Citi AA 100,000 Bonus Miles and Barclay Arrival 40,000 Bonus Miles

My 2014 vacation currency project kicked off with two credit card approvals.

• 40,000 Bonus miles (or $400 for redeem for travel expenses) from Barclay Arrival MasterCard after $3K spend in 3 months. 

• 100,000 Bonus AA miles (Thanks to the Points Guy) from Citi AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard after $10K spend in 3 months, with $450 fee but $200 statement credit.  (Referral code and the airport code are not required)

Barclay approved the first one immediately (with a hard inquiry).  Citi required a simple call to 1-800-695-5171 to approve the application after they confirmed my full name.  There was a distraction during the Citi application process, because through my American Airlines account, it shows a public offer of Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage World MasterCard 50,000 bonus miles with first year fee waived and only $5K spending in 3 months.

(Whether you apply for 50,000 or 100,000 bonus miles promotion card, take a screenshot of the landing page, in case you need to refer to them with Citi customer care over any bonus points disputes).

FAQ

Q1. What is special about the Barclay Arrival MasterCard?

• Reward is 40,000 miles or $400 redeemed for travel expenses for the first $3000 spend.  
• Barclay Arrival MasterCard is a good candidate to build credit history with Barclay, because all purchases are 2x.  Barclay also seems to be more aggressive now in credit card play.  They offer Hawaii Airlines Barclay personal and business cards.

Q2. What is special about the 100,000 AA bonus miles Citi AA credit card?

• The 100,000 bonus miles will be useful to redeem business class tickets.  Currently, 67,500 AA miles is required for coach-class round-trip ticket between US and Taiwan.
• The $450 card fee becomes $250 after the $200 statement credit.
• The 100K promotion may end any time.  In contrast to United miles, American Airlines miles are harder to be earned without flying.  So this promotion is more valuable.

Q3. How to meet the $10,000 spending requirement?

• The $10,000 minimum spending requirement can be met by purchasing twenty $500 MasterCard debit gift card from a grocery store with a $5.95 fee per card ($5.95 x 20 = $119), or pre-pay my utility & garbage bills for 6 years and 10 months ($250 per 2 months).  All these would require the card to be charged $10,000 in 3 months.  It is do-able, but undesirable.
• Over the last couple months, I looked into our household spending patterns and large bills due dates, and experimented ways to burn off Visa/MasterCard/American Express debit gift cards, following methods published by credit card professionals.  To meet the $10K spending requirement should be do-able.

Credit card company reserves the rights not to give out award miles if they consider there are abuses.  If you are cash-strapped, or can not afford $1000 monthly expense, I would NOT recommend this Citi AA credit card with $10K minimum spending.  A reminder to myself: 

Do not apply for a credit card if I worry about meeting spending requirement.

Q4. Would my card applications to be approved for sure, provided my FICO score is in the excellent range?

Our experience is, not likely if ...

1. You have applied for personal credit card(s) within the last 90 days. (90 days gap is recommended for frequent card applicants)
2. Your total credit limit is max, so the bank can not approve more credits or swap credits.
3. You plan to apply another Barclay credit card at the same time. (Barclay's rule)
4. Or, you plan to apply another Citi credit card at the same time. (Citi's rule)

If you are interested to experience credit card rewards,  apply for the Barclay Arrival MasterCard with 40,000 bonus miles if none of these four scenarios match.

Q5. If credit card bonus miles are so good, why would not I apply for more credit cards?

The high spending requirement and little extra credit rooms available for my profile stop me to apply more.  This is my first time to meet a $10,000 spending requirement (or $11K including Barclay) in 3 months, and first time to have more than eight active credit cards.  I never had 10 active credit cards in the past. I like to build up my active credit card holding capacity.  If you don't feel comfortable to apply more cards, then you may be right.  Trust your hunch.

Hope you have fun to earn your vacation currency.

GROUPON $5 for $10 Whole Foods Market deal - Today 2/26 ONLY for a Few Hours

Do you shop at Whole Foods Market? If not, are you interested to try?

$5 for $10 Whole Foods Market deal via GROUPON

• There are certain organic items available via Whole Foods only, not available on Trader Joe's.  
• Each GROUPON account is allowed to purchase only 1 gift card; two GROUPON  accounts can purchase two gift cards. 
• The gift card redeem instruction does not restrict only one gift card can be used for each transaction either.

Usage Instructions

Recipient: Protect this e-card like cash. Present this e-card to the cashier at the time of purchase. The available balance will be applied toward your purchase from soup to nuts. This e-card may be used at all Whole Foods Market® stores in the United States and Canada.

Merchant: Scan the bar code or type the number displayed under the bar code into our payment system.

We purchased two for $10 via my parents' MyPoints account to earn $10 x 15 = 150 MyPoints, or about 65 United Miles.

500 Bonus United Miles after Joining and Activating e-Miles account by 3/31/2014

I am surprised to receive a promotional email arrived today from e-Miles:  500 (400 + 100) Bonus United Miles.  The promotion seems to be accessible via this URL.

"Terms" says more about the definition of "account activation".

Terms

To be eligible for the 400 MileagePlus® award miles, you must activate youre-Miles account before midnight on 3/31/2014. To activate your e-Miles account you must read and respond to six (6) third party offers.* After activating youre-Miles account, your United MileagePlus award miles will be automatically deposited into your MileagePlus account. 

This offer is for new e-Miles members only. Membership is only available to residents of the United States and its territories. If you live outside of these regions and have received this email, we apologize for any inconvenience. 

*e-Miles profile survey offers do not count toward account activation.

A regular 250 bonus United Miles from e-Miles is also available.

Update: 2/27/2014
Argh!  I realized I had joined e-Miles in the past.  After responding to more than 6 third-party offers, I have earned only 270 e-miles.  Minimum redemption requirement to United Miles is 500 e-miles.

Opinion Miles Club: 300 or 600 Bonus United Miles without your Credit Card

Not sure if Opinion Miles Club is a new or old player, somehow I received an email from them to join, with the incentive of 300 to 600 bonus United miles.  I wanted to find out how easy to earn these bonus United miles, and whether it is repeatable.  I registered with my United miles membership number, spent 30 minutes to fill in my profile  (I thought I was already answering the survey, because the question list was long), only to find out my profile does not meet their survey targets.

I decided not to ponder on this not-so-good business practice of Opinion Miles Club, and to explore MyPoints instead.  A couple days passed, then an email arrived.

2 minutes for 77 bonus United miles.  Sure.  Started survey, and probably answered 10 questions.  Then I learned 300 bonus United miles have immediately been deposited into my United miles account.

Opinion Miles Club also offers Isa 600 bonus United miles to take their survey, but it would take minimum 30 minutes.  That is too much time.  I prefer 2 minutes to earn 77 United miles.


What Has Happened

Opinion Miles Club reward the first completed survey with 300 or 600 bonus United miles.  Instead of 77 miles earned, it automatically triggered 300 United miles.  There is no 30-days time frame restriction either.  So, Isa should wait for those quick 2 minutes survey, which would bring her 600 United miles.  Unlike MyPoints, bonus United miles are automatically and immediately deposited into your United membership account.

My take is that unless you have lots of free time and do not mind to answer at least 30 minutes of survey questions, maybe it is more simple to wait-and-see for better Opinion Miles Club offer.


Update March 11, 2014

My hypothesis is correct.  Any first completed survey will earn you 300 or 600 United Miles. Wait for an invite to complete a short survey.  For example, Isa received an email invite to spend 10 minutes to fill out a survey.

Luckily, qualified and completed.

600 United miles were deposited instantly into her United membership account.

Once you are qualified for a short survey, do not ruin the easy miles earning opportunity by quickly completing the survey robotically 10 or 20 minutes of your time for 600 United Miles is worthy to be spent.

Survey checks

Good luck!

MyPoints BonusMail Offers Deals x10 United Miles sometimes

Alert! (March 9, 2014)

Sorry for not knowing this earlier.  I come to realize MyPoints receive many customer complaints, as reported in BBB and Flytalk.  It seems very difficult to contact them via phone.  I am alerted because I sent multiple emails asking what "3.5% 5 points per dollar" means, yet each time they sent me the same scripted general response not answering my question.  I will continue to receive BonusMail for a couple more months to see how useful it is, and click to earn 5 points.

I decide not to shop through MyPoints to accumulate enough points to redeem United Miles, when there is a better reward to earn guaranteed United Miles by shopping through Chase Ultimate Reward Mall.  After another 30 days for the points to arrive, I will redeem all the points for something.

Regarding the 1,500 United MileagePlus miles for joining MyPoints, I will post when I receive them (cross my finger). 

------- My original blog continues below -----

I shared in my previous post that MyPoints to United Miles ration is not favorable, 2:28 to 1.  However, MyPoints BonusMail sometimes has very good offers.

Purchase $50 Bath & Body Works gift card and earn 1,200 MyPoints Points which is equivalent to 526 United Miles.  That is x10 or 10% rebate!

• Once you get to The MyPoints Store, purchase a $50 Bath & Body Works® Gift Card. Receive 700 Points per card.
• Receive a 500-Point bonus for each gift card purchased.

Limit 2 cards per transaction.

Terms and conditions apply. See site for details.

• Please allow 2-4 weeks for shipping.
• Not responsible for lost or stolen cards.
• Bath & Body Works® is not a sponsor or co-sponsor of this promotion.
• 700 Points will post to your account within 3-5 business days.
• 500 Bonus Points will post to your account within 30 days of your purchase.
• Limited time only. While supplies last.

This offer is for a tangible Gift Card that you will receive in the mail. This offer is not for an electronic gift code.

The BonusMail promotion is targeted to some MyPoints members, but ...

My parents, Isa and I all receive different MyPoints BonusMails.   For the particular promotion above, there is an URL which does not seem to be special

https://shopping.mypoints.com/index.php/bath-and-body-works.html

Sorry, this purchase does not fulfills the $25 MyPoints spending requirement for 750 bonus United Miles for first-time MyPoints member, because any MyPoints Store gift cards do not qualify for the 750.

It may still turn out to be a useful channel to earn United miles, particularly to fill the additional United miles required for flight ticket due to United devaluation.  For example, Making Groupon.com purchases via MyPoints seems to be a good deal to earn United miles (indirectly).

My parents have 65,000 United miles each in their United accounts.  Additional 5000 United miles is needed now for a round-trip flight ticket between Taiwan and San Francisco, due to United devaluation.  As a hobby, I prefer to explore more miles earning opportunities rather than paying $125 for 5000 United miles.


Two Caveat

1. Your MyPoints account must have at least 6100 MyPoints in order to redeem any United miles, except the 1500 Bonus United miles for first-time sign-up.  In contrast to my belief earlier, I would NOT recommend earning MyPoints if there are other reward earning channels for the services or products that you are going to purchase.

2. MyPoints on Yelp rating is quite low (3 out of 5 stars).  The gift card above is a physical gift card, and MyPoints claims no responsibility for lost or stolen ones.  I do not like this disclaimer.  I made a $39 purchase in Groupon website via MyPoints referral link, in order to earn the 750 bonus United miles.

I spent 15 minutes to fill in the MyPoints Profile to earn one-time 250 bonus United miles

Up to 3,000 Bonus United Miles from Dining Program and MyPoints (1,500 each)

We like the popular United MileagePlus Program because it has empowered us to fly international cheap without sacrificing vacation quality.  Not until two years ago, without the knowledge of credit card sign-up bonuses, Isa collected UA miles (for her parents' international travel) by frequently flying United for business travel.  I still remember we tried to save money by redeeming her hard-earned United miles for our honeymoon flight tickets and auto rental.  However, these days, I have been able to collect miles without flying.  She has more peace of mind and I become a proud husband to pro-actively plan our vacation travels.  This is one fruit from my gamification.

Do you still hesitate to earn United Miles?

United MileagePlus Program is not exclusive or useful to only frequent flyers.

1,500 Bonus United Miles from United MileagePlus Dining Program

There is currently a 1,500 bonus United miles via special link, 500 miles more than the public 1,000 bonus miles.  Back in September last year, there was 3,000 Bonus United miles dining promotion.  Maybe it will come back around the time frame this year if you want to wait.

*This bonus offer is open to new MileagePlus Dining members or existing members without a dining profile at the time of registration. A dining profile includes creating a web login and opting in and remaining opted in to receive emails from MileagePlus Dining with a valid, deliverable email address. To qualify, your profile must originate through one of the links on this page. You must register by December 31, 2014 to qualify for this bonus. You must continue to satisfy other Online and/or VIP Member level criteria to earn this bonus. 

To earn this bonus, you must spend at least $30 (including tax and tip) in one dine at a participating restaurant, bar or club within 30 days of registering for the bonus, but no later than December 31, 2014. You must also complete your post-dine review within 30 days of your dine. Please note that activity that occurred prior to registration will not be eligible for this bonus. In addition, the dine must occur during a valid reward period and be paid for with your MileagePlus credit card registered in MileagePlus Dining. Limit one Sign Up and Dine Bonus (consisting of one $30 dine) per member. A maximum of 1,500 bonus miles may be earned with this bonus. Offer is not combinable with other MileagePlus Dining bonuses. Please allow 6-8 weeks from the date of your qualifying dine for any bonus miles to post to your MileagePlus® account. All account inquiries related to this bonus must be received by March 31, 2015. 

UP to 1,500 Bonus United Miles from MyPoints.com

Please also read update about MyPoints.

500 bonus United miles is easy to earn.  The additional 250 UA miles is not to me; filling out a member profile took a long time.  The 750 bonus United miles is not difficult, because I need to make a purchase just about $25 from GNC.  If the spending is more, 750 bonus United miles would become less attractive as cash rebate from GNC purchase increases via Topcashback.com.  MyPoints points to United Miles is not favorable, 2:1 ratio.

*After 30 days of active MyPoints membership, you will qualify for up to 1,500 MileagePlus bonus award miles.

**All shopping and travel purchases (excluding Amazon.com, games and the MyPoints Store gift cards) of at least $25 each (excluding taxes, shipping & handling and special processing fees) made through the MyPoints.com website and emails (including BonusMails®) are eligible toward this promotion. This offer is eligible for new members only, and purchases must be made within the first 30 days of membership to receive the bonus reward. Any purchase returned or exchanged will be subtracted from the qualifying purchase minimum. Participation is subject to the MyPoints Terms of Service.

Miles accrued, awards issued and bonus offers are subject to the rules of the United MileagePlus Program. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks after clicking "Verify" for bonus award miles to be posted to your MileagePlus account. 

The most economical use of United miles is to redeem for flight tickets, not hotel stays or car rental.  Of course, if you have lots and lots of United miles and do not want to pay for any travel expenses, that would be a different story.

Free Conference Calls to Indonesia and Vietnam via FreeConferenceCall.com

FreeConferenceCall.com has been expanding internationally.  An email today announces new availability of free conference call to Indonesia and Vietnam.  Earlier I wrote about free international phone call options.  The service is not limited to companies' uses.  Households may find the service useful.

One main advantage is that neither party in different countries would be required to use a smart phone for installing mobile apps, and the service is completely free.  One drawback is that once in a while, the calls can not connect due to network instability.

Pinger used FreeConferenceCall services to conference with our Europe counterparts at the beginning to save money.  FreeConferenceCall supports most of European countries.  If you have a friend/family there whom you like to call often at about the same time, this would be one good option.

A portion of supported country list

* Currently, FreeConferenceCall.com does not offer free service to China, India, Philippine.

United Airlines Delayed Baggage Incident and What We Did

Beautiful Life

There is this letter sitting in front of my monitor at home since 6 months ago.  We have been wondering how to use the $250 United certificate, because we are now used to redeem for cheap or free flight tickets recently. :-].  Last night, I finally have an idea about where to go. Of course, another trip.

United Airlines baggage claim compensation letter

Isa always fly United in the past 8 years.  United was always late, but never once her luggage got delayed.  Whenever she travels for business, I always ask her to send me a text message to confirm her safe arrival.  On July 23, 2013, instead of a text message, I received a call at 7am from her instead.  She arrived in Beijing, China, safely but her luggage was still stuck in San Francisco Airport with United.  She checked into the hotel, had her mobile phone, hand-carry, no China currency, and no extra clothes or phone charger.  She just bought some business clothes to be ready for a business meeting 7 hours later.  Isa was very tired.  Her luggage had important items for her Taiwan relatives after Beijing trip.  It was almost midnight time at Bejing when I asked her to hang up the phone.  I would pick it up from there.

It was my first time dealing with delayed luggage.  I started googling before Isa was dismissed, as I always have Isa's account and flight information.


Q1: Where was her luggage?

• "Claim File Reference Number" - Isa reported the incident at the United luggage office at the Beijing airport, with her bag number and United flight number.  
• Based on United delayed luggage site, I found her luggage trace showing luggage still sitting in San Francisco airport with United.

Q2: How to follow up the missing luggage?

For call outside of US, call 1-281-821-3526.

For non-Premier United member regarding baggage claim, call Baggage Resolution Service Center at 1-800-335-2247
For Premier United member regarding baggage claim, call 1-855-873-9678.

The 1-281 number was not that helpful.  Most of the time, they asked us to keep tracing using the website.  I was trying to make sure her luggage would get on the next available To-Beijing flight. So I kept calling 1-800-335-2247 every 2 hours to bug United.  One day later, trace showed luggage arrived to the correct hotel in Bejing.  (Isa stayed in different cities in China, thus different hotels, for each business trip.)


Q3: How to File Claim to United Airlines?
Via phone conversation, United responded that they would compensate maximum $150, because it is not luggage loss.  Isa spent $400 at Beijing.  We still filed claim form for luggage with details and good reasons.  About one month later, United sent us the response as shown above.


Q4: How to Avoid this?
There is none we could do if flying United.  But she would make sure to carry one extra clothes, local currency and extra phone charger in her hand-carry from now on.


Q5:  Do we hate United?
No, United service has been improving.  Our patience was indeed tested, as neither of us were fully waken up due to time zone difference.  We still thank United because of their popular and useful United MileagePlus award ticket program.

Her mom will fly to US from Taiwan coach-fare round-trip for $29.90 with Eva Airlines.  Her Dad's ticket was redeemed using expiring and remaining 100,000 Eva miles.  United miles do not expire, as long as there is new activity.

Changing flight date did not cost extra miles for those reservations made prior to 2/4/2014

I will need to fly to Taiwan without Isa this year once for personal reason, so best time to fly Eva business class one-way.  I already reserved an Eva Air business class ticket before United devaluation in 2/4/2014, using a placeholder date.  Exact date will be determined.


Afterthoughts

There are two things I did right which I would give credit to my elder brother as a role model

1. When Isa first informed me about no backup charger, clothes in her hand-carry, I controlled myself not to spend time "blaming" her not preparing backups.  I understood she already had a very difficult day.  I was trying myself to calm her frustration instead, and assure her to sleep well, as she could simply spend to resolve her misery.
2. The responses from repeated calls with United claim office was discouraging.  I insisted to file the claim backed with good reasonings.  So I spent one hour to write up a separate claim letter to get our $250 back.

For a short-time 10 years ago, I lived with my elder brother's family in their first new home which they invested most of their money.  One early morning, I was about to cook breakfast, and heard my cell phone ringing upstairs in the second floor.  I moved the frying pan away and ran upstairs.  Within 45 seconds, I started to see smoke billowing from downstairs.  I ran to the kitchen, saw kitchen vent was melting and a pillar of fire shooting from an adjacent cooking pot which unknown to me was filled with cooking oil.  I turned on the wrong stove burner in the beginning.  Fire alarm woke up my brother and his wife.  He ran downstairs and calmly asked what happened.  I explained.  His next and only response was: "everyone would make the same mistake too."  Next thing we were hosing the kitchen like firefighters and took half-day off to clean up.

Forgiving and Love can be contagious.  Today is Valentine's Day.  Happy Valentine's Day!

FAQ about American Express Prepaid Debit Gift Card

Do you have an American Express prepaid debit gift card?  Lately, I have a couple of these and have been taking a closer look at it.

Q1. Is there a purchase surcharge for the card?

Yes.  The fee varies based on the type of merchant seller.  Grocery stores's $4.95 charge lower fee than Staples, OfficeMax and OfficeDepot's $6.95, for a $200 prepaid card, likely because of the difference in bonus categories.  Chase Ink earns 5x for purchases in office supply stores, whereas American Express Premier Gold earns 2x for grocery purchases.


Q2. How to register an American Express prepaid debit gift card?

For online transaction, registering the prepaid gift card would be necessary.  AMEX gift card website does not handle gift card registration.  Call 1-877-297-4438, enter gift card account number and the 3-digit security code at the back of the card, to talk to a live American Express customer care.  The entire process takes about 15 minutes, because the AMEX personnel processes registration information carefully.  I requested to register multiple AMEX prepaid gift cards in one call.


Q3. Should the 4-digit code at the front of the card or the 3-digit code at the back of the card for online transaction?
The 4-digit code.  This code is not required for in-store purchase. 


Q4. Why is there a $1 transaction show in the gift card transaction history?

For each online transaction, a $1 is charged temporarily to verify registration information.  In online purchase, we typically need to provide card user name and billing address.  Eight days later, the $1 charge will go away.  Therefore, for a $200 AMEX prepaid gift card, maximum allowable credit to be used for online purchase is $199 in one single transaction.


Q5. How to use the $1 credit left in the card?

Typically, when my AMEX prepaid gift card has about $15 remaining, I would go to a gas station, show the card to the clerk and ask to pump $15 worth of gasoline.  There are also other options.


Q6. Can I withdraw cash from it via ATM machine or grocery store kiosk?
Even though it is prepaid card, it would not work for cash withdrawal.



Q7. Which is the best prepaid debit gift card?  Visa, MasterCard or American Express.

I would vote those issued by Visa or MasterCard.  They are more widely accepted because merchant pays lower transaction fee if paid by Visa or MasterCard.


Q8. If there is a surcharge fee, what are these prepaid debit gift cards good for?
Say you are 5 days away from the deadline to meet minimum spending requirement for your new credit card to earn sign-up bonus and you are still short of $500 spending, purchasing prepaid gift card Visa/MasterCard/AMEX $500 from a grocery store would be one good option, particularly when there is $10 bonus.  Please remember there is a surcharge fee of at least $5.  My general rule of thumb about gift card amount purchased should be no more than 25% of the minimum spending requirement, because the credit card issuer may not like it and not approve the sign-up bonus.



Because it is a prepaid gift card, it is like cash.  Losing it is equivalent to losing cash.

Valentine's Day Flowers with FTD $50 Gift Card

Beautiful Life

Valentine's Day is approaching fast.

If you are too busy, but would like to send flowers to your loved one, take a look at FTD offer.

I sent twice (#1, #2) in late last year to Isa.  The posts has details about discounts (MasterPass, Plink, MasterCard business rebate, .etc) I will do something different this time. Still thinking ...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Best Household Ants Killer - Terro. Our Ant Story and Battles.

Beautiful Life

Yesterday I was cleaning up our kitchen cabinet drawer, and noticed a pack that should not belong to a typical kitchen drawer, the household ant killer - Terro Liquid Ant Baits.

If you stumble upon this blog via Google Search, I assume you have been fighting with household ants like I did.  Order it from Amazon, or fetch it in store from Home Depot.  When I bought it in Home Depot store, it was the last pack left that caught my attention.  I assumed it was either about to be discontinued probably due to ineffectiveness or very popular due to high consumer demand.  It was sold for only $8, worth a try.  It was a right decision.

Buy it, place it to catch your household ant traffic attention.  Watch hundreds more ants parading for 3 days, and do not disturb the ant traffic.  I hope with this you will be able to wrap up your battle with ants.


The Daily Visits from Ants

You may wonder why I would dedicate a post to write about our household ants.  It was a daily battle with ants two years ago for many months.

Does your experience resemble any of our stages?

1. First Few Ant "Lootings" - Coincidence maybe
2. Frequent Ant "Lootings" - Toleration
3. Daily Ant "Lootings" - Attrition
4. Our Fix - Terro - hybrid of Trojan Horse and The Matrix Neo

For each occurrences during the first two phases, we simply took it as a bad day, and probably it was our fault to leave bits of food.  When there was no more food accessible to ants, and we still saw ants in the house crawling and scouting from one corner to the next, there was something apparently bigger going on.  We hoped that it was their one or twice home-moving parades with hundreds of ants due to season change, and let them finish their house chore work.  Ants were our daily home visitors.  In contrast to our expectation, our kitchen remodel did not solve the problem.

One day, they started invaded our secure storage place for food - the refrigerator.  I found lumps of dead (frozen) ants at the interior edge of the freezer compartment, and live ants crawling around the refrigerator.  I had to do something.  Sorry to say, to fix the ant problem, the root cause is the ant queen.  I tried the following products:

• magic toxic chalk - it is true that the chalk powder is toxic.  If you draw a line on their exit, they would either circumvent or create another exit.
• Ant killer liquid - the liquid stinks and kills score of ants instantly.  Ants are diligent and die-hard insects.  (Indeed, I admire ants.) After the liquid dries out, they walk on the same route again.
• houses for ants - I tried various brands which claim their design and distinctive odor draws ants, and bring the toxic food back home.  A few ants came and died. I am not sure if any ants made it home.

Finally, three bait stations from Terro gave us the peace of mind.  There were parades of hundreds of ants for 3 days visiting the bait pool.  Our daily visitor stops coming since then.

My brother had the household ant problem.  They called Terro magic.

My parents' home had the same problem.  I gave them two bait stations.  Their ant problem have disappeared before they deploy the stations.

I put Terro package in our garage storage room, hoping not to use it again.

Cheap Hawaii Honolulu Car Rental $200 for 7 days from Budget - maybe Today Only

Beautiful Life

Hmm..  this is puzzling.  Today I had a whim to re-check car rental price for our 7-days Hawaii vacation in late spring this year (finally we are going using the Hilton promotion).  In October 2013, I made a car rental reservation for a compact-size car for $270 including tax and fee.  Either due to a software glitch or special unannounced promotion, Budget auto rental probably today only has a special price available via Priceline.com without the need of bidding for car rental in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Our new rental reservation for a full-size car is $209 including tax and fee.  I tried to place a bid of $13 / day, $5 lower than the non-bid price as a test.  Priceline recommends $35 per day instead, saying the bid price is too low.  I think the recommended bid price is some sort of average of rental prices.

If you plan to vacation at Honolulu later this year, this car rental promotion may be of interest to you.  There is no penalty to cancel non-bid car rental reservation in Priceline.


* When I shared this reservation change with our group dinner that day, Isa laughed wholeheartedly. She was curious about how much time I spent.  My response with a big smile: 15 minutes to find this deal and re-book the car rental appointment, 30 minutes to think and write about how to share this information in my blog, $60 savings for me.  And $60 x N where N is number of readers who take advantage of this deal.  Time well spent.


Related Posts:

Get Invited to Hilton Grand Vacation Promotion - Free Nights Stay at Las Vegas almost

Strategy to maximize benefits of Hilton Grand Vacation promotion

Citi AA 45,000/60,000/100,000 Bonus miles Offerings - Bonus Offering of the Year ?

The new United award (devaluation) policy took effect on February 3, 2014. There have been recently several good sign-up bonus offerings from Citibank and American Airlines.

1. 60,000 miles / $5K spend / $450 fee - Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard
2. 100,000 miles + $200 credit / $10K spend / $450 fee - Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard (thanks to the Points Guy)
3. 50,000 miles / $5K spend / no fee first year - Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage World MasterCard. I only found landing pages which already expired.
4. 45,000 miles / $2K spend / no fee first year - Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage World MasterCard (targeted via mail)

Citibank AA 45,000 miles target mail

For a couple days, my thought circled around the 100,000 AA miles bonus whether we can meet the high spending requirement of $10K in 3 months, and $250 fee. ($450 - $200 statement credit)  Would manufactured spending strategy meet this $10K spending requirement?  Is $250 fee worth it?

Considering ... we have no immediate plan to burn 100,000 AA miles for the next 12 months, and AA may announce devaluation later this year, we decided to take a wait and see.   Isa just received via post mail a target offer of 45,000 AA miles early this week.  There is no $450 fee for the first year, and $2K minimum spending requirement for 3 months is low.  The promotion expires on March 15, 2014.


Q1. Is this 100,000 AA miles sign-up bonus with $450 fee and $10K spending a bad deal?

It is quite the opposite.  This deal would be ideal for those card applicants who

• already have at least 40K AA miles,
• and are big spender, so $10K spending in 3 months is not a big challenge,
• and plan to use AA miles to redeem a round-trip business class or first class flight ticket to Europe or Asia from US in the next 12 months, because AA miles devaluation can come anytime.  

The 100,000 AA miles bonus would fill the need.  $250 for a First-class flight ticket is a great bargain.


Q2. How to receive the targeted post mail promotion from Citibank?

I like to know how to get Citibank attention.  My FICO score is higher than Isa's.  She has been receiving card promotion from Chase and Citibank via post mail, while I receive none.  :-)  That is weird.  I will conduct some experiments and report back here.  (Today I received the 35,000 bonus Hawaiian Airlines miles non-business card invitation, about one month after I signed up free Hawaiian Airlines membership. So signing up free membership helps.


Q3. Are there other AA reward card options if $10K spending is too high and no target post mail offer is received?
Citi has been tightening the rules to discourage churning of  Citi AA credit cards.  It may take 18 to 24 months before another approval for same Citi AA card again.  If you do not want to wait, the 30K AA miles card is always available.  There are additional ways to earn AA miles.

• Fidelity 50,000 American Airlines miles
• Open a Citibank checking account and earn up to 30,000 American Airlines miles. It is a targeted promotion, received 10 months after Citi AA card was opened.

1 This offer is available to Citi® / AAdvantage® credit cardmembers who receive this communication. One offer per customer and account only. All accounts subject to approval and applicable terms and fees. Existing checking customers are not eligible for this offer. Offer may be modified or withdrawn at any time without notice, expires 3/31/2014, is not transferable and cannot be combined with any other offer. 

To qualify to earn American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles, open a new Regular Checking account in an eligible package (Citigold Account, Citibank Account or Basic Banking Package) by 3/31/2014. Then, within 60 days after account opening, 1 qualifying direct deposit must be credited to your new checking account during a calendar month and must also occur the following calendar month AND the required minimum amount on purchases using your Citibank® Debit Card must post to your new checking account. Qualifying direct deposits are Automated Clearing House (ACH) credits, which may include payroll, pension, or government payments (such as Social Security) by your employer or an outside agency.

First time Riding Horse to Celebrate Happy Horse Year - Hee Haw !

Beautiful Life

We started with expectation last week that the last Saturday would not have good weather, so we would not be able to celebrate our be-lated wedding anniversary by meeting the nature.  California was receiving some comfort from the much-needed rain during this California worst drought in 100 years.  Our reaction, like many Californians, was mostly cheers when we saw raining on Thursday and Friday.  In the morning of February 1st (last Saturday), our lackluster late-morning spirit was met by the window-penetrating sun light.

"Today is the first day of the rest of your life" 

-- Charles Dederich

We kept to our new routine to run two miles in the neighborhood.  Then, I called to cancel a special dinner reservation at San Francisco.  Let's not eat for the sake of anniversary celebration.  How about doing something differently this time?  Horse riding?  I never rode a horse in the past.  When Isa asked "are you serious?", her disbelief put an approval seal on our horse-riding plan.

Where to ride horse?  What is a good price?

I have no idea what a reasonable price is.  My hunch will guide me with a little indulgence today, and no old-horse walking preferably.  Earlier I was reading TripAdvisor.com about Saratoga, California to learn about excellent hiking places.  Garrod Farms of Saratoga, $45 per person for one hour horse-riding sounds great.  "Make haste. Make haste", the sun may not wait for us today.  Hee Haw !  After simple home-made brunch, we arrived at Garrod Farms in Saratoga hill about 1 pm.

Beginning class at Garrod Farms ?

Haha.  There is no such class.  I am six-feet tall, so they gave me a big horse "Carson" to ride on.  My nervousness started, as my eyes were raised to see about 9 feet tall sitting on a "mustang" after a few verbal instructions about  how to signal the horse to stop, to move forward, to turn left and right.  Is it this simple?

Isa was ready

After about 15 minutes of balancing myself, I started riding comfortably with Isa teasing me, as this was her second horse-riding.  After another 30 minutes, we started trotting and flying.  The rest is simply fun.

Beautiful Saturday weather with Friday and Sunday raining

Fun riding

* (9 days later) After that Saturday, San Francisco Bay Area has been raining for the next 9 days.  Thank God for the sunny Saturday weather of February 1st.

We wrapped up the day with an one-hour traditional Thai massage treat at Shivaga Saratoga.  (I made sure they are real Thai people.  Isa's shoulder have been hurting in the last several months due to working with computers for long hours.)  New customer promotion with tax and tips totaled about $140 for two. 

Our Couple Room

Is the experience worth $90 for two?
Yes.  The experience is entertaining.  We skipped dinner that day, for some reasons, not hungry at all.   A concern about horse riding is not the $90.  If the rider can have dizziness easily or trouble body balancing, horse riding would not be recommended.  Riding on a 1000-pound horse and swinging left and right, sometimes front and back, with only the soft horse rein to hold on, walking on a 6-feet wide hillside trail was a little unnerving at the beginning.  I admire those folks who can ride horse without saddle.


At the end of the day, Isa commented she realized how much we can use the French Laundry dinner money to indulge us.  Dear, the dinner was a reward for our good teamwork in 2013.  Today, we spent $250 to improve our health and celebrate our wedding anniversary.

"Today is the first time of our future horse ridings"  

Do you like Hee Haw?  

Happy Horse Year to you.