pbd456

how do u guys use the miles from BD? i find it a bit difficult to burn all my miles as i am doing MR to keep elite status on 2-3 airlines - earn a lot of miles just flying, doing promo, BD and so on with little time to burn miles...

Happy

Easy. 2 CX J tickets to Asia.

pbd456

unfortunately, it is not easy because i dont live in an oneworld city. cheaper to get J ticket to Asia on either US award or other tricks in J.
i need to seriously start to burn more miles as i am getting 20k a month with just BD - and i do some MRs on AA too.

Happy

While the US Airway's J award is cheaper - is HKG in Norther Asia per US chart? or simply because of its incompetent agents that one often gets lucky to use the 90K award? US award is a r/t system versus AA's one-way. Also US charges fee on changes while most changes on AA award are free - I value the flexibility a lot.

Still, if you do not live in oneworld city and not use AA award, why you want 20K AA miles/month?

pbd456

hkg is in north asia. i dont need that much flexibility as my holiday is quite fixed.
well, in the low interest rate envirnoment, miles is more valuable.
i hope to redeem some asia/middle easr award in J for 30k (did 3 for my parents, but i have never done one myself.) have done nrt - bos (stop) - mbj in J on 787 and probably try to do more of those. but there is no doubt that it takes effort to redeem miles as i am MRs so many weekends already - being single is a big plus in this hobby.

there are just so many valuable redemption, japan to south pacific one way in J for 20k. north asia to europe round trip for 80k under US, and so on. without using the stopover, AA often loses out.

it is nice to have the miles so that i can plan interesting trips but it seems unrealistic for me to burn all the miles like many people here are.

iahphx

Fidelity is the only brokerage house giving ff sign-up bonuses now? That's not good. It used to be fairly easy to find these, and they were fairly lucrative.

libralibra

say you are a couple, then

BD checking: 200k -> 240k miles + $20 - $144
BD MM: 200k -> 120k miles + $100
Fidelity (2 accts):200k -> 100k miles + whatever investment you are comfortable with

Happy

It has been almost a year now since TD has stopped. They are not lucrative because you would need to keep the money in the brokerage houses - TD used to only give you 1/2 of the bonus at the funding and then the balance after the 6 months had passed, so essentially it was longer than 6 months before you got the full bonus. Again it is 50K for $100K asset. Though TD used to have 20K SPG pts for $25K asset - now that one was lucrative.

It was only lucrative because Fido's very loose internal control or completely lack of it that allowed people cycling money and double/triple dip the promotions.

The days of cycling money and double/triple dip Fido promo has long gone, probably almost a year ago. Fido now has revamped its software and actually actively monitor accounts on promotion. One poster reported his bonus was clawed back after he withdrew money just after 2 months. But Fido actually called him and softly poked him to put the money back should he want to regain his bonus. He did. Fido also now performs a look back to determine the "new money" is not old money withdrawn a few months before signing up.

Now the promotion is an individual (a SSN if you will) can have ONE promotion of any kind on a rolling 12 month base. Therefore it means you get at the most, 50K for $100K every 12 months with the $100K kept at Fido for 6 months. I suppose if you are in need of UA miles or DL miles, this is still an option albeit not a lucrative one. The SunTrust DL debit card would be lucrative but if you insist DL miles are no good then that option isn't for you. Many folks are quite happy raking in tens of thousands of DL miles every month. I know a person did just over 1 million for a cost of $700ish last year.

rajuabju

I hope never. I'm really enjoying my 20k/miles a month.

I would think the end of the gravy train would have more to do with BD determining its no longer worth it for them, vs AA/US cutting off the partnerhsip. But who knows.

yannix

Does anyone know if a BD will give you the miles for CD renewals? I tried searching this thread but couldn't find anything conclusive. TIA

rtraveler

Not a problem when you are buying 4 tickets (wife n kids) in biz/first class.

azepine00

+1. Summer trip to Europe, winter to se Asia - 840k taken care of...

TheAJ

I recently added my fiance to my account to create a joint account. The process was actually pretty long and annoying, taking something like 2 months.

How does the online log-in work for people? Her name never showed up on the online account info at all. We did get checkbooks with both our names on them (but they didn't send the debit card or deposit slips - great). So if I want to order anything from online, her name is nowhere to be found. Would she get a separate log-in or do I just let her use my name and password?

travel light

Ally Bank has only a 60-day penalty for early withdrawals on CDs. This means you can effectively get almost their five-year CD rate for money that you can withdraw anytime. That is 1.54% today.

In my book that is comparable to the AA miles from BankDirect.

If you go this route:

1) Divide your funds into several CDs so that if you do withdraw early, you can minimize penalties.

2) Allow time to withdraw early. It is not instant.

josephstern

Big difference there is taxes.