Category Archives: Credit Cards

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Hyatt Free Night Certificate Posted 2 Months After Annual Fee Posted (YMMV?)

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Good afternoon everyone.  I’m not sure if this was a fluke, but my most recent Hyatt free night certificate posted 2 weeks before the annual fee posted, but my wife’s Hyatt free night certificate posted 2 months after the annual fee posted.  In this post, I will share the details about both of our situations and show the new terms of the Hyatt free night certificate.

I used to have the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card that had a $75 annual fee, but on January 11, 2021, Chase converted all cardholders from the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card to the new Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card which has a $95 annual fee.  I decided to close my old card before the conversion took place so that I could apply for the new card down the road.  Long story short, the old card annual fee posted on December 1, 2020, but the free night certificate posted to my Hyatt account 2 weeks prior.

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Attend FTU Virtual Seminar on Saturday April 10 ($25) or Free with FTU Online Annual Membership

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  If you have no plans this coming Saturday (April 10), I highly recommend attending the FTU Virtual Seminar (tickets available for $25).  The seminar starts on Saturday at 11am ET / 8am PT.  I really enjoyed attending the first FTU Virtual Seminar back on December 12 and I’m sure this seminar will be just as entertaining and educational.  If you have the FTU Online Annual Membership, you can attend the seminar for free.

If you registered for the seminar on Saturday, but are unable to watch the live stream, you can access the recording of the seminar and watch later on.  This is also a great way to re-watch your favorite presentations and catch any details that you originally missed.

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I Texted Alaska Airlines to Cancel My Reservation and it was Easy

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Long story short, I booked an Alaska Airlines flight using my Citi ThankYou Points (1.25 cents per TYP value until April 10).  A few weeks later, I decided to cancel the flight.  Since I didn’t book the flight directly with Alaska Airlines, I wasn’t able to cancel the flight online.  When I called Alaska Airlines, the recording said that I could text Alaska Airlines instead.  Alaska Airlines then sent me a text (820-08) and I responded directly to the text.  The agent was very helpful and was able to cancel my flight and apply the travel funds to my Alaska Airlines wallet.  The whole process took less than 10 minutes and couldn’t have been easier.  If you’ve never texted Alaska Airlines before, I recommend saving the text number (820-08) to your phone.

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On My Mind: Using Chase Sapphire Reserve for Restaurants & Grocery Purchases Instead of AMEX Gold

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Good evening everyone, I hope your week is going well.  A few weeks ago, I started using my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card as my go to restaurant and grocery store card.  Both categories earn 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards Points on the CSR.  That sounds pretty good until I explain that I could use my American Express Gold Card to earn 4x American Express Membership Rewards Points on those same categories.  Why would I want to earn 3x instead of 4x?  The answer is simple: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points are much easier for me to redeem.

As you can see by these screenshots that I took today, I only have 1,235 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, compared to 364K Citi ThankYou Points and 479K American Express Membership Rewards Points.  Let me dig a little deeper into the reasons why the points balances are so different.

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Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card: Category Bonus Points Now Posting Correctly [Fixed March 2021]

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Updated at 1:50pm PT on 3/15/21: I logged into my Wyndham Rewards accounts and saw that I received 462 points as a “Barclays Adjustments.”  See the screenshot below.

Updated at 12:40pm PT on 3/11/21: I received a letter from Barclays stating that they are aware of the issue and that they are crediting my account for the correct number of points I earner.  See the full letter below.

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Last month, I wrote Category Bonus Points Not Posting Correctly for Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card.  In that post, I wrote about a few examples where bonus categories were not earning bonus points on the new Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card.  I am happy to report that Barclays has fixed the issue.  Here is the update I received from Brian today:

My most recent Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card statement closed and I received both (a) 5x on new utilities charges for electric and gas charges (each of which received only 1x on the previous statement) and (b) an “adjustment” of points equal to the additional 4x on the electric and gas charges from the last statement about which I inquired via secure message via the card’s website.  So, hopefully, the issue is fixed now!

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