Good morning everyone, happy New Year’s Eve Eve (emphasis on the extra Eve).  Yesterday, I wrote about my dismal prediction performance (I didn’t predict I would do so poorly – another wrong prediction of mine) in my post How Right (or Wrong) were my 2021 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions?  My new crystal ball just arrived from Amazon, so I am going to put it to the ultimate test and I’ll provide my 2022 airline, hotel, and credit card predictions.  I’m guaranteed to get between 0% and 100% correct, but only time will tell…

My 2022 Airline Predictions

• Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature.
• American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points airline transfer partner.
• Avianca will give Turkish Airlines a run for their money for domestic Star Alliance awards.
• British Airways will let you use Avios to pay the taxes, fees, and fuel surcharge portion of award tickets.
• Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, or United Airlines will introduce a “Miles and Cash” payment option for award tickets (pay 10,000 miles or pay 8,000 miles + $40).
• JetBlue will partner with another US airline for award bookings.
• United Airlines will be a transfer partner with Brex, Citi, or American Express.

My 2022 Hotel Predictions

• Best Western will be added as a Citi ThankYou Point transfer partner.
• Choice will allow you to book award stays online for Preferred Hotels & Resorts properties.
• Hilton free night certificates will be valid all days of the week going forward (not just weekends).
• Hyatt or IHG will allow you to use a cash copay or points copay to book rooms at higher category hotels than what free night certificates will allow.
• IHG Spire Elite Members will get free parking and waived resort/destination fees on stays.
• Marriott free night certificates will increase to 40K and 60K levels.
• Radisson Rewards will finally allow their free night certificates for spending $10K, $20K, and $30K to be valid at international properties.
• Wyndham will devalue the Vacasa Vacation Rental booking option by charging more points or adding a cash copay for cleaning (but I really hope this doesn’t happen).

My 2022 Credit Card Predictions

• American Express will raise the credit card limit from 5 to 6 credit cards.
• Bank of America will allow you to spend your way to another Alaska Airlines Companion Fare.
• Barclays will provide good upgrade offers to upgrade from the old Barclays Wyndham Visa Credit Card to the Barclays Wyndham Earner Credit Card.
• Bilt will be rewarding for members who do not pay rent and do not have the credit card – with a possible shopping portal or card linked offer network.
• Brex will come out with another bonus to reactivate all dormant Brex users.
• Capital One will offer good upgrade offers to upgrade from the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card to the new Capital One Venture X Credit Card.
• Chase will roll out the “Pay Yourself Back” feature on other credit cards, besides the Chase Air Canada Aeroplan Credit Card.
• Citi will bring back the 1.25 CPP value when booking travel through the Citi ThankYou Point travel portal.
• Discover or Wells Fargo will introduce a premium credit card that has an annual fee.
• Point Debit Card will introduce a no annual fee debit card.
• US Bank will allow moving / combining points and cash back across various credit card products.

If you have any of your own travel predictions for 2022, please share your prediction below.  If you have any questions or comments about my 2022 predictions, please let me know.  Have a great New Years Eve Eve everyone!