I have the worst time with AA shopping advantage giving me mileage credit. Last quarter it temporarily effected my AA status. I definitely don’t wet the small stuff but when it effect status I do.
Both IHG cards comes with the $50 annual credit for United, I have both IHGs personal and business cards, but I can only get credit from one of the cards not both......I was disappointed.
Talking about United not releasing saver award space to partners - this is a major issue with trying to book United tickets using Turkish miles to Hawaii. Those 22.5k tickets are practically non existent.
Forget the United Gateway card, if you fly Southwest, the Southwest Priority is the ultimate Chase airline keeper card. $149 annual fee, use the $75 travel credit, 7,500 anniversary points and 4 upgraded boardings and you’ll come out ahead just on credits alone with no additional spend.
The key part of your sentence is "if you fly Southwest". That segment limits the general utility. As a Southwest flyer myself (and in a household where we have long had Companion Passes), I find the Southwest Priority card to be an absolute keeper. And I think we mentioned that if you fly Southwest a lot, that card might be a keeper card for you. However, speaking to the broader public, United is likely to have more utility and appeal thanks to a much, much larger network both domestically and abroad. The Gateway card (if gotten from downgrading a card with an annual fee) gives you access to expanded saver-level award availability that you can keep for years without even flying United until one day you have a need to book a flight and that expanded availability becomes useful. That "useful" situation might only happen once in 5 years, but since the card has no annual fee, it will have cost you nothing to maintain access to it -- whereas the Southwest card will cost you an annual fee every year and if you were to go 5 years without spending on Southwest, you would be in the negative (yes, I recognize that you could buy a $75 Southwest gift card every year to store the value of it, but then you have that added hurdle of buying it and the fact that you are pre-paying full face value and locking up your money in Southwest). Again, the Priority card 100% makes sense in my household, but I don't think it is as broadly a must-have card for the wider population. There are plenty of places just within the United States that aren't served by Southwest but are served by United and when you add in United's international destinations, there is just much broader utility there. So that's why you heard us discuss the Gateway as a must-have. I agree that the Priority is a great one for frequent Southwest flyers. -Nick
I have a gateway card. How do I use it to see better savor award availability? Do you just automatically see more savor flights by having it connected to your united account?
It almost never makes any sense to transfer hotel points to airline miles unless you're confident that you'll never use the hotel miles and you are just trying to get rid of them before they expire. The value you get when converting to airline miles is typically atrocious. The only sort-of exception here is transferring Marriott points to airlines, but that's only if you are earning your Marriott points from paid stays. If you are earning Marriott points from credit card spend, you are getting awful value by later converting those to airline miles -- you should instead focus on earning a transferable currency that would give you far more airline miles for the same amount of spend. -Nick
As @druiz012 said, you can only have the Sapphire Reserve or Preferred, but you can also have one or more Ink Business cards since they are not Sapphire cards.
Great podcast. Next podcast should be “Must have AMEX cards”.
I found out you have to make a purchase on the United Business Card after the anniversary to get the 5k miles if you hold a consumer card.
Good tip, thanks.
I have the worst time with AA shopping advantage giving me mileage credit. Last quarter it temporarily effected my AA status. I definitely don’t wet the small stuff but when it effect status I do.
Do you have a resource for airline transfer partners that you prefer?
Check out this post: frequentmiler.com/transfer-partner-master-list/
-Greg
Both IHG cards comes with the $50 annual credit for United, I have both IHGs personal and business cards, but I can only get credit from one of the cards not both......I was disappointed.
SAME to my wife!!!
@@mao-hsinshen9384 Still a great combo for the free nights certificate, but would of loved double dipping.
Yep, it's unfortunate that they don't allow that benefit to stack across the two IHG cards.
Talking about United not releasing saver award space to partners - this is a major issue with trying to book United tickets using Turkish miles to Hawaii. Those 22.5k tickets are practically non existent.
I’m from May 2024, United is even worse and more anti-customer now.
Forget the United Gateway card, if you fly Southwest, the Southwest Priority is the ultimate Chase airline keeper card. $149 annual fee, use the $75 travel credit, 7,500 anniversary points and 4 upgraded boardings and you’ll come out ahead just on credits alone with no additional spend.
Hmm, maybe I should take a look a that.
If you're not going to use Wyndham Rewards points for free nights, can you transfer to airline miles?❤ I enjoy watching you on TH-cam ❤
The key part of your sentence is "if you fly Southwest". That segment limits the general utility. As a Southwest flyer myself (and in a household where we have long had Companion Passes), I find the Southwest Priority card to be an absolute keeper. And I think we mentioned that if you fly Southwest a lot, that card might be a keeper card for you.
However, speaking to the broader public, United is likely to have more utility and appeal thanks to a much, much larger network both domestically and abroad. The Gateway card (if gotten from downgrading a card with an annual fee) gives you access to expanded saver-level award availability that you can keep for years without even flying United until one day you have a need to book a flight and that expanded availability becomes useful. That "useful" situation might only happen once in 5 years, but since the card has no annual fee, it will have cost you nothing to maintain access to it -- whereas the Southwest card will cost you an annual fee every year and if you were to go 5 years without spending on Southwest, you would be in the negative (yes, I recognize that you could buy a $75 Southwest gift card every year to store the value of it, but then you have that added hurdle of buying it and the fact that you are pre-paying full face value and locking up your money in Southwest). Again, the Priority card 100% makes sense in my household, but I don't think it is as broadly a must-have card for the wider population. There are plenty of places just within the United States that aren't served by Southwest but are served by United and when you add in United's international destinations, there is just much broader utility there.
So that's why you heard us discuss the Gateway as a must-have. I agree that the Priority is a great one for frequent Southwest flyers.
-Nick
I have a gateway card. How do I use it to see better savor award availability? Do you just automatically see more savor flights by having it connected to your united account?
Can you use Wyndham points to transfer for airline miles?❤ I enjoy watching you on TH-cam ❤
It almost never makes any sense to transfer hotel points to airline miles unless you're confident that you'll never use the hotel miles and you are just trying to get rid of them before they expire. The value you get when converting to airline miles is typically atrocious.
The only sort-of exception here is transferring Marriott points to airlines, but that's only if you are earning your Marriott points from paid stays. If you are earning Marriott points from credit card spend, you are getting awful value by later converting those to airline miles -- you should instead focus on earning a transferable currency that would give you far more airline miles for the same amount of spend.
-Nick
Enjoyed this podcast.
Week 3 of Jet Blue card talk.
Looking forward to week 4
Are you only allowed by Chase to get one card in the Saphire family (reserve preferred or ink business)?
You can only have one sapphire. The Ink Perferred is not marketed as a Sapphire card.
As @druiz012 said, you can only have the Sapphire Reserve or Preferred, but you can also have one or more Ink Business cards since they are not Sapphire cards.
Totally didn’t go over the must have cards you guys went a bit too deep into the 5/24 rule
First and best