December 27, 2022 | View Online | Sign Up
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Welcome to Crimbo Limbo – the strange, ambiguous week between Christmas and New Year.
The date is unclear, you’re eating 7,000 empty calories a day, and your ever-angry uncle’s political views are as much a soundtrack to the holiday as Buble’s newest Christmas record. Working should be illegal at this time, but I’ve crawled forth from my Czech Christmas den to offer my travel-hacking-holiday-help.
But mainly, I’m just here to remind you that it’s Tuesday.
I think.
Let’s get to the points.
In this week’s cheatsheet:
Embrace the holiday Spirit Airlines
The ten-buck transcontinental round-trip
My New Year points resolutions
The most adaptable cash-back travel card
Cheers,
Steven
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| AIRLINE CARDS
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Image: Spirit
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The Free Spirit® Travel More World Elite Mastercard
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I won’t lie. I used to believe Spirit’s name was purposely ironic. “Fly Spirit – we’ll break yours.” But as I grew more adept at traveling, I realized budget airlines have a place in the travel sphere. When you tack on the baggage fees, check-in surcharges, and breathing taxes, they’re often as expensive as traditional airlines. But if you can fly light and flexible, they can be a steal.
The Free Spirit Travel More World Elite Mastercard helps you take even more advantage of the rock-bottom fares, especially if you’re willing to cut down on the extras. As well as waiving the first year’s $79 annual fee, Spirit is currently running a limited-time intro bonus of 60,000 Free Spirit points after spending $1000 in three months. Depending on how you use it, that could be worth over $600 in flights. You’ll also grab a $100 companion pass each year you have the card open.
Here are some of the excellent fares you can find with 60,000 Free Spirit Points:
11 roundtrips from New York to Cancun ($100 in fees)
11 Roundtrips from LA to Miami ($10 in fees)
Four roundtrips from Chicago to Bogota, Colombia ($86.50 in fees)
Remember, you can pull a massive amount of flights with this bonus, but it doesn’t count as much if you’re paying for loads of bags. Use Spirit for short weekend trips or unexpected travel and pack as light as possible.
A carry-on will cost at least $35, while a checked bag starts at $33. A personal item is 18 by 14 by 8 inches or smaller – that’s not a lot, but I promise it’s doable for a short trip if you’re careful with packing. Check my Sweet Spot below for more Spirit booking tips.
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| WEEKLY SWEET SPOT
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Image: Spirit
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The three keys to 5 buck flights with Spirit
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Spirit pretty much markets itself as one huge sweet spot, but anyone that’s flown with them knows this is far from the case. In many instances, flying with checked bags and a carry-on, picking your seats, and even checking in all add fees that eventually make it more expensive than flying with other airlines. Points can help make Spirit a useful airline, but you must keep some things in mind to keep value.
Be flexible
Spirit’s award flight rates are calculated using dynamic pricing. That means they fluctuate based on availability, time of year, and any other factors they view as applicable. The downside is that many points rates will be inflated, severely devaluing your Free Spirit points haul. The upside is that you can find plenty of fares for as low as 2,500 or 3,000 points.
Flexibility and the calendar feature help when searching for these low-cost flights. You’ll also notice a change in some fees, so sift through as many as possible.
Beat the fares
If you book a Spirit award flight less than a month before departure day, you will be charged a $50 redemption fee. This is annoying because a) fees suck, and b) it might make the flight almost as expensive as the cash rate.
To beat this, you have two options. The most obvious – book more than a month in advance. The other is opening the card above. Using that card to book the award flights waive the fee, meaning you could even grab some last-minute rate drops.
Be practical
This applies to any Spirit flight, but especially award flights. Packing light enough to use only the personal item allowance can take some practice, but it’s more than possible for short trips, especially in the warmer months. Think of Spirit reward flights as a situational saving. A wedding in LA, a family member’s graduation in Dallas, a last-minute Vegas trip with some buddies – all things you don’t want to break the bank on, and all things you can pack light for. This is where Spirit becomes valuable.
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| 2023 OUTLOOK
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I'm bidding farewell to this card this year as its perks just aren't being used
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My 2023 Card Strategies
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2023 is fast approaching, and it’s a good time to start planning your credit card moves for the year ahead. To give you an idea, I’m laying down some of my strategies over the next twelve months. Remember, my partner and I effectively share expenses, so I won’t necessarily open all these cards in my name.
I’ll be trying to open the following cards in the next few months:
Chase Sapphire Reserve (60,000 points bonus): this will become my main daily card. I’ll use it in tandem with my girlfriend’s Venture X to ensure we’re maximizing our earnings.
British Airways Visa Signature Card (75,000 points bonus): I use BA a lot for getting back to Scotland from London, and that bonus alone can cover for me two years. I can also use it to beat fees on transatlantic flights. Avios can be used on Qatar and Iberia too, which I also use.
AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard (60,000 points bonus) - The easy bonus is too good to ignore. I’ll rarely use it, and it will get closed pretty soon.
I’m also considering the World of Hyatt Credit Card (60,000 point intro bonus)
I’ll be getting rid of the following:
American Express Platinum - It’s just getting too expensive, and the perks can be found elsewhere at a lower price point. They’d have to offer me a solid retention offer to change my mind.
Delta SkyMiles Gold Credit Card - While I head stateside using Delta regularly, I get a checked bag included in those flights. If I knew I was going to fly domestically more, I’d keep it, but it’s not worth it now.
I’ll be keeping open for now:
Hilton Surpass American Express - While I’m moving towards Hyatt now, I’ll keep this open. Having Gold status in a hotel brand is helpful, and while it’s not as powerful as my current Diamond status, it could still come in handy.
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| UPGRADE YOUR SLEEP
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| CREDIT CARD OF THE WEEK
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Image: Chase
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Chase Freedom Unlimited
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Points are great, but sometimes it’s nice to get some good ol’ fashioned cash back. Sure, it might not give you outweighed value on travel, but it provides flexibility. If you want to use it for travel, great; if you need a hand with the groceries this month, perfect. But what if you could have both…
As cashback cards go, The Chase Freedom Unlimited is as good as it gets. It has no annual fee, 6.5% cashback on travel, 4.5% on dining and drug stores, and 3% back on anything else. Its intro bonus comes in the form of an extra 1.5% on top of anything you buy for the first year up to $20,000, potentially $300 extra.
The interesting kicker with this card is that you can link it with another Chase Cards that uses Ultimate Rewards and turn your cashback into points. It’ll be a flat transfer of 30,000 points from $300, but you can increase that value with smart transfers. This is a perfect card for beginners.
Pros:
Cons:
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| STEVEN'S TIPS
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Batch big and pay later
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Grabbing intro bonuses can be frustrating. You might know that you’ll have a few more significant purchases coming up, but you’re sensible and know you shouldn’t blow it all immediately. Yeah, you can put it on the credit card and get the points, but you might be paying interest for those purchases for the next three or four months and each dollar eats into the points value.
If you have the funds available, I’d always recommend paying your balance in full each month, but if you want to batch some larger purchases to earn the bonus, you can utilize a pay-plan option.
For example, American Express offers a Plan It option for purchases over $100. There is a fee involved, but it’s shown upfront and will almost always cost less than the interest payments on the purchase. You’d simply apply the plan to a purchase, set the time you need to pay it off, and accept the T&Cs. If you pay it off in good standing, you won’t incur any fees other than those listed at the start.
Again, debt isn’t the way forward. But if you’re comfortable and confident that you’ll be able to make the monthly payment, you’ll get your intro bonuses without paying more than you need to. Check your card issuer to see the different options.
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| WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING
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*This link is sponsored
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