Tag Archives: Travel

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Poll: Would you Spend 450,000 Hyatt Points for a South African Safari Package?

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Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  I received this screenshot from a reader who participated in a Hyatt survey.  For this survey, Hyatt wanted to know if you would redeem 450,000 Hyatt points for a 5 night South African safari package ($3,500 retail value per person).  Personally, I do not have 450,000 Hyatt points or 450,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points, so this option is totally out of my league, but let’s give this redemption a look.  $3,500 / 450,000 points = 0.78 cents per point, which is pretty low for Hyatt points.  Also, 450,000 Hyatt points could get you 15 nights at top tier category 7 hotels (30,000 Hyatt points per night) or 18 nights at category 6 hotels (25,000 Hyatt points per night).  You could also get 90 nights at a budget category 1 hotel (only 5,000 Hyatt points per night).

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Keep, Cancel or Convert? US Bank FlexPerks Gold ($85 Annual Fee) & Wells Fargo Propel World Elite ($175 Annual Fee)

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Good morning everyone, I hope you enjoyed reading about my credit card decisions surrounding keeping, closing, or converting my credit cards after the annual fees post.  Check out my thoughts on my Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Ink Plus Business credit cards; my American Express Hilton Ascend and SPG Business credit cards; my Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business and Citi AT&T Access More credit cards.  As a reminder, here are all the credit cards and their annual fees.  In today’s post, I am going to cover both the US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express Credit Card and the Wells Fargo Propel World Elite American Express Credit Card.  Are they worth keeping, should I close them, or should I convert them to another credit card?

  • Chase Sapphire Reserve – $450 (posted 4/1)
  • Chase Ink Plus Business – $95 (posted 4/1)
  • American Express Hilton Ascend – $95 (posted 4/3)
  • American Express SPG Business – $95 (posted 4/6)
  • Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business – $75 (posted 4/2)
  • Citi AT&T Access More – $95 (posted 4/4)
  • US Bank FlexPerks Gold – $85 (posted 4/3)
  • Wells Fargo Propel World – $175 (posted 3/31)

US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express Credit Card

The $85 annual fee just posted and I have seriously lost interest in FlexPoints over the years.  The death nail came on December 31, 2017, when FlexPoints changed to a fixed 1.5 cents per point (CPP) value for all travel redemptions.  This credit card earns 3x on airfare, 2x on gas, and 2x on restaurants.  I currently use my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card for travel, restaurants, and gas since I get 3x Chase Ultimate Reward Points on those purchases.  I can also redeem Chase Ultimate Reward Points for travel at 1.5 CPP, so the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card is as good or better in every way compared to the US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express Credit Card.  I redeemed almost all of my FlexPoints before December 31, 2017, and have a few hundred FlexPoints leftover in my account.  Not to worry, I have a no annual fee US Bank FlexPerks Select+ American Express Credit Card that will keep my few hundred FlexPoints alive.

Decision: US Bank FlexPerks Gold American Express Credit Card will be converted to a no annual fee US Bank Cash 365 American Express Credit Card.  That card earns 1.5% cash back on all purchases, so it will never be used.

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Finally! Southwest Airlines Gift Card Balance Checker Now Working

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Good afternoon everyone.  This might seem like a silly blog post, how hard could it be to check the balance of a Southwest Airlines gift card or egift card?  You would be surprised.  I first wrote about the broken Southwest Airlines gift card balance checker in November 2016.  At the time (and through all of 2017 and into early 2018), the Southwest Airlines gift card balance checker would return an error message stating that the security check solution (CAPTCHA code) was entered incorrectly.  Why didn’t I type the CAPTCHA code correctly?  How hard is that?  Strangely enough, the CAPTCHA code html website code hid the CAPTCHA code from view, so there was no way to enter the CAPTCHA code correctly, therefore, there was no way to verify you were not a robot, and no way to view your Southwest Airlines gift card balance.  Until now…

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Keep, Cancel or Convert? American Express Hilton Ascend ($95 Annual Fee) & SPG Business ($95 Annual Fee)

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Good morning everyone.  I hope you enjoyed my post from yesterday: Keep, Cancel or Convert? Chase Sapphire Reserve & Chase Ink Plus.  All this week, I am going to review my credit cards that had annual fees post in March.  As a reminder, here are all the credit cards and their annual fees.  In today’s post, I am going to cover both the American Express Hilton Honors Ascend Credit Card and the American Express SPG Business Credit Card.  Are they worth keeping, should I close them, or should I convert them to another credit card?

  • Chase Sapphire Reserve – $450 (posted 4/1)
  • Chase Ink Plus Business – $95 (posted 4/1)
  • American Express Hilton Ascend – $95 (posted 4/3)
  • American Express SPG Business – $95 (posted 4/6)
  • Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business – $75 (posted 4/2)
  • Citi AT&T Access More – $95 (posted 4/4)
  • US Bank FlexPerks Gold – $85 (posted 4/3)
  • Wells Fargo Propel World – $175 (posted 3/31)

American Express Hilton Honors Ascend Credit Card

I’ve only had this credit card since January, before then, it was a Citi Hilton Honors Reserve Credit Card.  I received the annual free weekend night certificate for spending $10,000 on the credit card when it was a Citi credit card.  MSing on the Citi credit card was much easier than MSing on the new AMEX credit card.  I also dropped from a Hilton Honors Diamond Elite Member on April 2 when the new Hilton Honors program changes went live, which was terrible timing since I checked into the Hilton Garden Inn on Kauai on April 2 as a Hilton Honors Gold Elite Member.  Should I pay $95 to keep this credit card?  Having this credit card gives you Hilton Honors Gold Elite Status, but I can already get that for free with my American Express Platinum Business Charge Card.  I don’t pay for Hilton stays very often, so if I no longer had this credit card, I would miss out on earning extra bonus points for Hilton stays.

I have had my eyes on the new American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Credit Card that comes with 100,000 Hilton points, Hilton Honors Diamond Elite Status, a free weekend night certificate, and $250 Hilton resort credit.  The $450 annual fee is steep, but I think the card is wroth it for the first year.  I have a credit card App-O-Rama coming up, so I plan on applying for the new American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Credit Card.  If I do not get instantly approved, I plan on calling American Express and asking them to move my credit line from the American Express Hilton Honors Ascend Credit Card to the new card.  If that is not possible, I will downgrade to the no annual fee American Express Hilton Honors Credit Card and use that card for the occasional AMEX Offer.

Decision: American Express Hilton Honors Ascend Credit Card will be a sacrificial lamb when I apply for the American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Credit Card.  Plan B is to downgrade to the no annual fee American Express Hilton Honors Credit Card.

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United Airlines Saga: Flight Cancelled, then Rebooked, then New Flight Cancelled

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Good afternoon everyone.  My friend Jim sent me the following story about his recent United Airlines cancelled, then rebooked, then cancelled flight.  He has a few questions about his experience, so if you know the answers, please leave a comment below.

The Story

  • Flight was delayed due to late inbound flight.
  • Flight was delayed again because no crew was available.
  • After boarding the flight, the pilot told us we had too much fuel, and it would take 30 minutes to burn the additional fuel.
  • It took over 90 minutes to burn the additional fuel.
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Image source: https://travelsort.com/united-compensation-for-flight-delays-and-delayed-baggage/

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