Category Archives for Credit Cards.
In the new Marriott program there will be two card issuers: Chase for personal cards, and American Express for premium personal and small business cards. All legacy cards will continue to be serviced.
And in the new program the transfer ratio of Membership Rewards to Starwood (and ultimately Marriott) will be changing as well.
On Wednesday I attended a briefing with Chase and Hyatt executives about the new Hyatt co-brand card that launches today. I’ll have more on that today.
We talked through the reasons for the new card benefits and had time for some question and answer. I asked about Chase’s “5/24” rule.
Barclays just re-launched the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard and it’s one of the most creative new products I’ve seen in a long time. Frontier is an ultra low cost carrier, but for cardmembers it doesn’t have to be. In fact if Frontier had onboard internet this card is good enough to make me consider the airline.
I was surprised flying American Airlines this week that the onboard credit card pitch for the Barclays AAdvantage® AviatorTM Red World Elite Mastercard® included the flight attendant noting that this is ‘a new card introduced in 2017 (sic) and that if you already have the American Airlines card issued by Citi you can get this one too.’
Explicitly mentioning a competitor product seems to be a new part of the script since I’ve seen several references to this from other flyers on Facebook as well.
Lifetime means as long as American Express sees you as having had a card in the past. Often that seems to be around seven years. You can ask American Express what cards you’ve had in the past and they’ll tell.
There’s no more guessing, because American Express has a new popup when you submit an application — before they pull your credit — noting you’ve had the card in the past (or currently have it) and therefore aren’t eligible for a bonus. You can proceed with the application if you wish, or stop the process.
Capital One just added TSA PreCheck or Global Entry reimbursement to the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card.
It’s not the first card to offer this of course but it’s another benefit for an already strong rewards card. And it’s the second new benefit already added this year. That’s important because they’re improving the value proposition on the card while several other cards are seeing things taken away.
Credit card company acquisition offers are expensive. While with co-branded products it’s not always the bank buying the entire bucket of miles they’re offering you — acquiring new customers can be profitable over time both for the bank but also for the airline or hotel — this up front cost only gets paid back when customers use their new cards, keep them, and continue spending over time.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Inflight credit card announcements aren’t going to go away no matter how much customers complain. However I do think the announcements could be done in a way that’s friendlier for passengers — and more effective for card issuers and their co-brand partners.
Barclays currently issues the Apple credit card. It’s fairly weak — no signup bonus, 3 points per dollar at Apple and 2 points at restaurants, with points you can redeem for Apple and iTunes gift cards.
There are no ‘benefits’ for being an Apple cardmember which I’ve never understood, other than a built-in financing offer for Apple products. Early access to products, special activations at Apple stores, some form of better treatment for cardmembers seems like a no brainer.
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 »
