Earn Delta MQM for Hilton stays

I've said before that 90% of casual travelers are better off crediting Delta flights to an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account, rather than a Delta Skymiles account.  For those who stubbornly persist in pursuing Medallion elite status (for example, to enjoy free award changes and redeposits with Platinum or Diamond Medallion status), Hilton has brought back a promotion from last year whereby you can earn 250 Medallion Qualifying Miles for each 2-night stay between September 30 and December 13, 2013 (up to 10,000 MQM).

You have to register for the promotion here, and select Delta as your "double dip" earning partner in your Hilton HHonors account.  In my experience stays are credited according to the earning preference you have selected when you make the reservation, rather than your earning preference at the time of your stay.

Since any MQM you earn in excess of your Medallion status will roll over to 2014, there's no reason not to take advantage of this promotion if you have any 2-night Hilton stays planned during the promotional period. You'll also earn double Skymiles for stays completed under this promotion. 

More free Gogo inflight wireless

Back in June Blackberry sponsored a promotion  offering free inflight internet access to their customers on Gogo-equipped flights. It was a really useful promotion, since they verified you were a Blackberry user based on your browser's "user agent," which is easily spoofed.

Well, Gogo is back at it again, this time with a promotion sponsored by Allstate. They're offering 30 minutes of free in-flight internet on weekend flights on users' "mobile devices," i.e. smartphones. I have to assume this promotion applies on a per-flight basis, so you should be able to get 30 minutes of wifi per flight, not per weekend.

If you are actually using the internet on your mobile phone, then enjoy! There's no need to hack this promotion.

However, I believe that they're almost certainly verifying your device type this time the same way they did during the last promotion: based on your browser's "user agent." That means if you want to enjoy 30 minutes of free wifi on your laptop, instead of or in addition to your smartphone, you should be able to use the same technique as last time to "spoof" a smartphone browser and get your 30 minutes of access.

I'm taking my next Gogo-equipped flight on October 11, and I'll post an update when I land verifying that this hack works.

Check your e-mail for lucrative Barclaycard promotions

Barclaycard seems to be running a pretty consistent promotion across many of their proprietary and co-branded credit cards, offering 5 bonus miles/points/whatever per dollar spent for "gas station, restaurant or department, toy or game store purchases" between October 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013. You can earn up to 2,500 bonus miles this way (on up to $500 in purchases).

You must receive an e-mail about the promotion in order to be eligible, because registration for the promotion is through a link in that e-mail. I received the promotional e-mail for my Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard, which means I'll earn 7 Arrival miles per dollar spent at gas stations – an easy category for manufacturing spend. 3,500 Arrival Miles are worth $38.50 in statement credits against travel purchases, thanks to the 10% rebate on travel redemptions.

Mommy Points reported an identical promotion for her US Airways MasterCard and one of her readers reported it for the NFL Extra Points Visa Signature.

Since these bonus categories don't have anything to do with each other, I hope that this is an effort by BarclayCard to get into the quarterly bonus game and that we'll see more (and more lucrative) promotions like this in the future.

Finding a use for Skybonus tickets...to fly to Peru?

Before I get to today's post, I want to mention that my responses to e-mails and comments have been a little bit uneven the last week or so since I'm having some computer trouble. I plan on buying a new Macbook in October, when "online shopping" is a 5% bonus category with my Discover More (now "Discover it") card, and I'll get another 5% back by clicking through the Discover shopping portal. Apple products for 10% off? Yes, please!  Meanwhile if I somehow missed your question feel free to leave another comment or e-mail me at freequentflyer@freequentflyerbook.com.

Earlier this month, I posed the question, "What do you do with SkyBonus points?" My problem was simple: on the one hand, you can redeem Delta's small-business rewards points, called SkyBonus, for roundtrip domestic airline tickets. On the other hand, you can only redeem them for tickets in the cheapest fare buckets, so it's difficult to find situations where you'll get more value than you would redeeming for Skyclub lounge passes or amenity vouchers, for those unfortunate moments when you aren't upgraded to First Class.

Last week I took a look at my elite status re-qualification pace, and figured out that I had only a few remaining trips coming up this year that I hadn't already booked, including a flight from Boston to Chicago in late November. But I ALSO was cutting it pretty close with my Medallion Qualification Miles to re-qualify for Platinum Medallion with Delta next year. Thanks to their award chart devaluation I'm going to be crediting my Delta flights to Alaska Airlines next calendar year (hopefully after a status match gets me to MVP Gold or MVP Gold 75K), but in the meantime Platinum Medallion is absolutely priceless for the ability to rebook awards – for free – from the "medium" and "high" levels to the "low" level as award availability appears. I do this probably 10-15 times a year and it saves me tens of thousands of miles each year.

Then I saw this FlyerTalk thread about $480 round-trip flights to Lima, Peru from Boston, one of my nearby airports. That helped me do a bit of mental accounting: a paid flight to Chicago (on a T fare – eligible for Skybonus ticket redemption) would cost $295, but net me just 2,264 MQM and 4,528 Skymiles. Instead, I could pay $480 and earn 8,526 MQM and 17,052 Skymiles. The difference in fares, just $185, was made up for by the difference in earned Skymiles ($188, valued at 1.5 cents each), but I'd also earn 6,262 MQM, more than enough to put me over the line for Platinum Medallion status next year, in case some of my later trips come in under expectations.

A paid ticket to Peru and a Skybonus ticket to Chicago...do I need any vaccines to spend 90 minutes in the Lima airport?

Unleash your manufactured spend: updates

In my week-long series last month on using Walmart's bill pay service to manufacture miles and points (Unleash your manufactured spend with Walmart Billpay), I discussed my own plan to use that technique to double my manufactured spend. In Part 4, I discussed buying gift cards at grocery stores with credit cards that bonus that spend, and using those gift cards to load my Bluebird and Gobank accounts at Walmart registers. Meanwhile, I planned to use my unlimited access to Vanilla Reload Network reload cards to load my 3 MyVanilla Debit cards, which I would use for billpay at Walmart.

Unfortunately, that plan was short-circuited on two fronts. First of all, as I reported here, Gobank finally got around to closing my account, which eliminated that option for liquidating grocery store gift cards and Visa Buxx cards for free.

Then just last week, on my regular walk through my local chain grocery store, I was told that they had started accepting only cash for Visa gift card purchases. I think it probably hasn't been hard-coded into the registers they use, but if the new policy is consistently enforced it will radically decrease the convenience of buying those gift cards.

On the positive side, I've had ongoing success paying off my credit cards using MyVanilla Debit cards at Walmart. While there have been reports of MyVanilla Debit cards being closed for suspicious or excessive loading and unloading patterns, I've been able to load and unload $1,000 per week on all three of my cards without any trouble at all. I keep each individual payment below the $2,000 level which has caused problems at some stores. Hopefully that volume keeps me below the radar and I'll be able to continue to take advantage of this technique.

I HAVE ever been to South Korea! Have you?

I woke up to a curious headline on View From the Wing: Have You Ever Been to South Korea?

Turns out if you bought a ticket to or from South Korea on Korean Air Lines or Asiana Airlines between January 1, 2000 and August 1, 2007, you're entitled to come cash and coupons in the settlement process. I spent 3 weeks in South Korea in the summer of 2006, so I went ahead and entered my flight information.

Turns out not only is documentation not required, but flight details aren't even necessary. You just need to specify the number of economy, business, and first class tickets you purchased in each of the eligible years. I entered one economy ticket in 2006, "certified" my response (under penalty of perjury!), and submitted it. It took about 90 seconds. 

So if yu traveled to or from South Korea on Korean Air Lines or Asiana Airlines during the eligible period, submit your claim here.

Plink: it works, but changes are coming

I've mentioned a few times here on the blog a new retail marketing program called Plink, which works a little like the dining rewards programs operated by several airlines (and the Upromise cashback system). With dining programs, you can typically register up to 6 or so credit and debit cards, and then each time you make a purchase at a participating restaurant, you earn some number of airline miles or cash back.

Plink works slightly differently, in that you register a card by entering your online banking login information. Plink then identifies your eligible cards with that bank and you can select a single card (instead of 6 or more), where your eligible purchases will be recorded.

If you think this seems to have a lot of disadvantages over dining rewards programs, you'd be right. I'm writing about it because it also has a few advantages.

First of all, Plink has a wider array of retailers than just restaurants. Most importantly for me, it gives $2.50 worth of Plink points for each purchase of $25 or more at 7-11 store locations – including store locations coded as gas stations on Visa and MasterCard credit cards.

Now, ordinarily the temptation is to make purchases as close as possible to the eligibility threshold (in this case, $25) in order to maximize the rebate value of your rewards. However, since PayPal My Cash and Vanilla Reload Network reload cards have a flat reload fee of $3.95 per card, you're only reducing your cost per dollar of manufactured spend, not actually making money, through this technique so there's no advantage to splitting your purchases up.

Changing your registered card account is easy

Thanks to the Discover it and Chase Freedom "gas station" Quarter 3 bonus categories, I bought a lot of PayPal My Cash cards at 7-11 this quarter. And I can happily report that changing the card you have registered to your Plink account is easy and instantaneous. I had to register my Discover, Chase, and Bank of America accounts this quarter, and the change went through without a hitch. However, be sure that your points have posted from all your transactions so far before changing your linked credit card.

Problems with points posting 

As I indicated in the title of this post: Plink works, earned points post, and they can be redeemed for Amazon gift cards almost instantly (you have to wait for an e-mail from their gift card contractor).

However, I did run into one problem with my points posting: when I made two 7-11 purchases using a Bank of America credit card on the same day, apparently Plink was not able to differentiate the charges in my Bank of America account transaction history, and I only received Plink points for one of them. 

For that reason I've stopped making multiple 7-11 purchases with a Plink-linked card on the same day, and since then all my points have posted correctly.

Changes coming

Unfortunately, starting September 23, 2013 7-11 purchases will only earn 150 Plink points (worth $1.50 when you have earned enough points to make a redemption – 500 is the current minimum) on purchases over $20. This is a transparent attempt to pay out less to those who have been taking full advantage of the current payout rates. However, those 150 Plink points will still reduce your cost per dollar of manufactured spend to 0.49 cents, from 0.78 cents – better than a hole in the head. If you're able to liquidate PayPal My Cash cards using a 1% cash back PayPal Debit MasterCard, that will bring your CPD down to 0.27 cents.

Visa Buxx: A refresher course

There's a fairly straightforward technique for manufacturing $3,000 in monthly spend on Visa or MasterCard credit cards: a line of products called Visa Buxx. I discussed this technique in Chapter 8 of my ebook, The Free-quent Flyer's Manifesto, and in several posts here on the blog (for example here and here).

Despite its simplicity, this technique may have resulted in more comments and questions than any other until my 5-part series on paying credit cards bills at Walmart. Apparently some people still can't believe there's such a thing as a (nearly) free ride!

That's why I want to give a brief refresher on how these cards work, to crystalize just how simple this technique is.

Kinds of Visa Buxx

While a number of banks and credit unions issue cards under the Visa Buxx brand, the two we're interested in are US Bank Visa Buxx  and Nationwide Visa Buxx.

There are a number of important differences between the two cards, but they fundamentally function the same way: they can be loaded using any Visa or MasterCard debit or credit card, and they function as "true" PIN-based debit cards, which means they can be used to:

1. purchase money orders or pay credit card bills at Walmart Money Centers or Customer Service desks;
2. and load Bluebird or Gobank accounts at any Walmart register.

Here are the key differences between the cards: 

View fullsize

Three notes to this chart. First, one correspondent who wishes to remain anonymous has informed me that the $800 PIN transaction limit on the Nationwide card may be combined between both ATM withdrawals and PIN debit transactions.

Second, I don't have a personal experience with the $1,000 PIN transaction limit with the US Bank card, but another trusted correspondent reported that as his experience. I usually unload my US Bank card as soon as I've loaded it with $1,000, so that's the maximum balance my card has ever had.

Finally, the US Bank card has free ATM withdrawals at US Bank ATMs, while the Nationwide card charge $1 for withdrawals at Allpoint ATMs (these withdrawals are supposed to be free, but I have invariably been charged $1). At non-Allpoint ATMs you'll pay $1, plus the ATM owner's surcharge.

As you can see, the US Bank card is slightly superior to the Nationwide card with respect to volume and ease of liquidation, although also slightly more expensive. Still, the ability to manufacture spend at 0.5 cents per dollar is an outstanding value, and can play a part in every hacker's toolbox. 

Applying for Visa Buxx

You can apply for the two cards on the sites I linked to above. The most important difference between the two cards is that while you can enter the same information (for example, yours) for the "parent" and "teen" when opening a Nationwide account, the US Bank application requires that you enter at least a different Social Security number for the "teen." If you have a partner who supports your hobby, you can even open one account with yourself as the "parent" and your partner as the "teen," and a second account with the roles reversed.

Loading Visa Buxx

In the comments to this post, I laid out as clearly as possible the rules – as far as I understand them – for what cards earn rewards for Visa Buxx loads. Simply put, you'll earn miles and points for loads as long as you make sure all three of the following conditions are met. Your card must:

1) be a Visa or MasterCard;
2) not be issued by Citibank;
3) and not be issued by the same bank as the Visa Buxx card.

As long as those three conditions are all met, you should earn your credit card rewards. The third condition is the trickiest since, for example, your US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards card WILL earn Flexpoints for loads to the Nationwide Visa Buxx, but WILL NOT earn them for loads to a US Bank Visa Buxx.

Unloading Visa Buxx

I have personally used my Visa Buxx cards to:

• Load my Bluebird and Gobank accounts;
• Make Walmart bill payments;
• Make free ATM withdrawals at US Bank ATMs and $1 withdrawals at Allpoint ATMs.

While I used to be able to buy Walmart money orders as well, I ran into a problem a few months ago using my Nationwide Visa Buxx card there and have stuck to loading my prepaid accounts and making bill payments since then.

Do this now: Hyatt fall promotion

Registration is now open for Hyatt's fall promotion, whereby you can earn up to 50,000 bonus Gold Passport points after staying 20 paid nights between September 9 and November 30, 2013.

As always, you can see all the ongoing hotel promotions, and make sure you've registered for each of them, on my hotel promotions page. 

Register now, before you forget. 

Bonused spending, Part 3: Miscellaneous

On Monday and Tuesday of this week I discussed cards that can be used to manufacture spend in two of my favorite categories: gas stations and grocery stores.  Together those categories make up about a quarter of my manufactured spend. The biggest part, about half, is made up of drug store spend, and the last quarter is miscellaneous opportunities that are valuable, but limited or inconvenient in some way: Amazon Payments, Visa Buxx, Kiva, and so on. In today's post I want to give a brief rundown of a few cards with bonus categories that can be worth exploiting under certain circumstances.

Charity

This is a tremendous opportunity if you have plenty of liquid cash and are able to get approved for one or more US Bank cards that have "Charity" as a bonus category, namely, the Flexperks Travel Rewards card which gives triple Flexpoints on charitable contributions (worth up to 6 cents) and the Cash+ card which has Charity as one of the 5% cash back options.

As I explained in this post, the bonus points and cash back given for Kiva loans made with these cards aren't some oversight on US Bank's part: rather, it's bank policy.

This opportunity is naturally limited by your willingness to tie up (and potentially lose) your money, although the risk of default can be minimized (although not eliminated) by selecting loans based on the successful repayment history of the Kiva partner organization.

Bookstores

This is a hack that Frequent Miler has blogged about extensively. If you're able to get a Citi Forward card, which gives 5 ThankYou points per dollar spent at bookstores, and an American Express Campus Edition card, then you can load the Campus Edition with up to $1,000 per month and $6,000 per year at a participating Barnes and Noble Campus Bookstore. That's worth $302.37 in student loan or mortgage rebate checks every year.

Unloading the Campus Edition card is a bit trickier than unloading a prepaid Visa or MasterCard debit card, since it can't be used as a PIN-based debit card at Walmart. However, the 5% cash value earned by loading this card with a Freedom card means that it may be worth simply emptying the card for free using Amazon Payments, paying just $47.40 in load fees and netting $254.97 every year.

The US Bank Cash+ card also has Bookstores as an optional 5% cash back category, if you choose not to use the combined quarterly $2,000 limit on Kiva loans (see above).

Office Supply Stores

For many travel hackers, using Chase Ink cards, which give 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent at office supply stores, is the beginning and end of their manufactured spend. The fact is, if you can find a store willing to sell you $200 PIN-enabled gift cards for $6.95, then you can manufacture Ultimate Rewards points at 0.67 cents each, which is a tremendous value. Personally, I find convenience stores coded as gas stations more lucrative in my own area, but that will vary a tremendous amount based on your own geography.