How Many Credit Cards Do You Have?

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[Dr Rick Daris]

Another example of why you should never hoard your miles/points.

this is true but i hate using them. quite the pickle. also sitting on 100k unitied.  what to do?

[steve dave]

you should be fine. 20k more miles is pretty pud with the time you have to get them.

had some scheming going on trying to get the 150k for first.  But free flight is free flight compared to 2k

That's a $7k RT flight in first (at least on the random dates this summer I was looking at)

[steve dave]

Another example of why you should never hoard your miles/points.

this is true but i hate using them. quite the pickle. also sitting on 100k unitied.  what to do?

You have until 1/31 to decide. That still gets you a RT biz ticket to Europe until then 

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

do you think the trend will be that since the miles are getting devalued the bonuses on the cards will go up a little bit to counteract that? i mean, it has to, right? otherwise miles would essentially become obsolete.

not much of a economics guy with the whole supply/demand. i got a C in macro 

[steve dave]

do you think the trend will be that since the miles are getting devalued the bonuses on the cards will go up a little bit to counteract that? i mean, it has to, right? otherwise miles would essentially become obsolete.

not much of a economics guy with the whole supply/demand. i got a C in macro 

Right now the hotels and airlines are trying to undo the mess they got themselves into by allowing this free for all to happen.  I think they may still offer some high offers out the gates (so they can still say "2 rountrip flights for signing up!") but close a lot of the loopholes for earning and high value redemptions. If you look at what United just did they didn't lose the ability to proclaim "2 rountrip flights for signing up!" because they didn't devalue their domestic coach redemptions. The really high value redemptions (point per cent) have always been the luxury stuff, top tier hotels and international first class flights.

[Dr Rick Daris]

yeah. overall i bet you'll see a slow devaluing of this stuff across the board for all programs. as far as airlines go, my guess is that they'll all do what united is doing and try to get you to fly their metal (pro word). for them it's not much different than non rev travel that employees have access to. they can limit availability however they want and can only give you access on flights that they know won't be full. what's the pain in that? there isn't for them. there is if they have to pay another airline though.

[steve dave]

my guess is that they'll all do what united is doing and try to get you to fly their metal (pro word). for them it's not much different than non rev travel that employees have access to. they can limit availability however they want and can only give you access on flights that they know won't be full. what's the pain in that? there isn't for them. there is if they have to pay another airline though.

good analysis

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

do you think the trend will be that since the miles are getting devalued the bonuses on the cards will go up a little bit to counteract that? i mean, it has to, right? otherwise miles would essentially become obsolete.

not much of a economics guy with the whole supply/demand. i got a C in macro 

Right now the hotels and airlines are trying to undo the mess they got themselves into by allowing this free for all to happen.  I think they may still offer some high offers out the gates (so they can still say "2 rountrip flights for signing up!") but close a lot of the loopholes for earning and high value redemptions. If you look at what United just did they didn't lose the ability to proclaim "2 rountrip flights for signing up!" because they didn't devalue their domestic coach redemptions. The really high value redemptions (point per cent) have always been the luxury stuff, top tier hotels and international first class flights.

  makes sense.

[Dr Rick Daris]

example-

americanairlinescat works for aa in dallas. he has access to an american airlines system that allows you to see all flights and the number of seats on each flight and how many are filled. he can non rev (non revenue) (pro word) for $35. he logs into the system to see availability on all flights for today (friday). he sees that there is a flight leaving from dallas and going to new york at 645pm and out of 131 seats only 119 are filled. he then hurriedly looks at return flights. there is a flight back on sunday with 145 seats and only 120 are filled. he books himself onto these flights and shows up at the airport. as long as the flights are not filled, he can non rev them for $35 a piece and he knows that they won't be filled because he already logged onto the system and looked and barring some kind of last second traveling soccer team buying tickets to ny, it won't be a full flight. it's not costing american anything if he flies to new york on their metal (pro word). it would if he flew on one of their partners though it obviously would. the whole use our points to fly on another airline thing never really made sense to me.

[Mikeyis4dcats]

example-

americanairlinescat works for aa in dallas. he has access to an american airlines system that allows you to see all flights and the number of seats on each flight and how many are filled. he can non rev (non revenue) (pro word) for $35. he logs into the system to see availability on all flights for today (friday). he sees that there is a flight leaving from dallas and going to new york at 645pm and out of 131 seats only 119 are filled. he then hurriedly looks at return flights. there is a flight back on sunday with 145 seats and only 120 are filled. he books himself onto these flights and shows up at the airport. as long as the flights are not filled, he can non rev them for $35 a piece and he knows that they won't be filled because he already logged onto the system and looked and barring some kind of last second traveling soccer team buying tickets to ny, it won't be a full flight. it's not costing american anything if he flies to new york on their metal (pro word). it would if he flew on one of their partners though it obviously would. the whole use our points to fly on another airline thing never really made sense to me.

alliances are ways to build itineraries to help fill routes.    If you fly MCI to Germany, they'd rather work together to ensure you AA to NYC then BA to Muncich rather than flying United them KLM.

[Dr Rick Daris]

example-

americanairlinescat works for aa in dallas. he has access to an american airlines system that allows you to see all flights and the number of seats on each flight and how many are filled. he can non rev (non revenue) (pro word) for $35. he logs into the system to see availability on all flights for today (friday). he sees that there is a flight leaving from dallas and going to new york at 645pm and out of 131 seats only 119 are filled. he then hurriedly looks at return flights. there is a flight back on sunday with 145 seats and only 120 are filled. he books himself onto these flights and shows up at the airport. as long as the flights are not filled, he can non rev them for $35 a piece and he knows that they won't be filled because he already logged onto the system and looked and barring some kind of last second traveling soccer team buying tickets to ny, it won't be a full flight. it's not costing american anything if he flies to new york on their metal (pro word). it would if he flew on one of their partners though it obviously would. the whole use our points to fly on another airline thing never really made sense to me.

alliances are ways to build itineraries to help fill routes.    If you fly MCI to Germany, they'd rather work together to ensure you AA to NYC then BA to Muncich rather than flying United them KLM.

no crap. the problem is that airlines (stupidly) linked/included/decided that reward flights would cost/count the same on partner metal as it would on theirs, when they obviously should not have. united is taking the first step to fix this.

[Dr Rick Daris]

also and while i'm at it, does anybody else ever get the feeling that mikey4dcats thinks he is 30 iq points above the rest of us? every post is like him explaining multiplication and times tables to me like i'm in second grade or something. very offputting. well you see daris...nine times 3 is...

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

also and while i'm at it, does anybody else ever get the feeling that mikey4dcats thinks he is 30 iq points above the rest of us? every post is like him explaining multiplication and times tables to me like i'm in second grade or something. very offputting. well you see daris...nine times 3 is...

i have noticed quite a bit of tension around the blog. could be due to a lack of a friday snack-off thread?

[Mikeyis4dcats]

also and while i'm at it, does anybody else ever get the feeling that mikey4dcats thinks he is 30 iq points above the rest of us? every post is like him explaining multiplication and times tables to me like i'm in second grade or something. very offputting. well you see daris...nine times 3 is...

frankly RD, I normally don't pay any attention to WHO posted something, so I assumed it was one of the noobs asking.   But carry on...

[steve dave]

example-

americanairlinescat works for aa in dallas. he has access to an american airlines system that allows you to see all flights and the number of seats on each flight and how many are filled. he can non rev (non revenue) (pro word) for $35. he logs into the system to see availability on all flights for today (friday). he sees that there is a flight leaving from dallas and going to new york at 645pm and out of 131 seats only 119 are filled. he then hurriedly looks at return flights. there is a flight back on sunday with 145 seats and only 120 are filled. he books himself onto these flights and shows up at the airport. as long as the flights are not filled, he can non rev them for $35 a piece and he knows that they won't be filled because he already logged onto the system and looked and barring some kind of last second traveling soccer team buying tickets to ny, it won't be a full flight. it's not costing american anything if he flies to new york on their metal (pro word). it would if he flew on one of their partners though it obviously would. the whole use our points to fly on another airline thing never really made sense to me.

alliances are ways to build itineraries to help fill routes.    If you fly MCI to Germany, they'd rather work together to ensure you AA to NYC then BA to Muncich rather than flying United them KLM.

no crap. the problem is that airlines (stupidly) linked/included/decided that reward flights would cost/count the same on partner metal as it would on theirs, when they obviously should not have. united is taking the first step to fix this.

I think that if all the alliance members charged the same amount of points and getting the points was comparable across all programs it would work to everyone's benefit. they all have space they need to fill and trading customers using their various points as redemptions could fill them. but, you have to have a pretty standard product across the points programs and not have one program (United) who have had ways to get millions of points from their programs without actually flying on their birds (400 different UR cards and shopping portals and gift card schemes) while lufty/swiss/austrian/etc. don't have similar earning opportunities and they end up toting around these passengers that are burning all their UA miles. At least One World has two pretty comparable programs for trans atlantics (BA/AA) where people are carrying millions of either point. Air Berlin and Air Lingus aren't really comparable partners with minimal routes across the pond each. But, the same devalue is probably coming because Cathay hauls everyone all over Asia.

[Stupid Fitz]

also and while i'm at it, does anybody else ever get the feeling that mikey4dcats thinks he is 30 iq points above the rest of us? every post is like him explaining multiplication and times tables to me like i'm in second grade or something. very offputting. well you see daris...nine times 3 is...

i have noticed quite a bit of tension around the blog. could be due to a lack of a friday snack-off thread?

This was most likely my fault. Sorry everyone.

[steve dave]

also and while i'm at it, does anybody else ever get the feeling that mikey4dcats thinks he is 30 iq points above the rest of us? every post is like him explaining multiplication and times tables to me like i'm in second grade or something. very offputting. well you see daris...nine times 3 is...

i have noticed quite a bit of tension around the blog. could be due to a lack of a friday snack-off thread?

I think the flyertalk bleeds over

[puniraptor]

can i get a citi AA mastercard after getting the citi AA visa? prolly, right?

[steve dave]

can i get a citi AA mastercard after getting the citi AA visa? prolly, right?

prolly. they have been kind of wishy washy. check flyertalk AA credit card thread for updates.

[steve dave]

Hyatt's first all inclusive properties officially announced their points cost. This place is Los Cabos is 20k a night for 2 people and 32k a night in a suite:

http://loscabos.ziva.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

[Mikeyis4dcats]

Hyatt's first all inclusive properties officially announced their points cost. This place is Los Cabos is 20k a night for 2 people and 32k a night in a suite:

http://loscabos.ziva.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

hmmm...Hyatt....where have you been all my life?   

[steve dave]

Hyatt's first all inclusive properties officially announced their points cost. This place is Los Cabos is 20k a night for 2 people and 32k a night in a suite:

http://loscabos.ziva.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

hmmm...Hyatt....where have you been all my life?

they are the most valuable current point imo (other than UR obv.). before this it was probably a photo finish between them and United.

[WonderMeal]

If I'm looking to travel around the country w/ Mrs. WonderMeal, Wondermeal Jr., and WonderMealette, does this mean that I should shy away from United and go SW instead?

United and SW fly out of WonderMeal International at about the same rate, FWIW.

Also, SD or Rick Davis, please answer the "how do I get my money's worth out of the Platinum AmEx fee?" question. TIA.

[steve dave]

If I'm looking to travel around the country w/ Mrs. WonderMeal, Wondermeal Jr., and WonderMealette, does this mean that I should shy away from United and go SW instead?

United and SW fly out of WonderMeal International at about the same rate, FWIW.

Also, SD or Rick Davis, please answer the "how do I get my money's worth out of the Platinum AmEx fee?" question. TIA.

you probably won't get your money's worth out of it if that's your travel style. it has a bunch of perks that add up like free global entry (which costs $), airline fees reimbursed up to $200 a year (you have to pick one airline iirc), lounge access to a ton of airline lounges (doesn't sound like it would be useful if you are travelling with the family). You can get either one. United for US travel has not been devalued so you are fine there. SW is a great family option as well. If I were you I'd get both SW cards right now so both 50k bonuses post in 2014 and you get the companion pass and maybe even have the wife do the same and then your entire family can cruise around the lower 48 for an entire year as much as you want for free.