Check That Email

Got a message from British Airways to opt-in to their communication emails and it earned me a very easy 2,000 points. I pick up a few thousand miles every year just from receiving “junk” mail like this. If you don’t like all the spam, set up a different email account. Don’t have time to read those letters and emails? A while back, lots of people threw out their United Months of Miles postcard too. That little postcard ended up making me 250,000 miles. Just sayin’.

Suntrust Debit Card Open To All

True, Delta SkyMiles aren’t the greatest in the world. But, really, what do we care? It’s free travel and we’re addicted. The Suntrust is better than most other debit cards because you get 1 mile per dollar spent. It’s no longer limited to the same handful of states. With Vanilla Reload cards/prepaid/Bluebird, it’s easy for people these days to spend lots of money and earn tons of miles.

Win A Systemwide Upgrade

A loyal MileNerd reader named TJ has started his own blog. He’s giving away an American Airlines Systemwide Upgrade (SWU) for February. He’s a new blogger, so the odds are pretty decent that you could win an upgrade for your flight. Get all the information and check out his blog here. 

Piles Of Miles

  • Minimum spend to meet, head to OfficeMax between now and Saturday. $10 off each $50 MasterCard gift card when you buy two of them. That cancels out your activation fee and then some. Obviously, some of you clever people out there will be buying more than two!
  • Also, you can still get 1.4% cash back on American Express gift cards from BigCrumbs. Just search for American Express Gift Card.
  • If you are a USAA member, click here and get a 40% discount on hotel bookings through Saturday using coupon code USAA1.
  • For gift card sellers, get $20 off your next purchase if you sell $200 worth of cards here.
  • Earn double miles with Fairmont hotel bookings here.
  • Get 100% bonus purchasing US Airways miles.
  • 500 free Spirit miles when you join MyPoints.

Results From This Round Of Cards

Last week, I talked about my recent history of credit card applications (including the latest round that day). A week later, I have the results:

  1. American Airlines Business card – APPROVAL
  2. Club Carlson card – APPROVAL
  3. Upgrading Hilton Card To Hilton Surpass – AUTOMATIC APPROVAL
  4. Amex Platinum – INSTANT APPROVAL
  5. Southwest Airlines card – APPROVAL
  6. Barclays Frontier Airlines card – DENIAL

All except the the last 2 were easy. The Southwest card was a moronic move by me. I already had a Personal and Business card active with Southwest. I didn’t look at my spreadsheet when I applied. I thought I had my card inventory memorized and was sloppy. Chase denied the application, so I called the reconsideration phone number. We had a nice conversation, I agreed to close an existing Southwest card, and got the new one opened. The Barclays card was denied for my “sufficient credit with Barclays.” I plan to call their reconsideration number today and close a card to get this one open. Should be 6 for 6.
Also, I got my credit score with the denial. It was listed as 772. This is after applying for almost 40 cards in the last couple years, closing most of them, and opening 5 or 6 checking accounts. I do it carefully and I breathe easy. 
Just don’t get sloppy. A reader emailed me saying she closed one of her oldest cards with a $40,000 limit and no annual fee. Not surprisingly, her credit score took a hit. I almost had a heart attack. I asked her, “Why would you ever close that card? It has no annual fee and it’s been open forever. And it has a huge limit! Close these new cards!” Her explanation? “I don’t know. I just got tired of keeping it open.” My answer? Please don’t email me anymore.