That person you are describing isn’t likely a frequent visitor to LH so I didn’t even address that kind of person but you are absolutely right
This is really the crux of the matter. You are starting with a solid knowledge baseline. Story time - My wife has an event in Dublin. Like it would be for you, it was fairly easy for me to use miles to get her there (since there was award availability on one of the few non-stops from DC region to Dublin) and since cash fares were expensive we got about 3 cents per point value. After booking, I made a passing comment that Aer Lingus had similar award availability from Boston that her friend might want to consider. Even knowing what flights had availability and what points to use it took her friend 90 minutes and a phone call to me to book.
As an explanation - based on multiple internet articles the right way to book an aer lingus ticket.
- Go to British Airways website
- Create BA Avios account
- Search for aer lingus availability on BA’s website.
- Go to Avios.com
- Create Avios.com account for Aer Lingus. Not Aer Lingus’ website, you cant create the account there, but Avios.com. And of course the BA avios account doesnt connect to Aer Lingus avios account.
- Transfer points to Aer Lingus
- Book ticket.
This is not something an average person is going to know how to do. I have no time to learn this sort of stuff now with kids and life but I have a baseline knowledge from a less crazy time in my life that makes this sort of thing easy for me. Without this knowledge, or desire/time to accrue this knowledge, a 2% credit card makes more sense
Or maybe a sapphire reserve/preferred depending on spending and travel patterns. You only need the excellent travel protection to save you once to cover many many years of annual fees.
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Fair point. I’d say Chase to Hyatt redemptions are the other area you can still get really good value. 40k points for 2500$ a night hotels is not bad.
Economy has indeed become very tough to get good value redemptions on.
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My current lineup
Sam Club Mastercard, 5% gas anywhere, 3% Dining, 3% Sam’s Club
Target Debit, 5% off Target
Amazon Chase, 5% Amazon and Whole Foods
Venmo 3% top category, use for Groceries, Costco, Walmart etc.
United Explorer Chase, mostly for whatever isn’t covered by the other cards, signup bonus 65k miles and a free checked bag plus a couple club passes. Free first year, $95 after
Amex Platinum, on as an additional card holder for about $58/yr, lounge access and several status upgrades for hotels and car rentals.
I think anymore than this is too much hassle, this is my limit, I think you have to reevaluate every so often.
My man if you have that many cards why not just open a new one for bonuses every few weeks/months. All your spend would get 10-20% or more. Open it, meet the spend, then forget about it.
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If I’m averaging 4% back and have one card a year where I’m grabbing some sort of signup bonus, that’s good enough for me. It becomes too much hassle if it’s once a month, I’m not that much of baller spending a ton a money either.
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My wallet:
US Bank Altitude Reserve 4.5% on all Apple Pay(include web/in-app purchase) basically my 80% spending is on this card
Hilton Aspire (negative annual fee card with a lot benefits)
United Explorer, you can buy basic fare everytime after you have this card, plus you can sell the two club pass, annual fee is like minimum
Southwest Priority (negative annual fee if you fly southwest 1-2 times a year)
Amex Platinum (Perks are good and love the lounge)
No Annual Fee:
Chase Freedoms
Citi DoubleCash
BoA 123/Unlimited (my oldest credit card, keep for credit score)
hyatt just changed their points requirements March 28, prob won’t get $2500 of value anymore
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Isn’t it $175 for additional card?
$175 for up to three and then $175 for each additional is how the terms read
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Chase sapphire preferred 
only 1 I use (older ones are open for cc score) and the wife/I travel Internationally at least once/year. If I am being honest, I am just learning about how to correctly redeem the points; As many have mentioned, big deep dive for the common joe (including myself) to take on/understand to full get the benefits offered at times.
Do you recommend a particular website for a better understanding/deep dive or just ‘google’
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Google usually shows NerdWallet and The Points Guy.
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Every hotel chain does category changes every year. Usually they don’t go higher on points for the top category though (unless they’ve got critical mass like Marriott and can blow through the roof).
Booked Topping Rose in NY last week: peak summer for 45k points per night, $3k room rate incl. taxes and fees (does not account for any upgrades or additional value provided - last year they provided wine, a $50 gift card to clothing store, room upgrade, etc. at check-in).
I do think that it’s all a race to the bottom. Both airlines and hotels race to gain critical mass, so that they can ‘afford’ to devalue their points and still retain massive loyalty/business. Hilton did it first, then Marriott. Same with Delta, followed by AA, and lately United, getting rid of their award charts, and moving to dynamic pricing. That’s why I suggest earning and churning. Don’t sit on any points.
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IMO it’s a lot more complex than Leasehacking. When you say deep dive, there are so many facets to it that there is no one size fits all. The community likes Doctorofcredit, Frequent Miler and to a lesser extend One Mile at a Time for Flight and Hotel reviews.
Honestly the Reddit wiki is the best place to start but it can be pretty intimidating. A lot of the information is also out of date but it gets the ideas across.
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Level 1: The Points Guy
Level 2: Boardingarea / DoC (Edit: Boardingarea aggregates OMAAT, Frequent Miler and others)
Level 3: FlyerTalk (leasehackr level)
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Thank you! @Petrem Thank you!
may i ask for the link for buying group lol, interested
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You’re not going to respect /r/churning? tsk tsk tsk
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The race to the bottom of point devaluation and the diminishing returns of the chase/churn is best viewed by the state of the overcrowded and awful Amex and United (not Polaris) lounges over the last 10 years.
Everybody qualifies for everything now.
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