You Never know Until You Ask

One of the best ways to earn miles is to ask the credit card companies for them. If you run into the circumstance of the credit card issuer offering a higher sign-up bonus then the one you just received, this is the time to move in and make a play for some more points. You will hear me refer to this in my book Truth About Miles as bump-the-bonus, and it is exactly what I did yesterday.

I recently applied for and was approved my for the Chase INK Bold Business Card. At the time of my application, which is less than 1 month ago, the sign-up bonus for this card was 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points. You can imagine my surprise when I see a better offer yesterday for the same card at 60,000. I immediately picked up the phone to call Chase.

When the representative answered, I politely explained how much I loved my new card, and how happy I have been to be a Chase customer for so long. I told them that I plan on being with their bank for many more years to come, which is all very true, because they do hold the mortgage on my house.  I then let them know about the better offer, and I asked them to give me the other 10,000 points that I did not get. The representative gladly thanked me for my call, and quickly credited my Ultimate Rewards account with 10,000 points. Not long ago I was able to do the same thing with my Chase Sapphire Card. The only difference is that it was for 50,000 points that time!

I was able to pick up 60,000 extra points from Chase by making two phone calls, and that is enough for one international trip to Europe. Please understand that everyone will not have the same results. I know that I have been very fortunate when attempting this, but you never know until you ask. Good luck! 

 

Published in: on April 5, 2012 at 3:47 pm  Leave a Comment  
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You Can’t Be Lazy When Playing This Game

In the recent Wall Street Journal article about credit card rewards, Ruth Simon brings up a very good point about one of the caveats of applying for a big-bonus credit card, and that is the minimum spend requirements. These requirements, which vary from company to company, are put in place to force spending by the consumer before the large up-front bonus will be released to the consumer.

Minimum spend requirements were initiated, I believe, for several obvious reasons. The first reason is to try and recuperate some of that initial up-front bonus issued to the card holder. With some rewards topping out at over 100,000 points/miles per card with a value of over $1000, these companies obviously have to try and make some of that money back. The minimum spend forces the card holder to spend a certain amount of money on that particular card, so the more the card holder users his or her card, the more fees that the card company will collect. The next reason is to simply get the card holder using the card, in the hopes that they will want to keep it. Another way for these card companies to recoup some of their money is through an annual fee. Most of these big-bonus cards come with an annual fee, and most are waived for the 1st year as an incentive to apply for the card. Some are reasonable and others are not so reasonable. The idea is that if you start to use your card, and really like it, then you will pay the annual fee for many years to come.

I view these minimum spending requirements and annual fees as nothing more than one more step on my path to free travel. These big-bonus credit card miles/points are extremely valuable. So much so, that I can consistently earn 1 million points/miles per year without ever stepping foot on an airplane, which is more than enough to travel in style for very little. Just like I discuss in my book Truth About Miles, you have to finish the job when playing this game. You cannot get lazy at this point and miss out on all of these valuable miles by not meeting the minimum spend requirements, or by making the mistake of not canceling the card before the annual fee is due. Being organized, focused, and determined is the key to banking all of those miles/points, and that is when you can finally put them to good use by deciding where to go.

Published in: on March 26, 2012 at 2:29 pm  Comments (3)  
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How I Saved At-least $600 Bucks Yesterday

Like I’ve described in my book “Truth About Miles“, I am constantly trying to build my stash of Star Alliance miles. The reason why I do this is because I can use these miles to send my wife home to Europe on Lufthansa, which is a member of Star Alliance. Lufthansa has one of the finest business class products in the airline industry, so I am always on the lookout for more. What some people pay close to $8000 for, I can get for free, if done properly.

I have had a collection of 140,000 American Express Membership Rewards Points(AMEX) for a while now. The problem with AMEX points for me is that all of their Star Alliance airline transfer partners charge high fees. My best Star Alliance option in the Membership Rewards Program was Aeroplane with a transfer rate of 1:1, and unfortunately they would charge me at-least $600 to use my miles for a Lufthansa flight to Europe-Not Good! The only other way to get my miles to another Star Alliance member that doesn’t charge the high fees was to transfer them to my Starwood Preferred Guest Account(SPG) at 3:1, but I’d have to take a significant loss on these miles, which I was not willing to do.

As luck would have it, the stars aligned so that I could transfer my AMEX points to US Air at almost a 1:1 ratio. US Air is also a Star Alliance member, and they do not charge the high fees to redeem my miles for Lufthansa flights.  US Air is currently running a promotion that gives a 50% bonus to miles transferred from hotel accounts into their mileage account, and at the same time, AMEX is running a 50% bonus on miles transferred to SPG. Not to mention that when you transfer 20,000 SPG points to US Air, you get a 5,000 miles bonus making it a total trasfer of 25,000 points. I quickly transferred my 140,000 AMEX points to SPG, which netted me 60,000 SPG points. I then transferred those into my US Air account, which will net me 112,500 miles.  This is enough to get my wife home in style in business class  without having to pay the high fuel surcharge fees, and that is how I saved at-least $600 dollars yesterday.

These promotions end on March 31st, so if you were looking for a way to get those AMEX points to a low-fee Star Alliance carrier, now is the time to do it! Good Luck everyone.

Published in: on March 13, 2012 at 7:50 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Forget About What You Want

How do you get someone to do something? There is only one way on earth to do that: forget about what you want, talk to the other person about what he or she wants, and show him or her how to get it.

To really influence someone, we need to heed Henry Ford’s advice and think in terms of what the other person wants. He had said this was his greatest tip on success.

A mother and father will raise their children just like every other set of parents by nagging, threatening, and pleading with them while trying to teach them. This is typically unsuccessful. Salesmen will pound the pavement trying to sell things unsuccessfully. Both situations have one thing in common: The would-be persuaders are only thinking of their own wants and desires. According to Owen Young, “The world is full of people who are grabbing and self-seeking. So the rare individual who unselfishly tries to serve others has an enormous advantage. He has little competition.”

Forget about yourself and your problems, and start to think about how you can solve someone else’s problems. A host of greater opportunities will be presented to you.

 

Published in: on November 19, 2010 at 4:33 pm  Comments (1)  

Want An Easy Way To Make Someone’s Day?

When is the last time someone gave you an honest compliment? When is the last time you gave someone else an honest compliment? And I am not talking about flattery here; I am talking about a true heart-felt unselfish compliment.

We all go through our day-to-day lives with a craving to feel important and appreciated. According to many world renown psychologists, this is one of the most powerful of human emotions. How do you give someone an honest compliment? You have to forget thinking about yourself for a few minutes and consider the other person’s positive points. Otherwise it will come across as cheap praise, or flattery.

I did something today that I have never done before. I sat down and wrote to some of my close friends, family members, and colleagues. I told them how much I valued and appreciated their friendship, and I told them how proud I was of them. It was a great feeling, and I plan on doing it every chance I get from now on. I don’t want these people to ever feel like they are not appreciated.

We are always so quick to criticize and complain when we find faults. In the end this approach will never lead to anything positive. Let’s try to find positives in people, and then compliment them on it. Do this everyday, and you will reap the rewards of true friendship. If you want an easy way to make someone’s day, offer a sincere compliment.

Published in: on November 9, 2010 at 7:35 pm  Comments (1)  
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