Max Miles Points

Hi from Amsterdam! 

 

I haven't caught up on my IG stories yet so you're first to know that I'm in Amsterdam. Kinda jet-lagged but trying my best to adjust to the time zone.

 

On our first day in Amsterdam, we had fries at this very popular place and I saw this sign in their shop and was like awesome the must accept Amex then! 

I was wrong. I was like, Amex isn't' on the sign, though?!?! Good thing we had a few Euros from our last trip to Germany. I did a little research, and Maestro and V-Pay are debit cards 😑. 

The fries with mayo were great btw if you were wondering 10/10 recommend.

From May 27th to July 9th United MileagePlus members will receive 10k miles and MileagePlus Premier members will receive 15k miles when signing up for CLEAR. 

 

CLEAR membership for United MileagePlus members is $119 but you can get this reimbursed with the Amex Platinum and Platinum Business. The CLEAR and TSA PreCheck combo is the fastest way through security. [Direct Link]

If you are targeted with the Amex Pay Over Time promotion and activate it, you’ll receive somewhere between 10k – 30k points. Check your mailbox, email, or log in to your Amex account to see if you are targeted. The last time I was targeted for this promotion, I received a popup when I logged into Amex. I also saw it in the Amex Offers section when I logged into my Amex account. 

 

You don't have to use the Pay Over Time feature to earn the bonus points. Activate, earn the points, then unenroll and hope you get retargeted for the bonus again.

 

Taxes and fees are a little high but still worth it in my opinion. This Upgraded Points article is a good resource if you want some other options. Korea is open to tourists.

 

This time around, it’s for my return back to San Diego.

I had to get creative on the routing again because there was no award availability from JFK to SAN or LAX, and I didn't want to pay $700+ for the flight. I transferred 52,000 Amex points to Emirates and paid $10.10 in taxes and fees for this redemption. 

 

Is 52,000 points too much for a domestic business class flight? Reply and let me know what you think.

With the Chase Sapphire Preferred 80,000 point bonus ending soon on 6/1, I’ve received a lot of DMs asking how to earn more Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Here are some ideas on how to earn more Chase points. 

The story is I was supposed to fly the old JetBlue Mint in a ‘throne’ seat.

 

The seat I originally picked was marked as inoperable on the day of travel, so I was moved to a non-'throne' seat (oh, the horror, I know). I was super sad. I REALLY wanted to fly in the ‘throne’ seat, so I reached out to JetBlue on Twitter and iMessage to see if they could change me to a different flight. In both cases, they said they couldn't do anything since I booked through Emirates using miles. 

 

As a last-ditch effort, I went to the ticketing counter at LAX to see if they could do anything about it. The JetBlue agent was very understanding and said she would've done the same, and she called Emirates for me; it took about 30 minutes, but she was able to change me to an earlier flight AND on the A321neo, which is equipped with the newer Mint product 🙌🏼. [Instagram Reel]

 

The moral of the story is it doesn't hurt to ask. If you don't first succeed, try again and always ask nicely; being nice goes a long way. I always try at least 2-3 times before I give up. 

I hope you found some value in this week's newsletter. If you have any feedback, hit the reply button.

 

Subscribe to my YouTube channel and if you need additional resources or one on one consulting, make sure to check out maxmilespoints.com.
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Have a good weekend, and keep maximizing your miles and points! 

 

- Max