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The Monkey Miles Monday Memo: One way car rentals!
This is just a little tip that can ultimately save you big bucks when traveling. Often times flights are cheaper when booked out of a different city than the one that is closest. The problem is getting to that cheaper airport!
This actually happened earlier this year when I was flying from London to Los Angeles on my England/Italy 2016 trip. I was staying in the north of England near Sheffield where the closest airport is Manchester. However, flights were not only cheaper out of the London, but I’d already booked my roundtrip in and out of Heathrow so I needed to get back to Heathrow for my departure. So how do I get there?
I had 3 options for 2 people
- One way flight from Manchester to Heathrow
- Train to St Pancras, tube to Paddington, Heathrow express to Heathrow
- Rent a car one way and drop off at Heathrow.
I booked my details the day before and the options looked something like this:
- One way flight x2 :
- Train x2 :
One way car rental
As you can see I could rent a car and drive it down not only faster than any of the other other options, but also cheaper than what it would cost me to do it alone, let alone with two people. If you’re a family traveling, this could save you tons of money! I used my Chase Sapphire Preferred card to make the rental which gave me primary rental car coverage. A great feature that many people do not know of that can save money!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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