Category: Travel Hacking

Transferring Amex Membership Rewards Points to Alaska Airlines

Posted on by David Cox

Recently, I transferred 18,000 American Express Membership Rewards points to Hawaiian Airlines, then transferred them from Hawaiian Airlines to Alaska Airlines to book a round trip positioning flight on American Airlines for my wife Jenn and I. To anyone other than a hardcore travel hacker that seems insane. Yet, to hackers, that sounds like a normal rational decision.

This process was actually rather easy, but there is a lot to unpack in that sentence. Doing this has only really been possible for a few days, and for me it is the result of learning a lot about travel hacking over the course of the last few years. A recent merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines is the reason why this is suddenly possible.

What is a Positioning Flight?

A few months ago, we booked a trip to Italy using Flying Blue miles to fly KLM to Rome from Chicago and we booked United Airlines to fly back to Chicago from Rome. The problem is that we live 3 hours away from Chicago O’Hare Airport. The reason why we booked it out of Chicago is that the flights were much cheaper than out of our home airport, Quad Cities International.

A one-way ticket from Chicago to Rome was 20,000 Flying Blue miles and $122, but if you tack on the Quad Cities to Chicago leg, it becomes 53,000 Flying Blue miles and $127. It seems insane that from Chicago to Rome was 20,000 Flying Blue miles but adding the leg from Moline to Chicago was 33,000 miles. I’m not doing that.

We were okay with driving to O’Hare, but we didn’t want to. Instead we (originally) used American Airlines miles to book a separate flight from the Quad Cities to Chicago that would save us the drive. Those flights were 7,500 American Airlines miles per passenger each way, or a total of 30,000 American Airlines miles. This is called a positioning flight because we had a separate booking to position us to the airport we wanted to fly out of.

What is a Transfer Partner?

Transfer partners are basically what makes the points in banks’ reward programs so powerful. The reason why people covet Amex Membership Reward points or Chase Ultimate Reward points is that they can be transferred to various airline and hotel programs. Having transferable points lets you keep your points flexible while you’re earning them and then choose the best way to use them when you are redeeming those points.

American Express Membership Rewards have a number of transfer partners. One of those transfer partners is Hawaiian Airlines. You can transfer your Membership Rewards points to Hawaiian Airlines at a rate of 1:1 with a minimum of 1000 points transferred. American Express does charge an excise tax of 60 cents per 1000 points transferred.

OK, But you Booked with Alaska Airlines Not Hawaiian Airlines

Alaska Airlines has been an amazing program for a long time. According to their website, they partner with 31 different airlines. You can redeem Alaska miles for flights on many of them, when they are available. There have been several times that I’ve used Pointsyeah.com to find the best award flight, and Alaska has had the best price.

The problem with Alaska Airlines was that it was hard to amass a lot of miles in their program. There are only a couple of credit cards issued by Alaska, and the signup bonuses are lackluster. They also, until recently, haven’t had any transfer partners. They did, recently, sign a deal with Bilt Rewards to be a transfer partner, but Bilt doesn’t have signup bonuses so amassing a stash of Bilt Rewards points can be difficult.

Nevertheless, when Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines agreed to a merger, they made an agreement to allow transfers between the two programs. This opened up a back door to move points from American Express Membership Rewards to Alaska miles through Hawaiian. This is fantastic, because amassing a large number of American Express Membership Rewards points is not difficult.

Exact Flights, Different Prices

One of the most consistently baffling things to me about points and miles is the fact that sometimes the same flight is being offered by different programs at different prices. In this case, we had an American Airlines flight booked with American Airlines miles leaving on a Sunday night and returning on a Sunday night. Using American Airlines miles it was 30,000 AA miles and around $22 in taxes for the two of us.

When we originally booked with American Airlines, I saw that Alaska had the same flights for 4,500 points and around $18 per person per flight, so in other words, 18,000 Alaska miles and around $72 in taxes and fees. At the time, I didn’t have access to Alaska miles.

When the backdoor transfer option from American Express to Alaska Airlines materialized, I checked to see if that was still available and it was so I jumped on it. American Airlines has free cancellations, so it wasn’t a difficult to have my points and fees returned.

Saving American Airlines Miles

One big reason that we changed how we booked this flight was being able to use something other than American Airlines miles. American Airlines doesn’t have any transfer partners and lately it seems like whenever I’m comparing prices on award flights American Airlines always has competitive pricing. I didn’t want to use AA miles that I find so valuable if I don’t need to.

Also, earning 30,000 AA miles using just credit card spend requires a lot of spending. If we did it using the Barclays Aviator Red card, all purchases except American Airlines purchases earn 1 point per dollar spent. That means I would have to spend $30,000 on that credit card to earn 30,000 points.

On the other hand, I transferred 18,000 American Express Membership rewards points to Alaska and those are much easier to earn. When I buy groceries or dine out using my American Express Gold Card, I earn 4 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on that card. That means I would only need to spend $4,500 on that Amex Gold Card, assuming I only use it for groceries and dining out, to earn the 18,000 miles necessary to book the flight. That’s a huge difference! Yes, the Alaska flights cost an extra $50 in fees but I was happy to spend that to keep those 30,000 AA miles.

Will This Back Door Transfer Option Remain?

It is unclear at this point whether transferring American Express Membership Rewards points through Hawaiian to Alaskan Airlines will remain an option. We know that transferring points between Hawaiian Airlines and Alaskan Airlines will be around for the foreseeable future. This has created a lot of interest in the travel hacking community for Hawaiian Airlines credit cards.

In the past, most travel hackers weren’t very interested in Hawaiian Airlines credit cards. Hawaiian miles weren’t worth a whole lot and because of that, the credit cards weren’t interesting. In fact, the Points Guy used to value Hawaiian miles at .9 cents per point and Alaskan miles at 1.5 cents per point. Moving 100,000 Hawaiian miles to Alaska Airlines increases their value, according to these valuations, by $600. That’s a big deal.

The problem for American Express is that now this throws their agreement with Hawaiian out of balance. If Hawaiian miles are suddenly worth more, will Hawaiian Airlines/Alaska Airlines demand more money to sell those miles to American Express? I don’t know, and there has been a lot of speculation in the travel hacking community that this transfer agreement could end.

The potential end of this agreement has me tempted to move some Membership Rewards to Alaska, but I don’t really have enough to just move them without a flight in mind. Instead, I think I’ll just wait and hope that Membership Rewards continues to allow transfers to Hawaiian Airlines. That being said, I might just be looking at a Hawaiian Airlines credit card soon. It’s never a bad idea to take advantage of a great deal when it pops up.

Last Call for the American Airlines Aviator Red card?

Posted on by David Cox

Last week an article by CNBC indicated that Citigroup was in heavy negotiations with American Airlines to be the exclusive card issuer for American Airlines credit cards. These negotiations are immensely important for American Airlines because the revenue that comes from airline loyalty programs are now a huge portion of their income. It’s become so important, in fact, that it’s sometimes joked that airlines are credit card companies that fly planes. According to Delta CEO Ed Bastian, nearly 1% of the entire US economy is charged to Delta credit cards. The revenue from selling loyalty points to banks is a multi-billion dollar industry for airlines, and its a revenue stream they take very seriously.

American Airlines is in a strange situation because they have cobranded credit cards issued by two different banks. There are four credit cards issued by Citigroup which include three personal credit cards and one business card. Barclays technically has two personal American Airlines cards, but one is only available through upgrade, the AAdvantage Aviator Silver. The only Barclays American Airlines card with a current sign up bonus is the AAdvantage Aviator Red.

The fact that American Airlines has two banks issuing their credit cards is because of an American Airlines merger with US Airways over a decade ago. US Airways had a relationship with Barclays and after the merger US Airways credit cards issued by Barclays became American Airlines cards. American Airlines kept that relationship going, even as people began to forget about US Airways.

It makes sense for American Airlines and Citigroup to form an exclusive relationship. It would make the AAdvantage program more straightforward by reducing the complexity of having multiple card issuers. In the end, I think it’s highly likely that American Airlines will end their relationship with Barclays and form an exclusive relationship with Citigroup.

AAdvantage Aviator Red Card

If Barclays is going to get dropped from the AAdvantage program, it’s safe to say the Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Red card is going to go away. In some respects, good riddance, it’s not a very interesting card. It earns 2 miles per dollar spent on American Airlines purchases and 1 mile on everything else. You do get a free checked bag and preferred boarding but the annual fee is $99.

The thing that does make it interesting is that the signup bonus is incredibly easy to earn. Right now, there is a 70,000 mile signup bonus available through Frequent Miler’s website. What is the spending requirement? Signup and use it once. Literally, pay the $99 annual fee, activate the card and buy a pack of gum using the credit card and 70,000 AAdvantage miles are yours for the taking.

70,000 AAdvantage miles is a pretty decent haul. We took recently our family of four to Costa Rica from our small regional airport during Spring Break for a total of 120,000 AAdvantage miles and around $340 in taxes. Also, I have noticed, anecdotally, that flights out of smaller airports that are serviced by American Airlines don’t pay significantly higher amounts of points than flights out of larger airports. That it is definitely not the case for United Airlines, for example.

In addition, I’ve been eyeballing some deals to Portugal for spring break that are running around 22,500 AAdvantage miles one way per person. Having an extra 70,000 miles would top off our accounts enough to book the flights there, even though it wouldn’t be enough to get home.

Fear of Missing Out

I think that this is the last chance I have of taking advantage of one of the biggest no-brainers in points and miles. It’s legitimately buying 70,000 miles for $99. It’s not the best signup bonus the card has offered. Jenn got this card about a year ago when it offered 60,000 points for one charge and 15,000 for an authorized user and an additional charge to the authorized user card. However, it is definitely a solid deal, and waiting for a better deal at this point could mean that I miss out completely.

In the middle of writing this post, I actually did apply for this card and was approved. That’s fantastic and I will happily take my shiny new 70,000 miles from American Airlines. As a matter of fact, after I was approved, my daughter walked downstairs and I convinced her to apply for it as well and she was approved.

In all fairness, when I told her there was an annual fee she balked, but I told her if she would use her miles to pay for her ticket to Portugal, I would pay for her annual fee and she jumped on it.

Potentially Good News From the Exclusive Deal with Citigroup

Knowing that Barclays will likely be cut out of the American Airlines credit card business, it means that there will be less choices, and less available signup bonuses in the future. Still, it does raise the possibility of American Airlines becoming a transfer partner for Citi Thank You points.

American Airlines currently doesn’t have a transfer partner. Most major airlines have transfer partners, with Delta Airlines being a partner from American Express Membership Rewards points and United Airlines and Southwest Airlines being partners from Chase Ultimate Reward points. American Airlines was briefly a transfer partner of Citi Thank You points a few years ago, and was a transfer partner of Bilt Rewards very recently. A few months ago Bilt Rewards and American Airlines ended that partnership, and maybe that has to do with their negotiations with Citigroup.

With no current transfer partner, and with American Airlines negotiating a deal with Citigroup, there is a fairly good possibility that Citi Thank You points will become transferable to American Airlines. If that becomes a reality, I will definitely be attempting to earn more Citi Thank You points, because I find a lot of value in American Airlines miles.

In the end, I hope the changes that American Airlines makes to their credit card business with Citigroup works out to be beneficial to both them and their cardholders. Knowing how important that loyalty points are to the business of airlines puts a lot of pressure on them to have a good and profitable loyalty program. In the meantime, I need to figure out how I’m going to use these shiny new American Airlines miles.

US Bank Improves Altitude Connect Card

Posted on by David Cox

I got the US Bank Altitude Connect card about a year an a half ago and I viewed it as basically a cash back card. At the time, the card came with a $95 annual fee and required $2,000 in spending over 4 months to earn the $500 signup bonus. Technically, they advertise this as 50,000 points with each point being worth 1 cent each, but since there aren’t any transfer partners, that meant it was just 50,000 pennies. Recently, US Bank made some changes to this card that I think actually make it a better credit card.

Earning Rates For the Altitude Connect Card

Something that didn’t change with this credit card is the earning rates for its bonus categories. It actually has some pretty good earning categories, they include:

  • 5x on hotels and car rentals booked through the Altitude Reward Center
  • 4x on travel
  • 4x on gas station and EV charging (up to $1,000 per quarter)
  • 2x on dining, streaming services, and grocery stores
  • 1x on everything else

I almost Canceled it Before it Renewed

When the annual fee was coming up for renewal, this was one I considered canceling. It had a $95 annual fee, and frankly I just wasn’t using it. Yes, it does have some pretty good earning potential in some categories, but typically outside of signup bonuses, I don’t get that excited about earning cash back.

However, there was one particular reason that I did keep it and that is because it comes with 4 annual passes to Priority Pass airport lounges. According to the Priority Pass website, there are over 1,600 Priority Pass lounges and experiences. In my experience, it’s not difficult to find a Priority Pass lounge when you need one, as long as you’re in a major airport.

My experiences with Priority Pass lounges haven’t been phenomenal, but its been pretty good. Typically I’ve managed to get basic buffet style food, a beer or two, as well as a place to charge a phone, and open my laptop. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed relaxing in their lounges. They haven’t been as good as my experiences in United Lounges, but it sure beats waiting in the airport terminal.

Recent Changes Made to the Altitude Connect Card

I think US Bank originally saw this card as being something that would compete with mid-level travel cards from major banks, like the Citi Strata Premier card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Unfortunately, with US Bank lacking transfer partners for those points, I don’t think they really competed well in this space. Recently, US Bank made some changes to the Altitude Connect card that made it a more interesting card, in my opinion.

The first change is that they have dramatically reduced the signup bonus on this card. The typical signup bonus used to be 50,000 points ($500) after spending $2,000 in 4 months. However, this has now been dropped to a 20,000 point bonus ($200) after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months on the card. That’s not a great change, but the lower spending requirement does make it more accessible to people who don’t spend as much on credit cards.

The second change is that they eliminated the $95 annual fee. That’s a great change!

At first glance, that doesn’t make this card much more attractive than a lot of no annual fee cards. There are a lot of no annual fee cards that have some good bonus categories and a whole lot of them have signup bonuses of $200. That seems pretty typical. What isn’t typical of no annual fee cards is the benefits that are included.

Surprising benefits of the Altitude Connect Card

Since the US Bank Altitude Connect Card is a no annual fee card, it is surprising that it kept some pretty good benefits that typically come with cards that have at least $95 annual fees.

  • 4 annual passes to Priority Pass Lounges
  • No Foreign Transaction Fees
  • $100 credit for TSA or Global Entry application fee
  • Trip Cancellation/ Interruption Protections

The $100 credit for TSA or Global Entry application is something that you can get once every four years, which is a nice benefit, but to me the big one here is the 4 annual passes to Priority Pass Lounges. Yes, it’s only 4 passes, and if you are flying with a family of 4, that means one trip. However, anyone who eaten at an airport restaurant knows how easy it is to drop well over $100 for a family of 4.

The fact that just having this credit card means that I can take the family into a Priority Pass lounge and relax rather than paying through the nose at an airport restaurant and then being uncomfortable in the terminal is a huge bonus to me. Its almost guaranteed to save me over $100 once a year.

Trip Cancellation coverage for this card will pay up to $2,000 for non-refundable common carrier tickets paid for with this credit card. This can be triggered by the death, injury or illness of a person or family member that causes a trip to be canceled.

Trip delay coverage covers up to $300 of expenses like meals or lodging when a trip is delayed, as long as that trip was paid with this credit card. This benefit kicks in if you paid for the ticket with the Altitude Connect card and the delay is more than 12 hours. It only covers what the airline does not cover.

Smart Delay coverage is a new concept I had never heard about. According the information at the Smart Delay webpage, if you register your flight on this website 2 hours prior to scheduled departure and your flight gets delayed by over 2 hours, you will be immediately issued up to 4 passes for Priority Pass lounges to use during the delay. Considering my luck with flight delays, I will definitely be using that.

Foreign transaction fees are annoying. Normally I’ve paid attention to what credit card I was using out of the country. Unfortunately, I forgot to check the credit card I was using in Canada and came home to a series of foreign transaction fees. It didn’t exactly bankrupt me, but who wants to pay those fees? This is a nice benefit if you plan to use this card outside of the US.

Who Should Get the Altitude Connect Card?

Honestly, I’m not sure if I hadn’t already signed up for this card when the bonus was $500, that I would now. A $200 signup bonus isn’t that interesting to me with so many huge bonuses out there. But a no annual fee card with 4 annual one-time Priority Passes? That’s pretty tempting.

The amount of spend required to earn the signup bonus is the only $1,000 over 3 months, so if you’re someone without a ton of credit card spend, this is intriguing.

Honestly, I think this is be perfect for my daughter. She doesn’t have the credit card spend necessary to chase the big bonuses, but a $200 cash back bonus would be pretty nice for her. Getting a good, no annual fee card, would allow her to keep this card for a long time and build her credit age which is a big part of her credit score. In addition, gas, EV charging, groceries and dining are bonus categories that should get used frequently by young adults.

Aside from that, this card would give her some pretty good benefits, such as the trip protections and Priority Passes that she wouldn’t have access to without going to a card with an annual fee.

Over the summer, she went with three of her friends on a trip to California. If she had this card at the time, she could have treated everyone to a trip to a Priority Pass lounge. That may not seem like a big deal to someone who is older, but if you’re 19, that’s a pretty baller move.

Also, I think if you are the type of person who flies once or twice a year, having a handful of Priority Passes really enhances those trips. Lounge access is one of those things that lowers the stress of being in an airport. With that access provided on a no annual fee card, even if you don’t use the passes, it’s not costing you anything.

Will US Bank Get Rid of These Benefits?

I think the benefits of this card is remarkable for a no annual fee credit card, so I do have to question whether US Bank will continue to offer the level of benefits this card provides at no annual fee. To be honest, I don’t know, it really all depends on whether this stays profitable for them. If at some point they realize that the amount of money that they are spending on these benefits isn’t worth the amount of revenue that the card generates, then it could easily disappear or get altered into something less valuable.

I do think it’s worth it to anyone who flies occasionally and wants to have a handful of Priority Pass lounge visits in their pockets to sign up for this card. It also makes a really nice starter card for someone who might struggle to meet the minimum spend requirements to earn the signup bonus on a mid-range travel card that has similar benefits.

What US Bank has done is create a different kind of product, it’s a entry level, no annual fee travel credit card with many of the benefits of a mid-tier travel credit card. I hope that it stays the way it is, because it turns out to be a really interesting product that I think a lot of customers will really enjoy.

Why I’ll Keep My Amex Gold But I won’t Recommend it

Posted on by David Cox

The American Express Gold Card is a classic American credit card. It was one of the first credit cards ever issued when it was launched in 1966. Back in the early days it was seen as a status symbol, using it was a symbol to people around you that you were successful. Now I think people view credit cards as mostly utilitarian and I am definitely one of those people. I need to know that the card that I’m using is providing me with great value, and if that isn’t the case, then I want to use something else.

The annual fee for a credit card is part of the equation for me. There are definitely some good credit cards that have no annual fee, but most of the time, cards that have high earning rates and good benefits have at least a $95 annual fee. On the travel hacking side, a credit card that earns points that can be transferred to multiple hotel and airline programs is the most important benefit to me.

The American Express Gold Card earns Ultimate Reward points that can be transferred to a variety of airline and hotel programs, of which some of my favorites are KLM/Air France Flying Blue, Aer Lingus/British Airways/Iberia Avios, Air Canada Aeroplan and Delta. Being able to transfer to a variety of programs allows you to take advantage of flash sales and sweet spots so that you can get the most for the points that you earn.

Many premium credit cards also have statement credits which people can use to offset the cost of an elevated annual fee. This is definitely the case with the Amex Gold and Platinum cards which come with elevated annual fees but offer a lot of available statement credits that can offset the annual fee.

The Gold Card Annual Fee Raised to $325

In July of 2024, American Express announced that it would raise it’s annual fee to $325 from $250. That’s a fairly large increase for a card that already had an elevated annual fee. If you’re going to charge a $325 annual fee, it better damn well be worth it.

The main attraction to the Amex Gold card for me is the fact that it earns 4x on groceries and 4x on dining. Those are two categories in which the average American spends a considerable amount of their income. The fact that those 4x categories are awarded in Ultimate Reward points, that many people value at 2 cents a point, means that you can realistically get back 8 cents per dollar spent, assuming you use those points for travel.

That being said, there is no way that the ability to earn 4x on groceries and dining is worth a $325 annual fee. You absolutely would need to get back some of this elevated annual fee in the form of statement credits.

Statement Credits offered by Amex Gold

Before the Amex Gold refresh there were two main statement credits that could be used to get some value for the (at that time) $250 annual fee. They were:

  • $10 per month Uber credit – can be used with Uber Eats or Uber
  • $10 per month dining credit with dining partners (which now are Grubhub, Goldbelly, Cheesecake Factory, Five Guys and Wine.com)

We have used both of those credits each month by picking up carryout using both Uber Eats and Grubhub. That meant that we were paying essentially $10 per year for the card, although it can be a little bit of a pain to use those credits, so that irritation has to be considered.

New benefits have been added to the card now that the annual fee has been raised to $325. The new benefits are:

  • $50 statement credit every 6 months when dining at Resy.com restaurants
  • $7 per month statement credit at Dunkin’.

I like the Resy.com statement credit because it’s going to be fairly easy to use. There is only one Resy.com restaurant in my hometown, which I would definitely go to, but with it being every six months I could see using it when we are traveling as well. I don’t think it’s going to be too much of a challenge for me to use this credit and it won’t feel like as much of a chore as using the $10 per month dining and uber credits.

The $7 monthly Dunkin’ credit is probably going to annoy me, but I will try to use it. Frankly, I don’t get coffee often and if I did, it probably wouldn’t be Dunkin’. We don’t even have a Dunkin’ anywhere close to where I live so I’d have to go out of my way for mediocre coffee or a donut. I have heard that you should be able to get a statement credit for loading the Dunkin’ app every month. So I might just load $7 to the Dunkin’ app and then if we’re out of town and need to get a quick breakfast we can use that all at once.

At full value, these credits are worth $424, which is $99 more than the $325 annual fee. Honestly, because of the ability to earn 4x on dining and 4x on groceries as well as being able to transfer those points, I’d probably pay $150 per year for the Amex Gold if it didn’t have any credits. So as far as I’m concerned, If I feel like I can get $175 dollar value for the $424 dollars in statement credits, than the card is worth it – at least for me.

Why I Won’t Recommend it

I used to think that the Amex Gold card was a great card for people who were only going to use one credit card, because they would be able to amass a decent amount of points through those 4x categories. Unfortunately, at $325, someone who doesn’t spend that much time thinking about points and miles is probably going to be pretty repulsed by that price tag.

Sure, the card usually comes with a pretty impressive signup bonus and those 4x categories are great, but I don’t think it’s enough on their own to justify that $325 annual fee. What can make the card worthwhile is the statement credits, but if you aren’t going to use them then you’re just paying too much to accumulate points. If you’re not going to use those statement credits, you’d probably be better off with the Citi Strata Premier card which only has a $95 annual fee but earns 3x on gas, groceries and dining. Those come as Citi Thank You points which are also transferrable to a number of hotel and airline programs.

In other words, this is a card that frankly only really appeals to people who want to maximize the value of those cards. This is definitely not a card I would recommend to someone who casually wants to earn enough points to take one flight a year or get a couple of nights in a hotel for free. This is really just for the hardcore travel hacker who is going to squeeze every ounce of value out of these credits and maximize their point redemptions.

For me, the changes actually make me more likely to keep the card, since I’m pretty likely to use those credits. But, at the end of the day, I probably won’t be recommending the Amex Gold card to anyone going forward. The kind of people who can find good use for this credit card, probably already have it or already know about it. This to me feels like something that will eventually lose American Express business rather than gain them business. I just don’t think that a $325 annual fee credit card is going to have that kind of mass appeal and I’ll be interested to see if they end up regretting this decision.

Working Backwards – How To Use Points for Spain

Posted on by David Cox

Once people learn that I save a lot of money on vacations by using miles and points, I often get asked “What credit card should I get?” The fact of the matter is that it depends on the type and location of the vacation. Where you want to go on vacation, when, and what style of vacation matters when deciding which card to choose.

Making a rational decision really matters when you’re making these plans because earning a bunch of points that are irrelevant to your plans can be extremely frustrating and counterproductive. Also, earning points in programs that require you to use more points than other programs means that you’re working harder than necessary to achieve your goals.

What about Spain?

Spain has been on our minds lately. Jenn and I have discussed going to Spain multiple times and we just haven’t pulled the trigger. We’ve discussed doing a beach vacation to the Canary Islands or a city trip to Madrid, but lately we’ve been discussing doing a week of a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. It hasn’t worked out for us yet, but those tapas are calling me and I’m going to make it happen at some point.

Economy Flights

I’m an economy flyer. It’s not that I don’t want to fly business or first class, it’s just not that important to me. I really treat flights as a means to an end – just get me there. Look, I’d love to be more comfortable, but right now I’m trying to get a family of four across an ocean, and I don’t really feel like draining my points balances to do it. I’m not saying I won’t fly business or first class in the future, but right now it’s just not something I’m thinking about.

That being said, there are quite a few good options for economy flights to Spain. Using the Daydream Explorer feature by Pointsyeah.com, I see quite a few good choices.

Points ProgramPoint RangeTypical Tax RangeNotes
Iberia17,000 to 40,000 one-way$100-$13017,000 point is the typical off-peak price. Iberia’s hub is Madrid.
Flying Blue20,000 to 40,000 one-way$100-$17020,000 points is fairly normal, some sales go as low as 11,500 points. Hubs in Amsterdam and Paris.
Virgin Atlantic12,000 to 40,000 one-way$170-$180High fees, but 12,000 points are fairly easy to find, flights are usually KLM, Air France or Delta flights
Avianca Lifemiles20,000-30,000 one way$20-$70 (+25 booking fee)Low fees and reasonable redemption prices. Avianca is usually good for United flights. Not as frequently available as Flying Blue and Iberia.
American Airlines20,000-35,000 one-way$5-$25Low fees and reasonable redemption prices. Some flights that route through London have high taxes.
United Airlines30,000-40,000 one-way$5-$15Low fees and high redemption prices, always check Avianca first before booking a United flight.
Award availability and pricing varies wildly, these prices may not be available when you want to book a flight.

The biggest problem here is that just because pricing for award flights are good and available in certain programs right now doesn’t mean that they will be available and good later. That’s why it is best to have the ability to use points with a variety of programs. Using a credit card with the ability to transfer points to a multiple programs is a good way to help you have the most options when it’s time to redeem those points.

Airline Award Program Transfer Partners

Point ProgramCitibankChaseAmexCapital OneWells FargoBilt
Iberia (Avios)1:11:11:11:11:11:1
Flying Blue1:11:11:11:11:11:1
Virgin Atlantic1:11:11:11:11:1
Avianca Lifemiles1:11:11:11:11:1
American Airlines
United Airlines1:11:1
Transferring points from Capital One to Iberia Avios requires another step of first transferring points from Capital One to British Airways Avios and then to Iberia Avios. Transferring Citi Thank You Points requires a transfer to Qatar Avios, then to British Airways Avios and then to Iberia Avios.

I prefer to fly non-stop, if at all possible, and Chicago is our closest major airport. Most of the non-stop flights from Chicago to Madrid are on Iberia. That’s going to be my first choice. All major programs transfer to Avios, but Citi and Capital One don’t transfer directly to Iberia Avios, they both require transferring to a different Avios program and then to Iberia. That could create other annoyances that I might not want to deal with.

KLM/Air France Flying Blue is another great option, because they have a lot of flights that leave Chicago and fly to Spain with layovers in either Amsterdam (on KLM) or through Paris (on Air France). Virgin Atlantic and Avianca Lifemiles are great, but for Spain they are mostly booking partner awards, so they won’t be operating any flights to Spain. Their availability is going to be dependent on whether another airline allows them to book their flights. In other words, I would check for availability, but I wouldn’t count on them.

American Airlines sometimes has some amazing prices, but they don’t have any transfer partners so you would need to have an American Airlines card to earn those points. United Airlines usually has fairly expensive award prices, but their taxes are low and availability is good. It’s nice to have United as a backup option.

Hotels in Spain

For most hotel groups, I typically don’t consider transfer partners. The reason for this is because the transfer rates don’t make up for the fact that the points aren’t worth much. Most programs with the exception of Hyatt just aren’t worth transferring points to from one of the major bank programs.

Hotel Loyalty Program Transfer Ratios

CitibankChaseAmexCapital OneWells FargoBilt
Hyatt1:11:1
IHG1:11:1
Hilton1:2
Choice1:21:11:11:2
Marriott1:11:11:1
Wyndham1:11:1
Transfer ratios of points from major bank travel award programs to hotel loyalty programs. For example Citibank transfers 1:2 to Choice Privileges, meaning 1,000 Citi Thank You Points can be converted to 2,000 Choice Privileges points.

If you are looking at a program besides Hyatt, you’ll probably want to get a cobranded hotel credit card if you want to build up free nights and points. The list of those cards and the pros and cons of each of those cards is too exhaustive to get into in this post, but I do think its important to be thinking about those cobranded cards when considering programs other than Hyatt.

The reason why Hyatt is different, is because their points are worth more than other programs. According to the Points Guy, Hyatt points are worth 1.7 cents per point. By contrast, Wyndham is worth 1.1, Marriott Bonvoy is .85, Hilton is .6, Choice is .6 and IHG is .5 cents per point. For example, Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Hyatt, Marriott and IHG at a 1:1 ratio. However, on average, you’ll spend more than three times as many Ultimate reward points booking an IHG hotel than a comparable Hyatt hotel when transferring Ultimate Reward points to those programs.

Hotels in Spanish Tourist Locations

MadridBalearic IslandsBarcelonaCanary Islands
Hyatt635311
IHG14598
Hilton6450
Choice7093
Marriott2311176
Wyndham2003
Number of hotels in/near various locations in Spain. Counts are across all brands in a program’s portfolio.

When looking at Spain specifically, the good news is that Hyatt has a lot of hotels in Spain. They especially have a large all-inclusive hotel presence in the Balearic Islands, which is a huge hot spot for Europeans to enjoy a beach vacation. Marriott also has a large number of hotels in Spain. A lot of those are in Barcelona and Madrid, which would make them a good program to use if you were looking for a more urban trip.

Potential Strategies for Earning Points for a Trip to Spain

There are a million different ways to accomplish the goal of earning points and miles to go on a vacation to Spain. I think its helpful here to explain what I would do, and why I would do it in a certain way. It doesn’t necessarily mean that this would be the optimal strategy, but I think it’s indicative of how someone should approach it.

All-Inclusive couple’s beach vacation to Mallorca

There are numerous Hyatt All-Inclusive resorts in Mallorca. Of the ones that showed up on the search that I did, there are a number of Category A resorts (15,000 points normally, 12,000 for off-peak and 18,000 for peak) and the most expensive was the Secrets Mallorca which is a Category D resort (30,000 points normally, 25,000 for off-peak, 35,000 points peak).

The best bets for available flights to Mallorca for a low amount of points is probably going to be Iberia Airlines (Avios) or KLM/Air France (Flying Blue). You can move points from Citibank, Capital One, Chase, American Express, Wells Fargo or Bilt to Iberia or KLM/Air France. This means you have a lot of choices on which credit cards you might want to sign up for.

The good news here, is that there is overlap between acquiring points for Hyatt and acquiring points for those two airline programs. Both Bilt and Chase offer transfers to all of these programs. Bilt never really offers signup bonuses, which is a big negative in this case, but they do allow you to earn points paying for rent, which nobody else allows, so if you are a renter, the Bilt card is a no-brainer. However, regardless of whether the Bilt card makes sense in your case, you’ll still probably want to sign up for a Chase card that allows you to transfer Ultimate Reward points.

In order to unlock the ability to transfer any Ultimate Reward points to partner programs you will need one of these three cards:

  • Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95 annual fee, 3x on dining, 3x online groceries, 3x on streaming services, 2x on travel)
  • Chase Sapphire Reserve ($550 annual fee, 3x on dining, 3x travel, $300 annual travel credit, Priority Pass membership)
  • Ink Business Preferred ($95 annual fee, 3x on shipping, internet, phone, cable and travel)

The typical signup bonuses for these cards are 60,000 each for the Sapphire cards and 100,000 points for the Ink Business Preferred. Once you have signed up and earned the welcome offer bonus you can refer your spouse or significant other and earn a referral bonus while they also earn a signup bonus for themselves. Once you’ve done that, then it’s just a matter of filling in the gaps with either some other cards that earn Ultimate Reward points or by getting cobranded cards. Here are some examples:

  • Ink Business Cash ($0 annual fee, $750 cash back which can also be used as 75,000 Ultimate Reward points, 5x internet, cable, phone and office supply stores)
  • Ink Business Unlimited ($0 annual fee, $750 cash back which can be used as 75,000 Ultimate Reward points, 1.5x on everything)
  • Ink Business Premier ($195 annual fee, $1,000 cash back which can be used as 100,000 Ultimate Reward points, 2x on everything)
  • World of Hyatt ($95 annual fee, 30,000 Hyatt point bonus, category 1-4 free night certificate each year on anniversary date)
  • World of Hyatt Business ($199 annual fee, 60,000 Hyatt point bonus, up to $100 off stays each year)
  • Iberia Airlines card ($95 annual fee, 75,000 Avios bonus)
  • Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard ($89 annual fee, 50,000 Flying Blue point bonus, 1.5x on everything)

I think it should be feasible to book a vacation like this for around 50,000 points round-trip per person in economy and if you wanted 6 nights in an all-inclusive, it could be another 90,000 to 180,000 points. That would mean the totals here would be 190,000 to 280,000 points. Just doing the minimum spend on two Chase Sapphire Preferred cards, with a referral bonus between spouses or significant others, would probably earn somewhere in the ballpark of 150,000 Ultimate Reward points, so it’s not too hard to pick a card or two that fills in the gaps here.

Family of four to Madrid for Spring Break

For this example, the information about the flights would basically be the same. You’ll probably find that Iberia or Air France/KLM will be the best programs to serve the Madrid Airport. From Chicago, you are likely to be able be able to book those round-trip economy flights for 50,000 points each (probably less if off peak). You would probably need to earn somewhere in the 200,000 point range just for the flights.

Instead of going with Chase as is in the first example, I would probably go with the Capital One Venture Card. Instead of a 60,000 point bonus, the Venture Card comes with a 75,000 point bonus. It also earns 2x on everything and has a 20,000 point referral bonus. Therefore, if you sign up for the Venture Card and refer your significant other and do the minimum spend, you will end up with a combined 186,000 points. An additional $7,000 in spending would get you to 200,000 points. If you need to transfer those points to Iberia, however, you will need to transfer them to British Airways Avios and then from British Airways Avios to Iberia Avios.

As far as lodging is concerned, European hotels typically don’t like to allow people to sleep four to a room so you would probably need to get two rooms. That’s not ideal, not only because it becomes twice the cost to get hotels, but also depending on the age of your kids, your sleeping arrangements might not be what your used to.

Personally, because of the two room problem, I would just get an Airbnb instead of a hotel. However, if you would like to stay at a hotel on points, I would probably be considering Marriott hotels. They have a lot of hotels in the Madrid area. In order to earn points/free nights for the stay I would go for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card. Most of the time they offer three free night certificates as a sign up bonus. However, it seems like about once a year they offer five free night certificates, so if you time it right and your significant other also signs up at the same time, you could end up with ten free night certificates, and that would get you five nights of two rooms per night.

Conclusion

For the most part, whenever you want to fly somewhere, looking first at an airline based in that area better is always a good choice. In this case Iberia is a perfect example. It’s hub is in Madrid and they have very good award prices to Madrid. Luckily for the points and miles hobbyist, you can pretty much transfer any of the major bank programs’ points and miles to Iberia Avios. The second best option is Air France/KLM Flying Blue which also transfers from every major program.

This gives an incredible amount of flexibility when deciding which credit cards to use, however, if you are also looking at Hyatt simultaneously, you probably want to go with a Chase credit card because it also transfers to Hyatt. I think Capital One is a better choice for the Family trip to Madrid, even with the extra headache of having to transfer the points through British Airways to Iberia. While I would do an Airbnb in Madrid, if you do actually want to split your family into two rooms at a hotel in Madrid, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card can be a great choice for racking up a lot of free nights quickly.

Whenever you are trying to determine the best credit card to sign up for to help out with the cost of vacation, it is always important to think about the desired destination first. Doing a little bit of analysis should help guide you to pick the right credit cards to help you get there. Once you’ve done that, it’s just a matter of executing your plan and enjoying your vacation.

Is Spring Break Cheaper (And Better) in Europe?

Posted on by David Cox

I was having a conversation with some friends about travel when I made an off-handed comment “It’s probably cheaper to travel to Europe during Spring Break than to go to Florida.” As I started to defend my off-handed comment, I started to think, maybe I’m right. Okay, it’s probably not true if you’re paying full price for flights, but if you’re traveling on points, I think it might be absolutely true. As a matter of fact, I think it could be a tremendous savings, in addition to being a much more enjoyable experience.

I’m Kinda Done with Florida

We’ve taken multiple trips to the panhandle of Florida, as well as the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama. These trips were reachable by car in about 15 hours from our house in Iowa. These spots along the Gulf Coast weren’t necessarily my ideal vacation, but it was warm and the beaches are lovely. Frankly, we went there because we could do it in a week and it’s around 70 degrees in March along the Gulf Coast and it’s, I don’t know, negative 50 in Iowa, something like that?

However, everything that is located along the “Redneck Riviera” eventually just begins to look like a Waffle House and a t-shirt shop sitting on white sands. It’s true, Florida has some of the world’s most amazing beaches, but outside of that, I just don’t see the attraction. So whenever I would see the prices of an Airbnb, I would grimace and think, ‘but it’s just Florida’.

The main thing that was keeping us from doing something else was the cost of airfare. This is why we drove, and why we kept picking the Gulf Coast – because it was warm and close. Once we got into points and miles, the calculations changed, because we could fly cheaply. What I quickly realized, was that not only was Florida filled up during Spring Break, but so were vacation destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean.

What if we did something different, like Europe?

Destin Vs Barcelona

We’ve been to Destin, or at least near Destin a couple of times during spring break. It is probably one of the most sought after destinations for spring break and because of that the prices for vacation rentals are extremely high. Spring break is peak season for Destin, but for Barcelona it’s off-peak. Both of these locations are prized tourist destinations, but since Europe doesn’t really celebrate spring break like the US, prices are a bit lower than normal. The cost of the vacation rental makes a huge difference in the analysis here.

In the past, before we started to collect/use points and miles, we would’ve looked at the price of a flight to Barcelona in March and laughed. A quick check on Google Flights shows that we could get our family of four to Barcelona from Chicago for about $2,750 total, which is actually a really good price, but not really what we want to spend for spring break. Even with points and miles, the cost of just the fuel surcharges and taxes on round trip flights for four to Barcelona is over $1,000, but that savings does make it more palatable.

If we used our old method of spring breaking, we would just drive to Destin, which eliminates the need for a rental car, or public transportation pass. The cost, in the example below, is the cost of fuel for approximately 1,000 miles each way and 500 miles while in Destin. Assuming 25 miles per gallon and $3 per gallon for fuel, then the cost of transportation is $300. If we flew to Destin, we would have to rent a car which is $645 (midsized sedan for a week on Expedia), plus $60 for fuel.

I used a $200 budget in Davenport, Iowa (my hometown) as the basis for the cost of groceries in both Destin and Barcelona and compared them to Davenport using Numbeo. According to Numbeo.com, both are less expensive than Davenport for groceries, but Barcelona is considerably cheaper. The cost for meals was calculated as one inexpensive meal for four people daily, using the inexpensive meal price listed on Numbeo for each city. Barcelona was again cheaper for dining out.

The cost for public transportation was the cost of four public transportation passes for the amount of time that we would be in the city. The cost for the flights was determined by a search using Pointsyeah.com.

For the price of the Airbnbs, I picked the timeframe, zoomed the map into the area that I was looking at and filtered by minimum of 3 beds, 2 bathrooms. I then counted the number of available properties and chose the one that was priced at the 25 percentile. I picked the 25th percentile, because I think that accurately reflects “I’m cheap, but I have standards.”

Using this method shows how expensive Florida is during spring break. The 25th percentile property for a week during spring break in Destin was $4,388! Good lord. In Barcelona, which is notoriously expensive for Spain, it was $2,410. When all that gets added up, Barcelona ends up being more than $1,000 cheaper than driving to Destin. That’s kind of crazy, right?

Driving to DestinFlying to DestinFlying to Barcelona
Airfare (Using Points/Miles)$0$45 (and 84,000 American Airlines Miles)$1064 (and 136,000 Avios)
Car Rental$0$645$0
Fuel for Car$300$60$0
Public Transportation$0$0$183
Airbnb rental$4,388$4,388$2,410
Dinners$504$504$452
Groceries$152$152$129
Total$5,392$5,842 (&88K AA Miles)$4,279 (& 136K Avios)
Example is for a family of four renting an Airbnb at the 25th percentile in the area for 6 nights, with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Car rental is cheapest midsized sedan using Expedia. Assuming 500 miles of driving while at location and 1,000 miles each way to drive to Destin for driving example. $3 per gallon assumed for price of fuel and 25 mpg fuel efficiency for car. Numbeo.com used for cost of dinners and groceries.

Miami Beach vs Tenerife

One of my complaints about going to the Destin area during spring break was that it’s just not hot enough, so lets pick warmer destinations then Destin and Barcelona and compare Playa de las Americas, on the Island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain with Miami Beach. Both are major beach destinations and both are pretty warm in March.

Using the same resources (Numbeo for Restaurants and groceries prices, Airbnb website for vacation rental prices and Expedia for midsized car rentals) we see that once again it’s cheaper to go to Europe (using points), in this case the Canary Islands. Again the biggest driver for this is the cost of the vacation rental. Once you are able to shrink the cost of the flights by using points, everything else just is cheaper in the Canary Islands, especially since it’s off-peak.

On top of that, since it is off-peak, you probably won’t be sitting on a crowded beach or struggling to get table at a restaurant for dinner. Considering how much cheaper it is to do a vacation rental in Tenerife, I would argue that it’s competitive even if you had to pay full fare for the flight, and you wouldn’t have to deal with drunk college students at the beach.

Driving to Miami Flying to MiamiFlying to Tenerife
Airfare (Using Points/Miles)$0$44 (and 82K AA miles)$1140 (and 196K Avios)
Car Rental$0$325$408
Fuel for Car$396$60$112
Public Transportation$0$0$0
Airbnb rental$4,276$4,276$1,307
Dinners$700$700$336
Groceries$206$206$36
Total$5,578$5,611 (& 82K AA Miles)$3,339 (& 196K Avios)
Example is for a family of four renting an Airbnb at the 25th percentile in the area for 6 nights, with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Car rental is cheapest midsized sedan using Expedia. Assuming 500 miles of driving while at location and 1,400 miles each way to drive to Miami Beach for driving example. $3 per gallon assumed for price of fuel and 25 mpg fuel efficiency for car for Florida and a little less than $6 per gallon for Tenerife. Numbeo.com used for cost of dinners and groceries.

Scottsdale Arizona Vs Split Croatia

What about a couple of places that are a little more quirky for spring break? Scottsdale Arizona is an interesting place to visit at that time of year, especially if you’re a baseball fan, because of Cactus League spring training that takes place every year. There is also some pretty good hiking within a reasonable drive.

Split Croatia is becoming a destination that people are starting to wake up to. It’s got great architecture, culture, and food, but it also has a mountainous coastline that dips into the crystal clear waters of the Adriatic sea. It’s an absolutely gorgeous city that I cannot wait to visit someday.

Using the same resources (Numbeo for Restaurants and groceries prices, Airbnb website for vacation rental prices and Expedia for midsized car rentals) it turns out to be much cheaper to go to Split than Scottsdale. Again the main driver is the cost of the Airbnb, with the vacation rental being about a third of the cost in Croatia than in Scottsdale.

Driving to ScottsdaleFlying to ScottsdaleFlying to Split
Airfare (Using Points/Miles)$0$44 (& 68K AA miles)$899 (& 240,000 Avianca Lifemiles)
Car Rental$0$411$300
Fuel for Car$420$60$120
Public Transportation$0$0$0
Airbnb rental$4,513$4,513$1,556
Dinners$553$553$345
Groceries$172$172$60
Total$5,658$5,753 (& 68K AA Miles)$3,280 (& 240K Lifemiles)
Example is for a family of four renting an Airbnb at the 25th percentile in the area for 6 nights, with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Car rental is cheapest midsized sedan using Expedia. Assuming 500 miles of driving while at location and 1,500 miles each way to drive to Scottsdale for driving example. $3 per gallon assumed for price of fuel and 25 mpg fuel efficiency for car in Scottsdale and $6 per gallon in Split. Numbeo.com used for cost of dinners and groceries.

Reality vs Example

The reality is that I’d never pay $4,500 for a week in vacation rental. I probably would’ve looked for a less desirable beach along the coast and found a much simpler place to stay. One of our kids is definitely sleeping on the couch. However, with the examples in Barcelona, Tenerife, and Split Croatia, there wasn’t any compromising. I could literally choose a great location and get a great price for a week in a vacation rental. Why? Because it’s off-peak, Europe doesn’t have a big spring break tradition like the US, and Americans don’t spring break in Europe very often.

Rethinking Spring Break

Spring break is a very important ritual for a lot of Americans, especially those of us who live in the Midwest, where winters are oppressive and people don’t leave their houses for months on end. That’s probably the reason why Florida and other warm destinations in the US get overrun by people just looking to escape the miserable, miserable winter.

However, taking a little time to think outside of the box could result in a vacation that you will remember for a lifetime, and the cost could be surprisingly inexpensive, especially if you are using points and miles. I mean, if you’d rather fight for sand space with a bunch of drunk teenagers in Miami instead of being in the Canary Islands, that’s fine, it’s just not for me anymore.

Wells Fargo Launches Another Great Credit Card with Signify Business Cash

Posted on by David Cox

For years, Wells Fargo has been a boring bank for travel hackers. However, in the last year or so, Wells Fargo has been put the travel rewards industry on notice that they intend to compete for business in the points and miles space.

The difference is that they have added some transfer partners for their credit cards. This allows for users to redeem their rewards for value that is better than the normal cash back rate. They are also adding new credit cards to their lineup.

Why Choose the Signify Business Cash Card

There are 3 good reasons to choose the Signify Business Cash card:

  • $0 Annual Fee
  • 2% Cash Back
  • $500 Signup offer

These are all pretty boring reasons, but they are important if you are planning to maximize return on your spending. 2% cash back seems pretty boring in the points and miles world, but it’s important because it allows you to get at least 2% in categories where there are no bonus categories. This is especially true if you have a business that has to purchase supplies or parts.

Having a 2% base is especially nice if you can use a different card for purchases in other bonus categories. For example, if you also had the Wells Fargo Autograph card, you could earn 3% on gas, groceries, transit, streaming services, and phone plans. Simply pairing these two cards, could allow you to get 3% on a lot of your expenses while earning 2% on everything else.

Also, having no annual fee allows you to not use it when you want and not worry about getting the most out of the card. If you decide you want to put it aside while you work on a new credit card signup bonus, you’re not going to worry that you’re getting your money’s worth on an annual fee. In that way, a 2% card with no annual fee becomes a solid, dependable card that you can use when you want and shove it to the back of your wallet when you don’t need it.

$500 Signup Bonus

The Signify Business Cash card is currently offering a $500 signup bonus when you spend $5,000 in the first 3 months. That’s a very strong signup bonus for a card with no annual fee. The best comparison to this card, in my opinion is the American Express Blue Business Cash card that earns 2% cash back, has no annual fee and is offering a $250 statement credit on $3,000 in spending in 3 months.

It’s Not Just a Cash Back Card – There are Transfer Partners!

This is where things get a little in the weeds. By itself, the Signify Business Cash card is strictly a 2% cash back card. However, as Frequent Miler points out in their review of the Signify card, if you have either the Wells Fargo Autograph card or the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey card along with the Signify card, you can convert the cash back to Wells Fargo Reward points at 1 cent per point.

This allows you to access Wells Fargo Transfer partners, including:

  • Aer Lingus Avios
  • British Airways Avios
  • Iberia Avios
  • Qatar Privilege Avios
  • Air France Flying Blue
  • KLM Flying Blue
  • Avianca Lifemiles
  • Choice Privileges

Having these transfer partners means that you can take advantage of some of the great deals these programs have. For example, if you wanted to fly round trip from Chicago to Madrid in March 2025, the cost of that flight, in economy, using Avios, is 34,000 Avios and $228.70 (that’s not a flash sale – it’s normal off-peak pricing using Iberia Avios). In terms of the Signify card, that is essentially $340 in cash back transferred to Wells Fargo Rewards points then to Iberia Avios and $228.70. So essentially for $568.70 in cash back, you can fly to Madrid and back. That’s a really good deal, especially if you factor in the $500 signup bonus.

These transfer partners make the Wells Fargo Signify card much stronger than just a 2% cash back card. The Points Guy values Wells Fargo Reward points at 1.6 cents per point, meaning if you use the cash back from the Signify card as points, you are really earning 3.2% back as travel rewards. That’s pretty good.

Wells Fargo Active Cash is the Personal Version of Signify Cash

The Wells Fargo Active Cash card is essentially the same thing as the Signify Cash card, except that it’s a personal card. It is a 2% cash back everywhere card with no annual fee. Like the Signify card you can pool your rewards together with an Autograph or Autograph Journey Card and accumulate all of the rewards as Wells Fargo Reward points and transfer those points to their transfer partners.

The main differences here is that the Active Cash is a personal card and that the signup bonus is much lower ($200 for spending $500 in 3 months)

I expect this to Get Even Better Over Time

The transfer partners that Wells Fargo have chosen to work with initially are really good choices, but it’s a pretty limited list. Flying Blue, Avios, and Avianca Lifemiles are all really good programs that cover a lot of needs for travelers on points and miles. However, that’s a pretty short list and I imagine that Wells Fargo is trying to add more transfer partners.

As I pointed out in a previous post when Wells Fargo announced they would have transfer partners, but before they announced who the partners would be, Wells Fargo is associated with the Bilt Card, and Bilt has probably the best list of transfer partners in the points and miles space. It took a while for Bilt to build out their impressive list of transfer partners, and if Wells Fargo follows suit, this could become a very valuable transferrable points currency.

There are a few, like Air Canada Aeroplan and Emirates Skyward, that I think would be pretty easy for them to add. Some others, such as Alaska Air or American Airlines, would be amazing but I wouldn’t count on it. I would also love to see them add Hyatt, but I don’t think they will, although I would expect them to add at least one more hotel chain.

Wells Fargo Rewards Keeps Getting Better

Anything that Wells Fargo can add to their transfer partner list at this point will make Wells Fargo Reward points more valuable, and by extension, Wells Fargo credit cards. The Wells Fargo Autograph and the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey are already cards that do a great job of earning points with some really strong bonus categories.

Wells Fargo seems intent on making some cards that really appeal to the points and miles community. It looks like they definitely want to start aggressively taking some business away from Chase, American Express, Capital One and Citibank. With that in mind, and the fact that they’ve been offering transfer partners for less than a year, I expect that Wells Fargo will add new credit card offerings, and new transfer partners over time. This is absolutely a bank to keep your eyes on.

Manufacturing a Big Signup Bonus on the Amex Blue Business Plus

Posted on by David Cox

The American Express Blue Business Plus is a somewhat boring, but great all around credit card. It doesn’t come with a big, flashy signup bonus. However, every once in a while, American Express puts out referral bonuses that can make the signup bonus pretty sweet. A recent referral offer from American Express gave us the opportunity to get this must-have credit card and still get a decent bonus.

Why Choose the Amex Blue Business Plus

There main reasons for why the Blue Business Plus is a great option for a business credit card are:

  • No Annual Fee
  • 2x on all spending up to $50,000 in spending per year
  • Earns Membership Reward points that are transferable to 18 airline program and 3 hotel program partners

2x Membership Rewards points per dollar on all spending is great for a no annual fee card. If you are someone who uses multiple credit cards and take advantage of bonus categories to get 5x or 3x on your spending, you notice pretty quickly that not all spending will fall into a bonus category. Having a 2x card that acts as the lowest you earn can be very valuable, especially if you spend a lot in non-bonus categories.

Also, if you like to take advantage of big Amex signup bonus offers on their Gold and Platinum cards, but don’t want to pay the big annual fees for eternity, having the Blue Business Plus card gives you a no annual fee option that allows you to keep those points you earned on those big signup bonuses. This allows you to keep those points and cancel those credit cards. Keep in mind, cancelling an American Express card within 12 months from the date it was issued can cause them to take back the points.

Membership Rewards Transfer Partners

ProgramTypeTransfer Rate
Aer LingusAirline1 MR to 1 Avios
AeroMexicoAirline1 MR to 1.6 AeroMexico Reward Points
Air Canada AeroplanAirline1 MR to 1 Aeroplan Point
ANA Mileage ClubAirline1 MR to 1 ANA Mile
Avianca LifemilesAirline1 MR to 1 Lifemile
British AirwaysAirline1 MR to 1 Avios
Cathay PacificAirline1 MR to 1 Asia Mile
Delta SkymilesAirlines1 MR to 1 Skymile
Emirates SkywardsAirlines1 MR to 1 Skyward Mile
Etihad GuestAirlines1 MR to 1 Etihad Guest Mile
Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)Airlines1 MR to 1 Flying Blue Mile
Hawaiian MilesAirlines1 MR to 1 Hawaiian Mile
Iberia PlusAirlines1 MR to 1 Avios
JetBlue True BlueAirlines5 MR to 4 TrueBlue Points
Quantas Frequent FlyerAirlines1 MR to 1 Quantas Point
Qatar Airways Privilege ClubAirlines1 MR to 1 Avios
Singapore KrisflyerAirlines1 MR to 1 KrisFlyer Miles
Virgin Atlantic Flying ClubAirlines1 MR to 1 Virgin Point
Choice PrivilegesHotel1 MR to 1 Choice Privilege
Hilton HonorsHotels 1 MR to 2 Hilton Honors Points
Marriott Bonvoy Hotels1 MR to 1 Bonvoy Points

What makes Membership Rewards points so valuable is being able to take advantage of deals in any of these programs. For example, Flying Blue frequently offers flights from major US cities to Europe for 20,000 points (and around $150 taxes/surcharges) one-way in economy or 50,000 points (and around $250 taxes/surcharges) one-way in business class.

In addition, Virgin Voyages often offers points redemptions on cruises. Recently, they were offering a cruise for 120,000 points per cabin (1 or 2 people) for a seven night Mediterranean cruise leaving from Barcelona with stops in places like Ibiza, Mallorca, and Marseille. Simultaneously, there was also a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin from American Express which means that cruise could have been booked for around 93,000 Membership Rewards points.

Being able to pick and choose between programs when they are running specials is what makes flexible award currencies, such as Membership Rewards so incredibly valuable.

A Place to Keep Your Membership Rewards

American Express offers some monster signup bonuses on their cards. Recently, as Travel On Points pointed out, they offered a 300,000 point signup bonus on their Business Platinum card. That’s just enormous, with that bonus being worth $6,000.

However, the Business Platinum Card has an annual fee of $695. While there are definitely great ways of getting $700 worth of value on that card by using the credits and benefits on that card, eventually you might decide you want to dump the card to avoid that annual fee. By having the Blue Business Plus, you can keep the points you earned on your Business Platinum card in your account without having to pay an annual fee.

But the Signup Bonus for the Blue Business Plus is so Tiny

I have definitely gotten spoiled with signup offers that seem to always be north of 60,000 points. However, I knew if I was going to be trying to get big offers from American Express, I would want the Blue Business Plus in order to house those points. Unfortunately, they almost always offer 15,000 Membership Rewards points on a spend of $3,000 in 3 months – that’s just not exciting.

However, earlier this year, Jenn was given a very enticing offer from American Express. She signed up for the Business Gold card on an inflated 130,000 point offer. Since she was a Business Gold card holder, they offered her a 20,000 point referral bonus as well as 3 months of an additional 10x on dining.

Normally, credit card companies only offer referral bonuses on the same card that the cardholder has, but American Express offers referral bonuses that work if the invitee is approved for other American Express cards as well. This means that Jenn could get a referral bonus on her Business Gold card even though I was getting the Blue Business Plus.

The 20,000 point referral bonus wasn’t that unusual, but the extra 10x on dining was very interesting. Her Business Gold card already earns 4x on dining, which means that for 3 months, she will be earning 14x on every dollar spent on dining.

We don’t eat out that often, maybe a couple of times a month, but we do spend a decent amount of time at breweries. I mean, enough that most of the bartenders we see know us by name. Hey, we like beer. Anyway, breweries code as dining, so those are 14x when using her Business Gold card for the next 3 months.

All in all, lets say that over the next 3 months we spend $2,000 on dining. With the extra 10x, that is 20,000 Membership Reward Points. If you add the 20,000 point referral and the 15,000 point signup, that makes the total signup bonus 55,000 Membership Reward points. That’s pretty good for a no annual fee card, especially one with 2x transferable points on all spending.

Benefits of Working with Someone Else

This is a great example of the importance of working with someone else when earning points and miles. Experienced points and miles hobbyists refer to this as “2-player mode”. Being able to consistently refer a spouse, friend or family member, means that both of you can amass a larger amount of points that you can as an individual. This also means that you shouldn’t be an authorized user on your Player 2’s accounts.

In this case, if I was signing up for this card by myself, I would have earned a 15,000 point bonus. Since we are working in 2-player mode, Jenn will earn around 40,000 points in addition to the points that I’ve earned.

The American Express Blue Business Plus is one of those no-brainer credit cards that should be in your wallet. With 2x Membership Rewards points on all spending up to $50,000 per year and no annual fee, it’s a great card to keep around even if you don’t use it often. American Express has a tendency to give great referral bonuses from time to time, so if you can take advantage of those referral bonuses to bump up that sign up bonus, you should absolutely do so. This is one of those cards that you should have, but be patient to see if you can manufacture an elevated bonus.

Latest Vacasa/Wyndham Devaluation Stings A Bit

Posted on by David Cox

** On November 30, 2025, vacasa will end ITS partnership with Wyndham and this will no longer be available.**

The Vacasa/Wyndham partnership devalued again, for the second time in just 6 months. This is pretty annoying, because this partnership went under the radar for a while, and as people became aware of what a tremendous deal this was, they had to start dialing it back. Now after a second devaluation, the partnership is still pretty good but it’s just not the same fantastic deal it was before.

We have loved this program for a while and have used it a couple of times, once for a trip to Nashville, where we saved almost $1,000 by buying points and redeeming it on the rental and another where Jenn got a great deal on a Vacasa in Playa Del Carmen for a girl’s trip.

What Happened Now?

The original redemption rates for Wyndham points on Vacasa rentals was simple – 15,000 Wyndham points per bedroom, per night on any rental up to $500 per bedroom per night. In October of last year, they kept the same basic structure, but lowered the maximum redemption from $500 per bedroom per night to $350 per bedroom per night.

With the change made in October, it effectively made any rental that cost more than $350 per bedroom per night unrentable on points. The newest devaluation makes those properties rentable again, but means that any property that cost between $250-$500 per night per bedroom just got twice as expensive as it was prior to October 2023.

The new Vacasa/Wyndham redemption rates are essentially this: for any Vacasa vacation rental, it costs 15,000 Wyndham points per bedroom per night for any property that costs up to $250 per bedroom per night. For any property that costs $250-$500 per bedroom per night, that will cost 30,000 Wyndham points per bedroom per night. Any property that costs more that $500 per bedroom per night will be unavailable on points.

ExampleBefore Oct 2023Oct 2023 – March 2024After March 2024
1 Bedroom $200/Night15,000 Pts/Night15,000 Pts/Night15,000 Pts/Night
1 Bedroom $300/Night15,000 Pts/Night15,000 Pts/Night30,000 Pts/Night
1 Bedroom $400/Night15,000 Pts/NightUnavailable on Points30,000 Pts/ Night
2 Bedroom $450/Night30,000 Pts/Night30,000 Pts/Night30,000 Pts/Night
2 Bedroom $600/Night30,000 Pts/Night30,000 Pts/Night60,000 Pts/Night
2 Bedroom $900/Night30,000 Pts/NightUnavailable on Points60,000 Pts/Night
Effect of last 2 Vacasa/Wyndham devaluation on redemptions

These are All-In Prices

The $250 per bedroom per night price is the all-in price not the headline price on Vacasa’s website. They might show a headline price of $200 per night, for example, but for 5 nights it’s not going to be $1,000, it’s probably going to be closer to $1,400. This is because they charge a number of taxes and fees, which can get pretty extensive.

These fees can be state and local taxes, amenity fees, booking fees, damage waivers, etc. In my experience, these will probably cost an extra 30 to 50 percent on top of the rent itself.

I think we can all agree that fees are getting out of control as you can see below. I mean, damn, I know you have expenses and all but do you need to itemize them and make me pay one by one? Just tell me what the price is! I mean, I get it, you got an HOA, but you can include that in the price instead of charging me for an ‘Amenity Fee’? And what the hell is a ‘destination surcharge’?

How Many Properties Does This Actually Affect?

One of the bright spots about this devaluation has been that if you had a rental that you liked that normally cost $200 per bedroom per night, you have gone completely unaffected by this. There are a lot of quality vacation rentals that are under that $250 per bedroom per night range and they are the same as they ever were.

That being said, if you had your eye on a more expensive unit, you might be reevaluating your plans now.

Let’s look at the Destin Florida area for a 5 day rental in June to see the real life results of the devaluation. Let’s say you’re a family of 4 and you would prefer a 2 bedroom vacation rental, but would settle for a 1 bedroom if it had room for everyone to sleep.

The below examples are taking into account a 40% upcharge for taxes and fees. These fees vary by property, so some are higher and some are lower but in order for me to use the filters on Vacasa’s website for this chart, I had to make some assumptions.

Up to $250 per bedroom per night$250 -$350 per bedroom per night$350- $500 per bedroom per nightMore than $500 per bedroom per night
1 Bedroom25 (15,000 pts)119 (30,000 pts)129 (30,000 pts)120
2 Bedrooms323 (30,000 pts)298 (60,000 pts)94 (60,000 pts)12
3 Bedroom204 (45,000 pts)86 (90,000 pts)29 (90,000 pts)4
Example availability of Vacasa vacation rentals with room for 4 near Destin for a random summer extended weekend.

The unicorn rental is if you can find a 1 bedroom with enough sleeping space for 4, that can be rented for 15,000 Wyndham points. In this example, prior to October 2023, there would have been 273 total 1 bedroom properties rentable for under $500 per night. When the first devaluation occurred and dropped the maximum price for redemption to $350 per night, that number dropped to 144. After the March 2024 devaluation, there are only 25 such properties left at the 15,000 point level. That’s only 9% of the original available properties at that rate.

Two bedroom properties fared a little better in the devaluation than the one bedroom properties. 94 were affected by the devaluation in October and another 298 were affected by the March devaluation. In this case 45% of the two bedroom properties in this example were unaffected by these devaluations.

The three bedroom properties fared the best with 204 of the total 319 properties for a total of 64% unaffected by the devaluation.

In general, the next time that I rent a Vacasa on points I’ll most likely be renting something that is 30,000 points per night, because the unicorn 15,000 point redemption is just going to be very hard to find now. It probably means that we will be looking for a two bedroom which will probably be more comfortable for us than a one bedroom, but twice the number of points is still a bit of a kick to the gut.

Elevated Signup Bonuses as a Consolation Prize

I don’t know if Wyndham did this at the same time as the most recent devaluation to soften the blow a little bit, but current signup bonuses for Wyndham credit cards are massive right now.

Wyndham is currently offering 100,000 point bonuses on their Wyndham Reward Earner Business card and their Wyndham Reward Earner Plus (Consumer) card. They are also offering a 75,000 point bonus on their Wyndham Earner card. All of those bonuses are the largest bonuses ever offered according to Frequent Miler.

The Wyndham Reward Earner Business card is one that we hold and continue to use. Jenn signed up for this one when the bonus was only 45,000 points. The reason we continue to use it is that it has some great point earning rates. It is 8x at gas stations and 5x on utilities. I put all of our gas and utilities on it for this reason. The full 100,000 point bonus for this card is after spending $15,000 on the card within 12 months.

If you really like those Wyndham points (which we do), the Wyndham Reward Earner (Consumer version) Card has some great earning categories too. It is 6x at gas stations, 4x on groceries and 4x on dining. It is also currently offering a 100,000 point bonus after a much lower $2,000 in spending within 6 months.

If you spend a lot on gas and you like vacation rentals, these cards can rack up points for those rentals in a hurry. In addition, all 3 of the Wyndham cards offer a 10% discount on award redemptions if you are a cardholder. This means that the example of a 1 bedroom Vacasa under $250 per night isn’t actually 15,000 points per night, it’s really 13,500 points per night for cardholders. The 100,000 point bonus alone would pay for a week at those rates.

Keep in mind that if you were to maximize these redemptions at a full $250 per night per bedroom, and you had one of these credit cards to reduce the redemption to 13,500 points, you would be redeeming those points at 1.85 cents per point. If you are earning 8x on all of your gas spending, you are essentially earning 14.8% back at gas stations. That’s pretty ridiculous.

Vacasa Still Remains the Best Way to Book a Vacation Rental on Points

Even with the rapid fire devaluations, Vacasa still remains the best way to book a vacation rental on points. Marriott has it’s Homes and Villas collection which does allow for booking vacation rentals using Bonvoy points, but the rates are much higher, and I would argue the points are harder to earn.

Sure, if you are a business traveler, you might be able to earn quite a lot of Bonvoy points by staying in Marriott hotels, so Homes and Villas might be pretty attractive for your family vacation. But, if you’re not a business traveler, the ability to earn a lot of points through spending on gas and utilities on the Business Earner card or by gas, groceries, and dining on the consumer Earner card is huge.

I’m still hoping that Hyatt, IHG, or Hilton can someday begin to make their points usable at VRBO or Airbnb, but I wouldn’t count on it. That being said, as long as Wyndham keeps the amount of points needed to book a rental low as well as allow easy earning of Wyndham points, it’s going to remain a fantastic deal. There is no doubt in my mind that the Vacasa/Wyndham partnership remains the best way to use points on vacation rentals.

What’s the Best Travel Rewards Credit Card for Young Adults?

Posted on by David Cox

“I wish I would’ve traveled when I was young.” How many times have we all heard that lament from either 30-somethings tethered to their children or empty nesters who just lack the energy for the kind of travel they wish they could still do?

The problem with traveling when you’re young is that you’re usually pretty broke and travel isn’t cheap. Travel, however, is a great education for young adults. Travel teaches about other cultures, languages, and most importantly perspective. It also teaches skills such as communication (especially how to communicate without a common language) and self-reliance.

Our kids have grown up around travel because it was always important to us, even if it was just short trips to nearby places. It’s not surprising to me that it wasn’t long after she graduated from High School that my daughter Emma began to plan her own trips. She and her friends recently planned a trip to California for an event taking place in Anaheim.

I’m sure they’ll have a blast and while, as a parent, I’m a little nervous, I understand just how great a learning experience this can be. I also have a sneaking suspicion that this won’t be her last trip, so not only do we want to her to have the skills to travel, but if we can teach her a little about travel hacking along the way so that she can travel cheaply, that’s even better. So, of course, we’re going to help her pick the best credit cards that allow her to do the traveling that she wants to do, but for less money.

This had me doing quite a bit of thinking about what the best credit card for her, and by extension, any young traveler. A word of caution here – Emma is ridiculously careful with her money, if you are a parent of a young adult that isn’t careful with their money, then steering them into credit cards could be a really bad idea.

Building Your Credit Score

One very important thing for any young adult to do is begin to build their credit score. Start by signing up with Credit Karma or another such credit monitoring service. If travel hacking is a future that you want, you need to know, love and cherish your credit score. If you don’t, all of those awesome credit cards with the huge welcome bonuses won’t be an option for you.

There are 6 items that Credit Karma have listed that affect your credit score:

  • Payment History
  • Credit Card Usage
  • Derogatory Marks
  • Credit Age
  • Total Accounts
  • Hard Inquiries

The top 3 items there can pretty easily be maintained well simply by making your payments on time – every time and in full. However, what you should be concerned about when choosing your first or second credit card is developing your credit age.

Credit age is the average length of time that you have had your accounts open. For instance, if you only have one credit card that you’ve had for 8 months, then your credit age is 8 months. If you then get a second card, your credit age will drop to 4 months, since now you have a credit card for 8 months and one for 0 months.

Building a Solid Credit Age with a No Annual Fee Card

In the beginning this doesn’t matter that much, because you have to start somewhere, but what you really want to do at this time is get a credit card that you plan to keep – like forever. I actually have two accounts that are almost 20 years old and they work so well to hold this average up. If you pick the right card early, then you can keep that card for eternity and it can prop up this credit age stat.

This credit card should be a no annual fee card. The reason is simple, lets say you get a different credit card later that earns a huge amount of points and you start thinking that you should close that account because you don’t want to pay an annual fee on a credit card that you just don’t use any more. You either are going to have to keep paying the annual fee or take the hit on your credit score when your credit age drops. If you have a no annual fee card, you can stop using it and keep the card, no big deal.

What should a Young Traveler be Looking for in a Credit Card?

If a young person who wants to travel is looking for a credit card, there are a few things that they should be looking for:

  • No Annual Fee
  • Good Bonus Earning Categories (In categories they use)
  • Achievable Bonus With Low Spend Requirement
  • Good Transfer Partners

When it comes to good bonus earning categories, that obviously varies from person to person, but for my daughter, I know her typical spending categories are gas stations and dining. She should be looking for those categories as potential bonus categories.

As far as an achievable bonus with a low spend requirement, getting a card that earns a 60,000 point bonus is great, but if it requires a $4,000 in spend in 3 months, that might be a lot for a young adult to spend. It’s very important to know what is a reasonable amount to spend and don’t go for a card that stretches you financially to reach the sign up bonus. For our daughter, that number is probably no more than $400 per month toward a bonus, so if there is a bonus that is offered after $1,000 spending in 3 months, I think she’d be fine.

Transfer partners are really important if you want to maximize the amount of travel you can do with the points you earn from your credit card spend. By having a great menu of transfer partners to choose from, you can take advantage of any deals that pop up in a variety of programs.

With these things in mind, lets look at a few credit card options for the young traveler, all of which are offered with no annual fee.

Capital One Venture One Rewards

The Capital One Venture One Rewards card offers a generous 20,000 point bonus after only a $500 spend in 3 months. That is a good bonus offer with an achievable amount of spending.

The earning rates are 5x on hotels and rental cars, and 1.25 points per dollar everywhere else. Since I can’t imagine a young person spending a significant amount of money on hotels and rental cars, this is pretty much a 1.25x on everything card – not too exciting.

Capital One does have a great group of transfer partners including 15 airline programs and 3 hotel programs. Of the hotel programs, only Wyndham is interesting, but of there are some interesting airline partners like Avianca Lifemiles, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways Avios, and Turkish Miles and Smiles.

American Express EveryDay Card

The Amex EveryDay card has a signup bonus of 10,000 membership rewards points after spending $2,000 in the first 6 months. That’s not a great signup bonus, but the $2,000 spend over 6 months should be pretty achievable for most young adults.

This card earns 2x at grocery stores and 1x on everything else. That could be very attractive to someone who spends a large portion of their spending on groceries, but it’s not particularly exciting besides that.

American Express does pack a powerhouse of transfer partners including 11 airline partners and 3 hotel partners. The hotel partners are Marriott, Hilton and Radisson. The airline partners include Air France/KLM Flying Blue, British Airways and Iberia Avios, Virgin Atlantic and most importantly, Delta. Delta doesn’t always have the best redemptions, but they do have a ton of available flights within the US.

The Bilt Mastercard

Bilt is, well, it’s built different. Pardon the pun, but while it doesn’t offer a signup bonus, it offers a feature nobody else can – you can pay your rent with it. If you’re a renter, this card is the biggest no-brainer ever. Why? because you can earn points on what is probably your biggest expense – rent. You only earn 1x on rent, but it’s better than the 0x on rent on every other card. You must make 5 other transactions on the card each month to get the points for the rent, but still, points on rent? That’s crazy!

Aside from 1x on rent, it also earns 2x on travel and 3x on dining. Also, any spending done on rent day (1st of the month) is doubled. Which, for example, would be 6x on dining on the 1st of the month.

Bilt also has some pretty crazy rent day promos. A recent one offered up to a 150% transfer bonus (the actual transfer bonus percentage was based on your Bilt status) on the first of the month to transfer to Aeroplan. That means if you had 10,000 Bilt points and you wanted to transfer it on that day, it would show up as 25,000 miles in your Aeroplan account. The rent day promos are generally announced just a few days before rent day, so if you’re paying attention, you can get some tremendous transfer bonuses.

What’s even better is that Bilt has the best group of transfer partners of any credit card. They have 12 airline and 3 hotel partners. The quality of these partners sets them apart. Not only do they have some of the usual transfer partners like Air France/KLM Flying Blue, British Airways/Iberia/Aer Lingus Avios and Air Canada Aeroplan, but they also have United Airlines.

As far as hotels are concerned, Bilt has Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, and IHG. Hyatt is the big one on this list. They consistently have award stays at great redemption rates and Hyatt points are by far the most valuable of any hotel chain.

Wells Fargo autograph Card

The Wells Fargo Autograph Card currently has a 20,000 point bonus when the cardholder spends $1,000 in the first 3 months. That should be pretty achievable for anyone with any sort of normal expenses.

The Autograph Card has some solid bonus categories. They offer 3x on dining, travel, gas, transit, streaming services and phone plans. Looking through that list, that looks like a list of bonus categories that should be pretty great for young adults. I’m not sure how much the average young adult spends on travel, but I have to imagine that the rest of these categories should get used pretty heavily. This card should earn a young adult a lot of points every month.

Prior to an announcement earlier this month, I would have considered the Autograph card to be a cash back card. However, starting April 4th, 2024, Wells Fargo has added transfer partners to this card as well as to the recently launched Autograph Journey card. There are only a few at this point with Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Aer Lingus/British Airways/Iberia Avios, and Avianca Lifemiles for airline transfer partners and Choice Hotels on the hotel side.

Even though there are only 3 programs (6 airlines) in the list of airline transfer partners, they are really good ones. Also, while you might think Choice is a sub-par hotel partner, Autograph Rewards transfer to Choice at a 1:2 ratio. If just look around Choice’s website, it’s pretty common to find hotels between 10,000 points and 20,000 points per night. At that transfer ratio, that becomes 5,000 to 10,000 Autograph Rewards points. That’s a pretty good value for those points.

Wells Fargo has been indicating that these are the initial transfer partners for the Autograph Rewards program and more will be added over time. This should mean that this program should only get better throughout this year and maybe beyond.

Why are there No Citibank or Chase Cards on this List?

The main reason why I didn’t choose any Citibank or Chase credit cards for this list is that both banks require the cardholder to have a premium credit card in order to transfer points. In the case of Citibank, you can earn transferrable Citi Thank You points on a number of credit cards, but you will need to have a Citi Premier card in order to transfer those points to one of the transfer partners in their program.

In the case of Chase, the cardholder must have a Sapphire Reserve card, Sapphire Preferred Card, or a Ink Business Preferred Card in order to unlock the transfer partner benefit. Again, Chase has some great cards to earn Ultimate Reward Points, but without one of those three cards the cardholder can’t transfer those points to one of Chase’s great list of transfer partners.

All of the cards I mentioned above not only have an annual fee, but the signup bonuses on these have some elevated spending (normally something like $4,000 in 3 months) that would be likely be difficult for a young person to achieve.

So which of these Cards is the Best For Young Travelers?

The Capital One Venture One card has a great signup bonus and fantastic transfer partners. However, with all of the ongoing spend being at 1.25x, it looks like there wouldn’t be great opportunities to accumulate a lot of points after the signup bonus.

The Amex EveryDay card has a not very exciting 10,000 point bonus after $2,000 spend. It does offer 2x on groceries and 1x everywhere else, so if groceries are a big expense, this might make sense. American Express also has great transfer partners.

The Bilt Mastercard doesn’t have any signup bonus, but the fact that you can pay rent with this card makes it a great card for any renter. Once you add in the fact that they probably have the best transfer partners and some really exciting rent day specials, this just becomes a must-have card for anyone who pays rent. Hands down, if you pay rent – get the Bilt Mastercard.

If you don’t pay rent, I think the Wells Fargo Autograph Card is suddenly the best choice. Yeah, it has some limited transfer partners, but it has a great signup bonus and 3x categories that hit all the right spots for young adults. I also think the limited transfer partners issue is a temporary thing. Wells Fargo is indicating that there will be additional transfer partners and my guess is that they will roll them out one at a time going forward so to maximize the amount of press they get. This could be one of the best no annual fee cards available by the end of the year.

Conclusion

I think it’s actually pretty important that young people choose wisely when getting their first credit card. The impact on credit score of having a credit card with a really long history means that picking a credit card that you will continue you to use for a long time is very important. It’s very important to make that credit card something that you aren’t tempted to close.

Assuming that the person applying for the account likes to travel, I think the answer is pretty clear – go with the Bilt Mastercard if you pay rent and the Wells Fargo Autograph card if you don’t pay rent. Just make sure that you pay your balances in full every month, and enjoy your travels!