Category Archives for Credit Cards.
Chase Sapphire Reserve cardmembers can register to receive an Air Canada Aeroplan 5,000 point flight award certificate. This will take 5,000 points off the price of an award (including on partner airlines). With awards as low as 6,000 points, you can book for as little as 1,000 points one-way. And Chase points transfer to Air Canada.
Here’s the best-ever offer for the premium Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card.
American Express is offering an initial bobus of 125,000 points after spending $8,000 within 6 months of cardmembership for the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card. This is a nice improvement of a 100,000 point offer, and you have a full six months to meet the required spend.
Right now is your best opportunity to get a Southwest Companion Pass good for nearly two full years, based on how this benefit works today. It’s arguably the best value in travel.
Every month I post what I find are the best credit card offers out there. Some of last month’s best credit card offers are gone or changed.
Here’s the current up to date list of best credit card offers right now – the most lucrative bonuses available.
Without Ameircan AAdvantage, the ThankYou points program was a bit of an also-ran. It lacked a strong U.S. airline, including just JetBlue. And while it has a number of hotel programs, it doesn’t have the top tier ones.
Now, though, it’s the only bank rewards currency that transfers to American. No bank has a better oneworld partner.
Along with this new card, Citi has also brought American AAdvantage onboard as a transfer partner, which is huge. AAdvantage cards earn 1 point per dollar on most spend. Even unbonused spend with this card earns 1.5x. So you’re earning more American miles for your spend than with an American card, plus you have flexibility to move points elsewhere (or redeem directly for travel, etc.).
I really feel like Chase and Southwest could have done better here, though things are moving quickly with changes at Southwest and I suppose they didn’t have as much runway as they often do with such product refreshes.
American Express still sees headroom to charge customers more, and make them feel o.k. with it by selling access to their cardmembers to adjacent brands in exchange for coupons and discounts. That strategy will work until they reach some theoretical limit – but they haven’t found it yet. As long as they keep promising you a somewhat better experience in aspirational portions of your life like travel, you will keep paying and keep spending on their cards.
Bilt Rewards has launched a new travel portal and it promises to fix everything customers hate about travel portals. In fact, it aims to actually make travel better and easier. At a minimum, they’re building along the right lines. And their new ‘Home Away From Home’ brings luxury travel benefits like Amex’s Fine Hotels and Resorts to their members without requiring an expensive credit card.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
