On Strategically Topping off Accounts with a Specific Award in Mind

Fact: focusing on meeting minimum spending requirements will almost always give you the best bang for your buck. Another fact: sometimes it pays to divert your energy even if you get minuscule returns, as long as the final payoff is big.

Right now I’m simultaneously  working on several new credit cards with the goal of eventually obtaining a sign-up bonus on each one. Originally, I was concerned that I would have a hard time spending $7k in 3 months, but there was no need to worry. A broken microwave, a failed pump, new mattress, plus a scary garage door failure, and looks like I’m on track to get my bonuses after all. Manufactured spending? We don’t need no stinkin’ manufactured spending!

There are, however, several other goals I have in mind. That’s why I decided to divert a portion of the spending towards those particular goals. Let me share my thinking process.

Topping off my parents’ United accounts

I’ve mentioned a few times that next year I plan to convert my Chase Freedom  to Chase Sapphire Preferred. The whole reason for this switch is so I can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to United accounts for my mom and dad. I was able to add them as authorized users to my Chase Freedom without any issues, and anticipate no problems with future transfers.

Here is where it gets tricky. My mom has 13,400 United miles, and you can only transfer UR points in 1,000 points increments. Since I need to get to 30,000 miles level, it means that 1,000 UR points would essentially be wasted in the process.

So, when my microwave died a sudden death (at a tender age of 4), my first thought was to somehow leverage this tragedy towards a fresh pile of United miles. Since I literally can’t live without a microwave, my only option for getting it that day was Walmart. We live in a rural area, and Walmart is basically our mall. Fun fact: my family in Belarus didn’t have a microwave the whole time I lived at home, yet somehow we survived.

Anyway, normally I check Cashbackmonitor for current payouts but in this particular case, United shopping portal made the most sense. I logged in to mom’s United account and lo and behold, Walmart had a special where I could get 4 miles per dollar. That meant my $150 microwave would earn 600 miles. Boom.

All I had to do was purchase it online and select “pick up in store” option. Of course, I used Chase Freedom and selected Chase Pay in order to also earn 5 points per dollar. Might as well. If you have Chase Freedom, you can purchase Walmart gift cards online for future use by selecting Chase Pay option at checkout.

The bonus posted only two days later and now my mom has 14,000 miles in her United account. Now I’m waiting for something else to break so I can top off my dad’s account. Fingers crossed!

Topping off Avianca accounts with Citi Thank You points

Dealing with Avianca Lifemiles call center last year was certainly an “interesting” experience.  That said, we did get a lot of value from that program in the end. I was even able to redeem miles on two one-way tickets from Sydney to San Francisco. Long story short, my husband currently has 20,000 Avianca miles and I have 17,000 miles.

I certainly don’t what them to go to waste, but I also have no plans to utilize them either. Originally, I was looking at possibly burning them on tickets from Belarus to Tampa, but found out it wouldn’t be possible. However, there is one route where Lifemiles may come in handy: San Francisco-Orlando.

I would be using United, Avianca’s partner. The cost is 12,500 miles one-way, and there are no close-in booking fees, though you do get charged $25 for any Star Alliance partner redemption. I’ve been looking at that route, and while low-level United availability is scarce when you need to book ahead, it opens up as you get closer to departure.

I’ve mentioned that I’m looking at possibly going to Hawaii with my family in 2020, and there is a decent chance we will be having a layover in San Francisco on the way back. I was originally planning on using Rapid Rewards points on a flight from Oakland to Orlando, but would definitely prefer to burn Lifemiles instead. A nice thing about points  bookings on Southwest is that you can cancel them without penalty. Ideally, I would need to have 25,000 Avianca miles in each of our accounts in order to cover 4 people.

It just so happens that I had 12,000 Citi Thank You points left with no specific plans to use them. I could redeem them on a gift card, but figured that topping off our Avianca accounts is a more advantageous option. The points transfer to Lifemiles on 1:1 basis. I would need to transfer 8,000 points to my account, which would leave me with 4,000 points stash. Since Citi lets you transfer points to anyone for free, I could simply dump them to my husband’s account.

However, we would still be short 1,000 miles. We could buy 1,000 Thank You points for $25, but I had another idea. Citi Thank You Premier earns 3 points on gas, and it only took 7 fill-ups for my van to get the 1,000 missing points. I plan to cancel or convert our Citi Thank You Premier cards in March, but not before transferring the points to respective Avianca accounts.

I don’t know if I will be able to utilize the miles in the way that I hope, but it’s worth a shot. Normally, I’m not a buyer when it comes to Avianca currency. As an economy flyer, I simply don’t see the value in speculatively paying 1.35 cents apiece for ANY mile. Plus, Avianca program to me seems about as stable as Kanye West. In this case, however, I’m paying less than 1 cent since the other alternative is a gift card. If I do end up scoring those tickets from San Francisco to Orlando, it will all be worth it. If not, I’ll hopefully use miles on another trip in US.

Don’t let your brain explode from overthinking

For the most part, I recommend you keep things simple. If you prefer to accumulate rewards via everyday spending, pick a few credit cards and call it a day. If like me, you tend to focus on sign-up bonuses, assign value to each currency and make your application decisions based on that.

That being said, sometimes it pays to think a little bit out-of-the-box  by taking future plans into consideration. Oftentimes, the rewards are more than worth it.

Click here to view various credit cards and available sign-up bonuses