Tag: points

New Credit Card Benefits

First we have new monthly dining credits and wireless credits for American Express cards Marriot, Hilton and Delta. Please use this link for more information.

For the month of February, Chase is giving you 5% back per dollar on gas with all freedom cards up to $150 in 5% back. This includes the Chase Freedom, Freedom Flex, and Freedom unlimited. Remember you can transfer these points to the Sapphire cards to use them as travel points. The only thing you need to do is to fill out your info on this link.

New Chase Freedom Flex 20,000 Points Or $200 Cash

Chase has discontinued the Chase Freedom for new customers and now has a card called the Chase Freedom Flex. You will have 5% cash back categories each quarter just like the old Chase Freedom, but they have added benefits to the new card. Please use my link to sign up if you are interested. The link also shows the Chase Freedom Unlimited card. Make sure you choose the Chase Freedom Flex.

You will receive 20,000 points after spending $500 in the first 3 months. Chase Freedom Flex does not have an annual fee. You are allowed to open this card even if you already have the Chase Freedom card. Always remember cash back is worth 1 cent per point. You can transfer points to Chase travel cards to make the points worth more. Chase travel points are worth on average 2 cents per point. This would make 20,000 points worth $400. There are three Chase cards where you can move the points to that would make them travel points. Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Ink Business Preferred.

Benefits

  • Earn 5% cash back on grocery store purchases (not including Target or Walmart purchases) on up to $12,000 spent in the first year.
  • 5% Quarterly Bonus: Earn 5% on up to $1,500 in combined purchases in BONUS CATEGORIES each quarter you activate.
  • 5% on TRAVEL purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
  • 3% on DINING at restaurants, including takeout and eligible delivery services.
  • 3% on DRUGSTORE purchases.
  • 1% cash back on all other purchases.
  • 0% Intro APR for 15 months from account opening on purchases.

If you currently have the Chase Freedom then you will have $3,000 to spend on quarterly bonuses by opening the Chase Freedom Flex instead of $1,500 each quarter.

  • Please do not open credit cards if you do not pay them off each month.
  • Try not to have more than 5 hard pulls on your credit every 2 years.
  • Do not close cards that do not have an annual fee. You want to keep your credit history long.
  • If you are having problems paying off credit cards then contact me and I will find the right card for you.

The Results of Canceling My Asia Trip

We had to cancel our trip to Japan and Thailand because of Covid-19. Last week we would have been in Japan and this week we would be in Thailand. Most of the trip was booked on points, taxes and fees. Canceling award nights at hotels is easy and you always get them back. I am not going to rate all hotels on how canceling went, because canceling reward nights is pretty simple. You always get your free night award certificates and points back, as long as it isn’t 48 hours before check in.

The companies That I Give An A

  1. Coming in at #1 is Idyllic Concept Resort in Koh Lipe Thailand. This was the only part of my trip that I really had to pay for. I don’t usually book an advanced booking rate for a hotel room because they are non-refundable. I booked it this time because I felt I was paying a lot for their best room. Five nights for around $1,500 US dollars is not that expensive to most people, but that is very expensive for Thailand (other than the Koh Samui part of Thailand). I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask them if there was anything they could do, even though they are not obligated to. They first responded that I could reschedule up until October 30th. That would not work because that was the rainy season and I knew Covid was going to be here for a long time. They emailed me a few weeks later, when Thailand was shutting down, and gave me a voucher that can be used until May 2021. I thought that was very nice of them. There is a good chance I still will not be able to use it. I think we will be lucky to have a vaccine by then.
  2. Hilton. I am unsure if it was them or American Express made Hilton do it. They extended my free night award certificates that I get from the American Express Hilton Aspire Card. I had two that were expiring in June, but are now extended until August 30, 2021 because of Covid-19. I was really looking forward to staying at the new Conrad Osaka for free.
  3. American Airlines. They are one of the best airlines when it comes to changed award flights that you booked with points. The reason I say that, is because it is free to change your flight, as long as you don’t change the itinerary. I believe all airlines would waive their cancelation fees at some point, so I waited to change the date of my flight. They ended up being the first airline on my trip that waived this fee. The points and taxes were credited to me very quickly, which was great! We missed out flying in first class on Japan Airlines for this part of the trip

Passing Grade

  1. Cathay Pacific Airlines. After they canceled my flights, it took a long time for my miles to come back to my Asia Miles account and the fees/taxes back to my credit card. I believe they said it could take up to 8 weeks but, came in at around 4-6 weeks. This was our first class trip home from Bangkok to Boston through Hong Kong.
  2. Singapore Airlines. I had been checking in on them for awhile now. At one point they canceled one leg of my trip and still wouldn’t let me cancel the other part for free. They then changed it to being able to cancel it for free, but I had a hard time getting through online. If your flight wasn’t within 7 days, they wanted you to fill out a form to cancel or change flights. They finally ended up canceling the second leg of my trip a couple weeks ago. They told me it will take up to 8 weeks before I get my miles and taxes back. This would have been in business class from Tokyo to Bangkok through Singapore.
  3. IHG. We were suppose to stay at the Intercontinental Tokyo Ana with these points and free night certificates. We obviously received the points back with no problem, but our free night award certificates expired at the end of April. IHG has now extended them through December 2020. That was nice of them, but I don’t see us using them by then because of the virus. Hopefully they extend them longer when December comes. Then they would get an A.

Failing Grade

  1. JetBlue Airways. We received our points back, but they did not give our taxes back. They put the money in our JetBlue account. I know this was illegal by the laws in the United States, but I didn’t really care to fight them on it. It was only $12 because the flight was just to JFK to catch our Japan Airlines flight. The reason it was illegal, was because they changed the time of our flight. When an airline does this, you may cancel for free and get all your money back.

This is first world problems, but I just wanted you to see how I did on canceling this trip. Please stay healthy and safe! Hopefully we have a cure and a vaccine soon.

The Agreement I Made With Amex To Restore My Wife’s Bonus Points

Awhile back my wife was offered an upgrade from American Express for her Everyday Card to the Everyday Preferred Card. The offer was to switch to the Everyday Preferred card and spend $2,000 in 3 months to receive 25,000 points. The Everyday card has no annual fee, but the Everyday Preferred Card comes with a $95 annual fee.

Last month the yearly fee posted and since we don’t really use this card, I had her downgrade back to the no fee card. A couple weeks later I noticed that 25,000 points went missing from her account. At first I couldn’t understand why, but after a little digging, I figured out that she didn’t keep the Preferred card open at least twelve months. American Express has a rule in the fine print that you need to keep a card open 12 months before canceling or downgrading or they take back their points. They do this to try and stop people from gaming the system. This is not a big deal because when the yearly fee posts, it has been 12 months since you opened a new card. You have 30 days to get the annual fee back after it posts to your account. I forgot this was not a new credit card account and that we had upgraded. I remembered they charged us a pro-rated annual fee when she upgraded and the yearly fee would come in under 12 months since her anniversary date was only 6 months from the product change.

I called American Express this weekend and asked them if we upgraded back to the Preferred card would we be able to regain the points back. This wasn’t just about the points. I wanted her to stay in good standing with American Express and it was my mistake. They told us that they could do that, but we would have to spend $2,000 in 3 months again to get the 25,000 points back. Also we would have to keep the Preferred version of the card open for the next twelve months. I was okay with these terms because I made the mistake and broke the contract.

American Express has always been good to me and I believe they have the best customer service in the industry. It never hurts to call credit card companies and ask for something. They are not the cable companies.

New Links & Information

You can now Activate Chase Freedom 5% for the first quarter of 2020

  • Gas Stations
  • Internet, Cable & Phone Services
  • Streaming services ( Netflix, Hulu, Sling, Vudu, Fubo TV, Apple Music, SiriusXM, Pandora, Spotify, Youtube, & ESPN+)

Remember you can transfer Chase points between credit card accounts and that 5% cashback will become 5 miles per dollar. Transfer to the Chase Sapphire Preferred , Chase Buisiness Preferred Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Win 2 tickets to Taylor Swift at Gillette Stadium on July 31, 2020

Megabus: 200,000 Free Seats (For 1/8/20- 2/29/20)

Hilton is offering a 100% bonus when buying miles through 12/28/2020. I wouldn’t purchase miles unless you are trying to top off an account for a trip you are trying to book. You can buy as little as 10,000 points to receive double at $100. That makes each point worth .5 cents a piece and is exactly what Hilton points are worth.

Airline Shopping portal Bonuses

New JetBlue 2 day sale

Buy $100 Netflix Gift Card Get $15 Amazon Credit use Netflix for code in checkout. One per customer

How I Had My Amex Gold Card Fee Waived

Today my American Express Gold card $250 annual fee posted.  However, the card only costs $30 a year to me. The card offers $100 toward airline credit and the $120 toward food each year.

Anytime my annual fee posts to a credit card account, I call the credit card company’s retention line. I sometimes say I am looking to cancel because the annual fee posted, but lately I have been just asking if there is a retention offer on my account. I believe credit card companies software have offers on certain accounts by how much spending you did in a year. I seem to always get an offer on cards I use regularly. The cards that I hardly use don’t usually have any retention offer and I ended up canceling. There is also a chance you may not get an offer if you only had the card open for one year. I guess it depends on the company.

The Gold card is my go-to card because of 4 points on groceries and restaurants and I was definitely not planning to cancel it. When I called Amex, I just asked if there were any retention offers on my account. He played the game back at me and asked, “what don’t you like about the card?”. I replied, “The fee was raised last year because of the food credit and I don’t really care for that”. Honestly, I would prefer they just drop the annual fee down by $120 and not have the food credit, but it isn’t that big of deal. He then spoke about all the other great things about the card and I just sat and waited. When he was done talking about the card, he told me that there was a retention offer for me and I could either have 15,000 points or $100 credit after spending $2,000 in 3 months. Most people consider Amex points worth 1.8 cents each. Since I use all my Amex points on business class or first-class long-haul flights, I consider it worth a lot more. Even at 1.8 cents a point, that makes 15,000 points worth $270. Therefore, I obviously took the points.

Even if you have no plans to cancel a card, it is always good to try for a retention offer when your credit card annual fee posts. On $95 fee credit cards, they will sometimes just waive the fee.

WEB LINKS TO CHECK OUT

Win a trip for 2 to Aruba

WAAF has your chance to win a trip for 2 to the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino!

There are two ways for you to qualify to win this grand prize: Listen all week for your chance to win a pair of tickets to the WAAF Big Gig featuring Godsmack, Halestorm, Theory of a Deadman, Dirty Honey, and Dinosaur Pile-Up OR enter below for your chance to win a pair of tickets!

Those who win tickets will be qualified for a chance to win a five-night/six-day stay to the Hilton Aruba Caribbean Resort and Casino for two, where you can explore and discover tropical bliss! 

Win A Trip For 2 To Costa Rica

  • Round trip flights on Southwest Airlines for the winner and a guest to Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport (LIR)
  • Four nights of accommodations at the all-inclusive Riu Guanacaste
  • Round trip airport/hotel transfers

JetBlue flights as low as $54

Activate Discover IT 5%Cash Back For The First Quarter

  • Earn 5% Cashback Bonus at Grocery Stores, Walgreens and CVS from January 1–March 31, 2020, on up to $1,500 in purchases Excludes purchases made at Walmart and Target.

The 10 Best (and Worst) Airfare Search Sites for 2019

Buy Air France-KLM Flying Blue Miles With A Bonus

Earn up to 10,000 Bonus Marriott Bonvoy points for stays at Atlantis, Paradise Island

Deal alert: Buy $250 in Delta gift cards, earn $25 Best Buy gift card

Hyatt Expands SLH Partnership To 300+ Hotels

$97 Southwest Sale Ends Friday

Alaska Airlines $99 Sale

My Current Card Inventory

I am not going to write about all benefits with each card.  I am mostly going to write why I like the card for myself.  I don’t usually close Amex cards with no annual fee because they only give you a bonus once per lifetime on each card.

 

IHG Rewards Card

$49 annual fee

I pretty much only use it for the annual free night, worth more than $100.  I am having the wife open one so that we get two free nights per year.  You can use the anniversary free night at any IHG hotel.  Most hotel cards with a free night only let you use it for lower category hotels.

Final verdict: Keep

 

Amex Gold Business

$175 annual fee, waived the first year

I opened this card for the 50,000 Amex points.  I will close it when the annual fee posts in the fall.  You can pick a category out of 5 to get 3x points on, with the rest you will be getting 2x points.

If you regularly charge in any of these categories, you could be earning 3x points on the first $100,000 you spend (in each category) every year:

  • Airfare purchased directly from airlines
  • US purchases for advertising in select media
  • US purchases at gas stations
  • US purchases for shipping
  • US computer hardware, software and cloud computing purchases made directly from select providers

I picked 3X points for gas.

Final Verdict: Close when fee posts

Amex Premier Rewards Gold Personal

$195 annual fee waived the first year, $100 airline credit, 50,000 points

2X points on Supermarkets. I could get 2X points at restaurants but I use Chase for that.  I will probably keep this card because I view Amex points second best after Chase.  The fee is really just $95.

Final Verdict: Keep

Amex SPG Card Personal

$95 annual fee waived the first year,

I opened this card for the 35,000 point offer.  Plus SPG points are rated best.  They also have a ton of airline transfer partners with a bonus.  Every 20,000 points transferred to an airline, they give you an extra 5,000 points.  So that makes the transfer ratio at 1:1.25 for airlines.  I use this card on purchases that no other card gives a bonus on since their points are worth the most. I will close this card when the annual fee posts because I just got the business card

Final Verdict: Close when fee posts

Amex SPG Card Business

$95 annual fee waived the first year

I recently opened it for the 35,000 point bonus.  The business card has the same benefits as the personal card with one extra benefit, access to Sheraton Club Lounge

Final Verdict: Keep

 

Amex Hilton Honors Surpass Card

$75 annual fee not waived

I opened this card last week for the special 100,000 points and receiving a free weekend night after your anniversary date.  The free night was also special with this bonus.  I will have to keep the card for a second year to have that special bonus night.

Final Verdict: Close after the second year

 

Amex Blue Cash Everyday Card

No annual fee

I don’t use this card much because it is a cash back card.  I opened it up awhile back for the 0% on purchases for the first 12 months and the bonus cash back.  It does give you 3% back at gas stations and 2% at restaurants.

Final Verdict: Keep

 

Chase Sapphire Preferred

$95 annual fee, free the first year

2X on restaurants.  This was once one of the top cards and it was the best card for people starting out in the points game.  Then Chase came out with the Reserve card with 100,000 bonus this past year.  I can’t get the Reserve card because of the Chase 5/24 rule.  5/24 rule means: You have to have opened less than 5 personal cards and Chase business cards in the last 24 months to be able to open a Chase card. Credit reports do not show business cards, but obviously, Chase will see their business cards that you opened.  Right now the Reserve card is only at 50,000 points, making the Preferred card the one to open right now if you do not have it.

Final Verdict: Keep until I one day can open the Reserve card at 100,000 points

 

Chase Ink Cash Business Card

No annual fee

I had the Chase Ink Bold card that had an annual fee because of the bonus they offered.  I recently moved it down to the Chase Ink Cash card because it doesn’t have an annual fee. Now I do not like cash back cards because they are not worth as much as points, but since I have the Chase Sapphire preferred card I can move the cash back points over to that card. You can’t open either of these cards anymore.  Chase has a new Business card

5X points on cell phone and cable bills, 2X on gas.

Final Verdict: Keep

 

Chase Freedom

no annual fee

5x on bonus categories each quarter.  The best no annual fee card out there today!  I get 5x cash back bonus categories each quarter.  Since I have the Chase Sapphire preferred card I can move those cash back points over and they become regular chase points.  Last quarter I was getting 5X points on gas and local commuter transportation (uber, trains, tolls)  This quarter I am getting 5x points on drugstores and grocery stores.

Final Verdict: Keep

 

Discover IT

no annual fee

5% cash back on bonus categories each quarter.  Almost as good as the chase freedom, but just a cash back card.  Chase freedom transfers to other chase cards.

Final Verdict: Keep

 

Jet Blue Plus Card

$99 fee, not waived the first year

2X on restaurants and supermarkets, but I am currently only using it on jet blue flights.  I usually fly Jet Blue since Boston is a hub.

Benefits that I like for myself:

The bonus when opening, 10% miles rebate when using miles to book, free checked bag, 6x points when using the card with JetBlue purchases, 50% off in-flight purchases, and 5,000 annual bonus points that are worth $70.  That makes the fee only $29.

Final Verdict: Keep

 

Citi American Airlines AAdvantage Card

$95 annual fee waived the first year

I don’t really fly American Airlines.  I think they stink unless you have status with them.  I will never have status because I don’t fly enough.  I opened it for the 50,000 point bonus and can I can use the points with their partner airlines that are better.  Benefits of the card are: free checked bag, 2x points purchasing American Airlines, 10% miles rebate when using miles with them, preferred boarding.

Final Verdict: Close when annual fee posts

 

Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Card

$75 annual fee not waived

I opened this card last week for the 30,000 point bonus and the $100 credit.  The $100 credit offsets the annual fee the first year.  I love Alaska miles because they have many great transfer partners.  Plus they are a mileage based airline which makes miles worth more.  See my last blog post on their partners.  Other card benefits: free checked bag, 3X miles on Alaska, annual companion fare of $121

Final Verdict: Probably will close it after a year

 

Credit Cards I have but do not use

The reason being they do not have an annual fee and their benefits are not worth using the card.  I keep them for credit reasons.  Closing these cards will hurt my score by giving me less credit and history of my credit.

Hilton Amex, no fee

Two Bank of America cards, no fee, had them a long time

Jet Blue Card with no annual fee, had it a long time

Citi Thank You Preferred Card, no fee, had it a long time

Any store cards had them a long time

 

Cards that I closed:

Hilton Citi Card, no fee, I canceled because it was a new card and I will go for bonus again in 2 years