How do I book air tickets

After introducing ITA Matrix and finding a most suitable credit card, let's talk about how do I book air tickets.

Build a list

  Do you have a list of places you'd want to go? Write it down or just remember it, preferably match it to a time you'd want to go. After all, you may not necessary want to go to Oslo right before Christmas where shops close early and daylight hour is short.

Learn the abbreviations

  At the very least, learn the airport codes of your nearby airport and your target destination airport. A lot of deal blog/website/forum puts these information on the title so that their readers can quickly identify the routes that interest them. Also, remember twitter's 140-character limit? That's also another reason to learn these abbreviations so that you only need to read about deals that's relevant to you.

Sense the value
  
  When I first start looking for air fare, I often dwell on the absolute "cheapest" fare; for example, I would be upset if the ticket price drop $50 a week after I purchase my $300 round-trip ticket from WAS-SNA. It doesn't help when soon after, anyone could view the fare history of selected market from Farecast (subsequently bought out by MicroSoft and becomes Bing travel). I have learned from that now and realized that I could be preparing for the trip during the time of mourning. If the price is good and your schedule works, just go for it. $300 round trip to Dublin is great but $500 is not such a bad price either.
  But what is a good price, if you ask me, in addition to the historical price chart many sites now presents to you (e.g. Kayak, Google Flight), one more way I've learned is using the metric of cost per mile (CPM); basically it measures the amount of miles you'd be earning and calculates how much you're paying (based on airfare) for each mile. In general, 6 cpm is a great catch but depends on your situation (e.g. hot place like Maldives or Paris), 10-15 cpm may not be a bad price. Again, if you're doing the calculation on your own, the mileage summary provided by ITA Matrix is a great tool (just remember, your mileage may vary (YMMV)).

Be on the lookout

  Now this is the most important part: use the tools available to you that meets your lifestyle. Most of us have our jobs and commitments and can not afford to be checking ITA Matrix every hour for every places you'd want to go. Thanks to internet, there are many people who's more than happy to do it for us and all you have to do is keep an eye out for it. The blogs/websites/forums I am following are listed on the main page of this blog. Some of those will be listed below so that readers can follow them: The Flight Deal, Air Fare Watchdog, The Points Guy, FlyerTalk. These are all good sites with rich information on travel deals that you can follow. I have subscribed to most of them on at least twitter or RSS and have my phone notify me (e.g., via IFTTT) when new contents arrives. It gets easier once you know all the abbreviations; then you can scan through the headlines and decide if this is a deal you'd want to investigate further. Sometimes deals posted on this are gone within hours (e.g. the $300 NYC-Dublin deal). And one last thing, in general, if you're not sure about some of the deals you see, you should stop doubting if you can see the deal being mentioned on slickdeals with high level of discussion. Most people on slickdeals are hunting for things other than travel and if such travel deals gets their attention, it is usually something really good.

Plan ahead

  Obviously, with fares gone within hours like those mentioned above, it helps if you can afford to be flexible on your schedules. However, what if you're not. For example, I have to be home for Thanksgiving every year or I can't leave until the kids are having summer vacation. In these situation, I recommend devoting some time every week (e.g. 1-2 hours) at least 3 months in advance and start searching. Of course you can also set up fare alert on one of the websites that offers these service and have them notify you. Your searching frequency should increase as your planned travel dates are closer. And as usual, act fast once you've found the nice price and start planning the rest of the trip.

  
Conclusion

  Well, this is about it. In general, you can be efficient at grabbing good air fares when you 1) know what you are looking for, 2) know what's a good price, 3) know where to look, 4) know to act fast when good things come, and 5) know to spend time searching regularly. So good hunting, everyone.

新手買機票用的信用卡簡介 (美國)

For those who have read the previous post- Airfare credit card for newbies; this is essentially the Chinese translation (paraphrasing is more precise).

最近有個朋友問我, "哪一張信用卡買機票最好?" 當下時間不多, 並沒有給出一個很好的答案, 在這邊我試著給一個比較完整的說法

先讓我給個簡單的答案: 一般來說對新手 (不論你是剛來美國, 剛開始使用信用卡, 或是最近開始研究各式各樣信用卡的同好) 而言, 每個人的答案不一, 但是可以從最大化現金紅利 (或是 gift card (GC)) 開始著手

比較完整的分析如下

重新定義問題

"最好" 是一個比較困難的課題, 畢竟青菜蘿蔔各有所好. 再說 "最好" 的信用卡不一定每個人都喜歡. 舉例來說, 你一年可能只飛一趟來回台灣, 那這樣了話航空公司的里程數對你可能就遠不如現金實在 (你一年才會用一次里程數而且天知道航空公司會不會隨時下修里程的價值). 比較好的問法應該是, "哪一張信用卡比較適合我?"

知己知彼

  通常有人問我類似的問題, 我會先反問: "你計畫一年花多少錢在機票上? 你多常坐飛機? 飛多遠?" 很可惜, 大部分的人都對這些沒什麼概念. 這沒什麼, 我以前也是這樣, 看到一張機票動輒上千 (有時一次就要買兩張以上), 第一個想法就是如何想辦法省, 而信用卡的紅利是個非常明顯的選擇. 但是沒多久, 就發現一堆信用卡都需要年費, 或是給予比較難量化的里程數, 這時候粗估一年來的消費行為就變得很重要了. 唯有如此, 你才會知道申請這些信用卡划不划得來

  Optional:　當然平常就有計帳的習慣最好，個人建議一年超過 $3k 的項目就可以獨立出來研究一下有沒有超過 5% cash back的信用卡可以利用. 畢竟大部分這類的信用卡年費都在 $100 左右; 扣除掉機會成本 (2%); $3k * 5% - $3k * 2% = $90; 這個數字已經滿接近 break even point了

  接下來, 你可能會想要問一下自己 "我到底想要什麼?"
  有些人就是要省最多錢, 對他們而言 Net Present Value最重要了; 這種人就好好精打細算.
  有些人喜歡存一堆點數到時候拿去兌換旅遊 (旅館/機票/租車); 對他們而言這樣用起來比較爽
  有些人偏好享受, 偏好高級旅館, 升等, 商務艙; 這樣也很好

  不管你是哪一種, 接下來就根據你想要的東西來研究哪一張卡對你最適合. 以下我就假設讀者是要儘量省錢, 有經濟艙就不會想花錢去坐商務艙.

信用卡分析
接下來就針對幾張常見的信用卡來分析一下, 基本上這並不是所有市場上的信用卡, 而只是一小部分幾張年費比較低, 然後紅利大於 2%. 對了, 基本上為了簡單化我並不考慮開卡紅利,

1. Penfed Premium Travel Rewards Amex

  這張卡目前並不提供點數兌換現金的選擇, 不過兌換GC的選擇不少; 雖說買機票是每一塊錢5點, 但是目前兌換率是 5880點換$50 GC. 所以換算下來 $50/5880 * 5 差不多是 4.25% cash back; 再加上機會成本, 所以大約是 4%. 不算太差的選擇. 尤其又沒有年費.

重點是, 這張卡除了買機票外基本上一無是處 (其他消費只有0.8% cash back), 所以重點就是 1. 你要花多久累積 5880 點 2. 拿到GC以後你可以多快花掉它

  GC 的選擇包括: Amazon, Applebee, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Starbucks, Lowe's, Staples, iTune, Gap, Sports Authority, Sephora, IHOP, Morton's, Neiman Marcus, Outback, Panera, Flemings等等

  最後, 你必須要是 Penfed 的會員才能申請, 基本上你如果不是軍人, 你可以藉由捐獻給特定慈善機構加入, 最少需要放 $5 在裡面來保持你的會籍. Penfed 其實不差, 畢竟他們有時會有非常低的車貸和房貸. 不過同時他們信用卡發卡審核也比較特別, 有時申請書不是那麼容易過, 所以如果申請不過, 別難過, 過一段時間, 把信用記錄變好之後再重新看看.

2. AAA Rewards Visa 

  這張卡會給予 "travel purchase" 3點, 基本上1點差不多就是1 cent, 所以就是差不多3% cash back. 但是如果你在 BoA 裡面有存到足以到他們 Preferred Rewards Status 的錢, 你可以有 10% - 75% 不等的 bonus; 這樣了話就是 3.3 - 5.25 % cash back. 免年費的狀況下並不是一個太差的選擇.

  但是, 除了 "travel" 以外, 基本上你並不會想要用這張卡.

3. Citi Thankyou Premier

  這張卡的年費是 $95 (第一年免年費), 現在的開卡紅利還不差, 加上第一年免年費, 其實可以考慮. 消費在 "travel" (不知為何包括 gas, tolls, taxi, parking 等等) 上, 每一塊錢給3點, 所以感覺上像是 3% cash back. 不過如果你把這些點數拿去 Citi Travel Center 兌換飛機票/旅館/遊輪, 一點可以抵 1.25 cents; 所以其實更像3.75 % cash back. 個人經驗來說, Citi Travel Center 換機票通常是比較好的選擇 (報價和直接上網訂的價錢差不多).

要注意的點是這張卡對 "travel" 的定義只限於這張卡, 其他 Citi 發的卡基本上都不這樣定義 "travel".

 另外一件比較有趣的部分就是這張卡用的是 Thankyou point; 所以如果你有其他的 Thankyou point 信用卡 (或是金融卡), 你可以選擇把多個帳號合併然後直接適用最好的兌換率. 不過如果剪卡了話你也要盡快把剩下的點數花掉.

4. Chase Sapphire Preferred

  這張卡也是有$95的年費然後通常也是第一年免年費. 很多其他的部落客很愛推這張, 表面上來看, travel 和 restaurant 會獲得 2點, 考慮到 20% off travel (如果使用 ultimate rewards 訂位), 看來是個 2% 或是 2.5% cash back, 似乎比不上介紹的幾張.

  但是這張卡可以讓你把獲得的點數用 1:1 的交換率換成航空公司的里程數, 一般來說大部分的人對航空公司的里程數會看成 1.2 - 2.2 cents, 這樣了話這個交換率就很好玩了. 再說, 當你有這張卡的時候, 其他ultimate rewards miles也可以交換成航空公司的里程數 (包括那張rotating 5% category 的 Chase Freedom).

  總的來說, 對新手來說這張卡還滿適合的, 平常就先集點數起來放, 當集到可以換機票以後, 再換成里程數以避免航空公司突然貶值. 如果集到後來發現根本不符合經濟效益就可以換現金抽手.

5. Airline Miles card

 各家航空公司出的聯名卡也是一個不錯的選擇, 不過他們的里程數比較難量化, 又加上一堆有的沒有的好處 (像是 companion ticket, extra-luggage, etc) 基本上 1.2 - 2.2 cents per mile 是個還滿常見的兌換率. 但是你就要好好考慮一下你要集多久才會換一張你想要的機票, 然後那張機票價值多少 (換頭等艙通常會很划算, 但是在有經濟艙, 又比較便宜的狀況下你會想換頭等艙嗎?). 這些信用卡常常會有promotion, 如果不想自己研究了話等有promotion的時候讀讀各家部落客的分析文就好了.

6. Citi Double cash mastercard

  這就是為什麼我習慣最少要有 2% cash back; 不過這張卡除了給 2%以外就沒什麼特別了, 沒什麼開卡紅利, 又不是 Thankyou point; 所以也沒辦法拿超過 2%了.

結語
以上所列的信用卡並不是市面所有的產品, 不論如何, 用上面的方法計算回饋, 研究自己的消費習慣, 估計你要花多久才會集到你要兌換得你要的東西, 然後想想換到以後你可以多快處理掉換到的東西. 如此一來你就能找到最適合你的信用卡.

Airfare credit card for newbies

  A friend of mine asked me recently, "What's the best credit card for airfare?" I don't think I answered that question as good as I wish so let me try to answer that question here and now.

  Before this post turns into a giant long analysis filled with scenarios after scenarios, let me give out the short answer: it depends; but it may not be a bad idea to start with something that brings you the most cash back (or gift cards that can be liquidated quickly).

  And here is the long answer.

  Redefine the question
  
  Asking "What credit card is the best" is not necessary the best approach; the best one may not be the one that meets your spending habit (e.g. why bother collecting airline miles when you are only traveling once a year? you might be better off with cash back). Therefore, the question should be "which credit card I should put my airfare spending on?"

  Know yourself

  It's best if you know your spending habit and budgets before you start looking into which credit card you're gonna get to put your airfare on, period. I know it's tedious and painful, but at the very least, you should know how much you'd be expected to spend on airfare each year. The reason is simple: this way we can calculate a break even point if you should pay an annual fee easily.

  Optional: If you can keep track of your spending habits, I'd recommend identifying categories that you'd spend more than $3k a year. Why? Many credit cards out there carries annual fees about $100; 5% of $3k is $150, subtract the opportunity cost of $3k * 2% (standard cash back rate from no-fee credit card), the result is $90, which is close enough to the break even point for me. Therefore, if you can find a 5%  cash back card for that category, you should at least consider it (whether you should get it or not is a story for another day).

  After accounting, you need to ask yourself, "what do I want in return?" Everyone is different and there is really no right answer. Some people are strictly logical and wants whatever that offers best net present value (NPV); some just wants cash (or equivalent gift card that can be liquidated quickly); some wants to use that for air ticket or hotels; and still some others wants status recognition (perk).

As the title suggests, I expect my audience to be newbies; so let's start with something everyone can appreciate and value equally pretty easily: Cash and its equivalent gift card. And by the way, I'm going to assume that traveling in economy class is almost always preferred (i.e. the perks of business class such as lounge access, priority boarding, extra luggage, premium meal, extra leg-room do not outweigh the cost saving, whether in terms of points redemption or price paid for ticket).

Some popular cards to know

Let's start by identifying some cards to consider. To simply things for the newbies, let's start with something small. Therefore, I'm only identifying some (not all) cards that carries fairly low annual fee and above 2% return. Please note I'm generally not accounting for the sign up bonus as sign up bonus vary all the time and it would just make the calculation too complicated.

1. Penfed Premium Travel Rewards Amex

  This card offers pretty good straight up gift-card exchange for your points. As the link says, the card gives 5 points for airfare purchases; note that most gift card (including Amazon gift card) redemption rate is at 5880 points for $50 face value (as of 08/10/2015); which means you are getting about 4.25% cash back before accounting opportunity cost. At 5% opportunity cost, you're looking at roughly 4% cash back on air fare. This is not too bad and pretty straight forward IF you can accumulate fast enough (before Penfed devalue their program) AND liquidate these gift card fast. Currently popular gift cards being offered includes Amazon, Applebee, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Starbucks, Lowe's, Staples, iTune, Gap, Sports Authority, Sephora, IHOP, Morton's, Neiman Marcus, Outback, Panera, Flemings, to name a few. And lastly, there is no annual fee.

  The major downside of this card is that there is little or no reason to charge anything else on this card other than airfare (1 point every thing else which is equivalent of roughly 0.8% cash back) so you have to calculate how long would it take for you to hit that 5880 points sweet spot.

  One last thing is that you must be a member first to apply (min $5 a share); if  you are not readily qualify to join (pretty much being military), you can join the union by making contribution to one of the charities linked on the website to join. However, I've heard that they are not the type of people who just grant every applicant a credit card. So if you don't get qualified, build up your credit and revisit this card later.


2. AAA Rewards Visa 

  The AAA rewards visa offers 3 points per dollar on "travel purchases" which would include airfare; what makes it better is that if you happen to have preferred rewards status with Bank of America (i.e. having minimum amount of asset in BoA), you can get 10% - 75% extra bonus, which translates into 3.3% - 5.25% cash back. No annual fee either so when you're starting, this may be a good place to start.

  Similarly, other than travel, it offers few incentive to charge your normal spending on this card.

3. Citi Thankyou Premier

  This card, unlike the previous cards, carries an annual fee of $95, but is waived for first year. As of now, the sign up bonus is pretty sizable and it does seems like a good card with 3 points on travel (which surprisingly includes gas, tolls, taxi, parking, etc). Keep in mind the special definition of "travel" for this card is not the same for other cards, even other cards offered by Citi Bank. Also for this card, when redeeming airfare, hotel, cruises and car rentals through Citi's travel center, each point is worth 1.25 cents so you'd essentially be getting 3.75% back for this card. By the way, from my experience, redeeming airfare is probably the best option through Citi's travel center.

  One other thing about this card is that it uses the Thankyou point system, which means if you have other cards using Thankyou point system that offers better redemption option, the better one will take over. Or if  the other card has less favorable redemption option, that other card can take advantage of this card's rewards program by merging the two Thankyou points account. Just remember that you'll only have limited time to burn all the remaining points when you close the account.

4. Chase Sapphire Preferred

  This card would carry annual fee of $95 though it is usually (if not always) waived first year. This is one of those cards most other travel blog love to advertise. On the surface, it seems that it is merely a 2 points per dollar on travel and dining, which would translate into 2% or 2.5% (accounting 20% off travel when redeeming through ultimate rewards). So it seems that this is just a "good" card because of the sizable sign-up bonus

  The beauty of this card, however, is in that it offers 1:1 points transfer to many frequent miler programs, including some airline programs. This is where things getting interesting, as it is very dynamic to account the value of "airline miles". I've seen people valuing miles anywhere ranging from 1.2 - 2.2 cents per mile so potentially this would be 4.4% cash back for some people.

  At the end of the day, this is at least a decent starter card for people who are new to the game of collecting miles because of the sign-up bonus and low entry cost (waived annual fee). And if things don't go as planned (e.g. somehow you find that the mile collecting game is not for you), you can always take the cash back and leave.

5. Airline Miles card

  Almost every airline offers some type of credit card which offers various points for purchasing tickets on their website. Value on these points varies and differ from person to person (again, usually ranging from 1.2 - 2.2 cents per mile). What makes things more complicated is that these cards often offers some sort of perks that can not be easily converted to dollar value (e.g. luggage fees, priority boarding, opportunity to upgrade, annual companion pass, etc). These cards usually comes with increased sign-up bonus every once in a while so I'd recommend reading analysis on each card when these increased offers comes up because that's also when every other blogger will try to write about them. One last thing, though, is that keep in mind that there is often no reason to redeem these points toward things other than ticket so it's best to have an estimation on how soon you can accumulate and burn these miles before they get devalued.

6. Citi Double cash mastercard

  This card is the reason I've been using 2% as the benchmark. This is a no frill 2% cash back card that carries no annual fee. Note that this is NOT in the thankyou point system so there is no way to achieve higher than 2% with this card.

Conclusion
 The above list is not intended to be exhaustive but it should be a good place for anyone to start. At the end of the day, calculate the effective cash back rate, identify the sweet spot for reward redemption; then use your estimated spending habit to gauge how soon you can realize these rewards and if it'll be worth it for you.

ITA Matrix 教學文

今天要介紹的是一個非常強大好用的飛機票查詢工具: ITA Matrix

這個工具基本的介面如上圖所示

就像我們一般常用的網站 (e.g., Kayak, Google Flight, Priceline) 相類似, 這個工具可以讓我們搜尋飛機票的價格, 不過記住, 這只能搜尋, 並不能購買機票

你也許要問, 為什麼要用這個沒辦法買機票, 價錢不一定完全正確 (搜尋的報價不包括各網站的手續費) 的工具?

ITA Matrix 雖然不做買賣, 但是強大的搜尋功能可以讓你

1. 找某一天開始到30天之後出發的機票
2. 停留時間可以上下7天的差距 (e.g. 3-10, 0-7, 1-4, 甚至30-37都可以)

以上兩點是初學者都可以感受到的超大優點, 而且下面這點更是讓人對他愛不釋手

3. 高度自由的advanced routing code 和 query composition

舉例來說, 我想從 DC 到 加州從 LA 玩到 SF, 對我來說 DCA (雷根) 和 IAD (杜勒斯) 沒什麼差 (反正就是不想去 BWI (巴爾的摩)), 而抵達 LAX (洛杉磯), ONT (Ontario), SFO (舊金山) 對我的旅程也影響不大 (反正南北加都是要去的). 那當我在搜尋的時候, 出發點就可以寫 iad, dca; 目的地就寫 lad, ont, sfo 就好了. 喔對了, 你甚至可以告訴 ITA Matrix 你不反對從 A機場進, B機場出 (反正就是盡量找最便宜的就是了)

在其他網站, 自由度就沒那麼大了, 有的是只能選鄰近的機場; 有的就是只讓你填一個機場 (btw, 這時出發地就只好選 WAS (Washington- all airport))

更高級一點的, 好好用advanced routing code 你甚至可以指定到某一指定航班 (當你想要跟你朋友搭同一班飛機的時候很好用), 某一家航空公司, 還有指定的艙等 (這裡指的艙等是比較細分的艙等如K, V, G, etc; 避免你花差不多的錢卻選到里程數只有一半或不到的票)

接下來, 讓我們實際超作一下,

首先, 選擇你要的機票型態 (來回, 單程, Multi-City), 預設是來回, 而這也會是你最常用的

在出發地 (Departing from), 我們填上我們要出發的地方, 在這裡我填上了 LAX

接著, 目的地 (Destination), 就填上你想去的地方, 在這裡是 ITM (大阪)

然後呢, 如果你要 Advanced Routing codes, 請按一下那個連結並填上你要的 code (為了簡化, 這一步在此省略)

下一步, 點選 "see calendar of lowest fares" 的 (畢竟這是這工具最好用的功能), 然後選一天, 這樣了話ITA Matrix 便會搜尋之後30天出發的班機.

接著決定你想要待多久, 比如說 3-10 天, 有幾個人 (e.g. 2),
再來就是如果你不想要從不同的機場進出, 記得把 "allow airport changes" 的勾勾取消
然後按下 Search,

看到了吧, 從11/11/15開始30天後出發的機票都幫我找好了, 接下來我就可以選個最適合我的日子出發了

結果就會如上圖所示, 選擇你喜歡的班次, 會得到下面的畫面

接下來, 你有了班機的出發時間, 大概的價錢, 你就可以到你喜歡的網站 (e.g., Kayak, Google Flight, Priceline), 去買這張機票, 價錢不一定會完全一樣因為各網站可能會酌收一些手續費

雖然使用上有點麻煩, 但是上面的結果包括一些不容易找到的資訊, 諸如

1. 艙等 (如以上的UA航班是K艙, NH (ANA) 是H艙, 如果你是打算用累積UA的里程, 就可以看看NH的部分可以獲得多少點數)

2. 細部的價錢 (看看上面寫了各段的價錢, UA surcharge (YQ) 這些部分會幫助你計算 UA的 qualifying spending)

加上自動往後搜尋30天的功能, 這也難怪用習慣以後會愛不釋手