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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

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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.

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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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Should I Transfer All My AMEX Points to Hawaiian Airlines?

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I am excited to share that Laura and I are having a baby girl in August.  With our upcoming Player 3 little bundle of joy, our travel plans will be on pause for a while, but I wanted to build up a big Alaska Airlines mileage balance so that when we take to the skies once more, we will have plenty of miles available.

As of May 2025, I have 1.3 million Alaska Airlines miles in my account.  We built up this balance in the last year by transferring lots of AMEX Membership Rewards Points to our Hawaiian Airlines accounts, applying for Barclays Hawaiian Airlines credit cards, and then by consolidating all our miles into my Alaska Airlines account.  For a step by step guide on how to do that, please read How to Transfer, Combine, or Move Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines Miles (with Direct Links).

With all that said… Should I transfer all my AMEX Membership Rewards Points to Hawaiian Airlines?  After reading this post, please let me know your thoughts.

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How to Transfer, Combine, or Move Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines Miles (with Direct Links)

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Republished on 5/18/25 since AMEX announced that American Express Membership Rewards Point transfers to Hawaii Airlines will end on June 30, 2025.

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well. In this post, I will show you how we moved Alaska Airlines Miles into Hawaiian Airlines Miles, transferred those miles between Hawaiian Airlines accounts, and then transferred those miles to Alaska Airlines.  We wanted all of our miles to be in a single account (my Alaska Airlines account) to make award booking easier since we would book all of our award tickets from a single account.  Transfers between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines were free and instant.  Here are the steps we did…

A few weeks ago, Laura and I transferred large chunks of American Express Membership Rewards Points into Hawaiian Airlines Miles when AMEX had a 20% transfer bonus to Hawaiian Airlines.  I transferred 417K AMEX MR Points into 500K Hawaiian Airlines Miles on August 29.

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