Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  A year ago, I wrote My Rock Solid 2021 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions.  It is now time to review my 2021 predictions and see how right (or wrong) I was.  My original predictions are in black, I will comment in green if my prediction was right, and comment in red if my prediction was wrong.  Let’s see how I did…

My 2021 Airline Predictions (1 for 3)

• Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will make their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature a permanent feature on their site.  Wrong – sadly this was a temporary feature that each airline introduced in 2020 but they did not make this a permanent feature in 2021.
• American Airlines will finally become a Citi ThankYou Points airline transfer partner.  Right – but only for a few months.  I hope American Airlines comes back as a Citi ThankYou Point airline transfer partner in 2022.
• Delta Airlines or United Airlines will introduce a “Cash and Miles” payment option for award tickets (pay 10,000 miles or pay 8,000 miles + $40).  Wrong – neither Delta nor United introduced a “Cash and Miles” payment option.

My 2021 Hotel Predictions (0 for 4)

• Marriott will waive resort fees for Platinum and Titanium Elite Members.  Wrong – you still need to pay resort fees as Marriott Bonvoy Platinum or Titanium Elite Members, but I did find this Change.org petition regarding this exact issue.  Please sign if you want Marriott to drop resort fees for Platinum or Titanium Elite Members.
• Marriott Free Night Certificates will bump up to 40K and 60K tiers (and hotel categories will rise too).  Wrong – but you will soon be able to use up to 15K Marriott Bonvoy points along with free night certificates to book rooms at higher category hotels.
• IHG or Hyatt will allow cash copayments when using Free Night Certificates at hotels that are in higher categories (IHG hotel that costs 50K will require a free night certificate + $75; Hyatt hotel that costs 20K will require a free night certificate + $100).  Wrong – neither IHG nor Hyatt introduced a free night certificate and cash copayment option for booking rooms at higher category hotels.
• Radisson Rewards will finally allow their Free Night Certificates for spending $10K, $20K, and $30K to be valid at international properties.  Wrong – nope, these free night certificates can only be used at properties in the United States.

My 2021 Credit Card Predictions (1 for 6)

• The Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card will add a 4x and 5x category (or raise travel and dining to those levels) to compete with the American Express Gold Card.  Right – you can earn 5x on flights, but you need to book through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal.  All other travel and dining purchases still earn 3x.
• American Express will introduce a “Pay Yourself Back” feature to compete with Chase’s Pay Yourself Back feature.  Wrong – American Express even lowered the redemption rate on the Charles Schwab American Express Platinum Card from 1.25 CPP to 1.1 CPP.
• The Citi Premier Credit Card will keep travel redemptions at 1.25 CPP (instead of changing to 1 CPP as scheduled in April 2021).  Wrong – Citi didn’t listen to me and lowered travel redemptions (and most Citi ThankYou Point redemptions) to 1.0 CPP.
• Bank of America will lose the Alaska Airlines Credit Card when Alaska Airlines becomes part of the One World airline alliance.  Wrong – Bank of America still issues the Alaska Airlines credit card.
• American Express will raise the 4 credit card limit to 6 credit cards.  Wrong – American Express only raised the limit to 5 credit cards, not 6 credit cards.
• A new high end credit card that offers top tier hotel elite status will appear (maybe Chase Hyatt Globalist Credit Card or an American Express Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Credit Card).  Wrong – there is no Hyatt Globalist card or Marriott Bonvoy Titanium card, but maybe 2022 will be the year.

I only got 2 out of 13 predictions right, but there were also a few predictions that were almost right.  I just ordered a new crystal ball from Amazon, so I’m hoping my 2022 predictions will be better.  If you have any questions or comments about my 2021 predictions, please let me know.  Have a great day everyone!