Tag Archives: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

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My Wildly Ambitious 2020 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions

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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Why Do We Keep 16 No Annual Fee Credit Cards?

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  A few days ago, I wrote a post titled I Paid $4,588 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2019 – Was it Worth it?  In that post, I shared the 21 credit cards that I plan on keeping and how I justify paying the annual fees on those credit cards.  I felt bad for the 16 no annual fee cards that Laura and I have and decided to write a post about them too.  Roughly half of the no annual fee credit cards were downgraded / converted from a credit card with an annual fee.  Besides the rewards that some of the no annual fee credit cards provide, keeping no annual fee credit cards open long term is good for your credit score.  It improves the length of credit history (average age of accounts), which represents 15% of your total credit score.  It also helps with the amounts owed (your credit utilization ratio), which represents 30% of your total credit score.  Lastly, it helps with payment history (paying your credit card bills on time), which represents 35% of your total credit score.  For more info, check out this Doctor of Credit page.

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Image source: https://www.kiplinger.com/article/credit/T017-C000-S002-how-your-credit-score-is-calculated.html

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I Paid $4,588 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2019 – Was it Worth it?

Good morning everyone.  As we approach the end of the year, I decided to take a look at my credit card spreadsheet and see how much my wife and I paid in annual fees this year.  I removed all the no annual fee credit cards and here are the 26 credit cards that have annual fees (sorted alphabetically).  I will break down this list into cards that I am 99% sure that I will cancel, 99% sure that I will keep, and the 50/50 cards that I might keep or cancel.  Read through this post and let me know if you agree or disagree with my thinking.

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Great Chase Offers on Ink Business Card: BJ’s Wholesale, Microsoft, Enterprise, HP, FedEx & more

Good morning everyone, happy Friday.  Every few days, I like to log into my banking apps to check my recent activity.  When I looked at my Chase Offers on my Chase Ink Plus Business Credit Card, I saw a lot of great new Chase Offers.  Chase Offers have been around for a few months on personal credit cards, but were slow to roll out to business credit cards.  Let me show you what great Chase Offers showed up on my Chase Ink Plus Business Credit Card.  To get started, sign into the Chase app, go to your business credit card, and then scroll to the bottom where the Chase Offers are located.  Then click the See All Offers link to view all your Chase Offers.

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Counter Point: Why I Currently Book Flights with Citi Thank You Points Instead of Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  First off, the title is not a typo, I have started using my Citi Thank You Points instead of my Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to book a few recent flights.  Secondly, the title is true for me now, but could change down the road.  And lastly, you are totally right to disagree with me and prefer using your Chase Ultimate Rewards Points.  But, let me share my perspective and reasoning with you so that you can see where I am coming from.

Long story short, I am planning an upcoming trip to Africa and will visit a few countries near South Africa.  After checking schedules and prices, I decided to book a South African Airways flight from Livingstone, Zambia (near Victoria Falls) to Johannesburg, South Africa.  Now the question was, should I book it directly with my credit card, or should I use my Citi Thank You Points or Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to pay for the flight?

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