Triple Card Update: Meeting the Minimum Spend

A little over a month ago, I signed up for three cards and I had to meet a minimum spend of $2,000 in two months and $4,000 in three months.

I managed to "spend" $6,000 in less than two months, and I was able to secure the sign up bonuses of 50k Southwest Rapid Rewards points and 80k American Airlines AAdvantage points.

Everyone should know by now that I don't work hard enough to earn an income that lets me spend that sort of money. And if I did, I wouldn't be involved with a blog that centers on affordable travel.
Luckily for me, Vanilla Prepaid Reload cards exist to help meet the minimum spend requirements.

"The Great Game" The search for Vanilla retailers

In the Prior post As good as Sherlock I had outlined my cousin and I's detective work which would potentially lead to almost as cheap Ultimate Rewards points as Vanilla Ink Bold strategy. The next step after solving the puzzle was to try and implement it. Below is the journey I mapped out. Read on to find out how I planned this!

Where can you go with 3 people for $778?

Try Australia, with a 3 day stop over in Hawaii, airfare AND hotel included. The flights are in economy, but the hotels are not in your cheap hostels or economy hotel (nothing wrong with these) but Hyatts and Marriotts. Sometimes we get so caught up in collecting miles, we forget the big picture: spending them!

I got my cousin seriously into the miles game back in July when he applied for the Ink card and Sapphire card in November, and it paid off—big time.

Southwest 50k points back!

Deals We Like has posted that the Southwest 50k Rapid Reweards points after $2,000 spend in 3 months credit card is back. Remember if you applied to one already, you can still apply to the other 3 cards since they are considered different products. I will be applying to another one myself.

Check our more detailed info on the card below!

Southwest Rapid Rewards Card

Annual Fees: 3 Reasons Why They Don't Matter

One of first tips my dad has ever given me about credit cards was to watch out for annual fees. Stay away from them. That's how they get you. Why are their services so damn special? There are plenty of cards out there who won't charge you. Annual fees? Nice try, card company. Forget them. Move on.

Yeah... about that piece of advice...

I've applied to cards with annual fees of $69, $79 and $100 without batting an eye, and I have a three good reasons why I don't let annual fees scare or stop me.

Leveraging loyalty. It really works on me!

3500 delta points for 15 minutes of work? Use loyalty programs to your advantage!

As David mentions in his triple card churning post, I had an error on my planned ski trip back to Oregon. To make a long story short, I had to change dates on my trip, so I got credit on Delta (along with a $150 change fee—ouch) to reissue my next flight. When I tried to reissue my ticket the agent tried to charge me a $25 phone booking fee. She did not believe that the policy for reissuing tickets waives that fee, and told me to book it online.

So I proceeded to buy my ticket on Delta.com, and for some reason, my credit did not go through but my card got charged for the whole flight. I wrote an email complaint to Delta, and received their response just a week later.

As Good As Sherlock? Detective Work For More Points!

I recently watched this BBC series and I strongly suggest that you check it out. What does this series have to do with miles and points earning? If you have been keeping up with the blog, you would know from my Jump off it? post that the Vanilla Ink Bold strategy is dead. After some detective work of my own, I have found a possible way to collect Chase Ultimate Rewards points at almost the same cost as the Vanilla Ink bold strategy, with only a little more convenience. I'm not going to lie. I totally thought myself to be Sherlock when I was doing the research; albeit Asian, less smart, and less witty. But hey, who's judging?