Chase and Southwest have brought the signup bonus on the Rapid Rewards (RR) Performance Business Visa to a historical high of 100,000 points.  You receive up to 100,000 points (70,000 points after you spend $5,000 within 3 months of new account opening, and additional 30,000 points after you spend $25,000 total within 6 months of new account opening).  This bonus is not available if you currently have any personal Southwest Rapid Rewards credit card or have received a signup bonus for any personal Southwest credit card in the past 24 months.

Opening a business card requires you have a small business or you are preparing to open a small business, and the $25K spending requirement within the first 6 months is pretty high.  However, once you hit $25K spending, you will earn at least 125,000 points which are more than enough to earn you Southwest Companion Pass, which normally requires 110,000 points in a calendar year and allows you to take a companion for free (you pay for your ticket and the taxes and fees for your companion) as many times as you could for the rest of 2020 and the entire 2021.  This is arguably the easiest way to qualify for the lucrative status.

As detailed in the previous post, Amex has revamped all six Delta SkyMiles credit cards as of January 30, 2020.  Now we have updated the following reviews to reflect the changes:

• Amex Delta SkyMiles Gold Card (personal and business)
• Amex Delta SkyMiles Platinum Card (personal and business)
• Amex Delta SkyMiles Reserve Card (personal and business)
• Several other reviews involving these credit cards
• Best Credit Cards for Perks

Note that with increasing annual fees, Delta Reserve Card and Delta Platinum Card both offer incredible Delta perks such as airport lounge access (Delta Reserve only), annual companion certificate, Delta Medallion Qualifying Miles booster, Delta Medallion Qualifying Dollar waiver, first checked bags for free, priority boarding, etc.  That is why Amex Delta Reserve Card is now #3 (up by one) and Amex Delta Platinum Card #8 (up from #10) Best Credit Cards for Perks.

In addition, Amex also introduced some impressive signup offers for these cards:

• 60,000 miles upon signup and an additional 10,000 miles upon the first renewal for Delta Gold Card (personal or business, ~$600 value in our book)
• 80,000 miles upon signup and an additional 20,000 miles upon the first renewal for Delta Platinum Card (personal or business, ~$550 value after considering annual fees)
• 80,000 miles + 20,000 MQMs upon signup and an additional 20,000 miles upon the first renewal for Delta Reserve Card (personal or business, ~$450 value after considering annual fees)

The major revamp of all seven Delta Amex credit cards are on the way.  Let's have at a breakdown of the changes.  All the tables are from American Express / Delta Air Lines.

Delta SkyMiles Blue American Express

• 2x miles on dining will be expanded from U.S. to worldwide
• Foreign transaction fee will be waived;
• "Pay with Miles" feature will be added.

Three business cards also receive similar changes.  Here we highlight the differences from personal cards.

• Delta SkyMiles Gold BUSINESS American Express receives the same changes as the personal version except that instead having grocery as a new 2x bonus category it will have U.S. shipping and U.S. advertisement as new 2x categories;
• Delta SkyMiles Platinum BUSINESS American Express receives the same changes as the personal version except that instead having dining & grocery as new 2x bonus categories it will give 1.5x miles for any purchases of $5,000 or more each (up to $50,000 miles per year);
• Delta SkyMiles Reserve BUSINESS American Express receives the same changes as the personal version except that it will give 1.5x miles for all purchases once the annual spending exceeds $150,000.

Chase has re-branded United Explorer Business Visa as United Business Visa, and introduced a few changes:

• Annual fee is increased from $95 to $99, and not waived for the first year any more;
• Annual 10,000 miles booster for $15K spending is removed;
• Local transportation is now a 2x points category; NEW
• Receive 5,000 miles upon each anniversary when you also have a personal United credit card; NEW
• Receive $100 statement credit upon each anniversary when you buy at least 7 United tickets of $100 or more each.  NEW

Also now the card offers 100,000 miles after you spend $10,000 within 3 months of new account opening, better than United Explorer Business Visa ever offered.

Major changes on City National Bank (CNB) Crystal Visa Infinite kicked in on January 1, 2020:

• Annual fee of each authorized user is increased from zero to $95;
• Gas & groceries are no longer a 3x rewards categories;
• Each cardmember is still allowed to have $250 airline incidental credits per year, but the total credits per each Crystal account is now capped at $350.  That means if you have used $250 as the primary cardholder, your authorized user can only receive $100 credits;
• Priority Pass Select membership provided by the card will no longer cover guests for free.  Each guest will be charged $32;
• Visa Infinite $100 airline discount is discontinued.

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The devaluation is mostly towards previously lucrative perks for free authorized users.  Now for $95 a year, your authorized user will receive up to $250 airline credits (the total credits are limited to $350 per Crystal account, which means if you already use $250 credits as the primary cardholder, the incremental credits are only $100; of course spreading $350 out between two cards adds a little bit of flexibility), Priority Pass Select, 12 GoGo passes, Global Entry reimbursement, and Visa Infinite benefits.  It is up to you to decide whether it is worthwhile to add an authorized user.

As for the primary cardholder, it might still be a good card to have, but there are a few arguably better alternatives such Chase Sapphire Reserve, Citi Prestige, and US Bank Altitude Reserve.

Due to the devaluation, Crystal Visa is no longer one of the Best Credit Cards for Perks; it is still #4 Best Credit Card for Protection.

To reflect the major changes that kicked in as of January 12, 2020, our review of Chase Sapphire Reserve has been updated, so as many other reviews that involve this popular card.

In a nutshell, the changes for Sapphire Reserve are as the following:

• The annual fee for primary cardholder is increased from $450 to $550, which seems an industry wide trend (Amex Platinum is $550, Amex Delta Reserve will soon be $550, Citi Prestige is $495, ...)
• One year Lyft Pink membership - activate before March 31, 2022.  Lyft Pink (valued at least $199 on paper) offers 15% off every car ride, priority airport pickups, relaxed cancellations, and exclusive savings;
• 10x points on Lyft purchases through March 2022, i.e., 7 additional points over the 3 points on regular travel;
• One year DoorDash subscription service for free - activate before December 31, 2021.  This subscription service offers $0 delivery fee and reduced service fees on food orders over $12 via DoorDash;  
• Receive $60 statement credits for DoorDash purchases through December 2020 and another $60 through December 2021;

As we can see the new Lyft and DoorDash perks, which might be useful to some customers, are sort of temporary to mitigate the annual fee increase.  We think in general this card was devaluated.  Considering the easy-to-use $300 annual credit, the effective annual fee is increased from $150 to $250.  In order to cancel that out and beat the benchmark 2% cashback provided by several non-fee cards such as Citi Double Cash and Fidelity Visa, the minimum spending on the 3x categories (dining & travel) is increased from $6,000 to $10,000, with our valuation of Chase Ultimate Rewards points at 1.5 cents a piece, because $6,000 x 3 x 1.5% = $6,000 x 2% + $150 while $10,000 x 3 x 1.5% = $10,000 x 2% + $250.

When compared to another Chase card that offer flexible miles/points transfer feature - Sapphire Preferred which carries a $95 annual fee and offers 2x points on dining & travel, you need to spend $10,500 per year on dining & travel to cancel out the effective annual fee difference, because $10,500 x 3 x 1.5% - $250 = $10,500 x 2 x 1.5% - $95.  Previously, you only need to spend $3,700t on dining & travel to cancel out the difference in effective annual fees, and that was why it was an easier recommendation to get the seemingly more expensive Sapphire Reserve.  Now you really need to figure out if you could spend that much in those categories and how much you value the extra perks and protection provided by Sapphire Reserve.  Another factor to consider is that Sapphire Reserve is still a better card for Ultimate Rewards ecosystem (we always recommend comparing it with the non-fee Freedom Unlimited to get best out of this ecosystem), as in addition to the flexible miles/points transfer feature it does offer a better fixed travel redemption option at 1.5 cents when you book through Chase.

All in all, it is not as easy as before to recommend Chase Sapphire Reserve, but for cardholders who spend enough on dining & travel and/or value excellent travel perks such as airport lounge access, luxury hotel privileges, primary rental car insurance, premium roadside assistance, the best travel & consumer protection provided by any credit card, and the ultimate flexibility in redeeming points, this card still represents great value.  After number crunching, Sapphire Reserve maintains the No.1 spot on our Top 10 Best Credit Cards list, for now.

We wrote about Amex's major protection changes kicking in as of January 1, 2020 back in November.  Now we have updated our Protection page to reflect these changes.  The ranking for the Top 10 Best Credit Cards for Protection hasn't changed.  None of the Amex cards are on the Top 10 list.

Chase has upped signup bonuses on all three personal Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards  (RR) Visa Credit Cards to 75,000 points each with a $5,000 spending requirement: Southwest RR Plus Visa ($69 annual fee), Southwest RR Premier Visa ($99 annual fee), and Southwest RR Priority Visa ($150 annual fee).  These bonuses are arguably the best in history in terms of number of points.  Remember Chase used to offer a straight Companion Pass plus 30K points back in 2019, and Companion Pass plus 40K points for California residents back in 2017.  Companion Pass status allows you to take one companion for free as many times as you want, as long as you pay your own tickets and taxes and fees for your companion.  With the new 75K offers, it is actually not hard at all the qualify for the Companion Pass which requires 110K points accumulation in a calendar year.  Note that you won't receive a second bonus if you open two personal Southwest Visa cards; however, you could open one personal Southwest Visa and one Southwest Business Visa (RR Premier Business or RR Performance Business) to easily qualify for Companion Pass.

After Citi's September overhaul and Barclay's November overhaul of their credit card protection benefits, Amex will also have some major changes coming on January 1, 2020.  Here are the breakdowns of the upcoming changes.

• Trip Cancellation & Interruption: added to Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant.  This covers trips cancelled or interrupted due to weather, terrorism, sudden illness or injury, jury duty, up to $10,000 per trip and $20,000 per year.  In addition to tickets paid entirely with an Amex card, awards tickets and Pay with Points tickets are covered as well.
• Trip Delay: added to Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, for flight delays more than 6 hours, up to $500 per ticket.  Also added to Gold Card (personal and business), Green Card, and Delta Platinum (personal and business), for flight delays more than 12 hours, up to $300 per ticket.  In addition to tickets paid entirely with an Amex card, awards tickets and Pay with Points tickets are covered as well.
• Travel Accident Insurance: removed from all cards!
• Roadside Assistance: removed from all cards!  For most cards it is not big deal, as the benefit only dispatches a service provider and you still have to pay for the service.  However, certain premium Amex cards such as Platinum Card (personal and business), Gold Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant currently offer Premium Roadside Assistance which covers towing up to 10 miles and other incidentals for free, for up to 4 times per year, and this benefit will be gone as well!  Many cardholders including myself, actually use the Premium Roadside Assistance in lieu of AAA's basic plan, and in 2020 they have to look into alternatives such as Chase Sapphire Reserve (which unfortunately only covers up to $50 per use) or start paying AAA once again.
• Return Protection: removed from all cards except for Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, Blue Cash Preferred, EveryDay Preferred, and Plum Card (business).
• Extended Warranty: coverage will be reduced from two years of extended warranty down to one year.  Remember Amex actually just increased the coverage from one year to two years back in August 2018, and in 2020 the only card issuer that continue to offer two years of extended warranty is Citi (and only for certain cards).  What is more, this benefit will be removed entirely for EveryDay Card, Blue Card, Blue Cash Card, and Cash Magnet.
• Purchase Protection: coverage will be reduced from 120 days back to 90 days.  The same story here - Amex just increased the coverage from 90 days to 120 days in August 2018.  The coverage usually covers only theft or damage, up to $1,000 per item and $50,000 per year, but Amex will add accidental loss and increase the per item limit to $10,000 for Platinum Card (personal and business), Gold Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant. 

Overall, the changes are mixed - some gain and some loss - but not as bad as Citi's drastic devaluation.  The cards that benefit from the changes are probably limited to those with an annual fee at least $450 - Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant; the rest of the cards are generally considered to receive reduced coverage.  We think most cardholders will be unhappy about the changes.  We will update our Protection page once these changes kick in.

Following Citi's drastic devaluation of credit card protection benefits, Barclays has also cut quite a few protection benefits on its credit card portfolio effective November 1, 2019.  The following benefits are removed from most of their credit cards:

• Trip Delay
• Price Protection
• Extended Warranty
• Purchase Assurance a.k.a, Purchase Protection
• Satisfaction Guarantee a.k.a. Return Protection

At the same time, just like other MasterCard issuers, Barclays has added Cellphone Protection to its World MasterCard and World Elite MasterCard.  So after the devaluation, Barclays American Airlines Aviator Red Word Elite MasterCard, for example, will offer protection benefits such as Travel Accident Insurance, Travel Cancellation and Interruption, Baggage Delay, Cellphone Protection, Identity Theft, Rental Car Collision Damage Waiver (still secondary), etc.  For details of credit card protection benefits, please visit our Protection page.

Overall, the changes are not as bad as Citi's but still very bad for Barclays' cardholders.  BTW, American Express also has some major benefit changes on the way (kicking in as of 1/1/2020), which we will cover in the next post.  It seems like a trend in the industry, but we will see if other major players such as Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and US Bank will follow suit.