 While travel is still down due to COVID-19 and its variants. If you are looking to travel then Delta Airlines is running discounted reward travel a.k.a Delta Flash Sales for North American destinations including domestic travel starting 10k+ Delta Skymiles roundtrip. Although they advertise limited routes on the "deals" page there are more destinations that are available at the discounted award rates. Also the deals are sometimes valid beyond the dates which are advertised, so look beyond the advertisement. Below are some of the advertised routes from SJC.  Advertised routes and dates from SJC One important thing to note is that the advertised deals are in "basic economy" which ideally does not allow any change/cancellation after 24 hours of booking it, but with current Delta Airlines waiver for change fees on basic economy it may be worth booking it if it fits your travel needs. For e.g. below is the outbound section of flight to Los Cabos for 13.5k miles + $115 round trip from Nov 16 to Nov 25th. The revenue ticket for the same day flights are ~$264 so you are redeeming your miles for closer to 1.1 cent/mile.  SJC-SJD rountrip for 13.5k miles + $115 roundtrip So explore the current Delta Airlines flash sale if you have upcoming travel plans and you might be in luck.
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 While most of the time we make a purchase the consideration is on the credit card which gives best bang for the buck (maximize cash back or points), there are times when you are looking for things beyond just the cashback. So what are little know things which might matter for that big purchase you are eyeing to make? Below are couple of things which you should look at:
While there are other areas where Citi might not be a beat in terms of benefits, the one area it shines ( as of now) is the Extended Warranty. Most Citi credit cards barring a few still provide Extended Warranty which looks like below:
As you can see from above, if the item is an expensive one then Citi provides an excellent coverage. You could technically charged partial amount to the card and still would have extended warranty up to the amount charged on Citi credit card. Also 24 months is an additive extended warranty. So you can purchase additional warranty from manufacturer or the store and Citi would extend it further up by 24 months with maximum total of 7 years. So, if you are considering purchasing a big ticket item (except the one from exception list as provided by Citi benefits guide) your best bet would be to go with Citi Credit Card. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  While COVID-19 has upended travel in unforeseen ways, folks who are hoping for normalcy to return are already gearing up for air travel in summer and beyond. Specially folks who have been put-up till now from air-travel are looking forward to it. If you are one of those etching to return to "air" it may be useful to do some housekeeping (planning and booking in advance) as that will help mitigate the surprises. Travel (even domestically) is different than what it used to be so below are few things you would want to check:
Keep in mind the alternate car rental options such as Turo and Getaround (You might want to register and clear your license check in advance just to avoid last minute hassle) as well as alternate vacation rentals AirBnB and Vrbo. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Chase Ultimate Rewards are one of the valuable flexible currency for transferring to travel partners (various airlines and hotels) as well as for redeeming at 1.25x or 1.5x for travel or for now to "pay yourself back" on variety of purchases such as Grocery and Dining. At the same time it is hard to acquire Chase cards due to well know "5/24 rule" where in short Chase would not issue you a card if you have 5 or more opened account in the last 24 months.
One great work-around if you have family and friends to support you is the Chase credit card referral offers. Currently you can earn 20,000 Ultimate Rewards Points for each referral (Up to 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points per calendar year) if you posses the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink credit card. The icing on the cake is the person who you refer will earn an all-time high "100,000 Ultimate Rewards Points" for Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Ink Business Preferred (After meeting minimum spend). Also other No-annual fee Chase Ink card's earn 75,000 Ultimate Rewards Points as sign up bonus after minimum spend meet which are as good as it gets. So overall its a win-win situation for both referrer and referee!! To check if you are eligible to refer others use below link and get rolling:
If you are eligible you could potentially earn 20,000 Ultimate Rewards Points per referral which are valued at least $250 based on the "pay yourself back" feature but might provide much higher value for specific travel redemptions. So go ahead and get referring!! Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  DoorDash and other food delivery service are looking to acquire more and more active customers as the competition to take the slice of ever growing restaurant and other food/grocery delivery service heats up.
In quest of doing that they routinely dole out promotions in order to promote their new partners or existing restaurants or convenience/grocery partners. In addition to that they are pushing to promote their "DashPass" service which provides $0 delivery fee and reduced 5% Service fee for $9.99 monthly membership fee. So, here are the few ways to make that delivery even better (In addition to the routine promotion discounts provided by DoorDash): 1. Sign up for DashPass: You can get free 3 months "DashPass trial" with your "World" or "World Elite" MasterCard. In addition to 3 months of $0 delivery fee, reduced 5% service fee you will also receive limited time $5 x 2 discount per month on your pick up or delivery order ($5 discount currently schedule to expire in September 2021). [Tip: You can have $5 discount on order of $5+ for pick up using this promo] 2. Purchase/Use discounted DoorDash gift card: DoorDash gift card can be routinely bought for 10% off from various gift card selling sites. For e.g. you can purchase the DoorDash egift card from Bitmo for discount of 5% or more regularly. The recent promotion included 40% off your purchase at Safeway (up to max $40 discount), $10 off $15 purchase at Walgreens etc. So, if you are still on the edge on this one I would suggest signing up for the free 3 months trial and take advantage of these promotions while they last :) Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  American Airlines miles expire after 18 months of no activity. While there are several ways to earn American Airlines miles without actually flying them; as of now (Till May 3rd) you can easily extend your miles for another 18 months by participating in "Instant Win" game. American Airlines is running its 40th Anniversary Instant Win and Sweepstakes which ends on May 3rd, 2021 and of several "instant win's" the most interesting one's are earning 40 AA miles and 400 AA miles in instant win.  AAdvantage 40th Anniversary Celebration!  "Spin the Globe" Instant win! So if you are based out of U.S. you can participate in this instant win and Sweepstakes and can easily extend your miles (Hoping you win at least once the "40 miles" instant win) using their "spin the globe" Instant win game.
While American Airlines have paused the AAdvantage miles expiration till June 30th, 2021; these instant win game can help extend your miles longer if you have no plans of travel as of now or have some valuable miles idle in your American Airlines account and no activity. So go ahead and get this easy win by AAdvantage Instant game. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Chase Sapphire Credit Card is the baseline credit card you will need to transfer your Chase Flexible points a.k.a "Chase Ultimate Rewards Points" to various airlines and hotels partners of Chase Ultimate Rewards program (Apart from there Ink Preferred card). The good news is Chase has increased the sign up offer for their "Chase Sapphire Preferred Card" which has $95 annual fee to 80,000 points after $4,000 spend in 3 months after sign up. In addition it is throwing in additional $50 for grocery purchase reimbursement in your first year of the card. The best part of the offer is Chase has "Chase Pay Yourself back" feature where with Sapphire Preferred card you can redeem the points in select rotating category at 1:1.25 ratio. So, 80,000 points can technically be redeemed for $1,000 in those select categories as well if you are not looking to transfer to any travel partners (Airlines or Hotels). Currently you can redeem those points in "Groceries" as an eligible category till Sept 30th, 2021 which makes this card more compelling.  Chase 80,000 Ultimate Rewards Points offer on Sapphire Preferred Card! One of the important things to note is that you need to be careful about Chase 5/24 rule. If you have opened 5 or more cards in last 24 months then Chase would not approve you for this card. But, if are under 5 new opened credit cards (excluding certain business cards) then you may be eligible for this offer. Also since Chase Sapphire Preferred is counted as premium card for Chase it would increase the odds of approval if you have good credit score as well as existing banking relationship with Chase.
Also there are additional benefits such as free 12 months of Doordash subscription membership (DashPass) and $60 back on eligible Peloton membership. Overall its a great value for the card in year 1 for sure. Another great thing is if you have Chase Freedom or other Ultimate Rewards earning card you can move points from those card to Sapphire Preferred and get a value of ~1.25 times or transfer to partner airlines and hotels. Since there is no end date currently for this offer, get it while its still there as it does not get better than this!! Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Qatar Airways is a one of the premium airlines to travel with due their amazing business class and first class cabins as well as great service. They are Oneworld alliance partner so you can travel with them using other partner airline miles. While not widely popular Qatar Airways miles earning Privilege Club program (referral link) has some gems in it and recently they have made the program a little inline in terms of award price for travelling on their own metal compared to other Oneworld piers. They have also revamped the program where the Qatar Airways "Qmiles" now no longer expire if you have any earn/spend activity within the last 36 months. If you are not a member Qatar is offering a 5,000 bonus miles when enrolling before 30th April, 2021 using a referral link (1,000 miles upon enrollment and remainder 4,000 miles after taking the first flight before 30th Sept 2021). Also the referee earns 2,000 bonus miles for each referral who enrolls using the link and after they take their first flight with Qatar Airways.  Qatar Airways referral campaign! For folks who are already member of the Qatar Airways Privilege Program and have Qmiles earned and due to expire, Qatar Airways had extended the miles till end of March 2021 which means those miles will be expiring soon!! Earlier Qmiles would expire after 36 months regardless of activity but with the change in program you can now extend those soon expiring miles for another 36 months by any earn or redeem activity!! So, if you have your miles expiring continue reading on how to extend them..
Here are 3 easy ways to extend your miles:
So, get going and if you have Qmiles expiring extend them now before they expire. (P.S. You might be lucky if Qatar Airways decides to extend them further for free but you might not want to take your chances :)) Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  American Express has been on a tear with awesome credit card offers of late and to top it the current offers through referral where you get up to $200 additional statement credit for purchases at "select home furnishing stores" is just icing on the cake. The great part of the offer is that the $200 additional statement credit is available on many more credit cards which makes the sign up offer on those cards awesome, such the below offer on Blue Cash Preferred Card.  Great $300 + additional $200 offer with $95 annual fee waived the first year! Also the person referring using their personal Membership Points earning card would earn additional 4 points per $ spent up to spend of $25k for next 3 months in the same "select home furnishing stores" in addition to the fixed referral bonus after a successful referral is made.  4+ membership reward points for purchase at "U.S. home furnishing stores" But this is Amex and you got to be careful on what Amex defines as "eligible purchases". As of late Amex has up their ante on clawbacks and you do not want it to happen to you. So below are the list of things which Amex considers ripe for clawbacks and it is better to avoid them then be sorry:
Even, the additional $200 statement credit which Amex is advertising for referral offer might be ripe for clawback if used in the way above and its better to be cautious then sorry! So go ahead for this awesome referral offers while it lasts but tread with caution as you are dealing with Amex. Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.  Alaska Airlines like some of the other airlines has relaxed flight cancellation policy and the current policy allows cancelling any ticket on Alaska Airlines booked with them directly and getting funds in the Alaska Airlines wallet provided you book your flights before 03/31/2021. This combined with their recently ended discount promotions of 30% off (Which they might have again in the future) would help secure great discount specially if you are on the West Coast and are eyeing a Get-Away. The good part is that the flexible cancellation policy currently applies to all non-refundable fare including the cheapest "Saver" fares (which otherwise are non-refundable at all!!). Although your refund is in the Alaska Airlines Wallet or Certificate which expires 1 year from the booking date it still gives good amount of time to use the funds and peace of mind in knowing that you are not on the hook for complete loss of ticket value. Complete terms and conditions can be found here but are pasted below for your reference.  Alaska Airlines flexible cancellation policy So, if you are planning any trip with Alaska Airlines this year then it would be a good time to book it before 03/31/2021.
Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. |
AuthorI love traveling / backpacking. This blog focuses on below 3 aspects of travel: Archives
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