Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Yesterday I told you about the soon to be gone Fairmont 2 free night offer. At the moment there are still a couple of live links to that offer, but they won’t last long.
Now we have a new fire drill. The standard offer for the Ritz Carlton card has dropped from 3 free nights after $5,000 spend to 2 free nights after $4,000 spend. Fortunately, links to the previous 3 night offer are still alive… for now. The offer on my Best Offers Page is still at 3 nights, but I’ll insert it here for convenience, along with any new links we dig up:
Just like the Fairmont card, the Ritz card is NOT subject to Chase’s 5/24 rule.
Personally, I am not planning to rush to sign up for this card, but some readers may want to. Unlike the Fairmont card, this is a premium card with a premium first year fee and premium features:
- Signup offer includes 10,000 points for adding authorized user (this is true of the new 2 night offer as well)
- $450 annual fee not waived the first year
- $300 in annual airline fee reimbursements. Unlike the Sapphire Reserve, this is only meant for airline fees and it is not automatic: you have to request each reimbursement.
- Free nights limited to Ritz categories 1-4
- Earns 2X airline, car rental, & restaurants. 5X Ritz & Marriott; 1X elsewhere.
- 10% annual points bonus.
- Ritz points are identical to Marriott points. In fact, you can sign up for this card with your Marriott Rewards number and you’ll earn Marriott points.
- Elite Status: Automatic Gold status first year. $10K spend per account year to keep Gold elite status; $75K spend per account year for Platinum elite status.
- 3 club level upgrades for rooms booked with standard rate.
- $100 hotel credit for each 2 night or longer stay.
- Priority Pass Select airport lounge access.
- Free authorized users (who also get Priority Pass)
- Global Entry fee reimbursement
- Visa Infinite $100 companion discount for round trip domestic flights
Overall, this card has a lot going for it, so it definitely makes sense for some. Personally, I already get many of its premium features from other cards, so it is not as appealing to me as it may be to others. Plus, the 3 free nights are only valid for one year. So unless you have a concrete plan for how best to use them you might not get as much value from those free nights as you had hoped. In my case, since we already have to figure out how to use our Fairmont free nights, I don’t need or want the headache of planning for Ritz free nights too!
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
@Angie: I applied yesterday with the current link and the request by Nov 2016 language , and it was approved for the free three nights offer! Go for it while you can!
Darlene, thanks for confirming!
Does it matter if the application says Nov 2016? Thanks.
Link now dead. Do you have another active one?
Yes, fixed. Please refresh the page and you’ll see Link 2: https://frequentmiler.com/go/ritz/
[…] Meanwhile the 3 Free Night offer for the Ritz Carlton credit card is hanging by a thread. Most public links show the new 2 Free Night offer instead. If you want to get in on the 3 night offer, do it immediately. You’ll find a (hopefully) working link and more info here: Ritz offer dropping from 3 to 2 free nights. […]
Tried using the $100 offer on two r/t tickets on both Hawaiian Air and Island Air for inter-island tickets. Both times they priced much higher than the airline’s own website and therefore were worthless.
The “free” nights are only available for Tier 1-4 properties. That greatly limits their value.
The hidden value in this card is getting $100 rebate on 2 purchased r/t coach tickets. That means it’s possible to get really cheap economy flights if traveling in a pair. https://www.visadiscountair.com/ritzcarltoncard/default.aspx
What’s the recommended schedule for applying for both?
Applied and got pending, is the advice to not call and wait it out or call? I never know what to do with Chase.
The advice I have read on this site is NOT to call, just let Chase go through its processes.
I’m in the same boat. I have my travel already planned and booked through the fall, and I will have credit card anniversary nights for Fairmont, Club Carlson, Hyatt, and Marriott as well . And I’m already planning to do a Marriott 7-night package to renew my Companion Pass, and I don’t have a concrete plan yet for where to spend that. So, where does that leave me room to spend the Ritz free nights? I don’t have time.
Marriott 7 night package won’t renew companion pass for southwest anymore this year. They eliminated hotel transfers from counting toward companion pass in 2017.
This is effective 4/1.
This is a card that was on our “long term” list, as it’s fairly easy to justify the fees for 6 free Ritz nights (between two sign ups). However, I doubt we will sign up for the reduced offer, as the math isn’t nearly as favorable and, it sounds like, the travel credits are hard to get. We just don’t fly enough, overall, to “legitimately” use these credits.