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:

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:

• Southwest RR Plus Visa ($69): (1) 2x points (increased from 1x) on local transit and commuting (including rideshare) & internet, cable, phone and select streaming services; (2) Two EarlyBird check-in per year;  (3) 25% back on inflight purchases.
• Southwest RR Premier Visa ($99): (1) 3x points on Southwest (increased from 2x); (2) 2x points (increased from 1x) on local transit and commuting (including rideshare) & internet, cable, phone and select streaming services; (3) Two EarlyBird check-in per year;  (4) 25% back on inflight purchases.  (5) receive 1,500 TQPs (Tier Qualifying Points) towards status for every $10K charged on the card, which is not a new benefit but the 10K annual TQP cap earned from the card is removed.
• Southwest RR Priority Visa ($149): (1) 3x points on Southwest (increased from 2x); (2) 2x points (increased from 1x) on local transit and commuting (including rideshare) & internet, cable, phone and select streaming services; (3) 25% back on inflight purchases; (4) unlimited Tier Qualifying Points (TQP) - receive 1,500 TQPs towards status for every $10K charged on the card, with annual TQP cap removed.
• Southwest RR Premier BUSINESS Visa ($99): (1) 3x points on Southwest (increased from 2x); (2) 2x points (increased from 1x) on local transit and commuting (including rideshare); (3) Two EarlyBird check-in per year;  (4) 25% back on inflight purchases; (5) Reimbursement of Southwest transfer fee (when you transfer your points to another Southwest RR member or a pre-selected charity), up to $500 per year; (6) unlimited Tier Qualifying Points (TQP) - receive 1,500 TQPs towards status for every $10K charged on the card, with annual TQP cap removed.
  
• Southwest RR Performance BUSINESS Visa ($199): (1) 4x points on Southwest (increased from 3x); (2) 2x points (increased from 1x) on local transit and commuting (including rideshare); (3) Reimbursement of Southwest transfer fee (when you transfer your points to another Southwest RR member or a pre-selected charity), up to $500 per year; (4) unlimited Tier Qualifying Points (TQP) - receive 1,500 TQPs towards status for every $10K charged on the card, with annual TQP cap removed.
  

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.

There have been quite a few exciting recent offers:

• The iconic Amex Platinum Card got revamped to increase the annual fee from $550 to $695 and add four new categories of annual credits ($200 for prepaid hotel via Fine Hotels & Resorts or the Hotel Collection, $179 for CLEAR membership, $300 for Equinox memberships, $240 for digital entertainment access).  On top of that, it now comes with an amazing signup bonus of 125,000 points + 15x points on dining & small businesses for 6 months, arguably the best ever in history.  The revamp, however, didn't change its position on our Top 10 List.
• Amex Business Platinum Card doesn't receive a full revamp with the annual fee being kept at $595 but receives $179 CLEAR credit for free.
• Following Chase British Visa, now Aer Lingus Visa and Iberia Visa also have a 100,000 point offer with an easy $5,000 spending requirement.  This is also considered the best offer ever on either card.
• Chase United Business Visa now offers 150,000 miles with a $20K spending requirement within 6 months.  For those who could meet the spending requirement, this is undoubtedly the historical high.
• Chase United Explorer Visa now offers 70,000 miles with an easy $3K spending requirement.
• Chase Freedom Flex and Freedom Unlimited have an elevated 20,000 points + 5x on groceries for 12 months offer.