Category: Hotels

Amex brought back the best signup offers for its Hilton cobranded credit cards (points + one free night)

5/27/2023

All Amex Hilton cobranded credit cards are offering points + one free night, the best ever we have seen.

Amex Hilton (no annual fee): 70,000 points + one free night (the best ever and the same as in 2022)
Amex Hilton Surpass ($95): 130,000 points + one free night (the best ever and the same as in 2022)
Amex Hilton Business ($95): 150,000 points + one free night (the best ever and better than anything before)
Amex Hilton Aspire ($450): 150,000 points + one free night (regular offer but still the best ever)

The 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. So these offers are pretty amazing. 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.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred 90K points in branch or 80K points online

4/23/2023

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Chase has brought back the 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points offer for its popular Sapphire Preferred ($95 annual fee): spend $4,000 within the first 3 months of new account opening and receive 80,000 points ($1,200 in travel through Chase or 80,000 miles of United, Singapore, British, Flying Blue, Southwest, JetBlue, Hyatt, etc.)

If you are willing to go to a Chase branch to apply through a banker and spend an additional $2,000 within 6 months, you will get a slightly better deal of 90,000 points.

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Best bonus ever: Chase BUSINESS Ink Cash / Unlimited 90,000 points each

10/30/2022

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Chase has brought the best signup bonuses ever for its two no-annual-fee business cards Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited: 90,000 Ultimate Rewards (UR) points (advertised as $900 cash) with a lower spending requirement of $6,000 within 3 months. If you don't have a premium UR card, 90,000 points' best value will just be $900 in cash; however, if you have a premier UR card such as Ink Preferred and Sapphire Preferred, the points earned on Ink Cash/Unlimited can be transferred into the premier UR account and thus eligible for the frequent traveler miles/points transfer feature which in our book elevates UR points to 1.5 cents per point, and in this way, 90,000 points will be worth about $1,350. Thus, these are arguably also the best UR points bonuses among all current Chase UR cards: Ink Preferred ($95) offers 100,000 points with a tough $15,000 spending requirement; Ink Premier ($195) offers 100,000 points with a $10,000 spending requirement and their points cannot be transferred to any other Chase UR card, capping the maximum value to be $1,000; Sapphire Reserve offers 80,000 points but the annual fee is $550 (effectively $250 considering the annual $300 travel credit).

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A few 80,000 points/miles offers & Top 10 list updated

10/18/2022

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A few more recent good signup offers.
Chase Sapphire Reserve now offers 80,000 points at signup - the second best offer after the initial incredible 100,000 points when introduced in 2016.
Citi AA Executive WEMC offers 80,000 miles - the second best offer after 100,000 miles a few years ago.
Barclays AA Aviator Business MC offers 80,000 miles + $95 credit - the historical high.
Barclays Miles & More MC offers 80,000 miles - the historical high.
With some changes in signup bonuses (we look at the historical trend in the recent couple of years) and rewards program valuation, our Top 10 list received some slight updates. Below is the before and after comparison. As you can see, Sapphire Preferred and Aeroplan MC switch places, while Hilton Aspire Amex replaces Barclays JetBlue Plus as the No. 10 card on the list.

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Chase Marriott Bountiful and Amex Marriott Bevy reviews are up & Amex Marriott Brilliant revamped & Chase Ink Premier $1,000 offer available online

10/16/2022

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There were a few new developments for Marriott Bonvoy cobranded credit cards in September. Two new $250 cobranded cards were introduced: Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Visa Signature and Amex Marriott Bonvoy Bevy Card. They are almost identical in signup bonus (125,000 points), rewards, and perks, except for some Visa/Amex related benefits. However, we won't recommend either except for the signup bonuses because of the lack of good perks. Both offer an annual 85K-point free night when you spend $15,000 per calendar year, not very attractive considering annual fees and the spending requirement. See our reviews for details.
Amex also updated Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card by increasing the annual fee from $450 to $650 and introducing a few changes: (1) annual free night's cap is increased from 50,000 points to 85,000 points, (2) complimentary Marriott Gold Elite status is replaced by Platinum Elite status (which previously required $75,000 annual spending), (3) annual "earned choice award" for $60K spending is added, (4) annual night credits towards elite status are increased from 15 nights to 25 nights, and (5) annual $300 Marriott statement credits are replaced by $300 dining statement credits (up to $25 monthly credits). In our opinions, the perks are not very impressive considering the high annual fee, especially if you don't stay at Marriott that often.
Introduced earlier this year with in-branch only application, Chase Ink Premier BUSINESS Card is finally available online. Note that the Ultimate Rewards points earned from this card cannot be transferred to frequent traveler miles/points or to your other Ultimate Rewards accounts. So you should treat it as a cashback card which offers $1,000 at signup with a $195 annual fee.

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Citi Premier 80K points & Citi AA Platinum Select 75K miles (the best bonuses ever)

6/18/2022

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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.

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Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa best signup bonus ever coming back: 5 Free Nights (50K points each)

6/5/2022

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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!

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Amex Platinum and Amex Gold signup offers are getting better via referral links (150K + 10x dining for Platinum & 90K + $250 dining for Gold & both are the best ever)

3/18/2022

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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!

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Two amazing offers for Amex Platinum (150,000 points OR 125,000 points + 10x dining) - which one is better?

3/7/2022

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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:

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).

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Amex Hilton points + free night offers (three cards) & Chase Southwest points + Companion Pass offers (three cards)

2/13/2022

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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)

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Amex brought back the best signup offers for its Hilton cobranded credit cards (points + one free night)

Chase Sapphire Preferred 90K points in branch or 80K points online

Best bonus ever: Chase BUSINESS Ink Cash / Unlimited 90,000 points each

A few 80,000 points/miles offers & Top 10 list updated

Chase Marriott Bountiful and Amex Marriott Bevy reviews are up & Amex Marriott Brilliant revamped & Chase Ink Premier $1,000 offer available online

Citi Premier 80K points & Citi AA Platinum Select 75K miles (the best bonuses ever)

Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa best signup bonus ever coming back: 5 Free Nights (50K points each)

Amex Platinum and Amex Gold signup offers are getting better via referral links (150K + 10x dining for Platinum & 90K + $250 dining for Gold & both are the best ever)

Two amazing offers for Amex Platinum (150,000 points OR 125,000 points + 10x dining) - which one is better?

Amex Hilton points + free night offers (three cards) & Chase Southwest points + Companion Pass offers (three cards)

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