I am glad I was raised with American Express because I will stick by them through and through and this is how they repay me.

Stealing from Mommy Points

Here’s how it works:

1. Register your American Express card.  Unless you are making over 10 purchases at the eligible retailers, I don’t really see a huge need to register every single Amex you can find in your sock drawer, but do keep in mind you can only get 10 “gifts” per card.
2. Then, use that card to spend $25 or more at a participating online store between November 28 and December 21, 2011, and you could get a surprise gift.  Eligible retailers include: J. Crew, Pottery Barn, Toys R Us, Walmart, YoYo, Dell, REI, American Eagle Outfitters, Zappos, Blue Nile, Bed Bath and Beyond, the Nike Store, Game Stop, and more…  Yes, you can still go through a shopping portal, and yes you can buy gift certificates to meet the $25 spending requirement.  You get the idea……
3. After you make your purchase of at least $25 with an eligible retailer, you may receive a gift from Amex!  I am a little bit confused on whether every purchase gets a gift until the gifts are gone, or whether it is a bit random.  I did two Walmart purchases yesterday and both received gifts.  The first received a year of ShopRunner free, and that email came within minutes of the purchase.  The second purchase received a $5 Amex statement credit if I make another minimum $5 purchase at Walmart between now and February 29, 2012.  That email came about 18 hours after the purchase was made.  I plan to make a few more purchases at eligible retailers, so we will see what I get!

It’s that simple.  Register, spend $25 on something you needed anyway at one of the eligible retailers, and get a prize.  Some examples of available gifts are: $10 Walmart gift card, $500 American Express gift cards for you and three of your Facebook friends (psst, I’ll be your friend!), $300 Dell gift card, $25 Toys R Us gift card, statement credits, and Membership Reward points.

Are you already a part of the gift chain?  I learned through Twitter that chiefmbh bought $225 in Walmart gift cards and received statement credits and more gift cards.  Way to go!  (If you want to have fun with me on Twitter you can follow me @Mommy_Points)  What did you get from the gift chain?

 

Judging by the comments on her blog, most people seem to be getting Shoprunner memberships.

This is my annual reminder that if you are going to be shopping online, remember to check your favorite miles/points providers for extra points.  Check a few because Lucky and others here on Boarding Area have posted some bonuses for certain places only on specific days.

Check your airline, hotel, and credit card programs.  Also, don’t forget to check out sites such as Fat Wallet or Mr Rebates since they offer cash rebates.

I was hoping to get better scans of this up, but I guess I’ll just post what I have and scan the book on my flatbed when I get home…whenever that may be.  I used it in Canada this week for the first time, but only at the hotel and they just swiped my card.  I did educate my coworkers about chip technology, but ultimately they had to pick up the check so my card stayed in my wallet.

I’ve been a Delta Sky Club member for 3 years now.  My membership expired last month and I’m waiting to settle into my new position before requesting lounge membership.

My logic is that even though Charlotte only has 2 US Airways clubs and no other clubs, I use the club most often on layovers.  My layovers are usually either Atlanta or Terminal 2 of ORD.  Both of those locations have Delta Sky Clubs.  Also, Delta has had free alcohol for years while US always had cash bars.  Now US does have some free (except in PA) beer and wine so the value is coming up a bit.

I used to have United Red Carpet Club which gave me access to the US Airways clubs when flying US, but not other times.  I believe this has changed so maybe I investigate rejoining the RCC since I have status with United, but in Atlanta that leaves my lounge prospects very limited.

I do have the pay-per-use Priority Pass that comes with the Hilton Surpass card, but I can’t bill that back to my company.  They will pay annual membership for 1 lounge, but not a per-visit fee.  They also won’t reimburse credit card annual fees such as the AMEX Platinum charge card or else that would be quite tempting.  I will be evaluating my travel plans over the next few weeks and figure out what meets my needs the most in terms of access and amenities.

I’ve been tossing around the idea of getting a new card and abandoning my antiquated Citi Professional card.  I mainly just carry that around because I used to have another card on Thank You points as well and I liked it for the cash back on Avis rentals and Fuelman Network gas.  It also acted as primary insurance on rentals.  I’m usually covered under my corporate insurance, but the less often I have to deal with my accounting department the happier I am.

What I want:

• Chip/Pin
• No Forex
• Rewards that are redeemable for cash or gift cards at the same or better value than Thank You points
• Points transferable to my existing programs (Delta, United, Hilton, Marriott, Priority Club)
• No annual fee

What  I got:

• Chip/Signature
• No forex
• Rewards that appear redeemable for cash or gift certificates at the same value and at a better (per point) value than TYP
• Points transferable to British Airways, Continental and United, Korea Air, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, and Amtrak.
• $95 annual fee waived the first year.

Dr. Credit Card has a nice table breaking down the differences between SPG, AMEX MR, and Chase’s UR

Not really all that remarkable of a program considering I’d lose the Master Card money I get back from Avis and I usually expense my forex fees so I’ll only save that on personal trips.

No forex fees is already a feature on many free cards out there.  Chase’s Ultimate Rewards also exists on many other cards and the JPM doesn’t have all that stellar of a bonus (since I will most likely not hit the $100,000 threshold for the 25,000 point bonus).

I pretty much just got the card because I like to be an early adopter of new things so I really wanted a forex free chip/pin card (and chip/signature will have to do in the mean time).

Now that I’m back to getting instant approval for credit cards I think I may change things up fairly regularly like a good point whore should.

I will most likely change up my mix a bit.  Currently I do:

HH Amex Surpass for business expenses except rentals

Citi Professional (not accepting new applicants for a while) for car rentals due to primary insurance and 5% rebate on Avis rentals

Citi HH Visa for personal expenses

I love Hiltons, especially for domestic trips, but I found I really needed points in other hotel programs when I was in Europe this year.  So I’m thinking:

JPM for non-Hilton hotels, auto rentals

HH Amex Surpass for Hiltons and other business travel expenses (mainly restaurants and refueling rentals)

Citi HH Visa for personal expenses.

and I’ll just relegate the Citi Professional to the sock drawer since Citi won’t increase my limit on it.

In a couple months I’ll see what’s going on and I might change the mix again.

I had a nice layover in MSP the other day so I decided to finally try out the b4 you board app from HMS Host.

Although at other concourses they had the smaller chain restaurants like Rock Bottom, I was at G which left me with my least favorite: Chilis Too.  I could have ordered at another concourse because I had time, but I wanted to make sure that even Chilis would last.

I used the app and placed my order using my credit card.  It took me a couple tries because I had chosen pick-up to see if that expanded the G options any, but it didn’t.  I had to start over to do delivery.  Then I wanted to look something up in another app before completing my order, but that resulted in beginning again as well.

I completed my order, a receipt was emailed to me, and I sat waiting for the promised push notifications.  I never received any (which maybe I had blocked, I need to look that up), but the delivery person did call as she approached the gate.  When I saw her I showed her my phone and that was that.

The food arrived before the slated window and it was an acceptable temperature.

This leaves me with a question about gratuity:

I rarely carry cash.  I had only $1 which is a paltry tip on an order over $10 and since I didn’t sign a credit slip tipping didn’t dawn on me until the lady had already left, but I believe people should be tipped for my laziness (because at least in that instance I had plenty of time to obtain food and I was actually in front of Tequileria waiting for Chilis).  There was no option to tip at checkout (which I agree with since the service I’m tipping for hasn’t occurred yet), but without adequate cash I had no mechanism to tip.

Are the employees compensated enough that tipping is unnecessary?  If not, then HMS Host can surely find a way to tip these people for running food across the airport.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post I applied for NEXUS.  For some reason I had it in my head that the cost was over $200 which seemed a bit much for maybe 5 trips to Canada per year, but it is actually $50 for 5 years.  Depending on when I get approved and how the interview schedule is I may, however, need to schedule a trip to to a NEXUS interview office for an interview, but as of right now I have a couple trips scheduled to Alberta and I may need to visit British Columbia again so hopefully I can just tack it onto another trip.

In addition to NEXUS I may just be able to enjoy some of the upcoming TSA trusted traveler features.  I will have to see about that.

Although Canadians overall have been extremely friendly, their immigration department still has an important job to filter out people coming over with an intent to stay.

Apparently I fit into their demographic of a potential questionable person and I have been sent to secondary questioning 4 times out of 20 or so crossings.  I was always able to placate the secondary officer by presenting a return ticket, hotel, and rental car reservation, but occasionally they would request to read the contract or a letter of introduction from my company…sometimes going as far as requesting a business card as well.  The business card part is even more interesting since my Canadian clients are have been much less interested in collecting business cards than their American counterparts.

The problem is that now that I will be in Sales there often is no existing contract, but I will always be traveling for a pre-set meeting, not randomly dropping in on people.

My Canadian entry package will change from:

• Passport
• Letter of Introduction
• Training Agenda
• Travel Itinerary
• Signed copy of Contract (at a minimum including the service contracted for, often also for the whole system purchase if not included together)

As always, you may cross many times and never have a problem, but after making the mistake of saying I was going to Hamilton, ON for vacation I decided to get all of my ducks in a row and be safe rather than get declined admission.  Being declined admission is not a risk I am willing to take so I get all of my papers together.

Of course my first order of business in my new job is heading right back up to Canada so I won’t have time to get business cards printed with my new title, but overall I hope that isn’t a show stopper.  Now I will try:

• Passport
• Letter of Introduction
• Travel Itinerary
• Meeting Agenda
• A copy of the quote if I can find it
• And maybe a copy of an e-mail confirming the meeting.

Overall I hope to just present my passport and say I’m there for a meeting and be done with it, but apparently I look really guilty or something so I’d rather be prepared.  Also, it’s just not worth it to me to lie to immigration because I don’t want to affect any future entrance into a country.

I don’t think “Why would I want to move to such a cold place” is a good defense to questioning.