Tag Archives: American Express Membership Rewards Points

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If I Could Only Keep 5 Credit Cards with Annual Fees…

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  A few weeks ago, I wrote these 2 posts:

In those posts, I listed all the credit cards that Laura and I have.  I also justified why I paid $4,588 in credit card annual fees in 2019.  Since that post, there have been a few credit card changes (JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card lost the Visa Infinite Discount Air Benefit and the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card added Lyft and DoorDash benefits).  A few readers commented and other bloggers linked to the top post and shared which credit cards they keep every year.  As part of my 2020 travel resolutions, I said I wanted to reduce the amount I paid in credit card annual fees.  In this theoretical post, here are the 5 credit cards with annual fees that I would keep…

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Keep, Cancel or Convert? American Express Business Platinum Charge Card ($595 Annual Fee)

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Good afternoon everyone.  As part of my “Keep, Cancel or Convert?” series, I like to evaluate and reevaluate credit (and charge) cards to make sure they still deserve a spot in my wallet.  Last month, the $595 annual fee posted on my American Express Business Platinum Charge Card.  I have read a few recent blog posts about whether to keep or cancel the AMEX Platinum Card (from Frequent Miler and Your Mileage May Vary), so I wanted to share my view on this card.

First things first, I added my brother as an authorized user so he could access the Centurion Lounges, Escape Lounges, and Priority Pass Lounges (no more restaurants).  He used the card a few times, but he decided that the $300 annual fee was not worth it to him.  My statement closed on December 2, I called AMEX on December 2 or 3, and said I would like to downgrade my brother’s AMEX Business Platinum to a no annual fee AMEX Business Green (which comes with no perks, other than the $100 Global Entry credit).  AMEX processed the downgrade request right away, but did not provide a full refund (I was charged $1.64 for those 2 days).  Seems kind of petty to me, but let’s see if I decided to keep, cancel, or convert my AMEX Business Platinum.

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American Express Business Platinum Airline Credit Used for 2 $99 JetBlue Seat Assignments

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Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  As part of My 5 New Year’s Travel Resolutions for 2020, I said that I would “Use American Express Airline Fee Credits (Without Buying Airline GCs / eGCs).”  So far in 2020, I am following through on my resolution.  Last month, I used my JetBlue True Blue Points to book flights for Laura and I to fly from SFO to BOS.  It is a 5.5 hour red eye flight, so I looked at how much the Even More Space seats cost and found out the seats I wanted were $99 each.  Instead of purchasing those seats with cash in 2019, I decided to use the $200 airline fee credit that comes with my American Express Business Platinum Charge Card to cover the charges.  I selected JetBlue as my airline for 2020 and paid for the 2 seats with my AMEX Business Platinum.  The pending charge looked like a single $198 JetBlue purchase…

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How to View or Hide AwardWallet Airline Credits, Dining Credits & Hotel Free Night Certificates

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  Yesterday, I received an interesting comment on my post: My 5 New Year’s Travel Resolutions for 2020.  The commenter, MrDioji, asked: “How do you get Award Wallet to display airline and dining credits? Or do you manually add them?”  He was referring to this screenshot of my American Express balances in my AwardWallet account.  Instead of answering the question in the comments section, I thought it would be helpful to write a post about this topic to help other readers.  In this post, I will show you how to view or hide airline credits, dining credits, hotel free night certificates, and many other pieces of information.

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My Wildly Ambitious 2020 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions

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Good afternoon everyone.  Generally, at the end of the year, I like to review my travel predictions for the past year and make new predictions for the coming year.  After a long streak of poor prediction performance (2018 prediction results, 2017 prediction results, and 2016 prediction results), I decided not to make any travel predictions for 2019.  But my predictions are coming our of retirement / hibernation today.  I really recommend reading the travel predictions that Stephen at Frequent Miler made, especially his top 5 predictions:

  1. Capital One To Add Virgin Atlantic As Travel Partner
  2. Amex Membership Rewards To Transfer To JetBlue On A 1:1 Basis
  3. Free Breakfast For IHG Spire Elite Members
  4. Citi To Allow Card Referrals
  5. Chase And/Or Amex To Increase Referral Limits

I am going to piggy back on his predictions and add a few of my own.  So without further ado, here are my travel predictions for 2020

My 2020 Airline Predictions

  • Alaska, American, Delta, or United will introduce a “Cash and Miles” payment option for award tickets.  Clarification: This is not to be confused with Delta’s “Pay with Points” option where you get 1 CPP for each Delta SkyMiles for paid flights.  I’m thinking more along the lines of the way British Airways and Avianca do it for award tickets.
  • Allegiant Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and Sun Country will announce a merger, but I’m not sure who will merge with who.

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