More Tips & Tricks

I may have financial relationships with some of the cards mentioned in this post. I appreciate your support if you decide to use my links!

Below are a few Tips and Tricks that I hope will be helpful to beginners, and maybe even a few others. If you’re interested in seeing more of this type of information, just click on “Tips and Tricks” under the category menu on the right side of this page.

• The “official” US Airways MasterCard link is not the best offer. While this unofficial link says it’s for Chairman’s Preferred members only, in actuality it works for everyone. I used it myself just 4 months ago, and thousands of others have as well. But I’m sure all the other bloggers mentioned that ;).

• Sometimes it can be advantageous, price-wise, to book a vacation package or room via a website like Orbitz or Hotels.com due to coupons or other discounts. These bookings are not supposed to give you credit towards your loyalty program since the hotels had to pay a commission to the booking site. If, however, you charge something to your room (food, services, etc.) then you might get credit for the stay. YMMV, but it’s worth a shot if you’re going for status.

• Most people have the Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa, but there is also a Sapphire Preferred MasterCard. Yes, you can get the bonus for the MasterCard version as well. You can sign up for one either through MasterCard.com or my affiliate link from creditcards.com.

• Have access to cash? Get 15K, 25K, or 50K United, American, or Delta miles for depositing $25K, $50K, or $100K into new or existing Fidelity accounts. You used to be able to double dip with UA/AA and DL (i.e. I got 50K United + 50K Delta) by creating a new account under UA/AA, then clicking on “fund an existing account” on Delta, then depositing your money…but that double-dip might be dead. The good news is you can deposit, withdraw, and deposit the same money multiple times, and it always counts as a new deposit. I used the same $25K four times, for example.

• If you book a flight and have time to spare, try to find an oversold flight. If you can get “bumped” and earn compensation, you might be able to end up with a profit. Mileage runners love these scenarios.

•  While you can only have one Bluebird card of your own, you can add/pay any account in “Bill Pay” using any Bluebird. For example, my mom’s Bluebird can make a payment towards my credit card account.

• The cash back website BigCrumbs offers 1.4% cash back on American Express gift cards, which can be purchased with a credit card. This is a good way to meet minimum spend requirements, especially if you have a CVS nearby that accepts these for buying Vanilla Reload cards. BigCrumbs also offers an additional .2% cash back to the person that referred you to that website. Have a family member refer you before buying the gift card to earn a total of 1.6% cash back, or you can use my personal referral link. Alternatively, as The Frequent Miler notes, you can get 1.5% cash back from TopCashBack. If you don’t already have an account, I’ll get $10 if you decide to sign up using my referral link. Use code AFLQ12013 when buying the gift card to get free shipping. Note that both portals provide cash back on several travel websites as well.

Happy travels!