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!

It appears that we have seen some best signup bonuses ever on the two very popular Amex charge cards.  These offers are via referral links and now definitely better than the ones on Resy.com (Amex partner website), which again are much better than Amex's own website. Keep in mind that some of these referral links show different results based on your browser setting and sometime simply the time you visit - it is recommended to visit the links in the private browsing mode of your browser; sometimes, you might need to try multiple times to see them; sometimes, clearing caches/history in your browser helps too. 

• Amex Platinum: 150,000 points ($1,500 in airfare, gift cards, etc., or 150K miles of Avianca, Air Canada, ANA, Singapore, British, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Flying Blue, etc.) after you spend $6,000 within 6 months of new account opening, and 10x points on dining, up to $25,000 in combined purchases, during your first 6 months of card membership. The signup bonus is not available to applicants who have or have had this card.  Yes, the $695 annual fee is not waived for the first year, but you will also receive annual credits over $1,400 (airline incidentals, prepaid Fine Hotels & Resorts or Hotel Collection bookings, CLEAR, Uber / Uber Eats, select entertainment, Equinox, and Saks). I am sure you will recover some or even all parts of the annual fee.
• Amex Gold: 90,000 points ($900 in airfare, gift cards, etc., or 90K miles of Avianca, Air Canada, ANA, Singapore, British, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Flying Blue, etc.) after your spend $4,000 within 6 months of new account opening and up to $250 in statement credits as 20% back of your restaurant purchases within 12 months of new account opening. The signup bonus is not available to applicants who have or have had this card or Amex Premier Rewards Gold Card. The $250 annual fee is not waived for the first year but might be at least offset partially by the annual $120 Uber credits and $120 dining credits.

As Amex generally only gives you a bonus if you don't or didn't have the same card before (sounds like once in a lifetime), we usually recommend waiting until you find the best deal. And it seems this might be the time for anybody who never had these cards before!

In 2021, Amex had arguably the best offer ever for its iconic Platinum Card via Resy: 125,000 points with $6K spending requirement + 15x points on dining for the first 6 months.  In 2022, we still have two very amazing offers that are pretty close to historical best:

• 150,000 points after you spend $6,000 within the first 6 months of new account opening, and 
• 125,000 points after you spend $6,000 within the first 6 months of new account opening + 10x points on dining for the first 6 months, up to $25,000 in purchase.

​Which one is the better? It obviously depends on how much you spend on dining within 6 months. If you spend $4,000 on dining during that time, with the second offer you will earn 9x extra points on dining and thus a total bonus of 125,000 + 36,000 = 161,000 points, which are a little more than what you will earn with the first offer. However, if you also have an Amex Gold Card, which offers 4x points on dining, you are only earning 6x extra points on dining, which brings the total to be 125,000 + 24,000 = 149,000, just below the first offer. So I will let you do the math yourself to see which one is better.  No matter which one you pick, these are a lot of points - for example, 150,000 Membership Rewards points could be $1,500 in airfare through Amex or 150,000 miles of Avianca, Air Canada, ANA, Singapore, British, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Flying Blue, etc. If you know how to leverage these frequent flyer miles for international long-haul premium cabin awards (business class or first class), you will get potentially huge value out of them. Yes, the $695 annual fee is not waived for the first year, but you will also receive annual credits over $1,400 (airline incidentals, prepaid Fine Hotels & Resorts or Hotel Collection bookings, CLEAR, Uber / Uber Eats, select entertainment, Equinox, and Saks). I am sure you will recover some or even all parts of the annual fee.

The last thing to note is that Amex BUSINESS Platinum Card also offers 150,000 points at this time, but with a much more difficult spending requirement ($15,000 within 3 months).

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:

Capital One has surprised us again with the improvement brought to its Capital One (C1) Miles rewards program.  The transfer ratio of the following six airline partners has been improved:

• Air Canada Aeroplan (1000:750) -> (1000:1000)
• British Airways Executive Club (1000:750)  -> (1000:1000)
• Emirates Skywards (1000:500)  -> (1000:1000)
• Flying Blue by Air France & KLM (1000:750)  -> (1000:1000)
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (1000:500)  -> (1000:1000)
• Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles (1000:750)  -> (1000:1000)

So in total there are 15 partners that have the industry-standard 1:1 transfer ratio and there are only 2 partners with a transfer ratio worse than that (EVA with 1000:750 and Accor with 1000:500).  In addition, JetBlue TrueBlue still has the old 1000:750 ratio but will leave C1 Miles program as of 10/24/21.  We have updated our featured review comparing five rewards programs offering flexible miles/points transfer feature.  Capital One has come a long way in terms of improving its program.  Before 2018, we considered C1 Miles as "fake miles" as they can only be redeemed up to a fixed value of 1 cent per point for various options including travel rewards.  In 2018, the frequent traveler miles/points transfer feature was introduced with 12 partners, most of which had a sub-standard ratio of 1000:750 so our valuation for C1 Miles was 1.1 cents per point.  In April 2021, the transfer feature was enhanced by adding a few new partners as well as making transfer ratio 1000:1000 for more than half of the partners and we started valuing C1 Miles at 1.3 cents per point.  Now with this new enhancement, we finally feel that C1 Miles are as valuable as the big three programs offered by credit card issuers: Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou and our current valuation for all four programs is the same at 1.5 cents per point.

Obviously, with this increased valuation, Venture Card and Spark Miles Business Card, both offering 2x Miles (=3% travel rewards) on everything with a $95 annual fee, are becoming better than ever before.  Venture Card now takes the top spot from Citi Premier as the Best Credit Card for Rewards and also jumps from #6 to #3 on our Top 10 Best Credit Cards list.  On the other hand, Spark Miles is considered the best business card for spending, alongside with Amex Blue Business Plus.  Below is the before/after comparison of our Top 10 list.

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.