In this Frequent Miler Week in Review, we recount the week’s top headlines in miles, points, and savings here at FM. This week, you’ll find what you need to know about getting Marriott & SPG bonuses today (Saturday) versus tomorrow (Sunday), how far the rules will bend on the Amex side, how to save some bucks on parking, the trick to finding Delta saver space and more. Read on for this week’s recap.
The Amex 5 credit card limit may be in question, but 2 in 90 day limit holds
Greg recently accidentally applied for a couple of Amex cards that put him over the 5 credit card limit with Amex (remember that charge cards don’t count — only cards with a revolving limit). Since the rules appear to be out the window with Amex, Greg threw his hat in the ring for an SPG Lux card to see just how far Amex would bend. See this post for the details.
Saturday is last day for up to 425K Marriott/SPG points. What to do?
If you currently have Marriott/SPG/Ritz cards, a window of opportunity is coming to a close today in the chance to get various new cardmember welcome offers that will be more restricted starting Sunday. If you would like to have some more Marriott points on hand to be able to book the top-tier properties at good rates before the end of this year, you might have to make your move now. See this post for various charts to see whether or not you need to jump now or you have time.
With Plastiq 3X dead, what’s next?
It’s dead, Jim. With no more 3X earning via the Ink Business Preferred card, what are your next best options? Greg lays out which cards you should consider, which cards you shouldn’t be using, and which big bonuses are worth going after via Plastiq.
How Park Whiz Saved Us $100+ On Parking In Chicago
Growing up in the countryside has spoiled me with free parking — so much so that until Hyatt launched free parking as a Globalist benefit, I would hunt around for free parking on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and then take the subway wherever I wanted to go rather than pay for parking closer to wherever I needed to be. Sometimes, you have to bite the bullet and pony up the dough — but Stephen shows how a little hunting around can get you the same parking spot for less. In fact, when Stephen let me know about this, I looked up parking at a hotel I stayed at last weekend. Valet parking at my hotel would have been cheaper this way than paying the hotel directly. I ended up with even cheaper parking nearby — but this is definitely a trick worth looking into when you are heading into a city.
Marriott and SPG transfers to airline miles
While credit card earning on the SPG side has been devalued, the transfer ratio to airline miles has not devalued. If you still have a large stash of points or you’re earning well on paid stays, see this post and our updated guide to see your transfer options.
Marriott offers 30K points to those who were travel-package hosed (Updated with Marriott Q&A)
While the call center employees obviously don’t read the blogs (see the post for what I mean by that), apparently someone at Marriott does. They heard the collective cries over the way some people got robbed on Travel Packages and they’re making it right. Or they’re going to make it right. Tomorrow. Or next week. Or someday when the training catches up with the public announcements. Eventually, someday, at some time, you’ll probably be able to use your certificate earlier than planned and get 30K points back later than promised if you got the short end of the stick in the conversion. If that doesn’t make much sense, I agree. See the post for more.
Finding Delta awards in calendar view (Air France is not the answer)
Finding which Delta flights are bookable with partner miles is no easy task. Thankfully, Greg has some tips for how to find those elusive Delta saver seats. If you thought the Air France calendar view was the answer, not only are you wrong — but you won’t see the flights at all via that view these days. See this post for where and how to find what you’re looking for.
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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Will there be posts later on on how to combine points between two members’ accounts (not combining SPG and Marriott, but points from Member A to Member B, from husband to wife, etc.)?
I’m not even sure what the new Marriott rules on this are now.
Wasn’t sure the best place to ask this, but has anyone had points post to a combined Marriott/SPG account from an Amex SPG card in the past week, and in particular having the points post into a Marriott account that wasn’t the original SPG account? My Amex SPG statement that posted a week ago shows the points earned in Marriott currency, and identifies the SPG account number as the new SPG account number following the move to the Marriott platform. But I combined my SPG account into my existing Marriott account, so that my Marriott account is the main account. Basically, I’m worried that Amex is sending points to an account that got combined into another account, so my SPG account doesn’t really exist anymore. I can’t even log into my SPG account anymore because it says it’s been combined into another account. Those points better find their way into my Marriott account!
Same here