Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. As we approach the midpoint of the year, I thought it would be a good time to check in on My Overly Ambitious 2025 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions.  Correct predictions are in green, incorrect predictions are in red, and half correct predictions are in orange.  Without further ado, here is my midyear review for my 2025 predictions:

Airline Predictions:

• Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature.
  • No, these “convert travel funds to airline miles” have not returned yet in 2025.
• Alaska Airlines will let you use the Companion Fare to book Hawaiian Airlines flights.
  • No, but I am still optimistic that we will see this happen before the end of the year.
• American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points transfer partner.
  • No, not yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this happen in the next few months.
• British Airways will lower their partner redemption prices for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
  • No, the redemption prices have not changed for American Airlines or Alaska Airlines.
• Delta will increase the annual fee on their credit cards and increase the Delta SkyMiles discount to 20%-25%.
  • No, but the rumored super-duper-ultra-premium AMEX Delta credit card could have this benefit (link).
• JetBlue will allow you to redeem points on a new partner airline (besides Etihad Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways).
  • Yes! With the United Airlines and JetBlue “Blue Sky” partnership, you can redeem JetBlue points on United Airlines and vice versa (link).
• United Airlines will bring back their “family pooling” feature.
  • Yes! You can pool United Airlines miles, but they can only be used for United and United Express flights, not Star Alliance partners (link).

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Hotel Predictions:

• Best Western or Sonesta will be added as a transfer partner from a transferable points currency.
  • No, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bilt Rewards add one or both hotels as transfer partners this year.
• Caesars will reconsider matching Wyndham Rewards Diamond to Caesars Reward Diamond but require casino spending.
  • No, Caesars has not backtracked on their decision :(
• Choice will increase the booking window from 50 weeks to 52 weeks.
  • No, the booking window is still 50 weeks.
• Hilton or IHG will allow free night certificates to be transferable online.
  • No, neither FNCs can be transferred online.
• Hyatt free night certificates will increase to category 1-5 and allow them to be topped off with points.
  • No, the Hyatt FNCs are still capped at category 1-4 and cannot be topped off with points.
• Marriott free night certificates will increase from 35K to 40K, 50K to 60K, and 85K to 100K levels.
  • No, the Marriott FNCs have not increased the baseline points value.
• Marriott will blow up their “credit card matrix” and allow members to have more Marriott cards.
  • No, but Chase may make it possible to get a Marriott CC without a sign up bonus (link).
• Vacasa will allow $500+ per bedroom per night bookings (but require more points).
  • No, the cap is still $500 / bedroom / night.
• Wyndham Rewards will introduce a 45K / night award tier.
  • No, Wyndham Rewards has not introduced a 45K / night award tier.

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Credit Card Predictions:

• American Express will raise the credit card limit to 6 or 7 credit cards.
  • No, AMEX has not increased the number of credit cards you can have up to 7 cards.
• American Express will remove Hawaiian Airlines as a transfer partner without notice.
  • No, the stated end date for AMEX to Hawaiian Airlines transfers is June 30 (link).
• 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.
  • No, Bank of America has not introduced a 5x rotating category credit card.
• Bank of America’s premium Alaska Airlines credit card will have a 100K sign up bonus.
  • No, but we might see this 100K offer come out in the next few months.
• Barclays will resurrect the Barclays Arrival Credit Card.
  • No, the Barclays Arrival Credit Card has not be resurrected, but with the Chase and AMEX news, Barclays might decide to bring this credit card back.
• Bilt will add a new airline and hotel transfer partner.
  • Yes / No, Bilt Rewards added Southwest Airlines in April, Japan Airlines in May, and Qatar Airways in May (link).  The last hotel partner added was Accor Live Limitless in October 2024.
• 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.
  • Yes / No, the $395 annual fee hasn’t changed, but starting on February 1, 2026, it will now cost $35 per person to bring in guests to the Capital One Lounges (link).
• Chase will roll out the “Pay Yourself Back” feature on either the Hyatt, IHG, or Marriott credit cards.
  • Yes! Chase added “Pay Yourself Back” to the no annual fee Marriott Bold: 0.8 cents per point (CPP) for airline and Marriott hotel purchases (link). I was not expecting this Marriott CC to get the PYB benefit.
• Citi will bring back the 1.25 CPP value when booking travel through the Citi ThankYou Point travel portal.
  • No, Citi ThankYou Point redemptions through the travel portal only get 1 CPP.
• Discover will add a 6% cash back category.
  • No, Discover has not added any 6% cash back categories.
• US Bank will change the US Bank Cash+ Credit Card into a 5x rotating cash back card.
  • No, there have not been any changes to the US Bank Cash+ Credit Card.
• Wells Fargo will add 2 new transfer partners to their Autograph & Autograph Journey credit cards.
  • No, Wells Fargo has been slacking and hasn’t added any new transfer partners since 2024.

There you have it folks, I was correct a total of 4 times in 2025 (which is higher than I predicted!).  If I messed up any of the midyear review updates, please let me know in the comments section below.  Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!