200. Your Biggest Points Talk® Questions Answered
Points Talk®: Your Travel Dreams, Made Possible by Points
In this milestone 200th episode, the Points Talk hosts answer listener questions regarding the evolving landscape of credit card rewards and trave
Key takeaways
- Increased competition between Chase and Amex is leading to more attractive card refreshes and higher welcome offers.
- The 5/24 rule is becoming less of a strict constraint for experienced travelers who have already maximized their primary portfolios.
Main topics
- Bank competition and card refreshes
- Managing credit card denials
Notable quotes
I would rather pay someone, you know, for that work because there's no way we're going to find those deals.
Conclusion
A reflective and practical guide for points enthusiasts on how to adap
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Welcome to episode 200 of Points Talk. To celebrate, we're answering your questions. How do we keep up with all the latest deals without spending all day searching? Do we ever experience travel burnout? And what's a points rule we used to swear by that we've completely changed our minds on after 200 episodes? We answer all these questions and more. Speaker 2 (0:23) Welcome Speaker 1 (0:23) to Speaker 2 (0:24) Points Talk. We are three Speaker 1 (0:25) moms who've discovered how to leverage credit card welcome offers to get hundreds of thousands of dollars of travel expenses for nearly free. We've used credit card points and miles to take vacations to places like Hawaii, Paris, Greece, Maldives, Japan, and so much more. And the best part, we each still have 800 plus credit scores. Imagine being able to take the vacation of your dreams for nearly free. It's totally possible and we're here to show you how. Speaker 1 (0:54) Hey, I'm Alex. And I'm Pam, Alex's mom. Speaker 3 (0:57) And I'm Jess. Let's talk points. I cannot believe we are already on episode 200. That's crazy. It feels like just yesterday we were each on the floor of our closets trying to figure out how to record our first episode. Y'all, I used to have my microphone propped up on an overturned laundry basket, okay? Me too. And I would be sitting in my closet and there'd be like coat hangers jabbing into my head during our recordings. Okay. So we have come a long way. We decided that for today's episode, we would put you in the driver's seat. We put up a post in our public Facebook group that has over 90,000 members. And we asked for your suggestions. We chose, we got a lot of submissions. Okay. We can't answer every single question because this episode will be like three hours long, but we did choose the ones that had the most. engagement and the people we're most excited about. So let's get to it. I'm going to kick us off with question number one. It is, with so many seemingly negative changes and devaluations, what is one of the positive trends you're seeing in the points and miles world right now or that I foresee happening? Well, first, I wish I had a crystal ball to see. what could happen. Some of the more positive changes, in my opinion, have been that the banks have really started to compete with one another. And an example of that is you used to only be able to have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve. You couldn't have both, right? Suddenly, American Express refreshes their platinum and gold cards. And oh, what do you know? You can now hold both. the Sapphire Preferred and the Sapphire Reserve card. And so I think Chase, in particular Chase and Amex, are really, really trying to compete with one another for customers. And as a result of that, there are some positive changes like that coming about. Another one is, you know, there's currently this $250 Select Hotels credit on the Chase Sapphire Reserve. That was a direct result of Amex. upping their platinum credits to $600 spread out, you know, 300 here, 300 there. Chase was like, oh, we got to compete with this. We're going to add this $250 select hotels credit. We're going to increase, you know, the Sapphire Reserve welcome offer used to be 60,000 points. Now the standard is 100,000 points and it's, you know, the elevated offers are even more than that. So I think those two banks in particular are really competing with each other and it's benefiting us in a way because. we're getting all these extras. Another thing is the Sapphire Preferred refreshed, borrowed a lot of the same earned categories as the City Strata Premier has. So now it's like 3X on gas and EV charging. We get 3X on vacation rentals, which I know for a lot of our audience, that's huge because you have families and you are sometimes doing a vacation rental versus staying in a traditional hotel. So just things like that. Competing and refreshing their cards to make them better for consumers, I feel like. Speaker 1 (4:10) Yeah, I totally agree with Speaker 3 (4:12) you on Speaker 2 (4:12) that. Me too. Okay, next question. With Chase's new lifetime language, won't Speaker 3 (4:18) you Speaker 2 (4:18) eventually run out of Chase credit cards? If so, what's your plan for Chase points? Well, I've been in this game a long time. I still have a couple cards I have never gotten that I can earn Chase points on. I have never gotten the ink business preferred. Wait, wait, wait. Speaker 1 (4:36) You've never had the ink preferred? Not the Speaker 2 (4:39) premiere, Speaker 1 (4:39) the preferred. No. And I haven't. Speaker 2 (4:42) What? I know, crazy, isn't it? I think I got denied once or twice. And so I just put it on the back burner and it's been on the back burner forever. My husband has never gotten the chase. the Chase Sapphire Reserve. So we have those. I know. Well, and it is because he got a, both of us got denials once or twice, and then it just got put on the back burner. So there's still, there are co-branded cards. I mean, that's not going to get me Chase points, but there's co-branded cards that I'm eligible to get again. And some that I had, I don't think I've ever had. I haven't had the IHG Premier card. I had the old, old one, but I never got that one. Then I got the business, so I still have that. So, I mean, I still have some stuff to do. And that's someone who's done this for a long time and has a lot of points. I think that it's a lot. I think that it's, I think, you know, if you're a beginner, you're in great shape. You still have a lot to do. When you've been in the game for a while, it is going to take more creativity. And for me, it means that I am going to put lots of spend on the built Palladium card because my, the main reason I use all my chase points is for Hyatt stays. And so that's a way that I can still get a lot of Hyatt points. Someone who is using, that's what they want too. And they only have the world of Hyatt. Hey, you can get the world of Hyatt business, you know. After so long, you can re-get those cards. So, you know, there's ways around. I'm really going to be more careful that I'm using Rakuten for everything. I do have the extension on my computer. So I'm pretty good about using it. But I mean. Being able to get more points, built points that I can then transfer to Hyatt is going to be huge for me. I know that, you know, with the whole, the whole ink cards, we've seen some people are having good luck if they've got using an EIN. An LLC. Yes. That's Speaker 1 (6:53) what Speaker 2 (6:53) I mean is an LLC. And so I don't know. I think, I don't know. Maybe this is wishful thinking. But I think that, you know, things look bleak. I think they might lighten up if they see that they're not getting as many people that are signing up for the cards. They may be competing against the other banks some more. And all of a sudden we'll see some offers that won't have no lifetime language. I just think there's a lot. to be determined still here. I think we've got to wait through all of next year, probably before we really know how this is going to affect us. And really my overall plan is just to look at other things. Then, you know, like I said, what I mainly use my chase points for is Hyatt. I'm really starting to look at other programs. I'm looking at using other credits that I have. I just got back from the Seafire Resort in Oceanside. I used Fine Hotel Resorts. What Speaker 1 (7:56) did Speaker 2 (7:56) I Speaker 1 (7:56) say? Seafire. You said Speaker 2 (7:57) Seafire, which is a different one, but yes. Yeah, it is. Not to confuse you at all. Not that I ever do that. But the Seabird is amazing. And I used the Fine Hotel Resorts credit from that. And I mean, I left with a bill of, I think, $60. And I mean, that included so many things. It was such an amazing trip. Best service. So I just think it's just broadening my horizons to look at other things and not be, oh, Chase is the only place I'm going to stay. I've got to stay at Hyatt, and that's Speaker 1 (8:30) the Speaker 2 (8:30) only place I'll stay. So it's actually weirdly been a little fun. to kind of look at other things and see what's out there. And I love using my credits anyway, so it's kind of fun to make sure that I can do them for sure. So Speaker 1 (8:44) that's my plan going forward. All right. I'd like to know your routine to check for deals, mistake fares, etc. Are you getting up each day, cycling through a bunch of sites, or basically what are you doing? I feel like I could do this all day and still not hit everything. All right. 1000 % no. I am not doing any of those things. And I'm guessing most of you don't have time to do those things either. I mean, between I get up in the morning and I'm getting my kids off to school. And then the next thing I did was a hop on this podcast. I don't have time to be checking all of these things. I still want to find the deal. So here is what I do instead. I subscribe to the Doctor of Credit newsletter. They send it every day. I'm not the best at checking it every day, but I know between the three of us, if there's something really good, someone's going to be like, did you see this? And I'll know about it. So that's one place where I will get some news. And some of it is like, oh, there's a deal at Dunkin Donuts. You can get a free donut. Like, I don't care about that. But there is some stuff where it's like, oh, here's a deal going on. That's not going to be mistake fares or anything like that. That is just strictly like. credit card news, that kind of information. Our Facebook group actually is a really good place. There was that mistake fair on Southwest. I didn't hear about it anywhere else. I don't know if you guys did or Speaker 3 (10:13) not. I didn't hear Speaker 1 (10:13) about it a single other Speaker 3 (10:14) place. Speaker 1 (10:15) We saw it in our public Facebook group. Somebody posted. I think they must have discovered it. And they were like, I just booked flights on Southwest for like a thousand points. It was somewhere like Hawaii or Costa Rica, somewhere like that. And 1,000 points each way. And they were like, I'm seeing it in a bunch of different places. So I quickly, I saw and I sent it to Jess and my mom. I'm like, did you guys see this? So Jess and I scramble and book. I booked flights to Hawaii. Jess booked flights to Costa Rica. I know my mom didn't see it in time because literally right after I booked, Southwest shut it down. And it was done. And we were thinking like, these are probably going to get canceled. They have not been canceled. So at this point, we've got flights. Like we have confirmation numbers. Our companions are attached to the reservation. So sometimes our Facebook group, we'll put a link in the show notes. It's the public Facebook group. They will post some good deals in there. So that's a really good place to find out about stuff too. And then as far as other