26

Dec

I had to book several tickets over the past several days for other people, either where the tickets are reimbursed by work or where they’re favors for friends who are paying me back.

And I’ve decided that one of the greatest things in the world is buying travel for other people, when you’re not the one coming out of pocket for it.

I suppose an unlimited amount of reimbursable flowers at 30 miles per dollar would be better. But few other things are quite as lucrative.

Back in the late 70s Southwest Airlines was really innovative, offering a program that rewarded secretaries for booking travel on the airline. They had the insight that the person doing the booking exercised discretion in where to book the traveler, either total discretion or at least they’d influence the choices that were presented. And yet it’s always the traveler who earns the miles from flying.

It’s only in the most recent times that actually doing the booking has gotten really lucrative.

Credit Card Points are Rewarding

Buying travel and getting reimbursed for it is great, especially since so many credit card products bonus travel spend so you aren’t just earning one point per dollar.

Chase Sapphire Preferred earns two Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on all travel (and it’s also great buying tickets from foreign airlines, since the card doesn’t charge foreign currency transaction fees). Those points transfer to United/Continental, Hyatt, British Airways, Marriott, Priority Club, Amtrak, Korean Airlines, and starting in January Southwest. (The 40,000 point signup bonus after $3000 in spend isn’t bad, either.)

The Ink Bold card is the small business equivalent of Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Meanwhile, the American Express ® Premier Rewards Gold Card earns 3 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on airfare. And since there are often transfer bonuses as high as 50% for moving points to Delta and British Airways, that can be as much as 4.5 miles per dollar spent on air with this card.

The American Express Business Gold Rewards card is the small business equivalent of Premier Rewards Gold, and also earns triple Membership Rewards points on airfare.

Finally, if you’re willing to make your travel bookings on Travelocity (I much prefer the booking interface of Expedia, and the airfare search power of Orbitz), then it’s hard to go wrong with the Travelocity American Express which earns 10% back on Travelocity spending which can be used for future Travelocity travel bookings.

Cash Back and Mileage Portals are Rewarding

The Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall (which you have access to if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold credit card from Chase) currently offers two points per dollar spent at Travelocity and one point per dollar at Expedia or Priceline.

That means you actually earn a United or Hyatt point for every dollar of travel spend, two points if you go through Travelocity.

And of course points earned through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, just like points earned through spending, earn the Chase Sapphire Preferred 7% annual bonus on all points earned.

Alternatively, Big Crumbs offers a flat $3.20 back on each Expedia booking. Travelocity is a flat payout as well. And there’s percentage cash back offers for Marriott, InterContinental, Choice Hotels, and Best Western.

By the way, the Expedia and Travelocity offers work not only for airline and hotel but also car rentals as well.

Airline Small Business Programs are Rewarding

If I book through the American Airlines website I can get credit in their Business ExtrAA small business program. It’s not the most lucrative offering, but $1500 in airfare will generally earn 300 points and that’s enough for a couple of lounge passes. Ten times that amount of airfare spend is enough for 3000 points or an annual lounge membership. 2400 points will let you gift someone with Gold status in the AAdvantage program.

Delta has a similar program, SkyBonus.

United’s PerksPlus has a bit of a higher spending threshold to join, and the combined United-Continental looks like it’s going with the United model.

But with both American and Delta a solo traveler can actually rack up some points. I’ve not really invested in the Delta program but I’ve gotten a decent amount of value from Business ExtrAA over time, including being able to give friends Gold status and lounge passes.

The only downside to the program is that in order to add your Business ExtrAA account number you need to book travel through the American website which means giving up the shopping portal points.

Online Travel Agency Programs are Rewarding

If you buy through Expedia, you earn Expedia Rewards points. The program was just devalued a bit after less than a year, but it’s still free points for booking travel and more rewarding than the other online travel agencies.

I’m working towards 50,000 points, redeemable towards $1000 in hotel spend, and I’m about two-thirds of the way there.

Triple Dipping

You can’t generally use an airline small business program and a cash back portal or online travel agency program. But otherwise the programs are combinable. You can even triple dip.

  • You buy travel with your credit card, earning three Membership Rewards points (with Amex Premier Rewards Gold or Business Gold Rewards) or two Chase Ultimate Rewards points (with Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold).

  • You click on Expedia or Travelocity through Big Crumbs or the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall.

  • If using Expedia, you also get Expedia Rewards points

If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you can go through the Ultimate Rewards mall to Expedia. You’ll earn 2 Ultimate Rewards point per dollar spent on the credit card, an additional point per dollar spent with Expedia for going through the shopping portal, and then earn Expedia Rewards points which can be redeemed for airfare or hotel.

Or on a cheap itinerary, perhaps a $100 airline ticket, going through the Big Crumbs shopping portal earns a flat $3.20 with Expedia. Plus you get Expedia Rewards points. And then using the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card you earn 3 Amex Membership Rewards points per dollar.

See, it’s the triple dipping that I really love.

Here’s what I’d really love feedback on. While the Ultimate Rewards Mall says you should pay with your Chase card there are plenty of examples where paying with any card will work to earn points. The How To Page gives five bullet points to ensure that you earn points, none of which say you’re required to use your Chase card. So I’m wondering if anyone has tried going through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to earn points with Travelocity or Expedia, and paying with a different credit card?

Once you have a Sapphire Preferred card you have access to the Ultimate Rewards Mall, which is often the most lucrative online shopping portal and in my experience about the most reliable for quickly posting points.

You could get Sapphire Preferred if you don’t already have it, and then actually pay for your Travelocity purchases with the Travelocity American Express for the 10% back in future travel.

Has anyone given that a shot?

A final note, links in this post will earn me a referral credit. You don’t have to use my links in signing up for things of course. But the links I provide are to the best-available offers that I know, and I certainly appreciate it as well.

20 Comments

  1. toomanybooks said,

    Thanks for summarizing.

    I am spending a lot on AA in January and looked at the Business ExtrAA program. The lowest bracket for spending in the registration was given as $25-50k. Do they somehow enforce that?

  2. Gary said,

    @toomanybooks I don’t hit those thresholds and they’ve never kicked me out :)

  3. LIH Prem said,

    Can we interest you in some fine Amway products?

    -David

  4. bluto said,

    I’ve wondered the same thing about using the Travelocity Amex thru the chase UR portal for spend on Travelocity. I suspect it works because the chase portal doesn’t seem to double check which card is actually used. I’ve had luck getting UR points through the portal even when using other cards.

    it won’t be long before I test it. I’ll report back unless someone else does first.

  5. Steelsnow said,

    I too have used different cards while using the UR portal (but I have not tried the Travelocity/Expedia/Priceline links in particular). One thing to keep in mind, if you do use the UR portal with a different credit card and the points for whatever reason do not post, the Chase UR folks will not be able to help get those points posted – you will have to work with the company the purchase was made with (some are quick and others not so much…).

    I have also found that keeping track of which purchases were made through which portal with which card can really help when checking for points postings at the end of the month when the statements come in… just a reality of triple dipping!

  6. Carl said,

    @Gary – if booking via the Amex travel website, is the 3x MR points using the PRG stackable with the 2X MR points that site offers?

  7. Anita said,

    I feel so dumb! I never thought about booking travel at Expedia through the Chase UR portal. Thanks to your post, I have missed that opportunity for the last time!

  8. Gary said,

    @Carl I don’t see why it wouldn’t be…

  9. gpapadop said,

    I am still waiting for 5k points to hit my Business ExtrAA account…I even “moved” to New York for it:-)

  10. al613 said,

    you can book your AA ticket through XP and then call AA to add BusinessExtra #

  11. Rich said,

    For UA PerksPlus, can you sign up as a sole proprietor/using your SSN as your TIN? I book close to $100K in UA tickets per year, but for a variety of purposes (friends, coworkers, etc).

  12. Gary said,

    @Rich certainly

  13. Gary said,

    @al613 officially you’re not supposed to be able to do it, and since there’s no way to know which itineraries post properly and which ones don’t it’s a crapshoot at best — though perhaps not impossible.

  14. Jeremy said,

    Gary, I’ve hesitated using my own card to book other people’s travel in case they need to pull up their reservation the day of at the airport. Is this a non-issue? And have you grown comfortable asking your clients to pay you cash/check when it can be 1-2k in taxes and surcharges sometimes? I feel awkward doing that, but hate missing out on the points. So I may start now and just be up front about it. Thoughts?

  15. easy victor said,

    I tried applying for the Sapphire Preferred card. They told me it would take up to a month for them to approve or deny me. Insane. Some websites approve me in 60 seconds or less with large limits (I have good credit). And, oddly, I own a different Chase card so it’s not like they dont have a history on me!

    Very frustrating and doesnt make a lot of sense….

  16. Gary said,

    @easy victor you probably didn’t get instant approval because you have another chase card, you can expedite things if you wish by calling the reconsideration line.

  17. al613 said,

    After I book @ XP I call AA business line and ask to add Xtra #. I have never heard from AA any negative feedback. reg. this. Also, they provide travel agency instructions to add Xtra number as the Tour code (doubt XP will do it for you) If it does not post I go to “request ticket credit”. Always posts then (couple month later). Just keep good records. Theoretically you can do it to any ticket number you get your hands on. No need to book it yourself :)

  18. Traveler12 said,

    If you put the reservation on your credit card, couldn’t that be a problem down the road somewhere for the person you booked for?

  19. California traveler said,

    Great points. It’s always good to get extra rewards. It does remind me of the time years ago when I was the one doing the legwork, but … also making the decisions, and it came with its perks. Companies are smart to take advantage of those incentives.

    I’ll keep your referral links in mind, if needed anytime soon. :)

  20. Rich said,

    I tried opening a UA PerksPlus account with my own info, but it was denied because they can’t verify that my company exists:

    “Enrollment is based upon meeting certain program criteria and verification of publicly published corporate data, such as the following:

    Corporate Web Site.
    Corporate phone listing in Yellow Pages. (www.yellowpages.com)
    Federal Tax ID
    Dun & Bradstreet Number

    In reviewing your application, we have determined your company could not be verified at this time. If situations should change in the future, please don’t hesitate to re-submit your application.”

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