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This card launched around 8 months ago with a big signup bonus and strong points-earning. But it’s a $95 annual fee card, not a $450 annual fee card.
It comes with an 80,000 Point Signup Bonus: Spend $5000 on your new card within 3 months and you’ll get 80,000 points. As you’ll see below, that can even be enough for a roundtrip business class award ticket between the US and Europe.
This is the latest premium card, with a big signup bonus and strong points-earning. But it’s a $95 annual fee card, not a $450 annual fee card.
Ritz-Carlton clubs aren’t like the club lounges you may be used with at major chain hotels. They’ll frequently have up to 5 food presentations daily, and adult beverages throughout the day along with great service to take care of any needs you have during your stay.
You’ll find delicious, substantive food from breakfast to light snacks, afternoon tee, evening Hors d’Oeuvres and desserts. But elite status doesn’t get you in.
The new Ritz-Carlton Rewards® Credit Card is a Visa Infinite card. The card was already strong, last month Chase made the card great.
Here are 13 things I love:
I’ve signed up for scores of cards over many years and I still have an excellent credit score, it was nearly 800 FICO on the three major credit bureaus when I went to get my mortgage. In part because of signing up for more cards, rather than in spite of it.
It often surprises me though how many credit cards are approved for consumers with much lower credit scores than I’d have expected. It turns out there’s data for that.
This is a really big deal, and the most exciting new card offer I’ve seen in awhile. Chase has a brand new offer for the Ritz-Carlton Rewards® Credit Card which is now only the second Visa Infinite card in the country.
The signup bonus lets you earn 3 free nights at Ritz-Carlton hotels. And the card benefits include club lounge upgrades, Gold elite status, lounge access, and fee credits.
Hyatt Gold Passport is the most valuable hotel program that flexible bank points can be transferred into. That’s true because while a single Starpoint is worth more than a single Hyatt point, it takes 3 American Express Membership Rewards points to get one Starwood point and Chase points actually transfer one-to-one into Hyatt. That makes Hyatt an extremely useful partner.
With loyalty programs regularly offering less value for their points, I’m putting together this series with background, tips, and tricks for frequent flyer programs programs whose points can be very useful to you and that you can earn easily by transferring in from bank rewards currencies.
As someone who flies American Airlines regularly, I place a high value on lounge access. It’s the people who keep me going especially during irregular operations, going above and beyond to get me where I’m going. As a result I’m very interested in the best way to get American Airlines club access.
For instance, agents have regularly double booked me giving me ‘backup’ flights just in case I misconnect. And I’ve even gotten a proactive call from a lounge about a delay, they had booked me as a backup on a new flight (that had looked sold out to me, and it was the last one of the night). And I’m not a Concierge Key member.
My single favorite card for earning valuable rewards points is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and it currently has its best-ever public offer that lets you earn 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
But Citi Prestige earns even more points — triple, not double — than Sapphire Preferred on air and hotels. It doesn’t just earn double points on dining like Sapphire Preferred, but also ‘entertainment’ which is a broad category.
There’s reporting that the Citi Prestige Card is about to reduce its signup bonus next Tuesday. Now is the time to get the card if you’ve even been on the fence about it.
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 »
