Points Blogger

It has been over two or more years since I have been able to open a Chase card because of the 5/24 rule.  I could never get under 5 cards.  This weekend I finally got under 5 cards.  So I ended up opening the Chase Ink Business Preferred card because of the 80,000 point sign-up bonus after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months.  80,000 Chase points are worth around $1,600 in airline miles when transferring them to an airline.  I currently have 205,000 chase points.  After my $5,000 in spending, I will be at 290,000 points which is worth almost 2 round trip business class seats to Asia.

Currently I have three Chase cards.  The Chase Freedom, Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase Ink Cash Business.  The Chase Ink Cash Business is a better card to me because it gets you 5% back (Transfer that to a Chase point card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred and it is 5X points) on first $25,000 spend on Cell phone/Internet/Cable.  Plus it doesn’t have an annual fee.  The Business Preferred only gets 3X points and has a $95 annual fee.  I only wanted this card for the Bonus.  The only thing that is better with this card is that if you buy a cell phone with it, they will insure the cell phone for $600.  I will end up closing this card when the annual fee posts again in a year.

A few months ago I finally redeemed some of my points for business class lie flat seats on Cathay Pacific to Thailand.  The only time I have redeemed miles were for coach flights domestically and to the Caribbean.  Yes I know that you should only use points for Business and first class because it makes the points worth more.

I was pretty sure I read that I could book a award flight with Cathay Pacific before transferring my points over to their Asia Miles.  I was wrong.  I believe they told me I needed something like 70-90% of the points in the account to book an award flight.  I don’t remember the exact percentage because I did this back in March.  I also had to call to book because I wanted a stopover and could not do that online.  Dealing with Asia Miles on the phone can be difficult.  I had to call a few times to get the right person that knew what they were doing.  The Points guy has a good blog on redeeming Asia Miles.  Though since I booked, Asia Miles has changed their award chart.

I used Award Hacker to see what would be the best way to get to Thailand for me.  There were two reasons how I ended up going with Cathay Pacific.  The first reason was because we had more Amex points than SPG and I wouldn’t have enough SPG points to book us both on Japan airlines or through Alaska airlines.  The second reason I chose Cathay Pacific was because they fly out of Boston (where I live) to Hong Kong and then to Bangkok.  After looking up award hacker, it was going to cost us 145,000 asia miles round trip for each one of us.  I had 135,000 Amex points and my wife had 105,000 Amex points that transfer 1-1.  That put us 50,000 points short.  I transferred 40,000 SPG points which gave me 50,000 Asia Miles.  For every 20,000 SPG points you transfer to an airline, you receive a bonus of 5,000 miles.  By redeeming a total of 290,000 asia miles and a business class seat costs at least $5,300 round trip on Cathay Pacific, the value I received for each point was 3.66 cents per point.  That is a decent value.

Back to when talking with Asia miles.  Somehow they could not give me a stopover in Hong Kong on the way there.  I tried different people and different ways to get it done.  My guess is that they don’t know how to think outside the box and their program was just not allowing a stopover on those certain dates on that route.  I settled with a stopover in Hong Kong on the way back.

One thing that is great about Cathay Pacific business class is that they have a lie flat pitch of 81 inches.  I am 6’4″ and that will be good for me.

I will be going on this trip soon and I want to get as much done as we can since I have never been to Asia.  Yes it is the Monsoon season but we scheduled it for a time that her family will also be in town.  Hopefully I write about it right after we get back.  haha.  We will be going to Bangkok, Phuket, Krabi, Chiang Mai and Hong Kong.

My mission for a future trip to Thailand will be acquiring points to get me on Japan Airlines so that I can stop over in Tokyo.  I have been dying to go to Japan.

Here are a couple youtube videos on Cathay Pacific business class in case you don’t know much about their business class.

The Ink Business Cash card is one of my go-to cards.  They are offering their biggest sign-up bonus of 50,000 points!  I do not use it as a cash back card, but as a mileage card because miles are worth more.  Since it is a Chase card, you can transfer the points to your Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve card.  I receive 5 points per dollar spent on my bills for Cable, Internet, Cell phone, and SiriusXM.

You can apply for business credit cards as a sole proprietorship and applying with your personal Social Security number.  Banks understand starting a company can take time and you may not be making much right now.  Selling things on eBay and Amazon are considered a small business.  You will not be approved for the card if you are over the Chase 5/24 rule.

Chase 5/24 rule:  If you have opened 5 or more credit cards in the last 24 months, then you will not be approved.  Chase will not count business cards under the rule if they are with another bank because the business cards do not show up on your credit report.

I do not have a referral link for this card right now and will not get anything for giving you this information (which happens most of the time).  You can Apply Here

One more thing.  They do have another business card called the Chase Ink Business Preferred card that offers only points and has a sign-up bonus of 80,000 points.  That card has a $95 fee.  The only problem I have with that card is that they only offer 3X points on the same purchases up to $125,000.  I would still open it for the Bonus points though.

Earn 50,000 Chase Reward points after you spend $3,000 on the card within the first 3 months of account opening. There is no annual fee!  This is a no-brainer!  

• Earn $500 bonus cash back after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. $500 cash back is 50,000 airline miles, that most consider to be worth $1,050 when using the points for award flights.
• Named “Best Rewards Card for Small Business Owners” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, July 2017

• Earn 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year
• Earn 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year
• Earn 1% cash back on all other card purchases with no limit to the amount you can earn
• 0% introductory APR for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers
• Employee cards at no additional cost
• No Annual Fee

JetBlue is having a two-day sale with fares as low as $39 one way.  Click here to go to the sale.

• Fares include government taxes and fees.
• Book by 8/2/17 (the earlier of 11:59 PM ET or local time).
• Travel between 9/6 – 11/8/17. Blackout Dates: 9/20 – 9/24 & 10/9 – 10/12/17.

Also, Virgin America / Alaska Airlines are having a smaller sale.  Click Here

As a rabid Boston sports fan, I always had to knock off the Super Bowl on my bucket list.  I always believed the only ways to get to a Super Bowl were to be rich, win a contest or work for a company that has these type of benefits.  You have to remember that it’s not just about the expensive game ticket.  The Hotels are up charging and the airlines are up charging from your area because your team is going.  Round-trip airfare will cost thousands and hotels anywhere near the Super Bowl will charge around $1,000 or more a night for that weekend.

After collecting points through many different companies over the years, I had to look into how I could get there.  My friend Jeff had gone to Super Bowl 49 and was willing to go again if I was interested.  Super Bowl 51 was in Houston and I found out Jeff was going to be in Dallas that week for work.  I fly Jet Blue mostly because Boston is a hub and I like my leg room.  The only problem with JetBlue is that their points are based on dollars spent instead of distance flown.  This means when the price of JetBlue’s tickets goes up, the mileage to use goes up.  I could have probably looked into transferring Amex or Chase points into airline miles with another airline, but my guess is that the airlines with distance award flights wouldn’t have any since everyone and their mother was heading to Houston from Boston.

As I looked into Jet Blue flights, they wanted around 40,000 points for me to fly into Houston on that Friday or Saturday.  I believe they wanted around 25,000 points for me to fly in on Thursday.  Since Jeff would be in Dallas, I flew into there for around 8,000 points and we could drive over to Houston.  The rental car was on Jeff.  Now I had to figure out how I would get back on Jet Blue.  Everyone going to the Super Bowl wants to come back on Monday.  JetBlue wanted close to 90,000 points for me to come back Monday.  I looked into flying home from Dallas and that wasn’t that much better.  I ended up flying home on Tuesday for 38,000 points.  Yes, that is a lot of Jet Blue points for a flight, but this was a once in a lifetime event for me.

Now, I know what you are all thinking.  Well, if you are staying 5 nights won’t it cost you a fortune to stay in a hotel down there.  You would be right, but I have some decent hotel points with a couple different brands. Hotel award nights are set points for a category they have their hotels in.

I went with IHG points, which are Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza and etc.  I had about 130,000 points.  I had opened their card for a 70,000 Bonus in April 2016.  I also had some points left over from a contest IHG had and I had received about 90,000 points for.  It’s the best hotel card to have because, for only $49 a year, they give you a free night each year after your first-anniversary date.  You can use the anniversary free night at any category hotel.  Worth much more than $49.

As I looked for award nights at IHG hotels in downtown Houston, I came up with nothing.  I did find a hotel near NRG Stadium and another 5 miles from downtown, but still in a lively area.  There wasn’t any reason to be near the stadium except for gameday. The Crowne Plaza I found was next to the highway about 5 miles west from everything going on in downtown and 9 miles north of the Stadium.  It was still a very good location and we just used Uber for cheap rides.  This hotel wanted about $800 a night for that weekend.  IHG has it as a category 3 hotel at 20,000 points a night.  Wasn’t the greatest hotel, but it would get the job done.  I booked it for Thursday through Monday and moved to the NFL hotel in downtown for Monday night on Jeff.

The last thing I would need was the Super Bowl ticket.  With some connections, we were able to get some of the best seats under face value with open bar and food pre-party.  Row 8 on the 35-yard line!  The 4th quarter comeback was down our end, while the OT winner was down the other end.  Here are some photos and videos from the weekend.

NFL Experience

We snuck into the New Era party on Friday night.  Open bar!

This was the free food and open bar pre-party before the Super Bowl

Rapper 2Chainz not being very nice to us Patriots fans walking into the stadium

So close to Tommy I can touch him!  Eeeeee

Halftime show from my perspective.  I thought the best part of my night was going to be the halftime show at this point and I don’t even care about Lady Gaga. You could feel the heat from the fire at my seat.

The two-point conversion that tied the game.  My side doesn’t seem to be cheering much because we were on the Atlanta sideline.

The winning touchdown and celebration!  Best game EVER!!!!

I applied for both the Amex Hilton Surpass card and the Alaska Airlines card yesterday.  I purchased a new vehicle a couple weeks ago and since my credit was pulled, I figured I would open up a couple cards because of the 30-day window of credit pulls.

You may ask why I opened the Alaska Airlines card since I live in Boston and they are more of a west coast carrier.  The reason is because Alaska Airline miles are awesome! First off, they have a distance based award chart. They have many transfer partners.  Specifically, airlines that will get me to Asia in the future.  Since my wife is Thai, I am planning to go the Thailand in the near future.  Since her parents live in France and we plan to fly there, I can transfer to Air France.  Lastly, they partner with Iceland Air.  I would love to go back to visit Iceland again.  This time for more than a couple nights.

Travel partners:

I also opened up the SPG personal and business cards recently.  SPG points transfer to Alaska miles with a bonus.  Every 20,000 SPG points that you transfer to most of SPG’s partners, SPG will give you an extra 5,000 points.  20,000 SPG points would equal 25,000 Alaska miles.  With those two SPG card bonuses and spending, I now have roughly 85,000 SPG points.

As of right now, I have over 13,000 Alaska miles just for opening an account with them and Virgin America.  Alaska bought Virgin America last year.  A few months ago, Alaska gifted everyone 10,000 miles if they belonged to both programs before December 5th, 2016.  I had just over 1,000 Virgin America miles for signing up for their emails.  Alaska lets you transfer Virgin miles at a 1:3 ratio.  That’s how I ended up with over 13,000 miles and it didn’t cost me a penny.

Lastly, I was approved immediately for the Alaska card from Bank of America.  After I spend $3,000 in first 3 months, I will have another 33,000 Alaska miles with the $100 credit, which will take care of the annual fee for the first year.

Now on to the other card I opened.  The American Express Hilton Surpass card.  They are having one of their highest bonus offers right now.  I know Hilton points are not worth that much, but since it was a special 100,000 point offer and a free weekend night on your anniversary date, I jumped on it.  There is just one problem.  I was not approved immediately.  I have a feeling Amex is looking further into my application.  They are starting to crack down on point churners.  Since September of 2016, I have opened 4 of their credit cards.  I opened the Gold Premier Rewards card for 50,000 points and the Gold Business card for 50,000 points.  You also read above that I opened both SPG cards recently.  Let us just keep our fingers crossed that they approve me.

I will try to write more blogs soon instead of one every few months.  I have a few that I would like to write in the coming days.