American Express Bluebird

My Bluebird Card from American Express has finally arrived today! I won't dive into the details since travel bloggers, like ThePointsGuy, have done a great job explaining its worth. I've been eyeing this card since January when I decided I will travel the world on points and miles.

Yes, since January - you read that part right. It took me a full five months to finally get this card for multiple reasons:

• Existing American Express Serve. If you have a Serve account, you have to cancel it before applying for the Bluebird. I signed up for the Serve account during a promotion, but never actually used it - I don't even know my account information. When I called their customer service line, I learned that there was a $25 balance sitting on my account. The representative made out a check for $25 to me to zero out the account. I called again a few days later to cancel the account - was done within five minutes. Later that night, I applied for the Bluebird, and for the first time, I got a message and email notifying me that my application was under review. It felt great!

• Vanilla Reload Unavailable in Bay Area. I tried to jump into the game the moment I learned about Bluebird, but these VR cards are like rare 1st Edition Pokemon Cards! I went to multiple Walgreens and CVS in my area, but no luck. I was fortunate enough to find them in stock at a local Luckys, but they didn't accept credit card as payment. After about 1.5 weeks, I knew VR was a no-go for me. And just like that, Bluebird lost its value to me.
• Gift Cards w. PIN Numbers [FlyerTalk] [MillionMileSecret] woke back up my desire to get a Bluebird. I had to go grocery shopping that night anyways, so I picked up a Visa Gift Card as well. The cashier checked my license against my credit card - rang up the transaction no problem. I went home and placed a PIN on the card. Now all that's missing is my Bluebird to finally load money onto it... 

Now, back to the present, I got home from work and saw the envelope from American Express. Opened it to find my new Bluebird in there, grabbed my gift cards, and headed straight to Walmart to load up. My kiosk was a little hidden - near the restroom instead of MoneyCenter where I remember it being the last time I was there. I emptied three different gift cards onto it. I look forward to making payments from my Bluebird - one step closer to my travels!

Now Empty Gift Cards

Transaction Description Online