How to plan out your last 2017 US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards redemptions

I know my readers are some of the biggest fans of US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards cards, given their convenient bonus earning categories and potentially generous redemptions rates of up to 2 cents per Flexpoint when redeemed for paid airfare.

On January 1, 2018, the redemption rate will fall from up to 2 cents per Flexpoint for paid airfare redemptions and up to 1.5 cents per Flexpoint for hotel redemptions to a flat 1.5 cents per Flexpoint for all redemptions. That's a devaluation for folks who are good at maximizing the value of their Flexpoints, and more or less a shrug for folks who redeem Flexpoints aggressively for paid economy fares because they're so easy to earn.

If you're concerned about the coming devaluation, this last quarter of 2017 is a good opportunity to lock in your Flexpoints' higher value. Here are a few suggestions.

Book high-value Southwest fares

Since Southwest flights can be refunded to your Rapid Rewards account up until the time of departure, an easy way to lock in the highest possible value of your Flexpoints is to book Southwest flights (which unfortunately has to be done over the phone) near the top of a Flexperks redemption band. As long as you fly Southwest often enough to be sure you'll use your credit before it expires, this can be an easy way to prepay for flights using the maximum value of your 2017 Flexpoints.

Book Alaska Airlines flights (much) more than 60 days in the future

Alaska Airlines has a similar policy to Southwest, in that they allow you to redeposit the cash value of your flights into your Mileage Plan "travel bank." However, Alaska Airlines' policy is in some ways more and in some ways less restrictive.

It's more restrictive because non-elite members of Mileage Plan can only redeposit a ticket's value into their account more than 60 days before departure, while Southwest lets you redeposit your ticket's value up until departure.

On the other hand, Alaska opens their flight booking window much further into the future, so you have the option of booking flights deep into 2018, while Southwest opens their booking window by what feels like just a few weeks at a time (although in reality I suppose it's more than that).

Don't forget your airline fee credit!

If you plan to simply redeem Flexpoints for a flight and cancel it 24-48 hours later, you would probably be justified in forgetting the original dates you scheduled your flight for.

But that would be a mistake!

On the day or days of your original Flexpoint flight redemptions, you're eligible for a $25 credit for each ticket you booked using your Flexpoints. So that would be a good day to pay some checked bag fees, the taxes and fees on an award ticket, or simply buy an airline gift card. After the transaction posts, don't forget to call in and request the $25 fee waiver — it's an extremely manual process.

Conclusion

I think there are good arguments on both sides for keeping or cancelling US Bank Flexperks Travel Rewards cards after January 1, 2018, but there's no excuse for letting your points suddenly lose their value on that date! It's time to start thinking about 2018 travel plans which will let you lock in your Flexpoints' current, higher value.

Thinking about the 2018 changes to Delta co-branded credit card MQD waivers

I've been reading with interest about the recently-announced change to how Delta will handle Medallion Qualifying Dollar waivers starting with the 2019 qualification year (January 1, 2018). Frequent Miler has an interesting post from the perspective of someone who is already maximizing a set of 4 American Express Platinum and Reserve co-branded credit cards.

I've personally been bouncing back and forth between Silver and Gold Medallion status for the past few years, after two glorious years as a Platinum Medallion, so I don't expect this change to affect me personally unless I suddenly have to start flying a lot more. But I know some readers still gun for top-tier status with Delta, so I thought it'd be worth sharing a few thoughts.

Rollover MQM are very valuable

Delta is the only airline to allow you to roll elite qualifying miles over from one year to the next, but they allow this only if you achieve at least Silver Medallion status each year. In other words, if you only earn 20,000 Medallion Qualifying Miles in 2017, you'll start 2018 with zero MQM. If you earn 40,000 MQM in 2017 (and meet the Medallion Qualifying Dollar requirements or have them waived through credit card spend) you'll start 2018 with 15,000 rollover MQM.

When the $25,000 MQD waiver applied to every level of Medallion status, the maximum number of MQM a Platinum Medallion who qualified with a MQD waiver could roll over was 49,999. Any more MQM than that, and they would qualify for Diamond Medallion status, resetting their rollover clock to zero and having to start their requalification from scratch the following year.

With the Diamond Medallion MQD waiver threshold raised to $250,000, Platinum Medallions will be able to rollover an unlimited number of MQM, giving them a big head start in the next year's requalification.

Why does this matter? Because if you experience a variable amount of travel from year to year, you might prefer to smooth it out by remaining Platinum every year (and enjoying free award changes and cancellations), rather than bounce up and down between Gold and Diamond Medallion statuses.

How much do MQM cost?

Frequent Miler did a good job explaining the value he perceives from earning MQM and achieving Medallion status, but I'm naturally much more interested in the cost of doing so. Assuming you have or are eligible for both personal and business Platinum and Reserve Delta American Express cards, it's easy to calculate the cost of chasing Medallion status:

• Your first 60,000 MQM cost $900 in annual fees ($450 for each Delta Reserve card) and $2,400 in foregone cash back (the value of charging $120,000 to a 2% cash back card instead), for a total cost of 5.5 cents per MQM.
• Your next 40,000 MQM cost $390 in annual fees ($195 for each Delta Platinum card) and $2,000 in foregone cash back, for a total cost of 5.98 cents per MQM.

This pattern of spend would yield 100,000 MQM and 320,000 redeemable SkyMiles, and leave you 25,000 MQM (and $30,000 in spend) short of Diamond status, and cost a total of $5,690, for an average MQM cost of 5.69 cents and cost per SkyMile of 1.78 cents.

Timing matters

At this point you have two options: you can earn 25,000 MQM through actual flight activity (and spend another $30,000 on your co-branded credit cards) in order to earn Diamond status, or you can roll over 25,000 MQM into the following calendar year.

In my view, which decision is best depends on how long it takes you to meet the high spend thresholds on your credit cards. That's because when you earn Medallion status it's valid through the rest of the year it's earned in and the entire following year.

Consider two cases:

• You spend all of 2018 meeting your high spend thresholds and flying on paid Delta tickets (foregoing the opportunity to redeem the haul of SkyMiles you're also accumulating) and qualify as a Diamond Medallion on December 31, 2018. Your status is valid through January, 2020.
• You spend 2018 meeting your high spend thresholds and aggressively redeeming your SkyMiles. You end the year with 100,000 MQM and Platinum Medallion status. Then in January, 2019, you spend $250,000 across your co-branded credit cards. Together with your 25,000 rollover MQM, you now have 125,000 MQM and a Diamond Medallion MQD waiver. Your Diamond Medallion status is valid through January, 2021.

In other words, if you're confident you can meet your high spend thresholds early in the year, either through manufactured spend or legitimate expenses, you only need to actually requalify as a Diamond Medallion (and meet the $250,000 MQD waiver threshold) every 2 years. And during any gap between the expiry of your Diamond status and your requalification you'll still get to enjoy your Platinum Medallion benefits.

Of course you'll only receive your Diamond Choice Benefits every other year, as well.

Conclusion

As I mentioned, it's been a few years since I had Platinum Medallion status, but I was very satisfied with it and think for the casual travel hacker it is probably adequate in terms of domestic upgrade chances, Sky Club access when traveling internationally, and free award changes and redeposits. You can also achieve it with just 3 co-branded credit cards, saving either $195 or $450 depending on whether you decide to cut a Platinum or Reserve credit card (2 Platinums and 1 Reserve will earn you just 70,000 MQM after $160,000 in spend, so you'd also need to earn at least 5,000 MQM from flying each year).

However, I can easily see how international business travelers who want to redeem global upgrade certificates or those forced to travel in domestic economy who want to maximize their chances of an upgrade might decide to stretch for Diamond Medallion. Depending on how much value you get out of Sky Club access and Delta companion tickets, the co-branded credit cards may be a cost-effective — though far from cheap — way of achieving it.

Quick hit: changes to US Bank Flexpoint transfers

In the last few years US Bank has made a number of negative tweaks to the Flexperks Travel Rewards Visa Signature card. They restricted the once-generous "grocery" bonus category to a more restrictive definition of "grocery stores." They limited the number of points that could be transferred in or out of a Flexperks account to 20,000 per year (although see here for a possible workaround). And starting January 1, 2018, Flexpoints will be worth a fixed 1.5 cents each for flight redemptions, rather than being redeemable in $200 "bands" as they have been to date.

There is another change I have not seen discussed elsewhere, which was quietly implemented relatively recently.

Online Flexpoint transfers now require the recipient's credit card number

The Flexperks rewards interface is run by a third-party fulfillment center, and internally they assign accounts a 12-digit account number. As recently as January 7, I used that Flexpoints account number to transfer points between accounts. It seems that as late as March either the Flexpoints account number or the Flexperks credit card number could be used to transfer points.

At some point since then, they've changed the "Transfer Points" form (found under the "Manage Points" heading) to request the "credit card account number where the FlexPoints will be transferred."

And sure enough, attempting to transfer points to a Flexpoints number online now returns an error, while using a credit card number results in success.

Conclusion

The cynic in me naturally suspects that US Bank implemented this change in order to slow down the rate of Flexpoint redemptions, figuring that fewer people are willing to share their credit card number than were willing to share a single-use account designator. The fewer points are shared, the less efficient redemptions become and the more points will tend to go unredeemed.

On the other hand, while US Bank may internally treat Flexpoint redemptions as a cost center, I have to wonder what their ultimate goal is with these steady, piecemeal attacks on the program's value. It may be that each one of these changes individually shaves off another few hundred of the bank's most expensive customers, but it also leaves the rest of their cardholders rightly feeling like the remaining value of the program is being nickle-and-dimed away. I'll keep the card for now, but even so they've left a bad taste in my mouth, which seems suboptimal for a medium-sized regional bank trying to grow its credit card portfolio.

How I would requalify for World of Hyatt Globalist status

[edit 8/30/17: corrected to reflect that Globalists qualifying under this promotion will not receive a Category 1-7 free night certificate; only 60-night Globalists receive free night certificates] 

This is my second and last year of top-tier Hyatt elite status. I matched to Diamond status during their short-lived offer when the Starwood-Marriott merger was announced, then requalified as a World of Hyatt Globalist through credit card spend and a few mattress runs at a local property.

This year, I have five elite-qualifying nights so far, which were credited to my account in error due to meeting my annual credit card spend threshold relatively late last year.

Like other credit cardholders, I received an e-mailed offer to renew my Globalist status by staying 20 paid nights between September 1 and December 30, 2017.

I'm not going to do this, but 20 paid stays is a pretty easy threshold to meet. Here's how I would meet it, if I were so inclined.

Swap out award nights for Points + Cash nights

If you value World of Hyatt points at 1 cent each (their cash value if transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards), then at most low- and mid-tier properties you can pay a nominal sum to turn non-elite-qualifying nights into elite-qualifying ones, subject to Points + Cash availability. Ignoring taxes, the marginal amount paid on Points + Cash nights is:

• Category 1: $21.75 ($25 less 325 points earned on the $50 cash component);
• Category 2: $11.42;
• Category 3: $10.12;
• Category 4: $18.50;
• Category 5: $16.87;
• Category 6: $15.25;
• Category 7: $130.50 (yes, that's a staggering jump; don't do this at Category 7 properties!).

If you are traveling between September 1 and September 5, you'll also receive a 10% rebate on the points portion of your stay (if you registered for that promotion in time).

Book rooms for others

We all have people in our lives who aren't travel hackers, but still travel with some frequency.

If you know a traveler who is planning to pay cash for a hotel room in a city with Hyatt properties, you're virtually certain to save them money by booking their reservation using your World of Hyatt points and their cash. They can pay you for the points portion of the reservation and pay the hotel the cash portion directly. By staying on your Globalist reservation, they'll also enjoy breakfast and club access at applicable properties.

Be sure that you're not making a "Guest of Honor" reservation. Instead, book a room in your own name and then add the other person to the reservation so they can check in (and pay).

I divide the world of travel not into paid reservations and points reservations, but rather reimbursed travel and non-reimbursed travel. The above works best if you're booking for someone with unreimbursed travel, since you can save them money directly by reducing their out-of-pocket travel expenses.

In the case of a reimbursed business traveler, the logic of the situation is reversed. You'd like someone whose employer or sponsor is paying for their hotel room to forego earning points and status in their own account and instead credit the paid nights to your account. If the person doesn't care about points or status, they may be willing to do this simply as a favor, or in exchange for breakfast and club access. If they're a bit more mercenary, they may ask you to pay them for the privilege.

As indicated above, it seems that $10-$20 per night is a reasonable range to pay for an elite-qualifying night, which gives a total breakeven value for 20 nights of $200-$400. That doesn't strike me as a totally unreasonable amount to pay if you can take aggressive advantage of Globalist late check-out, suite upgrade awards, waived resort fees, and free breakfast.

Mattress Run

Of course the last refuge of a scoundrel is the mattress run. Depending on where you live, you may have access to cheap weekend nights or Points + Cash reservations at nearby properties. While you'd be nuts to mattress run all the way to Globalist status, the fewer nights left in your challenge the more enticing it may be. If you can naturally accumulate 18 nights before December 30, what's a few hundred dollars between friends for the remaining two nights?

Conclusion

Twenty nights in four months is an utterly reasonable threshold to earn top-tier status with Hyatt, and I expect this promotion to be quite successful at filling up Hyatt's top-tier elite ranks. While I won't personally be putting any effort into requalifying, if you do I hope some of the ideas above will make your requalification as painless — and cheap — as possible.

Breaking even with IHG Rewards Club Spire elite status

Last week I wrote about the possibility of using IHG Rewards Club as the primary hotel loyalty program for a reimbursed business traveler. In that post I considered only the Platinum elite status that comes with the IHG Rewards Club credit card. But of course IHG has a newish top-tier status, called Spire.

In the comments, reader Just some guy mentioned one popular way to achieve Spire status:

"Virgin Atlantic points are easy to acquire, and when transferred to IHG are elite qualifying. Every year that you hit 75k elite qualifying points, your status will be raised to Spire and you'll be gifted an additional 25k points.

Spend 32k of those points on Intercontinental Ambassador status and you will be given 5k points back and a buy one weekend night get one free certificate. Ambassador status gets you a guaranteed upgrade at intercontinental hotels."

There are a couple things here worth unpacking. Let's get started.

What is IHG Rewards Club Spire elite status worth?

Spire elites earn a 100% bonus on base points earned on paid stays, for a total of 20 points per dollar spent, and paying with an IHG Rewards Club credit card earns an additional 5 points per dollar. Updating the chart in last week's post, that gives the following comparison between Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Silver, and IHG Spire status:

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The way to read this chart is that an IHG Rewards Club member with Spire status has to spend less on paid stays than a Hilton Gold or Marriott Silver member to receive a free night at hotels in similar tiers. Note that this only applies to paid stays! If you're looking exclusively at credit card spend you need to use imputed redemption values, a completely different calculation.

Since Spire status can be acquired by transferring 75,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles to IHG Rewards Club, and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, and Citi ThankYou points, it's relatively easy to calculate how much you need to spend at IHG properties to justify buying Spire status.

Here's the math: 75,000 flexible points transferred from any of the 3 currencies translates into 100,000 IHG Rewards Club points, for the reason Just some guy mentioned. 100,000 IHG Rewards Club points are worth at most $700 — the amount they'd cost if you used the Points + Cash trick discussed in the comments here (you can usually find prices as low as $600 for 100,000 points, but $700 is the "standard" price). For the same reason, the additional 5 Rewards Club points per dollar spent you earn as a Spire elite are worth 3.5 cents.

The amount of money that has to be spent on paid IHG stays to break even is the difference between the value of the flexible points transferred and the value of the IHG points received, divided by the value of the additional points earned as a Spire elite. The more valuable your flexible point redemptions, the more you have to spend as a Spire elite to break even, as this chart shows:

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So a Chase Ink Plus cardholder who redeems Ultimate Rewards points for 1.25 cents each and who transfers 75,000 points to Virgin Atlantic is spending $937 for $700 in value. To make back that difference, they'd need to spend about $6,750 at IHG properties, which would earn 33,750 in "extra" Spire points compared to a Platinum elite — worth $237, the difference between the amount paid in Ultimate Rewards points and the value received in IHG Rewards Club points.

One more point: once you've reached 75,000 Elite Qualifying Points, you'll receive Spire elite status naturally. That means the values above are only for spend up to the point where you'd qualify for Spire anyway. If you spend more than $7,500 at IHG properties per year ($15,000 at extended stay properties), you're almost certainly better off simply acquiring Spire status through your normal spend.

Alternatively, you can wait until the end of each calendar year to determine how far you are away from keeping Spire status, and only transfer the number of flexible points needed to maintain your status for the next year.

If you do pursue that strategy, keep in mind that points earned with the IHG Rewards Club credit cards do count as elite qualifying points. That means each point you earn with credit card spend is a perfect substitute for your flexible points. That's not terribly relevant for unbonused spend since the card earns just 1 Rewards Club point on unbonused spend. At IHG properties, however, the card would effectively earn 5 Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards, or ThankYou points per dollar spent, since it would save you that many flexible points at the end of the year.

What is InterContinental Ambassador status worth?

Besides late check-out (a benefit I personally value enormously but isn't, strictly speaking, worth anything) InterContinental Ambassadors also get a buy-one-get-one-free weekend night. Again, it's easy to determine the value of the free weekend night:

• 27,000 Rewards Club points cost $189 (32,000 points cost $224 but Ambassadors should receive a 5,000 point voucher — I've seen mixed reports on this question so am giving both values);
• InterContinental properties top out at 60,000 Rewards Club points, which cost $420 at 0.7 cents each;
• So a free weekend night is worth using if the property's "Ambassador Weekend Rate" is below $659 but above $189.

If a property's Ambassador Weekend Rate is above $659 per night, you should just buy (up to) 120,000 Rewards Club points and redeem them for two nights. InterContinental properties in lower tiers will cost even less.

If a property's paid rate is below $189, you should pay the paid rate for both nights and not bother with Ambassador status at all.

For nightly prices in between, you'll save money by paying the paid rate for one night and $189 in points for the second night.

Adjusting these values for the value of points earned with Spire status on paid stays is an exercise left to the reader.

Conclusion

Just as I concluded last week, IHG Rewards Club (and InterContinental Ambassador) appear to offer great value to folks with a lot of paid travel that they're able to direct to IHG properties. The ability to "top up" your status each year by transferring flexible points first to Virgin Atlantic, and then to IHG, is an additional advantage of the program over the other large hotel loyalty programs.

On the other hand, leisure and budget travelers are likely better off sticking to programs with more valuable points or points that can be earned more easily, like Hilton, Hyatt (through Chase Ultimate Rewards), and Starwood Preferred Guest.

IHG Rewards Club, reconsidered

[edit 8/7/17: updated charts to reflect 60,000-point top-tier IHG Rewards Club properties. Conclusions left unchanged.]

Easily the reaction I least expected to Tuesday's post on credit card auxiliary benefits was the passionate defense that emerged in the comments of IHG Rewards Club.

I have always dismissed IHG Rewards Club more or less mechanically: their credit card doesn't offer high enough unbonused or bonused earning rates to justify manufacturing spend on it, and IHG Rewards points have so little value that it's extremely expensive to combine them with the credit card's annual free night certificate for stays of more than one night.

IHG Rewards Club offers a good rebate on paid nights for co-branded credit card holders

But what about using IHG as your primary hotel loyalty program? How would a top-tier elite fare in each of the biggest hotel loyalty programs? Fortunately, this information was at my fingertips thanks to the calculations I'd already done for Chapter 6. Here are the results, showing the amount of hotel spend required to earn sufficient points for a free night award at low-, mid-, and top-tier properties with each program:

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Next, It's worth pointing out that this comparison, in which IHG Rewards Club has a strong showing compared to the other two programs, is in fact deeply unfair to IHG. That's because IHG Rewards Platinum elite status is trivially easy to earn: all you have to do is carry their Chase co-branded credit card.

To earn top-tier Hilton Honors Diamond status you need to spend $40,000 on one of their premium co-branded credit cards or complete 30 stays or 60 nights (award stays and nights count), and to earn Marriott Rewards Platinum status you need to spend an ungodly amount on their Premier co-branded credit card or stay 75 nights.

Comparing IHG Rewards Club Platinum status to the much more fair Hilton Gold or Marriott Silver status (which come with their co-branded credit cards), the comparison suddenly shifts sharply in IHG's favor:

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While low-level properties are still slightly easier to earn with the Hilton and Marriott co-branded credit cards on paid stays, earning stays at mid-level and high-level properties is easiest with IHG Rewards Platinum status and their co-branded credit card. That's true whether you use a co-branded credit card to actually pay for your stay or not.

IHG Rewards elite status isn't worth much

If your goal is to earn award nights as quickly as possible on reimbursed paid stays, IHG offers a very strong value proposition for co-branded cardholders. On the other hand, Hilton Honors Gold status and Marriott Rewards Gold status both come with free breakfast, while IHG Rewards Club Platinum status doesn't come with...anything.

Whether having breakfast included on your stays is worth a lot, a little, or nothing is entirely up to you — I've seen good arguments on all sides of the question. But if you're going to make IHG Rewards your primary program for paid stays, you should be aware of what you're getting.

IHG Rewards Club offers frequent, potentially lucrative promotions

While the other big hotel loyalty programs have fallen into a tired habit of offering double or triple points promotions every quarter, IHG Rewards Club has done a pretty good job of maintaining a steady tempo of promotions which, if you have enough paid stays during promotional periods, can spin off a phenomenal number of points.

While it's hard to quantify, by aggressively targeting paid stays during relevant promotions you can increase the rebate value of your participation even further.

Conclusion

So, this has been my reader-inspired reconsideration of the value of IHG Rewards Club. My revised conclusion is that it's an extremely strong program for co-branded credit card holders who have lots of paid or reimbursed stays, and who are not concerned with the limited benefits available to those with elite status.

While Hilton will remain my primary hotel loyalty program as long as it remains so easy to manufacture Honors points (and Diamond status) in bonused categories, I have a renewed appreciated for IHG Rewards Club, and I have only my readers to thank for it.

My favorite credit card auxiliary benefits, ranked

I've been thinking lately about the Bank of America Alaska Airlines credit card, since it has a somewhat higher signup bonus than usual, at 30,000 Mileage Plan miles, a $100 statement credit, and a taxes-and-fees-only companion ticket for the first year, instead of the usual $99-plus-taxes-and-fees offer.

Since Alaska companion tickets can be used on any economy fare, and Mileage Plan has last-seat award availability, this is basically a signup bonus of between 1.5 and 2 roundtrips on Alaska or Virgin America, depending on whether you can find low-level award space or have to redeem all 30,000 Mileage Plan miles for a one-way (or possibly a few more if you're flying to Hawaii or Mexico).

Since Bank of America lets you apply for and receive the same card and signup bonus multiple times, it used to be popular to apply for a new Alaska Airlines card every 91 days and then request product changes to the Better Balance Rewards card, which can be automated to spin off $30 every quarter in cash back. I believe that product change is no longer available as the Better Balance Rewards card isn't being offered to new customers, but a product change from a card with a good signup bonus is still likely the best way to get a card like the BankAmericard Travel Rewards card, which only has a standard signup bonus of 20,000 points.

Since ranking stuff is fun, here are a few of my other favorite credit card auxiliary benefits, ranked.

5. Centurion Lounge access

This is technically not one of my favorite auxiliary benefits since I don't have an American Express Platinum or Business Platinum card, but it's one of my favorite auxiliary benefits for other people to have so they can guest me into the lounges.

I've invited subscribers to join me at meetups in the Centurion lounges in Las Vegas, New York La Guardia, and Dallas/Fort Worth, and as someone who would never pay for lounge access I am happy to say they really are terrific lounges. Great food, cocktails, views, seating, and wi-fi. If I lived in or regularly traveled through cities with Centurion Lounges I could certainly see applying for a Business Platinum card. I don't, so I won't, but this benefit still sneaks into the top 5.

4. America Express Delta Platinum and Reserve companion tickets

I don't think the Delta companion tickets, which can both be redeemed for tickets in certain cheap domestic economy fare buckets, and in the case of the Reserve companion ticket in first class, are as valuable as people claim. They essentially function as a not-quite-50% discount on economy tickets, if you are willing to be flexible with your routing and plan far enough in advance, because you still have to pay taxes and fees on the second ticket.

The best value of the companion tickets, of course, is to simply sell them to someone who isn't a travel hacker. That's an easy way to bring down the out-of-pocket cost of your annual fee, if you're primarily interested in the cards in order to earn bonus SkyMiles and waive the Medallion Qualifying Dollar requirements for status.

Finally, Frequent Miler has written about the opportunity to combine Delta companion tickets and the American Express Business Platinum card's 35% Membership Rewards point rebate. Apparently Membership Rewards points can be redeemed against purchases made with the Business Platinum card outside the American Express Travel booking portal. It does require a phone call and is apparently up to the discretion of the phone agent, and I've never tried it, so don't take my word for it. To give a simple example, two $500 tickets with $11.20 in taxes and fees would cost a total of $511.20 if booked with a Delta companion ticket. Since you can pay for Delta companion tickets with any American Express card, you'd then put the charge on your Business Platinum card. Calling into Membership Rewards, you'd redeem 51,120 Membership Rewards points, and eventually receive a rebate of 35% of those points, or 17,892. That would give you a total out-of-pocket cost of 33,228 Membership Rewards points for $1,000 in flights, or 3 cents per Membership Rewards point.

Be careful to note the reason this works: you can't pay for Delta companion tickets with any card that is not an American Express card. If you could, you'd be better off paying with a travel rewards card that you manufacture cheap spend on, or a card that offers free trip delay insurance. But since you have to choose an American Express card, the Business Platinum is the card that lets you leverage the value of your Membership Rewards points against the already-discounted cost of the companion ticket.

3. Trip Delay insurance

Speaking of trip delay insurance, after my experience getting stranded by United in Denver, I've come around to the idea. I'd never pay for it separately, and I probably wouldn't keep a card just because it offers trip delay insurance, but if you already carry a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Barclaycard Arrival+, then you should be booking as many of your flights with it as possible.

That won't always be possible, for example if you're booking tickets using US Bank Flexpoints or Chase Ultimate Rewards points, but for tickets you book with cash, or award tickets that give you a choice of cards to pay with — use the right card! It only takes one claim every few years to pay for many years of $89 or $95 annual fees.

2. Hilton Honors Gold (Diamond) status

Hilton Gold status is notoriously easy to earn, and Hilton Diamond status is notoriously worth little above and beyond the benefits of Gold. Nonetheless, no matter how easy it is to earn, you still want to earn it somehow if Hilton is going to be one of your primary loyalty programs. Personally I carry the American Express Hilton Honors Surpass card, which gives automatic Gold status and Diamond status when you spend $40,000 on the card, although the Citi Hilton Honors Reserve card has the same status earning structure (but earns just 5 Honors points per dollar spent at grocery stores).

1. Hyatt annual free night certificate

The annual free night certificate earned by the Chase Hyatt credit card is the best credit card free night certificate for a few reasons:

• Unlike the Citi Hilton Honors Reserve free night certificate, it can be used on any day, not just on weekends, and doesn't have a $10,000 spending requirement, allowing that spend to be put on more lucrative credit cards.
• Unlike the Chase IHG Rewards Club free night certificate, the Hyatt certificate can be combined with valuable World of Hyatt points instead of worthless IHG Rewards Club points. To illustrate this point, a 3-night stay at a top-tier IHG Rewards Club property like the InterContinental Sydney would require the transfer of 120,000 Ultimate Rewards points to IHG Rewards Club, plus the use of an annual free night certificate. A 3-night stay at a top-tier Hyatt property requires just 90,000 Ultimate Rewards points — no certificate required! The corollary of that is the ability to save valuable World of Hyatt points at lower-tier properties by swapping in the free Category 1-4 certificate. The credit card's $75 annual fee buys you a free night certificate worth between $50 and $150 in Ultimate Rewards points.
• Unlike the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier free night certificate, the Hyatt free night certificate can be used at properties you actually want to stay at. The Marriott Rewards Premier certificate can be used at properties up to Category 5, which would cost 25,000 Marriott Rewards points, if you could find one to stay at. But while Marriott has so totally gutted their categories that there's no reason to count on finding a Category 5 property that's worth an $85 annual fee, there are still plentiful Category 4 Hyatt properties where paying a $75 annual fee will get you a reasonable discount.

Conclusion

Naturally, your ranking should differ based on your own travel needs:

• if you travel often enough that you are desperate for lounge access, the premium airline credit cards will offer it;
• likewise Hawaiian travelers may get value from the Barclaycard Hawaiian Airlines credit card's companion ticket;
• and if you stay at a lot of Sheratons the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Business card gives Sheraton Club Lounge access (I've never stayed at a Sheraton or visited a Sheraton Club Lounge but I'm sure they're nice).

But for my own travel needs, these are the five benefits I value the most.

Ideas that should work

I have a fascination with travel hacking ideas that sound great in principle but for one reason or another are unworkable in practice. For example, I earn a lot of Hilton Honors points, and am perfectly satisfied with the value I typically get redeeming them, but it's not the kind of value you can get at a property like the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island (0.96 cents per point on a sample five-night stay).

Since, in principle, there must be some people paying cash for such a stay, and since I can get it at a far lower cost, we should be able to split the difference, giving me a higher "redemption" value than I usually see, and giving a wealthy vacationer a nice discount off retail. While coupon brokers do exist, I've seen no evidence that this market is deep enough to sustain a gold rush of travel hackers selling points, once transaction fees and the broker's own cut are taken into account.

Here are a few other ideas I think should work, but face obstacles in practice.

Reselling/giving away gasoline

Periodically grocery stores will allow PIN-enabled prepaid debit cards to earn their proprietary points that can be redeemed for a discount off gasoline purchases.

I don't drive anymore, but I understand that car owners treat gas purchases as a major component of their monthly budget. In principle the fact that I, a car-free urban-dwelling millennial, am earning zillions of dollars in free or discounted gasoline, while others are buying just a few gallons at a time in order to get to their minimum wage jobs, should create an opportunity to make some money (or at least get some zakat out of the way on the cheap).

But the obstacles are rather profound. Since I don't have a car or any gasoline containers, or even know where the nearest gas station is, I certainly can't do the work of buying a bunch of cheap gasoline and then spreading it around to the downtrodden.

Likewise, I only have a few of the little bonus cards they give you at the grocery store, so I can't walk around handing them out. I think I could register it to a phone number, but then I'd have to hand out my phone number (or somebody else's) [ed: I just checked and I think I signed up with a fake name so I can't seem to register online at all].

But there's one more problem that I think poses an even more profound obstacle: on what basis would the gas be provided or split? Consider a sort of ideal condition: I find a group of struggling single mothers in the suburbs who all have to drive to their three jobs on the nightshift. I want to save them some money on gas, asking nothing in return (remember, I don't need the stuff so it costs me nothing). I photocopy 5 versions of my plastic card so they can all use them at the gas station whenever they fill up. These promotions don't come along very often, so most of the time there are no points on the card, but occasionally they save $30 on a tank of gas ($1.50 per gallon on a 20-gallon tank).

All I've done is created a situation of conflict and resentment among folks who never asked me to come along and invent this scheme in the first place! It would be a constant battle to try to seize the discounted gasoline each time a promotion came along, and whoever lost out (filling up her tank on the last day of the promo when all the points had already been redeemed) would feel terribly ill-used.

So what did I actually do? I just gave my card to a reader whose son lives in the area and drives to work. I didn't even have to give him my phone number.

Collective Rewards Accounts

This is an idea that I know has actually been implemented by some sophisticated travel hackers, but which I think still has obstacles that make it difficult for most people to pursue.

Most loyalty programs (with obvious exceptions, like Korean Air SKYPASS) don't have strict rules regarding on whose behalf points can be redeemed. That means a team of 4-5 travel hackers could each specialize in different programs, spreading devaluation and unredeemed-point risk across a larger number of people (especially if they have traveling families). Between a Delta Diamond Medallion, American Airlines Executive Platinum, and United Premier 1K, you'd have access to refundable award tickets on all three airline alliances, and no one member would feel the pain of being "locked in" to an award program with limited availability (which is more or less all of them these days).

A similar idea applies to hotel loyalty programs which require paid stays to qualify for elite status but also allow elites to transfer their benefits to others (see Frequent Miler's recent post for some additional thoughts in this vein). World of Hyatt Globalist status qualification requires 60 paid nights, which is a lot of nights for one person, but less significant for a group of 4-5 frequent travelers. By crediting every paid night to a single person's account, they would be able to secure Globalist status for the entire group (and trigger potential points windfalls during promotions).

Finally, a group approach to credit card applications would have significant potential benefits, allowing every member of the group to stay below arbitrary thresholds (staying below 5 applications each every 2 years would leave the entire group eligible for outsized signup bonuses from Chase, for example), while giving the entire group access to lucrative offers like 5% cash back cards from Wells Fargo, which according to their terms are limited to 6 months per person out of every 16.

So what's the problem? First, each individual member of the group would have responsibilities and limitations. It may be that when you joined such a group you preferred flying United and didn't have a problem being the designated Premier 1K. But a change in work or flight schedules might suddenly make flying United unacceptably inconvenient. Your partners are meanwhile diligently pursuing Diamond Medallion and Executive Platinum. What do you do?

Second, the group would need a fairly sophisticated method of keeping track of each member's contributions and withdrawals from the pool in order to maintain harmony. It's true that if well-implemented there should be far more total points in the pool than would ever be redeemed, but if two members both want to fly their extended families on Lufthansa First the same weekend, you can imagine the pool of Star Alliance miles getting pretty depleted.

These are surmountable problems, and indeed I know of groups that pursue collective strategies like this. But despite the obvious advantages I don't think such a system is simple enough to implement for it to be practical for most travel hackers.

Instead, the far more accessible solution is one-time transactions mediated by cash or other instruments. I think that's a reasonable compromise, but nevertheless reduces the potential for outsized value a truly collective strategy would provide.

Hey look the Amtrak Guest Rewards MasterCard raised their signup bonus

I saw at Miles to Memories yesterday morning that the Bank of America Amtrak Guest Rewards MasterCard had raised its signup bonus from 20,000 to 30,000 Guest Rewards points after spending $1,000 within 3 months.

While I don't chase signup bonuses, I'm not a lunatic: if you want to get a card, you're better off getting it when the signup bonus is higher rather than when the signup bonus is lower!

And the Amtrak Guest Rewards MasterCard is a pretty good card, if you travel on Amtrak regularly and pay for your own tickets.

Amtrak Guest Rewards points are pretty valuable

Amtrak Guest Rewards points are now redeemable for between 1.71 cents each (on certain Acela fares) and 2.9 cents each (on certain close-in Value fares), meaning a 30,000-point signup bonus is worth between $513 and $870, if you pay for your own Amtrak tickets out of pocket.

Note that this is not true if all of your Amtrak travel is reimbursed by an employer! If that's the case you should be putting your Amtrak purchases on the most lucrative card in your wallet for unbonused spend or travel purchases.

But if you just like taking trains (trains are great) then you can save a lot of money on train travel with this signup bonus.

Additionally, under certain circumstances it's possible to make large transfers of Amtrak Guest Rewards points to Choice Privileges points. Choice has a fairly confusing loyalty program but if you are able to take advantage of their properties you can get a lot of value from relatively few points.

Amtrak Guest Rewards points aren't that easy to earn

Since Chase Ultimate Rewards removed Amtrak Guest Rewards as a transfer partner, the only ways I know of to earn Amtrak Guest Rewards points are:

• Paid travel on Amtrak. If you commute on Amtrak, or if you have your Amtrak travel reimbursed, this is the most seamless way to earn Guest Rewards points.
• Shopping through the Amtrak Guest Rewards portal. If you're a reseller who's able to direct your online purchases through the portal of your choosing, you can use Amtrak's and not muck around with credit cards or manufactured spend.
• Transfers from Starwood Preferred Guest and Diners Club. If you have a Starwood Preferred Guest American Express or Diners Club credit card (either from the long long ago or during the brief period when cards were available to new applicants) then you can already earn one Amtrak Guest Rewards point per dollar spent at unbonused merchants.
• The Amtrak Guest Rewards MasterCard. Of course, some people don't have access to American Express credit cards for one reason or another, and almost nobody has access to Diners Club credit cards. That means if you are interested in earning Amtrak Guest Rewards points, don't have paid travel on Amtrak, don't do a lot of online shopping, and don't have a Starwood Preferred Guest or Diners Club credit card, well, you're going to need an Amtrak Guest Rewards MasterCard.

A few other benefits

The Amtrak Guest Rewards MasterCard isn't exclusively for folks who redeem points for Amtrak travel: the annual roundtrip companion ticket, even with its numerous restrictions, is the kind of thing that folks who frequently buy paid Amtrak tickets can take advantage of so that a partner or family member can come along on business trips. That's the kind of thing business folks seem to enjoy.

There's also an annual lounge pass. Amtrak lounges are pretty bad, so I'd ordinarily say to just show up right before your train leaves, but given Amtrak delays maybe a lounge pass is more valuable than I'm giving it credit for.

Conclusion

I won't personally be applying for the current increased signup bonus because I have about 9 credit cards that are higher priorities for my applications right now. But if you don't have anything better on deck, I think the Amtrak Guest Rewards MasterCard is a pretty good card with a better-than-usual signup bonus.

BankAmericard Travel Rewards is probably the best single credit card

I've written before about the BankAmericard Travel Rewards card, which I think is probably the best card for unbonused spend, assuming you can put an average of $100,000 into an eligible account for an average of 3 months. Other good candidates are the Discover it Miles card which doubles 1.5% cash back after 12 months (for a total of 3% cash back, if you don't mind the wait) or the USAA Limitless Cashback Rewards card which earns 2.5% cash back with far fewer hoops to jump through (if you're eligible for the card).

While working on a different project, I realized the BankAmericard Travel Rewards card has a different distinction: I think it might be the single best credit card. I mean, if for some reason you only carry one credit card, I think it might be the best one to carry.

To be clear, most travel hackers don't carry only one credit card, and someone who already carries a wide variety of cards for a variety of purposes shouldn't necessarily apply (unless they're able to trigger the higher earnings described in the link above).

What's so great about the BankAmericard Travel Rewards card?

Here's my case for the Travel Rewards card being the best credit card:

• No annual fee. $0 is the lowest an annual fee can be.
• No foreign transaction fee. If you travel outside the United States, a card that charges no foreign transaction fees is strictly superior to a card that charges foreign transaction fees.
• Chip-and-PIN enabled. I did not realize until recently that most (all?) BankAmericard credit cards with chips are PIN-enabled, making it possible to use them at unmanned kiosks outside the United States. You can set the PIN on your BankAmericard credit cards by logging into your account, selecting "Information & Services," and then "Manage card settings."
• 1.5% cash back rewards (unless you're able to trigger higher earning with Bank of America and affiliate account balances). This is lower than many other credit cards, but not that much lower, which will become important.

What's wrong with the rest?

BankAmericard Travel Rewards has a lot of competition for best single credit card. What's wrong with them?

• Chase Freedom Unlimited. No annual fee, 1.5% cash back, but with a 3% foreign transaction fee and not chip-and-PIN enabled.
• Citi Double Cash. No annual fee, 2% cash back, but with 3% foreign transaction fee and not chip-and-PIN enabled.
• Capital One Venture Rewards. $59 annual fee and 2% cash back, no foreign transaction fee and not chip-and-PIN enabled.
• Fidelity Rewards Visa. No annual fee, 2% cash back, and 1% foreign transaction fee. Not chip-and-PIN enabled.
• Barclaycard Arrival Plus. $89 annual fee, 2.105% cash back, no foreign transaction fee. Chip-and-PIN enabled.

The 1.5% cash back earning rate on the BankAmericard Travel Rewards card is lower than the maximum cash back available on unbonused purchases, but in each case you can see you're making an explicit tradeoff: you can pay an annual fee, a foreign transaction fee, or give up chip-and-PIN capabilities.

Conclusion

At this point I assume my readers are boiling over with outrage about not considering this, that, or the other thing in the world of travel and travel hacking.

Which brings me all the way back to my point. If you know anything about travel hacking this recommendation is absurd; there are so many better cards to apply for first, so many bonus categories to maximize, so many spending requirement thresholds to trigger! But most people don't know anything about travel hacking, and they need recommendations too.

To those people this is my recommendation: sign up for a BankAmericard Travel Rewards card and never think about it again.

For the sake of full disclosure, I personally don't carry this card since I don't have $100,000 in assets I can house with Bank of America, but am planning to product change my Better Balance Rewards card to Travel Rewards as soon as I hit that threshold.