Do It For The Points!: doitforthepoints.

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Thursday, August 15, 2013

Mid-August Recap

Here is a quick recap of the articles from the blog this month:

Busy month so far, but have even better things brewing for the rest of the month.

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

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Observations from My First Milage Run

I completed my first mileage run, ~~yesterday~~ early this morning. Chris, his GF and I flew from DC to SFO for lunch. It was a great experience and I came away with some interesting observations in my journey.

1) Flying across the country for lunch is AMAZING and also great conversation starter!

I was a little drunk still when Chris picked me up at 3:45 yesterday. See, I went out drinking
the night beforehand and telling girls that you are "flying to San Fran tomorrow for lunch and
coming right back" is a great conversation/pick-up line. I may need to keep that in my
arsenal for use more often.

Similarly, the club agent at ORD thought it was funny that I was coming right back to BWI last
night. He comment that he "only thought airline employees fly to go get lunch," and told us
that he takes his family to lunch in Boston, New York and Miami all the time.

2) Getting bumped from First Class is worth at least $500

This did not happen to me. However, on our flight home from SFO to BWI they
upgraded/oversold too many first class by 1. They asked for a volunteer to bump down
to Economy Plus and were offering $500 to do so. Someone jumped up and took the offer
within seconds of the offer. Most likely a person who was upgrade with status.

3) The United Fleet Is Old

On everyone one of my three flights, I notice that the United Fleet is showing its age. Two
of my seats were not secured properly making for some fun landings:

The paneling on any other flight was peeling:

Chris mentioned to me that the 757-200 we were flying is being replaced with the new 737-900s United purchased. So, that's a good sign.

4) United Lets A Ton of Economy Plus Seats Go Unsold

On each of my three flights yesterday, Economy Plus, which I was sitting due to Chris's
status, was 1/2 empty, while the rest of economy was full. When I checked in Saturday
morning they wanted $17 for an economy plus seat and Saturday evening they wanted $87.

Why doesn't United firesale these seats? It doesn't cost you anything more for people to sit
there. This is income that United is leaving on the ground. If day of flight, you have 1/4 or 1/2
of Economy Plus empty, why wouldn't you auction them off or sell them for $5. This is going
to sound weird, but "shame on you United for leaving money on the ground." That's almost
as leaving points on the table!

5) The Plant Burger Does Not Taste Good

We went to the Ferry Terminal for lunch and I got the Plant Burger, a beet burger:

6) Boudin Sourdough (SFO Food Court) Rocks!

The GF, on the trip, told me I needed to get a sandwich from this place. I got the
Turkey Cranberry for my dinner on the way home and it was amazing. Also, they had
bread bowls filled with soup that look yummy! If you have a layover in SFO, go to Boudins!

Boudin's at SFO Food Court

7) A Street Performer's Sign Can Sum Up A Trip

Chris and I in Front of the Ferry Terminal

SFO thanks for a great day!

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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

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Earn Points at the Airport

I love earning points, when I have to do little to nothing to get them. Swipe my credit cards (earn points!), dine out at certain restaurants (earn additional points!!), grab a bottle of water, magazine and snack at the airport (earn bonus points!!!).

How many of you know that you can earn points at major airports by registering your card?

Up until last year’s Grandslam, I didn’t.

There is a program called “Thanks Again,” that allows you to earn points by shopping at vendors located in major airports. Thanks You is very similar to Dining Rewards: one has to sign-up (free) with a points earning program and register your credit cards with that program. Unlike, dining rewards, you don’t have to complete surveys about your experience.

Thanks You currently has programs with US Airways, United, American Airlines, Delta. Again, you can only earn miles with the program that you are registered with. Most vendors at the airports earn you 1 mile for $1 spent. However, every once and a while a vendor might offer 2 miles per $1 spent.

According to their website, Thanks Again has afflictions with over 150 airports. However, their "affiliation" is sometimes only a car service and/or an entertainment store as in the case of LAX, MCO, SAN. You can use this search engine to see what merchants participate at particular airports:

How can you tell if a merchant is participating? My experience, at Dulles (IAD), was that merchants had signs up indicating they were a member. The type of vendors participating was numerous: from sit-down restaurants to kiosks selling jewelry. According to their website, Dulles has only 3 vendors: CNBC, Brooks Brothers and DC Express. However, my points earning statement says I have earned points (in the past month) from Gordon Biersch and Subway, so the search engaging might not be updated.

In addition to earning points at airports, Thanks Again allows you to earn points at local (non-airport) vendors. Most of the local vendors ares restaurants and require you to buy Restaurant.com gift certificates, earning you 3 points per $1 spent on the certificate. This is not a great rate, as the United Airlines shopping portal earns you 10 miles per $1 spent. Other local merchants include spas, storage units, and golf courses. As I have previously mentioned, my former dry cleaners was apart of Thanks Again earning me 1 points per $1 spent.

Thanks Again has bonuses based upon the amount of money who spend in 90 consecutive days:

Earn 500 bonus miles/points when you spend $250 or more (2 miles/points per dollar spent)

Earn 1,500 bonus miles/points when you spend $500 or more (3 miles/points per dollar spent)

Earn 4,000 bonus miles/points when you spend $1,000 or more (4 miles/points per dollar spent)

Earn 25,000 bonus miles/points when you spend $5,000 or more (5 miles/points per dollar spent)

All it takes to earn points from Thanks Again is signing up and registering your credit cards.

Will you earn a ton of points by joining "Thanks Again," probably not!

Can you earn points for simplying registering your credit cards and using it at airports? Yes!

Will you? I think it would be unwise not to!!!!

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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

Friday, February 22, 2013

Some People Have Hobbies They Spend Money On...Mine Is Travel

I've been thinking about money quite a bit over the past few weeks. As I mentioned previously, my travel budget has become my friend, my enemy and my escape all at once now that I have a nice monthly student loan bill due from college. I often have friends come up to me asking how I afford to travel so much and how we take all of our great trips and I explain the general idea behind miles and points. For some the light bulb kind of flicks on and for others they just brush it off.

But what these conversations made me realize is that travel is my "hobby." It's my round of golf every weekend (though I still need to do that more often). It's my weekend out at the bar with friends. It's my stamp collection (do people still have stamp collections?). My point is...I realized that my priorities of where my money go and where my budget is directed is all about travel. What's fun for me is to take a weekend and spend it on a plane with an exciting destination at the other end. The journey can be taxing and long...but when I'm on that plane and I hear the engines roar up, I know that every penny I spent was worth it. Just like other that get a high when they hit the slopes for the first run of the day on new powder...that's me when I'm traveling.

Everyone has their interests and the things that they like to do and you always hear people talking about how they would love to travel more but there are all of these obstacles in the way. I don't doubt that everyone has things that hold them back from traveling as much as they would really like to...but you can do it. I always look back at myself...I'm a 24 year old with a full time job in a field that I love. I have that 9-5, but I can still travel on the weekends. I stick to a $200 a month travel budget and chase a great fare to places that I want to go instead of locking in where I want to go and paying top dollar. I save up my miles and points by using strategic and smart spending on credit cards that get me to my travel goal, and I don't pay more than I would be with my debit card directly out of my bank account. In the year and a half that I've been playing the travel game my credit score is as high as it ever has been and I don't have credit card debt (unlike when I was in college). In that same time I've flown over 150,000 miles (tame for you junkies I know) with some of it in Business and First class...something I never would have expected. If you love travel and want to see the world don't put it off...take what you want, make a goal and figure out how to do it. Now to go spend the rest of the day dreaming of the next adventure, Happy Friday!