Delta Devaluation Blog Fight: Willful Mendacity edition

Instead of enjoying my weekend,  here I am shaking my head at some of the rhetoric coming out of Boarding Area since Friday's bonus Delta devaluation (introducing "interim" redemption rates for travel between February 1, 2014 and May 31, 2014).

First a quick roundup: 

• One Mile At A Time asserts: "I think that anyone that cared about the value of their miles likely left Delta a long time ago."
• View from the Wing piles on: "the miles are worth less than in other programs and...the people running the program are, in my view, completely untrustworthy."
• Delta Points shoots back:  "they are both flat out wrong in this case."
• View from the Wing makes fun of Rene:  "of the 20 reasons he offers, only a small few are directly related to the frequent flyer program."

The problem with all the participants in this little spat is that they're willfully confusing three different issues:

1. Is Delta Airlines a good airline?
2. What is the value of 1 SkyMile?
3. What is the value of the Delta SkyMiles frequent flyer program?

Trying to answer all three questions along one axis is just going to confuse your readers (and in this case, the bloggers themselves seem pretty confused). 

Is Delta a Good Airline?

Delta's isn't just a good airline, it's the best domestic US carrier. Most of Delta Points' arguments fall into this category:

1) They were almost ALL on time and worked

2) Almost all of the reps I interacted with were TOPS

3) The wifi worked on almost all the jets

4) The seats were comfortable

5) The Skyclubs are fine and reps are good there

6) When issues came up I was taken care of well

7) The phone app, while slow, works

8) The seats are being upgraded to nice full-flat seats

9) The food is good

10) The drinks are good (if they get rid of Woodford I will cry)

12) The partners are good

13) The routes and frequency are good

16) Pilots are well trained and professional

17) HUB airports flow well

19) @DeltaAssist works and works FAST

20) Compensation for issues that do come up.

View from the Wing begrudgingly acknowledges these points: "Delta is a good airline, and it has an awful frequent flyer program...in saying they’re good I am grading on a curve (comparing them to US carriers)...Non-stop flights and frequency are worth something and Delta runs a pretty good operation."

So, they're better than all their domestic competitors (who else should we compare them to? Singapore?), have non-stop flights, good frequency, and they run a good operation? In other words, Delta's a great airline for US travelers who travel primarily...in the US?

What is the Value of 1 SkyMile? 

1 SkyMile has a floor value of 1 cent when redeemed for "Pay with Miles," a benefit of their co-branded American Express cards. Economy Pay with Miles redemptions don't earn MQM or redeemable SkyMiles, but first and business class redemptions do (with corresponding class of service bonuses).

I've never made a Pay with Miles redemption and I hope I never do, but it's worth trying to establish what the lowest possible value of a SkyMile is. 

Now, the value you get from SkyMiles is going to depend on your redemption pattern. After June 1 (post-devaluation) economy class redemptions to Europe from the Continental United States still cost just 60,000 SkyMiles. Assuming that's a $900-$1,300 ticket (with a free one-way!), you're getting 1.5-2.17 cents per SkyMile. If you book a 125,000 SkyMile award in BusinessElite, you'll get 0.72-1.04 cents in value per SkyMile (assuming you value BusinessElite the same as economy – a silly assumption but we're being conservative).

However, we've already established that you'll get at least 1 cent in value from a Pay with Miles redemption, so let's say a conservative range in value is 1 cent to 2.17 cents per Skymile, and tentatively put the value of 1 SkyMile at 1.585 cents.

What is the Value of the SkyMiles Program?

There are three ways to get value from the SkyMiles program as a traveller: elite benefits, earning for flight activity, and earning for co-branded credit card activity.

The value you put on elite benefits is going to depend on your own personality: I love being upgraded to first class, I love free checked bags (including insanely oversized fencing bags), and I love having competent agents I can get on the phone any time who are willing to go the extra mile to help me. That's tough to monetize, so let's set it aside for now.

Earning for flight activity is easy: since we've figured out the value of 1 SkyMile, we just need to calculate what rebate value SkyMiles provide on the cost of paid travel. I'll use my own earning activity as an example:

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So far this year I've spent $1,514 on the fare portion of my Delta flights, and earned 25,182 Medallion Qualification Miles. Now, some taxes and fees are excluded from MQD calculations, so let's add a 25% buffer on that cost number, bringing it to $1,893 (being conservative). That means I've paid about 7.5 cents per MQM this year. As a Platinum Medallion, however, I've earned 100% bonus redeemable SkyMiles on every flight flown this year, making my total earned SkyMile haul 50,364. In other words, I paid about 3.76 cents per SkyMile, giving me a rebate value of about 42%: thanks to SkyMiles I earn 42% of the paid value of my tickets back in future travel.

Finally, you can get value from the SkyMiles program by using their Platinum or Reserve co-branded credit cards. How much value? Well, at the Platinum card's $25,000 and $50,000 bonus thresholds, your overall earning is 1.4 SkyMiles per dollar, or 2.22 cents per dollar (about the same as the BarclayCard Arrival World MasterCard). The Reserve card earns slightly more at its $30,000 and $60,000 bonus thresholds, 1.5 SkyMiles per dollar or 2.38 cents per dollar.

But as the old infomercials used to say, that's not all, because if you're hitting those spend thresholds, you should be doing so in order to secure Platinum or Diamond Medallion status, where you'll have the option of choosing 20,000 or 25,000 bonus SkyMiles as your Choice Benefit, giving you an additional $317 and $396 in value, without setting foot on a plane or spending an additional dollar.

 "Should" you fly Delta?

Anyone who tells you what airline "smart" or "stupid" people fly without breaking down the analysis along all three of these axes is either deliberately lying to you or doesn't know what they're talking about. The redemption value, earning rate, and value you put on elite benefits depends entirely on your own travel and earning behavior. There is no one size fits all answer to those questions.

Personally, next year is going to be my transition year away from Platinum Medallion on Delta. There's no way I'll fly enough paid tickets to make it worth the mileage runs I'd need to secure Platinum status, which is when you are able to make unlimited free award changes and redeposits (and secure that lucrative Choice Benefit). At the end of next year I'll status match to Alaska MVP Gold, and start crediting my Delta and Alaska flights to my Mileage Plan account instead. I'll be sad to lose my first class upgrades, but the Alaska miles are so much more valuable that without high-level elite status on Delta, it's worth it for me to make the switch.

First MyVanilla Debit shutdown!

A few weeks ago I reported on my experience using MyVanilla Debit cards. A lot of people are concerned about having their cards shutdown, since it's so valuable to have a way to easily liquidate Vanilla Reload Network reload cards after reaching your $5,000 monthly Bluebird load limit.

I explained how I had gradually increased my MyVanilla Debit usage, loading and unloading about $2,000 per week to each of my 3 cards.

Well, one of my cards was finally shut down yesterday soon after I loaded $1,000 and did a bank cash advance in the same amount. 

What happens when you're shut down?

The most important thing to know is that a MVD shutdown only affects the closed account. While the folks at MyVanilla do have my Social Security number, so in principle they could link my three accounts (and in fact they do, since that's how they impose the 3-accounts-per-person limit), in fact they do not proactively close all your active accounts: only the one that triggers the shutdown.

When an account is shutdown, you will no longer be able to log into that account. That's why it's extremely helpful to have your MyVanilla Debit account loaded into Mint or a similar banking website so you still have access to your balance and transaction history (more on that in a second).

How do you get your money back?

If you call the phone number on the back of your closed card, most people seem to have success having their account temporarily reopened to allow the customer to get a bank cash advance or use an ATM to empty the account, which keeps MyVanilla from having to mail a check for the account balance.

Additionally, there are reports that while your account is in that temporary reopened status, it's still possible to load Vanilla Reload Network reload cards, giving you one last shot to push a large amount through the card before losing it. 

Finally, some but far from all shutdown users report that after their account is "temporarily" reopened, it in fact remains open and can be used normally. 

What triggers account closure?

This is a question I obviously don't have an exact answer for. I was loading and unloading much more money to my closed account than the vast majority of MyVanilla's users. On the other hand, there are definitely people who load and unload even more than me. 

Fortunately, I did have my MVD login credentials loaded into Mint, so I still have access to my transaction history, which I'm more than happy to share with my readers. This is for my closed card account, for roughly the last month. CA means a cash advance from a bank teller, WM means a Walmart bill payment: 

• October 5: Load $1,000
• October 7: CA $950
• October 14: Load $1,000
• October 14: WM $1,000
• October 17: Load $1,000
• October 18: CA $1,000
• October 22: Load $1,000
• October 24: CA $1,000
• October 27: Load $1,000
• October 28: CA $1,000
• October 31: Load $2,000
• October 31: WM $2,000
• November 5: Load $1,000
• November 6: CA $1,000
• November 8: Load $1,000
• November 8: CA $1,000 (shutdown)

In summary, my total amounts of the 3 transaction types are: 

• Loads: $9,000
• Cash advances: $5,950
• Walmart bill payments: $3,000
• Balance at account closure: $35.04

What Next?

These cards are incredibly lucrative, so of course I'm sad to see one go, but fortunately I still have 2 active card accounts. For now my plan is to stop doing bank cash advances and stick to Walmart bill payments, which I believe are somewhat safer since they're processed as ordinary purchases (i.e. MyVanilla makes money off them). That may be an overreaction, since there's certainly some safe level of monthly cash advances. With only two remaining cards, however, I'm not willing to play Guinea pig to find out just what that level is!

More fun with the United devaluation

Last week on the train to New York for a family weekend I posted a quick-and-dirty analysis of how what formerly seemed like insane "fuel" surcharges on British Airways award redemptions can actually be cheaper than flights purchased through United's new, devalued partner award chart. It was a stylized example (you had to earn a British Airways companion pass – and have a companion – for starters), but I've spent the week thinking about it and have a few more fun examples to share.

Let's start with the assumption that you're flush with flexible Ultimate Rewards points earned through one of Chase's premium credit cards. You might have planned to redeem 125,000 of them for a Lufthansa first class ticket booked through United. Starting in February you know that award will cost 220,000 miles, so you're looking for an alternative.

The good news is, tickets booked on Aer Lingus and air berlin (their punctuation, not mine) using British Airways Avios still don't have the absurd fuel surcharges that make most British Airways redemptions such a terrible value. That means getting to Europe in business class is still affordable using Ultimate Rewards points.

Aer Lingus

From Dublin, Aer Lingus flies to and from Boston Logan, New York JFK, Chicago O'Hare, and Orlando  International Airport. From Shannon, they only serve New York and Boston. Those flights will cost (each way):

• JFK: 20,000 economy; 40,000 business
• BOS: 12,500 economy; 25,000 business
• ORD:  20,000 economy; 40,000 business
• MCO:  25,000 economy; 50,000 business*

*there are conflicting reports regarding the cost of this award. The flight is technically (72 miles) over 4,000 miles each way, so should price at the levels I give here, but some reports put the cost at 20,000 economy and 40,000 business. I haven't made a test booking yet to find out for sure.

You will pay some taxes and fees for these awards:

• The Points Guy paid $30.57 in fees for a one-way business class redemption JFK-DUB;
• One of his commenters paid $157 in taxes for a round-trip business class redemption BOS-DUB, which puts the ex-Dublin part of the cost at around $125;

From Dublin you can use Avios to fly anywhere Aer Lingus flies, or choose a low-cost European carrier. Be aware that if you purchase your connecting flight on a different itinerary, you won't be protected if your Aer Lingus flight is delayed or cancelled.

air berlin

air berlin flies between Dusseldorf and Fort Myers, Chicago O'Hare, Miami International Airport, Los Angeles International, and New York JFK; and between Berlin and Chicago O'Hare, Miami, and New York JFK.

The flights to Chicago, Miami, and Fort Myers will all cost 25,000 Avios in economy and 50,000 in business class, each way. The flight between JFK and Dusseldorf comes in just under 4,000 miles, so costs just 20,000 Avios in economy and 40,000 in business. The flight between Dusseldorf and Los Angeles is over 5,500 miles, so it costs 30,000 Avios each way in economy and 60,000 in business.

It's hard to believe, but that 20,000 Avios economy class redemption from JFK to DUS has a grand total of taxes and fees of...$2.50:

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You think that's something? Let me show you the rest of that dialog box:

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That's right: you can redeem just 6,000 Avios and pay $162.50 to "buy up" to the rest of the redemption. That values 14,000 flexible Ultimate Reward points at just $160. But those points are already worth $175 when used for a ticket purchased through the Ultimate Rewards travel tool!

It's worth taking a look at the business class redemption as well. The fees are the same $2.50 when using 40,000 Avios one-way, but unfortunately the "Avios and cash" rate is much more expensive. Instead of "buying" 14,000 Ultimate Rewards points for $160 (1.1 cent each), can pay $560 for 20,000 points (2.8 cents each):

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Taxes and fees on the DUS-JFK flight are somewhat higher, at $103.30:

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But you again have the opportunity to "buy" 14,000 Ultimate Rewards points for $160 – an amazing deal.

Roundtrip to Europe for 12,000 Ultimate Rewards points and $425.80 is an unbelievable deal. Roundtrip to Europe in business class for 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points and $105.80 only looks like a ripoff in comparison.

Is it ethical to tell people about travel hacking?

Those who blog about travel hacking (myself included) get a lot of flack for writing about and making public techniques that people "in the know" would prefer to keep to themselves. I think View from the Wing best summarized my position here:

I will continue my approach of sharing most things, things that seem like they’ll have a long shelf life or that seem like very short term opportunities regardless of whether they’re shared, and not sharing things that I believe will be killed once published.

That's why I don't have any second thoughts about sharing the technique of Walmart Bill Pay: it's a legal service offered by a huge corporation that knows exactly what it's doing – and is even being paid for its trouble. The fact that it allows us to liquidate PIN-based debit cards by paying off our credit cards is a happy coincidence. Red in tooth and claw and so on.

On the other hand, there's another technique I know of that involves exploiting a bug in the website of a travel provider. I'll never blog about that bug, since it'll be fixed within hours. People who discover it on their own can enjoy it, and hopefully they'll keep their mouths shut too.

But that's not the point of this post. My feeling is that people who buy and read my book or regularly read my blog basically know what they're doing, so I'm comfortable sharing potentially risky techniques and trusting my readers not to take excessive risks.

What I've been thinking about is whether it's ethical to tell people who aren't already interested in travel hacking about the techniques we use to manufacture huge volumes of spend every month.  After all, travel hacking requires a certain personality type: some mathematical aptitude, relentless attention to detail, and an ability to methodically evaluate the costs and benefits of each technique. A person without that personality shouldn't be buying $30,000 in prepaid instruments every month.

I'm not trying to be condescending to the "little people who don't understand" how great this hobby is. I'm trying to be realistic, and the fact is the frequent flyer forums are full of posts by people who shouldn't be playing this game: people who buy the wrong gift cards, who lose their prepaid cards on the way to the car, who let store employees swap out their activated cards for duds. You can give all the "advice" in the world, but good advice will never be a substitute for the required personality type.

That's why I've been wondering: is it ethical to tell people about travel hacking in the first place? 

Do this now: Double MQM on Delta-operated flights through Seattle

From now until October 31, 2014, you can earn double redeemable miles and double Medallion Qualifying Miles on select routes to and from Seattle marketed and operated by Delta and Delta Connection carriers. You'll only earn double MQM on flights booked after registering for the promotion.

Eligible flights are those between Seattle and: 

• Anchorage
• Portland
• Los Angeles
• Las Vegas
• San Francisco

This promotion is running through most of next year, so whether you plan to immediately take advantage of the promotion or not, register now, before you forget. 

Why United's devaluation changes everything (and why Delta's didn't)

By now you've undoubtedly heard about United's overnight announcement of a major award chart devaluation. Here's a roundup from around the web:

• The Points Guy: United’s Newest Customer Unfriendly Campaign: Increase the Cost of Award Tickets
• Mommy Points: United Award Chart Changes Bad, But Not Horrible for Most
  
• Frequent Miler: Frequent Miler’s interview with United regarding their massive award chart devaluation
• View from the Wing: United’s Frequent Flyer Award Prices are Going Up, Up, Up. Redeem Now (for Premium Cabin Partner Travel Outside the Americas).
• One Mile at a Time: United MileagePlus Award Chart Devaluation

I think this is more than a devaluation, making it that much harder to earn enough miles for premium cabin award tickets: it calls for a paradigm shift.

The traditional view in the frequent flyer community is that US-based airline programs have some advantages over their foreign counterparts. The most important of those advantages is that US airlines don't typically charge fuel surcharges on award tickets booked on their own flights, and often don't pass along their partners' fuel surcharges.

Delta's August devaluation announcement was treated with disgust by those who were already frustrated with Delta's non-functional online award booking tool. But while there's no such thing as a "good" devaluation, that devaluation is offset in part by the fact that Delta miles remain among the easiest to earn, since Gold Medallions and higher earn 100% bonus miles on paid flights and the American Express Delta Platinum and Reserve cards earn 1.4 and 1.5 miles per dollar, respectively, at their annual bonus thresholds. Most importantly, Delta left untouched the basic deal between frequent flyer programs and their members: you can redeem your miles for "aspirational" awards in premium cabins anywhere their partner airlines fly.

United's award chart devaluation breaks that deal with their customers. The problem with United's award chart devaluation is that the "partner" award chart is activated when any one of your flights is on a partner airline, even if United doesn't fly to your ultimate destination . Lucky elucidates this point nicely.

So far bloggers have been thinking about the devaluation from the point of view of a person trying to redeem United miles. But if you take one step back, you can see the consequences are actually much further reaching than that.

Let's say I'm trying to redeem my flexible Ultimate Rewards points for a round-trip, business class ticket between Boston and Prague.  Since I can redeem United miles on their partner airlines, in this case Lufthansa, at the same mileage cost as on United metal, using the current award chart I'll pay 100,000 United miles and $97 in taxes and fees. After February 1, when the new partner award chart takes effect, that'll increase to 140,000 United miles (let's assume the taxes and fees stay the same for now).

With British Airways Avios, also an Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, I'll pay those enormous fuel surcharges you're always hearing about, in this case about $1,028. But I'll pay just 98,000 Avios. That values 42,000 Ultimate Rewards points at $931, or about 2.2 cents each. That's on the high side, but it isn't crazy, for example if you're planning a high-value Hyatt redemption.

Let's take this example one step further.

Under the current United award chart, the Chase British Airways Visa credit card isn't a great value for most people. It comes with 50,000 Avios, which many people use for short-haul American Airlines flights, which cost just 4,500 Avios each way. But the companion pass that you earn after spending $30,000 during the calendar year has the major drawback that you still have to pay the formidable taxes and fees attached to the second award ticket.

Under the new United award chart , the calculus changes completely. Using the example above, where we found that the British Airways award ended up costing about the same as the United partner award when we value Ultimate Rewards points at 2.2 cents each, now when we book a companion ticket for an additional $931 we're saving not 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points, but 140,000. That's like buying Ultimate Rewards points for just 0.67 cents each. Since you can redeem Ultimate Rewards points for cash at 1 cent each, this is a no brainer.

In other words:

• Two round trip tickets on Lufthansa using United miles: 280,000 miles and $194;
• Two round trip business class tickets on British Airways: 98,000 miles and $2,056 (plus a $95 annual fee);
• Cash value of 200,000 Ultimate Rewards points: $2,000.

This is the example that came to mind most readily because British Airways and United are both Ultimate Rewards transfer partners. But I suspect there are a lot more situations like this, where increased redemption costs under the new United award chart – especially in premium cabins – will make it worth paying potentially astronomical fuel surcharges to their rivals.

United is simply abdicating its position as America's most coveted airline currency, and this decision is going to have unforeseen consequences throughout the industry.  What do you think?

Weekend thoughts from around the web

No great insights in today's post, but I wanted to mention a few of the biggest things I've been thinking about as they crossed my plate this week. 

• According to Frequent Miler's correspondent, new Citi Forward card accounts do not offer 5 ThankYou points for "entertainment" and restaurant spending. While American Express Campus Edition cards weren't hugely scalable (limited to $6k in loads per rolling 12 month period), they were a nice, cheap deal. See the comments to this post for details on that hack. Fortunately, a similar (better?) version is still available with the US Bank Cash+ card, which allows cash redemptions, unlike ThankYou points which require a little finesse to monetize at their full value (for example, student loan and mortgage rebate checks).
• Chase Sapphire Preferred's new real-time breakdown of points earning is completely addictive.  Instead of having to reverse engineer your earned points when your statement closes, you can now view your bonus points in real time in your online account's "recent activity." I use my Sapphire Preferred as my default card so it doesn't affect my everyday usage pattern much, but I was surprised to see that a local cafe where I get an occasional cup of coffee was not posting "restaurant" bonus points. Of course, the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard posts your earned points throughout your statement cycle, so you don't need to wait for your statement to close to make a redemption.
• Speaking of the Sapphire Preferred, Friday November 1, 2013 is the first Friday in November: earn 3 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar on restaurant purchases made today.
• Finally, this is ridiculous . Are you really willing to commit to putting $3,000 on this card 12 months from now? Do you know where you'll be 12 months from now? Try harder, Citi.

What's next: Chase card applications

This is the second entry in my occasional series about what changes I see coming to my strategy for (nearly) free travel. In the first entry I discussed product changes, meaning my plans to change either from annual-fee to no-annual-fee versions (like the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard), or to more lucrative versions (Citi Dividend Platinum Select), of the cards I currently carry – while keeping my credit limits and age of accounts intact.

Going forward I'll be sharing my thoughts on my next round of new card applications, starting today with Chase.

Airlines vs. Hotels

Since I already have a US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature that gives me up to 4 cents per dollar in value on purchases at gas stations when I redeem my Flexpoints for paid airline tickets, I'm not too worried about paying for any upcoming flights.

Hotels on the other hand can get expensive very quickly, especially if I have to cancel or downgrade my Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard in April, when my first annual fee is due (I'll ask to have the annual fee waived before I downgrade the card). I like to use that card to book my hotel stays since I earn hotel points and elite qualifying nights by booking directly through the hotel chain, and can then redeem my Arrival miles for travel purchases at an equivalent of 1.11 cents each, with partial redemptions allowed in increments of $25.

That's why my priority during this application cycle is to get a few cards that I can use to consistently manufacture large numbers of hotel points – hopefully also with a lucrative signup bonus.

Chase Ink Bold

I'll sign up for the Ink Bold with the standard signup bonus of 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 within 3 months, with a waived annual fee the first year.

Since my local gas stations haven't posed a problem lately, my plan is to split my $8,000 in monthly PayPal My Cash purchases between my US Bank Flexperks card and the new Ink Bold. Both cards earn 2 points per dollar spent at "gas stations."

The flexible Ultimate Rewards points earned by the Ink Bold can be transferred to Hyatt, where the standard room award chart tops out at just 22,000 points, or Marriott, which is not quite as good a value but can be worth doing under the right circumstances (for example to top up a 7-night Hotel + Air Package).

That leaves the question of what to do with my Chase Sapphire Preferred, which also has a $95 annual fee that is coming due in January. As I explained in this post, ideally you'll carry just 1 of the 3 "flexible" Ultimate Rewards cards, since each of them costs $95 annually. To justify paying $95 for another year of the Sapphire Preferred, I'd need to earn bonus points worth $95.

Valuing flexible Ultimate Rewards points at 2 cents each I'd need to spend $4,500 in the Sapphire Preferred's bonus categories, which isn't something I'm willing to commit to. After all, my no-annual-fee Hilton HHonors American Express and US Bank Cash+ cards also bonus restaurant spend (5 HHonors points per dollar in the former case or 5% cash back in the latter, capped at $2,000 quarterly). I'd be paying $95 to displace spend from (slightly less) lucrative, free cards. Besides restaurants, the Sapphire Preferred also bonuses "travel" purchases. Since the Ink Bold bonuses hotel spend, that mostly leaves things like cab fares, train tickets, and similar "miscellaneous" travel expenses, which are unlikely to add up to $4,500 during the year.

The two free options to downgrade my Sapphire Preferred are to a no-annual-fee Chase Sapphire card, or a second Chase Freedom account. The Sapphire account is tempting for the sake of preserving my restaurant bonus category, but ultimately I think I'll change to a second Freedom card. This year I was able to earn 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points in both the 1st and 3rd quarter bonus categories, and if even 1 of those lucrative categories comes back in 2014, I'll already be way ahead of where I'd be with a $95 Sapphire Preferred.

Chase Hyatt Credit Card

Since it's possible to apply for both a business and personal card from Chase on the same day, that raises the question of whether I should double down on Hyatt and also apply for the personal Hyatt Visa. It comes with a generous signup bonus of 2 free nights at any Hyatt in the world. Unfortunately, I'm no longer able to trigger the $100 statement credit that used to be offered when you reach the payment page on a new Hyatt reservation. On the other hand the standard offer now has no annual fee for the first year.

An additional benefit of the Hyatt card is an annual free night at a Category 1-4 hotel when you pay your annual fee each year – worth up to 15,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points.  A lot of bloggers will tell you that that annual free night makes the card worth its $75 annual fee.

I'll tell why I think that's baloney: manufacturing 15,000 Gold Passport points isn't that hard, since Hyatt is a transfer partner of Ultimate Rewards.  If you're manufacturing points at 1 point per dollar, sure, it'll cost you $118.50 in Vanilla Reload Network reload cards, plus whatever your cost is to liquidate them (although this cost can be lowered using one of my favorite techniques). If you're manufacturing 2 points per dollar spent (for example using the Ink Bold, above), then your cost is just $59.25, for example buying PayPal My Cash cards at 7-11. An intermediate case is if you're earning 5 points per dollar buying $200 gift cards at a cost of $6.95 each, for example at Staples, then the 15,000 Gold Passport points will cost around $100.

However, the advantage of all three of those methods over paying a $75 annual fee is that you actually end up with the points . That means there's no risk of "overspending" your annual free night certificate at a Category 1-3 property, or being "locked out" of using your certificate at a Category 5 or 6 property in your city of choice: just transfer slightly more or fewer flexible Ultimate Rewards points!

Don't get me wrong: in the real world, $75 for a hotel room – any hotel room – is a pretty good deal. For a room at a mid-range Hyatt, it's potentially a great deal. But the fact is, we can do better.

What would you do?

Every once in a while I muster up the strength to visit Million Mile Secrets, who is rightly famous for his circles and arrows , which cause great angst and hilarity in the travel hacking community.

He also has a completely undeserved reputation for ripping off my blog posts, and I won't hear anyone say differently.

I was skimming his 11-part travel reports and exhortations to book Southwest tickets (thanks but no thanks) when I came across this post advertising a $49 guide to travel hacking (only $37, for a limited time only!).

Now, I don't want anyone to accuse me of restraint of trade, so instead of telling you to instead buy my ebook, available through Amazon.com for just $2.99, I thought I'd share my thoughts on what I'd do with the $34.01 I'd thereby save, using techniques that are included in my book and described right here on the blog.

• Load your Nationwide or US Bank Visa Buxx cards with $500 17 or 13 times, respectively. Ultimate Rewards points generated at 1 point per dollar: 8,534 or 6,532;
• Buy 8 Vanilla Reload Network reload cards. 2% cash back: $80.63;
• Buy 11 Vanilla Reload Network reload cards with your PayPal Business Debit MasterCard at 1% cash back, after loading your PayPal account with 11 PayPal My Cash cards bought at a "gas station." Ultimate Rewards points or Flexpoints generated at 2 points per dollar: 11,086.
• Buy 5 PIN-enabled Visa gift cards at a local supermarket. Membership Rewards points generated at 2 points per dollar: 5,060.

How many points would you manufacture on a $34.01 budget? Leave your suggestions in the comments, but Square Cash, Venmo, and Amazon Payments don't count – otherwise Nomadic Matt might get the impression that we were making fun of him.

Update on MasterCard rePower network

At the beginning of the month I suggested that since the latest Vanilla Reload Network redesign included MasterCard rePower on the front of the card, it might be possible to load MasterCard prepaid debit cards using Vanilla Reload Network reload cards.

The Experiment

To test this theory, I picked what looked like two of the most promising cards: the H&R Block Emerald prepaid MasterCard and the Mango alternative checking account. The Emerald card doesn't have any monthly fees, and the Mango card has a $5 monthly fee that's waived when you load $500 or more during your statement period.

The Result

Unfortunately, neither card is currently loadable using Vanilla Reload Network reload cards.

However, in the course of my experimenting I did discover that Mango allows outgoing ACH transactions . That means that if you are able to load the account (for example, using Green Dot Moneypaks, available in some areas and at some merchants for purchase by credit card), then you can easily liquidate your balance by entering your Mango routing and account numbers in your credit card issuer's bill pay function.

In Other News

It isn't really the focus of this blog or my book, but I should also point out that Mango offers a 6% APR savings account alongside its checking account product. This is more than you'll earn leaving your money in virtually any other FDIC-insured instrument. You'll earn 6% APY on the first $5,000 in your savings account when you "enroll" in their direct deposit service. According to the site, you "enroll" by making 2 payroll deposits totaling $50 or more within 90 days. If you max out the $5,000 cap, and then deposit and bill pay out $500 each month in order to avoid the monthly fee, then you'll earn $300 per year in interest (actually slightly less since it's 6% APY, not APR, and you won't earn true compound interest above the $5,000 level). You won't get rich using this technique, but there's also no reason not to do it, since if you're manufacturing spend then you probably have a fair amount of month-to-month liquidity. You're allowed up to 5 transfers between your Mango checking and savings accounts each month.

One other note: while Mango suggests linking your bank account or PayPal account as a funding source, I was unable to use my Mango routing and account numbers to add the account to either Bank of America's "transfers outside the bank" function or PayPal's "withdraw" function. However, I was able to add Mango as a "linked checking account" to Bluebird. Your Miles May Vary.