Quick hit: what we think we know about World of Hyatt status transition

In this Monday's post, I explained why I thought a plain reading of the World of Hyatt terms and conditions made it possible, but far from certain, that Hyatt would grant World of Hyatt Globalist status through February, 2019, to Hyatt Gold Passport members who qualified for Diamond status between January 1 and February 28, 2017.

Then I launched into a pretty extensive rant on Twitter about the habit of loyalty programs to leak "confirmed" details, without attribution, to their pet affiliate bloggers.

What can I say? I get worked up about unethical bloggers occupying a privileged position in the loyalty firmament.

An actual Hyatt Gold Passport executive appeared to have answered the question in public

Under increasing pressure from hardworking independent bloggers (joking!), an account claiming to be that of Hyatt Gold Passport Senior Vice President Jeff Zidell tweeted that "25 Stays or 50 nights in Jan/Feb, would earn Diamond through Feb 2019, which would then transition to Globalist on March 1."

Pretty convincing, right? The simplest reading of the tweet is that anyone who qualifies as a Diamond through February, 2019, would be transitioned into Globalist status for the same period.

Who is @jeffzidell and who is @BinghamtonDaily?

I don't know Jeff Zidell. I don't get invited to the Freddies, and I don't have one-on-one chats with loyalty program executives. But it's clear that the @jeffzidell Twitter account is not the Twitter account of someone deeply invested in the nitty-gritty of loyalty program logistics. He mostly retweets other people's posts about Hyatt's loyalty program, marathoning, and being a vulnerable leader.

Meanwhile, his supposedly definitive tweet about Diamond requalification in 2017 was directed at @BinghamtonDaily, which is a Trump-supporting sockpuppet account. Recent representative tweet: "NY 22 Three candidate field of non-compelling candidates. Write In Eric Trump."

@BinghamtonDaily deleted whatever tweet @jeffzidell appeared to be responding to, so we have no public record of the entire exchange.

I personally believe Hyatt will transition 2018 Gold Passport Diamond status to 2018 World of Hyatt Globalist status

But this is not about my personal beliefs. If a loyalty program wants to earn loyalty it has an obligation to make the terms of the program as clear as possible, and where ambiguity exists, to resolve it publicly on equal terms.

So don't attack me for calling into question what will happen to Hyatt Gold Passport Diamonds after March 1, 2017. Join me in asking Hyatt to make clear, in public, with attribution, whether they intend to transition 2018 Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status to World of Hyatt Globalist status through February 28, 2019. It's a simple yes-or-no question, and Hyatt's refusal to answer it on the record is a problem.

Transfer large blocks of Starpoints using Marriott Flight and Hotel Packages

Today Marriott closed its purchase of Starwood Hotels & Resorts and introduced point convertibility between the Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest programs. After linking your accounts, points are now transferrable between the two programs in either direction at a ratio of 3 Marriott Rewards points to 1 Starpoint.

Upon seeing this news, my first reaction was, "doesn't this make Marriott Flight and Hotel Packages astonishingly cheap?"

Well yes, yes it does.

Starwood's new 33%-46% transfer bonus

The math behind Marriott Rewards Flight and Hotel Packages normally works like this: if you book 7 Marriott Rewards nights at full price, you can transfer 50,000, 70,000, 100,000, or 120,000 points at a 1:1 ratio to a domestic airline (the ratio is different for many foreign carriers). If you choose United as your transfer airline, you receive a 10% bonus.

For example, 7 nights at a 25,000 Category 5 Marriott Rewards property would cost 150,000 points (since the 5th night is free). With a Flight and Hotel Package, you can instead spend 200,000, 220,000, 250,000, or 270,000 Marriott Rewards points and receive the difference in airline miles with Alaska, American, Delta, Air Canada, or British Airways, along with a few others.

Since Starpoints now transfer to Marriott Rewards at a 1:3 ratio, 270,000 Marriott Rewards points cost 90,000 Starpoints. 90,000 Starpoints, transferred directly to an airline partner, would yield 110,000 miles. Transferred first to Marriott Rewards, it yields 120,000 miles (132,000 United MileagePlus miles).

This is worth doing even if you don't plan to stay a single night with Marriott, as long as you have a use for the miles. If you are planning a 7-night stay somewhere anyway, then the value becomes virtually unbeatable.

This makes the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card great for unbonused spend

As long as this option persists, manufacturing unbonused spend with the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card will earn 1.33 to 1.46 miles per dollar spent with all the major US carriers, when Starpoints are transferred to Marriott Rewards in batches of 90,000.

While the Chase Freedom Unlimited earns a slightly higher 1.5 United MileagePlus mile or British Airways Avios, earning Starpoints instead gives you access to those currencies as well as Delta SkyMiles and American AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan miles.

Obviously, the more of the 7 included Marriott hotel nights you use, the more value you'll get from this technique, but as shown above it's worth doing even if you don't use a single one of your included nights.

Note that you don't have to decide on a property and dates for your stay at the time of redemption — the award is deposited into your account, and can even be upgraded later if you decide to stay at a property in a category higher than the one you paid for.

How to feel about the Fidelity Rewards 2% cash back Visa Signature

The Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express has long been popular in the travel hacking community. The reason is simple: transactions are processed on American Express's network, so it can be used to fund Serve prepaid cards, but the card isn't issued by American Express, so it earns rewards on those transactions. In other words, it's an easy "set it and forget it" way to earn $240 per year in cash back at absolutely no cost.

That co-branding relationship has ended, and Fidelity's cash back offering is now being branded as the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature Card, which still has no annual fee and still earns 2% cash back everywhere, but is now issued by a US Bank subsidiary ("Elan Financial Services") on the Visa network. 

This is great news

There's been some handwringing over the impending loss of the ability to load Serve with a 2% cash back card, and it's true that some people find change harder than others. But there's no shortage of American Express cards issued by banks besides American Express. Just get one of those. The US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards American Express is a good choice if you're going to use it for manufacturing spend in general, although I wouldn't get it exclusively for this purpose due to its $49 annual fee.

The really great news is that there will be a no-annual-fee 2% cash back card issued on the Visa network!

It's true that Citi offers their Double Cash card on the MasterCard network, which is fine for manufacturing cash back at brick-and-mortar locations. But being issued by Citi means using that card for online manufactured spend is often worse than useless: it's expensive! That's because Citi often codes online bank account funding transactions as cash advances, and charges their customers the corresponding hefty fees and interest charges.

Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature is the Arrival+ killer

I've had a Barclaycard Arrival+ for a few years now, and have kept it year after year for two reasons:

• It's not issued by Citi;
• It's not issued on the American Express network.

That meant it was my go-to card for manufacturing spend online. That's true even though they've sharply reduced many of the card's benefits, cutting the card's award rebate from 10% to 5% and raising the redemption threshold from $25 to $100.

But for new Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature cardholders, and after existing cardholders are transitioned to the Visa Signature product, there will be no reason to hold an Arrival+ (unless you're fully enamored with the card's "true" chip-and-PIN functionality).

That's because the Arrival+'s $89 annual fee is essentially a wager, and it's a wager stacked heavily in Barclaycard's favor: will you or will you not spend more than $85,000 per year on the card? It's not that that figure is impossible to hit; it's that every year you don't hit it, you're paying Barclaycard more in annual fees than you're receiving in rebated travel redemptions.

Conclusion

There are a few marginal edge cases where people have legitimate complaints about the loss of their Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express cards.

As exhaustively documented by Milenomics, it's possible to redeem 25,000 Worldpoints (the currency the American Express card technically earns) for flights costing up to $400. If you don't have a US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards card, that's a pretty good deal, although as Milenomics makes clear, achieving that redemption value isn't trivial. But if you're good at searching out qualifying flights, you may be better off in the status quo.

Another corner case is if you have a strained relationship with US Bank. It's currently unclear what will happen to people who are not currently able to open US Bank credit accounts when their account information is transferred over to Elan Financial Services.

And finally, if you currently transfer your Worldpoints to or from your Fidelity linked account in order to maximize the value of your other Worldpoints-earning credit cards, you'll lose that ability and that value once the transition is complete.

But if you just use your 2% cash back American Express to earn 2% cash back on purchases everywhere, you should be excited to learn that "everywhere" is about to get a lot bigger.

Pre-devaluation Arrival+ housekeeping

We're now just over a month away from the November 17, 2015, Barclaycard Arrival+ devaluation. The devaluation has two key components:

• statement credits against travel purchases will only be available for purchases of $100 or more, up from $25;
• only 5% of Arrival+ miles redeemed against travel purchases will be redeposited in your account after each redemption, down from 10%.

Personally, I will still find the card worth keeping as long as Barclaycard continues to waive my annual fees. But the changes are big and real, and worth preparing for.

What's your date?

There are two potential dates your card will undergo the devaluation:

• November 17, 2015, if your account was opened before September 30, 2014, or
• August, 2016, if your account was opened after September 30, 2014.

If you're subject to the November 17, 2015, devaluation date you should have received an e-mail from "email@offers.BarclaycardUS.com" on or around October 1, 2015, with the details of the devaluation. If you opened your account after September 30, 2014, you should have received a different e-mail or physical letter with the August, 2016, devaluation date.

Since I opened my account in April, 2014, I'm subject to the November 17, 2015, devaluation date.

Make your sub-$100 travel purchases now

If you purchase Uber credit in redeemable "chunks," you'll want to buy as many $25 chunks as you plan you redeem before November 17. You'll still be able to buy Uber credit after that date, but it'll be more expensive: you'll only get a free redemption every 20 times you redeem, instead of every 10 times, and you'll have to buy $100 in Uber credit at a time to be eligible for redemptions.

If you have the ability to make free changes to award flights (due to status or because you're flying on Alaska Airlines), and are planning an award redemption with taxes and fees between $25 and $100, you might also want to make those redemptions before the devaluation.

Make your tourist attraction purchases now

There's a popular nearby tourist attraction which sells annual memberships for around $70. This is a double whammy for me, since it's both less than $100 and a tourist attraction, and according to Barclaycard:

"Purchases classified as Tourist Attractions (including expositions, botanical gardens, craft shows, museums and wineries) will no longer count toward qualifying travel statement credit redemptions."

That being the case, I'll purchase an annual membership before November 17 rolls around.

If you live in a city with expensive museums, or in an area with wineries that are currently coded as eligible transactions, consider locking in the ability to redeem your miles by buying a membership sooner, rather than later.

Will eligible purchases remain eligible for redemption after the devaluation?

I have a request in to Barclaycard's Twitter team asking whether $25-to-$99 purchases made before November 17 will remain eligible for redemption after November 17. My gut says they probably will, but to be on the safe side I'll be redeeming as many of my Arrival+ miles before the big day rolls around, if for no other reason than to secure the extra 5% redemption rebate while I can.

Refundable reservations should remain available

Before the comments section fills up with snark, let me say yes, I know you can redeem Arrival+ miles against refunded travel purchases. I've written about it before. And if you typically redeem your Arrival+ miles by making refundable airline reservations or prepaid hotel reservations, and then canceling them, you can probably ignore all the foregoing (although you should still make sure to redeem as many Arrival+ miles as possible before the devaluation).

Conclusion

On the other hand, if that technique makes you uncomfortable (or just sounds like a lot of work), then you should consider the tips above to get the most value out of your Arrival+ card before November 17, 2015.

Do this now: Hilton Double your HHonors promotion

Registration is now open for Hilton's Double your HHonors promotion. Between March 1 and May 31, 2015, earn double base HHonors points or double partner airline miles on paid stays at participating properties (the list of non-participating properties isn't yet available).

To take advantage of this promotion, you'll want to select "Points and Points" as your earning style if you choose double base HHonors points, or "Points and Miles" if you select double airline miles.

I don't have any paid Hilton stays planned during the promotional period, but I registered and selected double HHonors points in case something comes up in the next few months.

In any case, register now, before you forget, and find the list of non-participating properties here (once it becomes available).

As always, you can always find my most up-to-date list of promotions on my dedicated hotel promotions page.

More good news: Barclaycard Arrival+ no longer rounds up redemption amounts

Barclaycard is the undisputed master in my mind of the marketing technique of "underpromise and overdeliver." It seems like every month they're making small, positive changes and adjustments to improve their flagship proprietary rewards card, the Arrival+.

When the card launched, it had a great earning rate and rewards structure, but the limitations on qualifying "travel" purchases were arbitrary and frustrating.

Since then, they've introduced the following changes, all positive:

• Increased redemption period from 90 to 120 days;
• Widened eligible "travel" purchases, importantly to include taxis and services like Uber;
• Started providing free Transunion FICO scores;
• Improved their smartphone app, including the addition of in-app Arrival+ mile redemptions;
• Issued Arrival+ cards as "chip and signature cards with PIN capability," which can be used at unattended kiosks abroad.

With absolutely no publicity, as far as I can tell, Barlcaycard has made another positive change: Arrival+ mile redemptions for irregular amounts are no longer "rounded up" to the nearest dollar (100 miles).

Previously, a redemption against a travel purchase of $35.50 would cost 3,600 Arrival+ miles. You'd receive the full 10% mile rebate of 360 miles, but you'd still be losing 45 Arrival+ miles.

And I do mean losing: you'd pay 50 "extra" Arrival+ miles for the redemption but wouldn't receive an extra $0.50 as a statement credit. The $25 in purchases required to generate those miles was well and truly wasted.

Sometime in the last month or two Barclaycard removed this penalty for uneven redemption amounts. Now you can redeem Arrival+ miles "to the penny" for all travel redemptions, like this train ticket I bought at an unattended kiosk in Milan:

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Conclusion

Is this a small change? Tiny. But it's also more unabashedly good news, and I want to give Barclaycard all the credit they deserve for making ongoing, positive changes to such a popular and lucrative credit card.

Just remember, don't pay the annual fee unless you spend more than $44,500 on your Arrival+ card each cardmember year; that's the point when the 10% mileage rebate makes up for the $89 annual fee compared to a no-annual-fee 2% cash back card like Fidelity's or Citi's.

And in any case, call Barclaycard and ask for that annual fee to be waived when it comes due. I've seen increasing reports of such requests being denied, but it's absolutely free to ask.

Delta removed their award charts because no one understood them

If you were paying attention yesterday, you no doubt know that Delta has removed their brand new 5-tier award charts, in effect since January 1, 2015, from their website. The award engine is still pricing out awards according to the new chart, but by denying that there's is an official award chart, they've also removed the ability to challenge the award engine: the price you see is now the price you get.

There's no question that this is abhorrent behavior on Delta's part. I find some of the reactions a tad overblown, however ("Delta’s Missing Award Chart Is the Death of Aspirational Travel").

If I can venture into the realm of speculation, here's what strikes me as the most obvious explanation for the decision to remove published award charts from their website: Delta's new award charts were too complicated, they were producing unfamiliar results, and Delta's phone lines were being swamped.

You already have to call in too often

Although the Twitter team can handle a lot of simple requests, it's already necessary to call Delta a ridiculous amount of the time. Same-day standby, same-day confirmed, applying upgrades, and booking awards on many of their partners all require phone calls.

No one understood the new award charts

There was already no way to easily and accurately price an award in advance. Partner award space still booked at Level I, but if it was combined with a domestic leg in Level II-V, the entire award reprices at a higher level. Here's an award that just doesn't make any sense according to their published award chart:

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There is no entry on their award chart for a one-way flight to Europe in Business costing 130,000 SkyMiles. What seems to have happened here is the partner award on Air France is pricing out correctly at 62,500 SkyMiles, then a Level 4 BusinessElite ticket between LAX and JFK, for 67,500 SkyMiles was plugged in on top. But their award chart never did and never could reflect that fact.

Their phones were swamped

A complex published award chart, combined with an award engine that generates results incompatible with that award chart, meant that people were calling in to book even simple awards. Poorly trained agents would attempt to explain the situation, and after 15 or 20 minutes on the phone, the customer would hang up in frustration, keeping Delta from even recouping the telephone booking fee.

It's bad, but it's not a mystery

Delta was faced with a genuinely fraught business decision. Having decided to adopt and implement their insanely complicated award chart, and having invested in making their award booking engine work passably well, they found all that effort was wasted and they were instead facing longer and longer hold times at their call centers.

They could have abandoned the new award charts, which would have been an embarrassing retreat away from the revenue-based redemption system that's their ultimate goal. They could have hired more call center employees, although that's not cheap or necessarily easy to do. Instead they did what must have seemed like the least bad solution: remove the award charts, tell people the price the award engine comes up with is "the" price, and hope customers eventually stop calling.

So I don't think there was any nefarious plan to keep people from being able to accurately price their awards out in advance. That was already impossible, with or without published award charts.

My solution: earn low, redeem high

I have a Suntrust Delta SkyMiles World Check card, so my miles are about as cheap as they get. If you have an American Express Delta co-branded credit card and access to cheap manufactured spend, you may still find it worth earning SkyMiles in the interest of diversifying your mileage holdings.

But the days of earning SkyMiles by flying on Delta-operated flights are over, and the removal of published award charts has exactly no bearing on that fact: that was the result of revenue-based earning.

Earning flexible points at gas stations

Via Doctor of Credit, the Citi ThankYou Premier card is apparently lowering its annual fee and significantly changing its bonus earning categories by including gas stations in its bonused "travel" category, while increasing its earning rate to 3 ThankYou points per dollar spent there.

This is potentially a huge deal: beginning April 19, 2015, Citi, American Express, and Chase will all offer flexible-point-earning credit cards with sub-$100 annual fees, and all three will bonus purchases at gas stations.

Since the ThankYou Premier card is currently issued as a Visa, my expectation is that in-store purchases at 7-Eleven store locations, whether or not they sell gas, will earn points at the accelerated rate.

The Cards

Here are the cards I have in mind:

• Chase Ink Plus Visa. 2 flexible Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent at gas stations. $95 annual fee;
• American Express Amex Everyday Preferred. 2 flexible Membership Rewards points per dollar spent at gas stations, with a 50% bonus during statement cycles you make 30 or more purchases (anywhere) with the card. $95 annual fee;
• Citi ThankYou Premier. 3 flexible ThankYou points per dollar spent at gas stations. $95 annual fee starting April 19, 2015. Wait until then to apply in order to maximize your earning during your first cardmember year.

Analysis

Let me be clear that it makes no sense to carry all three of these cards on an ongoing basis. On the other hand, both the Chase Ink Plus and Citi ThankYou Premier periodically (for example, right now) offer 50,000 point signup bonuses which may entice you to apply. Once you've crossed the hurdle of signing up for the card, you may well decide to incorporate it into your manufactured spending strategy.

Only Chase Ultimate Rewards points are directly redeemable for cash, while all three points currencies can be redeemed for paid, mileage-earning airline tickets. Additionally, Citi ThankYou points can be redeemed for mortgage or student loan "rebate checks" made out to your loan holder. Membership Rewards points can be monetized by redeeming them for American Express gift cards, although you'll have to pay any costs involved in liquidating them.

Since monetizing these points will yield a maximum value of 1 cent per point, you'll probably be best-served earning these flexible currencies with the intention of redeeming them for flights through their airline transfer partners.

With that in mind, I created this chart to incorporate the relevant information about the three cards:

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Conclusion

A glance at this chart suggests a few obvious conclusions:

• All three flexible points currencies have transfer partners in all three airline alliances;
• Only Ultimate Rewards can be transferred to United or Korean Air;
• But only ThankYou and Membership Rewards points can be transferred to Air France KLM Flying Blue points.

Which cards, if any, you decide to apply for and use to manufacture spend at gas stations should depend on the redemptions you plan actually plan to make. But Citi's changes to the ThankYou Premier card are a big step towards leveling the playing field between these three cards.

Do this now: register for Hyatt's Stay More Play More promotion

Registration is open for the Hyatt Gold Passport Winter/Spring promotion, called "Stay More Play More." Between January 15 and April 30, 2015, you'll earn bonus points based on the specific offer you've been targeted for, presumably depending in part on your history with the program. I was targeted for up to 50,000 bonus points after staying 20 nights during the promotional period:

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I don't have any paid Hyatt stays planned for this quarter, so I don't anticipate earning any bonus points through this promotion. If you are interested in directing stays towards Hyatt in order to earn bonus points, but are unsatisfied with the promotion you've been targeted for, head over to Chasing the Points to see some of the other offers available. He suggests contacting Hyatt's social media team in order to register for a different promotion than the one you were targeted for.

On the other hand, if you don't feel like spending that much energy on this promotion, you should still register now, before you forget.

Confirmed: Chase Freedom bonus excludes Walmart (and probably Target)

Back on January 2, I reminded readers to register for their first quarter category bonuses, including the Chase Freedom 5% cash back bonus at grocery stores. While the registration page for that bonus says Walmart and Target stores are excluded from the promotion, I mentioned that I wasn't sure whether or how that would be enforced. It was possible, I thought, that they included that language because while some Walmart and Target store locations are coded as grocery stores, others are coded as discount stores and they didn't want to open that can of worms with their customers.

I don't like to let questions like that linger for long, so before taking off for Italy I swung by my local Walmart, coded as a grocery store by Visa and MasterCard, and picked up an international plug adapter (I'm always leaving them in hotel room outlets), paying with my newest Freedom card. After waiting for the transaction to post, I was able to confirm that I earned just 1 Ultimate Rewards point per dollar spent, according to my online account activity:

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So now you know: Chase really did code their first quarter promotion to exclude transactions made at Walmart, and I presume at Target as well, so you'll need to keep your eyes open for actual grocery stores where you can make your $1,500 in purchases this quarter.