In today’s episode, we’ll talk about how Chase Point Boost is going bust, how Avianca sucks some life out of LifeMiles, and rewards for spending BIG.
Best Bonuses for Huge Spend
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Giant Mailbag
(01:16) – Mike says “I have a subscription to Award Wallet Plus, and it has a “Merchant Category Lookup Tool,” where you can enter a merchant name and it will give the related merchant category name…”
Find our Wells Fargo Journeys Forward episode 354 here
(05:50) – Visit frequentmiler.com/awardwallet here
Upgrade to AwardWallet Plus for 6 months (one time upgrade only): Click the down arrow next to your name within AwardWallet, and click “Upgrade Using a Coupon”, then enter: FrequentMiler (this will only work for those who have never upgraded before)
Card News
(07:18) – Royal Caribbean launches two new credit cards: Royal One and Royal One Plus
Crazy Thing
(10:20) – Finnair 18 month expiration
Mattress Running the Numbers
(17:37) – Buy Marriott Points for as low as 0.89 cents each
Bonvoyed
(21:33) – Chase Points Boost goes Bust
Read more about Chase Points Boost going bust here
Read more about Chase reducing redemption rates here
(35:46) – Air Canada Aeroplan devaluation
Learn more about Aeroplan devaluing their award chart here
(38:58) – Avianca LifeMiles changes
Awards, Points, and More
(45:31) – Wells Fargo adds transfer partner: Cathay Pacific (Autograph, Autograph Journey)
(47:16) – See our Instant Gift Card Deals post here
Main Event: Best Bonuses for Huge Spend
(49:47) – Today we’ll focus on cards that earn big rewards after really big spend ($50K or more)
(52:24) – Bilt cards $50K: Platinum status
(56:49) – Marriott Bonvoy® Brilliant® American Express® Card $60K
(1:02:15) – Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Card $60K (100K Companion cert)
(1:09:00) – Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card $75K
(1:15:17) – Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ Card $120K:
(1:17:13) – The Business Platinum Card® from American Express $250K
(1:23:43) – Aeroplan® Credit Card $1M: Free award companion for the rest of the calendar year and all of next year with $1 Million spend
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Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder
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I would argue that for some people airline status is more valuable than you are giving it credit for here. For example, Southwest A List Preferred. My brother is 6’5” and has a family of 5. He’s willing to pay for extra legroom on every flight at booking to guarantee extra legroom. With CP, he’s almost always better off flying SW than its competitors. At $140k spend (assuming zero paid Southwest flights, when he normally pays for his flights and uses points for his family). He wants his family to sit together. At $69/seat for ELR, he get an extra 1% back (plus CP) on his spend with just 2 roundtrips. But he normally flies 4-8 or more roundtrips per year on Southwest (some but not all with his family). The larger the family, the more valuable this perk.
Would he be better off putting his spend on a bunch of different cards? Absolutely. But he’s lazy and wants one card. Between Companion Pass and A List Preferred, it’s not a bad value for a tall family (his two sons are also over 6’ tall) that wants to sit together and flies at least 4 roundtrips per year, that’s a value of about $2,800, not including Companion Pass.
This only makes sense for large families who would otherwise pay for extra legroom at booking.
It’s strange that you choose to highlight the Brilliant and only mentioned the Aspire as an aside. The Aspire is clearly better for big spend.
And not mention the Surpass at all! Surpass FNC at $15k spend is the best deal of the bunch.
True, but they looking at BIG spend bonuses.