Category Archives: Airlines + Miles

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RIP to my Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business Credit Card (Closed Due to Inactivity)

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Q4 and happy Bilt Rent Day to those who celebrate!  Unfortunately, I need to pause the celebrations for a quick moment of silence. My longtime companion, the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business Credit Card, was quietly closed yesterday.  I discovered the closure while downloading my latest Bank of America Atmos Rewards Ascend statement. To my surprise, my Alaska Airlines Business credit card was missing from my online account. When I called Bank of America, the rep confirmed that my credit card had been closed due to inactivity.

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Should I Keep or Cancel the Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card?

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well. Laura’s Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card statement just closed and the $99 annual fee posted. As of today, we are 99% sure she will close this card, but I wanted to get a second opinion from readers to make sure we’re not missing an obvious reason to keep the card open for another year. Since her statement just closed a few days ago, we have about 4 weeks to make the final decision.

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Oh Baby! Alaska Airlines / Atmos Rewards Gives New Parents Elite Status Extension for 1 Year

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is off to a great start! As if there weren’t already enough reasons to love Alaska Airlines and Atmos Rewards, here’s another perk worth knowing about: Status Protect for New Parents.  If you’re an elite member (Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Titanium) and you’re expecting a baby or taking parental leave, you can request to have your current status extended for an extra year. Even better, the extension runs through the end of the following calendar year. For example, if you apply now, your elite status will be extended all the way through December 31, 2026.

The process is really simple: just email elite.flyer@alaskaair.com with your full name, date of birth, Atmos Rewards number, and proof of pregnancy or parental leave (like a note from your doctor or employer).

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Triple Play: $500 BofA Checking Bonus, 105K Atmos Rewards Points & 50K AA Miles

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Good afternoon everyone.  First off, thank you for all the kind messages and encouragement you shared with me in my previous post about the birth of my daughter: Attention Passengers: Madison has Joined the Travel with Grant Family.  I’m glad to share the exciting news with TWG readers and I promised I would have some good blog posts in the works.  Here is the first one…

Back in December, I signed up for the waitlist for the new premium Alaska Airlines credit card (now called the Bank of America Atmos Rewards Summit Credit Card).  A few weeks ago, I received a targeted email to apply for the credit card and receive 5,000 bonus Atmos Rewards Points, bringing the total sign up bonus to 105,000 points, but I only had 2 weeks to apply for this offer.

Unfortunately, Bank of America has their “3/12 Rule” (Doctor of Credit post) where BofA will only approve you for a credit card if you have 3 or fewer inquiries from all issuers in the last 12 months.  But… if you have a BofA checking or savings account, the rule changes to the “7/12 Rule” where BofA will only approve you for a credit card if you have 7 or fewer inquiries from all issuers in the last 12 months.  I was slightly over the 3/12 cutoff, but as luck would have it, BofA is currently offering a new checking account bonus up to $500 (Doctor of Credit post), depending on your total direct deposits within the first 90 days.

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When Should You Add or Upgrade to a Premium Citi ThankYou Point Credit Card?

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  A few days ago, I read Frequent Miler’s post (Now transfer from most Citi cards to most ThankYou partners (even from Custom Cash)) and I started thinking about Citi ThankYou Point (TYP) transfers.  Among my 6 Citi TYP earning credit cards, I have always had a Citi Strata Premier Credit Card (and the OG Citi Premier) in order to transfer TYPs to airline and hotel partners.  Recently, Citi started allowing non-premium Citi TYP cards to transfer TYPs to travel partners, but the transfer ratio is ~70% of the premium Citi TYP cards.

For example, if you have a premium Citi TYP card (Strata Elite, Strata Premier, Prestige, or AT&T Access More), your transfer ratios are normally 1,000 TYPs = 1,000 airline miles (like this Avianca LifeMiles transfer).  Conversely, if you have one of the many non-premium Citi TYP cards (ThankYou Preferred, Strata, Double Cash, Custom Cash, ThankYou Mastercard, AT&T Universal Rewards World, AT&T Universal Savings and Rewards, AT&T Universal Rewards, AT&T Points Plus, or AT&T Access), your transfer ratios are normally 1,000 TYPs = 700 airline miles.

My question became… at what point should you add or upgrade a premium Citi TYP card to your Citi lineup?

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