Credit Card deals + free stuff

Thought I'd catch people up on some of the stuff I'm still doing with credit cards.

So right now, I'm working on a British Airways card. The end goal is for April and myself to being able to fly First Class on BA when we hit Switzerland next year. The thought of flying that long makes me want to lose it. However, having a bed to sleep in and an open bar seems like it would make flying more palatable. This is the steepest card deal I've done yet.

The card has a $99 annual fee, not waved the first year. You get 50,000 points after using the card. Another 25,000 after spending $10,000. And a final 25,000 after spending another $10,000. The sweetest part is that after spending a total on $30,000, you get a free companion ticket for any ticket you buy. So if I can "spend" $30k, I'll have more than enough to get myself a first class ticket and then Ape gets a free companion first class ticket. The only thing we have to pay is fuel surcharges, which is still like $1,200 (total), but much less than the $2,500 we would have spent for coach tickets.

How the hell can I spend $30k? Well, by being smart and cheating. I have moved all my daily spending to the credit card, which I pay off every 2 weeks when I get paid. April and I also send $1000 a month (funded by credit cards) to each other for free with Amazon Payments. We've also had a couple houses expenses and upcoming vacations that will go on the card (and then promptly be paid off, as neither of us have credit card debt).

After the first of the year (with Xmas spending coming up as well), I'll see where we are in meeting the $30k spending requirement. I'll probably end up doing some of the things listed in this amazing blog post to get me over the final hump.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequ...-and-earn-90k-ultimate-rewards-along-the-way/

If you want to ease into this, Southwest has a pretty sweet deal right now. All you have to do is spend $1000 in three months and you'll get points that can either be redeemed for ~$500 in gift cards or two round trip tickets on Southwest.

http://www.mychasecreditcards.com/southwest/2ffpartnersplus

Note that at the bottom there is also a promo for a business card. You can, and should, apply for both. Use your name as your business name and SSN for the tax id. That's four free tickets if you do both!
 
I just booked a four night trip to Vegas for my wife and I in October. Using credit card points, the return flight cost us $300 for the two of us, and the hotel is $150 for four nights because I'm on their preferred list. :)


Of course, it's probably gonna cost me a crapload in food, cause I friggin love the restaurants there.
 
I've just discovered this sort of thing myself. I was doing it legit and not sending myself $1000 payments though. Yay for gayming the system!


What you're doing bouncing payments around could be deemed money laundering by fraud software. (Not that I care) Pretty unlikely you'd get noticed I'd think but depending on how aggressive your FI is with their fraud unit, you may get a letter. They will also watch you if you access a safe deposit box more than once or twice a quarter. Once your account is on the watch list it doesn't come off. Pretty crazy all the regs now. Banking IT is pretty wild these days.
 
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Wow that's some pretty extreme juggling. We don't do anything crazy like that, we just use our Discover and take advantage of the 5% cashback programs, the bonus spending days and all of that. We use the card for everything we possibly can, pay it off every month and use the cashback to buy giftcards... they have some like $25 gets you $50, so 25 worth of cashback rewards gives you a $50 giftcard... stuff like that. We use those giftcards to fund Christmas and other gift giving things.
 
Any flight more than 4 hrs is "long" for me , simply because I dont like being compressed in to airline micro-seating for that long
When we flew to the UK , it was 8hrs, and I thought I was gonna die
When we went to alaska, that was 6 hrs, I think , and we went 1st class, that was awesome.
 
Flight from LA to Sydney is 15 hours.It sounds bad, but the the jets they use on those flight (787 Jumbo, A380) are really nice planes. Just makes sure you fly with Qantas and not an American company.
 
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