June 27, 2023 | View Online | Sign Up
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I’ll skip to the pitch. No quirky anecdotes today.
You should have this card in your wallet.
You’ll never find an easier way to earn 60,000 points, and you’d need to pay $550 a year on another card to find the earning rates this one has.
I’ll dig into the nitty gritty below. Or save yourself some time and click here.
Let’s get to the points.
In this week’s cheatsheet:
I’ll convince you to open this card if it’s the last thing I do
Stack points like those Lunchables
Maximize Amazon Prime Day
Cheers,
Steven
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| CARD OF THE WEEK
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How to Get $1,400+ in Travel From the Amex Green Card Bonus
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I wrote about this card last week, so I apologize if I’m preaching to the choir, but I can’t overstate how valuable I think it is. I own one, and it’s my default card for any travel expenditure. I’ll only use another card for travel if I’m trying to hit an intro bonus spending goal.
That limited-time 60,000-point signup bonus is worth up to and over $1,400 of travel, depending on how you use it. For a spending goal of just $3,000 in the first six months, that’s wild. The bonus will likely drop to 40,000 points whenever the offer disappears, losing you almost $500 in value. Please don’t let hesitation cost you that much.
Here are just a few ways you could use those points:
Transfer 63,000 points to Avianca for a one-way business class flight to Europe on a Star Alliance airline, like United, Lufthansa, or Swiss ($2,200+ in value).
Transfer 34,000 points to Iberia for a roundtrip economy flight to Madrid on Iberia from the East Coast ($1,100 in value).
Transfer 60,000 points to Hilton for a night at the Conrad Bora Bora ($1,600+ in value).
Transfer 39,000 points to Singapore Airlines for a roundtrip economy flight to Hawaii on United Airlines from anywhere in the US ($500+ in value).
I booked a one-way flight from Amsterdam to JFK for 15,000 points and $80. I could have done that four times if I fancied it.
It’s a big earner too, and when stacked, it can pull in a ton of points. Check out my tips below to see what I do.
Otherwise, if you’re already sold, click here to learn more.
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| TRAVEL HACKING NEWS
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Prime Day is Almost Here - Maximize Your Spending
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Amazon Prime Day is quickly approaching (July 11 and 12), and while you may think it’s an instinctual free-for-all on the day of, a seasoned travel hacker knows a little preparation can take you a long way to free travel. Here are some tips to consider implementing to bump your points a little.
💳 Use the right card
The most straightforward strategy is to use a card that maximizes your earning. Cashback cards are great for Amazon, as well as Amazon’s co-branded cards. Some can earn you up to 5% cashback on Amazon purchases–a bonus on top of whatever you saved.
🛍 Use credit card shopping portals
If you don’t have a solid card for cashback on Amazon, check the shopping portals on the cards you do have. Log into your account, and skim through the offers. It’s not uncommon to find bonus points for Amazon purchases. For example, it might have a 2,000-point bonus if you spend $100 on Amazon.
🎁 Use gift cards to beat the system
This one takes some serious prep. If you have a card with a good spending category for supermarkets, like the third card down in the list, you can grab some serious points. Using that card, purchase Amazon gift cards from a US supermarket. If you know you’d spend $400 on the sale, the card’s 4x points per dollar just earned you 1,600 points. Scale up or down based on what you’ll spend.
💰 Prepare for big purchases
Amazon lets you set alerts on products you’re interested in. In the days before the sale drops, set them for some larger purchases you intend to make. You can combine this with tip number 2, and it can help you hit a spending goal for an intro bonus.
❌ Don’t be tempted to use points for purchases
You might see an option to pay for something using points. It’s so tempting. It’s free stuff. But I promise, 95% of the time, you’re getting horrible value for your hard-earned points. It’s better to pay cash and save them for a flight. You’ll spend less in the long run.
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| 2X YOUR REWARDS
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Boost your card rewards by 2X with a single click
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It’s time to shop smarter with Kudos.
Spend less and earn more with Kudos, a free shopping extension that helps you pick the best card to use at checkout and doubles your credit card rewards on over 15k sites.
With Kudos, it’s never been easier to rack up those points. For instance, if you usually earn 3% back from your credit cards on stores like Sephora, StubHub, or Booking.com, you’ll now get 6% with Kudos – that’s basically free money!
It’s so easy to use. Add Kudos to your desktop or iPhone in just a few clicks, shop like normal, and Kudos will automatically appear
at checkout to handle the rest. Then, sit back, relax, and enjoy because Kudos saves the average user over $750 per year. Or, if you think like me, that’s one roundtrip flight to Europe. 😎
Let Kudos optimize your point earnings so you can start traveling the world for free.
Use code SMARTPOINTS to 2X your credit card rewards and get Kudos for free today.
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| STEVEN'S TIPS
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How One Airbnb Purchase Can Fly Me to Peru
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In the first section, I alluded to a sneaky way to bundle points and I wanted to share one of my favorites. But, before I do, I’ll explain what stacking is.
Credit cards earn points or cashback on purchases. But other places, like credit card shopping portals, travel aggregator websites, and cashback websites offer extra opportunities to earn. By choosing the right card and applying the right purchase method, you can end up with even more points.
For example, I recently used the card above to pay for a month-long Airbnb stay in Rome. The total cost was around $2,500. Using that card’s 3x points per dollar on travel, I earned 7,500 points.
But, I also booked using British Airways’ AirBnb portal. By logging in via the BA website, I earned an extra 3x Avios per dollar on my purchase. That’s another 7,500 Avios. If you need that translated into travel talk, 7,500 points is a short-haul US domestic flight (think NYC to Baltimore, LAX to San Francisco).
Combining the points for a grand total of 15,000 gives me options like these:
Miami to Dallas - 9,000 Avios + $5.60
LA to Vancouver - 9,000 Avios+ $5.60
Miami to Bogota - 11,000 Avios + $20
Miami to Lima - 13,000 Avios + $20
A twenty-buck flight to Peru is a pretty significant return on a single purchase. Do your research before any major buy. You never know what offers might be available to you.
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| WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING
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*This link is sponsored
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