Play Dough

Dear Annabelle,

We just made some new play dough this morning.  Here is our recipe:

Mix together:
1c salt
1c tapioca starch
2c rice flour

Add:
1 Tbsp oil
1 1/2c boiling water

The last few times we have also added some natural food colouring.  Those ones I keep in the fridge, the previous batches I just kept out.

Hugs,

Jen

Aeroplan vs. United Fees

Dear Annabelle,

This is an earlier post I wrote but it is still a mystery to me.  I looked into summer 2016 flights DEN-YOW the other day and found a similar trend with the fees for United being quite a bit lower than with Aeroplan.

----------

I am trying to compare awards with Aeroplan to those with United MileagePlus.  Specifically at the moment from DEN to YOW.  I managed to find an award ticket with the same flights on both airlines (Sept 8 to Sept 30, 2015).  This comparison flight had one stop both ways in Dulles and all flights were with United (same flight numbers with both programs).

Aeroplan was 25K plus 107.90 USD in fees:

U.S. Passenger Safety Fee

$11.20

U.S Passenger Facility Charge

$13.50

U.S. International Transportation Tax

$35.40

Canada Domestic/International Air Travel Security Charge

$10.00

Canada Harmonized Sales Tax

$2.30

Canada Domestic/International Airport Improvement Fee

$18.00

U.S. Customs User Fee

$5.50

U.S.A Immigration User Fee

$7.00

U.S Agriculture Fee

$5.00

Total per passenger

$107.90

Total passengers

1

United was 25K and 59 USD in fees:

• September 11th Security Fee $5.60
• Canadian Security Charge $10.00
• Canada Harmonized Sales Tax $2.30
• Canada Airport Improvement Fee $18.00
• U.S. Customs User Fee $5.50
• U.S. Immigration User Fee $7.00
• U.S. APHIS User Fee $5.00
• September 11th Security Fee $5.60

For comparison United says that I could buy this ticket for $758.92 without redeeming miles.

So the question is why are these fees different (by $48.90).  Neither are charging a fuel surcharge, but the fees are differing based on who you book with.

The following charges are the same:

• Canadian Security Charge $10.00
• Canada Harmonized Sales Tax $2.30
• Canada Airport Improvement Fee $18.00
• U.S. Customs User Fee $5.50
• U.S. Immigration User Fee $7.00
• U.S. APHIS User Fee $5.00

And the "U.S. Passenger Safety Fee" on Aeroplan equates to the two September 11th Security Fees on United.

That leaves the following fees on the Aeroplan ticket that aren't on the United ticket:

• U.S Passenger Facility Charge $13.50
• U.S. International Transportation Tax $35.40

These add up to the $48.90 we were looking for.  I believe that the Transportation Tax is 7.5% of the ticket price so this will vary by the cost of the ticket; making pricer tickets even more pricey with Aeroplan.

In the ITA Matrix this routing shows up with the following fees:

• US Transportation Tax (US) $46.77
• US September 11th Security Fee (AY) $11.20
• US Passenger Facility Charge (XF) $13.50
• US Flight Segment Tax (ZP) $16.00
• USDA APHIS Fee (XA) $5.00
• US Immigration Fee (XY) $7.00
• US Customs Fee (YC) $5.50
• Ottawa Airport Improvement Fee (SQ) $18.00
• Canadian Harmonized Sales Tax (ON) (RC) $2.30
• Canadian Air Travelers Security Charge (CA) $10.00

Interestingly this adds up to $135.27. That said I didn't find this flight on the ITA Matrix until about 12 hours after I found the other two so I am not sure if that is having an impact.  Without the Transportation Tax and Facility Charge, which were included in the Aeroplan but not the United fee, it equals $75.  That is still more than United: So what is included here that isn't on United's fees?  The answer: The "US Flight Segment Tax" is listed on the ITA Matrix fees but not on the Aeroplan or United MileagePlus list.

Why does Aeroplan charge the Transportation Tax and Facility Charge but United doesn't?  And why is the Transportation Tax higher in the ITA Matrix than it was for the award flight with Aeroplan?  I just double checked and the Aeroplan flight is giving the same fees now, so it isn't a matter of the delay between checking.

-------
Nov 2/15: Just doing a bit more looking around.  It seems like the US International Transportation Tax is a constant value and is a combination of a $17.70 departure tax and a $17.70 arrival tax.  The 7.5% I was referring to applies to domestic flights.

Here is a link to general airline fees.  And according to this (very old) thread I am not alone in my confusion.  Oh wow, here is an entire recent thread about this very subject, including a lot of really grumpy people.  A lot of confusion about why Aeroplan is charging these additional fees and United is not.  Is it because Aeroplan is separate from Air Canada?  Is it because some other small fees are being charged so it isn't a completely free ticket?  People don't seem to know but they are mad at being charged both the passenger facility charge and the US International Tax.

Hugs,
Jen

British Airways Avios

Dear Annabelle,

Another old post that will soon be partially redundant, at least for the within North America values....

There is an Avios calculator website that lets you plug in your location and destination.  This is telling me for Dublin and Munich from Denver it would be around 27K or 30K each way.  This compares with the other airlines, except for a lot of them might let us do an open jaw and see more places in Europe.  Not sure I want to lock us into it costing more to do this by using Avios.

This post lists hubs of partners for Avios points.  We are not a hub but we do get US Airways and American flights from DEN.  There are not any fuel surcharges within North America (I think).  I wonder how Avios would work for going to Ottawa.  Flying DEN to YOW through Chicago would give 888 miles and 655 miles - under 650 is 4500 miles and to 1150 is 7500 so both of these would be 7500 or 15000 but this is only one way so it would be 30K return, so not as good as the base 25K.  Wonder if there is a routing where one is under 650 and one is still under 1150.  This would give 4500+7500 each way OR 12000, so 24000 return.  Doesn't really help but could be an option.

Here is the Travel is Free Guide to Avios.  And here is a discussion of the Household Accounts feature of Avios.  Basically you can pool the rewards and they get used out of everyone's accounts.

TPG outlines how you would pick between BA and Virgin Atlantic:
"If it’s a question of transferring miles to Virgin Atlantic or to British Airways, it’s worth having a look at Virgin’s mileage chart and comparing it to BA’s mileage calculator to see which requires more on your route. For example, a roundtrip economy ticket from JFK to London on Virgin only costs 35,000* (26,000 if booked as two one-ways separately), 55,000 or 80,000 miles roundtrip in economy, premium economy and business class respectively, while BA would charge you 40,000, 60,000 or 80,000 Avios for the same classes of service, so in economy, I’d do Virgin to save a few thousand miles.  However, if pricing awards one-way, they seem to be coming up cheaper. For instance, a one-way award from New York-London was pricing at only 13,000 miles and just under $97.50 in taxes and fees. There were very limited dates, so play around to see if you can find these lower priced awards."

As far as Europe the key is the fuel surcharges and whether you could find a route without too many.  One option is to use BA on Aer Lingus.

Some other links:

• How direct flights are calculated:  It turns out that at least with some American Airlines flights, Avios actually prices flights by flight number rather than by individual leg in some cases. In effect, only one Avios redemption is necessary for multiple flights in each direction so long as they are marketed with the same flight number.
• US Airways map
• AA map
• There are sometimes transfer bonuses to BA from AMEX
• Saving with stopovers
• Reducing fees
• Avios map for DEN

Hugs,
Jen

Award Availability Links

Dear Annabelle,

I feel I still have a lot to learn about searching for award seats.  I am sure this will become more relevant now that we have points!

Some links for sites that could help:

http://travelisfree.com/2014/12/02/master-chart-of-what-sites-search-airline-award-availability/

http://wandr.me/award-search/

http://thepointsguy.com/2015/02/whats-the-best-way-to-search-airline-award-availability/

http://www.kvstool.com/

http://www.expertflyer.com/

https://awardnexus.com/user/login?url=%2F

Hugs,
Jen

GCMap

Dear Annabelle,

Have you ever used the Great Circle Mapper site?

I keep going back to it to look up distances since I need them for comparing the mileage programs that are distance based.

Hugs,
Jen

Best bet: DEN to MCO (Orlando)

Dear Annabelle,

This is another old one I am cleaning up from when I was trying to decide how to book our flights to MCO (Orlando) for December.  We ended up paying cash on Southwest.  We were able to get it for $1424 for all 4 of us, direct, and Southwest includes 2 free bags each!

.......
DEN to MCO (Orlando): 1546 miles
With a direct flight this would fit in the 10K each way bucket for British Airways Avios.  Cutting 5K each from the rest of the carriers that are generally 25K (or a total savings of 20K for the family).  I guess the question is whether there are fuel charges and whether the miles are worth using here given the cost of the flights.

That said, I need it direct though because the two lower levels are 4500 and 7500 and these would add up to more if combined. Sadly American does not fly direct DEN-MCO, but are all showing connections. Connecting through DFW is 641 miles crow flies followed by 985, resulting in 24K points. Mostly equivalent point wise and not direct. This Denver Avios Map was helpful here.

Turns out that Avios flights "within the Americas don’t have YQ to pass on" according to here.

The ITA matrix is only showing direct flights for United and Frontier.
.......

I wonder whether Southwest shows up in the ITA Matrix, given it obviously has direct flights and I wasn't seeing them here.  It doesn't show up in Google Flights and they are running off a similar system.  I wonder why not.  

It is funny to read my analysis of the Avios points above since it will all be mute soon.  Avios is increasing their within the US points required to be 7500 for the cheapest category and going up from there.

Hugs, 

Jen

Fuel Surcharges

Dear Annabelle,

I am trying to clean up drafts that I wrote a while ago and this is one of them.  Really just some compiled info I had found at the time....

Having a good understanding of fuel surcharges seems to be key to acquiring award travel that is close to free as opposed to still hundreds of dollars.  Especially at this point in time when I am trying to decide who to collect points with it seems a good time to set up a strategy based on who does not have fuel surcharges.

Delta SkyMiles

Here is a chart indicating which partner airlines you pay fuel surcharges on if you book with SkyMiles. Along with the chart it highlights the related point that "Delta SkyMiles imposes fuel surcharges for all award tickets originating in Europe. So regardless of which airline you fly, you will pay fuel surcharges when you book a SkyMiles award originating in Europe." This first chart seems to differ from the chart here that indicates that all SkyTeam charges and passes on fuel surcharges. This post outlines a way to get around the fuel surcharges for flights from Europe.  This post seems to confirm the first chart with a mix of charging and not charging fuel surcharges.  Good reminder to always double check my facts in this points world before I settle on a strategy.

The last post from 2012 summarized the following:

• "There are four surcharge-free options to Europe: Delta, KLM, Air France, and Alitalia.
• There are two surcharge-free options to Asia: Delta and Korean.
• There are three surcharge-free options to the Americas: Delta, Aeromexico, and Aerolineas Argentinas.
• There are two surcharge-free options to Australia: Delta and Virgin Australia.
• Delta has pretty awful availability to all those places except on its New York to London route.
  Virgin Australia, Korean, and the European partners have pretty good availability among surcharge-free airlines." 

Travel is Free Advice

Travel is Free outlines how great ANA is but that they pass on all fuel surcharges so you need to look for the airlines that don't have them. He also lists the "Star Alliance airlines without fuel surcharges:

• Avianca 
• Air New Zealand 
• TACA 
• United within the Americas 
• Air Canada within the Americas" 

And says how "There are other airlines where the fuel surcharges would be minor… but I don’t get why you would even bother. Why not collect and use United or AA miles for a trip to Europe, Africa or Asia and then us ANA to South America, Central America, and the Caribbean? That’s what I’d recommend."

Other Links

These Posts on TPG give an overview of the fuel surcharges for Aeroplan and ANA. And here is talk about how Air France Blue has capped their fuel surcharges.

Hugs, Jen

The Big Spend

Hello Annabelle,

Mid-September we decided, spur of the moment really, to go for a big set of credit card applications.  Or an App-o-rama as I sometimes hear them called.  I have heard arguments for both doing lots of applications at once (so you have a 3 month wait before new applications) and for waiting and doing them little by little (so you can take advantage for a short-term lucrative offer).

SO we applied to:

AMEX Everyday for Andrew AND Jen

• 25K MR points for 2K min spend with no annual fee
• Both approved
• We wanted to get this while the bonus was high and because we will use this to keep our MR points when we cancel the other higher fee cards (that were waived in the first year)

Citibank Hilton HHonors Visa Signature Card for Andrew AND Jen

• 75K HHonors points for 2K min spend with no annual fee
• Andrew got approved right away.
• I needed to fill in an extra form so that they could request my tax transcript.  I just heard yesterday that I have been approved.  

Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® for Andrew

• 40000 bonus miles (equivalent to $400 travel credit) for 3K min spend
• Annual fee waived first year
• Andrew got approved right away.
• This card has a pretty high amount that you have to spend to use the travel credit, I think it needs to be at least $100.  We charged our flights home at Christmas to it.  They are $340 a person so I wonder if this will be an issue to get the full value of the bonus?

Discover Miles for Andrew

• No fee card.
• 3X for first year.  So no sign up bonus but if you signed up now you got 3X for the first year instead of the normal 1.5X.
• Andrew approved right away.

TD Aeroplan for Andrew

• 25K for 1K spend.  Pretty sure that it has a fee but waived first year.
• Andrew had to phone and it was sent to a "senior lender" but then approval came in the mail.

US Bank REI Card for Andrew (didn't get)

• This card gave a $100 gift card for doing not much; one purchase maybe.
• We got a letter that Andrew needed to call but he was so busy with work that he never did.

AMEX SPG for Andrew and Jen (got for Andrew)

• 30K SPG points with 3K min spend.  Fee waived first year.
• This was the one where we learned you shouldn't apply for 2 AMEX cards on the same day.  They put the second application on hold for 5 days and then evaluate it, which given you have just done an app-o-rama is not the best plan.  Even with this Andrew got approved after the mandatory wait.
• I did not get approved because I had already got two lending cards in the past 90 days.  We think this means credit cards as opposed to charge cards.  At any rate I had just applied with the AMEX Everyday for my third AMEX in a fairly short time frame and this was my fourth.  

This has lead to the past month and a bit being quite focused on making these minimum spends, getting the payments set up, etc.  I have set up a system for payments where we have a spreadsheet that tracks when they have been paid and when they have been checked.  One of us pays and the other checks each payment.  We have been able to coordinate the dates so we each have two "credit card pay" days a month.  

All of these approvals meant we had $13,000 in minimum spend to make!   (Plus some left over minimum spend that we hadn't yet finished on a previous card at the time of these applications.) As I am writing we have $1000 left to spend!  Andrew got really into manufactured spending and did a bunch of research.  Great for me since that was not my interest (apart from the Kiva idea).  Some of big spends are listed below:

Gift cards to:
- Grocery store	200
- Gas	75
- General (AMEX, MC)	1000
Gift cards to Serve	4000
Kiva	335
Donations	2362
Carbon offsets	400
Christmas Travel	1716.38
Memberships	157
Neufeld course	526.16
Time share annual fee	400

The ideal was to have all the big gift cards transfer to Serve but it didn't work out for the AMEX and the MC ones he got.  The rest have transferred well and then we can send a cheque from the Serve account to me so it can go back in our bank account.  So for the gift cards we paid around $6-$7 per $500 card.  Worth it to make the minimum spend, especially since we tried to do it at stores where the card would get 2X most of the time.  

Most of the other expenses were things that we had been waiting to spend money on.  Andrew's shares from his first year of work vested in August so we had been waiting for the extra cash flow to do donations, carbon offset, Christmas travel tickets, etc.  Just worked out well that we were able to use these annual lump sum expenses to meet these minimum spends.  

Kind of exciting to think that with just this round alone we will earn this many points:

AMEX MR	50000
HHonors	75000
Barclay Miles	40000 ($400)
SPG	30000
Aeroplan	25000

Hugs,

Jen

TSA Pre-Check and Customs lines

Dear Annabelle,

I wrote this first part back in the summer:

When we flew out of DIA on Friday the lines for security were the longest we had ever seen.  They snaked all the way around the baggage claim area!  I had asked Andrew a few months ago whether he thought it made sense to get into one of the identified traveller programs like Nexus and he seemed dubious.  He doesn't like giving over biometric data and such.  But after that line I think he is reconsidering.

Also, we are flying quite a lot these days.  Someone kindly asked Alexandria on Friday if this was her first airplane ride and she looked at them like they had two heads.  I think she has been on 16 airplanes in the past year!

The fast lines at DIA were the TSA Pre-Check line as well as the CLEAR line.  CLEAR seems to be a corporate program that is currently available in 12 airports, including DIA.  Using biometric data you are able to use their special security line and go straight to screening.  It doesn't matter what kind of ticket you have (e.g. first class).  The cost is $179 annually plus $50 for an extra family member (with children under 18 free).  So over 5 years (the expiry of most of the other programs) the cost would be (179+50)*5 = $1145.  The CLEAR screening does not necessarily give you different screening unless you also have TSA PreCheck in which case "CLEAR members who are eligible for PreCheck now get the best of both worlds. You can use the CLEAR lane as usual to avoid the long security lines. We’ll scan your boarding pass and bring you to the PreCheck screening lane (if eligible for that flight) where you can keep your shoes and belt on, etc."  Also the CLEAR program is solely for speeding up airport security on departing flights and is not associated with the Global Entry program which is for arriving flights and Customs.  Seems to be like there are better options out there: let's see!

Now updating today:

The main contenders are Nexus and Global Entry, both give you TSA PreCheck as part of them.   Nexus is the ideal since it is only $50 for 5 years (and kids are free) and gives you TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, as well as expedited entry to Canada.  That said you have to make it to a processing center in Canada, or near the border.  This might be difficult to line up scheduling wise.  I just called and they said that generally it takes 6-8 weeks to process the application and then at that point they can schedule another 6-8 weeks out (in Ottawa, seems longer in other locations).  So this definitely won't line up for our Christmas trip.  She said that what you can do is book as late as possible and then just keep going into the GOES system and moving it out later and later.  She said you are fine so long as it is still in the system, but if you delete it or you don't show up it will cancel your application.  I wonder if I could line it up for a trip home in the summer (too bad Andrew probably won't come on that one).

Global Entry would definitely be more convenient to apply to as we could just go to DIA.  But it wouldn't give the added benefit upon entry to Canada and it costs more.  It is $100 each including children. It also lasts for 5 years.  There are credit cards that will cover the fees (discussed here and here) but they are all appear to be high annual fee cards.

At $100 vs. $400, and the cheaper one also giving Canada expedited entry in addition to Global Entry and TSA Pre-Check, it seems like I should at least try and see if I can get Nexus to work.  I think my Mom might have looked into it, or applied, I suppose I should check in with her on the process.

Hugs,
Jen

AwardAce

Dear Annabelle,

Back in July I was lamenting about the lack of sites that let you compare frequent flyer program options for certain routes.  It seems like this relatively new site AwardAce is a great step in the right direction.  According to their FAQs it looks like they might be expanding into fuel surcharges at some point too.

That said it doesn't help with award availability but it does give you an idea ahead of time of what types of points to collect if you are interested in a certain route.  Or what to consider once you have amassed points of a certain type (e.g. who to transfer AMEX points to).

Hugs,
Jen

Canadian card to consider if you have Rogers

Hi Annabelle,

I just came across this post on a Rogers card.  Not sure if you have seen it or if you have Rogers services.  I was thinking of showing it to my Mom since I am pretty sure she does.

Hugs,
Jen

Optimizing Car Rentals

Hello Annabelle,

I have been trying to get my head around car rentals and how to pick the best option/bonuses and it has not been a fun process.  Unlike the airline and hotel world that felt complex but logical (and as such kind of fun to research about), I feel like I am just going in circles with the car rentals.  Everyone and their dog seems to have a discount code and some points (e.g. airline) to be gained.  But then wait you need to pay for those points to get them.  Urg!

So in an attempt to see what is going on I am going to write my thoughts down.  Feel free to not read this post as it is really just my own muddles in written form ;)

I first looked on the Chase Travel Portal because the Chase Sapphire Preferred has primary CDW and so I thought booking with that card made sense (the United MileageExplorer card also has primary so that is another option).  I found a week in Orlando for $150 which seemed great to me (especially with a 3X through the portal) BUT then it turned out that that company (Alamo and National) doesn't include the spouse for free.  And I will be doing some driving on the trip so I want that included and not another $10/day.

So then my assumption was maybe everyone in Orlando charges for the extra driver (which I am thinking now may not be true but I am not sure).  So next I looked at Costco because they include an extra driver as part of the package but there rates are more like $195 and some involve having to get a coupon to get that rate.

We seem to be able to get discounts by being United MileagePlus members, Delta members, Interval International members, etc.  So I started looking up this bonus points offer through Interval International (the time share organization); well it turned out it was only for Interval Gold members, which I am not.  But that got me looking at Hertz and it looks like they will include both drivers if you are both Hertz Gold members and that is free to sign up for.  I was on the phone with them to find this out so I ended up making a booking for about $215 for the week.  It is the "discounted" price but it still seems high and it is actually a compact price with an upgrade that is supposed to be included.  But the upgrade is "subject to availability" which makes me nervous.

I confirmed that it is the same discount with the other plans (United).  The advantage of using Hertz is that Andrew rents through them on his work trips and so we might actually be able to eventually build up to a free rental.  It looks like none of the plans are stellar on building to free rentals very quickly though.  That said, at a minimum we should get him signed up so we are building something.
I just looked back at the Chase Portal and the cheapest rental they have (not at Alamo or National) is $233.  This post seemed to indicate that Avis, Budget, and Enterprise don't charge for a spouse (although it is from 2013) so I was considering them.

I think part of the muddle is what am I trying to do here.  Should I be going for airline points (where you have to pay the daily fee), some frequent car rental program, or just the cheapest fare.  At this point it looks like the Chase portal doesn't make sense for the cost but do I go with the more pricey Hertz rental for building loyalty or a Costco rental for the cheaper value.  Sadly it seems like $195 is the cheapest I can get right now, renting with Alamo through Costco.

It seems like buying the frequent flyer points is only valuable if you are getting an additional bonus.  Many of them are around $1 per day so if you are only getting 500 points for $7 it is pretty steep.  2000 points for $7 is 0.35 CPM is actually a pretty good deal so maybe it is worth going for the airline bonuses, even with the cost, now that I know how crappy the car rental loyalty programs are.  Well how crappy exactly: with Hertz a non-peak week is around 2250 I think and you build a point for every dollar spent.  So if a week is $200 so you spend $2250 and get a $200 value.  I guess that is around 1%.  Urg...for some reason this all makes my brain hurt!

Delta is actually one of the best for not charging too much for getting the points but they are showing a rental at $248 so that doesn't help.  I just checked on Air Canada, who partner with Budget and Avis but don't give a discount code on the site.  I just checked out the bonuses listed on this site and they didn't seem to come up or help.

I is making me realize how well I did with my last Ottawa booking.  I managed to get something like 5000 Delta points for about a dollar!  Actually just looking up the same Delta offer now and seeing if I link to it a different way whether it will give a different result (rather than just looking through the main Delta page).  Wow, now it is showing a cost of $190 with Hertz with the promotion!  But when I log in and actually try and book it is not showing the page correctly!!!

I finally got it to load and I booked two different rentals.  At first it would only show me a compact, which I can get for $166 and then a full-size which came up later for around $190.  So it looks like that is the best I can do.  Using the Delta limited-time promotion which should also give around 1900 bonus Delta points for very little cash.  I booked it under my name since I am building the Delta points.  I signed up for the Gold Hertz Rewards.  And hopefully if Andrew signs up too we can use these reservations with an extra driver for free.  I think I will want to call to just make sure.  I signed up for the Hertz Gold Rewards with the CSP and I think it said you have to use that card for your first booking.  That works since it will give us 2X on travel and has the primary car insurance and then the Delta bonus and discount is separate from using a Delta card.  In the end not too bad!

But what a rigamarole!

Related Links:
- Rental cars in terminal at MCO (Orlando)
- Million Mile Secrets has a whole series I haven't completely read on car rentals

Hugs,
Jen

Hilton HHonors

Dear Annabelle,

So as part of our recent app-o-rama, which I will write more about later, we both applied for the Citi Hilton HHonors Visa Signature Card which currently has a 75K sign up bonus and no annual fees.  Andrew has been approved and I will have some paperwork to do (coming in the mail) and then we will see.

The question I am pondering is whether it is worth taking advantage of the offer to "Fast track to Gold after four stays within your first 90 days of account opening."  Normally we don't stay in hotels much so I am not sure Gold status really matters but I am wondering if we might more in the next year if we do go on a Europe trip or do more local travel.  I am also really itching to do some shorter local trips this fall so the idea of making some one night stays in our general area of the country is actually kind of appealing.  Travel is Free has made a great map of all the Hilton Properties by level.  There are actually quite a few near us.

The thing is that both the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve card ($95 annual fee; 2 free weekend nights) and the Hilton HHonors Surpass from AMEX ($75 annual fee; 60K bonus points) give you Gold Status for as long as you have the card.  So that appears to be a much cheaper way to acquire Gold status if we want it, than 4 one-night stays.  That said, if we want four stays in hotels anyways then two birds with one stone is OK.  One Mile At A Time summarizes which credit cards give you elite status for all the different hotel programs here.  Of note is that if you earn status in 2015, for example, you have it for the rest of 2015, all of 2016, and possibly into the beginning of 2017 (I am guessing this isn't the same for the card related status level).

Here is a review of what HHonors status is worth.  Ironically a lot of the benefits of Gold status (free breakfast, wifi, etc.) only apply when you stay in the more upscale places since they are available to everyone in the lower level sites.  How does that make any sense?  That said a bunch of the places in Europe are the more upscale side of the brand so maybe Gold would make a difference there.  Here is the Hilton summary of member benefits.  It is interesting that late check-out (which we would definitely benefit from!) is actually a benefit of the free level, you just need to ask for it.  Good thing to consider when staying at any brand of hotel.  To sign up for their program and see what rewards are included.

The main benefit I see, which is part of both the silver and the gold, is that you get the 5th night free.  Which is pretty sweet (although I think a benefit in other hotel chains as well).  So yes, looking at the list I am not sure we need the Gold status.

The only part of the HHonors program I don't really understand at the moment is that it has base points and bonus points and it appears that the bonus points can be transferred to airlines.  Or just that airline points can also be earned, in addition to hotel points.  But I don't have my head around how you earn them and how many.  The HHonors Ts&Cs are here and probably worth reading at some point.

I also realized that it is too bad that HHonors charges a fee for transferring points.  This post summarizes transfers in the different hotel programs and says that for HHonors "Transfer to anyone. Must transfer in increments of 10,000 points. Cost of $25 per 10,000 points. You can transfer a maximum of 200,000 points per year."  It is just that in order to qualify for the 5th free night you need to pay completely as an award and without our points being pooled we might not have enough to ever do that.

Hugs,
Jen

Chicken Tikka Masala

Hello Annabelle,

So I realized that can probably save myself some money if I learn how to make chicken tikka masala.  I just have days where I really crave it now that we live so close to a super yummy Indian restaurant (especially after having take out not really be an option in Arnprior).  I remember you asking at one point if Andrew and I were in to the having someone clean your house and going out for food.  Not at all for the first but we love going out or getting take out!

So....here are some links to websites (here, here, and here) I have found with recipes.  And some tips. I need to compare since they all look a bit different.  I will let you know how it goes!

Hugs,
Jen

Baggage Fees

Hello Annabelle,

We recently booked our flights back to Denver from Ottawa after Christmas for the girls and I.  I ended up getting 50K bonus points for Delta with the Gold Delta SkyMiles AMEX and I was able to find 12.5K flights for mid-January.  Still need to book the flight to Ottawa.

In the flurry of wanting to just book the tickets before the award seats went away we were a bit confused about what credit card to use for the taxes and what that would mean for baggage fees.  I have been really wanting to book flights on the Chase Sapphire Preferred (even though it only gives 2X rather than the 3X bonus of some cards) because it provides nice looking trip interruption and cancellation insurance as well as baggage delay and such.  Basically it provides the kind of trip insurance that we used to buy for our trips.  But the Delta AMEX gives first bag free for everyone on your reservation (up to 9 people).  We ended up going with the CSP and tonight I finally looked into the details of baggage fees.

I knew I had some other options because the AMEX Gold cards we have got have a $100 airline credit that can go towards baggage and the Delta AMEX offer did say that you could get a $50 credit towards a Delta purchase and I had read about people just getting a $50 gift card (which I am assuming I could use towards baggage later).

But first I went looking at the details on the First Checked Bag Free of Delta.  It wasn't clear that you needed to book with the card to have the benefit apply so I just had an online chat with an AMEX agent who assured me that you definitely need to purchase with the card, but couldn't direct me to the terms and conditions where that is specified.  Million Mile Secrets is saying, in a recent post, that you definitely DO NOT need to purchase the flight with the card to have it apply.

So I think we will just hope the baggage fees get covered.  The nice thing about the AMEX Gold one is that it gets assigned right away so I might be able to use that as a back-up.  And I might as well try to get the $50 gift certificate if it is essentially going to be free.

People really complain about Delta availability but I think we might have some luck with them for YOW-DEN flights during off peak times.

Some other links on credit cards and waived bag fees by airline are here and here.

Hugs,
Jen

Update:
I got the Delta gift certificate.  It turns out the fine print is "eGifts and Cards may only be used for the total purchase price of air transportation, including taxes, fees, and surcharges imposed on the air transportation. They may not be used for any additional fees (including baggage fees) or for any other products or services (including class upgrades, in-flight purchases, premium seating, mileage booster, SkyMiles Cruises, cargo, hotel stays, or car rentals)." But "eGifts and Cards are not reloadable and do not expire. No service or inactivity fees apply."
So that won't work for the baggage but I am sure we will book a ticket on Delta at some point.  Hopefully the cost is covered by the credit card sign-up bonus credit!

Tracking expenses

Hi Jen,

I am using a new website to track my expenses and I really like it so far, and I thought you might be interested in it. It is super simple, but it is fine for my purposes. It is called The Birdy. It sends you an email every day, and you reply to the email with what you spent that day, with one line per expense, and using hashtags to categorize the expense. Then it adds it to your calendar/expense list. It is one of the easiest free ones I have found where you don't have to link accounts, as the techie husbands scared me sufficiently about that!

Hopefully it will help me keep our expenses on target. Our July expenses were a little high (like $2000 more than budgeted!), but they included our Maine rental car and a bunch of house maintenance supplies, so I think our expenses for the Fall months will be more on target.

Love,
Anne

blogging and housing thoughts

Hi Jenners,

Another post from me!  I am back to work this week. On my bike to work the first day, I kept having the feeling that I forgot the kids! I do like the intellectual stimulation I get from work, as well as the break from the kids. I loved being home with them for three weeks, but I think if I was home with them full time I would need to incorporate a little more time by myself. How do you manage that aspect as a stay at home mom?

One thing I really would like to try is creating a travel blog. There are good blog posts here  about how this woman increased her audience to 100,000 page views per month and here about how to use find and use keywords. Having a blog would definitely be work, but I like that I could do it from anywhere, and I wouldn’t have to work on it full time. I do not need to make a full-time income from my blog, my goal would be to make about $1000 per month, which I think is totally do-able.

Murr and I have been obsessing slightly about the own and build vs. sell and rent question. Lately we like the idea of selling our current house and renting. We like the idea of not having to spend weekends doing house maintenance. Murray especially gets stressed out by all the little things to do with the house. So this week we are thinking that selling and renting may work best. I also like the idea that we could take off for a year and not have any expenses at home, which is still something I dream about doing. Although I also like the idea of the kids coming back to our same house, and we really love our neighbours, so I go back and forth about this question...

Anyway, that was a bit random!

love,

anne

Canadian credit card thoughts

Hi Jen,

I will continue your credit card posts, from a Canadian perspective. J

American Express in Canada recently stopped the ability to churn cards, by creating a rule that only new card holders can get the card bonus. Since I have had most of the cards at least once, I need to start looking a little further afield for cards.

I also recently read an interesting article on One Mile at a Time, assessing the different methods of getting points (here), and found it interesting that using your airline credit cards for everyday spend is like paying 2 cents per mile, because you could be using a cash back card instead. That made me realize I should look into the cash back cards available in Canada. The MBNA Smart Cash has 5% back on groceries in the first 6 months, which is great. After that, the Scotia Momentum Infinite Visa gives 4% back on groceries, although it has a $99 annual fee so I read that only people who spend $400/month or more on groceries/gas should get this card. We do spend more than that, although about half of our spending is at costco, which I don’t think is considered groceries. And the annual fee is waived the first year.

There was also an interesting blog post by Don’t Call the Airline about how Canadians can get American credit cards. It has me thinking I could use my parents’ Maine address and try to apply for some. Perhaps you could use that technique to get Amex cards. The article is here.

Anne

One-ways for Europe!

Dear Annabelle,

I have been trying to figure out lately whether we have ANY chance of making a Europe trip in Summer 2016 work with points.  I was hopeful that I could get the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the United card because my FICO score is high enough but in applying for the CSP I was denied.  My AMEX history isn't on my credit report yet it turns out so they weren't able to approve a "premier" card for me :(

Andrew applied for the AMEX Gold Premier Rewards card and was approved the next day; we were able to find the 50K bonus with only a $1,000 spend.  He also applied for the Chase United Explorer with a 50k United bonus and we haven't heard anything yet.

If we get all the bonuses our points will look something like this:

Delta	52000	From Delta AMEX
AMEX	102000	From both having AMEX Gold Premier Rewards
Chase	57223	From CSP and Chase Freedom
United previous	16000	Andrew already has
United if get card	52000	Not sure will get?!?
Potential United if get card	125223

Without me getting the United/Chase cards, reaching a United balance of 240K is not happening in time to book a summer trip.  So I had started looking more into the frequent flyer programs that are transfer partners of both Chase and AMEX:  BA Avios, Singapore KrisFlyer, and Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic doesn't fly to Denver so that doesn't look very helpful.  KrisFlyer partner rewards need to be booked over the phone or fax so it is difficult to get an idea of availability and cost.  The conundrum on cost is that internet research gives a very mixed result regarding whether KrisFlyer passes on YQ on United flights on not, with both sides of the debate being very clear they are right!  Their North America to Europe RT is only 55K points though so that is nice.  BA Avios are more complicated because you have to be able to fly on one partner, or one partner and BA but then you have huge YQ, in order to not be charged the multi-partner rate that is huge.  It looks like Aer Lingus does have a codeshare out of Denver to Chicago (United plane) and then another flight Chicago to Dublin.  This is the ideal routing too because it only comes in at 27.5K each way for the two flight segments.  And no YQ because you are flying Aer Lingus.  So that is definitely a possibility but might be tough to find availability.

The only problem with this whole logic, I am realizing now as I write this, is that our United points wouldn't help.  So we would only have around 160,000 at the moment in AMEX and Chase points.  And I just read that "As of Oct 1 2015, transfer ratio will drop to 250 MR points for 200 BA Avios" so that is not helping matters either.  It would be hard for us to get to 220K in time in time for this trip.

The main reason I was trying to figure out whether it would be possible to use these points for Europe is because if it is not I might use them for the Christmas flights which I am trying to book now; at least for the return which has more reward seat availability.

Enter my current A-h-a! moment: we could use the points to book one way trips to Europe in both directions.  No need to have a program that lets you merge the points just book them separately on different carriers with different frequent flyer programs.  I have no idea why I didn't think about this until just now.

So what could that look like: with 102K AMEX points we could theoretically transfer to Delta but their reward fares are very high so this isn't really feasible in all likelihood.  We could transfer to BA but then the 102K would only be worth 81.6K; that is a sizable hit and I don't think we will have our plans set before October since my parents are waiting until they know where my Dad's work is landing.  It seems other options to consider would be Aeroplan, ANA, Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles (has Aer Lingus as a partner) and KrisFlyer.  I wonder if they have rules about tickets having to be RT?  At least some of them allow one-way flights but it looks like none of them allow stop-overs on a one-way so we would have to book intra-Europe travel separately.

If we got the new United card then the 125K we would have after the minimum spends would be enough right there at 30K*4 to cover one direction.  Otherwise we need to find another 47K to cover it.  Now we are spending still on the CSP because it has such great travel benefits.  So our flights to Florida and our flights home for Christmas time will go on it.  With a 2X bonus on travel this will definitely help.

I think the take home for me at the moment is that we might be able to do it on points so it is worth saving them for now rather than spending them on an Ottawa flight (apart from the Delta points).  As Andrew says we will have no shortage of Ottawa flights going forward.  Another cool realization is how much it helps me to write it all out here, as opposed to a spreadsheet where I had been jotting some notes.

Hugs,
Jen

Travel Benefits

Dear Annabelle,

I have been looking at our upcoming trips: Orlando in December and then Ottawa after Christmas.  I have also been trying to get my head around where we are at with our minimum spends and whether to get any more cards in the near future.  It seemed to me that the flight prices might line up well with making a minimum spend.

In order to inform the decision I started looking at the actual benefits the various cards have if you book air fare on them.  I was pleasantly surprised by what is available through the Chase Sapphire Preferred card:

• Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Insurance, up to 10K per trip for pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses
• Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver
• Travel Accident Insurance for accidental death or dismemberment
• Travel and Emergency Assistance Services
• Lost Luggage Reimbursement for checked or carry-on bags up to 3K per passenger
• Trip Delay Reimbursement up to 500 per ticket
• Baggage Delay Insurance up to 100 a day for 5 days

According to this recent post the benefits are fairly easy to use, except the lost luggage benefit which "requires you to produce almost all of your original receipts for what was in the luggage and the luggage itself, making it much harder to get full value."

What was interesting was that the AMEX Premier Rewards Gold Card (that I was trying to make the minimum spend on) had so few of these benefits in comparison.  They only have car rental loss and damage, global assist hotline, and baggage insurance plan.  

I just applied for my own Chase Sapphire Preferred online.  I didn't get approved right away but if I do then I will be able to have these benefits and be working towards a minimum spend concurrently which would be lovely.  Here's hoping!

Hugs, 

Jen

Impact of Being an Authorized User

Dear Annabelle,

Andrew has been adding me to his existing cards and also on the new cards he has been getting.  In the US being an authorized user affects your own credit score.  Today I was able to get my FICO score through my AMEX card website (a new feature) and it is at 752!  Not only do I have a credit score in my new country I have a "very good" one.  Woohoo!

I had been wondering if it was good enough considering I have now gotten approved for two cards.  So given this I am thinking about applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred myself.  I started to worry that being an authorized user on his CSP might exclude me from the bonus but a quick search seems to indicate that it doesn't have an effect.  This is especially great to know for the CSP and the United Chase card which both give an additional bonus for the additional user being added.

Found my information here, here, here, and here.

Hugs,
Jen

ITA Matrix

Dear Annabelle,

I started using the ITA Matrix site in the past few days and it is AMAZING!  What a powerful flight search engine.  Have you ever used it before?

The following are resources I found on using the ITA Matrix.  I have not reviewed them all yet.

• Travel is Free has a post here on how to use the ITA Matrix.  I agree with him that the time bars feature does make me giddy.  
• Consolidated information from FlyerTalk.
• Google's support page (Google owns the ITA Matrix)
• 3 part series from Travel Codex as well as link to many of his posts on the subject

One limitation of the ITA Matrix is that you can't actually book flights using it.  But you can use a service called HipMunk to find the flights you found in the ITA Matrix and book them.

The ITA Matrix also allows you to specify your sales city and this post indicates that that can help you get cheaper tickets at times.

I am looking forward to getting good at searching this!

Hugs,
Jen

Chase Dining Bonus

Dear Annabelle,

Currently our Chase Sapphire Preferred offers 3X points on dining on the first Friday of the month.  Normally it is 2X.  It looks like this benefit is going to end at the end of 2015.

We are generally getting take out once or twice a month from a local Indian restaurant or Black Jack pizza.  I wonder if it makes sense to get some gift cards (if they have them) on a first Friday before this deal expires.

I know that dining out doesn't really work frugality wise but it has always been something we really enjoy so for now it is something we are leaving in.

Hugs,
Jen

Maps of Routings to Europe

Dear Annabelle,

I found some wonderful posts that give maps (and tables below them) of Star Alliance transatlantic routes, OneWorld transatlantic routes, and Skyteam transatlantic routes.  It helps me to see it in map form.

If we wanted to fly direct from Denver to Europe, and then make a connection to Ireland, these maps indicate that our options would be either to Frankfurt on Lufthansa or to London Heathrow on British Airways.  I am pretty sure (but should double check) that both of those are going to have really big fuel surcharges.

I guess the next question would be where can you fly from in North America that is direct to Dublin, since I would really like to not take 3 flights.

• The Star Alliance chart says United from EWR (Newark), IAD (Dulles), and ORD (Chicago).  Also, Air Canada Rouge from YYZ (Toronto).  It also says Dublin to LAX on Ethiopian.  Not sure I really want to go to California to fly to Dublin but good to know about I suppose.
• The OneWorld chart says American Airlines to Dublin from CLT (Charlotte), JFK (NYC), ORD (Chicago), and PHL (Philadelphia).  
• The Skyteam chart says Delta to Dublin from JFK (NYC) and ATL (Atlanta).  

I would also need to look at where we would want to fly back from if we did a stop-over or open jaw and what the connections were for that.

I wonder with kids whether it is better to transfer before or after the long flight.  I suppose it must depend partially on flight times.

Hugs,
Jen

Testing our way to travel?

Dear Annabelle,

I had never heard of bug bounties before, have you?  It turns out that lots of websites and companies offer cash (or in this case frequent flyer point) awards for finding bugs in their services.  Here are two posts (here and here) about someone who got a million points for a serious bug they found in the United computer system.

Considering Andrew tests code for a living it made me wonder if we could ever do this.  He says that this isn't the type of testing he has experience with.  Too bad, one million points would be very sweet!

Hugs,
Jen

Korean Air

Dear Annabelle,

Korean Air is a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner and has a 50K redemption to Europe.  However, it seems like it would be more trouble than it is worth.  One point booking agency actually lists a $100 supplement for Korean Air Bookings, but don't have a supplement for anything else!  I have also read that a lot of partner rewards through Korean require you to send things in by fax.

Additionally, Travel is Free in their post on the Best Uses of Chase Ultimate Rewards say "I don’t transfer to Korean because the fuel surcharges would be astronomical and the prices are too high. Use the other partners."

Given these factors I don't think I will look more into Korean for now.

Hugs,
Jen

Orlando and Disney

Dear Annabelle,

We are going to Orlando in December and are going to be staying in one of the timeshares that I was able to get through an Interval International exchange.  We will get to see my aunt and uncle, cousin and her family, as well as Krista and her family.  I am really excited!

I saw these posts about saving at Disney and wanted to save them for later: here and here.

Hugs,
Jen

Chase Slate for Jen?

Dear Annabelle,

Just wanted to flag that the Chase Slate card might be a good no fee card for me to get.  It provides you with your FICO credit score every month so it would be helpful for monitoring my score.  Once my score is high enough then I would likely be eligible for more of the cards with the bigger bonuses.

Hugs,
Jen

Delta SkyMiles - Frequent Flyer Program Details

Dear Annabelle,

I just activated my new AMEX Gold Delta SkyMiles card and am looking through the benefits.  It turns out that all the benefits I wrote about below are not from having the SkyMiles AMEX card but just from being a SkyMiles Frequent Flyer Member.

Hotel Point Transfers

It looks like there are actually quite a few hotel points that transfer to Delta Points but most at a pretty bad rate.  The exception is the SPG points which transfer 1:1 with an additional bonus.  If I get an SPG account you can also sign up for this cross-over reward program.  AMEX Membership rewards also transfer to Delta as I knew.

Dining and Shopping

There are also shopping and dining partners that can earn you points.  Lots of them are energy bills for different areas of the country but we are not on the list.  There is a SkyMiles shopping portal here.   There is also a SkyMiles Dining Partner.  If you sign up to be a member AND you sign up for their emails then you get three times points at specific restaurants.  Some of those are in Boulder though and look good so if we were ever looking to go out this might make sense.

Rental Cars

Rental car partnerships seem more complex.  Currently there is an offer to get bonus Delta points through Hertz.  Since I currently have booked a Hertz rental for pick-up on Friday I wanted to know how this worked.  Generally it seems like you earn 500 Delta points per rental but this limited-offer includes an additional 200 per day up to a max of 3350 miles.  Since I am renting for 30 days I would get this match.  The catch is the following fine print: "For rentals in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada when the renter chooses to receive miles in the American Airlines AAdvantage or Delta Air Lines SkyMiles programs the Frequent Flyer Surcharge will be calculated based on the Federal Excise Tax expense incurred by Hertz when it purchases miles from American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. Under the Tax Relief Act of 1997, all companies that purchase Frequent Flyer miles from airlines must pay a 7.5% Excise Tax on the cost of those miles."

So I need to pay to get these miles!  Specifically a 7.5% Excise Tax on the "cost of the miles".  Well what is the cost of the miles that I am multiplying by 0.075?!?  Phoning the airport counter they told me that they could tell me when I checked out - not helpful!  So I did an online chat with Hertz and they told me it would be 64 cents per day with no cap.  They confirmed that this applies whether there are bonus miles or just the baseline 500.

The other factor is that you can sign up for the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program and then earn one point "for every qualifying U.S. dollar spent on Hertz rentals worldwide" (under "More Rewarding" here).  So if I spend $1200 on this rental I would earn 1200 Hertz points.  Then 600 points transfers to 500 Delta miles, without there being any fee (I think!).

So given this is it worth it to try and get the Delta points.  If the rental had no bonus and was only giving 500 Delta points it would be an obvious no since I could get more just by paying the money and transferring the points.  But the Delta partnership also seems to give me a better deal on the rental (possibly, the guys in Ottawa said they were a franchise and so they couldn't say if the discount would work or not).  Getting a discount on the price of the rental that covers the extra points fee might make it worth while.

Thirty days at $0.64 would be $19.20 in frequent flyer fees.  If I were to get the 3350 miles this would be about 2350 over the number of points I would get anyways (spending $1200 and transferring the points to get 1000 points).  So that is 2350 points for $19.20 or 0.82 cents per point.  If Delta points are valued at 1.2 cents then really aren't gaining much here (although you are at least gaining with the big bonus values) if you don't consider a discount in price for being a Delta member.

I guess you are still gaining some value by these numbers so it would make sense to try and use the Delta membership to book; hope to get a discount and the points as well.  The offer details are specifically: "General members earn 200 bonus miles per rental day. Plus, enjoy a more rewarding mileage earning structure and save up to 40%. Use promo coupon 197536 and always use your Delta discount number, 165385, when you rent with Hertz. Offer valid for rentals picked up by December 31, 2015 at participating worldwide locations only."  I am going to try and plug those numbers into my current reservation as a "modification" and see what happens. (Update: it said I will save $100 CDN, let's see what they say at the counter.)

Remember

Of note, for my own disentangling of the facts, is that all of these benefits in this post are for having a Delta SkyMiles account.  Not for having and paying with the Delta SkyMiles card.  I could pay with a different card, speaking of which what card offers bonus points for car rentals?

Hugs,
Jen

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

Dear Annabelle,

I am intrigued by these points programs that are affiliated with multiple credit cards because it seems like you would be able to get enough of them to actually go somewhere.  KrisFlyer is partnered with Citi ThankYou, Chase Ultimate Rewards, AMEX Membership Rewards, AND SPG!

Everyone seems to agree that KrisFlyer is one of the best transfer partners of the Citi ThankYou Points program.  Especially because for high flyers there is a special double bed first class that they want to book and can only book with KrisFlyer points - not really what I am looking for at the moment though.

One Mile At A Time describes where Singapore Airlines flies in the USA (all continuing on to Singapore):

• "Houston to Moscow
• Los Angeles to Tokyo Narita
• New York JFK to Frankfurt
• San Francisco to Hong Kong
• San Francisco to Seoul Incheon"

They do charge a fuel surcharge but they give a 15% point discount if you book online for the Singapore airlines flights.  

Travel is Free summarizes the best uses of KrisFlyer points here.  It takes more points if you don't actually fly Singapore Airlines but at the moment I don't think we would use the flights above.  So in the partner options these were the best in their reward chart (from the Travel is Free article):

• "Business & First within the USA (for 20k/30k)
• Economy, Business & First to Hawaii (for 17.5k/30k/40k)
• Economy to Europe (for 27.5k)
• Economy, Business & First to the Middle East (for 37.5k/57.5k/75k)
• Business to Central/South Africa (for 72.5k)"

I like seeing the Economy to Europe there at 55K roundtrip.  Although he emphasizes in the post that there really isn't a good option for going to Europe where you aren't going to pay fuel surcharges.  That said you are allowed "one stopover on international roundtrips. Open-jaw is allowed on origin or destination" so that is beneficial.

This post has lots of details on the KrisFlyer program, including some more details regarding fuel surcharges.  This post indicates that "Singapore Airlines Krisflyer never charges fuel surcharges on United? Even over the Atlantic – any flight you want – no fuel surcharge is being charged." I am not sure if this is correct, but if it is this could be a very useful option.

Although it may be out of date, it looks like the change and cancellation fees might be much lower with KrisFlyer than other airlines like United.

Hugs,
Jen