Pardon the geek-out
So my first credit card after college was with Bank of America’s America West Airways frequent flyer miles card. At the time, I didn’t care about direct flights and I was just so happy to qualify for a card (I had crappy credit coming out of college — I didn’t get this card until like two full years out of college after I did a lot of “credit cleaning” via calling and check-writing) that I didn’t really pay attention to what program I was enrolling in.
I accrued 50K miles on that card over the last few years. I spent none of it, because it doesn’t go anywhere I want it to directly.
In the meantime, when my sister started having babies, I signed up for another credit card that accrued miles with Asiana Airlines, which flies to Korea directly from SFO, as I intended to visit her often. I have, to date, accrued 80K miles on it, 10K of which was used when we flew from the Korean peninsula to the Jejudo (imagine flying from Italy to Sicily) on a weekend trip while I was visiting her.
However, you may note that she’s now in the US, as are my nieces. Neither Asiana nor America West fly to ATL.
At some point in the last two years, AWA either merged with or was bought outright by US Airways. They had been working on merging the frequent flyer miles programs for a while now, but I hadn’t been giving it much thought, frankly.
Today, I discovered that all my heretofore useless points have been converted to US Airways points. Then to my further glee, I found that US Airways is a part of the Star Alliance! So is Asiana! That means that we have enough points (pooled in the right way, to boot) to book four econo tickets within the continental US, three econo tickets to Hawaii, or two econo tickets to Europe. Well, realistically, I know that the lowest level of award fares have so many blackout dates that this isn’t really possible, but it should be able to get us at least one ticket for free.
Wheee!!!!!!!! *gleefully waves fists around face*
Which means that as soon as Seppo and I both have enough PTO, hello vacation! 😀
Sweet! Now you can fly to Detroit. Our party is on Saturday, see you there!
Wow, what a great surprise! Any idea where you & Seppo might go for a vacation?
I’m still in college and in the middle of trying to “clean” up my credit. 🙁 But, the student loan is nearly ½ ways paid off!! I had one credit card & got rid of it after four years. I haven’t had one since. I should really try & keep one just for emergencies.
And, that is great that your sister & nieces are here!! Yay! 😀
Actually, AWA bought US Airways, but they kept the US Airways name because it’s a stronger brand. Go figure. 🙂
Just moved and had to do a credit score check. First one I’d done in a loooooong time.
I was a little nervous because I was really bad about my credit card payments and whatnot back in college, but I was suprised to learn that I had nearly perfect credit. I suppose it’s been long enough to where most of that stuff has fallen off, but it was a load off my back, that’s for sure.
Now I just got to get around to signing up for those damn AMEX rewards. I put $2~3K on my AMEX every month with all my travel, and still haven’t signed up… (me = stupid)
Theoretically you SHOULD be able to transfer those reward points, but I caution you on the incompetence of the people who answer the phones at those 1.800 numbers. We have Hawaiian Airlines ff miles (around 70k, I think) and shortly after HA and AW became partners we had to take an emergency trip to Ohio. It took literal crying to get those miles credited to our Hawaiian account. I hope you don’t go through the same thing.
Re: Credit. It’s really good to check your credit every year or two, because I am constantly finding other people’s information creeping into mine, if they have similar names. And contrary to a widely-held belief (one that I also had before I went on my “cleaning credit quest”), checking your own credit does not count at all against your credit score. And it’s free and sanctioned by the federal government.
Third parties checking to make you pre-approved offers will also not affect your score.
However, third parties checking upon your request (for obtaining credit cards, loans, etc.) usually count slightly against your credit score, depending on how many queries you’ve had and how often. For instance, getting like three different mortgage-related credit checks within a week (maybe two? there are official guidelines) only count like one, but spread over a month or two will count as three separate attempts to obtain credit.
Keeping your oldest credit card alive is great for your credit score, even if you don’t use it. Having 2-3 credit cards is ideal, according to most financial research institutions. Closing the oldest one generally has a negative impact on your credit score, not because closing is bad, but because it in effect shortens your credit history after it falls off the books.
School loans that have been getting paid back faithfully with no lapses is great for your credit history.
Having revolving credit and loans that are active and in good standing for a long, long time is MUCH better than having nothing (or nothing active) on your credit history. Of course, having nothing is better than having negative things, but it’s still not great.
Generally, “good” items on your report fall off after 2 years, but “bad” items on your report stay on for 7 years.
Congrats! I pay for my rewards priveleges. I need to stop doing that.