5 ms·

This type of thing stops being useful when you travel a lot, the loyalty programs wind up making a lot of things much cheaper then they would be to new customer

This type of thing stops being useful when you travel a lot, the loyalty programs wind up making a lot of things much cheaper then they would be to new customers and easier to find and book. And regarding flights this didn't try to take advantage of some of the common flight booking tricks which can reduce fares much deeper like stopovers, +/- days, and airline switching which are harder to search.

fossuser 5y ago
A lot must be really a lot - like large percentages of the year? I went through the effort to sign up for all the loyalty programs and I travel some for work (or at least I did) - probably 6-12 weeks a year? The loyalty programs were mostly negligible in value they provided. Some (like Amex Platinum rewards) were so hostile to get the value from it made me irritated to use it - not a direct hotel loyalty example, but a lot of them felt like this (calculated to give you the least value possible). Airline loyalty sucks and is a pain to use. The CSV card was probably the only exception to this that I can think of.
- darkerside 5y ago
  It's not uncommon for consultants to fly weekly for long term projects.
- zeroxfe 5y ago
  About 7 years ago, I got an invite to the highest level of two programs for a year (platinum? vibranium? i don't know.) I used travel about once a month for work, which is not nearly enough to earn those levels. It was amazing -- lounge access, free upgrades, free limos, free food and drinks, front of the line, expedited service everywhere, endless gifts (who doesn't need more socks?) It was a pretty good year to fly. :-)
- jspaetzel 5y ago
  For me I was able to extract value with maybe... 5-6 trips a year minimum. More then that and it just gets easier. But I guess it partly depends on what you're valuing. For instance... If you travel with no checked bags ever, and you fly on an airline that requires you to pay for checked bags. You won't see the value of having free checked bags when you achieve an airline status. There's lots of little things like this.
  - fossuser 5y ago
    Yeah - I think that was the case for me. I didn't care about checked bags. If I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get a limited (and expiring) $200 credit it mostly annoys me more than helps.
- newdude116 5y ago
  It really depends. It depends how much you travel and what you want to achieve. 1. Hotel benefits. Can be nice. I screwed out a few free nights out of the Accor loyalty program. Also, you start to get early check in /early check out/ free breakfast etc. which can be nice. 2. Free flights. This is a tricky one. Yes, I have done it. But most of the time it is difficult, except if you fly twice a month business class Europe<>US and are draining in miles. 3. Convenience. Gold status can give you convenience. You might get treated nicer, priority check in, extra luggage, and lounge access. This is much easier to achieve than free flights. As a word of caution: Getting gold elite status is an art. Make sure to have a look at flyertalk or another website to learn the peaks. Also, if you always fly airline X does not mean you have to be on their loyalty program but only in their alliance.
- splonk 5y ago
  Airline loyalty value depends heavily on how frequently you can travel on one carrier and how much you value things like upgrades. Hotel loyalty is a whole different ballgame because the margins that hotels pay to the booking sites are much higher (20-30%). For a long time hotels were contractually obligated to give the aggregators their lowest publicly available price ("most favored nation" - some recent EU regulation may have cut down on this, not sure what the current status is). One way of getting around that is direct marketing, so hotels are highly incented to get you to sign up for a loyalty program, give you 10% off, and keep the other 10% that would otherwise go to Booking/Expedia.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    Yeah, airline loyalty is (was?) pretty much about focusing on one carrier (and its partners) wherever possible even if it's not always ideal. And flying a lot. I'd hit 60-75K miles a year on one carrier. Who knows if I'll ever do that again. Hotels were always something I signed up for and used when I could but I never did unnatural acts to do so. May be different especially if traveling domestically primarily to $BIGCHAIN which almost always has an option.
  - JackFr 5y ago
    The key to extracting value from airline loyalty programs is not being the one paying for the flights. Many programs now don’t care as much for the number of flight miles as the dollars spent. Business travelers are much less price discriminatory and so airlines get fatter margins. They loyalty programs end up transferring value from your firm to you.
- busterarm 5y ago
  I save more money on my Amex platinum every year than I spend. Not even trying, really. If you use Uber, rent cars, and click the cashback program links in your emails it's actually quite easy to come out ahead. Hotel stays and checked bag fee waivers will put you way into the green.
  - fossuser 5y ago
    They dole out the uber money a tiny bit each month and if you don't use it that month it doesn't roll over (obnoxious). You don't get the airline credits by default you have to register with one through their shitty website. You also have to choose a specific airline, CSR lets you just use the credits on any travel by default. I don't like paying $550/yr fee for something where I'm supposed to be the customer and then have every feature feel like something I have to read the fine print for so I don't get screwed. I ended up just switching to the Apple Card. While the rewards are subpar, at least the software is best in class and they make GS agree to not sell your transactions to third parties. The best Amex feature was the Delta lounge access (only when flying on Delta) - the Delta lounges are really nice, particularly the one at SFO. The Amex lounges are great too, but there aren't many of them and they're often in terminals that are inconvenient (or United - which I try to avoid at all costs). I think there's probably an opening here for a startup with a credit card that's actually good.
    - busterarm 5y ago
      the uber money is $30/mo. You can use it with Uber Eats. It's more than half of your $550/yr fee. $190 for all of the other benefits that the card provides is INSANELY CHEAP. Most of the other programs you just sign up once. It's so easy, I don't understand what you're complaining about. If it's difficult for you to use the benefits, you probably aren't the target type of customer for that card. The merchant discounts and event ticket presales/reserved seating are a massive boon. I get just shy of front row seating at many events because of AmEx. There's usually at least $50 in merchant discounts available each month that I'll use.
      - fossuser 5y ago
- tagawa 5y ago
  Maybe a silly question but what’s the CSV card?
  - fossuser 5y ago
    Chase Sapphire Reserve
    - tagawa 5y ago
      Thanks.
imwillofficial 5y ago
As a travel newbie, any recommendations for loyalty programs or tips + tricks?
- waterside81 5y ago
  Checkout /r/awardtravel on reddit
- ghaff 5y ago
  I'm not a hyper-optimizer but pre-pandemic I was traveling a good third of the time. Basically. Pick an airline and travel with them whenever you can. Enroll in all the hotel loyalty programs but they're mostly not worth over-optimizing around. If you travel a lot, premium credit cards may make sense. It doesn't matter much until you're travelling what most people would consider a lot. But then it can start to become significant in terms of money and/or comfort.
- jspaetzel 5y ago
  Get a travel rewards credit card and read all of the benefits. The chase sapphire reserve is phenomenal to start with. For the loyalty programs you don't see the value immediately, you need to travel a fair bit before those programs start having much/any return. Initially try to stick with the same couple of brands to maximize the loyalty programs. Try to apply a corporate rate code to any hotels and car rentals, makes a huge difference. Figure out what airline local to you has the most/best routes that you want to take and stick with it. That may depend on where you want to fly too.. so spend some time figuring that out.

fossuser 5y ago

A lot must be really a lot - like large percentages of the year? I went through the effort to sign up for all the loyalty programs and I travel some for work (or at least I did) - probably 6-12 weeks a year? The loyalty programs were mostly negligible in value they provided. Some (like Amex Platinum rewards) were so hostile to get the value from it made me irritated to use it - not a direct hotel loyalty example, but a lot of them felt like this (calculated to give you the least value possible). Airline loyalty sucks and is a pain to use. The CSV card was probably the only exception to this that I can think of.

darkerside 5y ago
It's not uncommon for consultants to fly weekly for long term projects.
zeroxfe 5y ago
About 7 years ago, I got an invite to the highest level of two programs for a year (platinum? vibranium? i don't know.) I used travel about once a month for work, which is not nearly enough to earn those levels. It was amazing -- lounge access, free upgrades, free limos, free food and drinks, front of the line, expedited service everywhere, endless gifts (who doesn't need more socks?) It was a pretty good year to fly. :-)
jspaetzel 5y ago
For me I was able to extract value with maybe... 5-6 trips a year minimum. More then that and it just gets easier. But I guess it partly depends on what you're valuing. For instance... If you travel with no checked bags ever, and you fly on an airline that requires you to pay for checked bags. You won't see the value of having free checked bags when you achieve an airline status. There's lots of little things like this.
- fossuser 5y ago
  Yeah - I think that was the case for me. I didn't care about checked bags. If I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get a limited (and expiring) $200 credit it mostly annoys me more than helps.
newdude116 5y ago
It really depends. It depends how much you travel and what you want to achieve. 1. Hotel benefits. Can be nice. I screwed out a few free nights out of the Accor loyalty program. Also, you start to get early check in /early check out/ free breakfast etc. which can be nice. 2. Free flights. This is a tricky one. Yes, I have done it. But most of the time it is difficult, except if you fly twice a month business class Europe<>US and are draining in miles. 3. Convenience. Gold status can give you convenience. You might get treated nicer, priority check in, extra luggage, and lounge access. This is much easier to achieve than free flights. As a word of caution: Getting gold elite status is an art. Make sure to have a look at flyertalk or another website to learn the peaks. Also, if you always fly airline X does not mean you have to be on their loyalty program but only in their alliance.
splonk 5y ago
Airline loyalty value depends heavily on how frequently you can travel on one carrier and how much you value things like upgrades. Hotel loyalty is a whole different ballgame because the margins that hotels pay to the booking sites are much higher (20-30%). For a long time hotels were contractually obligated to give the aggregators their lowest publicly available price ("most favored nation" - some recent EU regulation may have cut down on this, not sure what the current status is). One way of getting around that is direct marketing, so hotels are highly incented to get you to sign up for a loyalty program, give you 10% off, and keep the other 10% that would otherwise go to Booking/Expedia.
- ghaff 5y ago
  Yeah, airline loyalty is (was?) pretty much about focusing on one carrier (and its partners) wherever possible even if it's not always ideal. And flying a lot. I'd hit 60-75K miles a year on one carrier. Who knows if I'll ever do that again. Hotels were always something I signed up for and used when I could but I never did unnatural acts to do so. May be different especially if traveling domestically primarily to $BIGCHAIN which almost always has an option.
- JackFr 5y ago
  The key to extracting value from airline loyalty programs is not being the one paying for the flights. Many programs now don’t care as much for the number of flight miles as the dollars spent. Business travelers are much less price discriminatory and so airlines get fatter margins. They loyalty programs end up transferring value from your firm to you.
busterarm 5y ago
I save more money on my Amex platinum every year than I spend. Not even trying, really. If you use Uber, rent cars, and click the cashback program links in your emails it's actually quite easy to come out ahead. Hotel stays and checked bag fee waivers will put you way into the green.
- fossuser 5y ago
  They dole out the uber money a tiny bit each month and if you don't use it that month it doesn't roll over (obnoxious). You don't get the airline credits by default you have to register with one through their shitty website. You also have to choose a specific airline, CSR lets you just use the credits on any travel by default. I don't like paying $550/yr fee for something where I'm supposed to be the customer and then have every feature feel like something I have to read the fine print for so I don't get screwed. I ended up just switching to the Apple Card. While the rewards are subpar, at least the software is best in class and they make GS agree to not sell your transactions to third parties. The best Amex feature was the Delta lounge access (only when flying on Delta) - the Delta lounges are really nice, particularly the one at SFO. The Amex lounges are great too, but there aren't many of them and they're often in terminals that are inconvenient (or United - which I try to avoid at all costs). I think there's probably an opening here for a startup with a credit card that's actually good.
  - busterarm 5y ago
    the uber money is $30/mo. You can use it with Uber Eats. It's more than half of your $550/yr fee. $190 for all of the other benefits that the card provides is INSANELY CHEAP. Most of the other programs you just sign up once. It's so easy, I don't understand what you're complaining about. If it's difficult for you to use the benefits, you probably aren't the target type of customer for that card. The merchant discounts and event ticket presales/reserved seating are a massive boon. I get just shy of front row seating at many events because of AmEx. There's usually at least $50 in merchant discounts available each month that I'll use.
    - fossuser 5y ago
tagawa 5y ago
Maybe a silly question but what’s the CSV card?
- fossuser 5y ago
  Chase Sapphire Reserve
  - tagawa 5y ago
    Thanks.

imwillofficial 5y ago

As a travel newbie, any recommendations for loyalty programs or tips + tricks?

waterside81 5y ago
Checkout /r/awardtravel on reddit
ghaff 5y ago
I'm not a hyper-optimizer but pre-pandemic I was traveling a good third of the time. Basically. Pick an airline and travel with them whenever you can. Enroll in all the hotel loyalty programs but they're mostly not worth over-optimizing around. If you travel a lot, premium credit cards may make sense. It doesn't matter much until you're travelling what most people would consider a lot. But then it can start to become significant in terms of money and/or comfort.
jspaetzel 5y ago
Get a travel rewards credit card and read all of the benefits. The chase sapphire reserve is phenomenal to start with. For the loyalty programs you don't see the value immediately, you need to travel a fair bit before those programs start having much/any return. Initially try to stick with the same couple of brands to maximize the loyalty programs. Try to apply a corporate rate code to any hotels and car rentals, makes a huge difference. Figure out what airline local to you has the most/best routes that you want to take and stick with it. That may depend on where you want to fly too.. so spend some time figuring that out.