Rumors of an ultra-premium Chase business card, the key to getting better Delta SkyMiles deals and a $450,000 path to lifetime oneworld elite status. All that and more in this week’s Saturday Selection, our weekly round-up of interesting tidbits from around the interwebs (links to the original articles are embedded in the titles).
Will we finally get a Chase ultra-premium business card?
If you’re into points and miles, you probably have a stable of Chase cards and are hip-deep into the Ultimate Rewards ecosystem. Of all the credit card issuers out there, Chase is easily in the top two when looking at the sexiness of its overall card portfolio combined with the largesse of its welcome offers – and its devious 5/24 rule makes it a common starting spot for beginners. Ultimate Rewards is the most sought-after transferable currency for many folks due to it being the only program (outside of Bilt) that offers 1:1 transfers to Hyatt, although I personally find the rest of the transfer partners to be a little ho-hum. In any event, the one thing that’s always been missing from Chase’s portfolio is un ultra-premium Ultimate Rewards-earning business card. On the personal side, it has the $95 Sapphire Preferred and the $550 Sapphire Reserve, while on the business side it has the $95 Ink Business Preferred and…that’s it. It’s a curious omission for such a product-heavy bank, especially when its primary competitor, American Express, draws in oodles of customers with the Business Platinum at the hefty price tag of $695/year. According to Doctor of Credit, Chase is about to get off the blingy business sidelines and enter the game. The rumors say that it will soon be offering a premium biz card that sports a 150K welcome offer and an annual cost of ~$700/year, offset by a $400 travel credit that mimics the Sapphire Reserve’s $300 version. This new card will supposedly launch in March of 2025 and points and miles hounds are already drooling at the thought.
Would you spend $450K for oneworld elite status?
There was an under-the-radar new card release last week that managed to achieve a peculiar alchemy: a completely unrewarding card with a potentially very rewarding opportunity for massive spend. Japan Airlines (JAL) Mileage Bank re-entered the US credit card market, but instead of releasing two different cards, an entry-level and a premium, it released one card with two tiers – an entry-level and a premium. I’ve never seen a card-issuer do this before and have no idea why it makes more sense than just having two cards. But, I digress.
The premium card tier costs $85 per year, gives you a scant 5,000 miles after $5K in spend as a welcome bonus, earns 2x on JAL flights and a (un)whopping 1x everywhere else. Like I said, yuck. But here’s the interesting part: it also awards 5 “Life Status” points per $1,500 in spend. Once you get to 1,500 Life Status points, you get Premier status, JAL’s second-highest elite tier…but you get it for life (I see what they did there), provided that you redeem 2,000 miles/year as a “membership fee.” Why would anyone on this side of the ocean want lifetime JAL Premier status? Because it also gives you oneworld Sapphire status (or possibly oneworld Emerald) and, since that status is from a foreign program, you would get lifetime access to AA and Alaska lounges, even when flying domestically (if you earn oneworld status through AA or Alaska, you don’t get access to domestic lounges when flying in the US). All this for the bargain price of only $450,000 in spend. For that $450K, you’d get 450,000 JAL miles and lifetime access to US domestic lounges, provided that you redeem (and earn) 2,000 miles/year, which for most people will mean keeping the card and spending $2k on it annually. All this will seem like a bonkers-level insane proposition for almost everyone reading this, but there’s undoubtedly folks out there that fly domestically a lot and for whom $450,000 in spend isn’t a deal-killer. What a crazy world.
Uber launches a shuttle between Manhattan and LaGuardia
My first trip to Europe was in my freshman year of college when my roommate and I decided to skip classes and go to London after seeing dirt-cheap tickets from New York City (if memory serves, ~$90 roundtrip). My brother-in-law worked for a tiny midwestern airline at the time, which meant that I could get standby tickets to NYC for free, with the small caveat being that the airline only flew into LaGuardia (LGA)…and my sub-rock bottom KLM flights left out of JFK. I had no idea how far the two were away from each other, as I had never been to New York before. On the return flight, I arrived into JFK late at night. I was tired and sick, but I wanted to spend some time in Manhattan before my early-morning flight from LGA to Milwaukee. What followed was a steamy, illness-fogged, four-hour midnight odyssey across the five boroughs; from Brooklyn to Manhattan to the Bronx and finally back to Queens and LGA. I got lost several times, spent about five minutes in Times Square, and ended the night feeling like crap and wondering how anyone navigated this urban hellscape of garbage bags and hard-to-find bus stops. If only there had been an easy shuttle to jump on and go directly to the airport from Manhattan. Well, Uber is now trying to change all of that. The rideshare giant is running shuttles between LaGuardia and the Port Authority, Penn Station and Grand Central Station. There are departures every 30 minutes and the one-way cost is fixed at $18/per person. Travel and Leisure has the details.
How to get better Delta SkyMiles deals
Delta SkyPenniesMiles are one of the most consistent airlines currencies out there…consistently mediocre that is. The airline has been on a years-long journey exploring strange new ways to limit the upside of SkyMiles in a quest to eventually make each mile worth a dependably average one cent each. That isn’t to say that there’s never deals to be had when you’re using SkyMiles, but they tend to be on economy fares during short flash sales – oftentimes unannounced. Thrifty Traveler has figured out one way to save a few thousand miles here and there by monitoring the cash prices. They’ve discovered that when cash prices drop, award prices usually follow around twelve hours later. By setting up cash price alerts on Google Flights, you can effectively get about a half a day’s notice on a given route before award prices drop. It’s a modest win, and those of us looking for affordable international business awards will still feel like we’re searching for the next tiny oasis in a vast desert, but it’s a good tool to have in the toolbox.
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I wonder what else Chase is going to do to sweeten the pot on a $700 premium business Sapphire card.
The $400 travel credit will be easier to use than AMEX Platinum’s coupon book but the coupon book is worth so much more ($400 Dell, $200 airline fees, $120 cell phone charges, plus the possibly useful CLEAR, Indeed, and Adobe credits). And then AMEX is giving you Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, and a much larger lounge network with Centurion lounges, Escape lounges, Plaza Premium lounges, and Priority Pass, plus Delta Sky Clubs. Sapphire lounges have a much smaller footprint than Centurion, and Escape and Plaza Premium have jumped in and out of the Priority Pass network where Chase may lose access again in the future. Chase has Air Canada lounges but that’s not going to have broad appeal for the US market – maybe a partnership with United is coming?
We cannot use SkyPesos?
If Tim chose to use a term other than YOUR term, it doesn’t imply anything. If any person chooses to use a term other than YOUR term, it doesn’t imply anything. Would you like Tim to be required to use YOUR term? Would you like everyone to be required to use YOUR term? And, only read books that YOU approve of. Sieg heil, baby!
Relax, it’s a frequent flier Internet forum.
So is VFTW. Based on how other discussion threads have unfolded, this comment seemed to be pointed in a particular direction. Pax vobis cum.
Idk when you went to college, but there was a NYC Airporter shuttle bus directly to both LGA and JFK from the Midtown Manhattan between 2010-2020 that sadly didn’t survive the pandemic. Uber is doing nothing new here.
Didnt know the Airporter went out of business. Uber only goes one way not roundtrip so far.
JAL has “regular” tier status for which a person qualifies annually. JAL calls this “service” tier status. It affords benefits we’re all used to seeing from a loyalty program, as well as One World tier status.
The JAL Global Club (JGC) is a separate loyalty track, with its own benefits, and it is in it that lifetime status resides. If a person earns a certain number of Life Status Points and achieves the Three-Star tier, a person would no longer need to hold the JAL credit card, But, 2000 points would be deducted from one’s Mileage Bank account each year to maintain the status — for those not living in Japan — different rule for those who are living in Japan.
It is when you earn the Three-Star tier that lifetime One World Sapphire attaches. But, there is NO path to lifetime One World Emerald. Even if one advances all the way to the Six-Star tier. Advancement only provides additional benefits within the JGC system. To attain One World Emerald, a person would need to earn “service” tier status annually.
Now comes the big “however” . . .
On revenue long-haul flights, a person earns 5 Life Status Points for every 1000 miles on every segment. To get to the Three-Star tier and obtain lifetime One World Sapphire, a person would only need to fly 300k miles on JAL. Compared to other One World loyalty Programs, that is a very low bar. For some, that might be the more attractive route (no pun intended).
The MTA has a shuttle to LGA you can take the the M60 to Q70 from manhattan to LGA for either free or $2.60
The M60 goes directly to the airport from upper Manhattan, no need to connect in Queens. The fare is $2.90 or, in the case of 95% of the people riding the bus these days in New York, $0.00.
The Q70 is a (now) free shuttle that connects the Roosevelt Avenue subway station (E,F, and 7 lines) to LGA.