October 10. 2024
Like many of you I’ve 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 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 year 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 the 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. 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 Amex 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 (Delta notoriously has above average award prices on flights), but that 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 you already got a free checked bag if you had reached Silver medallion status which wouldn’t be hard if you were an avid Delta flier already. 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- 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. Several months ago I had discovered that booking hotels through their website was actually some of the hidden magic of the card. You could get thousands of miles per booking! However, they recently partnered with Expedia and now the miles earnings are abysmal at a few hundred per booking. For hotels, I recommend using a third party portal such as Rocketmiles, but more on that later. Despite it’s low multipliers, I keep the Alaska card as I love the free checked bag with rising checked bag costs that abound and I do look forward to that companion fare each year even though at times we have a hard time putting it to use as I’ve been traveling less and less during the holidays as that is when the value is best as generally cheaper seats can be found on other carriers.
Leave a Reply