I’m earning transferable points with no fee using the no annual fee Mesa card. You don’t even pay your mortgage with the card. You just tell them how much your mortgage is, and they award you the points as long as you spend $1,000 on the card each month. I do that in a 3x category.

And they’ve just added two new points transfer partners: Air Canada Aeroplan and SAS EuroBonus, making them the only U.S. program transferring to SAS.

Using a referral link earns 5,000 points when getting approved for the card. And you can make money on the card, too. They’ve got the ‘coupon book’ model down that American Express pioneered and Chase is copying, but they aren’t using it to justify an annual fee.

I got my $65 annual Costco membership fee rebated pretty much immediately (you can also choose BJ’s or Sam’s Club for this). And I’m getting $10 a month back on the dog food my wife buys anyway.

Here’s the coupon book: (Some only in the first year)

• $30 per quarter statement credit with Lowe’s
  
• $65 big box membership statement credit annually (Sam’s Club, BJs, Costco);
  
• $200 home maintenance credit with Thumbtack (also can be used for house cleaning or Christmas tree removal)
  
• $100 statement credit on Armadillo home warranty purchases
  
• $10 per month statement credit with Wag!
  
• $10 per month statement credit with Farmer’s Dog dog food

Also, I’m discovering surprising points-earning for instance the coffee beans I order online are coding as 2x groceries and I wasn’t expecting that. But I’m still marveling at 3x earn on daycare – that’s an amazing category for a lot of folks and will make the card worth it on its own. And 3x on taxes is amazing – one of the few cards where paying taxes is clearly worth it (outside of using the ~ 1.75% cost towards earning a card’s initial bonus offer).

• 3x on home improvement expenses; utilities (heat, gas, electric, cable/internet); home maintenance (cleaning, lawn care, pest prevention ‘and more’); decor and furniture; insurance and taxes; daycare.
  
• 2x on groceries and gas
  
• 1x on other purchases

Points can be spent at up to 1.3 cent apiece through their travel portal; at $0.008 apiece towards gift cards; or at $0.006 apiece as credit card statement credits. They also offer redemptions for closing costs on mortgages obtained though their marketplace.

Here are their points transfer partners so far – they say they are adding more:

Partner	Program	Transfer Rate
Accor	Accor Live Limitless	1.5 : 1
Air Canada	Aeroplan	1 : 1
Air India	Maharaja Club	1:1
Finnair	Finnair Plus	1:1
Hainan Airlines	Fortune Wings Club	1:1
SAS	EuroBonus	1:1
Thai Airways	Royal Orchid Plus	1:1
Vietnam Airlines	LotusMiles	1:1

I had been thinking of the points as Avios, or short haul United redemptions through Air India (which start at just 3,500 points for coach and 7,000 for domestic first class).

However (1) Aeroplan is arguably the best Star Alliance frequent flyer program with highly accessible points and they partner broadly so wherever you have your points in various transferable currencies you can pool them here, and (2) SAS has some really great redemption options.

Air Canada Aeroplan is widely known – Star Alliance gives you tons of redemption options, award pricing is reasonable, and stopovers can be added for a modest increment.

SAS EuroBonus is far less well known. They’ve just left Star for SkyTeam. There are no fuel surcharges on SAS redemptions, uncommon for a European carrier. Most long haul destinations are 50,000 miles each way in business class. You can also fly 30,000 miles each way in business class between India, South Korea, Japan, China and the Maldives – so for instance Taipei – Seoul – Almaty.

EuroBonus miles expire after four years and there’s a 50 euro partner booking fee. Air Europa, Vietnam Airlines, and China Airlines all cost double the points listed on their award chart which basically excludes them from any reasonable redemption. And partner one-way redemptions cost 60% of roundtrip rather than half.

You aren’t going to be able to book SAS saver awards during the Christmas/New Year’s period or during the summer. However, East Coast – Europe on SAS is reasonably available outside this period and with a good price.

Mesa Homeowners Card