Maximize Your Points: Stacking, Buyers Clubs, Redemption Tricks, and More with Julia Menez

#55: Points expert, Julia Menez, joins Chris to go deep on all things points and miles, including points stacking, optimizing rewards, tools to help organize your points and miles, using buying clubs to earn lots of points, and Chris shares how a somewhat sketchy website saved him an extra 15% off a new couch!

Julia Menez (@geobreezetravel) is a points strategy coach, speaker and host of the Geobreeze Travel podcast, where she interviews travelers from all walks of life about their points and miles strategies.

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Selected Links From The Episode

Connect with Julia Menez: Website | Instagram | Facebook

Julia’s Podcast: Geobreeze Travel

Julia’s gift to ATH listeners: Geobreeze Hotel Upgrade Template

Buyers Clubs

• PFS Buyers Club
• MYS Buying Group
• BuyForMeRetail
• @thepointsanalyst
• Pack Your Bags With Points
• Julia's Monthly Buyers Club Masterclass

Earn More Points + $$$

• Grabr - International purchasers prepay for you to buy items locally
• Rakuten - Cash back at thousands of stores
• Fluz - Cash back at thousands of stores + referral bonuses
• Seated - 20%+ back at partnered restaurants
• Dosh - Additional rewards shop, dine, and book. Can be stacked with Seated and other dining portals
• Cashback Monitor - Portal to find cash and points back for online retailers.
• Honey & RetailMeNot - Promo Codes Instantly
• SearchTempest - Search the whole USA on Craigslist
• Savendeals - Coupons for Crate & Barrel, Lowes and Home Depot
• MyVegas Rewards - Get points towards free things in vegas
• Frequent Miler - Blog with great points + miles content
• Doctor Of Credit - Blog with great points + miles content
• Pay1040.com - Pay taxes with your credit card
• ID.me - Discounts for teachers, military and more.

Optimizing Your Points

• Feedly - Keep track of many blogs/websites
• AwardWallet - One dashboard for all your points
• Travelfreely - Credit Card management
• CardPointers - Automated Reward optimizer for your credit cards
• Credit Karma - Credit score tracking
• Point.me - Award flight search tool ($1 trial w/ this link and the code ALLTHEHACKS)
• ANA Around the World Redemption - Up to 8 flights in biz class for less than 120k points
• Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles - Great deals for award flights
• United Excursionist Perk - Unique trick to get an extra free award flight from United
• Scott’s Cheap Flights - Alerts on cheap flights around the world

Credit Cards

• American Express® Gold Card 
• Bilt Mastercard®
• For other cards mentioned visit our Best Credit Cards Page

Podcasts

• Geobreeze Travel podcast:
  • Episode 7 - How to Stack Points and Rewards Programs with Angel Trinh (@pennywisetraveler)
  • Episode 56 - How to Earn More Points on a Teacher's Salary with Zac Hood (travelfreely.net)
  • Episode 67 - Brazil Travel Tricks and Military Benefits with Mark White
• Hacking the American Dream

Full Show Notes

How people on a smaller budget can earn enough points to use toward travel [03:05]

Outsource buying, how participating in buying groups can work to your advantage [05:14]

When sourcing items, do buyers usually pay more than the item costs? [07:04]

Buyer’s groups: are they reliable? trustworthy? Advice to keep you from being scammed, and how to learn about the different buyer’s clubs options available [08:36]

Using Freedom Flex, Freedom card, Freedom Unlimited, Sapphire Preferred, and Sapphire Reserve to earn points [11:10]

Bringing electronic and medical devices to Latin America: reasons to consider using Grabr, and advice about safety during the product exchange [11:55]

Chris and Julia walk through an extreme example of how valuable ‘stacking’ can be along with ways to automate the process [13:40]

The unbelievable benefits of stacking through dining portals [14:54]

Using Cashback Monitor to learn the best places for cashback, transferable points, and airline points, as well other ways to get coupons online [18:45]

Julia’s favorite app for stacking deals in Las Vegas and how often you can take advantage of the offers [23:53]

Chris highlights the “crazy amounts” of point stacking deals [26:39]

Specific places to search online for timely deals that require prompt action and tools to help organize your point balances [28:52]

Why it’s important to understand the 5/24 rule and its exceptions [31:54]

Julia Menez’s go-to cards and her advice for travelers who are just beginning the process of accumulating points [35:16]

Amazing redemptions to take advantage of even though you may not have a huge balance and how to use the ANA Around the World redemption program [40:02]

Plan a trip across Europe using Julia’s redemption tricks [45:07]

Buying points, is it worth it? Chris and Julia share their perspectives [50:55]

3 reasons why paying your taxes on a credit card might actually make sense [52:54]

Tips to save money and earn perks for members of the military and their spouses [57:49]

For upgrades and extra perks, while traveling, Julia shares a special link to a template on her website for listeners [59:56]  

Where to find Julia Menez online [1:01:50]

Connect with Chris

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