Park Hyatt Aviara Resort Review

Setup service at the Family Pool (click to enlarge)

We're on our way back from a tremendous Memorial Day weekend at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort. Although "May Gray" weather was present most of the time, we had a wonderful stay. From beginning to end the quality of the hotel and the level of service here was very high. We'll be back...

Overview

Park Hyatt Aviara public area

The hotel is one of just 138 to earn both a AAA Five Diamond rating and a Forbes Five Star rating (so said our shuttle driver). Although this was the fifth Park Hyatt we've stayed at this year (Paris, NYC, DC, and Chicago were the others) this was our first visit to a Park Hyatt Resort.

This particular Park Hyatt used to be a Four Seasons hotel. However, in 2010 ownership ended its management contract with Four Seasons and brought in Hyatt to run things. What we have now is a property where the adjacent Residence Club is still managed by Four Seasons and the hotel is managed by Hyatt.

See: Four Seasons Residence Club Aviara Family Friendly Review

When I first heard the news that the hotel was going to be a Hyatt my reaction was: "Downgrade". However, I don't think I appreciated that the Park Hyatt level within the Hyatt lineup is positioned similarly aesthetically and in terms of overall quality as Four Seasons.

Most people (other than points & miles hounds) don't understand Hyatt's brands very well (Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, garden variety Hyatt, etc) so don't feel bad if you're not familiar with them. You're not alone!

Park Hyatt is their luxury level, and although it doesn't consistently deliver the way Four Seasons does, some Park Hyatt locations are very nice. So, in hindsight Park Hyatt was a natural fit to take over the Aviara hotel.

I'm a huge fan of Four Seasons and although I'd never stayed at the Four Seasons Aviara hotel proper I enjoyed the amenities the hotel offered in conjunction with Four Seasons Residence Club stays. On a week-long stay you could "mix things up" a bit and visit the hotel pool, take the kids over to the game room, and enjoy golf/tennis clinics for a nominal fee.

Although the relationship between the hotel and residence club has improved in recent times, the two now operate as completely separate entities. For example, you're not welcome to use the pools at the hotel if you're staying at the residence club and vice versa.

So this review is going to be from the viewpoint of a guy who's stayed at the Four Seasons Aviara Residence Club with his family in the past staying at the Park Hyatt Aviara hotel for the first time, with some observations on how well Hyatt Diamond status conveys at this property.

Booking

Since we've got Hyatt Diamond status this year and I was in the market for something fun to do Memorial Day weekend I had a look at the Hyatt Regency in Newport, RI. We live in Boston so it would be a short but traffic-laden drive. I didn't like the way availability was shaking out there so I had a look at Aviara. And everything fell neatly into place for a trip to San Diego.

But if there's one thing I've noticed about Hyatt's loyalty program it's this:

Every booking experience is an adventure. 

Some properties have ample award availability, others do not. Some have ample Diamond Suite Upgrade availability, others do now. Some allow you to upgrade a points booking with cash, others do not. Sometimes you get a different answer if you call the hotel vs calling the Diamond Gold Passport desk. If you like puzzles you'll love tinkering with the Hyatt program.

For Memorial Day weekend, paid rates were running around $349/nt. Since Aviara is a Hyatt Category 5 hotel (7 being the highest) it costs 20,000 Hyatt ponits per night OR 10,000 points + $125/nt. I initially opted for the Cash + Points option hoping to apply a Diamond Suite Upgrade certificate to the stay.

When paying with points, the $30/nt resort fee
is waived and there is no tax on the stay

Unfortunately, that suite upgrade award space never materialized. Although there were Park Suites available for our dates and Park Deluxe Suites as well - the Park Luxury Suite was not available. And in order to use a Diamond Suite Upgrade at this property the Luxury Suite needs to be available. And it's hardly ever available. How convenient. I've seen similar shenanigans at other Hyatt properties (I'm looking at you, Park Hyatt Chicago).

It's this kind of carving up of room categories and what feels to me like strategic blocking of award space that has me less than enthusiastic about chasing Hyatt Diamond requalification, as amazing as it can be.

See this thread on FlyerTalk for a listing of the suite categories for each property that needs to be available in order to use a Diamond Suite Upgrade.

Arrival

The hotel charges $35/day for valet parking and we didn't need a car during our stay, so I decided to hire a car service to and from the San Diego airport for around $100. It worked out great. We arrived quite late so while we were about 20 minutes away from the hotel I called to request they make up the queen foldout sofabed so our boys could go straight to bed. They did and it was much appreciated.

I was a bit "on guard" while checking in since our stay at the Park Hyatt Chicago was rough in terms of recognizing Diamond benefits (we had to fight for eveything we got). However, upon check-in at the Park Hyatt Aviara we were kindly briefed that as a Diamond member we'd receive:

• Complimentary Full American Breakfast Buffet at the California Bistro (for up to 4 registered guests per room, $35+ value per person and including gratuity, this cannot be taken as room service at this property unlike other Park Hyatts)
• Food & Beverage Amenity (we opted for a cheese plate and a bottle of red wine)
• Best Available Room (within room category, we were upgraded to a standard room with an obstructed view of the pool)
• Complimentary Newspaper (even I who appreciate the novelty of reading the newspaper while on vacation didn't opt to take advantage of this, and shouldn't that be available to all guests?)
• Complimentary Turndown Service (again, shouldn't this be standard at a five star hotel?)
• Complimentary Internet Access (worked very well all over the resort grounds)
• Complimentary 4:00 pm late checkout (based on availability but not useful to us on this stay)
• Complimentary Spa facility access (surprisingly nice, a $30 value)
• 30% point bonus on eligible spend (always nice, too bad alcohol is excluded)

Room

View from a 3rd floor "Pool View King" room.
Definitely obstructed, but whatever.

We've gotten some really nice suite upgrades at Hyatts so far this year (Park Hyatt NYC is incredibly refined, and there's a lot of leverage to be had at the Hyatt Regency Maui for example). However, the standard room at the Park Hyatt Aviara served us well. With a very nice large bathroom, king bed with a foldout queen sofa, and outdoor space I was perfectly happy to save our suite upgrade for another stay.

The bathroom is remiscient of those at the Four Seasons Residence Club (which I really like). The room appears to have gotten a meaningful facelift in the past few years, but its styling isn't as contemporary as most Hyatts.

The mattress was a low light for me, and a weak spot for Park Hyatts in general in my opinion. Most Park Hyatts have a rather firm bed that almost has a platform feel to it. And that's fine. But at Aviara I experienced a pillow top mattress that seemed to have large depressions in it that resulted in my feet being higher than my body and left me in an awkward position all night. Not good.

Another weak spot: Although they have in-room Illy capsule-based espresso makers they provide powerdered Coffeemate as a creamer. I'd prefer a liquid creamer. Note that there's Keurig coffee at the front desk before 6:30am and complimentary Illy drip coffee outside the California Bistro starting at 6:30am.

Overall, the room was very good but not quite outstanding.

Food & Beverage

Poolside wood fired pizza oven.
Pizzas were innovatively conceived, perfectly prepared, and absolutely delicious.

If there's one thing that's consistently impressed me about Park Hyatt it's been the food & beverage program. Not just the breakfast (I'll get to that in a minute) but so many Park Hyatt properties feature restaurants you might want visit even if you're not staying at the hotel. The Back Room at the Park Hyatt New York and the Blue Duck Tavern at their Washington DC properites come to mind - terrific.

The brunch served at the California Bistro is outstanding. I remember eating here back in the day when they offered a Friday night Seafood Buffet where in an effort to maximize value guests regularly risked allergic reactions while ingesting copious amounts of shellfish.

Blueberry Crumble Danish were only outdone by Strawberry Cronuts

The pastry chef at this property, from France I'm told, is amazingly talented. Highlights at the buffet included Strawberry Cronuts [wow!], Blueberry Crumble Danish, and Peanut Butter and Chocolate Croissants. Other venues on site benefit from his talents. For example, in the Spa they've got shortbread or macarons on a rotating basis.

Also, the weekend we were there they featured personal s'mores setups poolside. With service for four and the components prepared in house (there's that pastry chef again) they were a very enjoyable novelty.

Each night on the holiday weekend they had a special dinner offering poolside. We loved the wood-fired pizzas prepared right next to our table and delivered by the chef himself. Terrific.

I'd like to be able to buy Cali Creamin' on the east coast
but that would kill the novelty

The beer assortment poolside featured a lot of local brews - including one of my favorites: Mother Earth Brew Co Cali Creamin' Vanilla Cream Ale. It's one of those things where I wish they'd sell it on the east coast but as soon as they did the novelty would be gone.

We stopped in for a drink at The Argyle Steakhouse, down by the Aviara Golf Club. A very nice spot. Seems newly remodeled to a very high level recently. We had a simple plate of french fries that were as good as I can imagine fries being.

Simple french fries at the Argyle Lounge after golf were amazingly good.
Can this place do no wrong?

We didn't visit the hotel's fine dining venue (Vivace) on this visit, but prior visits it has been spectacular. I highly recommend it. You're welcome to dine at the Park Hyatt restaurants while staying at the Residence Club, but not vice versa.

Overall, the food & beverage options at this property delighted across the board.

Activities

Enjoy complimentary use of the driving range and putting green
at the Aviara Golf club while staying at the Park Hyatt

A strength of the Park Hyatt Aviara is its scale and the breadth of actities they're able to offer, especially when occupancy rates are high.

Golf

The Arnold Palmer designed 18 hole Aviara Golf Club hosts the LPGA Kia Classic. It is a gorgeous golf course. I didn't have time to play it on this visit [hotel guests get preferred tee times] but instead took my boys down to hit some golf balls at the driving range. Normally reserved for those playing a round of golf that day, range access is included in the resort fee.

Pro Tip: The Citi Prestige credit card comes with 3 free rounds of golf annually and 4th night free at hotels. The Aviara Golf Club is included in the list of courses in this program and it's a great redemption since a rates can be as high as $230 per round.

They treated us like VIPs at the Aviara Golf Club
Complimentary loaner clubs - even for young lefties!

I called down and they set me up with complimentary loaner clubs for me and my boys, even a perfectly sized left-handed set for my 8 year old. We enjoyed driving the cart over to the range and hitting balls off turf rather than the synthetic mats they're more accustomed to. After that we putted for a bit and grabbed a drink at the Argyle Lounge while regaling in the fine service we experienced.

The tennis courts also looks to be a great value. Court time on one of six courts (two of which are clay), racquet rentals, and balls are said to be included in the resort fee.

Golf and tennis clinics for adults and/or kids are offered on select days as well.

Spa

I'm not a big spa guy so I had a special reporter do a visit and provide her thoughts.

If you happen to have Diamond status with Hyatt (or have a friend who will share their status with you as a "Guest of Honor") be sure to visit the spa.

Even if you are not springing for any spa treatments, check in at the spa desk where they will ask your shoe size then assign you a locker with appropriately sized sandals, plush robe, bottled water, jewelry bag, and laundry bag. After changing in to the robe, stop by the coed "relaxation room" aka the solarium where you can get hot herbal tea, fruit-infused ice water, dried fruit, fresh peaches, mixed nuts, and either freshly baked shortbread cookies or assorted French macarons (cookie/macaron selection seems to be on a daily rotation).

Lounge in the comfy chairs with palm trees and a slight breeze while enjoying the treats. Next head to the spa area for some time in the dry sauna, steam room, and jacuzzi tub. Note: These areas are "clothing optional" and not co-ed. After you are done, jump in the shower and use the eucalyptus spray on the walls to create an aromatherapy shower while you use the provided amenities (shampoo, conditioner, shave cream, razors and shower gel.) After using the blowdryer take a quick trip back to the solarium if it is macaron day then head out to enjoy the rest of your day. Oh, and the fitness center looks well-equipped if you wanted to add some exercise to your spa experience.

Visiting the spa without a treatment normally costs $30, but Diamond guests get it for free. It's almost like a secret lounge. Almost.

Diamond guests get complimentary Spa access.
Useful if it's chilly outside or you just want a healthy light snack. Secret lounge?

But we spent most of our time at the pools and the game room.

Adult pool and bar overlooking the Batiquitos Lagoon

I'm pleased to report that the standard of service the Four Seasons offers poolside largely conveys at the Park Hyatt. As soon as we entered the pool area we were set up nicely with lounge chairs and umbrellas poolside. The chaise lounges were covered with large white towels and additional towels were provided for drying off. Additional towels, if needed, were plentiful and easy to fetch. Food & drink menus were provided along with ice water for each guest.

Ample lounge chairs even when the hotel was at 90%+ capacity
Cabanas [that nobody uses] set back away from the pool - I like it.

Cabanas are available to rent but I didn't see a single one in use. Thankfully, the cabanas were set behind the free lounge chairs (further away from the pool). I appreciated this setup because, in contrast and as a point of comparison, at the Fairmont Kea Lani the space right around the pool was dominated by cabanas that were quite expensive, largely undifferentiated vs lounge chairs, and hardly used. With the hotel at near full occupancy the pools were crowded but not unplesantly so. The crowd was well behaved and our kids made friends with others their age.

We really enjoyed the game room downstairs. The games aren't state of the art or anything but they are complimentary and include two billards tables, two foosball tables, three Xbox stations, a shuffleboard table, and a couple of classic upright video games kept us entertained for hours.

There is a fee-based Camp Hyatt program for kids ages 4-12 [quite expensive at $90-$165 a day, especially considering it was previously complimentary when this was a Four Seasons] which we didn't take advantage of. Our kids are technically within the age range most hotel kids clubs are said to handle, but lately I've found them aimed too much towards the lower end of the age scale. We poked our head in the club just to see what it was like. It looked nice, but the kids in the program were quite young. Perfect for those with younger kids but not for us anymore. The semi-supervised tween/teen ("The Hideout") at the Four Seasons Orlando is great for our kids now - too bad more hotels don't offer something like this.

Read more: Four Seasons Orlando at Walt Disney World Review

The pool area featured live entertainment each night around 5-6:30 which was surprisngly good. I rarely find live entertainment to be a value add at places like this (too loud/not good/not a fan of the genre, etc) but Lee Coulter in particular was great.

Personal poolside s'mores with house made graham crackers and chocolate.
Perfectly complements a dive-in movie.

After the music finished up they fired up The Good Dinosaur as a dive-in movie. The screen was a little hard to see before the sun went down, and it was getting quite chilly by then so we enjoyed our s'mores then headed up for bed, tired especially due to the 3 hour time difference.

It's worth noting that this hotel is not on the ocean. Although there are distant views of the Pacific, the hotel isn't even particularly close to the ocean. They do offer a beach shuttle and chair rental service for I think $15/day. And complimenatry shuttle rides to nearby attractions like the Carlsbad Premium Outlets are available as well.

In the past we've visited nearby theme parks while staying at Aviara, but for a holiday weekend that was a definite "pass" for us. Disneyland is theoretically just an hour and six minutes away and although I jokingly threatened the kids with a visit [I'm the biggest Disney fan in the family] a Disney Park visit on Memorial Day weekend sounds like a death move.

At less crowded times of year Legoland is very close by in Carlsbad. And Sea World isn't too terribly far (are we allowed to be fans of Sea World again now that they're ramping down their orca programs?) but I wouldn't recommend visiting on weekdays due to traffic in both directions.

Overall, there is just a ton of fun stuff to do at and nearby this resort. We all had a great time.

Bottom Line

Six years after being converted from a Four Seasons, the Park Hyatt Aviara remains a high end true family friendly resort hotel. The service standard is very high and interactions with staff was uniformly outstanding with a genuine "it is my pleasure" attitude. Unlike the Four Seasons Aviara Residence Club next door, the Park Hyatt Aviara can be booked using points.

Although both properties have their strengths for family vacations I think the Residence Club is better for week-long stays (it feels like every day is Saturday and there are no chores) the Park Hyatt nicely fills in the gaps for shorter stays with more flexible booking terms.

Award availability at the Park Hyatt (for standard rooms using all points or cash + points) is quite good, but access to suites is limited - perhaps artificially so by the hotel since they've carved out a unique class of suites with few rooms. It's a solid use of Hyatt points at around 2 cents per point, but far from one of the best redemptions out there.

That said I'll gladly return to both the Park Hyatt Aviara and the Four Seasons Residence Club as well. We've enjoyed every single visit to the area and it continues to be one of my Top 3 Vacation Destinations.

4.5 out of 5 Stars: Outstanding

Follow me on Instagram where I've been mostly posting travel related stuff lately or on Twitter (also @RobertDwyer) where I tend to talk more about points, miles & wine. Or drop me an email if you want to keep it on the downlow.

10 Lessons Learned While Racking up 1,000,000 Points & Miles

Points & miles has been an area of interest I've been exploring the past couple years. I'd estimate that you can make roughly 10-20%+ of your annual income in deeply discounted travel by navigating this space. And it's one of those things where you can get 80% of the benefit with 20% of the work so it's worth learning about even if you don't make it a hobby.

I'm naturally predisposed to playing this game. I'm open to considering any deal - just tell me the terms and I'll let you know if I think it's a good deal. I also think I'm genetically predisposed to it. My 99 year old grandmother has an upright electric organ in her living room. Over the years every one of her children and great-grandchildren have enjoyed playing on that thing. And she got it by, you guessed it: Signing up for a checking account.

In the past year I've leveraged a variety of techniques to earn 1,000,000+ points and miles. I wouldn't say it's "easy" but I will say that anyone who is interested in this game can do it. As long as you're 18, have a job, and a good credit score (more here on whether signing up for credit cards hurts your credit score) you can start playing this game. Just start slow, read a lot, and do what you're comfortable with.

See also: 10 Reasons why the Chase Sapphire Preferred is my favorite travel credit card

Here are 10 lessons I learned on the way to 1,000,000+ points & miles...

1. Credit card signup bonuses are where it's at (and there is more leverage in points & miles than cashback)

Say you spend $3,000/month on credit cards. If you get 2% back on all your purchases that's $720 a year - hardly enough to fly a family of four on a single vacation.

A better use of your credit card spending is towards meeting minimum spending requirements on new credit cards. The signup bonuses are more lucrative for travel rewards cards than cashback cards and there are more of them. Plus, when it comes time to redeem points & miles there is potentially more leverage in points & miles than cashback. Cash is king but it takes a lot of cash to fly internationally - especially in premium cabins. Points & miles make these things possible so there's more leverage in points & miles than cashback.

That said, there's nothing wrong with working some cashback into the mix if you have a card that earns 5% cashback buying cash equivalents. You can then take that cashback and either buy travel if the price is right or buy points & miles if award availability is favorable. More on this approach here.

2. The path to what you want is often counter-intuitive

If you're in the market for a rewards credit card, you'd think it would make sense to get co-branded credit cards from companies you enjoy doing business with. Say for example you enjoy going to Disney and flying JetBlue - you'd think it would make sense to get a Chase Disney card and the JetBlue AmEx. That's actually a rather poor approach.

It's not that the cards themselves are so terrible (trust me I've had them both). It's more a mater of there being better options out there. And each credit card you apply for takes up a "slot" from each issuing bank. And each credit card you apply for requires a hard credit pull which temporarily diminishes your credit score.

When I first started out in this game I didn't want to rack up a bunch of United miles to fly in the grey cramped seats on the back of their airplanes for vacation. But I found I could United miles to fly in premium cabins to Europe on Lufthansa. Great deal!

Conversely I could use Lufthansa miles (obtained by signing up for a Barclays Lufthansa Miles & More credit card and transferred from the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest program) to fly on United domestically in First Class for just 17k miles each way (a much better deal than 25k each way United charges). Similarly I could transfer American Express Membership Rewards to Singapore Airlines for 40k roundtrip domestically on United in First Class.

Or I could use British Airways Avios to pay for short haul domestic flights on American Airlines. Or Avianca Miles to fly on Star Alliance partners. Or credit Star Alliance flights to Aegean Airlines for Gold status. The list is goes on and on.

More than anything, it baffles me when a company has a credit card that isn't even the best option to use when spending money with that company. For example, it's better to use a Starwood Business card to pay for a Hyatt stay than a Chase Hyatt card. Bizarre. Co-branded card really should be the best way to pay for transaction with the company.

As a consumer, it pays to figure out the most common angles for high value redemptions for the travel you want to enjoy.

3. Getting a feel for historical signup bonuses is important (so you know when to pounce!)

If you sign up for a credit card for a 40k bonus and the next day you see an offer for the card for 100k you'd be mad you only got 40k. Some credit card companies will retroactively give you the heightened signup bonus within a reasonable timeframe (Chase) but many (like American Express) do not. So it's important to catch a signup bonus at a historical high.

Furthermore, some credit card companies will only give you a signup bonus for a given credit card once per person lifetime. Credit card companies frequently create new "products" (and sometimes a Visa or Mastercard variation of a card constitutes a new product) but still - there are only so many cards out there so when you do sign up for a card you'll want to make sure you caught it at a high point.

I don't know of a good resource out there that tracks these things over time. I think a site that charted standard and targeted signup bonuses of the most popular cards would be tremendously useful. But I bet credit card companies disallow that in their affiliate terms so the most likely people to do this can't without losing their lucrative affiliate relationships with banks.

One way I've tried figuring out if a given credit card has ever been offered with a higher signup bonus than what's currently available is to perform Google searches for logical increments above what's now available. Say for example the Chase Sapphre Preferred (great card) is available with a 40k signup bonus. I'd do a Google search for "chase sapphire 50k" or "chase sapphire 100,000" (dare to dream!). Often these searches will turn up now expired offers. But if they weren't too long ago I'd get the feeling the heightened bonus might come back.

For now, the best way to get a feel for historical signup bonuses and stay informed of heightened bonuses is to follow the Boarding Area blogs (and a few of your other favorites) and read FlyerTalk. Especially this thread. It would be hard for something to sneak past if you follow those two.

4. Get to know the easiest, most reliable ways to manufacture spend

"Manufacturing" spend is buying things on your credit card that can easily be converted to cash. One of the greatest manufactured spend schemes of all time was when the US Mint sold dollar coins with free shipping and allowed them to be purchased fee-free with credit cards. You could buy them and deposit them at your local bank again and again, racking up as many miles as your credit limit, back, and patience would allow.

Manufactured spend is most useful when applied towards meeting minimum spending requirements on new credit cards without spending more than you otherwise would. For big spenders or those with high levels of reimbursed spending they can put on their personal credit card manufacturing spend isn't needed. But credit card issuers have been increasing the minimum spending requirements of their most lucrative cards. For situations like this, manufacturing spend can be handy.

There's an entire FlyerTalk forum devoted to Manufactured Spend. Vanilla Reloads purchased at CVS and liquidated through Bluebird is a current favorite. Amazon Payments is probably right behind that. And there are many many more ways to manufacture spend for those interested in making this an ongoing hobby.

Learning how to manufacture spend isn't necessary. But it sure beats spending more than you otherwise would to rack up points & miles.

5. You never know how plans might change (so diversity and flexibility is key)

When I first started collecting points & miles it was with the intention of getting the family from Boston to Munich for European Delivery. You can save quite a bit on a new car this way but if you spend $6k to fly 4 people the savings goes out the window. Since I wanted to use points & miles to get us there I started to focus on racking up United miles so I could fly on their Star Alliance partner airline Lufthansa. I'd need 60k x 4 miles (240k) to get there.

But while working on earning those miles I noticed a lot of other heightened credit card signup bonuses. I went for them, and things have turned out great for the most part. Especially ones with flexible redemption options like Chase Ultimate Rewards, AmEx Membership Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest (which can be transfered 20k to 25k airline miles through a ton of partners).

Worst case, Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards can be converted to cashback or gift cards worth around $0.01 a point. But the highest leverage redemptions come from transferring flexible points to airline partners for premium cabins awards. So these programs provide the best of both worlds: A floor value of a penny a point and upside beyond that if you can find a great reward redemption.

It may be possible to spread things around too much if you have just a few points & miles in a bunch of different programs. But as long as you have enough critical mass to get a reward ticket I don't see any harm in diversifying. The majority of the trips we've taken the past two years weren't on my radar screen two years ago. Especially since points & miles have enabled trips I wouldn't have otherwise been able to justify in my mind.

6. Award charts can change at any time, and they represent a best case scenario

In the past couple years almost every airline and hotel program has devalued their loyalty program in some way. People hem and haw about it when this happens, suggesting the airlines need to make it easier to earn points if they're going to increase award costs. I'm thinking to myself: I can get signup bonuses for a Chase United card, a Chase Sapphire Preferred, a Chase Freedom, a Chase United business card, and multiple Chase Ink business cards that all transfer to United - and someone wants United to make it easier to earn miles? You can fly your entire family to Europe or Asia on credit card signup bonuses alone and consumers are arguing for more? I don't get it but I understand it: When a loyalty program changes beneath you while you're working towards a reward it stinks.

Yes, United devalued their premium cabin redemptions on partner airlines. But they're still a good value. High quality partners, above average award availability, and tons of ways to earn miles without stepping on a plane. We're still in a golden age for credit card signup bonuses.

But finding award availability can be challenging. And this is the part that can still drives me bonkers. I feel like if I rack up enough points & miles for a certain reward and I've got a reasonable amount of foresight and flexibility I should be able to get the reward. For example, if I'm willing to rack up 300k AA or UA miles to fly from Boston to Hawaii in Business/First class some time during my kids' school break (plus or minus a few days) a year ahead of time I should be able to find that award. And sometimes, even looking very far out and having date flexibility certain awards aren't available.

Some airlines are better than others. This chart does a fair job of comparing award availability at saver levels on various carriers. For the most part - I think they get it right. Keep this in mind when considering which miles to collect.

7. Your points balance may outpace your available vacation (if so, go for the premium cabin redemptions)

One of my favorite things about points & miles is how it enables travelling in Business or First Class. For some reason, most airlines charge a lot more for Business/First when paying with money. When paying with miles premium cabins aren't nearly as much of a premium. And award availability is often better in Business/First which makes justifying the splurge easier. This is a rather irrational thing to "like" about points & miles - I admit it - but who doesn't want premium service at a deep discount?

Now, some might say Business/First isn't worth it. That they'd rather have two vacations instead of one. I see their point. But since time off work and school is limited for us, and I figure I'd rather burn miles I have now than hoard them while they devalue beneath me I figure I might as well earn 'em and burn 'em. I can always earn more miles later. Or if this gravy train stops I can pay cash or take different vacations that don't involve long distance flights.

8. Strategies when feeding a family

It's hard to rack up enough points & miles to fly a family on multiple vacations each year, especially when travelling at peak school vacation times.

The good news is each adult can separately apply for the same credit cards and both can receive the bonuses. Even if someone is an authorized user on a given credit card they can apply for the card on their own and qualify for the bonus. So any sign-up bonus discovered can be taken advantage of twice as many times as it otherwise would which makes times spent reading about this stuff more efficient.

Typically, one person is more interested in playing this game than the other. In cases like this I find it convenient to sign up the less interested partner for cards with lower spending requirements and fewer cards in general. And I'll limit the number of cards my less interested partner has at any given time to 2. For example: "Use this for gas and groceries, and the other for everything else." Then swap them out when new cards come in.

I'll add myself as an authorized user to help meet high minimum spends, but a word of caution before you add yourself as an authorized user on all of your spouse's cards: The balance on the card will show up on your credit report so when you're ramping balances to meet minimum spend it could negatively impact your credit score at an inopportune time! To avoid this problem, only add yourself as an authorized user when absolutely necessary and pay the card off a few days before the statement closes.

9. Set dollar and time thresholds

A long time ago I created a "$20 rule". I wouldn't stress myself out about any transactions that were less than $20. For example, if I bought something at an out of the way store and was overcharged $5 for the item, I wouldn't invest a lot of time or effort to rectify the situation. If I could just submit a claim online or send an email - fine - but I wouldn't get in a car and make a special trip for something unless it was worth more than $20. It just isn't worth the time.

As it comes to chasing points & miles I think about things like this at well. It's super easy to stop at a CVS as part of my normal activities and takes less than 5 minutes to grab a few Vanilla Reloads a few times a month. So I gladly do it. But schemes involving trips to Wal-Mart and the Post Office and interacting with people who look at you like you're doing something shady are non-starters for me. I just won't go there.

My point is that you should set a dollar threshold beneath which you won't sweat a transaction that's gone awry. Or perform a point-earning activity that takes too much time relative to what it pays. Milenomics has done a great job expanding on this and more.

10. Consider: Where would you go if travel was nearly free?

One of my favorite things about playing the points & miles game is it gives me a chance to constantly be planning (and dreaming about) awesome family vacations. Once you take away the financial restrictions associated with paying for air travel and hotels it enables a whole new level of vacationing.

But it's kind of like saying you wish you could write the next great novel if only you had the time. The thing that's hard about writing a great novel isn't time off work: It's really hard to write a great novel. Similarly with travel - I found I was planning many of our vacations assuming airfare cost a certain fixed amount. Once that gets paid for, and I can viably consider literally the entire world it opens up some incredible possibilities. Now I'm more concerned with flights being too long (rather than costing too much) or subjecting the family to a locale that's too foreign or exotic as to induce travel anxiety.

But if you (and your family) can reasonably travel to anywhere you want in the world at deep discount, where would you go? It's a really fun question to consider.

And for now, credit card companies are willing to pay to fly the world in premium cabins if we're willing to sign up for their cards and meet the minimum spends. It's probably not going to last forever but for now I'm enjoying the ride.

Continue reading: "Lessons learned while (trying to) redeem 1,000,000 points & miles".

I'd love it if you subscribed to keep informed of future updates. 

Questions or comments? Drop me an email or ping me on Twitter: @RobertDwyer

(Image courtesy of millbill.com)

Related Reading:

• 10 Reasons the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the Best Travel Credit Card
• Maximizing the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Freedom Credit Cards

Credit Card Companies Invite us to Refer Friends...for Inferior Signup Bonuses? (and how to work around the situation)

Chase and American Express offer some of the best credit cards available in the market today. They've got generous sign-up bonuses and reward ongoing spend. They like to get more people to sign-up and use their cards because many of them carry an annual fee and they all generate swipe fees.

In order to encourage more people to sign up for their cards, banks offer affiliate links to websites which meet their criteria. You need to have a lot of traffic, and a professional website aimed at their target market. Family blogs like this don't qualify. Even high quality travel websites don't always qualify - you've got to have sufficient traffic for them to want to maintain a relationship with you. This is different than the Amazon model where almost any website can become an affiliate - they just pay at a higher percentage for sites that refer more revenue-producing traffic.

If you're like me and you talk to a lot of family and friends about which credit card sign-up bonuses are best there's another option besides affiliate links and that's Refer a Friend programs. Both Chase and American Express offer these options but there's one a catch:

The signup bonuses are almost always inferior to the best available option.

What kind of friend would refer a friend for a bad offer? This is a terrible way to run a referral business. You want to refer a friend for a great product with a great signup bonus.

I wish the credit card companies provided ways for referrals of the best offers. I'm sure this is a common complaint of affiliates as well: "Give us the best links if you want us to promote your products."

There's nothing I can do to change this, but I can offer up an assessment of the current referral offers available for some of the best credit cards out there along with suggestions of how to work around the problem to get the best signup bonuses -and- a referral bonus as well.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

Chase offers a referral option for some of their cards, for certain cardholders. If you have this card you can check whether you're eligible to refer friends here: http://chasereferafriend.com

Chase invites you to refer your friends -
for an inferior signup bonus!

Refer a Friend Offer: 40k Ultimate Rewards (this is my referral link)
Better Offer: 40k + 5k for adding an authorized user, $95 annual fee (this is the standard link)

Workaround: None. If you refer a friend for the 40k offer the best you can do (with a lot of persistence) is get Chase to match the 5k authorized user bonus.

Guidance: If you're averse to arguing about signup bonuses go for the 40k + 5k authorized user bonus. You can probably go through a referral link and then request a match on the 5k authorized user bonus, effectively getting both the referral bonus and the 5k authorized user bonus. There was a 50k offer with a $125 annual fee for this card for a while there but it seems to be gone now unless you call in.

American Express Premier Rewards Gold

American Express offers a referral option by logging into http://americanexpress.com then Rewards - Refer a Friend. If you're eligible you should see this:

AmEx's referral program also has inferior offers
sent through emails you can't customize

The way AmEx does referrals is a little quirky. You have to send an email to your friend which includes a personal link. Since it's new to me I'm unsure if the resulting link in the email can be used by multiple people. But since the referral links for the best available offer for the Platinum and Gold cards I wouldn't recommend using them anyway.

All three of these cards are terrific - but only if you catch a peak signup bonus. Even then you may want to consider which cards to apply for concurrently because AmEx blocks signup bonuses for products from the same family. For example, if you currently hold a gold card you can't get the signup bonus for a platinum card. More on strategies related to this in a future post. (subscribe for updates)

Refer a Friend Offer: 25k
Better Offer: Card Match or Targeted 50k

Workaround: None. In my experience AmEx is not friendly about matching better bonuses. I even had to fight with them to get the standard 25k bonus on the AmEx SPG I signed up for this year.

Guidance: Check https://www.creditcards.com/cardmatch and/or log into http://americanexpress.com in an incognito browser window then go to Cards - Learn About Charge & Credit Cards - Your Special Card Offers

American Express Starwood Preferred Guest

25k might seem like a weak signup bonus compared to the big numbers other cards offer. But it's because Starwood points are very valuable. I'd estimate their worth a $0.02 a piece so even a 25k signup bonus isn't bad. Starwood points can be redeemed at their properties at favorable rates and - perhaps strangely for a hotel loyalty program - they can be transferred to a ton of airlines at a 20k to 25k ratio. Then, for example, you can redeem those points on Lufthansa for 34k roundtrip domestic flights within the US on United. Crazy, right?

Refer a Friend Offer: 25k (my referral link)
Better Offer: None right now. Best signup I've seen lately for this was 30k this past fall.

Workaround: Sadly, this is the only card of the bunch where the referral signup bonus is on par with the current best offer. If you're in the market for this card now, 25k isn't a bad signup bonus. I'm not sure whether use of a referral link (that I generated by emailing the offer to myself) will make me eligible for a referral fee. But it's worth a shot.

This is a really strange way to design a referral program (email only? what about Facebook and Twitter?). If you'd really like to make sure I get the referral bonus (5k) drop me an email and I'll send you one.

Chase Freedom

As I mentioned in this post this is a great card with no annual fee.

Refer a Friend Offer: 10k Ultimate Rewards
Better Offer: 20k Ultimate Rewards (expired)

Workaround: Apply through the refer a friend link. Then when you're activating the card (or shortly after via secure message) ask them to match the 20k offer. Chase is good about this in a case like this where the signup bonus has increased and the offer is otherwise identical.

American Express Platinum

I wouldn't apply for this card for less than a 50k signup bonus. For even semi-frequent travelers the $450 annual fee is easily justified by lounge access, $200 in airline incidentals (or gift cards twice a year), Global Entry (worth $100, good for 5 years and includes TSA PreCheck), and its Starwood/Hilton/National status (which can be matched to Hertz Five Star).

Refer a Friend Offer: 25k Membership Rewards
Better Offer: Targeted 100k (but hard to come by)

Workaround: None.

Guidance: Check https://www.creditcards.com/cardmatch and/or log into http://americanexpress.com in an incognito browser window then go to Cards - Learn About Charge & Credit Cards - Your Special Card Offers

Conclusion

I understand that banks have to abide by regulations in place to avoid consumers getting duped by unscrupulous characters. But I wish they'd learn from how Amazon sets up its affiliates program. Almost anyone with a website is eligible to participate in the program. The more products you sell, the more your referral percentage goes up.

This seems like a bright way to run an affiliate program because as small sites grow they're already familiar with your program. And with social media we're all potentially affiliates aren't we?

I hope this is helpful in navigating your way to the best sign-up bonuses while, in some cases, maintaining your referral bonus as well.

Maximizing the Value of the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Freedom Credit Cards

Key Link: Sign up for the Chase Freedom for a 20K bonus (regularly 10K) for a limited time

I've had the Chase Freedom credit card for many years but it wasn't until just recently that I explored (and figured out) how to maximize its value. In its simplest use, the card offers 5% cash back on quarterly rotating categories and 1% on everything else with no annual fee.

That in itself makes it a good card to keep forever since the average age of your credit card accounts and the age of your oldest account has a meaningful impact on your credit score.

See also: 10 Reasons the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the Best Travel Credit Card

But there are two key concepts you need to understand in order to take the value of this card to the next level:

Trick 1: Pair it with an annual fee based Chase Ultimate Rewards card to enable quick conversion of points earned on the Chase Freedom into more-valuable-than-cash airline and hotel points

For many years I'd convert the points earned on my Chase Freedom into cashback. Cash is king right? Not necessarily. If you also have a fee based Chase card like the Sapphire Preferred or the Ink (business) cards you can combine the points earned on the Freedom with the points associated with your fee based card to transfer them to airline/hotel travel partners with favorable award availability and redemption levels like United and Hyatt. It pains me when I look back at my lowly past redemptions.

This makes Ultimate Rewards worth more than a penny if you like to travel and can redeem them effectively. For example, if you transfer 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points to United for a roundtrip ticket to Europe that would normally cost $1,600 that's a redemption worth $0.026 per point. This is much more valuable than redeeming for cashback. And the values get even more attractive when redeeming for premium cabin flights - especially internationally.

That's why I get excited about 5x Ultimate Rewards points (as opposed to 5% cashback). It's almost like 10+% back if you can redeem them effectively.

Trick 2: Maximize the 5x Categories by Category/Time Shifting and Manufacturing Spend

With the Chase Freedom, each quarter you can earn 5x (capped at $1,500 in spending) in rotating categories. That's 30k points per year for just $6k spent annually. Here are the categories for 2013:

A normal person would look at these and think "Hmm - I spend quite a bit on gas and restaurants. I should be able to get some nice 5x rewards." But in order to maximize these categories there are a few simple tricks you can leverage.

First, consider drugstores. Have you seen the massive gift card racks they have at drugstores like CVS? You can buy merchant gift cards for retailers like Amazon, gas stations, retailers and more. This is called category shifting. You spend money at drugstores (on gift cards) for 5x back and you spend the gift cards elsewhere.

Time shifting is when you buy these gift cards for future use. You want to maximize the $1,500 for the quarter but you're not going to immediately use the gift cards. So for example you buy retailer gift cards at a gas station when that's the bonus category -or- gas gift cards at Lowe's when that's the category and use them over the next couple months.

I'm personally not a fan of time shifting because I don't like to prepay for stuff. I prefer to "manufacture" spend. For example, at CVS they sell Visa gift cards and various "reload" cards that, for about a ~1% fee can generate bonused spend then be quickly liquidated. Since you're getting 5x (actually 10+% thanks to Trick #1) you can easily stomach a 1% fee. You then take these near-cash equivalents and liquidate them using various techniques. Loading Vanilla Reloads to Bluebird then paying bills (even your mortgage) or the credit card bill itself is the simplest and longest running scheme around. It sounds crazy at first but if you're interested it's not that difficult at all.

Sign-up Considerations

First, know your credit score and what goes into it. Read Does Churning Credit Cards Damage Your Credit Score for more info. If your credit score is south of 720 I'd work on improving your score up before playing any games with credit card sign ups.

Then, there are different things to consider depending on your credit history and the current cards you carry. If you've applied for a credit card within the past 90 days, especially another Chase card, I'd wait until 90+ days have passed before signing up for another.

If you already have a lot (as in, like, more than 6) Chase credit cards, especially if you've signed up for them within the last year, you might want to hold off on signing up for more. Chase allows users to have an indeterminate number of their cards but at some point you start to hit a wall with them. You can usually swap out a card you're not using when you apply and sometimes it requires a call to their reconsideration line if your application goes pending or is denied.

But you need to be choosy when picking your Chase cards because they have a ton of great ones and you only have so many "slots" with any one bank. I think the Chase Freedom is worthy of a slot though because:

1. It has no annual fee (so you can keep it forever and use it to build up your credit score)
2. It earns valuable and flexible Ultimate Rewards points (when paired with a fee based Chase card)

Sign-up Strategies

Again, everyone's situation is different. But here's what I'd do in terms of signing up for the Chase Freedom and Chase Sapphire Preferred with some family and friends in mind at various stages in life. Remember - you've got to have a fee based card to unlock the potential of the Chase Freedom card.

Young Single

I'd go for the Chase Freedom first to start building your credit history. Since it has no annual fee you can keep it forever and banks like to see that you've had one or two long standing credit cards in your portfolio.

Once you start accruing some points and are within striking distance (40k) of a desirable redemption sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Within the first year of having the Sapphire Preferred (before the annual fee hits) transfer the ponits to United, Hyatt, or other travel partner.

Single with Established Credit

Tough call here. There are so many great cards out there and if you're running enough natural spending through your credit cards (due to reimbursed business expenses and "other stuff") you can probably justify the annual fee of the Sapphire Preferred ($95). I'd go for the Sapphire Preferred first and supplement with the Freedom down the line when you have a better feel for how valuable Ultimate Rewards can be.

Married

This is really the sweet spot of the Chase Ultimate Rewards scheme. You can transfer points to your spouse without a fee so you only need to have one fee based Chase card per family. That means you can each have a Chase Freedom which effectively gives you $3,000 per quarter you can earn 5x with plus you can each have a Sapphire Preferred (one of which you'd likely cancel the first year after receiving the signup bonus).

On top of this, you can add each other as authorized users (if desired) to one another's cards. Typically, I find that one of the two partners in a marriage are interested in points and miles. The other just goes along and is willing to tolerate it. For situations like this, add the point junkie as an authorized user of the cards with bonused spend categories that have a quarterly cap so they can do the hard work for both spouses.

Caution: Adding a person as an authorized user of a card will make the balance and usage of that card appear on their credit score. So only do this in cases where it's worth it. For me, it's worth it if 1) The card gives you points for adding an authorized user (the Chase United card gives 5k) or 2) The card continually needs to be accessed to rack up points and miles in bonused categories.

Advanced Maneuvers

Do you have a small business? Even a fledgling one? Have you ever thought of starting a fledgling one? The Chase Ink business cards that carry an annual fee also earn Ultimate Rewards, come with a lucrative 50k point sign up bonus and earn 5x at office supply stores and telecom services. The 5x at office supply stores presents a perpetual category shifting opportunity. These cards pair brilliantly with the Freedom and Sapphire Preferred, but to minimize fees you only need to carry one fee based Chase card per family any time you want to transfer to airline/hotel partners.

You could sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and then the Chase Freedom and earn a signup for both. Then, I've heard you can "downgrade" the Sapphire Preferred to a fee-free Sapphire variant of the card OR a second Freedom card and have both a Freedom MasterCard and a Visa. This could effectively give you even more ceiling with which to earn 5x in rotating categories and would be worth pursuing so long as you have one fee based card you can use (either your spouse's or an Ink business card). I haven't tried this maneuver yet so I can't comment on how it's working recently.

If you sign up for the card through the link below I'll get 5,000 points for referring you and you'll get 10,000 points. I wish I could tell you that you could sign up yourself then refer friends or your spouse to get additional miles. But the current Chase Refer a Friend promotion is only available to existing cardholders as of the date the promotion started. Hopefully they'll run this same promotion down the road and you too can earn referral bonuses. But if you had a Sapphire Preferred -or- a Freedom before this offer started running you can refer your spouse or your other friends and family. To see if you're eligible to refer go here and enter your name/zip/last 4 digits on your card.

Conclusion

The Chase Freedom card is a terrific card to get if you like to travel and don't mind interacting with your cards enough to maximize its value. By pairing it with a fee based Chase card like the Sapphire Preferred you can maximize the value of the points earned with the no fee Chase Freedom card.

Key Link: Sign up for the Chase Freedom for a 20K bonus (regularly 10K) for a limited time

Feel free to drop me an email if you have questions.

10 Reasons the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the Best Travel Credit Card

Key Link: Get 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 in 3 months on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card

I've spent a lot of time researching and refining my strategy related to credit card signup bonuses this year. I've shifted away from a mostly cashback approach in favor of travel rewards after realizing I was leaving a lot of money on the table. I took the time to research how credit cards affect my credit score and learned that signing up for new cards can actually help my credit score in the long run.

I saw that I was able to refinance our mortgage without incident even though I'd recently signed up for a bunch of new credit cards. After racking up a bunch of points and miles in my first round of card applications I realized it was important to build a foundation in points programs that have flexible redemption options because you never know how your travel interests might change in the future and it's good to keep your options open.

See also: Maximizing the Value of the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Freedom Credit Cards

When I talk to friends and family about this interest I get mixed responses. Some people just don't want to bother with it. They've had bad experiences trying to redeem miles for free flights when they want to travel or they're just not interested in interacting with their finances in this way. Others really are interested and quickly catch the bug and are just a few steps behind me exploring this space. And finally there's the rest of you who are interested in "getting 80% of the benefit for 20% of the effort". They want the condensed summary: Just tell me what one thing I should do right now.

For this group, I think a "once a year" churn strategy is in order. Each year sign up for one or more new cards and then re-visit whether the card is working well for them when the annual fee comes due.

And if you're going to sign up for one card this year I think the best card to get is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. The card comes with a 40,000 "point" signup bonus after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. The best way to use those points is to transfer them 1:1 to airlines like United, Southwest, or British Airways. Or to hotel partners like Hyatt and Marriott. Or even Amtrak. So rather than locking yourself into one airline or hotel partner you have access to many.

And if you can't find reward availability on the dates you want to travel you can redeem them for travel on any airline at a 20% discount. Or you can just cash out at a penny a point. It's really the best of all worlds.

Here's 10 reasons why I think the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best travel credit card...

1. Flexibility

You never know what life is going to throw at you. You may be living in one city where there's a dominant air carrier then unexpectedly move to another part of the country. You might have a new baby in the family and want to take it easy on the travel for a while. That's why I like this card - you can find a reward option that suits your needs. The best way to use the points is towards international airfare. But even if you can't use the points for that you're still getting good value out of them.

2. Transfer Partners

Their list of transfer partners isn't the longest, but they've established relationships with key partners: United, Southwest, and Hyatt. They're each great partners because they have some of the best award availability in terms of being able to redeem award travel at "saver" levels with reasonable advanced notice. For the most part, their partners haven't devalued their award redemption schedules. And their partners are well diversified for international and domestic travel.

3. Sign-up Bonus

Ultimate Rewards are worth a penny a point towards cash back. They're worth more if you transfer them effectively to travel partners. If you book a flight from the US to Europe on United worth $1,500 for 70,000 that's 2.5 cents per point which would make the sign-up worth $1,000. The key here, on top of the generous sign-up bonus, is flexibility.

4. Bonused Spend Categories

The card earns 2x at restaurants and on the broad "travel" category. 2x at restaurants is really nice in itself plus airfare, hotels, taxis, parking and more are included in the travel category so this is much nicer than just "airfare" (like the AmEx Preferred Rewards Gold car) or "hotels" (like the Chase Ink business cards).

5. Access to the Ultimate Rewards Shopping Portal

Certain Chase cards are included in the Ultimate Rewards shopping portal where you can earn extra points on top of the regular points you'd otherwise earn on the card for initiating online shopping transactions through the Ultimate Rewards portal. Check http://cashbackholic.com and http://evreward to make sure you're maximizing your value when shopping online.

6. No Foreign Transaction Fees

When using your credit card outside the US some cards have foreign transaction fees and others do not. This card does not. That's a good thing.

7. Turbo Charge your Chase Freedom Ultimate Rewards Points

If you happen to already hold a Chase Freedom card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred makes an excellent partner. Whereas with the Chase Freedom card you can only redeem your points for gift cards and cashback, once you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card you can redeem all of your Ultimate Rewards at maximum efficiency. Specifically you can transfer the points earned on the lucrative rotating 5x Freedom categories towards airline/hotel transfers.

8. 3x at Restaurants on the First Friday of Each Month

This is a recent addition but a tasty one. On the first Friday of each month you'll earn 3x points (instead of the usual 2x points) at restaurants. This is a great reason to enjoy a special dinner out once a month. You can earn this more than once each first Friday - breakfast, lunch, dinner and even gift card purchases at restaurants can qualfify!

9. Heavy Duty Metal Card

This is totally subjective but everyone who receives this card notices - it's really substantial. All things equal I'll take it as a card benefit. When/if you cancel they send you a postage-paid return envelope to safely dispose of the card because it cannot be shredded. It's kind of like a really heavy bottle of wine - it doesn't guarantee a superior product but it does suggest that the producer wants to denote quality.

10. Provides Multiple Ways to Rack Up United and Southwest Miles and Points

One of the best things about Chase's tie-ups with United and Southwest (they issue their cards exclusively) is that points earned through the Sapphire Preferred card can be stacked with points earned through the United and Southwest cards. So if you want to fly a family for free you can sign up for both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the United/Southwest cards. This isn't possible with programs like JetBlue and Virgin America where it's hard to earn miles through credit card sign-ups beyond their own card.

Conclusion and Recommendations

So there you have it - 10 reasons why I think this is the best travel rewards credit card to get.

The $95 annual fee is waived the first year. After the year is up see whether the card benefits outweigh the annual fee. I think they do - but be sure to call and ask for a retention bonus after about 11 months. If you don't like the card benefits you can downgrade to a no annual fee version of the card and the 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points - and all the bonused spend you've racked up - will be yours to keep.

Key Link: Get 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 in 3 months on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card

Questions or comments? Let me know by dropping me an email or pinging me on Twitter: @RobertDwyer

Further Reading: Maximizing the Value of the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Freedom Credit Cards

Does Churning Credit Cards Damage Your Credit Score?

One of the first things level headed friends ask me when I mention signing up for credit cards (for bonuses) is whether their credit rating will be damaged by playing the game.

It's a smart thing to think about. Our credit scores, and the ability to leverage credit to our advantage, is one of the most important assets we have (the most important being the earning potential our talents afford us).

In researching a bit how credit scores are determined I was surprised how much of what I thought I knew about credit scores was based on hearsay. Or folklore. Or a random collection of tidbits I'd heard over the years.

For sure, I think most of us will be totally fine if we, basically, "behave" when it comes to credit. Take on a responsible amount of debt, pay our bills on time, and have just a few credit cards.

But when you mention signing up for credit cards for bonuses, instinct tells us this will be bad for our credit ratings. Is this true? Let's take a closer look at what's good and bad about signing up for a new credit card.

First, signing up for a new credit card results in a "hard pull" of our credit score. This in itself knocks down our score a few points. But credit scores tend to recover from these checks after a few months.

If you're approved for a new card, it does two things:

1. It increases our total credit line
2. It decreases the average age of our accounts

Increasing our total credit line typically helps our credit score rather than hurts it because it's good to have a small percentage of our total credit line in use. If the total of our balances is low compared to how much credit we have access to it's a good thing for our credit rating.

Decreasing the average age of our credit card accounts is bad for our credit score, and it's a real concern when applying for credit cards for signup bonuses.

Here's who goes into determining a credit score (from My FICO):

Our credit cards are just one portion of our borrowing portfolio. A mortgage is of higher importance than credit cards and with lending standards tightening I wouldn't be willing to risk the ability to qualify for a mortgage by fiddling around with credit cards. Even if we already have a mortgage, it's important to have a good credit score in case a refinance opportunity pops up.

Automobile loans and leases are also important. But if your credit score is good, even in spite of signing up for a bunch of credit cards, you're likely to qualify for the most favorable automobile loans and leases.

A consideration adjacent this:

Should we cancel an old credit card (with no annual fee) which we never use? No! Absolutely not. Doing so would decrease the average age of accounts.

So, it's important to:

• Understand what goes into determining your credit score
• Get your credit report and make sure there's nothing on there you're not expecting
• Monitor your credit score with a service like Credit Sesame or Credit Karma
• Space out your signups over time
• Pay your balance in full each month
• Keep your balances low with respect to your overall credit line

Since I do these things I feel comfortable that signing up for credit cards (for bonuses) won't damage my credit score.

In fact, if I wasn't knocking down my credit score a bit by applying for credit cards one could argue I'd be leaving money on the table. How high do our credit scores need to be after all? Just high enough to get the most favorable loan terms. We don't get a bonus for a credit score higher than 760.

It's kind of like in college where there's no difference between barely scraping by with an A and getting the highest A in the class. You'd be better off getting the lowest A possible and devoting your precious resources to other endeavors.

Here are some links for related reading:

• How your FICO score is calculated (from MyFico)
• How to get a free credit report (by the Federal Trade Commission)
• Why churning credit cards doesn't hurt your credit score (and when it can) (by US News & World Report)

I'd love it if you subscribed to Casa Dwyer for future updates.