2014 Points and Miles Activity
/One of my most favorite hobbies is collecting credit cards and the lucrative sign up bonuses associated with the credit cards. 2014 had to have been the biggest year in terms of earning and spending points. Ever since 2010 when I started playing the credit card application game I have earned a huge amount of points but I haven't been that great at spending them. I think in this hobby, it's especially important to not just hoard points and take big infrequent trips but to earn and then burn the points. With so many hotel and airline rewards programs devaluing their rewards programs, it can mean that the value of your points aren't worth as much as it was before. This can sometimes happen overnight without notice so you may be sitting on a pile of hard earned points you were saving up for a nice 6 day trip to Hawaii and then all of a sudden you can only afford to spend points to stay 4 nights. In order to protect your points, it's best to have a goal before hand, what you want to do with them and a reasonable timeframe on when you want to spend them. For 2015, one of my goals is to travel at least once a month. Now, some of my trips may include spending rewards points to make it as FREE as possible but sometimes I will be paying for it outright. For the points I currently have, I will make an effort to spend them down and for any new credit card bonuses I receive, I will make sure I have a plan to use them within a reasonable timeframe in order to reduce my rewards points currency risk. Below is a list of each program I was involved in that had a lot of activity.
Southwest Airlines
In 2013 I was able to secure the Southwest Companion Pass by applying for one personal and one business Southwest Credit Card. The card's sign up bonus gave me 100,000, but combined with the minimum spend of $2,000, I got 104,000 points. The rest of the 6,000 points needed for the 110,000 required amount for the pass came from manufactured spending with Vanilla Reloads and a Bluebird account and regular spending on my cards. I was able to secure the Companion Pass in early 2013 and it didn't expire until the end of 2014. I was able to have a companion fly for free with me on several trips. I didn't take full advantage of this benefit and now I don't have it anymore. Not too much activity in 2014, just the points used for flight to LA for my 3 day Mexican Cruise, a few days in Seattle, and I redeemed points for a trip in January 2015 to Las Vegas.
British Airways
I didn't actually have any activity in 2014, since I had booked my January Hawaii airfare in December 2013. Not much activity at all in this account since I had signed up for the card and received the bonus points.
In January 2014, I flew my girlfriend and I to Hawaii for a 5 night stay. It only cost 50,000 round trips for the two of us. I currently have enough points to do that again.
American Airlines
I've been holding onto American Airlines miles ever since I applied for the Citi American Airlines credit card and received the bonus. There's not usually a lot of activity in this account since I prefer to fly Southwest and I'd prefer to use these points on an international flight. I was able to earn points when I flew US Airways in November 2014, going to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for a Continuing Professional Education conference that my work paid for. I was also able to earn some AAdvantage Eshopping bonus miles from spending over $300 on American's shopping portal. I was at risk of loosing my points in November since I didn't have any points activity for close to 18 months, so I decided to redeem a small amount of points for a magazine subscription to Entrepreneur magazine. I would never buy a magazine these days but I figured I might as well get one that I like.
Chase Ultimate Rewards
Chase points should be my favorite program since I've earned the most points out of any of my other programs. I've had the following Chase credit cards that all have given me valuable Chase rewards points. I was even able to transfer the points earned from my Chase Freedom and transfer them into Ultimate Rewards instead of only being able to redeem for cash. I did kind of a bad thing though that many points bloggers would shake their head at. I in March I redeemed 125,372 ultimate rewards points for cash! This gave me a deposit into my checking account for $1,253.72. Although this was a huge redemption of points and it was great to get that much cash, I could have redeemed through one of Chase's Ultimate Rewards transfer partners which would have given me better value. Since then I've applied for the Chase Ink Bold and the Chase Sapphire Preferred (2nd time) credit cards which will give me 95,000 points after minimum spend. This next go around I plan on transferring the points to Hyatt, United, or another partner for even greater value than 1 cent per point redemption. Unfortunately, Chase has updated the Ultimate Rewards portal and got rid of my past activity for the year so I wasn't able to pull it.
Hyatt
Earlier this year I applied for the Hyatt Visa Credit Card and it came with 2 nights free. To my surprise I had bonus points deposited in my account when I first got the card. That's about worth another free night at some Hyatt properties. It might have been from not being able to initially login to my account and I had to call a Hyatt agent to help me. I used those 2 free nights at the Grand Hyatt Seattle. The other great thing about the card is that I get a free night on my card anniversary date. The annual fee for the card is $75, which I will be glad to pay for a free night at any Hyatt. I don't plan on putting any additional spend on the card since I get better points earning from my other cards.
United Mileage Plus
Just like American Airlines, I have a ton of points in United that I haven't found an opportunity to use them. I would like to use them on an international flight as well because I think I will get a better value. The majority of points earned in 2014, were though Mileage Plus Dining transactions. When you link any credit or debit card to Mileage Plus dining you can earn points at select restaurants that participate in the program. Since I dined over 12 times at participating restaurants during the year I was able to secure VIP status with the program meaning I will get 5 points per dollar spent. Extremely easy points for just linking a credit/debit card.
Hilton
This program happens to be my least favorite. There was a huge devaluation to their points in 2013 and ever since I wasn't a fan of Hilton. I earned a few points through the Amex Hilton credit card just to keep my points active. I did end up staying at a Hilton on Black Friday using Hotel Tonight's $7 Black Friday deal. I wasn't expecting to earn points, however, I gave the hotel clerk my Hilton number and surprisingly I earned a decent amount of points for the night. These points I'm looking forward to being able to liquidate so I don't have to see them anymore and possibly risk further devaluation.
Barclaycard Arrival
This is one of my favorite points earning programs since I earn 2x points per dollar spend on my Barclaycard Arrival MasterCard. The credit card came with a generous 40,000 points sign up bonus which is good for about $440 in travel redemptions. You earn 10% rewards back on each redemption. I received the bonus in 2013 so, I only earned points on spend this year. A lot of it was due to manufactured spending with Vanilla Reloads until they ended that in early 2014. I was able to redeem $350 worth of points towards travel in 2014. The Barclaycard Arrival MasterCard is by far my favorite credit card to put spending on since I get the highest points earning of all my cards at 2.2% back (towards travel redemptions).
Capital One No Hassle Rewards
I rank Capital One points right up there with Barclaycard Arrival points. You also earn 2x points per dollar and can redeem one point per cent on travel. You don't get the 10% points back on travel redemptions like Barclaycard. The good thing about this program is that it's more flexible when redeeming on small travel purchases. Barclaycard has a $25 minimum that you can redeem and then go in increments of $25. I was able to redeem 67,382 points worth $608 in travel (net of manf. spend fees I incurred). The big redemption came from purchasing my February Mexican cruise.
Starwood Preferred Guest
In January 2014, I stayed at The Westin Maui Resort & Spa for 5 nights. I had redeemed the points in 2013, however, apparently I even earned points on the award stay. I don't have many points left in the program and I have since cancelled the SPG Amex credit card. This is a good example of earn and burn. I knew almost right away when I signed up for the card what I wanted to use the points for.
Club Carlson Gold Points
Club Carlson Gold Points have not really been on my radar until 2014. I applied for the Club Carlson personal and business credit cards in order to get the 85,000 points sign up bonus for each card. One of the great features of having a Club Cardson Credit Card, is the ability to redeem points for an award stay and get your last night free. So if you book one night, you are essentially getting a buy one get one free deal. In August 2014, I stayed at the Radisson Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco for 50,000 points. It was a huge amount of points and unfortunately they were booked before and after the one night I stayed that I wasn't able to get a second night for free. Not the best use of my points but I still have a bunch left over. I also took advantage of a promotion during the year to get 75% more points with a purchase of points. I ended up paying $280 for 40,000 points and got 30,000 bonus points. I don't normally purchase points but I figured with the buy one get one benefit, I'm getting an even better value for the points. I plan on using a lot of these points for my 30 days of travel outside the US goal I have for 2015. With the two cards, I will be able to alternate cards, and potentially stay in the same hotel by booking two night on one card, two nights on the other and so forth.
