As I continue playing catch-up I want to get up to date in my personal points and miles earning reporting. In the last update I listed the points and miles traffic in Nicoleen’s and my accounts for January. Here are our totals for February:
- earned 5,265 airline miles
- earned 177 hotel points
- earned 2,000 “other” points
- earned 14,675 Citi Thank-You points
- earned 1,886 Chase Ultimate Rewards
- redeemed 35,000 IHG hotel points for a two bed suite for an upcoming trip
In February I saved $17.27 by using free gas tactics.
New Blog Posts
– Chase’s 5/24 Rule – A Game Changer tells the tale of new implementation of a rule that Chase adopted regarding new card applications. The rule makes it difficult or impossible to maximize credit card points bonuses from opening new cards. This post suggests tactics for minimizing the impact of the 5/24 rule.
Website Update
I have had several requests for a “beginner’s guide” type page; a web page where you can send your friends who have heard you talking about value tactics and want to know more. Well, that was kind of the purpose of this entire site. However, I understand that we live in a tl;dr world, so I will do my best to write up some sort of beginner’s guide or brief summary of the tactics presented on this site.
Travel News
We have a family road trip to South Dakota planned in June. We’ll primarily be camping but to keep things simple we wanted to stay in a hotel in Rapid City the first night. Few hotels have rooms that can accommodate our family of 6 (the baby’s staying with Grandma) but I found a two bed suite at the Holiday Inn – Rushmore Plaza.
IHG points can be used for all chains in the Intercontinental Hotel Group. The standard rooms at the Holiday Inn were 25,000 and the suite was 35,000. The cash price at the time of booking was $214.66 including taxes and fees. That makes a point value of about 0.61 cents. Not great but not horrible as far as hotel points go. Hilton points end up weighing in around 0.3 cents each. Considering my IHG card came with an 80,000 point bonus, this redemption example points toward the card being worth about $490.
My next catch-up update will summarize March and get us back up to date! Stay tuned…
Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!