Baby Reyes is on board and scheduled for arrival

Welcome to this week’s Frequent Miler Week in Review, where we recap all of the news that’s fit to print here at Frequent Miler. This week, the announcement of a new arrival, Chase makes some big changes, and how to extreme stack instantly.

Baby Reyes is on board and scheduled for arrival January 2018

It’s official: Baby Reyes is on board and scheduled for arrival in January 2018. Here’s hoping for good weather and no delays! While Greg’s son is just beginning classes at the University of Michigan, we are prepping for Parenting 101 and can’t wait to meet our new professor. We expect our first son to bring some exciting changes in the new year, but one thing won’t change: we’re already planning our attack on award charts to maximize infant tickets. Hopefully baby Reyes will be happy to be along for the ride.

Chase ends ability to double up Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Preferred bonuses

Baby Reyes aside, the biggest news of the week has surely been a major change at Chase. In a move that was not bright news for point collectors, Chase shut the door on earning the signup bonuses on different Sapphire products within 24 months. What does this mean? Are Ink or Freedom cards next? Read on for some quick analysis of this change in the landscape.

Instant Extreme Stacking

Sometimes, the thrill of the hunt is as much fun as getting the deal. There are few things I hate more than paying full price, and one of the best ways to avoid paying full price is by purchasing discounted gift cards. But sometimes, you need something now. Where can you find a discounted gift card and get it instantly? In this post, Greg gives you the resource you need.

Travel Insurance Showdown: Reserve vs Prestige vs Platinum

Do you buy travel insurance? I don’t always buy it, but with my wife about 5 months pregnant, I bought it for my current trip to Europe. Greg’s post reminded me that I didn’t need to consider emergency evacuation coverage since both my wife and I carry Amex Business Platinum cards. Doh! Greg’s post was a couple weeks too late for me, but hopefully he can save you a few bucks. All that said, I’m going to disagree with Greg’s conclusion. I would personally forgo the extra points in favor of better trip delay / cancellation protection. Let’s say I spend $3,000 a year on travel and I sacrifice 2x on that spend — that’s 6,000 points. Even if we value those points at 2 cents each, my net cost is about $120 a year. I’ve already made a claim this year for $500 with my Citi Prestige card. That claim still hasn’t been paid — but assuming it is, I’ll gladly sacrifice $120 a year in points for better delay / cancellation / interruption protection. The travel charges I put on a Sapphire Reserve include EZPass / tolls / parking / rental cars and usually hotels. But when it comes to flights, I’d rather have $500 per person coverage kick in at a 3-hour delay, so I know that we’ll be covered if we have to spend a few bucks. What’s more, I understand the Sapphire coverage to be limited to immediate family, whereas the Prestige coverage applies to anyone on your booking. Since we sometimes travel with extended family and friends, the Prestige is my go-to card for flights.

Bluebird Migration: Is this the next or final chapter in Bluebird manufactured spend?

Amex is flipping the bird(s), and that could be good news for some. I have a lot of bird-bitterness myself. Back in the day, I sat out the birds too long. I finally decided to grab a Redbird (The closest Target to me is about 70 miles away, so it wasn’t as convenient as it was for many). Literally the day that the mailman dropped off my Redbird, the deal died. Since my bitterness caused me to continue to sit it out, I was actually able to open a Serve successfully this year. It has seen limited use so far. I’m glad to see Amex unloading it as I’ll feel more comfortable pushing the limits when Incomm takes over.

Real World Instant Extreme Stacking

We often post quick deals to save money on everything from flights and hotels to tools and shoes. When we find something notable, we post it so that you can get in on it while the gettin’ is good. But the truth is that you can stack yourself a pretty mean deal any day of the week by following the right pattern. In this post, Greg lays out the steps so you can win on any everyday purchase.

That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Check back soon for our week in review around the web and this week’s last chance deals.

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