First Checked Bag Flies Free with U.S. Airways® Premier Dividend Miles® Credit Card
Contrary to conventional wisdom, I always check my bags when I fly.
To me, it is much easier than dragging a heavy suitcase through security and the rest of the airport.
US Airways Drops Checked Bag Fee for Cardholders
Starting tomorrow, holders of a U.S. Airways® Premier Dividend Miles® credit card, and up to four companions, will be able to check their first bag for free on domestic US Airways-operated flights.
That’s a $25 savings per bag each way, or $50 roundtrip.
Just remember to include your Dividend Miles number in your reservation.
If you and a companion check your bags on just one flight a year, this new benefit will more than offset the $89 annual fee on the U.S. Airways® Premier Dividend Miles® credit card.
To follow your bags from check-in to landing, use your bag tag number, or the confirmation code from your baggage claim ticket.
If your flight has Gogo® internet, you can go to usairways.com and track your bags in flight for free, from your smartphone, tablet or laptop.
Do you prefer to check your bags or carry them onboard?
If you fly a lot, you probably have experienced a lost, delayed, or stolen bag. I’ve had my share of mishaps, but to me, the benefits out way the risks. What is your preference?
Click here to compare current rewards credit card offers.
I call myself the Priceline Queen, so I thought it would be fun to do a little analysis of which credit card is best for Priceline purchases.
On the face of it you might guess that The Priceline Rewards Visa® Card is the best bet,but that is not always the case.
For purposes of this analysis, I focused on three cash back, no annual fee credit cards issued by Barclays.
The three contenders are:
Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard®
The Priceline Rewards Visa® Card
Upromise World MasterCard®
Ultimately, I decided not to publish the quantitative analysis, because the results were completely dependent on the hypothetical assumptions. It makes more sense for you to consider your individual spending patterns.
Instead, I prepared a comprehensive table comparing the three options, considering the pros and cons of each of these cash-back, no annual fee credit cards from Barclay’s Bank.
In Brief
The Priceline Rewards Visa® Card pays 5 percent cash back on all Priceline purchases, and it offers a $100 bonus for new applicants, after spending $1,000.
The Upromise World MasterCard® pays 3x points on gas purchases at Exxon/Mobil and 5 percent cash back on online purchases via the Upromise shopping portal, plus an additional 5 percent or so depending on the vendor, and it offers a $50 bonus after the first purchase. A ten percent payout on many travel purchases sounds pretty good, if you have faith that the Upromise shopping portal will pay out benefits. That’s a big if!
The Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard®offers a $200 bonus after you make $1,000 of purchases within the first three months. It pays 2x points on all travel and restaurant purchases, and you earn back 10 percent of the points your redeem for travel expenses.
You can shop through the Upromise shopping portal using any credit card, but only the Upromise World MasterCard® pays the extra five percent.
Upromise is for Everyone
You don’t have to be a college student or the parent of a college student to take advantage of the Upromise savings program. Rebates from the credit card and the Upromise shopping portal are available to anyone registered with the program. You can request a check when your rewards balance is $10 or more. The catch is that you have to remember to go through the Upromise shopping portal, and that shopping portals are not always reliable in issuing the promised rebate.
Table Comparing Three No Annual Fee Cash Back Cards
This table is large, so please click through to see the complete analysis.
ATTRIBUTES
BARCLAYCARD ARRIVAL
PRICELINE CREDIT CARD
UPROMISE CREDIT CARD
BASICS & FEES
Credit needed
Excellent
Excellent
Excellent
APR - Interest rate
0% APR for 1st 12 billing cycles; then, APR of 14.99% or 18.99% based on credit worthiness.
0% APR for 1st 12 billing cycles; then, APR of 14.99% or 20.99% based on credit worthiness.
0% APR for 1st 12 billing cycles; then, APR of 12.99% or 20.99% based on credit worthiness.
2x points on restaurants and all travel expenses; 1x points on everything else.
5x points on "eligible" Priceline.com purchases; 1x points on everything else.
5% off on online purchases at Upromise.com; 3% off gas at Exxon/Mobile; 2% off movie theaters; 1% off everything else.
Bonus earnings
10% bonus points on travel redemptions
None, but could shop through Upromise or other online portal for extra savings.
Earn extra points from merchants in shopping portal. Many online travel agencies, hotels, cruises, and car rental agencies can be found in Upromise portal.
Priceline payouts: 6% on Name Your own Price hotel; 5% on Hotels; 3.5% on Activities; 3.5% on Cruises; 5% Name Your Own Price Car; 3.5% on Rental cars; 3.5% Vacation Packages; 3.5% Name Your Own Price on Airfare; 1% on Airfare
REDEMPTIONS
Redeem for statement credit
Yes, in increments of 2,500 ($25) or more
Yes, for any purchase of $25 or more
Request a check;
Deposit in 529 college savings account.
Restrictions on redemptions
Must have 2,500 points minimum to redeem.
To redeem for a $100 statement credit, for example, you must redeem your points towards a purchase of $100 or more.
Quarterly checks if balance exceeds $10.
Other redemption options
Can redeem points for statement credits or gift cards at half the value of travel redemptions (not recommended).
Use to pay off Sallie Mae student loans.
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
Free FICO Credit Score
yes, 4 times a year
yes, 4 times a year
yes, 4 times a year
Purchase and Travel Protections
yes
yes
yes
1 year free TripIt Pro subscription
yes
no
no
LIMITATIONS
Can only redeem points at full value for travel expenses.
Earn only 1x point for Priceline.com purchases on cruise bookings, non-Name Your Own Price® car reservations, and hotel reservations designated as Pay When You Stay.
Payouts from online shopping portals are often unreliable.
Hard to remember to go through shopping portal.
OTHER FACTORS
Initial bonus worth $222;
Subsequent earn rate of 2.2% on all travel and restaurant purchases can pad your travel funds;
Relatively easy to cash out points for statement credits for travel purchases, but may require calls to customer service;
Initial bonus worth $100 toward Priceline reservations. 5% off prepaid hotel reservations on Priceline.com.
$50 initial bonus. 3% savings on some gas purchases. 5% savings on purchases through Upromise shopping portal, plus extra payout from many travel vendors and 900 other merchants.
MY TAKE
Good for budget travelers that prefer flexible paid travel over reward redemptions.
Good for heavy users of Priceline.
Best earning rate (app. 10%) on online travel purchases, except direct purchases from airlines and some hotel brands.
Good option if you do a lot of online shopping.
You need to consider your own spending circumstances to see which credit card makes most sense for you. Where do you come out?
Click here to compare current rewards credit card offers.
I know what you’re thinking. Why would you go to Japan to stay in an American chain hotel?
Japan has capsule hotels, love hotels, and traditional Ryokan inns.
So why in the world would you want to stay in an American chain hotel?
Two words: free nights.
I’ve read so many reviews from points and miles bloggers who have stayed at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo with “two free nights” they got from their Chase Hyatt credit card. That place seems a bit over-blogged.
What about the Imperial Hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright? Now that’s a place I would like to stay (though I never would, because I am too cheap.)
One reason you might choose a franchised hotel might be to economize. If you could earn free nights by accumulating points, that could cut the costs of your vacation. I’ve written before about how we are planning a rail-based trip, and that hotels near train stations would be ideal.
My guidebook, Japan by Rail, mentions a number of Choice Hotels that are directly across from railroad stations, and many others that are a ten minute walk away.
With all the hype about the Park Hyatt Tokyo, I thought I would take a look at other chain hotels that you can stay at for points, and how many properties they each have in Japan. The search tool at AwardMapper.com was tremendously helpful in this regard.
Choice Hotels Has More Hotels in Japan Than Any Other U.S. Chain
Are you surprised? Choice Hotels has four times as many properties in Japan as Hyatt does., and three times as many as the nearest competitors, Starwood and Best Western. Apparently, Choice has a ton of properties in Scandinavia, too.
To be sure the Comfort Inn is no Park Hyatt. The Japanese Comfort Inns all look like 2 star hotels that cater to business people. The rooms are quite small; but hey, this is Japan, you’d expect small rooms. The prices are reasonable, as are the points redemptions. For 38 of the 47 hotels, you need 8,000 points for a free night. What makes these hotels especially convenient is the free breakfast, free wifi, guest laundry, and small business center.
Get 32,000 Bonus Points with the Choice Privileges Visa Card Equal 4 Free Nights
Choice Privileges Credit Card Bonus Points
How can you get 8,000 points?
The easiest way is by opening The Choice Privileges® Visa® Card. This is a no annual fee travel rewards credit card that pays 8,000 points after your first purchase, and 24,000 points after a one night stay at a Choice Privileges location. That’s enough for four free nights at most Comfort Inns in Japan.
Here’s the thing: you can burn Choice Privileges points at hotels in Japan, but you will not earn points for your paid stays.
This is the points earning structure for The Choice Privileges® Visa® Card:
15 per eligible $1 spent at over 4,200 Choice Privileges locations
5 points per eligible $1 on additional Choice Privileges points or Choice Hotels gift card purchases
2 points per eligible $1 spent on everyday purchases
Cardmembers will get Automatic Elite Gold Status, which offers:
Ability to book free nights 50 days in advance instead of 30 days
Every time you earn points for eligible stays, Choice Privileges gives you a 10% point bonus
To be sure there are more generous offers available, but those are usually for cards with a high annual fee.
The Choice Privileges® Visa® Card has no annual fee, not in the first year, nor in any subsequent year. A card with no annual fee is one that you can hold for years and years, which will improve one of the important components of your credit score, the average age of your accounts.
What are the Limitations?
Comfort Inn Japan
There are some limitations. Your first paid stay must be in a U.S. participating hotel.
You will earn only 10 points per dollar at the lower end Choice properties: MainStay Suites®, Suburban Extended Stay®, Econo Lodge® and Rodeway Inn®.
“Eligible stays”exclude discounted rates or stays booked through third parties.
You do not earn points for stays in these countries: Brazil, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, India, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden and including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.
If I spend $3000 within the first three months, I will earn a 50,000 mile bonus.
$3,000 is not an easy reach for me, so I am always on the lookout for special opportunities.
How to Maximize Your Minimums
The Citi AAdvantage business card offers a number of spending categories that earn bonus points. These include two miles for every $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases and on purchases at certain office office supply stores, telecommunications, and car rentals, and one mile on all other purchases. Other cards, like the Chase Ink cards pay a five times bonus at office supply stores.
Obviously, if I can focus my shopping on these bonus categories, I will earn the most miles for meeting the minimum spend requirement.
For me, that means shopping at office supply stores like Staples. Last week, I got a good deal on an iTunes card at Staples. This week, I stocked up on toilet paper that was on sale there. Next week, starting Sunday April 27, 2014, there’s a rebate offer on MasterCard gift cards.
$20 Rebate on MasterCard Gift Cards
Staples is offering a $20 rebate on the purchase of $300 worth of MasterCard gift cards.
My plan is to buy three $200 gift cards. The cards have a steep fee of $6.95 each, so if I buy three, I will be paying $21 in fees. The $20 rebate will offset most of these costs.
These cards come with a PIN number, so they can be loaded onto a Bluebird card at Walmart.
I’ll need to get to the Staples store early before these cards sell out. If I am successful, I’ll be $600 and 1,200 miles closer to meeting the minimum spend requirement.
My favorite feature of the Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard®is free access to my credit score every quarter.
If you are opening a lot of credit cards to earn points and miles, you definitely need to stay on top of the impact on your credit score.
Barclay’s offers free access to the real FICO score from Transunion. You are also eligible for a free FICO credit score from Barclay’s if you have the The US Airways Premier World MasterCard®.
This benefit has been available for the past six months, so I have been able to watch my score gradually increase over time as I took a break from opening new credit cards.
At first blush, you might think that your credit score would go down from opening a lot of rewards credit cards. It does. Your score temporarily drops a few points for each credit inquiry on your credit report.
Components of FICO Credit Score
However, if you pay your bills on time and in full every month (and you should only be in this game if you do) your score could actually increase over time.
That is because an important component of your credit score is credit utilization, or how much of the total credit line is being used.
If your total credit line increases as you open more cards, and the percent of credit utilized decreases, that can have a positive impact on your credit score.
Free FICO Score from Barclaycard Arrival: My Credit Score Increased Over Time
Free FICO Credit Score from Barclaycard Arrival
Six months ago, when I first gained access to my official FICO score via Barclaycard, my score was roughly 779. That is in the excellent range. (Sorry, I don’t have a screen shot.)
I wanted to give my credit score a rest, so I stopped applying for new credit cards for a while. As credit inquiries gradually dropped off my report, my score rose to 810 in January 2014.
Three months later, in April 2014, my credit score rose again to 825 out of a maximum score of 850. This is amazing considering the large number of credit cards I have applied for over the last several years.
Stay Alert for Offers for 50K Frequent Flyer Miles
My “strategy” when I first got into this game was to look for rewards cards that offered 50K bonus miles for new applicants. First, I applied for the Southwest credit card for 50K, and then the Southwest business card for 50K. Next I applied for the Delta card for 50K, and then the Delta business card for another 50K. After that I applied for the United card for 50K, and the United business card for 50K.
I am self-employed so I am eligible for small business credit cards because of my environmental consulting business.
I got a lot of free flights from these airlines!
Actually though, I think a consolidation strategy makes more sense for a lot of people, especially leisure, budget travelers.
Nevertheless, I didn’t follow my own advice, and last summer I applied for the American Airlines AAdvantage credit card for 50K bonus miles.
With my credit score now well above 800, I was now ready to consider applying for additional travel rewards credit cards. So this weekend, I applied for the American Airlines AAdvantage business credit card for 50K bonus points. This card has a $3,000 spend requirement in the first three months to get the bonus, and it has a $95 annual fee that is waived the first year. There are other offers out there for “Executive” versions of the AA card, but they had higher spend requirements than I was comfortable with.
I logged in to the online account for my Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard® and noticed a contest Barclay’s been running in honor of Women’s History Month.
The “Be Your Possible” contest will award four $10,000 prizes. There are two more chances to enter, by April 1 and April 8, 2014.
Being your possible means you don’t let anything stand in the way of accomplishing your goals and reaching your full potential.
If you have a PayPal account you may be eligible for a special 2-day offer: 20% off an iTunes code, redeemable for yourself, or sent as a gift. Try this link to pull up the offer.
The 20% off offer is only applicable to one iTunes Code valued at $25, $50 or $100. Please note that this is an e-code only; this offer is not for a physical gift card.
The offer is only available from March 20, 2014 (6 am PST) to March 21, 2014 (7:00 pm PST). Hat tip to SlickDeals
Gift Card Purchases to Meet Minimum Spend on Rewards Credit Cards
Sometimes gift card purchases are helpful if you are trying to meet the minimum spend requirement on a new credit card to qualify for the rewards bonus. Essentially, you can front load your purchases of essentials like groceries, or in this case iTunes credits, for use on future purchases.
For instance, the Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard®offers new applicants $200 toward your next travel redemption, after you spend $1,000 in the first 90 days after opening the account. A few gift card purchases for items that you know you will need in the near future can help you meet the minimum spend requirement.
Caution: In no circumstances should you open a credit card for the rewards if it will cause you to spend more than you would otherwise. Furthermore, if you do not pay off your bills in full and on time every month, you will be socked with high interest fees that far outweigh the value of any rewards.
Every time you swipe your MasterCard, you are entered into a contest to win a trip to London!
MasterCard is running a contest as part of their Priceless Surprises campaign to win a chance to see Justin Timberlake live in London on The 20/20 Experience World Tour.
They launched the campaign with an amusing video with JT that aired during the Grammys.
If you want to increase your chances of winning, TWEET or INSTAGRAM using the hashtag #PricelessSurprises. The more you tweet and post, the more chances you have.
The grand prize isa 5-day/4-night trip for winner and a guest to attend a 2014 Justin Timberlake concert in Europe as part of his 20/20 Experience World Tour. The trip includes round-trip coach air transportation, hotel, ground transportation, concert tickets, and a city tour. The grand prize also includes $6,000 that may be used to help offset taxes.
The value of this “priceless” prize: approximately $19,500.
MasterCard offers a nice little perk to cardholders to pick up the tab on shipping charges from five popular online retailers.
The Free Shipping by MasterCard offer provides rebates of up to $20 on two-day shipping charges for purchases from Macy’s, Best Buy, QVC, Kohl’s, and Walmart.
You can getup to $500 in rebates over a six month period.
To be eligible for a rebate you must:
register your MasterCard with the free shipping program
begin your purchase from the Free Shipping by MasterCard shopping website
choose the retailer’s two-day shipping option at check-out
pay for the entire purchase, including two-day shipping, using the registered credit card
Email the order confirmation to MasterCard within 30 days of the original purchase date
If you follow these steps, a rebate of up to $20 will be credited to your account and appear on your billing statement in one to two billing cycles.
Sound good? Tread carefully. Like the Amex ShopRunner program that also offers free shipping, participation in this MasterCard rebate program means that you will forgo any cash back or points payouts that you could have earned by going through an online shopping portal like FatWallet, Ebates, or the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall.
Track Your Bags
