- 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.
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:
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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:
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:
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:
Chase has brought several enhancements to its popular Sapphire Preferred (CSP) and Sapphire Reserve (CSR). The annual fees ($95 on CSP and $550 on CSR) are kept the same. We think CSP's enhancements have been long overdue because the non-fee duo Freedom Flex and Freedom Unlimited have offered some similar bonus categories for a while. With a reasonable annual fee, CSP is now #3 best credit card for rewards. While we think CSR has been competitive even after Chase increased the annual fee from $450 to $550 last year mostly due to the COVID related temporary benefits, we certainly welcome the new benefits which will keep this card one of our top recommendations. With these enhancements, CSR and CSP now take the first and second spots on our Top 10 list. Citi Prestige was taken off the list because it has been discontinued to new applicants. Below are the before and after Top 10. Chase Sapphire Preferred Enhancements (effective August 16, 2021)
Chase Sapphire Reserved Enhancements (Effective August 16, 2021)
There have been quite a few exciting recent offers:
Our featured review is aimed to summarize the temporary credit card benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic and we have some new updates. The entire post is copied below with the current offers highlighted in cardinal.
Updated May 16, 2021. COVID-19 has obviously changed consumer behavior in a way that most of us probably would had never anticipated before, and it only makes sense that credit card issuers have been making adjustments accordingly. This review summarizes all the temporary benefits provided by credit card issuers during this pandemic. Note that while some benefits are applied automatically, some benefits require activation through a link or via online account. The current offers are highlighted in cardinal. American Express
Bank of America
Barclays
Capital One
Chase
Citi
HSBC
U.S. Bank
© 2011-2021 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved. Capital One enhances the frequent traveler miles/points transfer feature for Venture and Spark Miles4/25/2021 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. |
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