Managing Family Accounts

Transcription

1 Managing Family Accounts Just because you ve got a million miles, doesn t mean your work is done Presented by Howie Rappaport

2 Topics We ll Cover Introduction / Howie s Background Basic Principles of Frequent Flier Miles / Points Points, Miles, Credits, what s it all mean? Why Does Everyone Love SPG, Chase UR, and Amex MR Knowing Programs & Their Rules Know Your Family & Find a Strategy That Works Lions and Tigers and Spreadsheets Keeping Track of it isn t all that hard Random Tips What Else?

3 Introduction / Howie s Background 35 yr old Product Manager (Married / No Children / Golden Retriever) Flown 650k miles in the past 4 years Over 8MM Frequent Flier Miles Currently 15 Countries Since January Top Elite with 2 US Airlines, 3 US Hotel Chains + Every other program It all started with a trip my wife took to the Philippines where work put her in coach and I received a call I can t fly coach home $400 later with a business class upgrade on Northwest Airlines she returned and had earned Silver Elite status. My first credit card obtained purely for the points was a Delta SkyMiles Gold card to earn enough miles to build our point balance to go to St Lucia for our honeymoon in coach.

4 Basic Principles of Frequent Flier Miles and Points The Most Valuable Point / Mile is the one that gets you where you want to go, when you want to go, at a price that you want to pay Use the program that meets your goals and works for you The hardest way to earn them, is by flying and staying in hotels The easiest way credit cards and online shopping portals A point is not a point is not a point

5 Points, Miles, Credits, what s it all mean? Delta SkyMiles Citi ThankYou Points Starwood Preferred Guest Points British Airways Avios Barclay s Arrival Points Chase Ultimate Rewards Capital One Miles EARN DOUBLE MILES!!!!! They re all forms of travel currency. Every country has their own currency, think of this as the same

6 Why Does Everyone Love SPG, Chase UR, and Amex MR? No really, why? Options, Options, Options SPG How Many Transfer Partners, Nights & Flights, & Direct flight booking Chase UR 11 Transfer Partners or 1.25 cents/point on travel Amex MR 21 Transfer Partners or 1 cent/point

7 Loyalty Program Partnerships This is the true power in all loyalty programs the ability to use points in one program for a product in another Use Amex MR to transfer to Air France to book on Delta Use Citi TYP to book a flight on jetblue and earn points Transfer some Chase UR to Hyatt for a suite at the Park Hyatt NY and then transfer more points to British Airways to fly on American up to NY What other examples do you want to know of????

8 Knowing Programs & Their Rules Transfer SPG Points Marriott? Hyatt? Amex MR? Club Carlson? British Airways? Chase UR? Korean SkyPass? JetBlue?

9 Know Your Family & Find a Strategy That Works What are their travel habits??? (look at it historically people are tough to change) What s their spending habits? Credit History? What travel goals do they have My Wife My Mother My Youngest Brother My Oldest Brother

10 Lions and Tigers and Spreadsheets OH SHIT! You could write everything down and use manila folders You could use spreadsheets to keep it all digital and then setup reminders to check Or you can use resources on the Internet to do the heavy lifting for you.

11 Keeping track of it isn t that hard The only thing worse than not earning points for something is to lose them or forget about them. A few simple tricks to make sure you always earn and never have those valuable points and miles expire Always sign up for every program. Even if you won t use it, having an account makes it easier to track if you do end up using it. Leverage a site such as AwardWallet.com (Free 6-month premium code) Don t track just your points/miles but also your family Notifications when points/miles post PRICE: FREE

12 Other Tools to Manage It All CardWatchDog Google Doc / Spreadsheet Calendar Reminders CreditSesame.com / CreditKarma.com / Quizzle.com Scoresense.com

13 Random Tips things I ve learned Hang shirts / pants in bathroom when you shower think steam State Department Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) Paper copies of Air, Hotel, Car Rental, Train Tickets (customs / immigration) Send your loved ones your itinerary even if you re not worried, they are! Don t put all your eggs in one basket, not with one airline, one hotel, one alliance, one credit card one anything. No one program will every meet all of your requirements Use a password management program such as LastPass to keep track of all of your accounts Sign up for every promotion you never know when it ll pay off Leverage Social Media (Delta on Twitter is amazing) Negotiated hotel rates with customers / on your own

14 What else?