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@Anonymous wrote:No problem. I live in Houston by the way Southwest flies out of here too so I'm glad that it is one of CSP's partners. I feel that I now have all the cards that I need. Time for me to garden for a while. My number one objective is to purchase a home late next year and I want to maximize my credit score as much as possible. For some reason, my EQ is still lagging gehind though I have zero late payments and zero collections on all three credit bureaus. Thanks again for your help!
If you are buying a home anytime soon (soon being to me within the next year or so), gardening is the best bet. You will be paying for a mortgage for 15-30 years, and getting a low rate is important. If you keep apping for cards, you will pay for those rewards many many times over in possibly higher mortgage interest. Sounds like you know what to do though.
Maybe an example would be helpful?
I found out my dad was sick on the Thursday before labor day weekend. I had to book a last minute, cross country flight on a holiday weekend. I was able to find a round-trip United Saver award for 25,000 points on a ticket that would have cost $1,100. $1,100 is 110,000 cents, so 110,000 / 25,000 = 4.4 cents per point. That's over 4x what I would have gotten if I had "cashed out". The cheapest alternative was Southwest at around $800 but even then the value is over 3 cents and the itinerary was much less convenient. I sent 25,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) points to my United account and booked the flight immediately.
For a less extreme example, I transferred 20,000 member rewards points (MR) from American Express to Choice hotels and booked two nights at one of their Rome locations. That would have cost $440 in cash, and is realistic for what we budgeted for that vacation. $440 is 44,000 cents / 20,000 points = 2.2 cents per point, or double the cash value. And if I had booked earlier I could have gotten the same room for 16,000 points instead, cash price was the same.
I also sent 60,000 MR to Air Canada's Aeroplan and 60,000 UR to United to get a pair of tickets (same planes, seats next to each other) to Europe. The itinerary includes a flight to Milan via a one week stay in Paris, and a flight back from Naples, IT. I paid cash for trains within Italy. I honestly have no clue what I would have paid cash for this itinerary but it's a lot higher. I would probably have built the itinerary with one way tickets and it's hard to value each leg separately.
I had to pay a surcharge of $200 for the Aeroplan itinerary and had to book it over the phone, but I had flight numbers picked out so it took maybe 15 minutes. I called in the United itinerary but it was also available on their website, with a fee of like $10. Both waived the booking agent fee that their website claims they charge.
Hope this experience helps you understand how it works. You sign up for a frequent flier/traveler account with the intended company and then transfer the points and book. Always confirm that what you want is available for reward redemption before sending the points! And book right away once the points appear (in my cases, Aeroplan, Choice, and United showed the points immediately, but that is not always the case.)
I got these points with a combination of sign ups and spend from AmEx PRG, AmEx Ameriprise Platinum, CSP, and Freedom.
Thanks to everyone that took the time to respond to my query. See you around the forum!