First Class? Pffft, Overrated

If you were to sign up for 2 Citi American Airlines cards you could net yourself 125k American Airlines (AA) miles easily in a year. How would you spend them?

1. 2 round-trip flights from US to Japan in Economy, plus another transcontinental round-trip in Economy
2. 3 round-trip flights from US to Europe in Economy
3. 1 round-trip flight from US to Japan in First class

What good is a lounge invitation when I can have my salted peanuts and the snoring/drooling stranger resting their head on my shoulder?  2 round-trips to Japan in Economy it is!

Let me tell you why I wouldn't choose first class:

Sleep? Who needs it?

If your like me(broke) then you've experienced Economy plenty of times before, and its not half bad on international flights. I like to think of Economy as the "going camping" of the airlines world, and that I would have a far better experience "toughing" it out in seats that recline 20 degrees with my knees hitting the back of the seat in front of me. Economy would make me cherish my destination that much more!

Who needs a good nights sleep in with First class lie flat seats complete with down pillow and comforter shown below. Allowing you to be completely energized for the day ahead when you land.

Save my stomach for foreign food!

Lounge open bar

One of my favorite things about traveling internationally is to eat good food that I can't normally get. Flying First Class really conflicts with this joy of mine because they feed you NON-STOP to the point where you won't want to eat anything when you land! From the departing airport lounge to the actual flight AND the arriving airport, they provide you with food and drink.

Lounge Buffet

Lobster Dinner onboard

I Prefer the Ambiance at Gates Anyways 

For those of you that don't know(I was one of them once), lounges are separate seating areas for either paid members, premium cabin  flyers, or frequent flyers with status, so as you can imagine they are probably full of stuck up snobs. I'd much rather sit at the gate with my wallet friendly priced KFC.

Speaking of lounges they also offer amenities such as multiple electrical outlets, computers, semi-private work areas, and showers like the one below.

What use is water coming out of the ceiling anyways?

I'm on vacation for crying out loud! Why would I want to be connected to technology or bring work with me? And why shower if i'm going to be drooled on by the stranger next to me right?

JK!

In all honesty, that flight that you dread to get to your vacation destination, and the flight you can't wait to get off of to get home, transforms into part your entire vacation experience when you fly a premium class. I actually might have shed a tear when I landed in Hong Kong knowing I would soon depart a mini-world where attractive flight attendants fed me food and beer non stop with a smile.

Yes I can get 2 round trips in economy, but at this point of my life I don't have time to take two big trips in a year, so I might as well do one in comfort and luxury right? I also could never justify paying for a First class ticket, the trip that the pictures are from would have run me over $12,000 one way. Using points allows me to obtain something I normally could not, whereas I could pay for those economy tickets.

In the end, points are valued differently by each person. For those of you lucky enough to have time to travel abroad twice in a year then by all means do it. This is just how I justify my use of them.

Some other perks

• Priority boarding (so you can get your pre-flight drink :D)
• Some airports have premium lane customs/immigrations
• Dedicated Security checkpoints
• SLEEP
• Treated like a rock star. LAX AA Flagship check-in shown below:

OfficeMax Offering Gift Card Coupon

Bluebird to the rescue again!

OfficeMax is offering a promotion that can seriously help you boost your points/miles. The deal: Spend over $200 on Visa or MasterCard gift cards, and you get $10 off.

The great thing about these gift cards is that you can load them into your Bluebird account. This promo works best if you have the Chase Ink Bold. The 5x bonus points at office supply stores will beef up your Ultimate Rewards point to the point where you can effectively be paid to travel.

The Process

1. Go to OfficeMax and snap up as many of these gift cards as possible.
• Don't spend over $2,000 at a time. If you do, OfficeMax is required to take down your information.
• Try to purchase the $200 cards. Unfortunately for me, they've always been out so I've been buying the $100 cards.
• Activation fee of each card costs $5.95 for $100 gift.
• Activation fee of each card costs $6.95 for $200 gift.
2. Assign a PIN to each of your cards.
• Visa gift card PINs can be created at https://mygift.giftcardmall.com/
• MasterCard gift card PINs can be calling 1-866-952-5653 and going through the automated system.
3. Go to Walmart's Money Center to load these gift cards (as debit cards, and using your newly created PIN) into your Bluebird account.
4. PROFIT! (... at a small loss. Or a small gain. We'll get into that.)

NOTE:
Make sure you separate out your transactions to $200 due to the offer terms: $10 coupon per transaction for anything over $200.

• If you're buying ten $100 gift cards, do five transactions.
• If you're buying three $200 gift cards, do three transactions.

This assures you receive $10 dollars at every $200 increment.

David's Experience

I spent $1,400 on fourteen $100 card. Each of those fourteen cards had an activation fee of $5.95. The OfficeMax cashier was stellar and patiently worked through seven separate transactions to maximize the deal of $10 off $200.

I immediately brought the cards home and went to https://mygift.giftcardmall.com/ to create an account, add my cards and create PINs for them.

The next day, I went to Walmart and loaded my Bluebird. At first, I did it on my own on the Money Center ATM. That sucked, especially since I can only load one card at a time. What sucked more was that the damn ATM announced every action I did. "What do you want to do?" "How much do you want to reload?" "You are reloading for $100. Is this correct?"

After loading one card, I decided it would be less embarrassing to go to a customer service rep. Wrong. They tried to load multiple cards, but the entire transaction got voided by the system. So I actually still loaded one card a time.

10 minutes, 13 card swipes, and countless curious stares later, I was out the door with money in my Bluebird.

The Numbers

I charged $201.90 seven times on my Chase Ink Bold:

($100 + $100 + 2($5.95)) - $10) = $201.90

What this boils down to is that I paid $13.30 (or $0.95 activation fee per card) for 7,067 Chase Ultimate Reward points because of Ink's 5x points bonus:

($201.90 x 7) x 5 bonus points = 7066.5

In other words, that's 0.2 cents per point.

But if you're lucky enough to snag the $200 gift cards, you would be paying $196.95 for $200:

$200 + $6.95 - $10 = $196.95
In other words, you're being paid 0.3 cents for each point you earn.

A transfer of 25k British Avios points from Chase Ultimate reward points at the $100 gift card rate could fly you from LAX to Hawaii round-trip for $47.50. If you are lucky to find the $200 gift cards, you can get that same trip, but get paid $75 for it!

It's a tough deal to get paid to travel, huh?

My First Mattress Run: No its not a Porno

Full suite with bed off to the left

Yup, was able to cook Fajitas in the kitchenette

Paying 75 bucks a night for a hotel stay in your home town sound stupid? Continue reading to find out why I did it for 4 nights and see how I turned them into a stay-cation!

Daft Trip Around the World! How this Punk did it!

One of my dreams was to fly first class on an international flight. I did it last year.

Now, I'm completing my next dream of going around the world in First/Business for less than the cost of an economy ticket to Asia or Europe.

Do we have your attention yet?