Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
UPDATE: She’s dead Jim. All known links are now dead.
UPDATE: Reader Stuart contributed this working link: Application Link 1
And here’s another link courtesy of Doctor of Credit in case Link 1 goes down: Application Link 2
As I’m sure you know, we had expected the online 100K offer for the Sapphire Reserve to drop to 50K today (January 12th 2017). At the moment, though, the online offer for the Sapphire Reserve is still 100K. Maybe it will change sometime later today, or not, I don’t know. And, it has indeed dropped to 50K. But, this post isn’t about that…
Yesterday, US Credit Card Guide broke the news that the landing page for the Chase Fairmont Visa Signature card was gone, but a direct offer link still existed. So, I updated our Best Offers page with the direct link, and I posted the following in the comments:
Fixed Fairmont 2 Free Nights offer.
WARNING: The Fairmont offer is very likely to die at any moment since all traces of the landing page are gone. If you’re interested in this excellent offer, I’d recommend signing up today. More here: https://www.uscreditcardguide.com/chase-fairmont-credit-card/
I’m not trying to twist anyone’s arm here. This is NOT an affiliate link — I do not get anything from people signing up for this card. It’s just a great offer that is very likely to disappear at any moment.
And I followed my own advice. Both my wife and I signed up for the card this morning.
An awesome offer
The card and signup offer have the following benefits:
- Earn 2 free nights after $3K spend in 3 months. Free nights are good for 1 year from date of issue. There are mixed reports as to whether or not Fairmont will extend the validity of the certificates.
- First year annual fee waived, then $95
- Automatic Premier elite status, which gives you the following annual benefits:
- $50 in dining or spa credits
- 1 room upgrade
- 1 suite upgrade
- 1 free 3rd night on a 3 night stay (can’t be used with the card’s 2 free nights)
- Earn a free night each year when you spend $12,000 on the card.
The card also earns points that are worth 1 cent each towards gift certificates: 5X Fairmont stays, 2X on airline tickets purchased directly with airlines, at car rental agencies, and on transit and commuting; 1X elsewhere.
The reason I think that this offer is particularly great is that the room upgrades, suite upgrades, and dining credits can be used with the free nights. In other words, not only do you get 2 free nights in at any Fairmont property in the world, but you can also potentially get very meaningful upgrades and a significant discount off of a couple of breakfasts.
Why we never signed up before
I tend to avoid these card offers for free night certificates that expire after a year. In those cases there is too much pressure to try to find the best value use and to do so before the time is up. I much prefer to get signup bonus points that can be used anytime for any type of hotel. So, in general, I’ll only sign up for free night offers if I already have a plan for how to use those free nights.
Why we signed up now
Last year Accor bought Fairmont. At that point, it seemed just a matter of time until the Fairmont credit card, as we know it today, would disappear. Still, we waited because we didn’t have a plan for those free nights. And we still don’t have a concrete plan. But, with the disappearance of the card offer landing page, I believe that this may be our absolute last chance to get in on the offer.
Fortunately, the Fairmont card is not affected by Chase’s 5/24 Rule. In other words, even if you’ve opened 5 or more cards in the past 24 months, it is possible to get approved for this card. Still, as you may know, I very recently signed up for quite a few cards (see: Why Amtrak? Alaska? Virgin Atlantic? The reasons behind my application spree). I figured that my wife would get approved easily, but I wasn’t sure about myself.
Application results
Both applications were initially pending:
But I signed into my Chase account and found the card waiting there about an hour later:
Approved! We’re still waiting for my wife’s approval, but I expect the same result.
What we’ll do with the free nights
I don’t know! Hawaii is a likely destination. If so, we’ll stack the nights together in order to get 4 nights in a row. Or maybe we’ll stay at the Savoy in London. Or how about the Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club? I’m more than happy to take reader suggestions! Unless we come up with a plan soon, we’ll wait 3 months to finish the minimum spend so that our certificates will be valid longer (they’re good for a year from when they are issued).
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[…] links for the card stopped working. I know that many readers did the same when I posted “The other Chase card you should consider today.” The remaining working application links died 5 days […]
[…] to new applicants, but I know that many readers signed up for the card in January when I posted: The other Chase card you should consider today. Since my wife and I signed up for the card I’ve had a chance to study up on some of the […]
I received a letter saying the certificates had been added to my account, but the reality wasn’t that my account did not yet exist. Now that I’ve had an account for a couple of weeks, My Certificates is still empty. :/
The same happened for my wife. We’ll wait until we think we need the certs before calling. I’m hoping that we can artificially extend the expiry date this way.
Here is a snap shot
$25 USD Dining/Willow Stream Certificate 20/Jan/2017 28/Feb/2017
$25 USD Dining/Willow Stream Certificate 20/Jan/2017 28/Feb/2017
3rd Night Free 20/Jan/2017 28/Feb/2017
Complimentary Room Upgrade 20/Jan/2017 28/Feb/2017
Complimentary Suite Upgrade 20/Jan/2017 28/Feb/2017
Did anyone get the certificates on their account?? I don’t have any certificate at all and I have not used any.
I have been an FPC member since 2009, so no new-account problems. Around Feb. 9 I got my 5 Premier cert.s which all expired Feb. 28. Now it’s March 3, but I have not yet received my certs. expiring Feb. 28/ 2018.
Also, I hit the $3K spending threshold ~ Feb. 23, but still have no free-night certs.
I had a rep manually add the Premier certificates (exp 02.28.18) tonight. She said it may be another 2-4 weeks before the free nights are added.
I just my account and the free certificates and food certificates etc all expire on 02/28/17.
Now I am not sure about the 2 free nights but the rest of the standard certficates expire on 02/28/17.
I assume we get new ones on 03/01/17 that expires in 2018?
I would expect the same since these certificates are from having elite status. The two free nights are separate
I was out of town for a few days and returned last night to have a letter from Fairmont advising me that my two complimentary nights have been added to my FPC online profile. Great, since I was considering using them next month. Only, like so many of you, I’ve never received anything telling me how to access my account. I called and got someone on the phone almost immediately. He could find no trace of me. Odd, since the letter clearly says the certificates have *already* been added to my account. Did they get credited to someone else? The rep asked for the date of the letter (Feb 5). “Oh,” he said, in a discouraging tone. It seems they’ve been so inundated with new Chase cardholders, that they haven’t even been able to CREATE new FPC accounts. He assured me that once they do this (no estimate timeframe), the certificates will indeed be deposited accordingly. So, there’s a reason so many of us haven’t gotten email or anything else welcoming us to FPC, as we don’t actually have accounts (yet). So much for a quick reward for eagerly and quickly meeting minimum spend. 🙂
Thanks for this useful update! This fits with what I was told by email last week: that there was a backlog it would take 2-3 weeks to clear. I’m also close to meeting spend on my wife’s card, so I’m actually going to slow a bit.
These travel blogs have really changed the industry. Greg’s post (and DoC I guess) apparently got tens of thousands of people to apply for this otherwise obscure card in the final week of its life. Interesting stuff…
EDIT: The email from Fairmont actually said 4-6 weeks, not 2-3. Just saw that above. Wow…they must do these by hand from chase and are way way behind.. .
Update: My wife got an email yesterday welcoming her to Fairmont PC. She applied before me — probably about a day or two after Greg’s initial post. So all told, it took about a month for her to get the PC info, despite having the card for about 3 weeks already.
How many days after hitting minimum spend will the free nights post? Will are they valid for 12 months from the day they appear in my account?
[…] you remember how my wife and I recently signed up for the Fairmont card just before it was no longer possible to do s…? My wife’s application went pending, and so we waited. Eventually her application was […]
I applied on the 16th and the card showed up in my account today. I also received a welcome email today.
My wife’s Fairmont card was finally approved! We haven’t heard anything officially yet, but it now shows up in her Chase account online. She didn’t have to call to force the decision.
Awesome! Checked my husband’s account after seeing your comment – it’showing up too!
[…] Another great offer that has disappeared is the Fairmont credit card which offered two free nights and a number of other great benefits. Congratulations to those who jumped on this offer before it was too late! See: Fairmont Visa Working Link Found! [The other Chase card you should consider today] […]
I signed both my wife and I up without Fairmont President Club numbers since we don’t have accounts. As usual, the language on the app said they’d create an account for us if approved. Anyone know how to retrieve that information? We received our cards today, but unlike other co-branded cards we have, the club # is not embossed on the card. I called Chase and they said to call Fairmont in 2 weeks. Better way? Will we get a mailer?
You should have received an email from Fairmont President Club with the number. I would double check your email accounts.
Thanks so much for replying. I didn’t receive an email (even checked my Spam), so I’ll have to do as Chase suggested and call Fairmont in the next week or two. Drats!
My wife’s got approved, however no email from Fairmont indicating her Fairmont number.
Has anyone had any luck with this?
Nope. Chase has been unable to give me the number and I haven’t heard from Fairmont. I emailed them via the website yesterday and received this response:
Thank you for your email. Due to higher than normal volume, please allow an additional 4-6 weeks for processing your Visa Chase status in the Fairmont President’s Club.
I was happy to get an app in on Sunday night. However, it went to pending, so I patiently waited and kept checking to see if the new card was added to my Chase account. I figured perhaps they weren’t working Monday (holiday), so I waited a little longer. They initially pulled Experian and then pulled Equifax the next day, so I thought that meant they were on the verge of taking action. Or, not. Finally, I called recon this afternoon (Thursday) and eventually got approved after agreeing to take $5k CL from CSR. Maybe this would’ve gotten processed on its own eventually, but I didn’t want to wait longer since even the secret links had ceased working. I’ve actually never stayed at a Fairmont, so I’m excited! 🙂
I too did the same. Couldn’t wait and called them and got it approved.
I’m still impatiently waiting to see if my wife gets approved without intervention. No word yet
I got mine today 🙂 !
Same here
I’ve updated the post to indicate that the links are now dead. Congratulations to everyone who got their applications in on time!
For those asking about whether to call for approval: I don’t see any reason to do so other than impatience. Simply wait until you get an official decision. Only if the official answer is no do you then need to call and ask for reconsideration.
All applications are discontinued and all links are not working as of 8am on 1/17/2017/. Both Chase and Fairmont state that they are no longer taking applications. End of story.