Citi has brought back the best signup offers ever for two of its popular personal cards:

• Citi Premier 80,000 ThankYou points :: $95 annual fee ($1,105 in our book), and
• Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select 75,000 AA miles :: 1st year free ($1,125 in our book.

Chase has increased signup bonus for Sapphire Reserve from 50,000 to 60,000 points, while cutting it down for Sapphire Preferred from 80,000 to 60,000 points.

There are also various other changes in our Promotion page.

It is a good thing that Chase has brought back the best offer for its Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa after two years. You will receive five free nights at Marriott portfolio hotels, each with a redemption level up to 50,000 points, after you spend $5,000 within 3 months of new account opening.  The free night e-certificate expires 12 months after issuance; you might also top off the free night certificate with your own Marriott points, up to 15,000 additional points for a higher redemption level.  We value each of the free night certifications close to 50K Marriott points (for hotel redemptions only): $300 for each certificate, valued at 0.6 cents per point, because the flexibility of topping off free nights. The signup bonus minus annual fee is worth $1,450 in our book!

Chase Aeroplan World Elite MasterCard is now rated #3 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card. As you may use Aeroplan points on Air Canada or its partner airlines (Star Alliance) including United Airlines, it could be a good card for U.S. consumers for travel awards within U.S. and worldwide.

• Annual Fee: $95
• Signup Bonus: two Welcome Flight Rewards Certificates (up to 50,000 points each - if your award requires less than 50,000 points you won't receive the difference back; won't expire as long as your account is open; as you might use additional Aeroplan points to pay for the difference when your award requires over 50,000 points, this signup bonus is pretty close to 100,000 Aeroplan points) after spending $4,000 within the first 3 months of new account opening.  In addition, you receive Aeroplan 25K status (Aeroplan's entry level elite status) for the remaining of the calendar year when you open the new account plus the next calendar year. 
• Rewards: 3x Air Canada & groceries & dining, and 1x everywhere else. You also earn 500 bonus points for each $2,000 spent in a calendar month, up to three times per month.
• Perks: it is packed with Aeroplan specific benefits, as well as World Elite MasterCard benefits.
• Protection: decent level of travel and consumer protection.
• Our analysis: when it comes to spending, even though Chase Aeroplan offers good rewards, especially in bonus categories, we recommend looking into some other excellent options such as Capital One Venture X, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex EveryDay Preferred, and Amex Gold.  However, it you can take advantage of Aeroplan specific benefits, you will find this card still amazing as a whole package. As a result of it strength in signup bonus (#7), rewards (#8), and decent performance in perks and protection, it is now rated #3 Best Credit Card.
• The before and after Top 10 list:

Amex has introduced some amazing signup offers for its Hilton Honors cobranded credit cards, arguably the best we have seen:

• Amex Hilton Honors Surpass Card ($95 annual fee): 130,000 points + one free night (our value $775)
• Amex Hilton Honors Card (no annual fee): 70,000 points + one free night (our value $630)
• Amex Hilton Honors BUSINESS card: ($95 annual fee): 130,000 points + one free night (our value $775)
• Note that the high-end Amex Hilton Honors Aspire Card ($450 annual fee, effectively $175) continues to offer 150,000 points + one free weekend night (our value $775), even though the free weekend night upon signup is not advertised as usual.
• These free night certificate expires after 12 months of issuance.  Hilton's most expensive hotels require 95,000~120,000 points or $400 to over $1,000 in cash per night.  Here are some examples of exceptional redemption for free nights: Waldorf Astoria Maldives, Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal, Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach, Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam, Grand Wailea - A Waldorf Astoria Resort, Waldorf Astoria Chicago, Waldorf Astoria Park City (in peak seasons), Conrad Bora Bora Nui, Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, Conrad Koh Samui, Conrad Punta de Mita, Conrad New York Midtown, Conrad Tokyo, Zemi Beach House - LXR Hotels & Resorts, Oceana Santa Monica - LXR Hotels & Resorts, The Biltmore Mayfair - LXR Hotels & Resorts, Cliffrose Springdale - Curio Collection, Hilton Seychelles Labriz, and Hilton Seychelles Northolme. 

Chase has some amazing signup offers too. These offers give you Southwest Companion Pass status through 2/28/2023.  Companion Pass is Southwest's potentially extremely lucrative top-tier elite status that allows you take a companion free of airline charges (not including taxes and government fees) on any Southwest operated flight as many times as you want and is normally achieved by flying 100 qualified one-way segments or earning 125,000 qualifying points in a calendar year. 

• Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Visa ($69 annual fee): 30,000 points + Companion Pass through 2/28/2023 after you spend $5,000 within the first 3 months (our value $920)
• Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Visa ($99 annual fee): 30,000 points + Companion Pass through 2/28/2023 after you spend $5,000 within the first 3 months (our value $890)
• Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Visa ($149 annual fee): 30,000 points + Companion Pass through 2/28/2023 after you spend $5,000 within the first 3 months (our value $840)

Just a month after hugely improving its Miles program that allows frequent traveler miles/points transfer to 15 partners at 1:1 ratio, Capital One brought us its first ever high-end credit card - Venture X Visa Infinite Card, with the following impressive features:

• A 100K Miles signup bonus after you spend $10,000 within the first 6 months, worth $1,500 based on our current valuation of 1.5 cents per Mile,
• A $395 annual fee, comparable to other high-end cards', which with $300 annual travel credits (requiring bookings through Capital One Travel, valued at $150) and 10K Miles anniversary bonus (valued at $150) effectively becomes $95, the same as the mid-tier Venture Visa Signature Card's,
• An unmatched 10-5-2 earning structure: 10x Miles on hotels & car rentals through Capital One Travel (=15% travel rewards), 5x on airfare through Capital One Travel (=7.5% travel rewards), and 2x everywhere else (=3% travel rewards),
• A long list of high-end perks, including airport lounge access, luxury hotel privileges, rental car elite status, Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit, 24/7 concierge service, exclusive access to culinary, sports, and music events, and
• A high level of travel & consumer protection, including primary rental car insurance, cellphone protection, $1M travel accident insurance, travel delay, travel cancellation insurance, lost baggage, return protection, extended warranty, and purchase protection. 

No wonder Venture X easily unseated the long-reigning Chase Sapphire Reserve and became the new #1 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card.  Here are the before and after snapshots of our Top 10 list:

Chase now has the best offer ever for its cobranded Southwest credit cards:​ up to 100,000 points (50,000 points after spending $2,000 within the first 3 months and additional 50,000 points after spending $12,000 within the first year) for any of the three personal cards: Southwest RR Plus Visa ($69 annual fee), Southwest RR Premier Visa ($99 annual fee), and Southwest RR Priority Visa ($149 annual fee).

Other than some previous offers that gave you Companion Pass status right away (but with a much smaller points bonus), either of these three current personal card offers are also considered the easiest way to achieve the potentially highly lucrative Companion Pass status, which normally requires 125,000 points accumulated within one calendar year and allows you to take a companion for free as many times as you like.  If you time it right, you may get Companion Pass for almost two years.  This is how: apply one of the three personal cards right before the current offer ends (12/1/2021), and spend $25K (or less if you also spend in bonus categories) in the statement which ends after 1/1/2022 (you may adjust the due date so that the statement ending date falls on, e.g., 1/1/2022, so your spending rewards for December as well as the 100K signup bonus will count towards 2022 calendar year).  Spending $25K in one month might be a challenge for most of us, and we might consider options such as paying property taxes with the card, recharging your Amazon account balance which you will use down the road, or buying some gift cards for merchants you will shop anyway. Of course, there is nothing wrong to spread your spending over a few months or actually fly with Southwest to earn some points or even picking up a new Southwest Business card for either 60K or 80K points (make sure your signup bonus posts in 2022).  While you can't receive both signup bonuses on two personal Southwest cards, you can receive both if you open one personal card and one business card.  If you do think about signing up both personal and business cards, you might have two different strategies: (1) open one personal card and spend $2,000 to get 50K points, and Performance Business Card and spend $5,000 to get 80K, which puts you over the 125K points threshold, and of course you might want to spend another $10K on the personal card down the road to get the remaining 50K which is still a great deal; (2) open one personal card and spend $12,000 to get 100K points, and Premier Business Card and spend $2,000 to get 60K, which also puts you over the 125K threshold, but with double spending in the short term and no more worries in the longer term.  The bottom line is that you will earn Companion Pass for the rest of the calendar year (2022) in which you complete the 125K points qualification requirement and the following calendar year (2023).

The business cards are still offering the same bonuses as before: 60,000 points for Southwest RR Premier Business Visa ($99), and 80,000 points for Southwest RR Performance Business Visa ($199).

In addition, there are several new benefits introduced for these cards as below:

• Southwest RR Plus Visa ($69): (1) 2x points (increased from 1x) on local transit and commuting (including rideshare) & internet, cable, phone and select streaming services; (2) Two EarlyBird check-in per year;  (3) 25% back on inflight purchases.
• Southwest RR Premier Visa ($99): (1) 3x points on Southwest (increased from 2x); (2) 2x points (increased from 1x) on local transit and commuting (including rideshare) & internet, cable, phone and select streaming services; (3) Two EarlyBird check-in per year;  (4) 25% back on inflight purchases.  (5) receive 1,500 TQPs (Tier Qualifying Points) towards status for every $10K charged on the card, which is not a new benefit but the 10K annual TQP cap earned from the card is removed.
• Southwest RR Priority Visa ($149): (1) 3x points on Southwest (increased from 2x); (2) 2x points (increased from 1x) on local transit and commuting (including rideshare) & internet, cable, phone and select streaming services; (3) 25% back on inflight purchases; (4) unlimited Tier Qualifying Points (TQP) - receive 1,500 TQPs towards status for every $10K charged on the card, with annual TQP cap removed.
• Southwest RR Premier BUSINESS Visa ($99): (1) 3x points on Southwest (increased from 2x); (2) 2x points (increased from 1x) on local transit and commuting (including rideshare); (3) Two EarlyBird check-in per year;  (4) 25% back on inflight purchases; (5) Reimbursement of Southwest transfer fee (when you transfer your points to another Southwest RR member or a pre-selected charity), up to $500 per year; (6) unlimited Tier Qualifying Points (TQP) - receive 1,500 TQPs towards status for every $10K charged on the card, with annual TQP cap removed.
  
• Southwest RR Performance BUSINESS Visa ($199): (1) 4x points on Southwest (increased from 3x); (2) 2x points (increased from 1x) on local transit and commuting (including rideshare); (3) Reimbursement of Southwest transfer fee (when you transfer your points to another Southwest RR member or a pre-selected charity), up to $500 per year; (4) unlimited Tier Qualifying Points (TQP) - receive 1,500 TQPs towards status for every $10K charged on the card, with annual TQP cap removed.
  

Another round of amazing signup offers and this time is for four Marriott Bonvoy co-branded credit cards:

• Amex Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card ($450 annual fee & $300 annual Marriott credit): 150,000 points + one 85K-point free night (our value $1,425) - easily the best offer ever for this product!
• Amex Marriott Bonvoy BUSINESS Card ($125 annual fee): 125,000 points + two 50K-point free nights (our value $1,413) - easily the best offer ever for this product!
• Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa Card ($99): 125,000 points + one 50K-point free night (our value $1,143).  We consider this as the second best offer ever behind last year's five 50K-point free night offer.
• Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bold Visa Card (no annual fee): 60,000 points (our value $450) - also the best offer ever on this product.

You might pick one up based on your own situation.  Beware of the rules - read the details on the application page or in our reviews.

There have been quite a few exciting recent offers:

• The iconic Amex Platinum Card got revamped to increase the annual fee from $550 to $695 and add four new categories of annual credits ($200 for prepaid hotel via Fine Hotels & Resorts or the Hotel Collection, $179 for CLEAR membership, $300 for Equinox memberships, $240 for digital entertainment access).  On top of that, it now comes with an amazing signup bonus of 125,000 points + 15x points on dining & small businesses for 6 months, arguably the best ever in history.  The revamp, however, didn't change its position on our Top 10 List.
• Amex Business Platinum Card doesn't receive a full revamp with the annual fee being kept at $595 but receives $179 CLEAR credit for free.
• Following Chase British Visa, now Aer Lingus Visa and Iberia Visa also have a 100,000 point offer with an easy $5,000 spending requirement.  This is also considered the best offer ever on either card.
• Chase United Business Visa now offers 150,000 miles with a $20K spending requirement within 6 months.  For those who could meet the spending requirement, this is undoubtedly the historical high.
• Chase United Explorer Visa now offers 70,000 miles with an easy $3K spending requirement.
• Chase Freedom Flex and Freedom Unlimited have an elevated 20,000 points + 5x on groceries for 12 months offer.