Like many people, I’d been slowly accumulating my Alaska Airlines and Delta miles over the years and cashing them in for award flights here and there.
But a conversation with a colleague prompted me to take a harder look into the points and miles game as she divulged the astounding number of miles she had accumulated by pairing her (albeit business class) work travel with the Amex Delta Platinum card on which she charged all her meals at the hotel on her room, taking advantage of the 3x benefits for hotel charges instead of merely getting the 2x points she would have received by paying with her card at the restaurant.
And so my obsession began.
In the 2 years since I embarked on this journey of maximizing my spending and points chasing, I’ve already made numerous mistakes and learned an incredible amount of useful information from myriad points chasers that have come before me. Their blogs, newsletters and Instagram accounts have taught millions of travelers and everyday people the ins and outs of maximizing your dollar and reworking the way we think about spending and making the capitalistic system work for us.
If we are already spending money on groceries, gas and dining out, why the hell shouldn’t we get something for it?
After excitedly applying for and getting approved for the Delta Platinum Amex myself, I realized that I had missed an opportunity to boost my husband’s American Express points stash had he sent me a referral code as he was already an Amex holder.
Mistake Number One.
My continued research also showed me that there were much better options for travel cards on the market as I was now siloed strictly in Delta miles, and with Delta being notorious for above average award prices on flights, I was doing myself no favors. Additionally, the card did not offer other benefits such as complimentary lounge access as many other cards in the mid tier travel cards range. Sure, the card awarded a free checked bag and a free annual companion fare, but Delta flights were far more expensive than many other carriers and I was already getting a free checked bag because I was Silver medallion status.
That was Mistake Number Two.
At the time, this card’s annual fee was $250. It has since risen to $325, and as someone who lives in Portland, Oregon, getting the Alaska Airlines card which also awards an annual companion fare and a free checked bag and clocks in at $95 a year, the Delta Amex card felt less and less desirable. To be fair, the Alaska cards multipliers are not great either- spending on the card awards only 3X for money spent on Alaska tickets and 2X for things like gas and EV charging, but everything else only gets you a mile per dollar.
Months later I discovered that booking hotels through Alaska’s website was actually some of the hidden magic of the card.
You could get thousands of miles per booking! However, shortly after this discovery, Alaska Airlines partnered with Expedia and now the miles earnings are abysmal at a few hundred per booking.
For hotels, I now recommend using a third party portal such as Rocketmiles or utilizing the travel portal for your credit card. Read more this here.
Despite its low multipliers, I keep the Alaska card as I love the free checked bag, especially with rising checked bag costs that abound. I also look forward to the companion fare each year as it comes in really handy during peak travel times.
Oh the things I have learned.
I’ve been through so many iterations of credit card owning now in just a few short years and there is still so much to learn. As someone so frugal and planning-oriented, it’s wild that I didn’t get into this game sooner since it’s nothing more than a game of strategy and patience. I also admit that I likely would not have been open to paying much for an annual fee so I suppose I arrived when I needed to.
While I can agree that the credit card point system that may have a hand in skewing prices at the grocery store to offset the perks is a larger problem, it’s a much broader problem and disagreeing with the system doesn’t change the fact that this is the current system we face. So I will play the games, put stickers on my credit cards to keep straight which cards are for dining and which cards are for groceries, and I’ll slowly spend my way towards my next trip.
