The amount of miles you earn depends on how much you deposit into your Fidelity account.
$50,000 = 25k miles
$10,000 = 15k miles
$2,500 = 5k miles
The $2,500/5k miles deal seems to be the best option as you’ll be earning 2 miles for every dollar you deposit and you don’t have to commit $50,000.
More details at fidelity.com/united.
It somehow slipped my mind that American Airlines charges $15 for the first checked bag and $25 for the second checked bag. This applies to domestic flights and elite status customers are exempt from this fee. I’ve read about it many times because it was so well publicized in the news media and various internet forums (i.e. FlyerTalk). I decided to carry-on my baggage onto the plane since I only packed lightly for the weekend. One unintended side effect of this rule is that almost everyone is carrying on luggage to avoid the $15 checked bag fee. American Airlines needs to enforce their carry-on baggage size and weight limitations as some of the stuff people were bringing into the cabin were ridiculous.
The AA lounge at EWR was weak sauce. They also kicked out everyone of the lounge despite multiple delayed flights. The ORD lounge was huge and had showers in addition to the usual. My flight was delayed about an hour so I took a shower at ORD and that relaxed me enough to sleep like a baby on my flight back.
The 10.25% sales tax in Chicago is the highest in the country. You don’t realize how much more expensive everything gets with 10.25% sales tax until you’re actually paying it. The question is does the increased sales tax lead to higher quality of life for everyone living there or does it just get eaten up by government inefficiency and waste?
I got an offer in the mail for the American Express Platinum charge card with the annual fee waived for the first year. Normally the annual fee is $450 but depending on how this year goes I can see myself paying the fee and continuing to use the card. I applied for the card earlier this week and it showed up in the surprisingly showed up in the mail today.
Here are some of the perks the card offers I can see myself using:
Free access to airport lounges. I plan on doing a bit of travelling this year and the lounge access perk is something I definitely look forward to trying out. I’m hopping on a flight to Chicago in a couple hours to visit my sister so this card arrived just in time for me to access the lounge twice (departure and return trip).
24 hour roadside assistance. I don’t have AAA and it would be nice to know that I have the extra security if I lock my keys in my car or ever need it towed anyway.
The card looks totally bad ass. I’m no elitist or anything and it’s not a Centurion card (“black card”) but the card does something to your ego. I guess this is why people to shell out the $2,500 annual fee for for the Centurion card.
We’ll see how often I use the card and if it’s worth paying $450 to keep after a year. I might as well the free year to see what happens.
The UFB Direct Traveler Savings account pays 4% APY and you can also get 500 AAdvantage miles if you open and fund the account with at least $500 and maintain an average daily balance of $500 for 90 days.
The 500 miles bonus is just a small perk. I’m always looking for ways to pad my mileage account though so it’s nice to grab free miles here and there. The 500 miles is equivalent to a $10 bonus however.
The 4% yield is what you should be looking at. 4% is one of highest yields you can get on a liquid savings account.
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