Hilton kicked off 2018 by introducing a new ultra-premium credit card: Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card.  And, in August, the newly combined Marriott / SPG (Starwood) program will offer their own ultra-premium card: Starwood Preferred Guest® American Express Luxury Card.  Since Marriott, Starwood, and Ritz will become one program in August, the Starwood card really represents all three brands despite its name.

Hilton Aspire vs. SPG Lux

We don’t yet know what kind of welcome bonus will be offered for the Starwood card, so we can’t yet compare cards in that way, but we do know enough about the card features to compare the Hilton Aspire and SPG Lux cards side by side. Which card is better?  Let’s take a look…

Annual Fee

No difference: $450 per year.

Rebates

Those who are certain to stay at a Hilton resort at least once per year and are certain to take advantage of the airline fee credits will come out ahead with the Hilton Aspire card.  If you maximize the credits, the combined $500 will more than offset the card’s $450 annual fee.

That said, the $300 in SPG stay credits are much easier to get since you’ll get reimbursed up to $300 per year for room charges at any Marriott or Starwood property worldwide.

Even though the Hilton card has a bigger upside, the SPG card’s credits are easier to get.

Verdict: Most will be better off with SPG Lux, but some will do much better with Hilton. SPG’s $300 in credits will be easier for most cardholders to max out than Hilton’s $250 resort credit and Hilton’s $250 airline fee credit. On the other hand, if you are able to max out the Hilton credits, the Hilton Aspire obviously is a much better deal.

Free Nights

The Hilton Aspire’s free night is great because it can be used at nearly any Hilton worldwide. Plus, the free night award is offered when you first sign up for the card, and each year thereafter.  The SPG Lux card only begins to offer the free night upon renewal.  I don’t ascribe value to the Hilton Aspire’s extra free night with $60K spend because I believe there are many more rewarding options for your spend.

The SPG Lux free night is good any day of the week.  And while the 50K certificate won’t get you into the most expensive hotels worldwide, it will get you into some very nice properties.

Verdict:  I slightly prefer the SPG Lux, but some will do much better with Hilton. The Hilton free night is theoretically worth much more, but that’s contingent upon a travel schedule that places you in an otherwise very high end Hilton on a weekend night.  The SPG free night is more practical since it isn’t limited to a weekend.

Elite Status

Hilton Aspire: Automatic Hilton Diamond status (top tier): Lounge access, free breakfast, room upgrades, late checkout, etc.

SPG Lux:

• Automatic Gold Elite status: 2pm late checkout, room upgrades, welcome gift (points only)
• Platinum status with $75K calendar year spend: Lounge access, free breakfast, room upgrades, 4pm late checkout

Verdict: Hilton Aspire wins this one in a landslide.

Point Earning from Spend

Using our current Reasonable Redemption Values (RRVs), we can see which card is more rewarding for spend.  At the time of this writing, Hilton points are valued at 0.45 cents each, and Marriott points (the closest thing we have to future SPG rewards points) are valued at 0.72 cents each.

The SPG card has a very small edge on base spend, but neither card is very good for this.  For all category bonus spend, though, the Hilton card is much better than the SPG card.  That said, other than spend at Hilton properties, you can do better with other cards.

Verdict: Hilton Aspire wins again, but neither card is particularly compelling for spend other than at hotel properties.

Perks

The perks offered by these cards are quite similar.  They offer the same lounge access, and both have no foreign transaction fees.  The Hilton Aspire additionally offers a way to get a $100 stay credit at Waldorf and Conrad hotels, and roadside assistance.  And the SPG Lux card throws in Boingo Wifi.

Verdict: Hilton Aspire by a nose.  I don’t think the differences between the card perks ought to be enough to sway anyone one way or another.

Big picture

Pound for pound the Hilton Aspire appears to be the better card.  It offers up to $500 in statement credits per year, top-tier Diamond status, and a free weekend night valid for almost any Hilton property worldwide.  The problem is that only those with specific travel habits can fully maximize these perks.  You must have the opportunity to use your free night on a weekend.  And, you must stay every year at a Hilton resort to make use of the $250 in resort credits.

The SPG Lux card has lesser benefits, but they’re easier to use.  The Lux card’s free night is good any day of the week.  And the card’s $300 rebate can be triggered with spend at any SPG or Marriott hotel, not just resort properties.  The Achilles heel of this card, in my mind, is the fact that only Gold status is automatic, and that level of status doesn’t get you much.  You need to spend $75K each year with the card in order to get hotel lounge access, for example.

Verdict: Hilton Aspire is, in my opinion, the better all-around ultra-premium hotel card.

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Amex continues to roll out one great Amex Offer after another.  Many offers, like the Sam’s Club “Spend $30+, Get $15 back“, are for consumer cards only.  And they’re targeted.  That means that they are available to some people, but not others.  They are even targeted within individuals.  For example (for those with multiple Amex cards), you’ll frequently find an offer available on some of your Amex cards, but not all.

In my case, my wife had the offer on a few cards, but I didn’t have it on any.  Still, I could load the offer to each of my wife’s targeted cards, buy a $30 gift card online, and get 50% back.  That’s an awesome deal… but only if you have it available on enough cards to be worth your time.

Another great consumer offer was the recent Amazon.com offer: Spend 50+, Get 2,000 Membership Rewards points. I had this offer on 5 cards, so I used each one to load $50 to my Amazon.com account.  Boom. 10,000 points with virtually no work at all.

Then there’s the recent Hilton Spend $100 or more on Hilton gift cards, Get $20 back offer.  For those who stay at Hilton properties often, this is a great way to pre-pay and save nearly 20%.

Many similar terrific offers are available now, and will continue to appear on Amex’s unpredictable schedule.  Don’t forget that one great way to see which offers are available now, and those that were available in the past is via our Current Offers Page:

View Current Amex Offers here

Business Offers Reloaded

Until recently, Amex offered business cardholders automatic rebates at certain merchants (HP, Fedex, etc.) via their OPEN Savings program.  Now that OPEN Savings is dead, Amex has introduced something arguably better: Do More Business.  DMB may be a dumb name, but it’s awesome in that it has meant the appearance of new and terrific Amex Offers.

With each business card in which you register for these offers, you can get 10% back on up to $1,000 spend (or up to $15,000 spend with Dell). I particularly like the Lowe’s and Staples offers since both stores offer a wide variety of gift cards in-store, and Staples has a decent selection online.

While most traditional Amex Offers lead to bigger percentage rebates when you spend the exact amount required to trigger the offer, they’re often capped at much lower spend amounts.  For example, a typical offer would be Spend $100 or more and Get $20 Back.  With those offers you could get 20% back with exactly $100 spend, but they’re difficult to scale up without lots of credit cards.

Of course, sometimes an offer comes along that is so good that it makes you consider signing up for expensive internet just for the points:

Sadly, the offer above doesn’t seem to get triggered when you use it to pay your personal AT&T bill.

How to get targeted

Every time we publish details about a great Amex Offer, people ask why they weren’t targeted. Or, they ask, “How can I get targeted in the future?”

We don’t know the secret sauce Amex uses to target people or cards, but there are several things you can do to greatly increase your chances.

1. Get every type of Amex card

Amex treats consumer cards and small business cards very differently. They also treat cards that earn Membership Rewards points differently from those that earn other types of rewards. Frequently offers are available for one type, but not another.

The new Do More Business offers are only available for business cards.  This is true of many great targeted offers as well.  For example, in the past we saw a Spend $50, Get $10 OfficeMax offer that was targeted only to Amex business cards. And, while less common, we occasionally see offers that are available only to business Membership Rewards cards.

Similarly, there have been many offers targeted only to Membership Rewards cards (consumer or business). Often these offers take the form of bonus Membership Rewards points per dollar spent.

It’s possible, or even likely, that there are additional types of Amex cards that are uniquely targeted to offers, but at the least I’d argue that it makes sense to have at least one of each of these:

• Consumer Membership Rewards cards.
  • Options with no annual fee include: Amex EveryDay, Morgan Stanley Credit Card
• Consumer Non-Membership-Rewards cards.
  • Options with no annual fee include: Hilton Honors, Blue Cash EveryDay
• Business Membership Rewards cards
  • Options with no annual fee include: Blue Business Plus
• Business Non-Membership-Rewards cards
  • Options with no annual fee include: SimplyCash Plus

Above, I listed only Amex cards with no annual fees, but there are many excellent cards with fees too. See our Best Offers page for details. Note too that Amex limits cardholders to 5 primary credit card accounts. Charge cards (such as Amex Platinum cards, Premier Rewards Gold, Business Gold Rewards, etc.) are not similarly restricted, but as far as I know they all have annual fees.

2. Get more Amex cards

You don’t have to get new Amex accounts in order to get additional Amex cards. With Amex, every authorized user card has its own card number and is independently eligible for Amex Offers. With most Amex card accounts you can add authorized user cards for free. Even Platinum cardholders can request up to 99 authorized user Gold Cards for no additional fee.

It’s not a good idea to add dozens of authorized users to each card (see: Amex financial review from adding authorized users), but adding a few users to each account ought to be safe.

3. Enroll in Amex Offers quickly

The best Amex Offers have limited enrollment. If you don’t add the offers to your account in time, you may lose out. These offers can appear at any time, so your best bet is to check your account daily and/or subscribe to blogs like this one so that you’ll be alerted when desirable new offers have been spotted.

You can also subscribe to the comments on our Current Amex Offers Page.  When we find new offers, we add a comment to this page saying so.

4. Consider creating separate online accounts for each card

Once you add an offer to a card, you cannot add it to any other Amex card within the same online account unless you first do the multi-tab trick (open every card account in a separate tab and then proceed to add the offer to each card).

Amex sometimes rolls out offers over time. At any given time, you may see an offer on just one of your cards, but if you’re patient it may show up on other cards later (hours or days later). The problem is that if you already added the offer to the first card, it won’t show up on any other cards within the same account. One solution is to setup a separate online account for every card.

Personally, I think it would be more work than it’s worth to setup and monitor so many online accounts, so I don’t do this. But, if maximizing Amex Offer opportunities is your primary goal, you may want to consider it.

Note: There is an alternative to setting up separate log-in accounts. If you added an offer to one card and want to get that offer on other cards, you can remove the first card from your online account. Then, when you log-in again, the offer may be present on your other cards. After adding the offer to your other cards, you can add the original card back to your account.

Summary

Amex Offers can be amazingly lucrative. To maximize your chances of getting in on all of the best offers, you should:

1. Get every type of Amex card (Membership Rewards vs. others, Consumer vs. Business)
2. Get more Amex cards (via authorized user and employee cards)
3. Enroll quickly, before the best offers disappear

For additional details about Amex Offers, please see: Complete guide to Amex Offers.

The post Awesome Amex Offers and how to get them appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Last week, it was widely reported that Amex had added more restrictive language to its applications regarding eligibility for the welcome bonus (See: Amex launches a sneak attack in the war on gaming), stating that an applicant may be denied the bonus based on the number of American Express cards they have opened and closed and their history with bonus offers. We wondered whether you would have any way to know your eligibility status before meeting the minimum spending requirements (and Greg wrote his analysis: Estimating risk in Amex’s new rule). We now have an answer: Amex will tell you that you are not eligible for the welcome bonus before you finish submitting the application. JT Genter at The Points Guy reports applying for the Platinum card, which he has had in the past, and receiving a pop-up with the following language:

John, because you have or have had The Platinum Card, you are not eligible to receive the welcome offer.

We have not yet performed a credit check. Would you like to proceed?

There are then buttons to either continue with the application or cancel the application. The option to cancel is said to withdraw the application, though JT reports still receiving an email from Amex stating that his application was under review (despite the fact that he had canceled it). It is possible that the system is not yet perfected.

A similar pop-up is being reported for those who have opened “too many” Amex cards. If that is the case and Amex intends to deny the welcome offer, the following text appears in the pop-up:

[Name], based on your history with American Express welcome offers, or the number of cards you have opened and closed, you are not elgibile to receive this welcome offer.

We have not performed a credit check. Would you still like to proceed?

We still don’t know how many is too many, but this new tool should provide much-needed clarity in terms of knowing where you stand before you even submit your application. That’s a welcome change compared to the thought of applying and spending on the card while wondering whether or not the expected welcome bonus would arrive.

Further, this should add concrete clarity when applying for targeted offers absent the lifetime language and/or when you aren’t sure if you have had a card before or are applying after not having a particular card for many years — you should now know whether or not Amex’s computer identifies you as being eligible for the welcome bonus or not based on whether or not you receicve this pop-up.

It will be interesting to see how reliably this pop-up works and how widely applied the “based on your history with American Express” pop-up is reported. Hopefully, we can piece together rough guidelines based on who sees the new pop-up about having opened and closed too many cards. If you receive the second pop-up (about not being eligible due to your history with American Express), feel free to add your data point in the comments. I’d suggest including the number of Amex cards you have opened and closed in the past year as a starting point in trying to determine a rule.

H/T: The Points Guy

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Some people are reporting receiving a targeted offer upon login to their online accounts to earn 75,000 Membership Rewards points as a new card member welcome bonus after making $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months with a new Business Rewards Gold card.

The Deal

• Some are receiving the following targeted welcome bonus offer for the Business Rewards Gold card from American Express: Earn 75,000 Membership Rewards points after $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months
• Those targeted are reporting the ad at the top of the page when logging into their Amex accounts

Key Card Details

Quick Thoughts

This is a great offer if you can get it. As Sam at Milenomics notes, those thinking long-term can also consider the chance that you could see an upgrade offer for the Business Platinum card down the road. For example, I opened my Business Gold Rewards card under a similar offer a few years ago. A few months later, despite already holding a Business Platinum card, I received an offer to upgrade my Business Gold Rewards card that did not have lifetime language. While you certainly can’t count on an upgrade offer, it can be a nice way to stack a couple of good offers if it happens.

Speaking of lifetime language, be sure to check your offer terms as you may be excluded from earning the intro offer if you have or have had this card before. Also, while we recently reported that there is a new qualification tool that pops up to let you know when you are not eligible to earn the welcome bonus (See: Answered: Amex will tell you in advance if you’re not eligible for welcome bonus), reports are that this tool is only working for consumer cards, not yet for business cards like this one.

If you are targeted, this is the best offer on this card in recent memory — it’s certainly worth consideration if you are eligible. Thanks to a great list of Amex Transfer partners, you have a lot of good options for redeeming awards if you are looking to turn these points into premium cabin travel.

H/T: Milenomics

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When Amex announced that their Hilton Surpass card would be renamed to “Hilton Honors Ascend Card from American Express”, I speculated that it might be possible to get a new welcome bonus on the Ascend as long as you closed your Surpass card before the transition.  Amex representatives, though, unanimously rejected the idea.  The company line was that the Ascend was not a new product.  Therefore, current and past Surpass cardholders would not be eligible for a welcome bonus.

Early evidence supported the company line.  As I reported in the post “Hilton Conversion Questions Answered: New Ascend bonus? 5/24 effect?,” no one who had applied for the Ascend after having had the Surpass in past had reported success getting a welcome bonus.

Since then, two key things have changed:

1. Two readers have reported success getting the welcome bonus, even though they had the Surpass in the past.  Both had cancelled their Surpass cards well before the Ascend name was announced.  One cancelled in 2016.  The other cancelled March 2017.
2. Amex will now warn you during the application process if you’re not eligible for the welcome bonus.  This is key because it means that there is no risk to trying.  If you cancelled your Surpass card before it turned into the Ascend card, you might have a shot at the welcome bonus.

But, should you go for it?

As I write this, there are four distinct Hilton cards available and each has a welcome bonus in the 75K to 125K range.  That means that it is theoretically possible to rack up around 400K points through bonuses alone.  And a couple could theoretically double that.  Since Hilton now allows point pooling, it would be easy to put all 800,000 points together.  That’s pretty insane.

On the other hand, there are plenty of reasons not to go for it:

1. Except for the business card, each Hilton card will add to your 5/24 count.  This will make it harder to get approved for Chase cards in the future (details here).
2. You will have to meet each card’s minimum spend requirements to earn the welcome bonus.  And, remember that in some cases Amex has started enforcing rules restricting which types of purchases count.  Keep in mind, though, that our Manufactured Spending Complete Guide lists techniques that are safe for meeting Amex minimum spend.
3. Amex often (but not always) enforces an unwritten limit of 5 credit cards that each person can have (you can have many more charge cards though).  And since the Hilton cards are credit cards they will each take up a precious slot that you might want to use for other Amex credit card.
4. Hilton points aren’t the most valuable currency out there.  Our Reasonable Redemption Values (RRVs) currently pegs Hilton points at only 0.45 cents each.  So, while a 100K welcome bonus sounds amazing, it’s good to keep in mind that an average use of those points would be worth about $450.  That’s still very good, but pales in comparison to the top offers available.  See: Top 10+ Credit Card Offers.

Below you’ll find summary information about each Hilton card.  Click the card’s name to go to a Frequent Miler page with more detailed information.

Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card     ➥More   ⓘ $551 1st Year Estimate 100K points 100K after $4K spend in 3 months. $450 Annual Fee     Info about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Recent better offer: None. Card is new as of 1/18/18     FM Mini Review: This card is loaded with valuable perks that are more than worth the card's annual fee if you stay in Hilton resorts at least once per year, and other Hilton properties a few times a year.. Card Type: Amex Credit Card Earning rate: ⚬ 14X Hilton spend ⚬ 7X US restaurants, flights booked directly with airlines or amextravel.com, select car rental companies ⚬ 3X everywhere else ⚬ Terms & Limitations Apply. Big spend bonus: Second free weekend night after $60K spend in calendar year Noteworthy perks: ⚬Annual Weekend Night Reward upon signup and every year upon renewal ⚬ Free Diamond Status ⚬ Priority Pass w/ 2 free guests ⚬ $250 Hilton Resort Credit per membership year ⚬ $250 Airline Incidental Fee Credit per calendar year ⚬ $100 on-property credit w/ Aspire Card package ⚬ Terms Apply. See Rates & Fees See also: Amex Hilton Aspire In-Depth Review

Hilton Honors Ascend Card from American Express     ➥More   ⓘ $306 1st Year Estimate 100K points 100K after $3K spend in 3 months plus a free weekend night after first anniversary. Offer expires 6/27/18. Terms apply. $95 Annual Fee     Recent better offer: Surpass card: 125K after $4K total spend (Expired 12/17)     FM Mini Review: Easy way to secure Hilton Gold status (which offers free breakfast among other perks). Those who want Diamond status may be better off with the Aspire card. Card Type: Amex Credit Card Earning rate: ⚬ 12X Hilton spend ⚬ 6X U.S. restaurants, US Supermarkets, and US gas stations ⚬ 3X everywhere else Big spend bonus: ⚬ Free weekend night after $15K spend in calendar year ⚬ Diamond elite status with $40K calendar year spend ⚬ Terms apply Noteworthy perks: ⚬Free Gold status. Diamond status w/ $40K spend. ⚬ 10 free Priority Pass lounge visits per calendar year ⚬ Terms Apply. See Rates & Fees See also: Hilton Amex Cards. Everything you need to know.

Hilton Honors American Express Business Card     ➥More   ⓘ $385 1st Year Estimate 125K points 125K after $5K spend in 3 months $95 Annual Fee     Recent better offer: None. Card is new as of 1/18/18     FM Mini Review: Easy way to secure Hilton Gold status (which offers free breakfast among other perks). Amex business cards do not count towards 5/24 status so will not hurt chances of applying for Chase cards. Card Type: Amex Credit Card Earning rate: ⚬ 12X Hilton spend ⚬ 6X on Select Business &Travel Purchases ⚬ 3X everywhere else Big spend bonus: Free weekend night after $15K spend in calendar year and another after $60K spend Diamond elite status with $40K calendar year spend Noteworthy perks: ⚬ Free Gold status. Diamond status w/ $40K spend. ⚬ 10 free Priority Pass lounge visits per calendar year ⚬ Terms Apply. See Rates & Fees See also: Hilton Amex Cards. Everything you need to know.

Hilton Honors Card from American Express     ➥More   ⓘ $321 1st Year Estimate 75K points 75K after $1K spend in 3 months $0 Annual Fee     Alternate offer: You may find the same offer, but with a $50 statement credit if you go through the steps of booking a Hilton hotel. Recent better offer: 80K after $2K spend in 3 months (Expired 5/31/17)     FM Mini Review: This card isn't particularly rewarding, but it's good to keep primarily for targeted Amex upgrade offers to the Ascend card. Card Type: Amex Credit Card Earning rate: ⚬ 7X Hilton spend ⚬ 5X US restaurants, US Supermarkets, and US gas stations ⚬ 3X everywhere else Big spend bonus: Gold elite status with $20K calendar year spend Noteworthy perks: ⚬ Free Silver status; Gold status with $20K spend. ⚬ Terms Apply. See Rates & Fees See also: Hilton Amex Cards. Everything you need to know.

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Barclays has added a new transfer partner for the Arrival Premier: Aeroplan. This is an interesting addition, and probably not in the way that Barclays would have hoped. Considering the fact that Aeroplan will cease to be the loyalty program of Air Canada in 2020, and there are cards that earn more Aeroplan miles with a lower fee on the market, adding Aeroplan as a transfer partner isn’t much of an improvement. However, on the bright side, it’s at least great to see Barclays adding to the stable of transfer partners pretty early on.

The Deal

• Barclays has added Aeroplan as a transfer partner of the Arrival Plus. The transfer ratio is 1.7 Arrival “miles” to 1 Aeroplan mile (same as JAL)

Quick Thoughts

As a reminder, here are the current airline transfer partners/ratios:

• Aeromexico
• Air France/KLM Flying Blue
• China Eastern
• Etihad
• EVA Air
• Japan Airlines (JAL)
• Jet Airways
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• + Aeroplan

Transfer ratio (for all except JAL & Aeroplan): 1.4 Arrival miles to 1 airline mile

• At 2X earnings, this means earning 1.43 airline miles per dollar
• At 3X earnings (spend exactly $15K or $25K per year), this means earning 2.14 airline miles per dollar

Transfer ratio for Japan Airlines (JAL) and Aeroplan: 1.7 Arrival miles to 1 airline mile

• At 2X earnings, this means earning 1.17 JAL / Aeroplan miles per dollar
• At 3X earnings (spend exactly $15K or $25K per year), this means earning 1.76 JAL / Aeroplan miles per dollar

That’s not as bad as it sounds since you’re earning between 1.17-1.76 airline miles per dollar everywhere if you spend at least $15K per year on the card. I’ve done a post before on how the Arrival Premier is actually the best card on the market for earning JAL miles (despite the fact that you might initially think the SPG card is better, at least before August, it’s not better for earning JAL miles). See: Was I crazy in saying that the Arrival Premier can be interesting?

However, it’s not good, either. Since unlike JAL, Aeroplan is also a transfer partner of Amex Membership Rewards, there are a lot more cards on the market that can earn Aeroplan miles. In fact, you could earn 2x Membership Rewards points everywhere on your first $50K in purchases each year with the Blue Business Plus card (which has no annual fee) and those points transfer 1:1 to Aeroplan. There are even occasional 25-35% transfer bonuses from Membership Rewards that would bump up your earnings. Using the Arrival Premier with an aim toward earning Aeroplan miles just doesn’t make sense in comparison unless you will max out the $50K spend on the Blue Business Plus.

Also keep in mind that as noted above, Air Canada’s agreement with Aeroplan will end in 2020. At that point, the value of Aeroplan miles is expected to plummet. If you’re interested in Aeroplan miles, they aren’t really a long game at this point, rather you would want them now or in the near future — whereas the Arrival Premier’s structure (no welcome bonus, instead rewarding ongoing use) is designed for the long game.

Bottom line

It’s great to see Barclays trying to add some value to the Arrival Premier, I just wish they’d have done it with a transfer partner with more long-term potential and/or a more favorable transfer ratio. As it stands, it’s not bad to have one more option — but it’s not a partucularly good option when you can earn more miles (for less of a fee) with other cards.

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Are we about to lose our beloved Ink Cash 5X categories?  Via Twitter, a reader asked what’s up with Ink Cash:

@FrequentMiler what’s up with Ink Cash 3x categories rather than the 5x/2x? https://t.co/shNlcMbbaJ

— Jay P (@JayP76828046) June 24, 2018

He was referring to the fact that this Chase’s cardholder information page for the card shows 3% cash back categories rather than 5% and 2%.  

Here’s a comparison of the current 5X version of the card, and the old 3X version:

Note that the bonus information for the 3X version comes from a details page link at the bottom of Chase’s page.  The relevant text is as follows:

3% Cash Back: You’ll earn 3% Cash Back rewards total for each $1 of the first $2,000 spent each billing cycle on combined purchases in the following rewards categories: office supply stores; home improvement stores; gas stations; restaurants (2% additional Cash Back rewards on top of the 1% Cash Back rewards earned on each purchase). This equates to $0.03 in Cash Back rewards, which is equal to 3 points, for each $1 spent. After $2,000 is spent on combined purchases in these categories each billing cycle, you go back to earning 1% Cash Back rewards for every dollar spent, with no maximum. We may offer you ways to earn bonus points through the program or special promotions.

Recommendation

If you have the old 3X version of the Ink Cash card, you’ll likely do much better with the current 5X version.  Your best bet is to apply new so that you can take advantage of the Ink Cash welcome bonus (currently 50K points!).  If you don’t want to do that, you can call and ask to product change to the current Ink Cash.

You can read our analysis of the current 5X Ink Cash card, and find an application link, here.

The post [FALSE ALARM] Is Chase taking away our Ink Cash 5X categories? Answer: No appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Recently I decided to fork over $400 to US Bank in order to keep my Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite card for another year.  I did this despite the fact that I have and plan to keep both the $450 Sapphire Reserve Visa Infinite card, and a $400 CNB Crystal Visa Infinite card.  I keep the Sapphire Reserve card for its 3X rewards for travel & dining, and its best in class travel protections.  Plus the card’s annual $300 in travel reimbursements makes the $450 annual fee much easier to rationalize.  And I keep the CNB card because it offers a bunch of great perks as well as $250 in travel fee credits for my card and for each of my family’s 3 free authorized users cards (yes, we get $1,000 in travel fee reimbursements each year).  For more about the CNB card, see: Crystal Visa Infinite: The best card you can’t get.

The Altitude Reserve doesn’t have as much going for it as the Chase or CNB card, but you shouldn’t count it out.  The card’s $400 fee is largely offset by $325 in annual travel fee credits.  And, like the CNB card, it offers 12 free Gogo Wifi passes per year.  The card’s best feature is that it offers 3X rewards for travel and mobile wallet payments (i.e. Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, etc.).  And since each point is worth 1.5 cents towards travel, this card earns 4.5% in rewards for travel and mobile wallet payments.

Planning to cancel

I don’t usually use the Altitude card to pay for travel.  The Sapphire Reserve offers the same multiple for travel (3X), but it also offers much better trip protection.  And Chase’s Ultimate Rewards points are more flexible.  Like Altitude Reserve points, Ultimate Rewards points can be used for 1.5 cents each towards travel.  Unlike the Altitude Reserve, Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to a hotel or airline partner where it is often possible to get much more value.

I do use the Altitude Reserve for mobile wallet payments to earn 3X rewards, but in the previous 12 months I didn’t use that feature nearly often enough to justify the net $75 annual fee ($400 minus $325 in travel credits).  If you consider that I usually use Apple Pay in places where I’d otherwise earn 1.5 points per dollar with my Freedom Unlimited card, it’s easy to see that the Altitude Reserve, when used with Apple Pay, offers 1.5 points per dollar more than I would have otherwise earned.  And, since points are worth 1.5 cents each towards travel, I essentially earn 1.5 x 1.5 = 2.25 cents per dollar extra with the Altitude / Apple Pay combination.  To justify the card’s net $75 annual fee, I would have to spend $75 / $0.0225 = $3,333.3 just to break even.  And I’d have to use Apple Pay much more than that to make it seem like a deal to keep the card.

So, when adding up the costs and benefits of the card I made the rational decision to cancel it when the annual fee came due.

Things Change…

Ever since I discovered how much better it is to use Apple Pay rather than a credit card in Europe, I’ve made a habit of using it as often as possible when I travel (see: A simple Chip & PIN solution for US tourists).  That helped increase my Altitude Reserve 3X earnings.

Then, more recently I discovered that the veterinary office we take our dog and two cats to accepts Apple Pay.  The veterinarians clearly want me to keep my Altitude card, so they help out by charging big bucks.  With dental work and other treatments on the horizon, my Altitude card may just pay for itself after all.

And then came Real Time Mobile Rewards.  Or, more specifically, then came the ability to get 1.5 cents value for travel purchases with real time mobile rewards.  Once you opt in to this feature and make a qualifying purchase, you get a text message asking if you’d like to redeem points to cover that purchase.  When you do so, US Bank removes the given number of points from your rewards account and credits the appropriate dollar amount to your statement.  You can use this feature to pay with points for travel purchases, including Lyft, Uber, and even Uber Eats (food delivery service).

My Lyft ride cost $39.38. By paying with my Altitude Reserve card which was enrolled in Real-Time Mobile Rewards, I was able to wipe out that charge in exchange for only 2,625 points.

I love this feature!   Where else can you get Uber and Lyft rides for free with points at 1.5 cents per point value?  Even better, these charges also qualify for the card’s annual travel reimbursements.  It’s also worth noting that this feature works with the purchase authorization amount rather than the final processed amount.  This is meaningful because sometimes you can redeem more rewards at 1.5 cents each than you actually ended up paying.  For example, hotels routinely pre-authorize extra to cover potential in-room charges.  You can use points to reimburse the entire pre-authorized amount rather than the final check-out amount.

Real-Time Mobile Rewards isn’t perfect.  In most cases, your purchase must be at least $10, so you can’t use this feature with very cheap Uber rides.  Worse, the minimum purchase amount for car rentals is $250, and $500 for hotels.  Plus, the feature only works with US merchants (except occasionally when it works with others).  The worst part is that it’s completely unclear when it will or won’t work.  To help with that, please see:  US Bank Real-Time Mobile Rewards. What works where?  Still, despite all the caveats, I love being able to wipe out certain travel purchases with this feature.

An irrational decision

It’s unlikely that I’ll earn enough extra rewards with the Altitude card to make it a good deal to keep the card.  To consider it a good deal, I’d have to come out ahead by much more than the card’s net annual fee.  At best, though, I’m likely to break even.

But, we’re not talking big bucks here.  I’ll easily earn the card’s $325 in travel credits, so my net cost is closer to $75 before considering the extra rewards earned via Apple Pay.

For whatever reason, I’m enamored with Real-Time Mobile Rewards.  If Chase decides to mimic this feature then I’ll say goodbye to the Altitude card.  But, for now, I’m OK with making a financially irrational decision when the stakes are low in exchange for the Joy of Free.

I wrote about the Joy of Free in the post “Impossible point valuations and the joy of free”:

When you book travel using miles & points, it may feel like your trip is free (or nearly free), regardless of how many miles and points you spend.  If so, the pleasure you get from spending points and miles may greatly outweigh the pleasure you’d get from paying for the same trip with cash.  In this case, miles & points are arguably (and ironically) worth more to you because you do not value them like cash.

And in my post “Rationality is overrated,” I explained that it’s often OK to make poor financial decisions in exchange for joy.  I concluded, “if your finances are sound, maybe its OK to follow your heart even if your wallet complains.”  With the Altitude Reserve, I’m following my own advice.

The post Keeping my Altitude Reserve appeared first on Frequent Miler.

American Express has announced that a new benefit will be added to the personal Platinum card from July 1, 2018 – a $100 credit each year for Saks Fifth Avenue.

You’ll get $50 to spend from January to June each year and then a further $50 from July to December. That makes the benefit slightly more complicated to keep track of, but it’s a nice little addition.

Similar to the monthly Uber credit, the Saks Fifth Avenue credit will only be available on the personal Platinum card. The business Platinum misses out on the love again, although the business version of the card has a lower annual fee which is presumably why it didn’t get this additional benefit. Similar to the airline fee credit, you’ll have to register here for this benefit first (registration opens on July 1).

I’ve never shopped at Saks other than for gift cards when there’s an Amex Offer, so I’ve no idea how far $50 will get you every six months. If nothing else, it should be possible to simply purchase a $50 Saks gift card twice a year. You could then stock up on these $50 credits until you have enough for something you have your eye on, or you could resell the card for 75%+, making this benefit worth at least $75 in cash each year.

This new benefit makes it harder to decide whether to keep my wife’s Platinum card for another year. Her first annual fee’s due to hit in a few months (she has the Ameriprise Platinum card which has no annual fee the first year), so I’d been figuring we’d cancel or downgrade the card.

$550 is a steep fee, but with the $200 airline credit, $200 in Uber credit (which we use for Uber Eats each month) and now this new $100 benefit, the value proposition’s changed. Those credits still don’t total $550 even if you value them at 100% (which I don’t), but the other benefits can make it worthwhile. We’ve been able to access Centurion lounges and Delta Sky Clubs a few times this past year thanks to the Platinum card, so this Saks benefit might tilt things in the card’s favor when it comes to decide whether or not to keep it Either way, we’ll be able to take advantage of the benefit once before the end of the year as it starts in a few days.

h/t Doctor of Credit

The post American Express Platinum Personal Card To Add Saks Fifth Avenue Benefit appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Chase and Hyatt have announced a brand new World of Hyatt Credit Card has been launched effective today. The card features a lot of changes compared to the old Hyatt Credit Card, most notably a path to spend to Globalist status that looks pretty good, not to mention a terrific signup bonus. Read on for card details and how to get elite status through spend.

The Offer

• Earn 60,000 Hyatt points: earn 40,000 points after you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months plus an additional 20,000 points after you spend $6,000 total in the first 6 months
• Find more information and a link on our World of Hyatt Credit Card page

Key Card Details

• $95 annual fee
• Get one free night at any Hyatt Category 1-4 property each year after account anniversary
• Get one additional free night at any Category 1-4 Hyatt if you spend $15,000 during your cardmember anniversary year
• Earn 4x at Hyatt hotels (including participating restaurants and spas)
• Earn 2x  on local transit and commuting, including taxis, mass transit, tolls and ride-share services
• Earn 2x at restaurants, cafes, and coffee shops
• Earn 2x on airline tickets purchased directly from an airline
• Earn 2x on fitness clubs and gym memberships
• Earn 1x everywhere else
• Get automatic Discoverist status with the card
• Get 5 elite qualifying night credits toward elite status each year
• Earn 2 additional elite qualifying night credits for each $5,000 you spend on the card

Analysis

The short version of the story here is that this card refresh adds a ton of value to the World of Hyatt Credit Card.

A more detailed analysis of changes and additions follows.

Annual fee increase

Let’s get the main negative point out of the way first: the annual fee is increasing – going from $75 for the old Hyatt Credit Card to $95 on the new card. Current cardholders will be given an opportunity to upgrade to the new card (getting 2,000 points if they are approved for an upgrade). Alternatively, they will be able to keep the $75 classic Hyatt Credit Card if they prefer. That said, I think that most people who found the previous card worth keeping will likely find the $20 increase worth the price of admission.

Speaking of current cardholders….

Current card members are not eligible to apply

Similar to the language added to Chase Sapphire applications last year, Chase is limiting customers to one or the other in terms of Hyatt cards. If you currently have a Chase Hyatt credit card, you will have to either upgrade or close it. The terms clearly state that you will not be eligible to have both cards, nor can you earn the new cardmember bonus if you’ve gotten one in the last two years on a Hyatt credit card:

Earn up to 60,000 Bonus Points: The product is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of any Hyatt Credit Card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of any Hyatt Credit Card who received a new Cardmember bonus within the last 24 months

That’s disappointing for those who were hoping to stack an additional Cat 1-4 free night certificate and those who received a signup bonus on the Hyatt card within the past 24 months. The good news is that, as noted above, those members who currently have the card open should have an opportunity to upgrade to the new card and receive 2,000 points. That certainly doesn’t hold a candle to earning the new cardmember bonus, but it likely beats waiting if you recently opened your Hyatt card account.

Now on to the positives:

Awesome new member bonus: 60K = 2 free top-tier nights or 15 Cat 1 nights

The signup bonus on this card trumps the previous best bonus — which had been 2 free nights at any Hyatt hotel in the world (that offer expired last year). The new 60,000-point bonus is far superior in my opinion for several reasons:

• Points are more flexible (you can use these points for 2 nights at a top-tier Park Hyatt or for more than 2-weeks at Cat 1 hotels or any combo in the middle)
• Points don’t expire as long as you have account activity, whereas certificates expire (typically after 1 year). That applies pressure to use the certificates for max value before they are gone, which inevitably pushes some into analysis paralysis and a suboptimal redemption when the clock runs out and the certs are unused.
• Award nights count toward status in the new World of Hyatt program, giving you the ability to split up this bonus to pick up some extra elite-qualifying nights.

I had an amazing stay at the Park Hyatt New York last year, where the Globalist Tier Suite Upgrade I used on an award stay scored me an amazing suite. Two nights at a place like this would be a great signup bonus.

That said, I got the most massive suite I’ve ever seen when I used another Tier Suite Upgrade at the Park Hyatt Mallorca. Pictured below is my suite’s private patio, which extended from where I’m standing (outside of my bathroom) all the way to that archway in the distance (outside of my dining room — that sitting area was also mine). I’d be happy to use the 60K signup bonus to spend three nights here since this hotel charges 20K per night, especially if I had a suite upgrade award to use again.

The patio of my suite at the Park Hyatt Mallorca

But the flexibility of the points makes for the opportunity to stretch longer stays out of the bonus as well. For example, I spent about a week at the Hyatt Regency Saipan a couple of years ago. Room rates are regularly north of $250 per night, with club rooms often north of $350 per night on this small island in Micronesia with a fascinating history and some gorgeous snorkeling. The 60K bonus on the Hyatt Credit Card would be enough for seven free nights in paradise as a regular room costs 8K per night (or spend 5 nights in a club room at 12K per night if you have neither Globalist status nor Explorist status with a club upgrade certificate).

Suffice it to say that I’m happy with the welcome bonus on this card.

Of course, those points come with some cost as you will have to spend $6,000 total in the first 6 months to receive the full bonus. On the flip side, that means you would actually have enough points for at least eight nights in Saipan after completing the spend, even if only on 1x purchases.

Bonus categories: not great, but not bad

While dining and travel are bonused categories on many rewards cards (including Chase Ultimate Rewards cards that out-earn the World of Hyatt card), the inclusion of fitness clubs and gym memberships as a bonus category is the first I’m aware of a rewards card tapping into the modern trend toward physical fitness.

While it may not offer huge earning potential, it’s a nice opportunity for some easy spend that may be reimbursable from your health insurance company.

Again, you can do better in the other bonus categories with other Chase credit cards, but you might be happy to earn 2x at some of them as you….

Spend your way to an extra free night

As with the current Hyatt Credit Card, you will get one free Category 1-4 night each year at anniversary. However, there is now the added benefit of an additional free night after you spend $15,000 in a card member year.  According to the terms on the application, that night will post within a couple weeks of meeting the spend:

After qualifying, please allow 2 to 3 weeks for the Free Night Award to be issued to your World of Hyatt account at worldofhyatt.com

That’s pretty cool in my opinion as it gives you a path to an extra free night during your first year. Whereas you’ll have to wait for your first anniversary to pass to get your anniversary Cat 1-4 free night, you could theoretically earn this free night based on spend much sooner. Some may actually prefer to wait it out until the end of their card member year. I assume that these free night certificates will be valid for 1 year from issuance. If you waited to meet the $15K spend until near the end of your first card member year and then met the $15K spend relatively early in the second year, you would get a total of 3 free night certificates in close proximity (one  free night for $15K spend in cardmember year 1, one anniversary free night, one free night for $15K spend in year 2).

That said, I don’t think I’d be able to hold off on meeting the spend since you can also…

Spend your way to status

One of the most interesting things about the new card is the strong assist it provides in reaching status. While the Discoverist status awarded to cardholders is largely meaningless, the card awards 5 elite nights toward status each year. In order to earn Globalist status, you would need to earn an additional 55 nights for the first year (and 50 nights to re-qualify).

This suite upgrade came at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne.

What’s more is that the card also earns 2 elite qualifying night credits every time you spend $5,000 on the card, with no limit to the number of elite qualifying nights you can earn this way. In other words, you can spend your way to Globalist status with the new World of Hyatt Credit Card. And I think that may be worthwhile.

But timing is everything here. Be aware that the terms state that it could take the rest of the calendar month in which you earn them plus eight more weeks for the nights to post, so you would want to meet this spend well ahead of the end of the year.

Please allow up to 8 weeks from the last day of the calendar month when you qualify, for World of Hyatt Tier-Qualifying Night credits to be added to your World of Hyatt account.

Analysis of spending to Globalist status

Since you receive credit for 5 nights off the bat with this new World of Hyatt Credit Card, you’ll need an additional 55 nights of elite credit to reach Globalist status. Since you earn elite nights in chunks of 2 based on $5K in spend, it would at first glance seem that you need to spend 28 x $5K (which actually gets you 56 nights), or $140,000. That’s a large chunk of spend.

You don’t really need to spend quite that much to reach status. But for a moment, let’s assume you spent $140,000 on your new World of Hyatt Credit Card. Assuming that all of the spend is done in 1x categories, you would get:

• 200K Hyatt points (60K signup bonus + 140K based on spend)
• 1 free Cat 1-4 night (for meeting the $15K spend requirement in year 1)

According to our Reasonable Redemption Values, that’s worth a median value of $3,480. Of course, the suite I showed above at the Park Hyatt Mallorca was going for north of $2,000 per night when I booked it, so you can certainly get more value out of your points.

But it gets better when you consider the fact that award and free night certificate stays count toward status. That’s significant because the points you earn from spend could alternatively be invested in earning additional elite qualifying nights.

Each $5K spend will earn you 2 elite qualifying nights plus at least 5K Hyatt points — enough for a free night at a Category 1 Hyatt. In other words, if you use the points for Category 1 nights, you can actually earn three qualifying nights with each $5K in spend. The downside here is that you would be instantly depleting your points. I don’t recommend you actually do this.

However, for the sake of exercise, let’s say that you spend in chunks of exactly $5K, all of your purchases are in the 1x category, and your goal is to reach Globalist status with as little spend as possible. Let’s assume you also put the signup bonus to use for Category 1 free nights in order to reach Globalist status. This isn’t necessarily the most intuitive way to think about it, but this is how my mind breaks down earning status:

 60 nights required for Globalist status
  –5 nights credit from holding the new World of Hyatt Credit Card
 55 nights to be earned
–12 nights from the signup bonus (60 spent for 12 nights at Cat 1)
 43 nights to be earned
  –1 night from annual free night based on $15K spend
42 nights to be earned

Since you’ll need 42 more nights based on spend, you’ll need to spend $5K exactly 14 times in order to earn Globalist status (of course, the first two times would need to happen in the first 6 months in order to earn the signup bonus). After that, each $5K in spend will earn you 2 nights credit (28 nights) plus the 5K points earned from that spend will get you one additional Cat 1 night (14 nights).

In simpler terms, a total of $70K spend can yield Globalist status. That number could be less if any of your spend is in bonus categories. Assuming all spend is in 1x categories, you would have a 0-point balance upon achieving Globalist (though you wouldn’t be totally empty-handed as you would receive one free Cat 1-7 certificate for reaching Globalist status).

Opportunity cost and re-qualification

This doesn’t come without cost. Specifically, there is a significant opportunity cost in putting that much spend on the Hyatt credit card. For the purposes of determining first year value for our Best Offers page, we consider the opportunity cost of spending towards the minimum spend requirement versus spending on a 3% cash back card. If you were to put $70K spend on such a card, you would earn $2,100 cash back. That’s the bare-minimum cost of earning status here — though truth be told, that spend could also be used to meet other card welcome bonuses which could add significantly more opportunity cost depending on your situation. However, you’ll also be spending 26 nights at Category 1 Hyatts (12 nights from the signup bonus and 14 nights based on spend) plus one more free night at a Cat 1-4 Hyatt. Depending on your needs, that could certainly be worth more than the opportunity cost even before valuing Globalist benefits (free breakfast / lounge access, 4 tier suite upgrades, free parking on award stays).

In subsequent years, the spend requirements change a bit — both because re-qualifying only requires 55 nights and because you will unfortunately not have the signup bonus points available.

 55 nights required to re-qualify for Globalist status
  –5 nights credit from holding the new World of Hyatt Credit Card
 50 nights to be earned
  -1 night from annual free night based on $15K spend
49 nights required to re-qualify for Gold status

That means you will need to spend $5K a total of 17 times. If you have an annual credit card free night certificate and/or a Cat 1-7 free night certificate from reaching Globalist status the year before, you would only need to reach the spend 16 times (again, assuming that you use your points earned for free Cat 1 nights).

Should you chase status as per those examples?

My unequivocal answer to the above question is No, you shouldn’t. I love Hyatt Globalist status, but unless you have an actual need for that many Cat 1 Hyatt nights, I don’t see it making a ton of sense to keep checking in for Category 1 stays just to use the points and earn status.

However, it gets a lot more interesting for folks who spend some nights at Hyatt hotels each year. If you regularly stay 20-25 nights per year, you would immediately cut in half the number of nights you need to manufacture, and spend quickly becomes more realistic. If you also spend in bonus categories, you could get there even faster. For instance, $5K spend done in the 2x categories could yield as much as 4 elite qualifying nights (2 from spend on the credit card side and 2 Category 1 nights redeemed with the 10K points earned). If you use your card to pay for Hyatt stays, you’ll earn points even faster.

The point is that is certainly might be worth considering a spend strategy on this card that will supplement your existing stays if you’ll get enough out of Globalist status to make the juice worth the squeeze. 

Should anyone keep the old Hyatt Credit Card?

Yes! Those people who are not interested in chasing elite status might prefer to keep the old card for a cheaper Category 1-4 free night each year. That card (which will no longer be available for new applicants) will retain its $75 annual fee, so you’ll save $20 per year by holding onto that card if you are only after the Category 1-4 free night certificate.

However, if you’re going to do much spending on your old Hyatt Credit Card, you should consider an upgrade. With $15K spend per year, you’ll earn that additional Category 1-4 certificate (and earn at least 15K Hyatt points, good for another Category 4 night). In other words, for the $95 annual fee and $15K spend, you’d have three free nights per year at a Category 4 hotel in the long run between the anniversary certificate, the certificate for $15K spend, and the points earned doing that spend.

Bottom line

The new Chase Hyatt Credit Card looks pretty exciting. The signup bonus is valuable and flexible and the ongoing benefits make it worthwhile to consider spending regularly on the card. You can definitely earn more points in most of the bonus categories with other credit cards cards, but the World of Hyatt Credit Card will give the additional benefit of earning an unlimited number of elite qualifying nights through spend. Those who have received a signup bonus in the last 24 months will not be eligible to apply, but upgrades will be available. Overall, this is a strong development that makes the Hyatt Credit Card worth a look. Find more information and an application link on our World of Hyatt Credit Card page.

The post New World of Hyatt Credit Card: Better than ever appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Recently, I signed up for the Ritz-Carlton card.  Even though I’ve recommended getting it before August to lock in the new Marriott/SPG Platinum Elite status, that wasn’t why I signed up for it.

The real reason was for the signup bonus of two free Tier 1-4 nights.  Tier 4 properties currently cost 60,000 points per night.  And when the Marriott/SPG/Ritz programs merge in August, all properties will be bookable for 60,000 points per night or less until a new category is introduced in 2019.  So we expect the Ritz two free nights to change from being usable at only less than top tier Ritz properties to all Marriott, SPG, and Ritz properties worldwide.  That’s pretty amazing, but even that wasn’t my sole motivation…

In my post, “Potential huge win with Marriott Travel Packages before August,” I discussed the small chance (I pegged it at 20% chance) that stay certificates (floater certificates) will be converted to equivalent points in August.  That would be a huge win if Marriott made us whole with the full points equivalent (see that post for details). When I first wrote the post, I didn’t think that Ritz free night certificates would be included if this happened, but then I got more information when Starwood Lurker answered my question about floater certificates and said that examples include credit card certs.  Despite his answer, I’m still unsure what exactly constitutes a floater certificate, but it suddenly seemed that my estimated 20% chance of a big win would include the Ritz certs as well.  That sold me.  While two free nights anywhere is an excellent signup bonus, I’ll very happily take 120K points instead if they’ll offer it.

My new Ritz card appeared on my doorstep last week, and I immediately met the $4K spend requirement by paying a large bill through the Plastiq bill payment service.  My card’s payment due date is August 1, but I want to make sure to get the free night certificates before then.  I may need to secure message Chase to see if they can expedite the bonus.

Priority Pass Select

Priority Pass has become significantly more valuable lately as they’ve increasingly added airport restaurants to their network. You’ll typically get $28 off your bill for yourself and each guest covered by Priority Pass. Since the Ritz version of Priority Pass allows unlimited guests, you can dine with a very large group for free (or for $28 off per person), but keep in mind that tips are extra.

One of the many benefits of the Ritz card is Priority Pass Select membership.  Unlike most other ultra-premium cards, Ritz’ version includes unlimited guests.  I doubt that will last long, though, considering that Chase recently reduced the Sapphire Reserve guest benefit from unlimited to 2.

The other unusual aspect of this card is that authorized user cards are free.  And, authorized users can get their own Priority Pass Select membership (my understanding is that you have to request it for each authorized user — it doesn’t come automatically).

We know that the Ritz card is going to change dramatically in August, but at the moment we only know a few details of those changes for certain.  But I think it is reasonable to expect that the new version will either charge for authorized users (like with the Sapphire Reserve) or will no longer offer free Priority Pass Select membership to authorized users.

And so, finally, I get to the main point of this post:

• If you have the Ritz card, and…
• If you have friends or family members who could benefit from Priority Pass Select membership, then…
• Add them as authorized users and request Priority Pass cards immediately
  (since the ability to do so might go away in August)
  (but first make sure they don’t mind being added as authorized users)

Authorized user credit cards will be shipped to your address.  You don’t have to give the credit cards to your friends or family members.  You can simply give them the separate Priority Pass cards when they arrive.

The post Ritz Card: Act now for free airport lounge access for friends and family appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Over the past couple of years, when someone would ask me for advice on hotel credit cards, I would almost unequivocally say that one shouldn’t get a hotel credit card to use it (for spend outside of the chain anyway), but rather just for its welcome bonus…with the addendum that some hotel cards are worth keeping long-term for ongoing benefits (like an annual free night, status, etc). Reflecting on that, I’ve personally gathered too many hotel credit cards for their ongoing benefits, and I need to thin the herd. I’ve decided that the Marriott and SPG cards have got to go. Here’s why.

Current portfolio needs thinning

I’ll admit that I have become a bit of a pack rat when it comes to hotel credit cards. As noted above, the time has come for a purge. At the moment, between my wife and I, we have the following hotel credit cards:

Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card (x2)
Starwood Preferred Guest Business Card (x2)
Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card (consumer version)
Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa Infinite
Hilton Honors Aspire (x2)
Hilton Honors Ascend
Radisson Rewards Premier
Wyndham Rewards
IHG Rewards Club Select

 As you can see, we need to do something about that situation as that represents far too much to pay out in annual fees. Maybe I could justify each card on a case-by-case basis, but I definitely can’t justify the collective whole by any stretch.

Why the Marriott-heavy collection?

The main reason for sitting so Marriott-heavy at the moment was in order to find out what would happen with all of these credit cards as the programs merged.  Last March, long before we knew what the new program would look like, Greg wrote about the fact that there could be hidden opportunities in having a number of the cards (See: Investing in change: Marriott / SPG / Ritz new program opportunities). We held on to the collection above in order to see what might be in store.

At this point, we know a lot about how the credit card landscape is shaping up (See our Marriott SPG Ritz Transition guide for full details). Assuming we upgraded our Marriott Rewards Premier cards to the Premier Plus versions, we would end up with five annual free night certificates good at hotels that charge up to 35,000 points per night between our two Marriott cards and three SPG cards. That would come at a total cost of $475 in annual fees over those five cards (not including the Ritz card).

That doesn’t seem like an altogether bad price for 5 hotel nights. It started to sound even better when I started looking at some of the properties where those certificates will be valid as per the new award chart. As Greg noted in his analysis, there are 1,126 properties in the 35K category alone (out of 6,341 costing 35K or fewer points).

Many of the 35K properties are in destinations where I can imagine room rates eclipsing $95 per night. Further, there are enough hotels in locations closer to home — including New York City and other cities where I commonly travel — that I know I could come out ahead versus the cash cost of paying for a room. Heck, part of me is tempted to keep a couple of these for a free weekend in New York City every year. But I’m not going to keep my Marriott/SPG portfolio of cards for three reasons.

Reason #1 for axing my Marriott cards: Free isn’t free

Marriott charges resort and destination fees on award stays. Hilton and Hyatt do not. IHG charges those fees sometimes (and other times they do not). Resort / destination fees can vary from $25-$50 per night (or even reach higher in some locations). That’s before taxes are added to those fees. What’s more, while Hyatt waives parking fees for Globalist members, Marriott does not waive parking fees for elite members. That “free” weekend in New York City would become not-so-free pretty fast.

While free parking isn’t a common elite benefit with most chains, the tacky fee for choosing a Marriott hotel is something they could easily eliminate. I categorically hate these “resort” and “destination” fees and the fact that hotels are not required to include them in the price of the room. It bothers me all the more when they take away from the joy of free.

Reason #2 for axing my Marriott cards: Top tier elite status is harder with Marriott

I enjoy having hotel status. It’s definitely not something I need — my wife and I traveled for years without even knowing what hotel status was. But I’ve come to enjoy a nice hotel breakfast, occasional room upgrade, theoretically better service, etc. Top-tier elite status with Hilton is easy: pay $450 per year for the Hilton Honors Aspire card, get top-tier Diamond status as one of the many benefits of the card. Top-tier status with Hyatt is now easier to achieve as I previously laid out in our post about the new World of Hyatt Credit Card. Even if you don’t have top-tier elite status with Hyatt, it is easy enough to borrow it (See: How to get top-tier Hyatt elite benefits without status).

Borrow Hyatt elite status for free breakfast like the buffet at the Andaz Amsterdam

The new Marriott program will have three “Platinum” levels: Platinum Elite (50 nights), Platinum Premier Elite 75 (75 nights), and Platinum Premier Elite 100 (100 nights + $20K spend). Even considering the 15 shortcuts to Marriott Platinum Elite status, I’m never going to reach Platinum Premier Elite 100 because I’ll never spend $20K with Marriott hotels. The highest I can hope for is Marriott Platinum Premier 75. Subtracting the 15 nights of elite credit I would get next year with one of the credit cards (since that’s the max you’ll get no matter how many of the credit cards you hold starting next year), I’d need 60 nights to reach Platinum 75K. That’s not going to happen for me, either.

And so the highest I can hope for is 50-night Platinum status. After 15 nights of elite credit from any of the credit cards, I’ll need another 35 nights to get that status. This isn’t an unreasonable number for me if I dedicated all of my stays to Marriott.

However, I’m unlikely to do that because of….

Reason #3 for axing my Marriott cards: It will be harder to collect additional free nights

After the programs merge in August, it will be harder to collect Marriott points from credit card spend. This is because the SPG cards will go from earning an effective 3x Marriott points everywhere to just 2x everywhere. That means it will require $17,500 in spend on one of those cards in order to earn one additional 35K night (to go with my certificates above). If I instead spent that $17,500 on a no-fee 2% cash back card, I’d earn $350 cash back. Trading $350 cash back for 1 free night at a 35K property isn’t a good value proposition in most instances.

Since Marriott is also transfer partners with Chase Ultimate Rewards, I could alternatively use cards like the Chase Ink Cash or Ink Business Preferred or the CSR to generate points in bonus categories that are greater than 2x. But here’s the thing: Greg did a comprehensive analysis of the amount of spend required to earn free nights with Marriott, Hyatt, and Hilton (based on the new Marriott chart) — see: Manufacturing free nights (Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott). Under almost every condition Greg considered — from unbonused spend to grocery store spend to office supply store spend and more — Marriott required more spend to generate low category free nights, “average” free nights, and top-tier free nights when compared against either Hyatt or Hilton. And that’s without considering Marriott’s resort and destination fees tacked on.

In fact, if you look at that post on manufacturing free nights and do some math considering the options for MS in the various categories, it will likely become apparent that one could MS free nights in “average” Hyatt and Hilton properties for less than the $95 annual fee on the Marriott cards.

The bottom line is that it won’t make much sense to manufacture free Marriott nights as compared to free Hyatt or Hilton nights — which makes that chase for elite status all the more elusive as I definitely won’t pay for 35 nights out of pocket.

But I’m still going to spend my way to new Marriott Platinum status

All that said, I am going to qualify for the “new” Marriott Platinum (50-night status) for 2019 via the Ritz-Carlton credit card. I recently realized that I had done about $4,600 in spend on the card earlier this calendar year and I had about $3,000 in upcoming legitimate expenses that could easily be paid with my Ritz card (before August). That leaves me somewhere around $2400 short of reaching the $10K annual spend for Ritz Gold status, which will convert to new Marriott Platinum status in August. I’ve decided that since I can be that close without much effort or huge opportunity cost, I’ll meet that additional spend this year in order to get 1 year of new Platinum status (i.e. free breakfast / lounge access at many — though certainly not all — Marriott properties). My Ritz card will then follow the other SPG and Marriott cards out the door when its fee posts later this year unless there is some incredible unexpected new benefit announced on that card next month.

With the potential huge win in Marriott Travel Packages and the incredible opportunities with the SPG off-the-charts properties come August, I do intend to make a couple of stays at Marriott properties next year. Particularly considering a 7-night stay certificate, having Platinum status and therefore scoring free breakfast / lounge access for a week could certainly come in handy.

That said, I don’t see myself continuing on with Marriott beyond 2019 since Hilton and Hyatt make elite status much simpler and I can manufacture free nights with those chains more cheaply.

Bottom line

Hotel credit cards can certainly be worth keeping for ongoing benefits like an annual free night if you know you’ll put that free night to good use and for outsized value. That said, I just don’t see myself continuing on with Marriott after 2019 considering how easy it is to procure status with Hyatt and Hilton. Further, Marriott’s free nights aren’t really free if you end up at one of the many properties where they now charge a resort or destination fee, further reducing my interest in the program versus the alternatives. I’ll enjoy a year of Platinum status and burn a 7-night certificate and (hopefully) some nights at top-tier former SPG properties next year, but as the fees post on my Marriott and SPG cards, they will drop out of my wallet in favor of cheaper free nights and easier elite status. Glancing back at my stable of hotel credit cards, they probably won’t be the only ones riding off into the sunset this year.

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The Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard has arrived on the scene once again, this time with a highest-ever 60,000 point welcome bonus after spending $5,000 in the first 90 days. While that is the highest introductory offer ever on this card, note that the $89 annual fee is not waived the first year this time around. Still, this is a great intro offer on a popular card that many will be glad to see return after a hiatus. We have added this card to our Best Offers page.

The Deal

• The Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard is once again available, this time offering 60,000 bonus Arrival miles after $5,000 in purchases in the first 90 days
• Find more information and a link on our Barclaycard Arrival Plus card page

Key Card Details

• Card earns 2x Arrival miles on all purchases
• Miles can be redeemed for $0.01 each for a statement credit against travel purchases
• Get a 5% rebate on travel redemptions (works out to 2.1c earned per dollar spent after considering this rebate)
• Minimum travel redemption of 10,000 Arrival miles ($100)
• Minimum cash back statement credit redemption of 5,000 Arrival miles ($25)
• $89 annual fee is not waived the first year

Quick Thoughts

This card had previously disappeared with the launch of the Barclays Arrival Premier card a few months ago, but it wasn’t long before rumors began circulating that the Arrival Plus would eventually be resurrected. This card has certainly had its fans due to the large welcome offer and ease of redemption towards an array of travel-related statement credits, though keep in mind the minimum redemption of 10,000 points ($100) towards travel. That’s kind of a pain because if you redeem 58,000 Arrival miles for a $580 travel purchase, you’d be left with 2,000 Arrival miles — having to spend another $4,000 before you could redeem for travel again. Keep that in mind when planning your redemptions so as not to orphan any Arrival miles or be tempted by the poor value of a cash back statement credit.

I’m sure someone will ask, so I’ll note that I do not expect you to be able to combine these miles with those earned from an Arrival Premier and transfer them to partners.

The welcome bonus on this card is certainly attractive. Even after figuring the cost of the annual fee, that bonus is worth $511 – and you’ll earn another 10,000 Arrival miles ($100 travel statement credit) while meeting the minimum spending requirement. All together, that’s a return that is certainly worthwhile.

Personally, I wouldn’t put everyday purchases on this card with more valuable options on the market, but Arrival Plus miles can come in handy for those travel purchases that are not connected to more valuable point systems like cheap paid cash tickets, AirBnB stays, train tickets, cruises and the sort. Note that initial comments I’ve seen indicate that approvals for this card may be kind of tight.

H/T: Doctor of Credit

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The offer for 45,000 total Wyndham Rewards points has returned once again on the $75-fee version of the Wyndham Rewards Visa from Barclays. This offer comes and goes, but it is the highest offer we see on this card. Since Wyndham Rewards charges 15,000 points per night for award stays at all properties, this offer is worth up to three free nights at any Wyndham property worldwide. Further, the points can be useful when transferred to La Quinta Returns.

The Offer

• Earn up to 45,000 Wyndham Rewards points: 30,000 points after first purchase and an additional 15,000 points after spending $2,000 in the first 90 days
• This offer applies to the version of the card with the $75 annual fee
• You can find a link on our Wyndham Rewards Visa page

Key Card Details

• Earn 5x at Wyndham properties
• Earn 2x on gas, utilities, and at grocery stores
• Earn 1x everywhere else
• 6,000 bonus points every anniversary
• This card provides Platinum status
• $75 annual fee is not waived

Quick Thoughts

Wyndham Rewards doesn’t always get the attention it deserves because of the fact that brands like Super 8, Travelodge, and Howard Johnson don’t generate excitement. However, on the other end, Wyndham has some resorts and properties in more expensive locations — and all hotels cost the same 15,000 points-per-night for an award stay. There are also partnerships with Cottages.com and Wyndham vacation rentals that allow for redemption at some much nicer-than-Travelodge properties. I often use New York City hotels like the Hotel Henri or the Wyndham Garden Inn Chinatown as examples of properties where 15K per night can be a great deal.

Furthermore, since you can now link your account with La Quinta Returns and transfer points to La Quinta, there are oppportunities to book some places for even less than 15K per night. Even for properties that charge more than 15K, there are plenty of opportunities to book at better than 1c per point in value. For example, I need a hotel near San Jose airport early next year for a quick overnight layover. The most important things to be are a shuttle and a bed that isn’t far away so I can maximize sleep. The La Quinta Inn & Suites San Jose Airport looks like it would fit the bill.

At 18K points per night, it would cost more than a Wyndham property. But I’ve had sticker shock on the room rates near SJC for the date I need. That La Quinta would come to $273.46 for the night in question.

That’s a La Quinta Return of more than 1.5c per point. I haven’t yet transferred to book that, but I’m seriously considering it. Having a stash of Wyndham points is useful for occasions like that. Picking up 30K on first purchase and then a further 15K for $2K spend is a pretty good deal in my book.

Keep in mind that this offer does come and go, so there isn’t a sense of urgency on this offer. But if you’ve been waiting for it to come around again, the time is here.

H/T: Doctor of Credit

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Barclays has made a key update to the Arrival Premier card, waiving the $150 annual fee for the first year. Additionally, View from the Wing reports that Barclays is planning to add two new transfer partners by the end of July. While those partners — Finnair and Alitalia — are not wildly exciting options (and surely won’t be 1:1 transfers), he also reports that there is another more interesting partner in the works.

The Deal

• Barclays Arrival Premier card is now available with the annual fee waived the first year
• This card still carries no introductory offer but rather offers 2x Arrival miles on all purchases with bonuses at $15K (15K bonus Arrival miles) and $25K (additional 10K bonus miles) in purchases in a year (so you’ll earn an effective total of 3x Arrival miles per dollar if you spend exactly $15K or $25K in the card in a year)
• New transfer partners Finnair and Alitalia to be added by the end of July
• See our Barclays Arrival Premier page for more information and a direct link

Quick Thoughts

No word yet on the transfer ratios, but having two additional partners in Finnair and Alitalia beats not having those partners. That said, they aren’t the most exciting partners as I am not aware of any amazing sweet spots on their charts. Alitalia is an Amex transfer partner and an SPG transfer partner, so you at least have an option for topping off / combining forces from your transferable currencies. I’ll be more interested to see what this partner in-the-works is that Gary cites. It would certainly be interesting to see Barclays add one of their co-brand relationship partners to the mix.

The waived annual fee the first year certainly makes a difference in the economics of trying this card out. I argued that this card was an interesting option for generating JAL miles as it actually earns them at a better rate than the SPG cards unless you spend north of $200,000 per year (see: Was I crazy for saying the Arrival Premier can be interesting?). Then, JAL announced a devaluation coming in November. Still, if you have the ability to generate miles between now and then and at no fee the first year, this might not be a bad deal.

The Arrival Premier still isn’t the most compelling card out there, but the waived first year fee makes it more worthwhile. Keep in mind that the Arrival Plus has also been re-launched (See: Re-launched Arrival Plus: 60K offer (worth $600 toward travel)). While Gary reports that customers can theoretically be approved for both, anecdotal evidence suggests that it might not be so easy to be approved for two in a short period of time. Still, if you currently hold one, it is possible to get the other.

You can not transfer Arrival miles between the two cards.

H/T: View from the Wing

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Chase has confirmed details about the Chase Ritz-Carlton and Chase Marriott Business cards, as well as details on how the new free night awards will work. Most of the key pieces are things we expected, though there is a bit more detail to fill in the blanks. One major negative change: the business version of the Marriott Rewards card will no longer earn an elite night credit per $3,000 spend when the new benefits launch on August 26th. No word on the fate of that benefit on the personal card, but it would stand to reason that it may disappear there as well. Free night awards are kind of a bummer in my opinion. Details to follow.

Chase Ritz-Carlton Credit Card changes

Starting August 26th, the Ritz-Carlton Rewards card will earn points at the following rate:

• 6x at Marriott properties (including Ritz / SPG)
• 3x at restaurants, car rental companies, and airline tickets purchased directly from airlines
• 2x everywhere else

Additionally, the card will gain a couple of benefits:

• An annual free night award that will be valid at properties costing up to 50,000 points
• Automatic Gold status (though this is fairly meaningless as the new Gold status won’t be worth much)

The card is losing the annual 10% premium on points earned, but it is scheduled to keep all of the other current key benefits, including:

• 3 club level upgrades annually valid on paid stays of up to 7 nights
• $100 hotel credit for each 2 night or longer stay (subject to availability – must book a special rate, but can be stacked with the club level upgrade)
• Airport lounge access via Priority Pass (currently comes with unlimited guests)
• $300 annual credit for airline incidentals
• $100 discount when you book 2 or more round trip domestic economy class tickets via the Ritz Visa Discount Air website (this benefit can be used repeatedly)
• Platinum status with $75K spend per cardmember year
• The current signup bonus is not slated to change yet — it’s unclear how the 2 free Ritz Tier 1-4 certificates will be treated in the new program

Ritz changes analysis

We already knew about most of the above. There were two key things that stuck out at me:

The new free night award can be valuable, but it still kind of stinks.

From August until early 2018, Marriott is only using “standard” award pricing. That means that the annual free night award that comes with the Ritz-Carlton card will be valid at up to a Category 6 property if your anniversary date falls sometime after August 26th and before early 2019. As a reminder, here is the chart:

However, it starts to get….murky….in 2019. We got confirmation today that the annual free night certificates that come with the various credit cards will be valid based on the rate the hotel is charging at that time of year. In other words, when peak and off-peak pricing take effect in 2019, the maximum category for your free night award will vary depending on whether you stay in peak season, off-peak season, or “standard” periods. In other words, this free night award will get you the following:

• Max “peak” award = Cat 5 (40K points)
• Max “standard” award = Cat 6 (50K points)
• Max “off-peak” award = Cat 7 (50K points)

On the one hand, that sounds kind of good — in 2019, you might be able to land a Category 7 property during off-peak times. As that is (sort of) the top tier for the rest of 2018, there will surely be some really awesome properties in that category still in 2019.

However, my bet on this is that you’re only going to be able to go when you don’t want to be there. Think ski country in monsoon season. A beach destination during great white breeding season. A major city during….well, who are we kidding? Is New York is ever going to charge the off-peak pricing for its Category 7 properties?

Realistically, the free night award is going to be valid at a Cat 6 “standard” award level — but even more realistically, I could imagine a world where your best available options quickly become Cat 5 awards, whether peak or not — meaning you may end up having to settle for a max of 40K in value. If that doesn’t sound like much more than what comes with the cards that cost $355 less per year to hold (like the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus and SPG business / SPG personal cards), that’s because it isn’t — those cards will come with free night awards valid up to 35K points. Of course, those free night awards could well turn into the same situation. The saving grace for the 35K awards is that the worst case scenario is you’ll end up with a Cat 4 property. Those properties by and large are the same properties you can book today with your annual free night certificates. In other words, you’re not going to lose a ton of value on those annual certificates…but you won’t necessarily gain as much value on the premium cards (Ritz and SPG Luxury) as it sounds when you hear “up to 50K”.

But the value proposition on this card could turn out to be great

Of course, I could be wrong. Marriott could turn out to be incredibly generous with award pricing and this could turn out to be a fantastic annual benefit. If it does turn out tn be easy to book a Category 6 standard award, the Ritz card will turn out to be a phenomenal value since it offers:

• $300 in airline incidental credits annually
• $100 repeatable airfare discount for 2
• The free night award

You could certainly come out well ahead of the annual fee with just those benefits. If you use the club level upgrades and $100 property credit, all the better. But I do have a healthy bit of skepticism about how easy it is going to be to use the free night award at something better than Category 5. Don’t get me wrong — it should still be easy enough to get yourself a $200 or better free night….though as I noted yesterday, thanks to Marriott charging resort and “destination” fees on free night awards, that free night might not be so free. Pretty soon, they are going to add a “doorbell fee”, “nightstand fee”, and “electricity surcharge”. Kidding, of course. Don’t get any ideas, David Flueck.

As you can tell, I’m of two minds on this card. If you can use the airfare discount a few times a year and you use even most of your airline incidental credits, the free night is gravy. Stuff like the global entry reimbursement, lounge access, etc is like adding butter to your gravy. For a market of people, this card will have real value. Some will prefer the $300 property credit planned on the SPG Luxury card over the airline incidentals credits, but the repeatable airline discount would push the needle in favor of the Ritz card for me.

Overall, it’s not terrible — I’m motly just surprised they didn’t surprise us with something we didn’t expect. There is obviously good value there – just no “exciting new benefits” really.

Marriott Premier Plus Business Card

On the business card front, there was a small surprise: Chase isn’t launching a new product at all, but rather changing the name of the current card. Existing card members will keep using their old card until it expires / is replaced, but both new and existing cardmembers will have the same benefits beginning August 26th. The $99 annual fee isn’t changing. However, the card’s new earning structure is. Beginning August 26th, the Marriott Premier Plus Business Card will earn:

• 6x at Marriott properties (including Ritz and SPG)
• 4x at gas stations, restaurants, and on shipping, Internet, cable, and phone services purchases
• 2x everywhere else

Additionally, the card will come with a free night award valid at any property worth up to 35,000 points (set to work the same as set forth above in this post). That’s a change from the current Marriott Category 1-5 certificate that the card has earned, though it should theoretically be valid at the same calibre of properties.

Other benefit changes include:

• Spend requirement for Gold status drops from $50K to $35K (though the value of Gold status drops as well since it no longer comes with free breakfast)
• No more elite night credit per $3K spend on the card – this is unfortunate for those who would use spend to top off for an extra night or two of credit when close to a threshold
• The 15 nights of elite credit that come with this card will not stack with elite credit from other cards
• The card is losing price protection, return protection, trip cancellation, and trip interruption coverage.

If that sounds like a net loss to you, I would agree. While the free night may get you a nicer room than in the past, and the earning rate at the 4x categories is more than before, considering the Reasonable Redemption Value of Marriott Rewards points (0.72 cents each), the return isn’t very exciting for a bonus category at a rough rate of return of 2.88% based on that valuation. On the other hand, if you regularly redeem your Marriott points for more value, those categories might suit your needs.

Bottom line

The changes to these cards more or less fall in line with what we have seen through the rest of the Marriott / SPG card porfolio. In yesterday’s post, I said that I’d be sending my Marriott and SPG cards out to pasture. I mentioned that barring a huge new benefit on the Ritz card, it wouldn’t be far behind. Today’s announcement probably doesn’t do much to change that. Lucky for me, my anniversary date does fall between August and the end of the year, so I’m hopeful that I might be able to earn a 50K free night award before I lay that card to rest. At this point, I don’t think that will be enough to keep me around another year.

More info

Please see our Marriott SPG Ritz Transition Guide, or click through to the guide via any of these topic links:

• Transition overview
• Unified award chart
• Potential chart mappings (old to new)
• Elite status transition
• Lifetime status transition
• Point earnings now vs. August
• Point transfers to Airline Miles
• Free night certificates
• Travel packages
• United & Delta partnerships
• Free breakfast / lounge access
• Suite Night Awards
• Credit card changes
• New program pros & cons
• Short term opportunities
• Q & A
• All Frequent Miler posts regarding the Marriott SPG transition

H/T: The Points Guy

The post New details on Marriott & Ritz cards: no more elite credit per $3K spend, free night changes, more appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Since its launch in May, Marriott has been offering a new cardmember bonus of 100,000 Marriott Rewards points after spending $5,000 in the first three months on the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus card. That bonus is scheduled to end tomorrow (July 12th, 2018), so some will dub this a “last chance” to get 100,000 Marriott Rewards points. Is that true, and does it mean you should rush to get this card? I’d say the answer is no for most people.

Who should consider the Marriott Rewards Plus offer?

While there are several reasons why I think most people shouldn’t rush to apply for this card, there are a few groups of people who should at least consider whether or not it’s worth it for them.

Case 1: People who spend a lot on reimbursable Marriott stays

Beginning in August, the various Marriott and SPG cards will offer 6x on Marriott spend. According to our Reasonable Redemption Values, Marriott points are worth about 0.72 cents each. That makes earnings of 6x comaprable to about a 4.32% return on Marriott spend. That’s not bad. You could do better with a card like the the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which earns 3x on travel, since you could redeem those points at a value of 1.5 cents each through the Chase travel portal. That makes for an effective 4.5% return (or transfer to partners for even more value). However, if you are put off by the CSR’s annual fee and/or strongly prefer a return in Marriott points, the Premier Plus offers a reasonable return here. I wouldn’t open it for occasional stays, but for regular stays on someone else’s dime, a 4.32% return is OK.

Case 2: People who can maximize the value of 100K well beyond the average

While our Reasonable Redemption Value of 0.72 cents each for Marriott points pegs the value of 100K around $720, it is certainly possible to do better than that depending on how you use your points. Just a few nights ago, I stayed at a Fairfield Inn that cost me 10,000 points (vs a cash rate of $161+). Cash rates at comparable properties (less-conveniently located) were as low as ~$125. In August, that newly-refurbished property will drop in price to 7,500 points per night.

Nothing luxurious, but 10K points saved me over $100, and the price of this property drops to 7500 soon.

If you normally use your points for low-category redemptions like this, you can certainly stretch the value of the new member bonus beyond a thousand dollars.

Case 3: People who can maximize the use of the annual free night award

Just last week, I wrote about getting rid of my Marriott and SPG cards despite the annual free night award (See: Sending the Marriott and SPG cards off into the sunset). A couple of reasons why the annual free night award doesn’t appeal to me are that the free night is still subject to resort and destination fees and it is likely to become more difficult to maximize under peak and off-peak pricing. That said, there are around 6,300 properties where you can use the “up to 35,000 points” award night that comes with the Premier Plus card, so it’s certainly possible to find many situations where you can snag a good deal.

In fact, since writing that post last week, I’ve found myself in one such situation where the free night certificate would be my most reasonable option on an otherwise expensive one-nifght stay, which might cause me to keep one of the cards after all.

Reasons why I don’t think there should be a mad rush for this card

The above cases out of the way, I think that most people do not need to rush to pick up this card and there are several reasons for that assessment:

First: This card is subject to 5/24

Despite a couple of initial reports that I would attribute to people miscounting their status, the vast majority of reports have indicated that this card is indeed subject to 5/24.

In other words, those who frequently open new credit cards will not qualify. However, what if you do qualify as you have opened fewer than 5 new cards in the past 24 months? I’d argue this card probably isn’t worth one of those slots. Greg wrote a post in March about The best Chase cards that ARE subject to 5/24. While the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus wasn’t yet launched at the time, its similarly-equippped predecessor was at the bottom of the list of cards to consider, and for good reason: other cards subject to 5/24 offer more valuable bonuses and/or ongoing benefits. See that post for details.

Second: You can easily get a comparable bonus (or better)

If you are under 5/24, it’s worth seeing the post above for a full list of better offers. For instance, our Reasonable Redemption Value of 1.82 cents each for Ultimate Rewards puts the 50,000-point welcome offers on the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve worth north of $900. Thanks to the flexibility of a transferable currency, you can cherry-pick for the best redemptions and get considerably more value out of your points.

If you have your sights set on luxury properties, the Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa, not subject to 5/24, comes with 2 free nights in a Ritz Tier 1-4 property. We have speculated that those certificates might become valid at any Marriott-Ritz-SPG property when the programs merge. Further, opening the card before August would grant you automatic Gold status, which would transition to Platinum status in the new program (note: If you apply in August or after, you’ll only get Gold in the new program — see Consider getting the Ritz-Carlton card right now for more info on all of the above). While I’d generally consider focusing on cards that are subject to 5/24 first, the Ritz card is a current exception due to the potentially very rich signup bonus and ability to snag a year of free breakfast/lounge access at most of the Marriott//SPG portfolio.

But if it is points that you prefer, you can amass nearly 100K Marriott points pretty easily. If you have a business, the new member bonus on the Ink Business Preferred is even more compelling at 80,000 points after meeting $5,000 in spend in the first 3 months. That is an ongoing offer — while offers are always subject to change without notice, there is no published end date in sight — and those points could be transferred 1:1 to Marriott Rewards if you found the rare situation where Marriott offered the best value for your points. In other words, any day of the week you could get a signup bonus of nearly the same quantity of points that have the added flexibility of being transferrable to other partners. If you have a connection with a branch Business Relationship Manager, you may even be able to get a 100,000-point opening bonus.

In fact, if you are under 5/24, there are many other cards you should be considering ahead of the Marriott card. Since most business cards do not count against your 5/24 status, you’d be better off pursuing a number of business cards before picking up the Marriott card (See: Over 600,000 points and well under 5/24 for one man’s example strategy).

Third: I expect this offer to return

The final reason why I think there is no particular rush on this offer is that I fully expect it will return. Further, I can’t imagine a remarkable decrease in value on the new cardmember offer. With both Chase and Amex issuing Marriott/SPG cards for the foreseeable future, there will be two banks issuing cards with nearly identical benefits. If that isn’t a recipe for good old-fashioned capitalist competition, I’m not sure what is.

Before the launch of the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus card, its no-longer-available predecessor card (The Marriott Rewards Premier – no “Plus”) often carried an 80,000-point bonus (with an additional 7,500 points for adding an authorized user), and that had bumped up to 100,000 points earlier this year. I have no insight into what the new “standard” bonus will be on the new Marriott Rewards Premier Plus card when the current offer ends, but I have to imagine that a similar offer will come back again in the future. Sure, it’s possible that Chase could decimate the value of the signup bonus the way that Amex has slaughtered the welcome offers on the SPG cards, but I think it is more likely that we will see some enhanced competition moving forward.

On the other hand, Doctor of Credit has reported a rumor that Amex and Chase will share information and potentially limit customers to earning one new cardmember welcome offer on a Marriott card within 24 months beginning with the launch of the SPG Luxury card next month. Despite the fact that I trust DoC has a good source, I have a hard time jumping on board with that rumor. However, if it does happen, I suspect competition for customers would become even tighter. That new rule would instantly eliminate a huge portion of the potential customer base for each bank and they would each then be competing for a narrow niche of consumers. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I’d expect that to encourage good welcome bonuses.

Bottom line

The Marriott Rewards Premier Plus card might be a good fit for some people. The current 100K offer on that card, scheduled to end tomorrow, certainly can be maximized for a good return. That said, I don’t think it should be a top priority for most people who qualify. Those under 5/24 have easy ongoing access to more valuable offers and would do better focusing on Ultimate Rewards cards for both the ability to transfer to Marriott in times when that makes sense and to have greater flexibility to choose more valuable uses of the points.

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Citi and American Airlines have announced that on July 22nd they be will launching a brand new credit card with no annual fee called the AAdvantage MileUp Card. While the new cardmember bonus isn’t terribly exciting, this might be an awesome option for a product downgrade and it might even work as an introduction to rewards cards for something starting out. Current Citi AAdvantage Bronze cardholders will also be transitioned to this card.

The Offer

• Citi is launching a new American Airlines MileUp credit card on July 22nd
• New member bonus will include 10,000 AAdvantage miles and a $50 statement credit after spending $500 on purchases in the first three months
• Direct link to press release

Key Card Details

• No annual fee
• Earns 2x at grocery stores
• Earns 2x on American Airlines purchases
• Earns 1x everywhere else
• 25% savings on inflight food and beverage purchases on American Airlines flights when you use your card

Quick Thoughts

Again, the new cardmember bonus on this card pales in comparison to the 50K to 60K offers we often see on all of the other American Airlines cards. However, they say that domestic economy tickets are the most common redemption, and 10K to start combined with 2x at the grocery store would probably be a good gateway drug for someone who is initially averse to annual fees or perhaps for a student if they were approved.

Of course, most readers will find this much more interesting as a new downgrade option when looking to get rid of the annual fee on an AAdvantage Platinum Select or Executive card. Being able to continue earning 2x AA miles at the grocery store with no annual fee certainly isn’t bad if you value AA miles. It still wouldn’t make it to the top of our list of the Best Category Bonuses for grocery store spend, but it certainly wouldn’t be a bad way to put together some American Airlines miles – especially if you live near one of the many grocery chains regularly offering fuel point bonuses or discounts on gift cards.

As noted above, current Bronze cardholders are receiving emails indicating that their cards will be transitioned to this new MileUp product.

We’ll have to wait to see the terms and conditions when the application page launches, but I assume that the welcome bonus will not be available to those who have or have had another personal AAdvantage card opened or closed in the past 24 months. Since this one stays within the same family of cards, I would expect that downgrading to it likely would not reset your 24-month clock for AA cards, but we’ll have to wait for data points to see.

Either way, I’m excited to see an airline card with no annual fee that also has a category bonus.

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Last week, I wrote about plans to dump all of my Marriot and SPG credit cards (See: Sending the Marriott and SPG cards off into the sunset). This morning, in my post about why I think there is no hurry to sign up for the Marriott Premier Plus before the 100K offer ends tomorrow (See: Is there a hurry for the Marriott card? (Answer: No.), I noted that one group of people who might want to consider applying for that card are those who can maximize the free night award benefit. After saying last week that I would dump these cards despite that benefit, it turns out I’m going to keep one for the free night benefit after all.

I said last week that the free night benefit doesn’t excite me because Marriott tacks on resort / destination fees to free night awards. That annoys me to no end. It’s like a tax for choosing Marriott over Hilton or Hyatt, and it’s insulting to the consumer to pretend that the room rate is the price of the room only to add an additional mandatory hotel fee that goes into the same pot of profit for the hotel as the rest of your money. I say either itemize the entire bill — with a fee of three cents for laundry soap to clean the bedsheets, two bucks for electricity, eighteen cents for water usage, two hundred dollars for shareholder profits, and so on — or just charge one price that earns you the profit you need without trying to convince me that I should have to pay separately for the convenience of having a towel available next to the pool that you used pictures of to lure me into paying for your resort over someone else’s. /rant.

I did also note that I’m sure there are times when it is possible to get better-than-$95 in value out of a free night certificate, but it would require more time and focus to make sure you’re getting a deal. Further, as Greg has shown (See: Manufacturing free nights (Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott), it’s possible to manufacture nights at average Hyatt and Hilton properties for reasonable spend — using manufactured spending techniques, it is possible in many cases to manufacture free nights at comparable Hyatt and Hilton hotels for less than $95.

Of course, almost immediately after taking that stance, I ran into an exception. Early next year, I have a trip booked with an overnight stopover in San Jose on the way, and rooms are expensive right now for our date. While there are some motels in the area in the $150-$200 per night range, I recently noted in another post that even the La Quinta Inn near the airport is pretty spendy the night we need.

As you move up to the Hilton and Marriott properties, prices get kind of ridiculous. More than $400 after tax for a night at a Courtyard, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, or Fairfield Inn near an airport seems ludicrous.

The nearby SPG options don’t look much more reasonable for a quick overnight before an early morning flight out.

But wouldn’t you know it….all of the above properties will be 35,000 points or less under the new chart. In fact, the Fairfield, Four Points, and Residence Inn will all cost just 25,000 points — meaning those are even bookable with the old Cat 1-5 cert that comes with the old (and no longer available) Marriott Rewards Premier card (not “Plus”).

As fate would have it, I have an available Cat 1-5 certificate, but we need 2 rooms. Fate further pushing things along: my SPG personal anniversary date is in August, and Amex has said that the free 35K award night will post with your next anniversary date after August 1st. Considering the fact that Hyatt doesn’t have a hotel with a shuttle and Hilton is charging enough points as to make it less desirable to MS a free night at one of the Hilton properties, paying that $95 annual fee is looking like a good idea after all. I’ll end up using my “up to 35K” certificate at a property that only charges 25K in order to keep both rooms together at the same hotel, but between two annual fees, I’ll have spent less than the cash cost of one room.

And so it looks like I’m already going back on my promise to cancel as soon as the fees hit. This is exactly the type of situation where this type of free night benefit comes in handy — I’m just surprised it came around so fast as to make me retract my threat to cancel almost instantly. That’s better that than realizing I needed the stay right after I had cancelled….

Anyone have a recommendation between the Fairfield, Four Points, and Residence Inn?

The post Keeping an SPG card after all… appeared first on Frequent Miler.

I’ve written quite a bit lately about hotel credit cards, specifically noting my intention to migrate away from the many flavors of Marriott. I also recently noted how interesting I find the new World of Hyatt card — but due to Hyatt’s limited footprint, I couldn’t focus on Hyatt alone. And I wouldn’t have to — because the hotel card I’m most excited about is undoubtedly the Hilton Aspire card. Last night, I booked a stay for next year and got even more excited when I realized how I could maximize the $250 annual resort credit….

Hilton Honors Aspire Benefits

I’m actively excited about the Hilton Honors Aspire card that launched earlier this year because it comes with very generous benefits. For a $450 annual fee, every year you get:

• Annual free weekend night certificate
• $250 airline incidentals credit (with one chosen airline) per calendar year
• $250 Hilton resort credit per membership year (must be used at a Hilton Resort)
• Diamond status

There are also some less tangible benefits you can read about in our full review of the card here.

Personally, I think this card is hands down the best value in hotel cards (at least now that the $49 IHG card is no longer available). The airline incidental credits are only good for one airline, but we maintain a resource page about what still works to trigger Amex airline reimbursements here. I chose Southwest as my airline this year and my data points match what you’ll find on that page.

Diamond status doesn’t provide a huge advantage over Gold status, but it does come with automatic lounge access, which can certainly help you save a few bucks with drinks and snacks.

The annual free weekend night certificate works at almost any Hilton property in the world (just excluding a small handful of all-inclusives and more condo-like properties without standard rooms). You can use it in New York, Hong Kong, the Maldives, etc. If only the night I need near San Jose Airport were a weekend night, I’d put mine to use for huge value there (read more on that here). It really wouldn’t be hard for me to get more than $450 in value out of the $250 airline credit and the free uncapped weekend night alone. Heck, in the right city or at the right time of year, you might very well get a room that would have cost more than $450 with the free weekend night certificate.

In my opinion, the hardest of the tangible benefits to use is the Hilton resort credit because it must be used at a resort. That said, I’ve got some ideas on that. . .

Hilton Aspire Resort Credit

The Hilton Aspire resort credit must be used at a Hilton resort (the full list of properties classified as a resort for this credit can be found at this link). That said, the credit is otherwise pretty unrestricted — it can be used toward anything that gets charged to your hotel bill, including the room rate itself. In other words, you can get this rebate just by paying your room bill — or use it in conjunction with an award stay to get credited for your restaurant, bar, or spa tab, etc.

But the difficulty with that is it means you have to stay at a Hilton resort every year in order to get the credit. Except, maybe you don’t…..

Hilton Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

These Conrad Maldives Rangali Island website pics look pretty nice…

Arguably the most aspirational property in the Hilton portfolio is the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island. This is the place you always see in posts about using your free night certificate — as though you would fly all the way to the Maldives to use one free night. This hotel has the underwater restaurant where you can watch the fish pass overhead.

It is also notable for the fact that overwater villas have been included as a “standard room” for award booking since sometime last year. That means you can book an overwater villa with your annual free night certificate — or you can book one with 95,000 Hilton Honors points.

Better yet, if you book a 5-night stay, the 5th nigh is free — dropping your cost down to an average of 76,000 Hilton Honors points per night for an overwater villa. That seems pretty darn amazing.

And it’s even more amazing when you compare it to cash rates for the same room and same dates.

That comes out to $1,592.04 per night after taxes and fees.

Of course, there’s a catch. Like most of the aspirational Maldives properties, it isn’t easy to get there. Flying to the Maldives isn’t necessarily that challenging — awards to the Maldives are usually available. The trouble is that once you arrive, you typically need to take a private seaplane or a domestic Maldivian Air plane to transfer from the airport to the island of your chosen hotel — and you can’t use miles to book that. To get to the Conrad, like most of the other top-shelf properties, you have to pay $500 round trip per person for the seaplane or domestic flight transfer. For a thirty minute flight. Ouchie-wowie.

But the other day I got to thinking about it and wondered whether you pay that fee directly to the seaplane operator……or do you pay it directly to the Conrad? I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this — and sure enough, you pay it directly to the Conrad.

The seaplane fee is actually $500 + 12% tax — so $560 total. They charge you extra for more than 55lbs of luggage, blah blah blah. But, you’ve already seen where I’m going with this — since you pay this fee to the hotel directly, your Hilton Aspire resort credit should work for this. My understanding is that like the airline credits, this credit triggers automatically with a qualifying charge, so when you pay this at checkout with your room folio, it should automatically get you the $250 credit. That drops the seaplane transfer down to a much more palatable (but still ludicrous) $310 round trip.

But that’s still too much. And then I got to thinking more about it….I wonder if you can make a deposit this year to trigger this year’s credit…..

And so, in the name of science, I went ahead and booked a 5-night award stay in an overwater villa for next year for a total of 380,000 Hilton Honors points.

Note one key thing: advanced purchase rates for resorts in the US won’t be credited. See this post at Flyertalk for more on that. Technically, the benefit terms state that you must pay at checkout to get the credit on the Aspire card, but datapoints at Flyertalk indicate that prepaid rates at properties outside of the US will trigger the automatic reimbursement.

Back to my experiment….Immediately after booking, I sent an email to the hotel, asking it if would be possible for me to put down a deposit this year for my stay next year — you know, for my personal accounting purposes — and pay the balance at checkout. I got a response in four minutes.

Dear Nicholas,

Thanks for your email. Great to see your early booking.

Depending on your reservation there might be some advance payment required, if not required you can easily do prepayment any time you wish by using the attached credit card form. We will then add the amounts on your folio, so upon check out all you have the pay is the balance.

You can pay anytime but please add the reservation number on the form so we can track your booking nicely.

Boom. That’s the answer I wanted to hear — not only is it possible, it sounds pretty clear that I could make several payments if I wanted. That’s perfect because my wife also has the Aspire card. If each of us paid $250 this year and $250 next year upon checkout (our stay is booked after our anniversary date), we’ll end up owing $60 each for the round trip seaplane transfer after our resort credits.

Unfortunately, since I booked the stay after our anniversary date (that’s the only way to get the $250 credit twice for each of us since that credit resets after anniversary, unlike the airline credit which is per calendar year), we could not use our current free weekend night certificates to extend our 5-night award stay. The annual free weekend night certificate that comes with the Hilton Aspire card can not be extended. You have to stay before the expiration date, and ours expire before the stay I booked on points.

The good news is that I booked the 5-night award stay from Sunday-Friday. That way, when we get our new weekend night certificates at renewal, we could find availability for either the Friday and Saturday before or Saturday and Sunday after it to extend to a 7-night stay using both of our annual certificates. Given the cost of eating in the Maldives, I’m not sure we’d do that anyway. That said, it looks like Gold and Diamond members get a decent amount of free food and drink each day….

But that’s a lot in annual fees

Those keeping score at home probably think that sounds just dandy — but holy moley that’s a lot in annual fees. You’re not wrong. Since the $250 resort credit comes back again after your anniversary, we would both have to pay for the card both this year and next year in order to each use the credit twice. That means that altogether, we’ll pay $450 x 4 = $1,800. That’s a lotta cheddar. But let’s break that down. For $1,800, we’ll get:

• $1,500 in airline credits. Follow me here: The $250 per person airline credit is per calendar year. We opened our cards in early 2018. That means we’ll each get $250 this year ($500 total). We’ll then get that benefit again in 2019 (another $500). Then, in January of 2020, we’ll be in a new calendar year before we hit our next anniversary date. That’s another $500 in credits if we use it right away, before paying a third annual fee at the next account anniversary. We have the Southwest Companion Pass through the end of 2019 – so not only is this easy to use, but we’ll get several trips out of it for this year and next. When 2020 rolls around, we’ll see where we are, but we should be able to get nearly full value out of the $500 credit between the two three of us (no more lap infant by then) that year as well.
• $1,000 in resort credits. This is covering our seaplane transfers, not including the $60 per person in tax.
• 4 free weekend nights. We each get a free weekend night this year and we’ll each get one next year. I definitely don’t value these by the cash cost of the room when I never would have considered paying it out of pocket…..but that overwater villa is going for $1,592 per night with tax during our dates….just sayin’.

I don’t know about you, but my calculator puts that together as “more than the $1800 we’re paying”. Even if you only value the airline credits and resort credits at 50% of face value — which I think is way undervaluing them — that would be $1,250 in value from the credits alone. As long as we can get more than $550 in value out of the 4 free weekend nights (that’s $137.50 per night), we’re ahead of the game. The Conrad Maldives has been on our bucket list since we got into this game, so I feel like we were eventually going to pony up that $1,000 for the seaplane transfers — making it pretty darn close to face value for me. Still, I know most astute readers would argue against valuing the resort or airline credits at full face value even if we do end up using them all for trips we would otherwise take. Let’s more realistically (yet still conservatively) value those airline and resort credits at 75% face value: that’s still $1,875 in value. And we’ve still got our 4 weekend night certificates and Diamond status. Any way you run the numbers, it looks pretty good.

Will we actually take this trip?

I really don’t know whether or not we’ll actually take this trip — and that’s why I didn’t fill out the authorization form before writing this post. If we decide to go ahead and do this, I have a lot of time between now and my anniversary date to decide and put down a deposit to trigger this year’s credit. To me, it was more interesting to realize that one doesn’t actually have to stay at a Hilton resort every year to maximize the credit. Rather, if you plan out a resort stay every other year and the resort is willing to take a deposit in advance, you should be able to put together $500 per player towards a Hilton resort every other year. You obviously don’t have to be staying in the Maldives to make that work — perhaps you’d prefer one of the Hilton Disney Springs properties or a resort in the Caribbean, where you may be able to stretch more value out of your credits.

If your plans are set in stone, you could even use this year’s credit to book an advance purchase rate for a property outside the US for something beyond your next annivesary date. For instance, let’s say that your anniversary date is May 6, 2019. Imagine you want to stay at a Hilton property in the Caribbean next May that costs $125 per night. You could simply book 2 nights as a prepaid advance-purchase (say May 10-12) and then 2 nights at the Hilton Honors rate that is paid at the hotel at checkout (May 12-14). Get your $250 credit now for this cardmember year based on the prepaid rate (remember this only works at properties outside the US if you’re using the advance purchase rate). Then get next year’s credit at checkout. Of course, don’t forget to go through a shopping portal or Acorns Found Money or something like that to save even more.

That theoretical example gets you 4 nights out of the resort credit alone and allows you to pile together this year’s credit with next year’s. My point here is this: there are a lot of ways to maximize this; the best way to do it is going to depend on your preferences.

Though I will admit that I’m tempted by the Maldives. As I hunted around a bit more, I found this nugget:

I emailed to confirm that Children under 2 are not charged for the seaplane transfer. Somebody tell Mrs. Reyes that going next year is a $250 win :-).

Bottom line

The Hilton Aspire card is hands down my favorite hotel credit card. In this post, I’ve spilled some digital ink on how much value you can get out of it — and I didn’t mention a word about spending money on this card other than to trigger the credits. That’s because regardless of whether or not you spend a dime on the card, I think the benefits are pretty valuable. I think those benefits magnify if you’re in 2-player mode, with a spouse or partner able to double up with you on annual free nights and airline/resort credits. And the best part is that you should be able to maximize your annual resort credits if you just stay at a Hilton resort every other year, as long as your resort will let you make an advance deposit. You’ll pay out a hefty amount in fees, but you’ll get a heck of a return for your money with even just a little effort at maximization.

Note that we do not earn a commission for this card.

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