Who should use Travelocity's co-branded credit card?

[edit 7:37 pm: searching around a bit more I found this offer for the $39 annual fee card for 10,000 points after first purchase and 10,000 points after $500 in spend within 3 months. I also edited the application links below.] 

[edit 6/18/13: see the comments for one data point applying through the 20,000 point link. I'm surprised that Barclaycard would deny an application just because an offer was expired, but that was reader Paul's experience (no credit pull, though).]

In the comments to a post last month, reader travel well asked whether I had any experience with the Travelocity Rewards co-branded American Express card. I hadn't heard of the card, but did some research, and want to share what I found with readers.

There are two versions of the Travelocity Rewards Amex: a $39 annual fee version and a no annual fee version.

Earning

• The $39 annual fee version earns 5 points per dollar spent at Travelocity, 2 points per dollar spent at your choice of either gas stations, grocery stores, or restaurants, and 1 point per dollar spent everywhere else. The link I found offers 7,500 bonus points after your first purchase [edit: see above].
• The no annual fee version earns 3 points per dollar spent at Travelocity and 1 point per dollar spent everywhere else. It offers 5,000 bonus points after first purchase.

Redemption

Like the US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards Signature Visa, the Travelocity Rewards points earned by this card can be redeemed in fixed-value tiers. The value in turn depends on the redemption tier. From the Travelocity website:

View fullsize

As that list illustrates, points are worth 1 cent each until you reach the 20,000 point level, when the value jumps to 2 cents each. Then each subsequent point is worth an additional cent, until you reach the 40,000 point level, when the value jumps back up to 2 cents each. This means that the most lucrative redemptions are always in intervals of 20,000 points.

Fortunately, the Travelocity Rewards card does allow partial redemptions, and indeed as far as I can tell allows redemptions only in the tiers specified. Redemptions are made directly through the Travelocity website, for reservations made with Travelocity. After selecting your flights, hotels, or rental cars, select the Travelocity Rewards American Express as your method of payment, and you'll see the option to redeem points for part of your purchase. As the above analysis makes clear, whenever possible you should redeem them in blocks of 20,000 points. When you do so, you'll earn a full 10% rebate on all your purchases made at Travelocity with the $39 annual fee card and 6% rebate with the no annual fee card. After selecting your redemption amount, complete your purchase and you'll receive a statement credit for the amount of your redemption.

Who should use the Travelocity American Express card?

This card looks great on paper: a 10% rebate on Travelocity bookings, which can be paired with 2 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar when you click through to Travelocity through the Ultimate Rewards Mall. Still, there are two drawbacks that I think are serious enough to keep me from getting the card personally.

First, the more lucrative card has a $39 annual fee. Admittedly, that won't break the bank – if I were able to redeem my points regularly at the 20,000 point level, then the 5-6 cent edge this card has over a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred (for double points on travel) would be justified. That's especially true if carrying this card allowed me to cancel my Sapphire Preferred, which carries a hefty $95 annual fee.

However, the second problem is that 20,000 point threshold. To earn those 20,000 points, I'd need to spend $4,000 on Travelocity, which isn't realistic for me personally: I purchase travel using my Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard (for a 65% discount on paid travel after manufacturing spend), I redeem US Bank Flexpoints for paid travel (for a 74%-80% discount on paid travel), and of course I redeem airline miles for award travel. Even more importantly, sometimes Travelocity doesn't have the best price on airline tickets, or doesn't offer itineraries that are available elsewhere, in which case I use other online travel agencies instead or book directly through the airline. All that would add up to paying multiple $39 annual fees while I waited to hit the 20,000 point sweet spot.

All that said, if you already spend a lot of money on paid travel through Travelocity, enough to hit that 20,000 point threshold at least once a year, then this is a card with terrific earning potential. I would probably pair it with a Chase Ink card in order to continue to earn double Ultimate Rewards points through direct hotel bookings (and have access to the Ultimate Rewards Mall) while still earning hotel loyalty points and credit for nights and stays towards elite status.

Do this now: Priority Club summer promotion

It's hard to stay up-to-date on all the promotions run by Priority Club (the massive loyalty program behind omnipresent chains like Holiday Inn). The single best way is to follow Priority Club Insider, who does the Lord's work maintaining the ever-changing list of Priority Club promotions. Before you stay at any Priority Club property, you owe it to yourself to check out Priority Club Insider and make sure you're registered for all the relevant promotions.

That's where I learned about Priority Club's summer promotion, which allows you to earn double points or double miles starting with your second stay between June 1 and July 31, 2013 (starting with your first stay at Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites properties). 

Register for the promotion now, before you forget. 

Delta's latest devaluation, and why I'm relieved

If you feel like spending 15 minutes you'll never get back, read these four posts about the changes to Delta's partner earning rates, effective for flights flown on or after September 1, 2013.

Frankly, my reaction was one of relief. Why? Because I have a 20,000 MQM-earning first class trip, from New England to Hawaii, booked for Christmas and MQM earning on Alaska Airlines is not affected by the current devaluation.

No one (except Rene at Delta Points) would be crazy enough to defend this devaluation. But whether you're personally affected by it will depend on your specific travel plans. As always, check the partner earning rates of your preferred airlines before crediting miles to any program.

Does anyone that knows anything..still fly Delta? Yes.

In the middle of my 18-hour Delta mileage run, in a case of particularly egregious linkbait Gary at View from the Wing asked today:

Does anyone that knows anything about travel, miles, and elite status — that doesn’t live in Atlanta or the Upper Midwest — still fly Delta?

Well, I live in New England, and whether I know anything about travel, miles, and elite status is an exercise I'll leave to the reader .

And I fly Delta almost exclusively.

As I confessed earlier this week, in the 20 years I've been flying more or less constantly, I've only spent about 11,000 miles on airlines operated by oneworld alliance carriers (and my recollection is that the majority of those were earned on a single cheap Aer Lingus flight to Dublin in the early 2000's. So I'm prepared to believe that American Airlines is a world class airline, with comfortable seats, good loyalty recognition, on-time departures and arrivals, and courteous flight staff.

On the other hand, due to a serious of unfortunate career decisions, I was forced to fly a hundred thousand miles or so on United Airlines over the course of a few years, both domestically and internationally. 

And that's why I fly Delta almost exclusively. 

A lot of digital ink has been spilt over the consequences of the merger between United and Continental. The loyal flyers of each airline were shocked - shocked! - by the terrible flight experience they found on flights operated by their new crews.

Since I was never a loyal flyer of either airline, I can say with complete equanimity that every flight I've flown on pre-merger Continental and pre- and post-merger United have been absolutely abysmal. The cabins are dim and unpleasant, the flight attendants are apologetic at best and rude at worst. I'm graciously leaving unmentioned the libertarian capitalist fantasies expressed by United CEO Jeff Smisek in almost every issue of their inflight magazine.

 United MileagePlus miles are still the most valuable traditional airline miles (with Alaska's Mileage Plan a close second).

As much as I value the inflight experience offered by Delta, the fact is that United offers more award seats, with more partners, to more destinations I need to fly than any other carrier. And that's why I use United miles regularly for award seats, for example on my spring break trip to Prague earlier this year.

But I earn those United miles through manufactured spending on my Chase Freedom and Sapphire Preferred cards, not by flying on paid United and US Airways flights. 

So tell me, does anyone that knows anything about travel, miles, and elite status — that doesn’t live in a United hub — still fly United?

Gobank Customer Care calls the Free-quent Flyer

This afternoon I received 3 missed calls a few seconds apart (like everyone I know, I don't pick up my phone for unknown numbers), before the caller finally left a message on my voice mail. It turned out "Cassie" from Gobank Customer Care was calling to check in with me.

When I called back (not a simple process - I've never been told by an automated system that it was having "technical difficulties" before), I eventually was able to speak with Cassie, who explained to me that ​my account usage was unusual compared to their other customers, and invited me to explain how I was using the account. Not having anything to hide, I told her I was loading the account at Walmart, and then using it to pay my utilities, credit card bills, etc.

Cassie then told me clearly that ​"there was no effect on my account usage" and that she was calling to make sure that there wouldn't be any future effect. She didn't say what behavior might have triggered the call, or what I could do to avoid "any future effect." We thanked each other and hung up.

I haven't noticed any effect on my account access so far, so I'm going to attribute this, for now, to an overabundance of caution from Gobank's fraud department as they roll out their new checking account alternative.

As always, subscribe to this blog by e-mail, RSS feed, or Twitter to learn the very latest news from the cutting edge of Gobank usage, as well as all the news from around the world of travel hacking.

The Barclaycard Extra Points NFL card

In the comments section of my walkthrough on redeeming Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard "miles" for statement credits against travel purchases, reader .net replied:

Geez, all the blather about the Arrival card when the even better NFL card is ignored? I guess the affiliate bonuses are higher?

NFL card is essentially a $600 cb card as almost everyone gets the additional 20000 point offer if you spend $500 per month for 3 months. You can use points to pay down your balance, which is far better than being forced to use only on travel.

To be honest, I had forgotten about the NFL card since it's not a travel rewards credit card and it only earns 1% cash back on all purchases (except NFL purchases - not a high-spend category for me).

Extra Points NFL vs. Arrival World

s my readers know, the Arrival World MasterCard has no annual fee the first year, and has a signup bonus of 40,000 "miles" after spending $1,000 on the card within 90 days. Those 40,000 miles can be redeemed for up to $444 in statement credits against travel purchases. After the first year, the annual fee is $89, which is only worth paying if you plan on spending more than $40,050 on the card, since there are no-annual-fee credits cards which offer 2% cash back on all purchases, while the Arrival World MasterCard offers a "true" earning rate of 2.22% cash back, because of the 10% rebate for statement credits against travel purchases.

How does the Extra Points NFL card compare? The stated signup bonus is somewhat smaller, with a higher minimum spending requirement: 40,000 points, which can be redeemed for $400 in statement credits (instead of $444), after spending $2,500 (instead of $1,000) within 90 days. On the other hand, the NFL statement credits can be against any purchase, for example, a $400 Amazon Payments transaction, making it as good as cash, while you might prefer to put your travel purchases on a credit card that gives bonuses for spending on travel, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred (all travel), Ink Bold or Ink Plus (hotels), or American Express Premier Rewards Gold or Business Gold Rewards (airfare) cards.

As .net pointed out, there are also reports of Extra Points NFL cardholders receiving an offer from Barclaycard of 20,000 additional points for spending $500 on the card every month for 3 months. While .net claims "almost everyone" gets this offer, I personally travel hack quite conservatively, and certainly wouldn't count on receiving this additional offer, although I'd obviously be pleased if I did.

ow to decide

If, like me, you value the ability to get a 64.5% discount on paid travel, for example in order to earn airline elite status and hotel stay and night credits as well as hotel points, then the Arrival World MasterCard allows you to do so, by manufacturing 2.22 cents in travel redemptions at a cost of 0.79 cents during the first, fee-free year.

If you conserve your manufactured spend budget in order to hit high spend bonuses on cards like the American Express Delta Platinum and Reserve cards, or even medium spend bonuses on cards like the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve card, which I wrote about earlier this week, then you may be better off applying for the Extra Points NFL card, redeeming the signup bonus, and forgetting about it.

Finally, if you can manufacture essentially unlimited spend at a low, fixed cost, then there's no reason not to apply for both cards in two application cycles, at least 91 days apart. Use the Extra Points NFL card to earn an easy $400, and use the Arrival World MasterCard to earn 2.22% cash back on your manufactured spend the first, fee-free year.

Alaska Airlines debit card still available

​I use the Alaska Airlines debit card issued by Bank of America and linked to my Bank of America checking account fairly aggressively in order to manufacture Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles, earning 1 Mileage Plan mile for every $2 I spend on the debit card, including PIN-based and signature transactions.

I consider Mileage Plan miles to be one of the most valuable airline currencies (although I credit my Delta flights to my Delta Skymiles account in order to retain valuable  Medallion elite status), since they can be used for one-way award tickets on Alaska Airlines and American Airlines flights (including "last seat" availability on Alaska-operated flights), ​and they allow you to combine one Delta-operated leg with another operated leg by Alaska or American, something you can't do with Delta's own Skymiles.

​There is a lot of mistaken speculation (for example, in this flyertalk thread) that Bank of America no longer issues the Alaska Airlines debit card to new customers, so I want to make sure my readers are aware that you can still apply for the card. ​I first heard about the currently working link from Gary at View from the Wing, who heard about it from Free Frequent Flyer Miles.

So, if you have a Bank of America checking account, you can apply for an Alaska Airlines debit card here.

You can generate lots of easy, free, and valuable miles by using your Alaska Airlines debit card to fund Venmo transactions, load Bluebird and Gobank at Walmart, or pay other bills that only accept debit cards (although some transactions, like tax payments, may not earn miles).

One final note on the Bank of America Alaska Airlines debit card: unlike co-branded credit cards, your Alaska Airlines miles do not post after your monthly checking account ​statement closes. Rather, the miles are issued at the beginning of the month following the miles-earning debit card activity. I'll typically see my miles post to my Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account between the 5th and 10th of the month, for the preceding month's debit card transactions.

Breaking: Citi ThankYou 5x is still available

In my January application cycle I applied for the Citi ThankYou Preferred card through an offer that gave 5 ThankYou points per dollar spent at drug stores, grocery stores, and gas stations for the first 12 months of card membership. I was instantly approved and began using the card to manufacture student loan rebate checks, which I use to pay off loans at a rate of 1 cent per ThankYou point.

That online offer soon died, but today I woke up to find Frequent Miler reporting via the Miles Professor ​that a very similar offer is still alive and well. The catch? It's only available at brick-and-mortar Citibank locations.

The offer is for the Citi ThankYou card, instead of the ThankYou Preferred card. Using Citi's online credit card comparison tool, it appears to me that the only difference between the two cards is that the Preferred card doesn't have a preset spending limit, while the regular ThankYou card does. So keep that in mind.

​It's hard to say how long this offer will be available. I never recommend rushing into a credit card application cycle, but if you have one coming up anyway and haven't applied for another Citi card in the last 3 months or so, I can tell you this is the most lucrative offer you will see this year and you should strongly consider applying. Check out Citi's branch locator to see if there's a branch near you, or in an area you might be traveling to soon.

Changes to Gobank debit card loads

Changes to Gobank debit card loads

Back on May ​10, Gobank send an e-mail out to users with updates to the Deposit Account Agreement that governs Gobank checking accounts. In this Flyertalk thread, members were concerned that the e-mail included this section:

Deposit Options
Using a debit card to deposit money into your account will only be an option when making your initial deposit. Ongoing deposit options now include Mobile Deposit, Direct Deposit, bank transfer and cash.

​Soon after, it was noticed that the Gobank website no longer allows online debit card loads. Instead, the "Move money from another bank" tab only shows you your Gobank routing and account numbers, which you can use to deposit money electronically from another checking account.

However, the Gobank smartphone application has not yet been updated​ and still allows online debit card loads to your Gobank account, for example with a rewards-earning debit card like the PayPal Debit MasterCard. At least one of my readers has reported success in doing so since the website was updated.

Note that this opportunity will probably go away on or around May 30, if not sooner, so if you already have a Gobank account and you haven't loaded $1,000 yet using online debit card loads, now would be a great time to do so!​

Remember, you'll always find the latest news about developments with Gobank here on the Free-quent Flyer blog.​

Do this now: Club Carlson's summer promotion

Registration is now open for Club Carlson's summer promotion. ​Between May 13 and July 21, 2013, you'll earn 10,000 bonus Club Carlson Gold Points for each paid stay of 2 or more nights at Club Carlson properties. Unfortunately Cash + Points stays are not eligible for the bonus.

You need to register for the promotion before you check out during your first eligible stay, which you can do here.​

Update to the website: current hotel promotions all in one place

As you can see, in the top right navigation bar I've now added a simple page listing all the current hotel promotions that I'm aware of and registration links for each one. This is a handy way to keep track of all quarterly and seasonal hotel promotions, which typically have different start and end dates, and to make sure you're registered for all of them, which is free and easy. Check it out, and be sure to let me know if I'm missing a promotion or if there are other hotel chains you'd like me to keep track of.

Obviously I'll continue to post to the blog when registration opens for seasonal promotions, reminding you to register now, before you forget!​