Things US Bank told me about Flexperks Travel Rewards

It's difficult to know how to frame information you receive from US Bank over the phone. For example, a US Bank representative once told me I could product change my Club Carlson Business Rewards card to a Business Edge Cash Rewards card. I couldn't.

But after someone on Twitter reached out to me with a question about some language in the Flexperks Travel Rewards terms and conditions, I decided against my better judgment to call and ask what the heck they meant.

The $120,000 cap on Flexperks Travel Rewards earning

If you visit the website of the US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards credit card, you'll find the following description of the card's rewards structure:

"Yearly Award Level: For Net Purchases less than or equal to $120,000, earn one FlexPoint for every $1. If during the calendar year, Net Purchases exceed $120,000, all FlexPoints for the remainder of the calendar year are earned at a rate of one FlexPoint for every $2. Exemption: FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature AutoPay Cardmembers who select the full payment option on the first available payment date after their statement date."

I've mentioned before the $120,000 calendar year purchase limit on FlexPoint earning, but never noticed the "exemption" for people with AutoPay set up. So I decided to call.

My representative had no idea what he was talking about

This is pretty much par for the course when calling US Bank, so I wasn't terribly surprised. But I kept asking for clarification, so he put me on hold and talked to someone who had worked at US Bank for all of 2 years(!), and who gave him the "complete" picture.

My representative's (secondhand) information was that if you have autopay set up to pay your bill in full, then there's no limit on Flexpoint earning. If you don't have autopay set up, then you have to make your payment on the first available payment date after your statement closes.

That sounds like nonsense, and strikes me as vanishingly unlikely to be correct.

A quick aside on base points and bonus points

There's some important credit card terminology that's relevant here. Typically, a credit card will earn some number of "base" miles or points on purchases everywhere. The American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass earns 3 "base" HHonors points everywhere, the Chase Sapphire Preferred earns 1 "base" Ultimate Rewards point everywhere, etc.

Then in certain spend categories, a credit card will earn "bonus" points. The HHonors Surpass card earns 9 "bonus" HHonors points for purchases made at Hilton properties, for example, and the Sapphire Preferred earns 1 "bonus" Ultimate Rewards point at restaurants and on most travel purchases.

That's not how the Flexperks Travel Rewards terms and conditions are framed

The language I quoted above was from the second clause of the rewards structure. The third clause reads:

"FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa cardmembers may earn additional FlexPoints for purchases at merchant locations in the following categories: airline, gas or grocery (each, a "Category"). You will earn FlexPoints at a rate of two FlexPoints for every $1 in the one Category in any given monthly billing cycle that has the highest total of Net Purchases charged to your Account (the "Highest Category")...FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature cardmembers will be awarded FlexPoints at the rate of two FlexPoints for every $1 in Net Purchases during the current month's billing cycle for any merchant location that classifies itself as having telecommunication services/products."

There is no language about "base" FlexPoints and "bonus" FlexPoints: these are simply given as the earning rates for a variety of purchases. The same is true of charitable contributions, in the fourth clause:

"FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature cardmembers will earn FlexPoints at a rate of three (3) FlexPoints per every $1 in Net Purchases during the current month's billing cycle for any merchant location that classifies itself as a Charitable and Social Service Organization."

But that is how FlexPoints are actually earned

Here's a screenshot from one of my US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards statements:

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As you can see, US Bank is actually following the usual practice of awarding "base" and "bonus" points separately on each statement.

Conclusion: I have no idea what's going on at US Bank

I've never bumped up against the $120,000 limit calendar year limit, so I don't know how it's implemented in practice. But it seems to me there are three possibilities:

• Earning is actually capped at $120,000 in total purchases, and all spend beyond that earns one FlexPoint per $2 spent, unless you set up AutoPay and pay your entire statement balance on the first available date after your statement closes. If you do, your earning is uncapped. This would be the simplest reading of the terms and conditions as written.
• The above, except bonused spend at gas stations, grocery stores, air travel, and charitable contributions is completely uncapped, whether or not you set up AutoPay. This would be another literal reading of the terms and conditions, but would conflict with the above — only one of the two can be true.
• A hybrid, based on how FlexPoints are actually awarded, whereby "base" points are earned at one FlexPoint per $2 spent above $120,000 but "bonus" point are uncapped. This would mean charitable contributions continued to earn 2.5 FlexPoints per dollar, which would still be a fairly strong choice for making Kiva loans.

Of course it's theoretically possible that the version I was told by my US Bank representative is actually correct: that if you have AutoPay set up at all, then you're not subject to any limits on FlexPoint earning. Possible, but unlikely.

So I'm turning it over to my readers who do even more Flexperks Travel Rewards volume than I do: what's your experience earning base and bonus FlexPoints once you've reached the $120,000 calendar year cap?

Overpay by booking Cathay Pacific premium seats with Avios

There's a tempting intuition that says high balances across a variety of programs are a goal worth pursuing, since they allow you to deploy the right rewards currency for the right job. That's never been my view: I prefer building up balances in programs where I have planned, or at least foreseeable, redemptions in mind. That's why I don't hesitate to accumulate Delta SkyMiles, since even if I don't have planned Delta travel, I fly Delta often enough that I'm certain to be able to redeem them at some point. The same is true with Hilton HHonors points: there's no risk that I won't be able to redeem them, since there are Hilton properties everywhere.

Of course, being focused on a small number of rewards currencies has a downside: by definition, it's more expensive to book flights if you don't have the currency that makes those flights cheapest.

For example, until March 22, 2016, American AAdvantage charges 67,500 miles to fly between the United States and Hong Kong in first class on their oneworld partner Cathay Pacific, with minimal taxes and fees.

That's a great deal, and if you have a slew of AAdvantage miles and a flexible-enough schedule, it's certainly the best way to get to Hong Kong. Since I don't hoard AAdvantage miles, I'm out of luck, right?

Not so fast.

British Airways charges a lot for long premium cabin flights

The conventional wisdom says to redeem distance-based British Airways Avios for short-haul domestic flights or a few select "sweet spot awards" that fall in the top of their distance bands, and redeem region-based awards for longer and premium cabin flights.

And indeed, if you had huge quantities of every rewards currency, for any given award you would want to redeem the fewest miles or points possible, using a tool like AwardAce.

But if you don't want to accumulate huge rewards balances speculatively, you have another option: simply overpay.

British Airways doesn't charge that much for long premium cabin flights

A Cathay Pacific first class flight from Los Angeles or San Francisco to Hong Kong costs 140,000 Avios each way, plus about $50 in taxes and fees:

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After American Airlines' March 22, 2016, devaluation, they'll charge 110,000 AAdvantage miles plus the same taxes and fees. Of course, the American award, in addition to being cheaper, allows you to depart from anywhere in the United States, not just the west coast, and connect onward from Hong Kong.

140,000 Avios cost $1,400 in cash if you transfer them in from an Ultimate Rewards account, giving you about 6.66 cents per Ultimate Rewards point in value for that $9,367 flight.

If you earn your miles and points primarily through manufactured spend, 140,000 Avios are likely easier to earn than 110,000 AAdvantage miles, thanks to the Ink Plus bonus categories of office supply stores and gas stations and the quarterly Chase Freedom bonus categories allowing you to earn 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent in rotating groups of merchants.

But even more importantly, using an Ultimate Rewards point transfer to British Airways to book this flight keeps your overall miles and points strategy simple. Instead of signing up for one or more American Airlines co-branded credit cards, requiring multiple credit pulls and bearing the risk of your application being denied, you can keep doing what you're doing: aggressively earning Ultimate Rewards points in bonus categories.

If you end up finding award space for dates that work for you, transfer the points and make the reservation. If you don't, transfer them instead to Hyatt, United, Southwest, or even redeem them for cash. You haven't lost anything by earning "extra" Ultimate Rewards points. You just have to slightly overpay for your award when you decide to book it.

Speaking of award availability...

There's a reason that I've used Cathay Pacific as my example throughout this post: it's because award availability on Cathay Pacific is quite scarce, and can't be searched on American's website. Instead, you're likely going to be using British Airways to search for award availability anyway, since they display it online.

Not only that, but British Airways allows reservations to be made further in advance than American does! Take another look at the search result above: it's for a first class flight departing December 10, 2016. That's 354 days from now, while American only allows reservations to be made through November 17, 2016 — 331 days from now.

As you'd expect, award availability tightens up quickly once American's award booking window opens. Given that Cathay Pacific frequently makes just a single first class award seat available, those 23 days may spell the difference between getting your first class award or having to sit in business class.

In that sense, you aren't overpaying for Cathay Pacific first class by using British Airways Avios; you're simply paying the only price at which the first class seats you need are, in fact, available!

You should never buy points for what they're worth

The frame of reference for my manufactured spend practice is not usually the cost I pay per point that I earn, although I naturally privilege cheaper techniques above more expensive techniques, and there are certain techniques that are too expensive to fit into my practice at all.

Rather, my analytical framework is based on opportunity costs: am I better off manufacturing a hotel or airline loyalty currency, or using the same technique to manufacture cash back instead?

In the hotel sphere, it's easy to calculate "breakeven" points, which I call a property's "imputed redemption value:" the amount of cash you have to save in order to justify earning sufficient points to make a redemption instead of simply paying for a stay with cash.

It's also possible to buy points

There is a clutch of high-profile bloggers who write exhaustively about the constant stream of airline offers to sell miles at a discount compared to their normal prices. For example, American AAdvantage normally sells miles for about 3.19 cents each, but during their current promotion you can buy them as "cheaply" as 1.81 cents each (because of the fixed $30 processing charge, the rate will always be lowest when you buy the maximum allowed number of miles).

So the question is, should you buy American Airlines miles for 1.81 cents each? There are two ways to look at that question.

How much are AAdvantage miles worth?

If you redeem your AAdvantage miles for expensive flights with low or no fuel surcharges, your answer to this question might be "far more than 1.81 cents each." After all, until March 22, 2016, 67,500 AAdvantage miles and some nominal fees will get you from San Francisco to Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific's first class cabin, a $9,367 value next fall — 13.9 cents per point!

If this is your view, then paying anything less than 13.9 cents per point is a straightforward win: you get a $9,367 flight, but pay only a small fraction of that amount. Alternatively, you could pick a "realistic" valuation for the flight and use that instead. For example, if you think Cathay first class is worth just twice the price of economy, you could use that value instead ($1,486 for the same dates), and get a valuation of 2.2 cents each — still more than the 1.81 cents American is selling them for.

How much do AAdvantage miles cost?

If you manufacture AAdvantage miles instead of using a 2% cash back card, your answer to this question should be "2 cents each." In this case you might consider buying AAdvantage miles in bulk for 1.81 cents each, and direct that manufactured spend back towards your 2% cash back cards, ending up with more value overall.

On the other hand, if you earn AAdvantage miles by signing up for their co-branded credit cards and spending $3,000 to earn 53,000 AAdvantage miles, your answer should be "0.11 cents each" — that's your $60 in foregone cash back spread over 53,000 AAdvantage miles. In this case, you'd be crazy to overpay by 15 times for miles you could earn so much more cheaply.

Of course, if you're a rich weirdo, you may be burning AAdvantage miles more quickly than you can earn them exclusively through signup bonuses. In that case, the important thing is your marginal cost: how much are you paying for each additional AAdvantage mile, and is it more or less than American is currently charging for the same mile?

Never buy points for what they're worth

Travel hacking is ultimately about the spread between the price you pay for your trips and the price travel providers would like to charge you. In other words, acquire travel cheaply but redeem it dearly.

That means a basic mistake to avoid is overpaying for your miles and points. If you're currently buying AAdvantage miles for 2 cents each and an opportunity comes along to buy them for less than 2 cents each, that's a no-brainer.

But another way you can overpay is by allowing a high theoretical valuation induce you to narrow the spread between your cost of acquisition and value of redemption. For example, one of my regular readers values Hilton HHonors points at 1 cent each, since that's they value he's able to get from them as a Diamond elite with the program. If you take that valuation seriously, you'd conclude that he would be better off earning 6 HHonors points per dollar at grocery stores than 5% cash back — buying HHonors points for just 0.83 cents each.

But a moment of reflection shows that's crazy: instead, he could earn 5% cash back at grocery stores and use his American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass credit card for non-bonused spend where he'd otherwise earn 2% cash back — buying his HHonors points for just 0.67 cents each instead!

My Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond tier match experience

Background

As my regular readers no doubt already know, on November 19, 2015, the official Hyatt Concierge Twitter account sent out a tweet asking, "Looking for a new loyalty program? DM us and let’s talk."

The travel hacking blogosphere subsequently went absolutely nuts. Things then seem to have proceeded in three stages:

1. In Stage 1, the first few hours after the tweet was sent out, Hyatt was matching all elites in other hotel loyalty programs to their Diamond status. So a Hilton HHonors Gold elite could be matched to Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status, as long as they could show a stay with HIlton in the last year.
2. The door quickly shut on Stage 1, and in Stage 2, only Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum elites were being matched to Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status. Elites with programs besides Starwood Preferred Guest could be matched only to Hyatt Gold Passport Platinum status (the same status that comes with their co-branded credit card).
3. Shortly after that, even Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum elites were only being matched to Hyatt Gold Passport Platinum status. As I understand it, this is the current state of play, and Stage 3 continues to this date. For way, way more datapoints read the FlyerTalk thread on the topic, starting at the end for the most recent datapoints.

My tier match experience

I sent my first e-mail to Hyatt Gold Passport on November 20 with my Hilton HHonors Diamond status information. Since the door had already closed on Stage 1, I was told that only Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum elites were being matched to Hyatt Diamond status, and that I could only be matched to Hyatt Platinum status.

Since I wasn't at home, I replied with a screenshot from the SPG app on my iPhone. A few days later, they replied that they couldn't use that to match me to Hyatt Diamond because it didn't have my Starwood account number.

I replied again with a screenshot from the desktop version of the Starwood Preferred Guest website, and again a few days later they replied that they couldn't read the file I sent them.

Finally, I printed the screenshot as a PDF file and they were able to open that. Again, after waiting a few days I finally received a response that I had been matched to Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status, which was immediately reflected online.

The total time my tier match took was 23 days from my initial submission on November 20 to my final tier match confirmation on December 13, 2015.

The key lesson is that it seems people were entitled to treatment based on the "Stage" during which they submitted their original request. In other words, even if they required additional documentation, the earlier you submitted your first request, the more likely it was to be honored.

Life as a Diamond

After being notified that I'd been matched to Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status, I had three priorities:

• Where it makes sense, rebook stays I currently have with other chains at Hyatt properties instead. For example, for our upcoming trip to New York City, I was able to replace a $473.90 Hilton reservation with a $503.12 Hyatt reservation which will earn me 3 elite night credits and an elite stay credit.
• Where possible, apply suite upgrades to my paid Hyatt reservations.
• Match my Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status to Mlife Platinum status.

Suite upgrade rules are confusing

Much digital ink and already been spilled on this topic, so the only point I'll make here is that each Hyatt brand — and even property — refers to their "base-level" suite differently. The Grand Hyatt Berlin has a "Grand Suite King," the Grand Hyatt New York has a "Junior Suite," and the Grand Hyatt San Francisco goes straight to "Executive Suite."

In other words, unless you're familiar with a particular property, you don't have any way to easily check whether the suites for sale online are the suites that are eligible for Diamond suite upgrades.

Mlife Platinum status doesn't seem to be instantly available

As soon as my Diamond tier match was processed I went to this page to request a match to Mlife Platinum status. While the request was processed successfully, my Mlife status wasn't updated!

I asked around on Twitter and my guess is that Hyatt only occasionally updates the database of Gold Passport elites which it makes available to Mlife. Since that process isn't instant, you won't have immediate access to Mlife Platinum benefits.

Since Hyatt Gold Passport is offline until December 19, I haven't been able to try again, but I'm optimistic I'll be matched to Mlife Platinum once the system comes back online.

Conclusion

I've mentioned to multiple folks going through the process of tier matching that this offer, while woefully mishandled and generating a lot of ill-will on the part of people who felt they'd been cheated, is still going to be a business coup for Hyatt.

That's because people like me who are already top-tier elites in multiple programs would never consider earning up to Hyatt Diamond from scratch, but as matched top-tier Hyatt Diamonds will make sure we requalify each year with 25 stays or 50 nights, which have to be either paid or "Points + Cash" reservations.

Do this now: activate Chase Freedom Q1 2016 bonus categories

When it rains it pours. Just as Discover it, Citi Dividend, and US Bank Cash+ bonus categories are now available for registration, so are the Chase Freedom bonus categories for the first quarter of 2016.

The bonus categories for the first quarter of 2016 are purchases at "Gas Stations" and "Local Commuter Transportation."

If you live in or are able to travel to cities where 7-Eleven store locations are both coded as gas stations and sell PIN-enabled Visa gift cards, then this is a great opportunity to pick up Ultimate Rewards points on the cheap. If you don't, then you can at least earn some bonus Ultimate Rewards points on your gas purchases or by reloading your local transportation cards or buying monthly passes.

In any case, register now, before you forget.

Do this now: activate Citi Dividend Q1 2016 bonus categories

The Citi Dividend credit card is absolutely the most frustrating of the quarterly cash back bonus category cards. That's for two reasons:

1. Cash back is capped at $300 per calendar year across all bonused and non-bonused spend;
2. Citi Dividend cash back bonus categories are terrible.

That's somewhat mitigated by the fact that you can often call in and request a retention bonus which can give you additional cash back on all your spend during a dud year (like 2015), and the fact that cash back can be earned in one year's bonus categories but credited against the $300 cash back limit in another year.

In any case, registration is now available for the Citi Dividend cash back bonus categories for the first quarter of 2016.

Most folks I assume will hold off on using their 2016 bonus cash back until the second quarter, when "Drug Stores" are a bonus category, but you should still register now, before you forget.

Kiva loan duration and repayment schedules

I don't write about making Kiva loans very much anymore, mainly because I don't make Kiva loans anymore! But Kiva loans are a still-working technique to manufacture an uncapped amount of spend in a potentially lucrative bonus category.

I say "uncapped" and not "unlimited," because Kiva loans are very much limited — they're just limited by your ability to find loans that fit within your risk tolerance, not by Kiva's online loan system.

Even if you're just interested in using manufactured spend as a part of your overall savings portfolio, Kiva loans are a strong choice: earning 3% cash back on 6-month loans generates "something like" 6% APY — and you get paid your interest up front (or at least when your next statement closes).

Kiva loan repayment schedules are rarely uniform

At the most recent Travel Con Matt from Saverocity made an important and I think overlooked point about Kiva loans: a loan's repayment schedule is rarely uniform. In other words, a 6 month loan will almost never be repaid in 6 equal installments. Instead, it's more common to see a repayment schedule like this:

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If you make a loan to Eliza today, despite the loan having a "7-month" repayment term, you'll get 64.7% of your money back by April 1 — just 108 days from now.

Why it matters (and why it might not)

I take saving seriously, despite not doing enough of it myself. That's one reason why I get upset at so-called "robo-advisors" claiming to do things they cannot do.

If you do want to include "alternative" investments in your savings portfolio, it's important to evaluate them critically; it's just as easy to make mistakes valuing a high-interest savings or checking account as it is when picking a mutual fund.

Fortunately, in the case of Kiva repayment schedules, you have a big advantage: you get to pick the loans with the repayment schedules that best suit your needs! By picking "front-loaded" repayment schedules, you have access to more of your money faster, letting you put it back to work and increasing your actual APY above the 6% a simple "6-month loan" model would suggest.

That's the good news. The bad news is that Kiva isn't enthusiastic about people cycling money in and out of their accounts rapidly. After doing so for a few months, I was told that I could no longer make online withdrawals, but would instead have to request paper checks. They did not, in fact, enforce that restriction (I was still allowed to request withdrawals online), but as a general rule it's not ideal to use techniques with manual oversight as aggressively as we do techniques that are largely or entirely automated.

In other words, while Kiva loans are a great and still-working technique to manufacture uncapped amounts of spend, you probably can't replace your entire savings portfolio with short-term, high-quality loans.

Use these 3 weird programs to search Star Alliance award space

In Chapter 5 of my occasionally-selling ebook, I discussed the technique of using All Nippon Airways' search tool to find Star Alliance award space. Recently, they made some changes to their award search function which makes it somewhat less convenient to use while searching for Star Alliance award space.

But it's still relatively easy to find partner award seats if you know where to look.

Step 1: United Mileage Plus

United Airlines is a US-based airline, which means most readers likely already have a Mileage Plus account. Log in, then search for a one-way or roundtrip award flight from your origin to destination and see what United comes up with.

Step 2: Air Canada Aeroplan

Air Canada's Aeroplan frequent flyer program has online access to partner award space on airlines that United Mileage Plus doesn't. It's slightly difficult to find their online award search tool, but just log into Aeroplan and visit this URL to get started.

Step 3: All Nippon Airlines

All Nippon Airlines has made some odd reconfigurations of their website which makes it harder, but not impossible, to search across the entire Star Alliance. You can now only search roundtrip or multi-city flights.

Once you log into your account, you can search for roundtrip or multi-city flights between any Star Alliance cities. In other words, once you find an arbitrary city pair with Star Alliance availability, you can search for availability between any other other Star Alliance cities by inputting the existing availability as the "first" or "second" leg.

Then you should be able to call and book the Star Alliance availability using whichever program you happen to have your mileage balances with.

Conclusion

You don't normally have to use every technique for every award booking you make; often, the first search you make will simply throw up the award seats you need. But when it doesn't, make sure you've exhausted every possibility before you consider paying cash for your seats.

Do this now: register for Discover it Q1 2016 cashback bonus

Registration is now open (log into your Discover account first) for the Discover it cashback bonus categories of "Gas & Ground Transportation" for the first calendar quarter of 2016.

You'll earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases in the bonus categories, and if you registered in time for the Discover it double cash promotion you'll earn the same amount again after the end of your promotional period.

This is a terrific offer if you have access to PIN-enabled prepaid debit cards at gas stations or convenience stores coded as gas stations, but if you don't have access to those at home (or while on the road), you still might consider using the bonus category to add value to any transportation passes or rail cards you plan to use throughout the year. And of course, 5-10% cash back on gas purchases isn't terrible either.

However you plan to use it, be sure to log into your Discover account and register now, before you forget.

Use Hipmunk to find positioning flights

There are a lot of websites you can use to search for paid flights. Kayak is one of the most popular, but Orbitz, Expedia and Priceline will all find you tickets as well. If you're booking paid flights with Ultimate Rewards points you'll need to use their internal search engine, and the same is true of US Bank Flexpoints.

All those sites work, and they all have roughly similar search features: you can search for specific dates or flexible dates, you can specify your cabin of service, and you can filter by airline and time of day.

What none of them let you do is filter by different times of day depending on the day of the flight. Let me explain.

Award availability often requires positioning flights before or after the award segments

Award availability is the aspect of travel hacking that we have the least control over. Whether or not an airline makes seats available on the dates we need them is entirely at the discretion of the airline. While much digital ink has been spilled over the best ways to find award seats, ultimately it's not something we can predict in a reliable way.

Further, when award availability does become available, it may not exactly suit our needs. There may be award seats from an alliance hub city, but not on flights from your home airport to the hub. If you're committed to booking the award seats, that means you'll need a positioning flight: either a paid flight or an award on a different carrier that gets you to the airport in time to take your award flight.

Of course, positioning flights can be necessary at the beginning or end of a trip.

Use Hipmunk to find positioning flights

When you search for flights with every other search engine I know of, you can filter by time of departure, but that filter applies to every day searched. For example, on ITA Matrix filtering by "early morning" departures returns early morning departures for every day within the search range:

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HIpmunk is the only flight search engine I know of that lets you filter by departure times across day boundaries. For example, I have an upcoming award flight booked on Air Berlin between Berlin and New York City. But I don't live in New York City, and there's no oneworld award space between New York City and my hometown, which means I need a positioning flight.

Since we don't want to go into the city (we'll be getting back from 17 days in Europe), I'd like to search for the cheapest flight that leaves either the evening we arrive in New York or the next morning. In other words, I'm fine staying overnight at the airport if it saves us some money, but I'm not willing to wait to fly out until the next evening.

Lo and behold, Hipmunk found me the perfect flight:

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We'll stay overnight at JFK, leave early the next morning, and be back home early that afternoon.