Tag Archives: Travel

a blue and white credit card

Goodbye Citi Rewards+, Hello Citi Custom Cash #4

Posted on by . 8 Replies

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Back on May 23, 2025, I received the following email from Citi regarding my Citi Rewards+ Credit Card.  Affective July 20, 2025, the Citi Rewards+ Credit Card would become the new Citi Strata Credit Card.  Citi made it sound like this was an upgrade, but this was definitely a downgrade for me.  Here were the announced changes:

  • 5X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through Citi Travel®.
  • 3X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at Supermarkets.
  • 3X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on Select Transit and at Gas & EV Charging Stations.
  • 3X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent in an eligible Self-Select Category of your choice (Fitness Clubs, Select Streaming Services, Live Entertainment, Cosmetic Stores/Barber Shops/Hair Salons or Pet Supply Stores). Please see your Citi Strata Card Terms and Conditions below for full details.
  • 2X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at Restaurants.
  • 1X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on All Other Purchases.
  • Your ThankYou Points will no longer be rounded up to the nearest 10 points.
  • When you redeem your ThankYou Points, you will no longer receive 10% points back for the first 100,000 ThankYou Points redeemed per calendar year.

Unfortunately, the last 2 changes were the 2 best features of the Citi Rewards+.

a screenshot of a credit card

Continue reading →

a close up of a logo

Check Barclays Account for 2,500 Hawaiian Airlines Miles Offer (Targeted)

Posted on by . Leave a reply

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  If you have a Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card, you might want to log into your Barclays account to see if you are targeted for a great offer: earn 2,500 bonus Hawaiian Airlines Miles after you make 5 purchases of $50 or more.  The offer ends July 31, 2025, and you must enroll in the offer by July 31, 2025.   This is a great offer since you can move the Hawaiian Airlines miles over to your Alaska Airlines account (How to Transfer, Combine, or Move Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines Miles (with Direct Links)).

Laura was targeted for this offer – she opened this credit card in August 2024 and has not put any spend on the credit card since getting the sign up bonus in October 2025.  Unfortunately, I was not targeted for this offer – I opened my credit card in March 2025 and haven’t put any spend on the credit card since getting the sign up bonus in April 2025.  Therefore, this offer may be targeted to members who have not used their credit card in the last several months.

Here is how you can see if you are targeted for this offer.  These screenshots are from the Barclays app, but the process should be similar if you are starting from your Barclays online account.  Sign into your Barclays app / account, then click on the Offers icon, then select your Hawaiian Airlines account.

Continue reading →

a woman with blonde hair and a green shirt

Cutting $2,000 in Credit Card Annual Fees: Our Simplified Wallet Strategy for 2025

Posted on by . 8 Replies

Good morning everyone!  For the past few years, I’ve shared a year-end recap of the total credit card annual fees I paid and whether the benefits were worth it. In my most recent post from December 2024 (I Paid $5,341 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2024 – Was it Worth it?), I calculated a net profit of $15,914, factoring in $5,341 in annual fees and $360 in retention offers.

I didn’t mind jumping through many hoops to maximize those card benefits last year, but with a baby girl arriving in early August, my wife and I recently decided it’s time to simplify our lives.  That means cutting back on complexity and costs by reducing the total annual fees we’ll pay in 2025. In this post, I’ll break down our credit cards into four categories: cards we have already closed, cards we plan to close later this year, cards we will downgrade, and cards with annual fees we will keep. Let’s get started..

Cards We Have Already Closed

Credit Card Name Annual Fee Notes
Laura’s AMEX Gold $325 Closed card in February
Barclays JetBlue Plus $99 Closed card in March
Bank of America Air France / KLM $89 Closed card in March

We didn’t receive any retention offers on these cards. While the AMEX Gold Card includes a variety of coupons / credits, it simply wasn’t worth the effort to maximize them this year. Continue reading →

a close-up of a sign

My 2025 Travel Predictions Midyear Review: Hits, Misses & Lots of Wild Guesses

Posted on by . Leave a reply

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. As we approach the midpoint of the year, I thought it would be a good time to check in on My Overly Ambitious 2025 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions.  Correct predictions are in green, incorrect predictions are in red, and half correct predictions are in orange.  Without further ado, here is my midyear review for my 2025 predictions:

Airline Predictions:

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature.
    • No, these “convert travel funds to airline miles” have not returned yet in 2025.
  • Alaska Airlines will let you use the Companion Fare to book Hawaiian Airlines flights.
    • No, but I am still optimistic that we will see this happen before the end of the year.
  • American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points transfer partner.
    • No, not yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this happen in the next few months.
  • British Airways will lower their partner redemption prices for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
    • No, the redemption prices have not changed for American Airlines or Alaska Airlines.
  • Delta will increase the annual fee on their credit cards and increase the Delta SkyMiles discount to 20%-25%.
    • No, but the rumored super-duper-ultra-premium AMEX Delta credit card could have this benefit (link).
  • JetBlue will allow you to redeem points on a new partner airline (besides Etihad Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways).
    • Yes! With the United Airlines and JetBlue “Blue Sky” partnership, you can redeem JetBlue points on United Airlines and vice versa (link).
  • United Airlines will bring back their “family pooling” feature.
    • Yes! You can pool United Airlines miles, but they can only be used for United and United Express flights, not Star Alliance partners (link).

Continue reading →

a blue and red logo

Hey Citi! Make the New Strata Elite like the Old Chase Sapphire Reserve

Posted on by . 16 Replies

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  I just finished listening to the latest Frequent Miler on the Air episode “Chase Sapphire Reserve card: More costly, coupony, and complicated” and had a wild idea…

Greg lamented that it used to be so easy to recommend the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card (CSR) to friends, family, and readers who travel a decent amount each year.  But with the upcoming increased annual fee and complex benefits, it is harder to recommend the CSR than it used to be.  With all the recent Chase and AMEX news about increasing annual fees and adding multiple coupons, there is going to be a void in the travel credit card space for a solid travel rewards credit card with a $400 – $500 annual fee.  This could be a great opportunity for Citi to fill the void with their new Citi Strata Elite Credit Card (CSE).

a cartoon of a boy thinking

Grant daydreaming about the new Citi Strata Elite Credit Card

Continue reading →