Best Choices post-devaluation, what to do if you get declined, how Marriott could improve, and more [Week in Review]

This week, we saw a big Choice devaluation, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom: Greg took a look on the bright side and found us some still-sweet spots. If you get declined for a new card, you’ll want to reference our application rules so you know the number for reconsideration. All that and more in this Frequent Miler Week in Review.

This week on the Frequent Miler blog…

Another Choice Preferred Hotels devaluation: Up to 118K per night

The Choice Privileges partnership with Preferred hotels had many of us excited for a time, though given the 1:2 transfer ratio from Citi and Wells Fargo to Choice, I didn’t expect it to last forever. However, I don’t think that any of us expected to see award rates increase by more than 100% in some cases. If you had your heart set on a property that increased that much, it would likely be hard to justify keeping your heart set there for long.

Great value Preferred Hotels bookable with Choice points

While the Preferred Hotels devaluation certainly stung, it wasn’t necessarily a doomsday scenario. In fact, ever the optimist, Greg found quite a number of places where you can still get excellent value out of Choice Privileges points when booking Preferred Hotels. While you can’t expect great value across the board anymore, this post proves that this remains a redemption option worth considering.

My Marriott Bonvoy wishlist toward loving rather than tolerating Bonvoy

Greg wrote a wishlist of realistic improvements he’d like to see Marriott make to its terms and conditions that would make it a better program that would be easier to love. I agree that the changes that Greg outlines here seem entirely reasonable and rational, though I also wonder whether they would make a measurable difference given Marriott’s unwillingness to hold individual properties to program terms. There’s no doubt that the program is overly and unnecessarily complex as things stand, but even if they made the program changes he proposes, I lack confidence that Marriott would enforce the changes when properties tried to sidestep them. I’d most like to see consistency — that’s the reason I choose to stay in a chain hotel in the first place. Unfortunately, Marriott doesn’t seem to value consistency as much as I do, so once I reach Lifetime Platinum in the next couple of years, my stays will generally be limited to properties where reviewers mention benefits being provided without hassle (and truth be told, I’ve mostly been focusing on those types of places for the last couple of years anyway).

Podcast: How to amass Chase Ultimate Rewards | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep271 | 9-6-24

Chase Ultimate Rewards are widely loved, particularly for the ability to transfer points to World of Hyatt and also to Chase’s stable of airline and hotel programs. But this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air isn’t about using Ultimate Rewards but rather about how to amass a useful quantity of Ultimate Rewards through welcome bonuses, referral bonuses, bonus categories, shopping, and more.

Complete Guide to Credit Card Application Rules by Bank

Interested in a new card, but unsure as to whether you qualify for the welcome bonus? This updated resource gives you everything you need to know about whether you’re eligible as well as what to do if you are denied (that’s usually not the end of the story! call reconsideration!). Bookmark this post for easy reference the next time you need it.

Capital One SavorOne successes and failures for 3% back

A card that I recently acquired via product change came “on the road” with me to about 10 different countries over the past ~6 weeks. The SavorOne card offers 3% back (which can become 3 miles per dollar spent) on grocery, dining, and entertainment worldwide. I brought the card out to test whether the grocery category would trigger properly overseas (it did in all of the situations I tried!) and which types of purchases would trigger the “entertainment” bonus (both tickets and gift card purchases did at Tokyo Disney and some other museums, but then I also ran into instances where it didn’t work). This post has my results.

Podcast: World of Hyatt Business Credit Card | Card Talk Ep5 | 9-5-24

The World of Hyatt Business Credit Card has a niche audience, but for the right crowd this can be a useful piece of the puzzle. Should this one have a spot in your wallet? On Card Talk, Greg and I discuss the card, who should consider it, and what we wish were different at this price point.

Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card Review (2024)

While we’re talking about cards, the Chase Freedom Unlimited is a workhorse that many keep in their wallets. Given the fact that Ultimate Rewards points can be quite valuable, the Freedom Unlimited provides a reasonable option for otherwise unbonused spend, though it lags a bit behind contemporaries that offer 2 points per dollar spent. Still, given a few strong 3x categories and the ability to combine your Ultimate Rewards points, this card is probably a good fit for many.

Current point transfer bonuses

If you’re a collector of transferable points, you should bookmark our current point transfer bonuses page so that you can always check to see whether a useful bonus is running when you’re looking to make an award booking. I also find it useful that we list expired bonuses, which should give you an idea as to whether a current bonus is a rare sight or likely to be back again sometime soon.

Podcast: JetBlue’s Excellent Status Match | Coffee Break Ep24 | 9-3-24

JetBlue is out with a status match offer to draw in elites from competing airlines. Potentially interesting is the fact that you have the opportunity to earn even higher status than the tier where you match. If you expect the opportunity to earn a meaningful number of tiles within a short window of time, this match could certainly make sense. On this week’s coffee break, we discuss the details.

Air Canada Aeroplan Complete Guide

Air Canada Aeroplan is perhaps my favorite frequent flyer program when it comes to planning complex redemptions, but there is a lot to consider when you look at the overall big picture of the program. We’ve updated this guide to be current as of 2024 with everything you need to know from earning elite status to the partners on which you can redeem and a lot more.

That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Don’t forget to keep an eye on this week’s last chance deals.

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