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Miles To Memories

@milestomemories

Miles To Memories is a site dedicated to helping people achieve their travel dreams for the least amount of money possible. http://www.milestomemories.com/
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New Plastiq Promo, Just 1% Fee on Three $20K Payments

New Plastiq Promo

Check your emails for a great offer from Plastiq that will let you make three payments with a with a fee of 1%. Let’s look at the details. RELATED: Mark Used Plastiq To Get A Hyatt Free Night While Sitting Home
The Offer
This month only, submit up to three payments ($20,000 or less each) and benefit from a 1% Plastiq fee. Here’s how it works:
  • Select a recipient/vendor you would like to pay
  • Enter a payment amount up to a maximum of $20,000
  • Submit a payment using your preferred credit card
  • On the payment review page, make sure your payment is scheduled to be processed before 11:59 PM EST on December 31, 2019. Note: How do you check processing date? See this article for instructions and screenshots.
  • You can submit up to 3 one-time payments like this before 11:59 PM EST on December 31, 2019
Use your favorite credit card to pay a wide variety of bills – from rent and car payments to utilities and business expenses. Depending on the funding method of your recipient (paper check or electronic transfer), the processing date can be as soon as same-day (in which you will be notified prior to payment submission).  You are able to view the processing date of a payment both before and after submitting a payment.
Sign Up For Plastiq
Key Terms
  • Promotion is available only to direct recipients of this email notifying them of their eligibility and cannot be combined with other Plastiq promotions or fee free dollars (FFDs). This promotion is non-transferable.
  • Promotion can be applied on up to three payments per account.
  • Payments must be made with a credit card associated with this eligible member’s account and must not exceed $20,000 per transaction. Eligible customers can submit immediate payments or schedule payments to be processed before 11:59 PM EST on December 31, 2019. The Plastiq 1% fee will automatically be applied when the payment is processed.
  • Editing, altering, canceling or rescheduling payments with this promotion applied will forfeit the service fee rate of 1.5%. This promotion does not apply to any scheduled payments submitted before 12:01 AM EST on December 31, 2019.
  • Plastiq reserves the right to cancel or modify the promotion at any time.
Conclusion
Plastiq charges a 2.5% fee for bill payments. During this promotion you pay just 1% on three payments of up to $20K. If you’re using a card that earns more than that, it’s definitely worth it. With a 2% card you can make a $600 profit if you maximize the payments. But, you only have a few days left. If you’re never tried Plastiq, you can sign up through our referral and earn $500 fee-free dollars. That means that you can pay a $500 bill with a credit card with no fee. Hat Tip - DoC
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Activate Now: Discover's 1st Quarter 5% Categories & How to Maximize Them!

Activate Discover's 1st Quarter 5% Categories

Discover’s 1st quarter bonus categories are now available for registration. This upcoming quarter you can earn 5% Cashback Bonus at Grocery Stores, Walgreens and CVS. These categories should be super easy to maximize!
How It Works
The Discover it card earns 5% cashback on up to the first $1,500 in bonus category spend per quarter. If you are able to fully maximize the benefit then you can earn $75 cash back every 3 months. That's a total of $300 every year.
Activate
You have to activate the bonus before making your purchases in order to get the 5% back. The 1st quarter bonus categories can be activated now by visiting this page and logging into your account.
Key Terms

Here are the terms that explain which purchases will earn the 5% cashback in the 1st quarter:

  • Grocery Store purchases made at convenience stores, gas stations, warehouse clubs, discount stores, supercenters (or at grocery stores associated with supercenters or discount stores), including Walmart and Target are not eligible.
  • Walgreens and CVS purchases include only purchases made in-store at Walgreens or CVS, online at Walgreens.com or CVS.com, or through the Walgreens or CVS app.
  • Individual merchants and stand-alone stores within physical Walgreens or CVS locations (including health centers), or on Walgreens.com or CVS.com, may not be eligible in this category.
Maximizing

Grocery Stores and CVS should come in handy to help maximize this upcoming quarter’s 5% bonus. You can find a wide variety of gift cards at those locations, so that will make it easy to complete the $1,500 in spending from January till March 2020.

4th Quarter Reminder

As a reminder Discover is paying 5% on Amazon, Walmart.com and Target.com purchases in the 4th quarter (through December 31) which again, should be easy to maximize for almost anyone.

Get the Card

If you don’t have the Discover it card currently, you can earn double cashback your first year. That means you earn 2% cashback on normal purchases and 10% cashback on bonus category purchases. The card also has a $50 signup bonus.

Conclusion
Discover’s 1st quarter bonus categories should be easy to maximize given the fact that CVS and Grocery Stores are included. Just don’t forget to activate the 1st Quarter bonus categories first, before you make any qualifying purchases, or you won’t earn the bonus cash. Do that now! There’s no reason not to.
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Save $15 When You Spend $50 on Household Products on Amazon

Save $15 When You Spend $50 on Household Products on Amazon

Amazon has a another promotion today that can save you $15 when you buy household products. The promotion is for items included in the promotion section and sold by Amazon directly.

Offer

Limited-time offer. Save $15 when you spend $50 on eligible items listed on the promotion page. Offered by Amazon.com.

PROMOTION PAGE
Key Terms
  • Offer only applies to products sold by Amazon.com or Amazon Digital Services LLC (look for “sold by Amazon.com” or “sold by Amazon Digital Services LLC” on the product detail page).
  • Products sold by third-party sellers or other Amazon entities will not qualify for this offer, even if “fulfilled by Amazon.com” or “Prime Eligible”.
  • Offer does not apply to digital content.
  • Items must be purchased in a single order and shipped at the same speed to a single address.
Conclusion

Lots of things that everyone uses. There's over 1,000 products listed in the promotion page, so take a look and see if you find any good deals.

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Book Through AAA, Get Free Day from Hertz

Hertz AAA Promo

Hertz has a promotion for AAA members. You can get a Free day if you book by tomorrow, through AAA. Let's look at the details.

Offer
Limited time offer. Get one free day. Get 1 Free day with a 3-day minimum rental when you reserve your vehicle from Hertz through AAA and use Promo Code: 205539. Hurry! Offer valid 12/9-12/11/19 for pickup 12/10/19-1/31/2020 on standard car classes and greater, except Dream Cars.
Conclusion

A good promotion for those looking for rentals. You must book by 12/11 and enter promo code 205539, but you need to pick up your car by the end of January. The offer could be targeted to some AAA members only, so check your emails for the offer.

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Things to Keep in Mind When You Product Change Citi Cards

Citi Product Change Issues

Product changing a credit card is something to keep in mind when you need to consider is a specific card is worth keeping long terms. You can product change for several reasons. It can be to keep an account open for your age of accounts for your credit score. Or maybe to get a card that you wouldn't get otherwise because of a laughable signup bonus. When it comes to Citi cards, there's a couple of things to keep in mind when you decide to change to a different type of card. The first thing is that charges that are still going to the old card, will be transferred automatically to the new card, even though the card number changes. So if you have some recurring charges on the old card, you don't have to worry about switching your payment method. It also a reminder to not leave the card on recurring charges that you don't wish to pay, thinking that the card will be declined. The second thing is still about these charges that are automatically transferred to the new card. While the process is supposed to be automatic, there appears to be some kind of human interaction in the process, as reported on reddit. This means that it can bring attention to the charges on your card. If you have charges that you don't really prefer having Citi take a look at, you should avoid them if you think you might do a product change soon. The person in question was asked about these charges which Citi deemed not to be normal spend. The account was not shut down, but it could be different for others.
Conclusion

These might be things that most of you already know, but it is a good reminder for those looking at a product change option for their Citi cards.

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Finally! Southwest's Positive Change, Nail-biting Chase Ink Application & The World's Most Beautiful Streets

Roundup: Articles From Around the Web

Here are some posts from around the web that I thought you may find interesting.  Let me know if there is anything good I missed.  Email me anything awesome that you find, or write, at Mark@milestomemories.com.
Articles
Southwest Now Shows The Expiry Date For Travel Funds - Doctor of Credit
We have talked in the past about a trick that makes it easier to keep track of Southwest travel funds. It is sad that it took "the friendly airline" this long to do something their customers have been asking for forever.
The World's Most Beautiful Streets - CNN Travel

This was one of the few slideshow articles I didn't mind clicking through.

MY NAIL-BITING EXPERIENCE APPLYING FOR A CHASE INK BUSINESS CARD - Family Flys Free
I think everyone that applied for one of these offers had some uneasy days following the news of Chase shutdowns. Lesson learned, all applications, even black star offers will probably trigger an account review so think before applying for anything with Chase.
Conclusion
Which article did you find most interesting?  Remember to let me know of anything you come across that you want added into the next edition at Mark@milestomemories.com.
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How to Transfer Citi Cash Back to ThankYou Points: Step by Step Guide

How to Transfer Citi Cash Back to ThankYou Points

Citi made an awesome change to their Citi Double Cash card by adding the ability to transfer cash back to ThankYou points. The 2% cash back card already held a place in my wallet for general spend outside of bonus categories, but earning 2 ThankYou points per dollar is even better. But you need to know how to transfer Citi cash back to ThankYou points, which I want to walk through in this post. Citi isn't known for having excellent IT, and I still frequently run into random errors on their website. However, when I went to transfer my Citi cash back to ThankYou points, things went pretty seamlessly. It was the second step that caused me all the problems.
Transferring Citi Cash Back to ThankYou Points
To transfer your Citi Double Cash card cash back to ThankYou points, first log into your Citi online account. You should be taken to your dashboard, where you'll see the various accounts you currently have with Citi. In the sidebar you'll see a menu with the rewards available on each card. Clicking on 'View/Redeem Cash Rewards' for your Double Cash will take you to the screen where you can choose how to redeem your cash back. You want to newest option: "Convert to Points". This will open the pane for converting your cash back to ThankYou points. Click convert to points, and you'll see the following form: You can decide how much of your your Citi cash back you want to transfer to ThankYou points. The transfer ratio is $0.01 to 1 ThankYou point. You must also convert a minimum of $1.00 cash back to 100 ThankYou points. It can be any oddball number above that. Check the box to accept the terms, and then "Convert to Points". Voila. It's that easy to transfer Citi Double Cash card cash back to ThankYou points.
Transferring and Combining ThankYou Points Between Accounts
While it's quite easy to transfer Citi cash back to ThankYou points, I found it much harder to do anything useful with them. The ThankYou points that are associated with your Citi Double Cash card account have very limited uses. You can't transfer them to partners, like you can with a Citi Premier Card or Citi Prestige Card. Transferring points to an excellent partner like Turkish Airlines, Avianca LifeMiles, Etihad Guest, or any of the other airline programs is really what I want to do. This requires another step: combining or transferring ThankYou points between accounts. My first goal is to combine my ThankYou accounts.
How To Combine Your ThankYou Accounts
First, you need to head to your ThankYou account summary, which you can reach by clicking "Point Summary" from your credit card account landing page. Here you'll see each of your ThankYou accounts. I already find it annoying Citi doesn't lump rewards together like American Express. From there you need to use the sidebar under "Manage My Account", where you'll find "Combine My Accounts". Here I'd expected to be able to quickly and easily combine my accounts. However, only one would show up. Following the instructions above the form, I called Citi at 1-800-842-6596. After verifying some account information, I was quickly connected with a representative who was knowledgeable and able to quickly combine the accounts for me. You'll need at least one of your credit card numbers, and either the credit card number or ThankYou number on hand to provide to them. The issue for my accounts is that my phone phone number was different on one of the two accounts, and thus they couldn't be combined online. Doing it over the phone was fairly painless, and I soon saw that my Citi ThankYou accounts now had a single number. One important note: once your accounts are combined, apparently Citi has no way of separating them again. They are combined forever. I'm fine with this, and I can't really foresee a reason why you wouldn't want this, but I just want to call it out.
Conclusion
Because I'm without a Citi Prestige or Citi Premier card, the final step will actually be to transfer the miles to my wife and then into her Turkish account. However, most of you will probably be done at this point. It's easy to transfer Citi Double Cash card cash back to ThankYou points, which I will continue to do as I earn them. What's less easy is combining your ThankYou accounts, but luckily you only need to do this once.
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Can I Transfer Points to Someone Else? Here's A Guide For When You Can and Can't

Programs That Allow You To Transfer Points To Someone Else

"Can I transfer points to someone else?" is a common question, especially for beginners or when you're working with a new kind of points you're not familiar with yet. Wanting to transfer points or miles makes sense. Maybe you're short on what you need for a redemption. Or maybe you have status and want to make the bookings from your account to get extra benefits. There could be a dozen reasons, but the desire is the same. You want to pool your points together with friends or family, and everyone has a different policy. We'll examine when you can transfer points to someone else and what rules apply. We'll start with airlines, then hotels, and then end with credit card issuers.
Airline Programs That Allow You to Transfer Points
Yes, you can transfer points with nearly any airline program. However, we're not looking at picking up the phone and paying $100 to share miles with my wife on American Airlines. The major carriers in the U.S. all have high fees for sharing / pooling points with someone else, so let's look at better options. (Note: Of course, if you have enough miles, you can always make a booking in someone else's name from your points)
Aegean Airlines
Silver and Gold elite members of Aegan Airlines can create a Together account with up to 5 members. These people don't need any status of their own, and they can be anyone you choose. All miles pool into the head member's account, but each member earns status individually.
Aeromexico
Aeromexico's Family Program is only open to spouses and immediate children. However, transfers within the pool are unlimited and free of charge.
Air France
The Flying Blue Share & Fly program allows anyone with the American Express Flying Blue credit card to share miles with other authorized users on that card. The card isn't available in the U.S., but this may help some people.
ANA
The ANA Family account is only open to those outside Japan, which includes most of us I assume. You can pool with any relative within 2 degrees of kinship, and you can add up to 8 family members. The primary member pays 1,000 miles to start the pool.
Asiana Airlines
The Asiana Family Mileage Plan lets you share with a wide range of relatives (you can add up to 8 to your group), but you must prove relationship. In the pool, your own miles are used first and then the other people’s points will cover the gap if you're short on the points required for the booking.
Aliltalia
Alitalia's MilleMiglia Family Programme allows parents to receive their children's miles directly into their account. Children can get an account at age 2, and this applies until age 13. At age 14, the account becomes independent, and children can even earn perks and bonus miles for their individualized account at age 14.
British Airways
British Airways allows you to set up a household account. You can add up to 6 people, but they all must live at the same address. From there, you can share points and make bookings using the points in the pool for any members of the pool. If you're making a booking for someone who isn't in the pool, you can add up to 5 friends that you can redeem pooled points for as well that are not in the household account.
Egypt Air
Egypt Air's Family Miles program allows for pooling by up to 6 immediate family members. The head member receives all earned miles from the group. A key distinction in this program is that the activities of the group work together to help the head member earn status, which can then be shared with other members for upgrades, etc.
Emirates
The Emirates My Family program lets you add up to 8 members. This includes your grandparents/grandchildren and in-laws, and you can even add your “Domestic Helper”. The Family Head creates the account, and each member chooses how many points to contribute. Only the Family Head can make a redemption from the pool.
Etihad
Etihad's Family Joining allows for up to 8 members. You still earn your own status from your own activities, but points go into a pool in the Family Head member's account.
Frontier Airlines
Frontier Airlines has Family Pooling but no longer insists that it be used for family. You can have any 8 members you want in your pool. However, you can only create a pool if the head member has elite status or has the Barclays Frontier Airlines World Mastercard.
Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian Miles has a ShareMiles program available for sharing points between members who each have their own Hawaiian Airlines credit card. For these members, there is no limit on the number of points to be shared, but there is a maximum of 10 shares per year. The minimum transfer is 2,000 miles.
JAL
Like ANA, the JAL Family Club is only open to those outside Japan. You can add up to 9 members to your family pool. Eligible members are spouse, parent, in-law, child, and spouse of a child. It costs 1,000 miles to start the pool, any changes to members will cost another 1k, and you pay 1k miles every 5 years to keep the group active.
Jet Airways
India's Jet Airways created the MyFamily+ program that allows for points pooling with up to 8 immediate family members. There are online steps and then a verification phone call to set up the pool. However, with their insolvency process opening recently, it's unclear how/if this might exist in the future.
Jet Blue
Jet Blue Points Pooling lets you create a pool of 2-7 people. These can be anyone you want, and all members put 100% of their points into the pool. The Pool Leader must be over 21 and can adjust other members' privileges. A nice perk is that you can leave the pool and take your own miles with you whenever you want.
Korean Air
The Korean Family Plan allows for pooling between 5 members. 100% of the points in each person's account will go into the pool, and you must be able to prove your relationship to that person from a list of eligible family members.
Lufthansa
Lufthansa's Mileage Pooling sounds good, but there is a catch. You can create a pool of 2 adults and 5 kids, and it's not restricted to immediate family members. Only the adults can redeem from the pool, and this sounds decent. The catch? It's only open to residents of Germany, Austria & Switzerland.
Norwegian
The Norwegian CashPoints Family Account lets any 7 people pool points, so it's super flexible. Any member who joins a pool must remain a member for 3 months minimum before leaving or joining another pool.
Qantas
The Qantas Family Transfer program has a wide range of who counts as family. You can add any of those people to your family group and share points with them. There's a minimum transfer of 5,000 points and a maximum of 600,000 per transfer. You can make as many transfers as you want in a year, until you reach that 600,000 miles limit.
Qatar Airways
Qatar Airways' Family Programme allows up to 9 family members to join a pool. This includes your parents and children, plus your spouse. After joining a pool, members can't leave or join another pool for 24 months. All miles go into the main member's account, but each member earns status individually. Documents to prove your relationship are required.
Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines' Miles & Smiles has a Family Membership program available for those with Classic Plus elite status or above (equivalent to silver on most airlines). The head member, spouse, and unmarried children under age 25 can pool miles. Each member still earns their own status as normal.
Virgin Atlantic
The Virgin Atlantic Household Account lets members with Gold status create a household account for anyone at the same address to join. There is a maximum of 9 people. Members of the pool earn their own status, but all miles go into the head account.
Virgin Australia
Virgin Australia's Family Pooling allows for up to 2 adults and up to 4 kids. All members of the pool must have the same address on their account. Special note: you can pool miles and status credits, which is unique to this program.
Hotel Programs That Allow You to Transfer Points

Transferring points in hotel programs runs the entire gamut from "easy as pie" to "no way would I ever consider this". With the majority of hotel programs, you can transfer points to someone else. The differences are in the limits and restrictions.

Hilton
Hilton allows for creating a group pool of up to 10 members. You can send up to 500,000 points into the pool and can receive up to a whopping 2 million.
Hyatt
Hyatt takes the cake for flexibility. All you need to do is email this form after the sender & recipient fill it out. You can share with any World of Hyatt member at all. You can share an unlimited number of points, also. The only restriction is that you can only participate in a share every 30 days.
IHG
No way would I ever pool points with IHG outside of an emergency. Sharing costs $5 per 1000 points. There are no limits on the number of points you can share.
Marriott
Marriott makes this more difficult than it needs to be. First, it can't be done online in any way. You will need to call (801) 468-4000 to get this done. You can send up to 50,000 points at a time to another member. There's also a yearly cap of sending out 100,000 points from your account. You're also limited to receiving 500,000 points in a year from other members. Both sender and recipient accounts must have been open 60 days OR must have stay activities on their accounts.
Radisson
Sharing points with Radisson isn't the easiest, but it can be done. You'll need to call (888) 288-8889. Both accounts must have the same address, which can’t be a recent change. The accounts both must be more than 1 year old, and transfers can take 72 hours
Credit Card Issuers That Allow You to Transfer Points

Banks and credit card issuers have their own set of rules about whether you can transfer points to someone. Here, we're only looking at transferrable currencies, meaning you can use them outside of the bank / card issuer for things like sending your points to an airline partner.

American Express
American Express does NOT allow you to transfer your Membership Rewards to other users. However, you can send your points to another person's airline or hotel account, as long as that person is an Authorized User on one of your MR-earning cards. This person must be an Authorized User for 90+ days on the card for this to be allowed.
Capital One
Sharing your Venture Miles or Spark Miles is not streamlined yet for Capital One. It is free, which is nice. Sharing between your own accounts is really simple, but you usually need a call to share with someone else. Note that you can't share between Spark Cash and Spark Miles.
Chase
Chase allows for sharing your Ultimate Rewards points with anyone at your same household. You both must have a UR-earning card to do this (ex: if all you have is a United card, which doesn't earn Ultimate Rewards, you can't receive UR transfers from someone). Additionally, if you have a business account, you can transfer your Ultimate Rewards to a hotel or airline account of a co-owner of your business, as long as that person is listed on the business card account.
Citi
Citi is really flexible on sharing ThankYou Points: you can share with anyone. The only limit is sending or receiving 100,000 points in a year. The real kicker is that shared points are only valid for 90 days after the share. This makes them only valid for sharing for a booking you want to make soon. Don't share until ready to make a booking.
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo allows for sharing your Go Far rewards points with anyone. There are no restrictions. You can gift your points to someone else's account or create a pool together. While not a popular currency, the program is flexible when you want to transfer points to someone else.
Final Thoughts
The answer to whether you can transfer points to someone else is all over the place. I was surprised by several of the airline policies I found when researching this article. I was unfamiliar with several of them, and there are good options out there for many airlines. The caveat to that is that most people in his hobby probably aren't earning and storing miles in many of these programs, preferring transferable currencies like Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards or earning miles from a partner when flying on an airline you don't use much. It's good to know what options are out there. You don't know when the opportunity for using it might come around.
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(Offer Extended) Save 20% on Amazon with Amex Points, up to $50 in Savings

Save 20% on Amazon with Amex Points

Amazon has two new promotions that can save you 20% on your purchases. All you need to do is use at least one American Express Membership Rewards point. These are targeted promotions, but looks like many people are able to activate the offers. Let's take a look at the two offers.

The offer has been extended till 12/31/19
Two Targeted Amex/Amazon Offers
If you are targeted you will receive one of the two offers below. Most of the MtM team has received the $20 off $100 offer. Make sure to let us know which one you get in the comments.
Check Your Offer
Offer 1 Details: 20% off with American Express Membership Rewards. Maximum discount of $50. Offer 2 Details: Get $20 off with American Express Membership Rewards. Minimum purchase of $100.
Check If You Are Targeted
Key Terms
  • This is a limited offer. The promotion will end on the earlier of (a) 11:59 PT on 12/31/2019, or (b) the time at which offers worth $5,000,000 have been redeemed.
  • The promotion code will expire concurrently. Amazon.com reserves the right to cancel or modify this offer at any time.
  • Offer is available by invitation only, is non-transferable, is not redeemable for cash, and may not be resold.
  • Offer applies only to the purchase where Membership Rewards points are used for at least a portion of the purchase and the promotion code is applied at checkout.
  • Offer only applies to products sold by Amazon.com (Look for “sold by Amazon Digital Services LLC” on the product detail page.) Products sold by third-party sellers or other Amazon entities will not qualify for this offer, even if “fulfilled by Amazon.com” or “Prime Eligible”.
  • Limit one promotion code per Membership Rewards eligible card.
  • Offer may not be combined with other offers.
  • Shipping charges may apply to discounted promotional items.
  • Offer does not apply to purchase of digital content.
  • If any of the products related to your original order are returned, subject to Amazon’s refund policy, you will receive a refund of the amount charged to your card first, followed by Membership Rewards points.
  • Promotional codes (including those placed directly in accounts) may not be redeemed for Amazon Gift Cards.
  • This promotion is available only to Amazon.com customers with an eligible Membership Rewards points card issued in United States.
  • Promotional credit is applied before taxes and fees.
  • If you violate any of these terms, the offer will be invalid.
List of Currently Ongoing Amazon Deals
Conclusion
We see these offers from time to time. Looks like more people are eligible this time. Should come in handy for your holiday shopping. Let us know if you are eligible. HT: DansDeals
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Save $10 When You Spend $50 on Toys & More on Amazon

Save $10 When You Spend $50 on Toys & More on Amazon

Amazon has a promotion that can save you $10 when you buy toys, games etc. The promotion is for items included in the promotion section and sold by Amazon.

Offer

Limited-time offer Save $10 when you spend $50. Offered by Amazon.com.

PROMOTION PAGE
Key Terms
  • Offer only applies to products sold by Amazon.com or Amazon Digital Services LLC (look for "sold by Amazon.com" or "sold by Amazon Digital Services LLC" on the product detail page).
  • Products sold by third-party sellers or other Amazon entities will not qualify for this offer, even if "fulfilled by Amazon.com" or "Prime Eligible".
  • Offer does not apply to digital content.
  • Items must be purchased in a single order and shipped at the same speed to a single address.
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eBay Bucks Promo – Get 8% Back on $25+ Purchases [YMMV]

eBay Bucks Promo

eBay has a new promotion that will net you some good savings for your holiday shopping. You can earn 8% back on most purchases made on eBay. Let's look at the details. RELATED: eBay Buyers Be Scamming!
Details
Promotion Page

The details are as follows:

  • 8% in eBay Bucks on every qualifying item of $25 or more
  • Targeted offer
  • The promotion runs until 11:59PM PT on December 11, 2019
  • Rewards are capped at $100 per transaction and $500 per Earn Period
Check If You Are Targeted
Conclusion
A good offer that doesn’t have many exclusions, besides the usual stuff such as gift cards. Make sure to use a card that earns a good rate on non bonus spend like the Blue Business Plus.  Let me know if you find anything worth buying in the comments section.
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New Delta Vacations Promo, Get 20% More Value plus up to $350 Off

New Delta Vacations Promo

Delta Vacations recently had an amazing promotion. The offer gave you double the value for your miles. Hopefully you already have some trip planned with that. But there is a new promotion that can get you 20% more value for your points, plus discounts of up to $350. let's take a look.
The Offer
For this week only, get 20% more for your miles, plus choose up to $350 off (code SMCHOICEA) or up to 35K bonus miles (code SMCHOICEB) for travel anywhere in the world you want to go, anytime. Here's how the discount works:
  • $75 off or 7,500 miles on bookings of $1,500-$2,999
  • $150 off or 15,000 miles on bookings of $3,000-$4,999
  • $250 off or 25,000 miles on bookings of $5,000-$6,999
  • $350 off or 35,000 miles on bookings of $7,000 or more

Purchase any Delta Vacations flight and hotel package from any Delta Vacations origin in the U.S. or Canada to any Delta Vacations destination, December 9 – 14, 2019, for travel anytime.

PROMO PAGE
Key Terms for 20% More Mileage
  • Minimum 2-night hotel stay required.
  • Offer is redeemable up to 999,999 miles on flight and hotel packages to any Delta Vacations destination.
  • Delta Vacations air reservations may be made up to 331 days in advance of flight departure.
  • Delta Vacations must issue all airline tickets.
  • Offer is not valid with gift cards, Ski packages, Dive packages, Globus family of brands including Globus, Cosmos, Monograms, and Avalon, other discounts or special status fares (such as companion, agency/industry discount, web fares, senior fares child rates), for groups of 10 or more.
  • Only one SkyMiles® account number allowed per reservation.
  • See more details in offer page.
Key Terms for $350/35K Miles
  • Minimum 2-night hotel stay at a Delta Vacations property required.
  • Minimum package purchase of $1,500 per booking is required. Package purchase includes flight and hotel; or flight, hotel and car rental, plus any optional activities.
  • Maximum discount is $350 off per booking or 35,000 bonus miles.
  • Please allow 6-8 weeks after completion of your Delta Vacations stay for the miles to be posted to your account.
  • Offer is not applicable to airfare; Ski, Dive or Globus family of brands including Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and Avalon packages; for groups of 10 or more people; and is not retroactive.
  • See more details in offer page.
Conclusion

Not as good as that promotion back in August. But this could still be a good opportunity to redeem Delta SkyMiles, especially for those who already have a large stash. But with the right deal, even transferring Amex Membership Rewards points (there’s a fee) could make sense. With Delta Vacations booking you sometimes get a cheaper flight than booking an award flight alone. So it’s definitely worth looking and playing around with dates and destinations. Plus these flights are booked as paid fares so you will earn both redeemable SkyMiles and Medallion Qualification Miles. Let us know if you book anything through this Delta Vacations promo. HT: Eric in our Facebook Group

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One Day Only, Earn up to 12x on Apple Purchases Through Shopping Portals

12x on Apple Purchases

If you shop online using shopping portals is a great way to get extra discounts. And if you are in the market for Apple devices, today you can get an increased miles/dollar earn rate on several shopping portals. This is for One Day Only – December 9th, 2019.

Key Terms
  • Valid December 9th, 2019 only.
  • See program sites for specific terms and product eligibility.
Conclusion

A good day to do your shopping for Apple devices. You can earn up to 12x for your purchases or you can choose one of the airline portals depending on how much you value miles.

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Make $$$ & Rack Up Ultimate Rewards – $15 Off Office Depot/Max Deal!

Office Depot Mastercard Gift Card Deal

Office Depot/OfficeMax has a new promotion on Mastercard gift cards. This is a profitable deal that allows you to make money and rack up Ultimate Rewards points. It wasn't printed in the weekly ad, but you should see it advertised in stores. Let's look at the details.

The Offer
  • Buy $300 or more in select Mastercards, save $15 instantly.
Key Terms
  • Limit one (1) offer per customer.
  • Discount applied at register.
  • Offer valid 12/8/19 through 12/14/19
  • Offer valid in store on Mastercard gift cards only.
While the limit of 1 is probably hard-coded into the register, some stores will allow you to do multiple transactions. This varies from store to store and even sometimes from cashier to cashier!
The Math

You can purchase $200 Mastercard gift cards with a $6.95 fee. Generally the best option is to purchase 2 of the $200 Mastercard gift cards. When doing so, the math works out like this:

  • Cost of cards: $413.90
  • Minus instant rebate: -$15
  • Final cost: $398.90
  • Profit: $1.10
Maximize
It is best to pay with a card that earns 5X at office supply stores such as a Chase Ink Cash/Plus. For example, a Chase Ink card would earn 1,995 Ultimate Rewards points. Alternatively, an American Express SimplyCash Plus which earns 5% cashback at office supply stores would earn you $19.95 cashback. But might be best to steer clear of gift card purchases with Amex cards.
Liquidating
Mastercard gift cards come with more issues than Visa gift cards and are harder to liquidate.  Make sure you have a use for them before purchasing. For more detailed information on liquidating these cards, see: How To Liquidate Prepaid Visa & Mastercard Gift Cards
Conclusion
Mastercard gift cards are tricky but if you know how to handle them this is still a good way to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards and make a small profit. Go early in the week as $200 denominations usually start running out later on, depending on your location. Hat Tip – DoC
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Visit Beer City USA, Almost Perfect Day At CocoCay & Kansas City Gives Free Public Transportation

Roundup: Articles From Around the Web

Here are some posts from around the web that I thought you may find interesting.  Let me know if there is anything good I missed.  Email me anything awesome that you find, or write, at Mark@milestomemories.com.
Articles
MY (ALMOST) PERFECT DAY AT COCOCAY - Miles for Family
Even though I have never been "cruising" I know these islands are a big draw for some cruise lines.  I have always been interested to see if they are as cool as they look on the commercials.  Leana gives her thoughts on her recent visit to CocoCay.
KANSAS CITY CHOOSES FREE PUBLIC TRANSIT - The Appeal

This is very cool.  Free public transportation helps the people that need it the most, the underprivileged. I do wish more large US cities had more of a public transportation set up though, even if not free. It is also a large cost that the government needs to figure out how to cover, that should be interesting to watch play out.

Grand Rapids: A Hotspot for Beverage Tourism - Travel Pulse

Grand Rapids is a pretty cool city and is the 2nd largest city in Michigan, a fact many people don't know.  It has a young and hip vibe but it is really known for craft breweries.  It is called Beer City for a reason.  If you are into craft beer then you should add it to your list.

Conclusion
Which article did you find most interesting?  Remember to let me know of anything you come across that you want added into the next edition at Mark@milestomemories.com.
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United Premier Qualification Changes: Earn Status Even Cheaper Than Before!

United Premier Qualification Changes in 2020

With a new year nearly upon us, most frequent fliers have locked in their elite status for 2020 at this point. For the past several years, all three major U.S. carriers have had roughly the same qualification requirements of both fare spend and flight miles/segments. But things are changing over at United. The 2020 United Premier qualification changes represent a substantial departure from other programs. In this post I cover the upcoming changes, the winners and losers under the new Premier requirements, and a way to actually earn United status more easily than before.
2020 United Premier Qualification Changes
United made waves in October when they announced substantial changes to the way frequent fliers earn Premier status in their loyalty program. Previously, United tracked Premier Qualifying Miles (and Segments) and Premier Qualifying Dollars. Each elite status level required a certain threshold to be met for both. These requirements are being replaced by Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs) and Premier Qualifying Flights (PQFs). These changes are pretty drastic. For one, Premier Qualifying Miles disappear entirely. No longer will you need to worry at all about how far you fly. This is the strangest part to me, as most other elite programs track your flown miles. Here are the new qualification requirements under the PQP and PQF system starting in 2020: Flights and points. These are the only two things that will matter. And what matters most is really the points, as you can qualify solely on these. Calculating PQPs is simple for United tickets: you earn 1 PQP per dollar spent on the fare, excluding taxes. The move to Premier Qualifying Points put the bulk of the focus on how much you spend with United rather than how much you fly. We've seen United (and other airlines) move more and more toward revenue-based award programs, so it really shouldn't be surprised that they want to reward those who spend the most money with them.
The quick notes on the differences between the old and new systems:
  • Premier Qualifying Flights roughly replace Premier Qualifying Segments and Miles, although they are obviously analogous to segments.
  • Flown miles no longer matter at all (as only flight segments are counted). A short DCA-EWR hop receives the same flight credit as a LAX-SIN long-haul.
  • Spend is what matters most. Premier Qualifying Points are analogous to the old premier qualifying dollars requirement. However, you now you can qualify only by these.
  • Basic economy flights no longer earn any flight credit. They used to earn 0.5 segment per actual flown segment, but now they earn only PQPs based on the purchased fare.
My guess is that United was going for a simpler system, but I don't think they succeeded. For example, they wrote that "a flight is a flight", yet basic economy fares do not qualify as a flight. The details of how United credits partner flights to PQPs are also confusing. This is the really big difference among the 2020 United Premier Qualification Changes, and what I want to focus on. It opens up the door to earning United elite status for much less.
The New Strategy: Using Partner Flights
Beginning next year, the credit earned by partner flights will change substantially. Under the old program, partner flights never earn PQDs. They earned Premier Qualifying Miles based on flown miles, but their was no spend credit. You had to spend money on flights ticketed by United to earn spend credit. This always bugged me. Both Delta and American allow you to earn spend credit from partner flights in their respective programs. Specific partners and partner flights have often been a great avenue of more quickly earning status. Now United will allow partner flights to earn PQP credit, which is the analog of the elite dollars requirement of other airlines. PQPs for partner flights are earned as a percentage of redeemable miles flown. The redeemable miles earned on partner flights are a function of the fare class and miles flown. If you don't like math, you're missing out you might want to tune out now. Calculating PQPs from United flights is easy, but for partners, it is a multi-step process:
  • Figure out the airline and booking class, and sometimes the region/country of travel, for your ticket. You'll need each of these details.
  • Check out this page of airline partners to search for the redeemable mileage credit for your partner flight.
  • Calculate the number of miles flown. If the fare class isn't the same for all segments, take that into account and calculate the segments in each class/partner separately. My favorite tool is MileCalc.
  • Multiply the flown miles by the % credit based on the fare class.

Now you'll have the number of redeemable miles earned for your partner flight. From here you need to divide by either 5 or 6 to determine the number of PQPs for your partner flight. Why? Because math is fun!

Preferred Versus Non-Preferred Partners
The difference in PQP credit varies only slightly by partner. I'm honestly not sure why United did this, other than to make things more confusing. You have to refer to this list to know which airlines are preferred partners and which are not. Some of the preferred partners surprise me (seriously, Air China and Eurowings over Singapore??). But in general you have the Lufthansa Group, plus a handful of others that will earn slightly higher PDP credit. The difference is minimal, however. Divide by 5 won't get you all that different a result than divide by 6. In general, I'd look for fares that provide the most PQP value for dollars spent. These will usually be the cheapest long-haul flights. You also need to take into consideration the percentage of flown miles earned, which also means that premium cabins can earn a significantly higher number of PQPs (as they often credit 100% to 200% of flown miles as redeemable miles). Now let's take a look at a few examples of some of the best fares for earning elite status after the 2020 United Premier Qualification Changes take effect.
The Premium Economy Sweet Spot
When I realized the huge PQP potential for long-haul partner fares, I instantly wanted to see how the longest flight in the world stacks up. Singapore Airlines offers service between Newark and Singapore, which is 19,070 flown miles round-trip. A round-trip can often cost ~$1,200. I'm seeing prices of $1,183 as the lowest on the calendar. But I went looking for even more potential, eventually settling on EWR-SIN-MNL as the best ticket. It is a hair less at $1,129 and even more flown miles. [caption id="attachment_72218" align="aligncenter" width="892"] Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.[/caption]
This fare would earn four PQFs for the round-trip and PQPs according to the following:
  • Flown miles: 21,982 round-trip (9,515 per long-haul leg, 1,476 per short-haul leg)
  • Singapore Airlines R-class for premium economy: 100% flown miles as award miles
  • Singapore Airline E-class for economy: 75% flown miles as award miles
  • Total award miles: 21,244
  • Total PQPs (award miles / 6): 3,540
This is an amazing return on your spend. An $1,129 ticket booked with United would earn less than 1,129 PQP. With this partner ticket, you're getting over 3.1x the number of PQP per dollar spent! Two more United round-trips (with a connection each way), and you're sitting at Silver Premier for less than half the typical cost. Another option is an EVA Airways premium economy ticket from SFO. You can fly to Jakarta with a connection in Taipei for $1,121 round-trip in premium economy. The fare classes are P (discount premium economy) and B (full fare economy), both of which earn 100% flown miles. The trip is a total of 17,648 flown miles. This means you'd earn 17,648 redeemable miles and 2,941 PQPs. Not quite as good as the previous Singapore ticket, but an excellent option for West Coast folks.
Leveraging Business Class Sales

If you can find a cheap fare, business class can also be an excellent way to earn a significant number of PQPs. In particular, if you can ever find a great deal on an Air Canada business class fare, all tickets earn 200% flown miles as PQPs, which is a huge boost. I found a reasonable ticket from Los Angeles to Copenhagen for $2,060 in business class flying Air Canada on the outbound and Austrian Airlines on the inbound. The fare code is P-class for all segments, which means that the Air Canada segments will earn 200% flown miles as PQPs while the Austrian Airlines segments will earn just 100%. Still, it is a significant boost. Doing the math for the 12,724-mile trek (remembering that both Air Canada and Austrian are preferred partners), you'll earn 3,769 PQP for the itinerary. Not as great a multiplier, but still an excellent deal. If this was all flying Air Canada via YYZ, the PQP earnings would increase to 4,865 for the trip.

Even Some Economy Flights Are Fantastic Options
I've been eyeing a fairly common Air Canada fare sale that I've notice happens between the U.S. and China. You can often score a ticket for ~$350 from the Bay Area (cheapest is usually SJC) and Shanghai. Besides being very interested in visiting China again, this flight has the potential to actually earn you more Premier credit than if you bought a similar flight through United. An itinerary from San Jose to Shanghai via Vancouver is being sold for just $329 at time of writing, which is an incredible deal. It is a "deep discount economy" international K-class fare, earning 50% flown miles as redeemable miles. The itinerary is ~12,850 miles round-trip. You'd earn ~6,425 redeemable miles, worth over $100 by my estimation, which is an excellent return in its own right. But it gets better. Dividing the redeemable miles by 5 (as Air Canada is a preferred partner), the flight will earn at least 1,285 PQPs. This is far more than you would earn by purchasing a $329 fare through United. Three of these trips, and you would be nearly to United Premier Silver, spending less than $1,000. You would also be very tired of an Air Canada 787.
Winners and Losers Under the New Requirements
For anyone who tended to book United partner flights and credit them to MileagePlus, they are absolutely the winners. Discount long-haul tickets in essentially any class will generally earn more PQP than a similar-priced United flight. If this is you, these changes are almost overwhelmingly good. If you book a lot of cheap domestic United fares, you'll probably fare worse under the new system. The downside is that the qualification requirements (in terms of sheer dollars) have increased. Silver now requires 4,000 PQP. Treating these like PQD, this is essentially an increase of $1,000 in spend for status. Ditto for the other elite levels, which are all more expensive. If I was a business traveler flying United domestically, I might go through my 2019 flights to see where I might stack up for 2020. If this puts you a status tier below where you are now, it might be time to change your loyalty.
Final Thoughts on the 2020 United Premier Qualification Changes
Chasing airline elite status is not something I typically do. I leveraged the Delta Medallion Qualifying Miles boost to earn Platinum status for all of 2019, which really paid off. But aside from that, and a couple other status matches or flukes, I've not been on the status hamster wheel. In my opinion, spending a ton of money chasing status is typically not worth it. That being said, I see no problem carefully planning your travels through the year to set yourself up to earn elite status. Even if may cost a bit more, the perks can be well worth it. But I'm talking like $100s versus $1,000s spent, and you better be hitting top tier, or near-top tier status. In any case, I hope this post illustrates how you can leverage the new United Premier qualification changes to your advantage. The moderate United flyer is the loser in this game, while the occasional person who books a Star Alliance premium cabin is the definitive winner.
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Why The Companion Pass Is Getting A Hard Pass From Me

Why The Companion Pass Is Getting A Hard Pass From Me

There is no doubt that the Southwest Companion pass is a favorite perk of the miles & points community.  It is probably the most lucrative domestic travel perk out there.  Having said that the Companion Pass is getting a hard pass from me this time around.
What Is The Companion Pass?
Before we get ahead of ourselves I should explain what the Companion Pass (CP) is. The CP allows you to designate a traveler to fly with you for free on Southwest (you still must pay the taxes and fees for the companion). You can change your companion 3 times in a calendar year, which gives you a lot of flexibility. The best part is that this works for award flights or paid flights. And if you time it right you can earn the Companion Pass for essentially 24 months. The perfect time for that opportunity is now. It is a truly magnificent program, it is just not for me right now.
How Do You Earn The Companions Pass?
One more thing we should discuss before we talk about why I am giving the Companion Pass a hard pass.  That is, how do you earn this magical carpet ride of free flights with friends? To qualify for a companion pass, you can fly 100 qualifying one-way flights or earn 125,000 qualifying points in a calendar year. You’ll earn the Companion Pass for the following full calendar year, plus the remainder of the year in which you earned it. It is possible to earn it for close to 24 months if you time it right.  Taking 100 flights is not feasible for people who don’t travel for work.  Earning 125,000 Rapid Rewards points is a tall task too but there is a workaround. Credit card welcome offers count towards the 125,000 points needed. You can apply for a Southwest personal card, like the Southwest Plus, and a business card, like the Southwest Performance Business card, and that can earn you over 125,000 Rapid Rewards points. If you are unable to get a business card there are other ways to earn points to reach the 125,000 point threshold.  You can pair these earning methods with a personal card welcome offer.  Here is a list of other earning methods that work towards the 125,000 point total.
  • Flying – earn 6 points per dollar on wanna get away fares
  • Use your Southwest credit card for 1 point per dollar.  This is only advisable if you are shooting for a companion pass.
  • Use the Rapid Rewards shopping portal
  • Use the Rapid Rewards dining club
  • Booking hotels or car rentals on Southwest.com
  • Credit card referral points (up to 10,000 points per referral)
  • Credit card anniversary bonus points (3,000-7,500 points per year depending on card)
  • Some Rocketmiles bookings count as well
You can see my whole breakdown of the Companion Pass and some tips when using it here.
Wait, So Why Is The Companion Pass A Hard Pass?
This sounds great and I have admitted that it is amazing value, the most valuable thing in domestic travel actually.  So why am I giving it a pass? Is it because it has become harder to earn with the Southwest family card rule? No. It must be because Southwest recently increased the earning requirements from 110,000 Rapid Rewards points to 125,000 RR points?  That isn't it either. With increased welcome offers the increase doesn't change the strategy at all. Aha it is because you are over Chase 5/24 and you can't get the offers needed to make it work?  That was true up until now, but that isn't the case for my family anymore. It is because you are a snob and only want to fly internationally, right?  I actually travel a ton more domestically than I do internationally. Plus there are actually a few decent international destinations on Southwest's route map so that isn't it.
There Are Three Reasons I Am Passing On The Companion Pass.

The concerns listed above are all legit concerns but there are three main reasons I am giving the Companion Pass the deuces this time around.

Their Route Map Blows (For Me)

The first issue I have is that Southwest's route network out of Detroit is pretty terrible.  We have almost no direct flights out of DTW.  And even for the routes that we do have non stop flights they are sometimes limited to one or two flights per day.  While Southwest's Companion Pass could save me money on flights with my family they will also often take me quite a bit longer to reach my destination.  I don't want to have to stop in Atlanta with a 2 hour layover on the way to Orlando (which is a 2 hour direct flight normally). I got into miles and points to travel better.  That doesn't mean lie flat and caviar everywhere. It means that I can fly at better times or on direct flights instead of connecting.  Flying the most direct route all the time is being #bougieAF in my world.  Time is the most valuable thing to me right now and miles and points allow me to have more of it at my destination.  Sadly Southwest does not.

They Are Not That Cheap 
I have noticed more and more when I search Southwest that they just are not competitive.  They want me to fly a connecting flight AND pay more to do it?! No thanks. Sure when you take into account that you would only be paying for one of the two tickets that would make it cheaper. But that value is diminished when the flights are already 20%-30% more expensive. This is what I have noticed out of Detroit. If you live near a Southwest hub like Baltimore etc. then this wouldn't be the case for you. In Detroit Spirit blows their pricing out of the water most of the time and that includes me getting a Big Front Seat.  To be honest they are often around the same price as Delta or American out of Detroit. Plus American or Delta is often giving me a direct flight versus a connection with Southwest.
It Would Be My Wife Earning The Companion Pass
My wife is the one dropping under Chase 5/24 this month. I had originally thought I would just have her earn the Companion Pass with my new found 5/24 freedom.  That is the party line after all!  But the more I thought about it the more I realized this doesn't really work for us. She doesn't travel as much as I do so the Companion Pass' value would be a lot less useful in that scenario.  And it would make us fly less convenient routes on the trips we did take, which does not earn me any wife points (which are the most valuable points by far). I plan on getting her a Chase Ink Preferred and a Chase Sapphire Preferred instead.  If you are wondering why the CSP instead of the Chase Sapphire Reserve I have shared my thinking on that in the past. Essentially the best play is to get the Preferred and then upgrade it to the Reserve after the first year.
Final Thoughts
For all of the reasons listed above I can not in good conscience get a Companion Pass.  My wife being the one earning it is a big part of the story. I would be able to use it twice as much if not more if I was earning it. But Southwest's route network out of Detroit is the bigger issue. It is just not convenient to fly Southwest out of my airport and convenience is the number one perk of miles & points, at least in my opinion.  I even talked about the darkside of the Companion Pass in the past.  My buddy was routinely sacrificing convenience to save a few points with his CP. I wanted to share this thinking with you so that you see this isn't a one size fits all game.  Just because a deal is a great deal for most people doesn't mean it is good for you.  Get away from the group think and crunch the numbers for yourself and do what is best for you.  The Companion Pass is a great deal for most people, but it wasn't for me this time around.
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