Almost free tickets - what is current visa registration scam?

[Satellite 1]

However, be warned that if you get a private visa, it can only be registered at the residence of the sponsor who got the invitation (at least that was the case in year 2000).

I was able to register my private visa for a second time while staying two days at Moscow hostel, that was in 2004. The consulate in the their FAQ claims that any Russian visa can be registered in any city and must be done any time you are there for more than 72 hours. But trying telling that to an arbitrary enforcer. I actually have tried, and here is what they say, "we'll take you down to the station to sort it out"! That's when you pull out the bribe.

(3) visa period can be extended while in Russia or you may be able to obtain a temporary residence permit (and later a permanent residence permit) if you entered with one.

I successfully did this part in order to stay in Russia 3 weeks passed the 90 days in order to Return to the US with my wife. I would have never guessed it would take over 100 days to go from NOA2 to interview.

[Chris Parker 11]

When my then-fiance was planning to visit me in Moscow, I had StarTravel issue him a tourist invitation. He listed their recommended hotel as his intended place of stay on the visa application, but of course never went there and stayed the whole time at my place. We never went to any OVIRs and completely dissed the whole registration thing.

On the last day he shows me the arrival/departure slip in his passport and asks what to do with it. I jokingly press my lips to it and leave a kiss mark with my red lipstick! Then I drive him to the airport, he passes the luggage inspection and ticket registration and goes to the exit customs with a poker face; the officer looks at the kiss mark, chuckles, shrugges his shoulders and lets him go without further questions.

cute! but risky.

Not unexpected though...

Registration & migration cards are now only for use while in Russia.

Supposedly they are no longer denying exit for lack of registration, nor even for lack of migration card. Your visa alone (an exit visa at this point) is sufficient to exit the country, though without the migration card you could get this so-called blacklisting for future visas for a period of time.

However, be warned that if you get a private visa, it can only be registered at the residence of the sponsor who got the invitation (at least that was the case in year 2000).

I was able to register my private visa for a second time while staying two days at Moscow hostel, that was in 2004. The consulate in the their FAQ claims that any Russian visa can be registered in any city and must be done any time you are there for more than 72 hours. But trying telling that to an arbitrary enforcer. I actually have tried, and here is what they say, "we'll take you down to the station to sort it out"! That's when you pull out the bribe.

Yeah, but this was for the first (and ultimately only) registration, never actually went to the residence of the sponsor (stayed in Moscow and needed to register in Moscow at a different address).

Edited February 20, 2008 by Chris Parker

[eekee 182]

i thought there was a hefty fine under the new law for losing your migration card...?

When my then-fiance was planning to visit me in Moscow, I had StarTravel issue him a tourist invitation. He listed their recommended hotel as his intended place of stay on the visa application, but of course never went there and stayed the whole time at my place. We never went to any OVIRs and completely dissed the whole registration thing.

On the last day he shows me the arrival/departure slip in his passport and asks what to do with it. I jokingly press my lips to it and leave a kiss mark with my red lipstick! Then I drive him to the airport, he passes the luggage inspection and ticket registration and goes to the exit customs with a poker face; the officer looks at the kiss mark, chuckles, shrugges his shoulders and lets him go without further questions.

cute! but risky.

Not unexpected though...

Registration & migration cards are now only for use while in Russia.

Supposedly they are no longer denying exit for lack of registration, nor even for lack of migration card. Your visa alone (an exit visa at this point) is sufficient to exit the country, though without the migration card you could get this so-called blacklisting for future visas for a period of time.

However, be warned that if you get a private visa, it can only be registered at the residence of the sponsor who got the invitation (at least that was the case in year 2000).

I was able to register my private visa for a second time while staying two days at Moscow hostel, that was in 2004. The consulate in the their FAQ claims that any Russian visa can be registered in any city and must be done any time you are there for more than 72 hours. But trying telling that to an arbitrary enforcer. I actually have tried, and here is what they say, "we'll take you down to the station to sort it out"! That's when you pull out the bribe.

Yeah, but this was for the first (and ultimately only) registration, never actually went to the residence of the sponsor (stayed in Moscow and needed to register in Moscow at a different address).

[Neonred 3,562]

Since we're talking numbers and fines here, did I read correctly the $123 plus 100,000 miles???

That's a steal!!! What did you do, call them up and say "Hey, I've got miles, hook me up?" I'm going to have to start using that credit card a whole lot more.

Wife and I got almost the same deal this past September-October. Used Delta Sky Miles to fly Delta from Florida to Moscow. 100K miles and a little over $100 for the two round trips.

[Satellite 1]

Wife and I got almost the same deal this past September-October. Used Delta Sky Miles to fly Delta from Florida to Moscow. 100K miles and a little over $100 for the two round trips.

As I understand it is somewhere between 1 to 2 miles per every dollar you spend with those mile earning cards, right? So at best we are talking spending $50,000 to get two free tickets. I have been sticking to the cash back rewards cards ranging from 1 - 5% depending on what you buy. I haven't decide which earns the better deal yet.

[mox 298]

As I understand it is somewhere between 1 to 2 miles per every dollar you spend with those mile earning cards, right? So at best we are talking spending $50,000 to get two free tickets. I have been sticking to the cash back rewards cards ranging from 1 - 5% depending on what you buy. I haven't decide which earns the better deal yet.

Sounds about right.

Back when I used to work at another job, I had to do a lot of traveling. I always put my airplane tickets and any other expenses on my United card, and then had the company reimburse me. Took the family to Florida for damn near free one year by doing that.

[akdiver 3]

Wife and I got almost the same deal this past September-October. Used Delta Sky Miles to fly Delta from Florida to Moscow. 100K miles and a little over $100 for the two round trips.

As I understand it is somewhere between 1 to 2 miles per every dollar you spend with those mile earning cards, right? So at best we are talking spending $50,000 to get two free tickets. I have been sticking to the cash back rewards cards ranging from 1 - 5% depending on what you buy. I haven't decide which earns the better deal yet.

You're making at least a few assumptions here (:

a). It's not spending money TO get tickets, it's getting tickets for money you're spending anyway. Big difference.

B). Not all of those miles come from spending money. Some of them are "bonus" miles - given annually with the card, extra miles you get for buying plane tickets with the card, from dining, or other such things. Some of them are really easy miles to get - such as the 30,000 miles you get for signing up for a particular visa card. Get one for you and your wife and that is 60,000 miles right there. Of course, some of the miles come from actually flying around too (:

c). The value of a miles card of course depends on what tickets you're getting with it. In this case, the value of the tickets was some $2700. Take off the $100 or so that I had to spend on taxes and that leaves $2600. To get that much back with a 1% "cash back" card would require me to spend $260,000. Even a 2% card would require me to spend $130K. I can tell you I spent nowhere near that much money on the 100,000 miles I used (:

Miles cards have other benefits too. Mine gives me a "buy one get one for $50" coupon every year. When I made a business trip, my client paid for my ticket and I used the coupon to get one for my wife and she ended up with a $800 ticket that we paid all of $60 or so for. That's a good deal compared with a cash back card.

My bottom line: if you travel and actually use the miles, a miles card is a good way to go. Last time I paid for a ticket out of my pocket was in 2005 when I got married - and even then, it was because we went to Hawaii. I could have gotten free tickets somewhere else (:

Edited February 21, 2008 by akdiver

[akdiver 3]

Just since my wife has been here - July 2005, we've gotten a number of free tickets due to my miles card. Let's see - we got two tickets to Moscow just the other day. We got two tickets for Florida in August. We got a basically free ticket to DC in July (see story above about the coupon). We got one basically free ticket the previous August, again, using one of those $50 coupons (normally a $800 ticket for about $75 w/taxes). We got two free tickets to California two summers ago. So that is basically 8 free tickets in less than three years - and I've still got 40,000 miles sitting there. Now, granted, not ALL of these miles are due to the miles card - some of them came from actually flying - but still - the card really gives you a lot of free miles and in turn, free tickets (:

Edited February 21, 2008 by akdiver

[akdiver 3]

Not to beat a dead horse - but a couple of more benefits from a miles card:

a). Lets you better leverage miles you earn from actually flying. For example, suppose you gain 10,000 miles from flying around. Those miles by themselves are not too helpful since you can't get a ticket with them. You might be stuck with them for years, hoping they don't expire, before you accumulate enough miles to get a ticket. But if you get another 10K miles from a credit card, now you've got 20K miles, which is enough to get a ticket. Suppose you get a ticket that would normally cost $700 - that means you spent 10K miles and got $700 in value. With a 1% cash back card, your $10K in spending will only get you a $7 value. Again, that's $700, vs $7. Big difference (:

I think the best use of miles I ever got was 40,000 miles for a $1700 ticket (same day, counter walkup, round trip from Boston to Anchorage).

B). Tickets you get with a miles reward redemption are "refundable" in a sense. For this upcoming Moscow trip, I can cancel the tickets and get the miles back any time up until the flight, and only be out a total of $200. If I were to BUY that privilege by buying more expensive tickets, it would be a big premium over the $2700 basic ticket cost.

FWIW - I just added some things up in my miles account. Over the past 24 months, I've gained about 40,000 "bonus" miles associated with my credit card. That's enough for two basic free tickets right there. That also doesn't include bonus miles associated with my wife's card (:

Cheers!

AKDiver

[Chris Parker 11]

i thought there was a hefty fine under the new law for losing your migration card...?

Yep... and it can't be replaced either, and you can't check-in at any hotel without it.

However, once you are leaving Russia, then the fines stop (no fine on exit). Lots of fines possible before you leave, however.

A very good, credible write-up about all of this can be found here...

http://stpetersburg.usconsulate.gov/citizen_visas.htm

[Satellite 1]

a). It's not spending money TO get tickets, it's getting tickets for money you're spending anyway. Big difference.

Whenever I do the math, if you consider just spending as the only source of getting miles I always found it would take us several years to spend enough money to earn even one ticket, let alone too. We live on under 30k a year and more than 1/3 goes to rent which you can't pay with a credit card.

b ). Not all of those miles come from spending money. Some of them are "bonus" miles - given annually with the card, extra miles you get for buying plane tickets with the card, from dining, or other such things. Some of them are really easy miles to get - such as the 30,000 miles you get for signing up for a particular visa card. Get one for you and your wife and that is 60,000 miles right there. Of course, some of the miles come from actually flying around too (:

As you stated in your original post you need to actually travel to get any kind of benefit, because as I understand the cards earn a lot of "bonus" miles when you buy that airlines or group of airlines tickets. For us, we pretty much stick to car trips and if we do travel to somewhere like Hawaii I usually scope out a decent deal on travelocity once a year. Fine dining and hotels are certainly out.

Miles cards have other benefits too. Mine gives me a "buy one get one for $50" coupon every year. When I made a business trip, my client paid for my ticket and I used the coupon to get one for my wife and she ended up with a $800 ticket that we paid all of $60 or so for. That's a good deal compared with a cash back card.

My father got an offer like this. So we decided to use it. It turned out the first ticket you buy to the destination we had in mind was $600 + $50 for the other. When I went on travelocity I found a different airline capable of getting us to the same destination for $275 each. As you can tell I was clearly discouraged.

So in the end, when I do become a big time spender and travler, I'll definetly drop the cash back Capital One and American Express (Costco) cards. But in the meantime I'll take the couple hundred dollars they pay out each year and use it on rent.

[akdiver 3]

Well, it's true, a miles card is about as useful to someone who doesn't travel as is a really good tire sale is to someone who does not have a car - or a free bottle of wine is to someone who doesn't drink wine.

However, for someone who DOES travel, even moderately, a miles card can be a way better deal than a "cash back" card. This was my point - which I thought was obvious - but if it, perhaps it will now be more clear (:

I have a different perspective though - as a "car trip" from Alaska requires a good 3 or 4 days of travel just to get to the next state - and 3 or 4 days back. That's 6-8 days, just to drive to Washington and back, without even doing anything. Just a different perspective on the relative utility of air travel (:

Cheers!

AKDiver

Edited February 21, 2008 by akdiver

[slim 1,525]

I've found a good way to avoid being stopped by militsa in Russia is to always carry a bottle of beer and appear half-cocked.

Worked for me!

[mox 298]

I've found a good way to avoid being stopped by militsa in Russia is to always carry a bottle of beer and appear half-cocked.

Worked for me!

Ahhh...in other words, blend in!

[slim 1,525]

I've found a good way to avoid being stopped by militsa in Russia is to always carry a bottle of beer and appear half-cocked.

Worked for me!

Ahhh...in other words, blend in!

.... when in Rome