Do this now: Hilton's Q2 promotion

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Registration is now open for Hilton's 2nd quarter promotion.  The "Daily Grand" promotion gives 2,000 bonus points per Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night spent at Hilton properties worldwide during paid stays (except in the Middle East, where Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights earn 2,000 points) and 1,000 bonus points for Monday-Thursday nights during paid stays.  The promotion is in effect between April 1, 2013 and June 30, 2013.  Register now, before you forget.

Amtrak Double Days and AGR award redemptions

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Registration is now available for Amtrak’s Double Days Spring promotion.  Between March 18 and May 18, 2013, you can earn double Amtrak Guest Rewards points for up to two one-way trips per day.

This is a great opportunity to discuss some of the valuable redemptions offered by the Amtrak Guest Rewards program.

Earning AGR Points

On most Amtrak travel you’ll earn 2 Amtrak Guest Rewards points per dollar spent, with a minimum of 100 points per one-way trip.  You’ll earn 500 points per Business Class ticket and 750 points per First Class ticket on Amtrak’s Acela high-speed service between “select city pairs” (see Amtrak’s website for details).

Buying AGR Points

Additionally, you can purchase between 500 and 10,000 points per year for 2.75 cents per point.  As we’ll see, there are lots of redemption opportunities which can make buying points an excellent value, even speculatively.

Transfer Partners

Amtrak Guest Rewards is a transfer partner of both Chase Ultimate Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest.  Points transfer from both programs to Amtrak Guest Rewards at a rate of 1 : 1 (Starwood 20,000 point increment bonuses don't apply to Amtrak transfers).

Co-branded Credit Card

Chase offers a co-branded Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card, which earns 1 point per dollar spent and an additional point per dollar on Amtrak purchases, and has a number of valuable benefits:

  • ​The card has no annual fee.
  • 12,000 point signup bonus after spending $500 within 3 months.​
  • Whenever you redeem for Amtrak travel, you'll receive a 5% ​rebate on the points used (you must have enough points to make the redemption before the rebate is applied).
  • ​Finally, one valuable benefits of the co-branded card is available to customers who spend more than $200 per calendar year on Amtrak travel using the credit card.  Cardholders who qualify can transfer up to 25,000 Amtrak points per year into Hilton HHonors points at a rate of 1 Amtrak Guest Rewards point to 2 Hilton points.

Redeeming AGR Points

Some of the most valuable Amtrak redemptions are for travel on Amtrak's high speed Acela service and for long-haul passenger sleeper accommodations.

Acela Travel Redemptions

There are three ways to redeem Amtrak Guest Rewards points for travel on Acela (however, see blackout dates below):

  • You can redeem 8,000 points for an Acela Business Class ticket.  Looking at sample dates between Boston and Washington, DC, tickets can cost between $195 and $279, meaning you’ll receive between 2.43 and 3.49 cents per point for Business Class redemptions.  On the higher end of this range, purchased Amtrak points are already worth redeeming for a small profit.
  • You can redeem 12,000 points for a First Class ticket, which costs between $321 and $405 on the same Boston to Washington route, giving 2.68 to 3.38 cents per point in value.
  • Finally, you can redeem 10,000 points for 5 coupons that can be used for space-available upgrades from paid Business Class reservations to First Class.  Since a First Class ticket costs $126 more than Business Class, this redemption offers an incredible 6.3 cents per point.

Long Haul Redemptions

Some of the most valuable Amtrak Guest Rewards redemptions are for sleeper accommodations on Amtrak’s long-haul passenger routes.

For the purpose of these redemptions, Amtrak divides the country into three zones.  The important thing to keep in mind is that the cost of the redemption is the same for any valid routing between two cities, based only on the zone in which the origin and destination cities are located.  For example, a two-zone bedroom redemption between Chicago and Portland, OR, costs a flat 40,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards points.  For this price you can take the direct route between the two cities on the Empire Builder, a $1778 value on a sample date in May, or 4.44 cents per point.  However, for the same number of points you can first take the Southwest Chief to Los Angeles, then the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Portland, a $2562 value, or 6.4 cents per point.  You can check what routings are available between two cities by making a simple one-way reservation search at amtrak.com.  Since Amtrak offers last-seat award availability, any seats or sleeper accommodations which are available on amtrak.com are available for award redemption, subject to the blackout dates below.

Blackout Dates

All Amtrak Guest Rewards redemptions are subject to the following strictly-enforced blackout dates:

On Acela service, weekday travel origination may not occur from any boarding point between start-of-service and 8:59 a.m. inclusive, or between 2:00 p.m. and 5:59 p.m. inclusive (weekend Acela travel is permitted at any time except on any weekend dates defined below). Select Plus and Select Executive members may redeem for travel during blackout dates by using our "rule buster" awards, but Acela blackout times still apply.

Upcoming blackout dates are as follows:

  • December 20–23, 2012
  • December 26–30, 2012
  • January 2, 2013
  • February 15, 2013
  • February 18, 2013
  • March 28–29, 2013
  • April 1, 2013
  • May 24, 2013
  • August 30, 2013
  • September 2, 2013
  • October 11, 2013
  • November 26–27, 2013
  • November 30, 2013
  • December 1, 2013
  • December 20–22, 2013
  • December 28–29, 2013
  • January 3–5, 2014
  • February 14, 2014
  • February 17, 2014
  • April 17–18, 2014
  • April 21, 2014
  • May 23, 2014
  • July 3, 2014
  • July 6, 2014
  • August 29, 2014
  • September 1, 2014
  • October 10, 2014
  • November 25–26, 2014
  • November 29–December 1, 2014
  • December 20–24, 2014
  • December 26–31, 2014

​

Let's Hack! the Southwest companion pass

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If you frequently fly domestically with your family between cities serviced by Southwest Airlines, there's no better value than the Southwest companion pass.

Features

The companion pass allows you to designate one companion (the designated companion can be changed up to 3 times during the period covered by the pass), who can fly with the companion pass-holder for free on all paid and award flights, paying only the 9/11 security fee of up to $10 per round-trip ticket.

Validity Period

The companion pass is alid for the remainder of the calendar year it is earned and the entire following calendar year.  Any companion pass earned before the end of 2013 will be valid until December 31, 2014.

How to Qualify

You can qualify for the companion pass by flying 100 Southwest-operated ne-way flights within a calendar year, or by earning 110,000 qualifying points.

Companion Pass Qualifying Points are earned from revenue flights, points issued on Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Credit Cards, and points earned from Rapid Rewards Partners.

On revenue flights, you earn qualifying points at these rates:

  • 12 qualifying points per dollar spent on Business Select fares;
  • 10 qualifying points per dollar spent on Anytime fares;
  • 6 qualifying points per dollar spent on Wanna Get Away fares.

No qualifying points are earned on award redemptions.

Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Credit Cards

Fortunately, you don't need to spend $18,000 on fares in order to earn the companion pass.  Instead, you can qualify using the points you earn using any of the co-branded Southwest credit cards issued by Chase.  And right now, this is easier to do than ever, thanks to the  very generous signup bonuses currently offered by the cards.

All four of these cards come with the same signup bonus: 50,000 Rapid Rewards points (which count as Companion Pass Qualifying Points) after $2,000 in purchases on the card in the first 3 months.  Once you meet the minimum spending requirement on any two of the cards, you'll have 104,000 qualifying points towards the companion pass, and you only need to spend $6,000 more in order to qualify for the rest of the current year and all of next year.

Chase doesn't generally allow you to receive a signup bonus for the same card more than once, but each of these cards counts as a different "product," so you can receive the signup bonus for each of the four cards one time.  Additionally, you can't generally apply for two personal cards or two business cards within 65-90 days of each other.

Therefore, the best method for acquiring a companion pass as painlessly as possible is to apply for one of the two personal cards and one of the two business cards.  This gives you the maximum flexibility for applying again in 2015 when the companion pass you earn this year expires.

Happy hacking!

 

Aspirational awards, part 1: Hilton all-inclusive resorts (Americas)

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If you follow the advice in my book and here on the website, hen you know you never need to pay retail for another flight or hotel stay again.  But that doesn't solve the most important question: where do you want to fly for free, and where do you want to stay when you get there?  In this on-going series, we'll take a look at various aspirational hotel and airline redemptions around the world in order to help you make the most of your miles and points.

In today's edition, we'll examine Hilton's all-inclusive resort properties, where you can redeem Hilton HHonors points for stays that included food and beverages, including alcoholic beverages.

Hilton Papagayo Costa Rica Resort & Spa

Vital Information

  • Award night cost: 60,000 HHonors points per night, year round.
  • 5-night stay with 5th night free for elite members: 240,000 HHonors points.
  • Cash price: $1,645 - $2,795 on sample dates.
  • Redemption value: 0.6 - 1.16 cents per point.

 

Getting there

  • merican Airlines operates non-stop service to Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR) on two-cabin aircraft from Miami International Airport (MIA).
  • Delta Airlines operates non-stop service to LIR from their hub in Atlanta, Georgia (ATL).
  • United Airlines operates non-stop service on two-cabin aircraft to LIR from their Texas hub in Houston (IAH) and seasonally from Newark (EWR).
  • US Airways operates occasional weekend flights from Charlotte, North Caroline (CLT) to LIB on two-cabin aircraft.

Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa, Jamaica

Vital Information

  • Award night cost: 60,000 points per night, year round.
  • 5-night stay with 5th night free: 240,000 HHonors points.
  • Cash price:  $1,570 - $2,995 on sample dates.
  • Redemption value:  0.65 - 1.2 cents per HHonors point.

Getting There

 

  • American Airlines operates non-stop service to Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ) from Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) on two-cabin aircraft.
  • Delta Airlines operates non-stop service to MBJ from their hubs at New York City's JFK and Atlanta.
  • United operates non-stop flights between MBJ and their hub in Houston (IAH) on two-cabin aircraft.
  • US Airways operates non-stop service to MBJ from their hub in Charlotte on two-cabin aircraft.

Hilton Puerto Vallarta Resort, Mexico

 

Vital Information

  • Award night cost: 60,000 points per night, year round.
  • 5-night stay with 5th night free: 240,000 HHonors points.
  • Cash price:  $1,070 - $2,445 on sample dates.
  • Redemption value:  0.44 - 1.01 cents per HHonors point.

Getting There

  • American Airlines operates non-stop flights between Puerto Vallarta Ordaz (PVR) and their hub in DFW.
  • Delta operates non-stop flights between PVR and Los Angeles (LAX) and Atlanta.
  • United operates non-stop flights between PVR and San Francisco (SFO), Houston (IAH), Denver (DEN), Los Angeles (LAX) and Chicago O'hare (ORD).
  • US Airways operates non-stop services between PVD and their hub in Pheonix, Arizona (PHX).

ward Ticket Redemptions

All four of the airlines mentioned here charge the same number of miles for award redemptions to Mexico and to the Caribbean, so award flights between the continental United States and all three of these destinations cost the same number of award miles:

  • American Airlines: 25,000 (off-peak) or 30,000 (peak) AAdvantage miles in economy, 60,000 in business.
  • Delta Airlines: 35,000 Skymiles in economy, 60,000 in business.
  • United Airlines: 35,000 United miles in economy, 60,000 in first.
  • US Airways: 35,000 Dividend Miles in economy, 60,000 in first.

Since these are international flights, they do trigger the stopover and one-way rules that allow you to include free one-ways on award tickets on Delta, United, and American.

ummary

By offering over 1 cent per point in value for 5-night redemptions during high season, the all-inclusive resorts n the Americas provide some of the most valuable redemptions in the Hilton HHonors program.  The Hilton American Express cards (standard and Surpass) and Citi HHonors Reserve card earn 3 HHonors points per dollar in non-bonused spend.  Even though the American Express bonus on drug store spending (6 points instead of 3) is coming to an end for existing cardholders in May, if you're able to manufacture spending at a cost of .78 cents per dollar, you're still able to earn the 240,000 HHonors points needed for a 5-night stay at a cost of $624, saving up to 77% on a 5-night stay at the Papagayo Costa Rica, for example.

Starwood hotel category and cash and points changes now in effect

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As mentioned in my hotel devaluation roundup last week and in Chapter 6 of the book​, the changes to Starwood Preferred Guest's hotel categories and the devaluation of the cash and points award chart went into effect today.  I'll be updating the webpage shortly with my analysis of the new chart [edit 3/6/2013: updated].  In the meantime, you can check out the new award chart on Starwood's website, and use Starwood's tool to view Starwood hotels by award category.

Free one-ways on American award reservations

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We've already discussed the basics of adding a free one-way flight before or after a round-trip award reservation on Delta and on United​.  Free one-ways on American Airlines are a little trickier than on either of the other traditional carriers.  As always, in order to book a free one-way flight, you need to use a stopover.  However, American only allows stopovers on award tickets at the "North American gateway city," which is the airport where you depart or arrive North America.  This post has a list of which cities are considered North American gateway cities with different American partners.

​Therefore, the only way to add a free one-way to the beginning or end of your itinerary is if you live in your North American gateway city, or can get there cheaply or easily.  For example, if you live in Boston, then as long as you depart or arrive North America on a flight from or to Boston, you can add an earlier or later one-way flight at the beginning or end of your reservation.  Below is a simple example.  On the outbound international leg, Boston to London, Boston is the North American gateway city.  That means that I was able to add an unrelated, free one-way flight from Dallas to Boston at the beginning of the itinerary for the same miles as just the international round-trip:

On the return flight I found, Chicago is the North American gateway city, so it would be possible to stopover there if I hadn't used the stopover already at the beginning of the itinerary.  Of course in order to get from Boston to Dallas in the first place you'll need a paid one-way ticket or an award from an airline that allows one-way awards at half the price of a round trip, like United or American.

Which hotel program is best for earning airline miles?

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The most popular hotel loyalty programs all allow you to transfer your hotel loyalty points into airline miles at more or less favorable ratios.  Here are the most favorable transfer ratios available for "pure" point transfers to the 4 traditional domestic airlines: Delta, United, US Airways, and American.  Marriott and Starwood both offer more lucrative awards for both hotel stays and airline miles, which we'll leave for a future post.

Starwood: 20,000 Starpoints to 25,000 airline miles (all except United).  1 : 1.25.

Hyatt: 50,000 Gold Passport points to 25,000 airline miles.  1 : 0.5.

Marriott: 125,000 Marriott Rewards points to 50,000 airline miles (all except American).  1 : 0.4.

Priority Club: 10,000 Priority Club points to 2,000 airline miles.  1 : 0.2.

Club Carlson: 100,000 Gold Points to 18,000 airline miles.  1 : 0.18.

Hilton: 10,000 HHonors points to 850 (US Airways), 1,000 (United or Delta), or 1,500 (American) airline miles.  1 : 0.085, 1 : 0.1 ,or 1 : 0.15.  Below we'll use the American conversion rate as the most favorable of the three conversions.

As you can see, I've ranked these programs in order of the nominal value of their points currency.  But here at the Free-quent Flyer, we're not interested in what the hotel programs think their rewards are worth, we're interested in the rebate value of loyalty programs, and to calculate that we need to know how quickly we can earn earn hotel's rewards currency, in order to redeem it for the award that matters to us (in this case, airline miles).

​With that in mind, let's compare hotel earning rates to their airline miles redemption value.  This looks like a normal points density grid, but with a single award, instead of hotel categories.

Starwood Preferred Guest

​Starwood provides the simplest example of this technique.  Since the points transfer at a 1 : 1.25 ratio to Delta, US Airways, and American, you can see how quickly you earn airline miles depending on your elite status and whether you hold the Starwood American Express card:

Hyatt Gold Passport

Hyatt's points, which transfer to the traditional airlines at a rate of 1 : 0.5, offers a comparable rebate value for non-elite members, although lags behind Starwood for elites using their co-branded credit card:

Marriott Rewards

With Marriott we see our first surprise.  Gold members using the Marriott Rewards Premier ​Visa card earn more airline miles per dollar spent at Marriott properties than even Starwood elites using the co-branded credit card.

Priority Club

With Priority Club the original pattern reasserts itself: these points just aren't very valuable when redeemed for airline miles, not because of the poor conversion rate, but because they can't be earned quickly enough to make up for the poor conversion rate:

Club Carlson

With Club Carlson, first Hyatt, then Starwood are leap-frogged as you move up the elite loyalty ladder.  With the Silver elite status and Club Carlson visa, you can earn 100,000 Club Carlson points, or 18,000 airline miles, after $3226 in spending at Club Carlson properties.  A Hyatt Platinum member with the Hyatt Visa card would have to spend $4115 at Hyatt to earn the same number of miles.  Moving up the elite loyalty ladder, a Club Carlson Gold member with the Premier Visa card (and automatic Gold status) earns 18,000 airline miles after $2500 in Club Carlson spending.  A Starwood elite using the Starwood co-branded American Express would have to spend $2880 at Starwood to earn the same number of miles.

Hilton HHonors

​Unfortunately the Hilton loyalty program doesn't have any surprises with respect to airline transfers.  While there are good values at the lower end and middle of the Hilton hotel redemption chart, it's always a terrible value to transfer your Hilton points to any of their transfer partners.  Even using the slightly more favorable transfer rate to American Airlines, a Hilton Diamond Elite using the American Express Surpass card would have to spend $6,172 at Hilton properties in order to convert their points to just 25,000 American Airlines miles.  compare that to a Starwood elite using their co-branded American Express, who would have to spend just $4000 at Starwood properties to earn the same number of miles.

[Expiring] Advanced techniques for manufacturing spend

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Update 3/6/2013: ​as first reported in this thread, beginning May 1, 2013 the Wells Fargo Prepaid card will only be loadable using Wells Fargo credit and debit cards, preventing the hack described in this post:

wells fargo load change.png

Original post:​

The first thing every reader should do once they take a serious interest in travel hacking is make sure every possible purchase is charged to a points- or mile-earning credit card.

Once you've established that base level of spending, you can consider more advanced techniques like using Kiva or Amazon Payments to "manufacture" points-earning purchases.​

Today I'll explain one of the most advanced methods for manufacturing spend, with a twist that makes it even more lucrative.  Here's what you'll need:

​It's possible to load your Bluebird account directly with Vanilla Reload Network Prepaid Reload cards.  These cards can be purchases in denominations of up to $500, with a flat fee of $3.95.  Since you can use the money immediately to pay off your credit card, or any other bill, this allows you to manufacture spend at a cost of $0.0078 (.78 cents) per dollar in manufactured spending (3.95/503.95).  This is a great value, especially if you're using a card that earns bonus points on purchases at drug stores like CVS, where Prepaid Reload cards are often sold.

However, by taking a slightly more circuitous route, you can drive down your cost per point even further.  The Wells Fargo Prepaid card allows you to load up to $2500 per load at a cost of $5, and a total of $4500 per rolling 30-day period (one $2500 load and one $2000 load).

Here's where the advanced technique comes into play.  Normally you can only earn rewards from the initial charge to a rewards-earning credit card.  However, a PayPal account and linked PayPal debit MasterCard allow you to earn rewards for both loading and unloading the card.  Here's how: many stores that sell Vanilla Reload Network Prepaid Reload cards also sell similar, PayPal-branded reload cards, known as "My Cash" cards.  You can earn your normal credit card rewards by purchasing these cards, which have the same cost structure as Prepaid Reload cards ($3.95 for loads up to $500).  However, once the money is loaded into your PayPal account, you can then use your linked PayPal debit MasterCard to load your Wells Fargo Prepaid card and earn 1% cash back on each transaction.

Once the money is loaded to your Wells Fargo Prepaid card, you can load the funds onto your Bluebird card as a debit transaction at any Walmart and use the funds to pay off your credit card.  Note that the Wells Fargo card has a transaction limit of $600, and the Bluebird allows debit loads up to $1000 per day, so you'll need to make two $500 loads per day.  

Let's compare the beginner and advanced techniques:

Beginner technique: Prepaid Reload card to Bluebird

  • Buy a $500 Prepaid Reload card at a cost of $3.95;
  • Load $500 Prepaid Reload to Bluebird;
  • Pay bills with Bluebird's bill pay service, or withdraw to a bank account;
  • Total spend generated: $503.95.  Total cost: $3.95.  Cost per dollar: $0.0078.

Advanced technique: PayPal My Cash to PayPal to Wells Fargo to Bluebird

  • Buy four $500 PayPal My Cash cards at a cost of $15.80;
  • Load four $500 My Cash cards to PayPal;
  • ​Load $2,000 to Wells Fargo Prepaid at a cost of $5, earning $20.05 cash back;
  • Load $2,000 to Bluebird for free at Walmart (in four transactions on two separate days);​
  • Pay bills with Bluebird's bill pay service, or withdraw to a bank account.​
  • Total spend generated: ​$2015.80.  Total cost: $0.75 ($20.80 in fees minus $20.05 cash back).  Cost per dollar: $0.0003 (.03 cents per dollar in manufactured spend).

​If you're interested in trying this technique, keep the following in mind:

  • PayPal allows up to $500 per day in My Cash loads, and up to $4,000 per calendar month;
  • Wells Fargo allows up to $2500 in loads within 24 hours, $3500 within 15 days, and $4500 within 30 days.  Thus to maximize this card you should load $2000 per load, 16 days apart, at a cost of $5 per load; ​
  • If you have money in your Wells Fargo Prepaid account on your monthly statement date, Wells Fargo will charge a $3 monthly fee, which will raise your cost per point (in the above example, it would raise it to .18 cents per dollar in spend).  If your account is empty, most reports are that the fee is not charged.​

Happy hacking!​

​

Free one-ways on United award reservations

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Round-trip United award reservations allow 2 open jaws and 1 stopover.  As we saw when booking free one-ways on round-trip Delta award reservations, we need to use one stopover and one open jaw to book a free one-way: the stopover in our origin city, then the open jaw to the destination of our free one-way flight.  You can use the other open jaw however you like.

Fortunately, United's booking engine actually works, unlike Delta's, so you can price out and book a free one-way ticket simply and easily online.​  Here's a sample search for Chicago (a United hub) to Frankfurt (a Lufthansa hub), plus a free one-way flight to San Francisco at the end:

Notice that our later trip to San Francisco has nothing to do with the original roundtrip itinerary to Frankfurt.  It's a month later.  But sure enough, this prices out in Business Class just like a roundtrip without the one-way flight to San Francisco: 100,000 miles plus taxes and fees.