United is what we’ve usually flown to Panama, and that’s the most consistent trip we’ll take. Interested in going to Japan, some Nordic countries, European eventually.
I think the CSR has too low of a sign up bonus currently with how the annual fee is. You could look at the CSP. $95 annual fee with 60k sign up bonus. Get that along with the Chase United Explorer Card (plus flight attendant referral) and you're looking at 120k+ United points. That's enough for three round trip tickets IAH-PTY. The United card has $0 annual fee first year then goes to $95. Included two lounge passes and free checked bag. The CSP allows you to transfer points to partners, spend them in the portal, or cash them out as you mentioned you may want. The Amex gold with a 90k sign up bonus and 4x at grocery/restaurants is great. However, you don't want to trade those points for cash. And they can't be transferred to United. Also make sure you'd get the value out of the monthly Uber credit.
Gold is really great as a daily grocery/dining card, less so for travel benefits imo (even though there are some.) However if you imagine using MRs for flight/hotel redemption down the line, that's one way you can argue it as outsized travel perks. Edit - to DuffandMuff 's point MR cannot be transfered to UA, but can be to multiple alliance partners (that offer UA award space.)
Thank y’all for the help with this. Seems like CSP and Amex Gold will be solid cards to add for the reasons y’all stated. My wife has a subscription to a budgeting app called YNAB. Apple Card doesn’t sync with it, and we’re trying to make things as seamless as possible when it comes to our budgeting. Either of us COULD input each of the transactions individually, but I took this as a push to do what I’d wanted to do for a while, which was become more efficient with the cards I use.
Currently have the Hilton aspire and am not seeing the benefit I thought I would from it since I typically travel with family and have a CSR. Looking at switching to Marriott. Is the boundless the way to go? Like the idea of a lower fee but still having a free night certificate, but no clue how much the 35k certificate gets me.
Just got back from honeymoon which ended in Paris/London and Marriot/Hilton/IHG point redemptions were fuckin wild. Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris for 40k/night was a no brainer, but there wasn't a clear Hyatt choice in London. Decided to check Marriott and Hilton and it's like 350k/night for the Conrad or W. Until Hyatt fucks up their system, I'm going to ride with them. There are some cool cat 1-4 free night redemptions out there if you look for them and the award chart makes it so much easier to book (though they did fuck around a bit with the London Andaz based on weekday/weekend).
Assuming there is a similar AF between the top Hilton/Marriott card, I would love to hear how the Marriott card has better value.
I liked it a lot, good sized room for a London hotel. Expected to spend more time around there and be burned out on the tourist stuff, but the wife was up for seeing the sights. Took the tube quite a bit, but it's easy with the station right there. Got some great fish and chips (went to Poppies like a 5 min walk) and hit Brick Lane for Indian food (did Preem, was good but wish I'd have gone with the spiciest) which were the must-dos on my list, so I was set. Need to do a full write up on the whole honeymoon for the travel thread.
Award pricing is dynamic so it's kind of a crapshoot. I've been able to get decent value out of it by using it for nights in the $200 range at ACs, Courtyards, & Autographs in SF, PDX, and NYC, but I tend to hit them in slow times too.
Just bought a house and while it kills me, I'd like to make some big purchases and want to take advantage of some 0% APR benefits. I'm seeing 21 months with the WellsFargo Reflect and no annual fee. Anything better than that?
I am in similar boat. Making some upgrades to my backyard and was looking for best 0% APR offer + points value. Another question for thread - Is the Chase Freedom Flex the same thing as the standard Chase Freedom card? Want to stack UR points if possible but I already have the “original” Freedom and Freedom Unlimited Cards.
I have CSR, freedom unlimited and Freedom Flex. Used the 15 month 0% APR for the flex on a large purchase. It has quarterly 5% cash back categories which the freedom unlimited does not have. Otherwise fairly similar.
Flex replaced the old Freedom I think. I have one of each. Only difference is the Flex is a Mastercard.
Freedom flex seems like the play. Only consideration would be how much credit they are able to give me. I already have CSR, Freedom, Freedom unlimited, Chase Hyatt and Chase IHG cards.
I've had the top Marriott card for a few years now. The auto platinum is nice, the free night pays for the fee easily. I saved $1500 on a free night at the St. Regis Rome with it. Probably do a small getaway this year to a Ritz or St Regis for basically free this year with it which will save me at least a grand.
Got probably my 22nd chase business card the other day and had me thinking. Is this gravy train ever going to run out or change? How have they not figured out a way to stop this method?
that’s amazing lol. I’ve got 5 and figured I needed to slow it down but apparently not. do you still have all 22 open?
Yep. Half on me, half on my wife. I sell used household merchandise for like 5k per year in revenue for the last 12 years. Worst case, I can somewhat prove it by selling random shit on facebook marketplace.
Do Hilton points not go very far? I’ve got about 230,000 points but it seems like lots of hotels are 50-75k points per night and the cash price is around $250 per night.
1. I recently learned that chase points transfer to Hyatt 1:1 so I started looking at Hyatt hotels and holy shit the redemption looked cheap. I have over 600,000 chase points. 2. I have about 165k amex platinum points that I will need to transfer in a couple of months before I cancel the card. I have an offer to transfer to Hilton with an extra bonus. Basically 2.5 Hilton points per 1 amex point. Is that where I should transfer them to?
I try to only use them if I'm going to stay 5 nights (cause the 5th night is free if you book points).
That’s what I’ve done and then pair it with a five night stay and you get that fifth night free so you can pretty decent value then.
pro tip re Hilton/Amex: Amex occasionally has promos to increase the transfer rate. IIRC it's up to 50% better than standard redemption, though often only 33% better. So check the Amex page occasionally and leave the points in Amex until you see the transfer promo.
Legislation Could Wipe out Credit Card Rewards—Big Spenders Stand to Lose the Most https://www.barrons.com/articles/le...hu6x3Pg3qKUKTT4vKLLvl8-04Zi8xSmc9aag6e7lnACdj
the credit card processing fees seem onerous when we could do it for free or near free with a more modern banking system making businesses have to build 2-3% bigger margins in to pay those companies doesn't feel like a thing we should accept
Oh yea I don't disagree at all there, I just assume the banks would find another way to pass those fees on to consumers or businesses, and we'd pay the margins anyways and lose the benefit. That's a bit of a defeatist attitude by me though I guess.
There is ridiculous arb on Park Hyatt in NYC right now. I’m seeing 45,000 pts per night for a weekend stay while cash cost is $2200+/night. May have to pull trigger and make a trip up to the old stomping grounds.
If this happens it will be in 5 or maybe 6 years. Very slim chances it gets done in the near term. Both sides of the aisle disagree with Durbin here.
For southwest - if I use points to book a flight can I still use companion pass for my wife on the same flight? Or do you actually have to pay for the flight to use the companion pass?
Well crap. I cancelled mine and that didnt happen. I will be cancelling my other in the next few months. Hopefully get lucky.