Good afternoon everyone, happy New Year’s Eve!  Since today is the last day of the year, I wanted to review My Wild and Crazy 2022 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions.  6 months ago, I wrote My 2022 Midyear Review of Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions where I shared my 4 out of 26 correct predictions.  Hopefully I was able to pick up a few more correct predictions in the second half of the year.  Without further ado, here are my predictions and the results…

My 2022 Airline Predictions (2 / 7)

• Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature. – I still cannot believe this feature exists but Alaska and Southwest are not using it.  Maybe we will see this feature again in 2023.
• American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points airline transfer partner. – I still cannot believe that Citi can’t get American Airlines to come back to the ThankYou Points portal, not even for a short trial period.  I’m hopeful this will happen in 2023.
• Avianca will give Turkish Airlines a run for their money for domestic Star Alliance awards. – No, I don’t think this happened in 2022.
• British Airways will let you use Avios to pay the taxes, fees, and fuel surcharge portion of award tickets. – Yes, you can pay a large portion of taxes / fees / fuel surcharges with British Airways Avios (link).
• 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). – No, I don’t think these airlines introduced this feature in 2022.
• JetBlue will partner with another US airline for award bookings. – Yes, you can book JetBlue flights using American Airlines miles (link).
• United Airlines will be a transfer partner with Brex, Citi, or American Express. – Wrong! I should have guessed united Airlines would partner with Bilt Rewards.

My 2022 Hotel Predictions (2 / 8)

• Best Western will be added as a Citi ThankYou Point transfer partner. – Nope, only Choice and Wyndham are the only hotel transfer partners for Citi ThankYou Points.
• Choice will allow you to book award stays online for Preferred Hotels & Resorts properties. – Nope, still only bookable over the phone (link).
• Hilton free night certificates will be valid all days of the week going forward (not just weekends). – Yes, you can use Hilton Free Night Certificates any night of the week (link).
• 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. – Yes, IHG will allow you to top up an award to book a higher category hotel (link).
• IHG Spire Elite Members will get free parking and waived resort/destination fees on stays. – No, IHG Spire has been renamed IHG One Rewards Diamond, but no free parking or waived resort fees.
• Marriott free night certificates will increase to 40K and 60K levels. – No, but the Marriott Free Night Certificate on the Ritz Carlton Credit Card went up from 50K to 85K.
• Radisson Rewards will finally allow their free night certificates for spending $10K, $20K, and $30K to be valid at international properties. – Nope and I  didn’t see the Radisson Hotels Americas being sold to Choice Hotels in my crystal ball.
• 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). – No, but I’m thankful to be wrong here since I love my Vacasa Vacation Rentals (link).

My 2022 Credit Card Predictions (1 / 11)

• American Express will raise the credit card limit from 5 to 6 credit cards. – Yes, some people have 6 American Express credit cards (link).
• Bank of America will allow you to spend your way to another Alaska Airlines Companion Fare. – No, but apparently Bank of America is considering making you spend $6,000 on the card every year to get the Alaska Airlines Companion Fare (link).
• Barclays will provide good upgrade offers to upgrade from the old Barclays Wyndham Visa Credit Card to the Barclays Wyndham Earner Credit Card. – No, but I am still waiting for a decent upgrade offer.  Maybe 2023 will be the year.
• 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. – No, nothing yet, but maybe we will see it in 2023.
• Brex will come out with another bonus to reactivate all dormant Brex users. – Nope, Brex actually closed a lot of accounts for small businesses without VC funding.
• 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. – No, not that I have seen.  Maybe we will see that in 2023.
• Chase will roll out the “Pay Yourself Back” feature on other credit cards, besides the Chase Air Canada Aeroplan Credit Card. – Nope, nothing yet on other Chase credit cards, but I would love to see it happen in 2023.
• Citi will bring back the 1.25 CPP value when booking travel through the Citi ThankYou Point travel portal. – Nope, Citi ThankYou Points are only worth 1 CPP for travel.
• Discover or Wells Fargo will introduce a premium credit card that has an annual fee. – Nope, neither Discover nor Wells Fargo have a credit card with an annual fee.
• Point Debit Card will introduce a no annual fee debit card. – Nope, Point Debit Card actually shut down in 2022.
• US Bank will allow moving / combining points and cash back across various credit card products. – No, but if you product change a US Bank credit card from a points earning credit card, you will have your points converted to cash back (link).

I improved marginally to 5 out of 26 correct predictions.  If I missed anything, please let me know and I will update the post.  If you have any questions about my predictions or where to buy your own crystal ball, please leave a comment below.  Have a great New Year’s Eve everyone!