Many people wonder how I manage to do all these amazing trips on such a tight budget.  The #1 thing I do is to take advantage of any credit card promotions that come along.  We all have daily expenses – groceries, petrol, bills that have to be paid regardless so why not earn miles and points on them?

In Australia, the Amex Platinum Edge is the best card for normal everyday spend.

Here you can see the benefits of this card.  You may notice a 10,000 points bonus for applying but I can do better than that!

However if you use my referral link, you get 15,000 Membership Rewards points!  I also get a referral bonus……………….and then you will become eligible to refer people yourself so you can pick up some more points!

There are 9 airline transfer partners –  Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Air New Zealand Airpoints, THAI Royal Orchid Plus, Malaysia Airlines Enrich and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.  Most of these transfer at 1:1 ratio.  You can also transfer to Starwood Preferred Guest at a ratio of 2 Amex = 1 SPG.  From SPG, you have access to over 20 airlines worldwide including American Airlines, British Airways, Flying Blue & more!  When you transfer from SPG to an airline, you should do so in blocks of 20,000 SPG to get a bonus 5000 miles in your airline account.

Earning Amex Membership Rewards is easier than you think!  First of all, your groceries not only get the 3 points per $ but you also get the Coles Flybuys or Woolworths Rewards by scanning your supermarket loyalty card.  Then you can buy gift cards to all kinds of stores like Bunnings, BCF, several clothing stores, Netflix, iTunes and more so almost all your purchases can earn 3x!  It all adds up and you soon will have enough points for your dream trip!

Amex T&Cs

One of the biggest incentives to pay with a Chase credit card is the opportunity to earn bonus points by using their “Shop through Chase” online mall (formerly called Ultimate Rewards Mall).  Although I don’t buy a lot of consumer goods, I have used them primarily for Expedia and Hotels.com.

I am currently chasing United miles for next year’s travel plans so I would make Rocketmiles my first port of call.  But in this case, the hotel options on Rocketmiles were too expensive.  I only want a mid-range guesthouse in Chiang Mai and Hotels.com has several in the $25-30 range.  Who goes to Chiang Mai to sit around a hotel?

Anyway, I logged into Chase about to use the portal as usual and saw that Expedia, Hotels.com, Priceline, Hotwire and all their travel partners are gone.  The travel category has disappeared from the drop-down menu.

A quick look at Flyertalk confirmed it.  The only thing I have to fall back on is TopCashBack as a portal since Hotels.com don’t partner with any of the airlines.  If you are in the same position and want to go for the cashback option, you and I both get $10 bonus by clicking my link.  I must admit that I rarely use cashback instead of portals that earn miles as I get more value from the miles but sometimes there isn’t any other option.

Anyway, now I am feeling better about my decision to cancel my formerly prized CSP.  It was once my go-to card but I don’t think its worth the $95 fee anymore.  I will be using a combination of the Freedom and Ink to maximize the 5x bonus categories.