Welcome to the 2nd episode of the Extra Pack of Peanuts Travel Podcast!
In this episode, Trav answers some of the most frequently asked questions about frequent flyer miles so that you can start understanding them, earning them and traveling for free.
He also discusses why airline alliances are so important and the awesome power they hold, as well as the two types of award charts and how to maximize each.
If you’re someone who is somewhat or completely new to frequent flyer miles this podcast is tailor-made for you.
It will help cut through all the confusion that you may have and answer some of the more basic questions about frequent flyer miles (and many of the questions that I didn’t know when I first started out).
If you are a veteran, don’t worry, there are also some tips and tricks available for you as well, as I’ll then talk about airline alliances, why they are so great for the consumer, and then discuss which award charts work best when.
In this session you’ll discover:
The basic concept of frequent flyer miles.
A brief history of frequent flyer miles and how they’ve grown in the last 20 years.
Why airlines continue to offer frequent flyer miles.
What the term “mile” really means.
How an airline alliance works and the three major alliances.
The difference between a zone-based and distance-based award chart.
The best ways to maximize each type of award chart.
A big thanks to everyone who has checked out this episode of the podcast.
If you haven’t already done so, I would love it if you took a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below! It is extremely important to help the show grow!
Thanks again for all the support, and if you have an idea for an episode or something you want to see discussed, please leave it in the comments below.
After one year and three months, the time has come for me to expand the reach of Extra Pack of Peanuts and I’m super excited that this will come in the form of a podcast!
Does this mean that I’ll stop writing on the blog?
Of course not!
What it does mean is that now you will have yet another way to get the best travel tips, tricks, frequent flyer news, and travel inspiration that EPoP currently offers.
The podcast will be a supplement for the blog, not a replacement for it. The material in the podcast will be distinct from what is on the blog, not a rehashing of it.
But I don’t want to talk too much about the structure of the podcast and the reasons behind it because, you guessed it, it is all discussed in the first episode!
For anyone who already knows about podcasts and wants to start listening to it right now, just click on the player at the top of this post or download Episode 1 below.
If you’re unfamiliar to podcasts, or still have some questions about what they are, keep reading. I’ll answer some of the most frequently asked questions below.
What is a Podcast and Other Questions…Answered!
1. What the heck is a podcast?
A podcast is just a fancy word for a pre-recorded audio segment that you can listen to at any time, in a variety of ways, such as your computer, iPod, or iPhone.
I record myself talking and discussing various topics, I post it to my blog and to iTunes, and then you listen to it whenever you want.
Another easy way to think of it is that a podcast is to a live concert as a movie is to live tv. You can choose when to listen to it, you can start and stop it and you have complete control over it.
2. How can I listen to a podcast?
You can listen to a podcast a variety of ways:
Play it through my website- In each post, there will be a media player at the top of the post. You simply hit play and begin listening.
Download it through my website- In each post, there will be a link to download it. If you click on the link, you can save the file to your computer. Then, you can listen to it anytime on your computer, even if you aren’t on my site.
Download it through iTunes- You can also download it through iTunes, and it is completely free. To download it directly to your iPod or iPhone, you first have to download the Podcast App. Then search for the Extra Pack of Peanuts Travel Podcast and hit the “free” button all the way to the right.
It may take up to 2 days for this podcast to be available on iTunes. I’ll post a link here as soon as it is available.
3. Is it free?
Yes, it will always be free, no matter how you decide to listen to it.
4. What does “subscribing to a podcast” mean?
Subscribing to a podcast is a really easy way to get all the new episodes, automatically when they are released. If you have an iTunes account, you simply sign in, find my podcast, and hit subscribe.
Then, each time a new episode is realized, it will automatically download without you having to remember to do it.
I love the subscribe function because each time I hop in the car, I always have new episodes of my favorite podcasts to listen to, without ever having to give it any thought.
5. Does rating the Extra Pack of Peanuts Travel Podcast help?
Yes, immensely. The more good ratings my podcast has, the higher it will rank in iTunes. The higher it ranks, the more people who will see it when they go to iTunes, which means more listeners.
If you like the podcast and want to help support it, I’d really appreciate it if you rated it on iTunes. Simply search for the podcast in iTunes, go to “Reviews and Ratings” and either give it a star rating or, if you’re really nice, write a review!
6. How often will you release a podcast?
I’m planning on releasing a podcast every week or two. I’m going to let the opinions of the EPoP community help determine how often I do a podcast vs. a written post.
7. Why does your voice sound so good?
Lots and lots of time spent in a room alone, recording myself speaking nonsense into a microphone.
8. Why does your voice sound so bad?
Not enough time spent in a room alone, recording myself speaking nonsense into a microphone.
10. If I have any questions about the podcast, where can I find answers?
If I haven’t answered your question above, feel free to email me at Trav at extrapackofpeanuts dot com. I’d be more than happy to answer them, and then use them in an FAQ at a later date.
Do you currently listen to podcasts? If so, which ones do you like? Are you excited to start listening to the EPoP Travel Podcast?
I’d absolutely love your feedback on how I can make the podcast better, so please, leave any comments or suggestions below.
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A Tremendously Huge Thank You
I just wanted to thank each and every person who I received emails, Facebook messages, and comments from yesterday’s Boston Marathon post. I was completely blown away with the amount of support and love I felt from this community.
I had real reservations about posting it, seeing as it’s a little more personal than my normal posts and I didn’t even know if my thoughts made any sense.
I left them almost completely uncensored and unedited, which is hard for someone like me who is such a perfectionist, and so I’m so glad that it was able to help so many of you.
I really, really appreciate all the kind words and the outpouring of compassion and love from the EPoP community. It is because of this response that I’m going to do something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently but scared to do, and that is to get more personal on my blog.
Of course, you can still expect the normal free travel advice and frequent flyer knowledge, but I want to really start connecting, to build bonds, to make it a community that talks about why we travel, why it’s important, and how it impacts our lives as opposed to just how.
So once again, thank you all so much for taking something I was scared to post and turning it into an incredibly positive experience. I really, truly appreciate it.
The real value of Chase Ultimate Rewards points comes from their ability to transfer to multiple travel partners. Transferring your UR points to a partner is BY FAR the best value you’ll get out of your Ultimate Rewards points.
First, let’s take a look at all the transfer partners and then talk about the two specific partners that you’ll get the most value from.
Transfer Partners
Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to the following airlines:
United
Southwest
Korean Air
British Airways
and the following hotels:
Hyatt
Priority Club
Marriott
Ritz-Carlton
In addition, points can be transferred to Amtrak (although I don’t know anyone who has done this).
The two most valuable transfer partners for most people will be United and Hyatt. Of course, in certain circumstances, you may want to transfer to other programs (discussed below), but United and Hyatt are generally your two best options.
Why United?
United is a member of Star Alliance, which means you’ll be able to fly anywhere in the world with United miles. Also, United never charges a fuel surcharge on their award tickets, so you won’t have to be worried about that (as opposed to BA, who does).
Expert tip: United also allows you to do some awesome things with stopovers and open-jaws, including getting a free ticket to Hawaii!
United are some of the most valuable airline miles out there, so having them as a transfer partner is quite the coup for Chase.
Basically, if you want to fly internationally, you’ll always want to transfer to United (with a few exceptions when BA might be better).
The only time United might not make the most sense is if you are going to fly domestically, in which case you’d want to look at BA and Southwest to compare which would be cheaper.
Why Hyatt?
Hyatt is the first place to consider when looking to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to a hotel because they give you the best bang for your buck. Let’s compare:
The top category Hyatt costs 22k points a night
The top category Marriott costs 40k/night
The top category Priority Club (Intercontinentals) costs 50k/night.
Since all hotels transfer 1:1, your UR points will go much further when transferred to Hyatt than to Marriott or Priority Club. You’ll get 2 nights in a top category Hyatt for every one night in an Intercontinental!
The only problem with Hyatt is that they are not near as plentiful as Marriott or Priority Club (which includes Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza among others). So while transferring to Hyatt may give you the best bang for your buck, make sure to look at where you are headed first and see what hotels are available in the area.
If there isn’t a Hyatt, or if there is a cheaper end Marriott or Priority Club, than consider transferring to one of the other chains.
My suggestion would be to hold off transferring you UR points to a hotel until you know for sure where you are going and what is available. Since transfers happen instantly, there is not point to make the transfer until you need to, and the worst thing you can do is get stuck with points in a hotel chain that you don’t need!
Some Other Good Options
While United and Hyatt will probably be your go-to transfer partners for airlines and hotels, respectively, other partners can also offer some great value in more specific situations:
Transferring to British Airways will offer really good value if you are taking any of these 5 specific trips (because you won’t pay a fuel surcharge).
If flying domestic, consider transferring to Southwest. Every 1 Southwest point is worth 1.6 cents in Wanna Get Away Fares, so if the ticket is a cheap one to buy on their website, it will be cheap in points as well!
Luckily, the transfer process is super easy. How easy? I show you exactly how to do it in the video tutorial in UNDER 2 MINUTES!
A Few Rules About All Chase Ultimate Reward Transfers
All points transfer at a 1:1 ratio, meaning that 1,000 Chase points will get you 1,000 points in ANY of the above programs.
All transfer must be done in increments of 1,000.
All transfers are supposed to occur instantly. Sometimes, there may be a few hour lag, but most of the time, the transfer is very quick. This is a huge perk, especially if you are trying to get something done last minute! (Compare this to American Express and SPG, whose transfers can take days!)
Only “premium” Ultimate Rewards Points can be transferred to travel partners. “Limited” Ultimate Rewards Points can not be! If you’re unsure about what is premium and what is limited, check out the first post in the series. To find out how to turn limited points in to premium points, check out my awesome video tutorial in post 3.
It’s official that I love United, but what’s your favorite Ultimate Rewards transfer partner? How have you used UR points to take dream vacations? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!
(UPDATE: DO NOT transfer points between people who ARE NOT SPOUSES OR DOMESTIC PARTNERS. Chase no longer allows this and may shut down your account.)
One of the major benefits of the Chase Ultimate Rewards program is that they allow you to combine points between accounts for no charge AND the transfer happens instantly.
Thanks Chase!
The ability to combine points comes is a HUGE SCORE for people who want to turn their “limited” UR points in to “premium” UR points.
To briefly recap, “limited” points are only allowed to be used as cash for purchasing travel through Chase (at 1.2 cents per point) or as cash-back (at 1 cent a point). They are NOT allowed to be transferred to travel partners like United, Hyatt, Southwest, etc.
“Premium” points are much more valuable because they ARE allowed to be transferred to travel partners like United, Hyatt, and Southwest. This opens up tons of possibilities, and if you’re good, you can make each Chase premium point worth 2 cents or more!
So, the goal is to turn “limited” points in to “premium” points, which amazingly, can be done…and done quickly and easily!
Combining Points from a “Limited” Account and “Premium” Account
Most people who are earning large amounts of “limited” points are doing so by using the Chase Freedom, but the Chase Sapphire, Chase Ink Classic, and Chase Ink Cash also earn “limited” points.
To turn these “limited” points to “premium” points, you’ll need to have one card that earns “premium” Ultimate Rewards points. These cards include the Chase Sapphire Preferred (my review), Chase Ink Bold (my review), or Chase Ink Plus (my review).
If you have one of those cards, it is very simple to transfer your “limited” points to “premium” points. All you’ll have to do is sign in to to your Ultimate Rewards account and combine your points. Just make sure you are transferring your points FROM the “limited” account TO the “premium” account.
Voila….you’ve got all “premium” Ultimate Rewards points.
Don’t believe it’s that easy? Watch me do it in less that 2 minutes WHILE explaining exactly how to do it!
Ok, so that’s great for people who have a “premium” UR account, but what if you only have a “limited” account? Fear not!
Transferring Points From One Person To Another
Another awesome benefit: Chase allows you to combine points between people! And get this…the people don’t even have to be related.
You can transfer points from your account to ANYONE!
The real benefit of this comes when one person DOES NOT have a “premium” account but wants to transfer their “limited” points to a travel partner.
They can use someone else who has a “premium” account as a middleman!
This exact situation happened a few days ago with an EPoP reader. Jason had earned “limited” UR points from his Chase Freedom card and had no other Chase accounts.
Jason wanted to turn transfer his points to Hyatt, but because they were “limited” UR points, he wasn’t allowed.
Instead, I offered to allow him to transfer his “limited” points to my Ultimate Reward account that was tied to my Chase Sapphire Preferred card, and therefore, a “premium” account. All he needed was my account number and my full name. After putting that in, the points arrived in my account in less than a minute.
Since the points were now in my “premium” account, they could be transferred to Hyatt. I simply used Jason’s Hyatt number and full name when transferring the points to Hyatt, and within a few minutes, they were in his account.
All told, it took less than 5 minutes for Jason to turn his “limited” points in to Hyatt points.
Just follow these easy steps:
1. Transfer your limited points to a friend who has a premium account. You’ll need that person’s premium UR account number and full name.
2. Have your friend transfer the points, which are now premium points, to the travel partner you want. They’ll need YOUR full name and membership number.
That’s it!
Final Word(s)
If you don’t have a “premium” card yet, you should definitely consider getting one! You’ll be earning one of the best currencies of points out there AND you’ll be able to turn your “limited” points in to more valuable ones! You don’t have to involve anyone else, and it takes less than 2 minutes.
If you’re not able to get a “premium” card, find a friend or family member who does and ask them to act as the middleman.
You should NEVER keep your Ultimate Rewards points as “limited” points since they are FAR LESS valuable than “premium” points. Since Chase makes it so easy to upgrade your points from “limited” to “premium”, you’ve got no excuses!
How do you change your “limited” points to “premium” points? What’s your favorite Chase card? Let me know below!
If that was the case, then I probably wouldn’t be writing this post, right?
In fact, there are a few other ways to earn large amounts of UR points AFTER you get your credit card sign up bonus. Today, I’m going to teach you about the most under appreciated and overlooked way to earn Chase UR points.
In fact, I’m continually stunned that 90% of people fail use this method that I use to earn TENS OF THOUSANDS of Ultimate Rewards points every year. Yes, TENS OF THOUSANDS!
That’s like getting a free roundtrip ticket to Europe every year!
Ready for it?
ONLINE SHOPPING!
Before you think “I don’t know how to do that” or “eh, that’s too hard and complicated” and close this window, hear me out for one minute.
Truth: I ABSOLUTELY HATE SHOPPING (my wife enjoys it enough for the both of us).
As much as I love frequent flyer miles, I hate shopping equally as much (want proof? I’m currently wearing my high school’s tennis t-shirt that I got as a senior…12 years ago!)
If this was hard or difficult in the slightest way, I wouldn’t do it.
So if I do it, you know it must be a cinch!
And, it gets even better. To make things even easier for you, I’ve created a video (only 3 minutes) to show you EXACTLY how to use the best online shopping portal of them all, the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall!
How the Online Shopping Portal Works
No pushing around a too-full cart when shopping online!
Every time you shop through the Chase Ultimate Rewards mall, you’ll be earning Chase UR points. The reason this can be so lucrative is because many merchants will offer bonuses (sometimes really big ones) for you to shop at their store if you route through the Ultimate Rewards Mall first.
Let’s look at J. Crew (Heather’s favorite store) as an example:
If you go directly to J. Crew’s website, either through Google or by typing in jcrew.com, you’ll only receive 1 Chase UR point if you use a Chase credit card (such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred orInk Plus), exactly the same way you would if you went to the store.
However, if you take the 2 minutes or less to sign in to the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall and THEN redirect to J. Crew’s website (which is exactly the same one you would have went to if you went to it directly), they will offer you bonus UR points for each dollar you spend. Currently, the bonus is 5x at J. Crew.
So, in addition to the regular 1 UR points you’ll get for using your Chase credit card for shopping, you’ll get an ADDITIONAL 5 UR points for every $1 you spend.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that by routing through the Chase Ultimate Rewards mall, that $200 you spend will earn you 1,200 UR points instead of a measly 200. And it only takes an extra 2 minutes (max) to sign in to the UR Mall and then redirect to your favorite store!
1,000 points for 2 minutes? If you’re time is that valuable, what are you doing wasting time reading my blog!
I could give you example after example of times I’ve used the Ultimate Rewards Mall to score big points, but I’ll just leave you with the one that got me to go all-in on using shopping portals (a decision that has earned me tens of thousands of points).
A Personal Example (or How the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall Gave Me a Very Merry Christmas)
Rewind to pre-Christmas, 2011. My siblings and I wanted to get my parents something special and so my sister suggested a hot air balloon ride. We all thought that was great, so she started searching around and found one on Groupon for $300.
Luckily, I had just gotten an email about Groupon offering 30x Chase UR points for every $1 spent. I checked it twice to make sure I read it correctly.
Yep, 30 Chase UR points for every $1! Un freaking believable!
I called my sister immediately (not an easy thing to do when your in Australia and she’s in America) and walked her through exactly how to purchase the balloon ride through the Chase UR mall (luckily for you, I’ve created a video that will explain it much quicker)!
BOOM!
Just like that, I was 9,000 Chase points richer!
From that day, I was a convert, and I haven’t looked back since!
I’ve never lead you astray before, have I? Take 3 minutes, check out the video, and start watching those UR points pour in in droves!
Additional Resources
If you’re gung-ho about online shopping (and you should be!), check out my partner post, which also has a 3 minute video.
It explains how to use Evreward, an awesome website that shows you which online shopping portal gives you the best deal for every store you can think of! It’s not always the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall, so learn to use this tool!
If you’re somehow not convinced yet and want to read another writeup I’ve done of the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall, check out one my most famous posts to date:
Of course, if you have any questions I don’t answer here, feel free to leave a comment below or email me directly.
Final Word(s)
If you’re serious about earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points, don’t rely solely on signup bonuses. If you aren’t using the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall for buying products, especially large ticket items like a computer, tv, etc. than you are leaving THOUSANDS of points on the table.
Even if you’re a complete newbie to online shopping, I implore you to give it a shot. Try buying one item and see how it goes. At the very least, you won’t have to drive to the store, and you’ll be earning extra points for sitting on your butt!
What are you feelings on online shopping? If you’re a convert, share the reasons why. Did you have an “A-HA” moment like I did with the hot air balloon ride? If you haven’t committed yet, what reservations do you have? Share, share, share below folks!
