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MMMondayMemo: Where to credit your miles
Each Monday Miles has decided to drop a tip, hint, tutorial, trick that maybe you’ve missed or haven’t heard before. If you’re an expert in this field, some of these may be things you already know, but there are a lot of beginners out there who are just getting their feet wet. This week the Monkey Miles Monday Memo focuses on keeping your miles alive so that you can use them when you want! MMMondayMemo: When do points expire?
Where to credit your miles when taking a flight is always a tough decision.
Most people flying will credit their miles to the airline that is operating the flight, or the airline that they booked the ticket with. However, this isn’t always the best way to choose. In fact, there are a lot of factors that affect that decision. Where you are located, do you have status, what do you want to use your earned miles for in the future, etc. One website that makes this much easier to determine is wheretocredit.com
Wheretocredit.com
It’s a great site that is super easy to use. The tables that are most effective are the ones that show earning based on % and used in conjunction with milecalc.com or greatcirclemapper.com ( both of which show the distance of an itinerary imputed) to calculate the mileage.
*It’s worth noting that wheretocredit.com hasn’t been updated to show mileage earning comparisons based off of price and use old earning rates that compare distance earn rates. For instance if you put in a flight from LAX-LHR it will spit out earn rates based off the old distance chart, not the new revenue based program. So you will have to do your own base calculations, or make note of the calculation AA provides prior to paying, to make a comparison.
A sample:
Here are the earn rates based off of an American Airlines inquiry for a flight in discount business ” I ”
Depending on the earn rates and ultimately which program you value the most, you can determine which would be the best program to credit this flight to. With American, fliers earn based off of price ( this showing a non elite earn rate of 5/USD) and wheretocredit.com provides customers information to make an educated decision. The one that stands out the most to me is Alaska – earning 150% of the miles flown. A great program to consider as an AA alternative.
Overall:
This is a quick tip that hopefully aids your process of choosing which program to credit your miles to!
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
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 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, 2027.
- $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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