The logic and illogic of Delta award pricing

I mentioned earlier in the week that I'm planning a summer trip to the Czech Republic, and discussed some different strategies I'm considering for booking our first few nights in Karlovy Vary (check out the comments to that post for some great reader suggestions for saving money at independent hotels).

Today I finally pulled the trigger on our airline tickets, about one day later than would have been ideal, but you book tickets at the prices you have, not the prices you might want or wish to have at an earlier time.

Because I'd been watching the ticket prices so closely, I noticed an odd price move.

Delta award tickets are not perfectly aligned with prices

While Delta has adopted revenue-based earning on paid tickets, they've only fitfully moved towards revenue-based redemptions. More expensive award tickets do tend to cost more miles than cheaper tickets, but the relationship isn't linear, which means Delta SkyMiles still offer a range of redemption values, rather than a fixed redemption rate.

Today I saw that the cash price of our ideal itinerary had moved from $953 to $1,409, while the award price remained at 80,000 SkyMiles (plus $55 in taxes and fees). Since I was planning to book my partner's award ticket with miles anyway, I did so immediately. Theoretically, this begs the question of whether I got $1,354 in value or $898 in value, but that part doesn't worry me too much, since the revenue price had already increased by the time I decided to book it, turning the decision to book with miles from a head-scratcher into a no-brainer.

What interested me was how I was going to book my own revenue ticket now that the price had shot up.

It still pays to search one leg at a time

I already knew our outbound itinerary was the ideal one, with a short connection at New York's JFK airport and a nonstop flight to Prague, and that itinerary is still available for 30,000 SkyMiles. But perusing Google Flights, I realized that there were still cheap itineraries including our transatlantic return leg.

And that's when it hit me that the final, domestic leg was the one messing up the pricing. The itinerary including the domestic leg priced out at $1,408:

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While the same itinerary without the final domestic leg cost just $1,013:

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Given those conditions, I booked my international itinerary to end at JFK, and I'll figure out my own way home from there. Revenue flights are just $216 (compared to the full itinerary price difference of $456), and I can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards or US Bank Flexpoints for that leg.

Or I'll just catch a Chinatown bus if I have to!

Conclusion

I went into this booking with a pretty restrictive set of constraints, so I didn't initially do as much work as I should have figuring out which flights were available at high and low revenue and award prices. Once I realized my mistake, I was able to immediately save hundreds of dollars by stopping short of my final destination and figuring out my own way home from there.

The lesson is clear: search multiple combinations of routes and itineraries in order to identify which legs are the most expensive, and see if you can find alternate methods of transportation to avoid them.

One weird old trick for cancelling the most annoying subscriptions

Back in November several shopping portals started running promotions offering bonus points if you signed up for an 8-week digital trial subscription to the Wall Street Journal and Barron's. The terms were a bit tricky: you had to keep the subscription for 45 days, but if you kept it for 56 days (8 weeks) you'd be charged for another month. That created a small window (which we're currently in) where you can cancel your subscription, keep the points, and not be charged for another month.

The points haul wasn't huge, but my purchases did track, and each batch cost me $1.06 after taxes, which I thought was a pretty good deal.

Dow Jones subscriptions are not meant to be cancelled

The Wall Street Journal and Barron's are both Dow Jones publications, and while you can manage your subscription online, you cannot cancel your subscription online. You need to call 1-800-JOURNAL for the Wall Street Journal or 1-800-544-0422 for Barron's, although in practice it seems the agents at either number can manage subscriptions to the other.

The Wall Street Journal call center combines the absolute worst elements of the call center experience: the lengthy script begging you not to cancel ("your subscription is paid up through the 27th, you can cancel until then, are you sure you want to cancel now?"), the terrible connection, the language barrier.

I was ultimately able to successfully cancel one subscription that way with a phone call that lasted 19 minutes, although it felt much longer. On Sunday I mustered up the resolve to make another round of calls, which is when I discovered the call center isn't open on Sundays.

That was the last straw for me.

Citi and Bank of America still offer disposable virtual credit card numbers

Virtual credit card numbers are a fairly old gimmick introduced by a few banks in the early days of online retail so that customers wouldn't have to share their "real" credit card number with online merchants. I don't know if they were ever "popular," but now they're distinctly unpopular, with to the best of my knowledge Bank of America and Citi being the only remaining card issuers that allow you to generate single-use credit card numbers for online transactions (let me and fellow readers know if the comments if you know of any other issuers).

To access virtual credit cards in Citi online banking open any card, then click on "Get Virtual Account Number" in the righthand pane. To access them in Bank of America, navigate to your account activity, scroll all the way down, and look for "Use ShopSafe."

Both banks appear to use the same technology, and I want to stress again, it is old. But it still works, and you can still generate disposable credit card numbers with customized spending limits and expiration dates. These numbers can only be used online.

Use virtual credit card numbers to auto-cancel subscriptions

The $0 liability offered by virtually all credit cards today on unauthorized charges has made the original purpose of virtual credit cards fairly remote from the modern experience. While you should still review your credit card activity carefully for unauthorized charges, it's trivially easy to get such charges reversed (some merchants would say too easy!).

But when you're dealing with sketchy merchants like Dow Jones and their outsourced call center, virtual credit card numbers offer a commonsense way to make sure you're not charged for subscriptions you don't want. Just change your billing method to a virtual credit card with a low limit and early expiration date, and your subscription will cancel itself.

Is this right?

I'm not a priest or a lawyer, and I'm especially not your priest or lawyer, so I don't have any insight into whether giving a sketchy merchant a credit card number you know (but they don't know) they won't be able to charge is legal or ethical or whatever.

I know it wouldn't be my first choice, which is why I tried to cancel my subscriptions the "right way." But when I realized I was not being dealt with in good faith, I no longer felt any compulsion to deal in good faith with them.

But even if you decide not to use virtual credit card numbers in this way, remember that Citi and Bank of America credit cardholders still have this potentially useful tool at their disposal.

How to make Delta's (bad) squeaky wheel policy work for you

If you spend much time around here, you know that I like flying on Delta. There are some catches, of course: if you prefer flying on Delta you'll probably want to get an American Express Delta Platinum or Reserve card and meet the high spend threshold in order to secure a Medallion Qualifying Dollar waiver (plus bonus Medallion Qualifying Miles). It's become harder to secure domestic First Class upgrades, but I've had great luck being upgraded to Comfort+ on leisure trips, even as a Silver Medallion (though I'll be a Gold Medallion next year).

But there's one area where Delta drives me positively nuts: their policy on meal vouchers for delayed and misconnected passengers.

Delta agents absolutely can issue meal vouchers

One of the great things about flying back to my hometown in Montana is that the outbound flights are inevitably overbooked. On my last two trips home I've taken voluntary denied boarding compensation of $1,300 and $800, so basically each trip I take home pays for another couple trips on Delta. Agents in my hometown also love printing out meal vouchers, so in addition to getting to relax at the downtown Hilton, I also get 3 $15 coupons to eat at the steakhouse there. Good deal, right?

Somebody told Delta's agents they can't issue meal vouchers

On my last flight back from Montana, my plane went mechanical and they had to fly a replacement jet in from Minneapolis, causing me to miss my connection back to the East Coast. When we finally arrived late at night in Minneapolis, Delta had already set us up with hotel reservations and boarding passes for flights the next day. Naturally, I asked the agent, "what about meal vouchers?" and he replied with a straight face, "no, we don't do that anymore."

Keep in mind that 36 hours earlier I'd received $45 in meal vouchers printed on Delta ticket stock out of a Delta agent's computer.

So, being me, I started bitching about it on Twitter, and after I explained the situation over DM, Delta's Twitter agent replied:

"I will have to get more information on that because you were just offered a voucher for meals on yesterday. I will reach out to airport Leadership to get some additional information on that. It may be only certain stations that offer meals. Corporate will definitely reimburse under the circumstances."

Reimbursement procedure

This wasn't exactly tricky but I'd never done it before so I want to spell it out for my readers. To get reimbursed for my meals, I did the following:

1. Visit Delta's "comment/complaint" page here.
2. Select "voice a complaint," then "after trip."
3. Fill out the personal information and flight information.
4. Explain the situation, ask for reimbursement, and attach any supporting documentation.

For my supporting documentation I attached both the receipt for my meal at the hotel bar that night and screenshots of my entire exchange with Delta's Twitter team, stating the bill would be reimbursed. I don't know if the Twitter screenshots were strictly necessary, but I wasn't going to take any chances. I did not include the itemized receipt, just the credit card receipt showing the total amount charged (useful if you remember the details of my Chase Sapphire Preferred trip delay insurance post).

Timeline

I filed my complaint on September 29. On October 14, I received an e-mail stating they had issued me a check for the entire restaurant bill I submitted, and the check I am now holding in my hands was dated October 16 (I was out of the country last week and only just checked my mail).

This is bad

Now I know how to do this, and since you're a faithful reader, now you know how to do it too. But of the 100+ passengers on my misconnected Delta flight, all of whom were owed meal reimbursement, how many of them got it? I'd be stunned if you told me a single other person on that flight went through this procedure and received the reimbursement they were entitled to.

Were they lazy? Were they stupid? No, they were just told by an authority figure that they weren't entitled to anything, and they accepted it, because what else were they going to do?

What to do when a Bank of America ATM eats your money orders

Automated teller machines are so fully integrated into American life that it's sometimes difficult to remember just how marvelous the technology is. The fact that the global telecommunications infrastructure enables real-time connections to bank accounts all over the world is incredible enough, but ATM's also perform remarkable, and remarkably consistent, mechanical functions: first dispensing cash in precise quantities, and now even accepting deposits of instantly-counted cash and machine-read checks. Even if the machine-reading isn't yet at 100% accuracy, the cash counting function itself is pretty remarkable.

Of course, no technology is perfect, and most people have wondered at one point or another, "what would happen if an ATM dispensed the wrong amount of cash?" I actually asked a cashier at my local credit union that very question, and she responded that they count the cash at the end of the night and would notice any disparity and correct it. Whether that's true or not, I had my own ATM mishap last week, and I have to confess it was resolved perfectly, at the cost of a single 21-minute phone call.

Here's what happened.

Bank of America ATM's accept money order deposits, but they are not great

I've deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars of money orders in Bank of America ATM's over the years and never run into any problems although, depending on the model of the money order printer and the model of the ATM, I usually have to manually input the amount of the money orders I deposit.

What had never happened to me before last Sunday was for the ATM to accept my money order deposit, go to a "processing" screen for 2-3 minutes, and then "cancel" the transaction without returning the money orders or acknowledging the transaction in any way.

I immediately checked my account online, and when I saw no transaction had been recorded, it was time to get on the phone.

Filing a claim

I used the "contact us" button within the Bank of America iPhone app, which dialed 844-870-8569. After explaining the situation to the front-line rep, I was directed to a department I believe was called "fraud," and given an additional phone number, 877-366-1121. After explaining the situation to that rep, I was then transferred to another department, which I wasn't given the name of. That rep was finally able to open a claim for me. He asked for:

• the date of the transaction;
• the approximate time of the transaction;
• the amount of the deposit;
• the serial numbers of the money orders I deposited;
• the ATM's identification code, which was tucked over the ATM's screen and under the ATM's hood (it took me a minute or two to find).

I also asked him how often this kind of thing happened, and he answered that he gets "3-5 calls per day." Naturally, after I tweeted about the situation I heard from several readers who had experienced identical problems. That's what you get when you execute several lifetimes' worth of ordinary ATM usage every year!

Resolution

As promised, my account was credited with a "temporary credit" on Monday, September 11 (actually one day earlier than promised). On Thursday, September 21, I received an online message that the claim had been resolved and the temporary credit was made permanent. The entire text of the attached PDF was:

"We've concluded our investigation of this disputed transaction. The previously issued credit is now permanent."

I assume I'll receive a paper letter to the same effect in a day or two.

Conclusion

I don't think there's an epidemic of malfunctioning Bank of America ATM's sweeping the country, so I don't think this is something you should be worrying about, let alone obsessing over. The real point of this post is simply to put your mind at ease: there is a system for resolving ATM transactions which malfunction, and it works.

Unlike, for example, claiming credit card trip delay insurance, there's no secret recipe for resolving these problems. Just call immediately, provide as much information as possible, and your claim will be resolved in short order (and you'll have use of the money in the meantime). I imagine that some of the information I provided wasn't even necessary to resolve the claim. Since I called immediately I was able to provide the ATM's identification code, but if I waited until I got home I assume Bank of America would be able to look it up themselves.

Pro tip: Flexpoints can only be redeemed online for most international travel 7 days in advance

Here's a new one for me. A long-time reader reached out to me, as the biggest fan of US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards in the blogosphere, to ask whether I'd had any experience booking close-in tickets using Flexpoints. He was trying to book a ticket to the Caribbean in exactly one week, and wrote that "the website will not show me anything prior to [one week out]."

I wasn't sitting at my computer so couldn't see exactly what he was seeing, but replied that while Flexpoints could not be redeemed for same day travel (and indeed, neither can Ultimate Rewards points), they certainly can be redeemed for travel within a week.

It turns out, we were both right: Flexpoints can be redeemed for next-day domestic travel but can only be redeemed online for travel 7 or more days in advance to international destinations excluding Canada. Next-day flights to Canada are fine (I couldn't find any other exceptions, but if you know of another country that's an exception, let me and other readers know in the comments).

While researching this post I also came across another curious restriction:

"Travel itineraries booked online require at least one USA or Canadian airport. To book a travel itinerary that does not include a USA or Canadian airport, you may contact a Travel Rewards Agent at 1-866-814-1293."

My reader was ultimately able to call and book his close-in Caribbean flight, but was charged an additional $25 phone booking fee for each ticket, which he couldn't convince the representative to waive. It's not clear to me how much discretion agents have to waive those fees — I did have a $30 change fee waived in the past.

Out of curiosity, I also checked the Ultimate Rewards booking portal and they have no trouble booking next-day international flights online. Between the $25 per ticket booking fee, and the superior travel insurance offered by the Chase Sapphire Reserve, that may be a better option than US Bank Flexpoints when booking close-in paid international travel, depending on where the fare falls in a Flexpoint redemption band (and what other uses you have planned for your Ultimate Rewards points).

Quick hits: hijinks booking Mileage Plan awards on Virgin America

In the last few months I've written a couple posts about booking award travel on Virgin America, with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles and with HawaiianMiles, mentioning a few things I had come across doing everyday research.

Lo and behold, I actually just had occasion to book a Virgin America ticket with Mileage Plan, and found a quirk that might cost you thousands of Mileage Plan miles if you aren't paying attention.

Virgin America sometimes only makes one First Class award seat available to Mileage Plan at a time

I was searching for two tickets between the East Coast and San Francisco for June, and saw two First Class seats available for 60,000 Mileage Plan miles on Virgin America's nonstop flight:

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After running the dates by my partner, I decided to just book one ticket for myself and book hers later. After running a search for one passenger, I found a First Class ticket available for just 25,000 miles:

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While selecting my seat, I noticed that the First Class cabin was completely empty. After booking my ticket, I decided that booking a refundable 60,000-mile ticket for my partner made sense to make sure we were on the same flight. But when I searched again, another First Class ticket had become available at the 25,000-mile level!

Then I remembered that all Alaska Airlines tickets are refundable greater than 60 days before departure, so I went ahead and booked her a low-level ticket as well.

Out of curiosity, I searched again and yet another 25,000-mile ticket had become available. In other words, Alaska Airlines was only showing one low-level First Class award seat at time, but immediately made an additional seat available each time one was booked.

This doesn't seem to be a universal phenomenon, since I was able to find 7 First Class seats simultaneously on the same route on January 18, 2018, but it does seem fairly common for dates in June, when I'm planning my trip.

Since Alaska award tickets are refundable within 24 hours of booking, and outside of 60 days, there's no risk booking low-level award tickets one at a time to see if additional seats become available. If they don't, and you'd like to make different plans, you can quickly cancel all the reservations you were able to make.

The Mileage Plan search engine shows incorrect fees on Virgin America

For some reason the Mileage Plan search engine shows fees and charges of $19, but once you select a flight and continue the correct fees and charges, in this case $5.60, are shown.

My only theory is that the engine might be adding half the $25 partner booking fee, $12.50, to the security fee of $5.60, and rounding up to $19.

In any case, when you proceed to checkout you'll see the correct, lower fee before paying.

Maybe just show up to a Global Entry interview without an appointment

I've never had a card that offered Global Entry or Precheck fee reimbursement because I don't pay $450 annual fees, but a generous reader with many, many more such credits than he could ever use insisted I use one to pay my Global Entry registration fee (thanks, SD!).

This being the federal government, all the Global Online Enrollment System, or GOES, requires is the credit card number and verification code of the credit card used to pay the enrollment fee; they don't verify the billing address or zip code of the credit card.

I have three regional Global Entry interview locations relatively close to me, but since I wasn't in any rush I didn't shop around and simply selected the first interview time available in downtown DC. It was months in the future, and I completely forgot about it.

After I rescheduled the appointment to yesterday, I diligently set up calendar reminders on my phone so I'd be sure to make it. I had a 2:45 pm appointment, and gave myself plenty of time to get there, arriving at 2:19 pm. By 2:39 pm, I had completed my interview and was walking out the door.

Maybe just show up?

As far as I can tell, the Global Entry interview appointment system allows one interview to be scheduled every 15 minutes at a given location. But at an actual Global Entry interview location, there are multiple agents working and interviews take much less than 15 minutes.

I don't know if there's an official protocol, and frankly I don't know if the agents know if there's an official protocol either: when I showed up at my interview location there was just a ratty paper book where you wrote down your name and the time you arrived. There's also a line for "notes," where people at my location wrote down their scheduled interview time or "walk-in," but that appeared to have been made up completely by the people being interviewed; there were no instructions to that effect.

This is an extremely common phenomenon, where the objects of bureaucratic indifference organize their experience so it makes more sense than it, objectively speaking, does.

Agents have access to an eclectic range of data

The first question my agent asked me was "what was the purpose of your trip to Turkey?" My totally truthful response was, "I was connecting on a flight to Budapest."

Then he asked me about my business, and I told him about this blog, so he asked me, "so is your travel for business?" My totally truthful response was, "I try to be scrupulously honest about only deducting legitimate business trips."

Only as I was walking home did I realize all he was asking me was, "business or pleasure?"

So don't overthink the agent's questions. Just say "business" or "pleasure."

The agent also asked me if I'd ever been arrested "regardless of the outcome of the case." I told him I had and he asked me if it was for a DUI (drunk driving). It wasn't (I don't drive drunk), and I told him so, and he told me that his system was showing him "some notes." It didn't keep me from being approved so I have no idea what his "notes" were showing him, but the point is, their system has more-or-less real-time access to criminal databases, so don't lie if you've ever been arrested for anything!

Pro tip: booking premium cabins with US Bank Flexpoints

As fans of US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards know, and people who recently applied for a personal or business card during the recent Summer Olympics promotion will soon find out, the third-party travel provider US Bank uses no longer allows multi-city itineraries to be booked online through their travel portal, although such tickets can still be booked over the phone at no additional charge.

Booking premium-cabin tickets is possible to do online, although you need to be extremely careful while doing so, and under most circumstances I think you'll be better off booking such tickets over the phone as well.

Here's how I found that out while making a first class reservation over the weekend.

US Bank allows you to search for "business class" flights

When conducting a search for flights through US Bank's travel provider, you can no longer search for multi-city itineraries, but if you select "Advanced Search" you can search for "Business Class:"

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Check your search results carefully for class of service

Here's the first search result for a "Business Class" flight between Washington and Lexington, KY:

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There's something that should be immediately suspicious about this search result, but which I missed the first time: there are 9 seats available. What Delta Connection flight has a First Class cabin with 9 or more seats?

The answer is revealed when you expand the flight details:

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This flight books into the "W" Comfort+ fare class, not into the correct "P" First Class fare bucket.

The key takeaway here is that this is your one and only chance to see what cabin you're booking into: on none of the subsequent checkout screens is the class of service listed.

"Business Class" search results are all over the place

At first I thought this was a Delta-specific situation, in which you can book Comfort+ but not First Class seats online.

But no! Here's a flight correctly pricing out in Business class between JFK and LAX:

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Basically it seems like a combination of sloppy programming on the part of the travel agency and the exploding number of fare classes and cabin configurations by the airlines. On 3-cabin aircraft you can book into the Business cabin, and on 2-cabin aircraft you might be booked into First class or Comfort+ depending on what fare classes are available and on how the online search engine is feeling that day.

You can change flights within 24 hours for $30 (or free)

After realizing I had mistakenly booked a flight in Comfort+, instead of First Class, I called US Bank's travel agency, QualityRewardTravel, at 1-866-814-1293. After waiting on hold for 5 or 10 minutes, I explained the situation and gave my Agency Record Locator to the phone agent. She told me that within 24 hours of booking, flights could be changed or cancelled for a fee of $30.

I told her I was calling because their website had made a mistake, and that I wasn't going to pay to fix it.

After asking her supervisor, she made a "one-time" exception and changed the flight into First Class for free, noting that the flight cost the same number of points as my original reservation.

Make multi-city and premium-cabin reservations over the phone

Multi-city Flexperks reservations already have to be made over the phone, but I would suggest that any premium cabin flight involving a connection should also be booked over the phone, since the flight search results do not show the class of service available on each leg. It seems likely that they show itineraries where business or first class seats are available on only some of the flights. Alaska Airlines is notorious for doing this in their search results, although they at least alert you when you select a mixed-cabin itinerary.

Of course, when the cabin you want simply doesn't appear in the online search results, you'll also need to call to book.

Conclusion

One of the great things about US Bank Flexpoints is that they allow you to take advantage of price compression, when nonstop, more convenient, or premium cabin itineraries cost the same number of Flexpoints as inconvenient or economy class flights. However, US Bank's travel agency doesn't make it as easy as it should be to take advantage of that key feature of the program.

Quick hit: Visa Supplier Locator

A reader recently pointed out to me that last week over at Travel with Grant, Grant wrote that he noticed on his last US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards credit card statement the following curious text:

"Beginning March 1, 2016, the accelerated earn category of 'grocery' will be changed to 'grocery stores'. This may result in double FlexPoints not being awarded on transactions at discount/retail stores which may sell some groceries but do not primarily sell groceries."

Let me be clear: I have no idea what this means, and am not particularly inclined to speculate. We know when Chase Freedom cards bonus grocery store spend they specifically exclude Target and Walmart store locations, but in that cases they exclude Target and Walmart by name — they don't beat around the bush with "mays" and "may nots."

But it does give me an excuse to remind readers about one of my favorite tools: the Visa Supplier Locator.

Look up an individual store's Industry/MCC code with the Visa Supplier Locator

Many stores, even stores which belong to national chains, have different MCC codes depending on the way their credit card processing accounts were configured. There are patterns, but those patterns aren't particularly interesting since you can look up the MCC code of any individual store using the Visa Supplier Locator.

Those MCC codes determine, under most circumstances, whether you'll receive bonus points on Visa and MasterCard credit cards that bonus purchases made in specific categories. If a Visa or MasterCard credit card bonuses purchases at gas stations, you want MCC 5541 — SERVICE STATIONS. Drug stores and pharmacies? That's 5912 — DRUG STORES & PHARMACIES.

And if you're using your Flexperks Travel Rewards credit card at grocery stores in a given statement cycle (each month you should decide between gas stations and grocery stores), you'll want to look out for 5411 — GROCERY STORES/SUPERMARKETS.

Conclusion

We should find out in the first week or two of March what, if anything, the change to the Flexperks Travel Rewards "grocery store" bonus category really entails.

But in the meantime, do yourself a favor: take 20 minutes and look for some undiscovered bonused earning gems near you!

Buying Broadway tickets (is expensive)

On Tuesday I wrote that I was going to New York to see Hamilton, the smash hit Broadway musical. Commenter BetterByDesign astutely asked,

"How the heck did you find Hamilton tickets? Or did you just throw cash into the venture?"

Long story short, I just threw cash into the venture. There are ways to save money on Broadway tickets, but not as many as I'd like.

TKTS for when you don't care what you see

If you're already in New York City, you can head down to the TKTS ticket booth on Times Square (lines can be very long at this booth), the South Street Seaport, or in Brooklyn. They offer discounted tickets to same-day shows on an as-available basis.

If you're just in New York for a weekend, you are going to be stuck with whatever tickets TKTS has available, since there's no way to predict which shows will be offering tickets on a given day.

I've seen some great shows using TKTS, like A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (Tony award for Best Musical in 2014) and Pippin (Tony award for Best Revival of a Musical in 2013).

Full price box office tickets

If you want to see a popular show and live in New York, you can buy full price tickets from theatre box offices (TKTS also sells full price tickets for future performances). Popular shows sell out far in advance, but you can save hundreds of dollars by paying the face value of your tickets rather than buying them on the resale market.

The resale market

If you don't live in New York and have a particular show you want to see, that leaves the resale market. There are many resale sites, and many of them charge additional administrative fees which can add up to hundreds of dollars. However, most of the sites carry the same inventory, as resellers upload the same ticket to multiple sites to increase their chances of making a sale (sounds familiar, right?).

Having said that, this was my general strategy for paying the lowest price for our Hamilton tickets.

Use SeatGeek to find the cheapest reseller

SeatGeak is a ticket-reselling aggregator, which shows prices available on a range of other ticket reselling sites. They will sell you tickets themselves, but they will also tell you on which other ticket reselling site the tickets were found. For example, here are some tickets available for the January 9, 2016, evening performance of Hamilton:

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In this example you can see SeatGeek is listing tickets for sale on:

• uberseat
• ravetix.com
• TN Direct
• Prime Entertainment

You'll also see tickets sold on FanXchange, TicketCity, and other reselling sites.

Find out how much the tickets are reselling for on the original reselling site

After you've selected a few promising seats, you'll want to see how much the tickets are actually selling for on the original reselling site. In the example above, SeatGeek shows the cheapest ticket as $314 at uberseat.

On uberseat's website, the cheapest tickets price out at just $268:

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Sure, you can save some money cutting out SeatGeek, but there's another reason to go directly to the reseller's website: SeatGeek doesn't participate in cash back portals.

Search your favorite cashback portal for payout rates

Here are the ticket resellers that I easily found participating in TopCashBack:

• ScoreBig. 12% cash back, $30 off purchases of $250 or more in October using code "trickortreat"
• TicketLiquidator. 12.5% cash back, $10 off purchases of $350 or more using code "TLFALL"
• TicketCity. 3% cash back.
• VenueKings.com. 13% cash back, $4.99 off purchases of $40 or more using code "TRICKORTREAT5"
• PurchaseTix. $9% cash back.

Conclusion

You're never going to make money buying tickets on reselling sites, but using these techniques you can start to get your ticket prices down into the ballpark of full price box office tickets.

Personally, since Delta was paying for our tickets to New York City, I ended up splurging a little bit and buying orchestra seats for Hamilton, but if you're planning far enough in advance and don't care where you sit, you can use these techniques to pay under $200 per ticket for mezzanine seats, for the hottest show of the year!