Category Archives for Credit Cards.
My oldest credit card account is my Marriott American Express. It was opened as a Starwood Amex 20 years ago. Account longevity is one of the key attributes of American Express. Cards print your ‘member since’ date on the front. American Express Centurion lounges even use member since as their internet password.
Capital One is pairing with Michelin-starred chefs in four cities to deliver dinner for two along with cocktails, a virtual happy hour reception with the chef and a musician, along with a musical playlist they’ve chosen to accompany the menu. Hurry, spots are limited.
Barclays is offering 100,000 points as an initial bonus for the $99 annual fee JetBlue Plus Card. The offer is also available for the $99 annual fee JetBlue Business Card.
You’ll generally get 1 to 1.6 cents per point in value redeeming for JetBlue flights. Mint (business class) flights will skew towards the lower end. I value a JetBlue point at around 1.25 cents apiece, so a 100,000 point offer means $1250 worth of travel, or $1151 net of each card’s annual fee.
Chase has now integrated its Tock partnership, through something called Chase Dining, into the Ultimate Rewards website and Chase mobile app offering, And they’re letting Sapphire cardmembers redeem points at 1.25 or 1.5 cents apiece.
Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign is asking for donations by offering a Platinum card to denote membership in an exclusive tier in exchange. It isn’t just a ‘Platinum card’ but features an image of a person (Trump / a Centurion) in the center and the card’s border is very similar to the American Express Platinum Card as well.
Democrats generally have been supportive of legislation that would limit how much credit card companies could charge to process transactions.
These limits would destroy the value of frequent flyer programs, which sell miles to banks. And we’ve seen when limits have been imposed in other countries that they’ve destroyed the value of credit card rewards.
American Express lets cardmembers earn points when they refer a friend who applies and is approved for a new card. You’re generally limited only to referring friends and family for cards you already have yourself.
From October 1 through October 28 they’re adding a new bonus to encourage people to refer friends. In addition to the standard points that they’ll give for a successful referral, they’ll also let someone who successfully refers someone earn 3 more points per dollar (or earn 3% more cash back) for the next three months.
Last year Chase launched a new premium Southwest Airlines business card. This was the card I wanted most in the fall and fortunately I was able to get approved for it. It puts earning a companion pass in reach and I’m loking forward to traveling with my wife and daughter again (my wife as my companion, daughter on points) — and the points from the card go a long way to a bunch of those tickets, especially when I then top off with Chase Ultimate Rewards points which’ll essentially become doubled in value.
We don’t know enough about this product yet to have a real idea of its value – if you can actually generate a 4% return through spend and referrals that’s going to be really strong, but most people won’t be able to successfully refer someone every month.
Referrals aside then we’re talking about 2% back on the first $15,000 of spend each year. This card is only interesting for spend above $15,000 to get to 3% back. But you’re going to have to spend substantially more than $15,000 on the card before you’re really getting enough value to make the higher rate of return worthwhile.
Chase has one of the most lucrative credit card offers we’ve seen for the premium Southwest Airlines business card. It’s a great card as I’ll show you in a moment but let’s first look at the initial bonus offer for the card, meant to make a really big splash and it does with up to 100,000 points as an initial bonus, which in 2020 is enough to earn a Companion Pass. When you earn the bonus you have enough points for a Companion Pass even under standard rules that return in 2021.
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 »
