Shopping to Maximize Points

When travel points collecting becomes a hobby you constantly think of ways to maximize each purchase.  I needed a new ceiling fan.  Most folks would hop in the car and head to a home improvement store of their liking, pick out a fan, pay using a credit card and happily head home. With a few minutes of effort a simple $200 purchase can generate 1400 points over the hop in the car method of shopping and I don't need to leave my home.

Let me explain....most everyone owns some sort of points per dollar rewards credit card, using one of those cards for a purchase would net 200 points simply by presenting the fan for payment.  I have several points earning credit cards and while many give you 1 point per dollar on a purchase like a ceiling fan, others can provide a whole lot more.  I carry a Chase Ink charge card and receive 5x the points for purchases at office supply stores or for paying my cell phone, cable TV and internet bills - given that those are my most expensive bills, it's a nice little point perk card to own.  Needing a new ceiling fan meant that I brought out the card, opened up my browser to locate Staples.com and purchased a $200 eGift card for Home Depot from Staples' online store.  I used my Ink card to pay and earned 1000 Ultimate Rewards points.  Those points are the best because they are transferable to several hotel and airline partners that I frequently use when I travel.  While 1000 points was nice, I knew I could earn more.  I then went to American Airlines shopping portal, logged in and indicated I wanted to make a purchase at Home Depot.  The portal showed that any purchase I made from Home Depot would earn me 2x the points, but they are American Airlines specific points.  I used my $200 egift card from Staples to pay for my purchase and netted 400 AA points.  1400 points, one $200 ceiling fan being delivered to my door for free.  Not a bad way to shop.

        

College students can play the points game

In my last post I mentioned helping my son with his spend.  Today, I’d like to detail how I got him to the point where he earned a premium credit card.  My family look at me with raised brow with the way I spend and set up reward accounts for all. They've come to accept it more as the kookier things mom does then the actual benefit of what I do brings forth. 

My son used to get annoyed with me because “junk” email was taking up his inbox.  The junk email he was referring too were monthly statements from various travel partners, Delta, Club Carlson, Hyatt that I set up on his behalf so he could earn points.  Let me rephrase that so I could earn points for him. 

Anatomy of a Trip to LA - Last Installment: In Town Transportation

This is the final post in a mini series about the Anatomy of my trip to LA the other two post can be viewed here and here.  This final post details how ignoring opportunities for free points can cost you in the long run. I was flying myself and my daughter to Los Angeles thanks to my acquisition of the Southwest companion pass which for me is valid through 12/31/13.  The hotel was being paid for with my free night stay bonus given as a perk for the $75 annual renewal fee for the Chase Hyatt Visa and the remaining two nights were paid with points I acquired through various means and my use of Vanilla reloads to pay my mortgage and acquire additional Ultimate Rewards points.  The only thing remaining was transportation once we arrived at the destination.

Thinking beyond what's on the surface

In a previous post I touched on the "how to" of acquiring a Southwest Companion Pass.  Briefly: the need to apply for 2 Chase Southwest credit cards (1 personal, 1 business) at the current 50K bonus per card offer got you 100K points closer to the goal of 110K needed for the pass.  Today, we put in real terms how you can easily acquire the remaining 8K. You only need 8K because 2K will be used as part of your spend to be awarded the 100K bonus points for getting both cards.

How many points?

Many have probably dismissed the notion of this travel methodology based on the fact 270,000 points were required for my flights.  If you don’t travel regularly (I don’t either, by the way), the shear amount of points needed can revert you back to spending thousands of dollars on a ticket unnecessarily.  It is very possible, however, for an infrequent flier to accumulate 270,000 points very easily.