Tag Archives: Citi Bank

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My 2025 Travel Predictions Midyear Review: Hits, Misses & Lots of Wild Guesses

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. As we approach the midpoint of the year, I thought it would be a good time to check in on My Overly Ambitious 2025 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card PredictionsCorrect predictions are in green, incorrect predictions are in red, and half correct predictions are in orange.  Without further ado, here is my midyear review for my 2025 predictions:

Airline Predictions:

  • Alaska Airlines or Southwest Airlines will bring back their “convert travel funds to airline miles” feature.
    • No, these “convert travel funds to airline miles” have not returned yet in 2025.
  • Alaska Airlines will let you use the Companion Fare to book Hawaiian Airlines flights.
    • No, but I am still optimistic that we will see this happen before the end of the year.
  • American Airlines will return as a Citi ThankYou Points transfer partner.
    • No, not yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this happen in the next few months.
  • British Airways will lower their partner redemption prices for American Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
    • No, the redemption prices have not changed for American Airlines or Alaska Airlines.
  • Delta will increase the annual fee on their credit cards and increase the Delta SkyMiles discount to 20%-25%.
    • No, but the rumored super-duper-ultra-premium AMEX Delta credit card could have this benefit (link).
  • JetBlue will allow you to redeem points on a new partner airline (besides Etihad Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and Qatar Airways).
    • Yes! With the United Airlines and JetBlue “Blue Sky” partnership, you can redeem JetBlue points on United Airlines and vice versa (link).
  • United Airlines will bring back their “family pooling” feature.
    • Yes! You can pool United Airlines miles, but they can only be used for United and United Express flights, not Star Alliance partners (link).

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Hey Citi! Make the New Strata Elite like the Old Chase Sapphire Reserve

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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Predicting Citi ThankYou Point Transfer Bonuses to Max Out Citi Rewards+ 10% Rebate

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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The 7 Miles & Points Tools / Services that I Pay For

Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  I love free stuff as much as the next person, but there are a few miles and points tools and services that are so incredibly useful, they’re definitely worth paying for. Keep in mind, this isn’t a complete list, so there may be other fantastic tools out there that I haven’t discovered or used yet.

AwardWallet Plus – $49.99 / year

I can’t imagine a world without AwardWallet.  They track all my credit card programs, airline programs, hotel programs, shopping portal balances, dining rewards, and much more.  I love that they constantly check my accounts, display the current balances, and display expiration dates for all my rewards.  The flight schedule change notifications (which sometimes come days / weeks / months before official airline notifications) and upcoming expiration alerts are well worth the cost to me.  If you are interested in trying it out, here is my AwardWallet referral link.

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How Much Money Did I Make from Bank Account Bonuses in 2024?

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Doctor of Credit has a Best Bank Account Bonuses page that he keeps up to date with the best offers each month.  In that master post, he links to individual bank account bonuses with helpful information regarding the bonus details, how to avoid monthly fees, when to close the account, how often you can open a new account, and much more.  For the last 10 years, I have been opening new checking accounts, savings accounts, brokerage accounts, and cash management accounts for the new member bonuses.  At the end of each year, I share my results on the blog.

Over the last 10 years, I have made $26,775 in bank account bonuses. You will receive 1099-INT / 1099-MISC tax forms every year, so you have to pay taxes on the bank account bonuses, but sometimes you can fund the opening deposit with a credit card and earn miles, points, or cash back.  If you are lucky, you can meet a minimum spending requirement by funding a new checking account or reach a spending threshold / milestone to earn more rewards.  Here are my results from the last 10 years with links to corresponding yearly summaries:

Drum roll please… Here are the 12 new accounts Laura and I opened in 2024 that paid out $2,755 in bonuses:

Bank Account Name Opened Closed Bonus Notes
WeBull Brokerage (Laura) 01/01/24 02/21/24 $180 30 free stocks (worth $180)
Citi Access Checking 01/01/24 04/26/24 $200
PSECU Checking 01/04/24 05/31/24 $300 $100 credit card funding
PenFed Credit Union Checking 01/04/24 11/08/24 $250
M1 Finance 01/06/24 02/20/24 $250
NASA Federal Credit Union Checking 01/09/24 04/26/24 $300 $400 credit card funding
Redwood Credit Union Checking 01/26/24 04/26/24 $250 $500 credit card funding
Raisin Account @ Grand Bank 01/26/24 08/15/24 $150 Rakuten cash back: 10,000 AMEX MR Points ($150 value)
Upgrade Rewards Checking Plus 03/05/24 05/11/24 $150
Upgrade Premier Savings 03/07/24 08/15/24 $200
One Finance Savings 11/08/24 12/28/24 $225 Rakuten cash back: 15,000 AMEX MR Points ($225 value)
Chase Total Checking (Laura) 11/11/24 Open $300
$2,755

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