My Delayed Airline Experience

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Sheldon

When all else fails….ask.

After I obtained my 75,000 American Airlines FF miles from the Citi credit card I decided to use them on a trip to Costa Rica.  I chose the Mile SAAver option and only spent 60,000 miles for my wife and I to enjoy a weeklong trip in Costa Rica.  I had already been to Costa Rica  before, so I was excited to take my pregnant wife along.  She was 5 months pregnant, but we knew it would be our last trip bringing him along that wouldn’t require a diaper for quite some time.

When our flight was delayed leaving San Jose the customer service attendant kindly offered me the option to stay in San Jose for another day as I might not be able to make my connecting flight in JFK.  She offered no hotel, no food, and virutally nothing else.  I was rather disgruntled and told her that we would go to JFK and decide what to do at that point.  I guess that the crew needed rest and she told me that it wasn’t deserving of any free services.  We boarded the plane and headed off for JFK.

Upon arrival in the JFK airport we were already too late for our connecting flight into Chicago.  We found a ticketing booth at JFK and found a lady who was very helpful.  I mentioned that our flight was late leaving SJO and we had missed our connecting flight.  When she told me that there was no other way home for the night I acted sad, but was actually pretty happy.  She gave us a room at the Lexington Hotel, some food vouchers, and a taxi trip to the hotel.  We rushed to the room, threw our stuff down, grabbed some food at the restaurant and headed off too Times Square. We didn’t have a lot of time, but it was a great addition to our trip.

The best part is yet to come.  So when I got home and had been settled for a day I wrote an email to the Customer Service team at American Airlines.  I explained that the flight had been delayed and my wife had subsequently missed work (A vacation day she didn’t have) and her boss had been rather disgruntled.  I had also missed a few appointments.  I requested that they give me 20,000 AAdvantage miles for my troubles.  When the email response arrived I was pleasantaly surprised…

“While we must respectfully decline your specific request, as a gesture of goodwill,
we’ve credited your and your wife’s AAdvantage® accounts with 10,000 bonus miles each.
This adjustment should be reflected in your accounts very soon.”

So, just remember that it never hurts to ask for a little benefit.

Delta Card that offers 5000 MQM so you can obtain status.

Posted in American Airlines | 1 Comment

Kayak Buzz

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Sheldon

Kayak Buzz is a tool that has helped me to find some amazing deals on airline tickets. Obviously flying for free is best, but second best is getting a great deal.  This tool has helped me to find a few deals that are unbeatable.  I found SLC to SJO, and BZE for $250.  I also found SLC to PTY for $230.  Let me show you how to work this tool.

Go to www.Kayak.com

Click on the More button as shown

Then click on Buzz which is the second from the bottom on the first column.

Once the menu pulls up, you can put the from location and also the to location.  You can use more than one airport in the “From” category.  Separate the names of the airports with a comma.  Also choose anytime as the leaving date.  Also make sure you input a Max Price amount.  This is something that you will be getting in your inbox everyday, so make sure that it is something worth looking at each day.

The results will show all prices for your parameters.  Use the “Get this by email” at the top to setup email alerts from the Buzz.  I watch them daily so I have a good idea of what a price should be in the scenario that I might have to actually pay for my airline ticket.

Watch for good deals.  Everyday things change and prices change.  Sales come around from time to time.  Make sure you don’t miss them.  This tool should help you to find some great deals.

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Your Credit

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Sheldon

As you start acquiring cards and accumulating points you also need to make sure that you are keeping track of the hits on your credit.  I have an excel spreadsheet where I keep track of all hits on my credit.  Keep in mind that a hit on your credit can come from a number of different sources.  Each time you apply for a loan, open a credit card, or even open an account at a bank.  Keep track of all of them that have happened within the last two years.

My wife worked at a credit union and they required us to open an account with them last May.  When my credit was pulled then it read an 800.  This is a great credit score.  I am looking into a few different options to monitor my score, but as of now I’m just using the AnnualCreditReport.com to make sure that all of the inquiries are accurate.  However, it would be nice to make sure that my score is still high.  I don’t think that it would be worth paying the money to pull the scores, nor worth a hard inquiry on my credit to do a hard pull.

What do you use to monitor your credit?  You need to make sure that you aren’t adversely affecting your credit with too many inquires.  The way that I understand it is that each hard pull on your credit takes away 2-5 points.  I know that there are other factors involved, but make sure that you are using your credit to secure low cost travel, but not abusing your credit.

ALWAYS make sure that you are paying y0ur bills on time each month.  Pay the balance off in full.  Don’t pay any interest and these cards really don’t cost you much.  You’ve worked hard to build up a good credit score, so make sure that you maintain a high score.

I also find out which crediting agency is using each card.  As much as possible try to split your inquirires amongst all three of the credit reporting agencies.  The three credit reporting agencies are: TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian.

Waiting for Approval

Any day now we should be getting approval to market different credit cards that will help you to amass large sign on bonuses.  It is really exciting to me because I love helping other people travel.  I get great satisfaction from seeing others enjoy trips around the world.  That is exactly why we’ve stared this blog.  I want to help you to do what I’ve done.  So don’t be selfish with this blog.  Share it with everyone you know.  We are dedicated to helping you!

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My Recent Churnings

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Sheldon

It all began in September 2010.  I found a link to sign up for an American Airlines Citi card that would offer me 75,000 AAdvantage miles for a minimal spending amount of $1,500.  I applied for the card, was accepted, and easily met the $1500 spending requirement. The 75,000 miles hit my account, and it felt good.  I was excited to be amassing so many points with one swing.

I was so excited that I decided to apply for the exact same card for my wife.  She was also approved, with a lower credit limit, but approved nonetheless.  The same spending requirement was easily met and her account with American Airlines took a big jump as well.  Even though I hadn’t spent any of the miles from the previous card, I wanted to get more points.

Greedily I applied for the American Airlines Citi Business card with the 75,000 sign up bonus.  I hoped that I wouldn’t get denied because I knew other people who had tried to apply for two Citi cards and had been unsuccessful.  Luckily I was approved and I still haven’t actually met this requirement, but I should at some point this month.  That is going to be exciting because between my wife and I we should have over 260,000 miles with American.

Of course I still wasn’t happy, so when Capital One came out with the Venture card that offered a one time match of Frequent Flier miles I was interested.  I knew I would have to act fast as it wouldn’t last long.  I decided to apply for my wife first.  They gave me the “We will notify you in a week if you are approved.”

This made me nervous as I wasn’t sure if she was going to get approved.  I knew that I had already applied for two cards within the last six months, but I couldn’t let the opportunity pass to acquire $1100 in travel expenses for a minimal $1000 in spending.  I then made the leap of faith and applied.  Great Success!  Instant approval.

For those of you who don’t know how Capital One’s point system works, here is a small rundown.  Their points are used to pay for any type of travel expenses: hotel, car rental, airfare, cruise, etc.  Each dollar you spend on the card gives you 2 points.  Capital One ran a promotion that they wanted to prove that their points were better than anyone’s frequent flier miles.  Therefore, they were willing to bonus anyone up to 100,000 points as long as you had at least that many airline miles with an airline.  This was easy with my recent churnings of the Citi AAdvantage cards.  This equates to $1000 in spending.  Essentially the points are worth $0.01.  I’m not getting the card for the long term use, but it is worth an application, a few dollars spending, and then the sign up bonus.

My wife was also approved for the Capital One Venture card and we have almost met the spending requirements for both card.  This is exciting as we now have over 260,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles and $2200 in spending.

The purpose of this blog is to help you to acquire points and miles just as I have acquired.  We will give ideas that will help you to experience the world.  There are a lot of things out there to see.  Let’s make sure we all get to see them!

Posted in Capital One, Citi, Credit Cards, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Food

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Sheldon

Eating in other countries can be very exciting, yet nerve racking at the same time.  As you travel the world be careful of the places that you choose to eat, and the foods you choose from the menu.  Here are a few important key ideas:

  • Water- Remember that asking for ice in your cup usually doesn’t mean that the ice is purified water.  I’m not that afraid of the water in most places, but my wife is terrified.  Make sure you read about the places that you go before you go to make sure that the water is potable.
  • Salad-Remember that green salads aren’t cooked, and they are usually washed in water.  Make sure that you exercise caution in ordering a salad.
  • Local Food- One of my favorite things about traveling is trying the local fare.  Always ask locals where they eat.  Those locations will almost always have local foods at lower prices.  They might not look like a five star restaurant, but their food is probably affordable and good.  The dish you see on the side is called a Casado and it is from Costa Rica.
  • Coke-  I love drinking Coke outside of the USA.  Most countries have different recipes,yet they are all pretty similar.  I also feel like it is pretty powerful stuff that can kill some bacteria. (That is my excuse to my wife)
  • Fruit- I just returned from a trip to Costa Rica where we stopped on the side of the road to buy oranges and mangoes.  They showed me how to cut the mangoes, which was a huge help.  I’ve always been confused as to how those things are to be cut.  If you eat fruit in another country you know it is fresh.  Try to wash it to remove anything that might be on the outside.

Make sure that you leave the “All-Inclusive” resort or hotel if you have one of those to make sure that you’re taking advantage of the local fare.  We will be sponsoring different foods from all over the world on this blog, so follow us as we take you on an adventure.

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Award Wallet

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Sheldon

I’m just joining AwardWallet.com‘s website.  It is the first time that I’ve ever used a program to track all of my points and miles in one location.  I’d love to hear your feedback on what you think about this program.

It seems rather helpful to see when my points and miles are going to expire so I can make sure that they never go to waste.  I hate signing into each of the accounts on a regular basis to verify that everything is fine.

I also saw from A View From the Wing’s Blog that there is an option for a free upgrade on the premium service.  I’m not sure what the difference is, but I’m surely happy to have a premium service for free.  Use the following code to get your premium service without paying.  The Code is newWingViewUsers.  Copy and paste this in and you can qualify too.

You can Click Here to enroll in Award Wallet for free even if you choose to do without the code.

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AAdvantage 30 Year Celebration

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Sheldon

American Airlines is celebrating it’s 30th year with the AAdvantage program.  Each day on their website www.aa.com you can find a deal of the day that helps you to acquire more AAdvantage miles.

Some require a purchase of some kind, some are a sweepstakes, but the offer for today is Tweet a message about their program and they will enter you for a chance to win 30,000 miles.  Make sure you do the following:

  1. Register on the AA.com site
  2. Follow the AAdvantage Program
  3. Tweet #Deal30 and you are entered to win!!

Look back through the other deals that we have missed.  The deals will last through the 27th of May, so there are plenty of miles available, just follow our blog and we will help you get every chance possible

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