Tag Archives: Travel

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How to Enroll in American Express Gold Card Benefits ($120 Dining Credit & $100 Airline Fee Credit)

Good morning everyone. Yesterday, I wrote Unboxing my American Express Gold Card: Card Art & Welcome Documents and How to Activate & Set Up American Express Gold Card in AMEX Online Account.  In this post, I will go through the benefits of the American Express Gold Card (my referral link) and show you how to enroll in 2 important benefits: $120 Dining Credit & $100 Airline Fee Credit.  To get started, sign into your American Express online account, click on your Gold Card and then click the Benefits link to go to the Benefits page.  As you can see, these 2 benefits require you to enroll in them before the benefits kick in, so make sure you do this right away.

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Unboxing my American Express Gold Card: Card Art & Welcome Documents

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  A few days ago, I was instantly approved for the American Express Gold Card.  I was able to add the Gold Card to my Apple Wallet and use it a few times via Apple Pay.  I am happy to report that I got my new Gold Card via UPS Next Day Air and I can do an unboxing post for this card.  In case you missed my last unboxing post, don’t forget to read Unboxing My US Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite Credit Card: Card Art, Welcome Letter & Booklet.  Here is the front and back of the American Express Gold Card (my referral link).  As you can tell, the front of the card is a much darker gold than the back of the card.  American Express also wants you to use Contactless Payment (tap & pay feature of the card), since the logo is on both sides of the card.  The card is made of metal, similar to the American Express Platinum Cards.  Let’s see what else came with my Gold Card in the welcome package.

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Unboxing my US Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite Credit Card: Card Art, Brochure & Welcome Letter

Good afternoon everyone.  I hope you enjoyed reading my post from this morning: My March Madness App-O-Rama Results: 3 out of 4 Credit Cards Approved.  In that post, I mentioned that I would be doing an unboxing of my new US Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite Credit Card.  This credit card has a sign up bonus of 50,000 FlexPoints (worth $750 in flights) after spending $4,500 in 3 months.  This card has a $400 annual fee, but offers $325 in airline travel credits that mostly offset the annual fee.  There are a few other credit card perks that I will go over in this post.  But first, take a look at how beautiful this credit card is.  The card is a thick metal, similar to the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card.  On the front of the credit card, it only shows your full name.  On the back, it has your full name again along with all the other credit card information.  Let me show you the rest of the items that came with this credit card.

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My March Madness App-O-Rama Results: 3 out of 4 Credit Cards Approved

Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I did a mini App-O-Rama (where I apply for several credit cards on the same day) on Monday.  I am still waiting for most of the credit cards to arrive in the mail, but I have all the results.  Here are the results of my March App-O-Rama (sorry there is nothing related to NCAA March Madness in this post):

  1. American Express Gold Card – instant approval (I wrote about the instant approval here)
  2. US Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Signature Credit Card – pending and then approved (I will have a post out later today with my unboxing photos)
  3. Wells Fargo Business Platinum Credit Card – pending and then approved
  4. Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business Credit Card – pending but will be denied since they want a lot of business and tax documents (I will explain more below)

Click the above link to see info on my American Express Gold Card instant approval.  Without further ado, let’s go through the 3 other credit card application results.

US Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Signature Credit Card

After my instant approval with the American Express Gold Card, I was feeling good and hoped my instant approval streak would continue (like the good ole days when I would go 6 for 6 on credit card App-O-Ramas).  But instead, I got a pending decision and decided to wait and see what would happen.

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Dilemma: Spend $15,000 on Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card to Earn Extra Free Night Certificate?

Good morning everyone.  In January, my fiance was approved for the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card (my referral link) that offered 25,000 Hyatt points after spending $3,000 in 3 months and an additional 25,000 Hyatt points after spending $6,000 total in 6 months.  We are planning a wedding, so spending $6,000 in 6 months was not a problem.  This credit card also offers an extra free night certificate (for category 1-4 Hyatt properties) if you spend $15,000 during the cardmember year.  So the dilemma is, after spending $6,000 on this credit card and earning 50,000 Hyatt points, is it worth spending an extra $9,000 on this credit card to get an extra free night certificate?  Here are my thoughts…

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