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.

In response to Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa's crazily lucrative five free 50K-nights offer, Amex has also brought us very impressive offers for both the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card:

• For the 2021 calendar year, enjoy free Marriott Platinum Elite status, the second top tier elite status in the Marriott Bonvoy program, normally achieved by staying at least 50 nights per year and offering lounge access/free breakfasts, upgrades to a suite, and other perks. 
• Earn 100,000 points when you spend at least $5,000 within 3 months of new account opening for either card.
• Earn additional 25,000 points upon your first anniversary when you renew your Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card.  The annual fee is $450 but after considering the annual $300 Marriott credit becomes $150 effectively.  The card offers a free 50K-night upon each anniversary, which can easily negate the effective annual fee.
• Earn up to $150 in statement credits for select U.S. advertising purchases within the first 6 months with your Marriott Bonvoy Business Card, which carries a $125 annual fee and offers a free 35K-night upon each anniversary.

Considering how lucrative Marriott Platinum status could be, we judge these as the best signup bonuses ever for both cards.  The only concern is obviously your travel plan during this pandemic.

Chase has brought us an amazing signup offer for Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa Signature:

• When you spend $5,000 within the first 3 months of new account opening, you will earn five free nights at Marriott International portfolio hotels worldwide, each capped at 50,000 points redemption level. 
• The free night certificates expire 12 months after issuance. 
• The potential maximum value for this signup bonus is 250,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, compared to the previous signup bonus of 100,000 points.  This is easily the best offer ever for this card, and probably also better than any of the previous offers from Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Starwood credit cards. 
• The downside of free night certificate compared to outright points bonus includes: (1) the free nights will have the best value when redeemed at hotels that require exactly or at least close to 50,000 points per night, which represent a subset of Marriott portfolio hotels worldwide, while Marriott Bonvoy points can be redeemed at any Marriott portfolio hotels at different redemption levels; (2) free night certificates expire after 12 months of issuance and there is no way to extend them after expiration dates (except for COVID-19 related measures), while Marriott points expire after 24 months of account inactivity and any qualifying activity will keep all points active for another 24 months; (3) Marriott points can also be transferred to frequent flyer miles of 44 partners, and in our book this feature actually represents better value than hotel redemption (currently 0.75 cent per point vs. 0.6 cent for hotels).  Partners such as American, United, Alaska, Delta, Southwest, British, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Japan, Air Canada, ANA, Avianca, Singapore, Turkish, Korean, Flying Blue, Etihad, all have their own unique strength and value;  (4) you can redeem these free nights separately at different hotels or at the same hotels for different stays, but if you decide to redeem them for a five-night stay at the same hotel, keep in mind that Marriott allows you to pay for 4 nights using points and get the 5th night for free - in this way the five free nights will represent value of 200,000 points instead of 250,000 points as previously discussed.
• Of course, it is up to you to decide which hotel(s) you want to redeem these free nights.  Here we would like to give some ideas to maximize the value of these free nights.  The following is Marriott Bonvoy's current hotel redemption chart, and obviously better value could be found at Category-6 hotels requiring 50,000 points for standard redemption rate, Category-7 hotels requiring 50,000 points for off-peak rate, and Category-5 hotels requiring 40,000 points for peak rate, as circled in red.

Chase just brought us an improved signup bonus for Sapphire Preferred:

• 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points (=$1,000 travel rewards via Chase, or 80K miles/points of United, Singapore, British, Flying Blue, Southwest, JetBlue, Hyatt, etc.) after spending $4,000 within 3 months of new account opening.  Note that there is no more first annual fee waiver as before.  
• This bonus is not available if you currently have a Sapphire card (Sapphire, Sapphire Preferred, or Sapphire Reserve) or have received signup bonus from any Sapphire card in the past 48 months.  
• Based on anecdotal reports, this card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (you won't be approved for this card if you have opened 5 or more new accounts within the past 24 months; any new account with any issuer will count, not just with Chase; new accounts include most credit cards and charge cards but exclude non-Chase business cards and store charge cards). 
• The historical high of the signup bonus for this card was 100,000 points, but it was many years ago in 2012.  This 80K points offer is the best bonus we have seen since 2012.
• Sapphire Preferred is a great card to pair with the newly enhanced Chase Freedom Unlimited which offers 5x points on travel through Chase, 3x on dining & drugstores, and 1.5x everywhere else, because you might move points earned from Freedom Unlimited (which is ineligible for miles/points transfer) to Sapphire Preferred's account so they become eligible for miles/points transfer as well as the 1.25 cents per point fixed-value travel redemptions, greatly improving Freedom Unlimited's value.

Citi Premier has been revamped to offer 3x ThankYou points on groceries & gas & dining & airlines & hotels & travel agencies, almost single-handedly covering all important bonus categories.  Previously, Citi Premier offered 3x on gas & travel, and 2x on dining & entertainment.  Our current valuation for ThankYou points is 1.5 cents a piece based on the miles/points transfer feature (partners including Avianca, Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Flying Blue, JetBlue, Etihad, etc.), and thus Citi Premier returns 4.5% travel rewards for all its 3x categories.  With this substantial improvement, Citi Premier is now #1 Best Credit Card for Rewards, unseating the long reigning Amex EveryDay Preferred, and also rated #3 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card.  Note that 3x bonus on groceries & gas has been offered to cardmembers since June, ahead of the schedule revamp as part of temporary COVID-19 relief by credit cards.  Here are the before and after snapshots for our Top 10 list.