|
Originally Posted by Happy
(Post 30683031)
As to how many extra international trip(s) each year, that is also not very relevant unless you are solely depending on AA miles. Then it is actually not a happy situation to be in.
Many of folks dont rely on AA miles as the sole source for their travels but almost all of us would treat this as "get it while the getting is good", as well as to get the most bang out of the bucks spend. |
Originally Posted by Happy
(Post 30683031)
until the mailer dries up, the additional spend at a much Inferior rare simply does not make sense when there is a far better option at hand.
Aye, and there's the rub. Unless you happen to know if/when the mailers are going to dry up. I'm pretty sure none of us know that, so we could skip the extra 10K, and then never get another mailer. :( hence yes, we see this as "get it while the getting is good". For that matter, many of us are getting UR pts at 5 per $1 spend rate outside the sign up bonuses We can get 5X; but it's limited to office supply stores, telecommunications, and $1500 per quarter on Freedom bonuses. Considering that we won't be able to max out at least a couple of those bonus categories (gas, domestic dining), and mostly only get 3rd party GCs at OS stores, that's not really very many UR points for us. Certainly not enough to ever get us EU/ASIA Premium cabin awards from the US. Meanwhile TG has availability almost every day. Even SQ has lots of availability, provided you book thru Aeroplan which of course means AMEX MR pts transfer. Assuming you want to go strictly to Asia. Been there, done that, much prefer the EU. After from the (legally mandated several day stopover in HK :p which we always enjoy) we then went HK-SIN-CDG with SQ last year. But since virtually all EU bound flights out of HG and SIN leave between midnight and 1:30 am, doing that is far more exhausting that we had anticipated. Even in SQ Suites, because you are in HK just long enough to halfway adjust to HK time, then have to force your self to stay awake until after midnight in the lounge, followed by dinner on the plane. Can't imagine doing that again. . |
Originally Posted by Happy
(Post 30683031)
You miss the point. It is always better for an earning rate at 22 miles per $1 than 4.5 miles per $1. Math does not lie. The ability to generate the spend is Irrelevant.
Like other said, until the mailer dries up, the additional spend at a much Inferior rare simply does not make sense when there is a far better option at hand. As to how many extra international trip(s) each year, that is also not very relevant unless you are solely depending on AA miles. Then it is actually not a happy situation to be in. Many of folks dont rely on AA miles as the sole source for their travels but almost all of us would treat this as "get it while the getting is good", as well as to get the most bang out of the bucks spend. For that matter, many of us are getting UR pts at 5 per $1 spend rate outside the sign up bonuses - UR pts definitely are more valuable than AA miles given its transferrability. Also dont forget the poor availability of AA award seats on the TATL routes, unless of course you also do not mind to pay an additional few hundreds to redeem on BA flights. The poor comparison of its TPAC routes was mitigated by CX in the past, but CX is getting much tougher since Q2 of 2018, plus now with the famous CX F mistake fares, one can pretty much write the 2019 CX TPAC premium cabins redemption off. Even with the regional redemption - try to find a CX HKG-Australia / New Zealand in business, you would need to bet your luck by looking at a week to 10 days before departure for example. you also would not find ANY on QF. So the AA miles are dead in water. Meanwhile TG has availability almost every day. Even SQ has lots of availability, provided you book thru Aeroplan which of course means AMEX MR pts transfer. Not to mention to those folks who have to book 330 days out due to their work / family obligations, Aeroplan is 365 days out, without routing restriction plus 2 stopovers 1 destination on a R./T redemption. Having a lot of UR and MR pts at hand is a good measure. Therefore extra spend could be better used for these purposes. It all comes down to what various folks value, and I find value in AAdvantage miles with plans to take Aadvantage until the well dries up. I definitely preferred getting the full bonus for $3k spend vs $6k, but I just view it as a penance for all of us raping and pillaging their cards for so long. BTW, I agree having multiple points currencies is best (I have more UR than I can spend right now)... except AMEX, I really don't like them. |
DP, one new mailer today. 60K miles, $3K spend/90 days
|
Between myself and friends, we've received 3 60k/3k (not 50k+10k) mailers within the past week. 3/15 expiration. Hopefully this signals the end of the ##k+##k mailers.
|
Originally Posted by VegasGambler
(Post 30683090)
The ability to generate spend does matter, because you are limited in the amount of cards you can get.
If you can only get 1 card per month but you can generate over $6k of spend per month, it's obviously better to get 81k miles/month than 68k miles/month. Of course if you could get a 2nd card per month then splitting the spend and getting 136k miles would be even better, but, once you've maxed out the number of cards and put $3k on each, it makes sense to use any remaining spend to get the 2nd part of the bonus. I can only get 1 per 33 days or so (no spouse, not interested in business cards) so this is my situation
Originally Posted by NTP9766
(Post 30683115)
I can’t speak to international flying, but I’m solely dependent on AA miles (out of PHL) for all of my flying. Even with the high award rates, churning this card is still very, very much worth it to me. Hell, I don’t even need to redeem first class awards for this to be valuable to me. Keep one CSR in the household and one player under 4/24 has been proven the right strategy to us. We have 1.5 million UR pts, (they would be better used to book travels than to transfer to partners) as well as decent bal in UA, AS, BA and even DL thanks to AMEX targeted offers. We do not randomly redeem awards even we can, with the balances we have. We try to use sweet spots of each program. More fun this way too. @RobertHanson This is meant to give some suggestions on how trips can be booked, with different currencies, and not always a straight R/T, even your preference is EU. But since this is quite OT to this thread, so it would be one post and done, hence a bit more details. Asia can be a convenient spot for a RTW trip. We tend to do a RTW every year on top of the usual EU trips as it means we save at least one or two One-Way awards. When we do one pure EU though, it usually is with one direction on a TATL cruise, and one to or back to US, or as a part of a RTW. We use all programs as we do 2 to 3 month long international trips a year. Places we go, dont always work with AA miles. 8 days ago I booked a 3 Continents RTW this Sept/Oct using Aeroplan, miles from Marriott Travel Packages and AMEX Membership Reward. Will go US-EU, Stopover 1 at Venice (would explore Italian Adriatic Coast that is less known to the American tourists). EU to West Australia via Asia, using Perth as Destination. (Great Road trips and Wild Flower Season) Australia back home via Asia, Stopover 2 at Hong Kong. All business class with Star Alliance members, except the last segment on UA coach. Such as life, domestic segments tend to be coach whether it is AS, AA, DL or UA. It is 160K Aeroplan per person. I cannot book anything before April because our passports expire in March and with the continue shut down I dont know when we could renew our passports. Therefore I dont want to take any chance. We may need to do the expedite thing once the shut down is over. But that requires to show up in person versus renewal by mail... You can do a EU r/t with the same 2 stopovers and 1 destination, with only 100 or 110K per person with Aeroplan miles. 2018 was a "less traveled" year. Only 2 long trips. Last November we returned from a month's trip to Australia (Brisbane and Sydney) and Hong Kong - AS miles both directions - CX J out, QF F in. Actually it was the QF F "unicorn" that prompted that trip as we have been in Australia's East Coast many times before. Since we haven't been in HKG in 2018 until the "unicorn" showed up, we thought what the heck, let's figure out if we could work HKG in. (We normally passed thru HKG 1 to 3 times a year.) Had to take AS coach back home due to the only seats were on Thanksgiving Day in coach. So we were "forced" to spend 3 days in Los Angeles also. AS cost was 60K out and 70K in, with a stopover each direction. I let you find out how much AA costs (and no stopover so it would be additional). Last Apr/May we had an EU trip that the outbound was a 14 days TATL cruise FLL to FCO, followed by a 11 days Med cruise. Post cruise we went to Sicily for 9 days. Then AA J award MXP-JFK-MIA home. We had the misfortune being caught in the Italian air controller strike that caused our Ryanair flight being canceled and we had to scramble to find our way from Sicily back to Italy mainland then took the train to MXP. Chase CSR covered the forfeited one night BnB but not the expensive new tickets, as well as the train fare. You can structure a RTW trip with AA miles as well if you like to try. We did one in 2016 though with a whole lot more miles - itinerary like this - MIA-LHR AA J, spent several days in London. LHR-SPU BA avio. 2 weeks driving trip in Croatia. ZAG-DOH-SYD to revisit Vivid Sydney Festival. I consider this the sweet spot on AA chart - EU to South Pacific via DOH, QR to QR. You may want to check out QR's business class, esp its new one the QSuite - should be better than AA's F no matter which way to look at it. Then TG F with UA miles SYD-HKG, before UA devalued this sweet spot in Nov 2017. Though still not bad, just not as an excellent value as in the past at 30/40K and daily availability to boot. HKG-LAX-MIA in CX F (can be done with either AS at 70K or AA at 110K, depending on your mileage accounts) That trip the AA portion was around 200K IIRC, (57.5 + 75 + 67.5 before AA devalued the Asia 2 to cost 110K) That does not incl the UA 40K on TG F. Therefore the total miles would be over 250K. In comparison, the trip later this year only costs 160K with same 3 continents. The point I am trying to make is, while the Citi Mailers are like candies for the kids here and is a great excitement to have, there are other goodies we should not totally ignore. With some planning especially with 2 or more multiple players team, develop a strategy can go a long way. At least it would not limit you to totally dependent to AA's charts and the availability. I know at least one frequent poster here is adopting this strategy. |
Originally Posted by bigshooter
(Post 30683814)
Not to take this too off topic, but the ability to generate spend is very relevant since it doesn't impact me also spending on other cards (and I think we all agree it's best to spread it around). The cost of generating those 5x points with Chase outside of certain sales is higher than generating ~4.3x miles with Citi. Also taking into account that it costs less even at non-saver points levels to book with AA than United (easiest airline for those of us not in a coastal hub city) I personally value those extra miles. I appreciate that some people do not though. Being on the east coast it's probably more convenient for you to travel TATL, but other than my last trip to Scotland I tend to fly TPAC. I've also been very successful finding premium saver and partner awards, in fact I am headed to Japan with one of my friends next month on JAL J and JAL F.
It all comes down to what various folks value, and I find value in AAdvantage miles with plans to take Aadvantage until the well dries up. I definitely preferred getting the full bonus for $3k spend vs $6k, but I just view it as a penance for all of us raping and pillaging their cards for so long. BTW, I agree having multiple points currencies is best (I have more UR than I can spend right now)... except AMEX, I really don't like them. Membership Reward pt is the only transferrable currenty other than the old SPG that can be transferred to Aeroplan and it is instant. Given your preference is TPAC, you may want to check out ANA's program. The only drawback is ANA is R/T system, and it only let you book family members with blood relationship. So cannot even book fiancee out from your account. Several Asian airlines are like that. ANA to/from Japan should be at least equal to JL. I hope you would not be disappointed by JL lounges, and avoid using KIX as your TPAC... Keep in mind SQ premium cabin is bookable with SQ own currency, as well as Aeroplan (in the Asia and Pacific region). Your UR pts can be transferred to SQ, as well as can be used to book travel directly. It can save us major cash because we take cruises several times a year - and that is real cash out of pocket, not like a J/F award booked with miles. |
Originally Posted by Happy
(Post 30684536)
.....
Membership Reward pt is the only transferrable currenty other than the old SPG that can be transferred to Aeroplan . https://www.forbes.com/sites/thepoin...ers-available/ |
Originally Posted by flyer4512
(Post 30684191)
DP, one new mailer today. 60K miles, $3K spend/90 days
|
Got two new mailers today (same mailer, different names). Both are 60k/$4k mailers with 3/15/19 expirations. I was expecting 60k/$3k based on what was posted above, so I'm not sure if there truly are two different 3/15 mailers out there.
My expired (December) mailer codes (12/15: 50k/$3k + 10k/$10k; 12/31: 50k/$3k + 10k/$6k) still pull up, but the application page no longer shows the bonus associated with the offer. I don't recall ever seeing that before, so I'm going to have to choose between the 2/15 50k/$3k + 10k/$6k offer or this newest one. I may actually opt for the former if only to being able to make the spend quicker and close the card. |
Originally Posted by mia
(Post 30685291)
I believe Aeroplan is now also a Capital One transfer partner:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thepoin...ers-available/ Given AC had finalized its purchase a couple weeks ago, it would be prudent to wait for the inevitable restructuring of Aeroplan awards coming out, then decide if it would still be a worthy program to add on, after cleaned out 320K about 10 days ago. Though I suspect for the next few months the current charts and rules stay. FWIW, Aeroplan can see SQ, TP and LX availability while UA currently has stopped access to those, citing technical issues. Phone in bookings are still possible from comments posted to the blog articles. |
Originally Posted by NTP9766
(Post 30685922)
Got two new mailers today (same mailer, different names). Both are 60k/$4k mailers with 3/15/19 expirations. I was expecting 60k/$3k based on what was posted above, so I'm not sure if there truly are two different 3/15 mailers out there.
I looked again, mine is 60K/$3K. Only one mailer arrived ( so far) and FWIW this persons name has never been used to apply for a card via a mailer as it's my DIL and mailers for her mailers only started arriving last month. |
Originally Posted by flyer4512
(Post 30686253)
I looked again, mine is 60K/$3K. Only one mailer arrived ( so far) and FWIW this persons name has never been used to apply for a card via a mailer as it's my DIL and mailers for her mailers only started arriving last month.
|
Moderator action
|
Originally Posted by NTP9766
(Post 30686631)
Check your second mailer, if you get one. I just opened my second mailer that looks identical, and it is in fact a 60k/$3k mailer. Glad I checked!
For those of you getting these (all the bonus in one spend...no split) and still having some 50K/10K offers available, are you using the 50K's anyway, or jumping right to the 60K's. |
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 6:58 pm. |
This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.