Fair enough. Fare codes are really useful for mileage runs and upgrades no?
Could you elaborate, like multicity trips? Or do you mean really freaky
You can force layovers through specific cities and exclude fare buckets.
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Fare enough. Considered me edumicated on that now.
Fare Codes help me determine how many redeemable miles (and points toward status renewal) I’ll receive for booking a given itinerary with the operating carrier vs. buying the same trip from an alliance partner selling a code share on the identical trip.
For example, I can book SAN-LHR on BA planes via AA, or buy it from BA directly and have my AA account credited for the trip.
Both won’t generally yield the same return, and often they’ll price differently.
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It’s kind of sad.
There are other reasons to have the card, but this isn’t an atypical month of transactional activity on my Platinum card.
I think I’ve used Walmart+ ~3 times, and tbh it’s always been when I’m too lazy to leave the house for a single item that doesn’t make sense to order from Amazon, like dish soap.
The premise of the Platinum card is becoming:
- Give Amex $700 a year
- Claw back your $700, $5 at a time, for things you wouldn’t otherwise buy
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If your renewal is coming up, call in and get you a retention bonus. They offered us 60,000 MR’s for spending $4,000 over 3 months to stay.
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Paid it on 1/30 (it’s in the screenshot). 
I downgrade to Green about every other year, and generally a few months later I’ll get an offer for ~50,000 MRs to upgrade back.
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I’m still in the 200-level class. 
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An acquaintance told me that they were looking for British Airways flights (I assume to Europe) out of NorCal and that, when he selected his origination point as Mexico City, the flight was 1/3 of the cost. I have no idea how much it costs to get to MEX from California, though.
Chase Sapphire Reserve offers automatic trip interruption coverage (which I used last year; I only wish I had known about this benefit b/f paying for a cruise in 2019 [using a diff credit card]!).
Nice. That’s how you play the game. 
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Works with the other product families also.
I believe the last BCE >> BCP upgrade offer was $150 with no AF for one year.
6% on groceries sounds good, but if you have to pay the AF and with the $6k annual cap, the most you can actually get from the card is 4.4%… and we would never max out the $6k, so the return is even lower.
I was also playing the upgrade/downgrade game with my Hilton card. Thanks to that and automatic pandemic status extensions I’ve had zero paid stays at Hilton in at least three years, but I still have Diamond status… which is great when I stay with points. 
I’ve messaged owners thru AirBNB and asked them if there are any discounts. Some are willing to write up a short term rental contract outside AirBNB but YMMV. There are also local facebook groups where people will routinely rent out vacation properties and do a similar process.
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I personally would still tread cautiously but seems like a great idea. Never thought of that before. Thank you @Gearhead
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The main caveat with a situation like that, is the customer and the host lose many of the protections that the services, such as Airbnb, offer.
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Absolutely! That’s why I would move carefully. But… If the property and property owners have a ton of good reviews (you gotta actually read the reviews, not just rating number), it may work out.
Agreed with this, but AirBNB doesn’t really protect either party as they will often deny claims from both sides.
I actually had a really good experience with AirBnB helping out.
I rented an apartment in Paris, in a building on a block facing the Eiffel tower. Excellent location, really nice and clean apartment. Everything was great including price. They had 2 portable heaters. When I turned both on, either fuse blew or breaker tripped. I could not find the panel. Tried to contact owner, no response. We survived of course. They had plenty of blankets. But I contacted AirBnB. They ended up crediting me roughly 70% of total cost. I am sure they would have recovered from owner and I felt a bit bad about it as the apartment was excellent otherwise.
So long story short, I actually got help from Airbnb.
I had similar issue in Spain (same story) and got 20% back as goodwill, even though the owner fixed it the next day. I did not complain. I just noted it in my review and they gave me 20% back. (I don’t remember if this was HomeAway, Airbnb or booking.com)
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When messaging hosts on Airbnb they can send you a special link with invitation to book for a discounted price, no need to leave the site
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Ah, I love this topic. I blogged about points and travel hacking for a long time before sunsetting my website once COVID grounded us and we decided to scale other businesses. I know a lot of travel bloggers continued traveling throughout, but it just wasn’t something we felt comfortable with.
It has, however, allowed me to amass millions of points in the major transferable currencies over the last 2 years, so I’ve got a lot of redeeming to do. We are planning to start traveling again later this year, though.
The most recent redemption I booked last month was just to take advantage of the new Avios partnership and 40% Amex Membership Rewards transfer bonus to nab Qsuites to Europe via Doha. If you’re sitting on Membership Rewards, there’s no better way to redeem 50k points and ~$100 (which is 70k Avios thanks to the transfer bonus) to fly in this sweet suite:
The transfer bonus is live til May 15 for those looking to replicate.
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Great suggestion, but just curious how you were able to get from the US to DOH and back to Europe for the 70k Avios?
(I know 70k will get you from the US to Doha but then with BA’s segment by segment pricing it’s typically another 43k from DOH back to Europe, IME).
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