Sweet Retention Offer on Chase Marriott Bonvoy Business Credit Card ($99 Annual Fee)

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Grant. 16 Replies

Good afternoon everyone. A few weeks ago, I wrote Reconsideration Strategy for Credit Card Annual Fees During Coronavirus Pandemic. In that post, I shared all of my credit cards with annual fees that were coming due soon and my plan for retention offers. While I struck out with American Express regarding my American Express Gold Card and American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card, I did score a sweet retention offer on my Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card.

I don’t believe this credit card is still available for new applications, but if you have another Chase Marriott business credit card, you should be able to product change to this card. According to the card benefits, there is really nothing very special about this credit card except for the fact that you get a free night certificate every year that is valid at Marriott properties that cost up to 35,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. If you spend $60,000 on this credit card, you will earn a second free night certificate. The credit card has a $99 annual fee. The annual fee just posted to my account, so I decided to call Chase to see what kind of retention offers were available.

Continue reading →

New AMEX Business Platinum Shipping & Wireless Phone Service Credits Post Fast

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Grant. 1 Reply

Good morning everyone. A few days ago, American Express unveiled several new benefits for several of their personal and business cards. Doctor of Credit has all the details regarding the card benefits, but for today’s post, I am going to talk about the monthly $20 Shipping and $20 Wireless Phone Service credits for the American Express Business Platinum Card.

These benefits were announced and went live on May 1, so I waited no time testing out the credits. On May 1, I wrote How to Purchase & Print USPS Shipping Labels Online (AMEX Business Platinum Card $20 Monthly Benefit). I purchased a $10.90 shipping label through the USPS website to ship an item I sold on Amazon. Later that day, I made a one time $20 payment to my AT&T wireless phone bill. Both purchases posted on May 1 and the subsequent statement credits posted on May 4. That is a really fast turnaround time for the statement credits to post.

Continue reading →

Work from Home Diary 11: My Thoughts on TWG Turning 7 Years Old Today

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Grant. 20 Replies

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. I started sharing my thoughts regarding working from home in a series of Work from Home Diary posts. Feel free to share your work from home feelings in the comments section below. For today’s update, I wanted to let you know that Travel with Grant (the blog) turned 7 years old today! Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 7 years since I started blogging in May 2013. Back then, I talked about Award Wallet, ITA Matrix, Credit Karma / Credit Sesame, using BA Avios to fly to Hawaii, converting Hawaiian Airlines miles to Hilton points, $500 Visa Gift Cards at Office Depot, and much more.

I thought about sharing my 7 favorite blog posts or top 7 most read blog posts, but thought I would share my thoughts on blogging and my continued goals as a blogger. Back when I started my blog, I was a ferocious reader of Frequent Miler (still am), Million Miles Secrets, The Points Guy, Frugal Travel Guy, Mile Value, and Travel Blogger Buzz (love you George). These were blogs that I looked up to and admired for their content and entertainment. I’m not a full time blogger (and never have been), but the dream of working on a secluded beach with a laptop on my lap and big floppy hat on my head always made me smile. Continue reading →

How to Purchase & Print USPS Shipping Labels Online (AMEX Business Platinum Card $20 Monthly Benefit)

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Grant. 12 Replies

Updated 10:20am PT on 5/14: Purchasing shipping labels through PayPal does not trigger the $20 credit (according to Doctor of Credit)

Updated 12:00pm PT on 5/2: Unfortunately, it looks like USPS First Class Mail is not available for packages under 1 pound (16 ounces). Only USPS Priority Mail and USPS Priority Mail Express are available on the USPS website. If you need to print USPS First Class Mail or USPS Media Mail, you can do that through the PayPal shipping center (read this post).

Good afternoon everyone, what a busy May 1 is. American Express announced today that several of their credit and charge cards will have limited time benefits to offset the travel benefits that are not being used due to the coronavirus pandemic. Doctor of Credit has a great summary of all the new card benefits, but for this post, I’m going to focus on the $20 monthly statement credit for shipping purchases (USPS, UPS and FedEx) on the American Express Business Platinum Charge Card (valid from May 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020).

As luck would have it, I sold an item on Amazon earlier today and needed to print a shipping label for the package. Normally, I would print the shipping label through the Amazon Seller Central platform, but I decided to purchase the shipping label from the USPS website to show you the steps (and so I could test out the $20 monthly statement credit for shipping). The steps are exactly the same whether you are using the AMEX Business Platinum Card or any other payment method. To get started, go to the USPS website.

Continue reading →

PSA: Don’t Cancel Airline Reservations through Citi ThankYou Portal; Cancel Directly with the Airline

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Grant. 12 Replies

Good morning everyone, happy Friday! A few months ago, I used Citi ThankYou Points to book an Alaska Airlines flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Orange County (SNA) for Mother’s Day Weekend. Fast forward to Tuesday April 28 when I received this email regarding my airline reservation. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there was a schedule change to my Alaska Airlines flight. I knew for the last several weeks that I was not going to fly down to Orange County, but I was hoping Alaska Airlines would cancel the flights and provide a full refund. In this post, I will show what would happen if I cancelled the airline reservation through the Alaska Airlines website vs. cancelling through the Citi ThankYou Portal (which is what I did) and explain why you SHOULD NOT cancel through the Citi ThankYou Portal.

Continue reading →