Good morning everyone, happy Sunday!  Not to be deterred by my abysmal 2024 results (How Right (& Wrong) were my 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions?), 2025 is a fresh year and the year all most some a few of my predictions will come true.  Without further ado, here are my predictions for 2025:

My 2025 Airline Predictions:

• Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature.
• Alaska Airlines will let you use the Companion Fare to book Hawaiian Airlines flights.
• American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points transfer partner.
• British Airways will lower their partner redemption prices for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
• Delta will increase the annual fee on their credit cards and increase the Delta SkyMiles discount to 20%-25%.
• JetBlue will allow you to redeem points on a new partner airline (besides Etihad Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways).
• Southwest Airlines will do a status match once they start selling seat assignments.
• United Airlines will bring back their “family pooling” feature.

My 2025 Hotel Predictions:

• Best Western or Sonesta will be added as a transfer partner from a transferable points currency.
• Caesars will reconsider matching Wyndham Rewards Diamond to Caesars Reward Diamond but require casino spending.
• Choice will increase the booking window from 50 weeks to 52 weeks.
• Hilton or IHG will allow free night certificates to be transferable online.
• Hyatt free night certificates will increase to category 1-5 and allow them to be topped off with points.
• Marriott free night certificates will increase from 35K to 40K, 50K to 60K, and 85K to 100K levels.
• Marriott will blow up their “credit card matrix” and allow members to have more Marriott cards.
• Vacasa will allow $500+ per bedroom per night bookings (but require more points).
• Wyndham Rewards will introduce a 45K / night award tier.

My 2025 Credit Card Predictions:

• American Express will raise the credit card limit to 6 or 7 credit cards.
• American Express will remove Hawaiian Airlines as a transfer partner without notice.
• Bank of America will introduce a 5x rotating category credit card to compete with the Discover It Credit Card and Chase Freedom Flex Credit Card.
• Bank of America’s premium Alaska Airlines credit card will have a 100K sign up bonus.
• Barclays will resurrect the Barclays Arrival Credit Card.
• Bilt will add a new airline and hotel transfer partner.
• Capital One will increase the annual fee on the Capital One Venture X Credit Card to $450 and charge for additional guests to visit the Capital One Lounges.
• Chase will roll out the “Pay Yourself Back” feature on either the Hyatt, IHG, or Marriott credit cards.
• Citi will bring back the 1.25 CPP value when booking travel through the Citi ThankYou Point travel portal.
• Discover will add a 6% cash back category.
• US Bank will change the US Bank Cash+ Credit Card into a 5x rotating cash back card.
• Wells Fargo will add 2 new transfer partners to their Autograph & Autograph Journey credit cards.

There you have it folks, those are my 2025 predictions.  Please share any of your own travel predictions in the comments section below.  Thanks for reading and here’s to a great 2025!