2018 points roundup

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The chaotic holiday season is finally behind us, and I'm sitting here really enjoying this second cup of coffee and the very quiet house. Looking back on 2018 from a points perspective, I had another good year of earning – 493,000 points (I'm not including my husband's earning since his employer pays for a bunch of his travel).

Breaking that down a bit:
  • 51,000 miles with 4 airlines from paid flights and airline shopping portals
  • 247,000 Amex points from spending and bonuses (of that: 30k from refer-a-friend, 60k from upgrading to the Platinum card, 42,000 from Amex Offers, the rest from spending)
  • 95,000 Chase points from credit card spending (85k of those were in travel and dining)
  • 100,000 Chase points for doing an in-branch offer for a new Ink Business card
Looking back on last year's roundup, it looks like I hit most of my predictions for 2018 – we're booked on an exciting Cathay Pacific A350 flight, I churned a couple of new cards, I'm still not chasing elite status with any airline, I hit the shopping portals hard, I paid for quite a few of my flights, and we took shorter trips. For 2019 I don't see much of a change in strategy from last year.

I might churn an Alaska Airlines visa or maybe I'll finally take the plunge and get a Citi American Airlines card. My husband got a rose gold Amex card (with its awesome 4x on dining) and I'm an authorized user on his account so I'm fairly certain one of us will end up canceling our Chase Sapphire Reserve card. The trip protection insurance is one of its big selling points but I've heard nothing but bad news from people who've actually tried to use it.

Given that I'm always talking about the "earn and burn" mantra, I'll mention here that I spent 354,000 points in 2018 (for myself – again, not including points I spent on my husband).

Decided to burn some of those JetBlue points since their European routes still haven't been announced...


 

A few random earning highlights

Q1
United "Mile Play" game – 300 bonus miles for using their MileagePlusX app
Amex offer – spend $50 at Amazon get 2,000 bonus miles
Amex offer – spend $250 at Farfetch, get 5,000 bonus miles (used that on 2 cards, so 10,000)
Amex offer – spend $75 at Boxed.com, get 2,000 bonus miles (used that on 2 cards, so 4,000)

Q2
Amex Platinum upgrade 60k
Chase Business Ink in-branch 100k
Caviar Amex offer 1000
Amex offer 1500 points for $150 at Macy's
United shopping portal spring bonus 300 miles for $150
Retention offer on my Business Amex – 5,000 points + 15,000 more if I spend $10k in 3 months

Q3
Martha Stewart wines offer 2,000
Wayfair offer 1,500
Amazon offer bonus 1,000

Q4
Amex Offer from AT&T 15,000
Embassy Suites Amex offer 5,000
Two referrals from Reddit 30,000



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