This was supposed to be a “mid-April” update.  Between the busy season at work, Easter weekend, and the vacation hangover from our recent Miami Beach trip, I have fallen behind.  In this update: another reader success story, a free gas tactic update, and some travel news.

Reader Success Stories

ValueTactics readers Alex and Sarah just returned from their first ever points redemption vacation!  This trip was planned and executed within a short time span.  Just over a month ago I helped Alex plan this spring Florida get-away.

Sarah and Alex cruising in their Camaro convertible rental car. When the flights and hotel are free you can splurge on other aspects of the trip!

They booked the hotel and airfare exclusively with Chase Ultimate Rewards points and other benefits from the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve cards.  I’ll try to coax a whole hotel review out of Alex in the near future.

Free Gas Update

Some of you have asked if I still use the free gas tactic.  I haven’t included my free gas tally in these updates for a while now.  This is partly due to my greatly reduced commute mileage since taking a new position at work a year ago.  But the primary reason is that it’s just not as exciting anymore since Super America cancelled double coupon Tuesdays.

That being said, it’s still a valuable tactic even if it doesn’t add up like it used to.  Twice in the past few weeks I’ve cashed in the “big coupon” for a $0.50/gallon discount.  Both times I brought gas cans to maximize the coupon’s 25 gallon limit.  Including other discounts I get $14.00 knocked off the total for the 25 gallons.

Travel News

Nicoleen and just finished recovering from two hotel stays within a week.  The first was our “staycation” in Minneapolis for our friends’ wedding.  (Congratulations Thom and Pam!)  We used Hilton points to stay at the new Hampton Inn downtown.

Three days later we left for Nicoleen’s surprise birthday vacation to Miami Beach.  We had a blast in South Beach!  Our short vacation surprisingly seemed a lot longer than two nights.  Expect reviews of the hotel and the overall trip to be posted soon.

New ValueTactics Blog Posts

– Surprise Birthday Vacation to Miami Beach! is the post in which I revealed the secret trip I had been planning for months.  Nicoleen was blown away when I told her she would be lying in the sun on the beach on her birthday!

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

In this update: an excuse (everybody loves those), a personal update, some credit card recommendations, recent travel news, and some reader success stories.

Personal News

This is the excuse.  I haven’t posted since the early March semi-monthly update.  I’m sorry about that.  I have plenty to write about, but it’s been hard to find any time to do so.  For new readers and those who don’t know me personally: for my day job I’m a forester.  My agency is the primary responsible entity in the state for wildfire suppression, and spring is the busy season.  Pretty much everything at work (and at home) gets put on hold until things green up.

The burning woods that kept me out until 4:00 AM this morning.

In fact in 2015 I got so busy with work that I only uploaded 2 blog posts in a 7 week period.  I was so far behind I even wrote a post about how to pick up the pieces after a long hiatus.

Credit Card News

I was recently asked, “What’s the best single credit card for a small business?”  When I give my full response to the person, I will be recommending the new Chase Ink Business Preferred.  It’s similar to the Chase Ink Plus (read my full review of the Ink Plus here) but with a larger sign-up bonus (80,000 points).  You can no longer apply for the Ink Plus so the Business Preferred is currently the best Ultimate Reward earning business card.  While you wait for my review of the new business card, you can read about it and apply at the official Chase page for the Ink Business Preferred.

I have my eye on the SPG Amex card I mentioned in my previous update post.  I’m currently exploring other card options I might want to apply for at the same time as the Amex.  The 35,000 point bonus offer is only good through April 5th.

ValueTactics Readers are Winning

I’m always thrilled to see readers’ success stories!  Whether they learned the tactic on this site or elsewhere, I love hearing about people maximizing value and getting free stuff.  Here are some recent examples:

And finally, VT readers Derek and Danie recently returned back from their free vacation in the Dominican Republic.  I have seen some awesome pictures from their trip and I hope we can co-author a full review of the trip soon!

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

How’s your winter going?  Here in Minnesota we’re enjoying our winter wonderland!

The view from the conference room at Chase on the Lake hotel in Walker, MN.

On Tuesday I was in northern MN for an all-day professional workshop.  I got a taste of what MN winters should be like.  Unfortunately, most of the state looks like this:

The brown, ugly, frozen wasteland a few miles from my house.

I usually hate this time of year.  All the good parts of winter are over and we’re stuck in an extended waiting period for spring.  Thank goodness for credit cards, points, and miles!  In exactly one week Nicoleen and I will be flying south, away from this frozen wasteland, to tropical Costa Rica.  Instead of 10º F, we’ll be sitting at 10º N!

Household January Points and Miles Activity

Here’s the breakdown of our monthly “escape-the-winter” points activity for January:

• earned 1,623 Citi Thank-You points
• earned 2,518 Chase Ultimate Rewards
• earned 39 “other” points
• transferred 36,000 Ultimate Rewards to United miles
  
• transferred 25,000 Citi Thank-You points to Flying Blue (Air France / KLM) miles
  
• redeemed 25,000 Flying Blue miles for airfare worth $2,044
• redeemed 57,500 United miles for airfare worth $3,355

New ValueTactics Blog Posts

– Card Review: Chase Marriott Rewards Premier is my review of the credit card and its associated bonus offers and benefits.  Check out the review for some examples of free hotel stays you could get with the 80,000 bonus points that come with this valuable card!

Credit Card News

I just calculated I need to put another $318 in spending on my Citi Thank-You Premier card in the next several days.  I have to spend $1000 per month for three months in a row to get my annual fee reimbursed and earn 1,000 bonus points.  I will probably go out today and buy a couple grocery store and gas station gift cards to meet my required spend.

Travel News

As I wrote above, next weekend Nicoleen and I will be in Sunny Guanacaste in Costa Rica!  Stay tuned to valuetactics.com and the Valuetactics Facebook page for updates and pics while we’re there.

Valuetactics reader Alex has started looking at airfare for his first ever points redemption.  He’ll soon have lots of valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards coming his way thanks to some new cards he opened recently.  Read the nice things he had to say about my free credit card strategy advice in his comment here.

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

My last semi-monthly update was rolled into the 2016 Totals post, so it’s been a while since the last real update.  It’s been a busy few weeks!  I have a lot of personal and general credit card news to report, some important travel news, and a run-down of some recent ValueTactics posts.

Travel News

Our Costa Rica trip is only 15 days away!  I think this trip will be a welcome mental refresher during this cold, boring stretch of Minnesota winter.  If we had snow, that would be one thing, but our recent weather has just been ugly.

A few days ago I completed the final piece of the puzzle for my summer Europe trip.  I bought a one-way ticket from MSP to ORD, where my United Polaris business class award flight will depart from.  The one-way ticket was only $122, purchased directly from American Airlines.  I paid $22 after I applied a $100 AA gift card I got for free with my (now cancelled) Wells Fargo Propel. The Propel has an annual $100 airline purchase reimbursement benefit.

New ValueTactics Blog Posts

– Hotel Review – Couples Negril Resort, Jamaica is the long awaited review of this wonderful all-inclusive resort. Nicoleen and I stayed there for 4 nights in 2015 for stage 1 of our 10 year anniversary vacation series.
– Year in Review – 2016 gives our annual totals for points and miles earned and spent.
– Order Contacts Without a Prescription describes a tactic I use to avoid annoying perfunctory eye exams. If all you want to do is order more of your contacts, but you don’t have a current prescription, this tactic will work for you!
– The Best Credit Card Offer . . . Ever is a quick analysis of the Chase Sapphire Reserve. The elevated bonus offer is now expired, but the card is still valuable with it’s new standard 50,000 Ultimate Reward sign-up bonus.
– Our Jamaican All-Inclusive Vacation is an overview of the trip we took, including cost breakdown.

Credit Card News

The big news in our household is that Nicoleen was able to get the Chase Sapphire Reserve when the bonus was still 100,000 Ultimate Rewards.  We’ll be focusing our spending on this card for the next few months i order to meet the $4,000 minimum spend.  Congratulations to those readers who also managed to get this card before the 100k bonus promo ended!  The Sapphire Reserve is currently still a great card with it’s 50,000 UR bonus, but if you want to discuss whether it’s the right card for you, contact me through e-mail or facebook.

Website News

As I mentioned in this facebook post, I will now be including a new stat in my credit card reviews.  When possible, I will report the total value I extracted from a particular card.  This may be any combination of cash, travel reimbursement, points use, flights, hotel stays, or other quantifiable benefits received from the card.  Obviously your mileage may vary, but this will be another tool at your disposal to measure the relative value of different credit cards and their associated sign-up offers.

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