A couple of months ago, I put together a resource page on hotel chain Best Rate Guarantees. I recently had occasion to put one of these to use, and the savings were pretty sweet. I wish I could take credit for being smart on this one – but really, I was just lucky. I had been busy and asked a family member to do me a favor and look for my best hotel option. It turned out to be quite the favor.

I was in need of a 3-night hotel booking. Actually, a family member was checking prices for me and she told me she found a Hilton property that fit the bill for $176. I pulled up Hilton.com and didn’t see similar pricing at all. Thinking we had a misconnect, I asked her where she saw the price — and she told me Orbitz. Being a Diamond guest courtesy the Hilton Aspire card (which I wrote about this morning — see: Maximize Hilton resort credit without staying every year), I wasn’t too keen on booking via Orbitz. Irrational as it may be, I wanted my free breakfast. Further, with Hilton offering as many as 54 points per dollar this month for Diamond members with an Amex Hilton card, I didn’t want to pass on the points.

But when I looked it up on Hilton.com, it was $215.44 per night.

That was a lot more than the $176 my family member had fond on Orbitz. I thought for sure the Orbitz rate must have been some type of nonrefundable advance purchase rate for a broom closet in the parking garage or something of the sort. I took a look on Orbitz, and sure enough — the same room with 2 double beds and complimentary Wi-Fi was available for $176. Aware that the devil is in the details and that many chains play the game by denying your claim due to a difference in cancellation policy, I compared the limits of flexibility. Wouldn’t ya know it — cancellation deadlines matched up. Both Hilton.com and Orbitz.com listed a cancellation deadline of 5 days in advance. Actually, Orbtiz also had a slightly higher rate (~$183 if I remember correctly) that had a better cancellation deadline (3 days in advance), but I was going tor savings over 2 extra days of flexibility in this case.

I went ahead and booked it through Hilton.com, and then immediately proceeded to file a Best Rate Guarantee claim form (check the requirements for a BRG claim with Hilton here). As soon as I submitted it, I went back to Orbitz. I wondered if I had booked the last of that room category / rate type. Hotels typically promise to respond to claims within 24 hours, but as we all know, Internet pricing can change at any moment. The cynic in me figured that either that room or rate came out of inventory the moment I booked it or it would come out of inventory before a claim specialist looked at it the next day.

And as fate would have it, that sure looked like what was going to happen. When I searched the hotel and dates on Orbitz again after booking through Hilton, it still showed the $176 price — but when I clicked “book” on that specific room type / cancellation policy, Orbitz kept giving me an error. When I chose any other rate it worked — but not that one. Ugh. I thought for sure I’d get a response from Hilton saying that the $176 rate wasn’t bookable on Orbitz. I had tried to hedge my bets by noting in the Best Rate Guarantee claim that Orbitz actually also had a room with a better cancellation policy that was cheaper than Hilton’s rate, albeit more expensive than the Orbtiz rate with a matching cancellation policy. I was hopeful they might honor the BRG based on the slightly higher rate if nothing else, obviating the need to submit a second claim.

Much to my surprise, about 18 minutes after submitting my form, I received the following email:

Dear Mr. Reyes,

Thank you for filing a Best Price Guarantee claim for your booking at the XXX Hotel. My name is Betty, I will be assisting with your claim.

I have taken the liberty to review your reservation, as well as, the rate available on www.orbitz.com. I was able to confirm that a lower rate of $176.00 per night (before tax) is being offered and will adjust your reservation to reflect the lower rate. In addition, as per the terms of the program, we will also apply a 25% discount to your adjusted rate. Please allow 48 hours for your rate to be adjusted and to receive a re-confirmation email.

We realize that every guest has a choice when traveling and we thank you for making Hilton family of hotels your choice. We look forward to the opportunity to serve your future travel needs.

Best regards,

Betty J.
Corporate Guest Relations Specialist
Hilton Reservations and Customer Care

That was much faster than I expected and exactly what I was hoping for. And it didn’t take 48 hours to receive a re-confirmation email — in fact, I had a new confirmation email in my inbox before I even got Betty’s email.

That’s good for a difference of $288.49 — a difference of more than 38% from the price Hilton wanted for the Hilton Honors rate. And not only that, but after a couple of small incidentals charges, I did earn more than 18,000 Hilton points:

And that’s not including the 14x I’ll earn from paying with my Hilton Aspire card. I expect another 7,000+ points from that — for a total haul of about 25,000 Hilton points on top of saving $288 over the Hilton.com price. Based on our Reasonable Redemption Values, 25K Hilton points are worth more than $112.

Bottom line

I like a good free breakfast, an occasional suite upgrade, and a boatload of points as much as the next guy. But I’ll admit that I have at times fallen victim to loyalty and failed to comparison shop. They don’t give you Diamond status on the Hilton Aspire for nothing — they want you to be blinded by visions of chafing dishes bursting with eggos and egg beaters. Thank goodness my family member shopped around and reminded me of the all-important lesson: don’t let these loyalty programs lure you into the realm of blind loyalty. And she learned a lesson, too — don’t just see the cheap price on Orbitz and book it without trying a best rate guarantee claim. In the end, we looked an awful lot like the kind of consumers I imagine Hilton and Orbitz prefer: I would have paid too much; she would have forgone the points. In the end, we made out a heck of a lot better than either of us would have on our own, and thank goodness for that….because I may have needlessly burnt up a pile of money.

The post Don’t be blinded by loyalty and burn a pile of money: shop around appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Update: See this new post with how to make a number of Amazon Prime Day Deals even better.

Amzaon Prime Day begins today. If you’ve somehow managed to miss the lead-up sales and previous years, Prime Day is a summertime shopping holiday that Amazon has developed over the past couple of years and has turned into a 2-day shopping event. The good news for deal hunters is that lots of other retailers have gotten into the game in order to try to compete, resulting in some solid deals that represent good opportunities for savings (and sometimes for generating points & miles) — even for those who are not Amazon Prime members. Keep in mind that buying stuff you don’t need or wouldn’t have otherwise spent money on isn’t a deal, so be sure you want what you’re buying and that you’ve shopped around to be sure it’s a deal.

eBay’s ad today includes a thinly-veiled jab at Amazon: “Shipping is always free. Plus, no membership fee.”

Instead of sending out a separate Quick Deal alert with all of the Prime Day-related deals, I’ll be updating this post throughout the day with the latest deals I’ve seen. I’ll certainly still publish separate Quick Deals on some things, but I thought many readers would find it useful to have a single comprehensive resource to refer to throughout the day. Additionally, the best of the best deals won’t last long – sliding those into this post will hopefully enable a few readers to scoop them up before they’re gone.

Keep in mind the many opportuntiies for stacking today: whether a shopping portal promo (See: American Airline Shopping Portal: Earn Up To 1,500 Bonus Miles), credit card bonus category, or current Amex Offer, there are many ways to save. It’s also worth repeating that it’s a good idea to check on other retailers as websites like Walmart, eBay, Target, Best Buy, and more are already offering sales in an effort to complete. Lowe’s is a retailer that stands out early on: they are offering 10% off site-wide for MyLowe’s, which stacks with coupons, an offer for a free Google Home mini with $150+ purchase, and 10% back via targeted Amex Offer.

When I add a notable deal to the list, I’ll tweet / post on Facebook via the Frequent Miler handles and I’ll comment on this post with every deal added. If you aren’t doing so already, you might want to consider following Frequent Miler on Twitter and signing up for mobile notifications (to be notified when we tweet) and/or liking our Facebook page (to be notified of posts there) and/or signing up for our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group. Of course, you can also subscribe to the comments section of this post.

Please share any deals you’ve stumbled on in the comments as well. Be patient if your comment doesn’t post immediately; comments with links get caught in our spam filter and have to be individually reviewed. I’ll do my best to check out the deals you submit there and add to the post as appropriate.

Without further adieu, here are deals found during Amazon Prime Day, broken down by store. Don’t forget to go trhough a shopping portal before buying if you are looking to stack savings.

Amazon

Note that these deals may contain our affiliate links.

• Up tp $40 off a Fire Tablet when you pay with at least 1 Citi ThankYou point (stacks with today’s Prime Day discounts on these tablets!)
• Up to $100 off at Amazon: working on gift cards (no longer works with Amazon gift cards, but should work with 3rd party cards)
• Additional 20% off on many categories at Warehouse Deals (discount automatically applied in cart on qualifying items)
• Save $30 off $100 on Prime Fresh with code 30FRESH
• Get $20 off of $60 in beauty products
• Panasonic NB-G110P FlashXpress Toaster Oven for $97 (click coupon on product page for $10 savings)(this item gets excellent reviews)
• Ring Video Doorbell Pro, Works with Alexa for $174.99 (my parents have a previous-generation ring doorbell and love it)
• $5 off of $20 in books with code PRIMEBOOKS18
• Kindle e-reader for $9.99 with stacking promos
• Amazon Fire HD 8 for $19.99 after promos
• Bose QuietComfort 25 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones fpr Apple / Android for $125 (if you have the 20% off promo available, these come down to just $85)
• Contigo AUTOSEAL West Loop Stainless Steel Travel Mug for $11.19 (adding this because this mug is my jam – I own it, use it, love it. Stick it in my bag full of coffee and it’s never spilled on anything. I bring it through security empty and fill up before getting on the plane).

Best Buy

• New targeted Amex Offer: Spend $300, get $30 back / 3,000 Membership Rewards points
• SanDisk – Ultra 128GB USB 3.1 Flash Drive for $24.99
• LG – 2.1-Channel Soundbar System with Wireless Subwoofer and Digital Amplifier for $139.99
• Logitech – Harmony Ultimate Home Remote for $99.99

eBay

• $100 App Store & iTunes gift card for $85 via PayPal Digital Gifts
• $100 Exxon-Mobil gift card for $94 (keep in mind that there is a current Amex Offer for 10% back on some business cards)
• $100 Chevron / Texaco gift card $94

Lowe’s

• 10% off site-wide for My Lowe’s members (Signup is free, 7/16-7/17/18 only. Note that this stacks with coupons and would additionally stack nicely with the Current Amex Offer for 10% back (which is a targeted offer on some business cards)
• Spend $150 or more, get a Free Google Home Mini (ships automatically – does not show up in cart and not valid in-store)
• Bosch 4-Tool 18-Volt Lithium Ion Cordless Combo Kit for $148.50. Add small filler to get free Google Home Mini. Note that this must be available for store pickup for this price – not available in all stores. Truck delivery adds ~$100, so you must find it available for store pickup (check other nearby stores).
• Bosch 18-volt Lithium Ion 1/4-in Cordless Variable Speed Impact Driver (2-Batteries Included) for $99 – 10% = $89.10 (Same as above – must find it available for store pickup)

Macy’s

• Save 15%-25% off select items site-wide w/ coupon code SHOPIT; free shipping on all orders through 7/17 (see list of exclusions here)
• Krups EA9010 Barista Automatic One Espresso Maker: $1,999.99 – Stack with AA portal for 10x miles (20,000 miles earned). Reports in the FM Lab are mixed, but it may be possible to use a gift card and earn miles. If that’s true, you could buy discounted gift cards (current best rate is ~7%) or buy gift cards through MileagePlus X for another 3x miles per dollar. This is not an item for me, but I know some people are into these fancy espresso machines. Depending on how you value the miles, this could be a very good deal for this model. I’ll stick with a Keurig (with reusable cups) and a Nespresso – so note that I don’t know whether this model is actually worth the price tag. If you’re tempted to buy it, hopefully you do.

Office Depot / Office Max

• Buy $50 or more in Office Depot gift cards, get 20% back in rewards

Rakuten.com

• 20% off site-wide with coupon code: SAVE20 (max discount of $50)
• Sony WH1000XM2/B Noice cancelling wireless headphones w/ $40 Visa Gift Card – (BLACK): $248 after above coupon (SAVE20)

Sam’s Club

• 20% off select gift cards (stacks with Current Amex Offer)

Sears

• Spend $30+, get $30 in cashback points to spend through Tuesday — note the quick expiration. Also save 10% with code SIZZLE. Some example deals that come with $30 in cashback points:
  • 108-piece mechanics’ tool set for $35.99
  • DieHard 4-gauge jumper cables for $37.50
• 100% back in cashback points on Sealy Response McCann mattresses (note that this is paid out as 1.9% of the points weekly for 52 weeks (with those points set to expire every 7 days). Only do this deal if you both have faith that Sears will be in business long enough for you to make out well and you know that you will need/want to spend that much at Sears every week.

Target

• Mobile coupon for $20 off of $50 in-store or online, valid through 10/31/18
  • Text LKWKGK to 827438 (Target)
  • Excludes alcohol, Apple products, Bose, CVS clinic & pharmacy, dairy milk, DSLR cameras & lenses, Elf on the Shelf, gift cards, Google products, GoPro, LEGO, mobile contracts, prepaid cards, Sonos, Target Optical, Tylenol pain relief, and Weber
  • Google Voice works for this coupon Update: Coupon appears to have died. Will update if it comes back to life. (Thanks, meathead)

Walgreen’s

• 25-count 4″x6″ prints for $0.25 with coupon code PENNYPIX (free in-store pickup)

Walmart.com

• Many Blu Rays  / Disc & Digital combinations for $9.99 (including TV seasons like Game of Thrones, recent hit movies like La La Land and The Shape of Water, and classics like the Back to the Future trilogy

Williams-Sonoma

• Anova Precision Sous Vide Cooker with Wi-Fi: $72 with coupon code friends

The post Prime Day Deals – not just Amazon – updated all day appeared first on Frequent Miler.

With the recent launch of the new World of Hyatt Credit Card, it’s finally become possible to manufacture top-tier Hyatt Globalist status through spend. By stacking a couple of current promotions, it gets even “easier”. I put that in quotations on purpose — this post is definitely more theoretical than practical. Still, with some spend and a month in Tulsa, you could get yourself Hyatt Globalist status.

Last year, I used a Hyatt Globalist suite upgrade to spend a few nights in this 2-level suite at the Grand Hyatt Singapore

Spend your way to status

In my review of the new World of Hyatt Credit Card, I noted that 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).

Another Globalist suite upgrade 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.

That will come in handy when stacked with 2 other current promotions….

Stacking 10% back and 2500 points for 5 nights

Yesterday, Stephen posted a quick deal highlighting the return of a popular Hyatt promotion: a 10% rebate on award stays between August 1st and September 30th (See: Hyatt Offering Cardmembers 10% Points Rebate On Award Stays This Summer). See that post for full details, but essentially cardholders will get 10% of redeemed points back.

In that post, Stephen touched on a really interesting way to stack promotions. There is currently a second promotion running for stays at Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt locations: stay 5 nights, get 2,500 points (See: Hyatt Promo: 2,500 Points Every 5 Nights At Hyatt Regency & Grand Hyatt). That’s interesting because that promo works on award stays and the dates overlap somewhat — that promo runs through August 31st — meaning that it is possible to stack the 10% back promo with the 2,500 points back promo.

Stephen also touched on the fact that there just so happen to be 30 Hyatt Regency properties worldwide that are in Category 1 and therefore cost only 5,000 points per night (to find them, click here and change region to “all” and “Hotel Category” to “1 – 5,000 points per night”). When staying at one of those properties, the stacking promotions mean that every 5th night is effectively “free”. That’s because 5 award nights would ordinarily cost you 25,000 points. However, with the promos, this is how it would look:

25,000 points (5 nights x 5K per night)
-2,500 points (10% rebate for credit card holders)
 -2,500 points (Hyatt Regency promo for 5 night stays)
20,000 points = “net” cost for 5 nights

I have the world “net” in quotations because while true, it won’t be quite that simple. The terms of the 10% bonus points rebate for credit card holders state that the points will post 6-8 weeks after check out. I don’t see a timeframe in the terms on the 5-night Hyatt Regency promo. You’ll need to be able to front the 25,000 points for 5 nights — but if you can, your net cost will be 20K for 5 nights once those promo bonuses post.

If you were to book an extended stay, 10 nights would cost you a net 40K points. If you were to stay at the (Category 1) Hyatt Regency Tulsa, Oklahoma from August 1st to August 30th, 2018, it would cost you a net 120,000 points.

Lest you think I’m making this stuff up….proof that an award stay is available August 1-30th.

From zero to Globalist in a month

Let’s say you recently signed up for the World of Hyatt Credit Card. The new cardmember bonus on that card is good for 60,000 points after a total of $6,000 in spend in the first 3 months. Let’s further say that you were able to get that entire $6,000 spend done and your statement cuts ahead of August 1st. In that case, you would immediately have more than half the points needed for the month of August (66,000 total points assuming all of your credit card spend were at 1x). You would need an additional 54,000 points to reach the full 120K points required to spend the month in Tulsa.

Let’s further say that you had the ability to spend an additional $54,000 in the near future — a tall order for sure, but this is a theoretical exercise. Let’s further say that you could do it by early August and that you could call or secure message Chase to get your statement closing date changed to cut early enough for the points to post in time for you to book the rest of August in Tulsa (which admittedly might be tough once Tulsa sees the Frequent Miler effect on bookings). Between your initial $6K spend, your new $54K spend, and the 60K points from the signup bonus, you would have 120,000 points (representing your “net” cost of staying in Tulsa for the month). Of course, you would actually need another 30K points to start since 30 nights at 5K per night will initially cost you 150K — remember that the bonus points from the two promotions may not post before the end of August. Hopefully, you have some Chase Ultimate Rewards that you don’t mind moving over to Hyatt. Even if you don’t, I bet you have a friend who would be willing to transfer you 30K Hyatt points as an investment in your bid for Globalist status in the hopes that you’re the sharing type.

Again, your numbers would look like this:

150,000 Hyatt points (30 nights x 5K per night)
– 15,000 Hyatt points (10% cardholder rebate)
– 15,000 Hyatt points (2500 points for every 5 nights x 6)
120,000 Hyatt points (net cost for 30 nights at a Cat 1 Hyatt Regency

And to get that 120K points:

  60,000 Hyatt points (new World of Hyatt CC bonus after spending $6K/3mo)
6,000 Hyatt points (from spending $6K to earn the bonus)
+ 54,000 Hyatt points (spending an additional $54,000 at 1x)
120,000 Hyatt points

So that’s a total of $60,000 spend in order to earn the 120,000 points to cover the net cost of 30 nights in Tulsa (or any Cat 1 Hyatt Regency). Your 30 nights in Tulsa gets you halfway to Globalist status, which requires 60 qualifying nights (and award nights count).

However, your $60,000 spend also helps you make huge progress towards Globalist status. That’s because you earn credit for 2 elite nights for every $5,000 you spend on that card. This means that your $60,000 in spend will earn you an additional 24 elite nights.

$60,000 ÷ $5,000 = 12
12 x 2 elite nights = 24 elite nights

Put together with your 30 nights in Tulsa, that’s 54 elite nights – six short of Globalist status. Good news on that — as mentioned near the beginning of this post, the new World of Hyatt Credit Card automatically gives credit for 5 elite nights, bringing you to 59 nights. After $15,000 in spend on the credit card, you’ll earn a free Cat 1-4 night — which you can use for the night of August 30th (either in Tulsa or at any other Cat 1-4 Hyatt, I’ll let you decide)…bringing you to 60 nights of elite credit in 30 days, otherwise known as enough elite nights for Hyatt Globalist status, earned in 30 days.

And you would even have a couple of free nights to show for your efforts: Hyatt awards a Cat 1-4 free night after you achieve 30 elite nights and a Category 1-7 free night after earning 60 nights, meaning that you would have two free night certificates after completing your month in Tulsa. Or whichever Cat 1 Hyatt Regency / Regencies you choose.

But it’s not very realistic

As mentioned from the outset, that’s a highly theoretical approach. You would need to have the points and the flexibility to spend a month in Tulsa / Category 1 Hyatt Regencies. Further, you’d have to do a lot of spend in a short amount of time, and with the way Chase has been shutting down accounts in recent months (See: Why Chase shutdowns have increased and how to avoid them), I wouldn’t advise you to open a new credit card and spend $54,000 on it in the first month.

That said, if you already have Ultimate Rewards to invest in this and you don’t mind having those points tied up in World of Hyatt (and you probably don’t since you’ll be earning Globalist status and therefore you’ll likely be booking some more award stays once you have status), it’s certainly not unrealistic to meet the spend required by the end of the year (keep in mind that the bonus elite qualifying nights from spend might take a few weeks to post, so I’d want to be done with the spend by early November at the latest).

Unfortunately, you would have needed to have planned ahead on this because the Hyatt Regency promo required registration by July 15th. Since the landing page still works, I tried to register, but to no avail.

Of course, that’s why I always say that you should register for promotions as soon as they are announced, whether you intend to take advantage of them or not. You never know when they might come in handy unexpectedly. Do as I say, not as I do.

10% back stacks with Andaz promo, too

While I wouldn’t suggest trying to manufacture status by staying at Andaz properties, the 10% rebate for credit card holders also overlaps with the current promotion for double elite qualifying credit on Andaz stays (no registration required, runs through August 31st).

The cheapest Andaz hotel in terms of award pricing in the Andaz Ottawa Byward Market. At 12,000 points per night before the rebate, your net cost would be 10,800 points per night. That’s kind of interesting. Since you’d be picking up 2 elite nights per night spent at an Andaz, the net cost to earn 2 elite nights isn’t bad at all. Again, I wouldn’t look to spend 30 nights this way, but it’s always fun to stack 2 promotions on a stay you were already planning.

Bottom line

Practically, this idea would be crazy if not impossible to execute. Of course, the concept of stacking these promotions means it would be much easier for someone with other planned activity (whether nights already earned or to be earned from future planned stays) to earn Hyatt Globalist status. The Hyatt Regency Tulsa is far from the only Hyatt Regency in the US — it’s just the first one where I found August 1-30th available for award stays (Austin and Wichita, you disappointed me). If your travel plans bring you to one of the cities with a low-category Hyatt Regency and you both have the new World of Hyatt Credit Card and had the foresight to register for the 2,500-point promotion, you can fast-track yourself to Hyatt Globalist status with a lower net cost, and that sentence certainly has a nice ring to it.

The post Easy Hyatt Globalist status: Move to Tulsa for a month appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Chase has sent out emails to at least some British Airways Visa Signature cardholders with what is likely a targeted promotion to earn an extra 3x on purchases of $1,000 or more, up to 9,000 bonus Avios. A single purchase of $3,000 would max out this promotion. Earning a total of 4x is a pretty sweet deal if you can make any large purchases during the promo window.

The Deal

• Some users are reporting a targeted email from Chase to earn up to 9,000 bonus Avios with the British Airways Visa Card (it’s possible that there is a similar promo for the Iberia or Aer Lingus cards — if you have received a similar offer with another card, let us know in the comments)
• Offer is to earn a bonus 3x on purchase transactions of $1,000 or more, up to 9,000 bonus Avios between July 15 and September 15, 2018
• Email contains a unique registration link with the subject line, “[Name], Shae, your 9,000 bonus Avios are waiting”
• You may be able to see this link and enter your details to see if you are targeted, though I’m not positive whether that will work (mychasebonus.com is the domain of the link in the email)

Key Terms

• Must click the link in the email and enroll by 09/15/18 11:59 p.m. ET
• A purchase transaction must bill and post to your account in an amount that is equal to or greater than $1,000 (if you purchase multiple items that ship and bill separately, it will not count)
• See your offer for full terms

Quick Thoughts

As noted at the top, earning 4x Avios is a nice deal — even if you only value Avios at 1c each, that’s a very good return for a couple of large purchases. If you value them anything above that, it’s quite strong if you have a large purchase that would otherwise be unbonused spend.

That said, keep in mind that this is only for purchase transactions that are $1,000 or more. If ordering something online, you have to be careful about merchants processing charges separately. Some merchants will charge you separately for each item as it ships. I’d want to be reasonably sure that whatever I was paying for would bill together to make sure you trigger the promotion.

Depending on how you value Avios, this promotion might be worthwhile for paying estimated taxes (See: Pay taxes via credit card, 2018 edition). You would pay a credit card fee of 1.87%. On a $3,000 payment, that amounts to $56.10 and you would earn a total of 12,000 Avios (1x on all purchases + 3x bonus). Obviously, if you have other purchases in mind, you wouldn’t want to pay the credit card fee — but I’d be a buyer at $56.10 for 12K Avios (a lot of us were buyers at $30 for 9K Avios recently, anyway).

Are you a British Airways Visa cardholder? Did you get targeted for this one?

The post 3x bonus Avios on purchases $1K+ w/ British Airways Visa [Targeted] appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Chase is out today with a new credit card: the Chase Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card. It isn’t everything I’d hoped for in a rumored premium card, but with a $149 annual fee it isn’t as expensive as I’d expected, either. Since it will cost $50 more per year than the Chase Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Premier card, many readers will wonder: is it worth the extra fifty bucks? In short, I’d say the answer is “absolutely” if you fly Southwest regularly. Unlike the Premier, which is mostly only worth it for the signup bonus, the Priority card might be a long-term keeper. Unfortunately, those who currently have a Southwest personal card or who have received a new cardmember bonus on one in the past 24 months are not eligible for the new cardmember bonus on this one. This card is subject to the Chase 5/24 rule.

The Offer

• Earn up to 65,000 Rapid Rewards points: 40,000 points after $1,000 in purchases in the first 3 months plus an additional 25,000 points after $15,000 in total purchases in the first year
• See more details and find an application link on our Chase Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Priority card page.

Key Card Details

• $149 annual fee is not waived
• $75 annual Southwest credit (applied automatically via statement credit on up to $75 in cumulative purchases, excludes upgraded boarding and in-flight purchases)
• 7,500 Rapid Rewards points each anniversary
• Four A1-A15 upgraded boardings each year (applied via statement credit)
• 20% back on in-flight drinks, Wi-Fi, messaging, and movies
• No foreign transaction fees
• Earn 1,500 Tier Qualifying Points for every $10K in purchases (up to $100K in purchases)
• Earn 2x on Southwest and on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental purchases
• Earn 1x everywhere else

Card Review

When a premium Southwest card was rumored many months ago, I think most people envisioned a card with a higher annual fee that seemed more in line with the benefits of the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Ritz-Carlton, Amex Hilton Aspire, or the coming SPG Luxury card. This card isn’t that. However, once you get past that, I think this card is an outstanding value for frequent Southwest flyers.

New cardmember bonus

First, it offers a two-tiered welcome bonus. The first part, 40,000 Rapid Rewards points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months, will be a very easy target to reach for most. Second, an additional 25,000 points after spending $15,000 in the first year is obviously an attempt to get you to continue exercising the card. That makes for an effective return of 2.78 Rapid Rewards per dollar on unbonused spend for the additional $14K necessary to trigger the second bonus (1x on $14K + 25K bonus).

If you are looking to earn a Southwest Companion Pass, you’ll want to hold off on applying for this card until near the end of the year and then meet the spending requirements early in 2019. That’s because the Companion Pass requires you to earn 110,000 points in one calendar year. If you earn 40,000 points from the first $1K spend this year and then hit the $15K in spend for the additional 25K points in 2019, you’ll be shorting yourself in terms of progress towards the Companion Pass in either year. It would be better to apply for this card in November or December and wait to meet the initial $1K requirement until January so that all 65K points can post in 2019. Note that the current offer is set to expire August 22nd, 2018 — but the timing on completing spend and earning the points still isn’t ideal.

Speaking of earning a Companion Pass, it will still be possible to do so via 2 credit card intro offers, but one of them will have to be the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Business card. That’s because the terms on this one exclude those who currently have a Southwest Airlines personal credit card or who have received a new cardmember bonus on one in the past 24 months (I’ve added bold for emphasis here):

The product is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapids Rewards® Credit Card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card who received a new Cardmember bonus within the last 24 months. This does not apply to Cardmembers of the Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Card and Employee Credit Card products

Again, you would want to time those applications and spend to be sure that all of the bonus points post in one calendar year.

Valuable ongoing benefits

In terms of benefits, I think the card clearly offers ongoing value that outpaces the annual fee.

The terms state that in-flight purchases and upgraded boarding are excluded from the $75 annual credit, but do not exclude gift card purchases.

For starters, it offers a $75 annual credit on Southwest purchases. If you intend to spend at least $75 per year on Southwest flights, that will certainly feel like cutting the annual fee in half. We typically value statement credits like that at 90% of face value for the purposes of determining the first-year value of a card, so our value on that is $67.50. Either way, regular Southwest flyers shouldn’t have trouble using up $75 annually. One key note: The terms state that the credit will be per cardmember year based on when the charge posts. In other words, if you buy a ticket the day before your anniversary date but the charge doesn’t post until the day after your anniversary date, the $75 credit from year #2 will apply and you’ll have missed out on the credit from year #1. Moral of the story: don’t buy a ticket at the last minute before your anniversary. Second key note: The terms of this credit do not exclude gift card purchases. Even if you don’t intend to fly one year, it looks like you could still buy a gift card to take advantage of your credit.

Next, it offers 7,500 points every year at anniversary. According to our Reasonable Redemption Values, that’s worth about $112.50, though it can be worth as much as $143 depending on the situation (See: The new true value of Southwest points, 2018 edition. How to get up to 1.9 cents per point value). Personally, I value points a bit more than the straight purchase power of said points because they are more flexibile once the ticket is booked. That’s because when you cancel a flight booked on points, those points return to your account with no expiration or restrictions (beyond the normal Southwest policy of 24 months of inactivity). A ticket paid with cash, on the other hand, is returned as a Southwest credit in that passenger’s name that is good for a year from the date of booking.

Between the annual credit and points, most people would already be ahead with this card every year. Note that you don’t get the 7500 anniversary points the first year, but the new cardmember intro offer more than makes up for that.

Beyond that, the four upgraded boardings each year is a pretty nice benefit in my opinion. This is valid for paying up to A1-A15 boarding, which is something you can do at the gate before your flight based on availability. This comes in handy when you’ve forgotten to check in 24 hours ahead for your flight or accepted a bump to a later flight or experienced irregular operations. Normally, upgraded boarding costs $30-$40 per segment (based on distance, but almost always $40). The terms clearly state that this can be used for multiple people on a single flight or over separate flights. You pay at the gate and get reimbursed as a statement credit.

How you value upgraded boarding depends on how you will use it, but I think it is fair to compare it to the cost of Early Bird Check In (EBCI), since you could theoretically use the upgrades in place of paying for EBCI. You ordinarily pay $15 each way for EBCI (and it’s nonrefundable – you lose that money if you cancel your ticket), whereas you pay per segment for upgraded boarding. If you ordinarily fly direct flights, these upgrades would potentially save you from paying the EBCI fee 4 times (though keep in mind that you’re chancing it a bit as A1-A15 boarding may not be available). On the other hand, if you would have booked a round trip flight with 2 connections each way (6 total flights), your four upgrades from the credit card won’t even cover one full round trip itinerary (normally $30 total for EBCI). I think most people are probably somewhere in between, booking a round trip with 1 connection each way. We can therefore conservatively value the four upgrades at $30, recognizing that they will be significantly more valuable for some. In my case, I think I’ve ended up paying for A1-A15 boarding at least twice a year for the past couple of years. Now that we have a baby, we would get family boarding (immediately after Group A), so I don’t think this benefit would be particularly valuable to me at the moment (though we’d certainly still put the upgrades to use).

Actually, I think some people might find the upgraded boarding to be quite a bit more valuable in the sense that it provides a backup plan and disincentive to choose Early Bird Check In that might save you multiple times. If I knew I had the upgraded boarding credits as a backup, I would be more apt to first try checking myself in 24 hours in advance rather than paying for EBCI, figuring that I could get to the gate early if need be and pay to upgrade. When I check in on my own, I usually get a boarding position with which I’m happy. I could see where having this backup plan could save someone on EBCI fees multiple times over the course of the year.

Twenty percent back on in-flight purchases probably won’t amount to much for most people, though I often pay for Wi-Fi since I’m usually trying to get work done in-flight. This benefit isn’t a major draw, but it’s better than paying full price.

No foreign transaction fees and 2x on Southwest purchases are nice enough, though I think the true vlaue on this card lies in the various credits above. Those who fly Southwest often enough to be within reach of A-list status may be happy to be able to earn 1,500 Tier Qualifying Points with each $10,000 in purchases (up to $100K in total purchases). If you are the type to earn a Companion Pass from actual spend, you could earn up to 15,000 Tier Qualifying Points per year.

Direct comparison to the Premier card

Since the annual fee is so close in price to the Premier card, I’m sure many readers will want to see how this card stacks up against the Premier version. Most of the benefits of the two cards are identical. However, there are a few key differences that make the Priority card more valuable. See the chart below for a comparison and the cash values along with how they were calculated.

As you can see, the ongoing value of the Chase Soutrhwest Rapid Rewards Priority card are worth at least $70 more than the Premier even after accounting for the $50 difference in annual fee. If you value the upgraded boarding more than the conservative $30 estimate I used, or you frequently buy in-flight drinks or Wi-Fi, you may find the Priority card even more valuable.

Truly, the Premier card does not hold much ongoing benefit. It is more or less a wash in terms of the value of the anniversary points stacked up against the annual fee, but the Priority card offers more ongoing value than the annual fee. At the time of writing, both cards come with an intro offer that includes 40,000 points after $1,000 in purchases in the first 3 months. The Priority Card steps it up with the chance to earn an additional 25K with an additional $14K in purchases in the first year. That said, the offer on the Premier often increases. That might make a difference for you. But in terms of long-term value, the Priority card would be the one that makes more sense for most people to hold.

Yes, it’s subject to 5/24

According to several commenters at Doctor of Credit, this card is subject to 5/24.

Upgrades possible

Doctor of Credit also indicates that there is a targeted upgrade offer of 5,000 points for upgrading to this card and making a purchase by September 30th. That upgrade would certainly make sense for those well over 5/24 without intention to dip below any time soon as this card is more valuable as an ongoing keeper. Click here to see if you are targeted for an upgrade.

Tour with free stuff

Southwest is planning to trot out this new card with a tour giving away some free stuff, including Rapid Rewards points and even a round trip ticket. Oddly, residents of New York, Florida, Rhose Island, and DC are excluded. I’m sure someone in the comments will point out the legal reason for that, though I don’t recall residents of New York being excluded from other giveaways. See more about the tour here.

Bottom line

While not the premium card many were probably expecting, this new Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Priority card looks like it offers a lot of value for frequent Southwest passengers. Between the value of the points and annual $75 credit, it wouldn’t be hard to come out ahead of the annual fee every year. If you find use for the four upgrades and in-flight rebate, it looks like a pretty good deal. Hopefully, we’ll see a good new cardmember bonus available on this card later in the year. The current offer is set to expire on August 22nd, but most people would be better off waiting so as to earn the introductory bonus points early in the next calendar year for the purposes of Companion Pass qualification.

The post New Southwest Priority card: Better than the Premier? appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Yesterday, we reported a Chase spending offer on the British Airways visa Signature card that is being emailed out to some cardholders. Over the past day, spending offers have come out on many other cards — each with targeted email registration. Here are some of the offers to watch out for if you have any of these cards:

• British Airways Visa Signature card: Get 3x bonus Avios on purchase transactions of $1K+ (up to 9K bonus Avios)
• Hyatt Credit Card (old version, no longer available for new applicants): Earn 2K bonus points when you make purchases totaling $4K or more (Expires 9 /15)
• Marriott Rewards Premier (old version, no longer available for new applicants): Earn 2K bonus points when you make purchases totaling $4K or more (Expires 9 /15)
• Ritz-Carlton Rewards: Earn 2K bonus points when you make purchases totaling $4K or more (Expires 9 /15)
• United MileagePlus card:
  • Spend $4,000 on purchases and get an additional 2,000 miles H/T: My Points Life via Doctor of Credit
  • Earn an extra 3x miles on purchases of $1,000 or more, up to a limit of 9,000 miles. This means the card earns 4x miles on all purchases of $1,000+. H/T: Doctor of Credit
• Southwest: Spend $4,000 on purchases and get an additional 2,000 points (works out to be an extra 0.5x points per $1 spent). H/T: Doctor of Credit

Do you need to register before making a purchase?

Of course, I was kicking myself when I saw the email about the bonus on my Ritz card. I am completing the $10K spend necessary for previous cardholders (I’ve had my Ritz card a couple of years) to earn “old Gold” that we expect to transition to “new Platinum” next month, and I spent almost enough to trigger the 2K bonus in the past 24 hours before seeing the email.

However, a read of the terms indicates to me that you do not need to register prior to making purchases. The terms state that you must register prior to September 15th. And indeed, since the bonus is valid on purchases beginning July 15th and the email only came through on July 19th, that makes sense. Here’s the pertinent part of the terms:

* To be eligible for this bonus offer, you must log on to the website referenced in this offer and enroll by 09/15/18 11:59 p.m. ET. You will qualify for and receive your bonus if you make Purchases with your credit card that total an amount at or above the specified target amount during the promotional period. Purchases posted to your account with a transaction date during the offer period are eligible for this offer. 

It doesn’t state that you must register first, so I think I’m a stone’s throw away from a bonus 2K points. I’m a little short, but I’ll hold off on making those last few purchases until August 27th, since my Ritz card will then earn 2x everywhere (See: New details on Marriott & Ritz cards: no more elite credit per $3K spend, free night changes, more). Those who haven’t yet done any purchases during the promo period (and aren’t spending towards status on the card), would be better off waiting to make purchases until after the new benefits take effect. That’s because you’ll earn a total of 2.5x per $1 with the bonus offer (2x everywhere + an extra 0.5x). That’s still not a great return by any stretch, but if you know you’ll get enough value out of the points to make it worthwhile, it might not be bad.

Airline and Hyatt offers are the best

All that said, since Marriott points are only worth about 0.72 cents each, 2.5x only works out to a return of about 1.8%. You certainly can get a better value out of your points, but it’s not a given.

On the other hand, the airline and Hyatt offers can easily work out to beat a 2% cash back card, especially if you use them for particularly valuable redemptions. While there are ways to earn even more points on many purchases since these loyalty programs are Ultimate Rewards transfer partners, those with low-cost Manufactured Spending options can still make out well ahead.

Bottom line

If you’re a Chase co-branded credit card holder, be on the lookout for a targeted spending offer. Even if you don’t intend to spend on that card, it’s always a good idea to register for a promo like this just in case. You obviously should not dedicate this much spend on one of these cards if it detracts from more valuable return elsewhere, but there are some scenarios where each of these offers could make sense.

The post Chase spending offers: Ritz, Hyatt, Marriott, airlines [Targeted] appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Due to sweet opportunities, I know that many readers have recently picked up the Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite card. One of the benefits this card carries is $300 in annual airline fee reimbursements. While things like seat upgrades and lounge access officially count for reimbursement under this credit, many readers want to know what unofficially works in terms of gift cards and fees that might not appear to fall into the list of qualifying charges. We mantain a similar resource page for Amex cards (See: Amex airline fee credits: What still works?), so I have published a new resource for the Chase Ritz-Carlton card. See:

Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa airline fee credits: What works?

However, you’ll see that existing recent data is limited. I combed through the data I could find online from the past year or two and added my own experiences, but we need reader input. If you have the Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa card, please comment with your experiences in getting the annual travel credit reimbursements. Please include:

1. Type of charge (i.e. AA gift card / Alaska award fees / etc)
2. Date of charge
3. Requested via phone or secure message
4. Success or failure

Unlike some other premium cards, the Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa airline credits are not automatic. You must either call the number on the back of your card or send a secure message to be reimbursed, which adds a human element as someone must manually process the credit. That adds a lot more potential for variance in what works from one agent to the next. However, understanding what has worked for others can be helpful in identifying what is possible, though recognize that it might require an extra phone call or secure message or two to get your desired result.

Feel free to comment here today or on that resource page in the future and we will update it regularly to include recent data points. Reader input is what helps keep resource pages like this current, so thanks in advance for your recent data points.

Again, see the resource page for what works and to help us with your recent data:

Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa airline fee credits: What works?

The post Ritz-Carlton fee credits: What works? (reader data needed) appeared first on Frequent Miler.

American Express has been sending targeted emails to Business Gold Rewards cardholders offering up to 30,000 bonus Membership Rewards when meeting spending targets.

The Deal

• Earn 20,000 Membership Rewards points when spending $5,000, then
• Earn 10,000 extra Membership Rewards points when spending an additional $5,000.
• Direct link to registration. This offer is targeted, so you might receive a message advising it’s not available to you.

Key Terms

• Qualifying spend must be completed by October 15, 2018.
• Qualifying purchases on all Cards under a particular Card Account (including the Basic Card as well as any Additional or Employee Cards) are combined for the purpose of calculating the amount of spending that counts towards the Spend Requirement for each tier. Membership Rewards points for this Offer are credited to the Basic Card Member only.
• You will receive a maximum of a 30,000 Membership Rewards points under this Offer, if you meet the Spend Requirement for both tiers.
• You will receive a maximum of a 20,000 Membership Rewards points under this Offer, if you meet the Spend Requirement for only the first tier.
• Membership Rewards points for each tier will appear on your billing statement 8-12 weeks after you have met the Spend Requirement for that tier.
• Limit one offer per Card Account.
• Qualifying purchases are purchases for goods and services. Qualifying purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, purchases of travelers checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, or purchases of other cash equivalents.

Quick Thoughts

The first tier of this offer is the most rewarding as you’ll effectively earn 4x bonus Membership Rewards. The second tier is still a good offer, but only offers 2x bonus Membership Rewards for that $5,000 of spend.

The Business Gold Rewards card earns 3x in a category of your choosing. If you have high expenditure in that particular category and met the first tier’s $5,000 spending requirement solely in that category, you’d be earning 7x. If you maxed out both tiers solely in that category by October 15, you’d earn 6x on the entire $10,000.

Doctor of Credit reports that there are similar targeted offers being sent out to Business Platinum cardholders.

h/t Reader Drew & DoC.

The post Existing Cardholders Of Amex Business Gold Rewards: Earn Up To 30k Membership Rewards (Targeted) appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Puttin’ on the Ritz

Yesterday Nick published a couple of posts that had me wondering about travel protections provided by the Ritz-Carlton credit card.  He wrote about the Ritz card’s airline fee reimbursements, and he published an airfare deal that was made significantly sweeter by using the Visa Infinite Discount Air program where you get $100 off round-trip domestic airfare for two (both the Ritz card and the CNB Crystal Visa Infinite card provide the Visa Infinite benefit).

Some of the options for getting the airline fee reimbursements that readers have reported success with involve using the Ritz card to pay for airfare in-part with the Ritz card, or to pay for airfare upgrades, or award booking fees.  The Visa Infinite Discount Air program also requires paying with the Ritz card.

The reason I started wondering about Ritz travel protections is that I almost always use my Sapphire Reserve card to pay airfare or award fees.  When I published my guide to Ultra-Premium Credit Card Travel Insurance, I learned that the Sapphire Reserve had best-in-class coverage.  With the standard stuff offered by most cards (trip cancellation and interruption, trip delay, travel accident insurance, etc.), the Sapphire Reserve has you covered even if you only pay in-part with the card.  You’re even covered if you pay with airline or hotel points from one of Chase’s partners!  And, better yet, the Sapphire Reserve offers additional coverage that is less common: primary car rental (you do have to pay this one in full with your card), $100K emergency evacuation and transportation, and emergency medical & dental.

To take advantage of the Ritz card’s benefits, I realized that I may have to use the Ritz card instead of my Sapphire Reserve card to pay for award fees and airline tickets (the latter especially when using the Visa Infinite discount).  I decided that it would be a good idea then to update my Ultra-Premium Credit Card Travel Insurance guide to include the Ritz card.  This turned out to be much easier than expected…

The Ritz-Carlton Card and the Sapphire Reserve card share the same travel protections.  I didn’t check the benefits guides line by line, but I checked every Sapphire Reserve entry in my Ultra-Premium Credit Card Travel Insurance guide and found that the Ritz offered the same protections!  That’s awesome!

What about the United MileagePlus Club Card?

Another ultra-premium co-branded card offered by Chase is the $450 United MileagePlus Club Card.  I tried to find a current benefits guide for this card, but the online guide is from 2013.  At least at that time, the travel protection benefits were not as good as the Sapphire Reserve & Ritz cards (the United card had 12 hour trip delay coverage instead of 6 hour, for example).  But, I bet the real benefits have been updated since then. If anyone can share a link to an updated guide (or is willing to email scans to me), I’d appreciate it!

CNB Crystal Visa Infinite

Since I was digging around the Ultra-Premium Credit Card Travel Insurance guide anyway, I decided to finally add the CNB Crystal Visa Infinite card to the guide.  Compared to the Sapphire Reserve & Ritz cards, the CNB card did not fare well.  One exception: For hotel stays in the US and Canada, the CNB card offers up to $1,000 in hotel theft protection as long as you paid for the stay fully with the CNB card.  I haven’t seen this type of protection on any other card.

Bottom Line

The Ritz-Carlton Card isn’t as rewarding for travel spend as the Sapphire Reserve Card, but it’s travel protections appear to be just as good.  So, now I can go ahead and take advantage of the Ritz airline fee reimbursements and the Visa Infinite Discount Air program without worrying about travel protection.  Excellent!

For full details about the travel protections offered by the Ritz card, Sapphire Reserve card, CNB card, and other ultra-premium cards, please see:

Ultra-Premium Credit Card Travel Insurance

The post Ritz matches best-in-class Sapphire Reserve travel protections. CNB, not so much. appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Some people get into miles & points to travel more, others to travel more cheaply, and still others to travel more luxuriously. Some are drawn into this obsession hobby for the thrill of the hunt — whether a way to stack as many points as possible on the earning side or redeeming for maximum value. Of course, it gets tricky in determining which option returns maximum value, and I’ve run into a bit of a dilemma in that regard. I thought I’d lay this one out and ask readers what you would do.

Goal: A cheap vacation

Last year, I booked flights on Delta in business class from New York to California via Virgin Atlantic thanks to Virgin’s online search tool showing more Delta availability than we may have otherwise expected (See: Holy availability! Transcon flat beds in Delta business for 18K points; Hawaii cheap, too). As those flights approach, we’ve been thinking about how to turn the trip into a vacation we can enjoy while minimizing out-of-pocket costs.

An option that quickly came to mind was to put our Southwest Companion Pass to use and head from California down to San Jose del Cabo to spend a few days at the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos in Mexico. This Hyatt all-inclusive resort seemed like it might be a good idea since we could really just kick back and relax without focusing on a budget for meals, gas, etc – points could cover just about our whole trip. We’ve never been to an all-inclusive resort, but this one seemed like a good fit for the situation.

I initially just assumed I would book this stay on points because I know the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos runs just 20K Hyatt points per night. That seems like a pretty good deal considering the fact that it covers the room, food, drinks, entertainment, etc. While I don’t expect Michelin-star food at an all-inclusive, the restaurant variety sounds pretty good (Japanese, French, Italian, Mexican, Spanish tapas, coffee house, snack shack, etc). I was pretty sold on the idea. We decided we would consider a four-night stay.

Finding award availability

I knew from previous searches that Hyatt.com does not show award availability for the all-inclusive properties but rather instructs you to call. Figuring I’d save myself the time on hold, I reached out to the Hyatt Concierge on Twitter and asked about award availability for the dates I was considering.

Unfortunately, the only dates available near my dates were starting on the last day of my intended trip. Bummer! I inquired about the room type I’d need to find to book an award (Master Double / Master King) and figured I’d just set up a search link and come back to it periodically.

Finding availability…that opened up other options

A few hours later, I did a search and came up with the Pool View Master King, which is not the same thing as a “Master King” — this is not the “standard” room at this property.

However, the price instantly thickened the plot.

As you can see, the price for my dates came to $265 per night for an advance purchase rate (or $279 for a “Member rate”). The trip would be coming up soon enough that I’m using the advance purchase rate for the rest of this post, though the difference in price is small enough that the flexible rate would produce similar results.

The price threw a wrench in my original plan for two reasons: first, if the room price is only $265, that wouldn’t be a terribly good value for 20K Hyatt points per night even if awards were available (about 1.325 cents each). Second, the price brought to mind several other options for using points.

Option 1) Use Hyatt points (Total cost = 80K)

Again, this one isn’t actually possible for my dates at this point, but if I were to find availability, it would cost 80K points for four nights. This one is pretty straight forward. I could transfer 80K Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt to book the room for four nights. As I have a couple of Globalist friends, I could even ask a Globalist to consider booking it for me, though the Globalist benefits at this hotel seem pretty limited. As best I could tell, a Globalist Guest of Honor booking would get me top-shelf liquor and the ability to make reservations at the restaurants. I rarely drink alcohol, and when I do it is typically just wine — fancy liquor isn’t a big draw for me, so I imagine I would just book this one on my own.

Option 2) Chase Travel Portal (Total cost = ~69.3K)

Of course, when I mentally ran the numbers on $265, I realized that booking through the Chase travel portal with a Chase Sapphire Reserve would cost fewer points if the same rate were available. In fact, Chase’s rate is a bit better yet at $260 per night. With the CSR, that comes out to just 17,376 Ultimate Rewards points per night — a savings of 2,667 points per night over first transferring to Hyatt.

Unfortunately, if I book through Chase, it will count as a third party booking — meaning I won’t earn any Hyatt points or get stay credit. Further, I would not get any elite benefits, though my Explorist status doesn’t entitle me to much anyway. Realistically, I’d probably be giving up what little shot I had at scoring a room upgrade by not booking direct. That said, I could self-upgrade. For still fewer points than Hyatt would charge, I could book a “suite” for….the same price as the Master Double.

Either way, my total cost for 4 nights would be 69,504 Ultimate Rewards points. That’s a savings of almost 10,500 Hyatt points — or more realistically Ultimate Rewards points since it means I would need to transfer fewer to Hyatt.

For those paying close attention, you’ll notice that I’m using the “Master Double” as the first example above, which is the room that normally has to be available for an award stay. Curiously, that room type is available through many sites other than Hyatt. If I decide to stay and want to book it as an award, I’d probably reach out to the manager to inquire about availability of that room.

Option 3) Citi Prestige 4th night free (Total cost = 79,500 points spent and earn points)

The other option that jumped out at me was booking through the Prestige Concierge. While the Citi Prestige 4th night free is based on the average room rate over the first four days exclusive of taxes (See: Complete Guide to the Citi Prestige 4th Night Free), Hyatt does not break out the taxes separately on this hotel. I’ve called on this property in the past and they have quoted me a 4th night free based on the average rate as shown on Hyatt’s site.

Based on that, I would expect four nights at $265 to initially cost $1,060. After the 4th night free discount, that comes down to $795 total for four nights.

My stated goal from the beginning was to create a vacation with as little out of pocket cost as possible, so for the sake of comparison, let’s say that I would pay for this by cashing out Ultimate Rewards points at $0.01 each. My total cost would be 79,500 points.

I think most readers would balk at the idea of cashing in Ultimate Rewards points at $0.01 each, though note that it would cost fewer points than if I transferred directly to Hyatt in this instance (though more than booking through the Chase portal).

However, by booking over the phone / via email with the Prestige concierge (i.e. not online via the ThankYou.com portal), I should be able to earn Hyatt points for my stay. Since I would actually be paying $1,060 for the stay (and later receiving a rebate from Citi), I would expect to earn 6 Hyatt points per dollar on that figure (5 base points + 20% bonus for being an Explorist) for a total of 6,360 Hyatt points. Further, I’d earn 3 ThankYou points per dollar by paying with the Prestige card. I should also earn elite night credits this way (though that doesn’t matter to me in this situation as I do not intend to go for Hyatt status this year). Even at a bad value of $0.01 per Ultimate Rewards point, that doesn’t really seem like a bad value overall with regards to the goal.

(Note that I could alternatively cash in Citi ThankYou points for a statement credit to cover this charge – I’m using Ultimate Rewards to keep a consistent point of comparison with the other two options above).

Which would you do?

As I considered those options, I wondered what readers would say. I recognize that none of those options get maximum value out of Ultimate Rewards points and I don’t usually consider redeeming for what seems like such “poor value” in terms of buying power. On the other hand, the joy of free is undeniable – and the cost of acquiring the points was low enough to make these options plausible. Assuming you were flush with points that cost you less than 1 cent each to acquire (and you shared my goal of as little out-of-pocket cost as possible), which way would you book and why? I know what I think I’m going to do if we take the trip, but I’m curious about your input. I’ll then update if and when we make arrangements to do it.

The post Hunting for the best redemption: Hyatt, UR, or Citi Prestige? appeared first on Frequent Miler.

The US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa has introduced a slightly increased enrollment bonus of 26,667 FlexPerks points after making $2,000 in eligible net purchases in the first 4 months. That’s enough points for $400 worth of travel, which is certainly isn’t a bad deal, though keep in mind that the bonus does sometimes reach higher or require less spend.

The Offer

• Get 26,667 FlexPerks points after spending $2,000 in the first 4 months with a new US Bank FlexPerks Visa account
• Find a link on our US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signaute card page

Key Card Details

• Earn 2X charity and then 2X in one of the following: cell phone providers, gas, grocery, or airline purchases (whichever category you spend most on each month).
• Earn 3,500 bonus points with $24K spend per cardmember year (enough to cover the annual fee)
• $49 annual fee is waived the first year
• 12 free Gogo in-flight internet passes each year
• $25 airline fee credit when points are redeemed for flights

Quick Thoughts

US Bank has run promotions with the past couple of Olympic games that add bonuses for US medals won on top of the normal 25K introductory bonus on this card, and those deals work out to be more points since we usually win a number of medals in the games.

Outside of the games, this is about as good as the introductory bonus gets (though Doctor of Credit notes that some targeted offers require much less spend).

If you aren’t targeted for an offer requiring less spend and you do not want to wait until the 2020 Olympics to apply, this is a decent offer if you are more interested in this card than the US Bank Altitude Reserve. Greg recently decided to keep his (See: Keeping my Altitude Reserve), and that card has more potential than this one for most people (for example, you can probably earn 3x on both gas and grocery with the Altitude Reserve since those can most likely be paid for with a mobile wallet — both a better return and not limited to a single category). On the other hand, if you already have the Altitude Reserve or prefer the lower annual fee here, this offer is better than the previous 25K offer.

H/T: Doctor of Credit

The post Increased US Bank FlexPerks bonus: 26,667 points after meeting spend appeared first on Frequent Miler.

A few days ago, an increased offer came out for the Citi ThankYou Premier card, awarding 60,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 in the first three months. That’s an excellent offer on this card, though keep in mind it is not available to you if you have opened or closed a ThankYou Preferred, ThankYou Premier, or Citi Prestige card within the past 24 months.

The Offer

• Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months with the Citi ThankYou Premier card
• Find more information and a link on our Citi ThankYou Premier card

Key Card Details

• Earn 3X travel, including gas stations
• Earn 2X dining and entertainment
• Earn 1X everywhere else
• $95 annual fee is waived the first year
• With this card, ThankYou points become worth 1.25 cents each when used towards travel (or transfer to airline partners 1:1)

Quick Thoughts

This is an excellent offer as the points are worth at least $750 when used towards travel, but they can be significantly more valuable when transferred to partners. Citi transfer partners don’t get as much attention as Chase transfer partners or Amex transfer partners, but they can certainly be quite valuable. There are a number of common partners (like Singapore, Virgin Atlantic, and Air France / KLM) where you could combine forces between your transferable currencies for a valuable award. Citi also has some unique partners like Avianca LifeMiles that have some excellent sweet spots (See: Avianca LifeMiles’ awesome mixed-cabin award pricing. First Class for less.).

Unfortunately, those who have opened or closed some of the other popular ThankYou points cards (ThankYou Preferred, Citi Prestige, or this ThankYou Premier card) within the past 24 months are not eligible to receive the signup offer on this card. However, if you have had one of those cards for more than 24 months and you are considering closing that account, it may make sense to apply for this card first. Once this new opening resets your 24-month clock, go ahead and close the card you no longer need. While the Prestige card did unveil a 75,000 point signup bonus for a while, that offer required $7,500 in spend and there is no indication when it may return. Most people would probably be better off starting out with this card and its bonus categories, perhaps upgrading to the Prestige down the road if you prefer its benefits. Those who would heavily use the Citi Prestige 4th Night Free might pass on this card in favor of the Prestige.

If you have recently applied for this card under a different offer, be sure to send a secure message to Citi asking them to match — they are usually good about that if you have opened the card within the past 90 days.

H/T: Doctor of Credit

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The Points Guy is reporting that the Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite card is dead. Sometime today, Chase stopped accepting new applications for this card without any notice. That is very unfortunate for those who were hoping to hold off until the last minute to apply before the merger. We had previously said that now was the time to make a move on this card (See: Consider getting the Ritz-Carlton card right now) as it presents a sweet opportunity to pick up Platinum status in the new program. Alas, that opportunity is no more.

Unfortunately, all links I could find for this card are redirecting to the Marriott Rewards credit card. Those links were working yesterday — but it looks like those who had not yet applied are out of luck. The Points Guy quotes a representative from Chase as saying:

Chase will be focusing on premium and no-fee consumer credit cards. All Ritz-Carlton Rewards cardmembers will continue to enjoy their rich benefits and can look forward to the new and enhanced ones that go into effect on August 26, 2018.

No uncertain terms there for sure. Sadly, it looks like the window of opportunity has firmly shut on this one. Congratulations to those who got in recently and who should therefore be picking up Platinum status in the new program (since the first-year Gold status should transition to Platinum). Of course, existing cardholders will continue to hold the Ritz card and enjoy its benefits, some of which are changing a month from today (See: New details on Marriott & Ritz cards: no more elite credit per $3K spend, free night changes, more).

For more on what you need to do to get yourself prepared for the program transition, see:

Last minute checklist for the Marriott SPG transition

And for more details on the transition in general, see:

Marriott SPG Ritz Transition Guide

• Table of Contents Transition overview Unified award chart 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 It’s dead: Ritz card no longer available appeared first on Frequent Miler.

This morning, I published a post looking for some reader feedback on the best of a few options to book an award stay (See: Hunting for the best redemption: Hyatt, UR, or Citi Prestige?). I got some great feedback from readers — and specifically, there were two awesome suggestions that I thought were worth pointing out as even better options than the ones I considered.

Quick Review

In a nutshell, I am debating a possible stay at the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos all-inclusive resort and I was debating whether to use Hyatt points, book through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, or book using the Citi Prestige 4th Night Free. See that post for more background – but I was looking at using 80K Hyatt points, 69.5K Ultimate Rewards points through Chase, or 79,500 points to book the 4th night free (and earn points in the process). Again, see that post for more.

Better option #1) Citi ThankYou points pooled between the Premier and Prestige

Several months ago, Greg wrote about the value of ThankYou points (See: Up to 1.67 cents per point value from ThankYou points). In a nutshell, Greg points out if you pool points from the Citi Prestige and Citi ThankYou Premier, you can take advantage of both the Prestige’s 4th night free benefit and the ThankYou Premier’s 1.25 cents-per-point value when redeeming for travel.

In this case, that could make for an awesome value out of ThankYou points. As it turns out, the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos is a few bucks more expensive through the ThankYou portal at $289.60 per night.

Still, that’s going to make for a great deal when stacked with the 4th night free and the Premier’s 1.25 cents-per-point value:

• 4 night stay at $289.60 per night = $1,158.40
• Cost after the Prestige 4th night free = $868.80
• Points required with the Premier card = 86,880 / 1.25 = 69,504 points

If you compare that to the $1,158.40 cash price of 4 nights through Citi, that’s about 1.67 cents per point in value. However, it probably makes more sense to compare to the cash price booking through Chase since it is available for less there — and if you look back at the morning post, you’ll see that 69,504 is exactly how many points Chase would charge when using points at 1.5 cents each in value. That’s awesome because most people would consider ThankYou points to be a less valuable currency — but by stacking the Prestige and Premier benefits, the points equal Chase Ultimate Rewards in purchasing power.

Interestingly, we posted a quick deal earlier today about how the Citi ThankYou Premier’s new member intro bonus has increased to 60,000 points after $4,000 in purchases in the first 3 months (See: Citi ThankYou Premier 60K offer). The ThankYou Premier offers 3x on travel (including gas) and 2x on dining and entertainment, so it probably wouldn’t be too tough to end up with right around the 69,504 points necessary for this 4-night stay once you’ve met the spending requirements. A four-night all-inclusive stay with a cash price over a thousand bucks seems like a pretty solid way to redeem those points. Keep in mind that you would need to also have the Citi Prestige card to get that much value — and you can not have opened or closed a Citi ThankYou Preferred, Premier, or Prestige card in the last 24 months in order to be eligible. Still, that’s not a bad option at all.

Better option #2: FlexPerks Real-time mobile rewards

Greg has also written about the relatively new FlexPerks feature, Real-time Mobile Rewards, whereby you can (theoretically) book travel directly through providers using your FlexPerks / Altitude Reserve card and then instantly redeem points to cover the charges via text message (without having to book through the FlexPerks portal). This would enable you to get 1.5 cents per point in value while booking direct. Read more about Real-time mobile rewards in these posts:

• US Bank makes Real-Time Mobile Rewards awesome. Are you listening Chase? Amex? Citi?
• My bumbling experiments with US Bank’s Real-Time Mobile Rewards
• US Bank Real-Time Mobile Rewards. What works where?

This option would make it theoretically possible*** to book directly through Hyatt for a total of $1,060 (as seen in this morning’s post) and redeem 70,667 FlexPerks points. Note the asterisks — that’s because the terms state that real time mobile rewards work only with US merchants (while going on to use some foreign airlines as examples of where they work). See the last of the three posts linked above for real-life experiences with what works (and what doesn’t).

The moral of the story is that it isn’t completely clear whether or not the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos would code as a “US Merchant”. They do list Hyatt as a lodging merchant that would qualify, but would it work since the hotel is in Mexico? I don’t know. We suspect that booking a prepaid rate would increase the likelihood that the charge is billed by Hyatt in the US, though it’s a bit of a gamble to book a nonrefundable rate in the hopes that it triggers real time mobile rewards.

But if it does, that would be the best option as the stay would also earn Hyatt points. Between 5 base points per dollar and the 20% bonus I would receive with Explorist status (6 total points per dollar), I’d earn about 6,360 Hyatt points plus earn 4 nights of elite credit. Paying less than 71K FlexPerks for the 4 nights while also earning more than enough Hyatt points for a free night in a Category 1 hotel seems like the clear winner……if it works. Fortunately for me, I do not have any FlexPerks cards to be tempted to be the data point I wish to see.

As it just so happens, the signup bonus on the US Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature card also just increased (See: Increased US Bank FlexPerks bonus: 26,667 points after meeting spend). That said, the US Bank Altitude Reserve is a much better card for most people. Between 3x with mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay and a much better signup bonus, I think most people would make out better with that card.

Bottom line

I neither have the Citi ThankYou Premier nor any FlexPerks cards, so neither of these suggestions fit my current portfolio of options. However, they are very good options if you have either available (and if you’re willing to take a gamble on whether or not the charge will trigger mobile rewards with FlexPerks). These are two options that are certainly worth considering when you’re looking at booking hotels (though keep in mind that online bookings with the Citi ThankYou portal will not earn elite credit or receive elite benefits). Even though these options don’t apply to me, they are probably the two best options for those to whom they do.

The post The two better methods to book the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos appeared first on Frequent Miler.

A little while ago, we reported that chase is no longer taking applications for the Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa Infinite. The Points Guy had reported an official from Chase stating that the card was pulled today for new applicants. However, in the comments of our post, a reader shared what looks to be a working link.

If you have any interest in applying for this card, time is surely extremely limited. There’s no telling when this link will stop working, and along with it the chance to pick this one up before it’s gone.  In the past Chase has honored applications for “zombie links” like these, so you should be good to go if approved. Hat tip to reader PDXKelly for pointing this one out.

Possible working link for Ritz-Carlton rewards Visa infinite

See also: Consider getting the Ritz-Carlton card right now

The post It’s [NOT] alive! Possible working Ritz link! [Expired] appeared first on Frequent Miler.

As has been rumored for a while, View from the Wing has confirmed new restrictions coming on the Marriott and Starwood credit cards. In a nutshell (more details to follow), those who have opened new Marriott, SPG, or Ritz credit cards in the last 2 years or who had one within the 30 days prior to applying will not be eligible for most new Marriott/SPG welcome offers. This is going to effectively lock most of us out from these bonuses for the next couple of years and make it difficult if not impossible to stack together multiple cards for multiple annual free night awards in the future.

Gary Leff has screen shots of the official chart guidelines from Chase. Here I’m quoting his summaries in bold italics with my reactions in blue. See his post for his full analysis and the official charts.

Amex SPG rules

To be eligible for a new ‘Luxury Card’ initial bonus you cannot be a current Ritz-Carlton cardmember (or have had that card in the last 30 days), have signed up for a new Chase-issued Marriott card in the last 90 days, or received an initial bonus or upgrade offer for a Chase-issued Marriott card in the past 24 months.

My reaction: This hurts those who hurried to sign up for the Ritz card before it died, though I still think opening the Ritz card now was a better value play for those who would not have otherwise qualified for status with Marriott based on this year’s activity. I’m more surprised that those who received an upgrade offer in the past 24 months are excluded. That seems kind of harsh after pushing those upgrades as hard as Chase has. It certainly changes the calculus moving forward for those who have not upgraded and were considering it.

To be eligible for a new Starwood Amex card initial bonus (the personal card that will be available only until the programs rebrand next year), you cannot have (or have had in the last 30 days) a Chase-issued Marriott.

This effectively means that in the future, you will not be able to stack multiple free nights by opening all of the various cards. However, those who currently have multiple versions of the various cards (Starwood consumer, Starwood business, Marriott Premier Plus personal, Marriott business) will get a free annual night certificate on each card (that will be true for the Stawood cards after your next anniversary post-8/1/18 and for the Marriott business card when the benefits change later next month). That might make it more advantageous to keep multiple cards if you value those free night certificates highly.

To be eligible for a Starwood business card initial bonus, you cannot have a Chase-issued Marriott business card (or have had one in the last 30 days), have signed up for one in the last 90 days, or have received a new cardmember bonus for one in the last 24 months.

Again, this makes it hard to have multiple cards in the future. The good news here is that it seems the Starwood business card will not be restricted for those who have opened / upgraded Chase-issued Marriott personal cards.

Chase rules

To be eligible for a new Chase Marriott personal card initial bonus you cannot be a current Starwood American Express cardholder (or have had that card in the last 30 days), have signed up for a Starwood American Express card in the last 90 days, or received a new cardmember bonus for a Starwood American Express card in the last 24 months. 

Again, those with any Starwood credit card (business or personal) are locked out of Chase Marriott personal cards. It’s notable that the restrictions from Chase and Amex include both having signed up for a new card in the past 90 days or received a new cardmember bonus for the past 24 months (on top of those who currently hold the cards). This makes an impressive effort to make sure that they close most loopholes you could dream up.

To be eligible for a new Chase Marriott business card initial bonus you cannot be a current Starwood American Express cardholder (or have had that card in the last 30 days), have signed up for a Starwood American Express card in the last 90 days, or received a new cardmember bonus for a Starwood American Express card in the last 24 months. 

Same as above – locks out anyone with a Starwood card now, who signed up in the last 90 days, or who got a bonus in the last 24 months.

To be eligible for a new Chase Ritz-Carlton Rewards Visa Infinite, you must have a time machine.

Ok, Gary didn’t really say that last one. But it’s true. Ding dong the Ritz is dead for new applicants. Existing cardholders will continue to have the card, though it’s certainly possible that Chase will sunset it someday.

Interestingly, Gary reports that it’s not Chase and Amex sharing information, it’s Marriott sharing with each issuer which members have which credit cards (or, in their words, sharing “who is eligible for a new cardmember bonus”). That obviously means that there is some expense for Marriott in this. While that wouldn’t be surprising to me on its own, it is surprising (to me) in an environment with two banks competing for Marriott’s business.

While it had been previously announced that Chase would issue a mass consumer card and Amex would issue a business and ultra premium personal card, it was notable to us in hindsight that the press releases did not say any of that would be exclusive (even if that was insinuated, the continued issuance of the Ritz card and SPG personal cards indicated that perhaps too much had been read into the exclusivity of those parameters). The death of the Ritz card yesterday and these restrictive moves indicate that the card portfolio will eventually line up with what was announced and it is going to be much harder to qualify for most new cards.

Keep these restrictions in mind when evaluating your next moves with regard to keeping, cancelling, or upgrading.

H/T: View from the Wing

The post New Marriott / SPG card restrictions appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Starting August 26th, Marriott and SPG credit cards will have new rules regarding who is eligible to receive a welcome bonus.  View from the Wing revealed these charts from Marriott:

Complicated? Indeed. Thankfully, the above charts aren’t quite as complicated as Marriott’s free breakfast rules, but still…

I created a new matrix to try to simplify things.  Just pick out the card you want to get (across the top), and then look down to see if you encounter any roadblocks:

Matrix Key:

Offers Available On/Around August 26th

Sometime around August 26th, we expect the SPG Luxury card to appear on the scene with a 125K welcome bonus.  We also expect the four other cards to have 75K bonuses.  Here are the anticipated welcome bonuses (click each card link to view current card details):

• SPG Luxury Card: 125K after $5K spend in 3 months
• SPG Credit Card: 75K after $3K spend in 3 months
• SPG Business Credit Card: 75K after $3K spend in 3 months
• Marriott Rewards Premier Plus: 75K after $3K spend in 3 months
• Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Business: 75K after $3K spend in 3 months

Are you eligible before August 26?

The above rules become effective August 26.  Until then, the usual old Chase and Amex rules still apply.  In other words, with Amex, you can’t get the bonus if you’ve ever had the same exact card before (unless you find a targeted offer that doesn’t have this lifetime language).  And with Chase, you must no longer have the card and 24 months must have passed since you last received a welcome bonus. Plus you need to keep in mind Chase’s 5/24 rule which applies to the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus card, but not to the Marriott Rewards Premier Business card.

Is it a good idea to apply before August 26th?

The SPG cards don’t currently have useful welcome bonuses, and the SPG Luxury card isn’t yet available, so don’t bother with those.  The Marriott Rewards Premier Plus and Marriott Rewards Premier Business cards, though, are both available with 75K bonuses.  Are they worth getting now?

Marriott Rewards Premier Plus: If you get this card now, it would make you ineligible for the SPG Business or SPG Luxury card for the next 24 months after receiving the bonus.  Both SPG cards are arguably better options if you can qualify for them after August 26th.  Unlike the Marriott card, neither SPG card will increase your chance of a Chase shutdown, and the SPG Business card will not add to your 5/24 count.  And the SPG Luxury card is expected to have a 125K welcome bonus (but it will add to your 5/24 count).  Bottom line: Only apply for the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus card if you’re under 5/24 and you would already be ineligible for the SPG Business and SPG Luxury cards due to other considerations.

Marriott Rewards Premier Business: If you get this card now, it would make you ineligible for the SPG Business card until you cancel this one and wait 30 days.  It would also make you ineligible for the SPG Luxury card for the next 24 months after receiving the bonus on this one.  Bottom line: This is a good choice if you won’t be eligible for the SPG Luxury card due to other considerations.  And, as a business card, this one will not add to your 5/24 count.  If you apply before August 26th, you’ll not only get the welcome bonus but also 15 elite nights towards status.  This year only, those 15 nights will stack with elite night credits from other cards.

Post 8/26 Workarounds

In response to Nick’s post about the new Marriott / SPG card restrictions, several readers proposed workarounds.  Let’s look at each:

Use a new rewards account

View from the Wing’s post stated that Amex and Chase won’t share data directly, but rather Marriott itself will be the gatekeeper to determine if a person has met the rules.  Playerx therefore suggested that it might be possible to circumvent some of the rules by creating a new rewards number for your application.  For example, if you want the SPG Luxury Card, but you have recently received a welcome bonus or upgrade bonus for the Chase Marriott Premier Plus card, you might be able to get the SPG Luxury Card by applying with a new SPG account which is not tied to your Marriott account.

This approach would work if Marriott only uses your rewards number to decide if you’re eligible.  If they match you with other criteria, then it won’t work.  My guess is that it won’t work.

Estimated chance of success: 25%

Multiple concurrent applications

Stannis asks “What if you haven’t had any of these disqualifying cards, could you … get all the cards simultaneously?”

I don’t think this will work.  My guess is that Marriott’s determination of whether you are eligible for a bonus will not be in real time during the application process.  Therefore, by the time they check to see if you have certain other cards open, the answer will be yes.

Estimated chance of success: 5%

Don’t complete upgrade spend requirement

Via Frequent Miler Insiders, a reader said that they had upgraded from the Marriott Rewards Premier to the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus, but hadn’t spent any money on the card yet in order to receive an upgrade bonus.  They wondered if they could get the SPG Luxury card bonus by applying for that card before getting the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus upgrade bonus.

If we assume that this reader had received the bonus on the Marriott Rewards Premier more than 24 months ago, then there’s a chance that they can qualify for the SPG Luxury card bonus.  It all hinges on whether or not the upgrade date is considered the date of acquisition for their card.  If so, they would have to make sure to wait 91 days from the upgrade date before applying for the SPG Luxury card.

Estimated chance of success: 30%

Don’t complete welcome bonus spend requirement

This is a variation of the upgrade scenario above.  Suppose you want to get both the Marriott Rewards Premier Business card and the SPG Luxury Card.  The question is whether you can sign up now for the business card, but wait until after getting the SPG Luxury card to meet minimum spend on either.

This one would be extremely tricky to pull off.  Once you open the business card, you have 3 months to complete the spend, but you also have to wait 91 days to be eligible to open the SPG Luxury card.  This seems to make this approach impossible. In practice, according to Doctor of Credit, Chase is known to give people up to 115 days to complete spend requirements, so it is theoretically possible to get this done.  I think the trick would be to wait until the Luxury card is available, then sign up for the Chase business card, and then secure message Chase to ask when is the last day you can complete the spend requirements for the welcome bonus.  If the last day is more than 90 days away, you could theoretically go ahead and sign up for the SPG Luxury card on the 91st day after opening the Chase business card and before completing minimum spend.

Estimated chance of success: 5%

Upgrade instead

If you don’t qualify for the SPG Luxury card due to other cards you have, you could get rid of those other cards and wait out the 1 month, 90 days, and 24 month restrictions.  Alternatively, if you have the SPG consumer card, you could wait to receive an upgrade offer from Amex.  My guess is that an upgrade offer would be something like 50K points.  That’s a far cry from the expected 125K welcome bonus, but some bonus is better than none.

My card situation

I’d like to get the SPG Luxury Card, but I can’t qualify for the bonus without getting rid of my Ritz card and then waiting 31 days.  I’m not ready to do that yet.  It’s been well over 24 months since I’ve received welcome bonuses on any Marriott or SPG cards, so I’d be good to go on that front.  The main issue for me is that I want to upgrade my Marriott Premier to the Premier Plus.  If I accept the 20K upgrade offer, though, the 24 month clock would reset to make me ineligible for the SPG Luxury Card bonus.  That’s not good.

My wife is in a better position to get the SPG Luxury Card.  She doesn’t have the Ritz card, and it has been over 24 months since she received welcome bonuses for her Marriott and SPG cards.  She just need to avoid accepting the Marriott Premier Plus upgrade offer until after she gets the SPG Luxury Card.

Next, I’ll have to decide whether I want to keep the Ritz card long term (or at least until the card is sunset).  A good option for me may be to cancel the card at some point in the future, wait 31 days, and then apply for the SPG Luxury card.  This, though, is still contingent on me not accepting the Marriott Premier Plus upgrade beforehand.  And that upgrade offer expires at the end of this year.  Should I give up an easy 20K points for the upgrade in order to qualify for the likely 125K SPG Lux offer?  Yeah, probably.

Another option would be for me to wait to see if a SPG consumer refer-a-friend offers return.  If so, even though I can’t get a signup bonus for the card (since I’ve had it before), my wife could refer me to the SPG consumer card (she still has the card open) in order to pull down maybe 20K or so referral points.  Then I’d wait for an upgrade offer to the SPG Luxury card.  This option requires several pieces to fall into place, though, so I’m not betting on this approach.

I’m pretty sure that I’ll end up cancelling my Ritz card and getting the SPG Luxury card 31 days later.

What will you do?

Please comment below.

The post Navigating Marriott’s Byzantine Credit Card Rules appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Last week, the public best welcome offer for the Blue Business Plus card from American Express increased to 10,000 Membership Rewards points after $3,000 in purchases in the first 3 months, but it turns out that some people can get an even better targeted offer, and there might be a way to increases your chances of being targeted.

While the current public welcome bonus doesn’t sound incredible on its own, the card is incredibly generous, offering 2 points per dollar everywhere on the first $50,000 per year in purchases (then 1x) and those points can be transferred to partners. Furthermore, this card has no annual fee, so it is a card that some have considered even without a welcome bonus, crazy as that may sound. But according to Doctor of Credit, there might be a way to get targeted for an even better offer…

Some people have received targeted snail mail offers for an even better welcome bonus of 20,000 points after meeting purchase requirements, which sounds awesome. Recently, some people have reported receiving that offer via email. Several people reporting a tatgeted email have noted that they started filling out an application under the current best public offer (while logged in to their American Express online accounts), but then changed their minds and backed out before submitting. At some point thereafer, they received targeted offers via email for a higher welcome bonus of 20,000 points after meeting minimum spending requirements (which seem to vary based on your targeted offer).

No word on whether this might work with other cards that occasionally offer increased bonuses, but a neat little option if you’re not sure the current offer is compelling enough for you.

H/T: Doctor of Credit

The post A bit better than the best offer appeared first on Frequent Miler.

Several months ago, it was announced that Citi Price Rewind would become less generous. Specifically, the total limit for claims annually was scheduled to drop from $2,500 per year ($500 per claim) to just $1,000 per year in total claims (up to $200 per individual claim). Doctor of Credit reports that sources have confirmed that the $2,500 total cap will remain until January 1, 2019 (capped at $200 per claim), though we haven’t yet seen clear evidence from Citi’s side on this.

Above are the old limits. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet seen an official statement from Citi. At this point, the Citi Price Rewind website still shows the new limit of up to $1,000 per year in claims as shown below:

Doctor of Credit states that the $200 per claim cap has gone into effect as of yesterday, but we know for sure whether the reported $2500 total claims cap only applies to existing cardholders or whether newly approved applicants will also have access to the higher limit until January.

If anyone submits Price Rewind claims in the coming days, please share your data points as to how much you have submitted and whether or not they are ultimately approved so that we can gather more definitive information from readers and report back.

The post Citi Price Rewind limit to remain until 2019? appeared first on Frequent Miler.

The Barclays Aviator Business card has had a limited-time offer of 50,000 American Airlines miles after first purchase that was thought to be scheduled to end on July 29th, 2018. However, that offer is still available. While some people find American Airlines miles more useful than others (see this past weekend’s week in review around the web for some good uses), fifty thousand miles after a single purchase is a good deal even if you find them of limited use.

The Offer

• Earn 50,000 bonus American Airlines AAdvantage miles after first purchase with the Barclays AAdvantage Business Aviator Business Mastercard within 90 days of account opening
• Read more about this card and find a link on our AAdvantage Aviator Business Mastercard page.

Key Card Details

• $95 annual fee is not waived
• Earn 2X on American Airlines purchases, office supply, telecommunications services, and at car rental agencies
• Earn 1X everywhere else
• First checked bag free
• Preferred boarding
• 5% bonus on miles earned the previous year after AF is paid
• Access to reduced mileage awards
• 25% statement credit on in-flight purchases

Quick Thoughts

Again, 50,000 miles after a single purchase is a pretty good deal. That’s nearly (though not quite) enough to fly in business class to Europe or Asia, and it requires very little effort since the only spending requirement is a single purchase.

Barclays business credit cards can be a more difficult approval than some, so you may need to call reconsideration. With such little opportunity cost, these miles may well be worth it for those looking to pick up easy AAdvantage miles.

The post 50K after 1st purchase with Aviator Business appeared first on Frequent Miler.