Retention Bonus Results for a Chase United, AMEX Delta, and Citi American Airlines Credit Card
Good morning, here are my results from my recent three card retention bonus challenge (read the intro here). If you want to listen to all three reconsideration calls (24 minutes long), please click the play button below. Download link (3-Card-Reconsideration-Calls.m4a).
Here are my results and plans going forward…
Card #1: Chase United MileagePlus Credit Card
- Asked for the $95 annual fee to be waived – no go
- Asked for a statement credit to cover the annual fee – no go
- Asked for 10,000 United miles to offset the annual fee (got this last year) – no go
- I was offered 2 complimentary United Club Passes (see my post How much are 2 United Club Passes Worth? $29.99) – I will sell these on Ebay when they come
- I will call back again after the United Club Passes arrive and see if I can get a better retention offer, otherwise I will close my card and move my credit line over to my other Chase personal credit cards
Card #2: American Express Delta Skymiles Credit Card
- Asked for the $95 annual fee to be waived – no go
- Asked for a statement credit to cover the annual fee – no go
- Agent told me that I have 60 days from the date the annual fee posts (mid June) to call AMEX, cancel my credit card and receive a refund on the annual fee
- Told the agent I will hold on to the card a few more weeks
- Plan on calling back after my trip to Salt Lake City on Memorial Day Weekend and trying again. If still no deal, I will cancel and request that they move the credit line over to my other American Express personal credit cards.
Card #3: Citi American Airlines Platinum Credit Card
- Asked for the $95 annual fee to be waived (told them I just paid $450 annual fee for Citi AA Executive Card) – no go
- Asked for a statement credit to cover the annual fee – no go
- Offer #1 was for a $25 statement credit to keep the credit card – declined offer
- Offer #2 was for 3,000 bonus AA miles after spending $500 in 3 months – accepted offer (3,000 AA miles are worth $45-$60 to me, plus I still get the 10% rebate on redeemed AA miles)
- Offer #3 was for a balance transfer deal – not interested
- Offer #4 was for a low APR – not interested
To read my retention call tips, please read Planning for Retention Bonuses for a Chase Ink Bold MasterCard and an SPG American Express Credit Card.
If you have any questions about retention calls, please leave a comment below.
Hate to pull an early morning joke on you but here it goes, remember watching the old cartoon with bugs bunny when he did something dum and a picture of a spherical candle with a stick appears. . well you kinda get what I mean, haha. because UA card will send you the two passes anyway when its time for the annual fee is due and you have the end of that statement to call in to either cancel or ask for retention. but for them to offer you two passes is kind of a joke because you will get it anyway. I got my passes and knew they wont offer any bonuses so I just canceled.
Those 2 free United Club Passes are in addition to the normal 2 free United Club Passes. So I should get 4 passes total. That is what happened last year.
Was going to say the same thing. I timed it right canceling my previous legacy Continental Mastercards right after I got the renewal passes. Then got new passes when I signed up for the United Visa, and got four more.
Grant – why not offer the passes for a contest? Or… to the first guy making such a suggestion. I have a Hawaii trip coming up with four hour layover in LAX with my wife and two kids… :-)
Haha maybe. Stay tuned RJP.
So, do you agree that Staples will not be honoring the portal rebates?
My Discover It statement closed yesterday and I earned 5% cash back on my recent Staples.com gift card purchase. I can’t comment on other shopping portals.
5/1 or past?
My first purchase was made 3/28 (cash back received), second purchase was made 4/28 (received Staples/Discover email) and my third purchase was made this morning 5/8 (no cash back email received yet).
I made a bunch of card purchases via Upromise. 1 card on 4/29, and then a bunch on 5/1 and after. Staples has confirmed shipment of all of these cards. I got my one card from 4/29, activated it via phone, and cashed it in on my utility bill via Evolve money.
My Upromise statement as of today shows $10+ for the one card. It showed that 5 days ago. I’m new to the cash back portals other than airlines. I don’t know if it’s not showing the cash back from the other purchases due to the fact that Upromise reconciles at the end of each month, it just hasn’t posted, or Staples pulled out. I’m about 90% sure it’s the latter.
If that’s true, then it’s kind of amazing that Upromise didn’t update the terms for one of their most important partners. And if Staples was late in telling them, then Upromise should be able to have all purchases honored until they post otherwise.
My guess is that if you email Upromise and complain about the cash back not posting, they will issue a courtesy credit. We will see though…
Hi Grant!
Thank you so much for useful information:)
My American express premier gold is due for the membership fee. I called and talk to the representative but, they didn’t want to wave the $175 membership fee.I have over 60,000points.
I have a Costco and a Delta business gold from the American Express. I don’t want to transfer my point to Delta to keep flexibility of the Amex points…….. I already had a business gold and the SPG cad doesn’t offer good sign up bonus…..What should I do???? I am not planning to travel soon…..:(
Simple answer: apply for an AMEX Every Day credit card and you can keep your Membership Reward Points until you transfer out to an airline. You might be able to convert/downgrade to that card too. Call AMEX and see if that is possible.
Let me know if you have better luck with the Delta Skymiles card; mine is up for renewal this month.
It’s unlikely unless you use your Delta credit card frequently. I’ll keep you posted if anything changes.
This past year, how much spending did you do on those 3 cards?
United > $100, Delta ~ $150, and AA ~ $50
Is that in thousands, or did you only spend $150 on your Delta card?
Well I bought some WestJet tickets through the delta website (mistake: they charged me forex on the purchase) plus 2 tickets to SLC. So I probably spent ~$600. No love for the Delta card.
Hey Grant,
What do you put your everyday spending on? Especially the ones that are not in any bonus categories, which card would you use?
What’s your favorite rewards program?
Thanks
In my wallet, I carry my Alaska Airlines biz card (use that for MS) and then I use Chase Freedom for everything else. I eat out a ton and this card earns 5x this quarter on restaurants. My other top cards are my Chase Ink Bold Visa and my AMEX Blue Cash Preferred. My other favorite MS card is my US Bank Club Carlson. It earns 5x on everything.
Thanks for this timely post. I have 3 annual fees due this month: Citi AA Gold- $50, 1FBUSA (my first cc I got 11 years ago, now with a $20K limit and long history, so never wanted to let it go)- $55, and AMEX PRG Business- $175. 1FBUSA told me they’d waive the fee every year I called and asked; wish I started that 10 years ago! Citi said they’d convert me to a no annual fee Citi dividend card, and AMEX said they’d upgrade me to the AMEX Bus. Plat. card, and give me 30K MR points. What do you think about the Citi and AMEX offers? I have the Citi AA Exec card, so I don’t need the Gold, and I don’t really need the AMEX Bus. Plat., but my wife and I were going to pay for Global Entry, so that’s $100 right there, plus the $400 in airline credits over the next year, 30K MR, priority pass, etc….seems like something worth having, at least until the $450 annual fee comes due again next year.
The only reason to keep the Citi AA gold card is if it offers the 10% rebate on redeemed miles, capped at 10,000 AA miles per year. I would call and see if you can get the $500 spend challenge for bonus AA miles. I have the Citi Dividend card and it is Citi’s version of the Chase Freedom with different rotating cash back offers (http://travelwithgrant.com/credit-cards/chase-freedom-vs-discover-it-vs-citi-dividend-5-cash-back-credit-card-comparison/). You should look at applying for the AMEX Mercedes Benz Platinum credit card, because you get those perks and a higher sign up bonus than upgrading your existing card (http://travelwithgrant.com/2013/11/27/how-to-justify-rationalize-explain-a-475-annual-fee/). Hope that helps answer your questions.
Thanks for the advice! I called Citi back a few days after my initial call and spoke with a different representative. He offered a $50 statement credit (the full annual fee amount for my Citi AA Gold), plus a bonus miles opportunity: for the next 16 billing cycles, I will get 750 bonus miles by spending $750+ dollars per billing cycle, so basically 2 AA miles per dollar! Thanks Grant!
Score! Nice job!
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