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

Balance Transfer Possibilities

Dear Annabelle,

Do you know how balance transfers work?  Andrew just applied for the Chase Freedom.  Based on Chase clamping down on getting the UR cards we figured we should get this one earlier rather than later.  It has no annual fee and the rotating 5X bonus so we figured it would be a good one to have long term.

The interesting thing is that it has 0% purchase APR and 0% balance transfer APR for 15 cycles.  Does this mean you can transfer a balance from a different credit card?  I know this sounds a bit tricksy but what if you got one of the cards where you need to make a 3K spend and you don't have that kind of spending to make.  What if you made 3K of Kiva loans, as I talked about here, and then transferred the balance to this 0% card.  Then when the loan comes back you pay it off.

Would this work?  What are the risks?  Well not having your loans paid back but that seems like a reasonable risk to take because I believe in the work of Kiva.

Thoughts?  I will need to learn more about how balance transfers actually work.

Update: Talked with Andrew.  Seems like the key is that even with 0% APR there is still a 3% fee on balance transfers.  Doesn't seem worth it for 3%.

Hugs,
Jen

Citi Prestige and Premier Cards

Dear Annabelle,

I am enjoying learning about all these points, credit card, currency land.  I rarely (now that I am not working) have the opportunity to really try and get my mind around such a complex space.  I am still not there yet, but I am enjoying the process.

For example, when I was looking here at just the Citi ThankYou Points they didn't really seem like that good an option since they didn't have the best partners.  But now that I am starting to understand how the earning multipliers work I see the value in different card/point combinations more.

This post by Travel Codex really highlights for me why the Citi Prestige Card could be useful specifically for its 1.6 cents per point when booking on American and US Airways (1.33 on other airlines).  I knew this was a good use of the points from previous reading but this card has a $450 fee and as I have said that is not what I want.  BUT it comes with a $250 per calendar year annual airline fee credit, so if you are going to use the credit it is more like a $200 annual fee.  Plus the fact that you can use the credit every calendar year so you could come out ahead in your first year of card ownership (calendar vs. ownership year overlap).  Also this blog indicates that the 1.6 cents bookings also work on codeshares with American so that might open up the options.

This card has 2X on dining (same as the Chase Sapphire Preferred) and 3X on travel, which is 1X higher than the Chase (CSP) card.  I thought based on my reading that gas stations were included in the travel category but I am not seeing gas stations count when I am looking at the card on Citi's website.  It looks like the 3X on travel including gas stations is actually for the Premier card (I read the blog post wrong at first).  Now if you own the Prestige card you can use the Premier earned points at the Prestige level (of 1.6) but this means you would have to own both cards.

To be clear the Prestige card (the one with the 1.6 cents per point on American and US Airways and 1.3 on others) earns:

• Earn 3 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent on air travel and hotel
• Earn 2 ThankYou Points per $1 spent on entertainment
• Earn 2 ThankYou Points per $1 spent on dining out
• Earn 1 ThankYou Point Per $1 spent on other purchases

The Premier card points can be redeemed at 1.25 cents and are earned at

• 3 ThankYou Points for every dollar you spend on purchases at airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, travel agencies, gas stations, commuter transportation, taxi/limousines, passenger railways, cruise lines, bridge and road tolls, parking lots/garages, campgrounds and trailer parks, time shares, bus lines, motor home/RV Rental and boat rentals;
• 2 ThankYou Points for every dollar you spend on purchases at restaurants and on select entertainment merchants, including sports promoters, theatrical promoters, movie theaters, amusement parks, tourist attractions, record stores and video rental stores; and
• 1 ThankYou Point for every dollar you spend on other purchases.

Both cards currently have a 50K bonus with a 3K spend.  The annual fee on the Prestige is $450 (plus $50 authorized user) and $95 waived first year on the Premier (with $0 authorized user).

Definitely cards to consider once I better understand which frequent flyer points/airlines I want to use for the routes I am the most interested in.

Hugs,
Jen

Manufactured Spending - Kiva

Dear Annabelle,

I am not in the realm of manufactured spending yet but I came across a post that I thought was interesting because it mentioned the use of doing loans through Kiva.  We have given loans through Kiva for a while but always just rotated the loans, not taken the money back out again.  I hadn't really thought that if we put money in, took money out when it was repaid, and then put it back in we would be getting points.  Also an interesting idea if we don't need a pot of money right away and are willing to take the risk of the loans.  I love the idea of loaning through Kiva so this is something I want to consider more.

Update Nov 2/15:
This link details how to search for loans that would be ideal for this manufactured spend context.

Hugs,
Jen

AAdvantage

Dear Annabelle,

Andrew has taken the girls to the zoo today with his sister.  It is their anniversary today and it is hard to believe all that has happened since we were in Portland for the wedding a year ago.  I need to pack for my trip to Ottawa but I am enjoying taking some time with my coffee to try and summarize a bunch of these tabs I have open!

The Citi AA Executive Card is currently offering a 75K bonus with a $7500 spend in first 3 months.  It is discussed here (says "get it" although I am pretty sure they get a cut).  Normally this would be too high a spend for us BUT if we do have the trees taken down AND they take credit then this might be useful.

However, it has an annual fee (not waived) of $450 and I am hesitant to get any card with a really high fee at the moment unless I am super clear on how those points are going to be used.  Also it doesn't have great bonus categories and it is giving Admiral's Club Membership but that doesn't matter that much to me.  Doctor of Credit recommends giving it a pass for not having enough value for the fee.

Hugs,
Jen

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Dear Annabelle,

We received and have been working on the minimum spend on the Sapphire Preferred.

How to Use the Points

There are some good ideas here about how to use the Chase Ultimate Rewards:
"These points transfer to United, Korean, Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Southwest. United gets you Star Alliance availability to Europe and Asia and no fuel surcharges. British Airways gets you cheap short-distance non-stop awards as 4500 points each way for coach tickets on American, US Airways, and Alaska. You get access to Skyteam award space through Korean Air which has some very favorable awards — like some of the cheapest awards to Hawaii and 80,000 mile business class roundtrips to Europe (plus fuel surcharges). You also get the ability to redeem for international first class through Korean and not just business class, something Delta doesn’t allow."

I wonder how British Airways works for the flights we would be interested in. I think they might have fuel surcharges though?!? Things to look into!

This post also summarizes ways to use the rewards.  And this one specifically how to "maximize each transfer partner".

Transferring Points 

It looks like you can transfer Ultimate Rewards to your spouse/partner!  This is great news since we always find it challenging that you can't really combine frequent flyer program miles (or at least you couldn't with Aeroplan).  We had some challenging times trying to buy award seats with two different accounts and not being able to all get seats on the plane (then having to pay change fees, etc.).   This way you could keep them in the Ultimate Rewards and then put them into the flyer program that made sense at the time of booking.

On a related note, it looks like AMEX Membership rewards can also transfer to a spouse or an additional card holder.

Getting Cards - New Rules

This post details how new rules are reducing the prospects for credit card churners.  Specifically,

"Many churners are reporting being denied by Chase with the reason being they have opened 5 or more credit card accounts over the past two years. ...

• The 5 cards across all banks rule generally applies to authorized user accounts as well.
• This only applies to Chase branded cards such as the Freedom, Sapphire Preferred and Ink cards.
• Cobranded cards appear not to be effected as there are many data points showing approvals."

Also discussed in more detail here.

Importance of being a "good customer"

This blog's opinion is: "I absolutely believe it is imperative to use your Chase cards. I generally put small recurring charges on all of my cards and occasionally use them in non-bonused categories. Be a good customer to Chase and ultimately they will make it worth your while." Seems like a worthwhile thing to remember once you are done your minimum spend.

Whether to Keep the Chase Sapphire Preferred After First Year

There appears to be a lively blogosphere discussion over this question.  View from the Wing says generally good to keep for the transfer partners (you need CSP or the Business Ink Card to transfer points) and for the spending bonuses of 2X on dining and travel.   Also a discussion regarding car rental coverage that I don't really have my head around at the moment.  Travel is Free indicates that they don't think it is a card worth keeping.  Travel Codex acting as a devil's advocate is saying get the card but don't use it as your primary spending card; they do point out that you need this card to transfer points if you don't have a business card.  Doctor of Credit argues that it is a good card and that you will want to cancel it after two years max so you can apply and get a new one with a new bonus.  That said, this is possibly changed by the fact that you may not be approved for the CSP unless you have less than 5 new cards in the past two years.  Kind of shakes up the space!

Hugs,
Jen

Credit Card Point Program Match Up

Dear Annabelle,

I keep having to look up which credit card point programs go with what frequent flyer (or hotel) program so I have summarized it in this post.

These point programs let you transfer the points into the airline or hotel programs of your choice (within their list) or use the points directly to pay for travel in a set way.

After doing the work below I found a full chart that is super helpful.  It is shared as a Google Doc here.

My original chart:

Updated: July 2, 2015
All transfers at 1:1 unless specified. Generally minimum of 1000 needed to transfer.
	Chase Ultimate Rewards	American Express Membership Rewards	Citi ThankYou Rewards
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer	X	X	X
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club	X	X	X
British Airways Executive Club	X	X
Air France/KLM Flying Blue		X	X
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles		X	X
Aeroplan Air Canada		X
ANA		X
Club Premier AeroMexico		X
Delta SkyMiles		X
EL AL Isreal Airlines		X (20: 1000 AMEX)
Emirates Skywards		X
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands			X
Etihad Guest			X
Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer			X
Hawaiian Airlines		X
Iberia Plus		X
jetBlue		X (200 TB: 250)
Korean Air SKYPASS	X
Malaysia Airlines Enrich			X
MilleMiglia Club Alitalia		X
Qantas Frequent Flyer			X
Qatar Airways Privilege Club			X
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards®	X
Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus			X
United MileagePlus®	X
Virgin America elevate		X (100: 200 AMEX)

Chase Ultimate Rewards:
- Transfer partners are listed here.

Citi ThankYou Rewards:
- Transfer partners are listed here.

American Express Membership Rewards:
- Transfer partners are listed here.
- "Time to transfer points: Generally instant for Delta, Air Canada, British Airways, JetBlue; others vary up to a week." (here)

SPG rewards have many partners that are listed in the master table linked to above.

Hugs,
Jen

AMEX Premier Rewards Gold

Dear Annabelle,

In doing the chart of credit card partners I got thinking about the AMEX Membership Rewards and how flexible they are.  When I looked at the different AMEX cards recently I didn't see a very high reward for the Gold card, and it has a fairly high fee after the first year, so I didn't consider it.  Well today I am looking and I see a "Special Offer" for 50K.  It looks like the site was probably blocking the offer before because the cookies knew I was an AMEX customer (I had recently been logged in).  So it turns out you will see different offers if you log-in in a private tab or in my case are just not logged in.

The question is whether we would be eligible for the bonus.  AMEX has changed their rules so that you can only receive the bonus on a card once ever.  What I wonder is whether the Canadian card counts here in the US market?  And whether Andrew would be eligible since he has never had it as a primary cardholder.

As described here, it is attractive for the 50K bonus but also for having 3X points booked directly with airlines, 2X on US restaurants, gas stations, and supermarkets.  The two times on the gas stations and supermarkets would be great since the Chase Sapphire Preferred only has the bonus on travel and dining (at 2X).

It has been updated recently and no longer has foreign transaction fees.  It is also now giving a $100 airline fee credit, which if used would cut the annual fee essentially from $195 to $95 which is more palatable after the first year.

I think I will add it to the cards to consider getting list.

Hugs,
Jen

Other Potentially Useful Sites about Credit Card Stuff

Dear Annabelle,

As I have been Googling away I have run across some of the (many) sites that are trying to summarize the travel credit card world.

Here are some:
- Nerd Wallet
- Value Penguin

To Be Continued...as I find them.

Hugs,
Jen

Award Charts and Route Maps

Dear Annabelle,

I wish there was some easy to use search that just linked all this frequent flyer points stuff up.  You would type in where you wanted to go and it would tell you which programs actually had flights on that route and how many points it would cost.  That way you could decide ahead of time which miles programs were best for the travel you wanted to do.  And once you had miles you could decide which program to use for a given trip.  But alas it just doesn't exist yet (we have been discussing what would be involved in actually programming it!).

You have route maps and Google Flights or Kayak to tell you whether an airline and its partners actually fly a given route.  But that means you need to have the details of the partner airlines.  Then you have the award charts for all those different frequent flyer programs.  Then the overlay of the credit card points and which ones best match with the reward flights.  For example, if I want to fly a family of 4 to Dublin from Denver what is the best frequent flyer program to use (ideally with no fuel surcharges) and the best credit card to get to help amass said points?  I wish this could be answered easily online.

Here and here are summaries of some of the route maps and award charts.

These charts really speak to the complexity of this issue.  The fact that the same frequent flyer programs can go to so many different airlines and that in some cases redeeming with one plan is different than redeeming with another as far as the points required for the same routing.

This site, Milez.biz, is trying to do this kind of search but it falls short in lots of ways.  First, it is awkward to do comparisons in the long list format that comes out of the search.  A summary table that let you actually compare the programs by cabin would be much more helpful.  Second, you have no way of knowing if your actual itinerary can be booked with each specific program.  For example, a Denver to Ottawa search indicates that the Turkish Smiles and Miles is only program needing 20K rather than the standard 25K points for economy RT.  Well from what I can tell even if you acquired these miles I don't think they let you book a ticket from Denver to Ottawa, even though the standard award chart of North America to North America destination does say 20K.  Andrew says that this piece would be really hard to automate because the data on where each airline flies is proprietary and repeatedly searching the airline websites will get you banned.

I think I am going to do some "case studies" to try and walk through this information for the flights I am the most interested in.

Hugs,
Jen

Delta SkyMiles

Hello,

I already have my new Delta SkyMiles AMEX in hand!  I applied Sunday and got it in the mail on Wednesday!

Here are some posts on redeeming SkyMiles:
- Issues with Delta's website and awards are discussed here.

- PDFs of the award chart that is now no longer public.

- This post (from Jan 2015) indicates that some Delta partners are not currently included in their online flight search tool. It also notes regarding fuel surcharges: "if your trip originates in Europe, Delta will add fuel surcharges to all carriers -- an annoying reality, but there is no way around it. The best way to prevent that is to originate in North America, where fuel surcharges are not collected on Alitalia, Air France, Delta, KLM and Virgin Atlantic."
It also lists this nice summary of: "partners with service to North America, whether fuel surcharges are imposed on trips originating in North America, and how much those fuel surcharges tend to run:

• Delta Air Lines - no fuel surcharge
• Aeroflot - fuel surcharge - ~$250/ticket (r/t)
• Aerolineas Argentinas - no fuel surcharge
• Aeromexico - no fuel surcharge
• AirEuropa - fuel surcharge - ~$500/ticket (r/t)
• Air France - no fuel surcharge
• Air Tahiti Nui - fuel surcharge - ~$450/ticket (r/t)
• Alaska Airlines - no fuel surcharge
• Alitalia - no fuel surcharge
• China Airlines - fuel surcharge - ~$250/ticket (r/t)
• China Eastern - fuel surcharge - ~$350/ticket (r/t)
• China Southern - fuel surcharge - ~$400/ticket (r/t)
• Hawaiian Airlines - no fuel surcharge
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines - no fuel surcharge
• Korean Air - no fuel surcharge
• Saudia Airlines - no fuel surcharge
• Virgin Atlantic - no fuel surcharge
• Virgin Australia - no fuel surcharge"

- It looks like Delta Miles don't expire, which is great news on something we could slowly but surely build up (and hope it didn't get devalued).

- I have now come across two blogs that indicated that it can be quite hard to find Delta saver level availability.  Probably a good thing those miles don't expire!  Both AMEX and SPG will transfer to Delta so you could always keep points in this program until you saw a Delta availability (if they transfer quick enough).  This post discusses how you can set up an alert for Delta seat availability.

- Here is a post describing the complicated nature of what reward ticket pricing on Delta.  I found this when I looked for flights to Europe; very few were actually available at 60 K (RT).  The post describes how Delta is "pegging the redemption side of SkyMiles to revenue. In some cities (Savannah and Charleston are particularly subject to this, along with other smaller cities where Delta has control of the market), the lowest effective award price to Europe is 28% more expensive than in 2014. You don’t see this happening as much in more competitive markets, and again, if you use partner airlines for the long-haul segment, this isn’t an issue."  Therefore:
"In terms of pricing your own awards, all this essentially boils down to two best practices:

• If all your flights are on Delta, the price the computer gives you is the price you’re getting
• If you’re leveraging a partner (and you should!) the old rules of searching segment by segment for the lowest tier still apply"

Hugs,

Jen

Citi ThankYou Points

Dear Annabelle,

I was reading about how Citi points are becoming more valuable because Amex is limiting how many times you can get a bonus on a card (once in a lifetime for the card I think) and Chase is limiting how many cards you can apply for (I think 5 in 2 years).

Update: After getting my head around these points below, Lucky posted this today on how to use ThankYou Points.  He emphasized using them directly for American Airlines especially if you have the Prestige Card as well as transferring them to KrisFlyer.  Travel Codex agrees that those are the two main usages.

As I was going through this list I was really learning about the different frequent flyer programs that are out there, being new to this game.

Citi Thank You Points transfer to the following (all 1:1 except for Hilton where 1 gives you 1.5):
- Hiton HHonors

- Asia Miles: program of Cathay Pacific, which is part of Oneworld.  I am a little confused though, because the airline partners that Asia Miles lists are somewhat different than the Oneworld list.  I wonder if the Aer Lingus would help us with getting a trip to Ireland as it is listed as one of the partners. We are hoping to go in Summer of 2016 so not sure if any of this could happen soon enough.

- EVA Air Infinity MileageLands: Seems to be based out of Taiwan and flies into LA, Seattle, NY, SFO. Is a Star Alliance Member.

- Ethihad Guest: second largest carrier of UAE with partner airlines:

Etihad Airways has codeshare agreements with the following airlines (as of January 2015):[53]

Aegean Airlines[56] Aer Lingus[57] Aerolineas Argentinas Air Astana Air Berlin Air Canada[58] Air Europa[59] Air France[60] Air Malta Air New Zealand Air Seychelles[61] Air Serbia[62] airBaltic[63] Alitalia All Nippon Airways American Airlines Asiana Airlines

Bangkok Airways Belavia[64] Brussels Airlines China Eastern Airlines[65] Fiji Airways[66] Flybe Garuda Indonesia[67] Hainan Airlines[68] Hong Kong Airlines[69] Jet Airways JetBlue Airways[70] Kenya Airways[71] KLM[72] Korean Air[73] Malaysia Airlines Middle East Airlines

Niki[74] Pakistan International Airlines Philippine Airlines Royal Air Maroc S7 Airlines Saudia Scandinavian Airlines[75] SriLankan Airlines South African Airways[76] TAP Portugal Turkish Airlines Vietnam Airlines Virgin Australia

Blog here indicates that link with AA is most beneficial, and AA is better value than the Etihad, but that Etihad has a family membership that lets you pool your points.  Interesting to think of what frequent flyer program has the most value within the different partner programs.

- Flying Blue: Air France, KLM and other Airline partners listed here.  The partners include Alaska Airlines, Delta, as well as bunch of other airlines I haven't even heard of.

- Garuda Indonesia: One of only 7 5-star airlines in the world. Member of Skyteam: "While SkyTeam does not have a separate program, a member of the frequent flyer program of any airline in the alliance can earn and redeem frequent flyer miles on all SkyTeam carriers through that account." Skyteam includes Delta.
- Malaysia Airlines:  Member of Oneworld.  Partners include American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Bangkok Airways.

- Qantas: Australian airline.  Oneworld member.  Partners here.

- Qatar: Oneworld member.  Partners here.

- KrisFlyer: Singapore Airlines program.  Star Alliance.  Partners here include: Air Canada, United, Thai among others.

- Royal Orchid Plus:  Thai Airways.  Star Alliance.

- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club:
There is a Virgin America but they don't fly to Denver.  Does seem to have some good domestic point values if they did fly out of here.  This is a blog post about how they aren't great miles to have but it lists some of their uses.

I am not sure how useful the Citi ThankYou points are for the types of North American trips we are looking at doing.  In terms of looking at American Airlines the Points Guy had this to say:

"Four of these partners (Qantas, Asia Miles, Malaysia Airlines and Qatar) are in Oneworld, so you can redeem for flights on American Airlines. Etihad is also a partner, and has some reasonable inter-U.S. rates. Depending on the routes you’re interested in, check those partners, their availability, and what taxes and fees they charge. ... Starwood Preferred Guest is the clear winner if you want points that transfer to American Airines, since 20,000 Starpoints transfer to 25,000 AAdvantage miles, so consider getting the Starwood Preferred Guest Amex card. If you’re hooked on ThankYou Rewards, your best option is to dig deep into the Oneworld partners and see if you can make it work for the routes you want to fly, or look into Citi Prestige for the ability to redeem points through the ThankYou Travel Center for 1.6 cents apiece on American." (Read more: here)

Here are some reviews on how to use Citi Thank You Points in general:
- This one pointed out an interesting feature: "Combine your points with anyone through the Share Points option on ThankYou.com. It’s a great option since (unlike Chase Ultimate Rewards) you can combine with any other ThankYou Rewards member. The catch is that shared points expire 90 days after transferring, so ensure you have an immediate use for the points. Point transfers occur instantly.  This means that as a ThankYou Preferred cardmember, you can share your points with a Prestige or -Premier cardholder in order to redeem at a better rate."

- This one spells out nicely using the ThankYou Point system to book flights versus transferring. Of note is that when you book with them the flight still earns miles.

Hugs,
Jen