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.

Capital One (C1) Miles can always be redeemed for travel, gift cards, charity, etc. at a fixed value of 1 cent per Mile.  In late 2018 Capital One introduced the frequent traveler miles/points transfer feature with 12 partners and a transfer ratio of 1000 C1 Miles : 750 frequent traveler miles/points for most partners, and while we welcomed the change we thought the transfer ratio is lower than the mainstream competitive programs such as Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou.  Last week, Capital One announced the addition of British Airways, TAP Air Portugal, Turkish Airlines, and Choice Privileges to its transfer program and the increase of the transfer ratio to 1000:1000 for 9 partners (AeroMexico, Avianca, Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Finnair, Qantas, TAP, Wyndham, and Choice).  Among the 1:1 transfer partners, Avianca, Cathay Pacific and Etihad probably offer better value, while you may still find some value in Air Canada and Turkish which keep the old 1:0.75 transfer ratio.  We have updated our featured review Marriott vs. MR vs. UR vs. TY vs. C1 vs. CR covering the major programs that allow points transfer to frequent traveler miles/points to include C1 Miles in the comparison.

​This enhancement substantially increases our value for C1 Miles from previously 1.1 cents to now 1.3 cents a piece.  Capital One Venture Card (personal) and Spark Miles Business Card, both with an $95 annual fee and returning 2x Miles on everything, have become very powerful for general spending with 2.6% travel rewards based on our valuation.  They compare favorably to other high returning cards for general spending with the transfer feature: Citi Double Cash (no annual fee, 2x points = 3% rewards, requiring a premium ThankYou card to activate the transfer feature), Amex EveryDay Preferred ($95 annual fee, 1.5x points = 2.25% rewards, requiring at least 30 transactions per month to achieve 1.5x), Amex Blue Business Plus (no annual fee, 2x points = 3% rewards up to $50K spent annually), Chase Freedom Unlimited (no annual fee, 1.5x points = 2.25% rewards, requiring a premium Ultimate Rewards card to activate the transfer feature), and Chase Ink Unlimited Business Card (no annual fee, 1.5x points = 2.25% rewards, requiring a premium Ultimate Rewards card to activate the transfer feature).

As a result, Capital One is now rated #6 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card and also #4 Best Credit Card for Rewards.  Our Top 10 list also saw the climbing of Amex Platinum and Amex Gold due to their increased signup bonuses and for Platinum the addition of cellphone protection coverage earlier this month.  This is the before and after comparison of our Top 10 list.

Amex and Hilton have brought the best bonuses ever for the cobranded Hilton Amex, Hilton Surpass Amex, and Hilton Business Amex:

• Amex Hilton ($0): $100 statement credit after your first purchase & 100,000 points after you spend $1,000 within the first 3 months of new account opening (our value $500)
• Amex Hilton Surpass ($95): $150 statement credit after your first purchase & 150,000 points after you spend $2,000 within the first 3 months of new account opening (our value $655)
• Amex Hilton Business Card ($95): $150 statement credit after your first purchase & 150,000 points after you spend $2,000 within the first 3 months of new account opening (our value $655)

Throughout this pandemic when many card issuers have been bringing temporary benefits or bonuses to keep their existing cardmembers, Barclays has been quiet, until now. 

​In the last couple of days, many Barclays cardmembers received a promotional email titled "Double Bonus Opportunity – Earn up to 60,000 miles!" or "...60,000 points!" or "...$600 Uber Cash!"  This appears to be a widely targeted offer to all Barclays cards such as Arrivals cards, AAdvantage Aviator cards, JetBlue cards, Hawaiian Airlines cards, Wyndham cards, Uber card: between 11/10/2020 and 1/31/2021, you will earn up to 60,000 miles/points or $600 cash, depending on which card you have (e.g. 10x additional points on everything, up to 10,000 points earned, and additional 50,000 points when you spend a total of $3,000 within this period).  This must be the best bonus ever for existing cardmembers since I started writing about credit cards in 2011; usually you need to open a new account and meet the minimum spending requirement to receive a bonus like this; mostly likely the existing cardmembers did receive a similar bonus when they opened the card, and now it is like receiving a second bonus to keep the card.

Wow, Amex and Chase have brought us a few truly exciting offers this week, each representing the historical high.  We estimate the value of each offer based on our valuation of points, mostly from the miles transfer feature for long-haul international premium cabin redemptions, as well as typical spending pattern.  Do your own math to see your value.  See the fine prints for the eligibility.

• Amex Platinum Card: 100,000 points + 10x on groceries & gas for 6 months :: $300 effective annual fee (our value $1,605).
• Amex Platinum Card (via Resy.com): 75,000 points + $300 for dining + 10x groceries & gas for 6 months :: $300 effective annual fee (our value $1,530).
• Amex Gold Card (via Resy.com): 60,000 points + $250 for dining :: effective annual fee $150 (our value $1,000).
• Chase Ink Cash: 75,000 points :: no annual fee (our value $750, or $1,125 if you have Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Preferred).
• Chase Ink Unlimited: 75,000 points :: no annual fee (our value $750, or $1,125 if you have Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Preferred).
• Chase United Explorer: 70,000 miles :: first year free (our value $910).

Chase has introduced temporary benefits on more of its credit cards.  In a recent post, we covered Chase Sapphire series, Ink series, and Freedom series.  Now select cardmembers will receive the following category bonuses between 11/1/2020 and 12/31/2020; you need to activate the offer through a link in the promotional email or at chase.com/mybonus directly.

• 5x miles/points on Amazon.com and groceries, up to $1,500 in combined spending per month, for United Airlines cards, Southwest RapidRewards cards, Brith Airways Visa, Iberia Visa, Aer Lingus Visa, Marriott Bonvoy cards, and Ritz-Carlton cards.
• 5x points on Amazon.com and 3x on groceries, up to $1,500 in combined spending per month, for Hyatt cards and IHG Rewards cards.
• 10x points on Marriott portfolio hotels, up to $3,500 spent per month, for Marriott Bonvoy cards and Ritz-Carlton cards.

In addition, not from Chase or Amex, the following hotel program policies are recently announced:

• Marriott: annual free night certificates expiring before 12/11/2020 will be valid until 1/31/2021, and those expiring between 12/11/2020 and 7/31/2021 will be valid until 8/1/2021.  These cards earn annual free night certificates: Amex Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, Amex Marriott Bonvoy Business, Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, and those Marriott/Ritz-Cartlton/SPG cobranded cards issued by Chase or Amex that are no longer accepting new applications.
• Hyatt: annual free night certificates with an expiration date between 3/1/2020 and 12/31/2021 will be valid until 12/31/2021.  Chase World of Hyatt Visa and Hyatt Visa earn annual free night certificates.

Finally, to track all the COVID-19 related temporary credit card benefits, please visit our featured review which has been under continuous update with the most recent updates highlighted in cardinal.