Category Archives for Credit Cards.
Two years ago I wrote about the X1 Card. It was coming, and would potentially be a game-changer – a no annual fee card that earned up to 4x on all spend. It rolled out slowly, for a long time only available by referral. But it’s finally available and it is potentially very lucrative.
It took 20 years – and George W. Bush – for federal employees to be allowed to collect frequent flyer miles on official travel.
Now members of the U.S. House can pay for travel to D.C. themselves, on personal credit cards, collect miles and points and get reimbursed from their House office.
American Express has been opening a network of airport lounges over the past decade, because that’s where their cardmembers are. After initially trialing the first Centurion lounge with Centurion cardmembers only in Las Vegas, the program expanded significantly. New York is their biggest market, and it looks like they have a new space coming, at least initially for Centurion cardmembers only.
Centurion New York is expected to open in March on the 55th floor of One Vanderbilt, about a block from the Hyatt Grand Central (former Grand Hyatt), featuring food by Daniel Boulud.
We now have full detail on stores earning 5% back: JCPenney; Aeropostale; Brooks Brothers; Nautica; Forever21; Reebok; Eddie Bauer; Lucky Brand (brands earn 5% at Simon malls and online) as well as gilt.com, ruelala.com, and shoppremiumoutlets.com. 3% and 5% categories are capped at $10,000 spend annually.
When the Aeroplan® Credit Card from Chase launched they said they’d be adding a ‘Pay Yourself Back’ feature with points worth 1.25 cents apiece towards paid travel. That feature starts January 13, 2023.
While there’s a cap of 50,000 points annually you may redeem this way, that cap does not apply in 2023.
Now that the year has reset, so have a number of credit card benefits, and elite ‘tasks.’ Here’s what I went through first thing in the morning on New Years Day.
Capital One is eliminating non-lounge airport facilities from Venture X Priority Pass cards effective January 1, 2023. This follows a similar move by American Express in summer 2019.
As a result, Capital One Priority Pass cardholders will not longer be able to swipe their cards for $28 credits at participating restaurants. Chase, by contrast, will still cover restaurant swipes for their Sapphire Reserve cardmembers.
In order to be an attractive co-brand partner you need a large base of customers who are loyal to your brand. And ideally you have a currency and benefits those customers are willing to accelerate with their spend. There’s just not a huge opportunity on day one.
So Avelo has an interesting workaround. They’re not yet in a place to generate that sweet, sweet co-brand cash. But they can earn a commission on credit card signups.
The Bilt Mastercard, the no annual fee card that lets you earn points paying rent at no cost (up to $100,000 per year) and earns double points on travel and triple points on dining, earns even more one day a month for “Bilt Rent Day,” but for this month it’s running a full week thanks to Black Friday.
Bilt Rewards is offering the first-even 100% transfer bonus with a partner that normally has a 1:1 ratio, at least the first that I’m aware of in twenty years.
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 »
