Barclay’s currently has four credit cards that I have or want–up from one last year. That’s a big improvement by Barclay’s in the travel rewards card arena.
My first cards couldn’t have been easier! While I did hit a couple of snags, none were very serious, and I am treating them as learning experiences. I applied for all five card in one day and was able to fit in the applications and any needed calls to the credit card companies around the other things I had to do that day: a kickball game and some flip cup.
I started with the Frontier card at 10:11 AM and was instantly approved online.
I even got to pick which Frontier mascot I wanted on my card. I went with Foxy Brown.
Excited after this positive start, I moved on to the United MileagePlus Explorer card. Again, instant approval! I’d been at this for 20 minutes and was two-for-two on these applications.
…Except that I had clicked the Submit button without adding a second cardholder to the account. That click was a 5,000 mile rookie mistake.
Chase lets you add an authorized user to the card and earn 5,000 extra miles upon first purchase.
On the application, I just skipped over the section because it wasn’t very noticeable.
I might be able to salvage those points, though. I’ll send a secure message to Chase and see if they will let me add a user for 5,000 miles. I’ll report back.
Disappointed about the United blunder, I moved on to the Discover it™. This is where I encountered my second snag of the day. I filled out my personal information, checked the Terms and Conditions box, and was redirected back to the original application page. Not letting this computer glitch deter me from my mission, I again filled out my info, checked the box, and… nothing.
A quick phone call to Discover informed me that they were having system wide technical issues, their staff was slammed, and could I please call back later? I called again that evening at 8:00 PM, concerned with the fact that I may have submitted two applications or maybe none at all. The agent told me that I had indeed submitted two, and that the first was instantly approved but the second was pending further review. I asked her to shut down the second application, which she did. Success!
The fourth card I applied for was the Mercedes-Benz Platinum card. Once again, I was instantly approved and received an email telling me I’d have my card in 2-3 days.
I applied on Sunday, and received it on Tuesday. Considering it was a holiday weekend, a 48 hour turnaround was quite impressive! I’m already working on the Global Entry application.
The final application was for the Citi® Hilton HHonors™ Reserve Card card. This was the only card that I was not immediately approved for.
That was fine. I learned from applying for the Citi American Airlines cards in November about reconsideration calls since I was not immediately approved for the Citi American Airlines American Express. In my experience, a reconsideration call is no big deal, but I like to prep what I am going to say before picking up the phone.
I know it’s important to convey enthusiasm for the card’s partner (Hilton) and all the card’s benefits except the sign up bonus, so that the bank will think you are a profitable customer.
At a minimum, I was expecting some questions. But after the rep confirmed my identity, he put me on hold, came back, and said I had been approved for the card. Here is a video of the call. Most of the five minute call was spent goofing off on hold.
Recap
I applied, and was approved, for five rewards cards.
My haul? After a combined minimum spend of $5,250, I will have 35,000 Frontier miles, 35,000 United miles, 50,000 Membership Rewards, free Global Entry, $400 in airline-fee credits or gift cards, two free weekend nights at almost any Hilton across the globe, free lounge access at hundreds of airports, access to huge cashback opportunities from Discover, free breakfast and internet at Hiltons, and a credit card with a fox on it.
Frontier Airlines World MasterCard for access to its incredible award chart
Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Visa for United miles with a low minimum spend
Discover it™ for access to its 5% cash back rotating categories and amazing cash back mall
Introducing Rookie Alli: Rookie Alli will be MileValue’s resident expert-rookie. She’ll write posts about getting started with miles and points from a beginner’s perspective. From the first cards and the first award booking to first class (hopefully), folks of all levels can learn from her triumphs and rookie mistakes.
Rookie Alli, scaring dogs since the ’80s
I just signed up for five cards and got 110,000 miles and points, two free hotel nights, $500 worth of statement credits, access to the best cash back mall, and a number of other perks.
Planning
Being new to the miles game, I currently only have two credit cards: the Citi AAdvantage Visa and American Express cards, which I applied for using the now-dead, two-browser trick in November. I met my minimum spends and collected my 105,000 American miles, and now I’m hooked.
Should I use the AA miles to go back to Hawaii?
Scott always says to wait 91 days between credit card applications, then apply for any cards you want the same day to maximize your approvals and rewards. After my 91 days passed, I was eager to see what my my next cards could be.
There were a couple of personal factors I kept in mind when deciding which cards I was going to include in my applications.
1. I wanted to keep my minimum spends relatively low, since I will be out of the country during part of the minimum spending period in countries where it is tough to use credit cards.
2. I have not hopped on the Bluebird/Vanilla train just yet, but I am comfortable using Amazon Payments to help meet minimum spends.
This goes along with my biggest piece of advice to fellow rookies: only dip your toes into the miles world to the extent you are comfortable. For instance, at first I was only comfortable getting two credit cards at a time. When I saw I could handle that, I decided I could handle more cards this time.
When I heard about Amazon Payments, I tested it out one month by sending $990 to a friend. I was comfortable with the results, so I continued using the service each month.
I signed up for a Bluebird card, but I have not activated it yet because I am still not comfortable with the idea.
3. I only wanted to apply for cards with an annual fee if I felt the card’s perks justified that fee.
I got into this game for free travel, so I don’t want to pay annual fees. But I am willing to pay an annual fee if I know I am getting way more in return than the fee costs.
4. I’m not ready for any business cards. I do probably have some small money-making activities that would qualify as businesses, but I’m not comfortable applying for business cards yet.
I know that most people can get business cards easily from reading How to be Approved for a Business Card, and that I am missing out on some of the best sign up bonuses, but business cards aren’t for me yet.
10,000 bonus miles after spending $750 in the first 90 days for a total of 35,000 bonus miles
10,000 mile one way awards within the USA
15,000 mile one way awards to Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica
5,000 mile discount on companion award tickets
2x miles on Frontier purchases
$59 annual fee
This card was a no-brainer for me: miles after the first purchase, very low minimum spend to unlock the rest of the miles, and I’ve had really good experiences flying Frontier to and from Denver in college.
2. Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Visa
30,000 United miles after $1,000 in spending in the first three months
5,000 extra United miles when you add another cardholder to the account
One free checked bag
Two United Club Passes
no annual fee the first year, then $95 thereafter
I wanted to earn some United miles because I know how valuable they can be, especially to Europe.
I know the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers a superior bonus of 40,000 Ultimate Rewards after spending $3,000 in three months, but I wanted to keep my minimum spend low.
5% cash back on the first $1,500 spent on categories that rotate each quarter
Opportunity to use the Discover online portal for 5-20% cash back at many retailers
1% cash back on all other purchases
no annual fee
This might seem like a weird card to get because it has no sign up bonus. I got it because the card was an opportunity for me to earn a lot of cash back. This quarter’s 5% back category is restaurants and movies. I know I can maximize that category. Next quarter is home improvement stores, where I also spend a lot. Yes, really
The other big thing is this card will allow me to access the ShopDiscover portal, which is one of the best portals out there. The portal offers 5-20% cash back at a lot of places I shop and routinely offers better deals than miles-earning portals. For instance, no one comes close to offering 5% cash back at Apple.
50,000 Membership Rewards after spending $1,000 in three months
$100 credit for Global Entry signup
$200 calendar-year airline-fee credit
Free airport lounge access (American, US Airways, Delta, Priority Pass)
$475 annual fee, not waived in the first year
This was the only card I was hesitant to apply for. When I first saw that $475 annual fee (!) I immediately disregarded it as an option to include in my applications. I thought no perks could justify that fee, especially since the fee would appear on my first statement–before I could enjoy anything I was paying for.
However, when I thought a little deeper about it, I realized that this card actually offers a lot of good bonuses. Bill covered how those airline-fee credits can be used to buy gift cards which can then be used to purchase flights, the Global Entry voucher will save me hours of waiting-in-customs time this year (my sanity must be worth $475, right?), and I know I can easily find a use for 50,000 Membership Awards.
Since the airline-fee credits are a calendar year bonus, I can get 2 x $200 gift cards plus $100 for Global Entry, meaning $500 in statement credits.
I guess I can give it a year-long trial run. I’ll get $400 worth of flights, $100 worth of Global Entry, free lounge access, and nearly a $1,000 worth of points for my $475 fee.
• Earn 2 weekend night certificates good at select hotels and resorts within the Hilton HHonors portfolio after $2,500 in eligible purchases within 4 months of account opening*
• Earn 10 HHonors Bonus Points per $1 spent on hotel stays within the Hilton HHonors portfolio*
• Earn 5 HHonors Bonus Points per $1 spent on airline and car rental purchases*
• Earn 3 HHonors Bonus Points per $1 spent on all other eligible purchases*
• Enjoy the benefits of HHonors Gold status as long as you are a cardmember*
• No foreign transaction fees on purchases*
• Travel with ease and enjoy global acceptance with your Citi chip credit card
• Earn an anniversary bonus of 1 weekend night certificate at select hotels and resorts within the Hilton HHonors portfolio each cardmembership year with qualifying purchases*
This one was tough because it had a large minimum spend and an annual fee. I went with it, though because I want two free nights at a super fancy hotel that I could otherwise never afford.
I’m channeling my inner Hepburn by picturing myself drinking champagne and eating macaroons in Paris
Recap
I chose five cards to apply for:
Frontier Airlines World MasterCard for access to its incredible award chart
Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Visa for United miles with a low minimum spend
Discover it™ for access to its 5% cash back rotating categories and amazing cash back mall
Last week I wrote about The Incredible Frontier Airlines Award Chart. The takeaway is that Frontier is not for everyone because it doesn’t have first class, and it only only flies throughout the US, Central America, and the Caribbean.
But if Frontier is for you, it’s really for you. That’s because Frontier has:
a cheap award chart
a great route network to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and hard-to-reach parts of the US
oodles of award space
no fuel surcharges
In that post, I said that the best way to get Frontier miles is to get The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard. The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard offers a 25,000 mile bonus on first purchase and 10,000 more miles after $750 in purchases in the first 90 days for 35,000 total miles.
One of the card’s benefits I discussed was a 5,000 mile discount on companion awards. I did my best to speculate on the contours of the benefit, but I couldn’t do further research because I won’t have the card until my next app-o-rama. Thankfully in the meantime, reader Andrew has done some research that he passed along. He tells me:
The benefit is available
to cardholders
purchasing a paid ticket
flying with one companion.
The paid ticket can be on any route including oneways. That means if you purchase a paid oneway ticket on Frontier, your companion’s award seat is discounted 5,000 miles.
Since a oneway award ticket within the US costs only 10,000 Frontier miles, cardholders can get a companion on a oneway ticket for 5,000 miles.
That means if you get the Frontier credit card and book all your roundtrip Frontier flights as two oneways, your companion can come with you for only 10k miles and $5 in taxes. Here are the steps:
Get the The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard, spending $750 in the first three months to unlock the full 35,000 mile bonus.
Plan your oneway, roundtrip, or open jaw trip on a route Frontier flies.
Purchase a oneway ticket for one passenger from flyfrontier.com on an itinerary on which you found award space. You want to purchase from Frontier itself because purchasing through other travel agents means you will only earn 50% of the mileage you fly. Purchasing from Frontier means you will get 100%.
Call Frontier at 800-432-1359. There is no phone fee for their helping you book the companion ticket.
If you want a roundtrip or open jaw, repeat steps 4 and 5 for the second oneway.
Andrew reported booking Minneapolis to Anchorage for a companion for 10,000 miles roundtrip (by breaking it into two oneways as described above.) He took advantage of the fact that all awards are discounted 5,000 miles, and that that works out to the biggest discount–percentage-wise–on domestic awards.
Recap
Frontier cardholders can book companion awards to their paid tickets with a 5,000 mile discount. The discount applies to oneway, roundtrip, and open jaw awards meaning with a little creativity and a few calls to 800-432-1359, you can book a roundtrip award for 10,000 miles on Frontier’s domestic network.
Application Link: The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard.
For more great posts like this, follow me on Twitter or Facebook. If you’re near Baltimore, let’s grab dinner on Saturday. The Los Angeles and Tampa dinners were a blast.
Frontier Airlines is the eighth-largest airline in the United States with a hub in Denver and service to Alaska, Mexico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica.
Source: wikipedia
Frontier is rarely–if ever–discussed on miles blogs because it’s small, doesn’t have first class, and has a paltry elite program. But there is tremendous value on the Frontier award chart for domestic travelers and travelers to the Caribbean and Mexico.
Here’s the award chart:
Frontier Award Chart
Five things jump out at me, all positive:
Among region-to-region mileage programs, Frontier has the cheapest domestic awards. All the legacy carriers charge 25,000 miles roundtrip; Frontier charges 20,000 miles.
Among region-to-region mileage programs, Frontier has the cheapest awards to the Caribbean at 30,000 miles roundtrip. (US Airways lets you go in September only for 25,000 miles. American charges 25,000 from September 7 to November 14.)
Among region-to-region mileage programs, Frontier has the cheapest awards to Mexico and Central America. Frontier charges 30,000 miles roundtrip. The big boys charge 35,000 miles. (American charges 25,000 from September 7 to November 14.)
Frontier awards can be flown as oneways for half the price of roundtrip awards, so 10k miles each way domestically and 15k abroad. This puts Frontier in the good company of United and American, and looking down on Delta and US Airways, which charge the roundtrip price for oneway redemptions.
Frontier awards do not have any fees or surcharges, just government taxes.
Where Frontier Flies
Frontier only has one hub–Denver–from which it flies all over the country and internationally.
But Frontier has a number of cities where it flies to several destinations. For instance, it’s newly opened Princeton/Trenton routes have nonstop service to ten cities (and triple miles through May.) So check Frontier’s route map to see its service from your home airport.
Frontier also serves its international destinations, particularly Mexico and the Dominican Republic, from a number of cities.
What the Product is Like
All Frontier mainline flights are operated by A318s, A319s, or A320s with all economy-class configurations. Economy class has the industry-standard 31″-pitch legroom.
Each plane has several rows of STRETCH seating with 5+ extra inches of legroom. STRETCH upgrades cost $15+ from the cheapest tickets but are free for Frontier elites.
Each seat has a monitor with 30 channels of DirecTV, which costs $6 per flight.
Drinks cost $1.50+ and are free for elites.
The first and second checked bag are $20 each, and are free for elites.
EarlyReturns Frequent Flyer Program
Frontier’s frequent flyer program is similar to the legacy carriers’. You earn one mile per mile flown on tickets booked at flyfrontier.com. You earn mileage bonuses for buying more expensive fare classes or for having status. Note: you only earn 50% of miles flown if you book your cheap tickets from travel agents other than Frontier.
There are two levels of elite status: Ascent and Status.
It only takes 25,000 miles flown to get top tier Summit status on Frontier with free bags, free STRETCH class, free booze, free changes, free standby, and a 50% bonus on miles flown.
Booking Awards
Awards can easily be booked online at flyfrontier.com. Just perform any flight search and check the Redeem Miles box. I’ll give an example of a domestic flight and an international flight search and one big tip.
Denver to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
To perform an award search, simply click the Redeem Miles check box at the top of the Book a Flight screen.
You must sign in to your Frontier account to perform award searches, so sign up for one now if you don’t have one. I got a free 500 miles for signing up without using any bonus code.
Your search results will come up like this. Your search is automatically performed +/- 3 days, and the lowest miles price each day is displayed.
Except there seems to be a glitch. Every search I performed both domestically and internationally showed only the day I searched at the lowest miles price and the other six days at a higher price. But if you click each day one by one, it will perform that day’s search and reveal that almost every day does in fact have awards for the lowest miles price. To wit:
The initial calendar said only April 11 had a 15,000 miles oneway to Mexico. But in fact every day except one between April 8 and 14 has a 15,000 mile award.
This is common. Space is incredible on every Frontier route I searched. Anyone used to searching for award space on the legacy carriers will be floored by the availability, which is present on about 90% of the individual flights I saw.
My roundtrip from Denver to Puerto Vallarta priced out at 30,000 miles and $80!
Los Angeles to Tampa
I also checked a domestic award from Los Angeles to Tampa, which connects in Denver both ways. Space was available every day for 10,000 miles each way after I did my click-on-every-day trick.
From my searches, I can say that Frontier has:
a cheap award chart
a great route network to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and hard-to-reach parts of the US
oodles of space
no fuel surcharges
Getting EarlyReturns Miles
The three main ways to get EarlyReturns miles are:
Application Link: The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard
The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard offers a 25,000 mile bonus on first purchase and 10,000 more miles after $750 in purchases in the first 90 days for 35,000 total miles.
Cardholders get a 5,000 mile discount on companion awards.
That means if the cardholder books a 20,000 mile domestic award, he can take one companion for 15,000 miles more.
That means the 35,000 mile sign up bonus is good for two roundtrip domestic awards anywhere Frontier flies including Alaska.
What intrigues me about the 5,000 mile discount is that neither the bullet point on the card’s landing page nor the fine print at the bottom says the discount applies only to roundtrip awards.
If the discount applies to oneway awards, then you could actually get two roundtrips for 30k miles by booking each way separately.
Example: I book myself and a companion from Los Angeles to Tampa. My award is 10k miles; hers is 5k miles. I book the return at the same prices–10k + 5k + 10k + 5k = two roundtrips for 30k miles.
I hope to get a Frontier card on my next app-o-rama, so I’ll report whether this is possible. If you already know the answer, please share in the comments.
The card earns double miles on Frontier purchases and has a $59 annual fee.
My take is that this card is not worth putting a ton of spending on, but it is worth signing up for the sign up bonus. The key selling points that put this on my next app-o-rama:
Issued by Barclay’s. Barclay’s has only one other travel card worth getting, the US Airways Premier World MasterCard with 40,000 US Airways miles after first purchase, and I’ve had two of those. Since the best practice is to apply for only one card per issuing bank per app-o-rama, it’s nice to include a card from Barclay’s.
The spending requirement is so low at $750. It won’t add much strain on top of the many cards with $5,000 minimum spends that I apply for.
It’s a MasterCard, so it is accepted virtually everywhere.
Membership Rewards Transfers
American Express Membership Rewards transfer 1:1 to Frontier.
American Express collects $6 per 10,000 Membership Rewards transferred to Frontier like it does for transfers to other US-based airlines.
I have never made a transfer. Frontier says it is usually instant but can take up to 24 hours. Frontier will let you hold an award ticket for 24 hours while you wait for a Membership Rewards transfer.
Butt-in-Seat
I explained the earnings structure for flown miles above.
Recap
Frontier Airlines has an amazing award chart if you want to fly where it flies–Denver, under-served US airports, Alaska, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Jamaica.
Frontier’s miles price is lower than all the legacy carriers to all of its destinations. Frontier has incredible award space on all the routes I searched. Frontier doesn’t charge any fuel surcharges on any awards.
If you can handle economy flights–and I can on Frontier’s sub-five-hour flights–Frontier even has a decent economy product because of the DirecTV at every seat.
Frontier is a viable Membership Rewards transfer option if you want to fly to its destinations. And I’ve added the Frontier credit card to my next planned app-o-rama.
Application Link: The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard
Bonus
Frontier CEO on Undercover Boss:
Hat Tip to Jacob Vanags for reminding me of the AA off peak awards to Mexico and the Caribbean on its own metal.
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About Me
I have earned millions of points, primarily though credit cards, to travel the world in first class for pennies. This blog will show you how to earn and redeem points to do the same!
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I have earned millions of points, primarily though credit cards, to travel the world in first class for pennies. This blog will show you how to earn and redeem points to do the same!