Category Archives for Credit Cards.
I recently shared what’s in my wallet and I clearly use a lot of different cards for different purposes in different situations.
Keeping a strategy straight for yourself can be hard enough, but how do you make sure your spouse — who isn’t as attuned to these things as you are — uses the right card every time?
Capital One has done something game-changing. They’ve made their points more lucrative. Venture customers can continue to redeem their miles with no blackout dates on all travel-related purchases
— at the same rate as before. This just adds the option to transfer points to airline miles if you’d like.
Three years ago we saw what I think may be the worst signup bonus in history, worse even than the stuffed animal you could get signup up for a JAL Mileage Bank credit card.
But are there several offers that are worse, even much worse?
Normally I like to transfer my Chase Ultimate Rewards points to airline frequent flyer miles or to Hyatt points. However I recently had an interesting use case to spend Ultimate Rewards points for paid travel.
I booked a domestic first class ticket using a combination of points and cash. I was downgraded from first to coach, and the airline was willing to refund the fare difference — to the agency that issued the ticket. And Chase just changed agencies!
Through January 4 the card has an initial bonus of 100,000 points for the very first time — 50,000 after first purchase and 50,000 more after $2500 spend on the card within 90 days of account opening.
In general the chain isn’t my bag. Radissons, especially Radisson Blu properties in Europe, can be quite good though.
I was the first person to report over the summer that Chase would be expanding their 5/24 rule. Chase doesn’t approve most applicants for their cards who have opened 5 or more new credit card accounts in the previous 24 months. This is too blunt of an instrument.
There may be a very good reason that the UnitedSM Explorer Card has its best-ever public signup offer.
The airline’s financials suggest stagnation in MileagePlus’ growth. I believe they’ve largely been flat outside of revenue from Chase for Ultimate Rewards points transfers.
On Saturday I wrote about four great ways to earn LifeMiles, points in Avianca’s Star Alliance frequent flyer program.
They’re now an American Express transfer partner as well as a Citibank transfer partner.
When Barclays introduced a new card earlier this year with points transferring to airline miles and bonuses for spend each year, the rest of the industry waited with baited breath to see what would happen.
There was no sign up bonus. And even Barclays’ competitors were rooting for them to succeed. Is it possible to get consumers to adopt a rewards card without a big up front bonus?
I don’t rent cars nearly as often as I used to given the ubiquity of Uber and Lyft. However I really like Silvercar and wish they were in more cities, and really like Silvercar discounts even more.
Silvercar has an all-Audi fleet (and they’re now owned by Audi) and their all-inclusive model comes with free GPS, wifi, and satellite radio. You pay only actual tolls (no administrative charges) and can pay a flat $5 and they’ll refuel your car at market rate.
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 »
