We get an update on the top travel rewards credit cards, amazing how Delta’s practices have defenders, visit active volcanoes, travel off the beaten path in Greece & Italy, dream how we can afford the world’s most expensive items and more!
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The Top 25 Credit Cards. By the one and only Mile Nerd.
Travel With Grant gives us a play by play of his latest credit card application spree. If you are about to apply for these (using a non Titan link!) you can learn from this post because it can happen to you!
Amazing how bloggers can still defend Delta Airlines. To me this corporation is a hideous insult to my intelligence and rights as a consumer and I have not given them a dime as a matter of principle in almost three years (ok, I gave them $5 for the fee in a 25k RT award I shockingly found without tearing my hair out). But hey I am weird.
Active volcanoes you can visit.
Off the Beaten Path in Greece. By AFAR. This is the beaten path all right!
Off the Beaten Path in Italy. By AFAR. I like these guides.
10 Quick Topics to Brighten Your Summer. By Motley Fool. Love the positive stuff.
50 of the Most Expensive Items in the World. How Titanic! If you use my links I will share with YOU 🙂
Interesting post by no longer newbie exoticfusion at Flyertalk in the thread appropriately titled “Which bloggers do you follow now vs then?”.
Effing Go Daddy, my site was down for several hours again last night. They are costing me money 🙂
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First? Really?
Where is Helixcardinal?
Deuxieme.
Where is Spencer F?
I’m still a newbie! Just a little bit more wiser because of a few people on FT and some nice informative bloggers. Btw, couldn’t help but stir the pot here… http://thepointsguy.com/2015/08/lesser-known-sapphire-benefits/. It kind of inspires me to make a parody blog of TPG alone. It would be too easy to do.
“All that matters is conversions” once some pumping blogger told me…
If you see that it all makes sense. If you don’t, just don’t get hurt.
This goes to all, not just you exoticfusion. Love the handle by the way, so exotic…so exciting lol.
I’m trying to book a trip next year, on Etihad first. It used to be wide open from LAX,
flew it a few months ago and have 2 more trips booked. Guess what? Pretty much all gone.
Some single days, Tue mostly left. Thank you lucky. Please keep showing your snarky smile
everywhere and keep bragging about your free flights :(((
Conversions! Businesses could care less how you feel amigo #sad #pumpingreality
I just got the SPG Amex Business card from your site TBB.
Click on Credit Cards, clikc on link or banner, click on “Card Type” on top, click on “American Express”, scroll down, they are both there (Personal and Business).
Remember, personal is limited to just once per life time now…which pretty much covers 99.99% of TBB readers. Sorry!
Thanks for what you do.
Now back to work!
Only way to fight back! And muchas gracias!
Does anyone know when the 30K SPG offer is going to come back? #waiting
Joking aside. I’ve come to the conclusion the SPG isn’t worth it after the first year. At low levels of non-bonused spend, the extra value of SPG points over others isn’t covering the $95 annual fee. For example, if I spent $10K on SPG, I’d have enough for one night at a Cat. 4. If I spent $7,500 on the CSP (which I’m already paying a fee on for 2X bonuses & to transfer 5X Freedom bonuses) and using the $95 in savings from not paying the SPG annual fee, I could get a Cat. 4 Hyatt cash+points night. If I spent $10K on the Hilton HHonors Reserve, I’d have one free night anywhere + 30K points. At higher levels of non-bonused spend, Delta and United have threshold bonuses that make them 1.4x and even the AA card gives 10% back (pot. a 1.11x card) and $100 credit at $30K spend.
Agreed. I personally think SPG is such an underwhelming and over hyped card, but the hype is due to a lot of affiliate bloggers pushing it. It’s not made for my particular demographic, which is leisure travel. I was looking at it hard for a minute, but there are too many con’s over pro’s. I have CSP, Freedom and MileagePlus Explorer (churning that one). I’m strongly weighing the pro’s and con’s of hotel cards, just to add another avenue for hotel stays if I need it. I’m more of an Airbnb person myself, but there are sometimes where Airbnb isn’t an option. I’ve ben looking pretty heavily at the 4 main Hilton cards, especially the Surpass and the ability to easily earn points, as it is more aligned to my type of everyday spend (gas, groceries, etc).
Deciding on hotel points and which cards may benefit my type of demographic/everyday spend are a bit trickier and new for me, so I’m on the fence trying to figure it all out. A few FT posters mentioned I should just stick with something like hotels.com (10 nights gets you 1 free night, etc), but I’m still hesitant and still researching the right product for my needs.
Just a few thoughts.
You will NOT get a unbiased review from bloggers who are in the business of selling credit cards. Just one app and they more than pay the annual fee of any card (for the $450 AF cards it may take at least two apps). So, of course you will get the hard sell…EVERY time!
The AF increase sure knocks down the SPG card down a few notches. But the currency is still so hard to get that it still remains one of the go get cards imho. The value you get from lower category SPG hotels is still great to phenomenal.
Barclaydard Arrival points work great on Airbnb! Of course you are not seeing much of this card anymore since Barclay pulled the affiliate links!
The CSP (and other Chase UR point earning cards) is in a major “revalue” point right now with the 5 app limit rule. Messes us up…BIG time…Hope Chase reconsiders it lol.
Yeah, I’m aware of everything you stated. I’m really interested on how Chase is going to move forward, considering their new rule and a lot of the stuff they are taking away from the card (3X travel through UR, 7% dividend bonus, higher minimum spend of 4K instead of 3K). Especially, when banks like Citi are coming into the fold with nice bonuses (3X gas for travel).
I still don’t think SPG is worth it (for me) considering how hard it is to accumulate points, even if you MS the crap out of it, that’s a lot of work for the average person who has a regular job and leisurely travels. I need my points to accumulate relatively quickly. Maybe if I was in a business where my company paid me to travel, sure. I value my UR points WAY more than Starpoints, as there is more flexibility and ability to earn quicker, especially coupled with Freedom. As always, appreciate the thoughts and a differing perspective.
However you are running the comparison between UR and SPG as 5x vs 1x proposition. Once you blow thru the 250k in office spend the SPG is a better play especially with the current method to earn SPG + cash during MS.
I am relatively new, so forgive me if what I ask seems obvious. What do you mean by 250K office spend? I do not have an Ink if that’s what you are referring to? Also, earning SPG + cash during MS? I don’t understand this comment. I have not MS’d yet, but I did make sure to get myself a BB card. Just haven’t tested the waters yet or methods. Perhaps, I am unaware of opportunities or methods that make the SPG worth it, which is why I am having trouble viewing its worth? How does the avg. joe get value out of it, when they only take maybe 1 or 2 major trips a year?
At this point, we are all speculating.
If I was a betting man (which I am not…unless if I knew my chances to win were 100% hehe), I think Chase will continue its long very slow path to more devaluations. It’s like water boarding, slow and painful!
GGGR makes a great point when the “numbers” get that big 🙂
these only works if you stay at low levels of spend. When you start getting into the 50k-100k a month area your numbers dont hold up as well.
Reply to exoticfusion above:
It is well past 1 am and I am at Starbucks after finishing and scheduling tomorrow’s blog post.
So, my brain is fried…Yeah that 250k refers to the Ink fairly recent spending limits instituted.
Some SPG Cash & Points can be excellent deals that can make a lot of sense when MSing cash&SPGpoints 🙂
If you are not an aspirational kind of guy to stay only in luxury hotels, burning the SPG points in lower category hotels is a GREAT value. You should easily do 1 to 2 weeks for FREE (or almost free, let’s not get too technical lol). Or you can transfer 20k to 25k airline miles. Many do that but I personally like to burn the SPG points on hotel stays.
Crap….I need to leave and go home soon….
Camping overnight on the rim of Mount Nyiragongo is one of my favorite travel experiences.