Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus Business credit card no longer available

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Back in December, I wrote that I could no longer find a new application link for the Chase Sapphire credit card, which offered 2 non-flexible Ultimate Rewards per dollar spent on dining, and nothing else. I speculated that Chase had streamlined their Ultimate Rewards-earning credit cards into the terrific no-annual-fee Freedom card and the terrible $95-annual-fee Sapphire Preferred card, and thought that was overall a change for the better.

Since then, I spent a little time cleaning up the permanent pages (found in the right sidebar on every page of my site) where I do my best to keep on top of current credit card application links and signup bonuses, and found an additional change in Chase's credit card lineup.

Changes to Southwest Airlines credit card options

Chase used to offer four Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards co-branded credit cards:

The "Plus" versions of the cards earned 3,000 bonus Rapid Rewards points on each account anniversary, while the "Premier" cards earned 6,000 bonus anniversary points, in addition to a few other benefits – like bonus Tier Qualifying Points – that matter only if you make purchases with the cards, which you should never do.

The existence of 4 Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards credit cards was important since it made it possible to earn a companion pass for four years per applicant by applying for Rapid Rewards credit cards during Chase's recurring 50,000 point signup bonus offers: 2 cards at a time, every 2 years.

I can no longer find a working link to the Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Business Credit Card.

Once I noticed the change, I did a little light searching and found this MileCards post from December 4, 2014, making the same observation, so the change took place no later than that, although I can't find any contemporaneous announcements, for example from bloggers who had the Plus Business card removed from their affiliate channels.

Conclusion

I don't fly Southwest, but appreciate the amazing value that folks are able to realize by easily and cheaply acquiring the Southwest Companion Pass for years at a time. The lesson I see here is that it's difficult to make predictions, especially about the future, so you should always be thinking about maximizing the opportunities that are currently available, not planning each move years ahead of time. Chase may allow Southwest cards to be churned today, but not tomorrow. And then they may change their minds yet again!

If you can use a Southwest Companion Pass, by all means get one. If another opportunity to acquire one cheaply is available when the first expires, go for it! But don't act with the expectation that every deal will be around forever; on the contrary, every deal's guaranteed to die eventually.

Chase Ink Plus annual fees: A/B testing or a sign of things to come?

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This evening I was going through my credit card drawer checking my cards for foreign transaction fees in order to decide which cards to bring to Italy tomorrow. Some cards you might not expect to have waived foreign transaction fees do (Chase British Airways) and some you might expect to waive them don't (US Bank Flexperks Travel, although apparently they've recently changed that).

In any case, I was checking the terms and conditions of the Chase Ink Plus card online, and suddenly had a moment of disorientation. Which card's terms and conditions was I looking at?

I did a double-take and checked my own terms and conditions, which show a $95 annual fee. Had Chase quietly raised the annual fee on their Chase Ink Plus credit card?

Not exactly, or at least not yet.

Different offer channels appear to show different annual fees

If you navigate directly to Chase's Ink website in an incognito window or after clearing your browser's cookies, you should find the $95 annual fee offer alive and well. I was able to replicate this consistently.

Additionally, any time you visit the Ink site after viewing the $95 offer — but before clearing your cookies — you'll continue to see the $95 offer.

But sometimes, and only sometimes, if you search for the Ink Plus through Google and click on one of the sponsored links, you'll instead be taken to this version of the offer, featuring a $150 annual fee.

What's going on?

Obviously Chase pays money to sponsor ads in Google search results, so a trivial explanation would be that they're trying to recoup those expenses by charging new customers acquired in that manner more.

More realistically, I think this is the kind of A/B testing that Google AdWords makes so easy for their customers. Since the population of people searching for "Ink Plus" is both large and targeted, you can easily measure the difference in application rates between those who see a $95 versus $150 annual fee. If it turns out that Ink Plus customers are not particularly price sensitive (don't be one of those!), they may ultimately raise the annual fee for all new applicants and even — heaven forbid! — existing cardholders, as American Express did with the Delta Platinum card in 2014.

Conclusion

I'm heading to Italy early tomorrow morning and won't be really around until we check into the Hilton in Venice late tomorrow night (Italy time). Now I have to go finish packing.

Has the Chase Sapphire been quietly retired?

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For years, Chase has offered 3 Ultimate Rewards-earning personal (not small business) credit cards: the Chase Freedom, Chase Sapphire, and Chase Sapphire Preferred.

The Freedom is Chase's entry into the crowded field of rotating 5% cash back category cards, while the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a premium, flexible-Ultimate-Rewards earning credit card that, while paying affiliate bloggers handsome commissions, is essentially useless for the serious travel hacker due to its low earning rate and $95 annual fee which is generally not waived, even for those who spend above-average amounts on the card.

The Sapphire has meanwhile always been the odd card out: it earns 2 non-flexible Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent at restaurants but not on travel purchases, and has no annual fee. Meanwhile, for the last three years the Chase Freedom has offered 5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar at restaurants during the second quarter, making the Sapphire redundant for 25% of the calendar year.

The Sapphire has vanished from Chase's website and affiliate channels

Today I mentioned on Twitter that I had been able to request a product change from Sapphire Preferred to a second Freedom, and I was asked whether it would make more sense to change to Sapphire, instead.

A quick search revealed that the Sapphire has completely disappeared from Chase.com, while Credit Karma's review page does not have an active application link for the card. CreditCards.com is hopelessly annoying to navigate but I couldn't find an application link there, either.

Do yourself and Chase a favor: product change to Freedom

It appears that Chase is now more deliberately juxtaposing the no-annual-fee Freedom card with the premium, $95-annual-fee Sapphire Preferred. I think this actually does a huge service to their customers, who might have previously confused the Sapphire with a card worth carrying, which it is not and has never been.

If you happen to be a current Chase Sapphire cardholder, this is as good an occasion as any to call in and request a product change to the Freedom, since you'll get your new card in time to take advantage of 2015's first quarter bonus category of grocery stores (excluding Walmart and Target stores).

Cash back at Amazon.com

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First of all, check out my spiffy new disclosure policy which should now be found at the top of each blog post when you visit my website. It reads:

"Disclosure: to the best of my knowledge, I receive no third-party affiliate revenue for any of the content on this site. I do occasionally include my own personal referral links for products and services, many of which you can find on my Support the Site! page. I am also theoretically paid for clicks through the Google Adsense ad found in the righthand sidebar (theoretically since I haven't actually hit a payment threshold yet) and for purchases made through my Amazon Associates referral link."

I don't know if there's anything else anyone has any questions about, but obviously it's a work in progress so do let me know if there's any ambiguity or anything like that.

HawaiianMiles for shopping at Amazon.com

All the way back in the day, Hawaiian Airlines was the only shopping portal that awarded miles for shopping at Amazon.com through their HawaiianMiles shopping portal (the "online eMarket"). I earned a whole 982 HawaiianMiles which, I noticed while researching this post, expired back in July:

This is obviously fairly embarrassing, since I could have redeemed them for something exciting like a subscription to All You magazine.

After HawaiianMiles cut Amazon.com from their shopping portal, I pretty much gave up on cash back while shopping there, and focused other ways to maximize my purchases, like rotating credit card categories with Chase Freedom or Discover it, or the "bookstore" 5% bonus category with the US Bank Cash+ card.

It's worth using cashback portals to shop at Amazon.com

For some reason I was recently clicking around TopCashBack and discovered that the "limited" departments TopCashBack pays out on are actually the very categories I do most of my Amazon.com shopping in!

TopCashBack pays 8% cash back for purchases in the following departments:

  • Home & Kitchen;
  • Women's Fashion;
  • Men's Fashion;
  • Kid's & Baby Fashion.

That's an incredibly generous range, and includes virtually everything I buy from Amazon.com. If you're combining it with a card that pays 5% cash back (or gift cards purchases at a bonused merchant), you'll increase your savings even more.

Conclusion

My Amazon Associates referral link pays me much less than 8% for purchases made by my readers, so if you're shopping in one of the 8% cash back categories you have my blessing to collect portal cash back instead!

Breaking: Discover It has removed cash back redemption thresholds

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[update 11/25/14: Twitter follower @jlazarev pointed out this morning that he was unable to redeem the $15.22 in his Discover cash back balance. It seems I overstated the change that Discover had made: they didn't remove the redemption threshold, which remains at $50, but now allow cardholders to redeem cash back in any amount over $50. This is not as good as removing the redemption threshold entirely, but is still a big improvement in the war against "orphaned" cash back.]

If you follow this blog, you know I'm fond of the Discover It (previously Discover More) cash back card, which has revolving 5% cash back categories, occasional bonuses (targeted and not-so-targeted), no foreign transaction fees, and gives access to ShopDiscover, an online shopping portals which typically has among the highest payouts for many online merchants.

The card's principle drawback has always been its cruel redemption thresholds: while a cardmember's rewards balance is denominated in "dollars" of cash back, that balance could only be redeemed for statement credits or bank account direct deposits in increments of $50. While bloggers like Frequent Miler did the Lord's work finding creative redemptions for odd-sized balances, there's no escaping the fact that cash is king, and Discover has historically made it as hard as possible for cardholders to get our hands on that crown.

Discover cash back can now be redeemed for cash in increments of 1 cent

Imagine my shock when I logged into the Discover app this evening to see that Discover is now allowing cardholders' cash back balances to be redeemed for statement credits or direct deposits in any amount. I don't know for sure when this change went into effect, but I have not seen it reported anywhere yet.

I don't want to overstate the magnitude of this change: it's long been possible to redeem Discover cash back balances for Amazon.com purchases (and Amazon "gift" credit) in any amount, so orphaned balances haven't necessarily been a problem, as long as you're content with Amazon credit in lieu of cash.

But Amazon.com credits aren't cash, while direct deposits are and statement credits are close. This is a huge improvement in the value proposition of the card, and is going to get me to direct even more of my portal shopping to ShopDiscover, which frequently has among the highest merchant payouts at face value, but whose payouts have always had to be discounted by the inconvenience and inflexibility of Discover cash back redemptions.

Do this now: double points with Hilton HHonors

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Registration is now open for Hilton's winter "Double Up" promotion, whereby you can earn double points between November 1, 2014 and January 31, 2015, starting with your second stay.

I love staying with Hilton, but naturally make almost all my reservations using HHonors points. I have one "Points and Money" and one award reservation during the promotional period, so it doesn't look like I'll be earning any double points during this promotion.

Whether you plan to take advantage of the promotion or not, be sure to register now, before you forget, and find the list of non-participating properties here.

US Airways anniversary miles (and affiliate bloggers acting shamelessly)

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I've long said that the only question that mattered - and the one that was being studiously ignored by affiliate bloggers - about the Barclaycard US Airways MasterCard is what will happen to the card's anniversary miles.

Applications for the card before the US Airways-American Airlines merger was completed offered 10,000 Dividend Miles that post on each account anniversary. Affiliate links released since the merger, that is to say, the applications you see on sites like Boarding Area and The Points Guy, have not included those anniversary miles.

Meanwhile, "zombie" applications continued to be available which did offer the 10,000 anniversary miles, and which were studiously ignored by bloggers who were paid for those referrals.

The difference matters because, while the newer applications tend to have higher up-front signup bonuses, those anniversary miles can make the card worth keeping after the first year, especially since Barclaycard is notoriously generous about giving annual fee waivers upon a quick phone call.

It has now been confirmed by Barclaycard that those of us who applied under what I call the "and every anniversary thereafter" version of the offer will continue, for now, to receive our anniversary miles.

Affiliate bloggers have no shame

I get things wrong sometimes. That's not something I relish, but it's something I've come to terms with, and when I do, I admit my mistakes, accept criticism, and try to mend my ways.

When affiliate bloggers get things wrong, they write gleeful posts ignoring their humiliating mistakes, which has never been demonstrated as clearly as their reactions today to the news that they have been screwing their readers for months by linking to inferior, non-anniversary US Airways offers.

Remember I shared a working link to an "and every anniversary thereafter" offer on April 30, 2014.

Here's a Mommy Points post on April 30, 2014 linking only to the non-anniversary version of the offer. And here was her priceless reaction to today's Barclaycard announcement:

Note the word "My" in her tweet: her card will award her 10,000 bonus miles because when it comes to her own cards, she looks out for her best interests. Of course, when it comes to her readers she also looks out for her own best interests.

Likewise on April 30, 2014, The Points Guy wrote up the same offer, again without linking to the "and every anniversary thereafter" offer (an oversight we proceeded to debate on Twitter).

After the announcement today, he wrote blandly that "current cardholders will continue to receive the annual 10,000 Dividend Miles." This is, of course, not strictly true, since anyone who followed his advice and signed up using a non-anniversary application will not receive the anniversary miles.

Finally, again on April 30, 2014, the same day I conveniently provided a link to the "and every anniversary thereafter" offer, Gary Leff wrote up his affiliate link without mentioning the existence of the other application.

And – prepare yourself – his post today celebrates the anniversary miles he'll continue to receive, without acknowledging that he deliberately kept his readers in the dark for months about how to earn them.

Conclusion

I don't think a person who needed a quick influx of US Airways miles would necessarily have been wrong to privilege a 40,000-mile offer that charged the $89 annual fee up front over a 30,000-mile, waived-annual-fee offer that offers anniversary miles.

But the shameless promotion of money-making links, the shameless concealing of other, potentially better offers, and then the inevitable denial that that's exactly what took place, does drive me nuts. It shouldn't, but it does. And today's examples were among the most egregious I've seen in some time.

Post-script

Incidentally, it would be interesting to know whether those who applied under the no-anniversary-miles version of the card application received the same e-mail confirming the continuation of anniversary miles. It doesn't seem likely, since Barclaycard has relatively good IT in my experience, but I think there's a non-zero possibility Barclaycard incorrectly classified at least some of those applications. So if you recently applied for that offer, leave a comment and let me know if you've heard from Barclaycard regarding anniversary miles.

Reflections on PayPal and My Cash warnings

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PayPal's compliance department is sending warning e-mails

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of PayPal My Cash cards as a tool for manufacturing spend in two of my favorite bonus categories: drug stores and gas stations. Unlike some more aggressive users, I've never withdrawn My Cash funds directly to a bank account, preferring to use the money to fund Bluebird, buy money orders, and make bill payments.

On October 9, the first report I'm aware of appeared, describing a warning e-mail sent from PayPal's compliance department about withdrawing My Cash funds directly to a bank account. On October 17 a reader forwarded me the e-mail he received, and on the 18th I received an identical e-mail for each of my PayPal accounts.

In other words, this is not a warning e-mail narrowly targeted at those who deposit and immediately withdraw PayPal My Cash funds. Rather, the compliance department seems to have adopted a relatively broad filter to identify users who may or may not have have exhibited the behavior described in the compliance e-mail.

Does this require action?

The compliance e-mail concludes with the following:

"If you think we've made an error, here's how to contact us.

  1. Log in to your PayPal account.
  2. Click Contact Us at the bottom of the page.
  3. Click Send us under Email Us.
  4. Follow the instructions to complete the steps.
We value your business and appreciate your attention to this matter."

This raises the question of whether those of us who have used My Cash funds immaculately should e-mail PayPal and protest our innocence, in the hopes of receiving another month, year, or decade of impunity.

That's a judgment that is going to depend on the individual. Personally, I've already maxed out my PayPal My Cash loads for the calendar month, so any changes in monitoring and compliance won't affect me until next month in any case. Consequently, I'm going to sit tight and wait for more datapoints to come in, as they inevitably will.

It seems likely to me at this point that many who received the warning e-mail, myself included, don't in fact have anything to worry about since we've used the cards more or less as intended. If, on the other hand, in the coming weeks we start to see people report accounts closures, I'll know I need to consider scaling down my My Cash usage.

No, PayPal still can't be "trusted"

I've ranted before that "trust" is the wrong framework to think about your relationship with your bank, your loyalty program, or your landlord. Save "trust" for your partner, your friends, and your kids (well, maybe not your teenagers).

When I write about PayPal, I always include the caveat that while they have been very, very good to me, many folks have well-founded grievances against their arbitrary account closures and long hold times for the withdrawal of frozen funds.

That warning still applies.

But since it's one of the easiest ways to manufacture bonused spend on cards like the US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards and American Express Hilton HHonors Surpass cards, it's remained a tool in my arsenal, and I hope it continues to for a long time to come.

Comparing distance- and revenue-based airline loyalty programs

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In 2015, there will be two major distance-based airline loyalty programs based in the United States – American's AAdvantage and Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan – and two major revenue-based loyalty programs – Delta Skymiles and United Mileage Plus. US Airways Dividend Miles will presumably disappear sometime in 2015, so I won't treat that program here.

A lot of digital ink has been spilled about whether individuals will earn more miles before or after the changes, but I think that's a relatively unimportant question – not just because I earn the overwhelming majority of my airline miles through manufactured spend, rather than flying, but also because it's irrelevant: the changes are coming, on January 1 in Delta's case and March 1 for United.

In other words, what's needed is a forward-looking analysis of earning under the revenue- and distance-based programs under a variety of circumstances.

Example: my 2014 travel projected into 2015

I noticed recently that Delta makes it easy to compute exactly how much better off you'd be crediting your paid miles flown on Delta tickets to Alaska, rather than Delta. I currently have 28,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles, which consist of a 10,000 Delta Platinum American Express bonus, 1,142 Rollover MQM, and 16,858 miles flown this year on paid tickets. Meanwhile, my Medallion Qualifying Dollar balance for the year is $1,150, which gives me a cost per flown mile of 6.8 cents.

Next year, as a Silver Medallion, I would earn 8,050 Skymiles over the course of the year if I credited the same amount of paid travel to Delta. Since I'll be requesting a status match to Alaska's MVP Gold status on October 1, I'd earn 33,716 Mileage Plan miles for the same amount of paid travel on Delta.

Of course, a more fair comparison is to my current Delta Platinum Medallion status, which would earn me 10,350 Skymiles – still roughly a third of the Mileage Plan miles I would earn.

Analysis: comparing apples to apples

You may have seen travel bloggers suggest a "breakeven" point of 20 cents per mile flown: those who spend more than 20 cents per mile will earn more miles under the new system, while everyone else will earn fewer.

This ignores the fact that there will still be distance-based loyalty programs that offer elite bonuses on miles flown. To give a more comprehensive view, I decided to compare the 2015 revenue- and distance-based loyalty programs taking into account both the cost per mile flown and elite status.

Here's the result:

Click to embiggen

As you can see, the actual breakeven cost per mile flown varies tremendously – in both directions. If you're a 25,000-mile-flyer deciding between a United ticket and one operated by American, Delta, or Alaska, know that you need to be spending not 20 cents per mile, but 21.4 cents per mile, to earn as many miles as you would crediting a flight the same distance to Alaska.

A Delta flyer deciding between maintaining Delta Platinum Medallion or Alaska MVP Gold status would need to spend on average 22.22 cents per mile flown to earn as many Skymiles over the course of the year as she would Mileage Plan miles – that's over 3 times more than I actually spend per mile flown on revenue tickets.

Conclusion

This analysis isn't meant to be dispositive: you may value the perks of elite status with Delta or United, like waived award change and cancellation fees, more than the miles you're foregoing by not crediting your flights to Alaska (in the case of Delta) or another Star Alliance partner in the case of United.

But it is an easy way to determine just how many miles you're leaving on the table by doing so.

Do this now: Starwood and IHG fall promotions

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I've updated my Hotel Promotions page with two more Fall hotel promotions.

Double or triple points with Starwood Preferred Guest

Between September 15 and December 15, 2014, earn double Starpoints on paid stays of 2 or more nights, or triple Starpoints on paid stays of 2 or more nights that include a Friday or Saturday night (Thursday or Friday night in the Middle East). Register for the promotion here by October 31, and find the list of non-participating properties here.

While it's not spectacular, and there are a fair number of non-participating properties, you should still register now, before you forget, in case you end up with some paid Starwood stays this Fall.

At least 50,000 points or 2 free nights with IHG Rewards

This Fall IHG Rewards is continuing their recent trend of offering "customized" promotions to members based on their history with the program. Here's the offer I received (based on my non-existent participation with IHG Rewards):

As is true for many folks, it's possible to complete all 5 of my tasks by staying a total of three nights over two stays, if and only if both stays are completed at different Holiday Inn hotels and include two Saturdays.

As it happens, I have an upcoming Saturday night award stay at the airport Hyatt Place in Portland, Oregon, for which I redeemed 8,000 Gold Passport points. Since there's also a Holiday Inn property at the airport, I can easily book a stay there and end up breaking roughly even (I'll pay about $93 and get my 8,000 Gold Passport points back, paying 1.16 cents per Gold Passport point and meeting almost half my IHG Rewards tasks).

For my second Saturday, second Holiday Inn, second stay, and second and third nights, I'll probably slightly "overbook" and make a 3-night reservation in San Antonio for an upcoming trip my partner needs to take there. I'll pay about $553 for the 3 nights and fulfill the rest of my IHG Rewards tasks.

That's perhaps $60-70 more than the cheapest satisfactory room in central San Antonio (and it's likely possible to find an even lower rate using opaque booking sites, not to mention using hotel points). On the other hand, that premium will pay for 2 free nights at any IHG property in the world, subject to award availability.

In discussing this promotion, The Miles Professor made the most important point when she wrote:

"The certificates do expire after 12 months so it only really makes sense to go for it if you have a particular trip and hotel in mind. For some hotels, award nights are not always available so, if you do have your heart set on a certain hotel, check for general availability instead of time [sic]."

Back in June I wrote about hotel loyalty program "no blackout date" policies, and shared that IHG has the worst policy of all the major chains, essentially allowing properties to throttle award availability at any time and in any way they choose.

On the other hand, I have an upcoming trip to Italy that still has a number of nights that need to be booked, so I'm hoping those 2 free award nights will give me some valuable flexibility as I complete my hotel reservations for that trip.

Whether you plan to game the promotion or not, be sure to register now, before you forget.