Getting started with miles and points-Frequent Traveler University DC 2014

Getting Started With
Miles and Points
Summer Hull – Mommy Points
Ed Pizzarello – Pizza in Motion

Summer Hull
www.mommypoints.com
Twitter: @mommy_points
Email: mommypoints@mommypoints.com
Facebook: facebook.com/MommyPoints
© Lypht, LLC All Rights Reserved

PizzaInMotion.com
Ed Pizzarello
www.pizzainmotion.com
Twitter: @pizzainmotion
Email: ed@milepoint.com

What We’re Going to Talk About
•Why Collect Miles and Points
• Things to Think about Up-front
• How to Earn
• How to Burn
• Questions

Stay Places We Could Never Afford

Things to Think About Upfront

What Are Your Goals?
• Domestic tickets for multiple people
• International first class for one
• Business Class for two
• Top end hotels around the world
• Family resorts
• Flexibility to book any date
• Tickets to Europe during off-peak times

Your goals should dictate your actions.
It’s much easier to know where to start
when you can see the end game.

Reach your first miles and points goal
and then set a new one. The goal is to
use them, not to collect them!

Tips for Getting Started
• Start small
• Don’t worry about what others
are doing
• Do what is right for you
• Don’t sweat the small stuff
• Stay focused on your goals
• Get organized

Award Wallet

Tips for Staying Organized
• Set due dates on the same day
• Pay bills online
• Use a spread sheet
• Use service like mint.com if
you need extra help
• Only use certain cards in a
given month

Miles and points collecting
can take as much or as little
time as you want.

Reading blogs can save you time.
www.viewfromthewing.com
www.thepointsguy.com
www.millionmilesecrets.com
www.boardingarea.com
Many, many more.

Be aware that “free” isn’t
always free…but sometimes
it can be close.

Burning well is harder than
earning, so pay attention to
both.

Earning Miles and
Points

Ways to Earn Miles and Points
• Credit cards
• Debit cards
• Online shopping
• Traveling
• Promotions
• Dining Programs
• Investments
• Asking/complaining

Credit cards are the
fastest and easiest
way to earn miles
and points.

I have earned close to
half a million points in
one year.

Remember Your Goals
1. Flexible and transferrable
points cards
2. Hotel and airline specific cards
3. Fixed value points
4. Cash back cards

Transferrable Points
• Ink Plus – 50k
• Chase Sapphire
Preferred – 40k

Transferrable Points
• Premier Rewards Gold– 25k
• EveryDay Preferred – 15k
• Mercedes Benz Plat – 50k

Airline and Hotel Cards
• United MileagePlus Explorer Card
• US Airways MasterCard**
• Hilton HHonors Reserve Card
• Club Carlson Visa - BOGO
Less flexibility, but often give “elite like” perks.

Fixed Value Points
Barclay ArrivalCard, Capital One
Venture Card & US Banks FlexPerks
• Bad for premium cabins
• Good for inexpensive domestic travel.
• Good for those without flexibility
• Good to leverage for sales

Category Bonuses
• Ink Bold/Ink Plus 5x: Office Supply stores,
cell phone, home phone, internet, cable
• Chase Freedom 5x: rotating quarterly
categories with $1,500 cap (no annual fee)
• Citi ThankYou: 3x on dining and
entertainment, 2x on airfare and hotel charges
• Amex EveryDay Preferred: 3x grocery (6k
cap), 2x gas, 50% bonus for 30 uses
• US Bank FlexPerks: 3x charitable donations
(Kiva), 2x on grocery or other

Chase Trifecta
Chase Checking
for extra 10%

Dangers of Rewards Cards
• Never miss a payment.
• Don’t spend more just to get the
bonus or more points.
• Be a good customer.
• Annual fees can add up, so do the
math.
• Credit score may go down in the
short run.

What Goes Into Credit Score
Inquiries and age of account can hurt, but
total debt to credit ratio can be helped.

My Credit Score Estimates
• Citi Identity
Monitor
• Credit Karma
• Credit Sesame

Double Dipping in Portals
• Buy a gift card to earn bonus
points
• United MileagePlus X App
• Then use that gift card via the
portal to make your purchase
• Check Frequent Miler’s lab for
current success stories

Compare Shopping Portal Rates
• Compare manually for large
purchases for accuracy
• www.evreward.com
• Pick2Pay

Dining Rewards Network
• 3x – 5x miles per dollar + sign-up and other
occasional bonuses
• Currently 2,000 mile United promo but has
been 3,000

Look Our For Promotions
• Contests, giveaways, sign-up
bonuses, free point bonuses
• Occasionally very lucrative
promos come along – hit them big
if you can
• Worth doing for one, worth doing
for the whole family
• Small Business Saturday

Other ways of earning miles
• Investments
• Mortgages
• LASIK
• Partners (car rental, flower
orders, electricity, wine clubs, etc)
• Daily Getaways (cheap purchase)
• BarclayCard Travel Community
• Buying them

Earn Miles From Actual Travel
• Always earn miles on trips
• Credit to a partner if needed
• Look out for promos and register
• Mileage running can be
lucrative…but only for a few
Mainly done for elite status

Burning Miles and
Points

Burning Miles and Points
Learning to use miles and points to
their max is the hard part, but don’t
let “analysis paralysis” stop you from
starting the process.

Easy When You Look at Goals
If you started earning with your end
goal in mind, then burning is easy.

Things to Consider with Burn
• Look back at your goals
• Look at your value per point, but
don’t get stuck there
• Hotel points usually easier than
miles (no blackout)
• Consider stopovers, open-jaws,
and free one-ways

Award Charts
Different award charts have
different costs and countries located
in different zones.

Award Charts Zone Example
US Airways – Australia biz 110k
US Airways – North Asia F 120k
Aeroplan US – Europe 1 90k biz
ANA East Coast – Europe 68k biz
BA BOS-DUB – 50k RT in biz
Learn the sweet spots for your
desired destination.

Availability Issues
• Start looking at 11 months out,
but don’t stop there
• Last minute can be great
• Expert flyer alerts
• Remember to check partners
• Look segment by segment
• Not all options online for all
airlines

Questions?

Getting started with miles and points-Frequent Traveler University DC 2014

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