Reminder: free Gogo inflight wireless on Delta

Delta was one of the first airlines to roll out inflight wireless internet to the overwhelming majority of their domestic fleet, and still has an advantage over their competitors in terms of fleet coverage.

I'll be blogging all day from 30,000 feet since I'm mileage running until tomorrow morning and taking advantage of free inflight wireless on all 4 of my Delta flights. It occurred to me that I hadn't passed on to my readers the easy trick I'll be using to get free Gogo wireless access on Delta flights until the end of the month.

Delta is currently running a promotion with the smartphone brand Blackberry to offer free inflight wireless access to anyone with a Blackberry device. If you don't have a Blackberry, then you can still take advantage of this promotion by "faking" the user agent of Blackberry's built-in browser. Via Lucky at One Mile at a Time, this post on Slickdeals explains how to do this easily with a Chrome browser or smartphone.

The trick works (I use user agent "blackberry"), and inflight internet access is truly amazing.

Happy hacking! 

New Vanilla Reload Opportunities

In the comments to one of last week's posts, reader A wrote:​

I've been buying Paypal reloads at 7-11 with a CC. Now that 7-11 carries Vanilla Reloads I'll be running tests to see if the purchases code correctly for 2x.

Having seen 7-11 on the list of "Reload Locations" on the Vanilla Reload Network site, I naturally checked my local stores about 6 months ago. Since they weren't carrying them, and I had easy access at CVS, I didn't think about it any more. However, the opportunity for double points at gas stations drove me back to my local 7-11, where sure enough, both Vanilla Reload Network reload cards and PayPal Cash cards were for sale by credit card.

Now, I haven't seen a 7-11 location with actual gas pumps​ in a long time. However, Visa has a publicly available database of the "merchant codes" used by every merchant in the country. It's these codes that determine how a purchase transaction is coded by credit card companies for the purpose of awarding bonus points.

​And sure enough, my local 7-11 store locations are entered into that database as:

GAS STATIONS/FUEL/SUPPLIES-5541

This means that credit cards which bonus gas station purchases will almost certainly award bonus points for Vanilla Reload purchases at these locations, at least for Visa cards, which use Visa's supplier code database. 

My credit card statement hasn't closed yet, so I ​cannot guarantee bonus points will be awarded. ​However, I'm very confident that they will, since I used a Visa card, which means a new front has been opened in the use of the Perpetual Points Machine I outlined here.

​I'll discuss the implications of this discovery in the coming days. For now, a good place to start is Frequent Miler's chart of credit cards which bonus gas station spending. That chart is somewhat out of date, but still useful for getting a general picture of credit cards which will make this development such a lucrative opportunity.

Gobank Customer Care calls the Free-quent Flyer

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

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

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

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

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

Comparing co-branded airline credit cards

Hard at work on the second edition of The Free-quent Flyer's Manifesto and re-reading Chapter 4, it occurred to me that it might be useful to give a side-by-side breakdown of the similarities and differences between the co-branded credit cards of the principal US airlines.

In the second edition I'm adding Alaska Airlines to the list of traditional airlines given detailed treatment, along with Delta, US Airways, American Airlines, and United. Why? ​Alaska's route map makes them far from a regional carrier; their partnerships with American and Delta make their Mileage Plan program more flexible than miles with either AAdvantage or Skymiles alone; and their co-branded Bank of America credit card has a number of lucrative features.

What kinds of co-branded credit cards exist?

For all the traditional carriers except US Airways and Alaska Airlines, there are two kinds of co-branded credit cards: an "entry-level" card that offers some combination of a free checked bag, priority boarding, annual companion tickets, and sometimes a bonus for meeting a high annual spend target; and a "club-level" card that gives lounge access, plus some combination of the above. This basic picture is made a little more complicated by the fact that Delta also splits its "entry-level" cards into a Gold and Platinum American Express: the Gold has a lower annual fee, but substantially fewer benefits. Note: do not confuse the American Express Platinum cards with American Express Delta Platinum cards. The names are similar; the products are completely different.

US Airways and Alaska Airlines both have entry-level cards, but no club cards. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the entry-level cards available from each airline:

View fullsize

Take note of the following differences between these cards:

• The annual fee on all these cards is waived the first year of card membership, except for the $150 annual fee for the American Express Delta Platinum card (although signup bonuses sometimes include statement credits of up to $100).
• All the cards offer 1 mile per dollar spent on purchases, and 2 miles per dollar spent on purchases with the airline, except the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature, which offers 3 miles per dollar spent on Alaska.​
• The US Airways ​and Alaska Airlines companion tickets are available during your first, fee-free year, and every subsequent year. The Delta Platinum companion ticket is only earned the second year of card membership, after paying the $150 annual fee a second time.
• The MileagePlus Explorer card offers 10,000 redeemable United miles after spending ​$25,000 on the card; the Delta Platinum card awards both redeemable and Medallion Qualifying Miles for high spend on the card.

Here is a comparison of the Club-level cards from United, American Airlines, and Delta:​

View fullsize

Note that unlike the AAdvantage and United cards, the American Express Delta Reserve card does not technically give you a Sky Club membership; rather, it gives you Sky Club access, but only while you're flying on a Delta-issued or Delta-operated ticket.

Who should sign up for a co-branded credit card?

n my view, there are four reasons to sign up for a co-branded airline credit card, rather than a card that offers double or triple flexible points on airline purchases, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or American Express Premier Rewards Gold cards:

1. High signup bonuses. These cards periodically feature very high signup bonuses, high enough to justify applying for a card even if you have never set foot on the airline before. For example, the Citi AAdvantage ard offers up to 50,000 AAdvantage miles (my lifetime American Airlines miles flown are about 11,000), American Express Delta Gold occasionally offers 70,000 Skymiles, and I signed up for the United MileagePlus Explorer card when it was offering 65,000 miles. Since the annual fees on these cards are waived the first year, these are incredible offers of $1,000 or more in value for the cost of a hard inquiry on your credit report.
2. You're a Delta frequent flyer. The American Express Delta Platinum and Reserve cards give you the opportunity to "mileage run from home" and earn 20,000 or 30,000 Medallion Qualification Miles per year through high spend bonuses. This is a no-brainer, especially if this is the difference between Silver Medallion and Gold Medallion status, since that's when the Medallion mileage bonus rises from 25% to 100%.
3. You only fly occasionally, or fly a secondary airline, and check bags. If you have a preferred airline, where you receive free checked bags because of your elite status, but occasionally have to fly another airline because the fares are substantially cheaper, then you may save money on checked bag fees by carrying a Delta, United, or American co-branded credit card. Here in New England, I fly Delta whenever possible (because I receive unlimited complimentary Medallion upgrades to First Class, and I prefer Delta's in-flight product, even in Economy), but sometimes United flights are so much cheaper that I can't justify paying the premium to fly Delta. In these cases, it's helpful to carry the MileagePlus Explorer card in order to check bags for free.
4. You pay for a lounge membership. In almost all cases, you're better off receiving your lounge access by paying the annual fee for a Club-level card, and also receiving the benefits of the co-branded card, like the United Club card's high earning rate and the elite-qualifying miles generated by high spend on the AAdvantage Executive and Delta Reserve cards.

Update to Gobank load limits and cost per point analysis

In my ongoing quest to document as many details as possible of Gobank, the relatively new alternative checking product, in order to make it easy for my readers to take advantage of this exciting new opportunity, I want to clarify one additional limit that I have so far failed to mention in previous posts.

As you know, there is a daily limit of $2,500 when loading money to the card using cash or a PIN-enabled debit card at any Walmart register or MoneyCenter kiosk. However, the ​Gobank website also explains (you can find this under "Deposit > Deposit Cash > Learn more"):

We allow between $20 (minimum) and $1,100 (maximum) per transaction.

Cost per dollar using MyVanilla Debit

This restriction made me wonder, what's the minimum cost a Gobank user can pay per dollar of manufactured spend using the techniques I described in my post, "The Perpetual Points Machine is Real​?"

​When buying a Vanilla Reload Network reload card with its maximum value, $500, you'll pay $3.95 per $503.95 in manufactured spend. But if you load the reload card to a MyVanilla Debit card, you'll also pay a flat $0.50 per transaction fee when you move the money to your Gobank account at Walmart. To minimize the cost per manufactured dollar, you'll therefore also want to make your unloading transactions as large as possible, in this case, $1,100. (Note that I do not do this, out of an overabundance of caution; I make multiple, somewhat smaller load transactions).

To make the math simple, say you buy $5,500 in Vanilla Reload Network reload cards. You'll pay $43.45 in load fees to manufacture $5,543.45 in spend. To unload that $5,500, you'll make 3 trips to Walmart, loading $1,100 twice during the first two trips and  once on your third trip. Those 5 transactions will cost an additional $2.50 total, bringing your total cost to $45.95 for $5,543.45 in manufactured spend, or 0.82 cents per dollar.

I find it lucrative to pay this cost when I use a 2% cash back credit card (or a card offering 2.22% cash back as statement credits), or when I use one of my other cards that offers ​big rewards when I reach a high level of annual spending. Whether it's worth it for you depends on how highly you value the points or miles you're manufacturing, and whether you are using this technique to meet minimum spending requirements you can't meet with your everyday purchases.

The Barclaycard Extra Points NFL card

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

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

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

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

Extra Points NFL vs. Arrival World

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

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

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

ow to decide

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

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

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

Alaska Airlines debit card still available

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

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

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

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

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

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

The "New" Google Wallet reader promotion

[edit 12:15 am EST: The promotion is now closed! Thanks to all my readers and be sure to subscribe to stay up to date on the world of miles and points!]​

[edit 1:57 pm EST: I've had to use a couple different Google Wallet accounts to send money to readers, but as of now I'm still able to send payments and activate readers' Google Wallet accounts!]​

As reported by Frequent Miler and others, Google is in the process of rolling out a new peer-to-peer payments system which is integrated into its E-mail client. The new Google Wallet allows you to "attach" money to E-mails, or send money through a separate web application.

During the rollout, ​you can signup for Google Wallet and you'll be notified when your account becomes eligible for peer-to-peer payments.

​The fees for payments made using credit or debit cards, which will be 2.9% plus a $0.30 flat fee (the same as PayPal's), are waived during the current promotional period.

Currently, the best way to enable peer-to-peer payments for your account is to have someone send money to your e-mail address using Google Wallet.​ At the DansDeals Forums they have created a "conga line" for people to sign up to send and receive a penny in order to activate their Google Wallet accounts.

​One of my readers was kind enough to send me a penny in order to activate my account, so today I want to pass on the karma with a Google Wallet reader promotion!

​There are two ways to enter:

Entry method #1: Forward your receipt

Before 11:59 pm EST, May 23, 2013, ​forward your Amazon receipt for The Free-quent Flyer's Manifesto to freequentflyer@freequentflyerbook.com. I will send $0.01 to the E-mail address you forward your receipt from; it doesn't have to be the address Amazon mailed your receipt to.

Every reader who before midnight forwards their Amazon receipt for The Free-quent Flyer's Manifesto (even if you downloaded it during the promotional period when it was free) will receive a $0.01 Google Wallet payment, activating their account.

Entry method #2: Leave a comment with your E-mail address

The first 20 readers to ​leave a comment on this post with their E-mail address will also receive a $0.01 payment through Google Wallet, activating their Google Wallet account.

It's that simple! Forward me your Amazon receipt for The Free-quent Flyer's Manifesto, or leave a comment with the e-mail address you want to activate. I only ask that if you're going to forward your receipt, don't also leave a comment, so I can help as many people as possible.​

(One caveat: I don't know if Google will freeze my account after I send a certain number of pennies to readers. If that happens I'll post here immediately, but my intention is to help out as many people as I can!)​

How to follow the blog

A quick housekeeping note. If you read my blog at freequentflyerbook.com, you'll notice a slight change to the right-hand column. It now provides several options to follow the blog and stay up-to-date on all the latest news in the world of travel hacking.

Subscribe by E-mail

First, you can enter your ​e-mail address and receive every blog post in your inbox as soon as it's published. This is typically no more than one post per day, although frequency varies.

Subscribe to the RSS feed

Second, you can enter my RSS feed into your preferred RSS reader and you'll see my blog posts appear there, as well.

Follow me on Twitter

Finally, you can follow me on Twitter, where you can quickly see the title of each post and a link you can follow to read it here on the website.

Breaking: Citi ThankYou 5x is still available

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

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

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

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