The inevitable question I get everytime I talk about my trip is "How did you get all of those points?!" Everybody is so excited to get on the plane that they forget to stop and consider, "is that really the trip for me?" Now honestly, who would not want to take a 2.5 week around the world, staying in luxury hotels, and flying in business class? But the way the points game is played today, it is more about chess than it is about checkers. Rumor has it that Chase has started to screen for "travel hackers" and will disapprove applications for a new card for anybody that has applied for 5 or more cards in the last 2 years! So before you jump into this game, you need to consider which cards will be best for you**.
Unfortunately for you, I am not the guy that will give you every option. Do a quick search and you will find several very worthy blogs that will give you ALL the info you could ever want. However, lucky for you I do care about quality, so I will tell you about the cards that I have and why they worked for me.
Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa (Premier):
This is my primary card because as much as I love international travel, I rarely have the time off to make it worth while. With 52 weekends in the year however, I do squeeze in many quick domestic trips. Many good memories can be squeezed in during a 2-3 day weekend, even from LA to NYC. The beauty about Southwest is that they offer the Companion Pass, which means when the primary account holder flies, their designated companion flies for free. It does not matter if you are flying on dollars or on points, as long as the primary person is flying the companion is free.
No matter what flight you take it automatically becomes 50% off when you have your companion with you. Every flight you take instantly becomes worth it! LA to NYC $800 RT? For two people, it is not that bad... Obviously the advantages of the Companion Pass lean towards married couples and people in a long term dedicated relationship, but for you single people... you can change your companion up to 3x a year. So if you can hang on to someone for a fiscal quarter, it may still be worth it if you take at least one trip a month.
Acheiving Companion Pass status is a challenge (earn 110k points or fly 100 flights) and your best opportunity is to do it the first year you have the card with signing bonus points. The neat thing about Companion Pass is that once you achieve it, it is valid for the remainder of the current calendar year and all through the next. One strategy that people have done is sign-up for the Premier and non-Premier cards (totally allowable) early in the year, and then focus their spending (or do Manufactured Spending; a topic for another day) to get to the 110k early in the year. For anyone with a house and family you could probably work your way there through out the year. There are opportunities to earn multiple points per dollar spent i.e. tickets on Southwest, rentals/reservations with their travel partners, or my favorite way using the Rapid Rewards Shopping Mall.
If you have ever used a site like E-bates.com, the Rapid Rewards Shopping Mall works in the same way; except instead of earning cash back you get points. You log into the Rapid Rewards Shopping site, find the merchant you want and then make your purchase normally. The points you earn will be based on the amount purchased and the Rapid Rewards site will usually give you a multiplying factor. Occassionally they will send out emails about merchants that are offering double the normal factor, or 10x, etc. Another great thing about the Rapid Rewards Shopping site is that they do not require that you complete your purchase with the SW Visa; you can pay via any method that works for you (which opens up a whole other strategy that I will talk about later).
*** If you are interested in applying for this card, hit me up for a referral link, you'll get 50k bonus points after spending $2k in 3 months ***
Chase Ink:
This is officially a business credit card. If you're concerned about the business aspect, let me just say that if you own ANY business you can apply for this card. I rent out a room in my house, that's a business. You do freelance artwork on the side? That's a business. You cut your neighbors lawn when they are out of town... what are you 12? That's a business. Meeting the qualifications for a business is not hard, they did not say a successful or profitable business, just a business.
The Chase Ink gives you points towards Chase Ultimate Rewards, which allows you to transfer those points (usually for free) to other rewards systems like Rapid Rewards (Southwest), United (Star Alliance), etc. They also have their own travel site where you can book directly through them and get 20% off the points price. This is one of the most flexible rewards programs and the ability to transfer to another rewards program is great!
A unique thing about the Chase Ink is that it gives you 5x for any amount spent in an office supply store, cellphone, internet, and cable. This is great for those regular recurring bills, you just set those accounts to autopay onto this card. The real bonus though is that office supply store perk. You may not normally buy anything from Office Depot or Staples, but they do sell gift cards for other places (Amazon, Macy's, Starbucks, etc.) So if you know you are about to make a purchase there, it behooves you to stock up on a few gift cards on your way to the store (in another post I will talk about combining this with the Rapids Rewards Mall to max out your points).
The Chase Ink also gives you 2x points for all gas purchases, so I keep this one handy in my car.
Chase also has the Ultimate Rewards Mall, which operates much like the Rapids Rewards Mall. The one catch is that they do require you to use the eligible card to earn the bonus points. You may have to flip between a couple sites to determine which is the best option for you, but we will discuss strategy in another post.
*** The Chase Ink is having a 60k bonus point promotion after spending 5k in 3 months. 5k in 3 months can be a lot but find a way to use it up. At 60k that's one of the highest point bonuses I have seen, and actually when I got the card it was 70k. ***
Chase Sapphire:
To be fair I have not received this card nor started to use it, but I will be making it my temporary primary card to earn the initial bonus (40k pts with 5k for adding an authorized user). This card is useful if you dine or travel regularly; earning you 2x points for dining and airfare, hotel, tolls, etc... If you travel for business a lot, this could be the card for you. The points also go into the Chase Ultimate Rewards program.
I picked up this card mostly because of the dining out feature, which I do fairly often. However, remember that though each card has it's different benefits and you want to maximize on those, you have a limited budget. Gaining more points in UR may slow down your approach for Companion Pass on SW. Have a goal in mind and get there first.
You may want to think about what trip(s) you want to do in the near future and see what you need to earn to get there. Or if you are like me and take a lot of domestic trips and Companion Pass is your focus, put everything on that card until you achieve it and then switch to Ultimate Rewards. Remember that Ultimate Rewards points can be transfered to Southwest, but they will not count towards your Companion Pass accumulation.
In the next post I will write about "Manufactuered Spending"; the basics of how it works and whether it is in your advantage or not. I will also talk about the strategy that works for me and I believe anybody can follow.
** A quick note before you dive into this world of rewards credit cards. **
1) You should have great credit and the ability to pay off your entire bill every month. These cards have great benefits, but if you are paying monthly interest to get these rewards, their value takes a very steep dive.
2) All of these cards have an annual fee. When I was younger I was taught only go for cards without an annual fee, why pay to use a card. Well some of these cards will waive the first year's fee, or in the case of the Southwest Visa they will give you an annual bonus boost of points (which totally makes up for the fee). The reality is that you get what you pay for. You can cancel these cards after the initial year, but remember Chase has implemented that check for how many cards you have applied for.
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