Category Archives for Credit Cards.
Earlier I wrote about how Chase is seriously improving the IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card.
It turns out that the card isn’t just adding new benefits. They’ve substantially increased the up front bonus, as well.
Wyndham can be useful for home rental stays (generally 15,000 points per bedroom per night). Aeromexico is limited use, but there are some use cases. The most useful promotion here is with LifeMiles – reasonable award chart, no fuel surcharges, and awards across Star Alliance.
Capital One is adding a new 1:1 mileage transfer partner “in the coming weeks.” Virgin Red.
Chase, American Express, Citi and Bilt all transfer to Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Red is the multibrand Virgin loyalty currency that includes Virgin Atlantic. So this gives Capital One Virgin, too, while also allowing them to say they’re “the first US credit card issuer to partner with Virgin Red.”
The CEO of restaurant chains Fatburger, Round Table Pizza and Johnny Rockets has been under federal investigation for tax evasion. Agents raided the home of his daughter-in-law, whose mother is “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Kim Richards (his son and daughter’s wedding was a plot line in the Bravo show).
During the pandemic credit card companies weren’t adding many new customers for travel credit cards. But customers were still cancelling cards, at least at normal rates. (Banks went to great lengths to retain customers and did stop greater levels of cancellations in most cases.)
But without adding customers to the funnel, portfolios shrank. That’s a major reason we’ve seen such big initial bonuses over the past 6-9 months. And we’ve also been seeing cards get refreshed with new benefits, to remain competitive, to better appeal to new customers, and to address customer preferences that have changed.
Honestly I had to look up what sport the Pelicans played (basketball) but this card is really good for 4% back in a popular earn category without an annual fee.
American Express just announced ‘Rewards Checking’ for U.S. credit card customers. It has no account fees or minimum balances, pays half a percent annual yield on balances, and comes with a points-earning debit card (1 Membership Rewards point per $2 spend). I expect this will be my go-to for tax payments.
Capital One discontinued their highly popular Spark Cash card for new business cardmembers over the summer, and at the same time introduced Spark Cash Plus as a 2% cash back card with a $150 annual fee.
A $3000 initial bonus offer with high spend requirement will certainly be attractive to many high spenders. Of course that’s exactly who they’re looking for with this offer!
Frontier Airlines re-launched their credit card and their elite program four years ago and did something that at the time was revolutionary: a dollar spent on the card earned an elite qualifying mile. But Frontier did something bigger in 2021 and somehow I missed it. All spend over 20,00 per calendar year counts double towards elite status now.
You can now search for award availability with American Airlines AAdvantage and Air Canada Aeroplan inside Bilt’s app. No other transferable points program has this, and it’s fairly unprecedented in the industry. That says something about the Bilt project, and the demographic they’re reaching that’s valuable to airline loyalty programs.
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 »
