I will have my net worth update up next week. In the meantime, I would like to begin giving updates on my points, miles and rewards. After all, this is like currency. It's definitely worth something.
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Points: 5.5 points. 10.5 points needed for a free round trip flight. I try to accumulate at least two free flight each year to pay for our trip to Oregon every summer. Flights from LA to Portland are surprisingly expensive. Ever since Southwest eliminated their bonus points for flights booked on-line promotion, this has become difficult to accumulate.
Hilton Honors: 168,521 points. This is enough for a several nights at one of their nicer hotels. However, we are "saving up" for our honeymoon. In order to stay at one of their luxury five star type locations in Venice or Rome, I will need 240,000 points for five nights. Also, since we will hopefully not be having our wedding reception at a hotel, we will not get the benefit of the "free room." I am hoping to also have enough points to cover that as well.
My Hilton Honors American Express is my primary card. I earn three points for every dollar spent, and five at gas stations, grocery stores and drug stores. Much of my business expenses get put on this card, and I pay it in full every month.
MBNA World Points: 23,151. This accumulates slower than the Hilton Honors points for two reasons. First, I only earn one point per dollar spent on my MBNA Visa. Also, this is not my primary card. I use this card solely when the vendor does not take American Express. It can be redeemed for cash, gift cards or travel. 25,000 seems to be the magic number. Under that level the cash rewards are not dollar for dollar. You get $160 for 20,000 points, but at 25,000 points you get $250. 25,000 points will alternatively earn you a round trip ticket anywhere in the 48 continental states. Points can be redeemed for gift cards, but again, it is not dollar for dollar. You get $100 in gift cards for 13,000 points.
Discover CashBack Bonus: $23.51. I should go ahead and redeem this. The reason that I have not is that I don't ever take the cash. I wait to figure out what gift card would be best, as this is opposite from the MBNA World Points, in that you get extra benefit from redeeming for gift cards. For a $20 cash back reward, you can get $25 gift cards to The Gap, Men's Wearhouse, Borders and a number of other popular retailers. You can also get a $30 gift card Blockbuster, Omaha Steaks, Sunglasses Hut or a few other less popular places. Or you can get a $40 value at the Sharper Image, Ultra Diamond Outlet or a few other places where I would be much less inclined to shop. So, generally, I wait to figure out what gift card I want, then go ahead and order it.
US Airways: zero. Yea, I should probably just leave this off. But I have an account.
American Airlines: 6,450 miles.
Jet Blue True Blue: 8 points. Only 92 more points for a free flight!
The only ones of any value are the Hilton Honors, Southwest Rapid Rewards, MBNA World Points and Discover Cash Back Bonus. Hilton Honors in particular. I'm really hoping it covers a good chunk of our honeymoon.
I will continue to visit enjoyed the reading thanks
Posted by: Alena | September 05, 2006 at 12:20 PM
Hey, good idea listing this stuff. I post my net worth on my blog but never these balances. Thanks to Yodlee it's easy to look at most of my balances.
Here's my list:
American Aadvantage: 2956 miles
Continental OnePass: 26,412 miles
United Mileage Plus: 9017 miles
USAir: 1000 miles
MyPoints: 2020 points
MBNA Worldpoints: 353
Visa Extras: 1063
I also have various kickback accounts (Upromise, Ebates, etc) and I'm a member of some survey sites, but I won't bore you with those.
Posted by: tiredbuthappy | September 05, 2006 at 12:36 PM
Thanks Alena.
TBH, that's quite a bit of airline miles. Do you travel for work, or is that all personal travel? Also, you reminded me that I forgot about MyPoints. I have 1,344 points. I usually just redeem it for more Hilton points, but I might get a gift card for a restaurant so that my Fiancee and I can have a night out. We can get a $50 Stuart Anderson Black Angus GC for 5,750 points.
Thanks for commenting!
Posted by: lamoneyguy | September 05, 2006 at 04:03 PM
I count my points/miles in my net worth. 1.5 cents per mile. This is (at least) as legitimate as someone including furniture.
Posted by: Bronco | September 05, 2006 at 06:38 PM
Sweet! Nice HHonors balance. I have the HHonors Amexp card too and am a big fan of the HHonors reward program. Unfortuntely I keep spending my points during vacations so I probably won't have much come honeymoon time :-(. On the other hand I hope to have the airfare covered with miles.
Posted by: 2 million | September 06, 2006 at 06:51 AM
Very cool post! I'll need to look into this too...it's something I've just kind of considered, but never really looked into...I have a bad habit of trying to save these when I should really be spending it ASAP. It's not appreciating at all.
Posted by: financial freedumb | September 06, 2006 at 12:02 PM
My husband and me, we’ve recently came back from our honeymoon trip. We went to Sydney and I was really surprised by the quality of service in the hotel (we stayed at Crest Hotel ) though it was very cheap as we couldn’t afford 4 or 5-star hotel…
Posted by: Irina | September 06, 2006 at 07:41 PM
It's so nice to have you do all of the research for us. It makes our decision making so much easier!! Thanks.
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