When to Hold 'em and When to Fold 'em

Award Travel 101

The Award Travel 101 Podcast is brought to you in part by Thrifty Traveler Premium. Get Thrifty Traveler Premium deal/award alerts sent straight to your inbox. Use promo code “AT10” for $10 off your first year. Recent finds include:

• Business Class to Europe for 59K points
• Business Class to Colombia for 64K miles R/T
• R/T to St. Kitts for $431

You can find these at ThriftyTraveler.com/Premium
Post of the week

Penina Olar - My husband and I are considering a trip to Asia this summer. When is the best time book with points? My husband wants to fly business class but it’s showing the miles to be at 200K per person for one way. Will the price come down if I book closer to our trip? Most likely going in June.

News

• Zorkcast Episode of “Yo 11 Minutes” 70 - status matching
• Complete Guide to Wells Fargo Transfer Partners
• Air India Refreshes it’s Flying Returns Program
• Iberia Plus Bonus: New Milestone Rewards
• Application Fee Is Going up for Global Entry, NEXUS, and SENTRI, Kids Will Be Free

What bonuses did we get?

• Angie
  • Where's my 20K point checking account bonus?
• Joe
  • Alaska Business Card
  • Alaska Consumer Card

Trip updates

• Angie
  • Modified India trip - 3 separate carriers on 3 different tickets
  • Domestic flights used Business Platinum portal to get 35% points back
• Joe
  • Chicago Seminars flights 7K out & 11.4K back. Hotel (16K WOH) booked
  • Tampa Dad/Son trip using 50K Breeze and 28K Southwest points plus WOH
  • Booked GH Tokyo using 95K + Suite Upgrade Award $1,200 per night ($3,600)

Highlight Feature: Strategy - When to Close Cards

Thanks to a recommendation from a member, we decided to review when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

• Is there long-term value?
• Are the benefits enough to offset the annual fee?
• If not, is there a retention offer?
• If no offer, is there a path t0 product change to preserve the credit line to help with utilization ratio
• If there's no path to product change, consider closing the card as long as it’s not the oldest card
• If no annual fee, no reason to close. However, sometimes it helps if you close some no fee cards with no value. This was something one of our moderators did to get a Capital One card. If you’re not using them though, put a small charge on them periodically.

Where To Find the Award Travel 101 Community
For questions, you can join us in the free 100,000+ member Award Travel 101 Community.

1. For more intermediate and advanced strategies, join Award Travel 201 community
2. To book time with our team, check out Award Travel 1-on-1.
3. You can also email us at [e-mail].
4. Our next meetup is located in San Antonio, TX on April 26–28, 2024. If you want a waitlisted ticket, see this post in AT101.

Support the AT101 Podcast/Community