My First Major Credit Card Churn

At the end of July, I completed my first major credit card churn.

Someone who completes a credit card churn applies for multiple credit card applications on a regular basis to get as many frequent flyer miles as possible. They apply for a card, spend the minimum amount necessary, get the frequent flyer miles, cancel the card a year later, and then do it all over again.

In the past, I would apply for one or two new credit cards every three or four months. However, in July, I thought I would go for four credit cards. A possible big risk, but the rewards would be huge.

The four credit cards I applied for are:

Chase Hyatt –  Sign-up Bonus: 2 Free Nights, 2 Paid Night Upgrades, $75 statement credit all after the 

                          first purchase, $75 annual fee.

Chase United Explorer Card – Sign-up Bonus: 50,000 miles after spending $1,000 in 3 months

                                                   (I was targeted for this offer), $95 annual fee, waived for first year

Hilton Amex – Sign-up Bonus: 50,000 miles after spending $750 in 3 months, no annual fee

US Airways MasterCard – Sign-up Bonus:  40,000 miles after first purchase $95 annual fee, waived for 

                                             first year

Now the downside of my recent credit card churn. I checked my credit using CreditKarma (more about this website in a future post) and my credit has dropped by 10 points. A 10 point drop is expected by adding four new cards to one’s credit report.  My credit should bounce back to it original 775 score by December, just in time for my next churn.

As I stated Wednesday, I finished my spend requirements for these cards already, so I am back to using the British Airways Credit Card trying to hit that second 25,000 bonus. 

Was it difficult? No way. 

Was it worth it? Oh, yes. This recent credit card churn netted me almost 4 round-trip tickets to anywhere in the United States or close to 2 one-way tickets in business class to Europe or Africa plus at least 4 free hotel nights all for about 1 hours worth of work.

Credit card sign-up bonuses can increase point balances to levels that travel dreams become reality! 

Trip Report: Cancun

I've never been a beach person. I grew up in Kansas, so I never had trips to the beach during the summer and I never understood why people would go and just sit on hot sand all day long. That was until Kelsey took me to Cancun for the first time last summer. She had to drag me down the first time, but this year when she asked if I wanted to go back, I couldn't wait to book the trip.

We had previously been to an all-inclusive resort in Cancun and it was amazing. The resort was beautiful, the food delicious and the staff so hospitable. So we knew that we wanted to do the same this time.

The benefits of an all-inclusive is that you don't have to worry about a thing! You can lock your wallet, phone and worries away in the room safe and be on your way. The hotel takes care of everything and you can drink your cares away with a little umbrella and a drink that looks like the sun you're sitting under.

To get to Cancun we wanted to try and find a direct flight from the Washington, D.C. area to avoid a connection and to avoid our experience last time when we had a 6 hour layover in the Spirit Airlines terminal in Ft. Lauderdale. We did our research and discovered that there was a direct flight from BWI to Cancun on AirTran that was just over 3 hours, and it left early enough that we would be on the beach by 2 pm.

What was even better was Kelsey had recently been voluntarily bumped off an AirTran flight and had a voucher for a free roundtrip ticket in Business Class!!!  She also had enough Southwest Rapid Rewards points to get a round-trip ticket for me. Since AirTran and Southwest recently merged, we were able to transfer the award ticket between the programs. I then paid $200 to upgrade to Business Class so we could sit together.

For a hotel, we had recently both purchased 50,000 Wyndham Rewards points as a part of the "Weekly Getaway" promotion for $143 each. We applied those points for three free nights at the all-inclusive Viva Wyndham Maya in Playa del Carmen in a "Garden View Room." We purchased the last night at a rate of $180.

Our trip down went swimmingly. The AirTran "Business Class" was nothing to write home about. It was very nice to get the Premium Access at the airport and in the security line, but the crew aboard the plane couldn't be bothered to do anything. Anytime you asked them for a drink or a snack they did not seem happy to oblige.

We were the first off the plane and one of the first through customs. If you have never been to Cancun you want to make sure you have a ride from the airport taken care of. Your hotel can usually set you up with a transfer for around $70-100. It is important to set something up in advance because as soon as you get out of the doors through the airport you are bombarded by people offering you a ride and claiming they know exactly where you need to go. Some also pretended to be affiliated with the company scheduled to pick us up, even though they did not have a sign with our name on it. Fortunately we knew to avoid these people. We found our driver, and he quickly took us toward Playa del Carmen, which is about a 40 min drive from the Cancun Airport.

We arrived at the resort and our bags were quickly taken and put with the other guests who had just arrived. We went to the check-in desk and were informed that we had been upgraded to an "Ocean View Room." The woman at the front desk assured us, "You're going to like this room!" We got our room key as well as two towel keys to be used to get beach towels for the pool or beach.

The resort is situated in a V formation with a line of rooms on either side. Each room has a balcony with most overlooking the gardens around the resort. When you travel all the way to Cancun, you really want to be able to see the water, so I think we would have been pretty disappointed if we were in one of these rooms. We got lucky, though!

After walking through the resort, we finally got to our room which was at the very end of the building. We opened the door and both said "WHOA" at the same time. The room was amazing. When you walked in there was a king bed and a bathroom with marble counters and a rain head shower. But the real attraction was the two (yes TWO) balconies on either side of the room. The first balcony was smaller and had two lawn chairs that overlooked the pool area and was covered from the sun. The second balcony was much bigger with two deck chairs and a private hot/cold tub that overlooked the ocean. We quickly realized that there were only six rooms like this in the whole resort and felt really really lucky that we would get to enjoy this room for five days.

 

The resort itself was nice. It had three full service bars that would make us whatever drink we wanted, including alcoholic drinks. For dining we could go to the main "all you can eat" buffet style restaurant as much as we wanted and could also visit the pool side snack bar for a quick snack. We also received one reservation at one of the four a la carte restaurants at the resort. This dining policy was a little different than other all-inclusives, which usually let you go to the a la carte restaurants as many times as you want. While we prefer not having a limit, the buffet was okay for us.

The food itself was pretty basic, a mixture of different cuisines with a different "international cuisine" every night. My favorite was the fresh fruit and fruit juice you could get at every meal. I have never had mango juice that tasted like it had just been squeezed. Overall, though, the food didn't live up to the variety and quality of our trip last year.

We spent most of our days lounging around on the balcony and switching from the deck chairs to the hot tub. We also enjoyed the resort's two pools. The main pool has a swim up bar, and the second is an "adults only" pool that also has a bar on site. The only problem was on our second to last day the main pool was closed all afternoon due to an "accident" in the pool and the kids were allowed to swim in the "adults only" pool. But....in that case, what can you really do? :)

We also took a day trip to visit Xel-Ha which as they put it so well on their website is....

"Xel-Ha, one of the amazing attractions in Cancun, Riviera Maya, Mexico, a natural aquarium park considered the largest aquarium in the world, the perfect place to perform activities in Riviera Maya. If you love nature, there is no better place than Xel-Ha to practice snorkeling and water activities like swimming with dolphins, Snuba® (combination of snorkeling and diving) or Sea Trek® (walking under water)."

The trip to Xel-Ha with transportation and all you can eat/drink at the four on-site restaurants was $99 per person for a full day from 9 AM-6 PM adventure. It was one of the highlights of our trip, and we had a great time snorkeling and exploring the huge park. We saw hundreds of fish right in front of us, as well as dolphins and manatees in separate areas and lots of wildlife. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Rivera Maya!

So...what was our final cost for this trip....

Airfare
2 Business Class Seats on AirTran
Total Cost: $200 for the upgrade to business class 

Hotel
4 Nights at the Viva Wyndham Maya
Total Cost: $180 for the fourth night 

Transfer from the Airport 
$94 for two passengers

Xel-Ha Park 

Total Cost: $198

Total Cost: $672

What's in our wallet?

JD:

As Chris mentioned in a post last week, I used to come to Happy Hour and plop down a new credit card almost every few months. Credit cards sign-up bonuses are the easiest way to increase your frequent flyer and hotel miles accounts. Many people ask me what I have in my wallet, so I thought I would share with you.

I am rocking the OneWorld Alliance credit cards:

British Airways Visa

AAdvantage Citi Visa Card

I signed up for British Airways card earlier this year. I received 50,000 Avios points after my first purchase and 25,000 more for spending $10,000 and $20,000 respectively for a total of 100,000 miles. My plan was only to hit the $10,000 spend and bank the additional 25,000 points and lay the card to rest. However, I have met the spend limits on my most recent credit card churn (more about that Friday), so I am going to go for the additional 25,000 miles by spending an additional $10,000.00.

I always like to keep two credit cards in my wallet, just in case one does not work. This is the reason for the American Airlines card. Once or twice I have been at the grocery store and my credit card did not work. I had no cash, debit card or other credit card. Embarrassingly, I would have to ask to come back to pay. I vowed never to have that happen again. Two credit cards with me at all times is now a new rule.

That is what I have in my wallet. What’s in your wallet? 

Chris:

Well JD I'm glad you asked!

I am a little behind JD as I just wrapped up my latest credit card spends last month. So if you would have asked me in July and August I would have said the Citi AAdvantage Visa and American Express cards. But now that those spends are over and 100,000 AAdvantage points are in my account I have moved back to an old stand-by and a new friend in the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase Hyatt Visa.

I love the design of both of those cards...they are just great to look at and the perks are OK I guess ;).

Like JD I primarily use one card for most of my transactions and that is the Sapphire...it just has great benefits with the 2 points per dollar spent on restaurants and travel, one point on everything else, the 7% annual dividend and the 1:1 transfer ratio with some great programs such as United and Hyatt.

I keep the Hyatt Visa in my wallet in case something goes wrong and they won't accept the Sapphire.

Finally I take both of these cards when I leave the country because neither has a foreign transaction fee, which has saves me money.

OK, now it's your turn...what cards are you holding on to right now? 

Chris' Plan: London

As I posted last week, Kelsey and I really wanted to head to London this fall. I studied abroad there, and she visited the city from her study abroad program in Rome but wanted to spend more time there, so it was a great plan.

At the time we started pushing the idea around she had just started a new job and I was in the middle of grad school, so finances were not exactly on our side. But, JD came to the rescue and introduced me to the points and miles game...and put the idea of a mostly free trip to London in my mind! Not only that....but I wanted to go big on this trip.

So after tooling around for a bit and looking at the options I started to formulate a plan for a 7 day/6 night trip to London and a brief stopover in Amsterdam.

I wanted to fly on United to London and then out of Amsterdam to avoid the huge surcharges out of Heathrow, while also getting to visit Amsterdam for a couple of days. I knew that if we wanted to go in Business Class we had to have at least 100,000 miles each at the "Saver" level.

I had recently applied for, and been approved for, the United Mileage Plus Visa as well as the Chase Sapphire Preferred card (Side note: my absolute favorite card) and would have 50,000 United miles and 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after completing my required spends.

But the GF only had the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and would only have 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points along with 30,000 United miles already in her account.

At this point....I was stuck....

My plan then moved to trying to go for Business Class on the outbound and Economy on the return and then worry about paying for hotels out of pocket. But for some reason I just could not wrap my head around this idea...I knew that there was a way to get this done. So, I turned to one of the new blogs that I had been reading for a bit and asked for advice. I turned to the awesome Travel By Points  (if you are not reading his site...you need to be!) to ask what he would do in my situation, and he turned it into a blog post with his ideas and asked others for ideas as well.

After thinking it over for a bit the GF and I settled on this plan of action:

She has a great credit score and needed to boost her United miles so she applied for, and received, the United Mileage Plus Visa to get a total of 50,000 more United miles.

For hotels we were able to take advantage of the awesome Club Carlson promotion that netted 50,000 and 40,000 respectively for two mattress runs to close hotels to DC. The 90,000 points plus the bonuses from the actual stays put us over 100,000 points each which was good enough for two nights at 5-star Club Carlson properties in both London and Amsterdam. For the remaining two nights we were able to pay a cheap rate at the Hilton London Bridge for one night and will be taking a night ferry from England to the Netherlands which comes to about 48 pounds per person with a sleeping berth.

Everything was going brilliantly until we went to book the actual tickets. We were booking our tickets together and I think the GF grabbed the last seat at the "Saver" level for our return trip and, instead of being put on the same flights as Kelsey, I was put on the same flight from Amsterdam to Chicago but a different flight from Chicago to DC. Worst of all, I was stuck in Economy from Chicago to DC while paying for Business Class.

I called United to see if there was any way to move me to the other flight, or see if they could find another flight in Business Class for me. The agent insisted that she could not help me and I asked to speak to a supervisor to just see one last time if something could be done. The supervisor sang the same tune and so I just decided not to worry about it and go on.

Down the road a bit I noticed that I could fly Lufthansa from Amsterdam to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt back to Washington Dulles (at the time I hoped on the 747-800), so I called United and managed to change our tickets without a problem. Even though it turned out that the plane flying the Frankfurt to Dulles route is the 747-400, I am beyond excited to sit in the nose of the 747 in Business on Lufthansa.

In the end, this is how it all is shaping up:

Airfare:

United: Dulles to London
Lufthansa: Amsterdam to Frankfurt
                  Frankfurt to Dulles (Still hoping for that equipment change to the 747-8)

Total Cost: 100,00 United Miles, 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points and $89.55 in taxes/fees

Hotels:

2 Nights at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer Street Hotel
2 Nights at the Radisson Blu Hotel Amsterdam
Total Cost: 100,000 Club Carlson Points

1 Night at the Hilton London Bridge
Cost: $200

1 Overnight Ferry Ride with Sleeping Berth
Cost: $140

In the end the total out of pocket cost for our trip for flights and hotels will only be $429.55

I can't wait to go on this trip!!! It can't come soon enough.

Hotel Flexibility by Chris

As a result of getting both of the American Airlines credit cards using the well-publicized 2 browser trick, Kelsey and I have four companion certificates between the two of us.

While this is a great benefit, the bad thing is that the certificates expire on November 30th! But the good part is that it means we have lots of travel coming up. We are in the back-end of our first trip on a companion pass to visit my parents in Seattle. In four weeks we are headed to Chicago to visit a few of Kelsey's friends, and her parents and relatives are driving up to meet us as well.

Kelsey's parents used points to book a hotel at the Grand Hyatt Magnificent Mile and I figured that at 15,000 points for a reward night it would be a good value for us as well. So I went through and transferred the points from Chase via my Chase Sapphire Card. The points transferred instantly and so I went through the booking process only to find that the Hyatt was fully booked and no reward nights were available. The only rate available was $450 for one night!!! Wayyyyyy beyond our budget so we will end up bunking up with her parents for a night.

The real problem is....what to do with those 15,000 points I have sitting in my Hyatt account.

I brilliantly (it happens very rarely :p) remembered that we were paying $300 for two nights at a Double Tree in Denver and could cancel it without any penalty. So I called up Hyatt to check for availability in Denver and found that I could get a free night at the Grand Hyatt Denver and just pay $150 for the second night!

The lesson I learned from this story is to not panic if the plans don't go exactly as you want them to. One perfectly laid plan can adapt to help you in another trip.

Hope you are all having a wonderful Labor Day!

Would you complain?

On a recent trip, I decided to stay one night at a Starwood hotel (I won’t name names) and a Hilton for two nights. I arrived late Friday and went out to get food, so I did not check the room over. The next morning, when I took a shower, I was greet by this:

Then I looked at the shower curtain and saw what looked like someone’s bugger (sorry no picture of that one).

When getting out of the shower, I looked down by the toilet and saw this:

A little background about me. My first job was working for the family cleaning business. On many Friday nights, I cleaned toilets at auto dealerships and showers at gyms. So, I know what it takes to clean bathrooms. When a bathroom has mold, it means that it has not been cleaned in quite some time. Mold does not grow overnight. It is the result of someone not doing a thorough job cleaning over a period of time. 

As I stated, I was only staying one night at this hotel, so I was not going to make a fuss about it. If I was staying another night, I would have asked management to send housekeeping to clean the bathroom or asked for a new room. 

There was a comment card in the room and I filled it out because I wanted to praise the woman who checked me in. She was welcoming, funny and told me about a great late night diner. On the card, it asked if I was disappointed about anything during my stay, so I casually mentioned the uncleanness of the bathroom but I did not put my room number or name on it.

As I was checking out, the receptionist checking me out asked how my stay was. I mentioned that the bathroom was a little dirty. She apologized profusely and asked for more details. I explained about the mold in the shower and by the toilet. She told me that she would take care of it immediately and handed me my bill. As I was walking out the front door, the on-duty manager came running toward me and wanted to apologize on behalf of the hotel. She mentioned she was crediting me 4000 Starwood points. I thanked her for the gesture and told her I just wanted to make sure the bathroom got a good cleaning.

I have stayed at some skeezy hotels with some rooms and bathrooms that would have made you sick; however, this is the first time I have ever said anything to management.

Some of you might ask why I took pictures if it was no big deal. After seeing the shower, I knew I wanted to write about it and a picture is worth a 1000 words. But thinking about it now, I shouldn't have taken pictures, as now I am remind of how gross this place was.

If you were in my situation would you have said anything? Would you have made a bigger deal out of it?

My Delta GrandSlam – Join Me!

While the rest of the frequent flyer blogsphere waits with baited breath about US Airways' Grand Slam, I have decided to participate in my own mini “Delta Grand Slam.”

Delta is offering those who have never had a Delta SkyMiles account an opportunity to earn up to 40,000 bonus miles. I need to thank Rene, of Delta Points Blog, for finding and publishing this great opportunity.

Did you just sign up for a SkyMiles account within the past 30 days? You may still be eligible. Go here and enter your SkyMiles number to see if you are eligible. 

Since I have never flown Delta nor had a SkyMiles account, I thought this was a great opportunity to start.  If you are new to the “game” or never had a Skymiles account, this is an excellent opportunity to start earning miles.

New Member Challenge aka Delta Grand Slam!!!

The New Member Challenge is broken up into 5 categories:

1. Flying
2. Credit Card
3. Lounge Access
4. Using Miles
5. Partner Rewards

Each of the five categories requires you to complete actions to gain miles.

Flying:

Delta will offer you bonus miles for the first five flights that you take with them. 5,000 bonus miles for your first flight and 2,500 miles for your next four subsequent flights. (I think these have to be roundtrips, but the rules do not state that. I flew roundtrip to Atlanta earlier this month and only got 5,000 miles – If you have received bonus miles from this promotion for a one-way flight, please let us know in the comments).

Credit Card:

Delta will give you 5,000 bonus miles if you apply and are approved for the American Express Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card.

Lounge Access:

Delta will credit you 10,000 bonus miles for purchasing a 1- or 3-year membership to the Delta Skyclub. 

Use Miles:

Get a 5,000 mile rebate, when you spend 10,000 or more on airline trips, hotels, car rentals and much more.

Partner Rewards:

Earn 500 for each unique partner (up to 10 partner transactions) you participate and earn miles, within the first year of your membership.

Over the next few weeks and months, I will share cheap and sometimes not-so-cheap ways to accomplish each of the following tasks and earn the bonus miles.

My goal is by the end of 2012 to have between 40,000 to 50,000 miles in my SkyMiles account. As I stated previous, I started with my trip to Atlanta.

Want to join me? If your answer is yes, then your first step is to sign-up for a SkyMiles membership account and number. To do this, go here.

After signing up for a SkyMiles account, go here to register your SkyMiles number for the promotion.

I would recommend taking a screen shot of the registration page after you have registered and save it on your computer. I have signed up for some promotions and later on there is no record of me doing so. This screen shot may help you later on if you have problems. You can also check to see if you are registered for this promotion by going back to the registration screen a day or two later and entering your SkyMiles number. It will tell you if you are registered.

For all of the newbies watching from the sideline of "the game," it's time for you to join us! This promotion is a great low cost way to start building your frequent flyer account balance, allowing you the ability to start crossing destinations on your travel goal list.

Will you join me?