Category Archives for Credit Cards.
Skeptics of the program have little reason not to participate. If you think they’re providing too much value to be sustainable, that would seem to be an even stronger reason to go all-in with the program (to benefit from the excess value they’re delivering).
Here’s a CEO who spent 1.83 million American Express Membership Rewards points to cover a surprise tariff bill at the guitar pedal manufactuing company he runs in Oklahoma Cty.
Marriott Gold’s primary benefit is avoiding the worst room in the house and 2 p.m. late checkout at eligible properties.
New Chase offers, especially best-ever offers, sometimes are processed without ‘5/24’ blocking approvals and bonuses. And these are… new, best-ever offers.
One upside of this new approach that Chase and American Express are taking is that you’d expect richer rewards and lower annual fees to be the result in a highly competitive industry. In fact we have seen much richer rewards over time – standard bonuses were smaller and points-earning was generally just one mile per dollar when I got started – but fees have also risen. There are also a lot more rewards card issuers than there used to be, and a lot more products, so the customers Chase and American Express are trying to avoid can simply look elsewhere.
With Chase’s new rules it’s possible to hold both a Sapphire Preferred and Reserve at the same time, though you won’t likely be offered the initial bonus if you have an open Sapphire account (or if you have gotten a bonus for the card in the past).
Chase’s new “Points Boost” feature on their premium credit cards looks a lot better than I thought it would. It’s available now for all Sapphire Reserve cardmembers, even though the rest of the card proposition’s changes don’t come into effect until October for those of us who already had their cards in our wallets.
The card largely mirrors the consumer version, but there are a few key differences.
The relaunched Chase Sapphire Reserve is now available. Those applying today get the new card value proposition right away. Here’s what I really think about the new card – as a standalone proposition, and about the changes for current Sapphire cardmembers. Should you get the card? Should you keep it?
The product was wildly successful attracting young, affluent cardmembers. But it wasn’t profitable. Early on Chase filed SEC 8-Ks outlining greater than expected costs. My understanding is that in the first five years after launch they’d cumulatively lost around $2 billion on the product.
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 »
