One reader did a bit of a double take at the FAQs for credit card earning in the new American Airlines elite program.
- “Base points” from credit cards count as Loyalty Points, for instance on most U.S. credit cards that means 1 mile per dollar spent. “Accelerators” (additional points you earn for spending on additional categories) do not count.
- But the FAQ talks about different base miles earn rates, “most AAdvantage® credit cards earn 1 base mile per US$1 spent on eligible purchases, but some earn .5 base miles per $1 spent, others 1.5 miles or 2 miles, etc.”
He wanted to know whether any AAdvantage cards actually earned a base of 1.5 or 2 miles per dollar?
And some do! For instance,
- I once did cover the Banco Popular card for Puerto Rico residents which earns 1.5 miles per dollar as a base.
- I’ve covered the Santander Bank cards in Brazil which earn 2 AAdvantage miles per US dollar spent as a base. Over the summer they ran a promotion offering unlimited 5 AAdvantage miles per dollar on all spend.
Santander Bank is actually suing to get out of their co-brand deal four years into a ten year term, on force majeure grounds. They have minimum mileage purchase requirements in their contract and the pandemic has apparently meant reduced charge volumes for the product. That seems likely to be the reason they were handing out miles like candy – they had to buy those miles anyway whether there was spend associated with them or not. Santander managed to terminate their co-brand deal in Argentina last year.
Of course there’s no longer even an American Airlines co-brand in Europe, where generous credit cards don’t exist anymore the way they do here as a result of government restrictions on interchange. Cards aren’t profitable businesses in the same way, so spending as much to incentivize charges on them doesn’t make as much sense. There are larger card portfolios that are sustainable, and some of those work on different economic models – such as the airline providing the miles, and sharing in revenue from customer revolve.
Who cares? Write something useful instead of this clickbait shit.
@Fathiss
Actually the reason he writes this is because there are a bunch of losers like you, who have nothing better to do than waste their life browsing the Internet. If you only had a meaningful contribution to society maybe you would not be so hateful, as you would actually have a purpose other than trolling.
Gary has readers in many countries . . . including locations in which these cards are offered. This article (and similar articles) are of interest to them. You are ignorant of the facts.
If you don’t care for what Gary writes, don’t read his blog. Just leave. But, don’t be a petty and small-minded jerk by posting such comments. Apparently, your parents did not teach you decency and civility.
Very interesting, specially the Santander lawsuit. But I’m not sure if the lawsuit is to cease the contract or just to not have to buy the annual undisclosed amount of miles.
@Fathiss, @James, and @Reno Joe,
Yeah, points and miles is like a hobby for me. I enjoy reading about some of the intrigue, politics, and games in the same way that stamp collectors may read about stamps they’ll never buy, or car aficionados enjoy reading about foreign cars or the issues and dealings of auto companies.
Sure, we all tease Gary from time-to-time, but I enjoy the blog and appreciate the work he puts into it 🙂
@James: There’s nothing hateful about honest feedback.
@Reno, I don’t think you understand what clickbait is. The title did not imply the narrow scope of usefulness. I read it because the title used his clickbait tactic of sounding interesting but was in fact so narrow in scope it applies to few. Just put it in the title like DOC does. It’s his unscrupulous ways which makes articles like this do distasteful.
But, groupies will say what they always say. Let others lead you because you can’t think for yourselves.
@Fathiss
Why do you care?
Seriously take your hate outta here
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@Joe lmao
The card scene is not all that bad across all of Europe. For example, there is a hotel credit card in at least one part of Europe where merely running one charge against it each month means getting 2 elite status nights per month. Works pretty well to get to a mid-tier status level for their regional travelers and even 4