Free Vacation Master Plan - Guide for Newbies
 

Hey Newbies. I've just wrote a great post on my blog about how you can earn a free vacation for your family. This is a step by step detailed guide for a family size of 5 - 2 adults - 3 kiddos.
If you are new in the frequent flyer miles/points world and want to learn how to quickly and easily earn a truly free family vacation come check out my post. Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Note:
Obviously this post is not for you savvy expert FT'ers. You probably haven't even click on this anyway. And yes, I am trying to get the word out about my blog and draw readers. My audience is the leisure non business traveler. My posts are all about earning miles & points from your home or local business area - no travel required. I am a SAHM. Most deals I post about are free or close to it. My blog is basically for the average guy or gal. No fancy lingo or terms to figure out. Just basic simple straight forward directions to follow to the deal or promo.

unfortunately your plan has one problem: according to chase you cannot receive the bonus for both CO and UA cards anymore. This was stopped when the new explorer card came out.

here the details from the application terms of the explorer card:

United MileagePlus Explorer cardmembers will only receive one 25,000 bonus miles award if they apply for both the United Explorer Card and the Continental OnePass Plus Card after 7/19/2011.

Although this would still be a pretty bad redemption. If one wanted to use their UR points for hotels, the better option would be to redeem it through UR due to the 25% discount, rather than redeeming for cash.

I think applying for 2 AA cards with the 2 browser trick, bringing in 100k AA miles per person might be a better card to apply for depending on location & destination. It would be a better risk to take than with Chase since many of us have successfully applied for 2 Citi cards during the 75k promo. Even applying for a BA card seems logical in your situation due to the recent changes in redemption for short haul fights within North America (Although one should wait for a better promo).

Also... Why "pack of gum"??

I think that is because the pack of gum is the first use of card, hence "pack of gum."

And the only problemo with the Citigold is - that particular account isn't for everyone. To the best of my knowledge it carries a $30/month service fee. Fee may be waived for first 2 months (I'm just reading over the terms quickly, mind you). One must keep like - $50grand in the account to avoid the fees. If you don't have that kind of money, then it isn't such a simple deal. Keeping the account for 10 months will cost you $300 to get those $400 worth of gift cards.

"No fancy lingo or terms to figure out."

ALWAYS read the terms and conditions - that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good point Billy. Maybe the 20,000 pt offer for only $200 would be easier for those folks - like myself.
Maybe better to just get another Cash bonus card for your spending money.
I'll be thinking on these ideas and come up with some other good options.
Thanks for sharing!

This is my little phrase for the easiest credit card offers. No annual fee, first use bonus, no minimum spend. Just buy a pack of gum and put it in the drawer. Gotta love it!!!

Thanks for your input. I have called Chase's line to apply and they indicated that you could receive both offer bonuses. But I have feeling they don't know their own rules. I was not aware that was put in the terms and conditions. Thank you for informing me. With this information, I have change the master guide to reflect an safe plan which I think is even better. Don't want to complicate things for a newbie. I do think you can get both offers but don't want a newbie to stress!
So check out the new plan I've devised.
Thanks for your input!

Nice advice for newer people with a family.

That plan will work, but I think it would be very difficult (if even possible) to get all those Chase cards in a short time period. May be better replacing the Marriott with the Hilton AMEX (or some other non-Chase card)

I agree. Three Chase cards in a few months? Yeah that's going to require a lot of persuasion when it comes to the reconsideration line. I'd say stick with a non-Chase CC for hotels as nic3456 mentioned like the Hilton AMEX and/or the Bank of American Hawaiian Air card that can be transferred to HHonors points.

Isn't the consensus that the Citi checking accounts - in addition to having terrible interest rates and minimums - will likely issue 1099s for points issued? If you're going to put together a post for newbies, this is exactly the kind of thing they shouldn't have to worry about.

But the plan says to apply for just one UA card. (She says that two people should apply for the card (e.g., husband and wife), not that one person should apply for two cards.)

This is a helpful post for newbies. There are some of us who are looking for high-value redemptions like international long haul first class. But many families just want to get their kids to Disney World , or whatever, and this is helpful in that regard.

Good feedback
 

Thanks all for your feedback and comments on the plan. I here your thoughts with all cards being from only Chase. This may be a problem for some but not a problem for others. When I a chance, I'll add in a PLAN B with gives secondary options is the first PLAN A doesn't work. I was originally going to do this but got tired and decide to just put it out as is. My feeling though is that you can not stretch the Hilton Honors points very far like you can stretch the Marriott Rewards points. Points redemption with Hilton Honors has really increased drastically recently especially for rooms that accommodate families which are usually family rooms or junior suites. I am really BIG into stretching points. As a young family we are not always looking for luxury but just FREE nights. My blog is written to meet the needs of the leisure traveler, families with children and just the average Joe. People like myself are usually pretty content with Category 1, 2, 3, 4...... and don't require high end properties for redemption. We are just pleased to go and travel for free or close to it. Once and awhile splurging with miles/points is nice but most of the time stretching your miles/points affords your family many more adventures. I am planning one such trip to the East Coast and using the 70k Marriott score to stay for 11 nights free with my family. You can't beat that for a "pack of gum"!
That all being said, I'll post some other options if the newbie runs into trouble with the Chase approves but I would recommend trying this route. Two of the three credit cards you need to get to accomplish your goal are what I like to call "pack of gum" offers - first use purchase receives the miles/points (no min. spend) and free first year. This is as easy and free as it comes. I rarely want to pay for my miles/points. I love them FREE!
Please post more suggestions if you have them. They are great!

Regarding the Citibank checking and 1099's
There are plenty of thread about that subject which I have been apart of in the past. I have done several checking accounts with Citibank and have never received a 1099. I do think that it has happened on a few reports. I'm just not 100% sure on that. My experience is that I haven't received them, so I just can't say.

Mind sharing with us how much you're being paid for each credit card referral?

How is this post anything other than spam? This poster spams her blog links nonstop on here and milepoint. It would be nice if she would take a 5-second break and contribute to the forum instead of trying to redirect traffic to her site.

Hello Ironchef16,
No I do not mind sharing. I'm always an open book. I don't know how other bloggers operate and if they want this information shared but I don't mind sharing.
I have credit card links on my site that pay me a referral of anywhere from $20 - $200 per approval depending upon the card. Each lender offers a different price for each of their cards. When you become an marketing affiliate you have access to all the offers that the lender approves your site for. Sometimes you don't get the best offer links and no one does only the lender has them. I have my "TOP DEALS" area that will always have the best offer links I am personally aware of no matter if I receive a referral or not. I always want you the reader to have the best deal. I would love to have the referral but not at your expense.
Every miles/points blogger you see out there has the same links. Really the way I see it you have 2 choices when sign up for a credit card offer.
1.You can put some $$ in your favorite bloggers pocket 2. you can give that money to the bank if you go through a direct lenders link(some big CEO will make a bigger bonus that year). You aren't losing anything by using my link or another miles/points blogger. You are just helping the small guy/gal out. So there you have it in a nut shell.

If your goal is domestic awards, wouldn't 50k points per WN/BA card be better then 30k points per UA/CO card?

And for Marriott the 70k offer's application page works. Chase should honor the offer and in the worst case, you can still get 50k+$75.

Which card are you talking about?
I have a post on my blog about the 70k offer still being possible but not guaranteed like it was before. I don't want promote something to a newbie that they might not get.

I think s/he gets $20-$50 each depending on issuer

The problem, as Billy Baloney sees it, is not the fact that someone is trying to start a business venture in order to better themselves.

The problem - is that the information given specifically for the "newbies" is vague, quick, and not well planned out. Now this is only my opinion, mind you.

Relax. "Non-stop spam" is a wee bit of overkill. It seems like a nice little discussion going on here to me. And there are many other bloggers posting around here with hopes of attracting some traffic to their site too. As long as they are contributing something worthwhile, more power to 'em.

Wow. I had no idea the referral kickbacks were in that range. No wonder all these bloggers are trying to get people on to their sites. I may have to start one of my own. ;) (But I won't since I have no idea how I would/could possibly add anything new to the excess redundancy of info that the plethora of current bloggers already provide.)

Then you don't link to the inferior offer like you do with the Citi TYP Card 30k offer.

Post should be titled "how to earn a free family vacation while I earn commissions on every single credit application even though you may not be getting the best bonus"



"The Citi ThankYou℠ Premier Card - enough for $300 in Gift Cards , issued by Citibank, is an enticing rewards credit card that allows consumers to earn unlimited ThankYou® Points for your everyday purchases. You'll receive 30,000 bonus ThankYou® Points when you make $1,500 in purchases within the first 3 months, "

If this post is meant for the average joe, why even post it here? Most visitors here are beyond that basic level.

Maybe I just have a low tolerance for this kind of self-promotion. If you have a post that's relevant to an already-existing discussion thread, that might be OK to mention as a resource. But creating entirely new topics to advertise your blog posts seems awfully tacky.

IB4L :cool:

Maybe?
It's just a post. Click once and move on. How difficult is that?

Interesting blog. Thanks for the advise.

Especially. ^

Also, the formatting is very hard to read and paragraphing almost non-existent.

The main issue is that the post has bad advice and bad strategies and seems to be mostly about earning you commissions. Have you looked at the sticky in this forum and read the threads that it links to before coming up with your plan? There are so many cards which offer 50k points and you are instead talking about 30k offers from UA/DL and 25k offers from AL.

Other glaring issues:

Why talk about 40k Citi HH Visa when you would get 60k from Amex for spending a lesser amount and more points upon upgrading to Surpass? There's even a 50k offer from Citi. Although they might not give you the best value, other options would be 70k/100k from converting HA/VS card bonus points. Didn't you post another thread here regarding this exact thing?

Why are you linking to the 50k Marriott offer when there is a 50k+$75 offer which has a working landing page? Better yet, the 70k offer should work since Chase is good about honoring bonuses. Even if they don't give you 70k points they will give you 50k+$75 since that's publicly available.

As far as flight tickets go, a single person could get two Citi AA cards and a Chase BA Visa. The current best offers would give you 106k AA miles, 53k BA miles and $300 after the minimum spending($9500 in total). 100k AA miles will give you 4 domestic RT tickets. 53k BA miles will give you 4 segments of up to 2999 miles on AA or 5 segments of up to 1999 miles or 7 segments of up to 1149 miles.

If you are looking at short haul nonstop domestic flights, getting two Sapphire preferred cards, one BA visa($9500 minimum spending in total) and converting the Sapphire points into BA as necessary would give you a great value.

Then there are the Southwest 50k offers for plus/premier cards and ThankYou 50k offers for premier/preferred cards which might be better suited if you are redeeming for low-cost tickets.

It also looks like every card that you mention in your credit card offers page earns you commission. There are a plethora of offers there which offer far below than the best offer for the same card. Why advertise them at all?

It is clear to me that your don't at all have your reader's best interest at heart.

Also, not to mention that starting a new thread for the sole purpose of advertising your blog is especially tacky, as are misleading titles such as "FREE vacation plan".

Sorry. :td:

Went through the entire blog and not one trip report :confused:

I have to nicely disagree. I don't think there is anything wrong with sharing information and encourage any interested persons to visit my blog. If you aren't interested, just click again to a different thread, there is thousands.

Sorry. I just don't have endless amounts of time to blog being a busy Momma. I have a personal blog that I just haven't linked up but I have request to blog about but just haven't got into it. I like to stick to the miles & points deals really.

I'll have to nicely disagree with your view point. There are so many ways to put together a free vacation. I could write a ton of plans with all the ways I know. In my opinion, this is a simple easy way to earn a free vacation for a family of 5. Are there many other ways! Of course, I've written about others too. As far as misleading my readers, that definitely not the case. If you bothered to read my site before slamming me, you would have noticed that I have "Hot Deals" page which I let readers know are all the best deals I am aware of and some I do not receive referrals on but wan them to be aware of. I also solicit any reader to email me if they know of a better offer on that page that I should update.
My question to you is why are you here? Why didn't you just click to somewhere else? You obviously aren't a newbie and don't need any advice?
Just wondering?

Some of you guys really do need to chill.
You can have these same disagreements, to one degree or another, with every one of the usual bloggers who post around here with the primary motive of getting traffic to their personal blogs. Your own advice about the best way to get miles is arguable, as most all miles advice is. For instance, advising to get a couple of Sapphire cards and a BA card for Avios for domestic travel sucks for me on various levels but I'm not going to accuse anyone of "not having my best interest at heart" because that would be ridiculous. It just means one popular size may fit many but it doesn't fit all. Nothing more, nothing less. Contrary to what some on this thread appear to think, no one has the final say on all matters miles. It's a discussion.
But one of your more absurd critiques: "There are a plethora of offers there [the blog in question] which offer far below than the best offer for the same card. Why advertise them at all?" Seriously?
Show me any of the usual suspect bloggers everyone refers to around here and NONE of their blogs provide links to ONLY the best versions of each credit card with regards to their bonuses. Some are a little better at keeping them updated than others but they ALL have their own constant, standard links to the usual, standard (often inferior) bonus versions with many of them having no disclaimer or warning about that inferiority. I'm sure all this thread policing applies to everyone so I'm sure you're asking each of those other bloggers why they are advertising those cards at all too and telling them that it's clear they "don't have their readers' best interest at heart",right?
Hopefully you're not. Much better to just offer up polite, constructive criticism and hold the judging. Just a thought.

Hang in there slotownmomma. Not sure why your harmless posts have some of these guys all bent out of shape either. Don't waste too much time defending things you don't need to defend. FT is all about discussing and sharing, not attacking. Or at least most of the time it is. ;)

I think the difference might be that the other bloggers tend to tailor their blog plugs to specific requests or known areas of interest. For example, if slotownmomma had responded to the thread "Paris for a Librarian" with recommendations and a link to the strategy, I think the response would have been different.

The other concern might be the slippery slope. Sure, right now it's just ignore the one thread. But, is it 15 threads tomorrow from other bloggers?

Great point on holding off on the judging--there's no need for that. But, slotownmomma should expect that non-newbies on the board will review this and offer comments since this is on FT and newbies will be reading it. So the "My question to you is why are you here? Why didn't you just click to somewhere else? You obviously aren't a newbie and don't need any advice? Just wondering?" also isn't constructive.

agree.

cool..is there something similar for solo traveler or just 2 ppl?

I don't think slotownmomma has any objections to legitimate questions and discussion about miles and methods and such but how are you supposed to react when people automatically react to your posts in such an adversarial manner. Every post on FT could be argued this way or that in some nuanced way if you wanted to but why do it in such an adversarial manner? What's the point? Discussion or just knocking someone? If you don't agree with someone, and you actually care enough, just politely state your case and click on but don't accuse people of having some sort of hidden agenda with the intention of deceiving people for profit.
Holy cow. Not sure what you mean by her reaction to this accusation not being 'constructive' but I don't think I would personally respond with a "thank you very much for your view" reply. "Click to somewhere else" was a pretty mature and reserved reply (as opposed to the comments that inspired it) as far as I'm concerned.
But I do agree she could probably get a little more adept at posting information that provides useful insight concerning a specific subject being discussed in a thread as opposed to just making a post out of the blue telling people to go to her blog. And I think various people pointed that out to her in a nice, respectful manner but a few guys just seemed to really be torqued over it and way overreacted. That's what I can't figure out.
There's just no reason to treat this place like a wack-a-mole game and flame someone for trying to raise their head. I'm sure she'll get better at FT protocol for those in her situation. There's no reason to feel threatened in the meantime. I think we'll all be o.k.