The year 2015 went out pretty quick for me! I will have a bunch of posts coming over the next couple of weeks to make up for missing so many days the last couple of weeks, but I missed so many because I was having some great time with family. Most of my posts are written late at night the day before they post or late the day they post (I am 7 hours ahead of New York) and do not normally have the time to write a bunch in advance. I had plans to but the plans didn’t grant me more time. 🙂 Anyway, hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year time! I certainly did!
Instead of a typical weekly summary today, I thought it would be good to do a top post list from 2015. I had one from 2014 and like that one, there were some that surprised even me this time around! Something that I found funny was that two of the posts from 2014 saw similar posts or the results of a particular top post here in the 2015 list! I will mention that when I get to it. So, let’s get to the list!
Top Posts From 2015
#10 – 7 Great Uses For Aegean Miles
This post saw an uptick in interest this year when news came that Aegean is the newest transfer partner of SPG’s Starpoints. This is great as it opens up a lot of sweet spots on a Star Alliance award chart, not the least of which is the 45,000 miles one way from the US to Europe in business class (in fact, that could even be Caribbean to Israel!).
Interestingly enough, this made the second year in a row that a post about Aegean Airlines, the airline based in Greece, made the top ten of the year post. Last year, it was about to get Star Alliance Gold for under $800.
#9 – Don’t Cancel Your Citi Executive AAdvantage Card Yet!
As is the case with high annual fee cards, careful consideration must be given to determine if you can get enough value out of it to pay the annual fee. With so many people getting the Citi Executive AAdvantage card in 2013 (thanks to the 100,000 mile bonus), there were a lot of people that had the card and were due to cancel earlier this year to avoid the $450 annual fee. But, shortly before many were going to cancel, Citi went ahead and offered Global Entry reimbursement on the card! That was a nice $100 bonus if you were able to take advantage of it before closing down the card. I did that and then downgraded the card to the Citi Double Cash card.
#8 – A 50,000 Point Hyatt Credit Card Offer? Yes, Please!
This was an interesting post. It was a rumor post based on a post by another blogger and then a reader sharing a mailing he received. In the end, there was confusion someplace as I received word directly from Hyatt that there was no such offer. This was March. Fast forward a few months and someone in my family did receive such an offer. In fact, it was exactly what I had written about before – a 50,000 point offer instead of the 2 free nights. Not sure if it had been in the works or if enough people contacted Chase/Hyatt about the offer that they thought it might make sense to offer it as a targeted offer. Judging by the number of people that read this post and the questions I received about it, I do know that a lot of people did contact them so who knows. Either way, the offer has been available as a targeted offer and I would expect it to roll out as a public offer if the results were what Chase/Hyatt were looking for. In case you receive it, check out this comparison post here about the two offers.
#7 – New Offer: 50,000 Delta Skymiles + $50 Statement Credit Card Offer [Expired]
I was surprised that this received the amount of views it had, especially placing it in the top ten. Though it was a good offer, it was certainly not the best credit card offer of the year. Still, it may have received interest since I did not see it written about on many of the other blogs so maybe people found it by virtue of searching for such an offer. If you had missed it, don’t worry – it should pop up again sometime soon. Either way, it was a good offer and available on business (can get once every 12 months) and personal (one bonus per lifetime).
#6 – National Car Rental Elite Status – Why And How
This was another surprise post – because I had written in the first part of 2014. That means a post from 2014 made the top ten list in 2015! Not sure why that happened (it does show up quite high on Google which means it was likely searched quite a bit) but do know that achieving elite status is important to a lot of people and having National elite status has certainly helped me and saved me a lot of money over the years. Hope it helped you get started with them as well.
#5 – How I Earned AA Executive Platinum Status For Under $500 & Avios
I knew this one would be on the list because, again, elite status is a big deal for people. This post was all about how I used different offers and points to achieve AA’s top-tier status quickly and easily. While it is not something that is available right now, I did write it to demonstrate how it is possible to use various bonuses to really get some great stuff in this travel world. Really looking forward to trying out AA’s Executive Platinum status this year.
What was interesting about this post making the top ten is that a top ten post from 2014 was how you could earn AA Executive Platinum status for under $725! That was a great deal and something anyone could have done but it would have required a lot of travel. That didn’t work within my schedule so it was a good thing this one had popped up for me! Obviously, getting AA Executive Platinum cheap is something people are interested in – and it should be. With 8 Systemwide Upgrades (going to 4 this year) and some other great benefits, it is a status that many prefer.
#4 – How To Churn The Hilton Surpass Card Without Opening A New Account [Expired]
This was a great trick that I used a few times to generate a couple hundred thousand Hilton points – without opening a new Amex account and while having the card. Unfortunately, it has since been closed, but it looked like a lot of people had taken advantage of it before the door closed. It was a great way to rack up Hilton points from a card that Amex typically only awarded points on once in a lifetime. Hilton points are not worth as much as some other hotels so it was nice to pad my account a bit, especially since I picked up Hilton Diamond so easily for this year.
#3 – My Best Flight Ever – Etihad First Class Apartment From Abu Dhabi To Sydney
This was one of my travel highlights of the year – getting to fly Etihad’s beautiful First Class Apartment – twice! This was truly the best flight I ever had and the service was excellent. I hope to book at least one more Etihad First Class Apartment flight before the AA devaluation sets in because it is just so good. The interesting part of this post is that a top post from 2014 was actually at the end of the year when I first wrote about it became possible to book the not-yet-flown Apartment class with AA miles. While booking that flight is a thrill, flying it is much better! 🙂
#2 – Amex Premier Rewards Gold 50,000 Point Offer
With the usual offer of 25,000 points always around on the Premier Rewards Gold card, it is certainly nice to see an offer that doubles that offer and cuts the required spending in half! So, it is no wonder that this post generated a fair amount of attention. While I have not been able to recreate this offer as of today, I have heard not long ago that others were still seeing it so give it a shot to see if you can see the offer!
#1 – This Credit Card Requires You To Make At Least $120,000 Per Year
And the most-read post of the year here at Running with Miles was about a credit card – but not one offered in the US (and a good thing!). It is a card offered in the UAE and it requires to you to make at least $120,000 per year to apply for it. It is really a great thing that we have cards that offer better bonuses with lower annual fees while not requiring you to make a certain amount to apply! We should be thankful for what the credit card issuers in the US have enabled us to be able to do and hope that it continues for quite a while!
Summary
That rounds out the top ten most-read posts of 2015! There were a couple that surprised even me but I guess you can never tell! There were some that I had written and spent hours on that I wish had been the most-read but oh well! 🙂 Thanks to all of the readers for following along last year and I hope you continue for 2016! Some exciting things are happening here with the blog, one as soon as this week, so I hope to have you along for the ride. Thanks so much for making this year a great one!
