I have to admit it – I am guilty of putting things off. I am especially bad when it comes to paperwork. My desk is often a cluttered mess. You know the old joke I used to defend this bad process? No, well here it is:

Guy walks in to visit his lawyer and sees the desk covered in papers and sternly says to his advocate:

You know sir, a cluttered desk is a cluttered mind!

Then the lawyer gets a smirk on his face, smiles, and looks back at the client and simply says:

Yes, but what then is an empty desk?

But in all seriousness, there are a bunch of things you need to do and the reason you have a “string on your finger” to remind you about. Here are some you should think about doing right now as they don’t take long to get out of the way (& I promise to clean up my desk while you do).

1) Freeze your ARS & IDA. US Bank is a strange animal. We all want EZ approvals. If you do not take the steps to freeze your ARS & IDA you will get many less approvals or at least many less without much more work. Just do this!

2) Getting an EIN number. If you are planning on going for any  “business credit cards”  having an EIN, if nothing more than for banking reasons, is a smart move.

3) Update all your info at “My Delta”. From your trusted traveler, your Delta Reserve AMEX  “Airline Travel Card” number and so much more please take the time to make sure all the pages at Delta are current, complete, correct and up to date.

4) CrossoverRewards & Skybonus. The horrid train wreck that is Skymiles2015 is on the way. 96% of us are going to earn MUCH less (unless they smarten up and fix things). So, it is your own fault if you don’t sign up for CrossoverRewards and enjoy those extra perks (if you qualify) and the same goes for Skybonus if you have a business and spend at least $5000 per year total for you and your employees who will be on YOUR Skybonus account.

5) Check your credit report (no charge, not an affiliate link). I know, I know it is such a pain. Just do this. Do me a favor right now. Just put a reoccurring reminder every 4 months in your phone to ping you to check one of the 3 every 4 months. Takes like 5 minuets of your life to download and check and read over the report and maybe see something that could change your life that is if someone is applying for credit or such using your info. Even if just something small is wrong it could affect your ability to get points cards every 91+ days or so.

6) Get a KLM Flying Blue account / number. Go now and sign up for a free account. I just always do this and not just for Delta. If I am already on a business class or higher award ticket, why not put in a partner frequent flyer’s number into the account. There are many times I get FB credit when flying a Delta business class award ticket. Same goes for other airlines. Just find a program you like and input that number for that trip before or when you check in.

7) Sign up for Twitter. You may say I don’t tweet. Sigh, you should and just do it. If for no other reason than for @DeltaAssist when you need it. You will thank me when you need it and they are there to help. Same goes for other Skyteam partners KLM & AF. Their twitter support, as of late, really is very good. You are only hurting YOU if you don’t do this. Oh and follow DeltaPoints and DeltaMileageRun when you are opening the new account!

8) Sign up for DeltaPoints via e-mail once a day. There are almost 6,000 who get the once a day e-mail of the latest blog posts. I mean you should check the blog a few times a day as there are often deals that are dead by the time the e-mail goes out the next day but at least you can catch up on what you missed if you are an e-mail subscriber!

9) Call and request the free Chip-N-Signature Delta AMEX “Airline Travel card“. I have it for both of my Delta AMEX Reserve cards. They do work in both domestic and international card readers and will just spit out a receipt for you to sign. Now on automated machines you still can need a PIN code but there is no charge for this and it is smart to upgrade (I see no reason not to)!

10) Download the Delta Fly APP. They have the APP for all the major platforms and if you are not using it you are missing out. They keep updating it and it is slowly getting better and better. It is even a little fast booting for those of us who have maybe a dozen or more booked itineraries.

So there you are. I know this is a long list. I am sure NO ONE who reads Delta Points has to do all 10 of them anyway (if you do, shame on you)! So please take the time to make sure you are good to go on all of them. Have all these done, give yourself a kudos and shout out in the comments. Heck, why not shame yourself and tell us how many you still have to do 🙂 – René
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Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer.

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