Wyndham Rewards – Best Uses for Eco-Travelers

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Tara

WHICH HOTELS DO THEY HAVE?

Wyndham Rewards is the frequent guest program of several different hotel chains.

Wyndham Hotels

The largest presence is in the USA with over 6500 hotels. This can come in handy if you are connecting to an overseas flights and want a budget hotel for the night near the airport. The odds are great that Wyndham will have several hotels near most major airports with free shuttles.

They also have a number of hotels overseas, some of which are in countries that will attract eco-travelers and birders. I have highlighted these in yellow.

Wyndham Overseas Hotels

HOW MANY POINTS DO YOU NEED?

It varies widely depending on the chain. Hotels overseas tend to be more expensive than those in the USA.

Wyndham Awards

For example, LAX has several hotels all ranging between 14,000 to 16,000 redemption.

Wyndham LAX Awards

Same hotels if you pay cash/credit – notice that they are not expensive! Not a good use of points!

Wyndham LAX $$$

Now let’s look at Brazil as an example. Most people will use Sao Paulo as an entry or exit point for Brazil and I do recommend spending your last night here to make sure you don’t miss your connection home. Linhares is prime birding country but there are better options to stay which I will be blogging about later. The Parana property is near Curitiba which also has good birding in the area.

Wyndham Brazil

HOW DO YOU EARN POINTS?

1. Stay at Wyndham chain hotels.

Wyndham T&Cs

Wyndham T&Cs

2. Get the credit card.

Wyndham Credit Cards

3. Rent a car.

Wyndham Car Rentals

4. Use their other partners. Out of these 3, the rate for flowers is pretty bad compared to other programs. The Energy one doesn’t look very good either. The Liberty Mutual quote can get you 500 points within a month if you are trying to top up to another level.

Wyndham Other Partners

WHAT IS THE BEST USE OF WYNDHAM REWARDS POINTS?

The best use, especially for eco-travelers is transferring them to an airline. Why? Because in most countries, the Wyndham properties aren’t too expensive and Wyndham often has bonus promos going on. You can acquire a lot of points very quickly. I will blog about any promos that come up. Here is the list of redemption to airline miles partners. 3 of our top 8 frequent flyer programs are available as transfer partners – American, United and US Airways.

Airline mileage transfer rates
8,000 Wyndham Rewards points = 3200 airline miles
17,500 Wyndham Rewards points = 7000 airline miles
30,000 Wyndham Rewards points = 12,000 airline miles

Wyndham Airline Mile Transfers

WYNDHAM’S SECRET WEAPON

This is not a hack or a trick, it is in the T&Cs of the Wyndham hotel program. What this means, is when there is a very lucrative promo running and you don’t live near any Wyndham hotels, you can simply book ANY hotel participating in the promo, give your credit card to pay for it and then simply not show up! I have seen some really good promos in the past such as one where you get 16,000 bonus points for staying at specified hotels that could be booked for around $60. This gives a huge discount to buying airline miles if you maximize such a promo and transfer as I said above! I will let you know when such promos are running.

Wyndham T&Cs

IN SUMMARY

I recommend that eco-tourists pay cash (credit card) if they are staying at a Wyndham hotel, accumulate the points and transfer to an airline. The hotels that we would be using are generally not expensive so the airline miles are a much better value.

Avianca-Taca LifeMiles & Best Uses For Eco-Travelers

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Tara

Avianca-Taca’s frequent flyer program is one of the newest to the Star Alliance but given that it’s hubs are in countries rich with birdlife, it’s a program that all eco-travelers should get to know.

BASICS OF AVIANCA-TACA LIFEMILES

1. First thing to do is join the program if you haven’t already. LifeMiles has frequent buy/share bonus miles promos and they always restrict them to people who are already members as of the day the promo begins. It’s free to join so no reason not to!

2. You only need to have 40% of the miles required to redeem an award. Then you can buy the remaining miles at $15 per 1000 miles. For example in this flight from LAX to San Jose, Costa Rica; the normal price is 12,000 miles but if you are willing to pay $90, you can get away with only using 5000 miles. You have effectively bought 7000 miles for $90 at a cost of $15.00 per 1000 miles. (The price has increased to $15.00 per 1000 miles since July 2013.) The technique remains the same is pictured.

3. The normal price to buy miles is $30 per block of 1000 miles. If LifeMiles is running a 100% bonus, this becomes $15 per block of 1000 miles. You will only need to buy enough to get you to the 40% redemption level, then use the “More money” button to buy the miles even cheaper.

4. The normal price to share miles is $15 per block of 1000 miles. If LifeMiles is running a 100% bonus, this becoomes $7.50 per block of 1000 miles. Bear in mind that the miles come out of your account and go into your friend’s account. There is a maximum of 50,000 miles transferred per calendar year.

So let’s say you have 20,000 miles because you got the LifeMiles Visa card. You transfer these miles during a 100% share miles promo to your spouse. You pay $300 for the transfer of 20,000 miles and your spouse gets 40,000 miles in his/her account. You have basically paid $300 to create 20,000 new miles (since you already had 20,000) so you bought those miles at $15 per block of 1000 miles. Now your spouse transfers the whole lot of 40,000 miles back to you. He/she pays $600 for the transfer. Now he/she has 0 miles and you have 80,000 miles, so again you bought the miles at a cost of $15 per block of 1000 miles.

4. You can kickstart your LifeMiles by getting the LifeMiles Visa (US Bank) with a bonus of up to 20,000 miles with first purchase.

SAMPLE BARGAIN ROUTES WITH LIFEMILES

For eco-tourists, the best uses of LifeMiles are to get you between airports in the birding hotspots of Central America and South America, or from the USA to Central/South America preferably on an Avianca or Taca flight. Here are some examples, please note the difference in base price and the price when you spend 40% of required miles and add cash.

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA TO PANAMA CITY

There is a special on business class which makes this the cheapest way from A to B if you are paying cash.

Now if you don’t really care which class you are in, let’s compare with the price of the flight in miles and cash.

Depending on how many miles you have in your account, you can spend as little as 3000 miles plus $62 cash. If you used the bonus promo above, these 3000 miles would have cost $45, so your total out-of-pocket is $107, rather than $307.

LIMA TO SANTA CRUZ, BOLIVIA

If you are enchanted by the blue-throated macaws at Barba Azul, here’s how you can get there. First, the cash price-economy.

Now let’s see what it costs in miles. The normal price is 9000 miles which during the promo would be $135 to buy the miles. Or you can buy 4000 miles during the promo for $60 and another $66 for the remaining 5000 miles you need for a total of $126. Nice savings over the cash price of $435!

PANAMA CITY TO LAS VEGAS (STAR ALLIANCE AWARD ON COPA

$510 for the one way ticket using cash.

Now let’s see how much it costs with miles! Normal price is 15,000 miles. Using the 40% minimum to pay with 6000 miles plus $114 cash and $25 redemption fee we have paid (using a 100% buy/share bonus) $90 for the minimum miles plus $114 plus $25 plus $28 tax for a total of $257, about half the cash price!

GETTING LIFEMILES IN EVERYDAY LIFE

It’s a fairly new program so there aren’t too many opportunities yet, though this may grow.

1. Get the credit card and use it for purchases, get 1 mile per $.

2. LifeMiles shopping portal. They are having some problems with this and miles haven’t been posting while they work out the bugs. Hopefully they will and this will become a nice source of LifeMiles. Don’t buy things you don’t need just to get miles, but if you do need something, start at the portal and get free miles!

3. Buy flowers or a gift at FTD.com.

4. Transfer hotel points. These are not the best use of hotel points but if you have some orphaned points you need to get rid of, it’s one option.

HiltonHonors: 10,000 HHonor Points for 1000 LifeMiles.
Best Western: 5000 Best Western points for 1000 LifeMiles.
Marriott: 10,000 Marriott Rewards points for 1500 LifeMiles.

IN SUMMARY

1. Best uses of LifeMiles for eco-tourists are on Avianca or Taca flights, or some partner flights like Copa.

2. Credit card can kickstart your miles account.

3. Wait for Buy/Share bonuses to buy miles at a discount.

4. Only buy enough to get you to 40% of your desired award, then use the miles plus cash tool to buy the remainder at $12-13 per block of 1000 miles.

Anymore questions, please ask in the comments? Does anyone have plans to travel to Central or South America and planning to use LifeMiles for a cheap ticket?

Getting To Australia With Airline Miles

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Tara

Australia is a major draw card for birders and should be on most eco-travelers dream trip list. Unfortunately, being so far from everywhere else, it can be very expensive to get there whether you use miles or cash. Let’s look at a few options.

ONE WORLD ALLIANCE

For most people, joining American Airline’s AAdvantage will be the best option. They have quite a few credit card options to quickly build your miles stash and a few partners such as E-Rewards and various hotels where you can transfer points in. This is my first choice for travel to/from Australia as you can book your award to anywhere Qantas flies domestically and not be dependent on gateway cities only. Example: Dallas-Los Angeles-Honolulu-Sydney-Alice Springs.

Peru Award2

These figures are one-way so double if you want a round trip. The nice thing about AAdvantage is the flexibility, you may choose to go one way in economy and one way in business, or do an open jaw where you fly into Brisbane (BNE) for example and out of Perth (PER). Australia is in the South Pacific region so you can see the miles required for most departing cities.

USA and Canada: Each way is 37,000 economy; 62,500 business; 72,000 first. You can use Qantas, Hawaiian Airlines, Air Tahiti Nui or Air Pacific but there are no stopovers allowed. AA no longer allows you to use Hawaiian Airlines between mainland USA and Hawaii and if you want to travel beyond Hawaii to the South Pacific you will pay 2 awards – USA-Hawaii + Hawaii-South Pacific.

UK and Europe: Each way is 45,000 economy; 60,000 business; 80,000 first. You can use British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Etihad or (coming soon) Malaysian Airlines and SriLankan Airlines; or use Finnair, Air Berlin or Iberia to get to Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong or anywhere Qantas flies.

STAR ALLIANCE AIRLINES

No matter where you live, the best programs to use in Star Alliance is United. With United, you can book partner awards online, book one-way awards and get lots of miles via several Chase credit cards; but if you can’t get these cards it can be hard to get miles in United Mileage Plus. Depending on where you live, Avianca/Taca Lifemiles could be useful too, but it is hard to use their booking engine for complicated routings so I suggest saving them for USA-Central/South America where they offer better value and ease of booking. Singapore’s Krisflyer also offers Star Alliance awards.

UNITED AIRLINES (can book one-way or round trip.

The award chart is too big to copy paste here so please follow this link to see the whole chart.

USA and Canada: (each way) Economy 40,000; Business 62,500; First 80,000. You can use United, Air Canada, Air New Zealand (hard to get) or sometimes take the “scenic route” via Asia using Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Asiana or ANA (All Nippon Airlines). You can easily see the routings via their online award booking engine.

UK and Europe: (each way) Economy 55,000, Business 75,000; First 90,000. Most people try to get routings using Singapore, Thai, Lufthansa, Swiss and Turkish Airlines. You can easily see the routings on their online award booking engine but be careful if you are looking at business or first class awards as sometimes they offer mixed class awards and the long-haul section could be in economy with a short sector in business or first.

Here’s an example of London to Perth, as you can see they quote both the miles and taxes and the business class award are “mixed class” and if you hover over the fare, you can see which flight is in which class.

You can see how much cheaper it is to fly from Brussels due to the very high UK departure taxes.

These are just a few examples, please feel free to ask questions in the comments.

If you need ideas on how to acquire frequent flyer miles, please see the Resources tab and Miles and Points tab. which I will update with new offers for free or cheap miles.

OTHER AIRLINES

If you are from the USA, you may also want to try Virgin Australia awards booked with Delta miles or Qantas awards booked with miles sourced from the Citibank Premier Thank You card. It is virtually impossible to get J class awards these days on QF with AA miles as members of Qantas Frequent Flyer have access several weeks earlier and snap them up.

LIST OF PARROTS IN AUSTRALIA

Mileage Earning Credit Cards – Asia, Latin America, Middle East And Africa Edition

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Tara

There are probably locally based blogs for these areas which would cover how to earn miles from credit card sign up bonuses so what I will do here is create a reference for the major airlines so you can see who partners with what bank, then Google for a local blog that tracks special offers on these cards. No matter which country you live in, always check with American Express as they have the Membership Rewards program available in most countries but the partners vary widely.

A good rule of thumb no matter where you live is to sign up for your local airline’s program (preferably one in Star Alliance or One World) to get credit card miles and any possible points from everyday living such as shopping, phone, internet, petrol, insurance, etc. While you are looking at the credit card pages I linked below, always check for any other “everyday” promos.

Then join the 5 main programs I recommend for eco-tourists as I will be concentrating on these when I post special promos. These programs have the best redemption levels to places where people usually want to go birding and offer the best promos throughout the year.

ASIA

Asians will have a lot of choices as it seems that the main Asian based airlines have partners not only in all Asian countries but some have partners in Australia and the USA as well. The links below will take you to the airline’s credit card page. Also check on FlyerTalk in the airline’s forum as people will usually post any new signup bonuses there. This blogger specifically caters to Indians with mileage earning credit cards and he would be more familiar with that market.

Kingfisher (currently suspended)

LATIN AMERICA

American Airlines (has many partners in Latin America and Caribbean)

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

South African Airways

El Al

Please feel free to add any other good airline credit cards you know of in these geographical locations or ask any questions in the comments.

If you live in the USA, please see Airlines, Hotels and Flexible Points

If you live in Australia, please see Part 1 and Part 2

If you live in the UK or Europe I have basic guidelines

Mileage Earning Credit Cards – UK And Europe Edition

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Tara

People in the UK and Europe will have the biggest challenge of getting to the exotic birding destinations in South/Central America, Australia and Asia due to the vast distances involved. It is unlikely you will be able to get a free trip JUST from getting your local credit cards. Unfortunately, most other countries don’t have the lucrative free miles and points opportunities the USA has but here is a very basic reference guide. Most countries will have various versions of American Express which can have pretty good signup bonuses so check them out too. Also remember that for BIS miles (butt in seat) you are usually better off crediting to American Airlines for One World partners and United Airlines or US Airways for Star Alliance partners because of better redemption levels. The main reasons to join your country’s frequent flier program is to take advantage of your local credit cards and any “everyday life” mileage earning opportunities such as shopping, phone, internet, petrol, etc. If you are a business traveler, you may want to consider elite benefits but that’s better covered by business travel blogs.

Before the explosion of credit card signup bonuses and other partners, most people did it the old fashioned way. Fly, accrue your miles to your preferred mileage program and pick up a few extra miles from hotels and rental cars. I used to average one free trip for every 3 or 4 which these days isn’t great but better than nothing!

UK

I recently discovered there is a blog called Head For Points written by Raffles who specializes in British Airways Avios program and credit cards targeted to folks in the UK, so I will refer you to him for further information. The top 15 UK loyalty credit card sign-up deals by £ value

American Airlines has a British credit card but not a great signup bonus.

For British eco-tourists, I would recommend signing up for British Airways Avios for the credit cards and shopping deals, also sign up for the programs I blogged about here. Don’t bother with the Aussie programs, use your Avios for those flights.

EUROPEAN AIRLINES

There probably are blogs written in the respective languages that specialize in each country’s credit cards so all I can do is let you know which airlines have affiliated credit cards and send you to Google to see if there is a blog in your language that covers them. The airline websites will tell you which cards they partner with.

Lufthansa Miles and More

Swiss Miles and More

Austrian Airlines Miles and More

Air France Flying Blue

KLM Flying Blue

Iberia Avios (can be transferred to and from British Airways Avios)

TAP Air Portugal Victoria

Alitalia Mille Miglia

Aegean (Greece) Miles and Bonus – no credit cards yet but watch this page

Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles

Aeroflot Bonus

I think I got most of the UK and European based airline credit cards. If you find any more, please add them in the comments section.

If you live in the USA, please see Airlines, Hotels and Flexible Points

If you live in Australia, please see Part 1 and Part 2

Flexible Point Earning Credit Cards USA Edition And Best Uses For Eco-Travelers

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Tara

This is the 3rd part in my reference guide series of USA based credit cards and the best uses for eco-travelers. Please see my other two guides for more details.

Airline Mileage earning credit cards (and some basic info and a glossary)

Hotel Point earning credit cards

FLEXIBLE POINT EARNING CREDIT CARDS

There are several options for Americans to earn flexible points that will transfer to a variety of airline and hotel programs, but the main two of interest to eco-travelers will be Chase’s Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards. Amex also has a similar program in Australia so if you live there, please visit this post. Of the USA based programs, I feel that Ultimate Rewards have the best options for eco-travelers so I will start there.

CHASE ULTIMATE REWARDS

These come in personal version (Sapphire and Freedom) and the business versions (Ink series). Chase cards are usually not churnable for the same product but you can get one of each card as long as you can convince Chase to give you a sufficient credit limit to qualify for the card. The screenshots below are from Chase’s website and may not represent the best offer on the market. You should always check the Flyertalk MileBuzz forum as new deals get posted there pretty quickly when they come out. The Ultimate Rewards points are only transferable to airlines and hotels with the Sapphire Preferred, Ink Plus and Ink Bold cards. The other cards earn you points that you can spend for travel in the Ultimate Rewards Mall. Transfer partners are United Airlines, British Airways, Korean Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Hyatt Hotels, Priority Club Hotels, Marriott Hotels, Ritz Carlton Hotels and Amtrak.

Of these, the best options are United Airlines for Star Alliance Awards and British Airways for short-haul Avios awards. More details can be found on this page as to redemption ideas.

CC UR

CC UR2 CC UR3

CC UR4 CC UR5

AMERICAN EXPRESS MEMBERSHIP REWARDS

Like Chase’s cards, Amex cards also come in personal and business versions. They have a wide range of products and it is best to see their website for the latest offers and features of each card. Amex’s website is very detailed and too long to screenshot the whole thing so I will provide the main details on the personal cards and direct you to their website to see Amex Business Cards. Flyertalk has extensive information about these cards in their own forum and new deals also tend to be posted in MileBuzz so always check there before applying for a card. Also be on the lookout for transfer bonuses such as the recent 30% bonus to British Airways Avios.

See the Membership Rewards page for a complete overview of the program and these pages for a complete list of transfer partners. Page 1, Page 2.

The best options for eco-travelers would be Delta for use on Skyteam awards or British Airways for use on short-haul Avios. Virgin America and Virgin Atlantic can also be useful for redeeming on Virgin Australia. Qantas is a partner but the award cost is higher than using Delta to Australia. Be careful when transferring to any of the European and Asian airlines as they often have huge fuel surcharges even when redeeming on partner airlines. Singapore Airlines is good for Air New Zealand redemptions between Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands such as Rarotonga. Amex1 Amex2 Amex3 Amex4

OTHER TYPES OF CREDIT CARDS – BANK REWARD POINTS AND CASH BACK

There are some credit cards that earn points that you spend within the bank’s program on travel. You can’t transfer them to airline miles or hotel points but you can use them to purchase travel from their affiliated travel agent. These are not usually a great value unless there is a huge signup bonus. If you have exhausted all the mileage earning cards and flexible point cards and are looking for somewhere to put your everyday spend, you may want to consider a 2% cash back card. Many of these have no annual fee but there may be restrictions on how you get your cash back so be sure to read the T&Cs of the program. Here are a few links to look at, but as always, check on FlyerTalk for any special deals that may be posted.

FlexPerks – US Bank

ThankYou Rewards – Citibank

Venture Rewards – Capital One

WorldPoints – Bank of America

Discover Card

SUMMARY

This is just a VERY brief summary of what’s available. Signup offers change very quickly so you always need to do your homework to make sure you get the best offer. Take into account your ability to meet the minimum spend to get the bonus miles. The odds are you will see some credit card offers in my advertising sidebar that will be directed to you based on your physical location. I have no control over what ads you see. Clicking on them helps me and the blog and a purchase or credit application is not required for me to get credit. Please feel free to ask me any questions here in the comments of this post.

Hotel Point Earning Credit Cards USA Edition And Best Uses for Eco-Travelers

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Tara

This is a continuation of the Mileage Earning Credit Card post. General advice for Americans about credit cards can be found there.

BEST HOTEL POINT EARNING CREDIT CARDS FOR ECO-TRAVELERS

CCs

Generally speaking, hotel point earning credit cards will be less valuable for eco-travelers than for mainstream tourists looking for elite status and 5 star accommodations. The eco-lodges we are seeking won’t be affiliated with any of these programs. There are a couple of good uses of hotel points.

Stays at gateway hotels in your departure city or the gateway city from where you will travel on to the rainforest, savannah or other habitat.
Hotel points can be converted into airline miles to top up your accounts so you can get a free ticket faster and signup bonuses really speed this along.

Here are my recommendations:

1. Club Carlson Visa (blogged about here): Issued by US Bank, several versions so choose the one that suits you best and you could get at least 2 free nights at any Club Carlson hotel. My main interest in this card is the 50k after any first spend and second award night free so I will probably go for the Visa Signature in my next app-o-rama. They have fairly decent transfer rates to airline miles and you can choose from 20 airline programs. The best ones for eco-travelers are AA, BA, DL, UA and US.

2,000 points	250 miles
50,000 points	8,000 miles
100,000 points	18,000 miles

2. Priority Club Visa: Issued by Chase, signup bonus is currently 60k after $1000 spend. Historically, it’s gone as high as 80k with no minimum spend but all the Chase cards seem to have at least a $1000 in 3 month spend these days. Annual fee of $49 is waived the first year but you get a free night certificate each year starting on your first anniversary so this card is well worth keeping. I’m into my 3rd year with this card and have redeemed my free night at hotels that range between $160 and $230 a night. Transfer rates to airlines are a flat 10k PC = 2k airline miles and their partners include AA, BA, DL, QF, SQ, US, UA, and DJ.

3. SPG American Express: Issued by American Express, signup bonus is usually 25k of which you get 10k after first spend and 15k after spending $5000 within 6 months. They occasionally have specials where you get a total of 30k of which 20k requires the 5k spend. Annual fee $65, waived first year. Best values are Cash and Points redemptions which give a huge savings on regular hotel rates with fewer points than an outright free night redemption. SPG has an amazing transfer program which is usually 1 SPG = 1 airline mile but if you transfer 20k, you get a bonus of 5k. LOTS of partners but best ones for eco-travelers are AA, BA, DL, SQ and US. In this case, UA is not a good option as the rate is only 2 SPG = 1 UA.

4. Hilton Honors (several cards): Hilton has cards issued by Citibank and Amex. The Citicards have free night certificates or 40k sign up bonus and come in $95 annual fee/no annual fee versions. The Amex cards give you 40k signup bonus and come in $75 annual fee/no annual fee. Minimum spends are between $750-$3000 in 3 months so you really need to compare all the cards on their site. Transfer rates to airlines are very poor: 10k HH = 850 airline so only get these cards if you want to use them for hotel rooms.

5. Marriott Rewards Visa: Reviewed by me and I can get you a nice bonus if you let me refer you to join Marriott Rewards. See details on this post. Issued by Chase, signup bonus 50k and one free night at Cat 1-4 after $1000 spend in 3 months. Historical high 70k. Annual fee $85 waived first year, and you receive an anniversary bonus of one free night stay at a Category
1-5 hotel every year. Transfer rates to airlines is somewhat complicated so best to see it on their site. AA is not a partner but eco-travelers may be interested in BA, UA, US, GOL (Brazil domestic flights), Avianca-Taca, LAN, Qantas.

6. Hyatt Gold Passport Visa: Issued by Chase, signup bonus is 2 free nights at any Hyatt worldwide after $1000 spend in 3 months. People seem to find the best value in either Sydney or various European properties so limited usefulness to eco-travelers. You get free night certificates, not points so you can’t use this signup bonus to transfer to airlines.

7. Wyndham Rewards Visa: Issued by Barclays, sign up bonus currently 16k, historical high 30k, no minimum spend, just “first purchase”. Good transfer rates to airlines. Wyndham properties are usually reasonably priced so I would just pay for hotels and transfer these points to an airline. Rates are 8k Wyndham = 3200 airline, 17,500 Wyndham = 7000 airline, 30k Wyndham = 12k airline. Best partners for eco-travelers: AA, DL, UA, US.

8. Choice Privileges Visa: Issued by Barclays, sign up bonus 8k first spend, + 24k after using the card to pay for a stay at a Choice hotel. No annual fee. Transfers to airlines 5k Choice = 1k airline, partners include AA, DL, UA, US.

9. Best Western MasterCard: Issued by Barclays, signup bonus 16k after first spend, no annual fee. Transfers to airlines 5k Choice = 1k airline, partners include AA, DL, US and Avianca LifeMiles.

I have put these credit cards in roughly the order of which I think they have value to eco-travelers. People seeking elite status or stays at European and North American city properties would most likely prioritize cards in a different order. If the SPG card didn’t have such a high spend requirement, I would have put it first but $5000 could be a challenge. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments below.

Flexible Points Credit Cards

Mileage Earning Credit Cards USA Edition And Best Uses For Eco-Travelers

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Tara

A GUIDE TO CREDIT CARD SIGNUP BONUSES

***Disclaimer: This is going to be a reference post about the many opportunities available for Americans. Due to the heavy competition between credit providers and airlines, Americans are blessed with unequaled chances to acquire huge amounts of frequent flyer miles and hotel points simply by applying for credit cards. I know there is a lot of controversy about referral links from bloggers so I want to assure you that I do not have any referral agreement with any credit provider. I do have Google ads down the right side and you may be presented with ads from credit providers at random which may be a good deal so I would suggest read the ad, compare it with all other offers for the same credit card, then if you are satisified the ad is the best deal, I would appreciate if you click through this site to apply for the card. I have no way of knowing which ads are provided as they will vary based on your physical location.

All links on this page go to the airline’s credit card information page. These may or may not be the best offer available. So learn how to fish! Fishing CC

TEACHING YOU TO FISH

You’ve all heard the saying “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime”? Learning how to use credit card sign-up bonuses to get free or almost free airline tickets and hotel rooms is basically like learning to fish. You will need to know how to choose an airline based on your destination and be familiar with the credit cards they offer, then know where to look to get the best deal. You also need to know your credit score to see if you will qualify for these lucrative sign up bonuses. Before signing up for a credit card, you need to be a person who can manage credit and pay your bills on time and preferably the full amount so you don’t incur interest. Most people have enough daily expenses such as food, gas, utilities, travel expenses, clothing, etc that if they route everything through a mileage earning card, they can make the minimum spend requirements and continue to accrue miles every month. Always check the ever-changing master credit card thread on FlyerTalk for more recent information. Also see the Glossary at the bottom of this page for terms that you will encounter while applying for mileage earning credit cards.

***These offers are available only to US citizens or permanent residents with a Social Security Number (SSN) and excellent credit scores***

CREDIT SCORES

Use one or more of these options to get your credit score. Everyone has three credit scores, one from each of the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, TransUnion.

Annual Credit Report – Free once every 12 months.

Credit Karma – Free, no credit card required, based on TransUnion.

Credit Sesame – Free, no credit card required, based on Experian.

Equifax Score card – $15.95 but you can get a free one with Annual Credit Report

MILEAGE EARNING CREDIT CARDS – ONE WORLD AIRLINES

CC AA

American Airlines – AAdvantage

Issued by Citibank

Sign-up bonuses from 30k-50k depending on product, historical high offer 75k

Annual fee $95 waived first year

Churnable after 18-26 months (varies)

Minimum spend $2500-3000 in 3 or 4 months depending on offer, varies so check carefully

Can get 2 Citibank cards at once using 2 Browser Method. Open Firefox and IE, click on 2 different cards-a Visa, Mastercard or Amex, fill out both applications but don’t send right away. Wait until you have both apps filled out completely, then VERY QUICKLY go to each browser and click the “Apply” button. If you are not instantly approved, you can call their reconsideration number and try to push it through. 1-866-606-2961

Dedicated FlyerTalk thread

Best uses for Eco-travelers: (Round-trip awards but bookable as one-ways for half the amount) 80k USA to Australia or South Pacific; 35k USA to Central America, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador; 40k USA to Rest of South America, 90k USA to Indian subcontinent, 70k USA to Southeast Asia (such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia. Also good for long distance domestic Australian awards 10k for a one-way trip such as Perth to Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. Some good deals on LAN awards intra-South America too. Full award chart

CC BA

British Airways Avios Visa

Issued by Chase

Signup bonuses from 50-100k, depending on levels of minimum spend, historical high 100k

Annual fee $95 not waived

Probably not churnable

Minimum Spend $1000 in 3 months for 1st 50k, additional 25k when you spend $10,000 in first year, an additional 25k after an additional spend of $10,000. I tend to look at this card as a 50k card because only the $1000 spend is easily reached for most people.

Possible retention bonus if you call them and say you want to cancel it before first year is up (done to avoid additional annual fee if you don’t want to keep the card)

Dedicated FlyerTalk thread

Best uses for Eco-travelers: Short-haul one way trips within Australia and South America. Examples: Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo on LAN for 7500 Avios or Brisbane to Cairns on Qantas for 7500 Avios. Also bargains from West Coast USA to Hawaii on American or Alaskan for 12,500 Avios each way.

CC LA

LAN-LanPass Visa

Issued by US Bank

Signup bonus – Up to 20,000 Bonus Miles with first use, Up to 4,000 Bonus Miles with annual renewal (Visa Signature)

Annual fee $25-75 depending on product, waived first year.

No minimum spend

No data on churnability

Dedicated FlyerTalk thread

Best uses for Eco-travelers: Domestic one way flights within South American countries. Not amazing value but possibly worth it since there is no minimum spend on this card. See chart here. Brazil’s TAM is expected to merge with this program in the near future so possible intra-Brazil redemptions.

MILEAGE EARNING CREDIT CARDS – STAR ALLIANCE AIRLINES

CC UA

United Mileage Plus Visa

Issued by Chase

Signup bonus 30k-65k (some offers targeted), historical high 65k

Annual fee $95 waived first year

Probably not churnable

Minimum Spend $1000 in 3 months for most offers.

Possible retention bonus if you call them and say you want to cancel it before first year is up (done to avoid additional annual fee if you don’t want to keep the card)

Dedicated FlyerTalk thread

Best uses for Eco-travelers: (Round-trip awards but bookable as one-ways for half the amount) 80k USA to Australia, South Pacific, Indian subcontinent; 65k USA to Southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, etc); 60k Brazil, 40k Peru, 35k Central America. Also good deals on Copa and Taca awards within Central America such as Flores (near Tikal, Guatemala) to San Jose, Costa Rica for 7500 miles one way.

CC US

US Airways Dividend Miles Mastercard

Issued by Barclays

Signup bonus 30-50k, offers vary widely. Some have 10k annual bonus on anniversary. Some only give the last 10k with balance tranfer so read the offer page carefully. Historical high 50k.

Annual fee $89 usually not waived.

Some people have churned it once or twice, bank may possibly be cracking down on this.

Usually no minimum spend to get signup bonus of 30-40k depending on offer, additional 10k which will be advertised in offer usually requires balance transfer from other credit card.

Credit card holders save 5000 miles on US Airways metal redemptions

Dedicated FlyerTalk thread

Best uses for Eco-travelers: (Round-trip awards only) 80k USA to Australia, South Pacific, Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, etc); 60k South America (35k for off-peak), 35k Central America.

CC AV

Avianca Taca LifeMiles Visa

Issued by US Bank

Signup bonus – Up to 20,000 Bonus Miles with first use, Up to 6,000 Bonus Miles with annual renewal (Visa Signature)

Annual fee $25-75 depending on product, waived first year.

No minimum spend

No data on churnability

Dedicated FlyerTalk thread

*** If you let me refer you, I can get a bonus of 5000 LifeMiles. This has no effect on your application, but it does help me out with future eco-trips. Once you have the card, you will also be able to refer people and earn your own bonuses. Please use the contact form to request a referral. ***

Best uses for Eco-travelers: Redemptions on Taca Peru or Taca Central America short haul flights. Example: Lima to Puerto Maldonado, Peru 3500 miles one way or San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) to Panama City, Panama (PTY) 7k miles one way. Good deals on Taca’s flights between USA and Central America such as LAX -SJO Round trip 24k. You can also travel between USA and Central America on Star Alliance carriers for 30k round trip.

MILEAGE EARNING CREDIT CARDS – SKYTEAM AIRLINES

CC DL

Delta Skymiles American Express

Issued by American Express

Signup bonus – 30k-45k (see Flyertalk thread) depending on product. Historical high 75k.

Annual fee $95 and up, sometimes waived so you need to check each offer

Minimum spend is all over the place! Sometimes 35k after $750 spend in 3 months, sometimes 30k after first use and an extra 20-25k after an extra specified spend.

Possibly churnable after 24 months

Dedicated FlyerTalk thread

Best uses for Eco-travelers: (Based on round-trip, no one ways allowed) USA to Australia and Pacific 100k, USA to Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia or Africa 80k, Southern South America 60k, Northern South America 45k, Central America 35k. Full chart ex USA here. New possibilities when Garuda joins Skyteam for domestic Indonesia awards.

CC KE

Korean Airlines Skypass Visa

Issued by US Bank

Signup Bonus 15k for Visa Signature, otherwise I wouldn’t bother.

Annual fee $80 not waived

No Minimum spend

Best uses for Eco-travelers: Not a whole lot, but they do partner with Garuda so the 15k gets you close to a round-trip Garuda domestic award for 20k.

MILEAGE EARNING CREDIT CARDS – NON-ALLIANCE AIRLINES

These will have very little use for eco-travelers, though they may have some use for mainstream tourism. I will just provide the links to the airlines’ pages and you can see for yourselves if any of them would suit you.

Alaska Airlines Visa

Frontier Airlines Mastercard

Hawaiian Airlines Visa (B of A)

Hawaiian Airlines Visa (B of H)

Southwest Airlines Visa

Virgin America

GLOSSARY

App-O-Rama – A term used by credit card churners to describe a behaviour of applying for different credit cards on the same day with different banks. This is usually done because enquiries (applications for credit) can lower your credit score making it more difficult to get the cards approved. If you do all your application on the same day within as little time possible, the banks won’t see the new enquiries on your credit report.

Churning – Applying for the same credit card you have already had to get the signup bonus again

Credit Line Shifting – This happens when you apply for a second card with the same bank but they are not willing to give you additional credit. They may be willing to shift credit from your existing card to the new card. Also, if you plan to close a card you no longer need, always shift the credit line to another card with the same bank if you have one. If they don’t, try to shift to a card with no annual fee to preserve the credit line.

Reconsideration Line – The bank’s credit department with the power to approve your application. You may need to call the reconsideration line if you don’t get an instant approval and are in a hurry or if you are denied credit and want a second chance.

American Express – 866-314-0237
Chase Personal – 888-245-0625
Chase Business – 800-453-9719
Citibank – 800-695-5171 or 800-763-9795
Barclays – 866-408-4064
US Bank – 800-947-1444

Retention bonus – Sometimes offered by banks to keep you as a customer after the first year has passed and your annual fee is due. Sometimes it is a credit on your account to offset the annual fee, sometimes it is a bonus of miles to your frequent flyer account but you have to pay the annual fee. There may be conditions of a minimum spend attached to the retention bonus. Usually you call the number on the back of your card, hint to the CSR that you may not want to keep the account and get them to transfer you to retention.

2BM (Two Browser Method) – Only works with Citibank cards. Open Firefox and IE, click on 2 different cards-a Visa, Mastercard or Amex, fill out both applications but don’t send right away. Wait until you have both apps filled out completely, then VERY QUICKLY go to each browser and click the “Apply” button. Do not try this with 2 tabs in the same browser as the cookies will over-ride each other and give you a duplicate application for the same card.

Hotel Point Earning Credit Cards

Flexible Points Credit Cards

Frequent Flyer Miles Earning Credit Cards – Australian Edition 2

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Tara

Last week in Australian Edition 1 I showed you how to use the various American Express cards to get a nice sign-up bonus to kick start your mileage balance. You will remember that you could also use AMEX Membership Rewards to transfer to a variety of partners including airlines and hotels. Before we start, I want to point out that these are not affiliate links, you will be clicking straight off the airline’s website. If you have been on USA based blogs and forums, you will probably have seen that they can get even better sign up bonuses through affiliates but we don’t seem to have that in Australia……………yet! The only situation where you get more sign up points than is offered on the bank/airline site is the Amex referral program. Please use the contact form if you would like me to refer you for this bonus which I discussed in Edition 1.

Now let’s look at airline specific cards. These are co-branded cards that automatically transfer your points into the airline each month. Even if you get the Amex, you should also get a Visa or Mastercard as there are a lot of businesses and government fees where you can’t use an Amex.

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA – VELOCITY

When you click on to their website, you will notice an “Earn” tab and a “Specials” tab.

The “Specials” tab will take you to whatever sign up bonuses are running at the time. Always check this tab before you sign up for any credit card and make sure you read the T&Cs that go with the card so you know what you have to do to earn the bonus.

Now click on the “Earn” tab and select credit cards to see ALL the credit card options that partner with Velocity. You will see that just about every bank in Australia has a Velocity card or a rewards card that you can transfer to Velocity.

Here are the banks, quite a lot!

Be sure to check out each bank’s website to look for rewards cards that you can transfer to Velocity. You will also see different transfer ratios for each one so you have to spend some time reading each one to see which card would give you the best value for annual fee vs transfer ratio and what other benefits the card may have like travel insurance.

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QANTAS FREQUENT FLYER

Now let’s look at Qantas options. From their homepage, go to the Frequent Flyer tab and select Earning Points, then “Pay”.

This page is set up a bit differently from Velocity. If there are any specials, they will be on this page. I have highlighted in yellow the bonuses that are current as of this post date.

With Qantas, it is also worthwhile to check its partner Jetstar because their credit card also has the option to credit the points to Qantas.

No matter which credit card you choose, always make sure you are prepared to pay it off every month because if you incur interest, then the miles and points are less valuable. Be sure to read the T&Cs of each card, check for annual fees, interest rates and minimum spend within a specified time to get the sign up bonus. If you haven’t already, you should join both Qantas Frequent Flyer and Virgin Velocity because they will email you special deals that may include targeted sign up bonuses.

In the next post in this series, I will show you (Aussies) how to get miles and points for FREE just from every day living!

Recap – Building Your Eco-Tourism Adventure

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Tara

Over the past couple of weeks, I have shown you the different elements to consider when building your customized ecotourism adventure and how to facilitate it with miles and points so you have more to spend on the eco-lodges and supporting the local economies. During the course of this blog, I will be adding MANY destinations that are ideal for birders and eco-travelers in general but this is a good start!

1. Identify the goal of your trip. What bird species are you most interested in? Are birds the only focus or do you want other animals too? Use the right guidebooks and resources to help you plan. Use the maps in the book to help you locate the best places to see your target species.

2. Be familiar with airline alliances. There are 3 alliances: Star Alliance, One World and Sky Team. Know which one can get you to your destination as easily and cheaply as possible. Check this example of using miles to get to Lima, Peru. Know how to use airline partners such as credit cards, online shopping malls and services you already use such as phone companies, internet providers, supermarkets and insurance companies to get free miles for paying for things you already use. Don’t shop more, shop smarter! Check the resources tab at the top of this blog for advice on this.

3. Know how to save money by using hotel points for free nights at the gateway city before you head off into the bush. Depending on your flight schedule, you may need a gateway hotel in your home country before the flight and/or the destination country between your international connection and domestic flight to the staging point. See this example of Lima, Peru.

4. Research how exactly you get to your main destination. Can you fly? Drive? Take a bus or riverboat? Or maybe a combination? What do you have to pay for and what is included in the cost of your eco-lodge’s package. See this example of Tambopata National Reserve for ideas on how to do this.

5. Know how to choose an eco-lodge in an area where there are many options available. How do you find the various options? See this example of Tambopata National Reserve’s lodges and how I analyzed an area where there are a lot of choices and sorted them out by my priorities.

6. Read as many reviews as possible of the lodges and try to get a feel of the people who posted them. For example, one lodge may get a bad review because they were too remote and hard to get to by someone who likes more of a bar/social scene. Or one lodge may get a bad review because there were or were not facilities for kids. Trip Advisor, Fat Birder and Surfbirds all have lodge reviews or trip reports from people of all walks of life so try to find reviews by people who are similar to you. Here is a review I did for Tambopata Research Center. My priorities were sustainable, helping conservation efforts, abundance of parrots and other birds and preferably adults or at least teens only(no small kids). Remoteness, social life not an issue but I did need to keep in a budget. They have packages of various sizes to suit most anyone.

7. If you don’t know, don’t be afraid to ask questions! Use the comments on any of my posts if you have a specific question or want to request advice on a specific location.