Good morning everyone, happy Friday! I just wanted to share that my 15,000 anniversary points from my Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Credit Card just posted to my Wyndham Rewards account. I opened this credit card on October 25, 2020, so this is my first round of anniversary points. I would have assumed that the points would have posted closer to October or November 2021, but better late than never.
Good morning everyone, happy New Year’s Eve! Every year, I like to check out my stats from Google Analytics to see which blog posts were the most popular. I created 2 lists by looking at all blog posts written in 2021 and then I looked at which posts were read the most in 2021, but written in previous years (#stayingpower). I will list the blog posts from top to bottom based on pageviews, share the original published date, and provide a short summary of each blog post. If you are curious, here were the most popular posts from 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
Good morning everyone, happy New Year’s Eve Eve (emphasis on the extra Eve). Yesterday, I wrote about my dismal prediction performance (I didn’t predict I would do so poorly – another wrong prediction of mine) in my post How Right (or Wrong) were my 2021 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions? My new crystal ball just arrived from Amazon, so I am going to put it to the ultimate test and I’ll provide my 2022 airline, hotel, and credit card predictions. I’m guaranteed to get between 0% and 100% correct, but only time will tell…
My 2022 Airline Predictions
Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well. I was working on my Buy Miles & Points Page and found 5 offers that end in the next week. Always check the math to make sure that buying miles & points makes sense for you. Do not buy miles & points speculatively unless you have a use in mind. With that said, here are 5 offers that end soon. Up first, Hyatt Hotels is offering up to a 30% discount, depending on the number of World of Hyatt Points you purchase. This offer expires tomorrow – December 30.
Updated at 1pm PT on 12/16/21: I forgot to include the value of my Hilton Free Night Certificate from my American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Credit Card. That increased the total another $200 and the info is updated below.
Good morning everyone. If you haven’t already, please read my post from yesterday (How Much Did I Pay in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2021?). In today’s post, I will share how much value I received from each credit card in 2021. Today’s post is also a sequel to my 2020 post (I Paid $3,820 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2020 – Was it Worth it?) and my 2019 post (I Paid $4,588 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2019 – Was it Worth it?).
These 26 credit cards were opened before January 1, 2021, with the exception of my Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card which I opened in July 2021. For simplicity, I did not include the value of miles or points earned from credit card spend, since that is somewhat subjective. I counted all credits, reimbursements, retention offers, and referral bonuses at dollar face value (with airline miles and hotel points at conservative values between 0.5 CPP and 1 CPP). For hotel free night certificates, I used a standard value of $100, with the exception of the Marriott 50K Free Night Certificate which I valued at $200.
I went through all of my credit card statements and online accounts to see which Credit Card Benefits I used in 2021 and those values are summed up in the CCB $ column. If I received a retention offer, that is listed in the RO $ column. I listed the credit card annual fees in the AF $ column. Lastly, I used this formula to calculate the Profit or Loss (P / L column) for each credit card: CCB $ + RO $ – AF $ = P / L
I grouped the credit cards by issuer, sorted them by highest profit at the top, and then split them up into 3 smaller groups (LT = Laura’s card). Here are my thoughts from the first group:
| Credit Card Name | Credit Card Benefits | CCB $ | RO $ | AF $ | P / L |
| AMEX Business Platinum | $300 Dell credit, $200 Airline Fee credit, $169 CLEAR credit, $30 Wireless credit, and $25 Staples AMEX Offer | $724 | $595 | $595 | $724 |
| AMEX Hilton Honors Aspire | $250 Hilton Resort credit, $250 Airline Fee credit, $200 Restaurant credit, and $200 value from Hilton Free Night Certificate | $900 | $0 | $450 | $450 |
| AMEX Delta Gold Business | $90 Wireless credit and I closed this credit card to avoid paying the $99 annual fee | $90 | $0 | $90 | |
| AMEX Gold | $100 Airline Fee credit, $100 Dining credit, $100 Uber credit, and $25 1-800-FLOWERS AMEX Offer | $325 | $0 | $250 | $75 |
| Bank of America Alaska Airlines (LT) | $100 value from the Alaska Airlines Companion Fare | $100 | $0 | $75 | $25 |
| Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business | $100 value from the Alaska Airlines Companion Fare | $100 | $0 | $75 | $25 |
| Barclays Wyndham Rewards Earner Business | 15,000 Wyndham Rewards anniversary points ($150) and 13,500 points from the 10% cardmember discount on award stays ($135) | $285 | $0 | $95 | $190 |
| Capital One Venture Rewards (LT) | None (Laura’s go to credit card for everyday spending) | $0 | $0 | $59 | -$59 |