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FoundersCard offering free AA Gold Status Challenge until 5/31/14

by Harlan 1 Comment

a close up of a blue round object

I’ve written before about the benefits of FoundersCard.

Quick overview of current bennies

They partner with American Airlines to offer a unique benefit each quarter. In the past, they’ve had discounts of 5% or 10% off most fares on AA metal, which can be quite a nice break with you fly American a lot.

Here are the current airline benefits:

  • Virgin Atlantic: Complimentary Flying Club Silver Elite Status & Fast Track to Gold Elite Status
  • Virgin Atlantic: Up to 20% off US & Vancouver originating Flights to the UK
  • Cathay Pacific: Complimentary Marco Polo Club Silver Tier Status
  • Cathay Pacific: 5-25% off flights
  • JetBlue: FoundersCard Members save 5% on fares (excluding multi-city trips)
  • Qantas: FoundersCard Members receive up to 25% off travel between US, Australia, and New Zealand. Discounts are available on most classes of service
  • Emirates: 5-15% off fares for US originating flights
  • British Airways: 10% off most roundtrip US, UK & Canada originating airfares

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Bye, Bluebird: My Experience Getting the Serve Card

by Harlan 4 Comments

Yesterday, after writing the post about how to best manufacture spend post-Vanilla, I went ahead and dumped Bluebird. I’ve heard of many ways people have done it, and the different sequences of opening/closing, and all the conflicting rules about switching from Bluebird to Serve.

Here’s how I did it:

  • Applied for a Serve card by following this promo link to get a $50 credit after two direct deposits of $250 or more (I plan to do this with Amazon Payments in May)
  • Yes, WITH my Bluebird account still open
  • Of course I got an “account being reviewed” message because you can’t have a Bluebird and a Serve account at the same time
  • So then I called Bluebird CS to close account
  • Then Serve CS to open the pending account
  • Seconds after I hung up, I got a “Welcome to Serve” email

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FoundersCard Membership: Is it worth it?

by Harlan 30 Comments

a close up of a blue round object

Also see:

Update: You can lock in a FoundersCard membership for $295 a year through May 13th, 2016 when you sign-up with my link. This is $100 less than the usual rate!

FoundersCard popular benefits
FoundersCard popular benefits

Why I joined

I joined FoundersCard earlier this year from a referral I received after flying in Pearl Class on Etihad. I mostly signed up to be able to review the benefits and see if they’re really worth it. So far, so good. I’m on target to more than recoup the annual fee.

The membership offers numerous discounts on a LOT of different services that are useful for business, lifestyle, or travel. There are one or two that I really zeroed in on, and I think the card could offer a lot of value both with monetary discounts and with opportunities.

Events

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New to Points and Miles? Read My Getting Started Guide!

by Harlan Leave A Comment

A year or so ago, I made an e-book about how to get started with points and miles. I listed it on Amazon – a slim volume full of info. My friends kept asking me about it, and I kept emailing them copies. I’ve gotten some good response from it, so I decided to add it as a brand new section to Out and Out. I made a new tab called “NEW?” which contains the exact same information as the e-book, updated even, to reflect the current state of US Airways.

Please click here to start exploring the sections of the guide, or simply hover over the tab at the top of the website to access a drop-down menu. Feel free to pass the link along to anyone who might be interested in collecting points and miles. I tried to make it as simple and as thorough as possible. Please leave comments or email me if anything is unclear!

Hope this helps others get into the points and miles game. There are still plenty of strategies out there for free (or really cheap) travel.

Of course, if you’d rather have a nice volume for an e-reader or Kindle, you can still buy the e-book from Amazon (and I appreciate your support!).