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MMMondayMemo: What is Stacking?
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. If you’ve read this blog or any other travel blog, you’ve probably heard about stacking. This week we will lay out what it is, and a couple easy examples of it. Without further adieum..MMMondayMemo: What is Stacking?
What is Stacking?
Stacking is compounding benefits/offers/promotions to get maximum return on spend.
What’s an easy example or two of stacking?
- Four Seasons will have promotions that offer a 3rd night free. Citi Prestige offers a 4th night free as a card benefit. You can have your Citi Prestige concierge book the Four Seasons 3rd night free promo and get both the 3rd and 4th night free. You stack both benefits or promotions to get maximum discount.
- British Airways has a relationship with AARP whereby you can receive a discount on British Airways flights. The Chase British Airways Visa gives you a 10% discount on British Airways flights. You can STACK both of these benefits to save more money. My parents did this last year for their tickets to Italy.
- I stacked a great deal at Hilton hotels last year whereby they were offering discounts on longer stays. The Caledonian, in Edinburgh Scotland was participating, and I used the Citi Prestige to get those discounts alongside a 4th night free. It saved hundred of dollars.
There are endless ways to Stack. Be careful…it’s addictive. So addictive there’s a rap song about it. Soulja Boy won’t settle for less than stacks on stacks on stacks. He’s clearly a frequent BoardingArea reader.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
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.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 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 Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
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.
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