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.

Barclays has increased the signup bonuses for its two JetBlue World Elite MasterCards (WEMC) to 100,000 points each:

• Barclays JetBlue Plus WEMC ($99 annual fee): up to 100,000 points (50,000 points after spending $1,000 within the first 3 months of new account opening and another 50,000 points after spending a total of $6,000 within the first 12 months.
• Barclays JetBlue BUSINESS WEMC ($99 annual fee): up to 100,000 points (50,000 points after spending $1,000 within the first 3 months of new account opening and another 50,000 points after spending a total of $6,000 within the first 12 months.
• For either card, JetBlue points are worth about 1.44 cents a piece (increased from regularly 1.3 cents), so the signup bonus after considering the first annual fee is $1,340.  These are truly amazing deals as historically the best we have seen was 60,000 points for each card.  

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.

These are the recently updated signup offers:

• Chase has increased bonus from 40K to 60K on all three personal Southwest Rapid Rewards (RR) Visa cards and now each of the four Southwest credit cards is offering 60,000 points: personal Southwest RR Plus Visa ($69 annual fee), personal Southwest RR Premier Visa ($99 annual fee), business Southwest RR Premier Visa ($99 annual fee), and personal Southwest RR Priority Visa ($149 annual fee).  The signup bonus before the annual fee is considered $840 with our current valuation of 1.4 cents per point.
• The $99 annual fee Barclays JetBlue Plus MasterCard is offering 50,000 points (=$700 in our book with the points value of 1.4 cents a piece), increased from the regular 30,000 points.  The JetBlue Business MasterCard is offering up to 60,000 points (50K after spending $1,000 within 3 months of new account opening and 10K for adding an employee card and making the first purchase).
• U.S. Bank has also increased signup bonus on the Radisson Rewards Premier Visa ($75 annual fee) to a historical high - 120,000 points after $3,000 spent within the first 3 months of new account opening.  However, our valuation of Radisson Rewards points is only 0.25 cent a piece, so the 120K bonus is worth $300 in our book.

You have probably noticed that I have stopped doing the regular (or irregular) update posts in the blog section.  But it doesn't mean that I have stopped updating the website.  The reason for giving up on the round-up type of blog posts is that I am getting tired of it - they are too dry to me and probably to most of you.  If you remember, in a post written in March 2016 "Five Years of Earning and Redeeming Miles/Points with Credit Cards - My Personal Story" I had a plan for more interesting posts such as trip reviews and personal stories; unfortunately that plan never took off - I probably only wrote one or two posts like that.  The reason is that I simply don't have time - I have a full-time demanding job, a 2 to 3-hour daily commute, and two young kids that need a lot of attention.  I can't and don't want to compete with those bloggers that write several posts per day; however, I think my website has some unique features that are not available on any other websites or blogs.  So I have decided to focus more on the website (and reviews) than the blog posts: no more round-up type of posts, and I will only write blog posts whenever I feel that I need to share my thoughts on something that is going on; on the other hand, I will continue to update the website and reviews, and it shall be pretty easy for you to know when a review was last updated.

Today I would like to share two interesting deals.

Southwest Companion Pass Deal for CA Residents

Chase Southwest Personal Premier or Plus Visa has a deal that never happened before: for California residents only, when you open a new credit card account and make just one purchase, you will receive Companion Pass status through December 2018; in addition, you will receive 40,000 points after spending at least $1,000 within the first 3 months of account opening.  Even though the 40K is lower than the 50-60K offers that haven't been hard to find over the last years, the Companion Pass offer is almost too good to be true.   Companion Pass allows you to take a companion for free as many times as you want (almost free - you are only paying taxes and charges for the companion) as long as you maintain this status; it normally requires earning 120K points in a calendar year.  In the past, a relatively easy way to earn this status to to sign up two Chase Southwest Visa Cards, each giving you 50-60K, and if you do this early in a calendar year, you will have this status for the rest of that year and for the entire following calendar year.  So with this offer, you only need to sign up one single card!  CA residents, hurry up as this offer expires November 30, 2017.

Barclaycard JetBlue Plus WEMC 60K

Barclaycard JetBlue Plus WEMC now has an excellent offer of 60,000 points after spending $1,000 within 3 months of new account opening, increased from the regular 30K.  JetBlue points are different from traditional miles - they are somehow closely based on the revenue price of the tickets.  Our value is 1.4 cents per point (the range could be between 1.1 to 1.9 cents).  However, JetBlue Plus WEMC has a built-in feature: whenever you redeem points for awards, you will receive a rebate of 10% points back to your account, which essentially increases our value of JetBlue points to 1.55 cents.  Note that the $99 annual is not waived, so the signup bonus of 60K will be valued at $830 in our book.

Note that JetBlue is also running a limited time promotion: when you redeem points for awards by 11/14/17 and fly by 2/14/18, you will receive a rebate of 15% points back to your account.  Of course, not every JetBlue member can or/and wants to take this promotion, but if you do and you have a JetBlue Plus WEMC, you will receive a 25% rebate in total, which increases the value of these points to 1.87 cents a piece.  For members that are interested in signing up a new JetBlue Plus WEMC now, this promotion is almost irrelevant as the time is running out too soon, but for members that already had a JetBlue Plus WEMC, this promotion is definitely worth checking into.

© 2017 DrCreditCard.net  All rights reserved.

We have been making updates throughout the site and this post highlights some of them plus some recent news.

• We have reviewed Cathay Pacific Visa Signature, a new product by Synchrony Bank with an annual fee of $95.  The signup bonus is 25,000 miles after spending $2,500 within 3 months of new account opening and is worth about $230 in our booking considering the first year annual fee.  It did not make to our Promotion page because we only list deals that are more than $300 in value.
• Singapore Airlines is devaluating its KrisFlyer miles as of March 23, 2017.  The redemption value will increase for premium cabin travel and they also remove the online redemption discount; however, they will also remove the fuel surcharges associated Singapore Airlines redemption.  This is to encourage more economy class redemption versus business class or first class.  Our valuation of KrisFlyer miles will be adjusted slightly from 1.5 cents a piece to 1.4 cents.  Citi ThankYou points, which allow transfer to multiple programs including KrisFlyer, will also be worth around 1.4 cents in our book, as KrisFlyer offers the best value among ThankYou's transfer partner, in our book.  As always, your milage may value.
• Between March 2 and April 30, 2017, you will receive 50% bonus when you transfer Citi ThankYou points to TrueBlue points, the frequent flyer currency of JetBlue.  Normally ThankYou points transfer to TrueBlue points at a 5:4 ratio, so with this promotion they transfer at a 1:1.2 ratio.  TrueBlue points are loosely revenue based and the redemption value ranges from 1 to 1.8 cents a piece; our value is 1.4 cents.  When you take advantage of this limited time promotion, your ThankYou points can be worth 1.68 cents, slightly higher than our normal value of ThankYou points at 1.4 cents.  We recommend using this promotion only when you have a plan ready and have an idea of how many TB points you will need for your travel.
• Amex promised more changes to its iconic Platinum Card when it enhanced this product back in last October.  Now the changes are finally coming effective March 30, 2017.  Personal Platinum Card will have the annual fees increased by $100 to $550, and receive 5x on prepaid hotels booked via AmexTravel.com, $200 in Uber credits annually (limited to $15 per month plus an additional $20 in December), free additional Gold Card, enhanced Priority Pass Select guest policy (two free guests per visit versus none before), and finally a new metal card design to rival Chase's Sapphire Reserve and Ritz-Carlton Visa .  Business Platinum Card will keep the same $450 annual fee and receive 5x points on airfare and prepaid hotels booked via AmexTravel.com and enhanced Priority Pass Select guest policy.  Looks like Amex will continue to differentiate the personal and business version of this card.  We will update our review after the changes kick in.

© 2017 DrCreditCard.net  All rights reserved.

We have been continuing to make updates throughout the site.  Here we would like to highlight a few important ones:

• Wyndham Rewards Visa has been revamped.  The no-fee version offers 3x points on Wyndham, 2x on gas, utility, grocery stores, 1x everywhere else, and automatic Gold status.  The $75 version offers 5x points on Wyndham, 2x on gas, utility, grocery stores, 1x everywhere else, 6,000 annual bonus points, and automatic Platinum status.  Compared to the old Wyndham Visa, the new cards reduce points earning on general spending from 2x to 1x, but add automatic elite status as well as waived foreign transaction fees.  As we value Wyndham points at around 1 cent per point, the old cards offer great rewards for general spending and thus rated #6 Best Card for Rewards.  We had concern about uncertainty in the rewards program before and it is very sad to see Wyndham/Barclays simply decides to slash the rewards for general spending in half.  Now the new cards won't make it to Top 10.  Even though the new perks such elite status may attractive some customers, we won't recommend the new cards for general spending at all.  It is interesting that you may still sign up the old cards through the old landing page.  We think the existing cardholders have to be grandfathered in for 2x points on general spending, but we have no info at this point and probably won't know how long it will last even if it is indeed the case.
• JetBlue's frequent flyer program TrueBlue has been added as a transfer partner of Citi ThankYou.  You can now transfer ThankYou points to TrueBlue points at a 1.25:1 rate, if you have either ThankYou Premier or Citi Prestige.  TrueBlue points are mostly fixed at value of 1.4 cents per point, so if you use this option, the value of ThankYou points will be 1.12 cents per point - not a very good way of using ThankYou points.  A better way would be using ThankYou to book a revenue JetBlue flight through Citi at fixed value of 1.33 cents per point, instead of transferring the points to JetBlue and then booking an award ticket.  Our value for ThankYou points is 1.4 for ThankYou Premier considering other valuable transfer partners, and 1.6 for Citi Prestige considering the fixed value for booking an American Airlines flight through Citi.
• JP Morgan Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite offers $100 companion discount per trip for 2-5 domestic round-trip coach class tickets on your reservation.  Even though the terms say that primary cardholder must be one of the ticketed passengers, there are reports confirming that authorized users also enjoy this benefit for free.  This may potentially increase the value of this card quite a bit.
• Marriott and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) offer reciprocal earnings on their credit cards.  Chase Marriott Visa and JPM Ritz-Carlton Visa will start earning 5x points on SPG hotels; while Amex SPG will start earning 2x points on Marriott/Ritz-Carlton hotels.  The two loyalty programs will eventually merge in 2018, but before that customers can take advantage of the best of both programs.  Details about the future of these credit cards still remain uncertain.  We suspect that Marriott or Ritz-Carlton cards probably won't change much, while Amex SPG will probably convert to a Chase product at some point in 2018.

In addition, you may find the following news interesting.

• Amex offers 2x points for select small business purchases through 12/31/16.  That is an additional 1x points you can earn through this "Shop Small" promotion.  You have to enroll your Amex at https://www.americanexpress.com/us/content/shop-small-offer/ to take advantage of this promotion.  They also have a useful search tool for you to find the participating small businesses in your area.  The following cards are eligible: Membership Rewards cards (such as Amex Platinum, Amex Premier Rewards Gold, Amex EveryDay Preferred), Delta SkyMiles cards, SPG cards, Blue Sky cards, Blue Cash cards, Hilton HHonors cards, Plenti Card, and Schwab Investor Card.
• Per Bloomberg, Chase will introduce a new business card product called "Ink Preferred", which features a 80K points signup bonus, a $95 annual fee (waived for the first year), 3x points for the first $150K spent on travel, telecommunications, shipping and advertising on social-media and search engines, and 1x points on other purchases.  Chase already has a $95 business card Ink Plus, which offers 5x points on office supplies, wireless services, landline communications and cable services (up to $50K spent annually), 2x on gas and lodging (up to $50K spent), and 1x on other purchases.   At this point, we don't know whether Ink Plus will continue to be offered alongside with Ink Preferred or be converted to the new card in the future.

© 2016 DrCreditCard.net  All rights reserved.

This is the best signup offer so far this year - our value is $1,250!  

​American Express Platinum Card has always been one of the best cards for perks and protection.  The regular signup bonus is 40,000 points, and through this special offer, you will receive 100,000 points after spending $3,000 within 3 months of new account opening, if you don't have or have never had this product before.  Our current value for Membership Rewards points is 1.5 cents a piece, and the card comes with a $450 annual fee which is not waived for the first year.  However, you may receive up to $200 annual airline incidental credit.  So our valuation for this signup bonus is 100,000 points x 1.5 cents/point - $450 +$200 = $1,250.  That is why this offer is currently listed as #1 on the best promotions page.
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Application Landing Page

This week, we have three new reviews going online: Barclays Luxury Card MasterCards (Titanium, Black, and Gold), Barclays Miles & More MasterCard (Lufthansa etc.), and Barclays JetBlue MasterCards (non-annual fee version, JetBlue Plus, JetBlue Rewards, JetBlue Business).

JetBlue Plus World Elite MasterCard is a new product introduced earlier this year and wasn't included in our original analysis to produce the Top 10 Best Credit Cards by Dr. Credit Card list that was published the first time earlier this month.  After a thorough analysis, we were pretty surprised that JetBlue Plus Card takes home the #3 spot in the rewards category and is rated #4 overall.  That is an amazing feat.  Let's see why.

Unlike legacy airlines, JetBlue has a revenue based frequent flyer program, and its TrueBlue points can be redeemed for JetBlue flights at an almost fixed-value rate of around 1.4 cents per point.  Here you won't get an exciting redemption like an international long haul business/first class award, but you also avoid a lot of hassles trying to find an available seat and maximize points value, as TrueBlue points are very straightforward.  JetBlue Plus Card has a unique feature that returns 10% points each time you redeem for JetBlue flights, essentially increasing the value of TrueBlue points to 1.55 cents a piece.  In addition, JetBlue Plus offers a very competitive 6-2-1 earning structure for JetBlue, dining & groceries, and other purchases (9.3%, 3.1%, and 1.55% respectively) and several valuable perks that easily justify the annual fee, including 5,000 anniversary bonus points, first bags free, and a potential Mosaic status after $50K annual spending.  Our biggest concern is that we are not sure if JetBlue will suddenly devaluate its points, as we have seen in many times in the airline/hotel industry.  That is exactly the reason why we always recommend miles/points cards with transfer partners over those affiliated with a certain airline or hotel chain, as the former is much more devaluation proof than the latter.  For now, however, this card makes a lot of sense for JetBlue flyers, considering its good signup bonus, amazing rewards and travel perks, and decent protection.

© 2016 DrCreditCard.net  All rights reserved.