– $200 back on $1,000+ at Norwegian Cruise Lines through April 23 – $70 back on $250+ at Hertz through March 10 – $75 back on $250+ at Avis through March 31 – $30 back on $75+ at Pepper through March 31 – 5,000 bonus points on $2,000+ on the Marriott Business card through April 30
The Pepper one is a $30 hedge against any potential failure, should they fail in the next couple of weeks.
With some trickery you can often get different types of hundos too.
Economy: 25,000 miles each way, up from 20,000 miles
Premium economy: 40,000 miles each way, up from 35,000 miles
Business: 60,000 miles each way, up from 50,000 miles
La Premiere: 165,000 miles each way, up from 150,000 miles
Partner award prices went up somewhat too. The change was intentional, and in theory will also bring increased award availability on first party metal.
Devaluations Will Happen
Unfortunately, devaluations will continue over time in all programs because:
Inflation in consumer prices means more points earned for buying the same things with a credit card
Inflation in hotel and airfare prices means more points are awarded for revenue bookings
For airlines, CASM inflates over time, and providing an award seat costs more over time
For hotels, CPOR inflates over time, so providing free nights costs more over time
Decreasing the value of issued points lowers liabilities on a company’s balance sheet
The only way devaluations won’t happen is with regulation, but (a) that’s unlikely to come, and (b) would just cause a different type of devaluation, such as no award space released.
Protecting Yourself
To effectively shield yourself from devaluations to the extent that such a thing is possible:
Book awards as early as possible: Points on average are worth more now than they will be in the future, so lock in current pricing when you can
Book speculative awards with spare points: As long as a program offers free cancelations, you can lock in current pricing and cancel if the trip won’t work out (or if a lower price comes along)
Don’t save more points than you can reasonably burn in the next n months: Saving points that will decrease in value probably isn’t fiscally sound, just like eating a tub of lard probably isn’t nutritionally sound. Ok, but what value should you use for n? It’s hard to say, but I think the half-life of devaluations is around 24 months with some medium variance
(A corollary to the prior item) Cash out excess points, especially those you can’t burn in the next n months: Cashed out points turn into cash, which: earns interest, can be invested, and can be used to buy more miles if you cashed out too many. It turns out, money is fungible
Good luck out there!
Next time on Tuesday Wisdom: Elmo’s airplane explains RASM.
You can double dip by separating two applications by eight days with one business AA card and one personal, just don’t hit the spend target on either card until you have both cards in hand. UPDATE: Corrected double dip language
There’s are two generic, targeted no lifetime language (NLL) American Express no-annual fee card offers:
These cards usually have offers for additional points or statement credits for adding employee cards and spending on those cards too. (Thanks to EarthlingMardiDraw)
EDITOR’S NOTE:Some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts during the holiday break in 2024 and now on Saturdays in early 2025. Special thanks to today’s author, Sam from both HelpMeBuildCredit.com and from the amazing CardRight credit card tracking app. Have a nice weekend!
I enjoyed many of the other guest posts, but based on the length, it seems like there’s a competition of who can write the lengthiest post. (It also looks like there’s a competition for the longest name – if your name is long enough, why add 233 at the end?:)!
I love that Matt’s posts are short and sweet (short enough that I can read them in the same amount of time it takes me to finish my morning coffee.) I decided to write this guest post short and sweet as well- Matt style.
OK, let’s dive into the post, because I’m already a quarterway through my coffee.
Over the last few years, I’ve been maximizing an extra 5% or so back on my credit card spend by utilizing 0% APR offers on credit cards.
This topic is something that I feel is not being written enough about. Especially with today’s high interest rates, it’s definitely something that someone in the churning game should explore.
I swipe my daily personal and business expenses on 0% APR credit cards that offer interest-free periods of up to 21 months.
Then, instead of using the cash in my bank account to pay the balances, I put the cash into a high-yield savings account. I only pay up the card balance once the 0% APR period on the card is up.
So ultimately, the bank is giving me rewards for swiping, potentially a welcome bonus as well, plus an interest-free loan, and at the same time, they’re letting me earn the interest by me putting my money into a savings account.
I currently have close to $200k in high-yield savings accounts, earning me over 5% interest!
I find Raisin to be a good resource for finding the best high-yield savings accounts and HelpMeBuildCredit’s Ultimate Credit Card Finder is a good resource for finding the best 0% APR credit cards (they list all cards, both affiliated and not).
Here are a few helpful tips to keep in mind
I try to focus mostly on business cards rather than on personal cards. A balance on a personal credit card will affect your credit, while a balance on a business card will not.
Don’t confuse offers for 0% APR on balance transfers with 0% APR on purchases. You should be looking for cards with 0% APR on purchases.
Be extremely careful not to make a single late payment, as even one can cause you to lose the 0% APR promo.
Be super organized and responsible, otherwise you will lose more than you will gain.
The Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited are really great for this, as they offer both a great welcome bonus and 0% APR for 12 months (and they are business cards).
As a bonus tip, (since I still have one sip left in my coffee), once the 0% APR period on a card expires, you can transfer the card balance to a new card with 0% APR on balance transfers and gain an additional 12 months or so of 0% APR on that same balance.
Most cards have a 3% fee to transfer balances, which is still worth paying with today’s rates. But I found one card (on the website mentioned above) that surprisingly has no balance transfer fee, plus is a business card, and has 12 months 0% apr. It’s the Edward Jones Business Plus Mastercard. I plan on getting it now to roll the dice and knock over my coffee, but ultimately, to get another 12 months of interest and laugh all the way to the bank.
EDITOR’S NOTE: No, it wasn’t anything to do with daylight savings time, it was the AM/PM thing with yesterday’s post. You can find it here if you never saw it once fixed. Actually, you can find it there whether or not you saw it once fixed.
– Personal: 35,000 points with $3,000 spend in three months plus 2x points on unbounded spend for six months, up to $15,000 spend – Business: 60,000 points after $5,000 spend in three months, and a Category 1-4 free night certificate after $15,000 spend in six months
Both of these have some utility, but the business one is a clear winner if you can make use of a Category 1-4. I can always make use of them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not annoying.
Prices were supposed to revert to normal yesterday, but some European and Asian properties have redemptions with half the regular points needed, so I guess we discovered the mythical loyalty program de-devaluation and ended up better than we were before. This is probably an accident to though, which (accidentally) seems to be Choice’s 2025 modus operandi.
Giant Food, Stop & Shop, and Giant/Martins stores have 2x points on Vanilla Visa gift cards through Thursday, limit $1,500 – $2,000 per account depending on the chain. (Thanks to RabbMD)
Wells Fargo has a $2,500 bonus for opening or upgrading to a Premier Checking account and bringing $250,000 in new assets within 45 days through February 25. Investment accounts and IRAs count, so you can ACATS transfer funds from another brokerage into a Wells Fargo investment account without a taxable event.
Coincidentally, $250,000 in linked accounts is what you need to avoid monthly service fees too. (Thanks to DoC)
Have a nice weekend, and watch for tomorrow’s guest post!
Even Choice Hotel plumbers accidentally did their work.
It’s been awhile since we’ve played Breeze route bingo, but we can fix that today. Today’s Breeze bingo route is: Scranton-Fort Meyers! Congrats to today’s bingo winners.
Do this now: Register for double Hyatt elite night credits at Under Canvas Resorts for stays between March 7 and June 15. I hesitated to put a “do this now” on this one because y’all don’t seem like the glamping under a canvas tent type, but I mean you never know when you might accidentally end up in a tent I guess.
Choice Hotels have devalued redemptions and added some dynamic room pricing. There’s still value to be had, but this change moves it from a secondary program to a tertiary program in my mind.
