New Amex Gold Cardholders Are No Longer Eligible for the $100 Airline Fee Credit by Patrick Stouffer October 23, 2020 19 One of Amex's go-to benefits for justifying high(er) annual fees is the Airline Fee Credit. This credit reimburses cardmembers for making eligible purchases with their airline of choice every year. However, for the Amex Gold, this benefit is in its last years. Starting in January 2022, Amex will no longer offer the annual $100 Airline Fee Credit to Amex Gold cardholders that signed up before February 4, 2021. What's next for this card?
Delta Removes Change Fees From Some Awards, Extends Card Benefits and Lounge Memberships by Patrick Stouffer September 24, 2020 10 Delta just announced several major SkyMiles program updates. And, that good news is it's all positive. The airline is extending Sky Club memberships, Medallion status perks, and co-branded credit card benefits. In addition, Delta is permanently slashing fees and restrictions on many domestic award tickets. But, unfortunately, there are some notable exclusions.
Additional Bonus Categories for Chase Freedom Unlimited Now Active by JT Genter August 31, 2020 34 The Chase Freedom Unlimited® has always been a great card for daily use thanks to its 1.5% cash-back earning on everything you buy. Starting on September 15, 2020, cardholders can take advantage of three additional bonus categories: 5% on travel purchased through Chase, 3% on dining, and 3% on drugstore purchases.
ANA Slashes Surcharges, Drastically Reducing Out-Of-Pocket Costs on Award Tickets by Patrick Stouffer June 12, 2020 23 All Nippon Airways (ANA) has drastically lowered the surcharges imposed on tickets to and from Japan and several other regions. While this won't necessarily make cash flights to Japan cheaper, it significantly reduces the out-of-pocket costs on award tickets. That makes already lucrative award bookings even better!
Citi Accelerates Premier Benefits, Adds Temporary Spending Bonus for Prestige by Patrick Stouffer June 4, 2020 14 Citi has accelerated increased earnings on the Citi Premier℠ Card due to go into effect later this year. Plus, Citi announced a temporary new spending bonus for the Citi Prestige® Card. Cardmembers with accounts active on May 22nd can now earn bonus ThankYou® Points on the things that we're spending more on lately—including online retailers, supermarkets, and restaurants.
IHG Rewards Launches Dynamic Award Pricing in the U.S. and Beyond by JT Genter May 29, 2020 36 After testing dynamic award pricing with a small set of hotels earlier this year, IHG Rewards confirmed to AwardWallet this morning that it has expanded dynamic award pricing to more hotels around the world—including many regions here in the United States. Dynamic award pricing is usually bad news, but we are surprised to be finding some great deals using your IHG Rewards points now!
Emirates Skywards Slashes Award Fees by Over 90% by Patrick Stouffer May 26, 2020 24 Emirates offers some of the best onboard products in the sky. But booking these aspirational seats can be expensive—even on award redemptions. Perhaps not anymore. Recent searches on Emirates' site are displaying a massive drop in carrier surcharges across the board. We are seeing some cuts to out-of-pocket costs as great as 90%!
Last Chance to Transfer Your Miles: Capital One Losing Two Transfer Partners by Patrick Stouffer May 12, 2020 19 Capital One has quietly shared the loss of two mileage transfer partners—Hainan Airways and Qatar Airways—effective May 13, 2020. If you've been meaning to transfer Capital One Miles to either of these partners, you'd better do it right away!
AA Adds GOL Airlines as a Mileage Earning, Redemption Partner by Patrick Stouffer May 9, 2020 24 American Airlines has just added GOL Airlines—Brazil's largest domestic carrier—to its AAdvantage® partner airlines, opening the door to earning and redeeming AAdvantage® miles on GOL itineraries. But now that you can use AA miles for flights with GOL, the question is: should you?
American Express Adds a Slew of New Perks For Travelers Stuck at Home by Patrick Stouffer May 2, 2020 28 American Express offers one of the largest collections of travel-oriented credit cards—some of which involve a significant annual fee. With travel at a standstill, many cardmembers are debating whether their travel cards are still worth the annual fee. In response, Amex just released the most comprehensive list of cardmember benefit updates we've seen yet.
American Express Membership Rewards (Temporarily) Loses a Transfer Partner by JT Genter May 1, 2020 20 American Express Membership Rewards is widely regarded as one of the most-valuable transferrable currencies thanks to having over 20 transfer partners and lucrative transfer bonuses. However, the program just lost a little luster with the loss of one of its airline transfer partners.
United Eliminates Partner Award Chart, Makes It Harder to Earn Elite Status When Flying Partners by Patrick Stouffer April 29, 2020 31 Over the last few days, United has made earning elite status harder and removed partner award charts from its website. Both without any notice whatsoever. They say bad things come in pairs. In this case, they were right. In this post, we go through what this means for you.
American Airlines Moves Morocco To Europe, Decreasing Award Prices and Increasing Routing Options by Ross Denkin April 28, 2020 29 Overnight, American Airlines moved the entire country of Morocco from Africa to Europe—at least for the purposes of award travel. Believe it or not, the impacts of this change are largely positive for award travelers traveling between many regions—including from the U.S. to Europe. Read more about the impacts on mileage costs, possible routings, and award ticket taxes and fees.
Citi ThankYou® Points Adds Emirates as 16th Airline Partner by JT Genter April 19, 2020 27 While Citi ThankYou® Points isn't known for being the most valuable transferrable currency, it just added its 16th airline transfer partner: Emirates Skywards. This new partnership means you can now book Emirates' legendary first-class product to Europe for just 135,000 Citi ThankYou Points round-trip, or fly to Europe in Emirates business class for 90,000 points round-trip.
Air France, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic Launch New Award Partnership by Patrick Stouffer February 26, 2020 26 Air France and KLM recently launched a new partnership with Virgin Atlantic, making both Flying Club and Flying Blue miles even more valuable. You'll now have the ability to book partner awards on either airline using the other's currency. In this article, we're digging into the new partner award options to highlight the best values.
American Airlines Drops Close-In Booking Fees! by Sam Helmy February 15, 2020 39 American Airlines has dropped its $75 close-in booking fee for awards ticketed less than 21 days from the date of travel. At this point, this seems to be a genuinely positive change, without any obvious downside. Still, the lack of fanfare from American's PR team leaves us wondering if the other shoe is still waiting to drop.
Korean Air Announces Changes to SKYPASS Program by Patrick Stouffer January 1, 2020 33 Korean Air has announced massive changes to its loyalty program, SKYPASS. These changes involve major price increases in award redemptions. In this article, we're going to walk you through all the changes and how they will affect you as an award traveller.
Major Overhaul of American Express Card Benefits in 2020 by Jess Farley December 16, 2019 57 American Express has announced sweeping changes to benefits across almost its entire range of business and personal cards, set to take effect on 01/01/2020. There are positive and negative changes and the updates affect both credit and charge cards. Check out the post for all the details.
How Long Does it Take to Buy and Transfer Points? by Erik Paquet December 9, 2019 62 After months of collecting data, we’re excited to announce that we’ve made point transfer and purchase times available to all AwardWallet members. In today's post, we're going to cover how you can use this new information and share what we've learned about buying and transferring miles while building this feature.
Major Overhaul of Delta Cards for 2020 by Jess Farley October 22, 2019 73 Delta has announced sweeping changes to its co-brand card lineup for 2020. We cover all the details in this comprehensive guide.
Citi Cutting Key Benefits on September 22, 2019 by Jess Farley September 19, 2019 100 On September 22, 2019, Citi is cutting key travel and purchase protection benefits across its entire range of rewards cards. In this post, we revisit some of Citi’s most popular card benefits, and detail the best alternative cards and card issuers for each one.
Aeroplan Program Changes: Everything You Need to Know by Elina Geller August 5, 2019 30 Ahead of the launch of its new loyalty program in 2020, Aeroplan announced a slew of changes to its award program. We outline everything you need to know about the changes.
Singapore Star Alliance Partner Award Devaluation Coming in April by Sam Helmy March 28, 2019 55 Singapore KrisFlyer has announced a devaluation to its Star Alliance partner awards. The new award chart will come into effect on April 16, 2019, so there is still time to book an award with the old pricing before the change takes effect.
IHG to Devalue Over 500 Properties Worldwide by Sam Helmy January 22, 2019 86 IHG is changing the number of points needed to redeem a free night at nearly 700 of its hotels on January 25, 2019. Although some properties will cost less, nearly 80% of the changes are price increases, so it's a good time to review your travel plans and see if there are any stays you should book in the next few days.
Singapore Devalues Premium Awards, Changes Waitlist Rules and Updates Award Search by Jess Farley January 7, 2019 59 Singapore KrisFlyer has announced a significant price increase starting January 24th for premium-economy, business, and first-class award tickets on Singapore and SilkAir-operated flights. Mileage upgrades and the waitlist process are changing too, so now is a good time to check your travel plans and see if you can book before this devaluation kicks in.
Arrival Plus Offers Largest Ever 70,000 Miles Sign Up Bonus by Rachel Berkey November 19, 2018 16 Arrival Miles earned with the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard® can be used to erase any travel purchase greater than $100 charged to the card. Discount airfare, train tickets, ferries, cruise charges, Airbnb, purchases from online travel agents and discount travel websites — all can be wiped with your Arrival Miles.
