Author Archives: Grant

About Grant

Grant is an expert in frequent flyer miles, hotel loyalty points, credit card rewards, and cash back deals. He also has a pretty cool travel blog. Find him on Twitter @travelwithgrant.

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Cutting $2,000 in Credit Card Annual Fees: Our Simplified Wallet Strategy for 2025

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Good morning everyone!  For the past few years, I’ve shared a year-end recap of the total credit card annual fees I paid and whether the benefits were worth it. In my most recent post from December 2024 (I Paid $5,341 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2024 – Was it Worth it?), I calculated a net profit of $15,914, factoring in $5,341 in annual fees and $360 in retention offers.

I didn’t mind jumping through many hoops to maximize those card benefits last year, but with a baby girl arriving in early August, my wife and I recently decided it’s time to simplify our lives.  That means cutting back on complexity and costs by reducing the total annual fees we’ll pay in 2025. In this post, I’ll break down our credit cards into four categories: cards we have already closed, cards we plan to close later this year, cards we will downgrade, and cards with annual fees we will keep. Let’s get started..

Cards We Have Already Closed

Credit Card Name Annual Fee Notes
Laura’s AMEX Gold $325 Closed card in February
Barclays JetBlue Plus $99 Closed card in March
Bank of America Air France / KLM $89 Closed card in March

We didn’t receive any retention offers on these cards. While the AMEX Gold Card includes a variety of coupons / credits, it simply wasn’t worth the effort to maximize them this year. Continue reading →

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My 2025 Travel Predictions Midyear Review: Hits, Misses & Lots of Wild Guesses

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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).

Continue reading →

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Hey Citi! Make the New Strata Elite like the Old Chase Sapphire Reserve

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  I just finished listening to the latest Frequent Miler on the Air episode “Chase Sapphire Reserve card: More costly, coupony, and complicated” and had a wild idea…

Greg lamented that it used to be so easy to recommend the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card (CSR) to friends, family, and readers who travel a decent amount each year.  But with the upcoming increased annual fee and complex benefits, it is harder to recommend the CSR than it used to be.  With all the recent Chase and AMEX news about increasing annual fees and adding multiple coupons, there is going to be a void in the travel credit card space for a solid travel rewards credit card with a $400 – $500 annual fee.  This could be a great opportunity for Citi to fill the void with their new Citi Strata Elite Credit Card (CSE).

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Grant daydreaming about the new Citi Strata Elite Credit Card

Continue reading →

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Survey Says… US Bank Considering Travel Credit Card with Transferable Points to Airlines & Hotels

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  My friend just forwarded me an email from US Bank along with some screenshots of the survey.  My friend has a US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card (USB AR) which is no longer available for new applicants.  Some of the questions hint at a relaunch of the USB AR credit card or a brand new credit card entirely.  I highlighted the questions, but you may need to read between the lines to infer what US Bank is considering.

a close-up of a survey

Continue reading →

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Predicting Citi ThankYou Point Transfer Bonuses to Max Out Citi Rewards+ 10% Rebate

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Good afternoon everyone.  A few weeks ago, I received a shocking and unexpected email from Citi regarding my beloved Citi Rewards+ Credit Card.  On July 20, 2025, the Citi Rewards+ Credit Card will be converted to the new Citi Strata Credit Card.  With that change, this credit card is about to lose its two best features:

  • Rounding up to the nearest 10 points on every purchase
  • Receiving 10% points back for the first 100,000 Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs) redeemed per calendar year.

With those losses looming, I’ve been strategizing how to max out the 10% rebate before the July 20 deadline.  This quest sent me down a rabbit hole figuring out how many rebated points I already received in 2025 and trying to predict which TYP transfer bonuses might come around in the next two months.  Follow me down the rabbit hole…

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Continue reading →