Tag Archives: Credit Cards

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My Preparation to Close American Express Business Platinum Card

Updated 2:20pm PT on 4/24/2024: My $237.77 refund check from American Express arrived in the mail today, 5-6 days after requesting the refund check.


Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. A few days ago, I wrote Contact AMEX if Alaska Airlines Seat Assignment / Upgrade Purchases Do Not Trigger Airline Fee Reimbursement Credit.  That post was in preparation of closing my American Express Business Platinum Card after the $695 annual fee posted earlier this month.  I had already tried my luck at retention offers via AMEX Chat and calling, but the only offer I received was for 10,000 AMEX Membership Rewards Points after spending $5,000 in 3 months.  That retention offer wouldn’t have made a large enough dent toward the $695 annual fee, so I decided to close the card.

I still had a few weeks before the annual fee had to be paid or the card had to be closed, so I was determined to earn as many of the benefits before that date.  Through mid April, I was able to get 4 x $10 Wireless Credits, the $200 Dell Credit for the first half of the year, and the $200 Airline Incident Credit with Alaska Airlines (read the blog post at the top of this post for more details).

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Contact AMEX if Alaska Airlines Seat Assignment / Upgrade Purchases Do Not Trigger Airline Fee Reimbursement Credit

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Recently, I noticed that my Alaska Airlines seat assignment purchases on my American Express Business Platinum Card were not triggering the $200 Airline Fee Reimbursement Credit.  I paid for 4 premium economy seat assignments on Alaska Airlines in January and the credits had not posted in the following 2 months.  I went to Frequent Miler’s Amex Airline Fee Reimbursements. What still works? post and scrolled down to the Alaska Airlines section.  There was a note that said:

“Since 2022, there have been many reports of Alaska charges not being reimbursed automatically. It seems that many have had success getting charges for premium seat selection and things that ordinarily should be included (like lounge access, onboard purchases, etc) manually credited via the chat function, but only after 2 weeks has passed since the transaction date. Historical Alaska data included below, but beware that you may need to chat and hope for a friendly agent. See more data in this Flyertalk thread.”

I decided to reach out to American Express for help.

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My IHG Hotel Strategy: Points, Free Night Certificates & Multiple Rebookings

Good afternoon everyone.  Last week, Laura and I were in New York City for her Spring Break.  I had 2 IHG Free Night Certificates (40K capped FNC from my old Chase IHG Select Credit Card and a 40K uncapped FNC from my Chase IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card) that were expiring soon that I wanted to use.  We were staying for 4 nights, so I could have used the IHG 4th Night Free Benefit, but I wanted to use up those 2 IHG FNCs instead.  We decided to stay at the Crowne Plaza Times Square because the hotel is 1-2 blocks away from Times Square, surrounded by many musical theaters, very close to many subway lines (including the subway that goes from Manhattan to JFK (via the Jamaica Station), and walking distance to Central Park / Cruise Terminal / Rockefeller Center, etc.

I didn’t take screenshots during the booking process, but here is the booking strategy I used which I will explain below.  To get started, I searched for 4 nights to ensure that there was availability every night using points.  I clicked the Select Hotel button to view more details.

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How to Enroll US Bank Altitude Reserve & Business Altitude Connect Credit Cards in Free Priority Pass Membership

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Last week, we learned that the Chase Sapphire Reserve & JPMorgan Ritz Carlton Priority Pass memberships will lose restaurant access on July 1, 2024.  Luckily, Frequent Miler’s recent podcast episode listed a few credit cards that will still offer Priority Pass restaurant access after July 1.  Also luckily, I already have 2 of those credit cards: US Bank Altitude Reserve (8 visits) and the US Bank Business Altitude Connect (4 visits).  In this post, I will show you how to enroll in Priority Pass for these 2 credit cards.

For the US Bank Altitude Reserve, you need to go to this specific enrollment link: www.prioritypass.com/usbankaltitudereserve.  The terms say:

Congratulations! As a valued U.S. Bank Altitude® Reserve Visa Infinite® cardholder, you are eligible for a complimentary membership of Priority Pass, with eight free visits a year. Once you enroll you will have access to more than 1,500+ participating airport lounges and experiences worldwide. Get started today by entering your 16-digit U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card number. If you have already enrolled, please login to access the member website.

Enter your 16 digit credit card number, enter the captcha code, and click the Submit button.

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Quirky US Bank Cash Plus Credit Card Rewards Activity (Different Amounts Before & After Statement Closes)

Good evening everyone.  I spend a lot of time with my credit cards and banking apps (probably more time than most normal people should), but I wanted to share a quirk I noticed with the US Bank Cash+ Credit Card.  I love this credit card so much (I have 2 of them), because of the ability to select 2 different 5% cash back categories each quarter, and you can select the same 2 categories each quarter.

The 2 categories that I have picked lately are Home Utilities (which covers water, gas, electricity, trash, etc.) and TV / Internet / Streaming Services (which covers all the well known and niche streaming services I have tried).  Now, this is where the quirkiness comes in…

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