Finance

US Airways Dividend Miles card

35,000 US Airways Dividend Miles to Show Our Kids the World

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US Airways Preferred MasterCard

Sometimes you come to a point in life where you just have to do what is right within the realm of the travel world. Airline and reward programs play a vital role in our families development and allow us to travel to places we may not be able to afford without. As an example, there is no way we could have swung 2.5 weeks in Hawaii last year, if it was not for the free flights and hotels we earned from using credit cards.

We are a normal, middle class family. Both Mrs. InACents and myself have full-time careers. Plus we manage two rambunctious boys (ages 3 and 2), with a third child due in a couple of months. All this means that traveling as a family will inevitably get more and more expensive. We were fortunate that when we traveled to Hawaii last year, we only needed three (3) seats, with Lan-Shark (1 at the time) getting to be a lap child. However, there is only limited time before Lan-Shark, and the new baby will require seats.

How we are able to travel so much is by making sure our credit scores are as high as possible. This means paying your bills off on time each month. Responsible credit management means checking your credit reports to make sure they are accurate. Then by utilizing our positive credit scores, we are able to open a handful of new credit cards each year, awarding us piles of miles and points that can be used to offset our travel costs. Pair our credit with some great promotions that may come along during the year, and you can travel for near free throughout the year with very little work outside of what you do already.

In May 2012 I elected to open my first US Airways Premier World MasterCard because of the 40,000 miles offered after first purchase, the 10,000 mile bonus each year, and the possibility to use the card towards my advantage for the US Airways Grand Slam promotion, which I surprisingly discovered would never happened in 2012. Then, the kicker was reading the obituary the other day on the official death of the Grand Slam. I balled my eyes out.

Perhaps the great aspect of the US Airways Premier World MasterCard is the ability to open the card again, earning the bonus repeatedly. Other card issuers are not so gracious. Chase will not let you get the bonus for a card you already received. American Express will at least let you get the bonus typically once per year to 18 months, as stated in the terms of the particular card. Citi tends to also use an 18-month rule. However, Barclays will allow you to earn the bonus on the US Airways Premier World MasterCard as soon as 90 days later. What is even better is the bonus is awarded after first use, so no having to put hundreds or thousands of dollars is a huge savings.

That is why last weekend I went ahead and applied for a second US Airways Dividend card. As we announced two weeks ago, quite a bit evolved with the US Airways and American Airlines merger news. Then almost immediately, the partnered credit cards offered by Barclays, who manages the US Airways credit card program, started to go haywire. You can read our article More Modifications for US Airways Premier World MasterCard®, which highlights the latest offers and changes.

I went ahead and applied through one of the offers we listed on the above page, which offered 35,000 bonus miles; 1st year annual fee waived; and 10,000 bonus miles each year. There was no point in applying through one of the higher bonus offers we listed because they came with an annual fee that was not waived the first year.

I opened the new card, granting me another whopping $14,000 credit line, without closing my old US Airways Premier World MasterCard®. So I will effectively have two versions of the same card, and will have no problem earning 35,000 additional Dividend miles, after buying what amounts to a perfectly chilled Coca-Cola. Beautiful!

Now that I have two (2) of the US Airways Premier World MasterCard® and my wife has one,, we will be well on our way towards having enough miles for a future vacation. I only wish there was a way to open these cards in my kids names, to also start building balances for them.

In my opinion, Barclays, who happens to be one of the small guys in the reward program card space, deserve to sit in the kings chair. It is time to kick Chase out as the card issuer with the mostest, as they limit the amount of times you can get a bonus on a card, and treat their affiliates poorly (yes I am still bitter). Barclays at least wants your business, so much so that they are willing to let you play in the game over and over again. Long live Barclays!

While I have a financial relationship with Barclays, none of the links in this post are my affiliate offers, as they are not necessarily the best ones. Again, it is recommedend to read our article More Modifications for US Airways Premier World MasterCard®, which highlights the latest offers and changes to help you make the best decision on which version of the card is best for you and your family.

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: InACents

AirTran Credit Card

AirTran Wendy’s Cup Deal is Back

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AIRTRAN AIRWAYS WENDY'S FLY-THRU DRIVE-THRU

Wendy serves a meal to a pilot as AirTran Airways, The Coca-Cola Company and Wendy’s International, Inc., today conducted the world’s first fly-thru drive-thru with the airline’s Boeing 737 aircraft at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. (Credit: (www.sawfnews.com/Lifestyle/3805.aspx))

Back in late 2005, AirTran and Wendy’s fast food chain ran one of the greatest promotions that I have ever taken part in. You simply collected specially marked Wendy’s drink cups, and for each 64 coupons, you received a free roundtrip airfare ticket anywhere AirTran flies. Therefore, after collecting 128 cups, one could earn 2 free flights. The madness of the promotion caused people everywhere to dumpster dive and collect as many free cups as they could. One man’s trash is another man’s ticket to paradise.

As soon as I heard of the promotion, I carefully crafted a plan with my sister and brother-in-law to drive around to each of the Wendy’s locations around us and legitimately purchase cups. Some of the locations looked at us weird when we wanted to purchase hundreds of cups. Some even said they could not sell us just the cups and would have to fill each of them with a beverage. Luckily, we all put on our thinking caps and headed down to the lower income neighborhoods during the evening hours, where workers would be more lackadaisical.

All in, I think we spent maybe $75 each on our 64 cups/flight, resulting in hundreds of dollars in value of free flights. Those credits were later used for a Las Vegas trip and a flight to Florida for a cruise with my soon-to-be wife. Oh, the loveliness of travel and how it connects us all!

So now that I have told you the history of the AirTran/Wendy’s program, you want to know the details of the return of the program. Well actually, the new version of the program is changed a little bit. No longer will you need to cut out cup coupons. Instead, it all comes in the form of a piece of plastic.

AirTran Credit Card

The AirTran credit card, offered by Chase, is currently offering 32 free credits (enough for two free flights) after $2,000 in spend within 3 months. The $69 annual fee is not waived the first year, making this cheaper than buying the Wendy’s cups.

The AirTran offer is important for two reasons.

1) The typical offer for the AirTran credit card is only 16 credits (one flight), making this offer a significant improvement.

2) AirTran is in the process of being merged with Southwest Airlines. While there will significant work done to combine the brands in 2013, Southwest does not plan to be fully integrate with AirTran until 2014. However, this means that eventually, the AirTran products could go away. So it is up to you when will be the perfect time to pull the trigger on getting the AirTran branded cards.

So while the Wendy’s offer is not back in the traditional sense, the credit card is offering the same benefits as the cups. Which would you prefer, dumpster diving or smart credit management?

Southwest is also currently offering 50,000 Rapid Reward points (enough for two free flights, or over $800 in Wanna Get Away fares) after spending $2,000 in 3 months via the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Premier Card ($99 annual fee not waived the first year) and the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card ($69 annual fee not waived the first year). Add in a Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier Business Card ($99 annual fee not waived the first year) or Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus Business Card ($69 annual fee not waived the first year). This means you can earn over 200,000 Rapid Reward points just from the Southwest credit cards.

TIP: Want your partner to fly with you for free all year? Then earn a total of 110,000 Rapid Reward points in a calendar year, and earn a free companion pass. The Companion Pass is valid from the date you earn 110,000 Companion Pass qualifying points up to the end of the following calendar year. So if you earned the Companion Pass right now, it would be valid until the end of 2014.

Did you know you can now redeem your credits for flights on both AirTran Airways and Southwest Airlines?

The combined benefit of using both AirTran credits and Southwest points towards travel is huge. When Continental was being combined with United, and we could freely move our miles back and forth, it became a big benefit at times during the merger.

However, there are some important conversion benefits to understand between the different programs.

Southwest Rewards, prior to March 1, 2011, used to issue Rapid Rewards in the form of credits, just like AirTran does currently. After the above date, the new program issued Rapid Rewards in the form of points. So it is possible that you could have both credits and/or points sitting in your account.

Now that Southwest and AirTran are merged, you can combine your accounts to link to each other, allowing easy moving back and forth of credits and points. So how does all of that convert between accounts?

  • 1 Rapid Rewards credit = 1 A+ credit
  • 1,200 Rapid Rewards points = 1 A+ credit
  • 1 Southwest Standard Award (two one-ways) = 16 A+ credits
  • 1 A+ credit converts = 1 Rapid Rewards credit
  • 32 A+ credits or 32 Rapid Rewards credits = roundtrip ticket with either partner

This is where it pays to pay attention to how much tickets cost by purchasing them outright versus using points or credit. With some simple comparisons of using credits versus points, one can convert and actually come out ahead compared to buying the ticket outright.

We have no financial relationship with Chase. These are the best current offers we are aware of, and think they can greatly benefit families looking to stretch their travel dollars.

Save Money, Travel More!

Sharebuilder $6.95 Trades

Sharebuilder to Reduce Investment Fees March 1

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I have long been an investor with Sharebuilder, which is now owned by Capital One. When I used to have a little more free income on hand, I used to “stock” is away in an Automatic investment plan with Sharebuilder, allowing me to purchase any denomination of funds (in my case I went with Exchange Traded Funds, ETF). The program allowed me to invest as little as $1 per week; however, each automatic trade cost $4, so it was more economical to make higher denomination purchases for the same fee.

While purchasing funds with Sharebuilder was cheap via the Automatic investment plans, selling via a market order cost $9.95 per trade. However, in reality, a lot of times per year you can find promotional codes you can add to your account to earn free trades.

For example, some possibly active codes include (I do not know for sure since I may have already applied them to my accounts):

3AIP or 3AIP*GEJZOH (3 free Automatic investments)
SK483GXM2BU9 (5 free automatic investments, expires 12/31/2014)
TAF2RPL*6O52v9
BDAY12AL or BDAY12MR
TAF5AAP*0H10pAE (5 free Automatic investments)
TAF5AAG*0037yC (5 free Automatic investments)

Sharebuilder $6.95 Trades

This week Sharebuilder announced reduced fees starting March 1, 2013.

Automatic investment trades will still only cost $4 through the Sharebuilder Basic program.

Market and limit orders will drop from $9.95 to $6.95 each provided the underlying security is priced above $1. Otherwise, there is a $0.007 surcharge per share on market and limit orders. The total commission (base commission + surcharge) is subject to a maximum of 15% of the principal amount of the trade, but no less than the base commission.

Options trades will also drop March 1 to $6.95 commission and $0.75 per contract for all customers.

Sharebuilder Online Price Changes

There are also changes for margin accounts going into effect April 1, 2013, where Sharebuilder moves to a single pricing structure (it is currently based around different plans).

All of the changes are great news for newbie investors who do not really have a lot of money to invest. Sharebuilder makes it incredibly economical to get started saving, even with as little as $1. No amount is to small to start saving for tomorrow.

Save Money, Travel More!

We do not currently have a financial relationship (i.e. affiliate) with Sharebuilder, but use their services to manage some of our financial investments.