POINTASTIC HELLHOLE

Capital One recently surprised everyone and introduced transfer partners for their Venture card, and there great rejoicing across the land, notably among those who get paid to refer Capital One cards. Will I rejoice too? We shall see. Continue reading →

I’m noticing a lot of handwringing in the points blogosphere lately about whether or not the Chase Sapphire Reserve is still anything special. Lucky, over at One Mile At A Time (the one big blog I very consistently read and enjoy) has the latest meditation on this important matter, and Greg at the always excellent Frequent Miler has his own contemplation. But, what do I think? I don’t fucking know. I usually just want to lie down.

But, it turns out I can both lie down and think, so, after careful consideration:

• YES. The Sapphire Reserve is still my personal champion of cards, when paired with the no-fee Freedom Unlimited, despite now earning less on some spending than competing cards.
• The Reserve’s value when paying with points, which is sometimes desirable or necessary, is excellent, and better than any comparable card.
• United is a more valuable transfer partner for me than any other airline.
• Being able to pool points between family members is awesome.
• Your needs may be different, so you might want a card that earns more Amex or Citi points than you’d get in Chase points for the same spending on the Sapphire Reserve. But I do not care about your needs. Your needs suck. My needs rule.

The argument against the Reserve goes something like this: Continue reading →

Ok. If I lived somewhere that forced me to fly American Airlines, I’d probably move, because I’m a reasonable person. But if you’re stuck with them, or, worse, choose to fly them, what options do you have? Not great ones. But not nothing.

• I think the best cards to have for flying American are the Chase Sapphire Reserve + Chase Freedom Unlimited combo; you will be able to get some MileSAAver award tickets, and when you can’t, you can use the points as cash for any flight. These cards earn much faster for the same spending than American branded cards do, and offer much more flexibility. And, if I wanted the perks offered by an American branded card, I’d get one of those too, but still put my spending on the Chase cards.

Long, boring version: Continue reading →

I fixed the SSL problem that was making your browsers tell you that my site was hacked by ISIS and has a video of you watching porn that will be sent to your friends if you don’t surrender money.

You can now visit pointastichellhole.com either encrypted (https) or unencrypted (http), and I don’t really care which, since I don’t collect info here.

In other news, Continue reading →

I’m taking stock of where things stand here in 2019, and I figure a good a place as any is with what cards I’ve got these days, and why. I’ve been avoiding signing up for new personal cards so that I can acquire some new Chase cards this year, so I’ve been mostly dropping cards. In other words, what’s in my wallet? (Not a Capital One card, I can tell you that.) Continue reading →

Since I’m so fucking verbose, I’m gonna start something new on my blog: bullet point summaries to lead off. Then the addled among you who choose not to luxuriate in my bountiful prose stylings can still get the goods. Here goes:

• If you’re in Economy Plus on a United 787-10 aircraft, sit in rows 20-22 for a much nicer seat. And, if you’re traveling as a couple and choose a window, you’ll have no seatmate.

Ok here’s my million word version of same: Continue reading →