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Welcome back to the Award Travel 101 Podcast — from the original Facebook community created for miles and points enthusiasts. Angie and Joe are back to discuss their most recent card bonuses, some of their favorite card perks, and how Joe managed to combine multiple card offers/discounts plus earn rewards totaling thousands of dollars!
Award Travel 101 Podcast Show Format
We break each show into six sections:
- Question/Win of the Week — asked or shared by members of the Award Travel 101 community
- News & Enhanced Offers
- What Bonuses Did We Get — which will tell you what credit cards we're working on and why
- Trip Updates
- Highlight Feature
- What You Didn't Know — a feature dedicated to a big or small tip that will help you better maximize the value you receive from your rewards.
How to Listen to the Award Travel 101 Podcast
You can find us anywhere you listen to other fine podcasts including:
Previous Episode Show Notes
- 1 — Meet Award Travel 101 Community Administrators Angie & Joe
- 2 — Booking a Dream (African Safari) Trip
- 3 — Creating Memories Through Big And Small Trips
- 4 — 8 Steps to Better Award Travel
- 5 — Cruise (on Points), Racking and Stacking, and Keep or Kick it to the Curb
- 6 — Transfer Bonuses, Hyatt Bonus Journeys, and Benefits of AwardWallet
- 7 — So Many Program Changes with AwardWallet’s JT Genter
- 8 — Hyatt Changes, AA Domestic First Class Routes, and Meet the Mods (Jackie Wisniewski)
- 9 — Sapphire Lounge Opening, New Bonuses, Meet the Mods (Jerod Morales), and Business Class for Six
- 10 — When to Part with Points and Angie's Safari Trip
- 11 — AvGeeks, Spreadsheets, & Cheatsheets – Meet the Mods (Mike Zaccheo)
- 12 — Status Matching for More Value
- 13 — How Often Do You Get a New Card
- 14 — Incredible Trip to New Zealand on Points, Plus a Trip to the Freddie Awards
- 15 — Best Card for Groceries & Award Travel Community Meetup
- 16 — Citi Product Change Rules and Meet the Team: Allison Caraway
- 17 — Husband Cashes in All Their Points AND Programs To Book Round The World Flights
- 18 — Gorgeous Pictures from Iran and Cards That Earn Status
- 19 — The Tools We Use
- 20 — Mistakes We've Made
- 21 — Crafty Way to See Taylor Swift and Ways to Earn Hotel Free Night Certificates
- 22 — First Class Trip to Croatia and Should You Speculatively Transfer Points
- 23 — Our Favorite Award Programs
- 24 — LIVE From a Lounge & Is American Airlines Status Worth Chasing
- 25 — What Are Points Worth
- 26 – All the Upgrades & Traveling With Kids on the Spectrum
- 27 – Which Card Offers the Best Travel Protections
- 28 – Pancakes and Points
Award Travel 101 Podcast Episode 29 Show Notes
Post of the Week
Shawn Andrew writes about how he got five free cruises (just paying port taxes and fees) by utilizing casino cruise offers
News & Enhanced Offers
Read updates in the Lahina, Maui (Hawaii) #Masterthread
What Bonuses Did We Get?
Angie: Update on Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card spend. Read more about the best ways to use Ultimate Rewards points. Taking a break and closing cards right now.
Joe:
- Finally — after lots of back and forth and a denial — an approval for the Ink Preferred (read the Ink Preferred review here) with reduced spend! Still offering 100K bonus Ultimate Rewards points at the time of publishing.
- “Player 2” finally got her Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card. Where should we use the Hilton free night? I have one as well and I’m working on getting another.
Related: Read more about all of the cards that earn Hilton Honors points.
Highlight Feature: Putting All The Tricks Together
Angie:
Joe: Here are all of the perks and benefits our family used for our recent simultaneous mother/daughter and father/son trip
- Get Clear for free with select Delta & United elite status plus credit card benefits
- PreCheck/Global Entry: Savings of $400 every five years for my family
- Lounge Access: Departure $56 Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Flight bump credit: 50,500 Breeze points ($505) for First Class CAK-LAS (spent $3 out-of-pocket)
- 34K AAdvantage miles for “Player 2” and “Player 4”
- Booked three hotels in Vegas:
- Excalibur: earned three Hyatt nights and used this to access MGM Grand Pool and Lazy River
- Virgin Hotels: booked five nights to earn 50K AA miles (worth $1K- $1.5K based on my average redemptions) and 60K Loyalty Points which pushes me over Platinum Pro
- Crockfords Las Vegas $480
- $200 Fine Hotel & Resorts (FHR) Platinum Credit
- $125 Property Credit
- $66 breakfast credit
- Room upgrade from mountain view suite to city view suite
- Early Check-in
- 4 PM Checkout
- Free Parking with Genting Rewards Casino Match
- Free Wifi
- Updated Casino Loyalty cards for Caesars and MGM for $100-200 in parking savings
- Didn’t burn my $100 dining credit
- Free High Roller (Diamond benefits) $80
- Two rental cars – not sure if we were going to make it through 4 days, and breaking it up earned me a free day
- Rental car status – walked in, skipped lines, and had my choice of Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and Volkswagen SUVs for less than $50 per day
- AA flights for 21K both upgraded ($1,100 over the price of economy)
- Southwest flights – two for LAS-CLE and two for TPA-CLE totaling 51K $709
- Southwest Performance Business saves $116 with A-List upgrades and Wifi
- Priority Pass – Bar Symon on return $112
The total savings amounted to $3807 in savings or discounts. Not only that but I earned miles and points and a free rental car during our travels too.
Tip of the Day
Check the card you are applying for and make sure it’s the right one (ask us if you need to) Allison, Angie, or Joe.
Where To Find the Award Travel 101 Community
For questions, you can join us in the free 98,000+ member Award Travel 101 Community.
- If you want to jump into more intermediate and advanced strategies, our Award Travel 201 community ($89.99 annually) is filled with those who want to dig into the weeds, looking for more outsized value.
- To book time with our team to discuss how to better your earning and burning strategies, check out Award Travel 1-on-1.
- You can also email us at contactawardtravel@gmail.com.
- Meetup sold out, but you can waitlist.
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