Game of Miles

28/08/2023

NEW BLOG POST

I recently had the chance to fly in first class to Germany with Lufthansa. This flight had a cash value of over $14,000. I booked it got about 85,000 miles plus $70 in fees.

In the latest post at gameofmiles.com, I give a review of the flight along with tips on how to book it.

https://gameofmiles.com/?p=1609

10/06/2023

𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗚 𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗧

Those of you who are above Chase's 5/24 rule or are nearing it may be looking for your next or first post Chase credit card. I've said multiple times that the Capital One Venture X is my favorite card on the market. There's really no other card that competes with it, in my opinion.

In the newest post at gameofmiles.com, I tell you why it is as good as it is and give my own personal experiences using the card. If you are playing the travel game, this card should be on your radar.

If you do decide to apply for it, I would appreciate you using my referral link https://capital.one/3N https://gameofmiles.com/?p=3849XL8jg

Direct link to post: https://gameofmiles.com/?p=3849

09/05/2023

𝗖𝗨𝗥𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗪 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧
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There are quite a few pretty great deals going on right now that I wanted to bring to your attention.
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𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿: the first card that I recommend for those starting the game is currently offering 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points for its welcome offer. The bonus for this card is typically only 60,000 points. This is an excellent time to apply for this card if you've never had it or are eligible to receive the bonus again. My referral link: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6m/CYT07E7ZY7
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𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗶 𝗔𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗺 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿: ​ 75,000 AA miles increased from the typical 50,000-60,000 miles welcome offer. $99 annual fee that is waived the first year. AA miles are highly valuable due to great redemptions with ultra-low fees but can be difficult to earn since American Airlines is not a transfer partner of any of the banks. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝟮 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 so I would take advantage of it if you have already hit Chase’s 5/24 rule. Link to public offer: https://creditcards.aa.com/citi-platinum-card-american-airlines-wand/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=aa&utm_campaign=hero&tab=m
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𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀: 25% bonus miles when transferring to Air France KLM and 30% bonus when transferring to Virgin Atlantic. If you followed my advice on the blog about which cards to get first, some of you may already be building a nice balance of Ultimate Rewards points. If so, now is a great time to start looking for redemptions with those airlines. Check out the most recent post on my blog for tips on searching award availability. Just don’t transfer the points until you are ready to book. The KLM deal expires May 15th, and the Virgin Atlantic deal expires June 15th. These types of deals come around often so don’t worry if you miss them this time around.
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𝗔𝗺𝗲𝘅 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝘂𝘀: Amex is also offering a 25% bonus to Membership Rewards points transferred to Air France KLM. This deal expires May 22nd.
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𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 $𝟱 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗴𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 $𝟱𝟬 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗴𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗱: the only reason I am highlighting this is because Amazon is the 5% quarterly bonus category for the Chase Freedom card. Prime members who take advantage of this will get the free $5 gift card plus 250 Ultimate Rewards points. Not remarkable but still a no-brainer if you are a Prime member and have the Chase Freedom card. I’m not going to post the link to the deal here since it is lengthy, but you should be able to easily find it from Amazon’s site when searching for gift cards. Expires May 14th.
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I try to avoid spamming this page and only post deals related to the blog that I feel are truly noteworthy. The incredible Chase Marriott 5 free night welcome offer that I posted below lasted less than 2 weeks. Make sure you turn on notifications for my posts if you’d like to hear about these deals in the future.

Click to learn more.

16/04/2023

DEAL ALERT – 5 free nights sign-up offer for Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card.

A few days ago, this offer popped up – hat tip to Doctor of Credit. I’ve posted a direct link to the offer below.

On the blog, I’ve written about how great the 3 free night offer that you can get through my referral link is. This 5 free night offer is amazing and something you should consider if you are still under Chase’s 5/24 rule. It allows 5 free nights of up to 50,000 points each night. The offer requires spending $5,000 within 3 months of approval. The card has an annual fee of $95.

Here is a small sample of ways you could use these 5 free nights:

- Courtyard King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel in Hawaii any time this summer. The 5-night stay would cost around $2,500 out of pocket.
- The Ritz Carlton in Bali in June. The 5-night stay would cost more than $1,500 out of pocket.
- Le Méridien Maldives Resort & Spa any time this summer. The 5-night stay would cost around $3,000 out of pocket.

There are loads of other places around the world where you could redeem these nights for hotel stays that would normally cost a few thousand dollars. Not bad for a $95 annual fee.

Here is the direct link to the offer https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/marriottboundless/5FNRTO/FAIC.

This is not my referral link. I get nothing if you sign up for it. It's just an amazing offer that I wanted to et you know about.

*Offer Details | † Opens Marriott Bonvoy Boundless pricing and terms in new window Pricing & Terms Opens Marriott Bonvoy Boundless pricing and terms in new window

02/04/2023

DEAL ALERT

Through May 15th, Chase is offering a 25% bonus when you transfer Ultimate Rewards to Flying Blue. There are some pretty great flights you can book right now to Europe to take advantage of this.

If you started playing the game when I launched this blog in February, you may be able to take advantage of this promotion before it ends. In my "Getting started with the Game of Miles" post, I recommend getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Freedom Flex, and Freedom Unlimited as your first three cards. Doing so will earn you a minimum of 105,250 Ultimate Rewards points, and they can be earned in less than 6 months after starting the game.

You can check out the new article at https://gameofmiles.com/?p=3650

My referral links for the Sapphire Preferred and Freedom cards are below. Don't be shy about using them if you find the blog helpful 🙂. Due to privacy rules, the banks won't allow me to know who signs up for cards using my links. I just get the points. I'm not currently monetizing the site, so points for referrals are my motivating factor in creating new content.

Thanks, and let me know if you take advantage of this promotion to book any trips with points!

Sapphire Preferred referral link: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6f/L92IB3ZQSD

Freedom Unlimited and Freedom Flex referral link: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18o/DCQT4P092O

Now through May 15th, Chase is offering 25% bonus Flying Blue miles when transferring Ultimate Reward points to your Flying Blue account. In a previous post, I recommended earning points through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program when you first start the Game of Miles. If you had been following my r...

20/03/2023

Quick tips:

If any of you have been following my suggestions on which credit cards to get, you either already have or will soon have the Chase Freedom Flex. This card earns you 5 Ultimate Rewards points for each dollar spent on up to $1,500 in purchases on rotating categories each quarter. This can earn you up to 30,000 UR each year if you can max out the bonus. In Q1 2023, the categories were grocery stores, Target, and gym membership. This quarter was a very easy one to max out the bonus through normal, everyday spend. Beginning in April, the next quarter of categories should also be easy to max out. The bonus categories for April through June are Amazon and Lowe’s purchases.

Quick tip #1: These categories need to be activated through your Chase account each quarter. This is easy and straightforward but must be done to receive 5 points per dollar spent on the bonus categories.

Quick tip #2: Were you about to make a purchase at Amazon or Lowe’s? Wait until April 1st if you can to take advantage of the bonus multipliers.

Quick tip #3: Have you not maxed out the bonus categories for this quarter? On your next trip to the grocery store, throw a gift card to a company you were already planning on making a purchase from. I do this with the Playstation Store. I typically only get 2 miles per dollar spent on Playstation Store purchases with my Venture X. Getting 5 miles per dollar spent is a great bonus for a purchase I know I will already be making in the future. Not all grocery stores will let you buy gift cards with a credit card, but I’ve never had a problem throwing in a $50 or $100 gift card into my cart and paying for it along with my groceries at Albertsons or Smith's.

At gameofmiles.com, I write about how the majority of your points and miles are earned through large credit card sign-up offers. While that is true, it doesn’t mean you can’t supplement that earning along the way. In a future post on the website, I will discuss more tips on doing this in addition to the quick tips above.

In the meantime, please welcome the newest addition to my family – The Hilton Honors Business Card from American Express 😍 I’ll be getting more than 165,000 Hilton Honors points once I complete the welcome offer, which I’ll be able to redeem for more than $1,000 of free hotel stays.

https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18o/DCQT4P092O

21/02/2023

One issue you’ll likely run into when trying to book your first award flights is finding availability. I just booked award flights to and from London for this summer and wanted to drop a quick post here about how I did it. How I went about booking it may help you when you go to book your first award flights. I’ll do a full post on the website with mini reviews of the flights once I complete the trip.

I touch on some tips on finding award space in the gameofmiles.com FAQ. One of the tips I mention is searching for award availability as far in advance as possible. My trip is in June. I procrastinated this long because I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make the trip. Looking for award space only four months in advance during peak summer travel can be a nightmare as I have experienced when trying to find good redemptions over the past 2 days.

I absolutely couldn’t find any reasonable redemption to and from my home airport (Las Vegas) for any locations in Europe. But 2 other tips that I mention in the FAQ helped me score over $10,000 in flights for the amount of points that can be earned on 2 credit card sign up offers.

Because I couldn’t find good redemptions to and from Vegas, I started looking at other destinations. Most of you won’t want to book a flight that isn’t to or from your home airport, but here is the trick. I typically visit family on the east coast over the summer. I have family in Tampa as well as in West Virginia. So I started looking for flights to or from these locations. I was going to be in those locations over the summer anyways. If I could coordinate with my trip to Europe, maybe I could find some good redemptions. And I did.

Another tip I mention in the FAQ is booking each leg of your trip one way. So after some searching, I found a direct flight from Pittsburgh (closest airport to family in West Virginia) to London in British Airways Club World business class cabin. This is the same cabin that I flew last summer and have written about on the blog. The award flight cost me 80,000 Avios and $350 in surcharges, but I get a $200 credit by using the Chase British Airways Visa so it only cost me $150 out of pocket. The cash price of the same flight is $5,732!

I earned the 80,000 Avios with the sign up bonus for the Chase British Airways card. I’ll drop my referral link for this card below in case you are interested in signing up for it, but make sure to read my post on the website about getting started before you do. The offer is 75,000 points after spending $5,000 within 3 months of account opening. That means you will have a minimum of 80,000 Avios after meeting the spend requirement. The annual fee is $95, but after the $200 credit, I am already $105 in the green.

For the flight home, I found a direct route from London to Tampa with Virgin Atlantic in business class for 57,500 points plus $756 in fees. The UK is well known for charging ridiculous surcharges on award flights, and I am a victim of that in this case. However, the cash price of an economy ticket on the same flight is $1,844 so I am paying $1,100 less but get a suite in business class! The business class price? $5,633!

Virgin is a transfer partner of Chase, Capital One, AMEX, and Citi so there are a ton of cards that would earn you enough points for this redemption.

In summary, I wasn’t able to find good redemptions to and from my home airport. However, being flexible with my plans by coordinating the flights around visits to family on the east coast, I was able to book a trip that would have cost more than $11,000 out of pocket for the amount of points that can be earned from 2 credit card sign up bonuses and about $900 in fees.

Hopefully this information will help you when it comes time for you to book your first award flights. Always feel free to drop me a message if you are still having trouble finding award availability, and I’ll see if I can help you out.

My referral link for the Chase British Airways Visa card: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/209/OL5PBE9UVX

Pic below of my seat for the Virgin Atlantic flight 😍

19/02/2023

gameofmiles.com has officially launched!

Head over to the site to start learning how you can earn free travel through normal, everyday spend.

I’ll use this page for quick tips and alerts on travel hacking related topics.

Getting started with the Game of Miles There are some important considerations when choosing which credit cards to go after. Here are my recommendations.