Saying Goodbye

Last week, I said goodbye to another credit card: Delta American Express Gold card.

I got the credit card as part my Delta New Member bonus. By getting the card, I earned close to 55,000 miles:

        45,000 sign-up bonus
         5,000 new member credit
         5,000 from credit card spend

The card did what it needed to do: earn miles.

Now, one year later, the annual fee of $95 was due. Could I justify paying $95 for the card?

  - Do I value Skymiles? No!

  - Will I use the free bag? No, I have flown Delta once in 24 months.

  - Do I want another AMEX card? Yes, but is $95 worth keeping it?

After thinking about it, the decision was easy. I called American Express and cancelled the card.

Goodbye Delta American Express . . . I am sorry that I used you.



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Really AMEX? Really?

Last night, I came home from to a letter from American Express. At first, I though it was something they were selling me.

They weren't sell me anything. The letter was one of the most awkward I have ever received from a credit card company:

 Dear JD Teitelman

      We're writing to let you know that we mistakenly issued additional reward points to your 
       account in September 2013. Although these points are in your rewards account and 
       available for you use, they are twice the amount you should have received for your 
       August billing period.

       In order for us to offset the extra points you received, we will not issue additional points 
       to your account until you have earned more points than you received in error. This means 
       that your points balance on your American Express statement may be zero or negative 
       until your balance shows the correct number of points. We apologize for any 
       inconvenience this may cause.

       You can always check your earned rewards and review your account activity online at
       americanexpress.com/managemyaccount.

       Thank you for your Card Membership.

       Sincerely,

       American Express Customer Care


Some of you may have received a similar letter in the past. American Express made a mistake and I am being punished? However, what really steams me isn't that they sent the letter. Rather, how many points they are trying to recover. My September AMEX deposit into my Delta account (the AMEX in question is my Delta AMEX Gold) was 13 miles:

AMEX is trying to recover 6.5 miles. Trying to recover 6.5 miles makes AMEX look cheap and makes me feel less like a member, but a more like a customer. AMEX should have had a cut-off level of points that they weren't going to recover. I understand trying to recoup 500, 1000, or 5000 miles give erroneously, but 6.5, 20 or 100, that just is greedy. Yes, I understand that they were trying to be fair by taking points back from everyone. Even worse, I went back to my August credit card statement and I spent exactly $13.30 and earn 13 Skymiles. I wasn't given any extra points.

I can forgive you AMEX, because mistakes happen. However, don't punish me because one of your employees screwed up. Sometimes you let mistake pass . . . 

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Earn Miles by Eating Out

Would you like to earn up to 7 miles per dollar simply eating at your favorite restaurants  Sounds to good to be true, huh? Its not! Dining Rewards is probably the easiest points earning secret out there.

United participates with a program called Dining Rewards.

Here is a step by step guide to earning MileagePlus miles from your favorite restaurants:

1) Register for the program

2) Register all your debit / credit cards - I have kicked myself one, two, three times now for not registering a new credit card and leaving points on the table.

3 Search for restaurants in your area

4) Dine out and use your registered credit or debit card. You will get points based upon the amount charged to your credit card card, including tax and tip

5) A few days after eating out, an email will arrive asking you to take a survey based upon your dining
experience. You must take this survey to get points. The survey is no longer than 10 questions long.

6) Sit back and wait for your points to hit your accounts. Sometimes it has taken 3 weeks for points to hit my account.

Repeat steps 4 - 6 again, and again, and again.

Basic members earn 3 miles per dollar spent including tax and tip.

The beauty of this program is that you are earning points for doing something what you are already doing. Chris and I are big fans of this program and will tailor where we eat to earn points. On a few occasions, the deciding factor between 2 restaurants (one participating in dining rewards and one that does not), the one that does participate wins out.

Earning the big points:

If you eat 12 times at restaurants participating in the program, within a calender year,you earn VIP status. VIP status gives you 2 additional miles per dollar spent. If you hit VIP status, one earns 5 points per dollar. If you have the Chase Sapphire card (which gives you 2 points per dollar spent at restaurants), you earning a whopping 7 points per dollar for eating out.

Currently, United is offering a sign-up bonus for those who register through this site. For those who register through this site, spend $40 in 30 days at participating restaurants, and answer the follow-up surveys.

Many major airlines and hotels offer similar dining rewards:

Alaskan Airlines

American Airlines

Delta Airlines

Hilton

Priority Club

Southwest Airlines

US Airways

Dining Rewards, also has partnerships with these rewards GoodDining, eScrip, Best Buy Reward Zone, Upromise, Fuel Rewards, and American Express IDine.

Helpful Tips:

1. Register all of your debit and credit cards
2. Keep a watch of restaurants in your area that are partnering
3. Check your emails for bonus opportunities, you have to register to participate in the bonuses
4. Complete the surveys
5. Don't abuse the system - I have heard reports of people not getting points for swiping their card multiple times in a day at the same restaurant.

Dining Rewards won't make you point rich, but it will help increase your points balance. 

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 Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

Delta GrandSlam Update: Delta AMEX Gold

Important Note: We talk about credit card sign-up bonuses on our blog because they are an important part of the “game.” Any credit card links in this post will be public application links taken from the issuer's direct website. We do not earn income from you applying from the links. Similarly, please take an extra minute or two before applying for credit cards. If you do not pay your credit card balance off every month then you should stay away from this aspect of the game. Credit cards can lead to major long-term problems if not used correctly. I encourage you to read my post on Young People and the Chains of Credit Card Debt for more details.  

I have been pretty silent on my Delta Grandslam, as of late. I have completed 8 of the 10 partner offers, so there is at least 1,000 Skymiles on the table. You can read more about the Delta Grand Slam here, here, and here.

Moving to another section of the Delta GrandSlam: Getting the Delta Amex Gold

The official section reads:

           "Not already a SkyMiles Credit Cardmember? Get up to 30,000 bonus miles 
           with the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express. That's 
           up to 25,000 miles for getting the Card, plus an additional 5,000 miles now 
           as a new SkyMiles member. On top of that, earn one mile for eligible everyday 
           purchases and double miles for Delta purchases. Plus, get a free checked bag on
           every Delta flight"

However, the terms and condition state:

             "Credit Card Partners: 5,000 bonus miles earned for signing up for the           
              Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card. Only approved accounts are eligible                     
              for bonus miles."

I bring the terms and conditions up, because it only states that you have to be approved for Gold Delta Skymiles Credit Card. Therefore, one can earn points for any offer out there, not just the 25,000 mile offer.

With that said, a few days a go, I received an offer via email for a 40,000 Delta SkyMiles AMEXCard. The offer requires you to spend $1,000 miles in 3 months. A link to the direct site is here. The $95 annual fee is waived the first year. The offer is good until April 28, 2013.

If you get apply and get approved by this offer, you would have 45,000 SkyMiles (40,000 from card + 5,000 from the new member bonus). There is a risk that you might not get the 5,000 bonus. However, I feel like you would have a great argument to fight them not giving them to you.

On the other hand, I have read from bloggers about a 45,000 mile offer. It takes some time, but if you go to the Hustler Money Blog he will walk you through the steps. I just tried this steps and the offer is there, as of 11pm 3/27/13. The offer is slightly harder than the one above: 25,000 miles after the first purchase, 20,000 additional after spending $5,000 in 6 months. If you get this offer, you would then have 50,000 miles (45,000 from the credit card sign-up bonus + 5,000 new member bonus).

As a friendly reminder, take a screen shot of the landing page with the offer. This will be your proof, if you need to fight it later on.

Unfortunately, I am unable to apply for this card now, because I just got some new credit cards last month. It always seems the best offers come out in the middle of my wait periods. My Delta anniversary is coming up in July, so I better get with flying with Delta, earning my last two partner rewards, and getting the AMEX card...otherwise, I am leaving valuable miles on the table . . .


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Follow us on Twitter @doit4thepoints! Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

500 Delta SkyMiles for Paying Rent

HT to Nobb Travler

You can earn up to 500 Skymiles (or 1 Skymile per dollar up to $500) by using WilliamPaid.

WilliamPaid.com is a site that allows you to charge your rent from a credit card and pay your rent.

Good: You can earn points by paying your rent.

Bad: They charge 2.95% service charge or $2.95 per $100

If I were to use this service for my half of the rent ($1,350), it would cost me $41.30. Not worth it. In my situation, I am better off getting three Vanilla Cards @ $3.95 each = $11.85. I would be saving close to $30 a month or $360 a year.

The bonus is nice, but does not do enough for me to use there service. My best credit card would earn me 500 points for $500 spend, add in the 500 Skymile bonus, I net 1,000 for my first use. However, it will cost me $41.30, so I spending $0.0413 per point. No bueno! However, if you use this service already, its 500 points by a quick sign-up.

On the issue of Vanilla, my local drugstore move were they kept the Vanilla cars. Previously, they were with the rest of the gift cards:

However, during my last trip, I could not find them. I was going to chalk it up to a lost trip, until I was checking out and they were sitting by the register.

The clerk told me the move was due to them "becoming expremely popular and they want to see who is getting them." I checked two other drugstores and they had been moved by the register, as well. Therefore, if you can't find them, check by the cash registers or ask a clerk.

What is Vanilla? An easy way to hit spending requirments, but I'll let you google to find out more!

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e-Miles

One of the passive ways I earn points is using e-Miles. I use the word "passive," because you won't get point rich with e-Miles. One can only cash out of e-Mles once earning 500 miles and this takes time. Why bother you might ask? Every point counts and sometimes airlines have bonuses for transferring points into your account (ie the now dead US Airways Grandslam, my Delta Grandslam).

I have been a member of US Airways e-Miles for a very long time. It was once of the first point earning strategies that I did. Yesterday, I shut my account down. Why you might ask? To open a Delta e-Miles account and earn my bonus 500 miles by transferring 500 miles into my account, as part of the partner section of the Delta Grandslam.

Under the e-Miles FAQs:

        "What happens if I receive an invitation from another sponsor which I prefer? 

               Member can cancel their e-Miles membership at any time. To re-enroll, you will need to visit e-
               Miles.com and complete the member enrollment process.

               NOTE: Once you cancelled your membership any e-Miles miles earned that have not already been 
               deposited to your preferred frequent flyer or sponsor account will be lost.

This question gives us valuable information. For one, you are not allowed to have more than one active e-mile account, but more importantly two: you may switch between programs freely.


I did just that last night. I shut down my US Airways e-Miles account and applied for a e-Miles account with my Preferred Sponsor as Delta. Check your email accounts for special offers from your frequent flyer programs  Often, they will send offers to join e-Miles with 250 miles automatically deposited into you e-Miles account, meaning you are half way to you first deposit.

e-Miles has partnerships with Delta, US Airways, United, AirTran, Southwest, Hilton Honers, Priority Club, Frontier, Alaskan, Southwest and Amazon. As I previously stated, I am focusing on Delta to trigger the 500 point bonus, but e-Miles is almost the same for each partner.


After signing up for e-Miles, you will be taken to a front page with various offers. Many of the first offers will be asking you to create your profile. While creating your profile, I would recommend choosing the first two columns (High Interest or Somewhat Interest.) By doing this, you will increase the number of offers that you get.

Every few days, you will receive an email saying that you have new opportunities available to you. After receiving this email, click on the link to go to your homepage to see the offers. Each offer normally gives you 5 miles + additional miles for signing up for the offer. The only requirement to get the 5 base miles is to click on the"continue" button and answer a few short questions. Again, always try to pick "high interest" and "somewhat interest". 

The time commitment for e-Miles is a few minutes every couple of days. Nothing major.

Once you earn 500 miles, you are able to deposit into your preferred frequent account (mine is Delta). The deposit normally happens within a week of your request.

Again, e-Miles won't make you points rich. However, combined with partner bonuses, a few minutes every couple of days may result in a good chunk of miles.

I am currently at 115 miles after one day. I will report back to show my progress and how long it takes to earn 500 miles.

I hope you give e-Miles a chance. 

Delta GrandSlam Update

Its been a few months, since my last update on my Delta GrandSlam. (Please see this post for more on my Delta Grandslam).

Since I started this experiment, I have earned 10,728.

1 Flight to Atlanta - 6, 080 (5,000 Bonus Miles + 1,080 Real Miles)

The other miles were obtained by partner awards:

Super Shuttle: 550 (500 Bonus Miles + 50 Original Skymiles)
EReward Miles: 1000 (500 Bonus Miles + 500 Original Skymiles)
Dining Rewards: 1790 (500 Bonus Miles + 1,200 Dining Reward Bonus Miles + 90 Skymiles)
Best Buy Purchase: 510 (500 Bonus Miles + 10 Skymiles)
Transfer Points from Club Carlson: 750 (500 Bonus Miles + 250 Skymiles)
          – 2000 Club Carlson to 250 Skymiles

That is a total of 4600 miles.

Then there was the Partner Awards that did not earn points:

Points.com Transfer - 6 US Airways Miles to 1 Delta Mile
Thanks Again (4 times) - 47 miles

Both the Points.com Transfer and any of the Thanks Again purchase should have triggered the bonus. I don't know why they didn't trigger the bonus and I don't feel like fighting Delta on either of them.

I am far off my goal of earning 45,000 miles by the end of 2012. The reason for missing this goal is that I did not really put much effort into this promotion. I still have 8 months left to earn the miles.

Therefore, its time to get going....

Delta Grand Slam – Partners Section

As I have previously written, I am participating in a mini Grand Slam with Delta. Under this promotion, we earn 500 bonus miles for each unique partner one participates with within your first year of membership. You can earn 10 of these bonuses for a total of 5000 bonus miles.

One of the best ways to attack this section of the new member challenge is to map out one strategy from the beginning. The rules for this unique partner awards section are as followed:

Unique Partner Activity: Earn 500 bonus miles for each unique partner activity–up to 10 partners–for a total of up to 5,000 bonus miles. A partner activity is defined as an activity which earns 1+ miles within 12 months after enrollment. A Delta Buy Miles purchase and a partner points to miles conversion transaction are considered eligible unique activities. Converting hotel partner points to miles and a stay/activity with the same hotel partner do not count as two activities. Delta SkyMiles Credit Card is not eligible. Flight activity on partner airlines is not eligible for this promotion.

Promotion Partner List: Offer includes Hotel Partners, Check Card Partners, Dining, Retail, and other partners: SkyMilesShopping.com qualifies as only one activity, SkyMiles Dining by Rewards Network qualifies as only one activity, participation with a SkyMiles incentive partner qualifies as only one activity, and SkyMiles Shopping UK qualifies as only one activity. Promotion partners also include: Buy, Gift or Transfer Miles; Points to Miles Transfers; Membership Rewards®; Diners Club®; Puntos de Oro; SuperBônus Program and Club de Beneficios; Internet & Telephone Partners, Real Estate & Financial Partners, Vacation and Cruise Partners. For a complete list of partners, please see delta.com/partneroffers.

The rules for this section provide us with valuable information:

1)      You can earn as little as 1 mile to trigger the bonus

2)      Partner to miles conversion (ie hotel points to SkyMiles) count as unique activities

3)      You can not credit a hotel stay from “X hotel chain” and transfer points from the same “X hotel frequent account”. For example, crediting a Hilton hotel stay and transferring Hilton points into SkyMiles counts as 1 transaction, not 2 transactions.

4)      Getting a Delta Skymiles Credit Card does not count as a transaction in this section

5)      Flying a partner airline and crediting it to Delta does not count as a transaction

6)      Purchasing something through SkyMilesShopping.com only counts as one transaction

7)      Dining through SkyMiles Dining qualifies as only one activity

8)      Buying, Gifting or Transferring Miles counts as unique activities

The biggest thing I have received out of the rules is that 1 mile triggers the bonus. This makes for some very easy and cheap transactions, which I will highlight in other posts.

With the rules out of the way, lets look at the various partners:

Car Rentals/Limo/Shuttles:

Hertz

Alamo

Avis

Budget

Carmel Car Service

EuroCar

E-Z Rent A Car

National

Sixt

Super Shuttle

Major US Hotel Chains: 

Hilton

ING

Marriott

Starwood

Accor Wyndam

Hyatt

Carlson

Choice Hotels

Best Western

La Quinta

Red Roof Inn

The Ritz Carlton

International and Smaller Hotel Chains:

Melia, Shangri-La, Langham, Taj, Almond, Concorde , Delta Chelsea Hotel – Toronto

Hotel Emperador – Buenos Aires, Hotel JAL City, The Leading Hotels of the World

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Maritim Hotels, Millennium Hotel Group, New Otani Hotel, Nikko Hotels International, Okura Hotels & Resorts, Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts

Rotana, World Hotels

Flowers/Gifts: 

1800 Gift Baskets

1800 Flowers

FTD.com

Biscoff

Organic Bouquet

Teleflora

Vinessa Wine Club

Shopping: 

SkyMall

Skymiles Shopping

Thanks Again

Travel Related: 

AmericanPassport.com

VisaCenter.com

Hartmann Luggage

Boingo Wireless

Travelling Connect

Dining:  

SkyMiles Dinning Rewards

Heath & Wellness:  

Nutrisystem

Organic  Style

SpaFinder Wellness

Financial:  

Fidelity Investments

Sentry Insurance (only available residents of AZ, CO, IL, IN, KS, MN, OH, TN, & WI)

ShareBuilder

Entertainment: 

Bose

Audience Rewards

getAbstract

Netflix

Point Earning/Transfer:  

eMiles

eRewards

Points.com

Other:  

Energy Plus

FEDEX

Georgia Natural Gas

Ohio Natural Gas

Network Solutions

The Whiteboard

PetCar RX

International Partners:

Skymiles Shopping Asia

Skymiles Shopping Canada

Skymiles Shopping Latin

Skymiles Shoping Japan

Triple J

Skymiles Dining Japan

Shell Lucky 7 Passport  (Guam & Saipan)

NetMile (Japan)

I did not add direct links to the individual partners, because I have heard reports that people did not get mileage credit for their purchases because the links did not register their entrance.To find partner links, go here . 

As a reminder, we have 12 months from our registration date to complete 10 partner rewards to get the 500 mile bonus. There is no rush to accomplish all 10 tonight.

In my next Delta Grand Slam post, I will lay out which 10 partners I plan on targeting. With a plan, we can start to tailor our spending habits to accomplish these partner rewards with minimal effort. 

Until the next post, start strategizing. 

Delta Really Wants Me to Fly On Them (Targeted Offer)

On Thursday, I received an email from Delta offering me an additional 1,000 Skymiles and $100 e-certificate toward a Delta Vacations if I book a flight by November 6^th and fly by December 6^th.

The terms of this promotion are here:

Eligibility: Only members who receive this communication directly from Delta Air Lines are eligible to participate in this offer. This offer is non–transferable. To participate in this offer, eligible members must register online by November 6, 2012. Members must register for this offer before taking a qualifying flight to be eligible for bonus miles. 

Validity: Purchase and fly one qualifying Delta marketed and operated flight at delta.com between September 6, 2012 and December 6, 2012, and earn 1,000 bonus miles. A qualifying flight includes any Delta or Delta Connection® carrier flight. Codeshare flights operated by carriers other than the Delta Connection carriers are excluded from this offer. Bonus miles do not count toward Medallion® qualification or Million Miler™ status. 

Mileage: Earn a one–time 1,000–mile bonus for purchasing a qualifying flight at delta.com. 

Travel Period: Travel must be between September 6, 2012 and December 6, 2012. All travel must be completed by December 6, 2012. 

The terms and conditions do not mention if the qualifying flight has to be roundtrip. However, to play it safe, I am going to do a round trip.

What makes this a sweet promotion is that it fits perfectly with the new membership promotion aka Delta Grand Slam that I talk about here. If you are signed up with the new member promotion, you receive bonus Skymiles for your first five trips. If you combine the two together, you can rake in some real Skymiles simply for flying.

For example, if you have never flown with Delta and are registered for both promotions (new member and this new one), your first flight would earn you the following:

5,000 (new member bonus 1^st flight) + 1,000 (this new promotion) = 6,000 + actual miles flown.

For me, linking the two promotions would look like this for my next flight (my second on Delta):

2,500 (new member bonus flights 2-5) + 1,000 (this bonus)  = 3,500 miles + actual miles flown

The terms and conditions do not restrict you from getting bonuses from two offers. Warning, I have not tried earning bonus points from these two bonuses, Delta might try to limit you to one bonus. Let’s cross our fingers and fight with Delta later, if we need to.

If you want to see if you qualify for this promotion, go here.

The rules state this is a targeted offer to those who received an email. However, it can’t hurt to try to see if you qualify, even if you did not receive an email. I asked a few friends to try and only one qualified, so YMMV.

With this new promotion, I think its time for me to start searching for a mileage run in the next 90 days….3,500 bonus miles + actual miles flown makes almost any cheap fare a great mileage run!