Newby to Expert Traveler

Transferring Amex Membership Rewards Points to Alaska Airlines

Posted on October 3, 2024December 28, 2025 by David Cox

The ability to transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points to Hawaiian Airlines is no longer available. However, this article is an example of what is possible if you are creative with your points and miles.

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 September 29, 2024September 29, 2024 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.

Points Check August 2024

Posted on September 25, 2024September 25, 2024 by David Cox

We’ve been making preparations to go with our friends Bill and Theresa as well as Jenn’s parents to Italy. We will be visiting Florence, Cinque Terre, Venice and Rome on this trip. This is a little nerve-wracking, since we have made a lot of the plans and we don’t want to let them down. In the past, we’ve mostly just gone on trips with our kids and I’ve spent their entire lives trying to lower their expectations. But, we are going to Italy, how can you not have a great time there?

Signing up for the IHG One Rewards Card

Jenn applied for and was accepted for the IHG One Rewards card, issued by Chase. We wanted to jump on this because they had an elevated offer of 5 free night certificates worth up to 60,000 points per night. IHG points are worth around a half a cent each, so for the most part, these certificates can book you a room that would cost less than $300 per night. The card has an annual fee of $99 and each year on the anniversary date the cardholder receives a 40,000 point certificate.

It has a cool perk where you get a fourth night free if you book a 4 night award stay with points. That doesn’t count for free nights using certificates, so you would need to actually have 3 nights worth of points to take advantage of that perk.

The card earns 10x at IHG properties, 5x on travel dining and gas, and 3x on everything else, so you can earn quite a lot of points quickly. Unfortunately, with them being worth half a cent each, it does take quite a few points to book a hotel room.

A Couple of Bonuses

I finished the rest of my spend on the American Express Blue Business Plus card, earning me the 15,000 Membership Reward point bonus. Jenn also finished the required spend on her Spark Cash Select card which ended up earning her a $750 bonus and a total of $855 of cash back on just under $7,000 in spend over a few months which works out to a pretty impressive 12% cash back rate.

We used that cash back as well as other cash back that we had earned from other cards to cover the $1,500 in VRBO costs that we have for our trip to Italy this fall. We always like to have some cash back cards to cover VRBO charges or taxes and fuel surcharges on flights so cash back cards can be really helpful.

Anyway, on to the Points Check!

This month, we did fairly well focusing our spending on cards to earn signup bonuses. We do have our normal recurring payments set up to maximize the value of some of our cards. For instance, taking advantage of the 8x on gas and 5x on utilities on the Wyndham Earner Business card and using the Capital One Venture card’s 2x on everything to take care of our car insurance and Costco charges, neither of which are bonus categories anywhere that I know of.

The Citi Strata Premier charges are the only real exception, but that’s really because our daughter Emma is an authorized user and if we need her to buy groceries or something else for the family, she uses that. It is nice that she will run an errand once in a while for us, even though she treats a 15 minute trip to Aldi like a 2 month stretch on the Oregon Trail.

Card Used	Spend	Points Earned	Point Value	Points Per $	Return on Spend
Wyndham Business Earner	$805	4,961	$54.57	6.2	6.8%
Venture	$666	1,332	$24.64	2.0	3.7%
Ink Cash	$540	2,679	$54.92	5.0	10.2%
Citi Strata Premier	$152	262	$4.72	1.7	3.1%
Amex Gold	$101	404	$8.08	4.0	8.0%
Total	$2,264	9,638	$146.93	4.3	6.5%

This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus

Aside from the spend in the above chart, I also spent a little under $1,700 on my Amex Blue Business Plus card earning around 3,400 Membership Reward points as well as 15,000 bonus Membership Reward points. Jenn spent $4,800 on her Spark Cash Select which included a lot of those VRBO charges, earning her around $72 in cash back and finishing off her $750 signup bonus on that card.

At the end of the month we were left with 306,900 Amex Membership Reward points, 211,500 Chase Ultimate Reward points, 83,600 Capital One Venture miles, 74,700 American Airlines miles, 54,400 Marriott Bonvoy points, 41,200 Wyndham points, 29,700 Citi Thank You points, 11,300 Hyatt points, 5,000 Delta miles, 1,900 United miles, and around $160 in cash back. Using the Points Guy valuations, all of this is worth just over $15,000.

US Bank Improves Altitude Connect Card

Posted on September 21, 2024December 28, 2025 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.

Hiking to Avalanche Lake

Posted on September 15, 2024 by David Cox

The Avalanche Lake Trail is a beautiful wooded hike in Glacier Park. It is an extremely popular out-and-back hike in the park and follows the mostly whitewater Avalanche Creek to the gorgeous Avalanche Lake.

Getting to the trailhead requires a park pass to Glacier National Park as well as a pass to drive Going-to-the-Sun road. If you can’t secure a driving pass on Going-to-the-Sun road you can take the free shuttle service. We secured a road pass by booking a boat trip on Lake MacDonald, which you might find easier than getting a pass for the road by itself.

We found parking to be a little hard to come by, so you’ll either need to be patient and circle the lot next to the Trail of the Cedars for a while or arrive early in the day. Avalanche Lake Trail is around 5 miles round-trip, so you’ll definitely want to bring along some water, maybe a snack, and someone in your group should have bear spray.

We started on Trail of the Cedars, which is a very flat, easily accessible trail. It has a lot of wooden walkways to make things easier for folks with limited mobility.

This is a very serene hike with tall, thin cedar trees everywhere. It is a very heavily traveled path because of how easy it is to hike. We saw a lot of parents hiking with their young children who wouldn’t be capable of doing a more difficult hike.

Avalanche Creek carving out a passage in rock

Along the Trail of the Cedars is the Avalanche Lake trailhead and there is a park sign marking the entrance. Once you leave the Trail of the Cedars for Avalanche Lake Trail, the hike becomes more challenging. Alltrails.com has Trail of the Cedars rated as an easy hike and Avalanche Lake Trail as moderate. For most people, Avalanche Lake Trail will be fairly easy to hike, but you should be aware of your personal fitness before getting two miles into the hike and regretting your life’s decisions.

In some areas Avalanche Creek is somewhat narrow

The Avalanche Lake Trail roughly follows Avalanche Creek from the trailhead until you reach the lake. This is a fast flowing, whitewater creek. The creek in some spots has carved out smooth mini-canyons and in other spots opens up into wide rapids flowing over smooth river rock.

Where Avalanche Creek hasn’t been restricted by a rocky passage it opens up and widens into rapids.

According the data recorded from my Garmin on the hike, the hike to the lake is about 2 1/2 miles and the elevation goes from around 3,500 feet above sea level to around 4,000 feet in that span, The creek basically has the same stats. Any time a creek has a 500 foot drop over a couple of miles, there will be a lot of whitewater.

There are plenty of times that the trail veers away from the creek which lets you enjoy the forest. Most of the trail itself is fairly wide and comfortable to walk. There is quite a bit of traffic on the trail, but because the trail is wide, there is plenty of room to maneuver around other hikers.

Some of the mountains in the area of the trail.

After a little over a couple of miles, we arrived at the lake. In my opinion, there is nothing more stunning than a mountain lake, and this is a breathtaking one. The beach is filled with smooth rocks and the water is crystal clear. The water was extremely calm which made for a perfect mirror of the sky and mountains in the background.

Avalanche Lake from the beach at the end of the trail

The shore itself was lined with hikers and we found a little chipmunk who had grown accustomed to begging for snacks from the hikers. He was rewarded by one who gave him a little chunk of a snack bar.

While we were there, I caught the end of what was a young man proposing to a young woman in front of their friends and family. She said yes, and everyone cheered. Congratulations to the happy couple and I have to say that was an excellent choice of location for the proposal.

After resting, having a snack, congratulating the couple, and taking a ton of photos and selfies, we headed back to the trail. The hike back is quite a bit easier, since now its dropping 500 feet over 2 1/2 miles instead of climbing it.

It gave us a second chance to view all of those beautiful rapids that the creek has created on our way back to the parking lot.

The Avalanche Lake Trail is the most consistently beautiful trail that I’ve ever hiked. From the pine trees, to the mountains, to the whitewater and finally the calm mountain lake, there just isn’t a boring or ugly spot on this trail. It is beautiful from beginning to end and I would recommend this trail to anyone who has the opportunity to take it.

Discovering Niagara Falls

Posted on September 11, 2024September 13, 2024 by David Cox

Niagara Falls is one of the oldest and best known tourist spots in North America. Dividing the United States from Canada, the St. Lawrence River has been carving out the landscape remaining after glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age for around 10,000 years. Because of the 160 foot difference between the top and bottom of the falls and the massive amount of water that flows over the edge, it makes for dramatic views.

We arrived in Niagara Falls, Canada around 10 AM, and parked in the parking lot near the amusement park. We paid $20 CA to park, but based on the reviews, I think that’s a variable price based on whether its a weekday, weekend, summer, etc. From there we walked down Clifton Hill, which is a street with all of the ridiculous tourist trap things like a wax museum, a Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and lots of gift shops.

Rainbow International Bridge and American Falls

Once we walked past the tourist traps, we finally got a view of American Falls. American Falls are the less dramatic falls to the north of the Horseshoe Falls, which is what most people think about when they think of Niagara Falls.

Looking towards Horseshoe Falls along St Lawrence River

We made our way down to the walkway that edges the St. Lawrence River. From there, we saw the entire wonder of Niagara Falls with Horseshoe Falls off in the distance to the right and American Falls directly in front. The walk from the end of Clifton Hill to the Table Rock Welcome Center by Horseshoe Falls is almost a mile walk.

Walking along the St Lawrence River has a similar feel to a lot of popular tourist destinations. There are people lined up along the railing taking photos, people speaking in a variety of languages, and vendors selling keepsakes. This is one of those places where people are in a good mood, spending time with their families or friends and just enjoying a nice walk in a beautiful spot.

Horseshoe Falls from in front of the Table Rock Visitor Center

The Welcome Center was extremely busy, but I think that’s pretty normal. We walked past a fairly large gift shop to get to the ticket counter. The ticket counter was busy selling tickets for several attractions. The main ones are the White Water Walk, Whirlpool Aero Car, Power Station tour and the Journey Behind the Falls.

We decided to do the Journey Behind the Falls tour, and quickly jumped into line once we paid for the tickets. It took about an hour to get through the line, and they queue you through a museum-like area to teach you a few things about the history of the falls while you wait. Essentially, the tunnels only have so much space in them and they have to wait for others to leave before you can go down into the tunnels. We did notice on our way out that the line was three times as long, so I’m glad we arrived fairly early.

View from the observation deck on Journey Behind the Falls

Clad in the yellow ponchos that we were handed while in line, we headed down in the elevator. There is really only two attractions for the Journey Behind the Falls, the first one is the observation deck. The observation deck is a huge patio area near the edge of the falls. This really gives you a sense for the power and volume of the water rushing over the edge of the falls. It’s also the place where about a dozen selfies per second is taken because it is an absolutely beautiful place to take photos. Unfortunately everyone has their photos taken with an unflattering yellow poncho, so there are drawbacks.

View from behind the falls. It feels a bit like a scene from an escape from prison movie.

After we were done with the observation deck we headed back into the tunnels to see the falls from behind the water. Construction crews carved out tunnels behind the falls which allow you to see a very small part of the falls from behind them. It doesn’t really give you a great view, but it does give you a sense of just how powerful these falls are. The water rushing over the end of the tunnel is fast and loud.

Once we got our chance to stand up close to the end of the tunnel, we headed out and then went up to the restaurant on top of the Visitors Center. We weren’t hungry yet, but we wanted an opportunity to relax and enjoy a beautiful view of the falls. They called themselves a wine bar, but once we were seated, we realized that they had an interesting variety of local microbrews, so we ordered flights, all of us, except for Alex, of course, who I think got a lemonade.

My flight of microbrews with a peek at American Falls.

They originally sat us away from the railing, but we were asked to be moved when someone got up from a table by the railing and they were happy to let us move. The view from this restaurant is spectacular, and we had a pretty close view of Horseshoe Falls as well as American Falls off in the distance. We were also able to watch as one tourist boat after another approached the falls, stayed as still as possible and then retreated back to the docks. The number of full tourist boats that approach the falls is impressive. They are even color coded, with the tourists on American boats wearing blue ponchos and the tourists on Canadian boats wearing Red ponchos.

Tour boat from the American side (note the blue ponchos) approach Horseshoe Falls.

We finished up our drinks and headed back on the mile walk back to the car taking in the beautiful scenery along the way. We didn’t spend a ton of time at Niagara Falls, but I feel like we got a great sense of what it was like. We would like to experience Niagara from the American side, so there is a good chance that we will return and perhaps do a boat trip.

All in all, it was a beautiful day to experience one of North America’s great natural wonders.

Points Check July 2024

Posted on September 2, 2024December 28, 2025 by David Cox

It seemed that July just flew by. I started July off in Montana with old friends celebrating our friend Mat’s wedding. Then a couple of weeks later we were hooking up our camper and driving it to Hamilton, Ontario where we stayed at Fifty Point Conservation Area right on the shores of Lake Ontario. We spent a fairly relaxing week up in Ontario visiting Niagara Falls and Toronto and we got to experience Canada for the first time. I still find it hard to believe I waited until I was nearly 50 to go to a place that I could get to in just a few hours by car.

A Small Redemption

We didn’t have any signup bonuses hit this month and we didn’t sign up for any new credit cards, but we did have one small redemption. For our November trip to Italy, our flights leave from O’hare Airport in Chicago, just about a 3 hour drive from our home in Iowa. We would rather fly out of the Moline airport, if possible, because of convenience and especially parking.

We were able to find flights that we could tack onto our trip on both ends from Moline to Chicago and back. Both legs were 7,500 American Airlines miles and $5.60 for taxes per ticket. So for a total of 30,000 AA miles and $22.20 we can have the convenience of flying out of our local airport, where the walk from the parking lot and TSA line is less than 10 minutes, total.

My First Airport Scramble

I knew this would eventually happen to me. I was sitting in the Kalispell Airport in Montana waiting on my flight and then I started to get a series of messages from American Airlines. There was a mechanical problem on the plane and they kept changing the takeoff time. At first, my flight had been delayed by an hour, then two, then three, and finally a little over four hours and now my comfortable 4 hour layover in Chicago was gone. If I kept that flight, I was going to be sleeping in Chicago instead of my bed.

Well what can I do? I knew the only other option to fly home would be United Airlines, so I opened my laptop, searched on United’s website and found a flight leaving in about an hour for 29,000 United miles. I didn’t have 29,000 United miles, nor did I have 29,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points, which transfers to United. Jenn, however, did have the Ultimate Reward points, and we have each other’s passwords.

Luckily, we had set up miles pooling on United the previous month, so Jenn could move those points into the pool and I could use them to book the flight home. So I moved her Ultimate Reward points through her United account into the pool and booked the flight. Then I walked over to the American Airlines counter to cancel my flight, and they just showed me how to do it on the app.

I did have to text Jenn and let her know that I had used her points to get me home, but lucky for me she actually wanted to see me so she was okay with it. It was great to know that in a pinch I could make a little magic happen and avoid a huge travel delay that would’ve kept me in an airport hotel in Chicago overnight.

After the cancelation, American Airlines didn’t return my points automatically, as they should have. I did have to make a phone call to have them return my AA miles. That was annoying, and I’m guessing not typically what happens when you cancel a flight, but the phone rep was very helpful and didn’t question anything. That was a good reminder to me to pay attention to my accounts to make sure that I’m not getting screwed out of any miles.

On to the Point Check!

We basically spent all of our spending other than recurring payments, gas, and Costco purchases toward minimum spends for bonuses. The Venture card gets used for car insurance and Costco, the Ink Cash card gets used for our bills for cell phone, internet and streaming services. The Wyndham Business Earner card is for gas stations and utilities. Most of these payments have been set based on bonus categories on those cards, and I have to say, getting a 6.9% return on all of that spending is pretty nice.

Card Used	Spend	Points Earned	Point Value	Points Per $	Return on Spend
Venture	$541	1,083	$20.04	2.0	3.7%
Ink Cash	$535	2,651	$54.35	5.0	10.2%
Wyndham Business Earner	$525	3,322	$36.54	6.3	7.0%
Total	$1,601	7,056	$110.92	4.4	6.9%

This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus

Outside of that, Jenn spent a little less than $2,200 on her Capital One Spark Select Card earning around $33 in cash back. She also spent about $1,600 on her American Express Gold Business Card, which earned a little less than 6,900 Membership Reward points, some of that was earned at 14x on dining from a referral bonus. I spent around $1,700 on my American Express Blue Business Plus card which earned me around 3,400 Membership Reward points.

Since there were no signup bonuses or referral bonuses to hit this month, we ended up with a total of 287,000 Membership Reward Points, 207,000 Ultimate Reward points, 82,300 Capital One Venture miles, 64,500 American Airlines miles, 39,400 Citi Thank You points, 36,300 Wyndham points, 34,800 Marriott Bonvoy points, 5,100 Delta miles, 2,300 Hyatt points and over $800 in cash back. Using the Points Guy’s valuations, the value of all of the points, miles and cash back is a little over $14,850.

Going-to-the-Sun Road – Glacier National Park

Posted on August 18, 2024 by David Cox

Normally, I’m the one who does the planning for our family trips. However, I recently found myself in Montana with a group of my old high school friends who made the trek to see our friend Mat get married. It was pretty obvious early on that they were on top of it and I could just show up and enjoy it. I knew that we would be going to Glacier National park as part of this, but I didn’t do an ounce of research on it before we left, which is very unusual for me.

On the first night, we went to Tamarack Brewing for dinner. I was enjoying an IPA while we caught up on old times. The conversation switched to how we would secure passes to “Going-to-the-Sun Road”. Tracy said she would set a reminder for 7 p.m. the next day, which was during the wedding reception, to get the car pass.

Having done zero research for this trip I thought the pass was for “Sun Road” and she just said that in a weird way. Then I heard some of the others say things like “It will be fun to drive Going-to-the-Sun road” and “I’m glad they managed to get Going-to-the-Sun road open.”

I started to strain my ears and look quizzically at them. What’s going on, am I having a stroke? These are all smart, accomplished people, why are they talking like they just learned English last week? Once I figured out that the road was called “Going-to-the-Sun Road,” I was both a little relieved and still a little confused by why a road would be named that.

What is Going-to-the-Sun Road?

According to the National Park Service, Going-to-the-Sun Road is a two lane road built in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. It is 50 miles long and essentially bisects Glacier National Park from Apgar to St. Mary. It is the only road that goes through Glacier National Park and is one of the most scenic roads in the United States.

The road is named for Going-to-the-Sun Mountain. It is unclear whether the origin of the mountain’s name is based on a Blackfoot Indian legend about the deity Sour Spirit teaching the Blackfoot to hunt or whether the explorer James Willard Schultz made up the name.

Getting a Pass for Going-to-the-Sun Road

The number of cars allowed on Going-to-the-Sun Road is limited. This is to keep the narrow two-lane road and especially the small parking areas on the side of the road from being overwhelmed by cars. Reservations for Going-to-the-Sun Road can be made at Recreation.gov.

There are two types of reservations, one that can be made 120 days in advance, if you have sufficiently planned ahead, and one that can be made at 7 p.m. mountain time, the day before. Tracy grabbed our pass at 7 p.m. which is why she needed to do it during the wedding reception.

The next morning we packed up the minivan and headed out to Glacier National Park. After a quick stop for coffee and breakfast, we had to check our park passes at one set of security and then our pass for the Going-to-the-Sun Road at a second security stop. Once we were through security, we were on our way.

Driving Along Lake McDonald

The drive begins from Apgar along Lake McDonald. Lake McDonald is about 10 miles long, about a mile wide and a pretty impressive 472 feet deep. The beginning of this drive is a beautiful and calm drive through the forest with Lake McDonald on the left hand side. It remains a pretty calm drive past Lake McDonald Lodge, the Trail of the Cedars and up until you hit the West Tunnel, about 20 miles into the drive.

The Ascent to Logan Pass

After the West Tunnel, there is a switchback and then a constant and gradual ascent toward Logan Pass. This is the beginning of a long stretch of road built on the edge of cliffs with long beautiful vistas, waterfalls and mountaintops poking out through the clouds.

View of a valley on the way up to Logan’s Pass on the Going to the Sun Road.

Being the driver is a definite disadvantage. Tim was our driver and while the rest of us were gawking over the views, he had to pay attention to the road. Going-to-the-Sun road is an active driving situation with narrow lanes, tight curves and frequent stops. The temptation to stare at the landscape instead of the narrow road has to be pretty intense.

Much of the early part of our ascent to the pass was marked by a lot of fog, but it made for dramatic views of the mountains and valleys when they cleared.

Ascending up towards Logan’s Pass, we entered the clouds.

At one point, we caught a quick glance of a Big Horn Sheep or a Mountain Goat right on the side of the road, just poking his head out from behind the stone wall, but it happened so fast my brain didn’t fully process it. We stopped at the next pull-off but couldn’t see him, so I don’t know what exactly we saw but it had horns and it was right next to the road.

Waterfall where Adler Creek goes under the Going to the Sun Road.

As we continued our ascent, we started to come across snow. It became very obvious why they aren’t able to open the roads until June or July because the amount of snow that has to be removed every year is massive. The remainder of the snow accumulation was still pretty deep by the side of the road in some spots.

According to the National Park Service, Glacier National Park receives an average of 157 inches of snowfall per year at its headquarters in West Glacier and much more at higher elevations. Opening Going-to-the-Sun-Road is a massive undertaking that starts around April and lasts for months. This past year, they had to deal with a drift that was 80 feet high, so it takes a long time for this snow to melt completely.

Snow on the side of the road, slightly before Oberlin Bend

We got out of the car on multiple occasions to take photos at pull-offs along the road, but we got out to walk around at Oberlin Bend. There is a wood and steel grate walkway there. There was still a considerable amount of snow left in the area and it gave us a sense of how long it must take for it to melt every year – this was June 30th!

Logan Pass and the Highline Trail

Just a little bit further up the road from Oberlin Bend, we then had a chance to stop at the Logan Pass Visitor Center. There is some bathrooms and a cute little gift shop there. Steph and I took a little walk out the back of the visitor center and she showed me the people who were hiking the Highline Trail.

Mountain obscured by clouds near Logan Pass

Prior to the trip we briefly considered doing that trail, but decided to do the Avalanche Lake hike instead since it was considerably less terrifying. The Highline Trail is known for its breathtaking views and a section called “The Ledge” which is only 6-8 feet wide with a sheer drop over a hundred feet down. There is a steel cable to hold onto in this section. If you’re brave enough, parking for people doing the Highline Trail is available at Logan Pass Visitor Center.

Jackson Glacier Outlook

We got back in the minivan and continued on, now going downhill. We stopped at the Jackson Glacier Overlook, where a ranger explained to a fairly large group about the remaining glaciers in the park and how the number of glaciers and size has been shrinking since around 1850. That overlook, of course, has a view of Jackson Glacier, but it is quite far from the overlook.

Way off in the distance is Jackson Glacier, one of the 26 remaining glaciers in Glacier National Park. There were 80 at the end of the Little Ice Age, which ended around 1850.

St Mary’s Lake

We completed the drive by stopping at the Visitors Center at St Mary. There is a little gift shop in there as well as some museum-like exhibits about the history of the Native American people indigenous to the area.

As is going to be the case for most people on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, we needed to do the entire drive back to the start at Apgar, so we returned to the car for the 50 mile return trip.

Piegan Pass Trail

When we did the first half of the drive, we didn’t get to do a hike near St Mary’s Lake. We tried on the way through the first time to get a parking spot on one of the pull-offs near Piegan Pass Trail but couldn’t. On the return trip, after a little work, we were able to get a parking spot and get out and stretch our legs a little.

We walked a very short distance to see Bering Falls and then turned around and walked to along the path to a point which I believe was the end of Piegan Pass Trail. There is a rocky area jutting out into St Mary’s Lake there where there was a lot of great photo opportunities.

View of St Mary’s Lake from Piegan Pass Trail

Piegan Pass is a heavily traveled trail, at least in this area, so the odds of being approached by a bear is low. We did bring along bear spray just to be sure, but there were no signs of bears in this area. We hiked around 3 miles, and returned back to the minivan to finish our drive.

St Mary’s Lake from the end of Piegan Pass Trail

A Bear Sighting

Near the end of the return trip back to Apgar, we came across a traffic jam. Obviously, we weren’t expecting a traffic jam on Going-to-the-Sun Road, so we assumed that there must be an animal around. Once enough cars had cleared, we pulled off to the side of the road to see what was going on.

The cub is looking for mama, definitely thinks she’s across the road.

There was an animal making noise by the side of the road, and it was a sound I wasn’t familiar with. After a little while, I saw a baby bear head pop up on the side of the road. It was very clear that the bear was in distress and probably looking for his mama. Now, honestly while that is adorable, it’s also pretty terrifying since I’m assuming a stressed mama bear must be nearby as well.

The cub makes an attempt to cross the road but gets scared back into the tall grass by a car.

The cub made several attempts to cross the road, but kept getting scared off by traffic. Finally Tim jumped out into the road and stopped traffic so that the bear could finally cross and hopefully be reunited with his mama.

Tim stops traffic and finally allows for the bear to cross the road.

The Importance of Great Travel Companions

If you’re driving Going-to-the-Sun Road, you will be spending probably a minimum of 6 hours with people in a car, assuming that you are at least stopping once in a while to take pictures and enjoy nature. Spending that much time in a car, you might want to have people with you that you also enjoy spending a minimum of 6 hours with.

For me, this turned out to be a great group with whom to do this drive. We talked about the old days, our families, and a lot about travel. Obviously, I like to talk about travel, but sometimes feel a little weird about it. Honestly, I avoid the subject with people who don’t travel much, because they’re either not interested or I’m afraid it comes off as braggy. It’s something that I’m really passionate about and to have spent a few days with people who are as passionate about travel as me made for great conversations.

The crew being silly. From left to right: Julie, Tracy, Steph, Carrie and Tim.

I loved hearing about all of the places they’ve been and I’ve certainly taken some mental notes about places that I might want to visit based on our conversations. In between all of these conversations, there was also plenty of carpool karaoke, which I abstained from to save everyone else’s eardrums. In the end, it was a great time with some great friends.

I would definitely recommend driving Going-to-the-Sun Road if you get a chance. It’s an unbelievably beautiful drive. The variety of views from mountain lakes and snow covered peaks to waterfalls is astonishing. It’s also one of the few really accessible places in Glacier National Park for people who aren’t doing long hikes. Keep in mind that the number of car passes are limited and you will need to purchase those in advance. Then all you need is a full tank of gas, some great friends, and some snacks and you will get to witness one of America’s great treasures.

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

Posted on August 14, 2024December 28, 2025 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.

Points Check June 2024

Posted on July 11, 2024December 28, 2025 by David Cox

Wow, another big month of accumulating points as we continue to collect Membership Reward points from the three American Express cards that we signed up for this year. Last month Jenn earned her 130,000 point bonus on her Amex Business Gold card. This month, I earned my 75,000 point signup bonus on my Amex Gold Card. These bonuses in the last two months were the main reason why our total points valuations jumped from over $10,500 two months ago to over $15,000 now.

Hoarding Points

There is a a generally agreed upon philosophy in the points and miles community of “Churn and Burn”. It’s actually a very solid philosophy. The reason for that is because over time, points tend to lose their value. They don’t go bad like milk, but they do have a tendency to be worth less over time. For example, when we were planning our first trip to Europe, we accumulated a bunch of United miles with the hope that 240,000 points would be enough to fly round trip for four people.

This was actually the case for us on that trip, because at the time, 30,000 points one-way was actually pretty commonly available. However, if you try to use United miles to fly to Europe now, chances are that it will cost you over 40,000 points each way in economy. So if you were holding a bunch of United miles, you just saw the value of your points drop pretty significantly.

We are, against the advice of so many people, deliberately hoarding points. Why? Well, partly because of the fact that we have two kids and we are at the stage of our lives where we are unable to travel as much as we want. The other reason is that because of the kids we spend a lot of money on things like groceries, clothes, cell phones and especially car insurance that will be significantly reduced once they move out on their own.

This will eventually reverse and we will travel more, while spending and earning less. That is when we will definitely need to lean heavily on points and miles to allow us to maximize our travels. My rough goal is to save about $5,000 worth of points and miles annually until I’m eligible for retirement. It seems aggressive, however in two and a half years in the points and miles hobby, we’ve managed to accumulate $15,000 in points and miles, while still taking some pretty great trips.

A minor Redemption

We have a trip to Italy planned in November, where we were able to leave a 25 hour stopover on our flight from Chicago to Rome. The stopover is in Amsterdam, and I am very much looking forward to it. When we planned for that, I knew we would need to book a hotel. I was hoping to use our category 1-4 Hyatt certificate for the stayover. The problem was that the hotel that I really wanted to stay at was a category 5, and the only other Hyatt that made sense was a category 2.

I’m not going to burn a free night certificate on a category 2 hotel, so we went ahead and used 8,000 Hyatt points to book a room at the Hyatt Place near the Amsterdam airport. We’re going to have to take the train into the the center of Amsterdam to enjoy it, but at least we’ll be close to the airport when it’s time to catch our flight.

Capital One Spark Card Select

Jenn applied for and was accepted for the Capital One Spark Card Select. The Spark Card Select is a business card that earns an unlimited 1.5% on all purchases. It doesn’t have an annual fee and it comes with a $750 signup bonus when you spend $6,000 in the first 3 months.

One interesting wrinkle in this is that you can transfer any cash rewards to a Venture card, if you have one, at a ratio of 1 cent to 1 point. This means that if you have a Venture card, which Jenn does have, you can transfer the $750 signup bonus to the Venture card as 75,000 venture miles. The nice thing about Venture miles is that they can be transferred to any of Capital One’s many transfer partners.

This is probably not going to be a card we spend on once we hit the signup bonus. We already have a couple of 2% anywhere cards that work as a good base for any spending in non-bonus categories, so 1.5% just isn’t going to excite me much after earning the signup bonus. That being said, it doesn’t have an annual fee, so there isn’t a huge incentive to run out and cancel it either.

On to the Points Check!

Card Used	Spend	Points Earned	Point Value	Points Per $	Return on Spend
Venture	$1,292	2,584	$47.80	2.0	3.7%
Ink Cash	$534	2,651	$54.35	5.0	10.2%
Wyndham Business Earner	$450	2,734	$30.07	6.1	6.8%
Citi Custom Cash	$94	318	$5.72	3.4	6.3%
Total	$2,370	8,287	$137.95	3.5	5.8%

This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus

Aside from the spending in the above chart, I spent under $300 on my Amex Gold card, and under $700 on my Amex Blue Business Plus card. That spending, as well as earning the signup bonus on my Amex Gold, increased my Membership Reward points by a little less than 80,000 points. Jenn spent a little over $2,700 on her Amex Business Gold card. Some of that spending was at 14x on dining, which was part of the referral bonus to get me to sign up for the Blue Business Plus. That $2,700 in spending earned over 15,000 points, so I would imagine a decent chunk of that was part of that bonus.

After all of that, we finished the month with 279,400 Membership Reward points, 233,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points, 81,200 Venture miles, 71,400 American Airlines miles, 39,300 Citi Thank You points, 34,900 Marriott Bonvoy points, 33,000 Wyndham points, 5,000 Delta miles, 2,300 Hyatt points, 1,800 United miles, and around $800 in cash back. Using the Points Guy’s valuations, these points are worth around $15,300 – not too shabby.