Tag Archives: Hotel Loyalty Points

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No Upcoming Hilton Stay? Turn Your Credit Into a $50 Snack Shopping Spree

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Reposting on 12/10/2025: as we approach the end of the year, you only have 3 weeks left to use your Q4 $50 Hilton Credit from your Hilton Surpass credit card and AMEX Platinum card. Don’t despair if you don’t have any upcoming Hilton stays, just go on a Hilton snack shopping spree! Read the full post for more details.

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Last week, I received a reminder email from Hilton about the Q4 $50 Hilton credit on my American Express Hilton Honors Surpass Credit Card.  I also receive another Q4 $50 Hilton credit from my American Express Business Platinum Card.  In the past, it was easy to use both credits, I’d simply book a Hilton stay once a quarter.  But things are a little different now with a newborn at home.  So when Q3 was coming to an end, I had to get creative to make sure those Hilton credits didn’t go to waste.

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When Should You Add or Upgrade to a Premium Citi ThankYou Point Credit Card?

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  A few days ago, I read Frequent Miler’s post (Now transfer from most Citi cards to most ThankYou partners (even from Custom Cash)) and I started thinking about Citi ThankYou Point (TYP) transfers.  Among my 6 Citi TYP earning credit cards, I have always had a Citi Strata Premier Credit Card (and the OG Citi Premier) in order to transfer TYPs to airline and hotel partners.  Recently, Citi started allowing non-premium Citi TYP cards to transfer TYPs to travel partners, but the transfer ratio is ~70% of the premium Citi TYP cards.

For example, if you have a premium Citi TYP card (Strata Elite, Strata Premier, Prestige, or AT&T Access More), your transfer ratios are normally 1,000 TYPs = 1,000 airline miles (like this Avianca LifeMiles transfer).  Conversely, if you have one of the many non-premium Citi TYP cards (ThankYou Preferred, Strata, Double Cash, Custom Cash, ThankYou Mastercard, AT&T Universal Rewards World, AT&T Universal Savings and Rewards, AT&T Universal Rewards, AT&T Points Plus, or AT&T Access), your transfer ratios are normally 1,000 TYPs = 700 airline miles.

My question became… at what point should you add or upgrade a premium Citi TYP card to your Citi lineup?

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My 2025 Plans for US Bank Smartly & Altitude Reserve Credit Cards

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  There have been lots of new credit card launches and major credit card changes in the month of July, but in this post, I am going to focus on the changes to the US Bank Smartly Credit Card and US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card (no longer available for new applicants).  Doctor of Credit wrote about the various changes to the Smartly cards here: [Varies By Cardholder] U.S. Bank To Nerf Existing Smartly Cardholders On September 15.

US Bank Smartly Credit Card – Changes coming September 15, 2025

I have 2 Smartly credit cards from product changes in January 2025 from a US Bank Cash+ and a US Bank Altitude Connect.  Luckily, I received the “better version” letter for both of my Smartly cards so that I can keep earning 4% with $100K in investment / retirement accounts with US Bank.  Effective September 15, 2025, my credit card rewards will be capped at $10K spend / month and will not work on education, school, gift cards, insurance, tax, business-to-business transactions, and third party bill payment services.

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5 Credit Cards, $1,000 in Annual Fees: Which Retention Offers Did I Receive?

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  In the first week of July, I had 5 credit card annual fees post to my accounts, totaling over $1,000.  As part of my credit card / travel hacking philosophy, I call the credit card company every time an annual fee posts and see if there are any retention offers available, then I decide if I will keep the card open for another year or close the card.

Here are the 5 credit cards and the results of each retention offer call:

Credit Card Name Annual Fee Date Posted
Chase IHG Rewards Business Credit Card $99 7/1/2025
JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card $450 7/1/2025
American Express Marriott Bonvoy Business Credit Card $125 7/2/2025
American Express Delta Platinum Business Credit Card $350 7/2/2025
Laura’s Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card $59 7/7/2025

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Goodbye Citi Rewards+, Hello Citi Custom Cash #4

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Back on May 23, 2025, I received the following email from Citi regarding my Citi Rewards+ Credit Card.  Affective July 20, 2025, the Citi Rewards+ Credit Card would become the new Citi Strata Credit Card.  Citi made it sound like this was an upgrade, but this was definitely a downgrade for me.  Here were the announced changes:

  • 5X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through Citi Travel®.
  • 3X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at Supermarkets.
  • 3X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on Select Transit and at Gas & EV Charging Stations.
  • 3X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent in an eligible Self-Select Category of your choice (Fitness Clubs, Select Streaming Services, Live Entertainment, Cosmetic Stores/Barber Shops/Hair Salons or Pet Supply Stores). Please see your Citi Strata Card Terms and Conditions below for full details.
  • 2X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at Restaurants.
  • 1X ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on All Other Purchases.
  • Your ThankYou Points will no longer be rounded up to the nearest 10 points.
  • When you redeem your ThankYou Points, you will no longer receive 10% points back for the first 100,000 ThankYou Points redeemed per calendar year.

Unfortunately, the last 2 changes were the 2 best features of the Citi Rewards+.

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