Point Crazed

Stretching your points so you can see the world

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New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/09/13/last-days-to-register-for-chase-freedom-quarterly-bonus-spending/

Last Days to Register for Chase Freedom Quarterly Bonus Spending

Last Days to Register for Chase Freedom Quarterly Bonus Spending

The Chase Freedom is one of the more popular credit cards with no annual fee, but unlike most cards that have static points earned the Chase Freedom has categories that switch every quarter. Every quarter the categories switch, and for Q3 of this year which includes July-September, you will get x5 points at Gas Station, Theme Parks and Kohl’s. The only catch to getting x5 points at these places is that you have to register for the bonus categories every quarter. The last day to register for Q3 Bonus Spending is September 14, 2013.

Technically, with the Freedom you are getting % cash back since alone it doesn’t let you transfer to airline and hotel partners. If you have the Sapphire Preferred, Ink Plus, or Ink Bold, you can transfer your points to one of those cards and will be able to transfer those points. This is why many people that have one of the cards with an annual fee will also usually have the no annual fee Chase Freedom. The bonus categories help churn points, especially when you are buying things you would buy regardless (such as gas.)

So don’t forget to register for Q3, it costs you nothing and only takes a minute. If you are unsure if you will get x5 points somewhere, you can refer to this list from Chase.

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New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/09/09/starwood-element-vaughan-southwest-almost-perfect/

Starwood Element Vaughan Southwest - Almost Perfect

Starwood Element Vaughan Southwest – Almost Perfect

Matt and I were recently in Toronto, Canada for a one day Costco Mega Tour. The goal was to hit up eight locations, but in the end we only ended up walking seven locations. We missed one location, because the navigator, Matt, led us to a depot which was Costco’s Distribution Center (Matt’s edit: Still counts). We wanted to get an early start so we flew in from ORD late Friday night and stayed at the Starwood Element Hotel in Vaughan which is about 10 minutes from the airport.

When booking this hotel there was a cash & point option of 3,500 Starpoints and 55 CAD. As of looking today they only have the option of a free night at the rate of 7,000 Starpoints and paying for a night at 159 CAD. If you apply for the Starwood American Express Card, you can get 25,000 Starpoints and start growing a nice stash of Starpoints. You will get 10,000 after your first purchase and another 15,000 points after spending $5,000 in the first six months.

When we arrived at the Element, it was around 8:30pm (EST). We were promptly checked into our double queen bed room and I took the points as my platinum amenity.

We made it up to our room on the fourth floor where we entered via touch entry. You just tap the sensor and you don’t have to enter and remove your keycard anymore.

The room is laid out just like the other Element Hotels I have stayed at in Summerlin and Lexington. The only difference that I noticed was that instead of just having a standup glass enclosed shower, they had the shower / bathtub combo which is great for families but doesn’t look as eye appealing. Matt wasn’t too happy about the tub, he thought the standup shower was the better option.

The kitchen in the room is sporting all stainless steel appliances and has all the utensils needed to cook a nice pot of spaghetti, if that is your thing. I’m fonder of making a late night run to Little Caesars in bad parts of town, but that’s just me.

The downfall to the kitchen was the cleaning crew missed the last persons coffee filter so that wasn’t such a great find.

The beds were comfortable and beside that old coffee filter, the room was very clean.

They had your typical Element breakfast. They had a hot sandwich with egg, cheese, and ham. The berry smoothie tasted a little too watered down for me, and Matt thought it was sour. Beside the sandwich they also had all of your different types of cereal, breads and juices.

  The pool at this Element location was an indoor pool which is a nice change, because they are typically outdoor pools.

In place of the outdoor pool, they have a very large outdoor seating patio that is filled with tables, chairs and heat lamps.

Overall this was a near perfect hotel experience. If it wasn’t for discovering the dirty, wet, soggy coffee filter, it would have been perfect. This hotel just recently opened a few months back, so I look forward to staying there in a year or so just to see how they are doing operationally wise.

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New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/09/05/costco-fort-wayne-indiana-almost-open-for-business/

Costco Fort Wayne, Indiana: Almost Open For Business

Costco Fort Wayne, Indiana Update – #1161

In just a matter of weeks the doors to the future Costco located in Fort Wayne, Indiana on Lima and Progress Road will open. The anticipated opening time is around the third week of October.

This location has made a lot of progress in such a short amount of time. I was out here in early July and at that point they were just putting up the shell of the building.

Now the outside is completely done, the parking lines are painted and they are already planting flowers and trees.

They have a little bit of blacktop to put down, but that is only a day or so task. With the gas station installed and setup, the blacktop seems like a very minuscule task.

If you are interested in signing up for a membership at the new warehouse you can go to their temporary office at 4725 Lima Rd. Fort Wayne, Indiana. They are offering two types of membership. They have the Gold Star Membership which will get you access to shop in the warehouse for $55 a year and the Executive Membership for $110 a year which will get you 2% cash back on all of your purchase (along with many other great benefits). If you would like to learn more about the Executive Membership you can read our article on if the Executive Membership is worth it.

Please remember that Costco currently only accepts Cash, Check, Debit, Link Card (Food Stamps), and American Express. If you are looking to get an American Express card that will have the best signup bonus, I would check out the American Express Starwood card. You will get 10,000 Starpoints after your first purchase and then another 15,000 Starpoints after you spend $5,000 in six months of having the card. Shopping at Costco will greatly help with reaching the spending required, as well as our guide for to minimum spending. These points can be worth over $500 in free hotel stays. To get your Starwood American Express Card Click Here

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Last Call For The 30,000 Point Sign-Up Bonus For The Personal And Business Starwood American Express

Last Call For The 30,000 Point Sign-Up Bonus For The Personal And Business Starwood American Express

I am sure by now that many of you have heard this about a hundred times from the other blogs across the web, but today (September 3) is the last day for the Starwood American Express 30,000 point sign-up bonus.

  This offer typically comes up once a year around this time, so now is always a good time to hop on the offer. You can apply for both the personal (click here) and the business card (click here).

  You will get 10,000 Starpoints after the first purchase, and you will get the additional 20,000 Starpoints after you spend $5,000 within the first six months. Six months is quite a generous amount of time to meet a minimum spending on a credit card, as most cards typically only give you three months. For those who worry that you may not be able to meet the spending, don’t worry we have you covered. You can learn how to easily meet the spending with our guides here.

Here are my two favorite benefits of the card.

Redeem Starpoints for free flights on over 350 airlines with SPG Flights with no blackout dates. Transfer Starpoints to nearly 30 airline frequent flyer programs, mostly on a one-to-one basis. You can receive a 5,000 Starpoint bonus when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints to a participating frequent flyer program. (This is my favorite perk of the card)

Earn up to 5 Starpoints® for each dollar of eligible purchases charged directly with hotels and resorts participating in the Starwood Preferred Guest® program – that’s 2 Starpoints per dollar spent on the Card in addition to the Starpoints you get as an SPG member. Earn 1 Starpoint® for each dollar of all other eligible purchases.

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New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/08/26/2154-flight-for-only-9000-miles-and-56-46-avios-valued-at-23-31-cents-per-mile/

$2154 Flight For Only 9000 Miles And $56.46 - Avios Valued At 23.31 Cents Per Mile

$2154 Flight For Only 9000 Miles And $56.46 – Avios Valued At 23.31 Cents Per Mile

I recently went to Toronto, Canada with Matt on my one day off from work. Some people like to fish and others like to go biking, well me, I enjoy visiting other Costco locations around the world. It is thanks to points and miles earned that make this possible.

I came up with this idea to go spend the day in Toronto, Canada and hit up a few Costco Canada locations. When I started my search for flights I started at Kayak just to get an idea of what the flights were going for. When I booked this trip it was only about three days out, so I anticipated the flights would be around 350$ round trip but what came up was shocking.

That’s right. The price of the round trip flight would have cost $2,154. This is where British Avios come into play.

When you use your American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card you are going to get 25,000 Membership Reward points after spending just $2,000 during your first three months. After you spend $30,000 within the first year you will get an additional 15,000 Membership Reward points. So with all of the spending and the point bonuses, you will be at a total of 72,000 Membership Reward Points. When you use their reward portal to transfer them to British Airways you will end up with 72,000 Avios Miles. (During regular times, but sometimes they give you a bonus when transferring.) That is enough for up to 8 round trip tickets!

Spending that additional $30,000 might seem like a big task, but with our blue bird guide you can manufacture that spending in only 6 months. You can find that guide here.

Short haul flights on British Airways start at 4,500 Avios per way or 9,000 round trip. From Chicago to Toronto it is classified as a Zone 1 flight, so that would make it 9,000 miles round trip.

There happened to be quite a bit of availability both ways. For that exact flight from Kayak, it only ended up costing me those 9,000 Avios and $56.46 in taxes. That brings the value of my points to 23.31 cents which is extremely high.

Even if you have no Avios, you could purchase the 9,000 Avios for only 273.00. That by itself is $1881 less than paying full fare for the ticket.

By having Avios it made our little Costco Canada Mega Tour possible, as paying the full fare of $2154 is just outrageous.

This is just another example of how points and miles make it possible to continue my Costco hobby.

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New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/08/23/the-slowest-airport-ive-ever-seen-ft-wayne-indiana/

The Slowest Airport I’ve Ever Seen – Ft. Wayne, Indiana

The Slowest Airport I’ve Ever Seen – Ft. Wayne, Indiana

When I was helping Scott move, we drove a rented truck from Budget to Indiana. This meant that I had no car to get back home later; instead I opted for a quick flight from Ft. Wayne Airport to Chicago O’Hare Airport. Normally I book my flights through American Airlines, and to an extent British Airways, but this time the available flights didn’t fit my schedule. There was one flight early in the morning around 6 A.M. and about noon for the other. Since neither one of these flights was a viable option, it gave me an excuse to try flying United for the first time.

Luckily Scott had recently opened his Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard and had enough points to book my returning flight to ORD. The Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard gives you 40,000 mies after spending just $1,000 in your first three months which is equivalent to $400 in travel. It’s a pretty great feeling being able to fly on a whim’s notice and everyone around you wondering how you can possibly afford it.

As we drove to the airport, all you could see was what looked like farm land. The airport was hidden behind all the roads. Once we got to the airport we still weren’t sure if we were at the right spot, there were a few parked cars and small planes, but the only moving cars happened to be two cop cars. We didn’t see a single other person outside of the airport. Scott dropped me off and I headed inside.

At first I thought the airport may have been closed, until I saw someone else there. I headed over to the security line. I had my boarding pass on my phone through Passbook, to my surprise I had to wait about 5 minutes before the TSA plugged in the scanner and it booted up. It wasn’t a problem; I’ve just never seen it before. I was the only person in line, so I was able to go through security in about 5 minutes, not bad!

  After I got through security I went up the stairs and started heading to my gate. On the way, I saw that they have a mini museum inside the Ft. Wayne airport, which you can read more about here. Beside the museum there wasn’t really anything else on my way, I don’t recall seeing any restaurants, just a bathroom.

As I walked through the airport to my gate, all I saw were a bunch of empty seats everywhere. I got to my gate and decided to look out the window, only to see that the plane still hasn’t arrived with about 30 minutes till take off and no one on the field.

As it got closer to boarding and take off, more people started to arrive. Everyone beside me was dressed in business attire and had a briefcase with them; I was there in my casual outfit wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Finally the regional plane arrived and I was able to board. The Slowest Airport I’ve Ever Seen – Ft. Wayne, Indiana

I had a great seat on the plane, first row right behind the cockpit. This was the quickest boarding and take off I have ever witnessed. After boarding was called, everyone was on the plane and we were taking off in about 5 minutes. It helped that only about 10 people including myself were on the plane. Overall the flight was very quick and smooth, but in the future I don’t think I would fly from Ft. Wayne to O’Hare. When looking at the time, I could drive from point A to point B in 2.5 hours, flying (including driving to airport, going through security, waiting, flying, and then driving back later) would add up to about the same amount of time. If they are both the same amount of time, it’s better to save those miles and points for other trips.

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New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/08/22/where-in-the-world-have-we-been/

Where In The World Have We Been???

Where In The World Have We Been???

It has been almost a week since our last post. I am sure some a lot of people have been wondering what happened. A lot has been going on here behind the scenes at the Point Crazed headquarters. I spent the last week moving from Chicago, Illinois to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The initial plan leading up to the move, was to have posts completed and scheduled and ready to go live. Unfortunately on the days leading up to my move, when I should have been writing articles, a lot of last minutes things needed to get done. The next plan was to write some articles with Matt after I was all moved in this past Thursday. The problem with that plan was that after you move into a third floor apartment you are dead tired. Matt was going to write articles as well, but he was there in Fort Wayne helping with the move. Then the weekend came and my day job was super busy so here we are today.

We are typically a lot better with having content ready to go while we are traveling and I can assure you that going forward we will make sure we don’t have these large gaps in posts.

There is a lot of great content in the works. We are currently in Toronto, Canada on a Costco Mega Tour. We will be stopping at 8+ locations in 24 hours.

In the coming days and weeks we will be covering everything from a Fort Wayne airport and flight review, to the unique Costco Food Court Food served in the Canadian Costco locations. In a few weeks we will have our hundredth blog post where we will be holding some giveaways, where you can pick up some cool items.

There is a lot of great content in the works and Matt and I just wanted to say thanks to you, the readers. We blog about our interests in the hope that you are able to get just as much enjoyment from our content as we do.

If you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to ask below in the comments.

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New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/08/12/is-it-worth-getting-the-costco-executive-membership/

Is It Worth Getting The Costco Executive Membership

Is It Worth Getting The Costco Executive Membership

I am sure at one point or another, as you are waiting in line to pay at Costco you may have had an employee come up to you with their hand held scanner at the register and scanned the back of your card. They are doing this not only to see what level your membership is, but also to let you know an estimate of you executive membership reward. If you aren’t an executive member, they will let you know what you could have been getting and if it is worth it for you to upgrade.

Here are the numbers

Gold Star Membership – $55/year – There is no cash back with this membership. It is the basic membership that lets you come in and shop.

Executive Membership – $110/year – 2% cash back on MOST purchases

- The 2% does not include liquor, gasoline, tobacco, stamps, or Costco cash cards.

- If for some reason you are unhappy with your executive membership, you can downgrade anytime throughout the year and receive a full refund of the upgrade price of the membership. So if you don’t think you are going to get at least $55 back to cover the price of the upgrade, you can go to the membership desk and request to be downgraded back to the gold star. This can be done anytime throughout the year, the important thing is that it has to be done BEFORE your membership expires. (Ex: Can be done a week, a month or even a few days before you expire).

For the executive membership to pay for itself, you would need to spend over $2,750 a year at Costco. When spending $2,750 you would receive a check for $55.00, anything over that in spending and you are paying less than you would have with the Gold Star membership. You could use that towards next year’s renewal, while at the register or even cash it out.

Now here is what most people don’t know about the Costco Executive Membership. There are many services that Costco offers that are going to get you greater benefits by being an Executive Member. Here are just a few examples.

Costco Auto Program

When buying a car through many manufactures you will receive a Costco Cash Card, this will vary throughout the year and the manufacturer. Ex: Receive a $50 dealership gift certificate after purchasing a vehicle through the Costco Auto Program

Receive 15% off parts, service, and accessories at participating dealerships. For you to receive the discount the car does not to have been purchased at that dealer.

Auto & Home Insurance

Receive free roadside assistance for covered vehicles and home lockout assistance for covered homes. This is provided through Ameriprise Financial, and many have reported that it was much cheaper for them than the alternatives.

Identity Protection

$7.49/month for Executive Members compared to $9.49 for Gold Star Members.

  The list goes on and on. You can read the full list by clicking here.

So if you take those services into account you might be making that $55.00 upgrade fee back just by the different discounts on services and perks that Costco is providing you by being an Executive Member.

The last point to help you get even more money back from Costco is the Costco True Earning’s Card from American Express.

This is going to give you an addition 1% back on everything you purchase at Costco and elsewhere. So you are essentially getting 3% back instead of the normal 2% with the executive membership. With getting 3% back on everything you are purchasing at Costco (this is assuming you have the Executive Membership and the Costco Amex) you only need to spend $1835 a year to make that $55 back. I know that every time I go shopping at Costco I can’t seem to get out for less than 250 so I never have a problem hitting the $1835 let alone the $2750.

The Costco American Express is not only going to get you 1% cash back everywhere you shop but it’s also going to get you 3% cash back on gasoline (4% for the business version) and 2% on U.S restaurants and travel.

The Costco American Express card has No Annual fee as long as you are a Costco member, and if you would like to apply for your FREE Costco American Express you can click here.

Worst case scenario is before you are going to expire you ask one of the people scanning membership cards what your estimated refund is, and if you aren’t going to hit the magic $55.00 you can go over to the membership desk and get your $55.00 back. No harm no foul. If you are frequently shopping at Costco or even semi-frequently, your purchases will add up fast and you might as well try and earn that membership fee in the process. I highly recommend that everyone start out with the Executive membership, because you will shop more than you think. This way, you are getting money back on all those purchases, and on the chance that you are one of those few shoppers who don’t find the value in the Executive and it’s services, you can always downgrade and get your upgrade fee back.

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Does familiarity with a store or hotel layout keep consumers brand dedicated?

Does familiarity with a store or hotel layout keep consumers brand dedicated?

When I am traveling and away from home I like to be as comfortable as possible. For me that means staying at a nice hotel, having a bed that is comfortable, and having a car so I know I can drive myself to wherever I would like to be. I have become quite dedicated to the Starwood brand in general. I have stayed at all of the hotel brands, and I am always finding myself staying at Westin’s more times than not.

After a long day of traveling, and after venturing through a Costco or two along the way, I am always tired and nothing feels better than knowing I am able to go back to the Westin and get a good night sleep in their Heavenly bed. So even when I am away from home it still feels like I am at home.

I have been to many Costco’s throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. One thing I have noticed is they are starting to build all of their new stores about the same size and layout. They are putting the coolers in the same places, and tucking the food court right in front of the registers so you can’t miss it. Granted the product they sell will be in different places, because that is all a part of their ‘treasure hunt’ atmosphere. When you go to some of the older Costco locations, they all look different. Some are wide while others are narrow. Some are small while others are gigantic. Having the locations setup the same way, I believe is helping the consumer feel comfortable going into any one of their locations and not feeling overwhelmed. When they go in they will feel like they are right at their home location and hopefully they will make those larger purchases if they feel like they are right at home.

With hotels doing their ‘hotel at your home’ collections, this is the brands taking it one step further. The hope is that you will purchase the hotel chains mattress or bedding set, and then when you travel you will want to go to the brand of hotel just because they have the same mattress and the same sheet set as you have at home. While some might think that sounds ridiculous, it is drawing people back to their hotel brand.

When people become familiar with something, they typically don’t want to make changes. That is, unless what people have become familiar with is something negative. So with all of the hotel chains trying to make their hotels more uniform, especially here in the United States, does this make you want to stay loyal to one hotel chain brand in particular? i.e The Westin of Starwood or Grand Hyatt of Hyatt? Does going shopping in a store with identical layouts make you more likely to return just because you have some familiarity with the layout?

Let us know in the comments below.

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New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/08/08/howto-apply-for-a-job-at-a-new-costco/

HowTo: Apply For A Job At A New Costco

HowTo: Apply For A Job At A New Costco

With all of the posts that we put up about the building of new Costco’s, the most common question we get it “How can I apply for a job at this location.” We here at PointCrazed, decided we would make a little guide to show you where to go so you can get your application in for your new local Costco location as soon as the job listings are available.

Start by going to the Costco Jobs Website or you can go the long way and go to Costco.com and scroll all the way to the bottom where it says Jobs.

On the left hand side of the screen you are going to see “Our business is growing : come join our team : click here to apply online

You should now see a page that says Welcome to Costco. Near the bottom of the page you should see “Grand Openings”

Click the store you want to apply for.

When you click the new store you wish to apply for you should see that store location at the top (i.e LEXINGTON, KY – 2921 POLO CLUB BLVD)

You can now choose to apply for a specific department or position or just apply for any position. I believe any time you apply for a job it is best to say you are open to doing any position because it is going to show that you really want a job and you are willing to learn even if it isn’t something you have done in the past.

If you want to read about the position you are going to apply for you will click the title (i.e click stocker to read what a stocker responsibilities are and what the job entails.

Whichever you decide to apply for you will just click the Apply button next to the position you are trying to apply for

Once you are on the page you will now start the formal application process which according to the website “The application process will take between 10 and 50 minutes depending on the position for which you are applying.” Fill out the application and when you are all done you will click submit.

Good Luck!

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New Post has been published on Point Crazed - Stretching your points so you can see the world!

New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/08/07/costco-st-charles-illinois-1040-empty-isles-and-dual-flush-toilets/

Costco St. Charles, Illinois #1040 - Empty Isles And Dual Flush Toilets

Costco St. Charles, Illinois #1040 – Empty Isles And Dual Flush Toilets

Earlier this summer I was taking a little driving road trip, and as my luck would have it I ran over a pot hole and blew out my tire. I called the car dealer and they would have had to of order the tire, which would have taken about a week. I went to my local Costco in Niles, Illinois and they didn’t have it in stock, but they could do the next best thing. Through a new Michelin tire service they can get most Michelin tires to the store within 24 hours.

My store in Niles checked their depot and they didn’t have any of the size tires I needed. I though great…now I’m going to have to search the city of Chicago for my obviously rare tire size. Then I remembered that when there are a lot of Costco’s in a general area, some of them will get shipments from different Depot’s. I decided I would call up the Costco in St. Charles, Illinois which happens to be about 50 minutes away from where I live and see what they could do for me.

Sure enough, they were able to order the tire for me over the phone, and the next day they called to let me know the tire came in. I started my drive out there on my spare tire. After I got off the highway I was driving through some real suburban country.

After I dropped my car off at the tire center, I had to make a quick trip to the restroom, where I came across my first Costco dual flush toilet. Costco is all about being green, with their auto lights and their massive sky lights, but I have never seen a location that has industrial dual flush toilets with instructions posted. If others have seen this please let me know in the comments below. Something as small as dual flush toilets might seem like a small thing, when hundreds people are flushing those toilets a day, we can cut down on a lot of water use if people would follow those instructions.

I sure hope nobody was listening, because I didn’t turn the noise off on my camera and I’m sure they would have been wondering what I was taking pictures of.

After I left the restroom I started my loop around the store, and I quickly realized that this was a very slow location. I am sure empty isles like these are only what people out in Torrance, California could dream of. Most of the store was empty, but I did ask an employee and they did say that the majority of their business is done during the dinner hours and on weekends.

For being a slower location the store was really clean and organized, as I would have expected.

After only walking around for 40 minutes, my car was ready to be picked up. As I made my way to the front of the St. Charles Costco location, I noticed that their food court was the place to be. It seemed as if every member that went into the store, was stopping at the food court for a bite to eat on their way out.

  I would say the best part of this entire experience was when I got to the tire center there was no wait. They took my car, put the tire on, and I was on my way. I like it when I can be in and out of a store in a relatively short amount of time.

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New Post has been published on Point Crazed - Stretching your points so you can see the world!

New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/08/06/the-starwood-amex-everyone-has-been-waiting-for-is-back-30000-starpoints/

The Starwood Amex Everyone Has Been Waiting For Is Back - 30,000 Starpoints!

The Starwood Amex Everyone Has Been Waiting For Is Back – 30,000 Starpoints!

The Starwood American Express (Amex) card offer that everyone has been waiting for is finally live. After your first purchase on your new Starwood Amex card, you will get 10,000 Starpoints and then after spending an additional $5,000 in the first six months you will get another 20,000 Starpoints. You can get in on the offer before is disappears on September 3, 2013, by clicking here.

The regular signup promotion is 25,000 Starpoints. With the 30,000 Starpoint signup bonus, you are getting an entire six months to meet that pesky $5,000 in minimum spending. The positive side to the minimum spending is we have some guides that are going to help you meet that benchmark. You can either read the BlueBird guide or our Amazon Payments guide. Both will get you there in five months or less. You could do it in one day if you choose to go the BlueBird route.

Here are my two favorite benefits of the card.

Redeem Starpoints for free flights on over 350 airlines with SPG Flights with no blackout dates. Transfer Starpoints to nearly 30 airline frequent flyer programs, mostly on a one-to-one basis. You can receive a 5,000 Starpoint bonus when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints to a participating frequent flyer program. (This is my favorite perk of the card)

Earn up to 5 Starpoints® for each dollar of eligible purchases charged directly with hotels and resorts participating in the Starwood Preferred Guest® program – that’s 2 Starpoints per dollar spent on the Card in addition to the Starpoints you get as an SPG member. Earn 1 Starpoint® for each dollar of all other eligible purchases.

If you already have the personal version of the Starwood American Express card, you can go ahead and apply for the business Starwood American Express card and still get the same signup bonus of 30,000 Starpoints.

Starwood American Express Personal: Apply Here Starwood American Express Business: Apple Here

* If you use any of our provided links, we will receive a referral credit. As always we appreciate your ongoing support. *

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New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/08/05/last-day-for-50000-southwest-points/

Last Day for 50,000 Southwest Points

Last Day for 50,000 Southwest Points

For those of you that have been procrastinating on getting the Southwest cards with the 50,000 points after spending $2,000 within 3 months, this may be your final chance. I do not know what time/day the offer will be pulled, but the consensus among the community points to August 6th.

There are currently four Southwest cards with the bonus points and they are:

Chase Southwest Premier ($99.00 Yearly Fee – 6,000 points every anniversary which is equal to just about $108 in Wanna Get Away Fares)

Chase Southwest Premier Business ($99.00 Fee – 6,000 points every anniversary which is equal to just about $108 in Wanna Get Away Fares)

Chase Southwest Plus ($69.00 Yearly Fee – 3,000 points every anniversary which is equal to about $54 in Wanna Get Away Fares)

Chase Southwest Plus Business ($69.00 Yearly Fee – 3,000 points every anniversary which is equal to about $54 in Wanna Get Away Fares)

These points are worth about $800 in airfare, and it helps that you only pay the security taxes instead of the federal excise taxes that you would normally pay on a ticket. For those with unsure travel plans, there is no fee to cancel Southwest tickets, so they are a little more flexible than other airlines.

The biggest reason many people are happy about these promotions, is that the points go towards a companion pass. After earning 110,000 points in a year, a companion pass will let someone to travel with you for free whenever you travel, on paid tickets and award tickets. To meet the last 10,000 points (after applying for 2 Southwest cards from the above promotion) you can transfer points to Southwest from another source.  Transferring from Chase Ultimate Rewards will not work, but transferring from hotel programs will.

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New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/08/04/meeting-credit-card-minimum-spending-with-amazon-payments/

Meeting Credit Card Minimum Spending With Amazon Payments

Meeting Credit Card Minimum Spending With Amazon Payments

When you are working on App-O-Rama, one thing to consider is the minimum spending requirements of those cards. The good thing is, Amazon Payments is here to take the sting out of those pesky minimum spending requirements.

Amazon will let you send $1000 a month Fee-Free to anyone you would like, and that is going to result in not only knocking $1000 off of your minimum spending, but also net you an additional free 1000 points.

I am currently using it to help meet the minimum spending on my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, which after meeting that pesky minimum spending of $3,000 in three months, I will get 40,000 Ultimate Reward Points.

Let’s get started.

Start out by going to Amazon Payments

Once there, Sign In – You will either sign in using your current Amazon login, or if you don’t have an Amazon account, you can sign up for one.

After logging in for the first time they are going to need you to enter information about yourself. This includes your full name, address, date of birth, phone number, and your social security number. Don’t worry, entering your social is safe with Amazon, it is needed to verify your identity.

Once this is all entered you will click continue and then you will be taken to you main account page.

On the right hand side you will see a yellow notification that says you need to verify your email account. Log into your email and click the verify email link.

Even though your email is verified and you have entered all of your personal information, Amazon is still going to need to verify this information before you can go forward. From my experience it only took a day or so before I was all verified.

While you are waiting to be verified you can go ahead and add your bank account. This way you can withdraw the funds from your Amazon Payments accounts after someone sends you funds.

Once you are all verified, it is now time to send money to one of your friends, so they can send some back to you. The way most people do it is they find a friend they trust. They send the friend $1,000 and then the friend uses a credit card and sends you $1,000. Then you both withdraw the funds to your bank accounts and after use those funds to pay off the cards. You can do this monthly and earn a free $1,000 worth of points.

When you go to Send Money, you are going to enter the Amazon Payments address of the person you’re paying and the amount you would wish to send (i.e $1000.00) Note: Ensure that you click Goods/Services as if you click Cash Advance you will more than likely get hit with cash advance fees from your credit card.

On the next page you are going to enter your new credit card information, or if you have already added the card you wish to use in the past, you will select it from the drop-down menu.

- On the next page you will just click the confirm button at the bottom of the page after you have ensured that everything is correct.

*Before you have your friend send you funds back make sure they request that the $1,000 you just sent them be deposited into their bank account, or when they go to send you money back, it will take it from their balance and not the credit card.

As always your mileage may vary with this method. You need to use your best judgment as to if this is something you feel comfortable doing. I am not telling you this is something you should do; I am only showing you how to do this for educational purposes.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to post in the comments below.

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The Building of a Costco: Lubbock, Texas

The Building of a Costco: Lubbock, Texas

Costco is on track to open up their new newest building in the western Texas region, due to open in late October. The Lubbock, Texas Costco will be the first addition to the city and from the response online, the residents are excited.

This location is going to be on the far west side of Lubbock, Texas located at 34th Street and The Loop.

I am a little concerned about the scheduled time frame of opening which is supposed to be in late October. Just by looking at what has been completed at the Fort Wayne location, and then taking a look at what is going on that the future Lubbock, Texas location, there is a huge difference.

So far it looks like they are just finishing up some plumbing work, and they should be starting the foundation any day now. If you go by the typical building calendar, they say it takes about 100 days from them breaking ground to opening day. So at this rate, I think they might need to pick up the pace just a little bit to ensure they are all opened at ready to go.

Right across the street there is a Fina gas station. I am sure the owners are thrilled that the Costco is opening (sarcasm) seeing as Costco is great at keeping gas prices lower than the norm.

The Lubbock Costco is already accepting applications, so if you want to join the Costco team you can apply by clicking here and just click the left hand side where it says ‘Come Join Our Team’ and then select the Lubbock Texas location.

I don’t plan on making a trip over to Lubbock Costco before the opening, so if anyone has some pictures of their own, please don’t hesitate to post them in the comments below.

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How To Load Vanilla Reload On To BlueBird

How To Load Vanilla Reload On To BlueBird

How To Set Up An American Express BlueBird Account

Using BlueBird For Points And Minimum Spending

HowTo: Load Your BlueBird Using The Wal-Mart MoneyCenter ATM

How to Setup a Pin for Chase Gift Cards

In previous posts we talked about the BlueBird and how everyone in the point’s world should have it. Today we will continue the series with the Vanilla Reload Network Prepaid Reload Card.

The Vanilla Reload card is the easiest way to reload your BlueBird account. It can be bought at a few different locations such as Walgreens, CVS, and 7 Eleven just to name a few (your mileage will vary as far as who will let you buy it with a credit card).

When I was looking for the Vanilla Reload card, I was a little disappointed because I didn’t see it at first. But after closer inspection, I found it tucked away in the corner with only a few left.

I grabbed two of them and headed to the register. I let the cashier know I wanted $500 on each, and paid with my Chase Ink Plus without any problems. Once you get the card, they will look like this. The front will carry the Vanilla Reload Network Prepaid Reload information and the website information. The back will have your pin number after you scratch it off. Naturally, you don’t want to post your pin online, but I’ve already redeemed it so it doesn’t matter.

Once you have your Vanilla Reload cards, grab your BlueBird card and head over to VanillaReload.com.

The section in the red box is what you will need to fill out. The card number is your BlueBird account number and the pin number is the number on the back of the Vanilla Reload card. Make sure that you typed in the right card number.  Once you have that entered, just click Submit and it will ask you to agree to their terms. Read them over and hit continue. It will then take you to the “Your card has been loaded successfully!” page.

For times when everything doesn’t go as planned, you will get a page like this.

Don’t worry though, this probably just means that you have met your $1,000 daily limit or $5,000 monthly limit. I tried to load my card July 31 on my phone, but I got the error for both cards. I thought that the cashier scanned the cards wrong or I was doing something wrong. I then realized I had just met my limits. Luckily today was the first of the month, and I was able to successfully load them.

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New Post has been published on http://www.pointcrazed.com/2013/07/31/using-hyatt-points-for-mgm-hotels-on-the-strip-in-vegas/

Using Hyatt Points for MGM Hotels on The Strip in Vegas

Using Hyatt Points for MGM Hotels on The Strip in Vegas

For those of you that have wanted to stay at an MGM hotel in Las Vegas using points, you would have been out of luck. Recently, this has changed and you can now use Hyatt Points at 13 MGM Hotels.

Hyatt points can be earned through the Hyatt Visa (which also gets you 2 free nights as a signup bonus) or by using a Chase card with Ultimate Rewards. You will earn more points per dollar by spending on Chase cards, such as the Freedom, Sapphire Preferred, Ink Cash, Ink Bold, and Ink Plus. These cards will earn you Ultimate Rewards which can then be converted to Hyatt points (or other airlines or hotels). In order to convert the Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt you will need to have the Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, or Ink Plus.

A benefit of using Hyatt points to pay for hotels is that you don’t have to pay the resort fees at resort hotels. Unfortunately, if you are redeeming Hyatt points for the MGM hotels you will still have to pay the resort fee.

These are the 13 MGM hotels that you can now use Hyatt points at:

Aria Bellagio Excalibur Hyatt Place Las Vegas Luxor Mandalay Bay MGM Grand Monte Carlo New York-New York The Mirage The Signature at MGM Grand THEhotel at Mandalay Bay Vdara

Most of the time, it will not be worth using Hyatt points for the MGM hotels. Even though you can redeem a night for as low as 8,000 points at the Excalibur, the cpp (Cents per Point) is very low and now worth it. For example, if you were to book a night at the Excalibur on October 25 with cash it is $98.57, using point you would have a cpp of $98.57/8,000=1.23. Many people try to get between 1.6-2 cpp when redeeming Hyatt. This may not seem like a terrible deal, but when you consider that you can use the same points to stay at the Park Hyatt in Paris and get over 5cpp, it quickly makes sense.

For people that don’t plan on staying at a MGM Hotel using points, but instead paying for the night, this relationship is still a good deal. Since you are now able to book these hotels on the Hyatt.com website, it means you will earn more points per dollar spend, depending on your Hyatt status. Non-elite will get 5 points per dollar, Hyatt Platinum elite will get 5.75 ppd and Diamond elite will get 6.5 ppd. Also, starting in August Hyatt elite members can also get MGM M Life elite.

If you do decide to stay at a MGM Hotel in Vegas using points, first decide what your points are worth to you and the minimum you want to get out of your points (whether it be 1.2cpp or 1.8ccp when redeeming). Look at the price of paying cash and see if it is cheaper for you to just pay cash instead of using your hard earned points. Keep in mind, that even though the cash value of a night will change throughout the year, the points will not. So times where the cash value of a night is very high, you may be better off using points. (Just as an example let’s use that Excalibur night from before, but let’s say the price went up to $250 per night for some wild reason. In this case you get an amazing value of 3.12 cpp).

As always, if you have any questions or comments feel free to post something in the comments.