Tag Archives: Credit Cards

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Around the World in 24 Days: Preparing for Takeoff

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Buenos dias everyone, I’m getting ready to take off on my 24 day round-the-world trip for the SAS EuroBonus Millionaire promotion so I thought I’d share a few updates on the final planning stages.

Hotels

At this point, I have all of my hotels booked except for the very end of my trip (Taipei, Denver, and Boston). Since many of the destinations I’m traveling to are fairly inexpensive, I ended up doing a lot of cash bookings, but I do have points redemptions with three different hotel programs scattered throughout.

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YTD How I Earned & Redeemed My Citi ThankYou Points

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I thought it would be interesting to share how I earn and redeem my Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs), in case any readers were interested in my strategy.  From January 2024 through October 2024, I earned 44,150 TYPs from my Citi credit cards – here is the breakdown:

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Switching Marriott Bonvoy Business Credit Card from Chase to American Express Paid Off with 5 Marriott 50K Free Night Certificates

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Updated at 8:30am on 10/9/24: I updated this post after the sign up bonus posted a few days ago.

Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well. This post has been a work in progress for several months since March 2024.  Let me explain.  Back in March 2024, American Express had an increased sign up bonus on the American Express Marriott Bonvoy Business Credit Card that offered 3 Marriott 50K Free Night Certificates (FNC) after spending $6,000 in 3 months.  That was a great offer, but due to Marriott’s Eligibility Matrix (see Frequent Miler’s awesome chart), I wasn’t eligible for the AMEX Marriott Bonvoy Business Credit Card because I currently had the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card. I would need to close my old Chase card, wait 30 days, and then apply for the new AMEX card.

This was a big gamble because there was no guarantee that the AMEX card would have a decent sign up bonus again in the future and because my Chase card was no longer available, so once I closed that card, I could never get it back.  I strongly prefer to hold onto cards that are no longer available, like my Chase Ink Plus and my JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton.

The increased sign up bonus on the AMEX card ended on March 20, 2024, and my Marriott 35K FNC from the Chase card would post the following month in April 2024.  As expected, the FNC posted to my Marriott account on April 15, 2024, and now was the time to proceed with my plan.

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Reminder: Use Your 4 Free Upgraded Boardings with the Chase Southwest Airlines Priority Credit Card (Earn 3x Points & Trigger Chase Offers)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  I received this email from Chase last week about the benefits on my Chase Southwest Airlines Priority Credit Card.  The $75 Southwest Airlines travel credit and 7,500 anniversary Southwest Airlines Points make it easy to justify paying the $149 annual fee (those 2 perks basically cover the cost of the annual fee), but don’t forget about the 4 free Upgraded Boardings which you can use to move up to A1 – A15.  Not only will those 4 Upgraded Boardings be reimbursed by your card, you will also earn 3x Southwest Airlines Points on the purchases and you can even stack a Southwest Airlines Chase Offer, if the stars align.  Let me show you what I mean.

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American Express Gold Card Introduces $50K Limit on Restaurant Spending for 4X Rewards (Starting 1/1/25)

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  Laura was reviewing her recent American Express Gold Card statement and noticed an upcoming change that said:

Effective January 1, 2025, you will continue to earn 3 additional points (for a total of 4 points) for each dollar of eligible purchases charged at restaurants worldwide now on up to the first $50,000 of these purchases per calendar year.

Previously, I do not believe there was a cap on restaurant purchases that would earn 4x AMEX Membership Rewards.  I did some more digging to learn more.

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