Category Archives for Credit Cards.
Competition in the rewards credit card market has gotten so intense that I believe the Sapphire Reserve card – the ‘it’ product when it was introduced just six years ago – has become passé. It was the most rewarding in the marketplace, and now merely a good card that I think has been surpassed in its rewards-earning.
But what if that card threw in a full United Club membership at no extra cost?
The American Express® Business Gold Card had one of the better initial bonus offers already at 70,000 Membership Rewards points.
The card is worth getting, spurred on by the initial bonus offer. It’s worth using for my ongoing spend. And it’s worth having for the benefits.
The IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card has a best-ever initial bonus offer by a lot, worth 5 free night awards which can have a total value of 300,000 points. That’s more than double the value of the previous offer, and something I recall their offering only once before.
On June 1 Bilt will be offering up to a 200% bonus on points transfers to Accor. This is a backdoor transfer bonus from Bilt to Air France KLM Flying Blue, and up to a 100% transfer bonus at that.
There’s now a 50,000 point initial bonus offer for the Mesa Homeowners Card after $5,000 in purchases within 3 months. Use code Bonus50 when applying.
This move is another opportunity for the unprecedentedly large transfer bonuses that Bilt offers, and for other special promotions like status match offers.
Bilt is adjusting points-earning for rent payments on their new feature to earn rewards paying rent with any card, for a fee.
Bilt Rewards has added Japan Airlines as a 1:1 points transfer partner. Bilt says that most transfers will be completed within 10 minutes.
Maximizing credit card rewards requires a strategic two-card approach, focusing on cards that offer more than one point per dollar on spending and allow point combining across different reward 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 »
