Chase introduced some major COVID enhancements this week, but I’ve seen many readers dismiss the ability to redeem points at a value of 1.5c per point. Should only the cash-strapped among us redeem points for groceries, or is this worth a closer look for more people? Greg and I discuss that, his latest confession, and more on this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air. Watch above, listen below, or read on for this week at Frequent Miler.
FM on the Air Podcast
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This week at Frequent Miler:
The latest in COVID-19 credit card and loyaly coverage:
Wow: Chase responds with new COVID benefits on CSR and CSP
Chase clearly responded to Amex’s COVID enhancements and as we point out on the broadcast, they did exactly what we said Amex was missing in providing an easier way to redeem rewards in the current time. And the truth is, that’s worth heavy consideration. Now, that 120K round trip award ticket to Europe is literally costing you $1800 because those same points could have put $1800 in your pocket by statement-crediting the groceries you were already going to buy. Read about the enhancements in this post, but check out the discussion in this week’s chat.
Spending airline fee credits during COVID lockdowns
Let this post serve as a reminder not to focus on what you can’t do or can’t use but rather on how you can use up your airline fee credits by tracking what works.
How I spent my new Amex Platinum credits
Speaking of credits, in this post Greg outlines how he is using limited-time Amex credits. Greg is little late in terms of bribing my son, but he’s clearly making an advance play for the next Frequent Miler challenge. Don’t forget to put this month’s credits to use before June 1st.
Updated: Coronavirus / COVID-19 cancellation policies and status extensions: Cruises, Flights, Hotels, and more
With a greatly enhanced table of contents and updates this week, our COVID-19 cancellation policies and status extensions post now covers the key details for cancellations as well as status extensions and the reduced earning requirements for 2020.
The new true (temporary) value of Southwest points, diminished by COVID-19 and CARES
Southwest points are worth a little bit less today than they were pre-pandemic, and it’s not because we aren’t traveling. Rather, a move meant to bring relief has instead diminished the purchasing power of Southwest points. There is some relevant discussion in the comments, so don’t miss reading there as well.
Regarding Marriott:
Which Marriott Bonvoy card is best?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. None of the Marriott cards have any beauty when it comes to everyday spend, so it really comes down to how much you value the free night certificate and ancillary benefits. If I had to take one card, it would be the Ritz….but I’m glad I don’t have to pick just one.
Best Marriott Resorts in Florida
In a continuation of Greg’s timely series on the best domestic resort destinations, Greg specifically takes a look at Florida and crunches the numbers to show which Marriott resorts are worth your points, money, or certificates. With Florida having so many options and popular areas, this could be really helpful for planning one of those first domestic trips as things begin to open.
#StayCaytoFarAway
And the #StayCayToFarAway winner is…
Well Greg and I wouldn’t have predicted it, but you sure did: the StayCaytoFarAway Champion is Carrie. See her margin of victory and chime in to congratulate her here. I’ll say this: the third time is the charm. I’m coming back with a vengeance….
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Check back soon for our week in review around the web and this week’s last chance deals.
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Thanks for answering my question guys! Unfortunately I won’t be able to give a DP on this. I actually asked for a friend, who tried to upgrade their CSP to a CSR, but the phone rep told them that the system wouldn’t allow them to upgrade their CSP. My friend also had a freedom card, and the rep did allow them to upgrade that to a CSR, interestingly enough.
Fantastic recap on the entire 1.5 reserve redemption. Made me think a lot about the >1MM UR points sitting in my account. Due to also having excessively high balances in both Hyatt and United, coupled with having 2 Ink + cards and one Ink Cash card (making UR points fairly easily replenishable), I am seriously considering upgrading my Freedom to the Reserve solely for this opportunity. One point of contention on the details: the rep I just spoke with at Chase informed me that upgrading will reset that Anniversary Date thereby not having a year of prorated Annual fee to double dip the benefits. However, I’m a till considering doing it anyway.
I should point out however that she did inform me that Chase had suspended the increased annual fee for upgrades, and therefore would charge the $450 fee at the time of upgrade.
Very interesting.
In that case, I think it is hard to argue that you shouldn’t redeem at least some of those points.
Here’s the thing: When Emirates dropped fuel surcharges this week, I became very interested in a round trip first class redemption from New York to Athens at 135K per passenger. I even found some dates with multiple seats (on the 777 though, which is why I didn’t book it).
Then this comes around. Now I look at it and say that redeeming for this will cost me $2,025 per passenger in groceries that I’ll have to pay for (I’ll surely spend at least that much over the next 4 months). Is $2K a great price for RT Emirates first class to Athens? It obviously and absolutely is. But would I really pay $2,000 per passenger for 3 of us — six grand in cold hard cash — for us to take a trip to Athens? Heck no I wouldn’t. The first class experience is worth something to me, but I’m sure we could fly that in economy class for $450 each if I shop for a sale (maybe less). I wouldn’t spend six grand on it.
And yet this new redemption for groceries turns it into exactly that. It’s not funny money anymore — it’s money money. You could obviously make the same argument before by asking if I’d have paid $1,350 each (the value of cashing out the URs at $0.01 each). If I’d never flown Emirates first, I might. Since I’ve done it several times, I’m again not sure I’d put even that much into doing it times three passengers. But I honestly wouldn’t have spent nearly as much time thinking about it before this new 1.5cpp redemption.
At north of 1MM URs with all that 5x earning potential, I think you’d be crazy not to take a nice chunk of money and run.
Excellent logic Nick and totally agree. Glad to see some rational thought among the travel blog-sphere.
As someone sitting on about 800K Bonvoy, 300K UR, 275K MR, 225K SkyMiles and 100K TYP, it feels like a good time to take at least some travel currency off the table. With degraded airline/hotel service levels and all sorts of general travel restrictions with us for the foreseeable future, using 1.5 for UR grocery redemptions (cash basically) provides a solid ROI that I think folks would be wise to consider.