Oops...I Have Been Breaking a Golden Rule

In this points and miles game, there are a few Golden Rules that one must always follow to be successful .

Taken from Google Search

From never take "no," from the first customer service representative to never leave free one ways on the table, the Golden Rules help guide one from making silly and costly mistakes.

One of these golden rules is though shall not pay interest finance charges on credit cards. When one incurs interest charges for failing to pay their credit card balance, any benefit received, in the form of points/miles diminishes. On the blog, I have always preached that if one does not pay their credit card bills in full each month stay out of the credit card game.

Well, I feel like a hypocrite. In the past two months, I have paid over $15.00 in interest charges for failing to pay my credit card bills in full. GASP! The reason for the failure to pay the bill on time is not about the lack of money rather carelessness. Carelessness to ensure that I paid the entire bill. You see I pay my credit card bills little by little throughout the month; instead, of paying the entire bill once a month. On top of that, I have been using multiple credit cards, like five or six, because of the large amount of travel.

$15 is not a ton of money. I will not eat out for lunch or dinner out one night to save the $15. Its more the principal. In my early twenties, I was in credit card debt and I hated how I felt. Everyday sickened by the sight of the credit card balances going up and up with no plan for them to go down. I don't want to have that feeling ever again.

My punishment for breaking one of the Golden Rules is that I can only use one credit card from now on. Doesn't matter if I can get 20 points per dollar spent by using a particular credit card on a particular transaction, I'm not using that credit. (I say this here, but I know I would break it for 20 points per dollar earning, but you get my drift). The rest of the cards go into the drawer. Once I can pay that bill on time and in full, I may move to 2 cards in my wallet, but no more!

Even of those of us with a few year under our belt in the game need to be reminded about Golden Rules from time to time.

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Knowing the Golden Rules is Half the Battle

On our way home from Portland, Chris, our friend (at the moment, he has no nickname) and I could have encountered major major trouble. However, I remember the basic rules of frequent travel and refused us to get caught in a trap.

It all started, when I heard commotion in the bed room between Chris and our friend. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, downtown, and got a large room with two beds and a sleeper couch. I took the sleeper couch. They were talking about times, airplanes and Denver, Seattle, and Chicago, I was half asleep, so it did not make sense.

Shortly thereafter, Chris comes out and tells me that our flight is delayed by 45 minutes out of Portland (PDX) to San Fransisco, due to the aircraft arriving delay. I asked Chris, if he had called to change our flights. He said he tried, but they said out turnaround in San Fran was sufficient (45 minutes now).  I asked, if he called back, and he said no.

I am going to cut-in here to talk about, what I think are the three most important rules of frequent traveling/mileage running:

1) Be Proactive! Always speak to a telephone/twitter/email agent vs. going to the airport with a delay. If you have advanced notification, do everything in your power to change your flight for the delay. Doing it before getting the airport opens more options for you.

2) Never accept no. If the first phone agent says "no," hang-up and try again. There are very nice agents out there at every airline, maybe your next call will get you one.

3) You are your only advocate. Don't wait for the airline to bail you out. Call them and do research on the flights available before you make the call.

In the end, I forced Chris to call United back and plead our case. Our friend had to be back at work at 6am and the red eye would put us in to late (8:30am). Luckily, we got a sympathetic attendant that rebooked our flights through Denver.

Luck must have been on our side, because the San Francisco flight ended up being delayed 2 hours. About 80 people missed their connecting flights and the remaining options out of PDX were slim. We ended getting home 15 minutes after our originally scheduled flight.

Knowing these three simple rules are half the battle. The harder part is putting them into action when you need them. Chris knew these rules, but in the heat of the moment, your judgement can be clouded. Never accept the first "No," maybe the 3rd or 4th or when they say, "Sir, my 8 previous colleagues all have said the same thing to you."

In the end, the trip was great and we got home at a reasonable hour ie 2am.
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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