Spring mileage promotions with Hilton HHonors

​Paid stays at Hilton can earn points and miles in one of three ways, called "My Way Earning Styles."  

In general, I prefer to select "Points & Points" as my earning style when staying at Hilton properties.  The reason is that while I value the 5 bonus Hilton HHonors points per dollar at about 2 cents, and I value one United MileagePlus or Delta Skymile at about 2 cents, I earn Skymiles through flying domestically on Delta and partner flights, and can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United, while earning Hilton HHonors points will become much harder after the changes to the earning structure of their co-branded American Express credit cards go into effect in May.

However, periodic promotions offered by Hilton may make it worth switching your earning preference for one or more stays.  For example, by changing my earning style to "Points & Fixed" Delta miles back in December, I was able to earn 250 valuable Medallion Qualification Miles on a short paid stay:

There are currently two potentially valuable ​promotions running through June 30 which might be worth changing over to a "Points & Miles" earning preference:

• ​Earn 1,000 United MileagePlus miles per stay of 2 or more nights, up to 5,000 miles (for 5 stays).  Register here, and don't forget to switch your earning preference to "Points & Variable Miles" or "Points & Fixed Miles" in your Hilton HHonors profile, and designate United as your preferred earning partner.
• Earn 2,013 Delta Skymiles per stay of 2 or more nights, up to 14,091 miles.  Register here, and the same caveats apply as above (set Delta as your preferred earning partner).

For most stays of 2 or more nights, taking advantage of one of these promotions will offer somewhat higher value than a "Points & Points" earning preference.  The one situation where these promotions are strictly superior is in the case of award stays.  There is no language in the terms and conditions of either promotion excluding award stays of 2 or more nights from eligibility for this promotion.  Therefore, if you are already making an award reservation, for which you will typically earn no HHonors points or airline partner points, you can earn 1,000 United miles or 2,013 Delta Skymiles for that same stay.

When is an annual fee worth paying?

A travel hacker who applies for 2-4 new credit cards every 3-6 months soon ends up having to decide whether their rewards-earning credit card is worth keeping after the first year.  Today I want to take a look at a variety of factors to take into consideration when deciding whether to keep a card once the annual fee comes due.

Every rewards card should be compared first and foremost to the no-annual-fee, flat 2% cash back Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express: no card is worth paying an annual fee for if you don't think you'll make back enough value to pass up 2% cash back.

1. Low/no annual fee

This may go without saying, but if a credit card doesn't have an annual fee, or has a sufficiently low annual fee, it can be worth keeping in order to lengthen the average age of your credit accounts, which is one of the factors that determines your credit score.  The obvious examples are the Chase Freedom, Discover It, Citi Dividend Platinum Select, and US Bank Cash+ (apply in-branch only), all of which have no annual fee and feature rotating quarterly 5% cash back categories.

A slightly more interesting case is that of low-annual-fee cards, like the US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards Visa Signature card, which has a $49 annual fee.  If you aggressively take advantage of this card's bonus categories (2x on whichever of gas, groceries, or airfare you spend most on each month; 2x on cell phone expenses; 3x on charitable contributions), then you can earn back the $49 annual fee after just $1166-$1750 in purchases or charitable contributions, since you can redeem 3500 FlexPoints to pay your annual fee.

Other cards in this category include the no-annual fee American Express and Citibank Hilton HHonors co-branded credit cards.  There's no reason not to keep the cards and put an occasional purchase on them in order to help age your credit report, and earn Hilton points if you happen to be short for an upcoming redemption.

That brings us to the second case where a card might be worth keeping after the first cardmember year:

. Bonus categories

There are common purchase categories, like groceries, gas, and restaurants, where you may spend enough money each year to make up for the annual fee on a card which bonuses those categories.

he Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa and Mastercard offer double flexible Ultimate Rewards points on restaurant and travel spending (but not gasoline!), and come with a $95 annual fee.  If you value Ultimate Rewards points at a conservative 1.5 cents each, then you'll need to spend $9,500 in bonused categories each year in order to make back the $95 annual fee and the 2% cash back you've foregone.  Why?  Because the first $3,167 you spend in bonus categories will earn you 6,333 Ultimate Rewards points, which you value at $95, enough the cover the annual fee.  However, to break even, you also need to make back the $63.34 you would have earned using a no-annual-fee 2% cash back card, which will take you another $6,334 in bonused spending (since you're earning one "extra" cent in value per dollar of bonused spending).  In other words, $9,500 in bonused spending is worth $285, minus a $95 annual fee, while $9,500 spent on a flat 2% cash back card is worth $190.  

If you value flexible Ultimate Rewards points at a more realistic 2 cents each (for example, for redemptions with United Airlines and Hyatt), then you'll need just $2,375 in bonused spending to make back the annual fee, and then another $2,375 in order to break even (since in this case you're earning 2 "extra" cents per dollar of bonused spending).  Everything you spend in bonus categories after that $4,750 is pure profit.

3. Annual benefits

Some cards are worth keeping for benefits you receive either every calendar year or every year when you pay your annual fee:

• merican Express Delta Platinum ($150 annual fee) and Reserve ($450).  These premium Delta co-branded cards offer a free annual companion ticket, good for domestic travel, economy in the case of the Platinum card and first class in the case of the Reserve card.  Although there are some limitations on the fare classes you can redeem these tickets for, this is still an easy way to make back most or all of your annual fee: you buy one ticket, and you get to bring a companion along, paying only nominal taxes and fees on the second ticket.
• Additionally, the American Express Delta Reserve card includes a Delta Skyclub membership: if you pay for a Skyclub membership each year (for example, if you aren't a Delta Diamond Medallion), you're strictly better off paying the Reserve card's annual fee and getting a free companion ticket as well.

• US Bank's Club Carlson ewards ($50 annual fee), Premier Rewards ($75) and Business ($60).  The Rewards card offers a 25,000 Club Carlson point bonus each year, while the Premier Rewards and Business cards offer 40,000 bonus points per year.  Since these cards also give you the last night free on all award redemptions of 2 or more nights, keeping these cards after the first year is a no-brainer: cardholders can redeem 50,000 points for two(!) award nights at any Club Carlson property in the world.

4. Bonuses for high yearly spending

Annual spending bonuses are one of the trickiest areas to evaluate objectively.  The following cards offer annual spending bonuses which may make an annual fee worth paying:

• American Express Delta Platinum.  10,000 redeemable miles and 10,000 MQM after each of $25,000 and $50,000 are spent on the card each year.
• American Express Delta Reserve.  15,000 redeemable and 15,000 MQM after each of $30,000 and $60,000 are spent on the card each year.
• Chase United MileagePlus Explorer (although check here to see if you qualify for a better offer).  10,000 redeemable miles after $25,000 in spending on the card each year.

or each of these cards, the annual fee is more than made up for by the bonus miles scored at each card's annual spending threshold, as long as you have a high-value redemption planned for those miles.

5. Cards that aren't worth keeping

Above I've outlined some suggestions for when a card is worth keeping.  Now we can take a look at a few cards whose rewards are just not rewarding enough to justify the annual fee.

• American Express Premier Rewards Gold ($175 annual fee).  While this card occasionally has signup bonuses that are high enough to justify applying for the card, it doesn't provide enough value added in any of the above categories to justify paying the annual fee.  First, the annual fee is twice that of comparable cards (Chase Sapphire Preferred).  Second, while the card earns triple flexible Membership Rewards points on airfare purchases, the Sapphire Preferred can ALSO earn up to 4x flexible Ultimate Rewards points on airfare, while saving you $80 per year (see an upcoming post here on the blog).  Third, the card has no annual benefits that make it worth keeping year after year.  And finally, while the 15,000 bonus Membership Rewards points are certainly worth earning the first year you have the card, they barely cover the value of the annual fee.  No matter how highly you value Membership Rewards points, it's just too difficult to squeeze value out of the annual fee, year after year.

Conclusion

I hope this brief discussion clarifies some of the issues involved in deciding whether to keep a card once its annual membership fee is due.  The most important thing to remember is that the goal of this game is not to break even; it's to win.

Chase Ultimate Rewards adds Virgin Atlantic as transfer partner

Today's big news in the world of rewards programs is the addition of Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club program as a transfer partner of Chase's flexible Ultimate Rewards points, earned with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, and Ink Plus credit cards.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points have two obvious uses: transfers to HIlton HHonors and upgrades on aid fares.

Hilton HHonors Transfers

Virgin Atlantic points can be transferred to Hilton HHonors at a 1 : 2 ratio, which can be useful for topping up your HIlton account before you make an award redemption (the transfer to Virgin Atlantic is instantaneous; the transfer to Hilton can take up to 30 days).  However, his is not the most lucrative way to earn Hilton HHonors points, since unbonused spending on the basic co-branded Hilton American Express card earns 3 HHonors points per dollar.  It's still a great option for those without the American Express or with more Ultimate Rewards points than they can use, and increases the flexibility of Ultimate Rewards points even more.

Upgrades on Paid Virgin Atlantic Fares

If your employer buys you flexible Economy (Y, B, R, L, U, or M fare classes) or remium (W or S fare classes) on Virgin Atlantic, then you can use a very reasonable number of Flying Club miles to upgrade one or two cabins, although you also have to pay the difference in taxes and fees, which are upwards of $200 per leg.  This could certainly be worth doing for the experience of Virgin Atlantic's "Upper" class cabin, as shown in this fairly entertaining promotional video.

Travel hacking: making money or saving money?

One question that travel hackers spend a lot of time thinking about is hether, at the end of the day, it's best to think of our hobby as making us money or instead as a way to save money.  The question I prefer to ask is, how much of the travel I now do for free would I pay money for if I weren't the Free-quent Flyer ("saving" money on travel I would do anyway) and how much additional travel do I do just because I know I can do it for free ("making" money in the form of more and better vacations)?

If you go to see family in New York City for a week each year, you might expect to spend $400 on a plane ticket, plus $200 per night to stay at a 3-star hotel in Manhattan, for a total of $1,800.  If instead you applied for the BarclayCard Arrival World Mastercard or the US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards Visa, after earning the signup bonus you'd be able to pay for your $400 airline ticket using those cards' fixed-value rewards currencies.  Instead of spending $1,400 for a hotel room, you could apply for the Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa and after manufacturing $43,000 in spending (at a cost of $344, if you can manufacture spending at .78 cents per dollar), you'd have 300,000 Club Carlson points, enough for a 7-night stay at the Radisson Martinique on Broadway (since as a cardholder your last night is free).  Now you're paying just $344 for a trip you normally spend $1,800 on, saving $1,456.

On the other hand, let's say you don't normally take a long annual vacation, but now that you've read my book and spent some time here on the website, you've decided you'd like to take a week-long vacation in New York.  Using the same techniques as above, you can buy an $1,800 vacation for $344.  In this case, you haven't saved any money; indeed you've spent $344 that you wouldn't have spent if you had you decided to stay at home that week instead!  On the other hand, at a cost of $344, you've bought a vacation worth $1,800.  In this case, it makes more sense to say that you've "made" $1,456 in value.

Of course, those are two extreme examples, and most real-life situations fall somewhere in between.  For example, I take at least one trip to Prague in the Czech Republic each summer, and I can usually find a ticket in economy class on Delta for $1,200—$1,400.  An economy class award ticket costs 60,000 Delta Skymiles, which I can manufacture at a cost of $400 using the American Express Delta Platinum (you only need to manufacture $50,000 in spending since you'll receive 10,000 bonus miles at the $25,000 and $50,000 spend levels, for a total of 70,000 Skymiles after $50,000 in spending).  Now, that's obviously a great deal: a $1,200 plane ticket for $400, a savings of $800!  However, for 40,000 more Skymiles, you can fly to Prague in business class instead of economy.  You'll spend $240 more if you exclusively manufacture the spending at .78 cents per dollar, so you'll be saving less money versus a paid economy class ticket.  On the other hand, you're flying in business class instead of economy, meaning a more spacious, more comfortable seat; better food and service; complimentary alcoholic beverages; and so on.  This situation is more ambiguous than the two extreme examples above, and require a judgment call.  Since I value the benefits of business class at more than $240, it's worth it for me to pay the additional Skymiles, while it may not be worth it for you, if you prefer to instead spend that money on some delicious Czech beer once you arrive!

Maximizing fixed-value travel rewards points

Today I'd like to take a closer look at the value proposition offered by some of the cards discussed in Chapter 2 of my book: fixed-value travel rewards cards.  When looking at any card, you should ask three questions: is it worth signing up for; is it worth making purchases with; and is it worth renewing when the annual fee is due?

Signup Bonuses

The first question is easy to answer: since the annual fee is waived for all these cards, you can apply for any of them when the signup bonus is high enough to justify the hard credit inquiry, and you aren't applying for any other cards from the same issuer in your current application cycle.

Here are the current signup bonuses available for these cards: 

• Capital One Venture Rewards.  10,000 Venture miles after $1,000 in spending within 3 months.  Earn 2 points per dollar, redeem them at 1 cent each for statement credits against travel purchases made with the card.  No partial redemptions (you must have enough points to pay for the entire travel purchase).  $59 annual fee, waived the first year.
• US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards Visa Signature.  17,500 FlexPoints after $2,500 in purchases within the first 5 months.  Earn 1 point per dollar, 2 points on airfare, groceries, or communications expenses, 3 points per dollar for transactions coded as charity.  Redeem points for travel redemptions using the Flexperks travel booking tool at up to 2 cents per point, in defined tiers.  No partial redemptions.  $49 annual fee, waived the first year.
• Citi ThankYou Premier.  25,000 ThankYou points after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months.  Earn 1 point per dollar, 1.2 points at supermarkets, gas stations, commuter transportation and parking.  Redeem points at 1.33 cents each for travel purchases using the ThankYou Rewards booking tool, with partial redemptions allowed.  $125 annual fee, waived the first year.
• BarclayCard Arrival World Mastercard .  40,000 points after $1,000 in spending within 90 days.  Earn 2 points per dollar spent on the card.  Redeem points for statement credits against travel purchases made on the card at 1 cent per point, and receive a 10% rebate after each redemption.  No partial redemptions.  $89 annual fee, waived the first year.
• Priceline Rewards Visa Signature.   5,000 points after first purchase.  Earn 2 points per dollar spent on the card, and 5 points per dollar spent on Name Your Own Price reservations.  Redeem points at 1 cent each for statement credits against purchases made on the card, with no partial redemptions.

As you can see, the Priceline Rewards card has a signup bonus worth $50, the Venture Rewards card's signup bonus is worth about $100, the Flexperks card $260-$350, ThankYou Premier $332, and Arrival World $444.  In general, it's never worth signing up for the Venture Rewards card except during the periodic promotion when they offer a signup bonus of twice the number of miles you earned on a competing card during the previous calendar year, which can be quite lucrative.

Earning Points

All these cards, except the Venture Rewards and Priceline cards, are worth applying for and spending enough on to earn the signup bonus.  But are any of them worth making purchases on after you've spent enough to trigger the signup bonus?  The answer is usually no, since the Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express card offers 2% cash back on all purchases and the Fidelity Visa Signature card offers 1.5% cash back on the first $15,000 in spending each calendar year, and 2% thereafter, while also having no annual fee. The chart below illustrates the value proposition offered by spending on each of these cards:

View fullsize

This chart makes clear that the standout value among these cards is the US Bank Flexperks Travel card, which offers up to 6% back on charitable spending (which earns 3 Flexpoints per dollar), but also up to 4% back on airfare, gas, or groceries (whichever you spend most on each billing cycle), plus telecommunications expenses, when you redeem your points using the Flexperks booking tool.  

Redeeming Points

This brings us to the most fundamental difference between these cards: the method of redemption.  As you saw above, fixed-value rewards points are divided into two groups: those that require you to make prospective bookings using your points through their travel tools (ThankYou, Flexperks) and those that allow you to redeem your points for a statement credit against a purchase you've already made with the card.

When you have a choice, you should redeem for statement credits against paid hotel stays, and use rewards booking tools for airline reservations.  This is for the simple reason that unlike airline frequent flyer programs, hotel loyalty programs generally only award points for paid reservations made through the hotel's own website.  By booking a paid hotel reservation through the hotel's website, then redeeming your points for a statement credit against the cost of that reservation, you'll earn hotel loyalty points for your reservation, while you won't do so when you make a hotel reservation through a loyalty program's award booking tool.  This increases the value of your fixed-value points by allowing you to double-dip.

Summary

For everyday purchases, only the US Bank Flexperks Travel card can compete with the Fidelity Rewards 1.5% (Visa) and 2% (American Express) cash back cards.  However, several of the other cards discussed here can offer great value when you take advantage of their lucrative signup bonuses.  Just don't be suckered into paying an annual fee for a card that isn't worth keeping!

Hilton HHonors devaluation now in effect

​As I reported last month, the Hilton HHonors program underwent a serious devaluation on March 28.  I've updated the website with an updated award redemption chart and point density analysis.  In summary, redemptions for top-tier hotels have become about twice as difficult to earn through spending on paid Hilton hotel stays.  While still easier to earn than Starwood top-tier redemptions, the difference in point density between the two programs' top-tier points redemptions has definitely narrowed, to Hilton's disadvantage.

One side benefit of the Hilton devaluation is that their introduction of seasonal pricing at some properties has caused them to develop an extremely useful tool for viewing year-round pricing at their properties ​worldwide.  The Points Pricing tool allows to you search by city and view all the Hilton properties in that city, and each properties standard room award price by month.  This makes it easy to see how the award pricing at different properties varies throughout the year.  Here a search for Portland, Oregon, shows how some properties jump in price between June and July:

View fullsize

Alaska one-way partner awards are here!

As I reported a few weeks ago, Alaska irlines phone agents have been telling people that they're preparing to offer one-way award redemptions for half the cost of round-trip redemptions (instead of paying the round-trip cost for one-way redemptions, as you do using Delta Skymiles).

Well, I'm excited to announce that this change is now being rolled out for two of Alaska's domestic airline partners, American and Delta.  Tickets on both partners can be searched and booked online.  As of now one-way Delta awards are not yet pricing out at half the cost of round-trip awards, and it's ot clear whether this will be changed in the future.  However, they can now be combined with legs on Alaska or American to create much more flexible round-trip award redemptions than in the past, since previously it was impossible to combine partners on a single award.  This meant that if any of your legs was on Delta, Delta was the only partner you could use.  This was a serious drawback because of Delta's extremely limited award availability.  Now that airline partners can be combined on a single award, however, you can take advantage of what Delta award availability does exist in order to book trips combining flights on Alaska, American, and Delta.

Leveraging the Alaska Award Chart

Check out the Alaska award chart to see how many miles are required for various award redemptions.  While it's broadly similar to the award charts of other traditional airline loyalty programs, there are several nuances in the Alaska award chart which offer either better or worse value than redeeming partner miles on their own flights.  The best example of this is Business class flights from North America to Europe on Delta, which only cost 90,000 Alaska miles.  The same flights on the same Delta aircraft cost 100,000 Skymiles (although taxes and fees can be slightly ($20-$30) higher on Alaska).

Earning Alaska Airlines Miles

You can earn Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles by crediting paid flights flown on heir partner airlines to Alaska, as discussed in Chapter 4 of the book.  This is also a great way to earn elite status, if you don't have enough paid flights on either Delta or American to earn elite status in either of those programs.

There are also two credit cards which allow you to earn Mileage Plan miles:

• Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature.  Currently a standard offer of 25,000 Alaska miles upon account approval (no minimum spending requirement).  $75 annual fee, not waived the first year.  The card also offers an annual $99 coach class companion ticket valid only on flights operated by Alaska Airlines.  Earn 1 mile per dollar spent on the card, and 3 miles per dollar spent on Alaska Airlines tickets.
• Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Personal and Business cards.  Both cards offer 25,000 Starpoints after spending $5,000 in the first 6 months of card membership, and have a $65 annual fee, waived the first year of card membership.  As I discussed last month, You can transfer 20,000 Starpoints into Alaska miles and receive a bonus of 5,000 Starpoints, meaning you can earn 1.25 Alaska miles per dollar spent on this card, and making this signup bonus worth 30,000 Alaska miles, better than Alaska's own co-branded credit card!  Since the annual fee is waived the first year and the signup bonus is higher, this is a strictly better offer than the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature, although there's no reason you can't apply for both cards as part of the same churn.

Do this now: Hilton's Q2 promotion

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

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

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.

• Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card. $69 annual fee, not waived the first year.
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card. $99 annual fee, not waived the first year.
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Business Credit Card. $69 annual fee, not waived the first year.
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card. $99 annual fee, not waived the first year.

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!