{"id":6007,"date":"2022-12-20T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=6007"},"modified":"2023-04-18T11:10:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:10:45","slug":"end-of-year-prep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/20\/end-of-year-prep\/","title":{"rendered":"End of Year Prep"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019m sure you\u2019re all quite aware, 2022 is turning into either a pumpkin or into a potato in the next week and a half (depending on your preferred metaphor), and that means you\u2019re nearly out of time for finishing off annual spend thresholds, bonuses, and credits. So, mind the following gaps:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Spend through any of your remaining American Express, Chase Ritz Carlton, Bank of America, or PenFed Pathfinder airline fee credits, and consult this post for ideas if you\u2019re not sure how to use them<\/a>. If United TravelBank<\/a> is your preferred method, do it today because last year TravelBank went offline in the last week of December and it could happen again this year. <\/li>\n
  2. Liquidate American Express credits at Uber Eats or Uber<\/a>, and remember that your December Uber Cash balance is bigger than other months if you have a Platinum card (or 11).<\/li>\n
  3. Check for any annual fees that posted and call the bank for a retention offer, or just chat online if it\u2019s is American Express. I usually say something like: \u201cI\u2019m thinking of closing this card because of its high annual fee, but before I decide what to do I was wondering if there are any retention offers or spend bonuses.\u201d If you get an offer, don\u2019t forget to add: \u201cAre there any other offers available?\u201d Sometimes there are better offers if you keep asking.\n

    American Express specific note: If you accept a retention offer, plan on keeping that card for 12 months<\/a> to avoid getting popups that deny credit card bonuses in the future.<\/li>\n

  4. Spend through your $10 monthly wireless credits<\/a> on each of your Business Platinum cards.<\/li>\n
  5. Spend any $10 American Express Personal Gold<\/a> dining credits. My go to is the local coffee shop for a coffee and a crepe which jumps just north of $10 on GrubHub. Buying physical gift cards at a ShakeShack or Cheesecake Factory is another option.<\/li>\n
  6. Cancel any\u00a0cell phone burner accounts<\/a>\u00a0that you\u2019re done with (and for which you didn\u2019t use a virtual credit card number that already expired).<\/li>\n
  7. Finish off any Q4 5x bonused spend<\/a> on Chase Freedom cards, Discover IT cards, US Bank Cash+ cards, Citi Custom Cash cards, or similar, and don\u2019t forget the emu farm option<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  8. Book any American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts<\/a> (or The Hotel Collection) stays with your $200 Platinum credit for upcoming travel next year, even if it\u2019s speculative. Historically American Express\u2019s systems lose some of their memory after the calendar turns; it\u2019s not guaranteed but it\u2019s worth a shot at gaming.<\/li>\n
  9. Use your Chase Sapphire Reserve $300 travel credit<\/a> with a refundable travel booking if needed. Yes, this credit is now tied to cardmember year instead of calendar year, but that doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t knock it out now if you haven\u2019t already done so.<\/li>\n
  10. \u00a0Use any American Express Saks $50 credits,\u00a0but make sure you activate the benefit first<\/a>. My preferred method is to stop by a physical Saks store and buy gift cards to resell at approximately 83% of face value, but if that\u2019s not a good option for you,\u00a0Agile.Travel put together a nice list of options<\/a>\u00a0for things to buy last year and it\u2019s largely still relevant.<\/li>\n
  11. Spend or sell any American Express Clear credits<\/a>, or gift them to a friend.<\/li>\n
  12. Check for any credit card spend bonuses that you may want to hit before the end of the year, like:\n

    \u2013 World of Hyatt Visa free night certificate after $15,000 spend
    \u2013 American Express Hilton Surpass and Honors Business free night certificate after $15,000 spend
    \u2013 American Express Hilton Aspire and Honors Business second free night certificate after $60,000 spend
    \u2013 American Express Delta Platinum MQM boosts after $25,000 and $50,000 spend
    \u2013 American Express Delta Reserve MQM boosts after $30,000, $60,000, $90,000, and $120,000 spend
    \u2013 British Airways Visa companion ticket after $50,000 spend
    \u2013 JetBlue Visa Mosaic status after $50,000 spend
    \u2013 AA status     with Loyalty Points<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Happy Tuesday!<\/p>\n

    \n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

    A January 1, 2023 portrait of 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As I\u2019m sure you\u2019re all quite aware, 2022 is turning into either a pumpkin or into a potato in the next week and a half<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":2,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,6,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housekeeping","category-quick-hits","category-shenanigans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6007"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6877,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6007\/revisions\/6877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}