Points 🙈 | Imamother

amother

Foxglove

Wed, Feb 01 2023, 1:07 pm

I think most ppl that talk about having a lot of points are from business generated points.
My husband had like a million chase points from his business at one point. He doesn’t use his cc as much now.
We are not so savvy with our points and what’s the best way to transfer etc. Also my husband doesn’t like to open or close too many cc’s

My husband now has a few hundred thousand points on his business Amex also sitting around for the right time.
Not always worth using the points when some time you can tickets on diff deals.

wabcs

Wed, Feb 01 2023, 2:08 pm

What credit card is best to open to earn points for flying to israel?

amother

Yellow

Wed, Feb 01 2023, 2:29 pm

I have accumulated lots of random points - chase, southwest, ba
how do I go about redeeming them? I have no idea how to proceed
can I sell them?

doctorima

Wed, Feb 01 2023, 3:51 pm

amother Yellow wrote:

I have accumulated lots of random points - chase, southwest, ba
how do I go about redeeming them? I have no idea how to proceed
can I sell them?

Chase can definitely be sold and are usually in high demand and quite valuable. I'm not sure about Southwest and British. Reach out to Get PEYD and Sell Miles Now, both frum companies, for quotes.

amother

Gold

Wed, Feb 01 2023, 5:33 pm

my question is
does one have a natural knack/savviness or can this be learned?
if it can be learned - what are good resources?

amother

Azalea

Wed, Feb 01 2023, 5:49 pm

amother Gold wrote:

my question is
does one have a natural knack/savviness or can this be learned?
if it can be learned - what are good resources?

I think it can be learned. there's a lot of good info out there. dansdeals, the points guy are two resources. one of the kosher money podcasts is about doing credit card points. https://www.youtube.com/watch?.....chaim I didn't listen to it yet, but it might be a good starting point. I think you can gather info as you go along, the main thing is pay off your credit cards on time, keep organized to know when you'll get hit with annual fees/when you are eligible to re-open cards that allow second bonuses after time has past, and dont open too many at once- make sure you can hit the minimum spends for the bonuses in the time they give you (usually 3 months).

stardream

Wed, Feb 01 2023, 6:59 pm

amother OP wrote:

Interesting. So if we do an expensive card like platinum one year to try to be able to get to Israel, you think it could work? Which airlines go to Israel and are part of the points program?

One other thing is our lifestyle. We both have jobs and are not business owners we can’t pick up and leave whenever. Also, our boys have off only Sunday Chanukah (when we have family parties and may not want to travel) and midwinter just Friday-Sunday.
Other than that it’s just one week in the summer.
Sukkos is not a holiday we’d want to travel bec needing a sukkah, and pesach we are always with my husband’s family (we fly there, and it’s way way too expensive even with points so his parents pay for us).

But on a year we could make Israel work, would opening an expensive card like Amex help us significantly?

I wouldn't start with the expensive cards at this point. You probably won't be traveling enough to really get the benefits and there are enough cards that will give you good sign up bonuses in the $100 annual fee range to last you quite a bit. I would start with a chase sapphire preferred for the spouse that doesn't have a sapphire currently and didn't have one recently. You can transfer chase points between spouses so that will give you a nice boost. After that card you can start one with whatever airline you are likely to travel with - Whichever airline has a hub at the nearest airport to you or an airline that is a transfer partner with chase and is close enough that you would use. And then you refer your spouse for a bonus and they open another card with the same airline. With airline points - keep in mind that summer is peak travel season. It may end up being hard to get award tickets for then using airline miles but it's super easy to redeem chase points for travel.

Business cards are really nice and help with getting more of the same points but they are not necessary. Chase Ink for example would be great for you. I don't have a business and don't have any business cards and still had some vacations with points. This is especially true if you're only planning on traveling minimally.

Keep in mind the Chase 5/24 rule - Chase won't approve you for new cards if you opened 5 personal cards in the past 24 months. Business cards don't count. If you split opening cards between you and your spouse you can still get a bunch of points and still be under that.

When you are further along and more familiar you can figure out how to transfer points from multiple card types to partner airlines and be able to book the same flight with different point currencies but that is much more complicated.

amother

Carnation

Wed, Feb 01 2023, 8:45 pm

amother Gold wrote:

my question is
does one have a natural knack/savviness or can this be learned?
if it can be learned - what are good resources?

I learned a lot from Dan's Deals. There are lots of websites on this topic, google 'travel hacking' and you will find a wealth of information.

amother

Valerian

Fri, Feb 17 2023, 8:52 am

amother Azalea wrote:

to answer your question about different cards. I save up southwest points long term, I am not going on vacations all the time and they don't expire. That takes care of my flights.

I use different card points for the hotel stay. IHG for IHG hotels, Hilton points for a hilton hotel, etc. You need to also keep track of expiration of points, some hotel points are needed to have some sort of "action" within 12 or 24 months time. either earning or spending points. so if you have the credit card a purchase will lengthen the life of the points, sometimes you will want to downgrade to a free annual fee card so you can keep spending every 12 months to keep the points active. Or if you have a points stay and it uses points that also keeps your card alive. Its a lot of factors to keep track of. I wouldn't open a million cards at once. start with the southwest, bec those don't expire, and then move on to hotels. I'll post some links for those too. but just make sure you always are paying off your cards, and keep track of when you open them, how much you need to spend in how much time, when you earned the bonus, when you want to close it and when points might expire. I use a spreadsheet. it will seem overwhelming at first but once you get the hang of it, you can open and close a couple cards a year and enjoy vacations.

(if you have the option of opening a business card - even if you just sell stuff on the side you can open one under your social security number, that opens up a lot of other card options, including southwest, and does not go toward your 5 cards in 24 months max allowance so that's def a help)

I have a SW card and wondering if it's worth it to keep it. The $69 annual fee doesn't get covered by the 3000 annual points I get. Can you tell me where you live that it's worth it to fly SW? I live in NY and SW hardly flies nonstop to any destination whether from LGA or from ISP. We've been to Dallas and Atlanta only because those are the destinations they do fly direct. But if I'd like to go to Miami or Cancun or Turks and Caicos, I'd need to take a bus-plane and make a stop all the way in the Midwest before coming back to the East Coast.

I'm considering selling my points and closing the card, but I would like to be convinced otherwise.

amother

Salmon

Fri, Feb 17 2023, 9:09 am

I don’t have time or patience to play the games, but I have a 2% cash back card, so 70k a year would get me 1400 a year cash back. Not enough for a vacation but sounds like better than you have

amother

Azalea

Fri, Feb 17 2023, 1:16 pm

amother Valerian wrote:

You can close your card AND keep your points. Unlike other points they don't expire and don't disappear if you close your credit card. In regards to where they fly from NY, I don't live in NY so I can't help you there.

amother

Valerian

Fri, Feb 17 2023, 1:17 pm

amother Azalea wrote:

Gevaldig! I was already charged this year's annual fee. I wonder if they'll waive it if I close the card now. Guess it doesn't hurt to try.

doctorima

Fri, Feb 17 2023, 1:42 pm

amother Valerian wrote:

Gevaldig! I was already charged this year's annual fee. I wonder if they'll waive it if I close the card now. Guess it doesn't hurt to try.

If it's a SW Chase card, I believe you have 30 days from the date the annual fee posted to cancel the card and get the annual fee fully refunded. It might be 30 days from when the statement closed, but I'm not 100% sure and it's definitely better to do it ASAP and not take chances.