traveling abroad • Calculating the value of “luxury” credit cards
- 4. What is a Mistake Fare? • Abnormally cheap airfare that has been mistakenly priced too low for one reason or another – Computer Glitches – Human Error – Currency Conversion Errors – Miscommunication between OTAs and Airlines
- 6. South Africa = $325
- 7. Other Examples • $425 Business Class Flights – DCA > PEK (RT) • $110 First Class Flights – LHR > USA (OW)
- 8. Where to Find Mistake Fares • FlyerTalk – Mileage Run Deals Forum – http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run- deals-372/ • The Flight Deal – http://www.theflightdeal.com/
- 9. Current Options • Twitter – Follow the @TheFlightDeal – Follow my Travel Hackers Twitter List • https://twitter.com/natebuchanan/lists/travel-hackers • Blogger’s Mailing List – Nate Buchanan – Extra Pack of Peanuts – The Points Guy
- 10. Best Option
- 11. What is IFTTT? • If This Then That – Use to create “recipes” – (If) The Flight Deal publishes a new post – (Then) Send a notification to my phone
- 12. Setting Up IFTTT • Create an account on IFTTT • Download the App • Follow my recipes – https://ifttt.com/p/nbuchan1/shared – “The Flight Deal – Notifications” – “Flyertalk Mileage Run – Notifications”
- 13. What You Get • Picture of notification
- 14. The Best Tool For Meeting Minimum Spending Requirements
- 15. Target REDcard (Prepaid) • Reloadable Prepaid Card – Target’s Version of the popular Bluebird.com
- 16. What Make the REDbird Special? • YOU CAN LOAD IT WITH A CREDIT CARD!!! – Up to $5,000 per month
- 17. Old System
- 18. New System
- 19. Finding the (rare) REDbird • Only Available in Certain Areas - Not in Nashville – https://amex.serve.com/prepaidredcard/faqs/
- 20. Find the (rare) REDbird • Ebay
- 21. Earning Miles & Points by Paying Taxes
- 22. Online Tax Payment • IRS 3rd Party Payment Processors
- 23. When Does it Make Sense? • Meeting Minimum Spending Requirements • Earning Elite Spending Perks – Citi Hilton Reserve • Diamond Elite Status after spending $40,000 – Citi AA Executive Card • 10,000 EQM after spending $40,000 • Barclay Arrival/CapitalOne Venture – Earn 2% back? • First or Business Class Award Redemptions
- 24. What about Debit Cards • Easy way to empty prepaid cards – Bluebird or REDbird
- 25. 50,000 EASY AA Miles
- 26. AA & US Airways Merger
- 27. LAST CHANCE – US Airways Mastercard Deadline ~ April 15th
- 30. Fly (almost) anywhere In the World
- 31. Avoiding Financial Fees Abroad
- 32. Credit Cards • No Foreign Transaction Fees • My Favorites – Chase Sapphire Preferred – Barclay Arrival
- 33. What About Cash? • Two Options – Currency Exchange Counters • Avoid at all cost – ATMs • Better but you still pay fees
- 34. ATM Fees • Foreign Transaction Fee – 1% - 3% • Foreign ATM Fee – $2 - $5 • Example – Cost to withdraw $1,000 in $250 increments • Foreign Transaction Fee = $20 (1,000x.02) • Foreign ATM Fee = $16 (4x4) • Total Fees = $36
- 35. The Answer to Avoid Fees • Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking Account – Free Debit Card – No Foreign Transaction Fees – Reimbursed for ALL ATM fees – $0 Monthly Service Fee – $0 Account Minimum
- 36. Schwab HYICA • Cons – Must meet with an advisor face to face to setup an account – No bank branch in Nashville – Must mail a check (or cash) to make a deposit
- 37. Last Thought • Use your Schwab HYICA as a travel saving account – Monthly deposits – Make saving for travel a priority
- 39. American Express Platinum Card • Annual Fee = $450 • Value – $200(2x) “Incidental Airline Fees” reimbursement • Per Calendar Year – $100 Global Entry Reimbursement – $750 Sign up bonus • 50,000 Membership Reward Points ($.015 value each) • $1,250 – $450 = $800
- 40. Other Benefits • $399 - Priority Pass Prestige Membership • $450 – Delta Skyclub Individual Membership • New Positive Value = $1649
- 41. Citi Prestige Card • Annual Fee = $450 • Value – $250(2x) “Air Travel Credit” • Per Calendar Year – $399 Sign up bonus • 30,000 Thank You Points ($.013 value each) • $900 – $450 = $450
- 42. Other Benefits • $399 - Priority Pass Prestige Membership • $450 – Admiral Lounge Individual Membership • New Total Value = $1299
- 43. Other Topics For Future Meet Ups?
- 44. Questions
Editor's Notes
- Six strategies that you can use to travel more while spending less 5 minutes each
- In recent years this has been Kara and I’s number 1 key to traveling cheap
- OTA = Online Travel Agency ex. priceline Mistake fares are a mystery other wise the airlines would stop them
- 2 Day in Bangkok Amazing Street Food Cool Temples Wat Pho (Reclining Buda) Spent the second day in Ayuttha (temple ruins)
- This is a service that you can use to send text notification straight to your phone. No more checking twitter or waiting for a daily email
- Right now the flight deal sends out one afternoon email. By that time, you may have already missed the mistake fare.
- The Target REDcard is a new prepaid card that should replace your Bluebird card.
- Use my credit card to buy $500 Visa gift cards. Then I load my visa gift cards into my bluebird prepaid account Then I use my blue bird account to pay off my credit card bill Using this strategy it “cost” me $2.95 to “spend” $500 There are other similar strategies using different prepaid cards that other people use I’m going to walk you through step by step how “I” do it
- IRS will not take credit card payments directly, but they allow them to be submitted via a third party system 1.87% to pay with a credit card $2.79 flat fee to pay with a debit card
- Four possible scenarios where it makes sense to pay your taxes with a credit card
- Public Service Annoucement
- In case you’ve been living under a rock, American Airlines and US Airways have been in the process of completely their merger for a long time. One of the last pieces is merging their frequent flyer programs. This week I received an email from both American Airlines and US Airways telling me that this merger would take place on March 28th.
- Or possible March 28th After the merger these miles will Turn into American Airline miles
- Barclay will send you a letter letting you know that your U.S. Airways card will become an AAdvantage Aviator Red Card. 50% spending bonus through June. This is Barclay’s attempt to keep all of their old US Airways customers
- Combine the US Airways card with the Citi AAdvantage mastercard and earn an easy 100,000 miles
- 100,000 miles is enough to take you anywhere in the world
- This is how much it would cost to withdraw $1,000 if you did it in 4 $250 increments WHAT IF YOU COULD AVOID THESE FEES?