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PSA: Chase Sapphire Reserve Annual Fee Post Date May Not Match Start of $300 Travel Credit Period

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  A few weeks ago, Chase announced a few changes regarding the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card.  Among the changes were the ability to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards Points for 1.5 cents per point toward restaurant, grocery store, and home improvement purchases from May 31 through September 30 and the ability to redeem the $300 travel credit toward grocery and gas station purchases from June 1 through December 31.  Since my annual fee posted in April, I was excited to take advantage of the $300 travel credit toward those new categories.  I used my Chase Sapphire Reserve at Raley’s (my local grocery store) and patiently waited for the travel credit to apply.  Unfortunately, after waiting a few days, the statement credit did not post.  I did some digging and found out that I had already used my $300 travel credit in October 2019.  Let me explain what happened.

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American Express Hilton Aspire Resort Credit Applied Toward Restaurant Purchase in 3 Days

Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday.  From June 1 through August 31, American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card members can now use their $250 resort credit toward restaurant purchases.  To test this out, I made a small restaurant purchase at Panera Bread (through their app) on June 1.  On June 4, the statement credit posted as HILTON RESORT CREDIT.  A 3 day turnaround time for statement credits is pretty standard for American Express.  The one downside with the $250 Hilton Resort Credit is that there is no tracker that shows how much you have spent or redeemed toward the $250 cap.

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Anatomy & Timeline of a Cancelled American Airlines Award Ticket (LGA-DFW-SNA)

Good morning everyone.  A long time ago (February 2020), I purchased 2 American Airlines award tickets to fly from LaGuardia, New York (LGA) to Dallas, Texas (DFW) to Orange County, California (SNA).  Laura and I were going to be in NYC in early July and then fly to Orange County for Fourth of July weekend.  I picked this route because I wanted to check out the American Express Centurion Lounges at LGA and DFW.  I used 20,000 American Airlines miles per ticket (40k total), paid the taxes with my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card, and paid for upgraded seat assignments with my American Express Gold Card and JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Visa Infinite.  Then the Coronavirus Pandemic hit and we cancelled our entire NYC trip.

This was my first time cancelling an American Airlines award ticket, so I didn’t know what to expect in terms of refunds and redeposited miles.  In this post, I will walk you through the timeline of events.  I cancelled our American Airlines award tickets on May 7 and received the following Trip Cancellation email immediately.  In the email, it said, “If you booked with AAdvantage miles, and your trip is eligible, we’ll automatically reinstate your miles within 48 hours.”  Unfortunately, 48 hours came and went, but nothing happened…

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My June 1 Checklist of Credit Card Credits (Shipping, Wireless, Restaurants, Groceries & More)

Updated 12:50pm PT on 6/6: My $300 travel credit on the Chase Sapphire Reserve doesn’t reset until October.  See details below.

Updated 11:00am PT on 6/5: I tested the $250 Hilton Resort Credit on a restaurant purchase and the statement credit posted in 3 days.  See details below.

Updated 11:30am PT on 6/3: The $325 travel credit on the US Bank Altitude Reserve can now be used for restaurant purchases from 6/1 – 12/31.  See details below.

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a good weekend.  Today is June 1 and the start of a new month.  As the saying goes: New Month = New Credits.  I have several credit cards, but these are the 5 credit cards that have credits that I can use this month:

American Express Business Platinum Card

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How to Redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards Points via Pay Yourself Back (1.5 Cents Per Point for Restaurants, Grocery Stores & Home Improvement)

Updated at 10:45pm PT on 5/31: The statement credit posted to my Chase Sapphire Reserve within 12 hours of using the Pay Yourself Back feature.  Photo added below.

Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  A few days ago, Chase announced a new feature called Pay Yourself Back where you can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards Points for purchases in select categories.  In this post, I will show you how to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards Points for 1.5 cents with your Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card at restaurants, grocery stores & home improvement stores (valid from May 31 through September 30).  To get started, click here and sign into your Chase online account.  Then select your Chase Sapphire Reserve.

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