Weekly Update (November 24, 2015)

I had back surgery yesterday to fix a herniated disc.  That’s my excuse for the lack of any work on the site or social media this last week.  Anything physical I wanted to get done for the next several months had to be finished before yesterday.  The surgery went well and now I’m on to the lengthy recovery process as I get back to normal.  I don’t want any pity so I won’t post the obligatory hospital gown/bed picture.  Instead, take a look at this hospital meal I custom ordered!

After not eating for 21 hours, this hospital food was better than any first class airplane meal or fancy airport lounge fare!

After not eating for 21 hours, this hospital food was better than any first class airplane meal or fancy airport lounge fare!

It was typical busy valuetactics week in our household.  Here are the highlights: With some limited commuting this week I only saved $5.43 using the free gas tactic.  That brings the running total for 2015 to $540, with the overall discount hovering around 17% for all my commuting gas needs.

hyatt splash pageWhen we applied online for our Chase Hyatt cards a few weeks ago, I used an application link I found on the flyertalk wiki page for this card. There weren’t many reports of the direct link working. Instead, people had been getting this offer by starting to book a room and having the offer ad displayed for them. I couldn’t get that ad to display, so I clicked the direct link from the wiki. The offer was identical to the standard offer (two free night certificates for meeting a $1k spend in 3 months, plus 5,000 Hyatt Gold Passport reward points for adding an authorized user to the account) except that this offer also included a $50 statement credit.
When doing my monthly updates this week I discovered the $50 statement credits had posted to our accounts!  A free $100 for 5 minutes of research and clicking on the right application link!

Here’s our monthly points earned and redemption totals:

  • earned 2,210 airline miles
  • earned 9,056 hotel points
  • earned 1,712 Citi Thank-You points
  • earned 589 Chase Ultimate Rewards
  • Received $100 in statement credits on our Chase Hyatt cards
  • Received a $10 Southwest Airlines gift card via the Wells Fargo Propel airline benefit

Credit Card News
The sign-up bonus on the Chase Sapphire preferred has been jacked up to 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points.  By hitting the minimum spend (4k pts) and adding an authorized user (5k pts), you’ll have 59,000 Ultimate Rewards points!  Another $1k in spending or by making some of your bonus spend in 2x pioints categories, you’ll easily have 60,000 UR points! That’s enough for a free round trip flight to Europe in peak season if you transfer them to United miles, for example.  In the next few days I’ll be writing a post to outline why getting this card is a wise choice for several reasons.  Or if you’d like to apply right now, please use my referral link. (disclaimer: I earn bonus points when you click, but the offer is the same as the best public offer available.)

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *