It’s a new year and we’re excited about all the “point-y” things happening for us in 2025! Give this episode a listen to find out what we’re looking forward to.
10 point-ish things we’re most looking forward to
Giant Mailbag
(01:07) – One reader’s interesting experience disbanding a United miles pool highlights a possible hack and brings up a few questions….
Learn more about miles-pooling here.
(04:17) – Can a pool leader leave a miles pool?
(04:35) – Can I leave a miles pool after joining?
Card News
(07:25) – Chase United card devaluation: TravelBank credits instead of statement credits
(11:10) – Chase Aeroplan PYB (Pay Yourself Back) Travel limited to 200K
Awards, Points, and More
(13:51) – Marriott Choice Benefit 40 night selection expiry
Read more about this update here.
(16:27) – IHG Ends Annual Lounge Pass Loophole In 2025
(19:52) – Pay taxes via credit card slightly cheaper (starts at 1.75%) but down to 2 processors PayUSATax gone (“We are no longer processing federal tax payments on behalf of the IRS.”)
Learn more about paying taxes with a credit card here.
Peoples Choice Bonvoyed & Deal of the Year
(25:21) – Greg and Nick’s “Bonvoyed” pick: Hyatt breaks our hearts with Mr & Mrs Smith
Read our “Bonvoyed of the year” post here.
(26:47) – Readers’ “Bonvoyed” picks…
(28:10) – Our picks for for Deal of the Year
Read our “Deal of the Year” post here.
(29:02) – Readers’ picks for Deal of the Year
Main Event: 10 point-Ish things we’re most looking forward to
(31:01) – Small Luxury Hotels SLH
(33:07) – Preferred hotels & Resorts
(35:30) – Alaska Mileage Plan mixed partner awards
(40:13) – Earning Alaska elite status through award bookings
(42:51) – Alaska premium card
(45:00) – Digging into SAS awards
(47:17) – Finding a great Vacasa redemption (I bought points)
(49:17) – Finding great Capital One Miles deals
See the “Deal of the Year” episode here.
(52:09) – Getting back into the swing of bank account bonuses
(54:05) – Trying out the AA bus from PHL-ACY.
Question of the Week
(58:57) – Would a Delta Gold status be useful for a Korean Air flight booked via Delta miles?
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Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
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The IRS had an RFP for e-Payment Card Services. ACI Payments and Link2Gov (Pay1040) were awarded. payUSAtax was not awarded. So basically when their old contract was up on Dec 31 2024, they stopped accepting payments. Oh and teh award was $1B each to the awardees so that explains why they can afford to offer such low fees.
Could we please stay on top of the convenience fee issue at Pay1040? Thanks.
I think the mixed awards are starting to come online and don’t look great. The flights from fra to nyc are 55k points on condor but when paired with a partner flight from fco- they are 125k. Hopefully this is an outlier.
In regard to the Aeroplan limit, I think it really was unlimited as long as the points originated with Chase or Aeroplan. I redeemed 3/4 million last year, no questions asked. And yeah, I am a little disappointed at the 200,000 limit but more concerned about the other condition they have that they can now change the limit “from time to time” which means anytime they feel like it. At least before, we knew it was unlimited up to a certain date.
It’s a bummer the cap is more limited but the feature is interesting enough I still am trying to plan to get under 5/24 to pick this card up. Being able to make travel purchases directly with the merchant and redeem at 1.63cpp with PYB after accounting for transfer bonuses sounds really useful for the miscellaneous travel spend you can’t cover effectively with other points and free night certs. I’ll hold on to my USB Altitude Reserve forever for this feature but I just don’t generate that many points on it a year, which means one or two rental cars uses up pretty much all the annual points earnings. There’s not a lot of other good options while avoiding travel portals.
New/refreshed premium cards plus expansion of Wells Fargo transfer partners.