The Guide to Free Surf Travel

cool, glad to hear you scored

 

I've never redeemed miles as cash. Gotta admit, I have no idea that is even possible?

I utilize miles & points for flights, hotels & rental cars. A few years back, the airlines put into play where you have to pay the taxes & fees even when you redeem miles. It's not too bad for domestic flights (ex: $48 for RT IAD-SAN, about same for MIA-LIR) but it's chunky when it's transatlantic ($300+ for IAD-CDG).

The thing is to earn & burn. Reason being, the airlines continue to debase the value of the award miles via higher redemption levels. Used to be I could get a RT biz class ticket to LIR for 30-40,000 miles. Now? 90-120,000 miles. So, no sense in saving miles because you're literally parking a depreciating asset when you could be using it for what you want: surfing good waves.

 

It's another sketchy grey area courtesy of the IRS.

Since about 2002, the IRS has not treated miles as a taxable item. Also, the IRS hasn't taxed awards or other benefits that you take in from redeeming your miles.

Unfortunately, in 2012 the tool bags @ Citibank surprised many of its customers by issuing Form 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income, to report the value of frequent flyer miles the customers had received in exchange for opening new accounts as part of an ongoing promotion.

Lesson learned there? Don't open an account with a credit card purveyor that issues 1099's. I have never received a 1099 nor has anyone I know who grabs miles by the millions.

Understandably, the customers were upset because, the value of the miles notwithstanding, many of them ended up paying dearly (through potentially as much as several hundred dollars in taxes) merely for opening an account.

Citi got hit with a class-action lawsuit over that one. Powerful people were really ticked off. Failure to notify clients of the tax consequences AND Citi pumped up their stated value of the miles so they could take the write-off on their own books. Real scumbag maneuver: banks, oh, what a shocker.

AX treats the points they fork over by the bucket load to clients as rebates. No grey zone there: totally & forever nontaxable.

 

I don't work for anyone unless you count the IRS & every other tax authority

I work a lot of long, long hours. Yah, it's my gig. So, if I do that part of the equation right then I can take time off & blow out for surf treks.

Don't know anyone has that latitude who works for a company. Not judging, just making an observation.

 

I don't work for anyone unless you count the IRS & every other tax authority

I work a lot of long, long hours. Yah, it's my gig. So, if I do that part of the equation right then I can take time off & blow out for surf treks.

Don't know anyone has that latitude who works for a company. Not judging, just making an observation.

 

I did that back when I used to date a FA for Continental. And I bailed on that approach when I had to wait all effing day, from oh-dark-thirty into the night, in an airport, as flight after flight filled up & I got the bounce. You're the lowest priority in that scheme & these days, as crowded as flights are, that might be a tough row to hoe.

 

what is with the dupe posts, Simod666??

 

Agreed, if one is spending money merely to acquire points & miles then that's not only not free flights that's also not an especially intelligent way to go about things.

The actions that you mention are sure-fire ways to accumulate miles & points.

You could ramp that up by actively seeking credit cards that give you points multipliers. And, apply for & take down credit cards that give you bonuses of, say, 50k miles if you spend 'x' amount in 90 days - - then you cancel the card prior to the annual fee. And keep on trucking to the next offer.

Heck, you only have to do one or two of those offers & badda-boom, badda-bing you've got at least one RT coach ticket to Costa Rica.

The US Mint had this program for a couple of years whereby they were trying to get the dollar coins out into circulation. You could go online & purchase the coins with your credit card. Free UPS shipping to you.
One could, and did, rack many, many miles.

So, that one went like this:
apply & take a credit card that gives you 50k miles for spending $3k in 90 days (let's assume the card has a limit of $5k);
max out the card by purchasing $5k in dollar coins;
coins arrive, you schlep them down to the bank, deposit them in your checking account;
you go home & set up the online payment of the $5k from your checking account to the credit card company;
when the payment clears, your card is ready to utilize again, et. cetera.

The Mint finally got wise & put restrictions on the program.

It's not Einstein stuff here. It's merely watching for opportunities & maximizing those opportunities.

And if anyone wants to yap about the morality of it all, spare me: the airlines are colluding to drive up prices to screw all of us; last time I checked any bank's history, they're basically evil empires; and just try being one minute late on your credit card payment & after you're done paying usurious penalties go look to see what that does to your credit rating.

 

My bank used to laugh when I would show up with boxes of those coins on a hand truck. Those boxes were friggin heavy. Many miles of dollar coins...

I don't know the answer to your query about the merge of LAN / AA. Might try the points guy - - he's pretty responsive. That's a pretty sweet upgrade package, hope you nail it.

The SPG card is above-avg, that's a good move on your part.

I took an AX Plat card & did the spend on that & received 150k miles this month. That's my second go-round with that card. I have 4 other AX cards that get me the AX points as well as DL miles. With the DL card you get an annual 10k bonus plus a companion certificate. Not a lot but something.

You get to a spot where you can plan your trips ahead of time & thus rack up the miles & points on the appropriate cards. So, if I'm going to CR in the spring I ramp it up on the AA miles cards.

I haven't seen a negative impact on my credit rating from having many (20) credit cards or from having many applications for cards.

 

Cool site, hadn't seen that one - - thanks for posting it.
I'd combine that one with www.thepointsguy.com for knowledge & info on putting together cards that generate free surf treks.

 

^^ this is well-spoken & had me alternately laughing & saying 'hell yah.'

The airlines are brutal:
we taxpayers bailed them out after 9-11 (the lone exception being SW); what do we get in return? Yep: price collusion, fees for bags, food & seats, the worst seats ever that are literally painful for any flight over 2 hours, bait & switch tactics on their ticket-purchasing websites and BS offers to upgrade.

Last time I went through ATL on a DL flight, the list of people who could & wanted to upgrade to biz from coach was 90 passengers....90!

DL has even started a campaign: 'it's not exclusive if everyone is doing it' - - wtf - - and they raise their mileage redemption levels while shrinking their pool of available award seats, even as they continue to flog the Delta Amex cards to us all as well as teasing us with 'go for the card and get the upgrade on your next flight.'

The kicker being....there are no upgrades to be had in reality!

 

At the time, there was no shipping & handling. Free UPS delivery from the Mint. I believe that's changed.
My UPS guy used to bring in with $20,000.00 of dollar coins at a time. Heavy as hell. That was the worst part about that angle, those coin boxes were bulky & a pain in the neck to cart over to the bank.

Glad you're getting something from the links, hope you score free travel to sweet waves.