Category Archives for Credit Cards.
Delta Air Lines has a corporate American Express card with a $1.1 billion credit line. They use it for fuel purchases – they’re one of the biggest buyers of jet fuel in the world. And they own an oil refinery.
The crazy thing is that they have to pay off this card monthly and they still max it out!
Marriott has their booking platform for short-term rental stays. They rebate part of the commission they’re generating in the form of points and elite credit. Hyatt is getting into this game as well.
Capital One now has an interesting play in the space. You can already redeem Capital One Venture and Venture X (and equivalent business card) points to pay for short-term rental stays (such as Airbnb). But they’ve got their own STR ‘collections’ now that come with enhanced earning and benefits.
The first of each month is ‘Rent Day’ with Bilt Rewards, and they offer several promotions – some of which have been the best one day offers we’ve seen like transfer bonuses up to 150% to Air Canada, Air France KLM, and Virgin Atlantic.
With March Madness coming they’ve created a bracket to determine the primary offer for this upcoming Rent Day, March 1st.
The Supreme Court heard a challenge to the Durbin Amendment. Specifically, they’re expected to rule on whether a new challenge to the Durbin Amendment is too late.
Josh Hawley calls it “destructive corporate consolidation at its starkest” and says it will “create a new juggernaut in the credit card market, with unprecedented powers to extort American consumers.” Unprecedented? American Express operates closed loop payments (card issuer and payments network) today, and Chase issues nearly as many cards as this combined business would.
Durbin-Marshall seeks to require cards to be used either on the American Express or Discover networks as a challenge to Visa and Mastercard. This deal massively bolsters Discover, creating more competition in payments processing.
Ultimately by promoting competition without legislative action (and legislative destruction), this is great for consumers and rewards.
IHG and Hyatt both offer “Milestone Rewards.” American’s concept is “Loyalty Point Rewards,” formerly called “Loyalty Choice Rewards.” Of these, Hyatt was first. They award benefits for progress as you progress through the program, not just on achieving status tiers. That makes earning your next award closer than before, more accessible and keeps members wanting more because the next thing is achievable.
Bilt Rewards has introduced its own Milestone Rewards.
Bilt Rewards runs bigger points transfer bonuses than any other program. But they last only a day – when they come around, it’s for the first of the month, “Rent Day,” since Bilt makes rent more rewarding.
What’s really interesting is these new markets. Student housing means expanding beyond the core urban professional renter, but is still adjacent, reaching a demographic likely to graduate into their current core – earlier.
But “single-family” is interesting, too, since they also say that “Bilt plans to venture into mortgage payment rewards.” So earning rewards paying your mortgage like they currently offer rewards for paying rent.
Competition is heating up between the big banks to serve premium customers across travel, dining and experiences, with American Express looking to hire a leader that will help them build a new app ground-up.
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 »
