Author: InACents

Spring Break in the Finger Lakes Region?

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My October 2010 issue of Budget Travel magazine featured the Readers’ Choice awards for various travel related categories. I was surprised and intrigued to read that the Finger Lakes Region in New York State was voted the Most Beautiful Wine Region in the World!

The article discussing the region can be read here and here.

Therefore, seeing as the area is easily a one tank trip away, it seems like a feasible alternative. In addition, our family started an annual tradition several years ago, after I met my wife, to make a trip up to different wine regions. So we are proposing to head up to the Finger Lakes wine region possibly over this spring break (2011).

I’m beginning our search by trying to locate any Intercontinental Hotel Group (Priority Club Rewards) properties in the area. The tough part at this early stage in the planning is choosing a decently rated hotel within a reasonable distance to a lot of the wineries, while still maintaining affordability.

I currently have a coupon that Expedia provided to me that will give us $50 off a 2-night stay at any hotel provided we book by the end of February 2011. The difficult part is all the Intercontinental brand hotels via Expedia are non-refundable. Therefore, I’d be locked into going, and should a better deal come along, I have no other option.

I never like to be locked into plans if I can help it, at least when it comes to hotels. Therefore, I’ll continue to watch for other options, which may even include staying outside the Intercontinental brand. Stay tuned for more details of the planning.

BREAKING NEWS: Delta SkyMiles Eliminates Expiration of Miles

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Typically airlines try to encourage frequent flyer accounts to stay active by making you have some type of activity in your account within 18-24 months. I have been a long time member of Delta SkyMiles, and while I have never had an issue with having activity in my accounts to keep them active, today I received a notice from Delta stating our miles no longer expire.

The email reads:

You now can earn miles without worrying if and when they will expire as we have eliminated our mileage expiration policy – no asterisk, no fine print, no ifs, ands or buts.

We are proud to be the only major U.S. carrier without mileage expiration.

This is great news, and hopefully it puts pressure on other airlines to follow suit. The interesting piece is that Delta probably gains to lose some money with this change. I am sure Delta made a pretty penny on SkyMiles that went unused.

What is in My Wallet?

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We carry the right combination of credit cards to maximize the rewards that we can obtain each month.

I currently carry my original Discover Card, which offers 1% back on all purchases, in addition to a rotating 5% on various other categories. This has always been my go-to card with more than enough of a credit line, and I love watching my cash back account grow. I can instantly redeem my cash rewards for account credit, which I typically try to use for travel related expenses or any other larger purchases to help ease the cost.

In 2008, I was in search for a travel related credit card, but I was not too fond of the annual fee cards associated with specific airlines. In addition, I had concerns about opening up a credit card just for the bonus mile incentive, and then never being able to easily redeem them. Then along came Discover Miles, which teamed up with an outside source to offer a free Garmin GPS with a new credit line. I did not have a GPS unit in my vehicle, so I quickly signed my wife and I up considering the retail on the GPS unit was in the $150-200 range, a decent incentive to sign up at the time. We sold the extra GPS to a friend (my wife already had one installed in her vehicle), and quickly used our new cards to maximize our travel rewards. My Discover Miles card has been another great asset to have in my wallet.

We earn one mile per dollar spent, plus rotating categories, just like my other Discover Card, that offers double miles for select periods of time. For a good deal of time, this was my new go-to card because I enjoyed building miles in my account that could be used for ANY travel related expense. No longer was I concerned about blackout dates or being able to get on a specific flight. Now I could shop around for the travel deals I wanted, use my Discover Miles card, and then easily redeem my miles, in 10,000 mile increments ($100 credit).

Overall, we are loyal Discover Card members, and always try to maximize our rewards dependent on the incentive. Maybe it is the fact that my parents are also long time Discover Card users and they rubbed off on me, but I love my Discover Card, and it is always my first recommendation to others when they ask which card to get.

Lastly, I also carry around my Sony Rewards Chase VISA credit card that I opened in 2006. This was really the first credit card that I opened just for the bonus and only after I knew how it would impact my credit. I think I received an initial 10,000 bonus points for opening the credit card. What I did not know was Chase, maybe only at the time, or because of my excellent credit history, gave me a hefty credit line, the largest I had ever received. It has definitely come in handy where my Discover Card was not either accepted or because it had a larger credit line. I have found that I really have little use for this card though because I am not really all too interested in redeeming for their over-priced Sony products (even though I like Sony products) and their gift card options have been horrible once they increased their redemption values (3,500 points = $25 gift card; 6,250 points = $50 gift card; or 11,000 points = $100 gift card). They used to be 2,500 points = $25 gift card; 5,000 points = $50 gift card; or 10,000 points = $100 gift card. Like I said earlier, I carry this card around as a “just in case my Discover Card is not accepted” card. I would close the account and open up a more valuable Chase card, but I have had the card for a while now and since the credit line is large, there is a chance closing the card could negatively impact my credit scores.

Besides some other minor stores credit cards I still have open and never use, we also currently have the United Airlines Chase credit card, where we were given 50,000 miles each for opening a new card. We learned about the credit card here, on FatWallet.com. Opening up a line of credit for my wife and I to each obtain enough for two domestic round trip tickets was a no-brainer. Come this April 2011, we will have to cancel the accounts so we do not get charged the annual fee, but it should not impact are credit scores any. We do not actively use these cards though because the accrual is only 1 miles/$2 spent, not a great reward benefit.

After we sell our home and obtain a mortgage on a new property, we will have to consider closing some of our obsolete cards and possibly opening up some more valuable reward cards if the bonus is worth while.