Probably a bad assumption. Traveling to get more rewards which are a couple percent on the dollar is penny wise and pound foolish. Get the card that optimizes for what you do, but it’s not like having the right card is going to cut your travel expenses in half.
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I think between my wife and I we have at least 6 new Chase business cards in the last 18 months. Chase also gives bonuses for EIN business applications on the same product - so you could get the Chase Ink BP 120K for a business on your social, register for an EIN and get the bonus on that EIN as well for the same product (I have done that successfully within 90 days - haven’t tried any closer to that).
Trying to figure out what to apply for this week before the 40K point referral goes back down to 20K points.
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I almost used up all my 5/24 slot for chase personal cc, I guess I’ll start the Chase business card lines after this LOL.
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Amex MR are relatively much higher in value compared to Hilton. You are better off not converting in mass to Hilton unless there is a very specific use.
For instance you can buy Hilton points directly for Hilton for 0.5c a piece. However Amex MR can be redeemed for ~ 1c with easy redemptions. Redeeming for aspirational travel using award charts and all is next step up.
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From a long game perspective - I would say apply in this order
- CSR
- Some other Chase card
- Another Chase card
- May be throw in a C1 VX App
- Another Chase card
And then Amex.
Read up 5/24 rules for chase.
Amex is relatively generous with approvals and not nosey about 5/24 rules since they have a once a life time bonus language.
Thank you - that’s good to know.
Yeah, I’m aware of that but I’m using them the way it works for my family. I don’t need at the moment fancy-shmancy aspirational travel. I did that before kids were born - touring the world in first/business class and visiting lounges everywhere.
Now, it’s far simpler affair:) Especially when you have 3 kids and most of those “aspirational” travels are in hotels designed for max 4 people. Once you have 5 traveling members, suddenly you need either extra room or some other extra expense.
100% agreed.
Do you want to redeem 100K MR as 100K Hilton or cashout the 100K MR for ~ $1000, use the $1000 to buy 200K hilton straight from them when they run their 100% bonus promos? Thats all I am saying.
I understand finding aspirational award space for anything 2+ is really hard.
I’d wait until they have a bonus for transferring from MR to Hilton for at least 2x or, better 3x (if they still do that promo)
and 175k MR into 350k Hilton isn’t a chunk change if you factor in 5th night free.
If you account for taxes and fees, that can be around $3k for a 5-day hotel stay. Last time, we stayed at a hotel that charged a $15 resort fee daily for a regular paid stay, but we stayed on points and didn’t have to pay it.
And not having to pay $3k for a 5 day hotel is good for at it this point. Of course, it’s a far cry from those 5* hotels we stayed at that charge $800 per night, and getting an international business class that would have cost thousands. Like EWR-SYD, with stops at Ontario, Seoul (overnight), Beijing, and Bangkok, and should have a $25k price tag. But that was another life:)
Right now, I use points where I am entirely different and don’t care if they can be used for something more. I’m content with what I get.
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The standard (non bonus) Amex/Hilton transfer ratio is 1:2, so 100k Amex = 200k Hilton.
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Ah! Forgot about that. Will wait for a bonus to transfer
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If your over 5/24 chase won’t approve you even for biz card but the buz cards dont count towards 5/24 so first sign up for the biz then personal
Had 2 offers for Amex Plat BUS popup, 1 for upgrading a gold card - 120K points for 10K spend in 3 months (annual fee will be prorated at 50% based on age of account) and 175K points for 15K spend in 3 months for a new application. Probably will go with the 120K points one as Plat Bus is not worth as much to me once Dell goes away. In the meantime, I will search to see if I can get a 200 or 250K point one show up with NLL.
Is it just me or is chase acting getto this year?
Last year they had bunch of multiplier for points but this year I don’t think I’ve seen one yet.
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Every card issuer is tightening the reins across the board. Delinquencies are up but travel is still (relatively) booming with full flights and hotels until
at least school was back in.
Look at the rates for flights across the country over Thanksgiving along with hotel rates. Everything is still super high because for people that can afford to travel the economy is still humming along.
With all of that being the case, the issuers don’t need to throw points out there as a bone, even with everything being devalued seemingly.
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Yeah the economy is wonky right now, lots of money is being generated but not every one has the right tools to collect a share. The ones that do are living a lavish life and ruining it for us who also able to access a bit of this share but are smart about stretching the dollar.
Last year chase Aeroplan offered 2x for point and that was nice also got 1.5x on apple which was nice. This year only 1.25x for donation so far unless I missed something.
I’m hoping we get something big next year cus my work schedule doesn’t allow me yet to use the travel aspect of multiplying point through creative ways.
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Amex Gold
Virgin Atlantic spend $2,000 get $300 back
Turkish Airlines spend $1,200 get $200 back
Is this real? Haven’t heard about any nll Plat recently let alone 200k. Do tell
I don’t think it is now, but it was at the beginning of January as I took advantage of a couple. I have seen targeted NLL offers in my/wife’s account appear with decent SUBs so wasn’t sure if they were relaxing their stance on generous NLL offers into Q4.
About a month back there were some Delta Amex NLL that I took advantage of but it was under the radar. There will always be hacks, just sometimes harder to find.
Question for the experts here as I am a novice to this game. I have a CSP and there is a decent new sign up bonus. If I am to downgrade the card-how long does this process take and how long do I have to wait before I can sign up for a new CSP?
-Thank you in advance!