With more and more reports of difficulty getting approved for Chase business cards, this week we made a change to our Best Credit Card Offers page. Greg and I discuss that change, an interesting Amex clawback data point, whether or not Intercontinental Ambassador is worth a mattress run, and more on this week’s Frequent Miler on the Air. Watch, listen, or read for more of this week at Frequent Miler.
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This week at Frequent Miler:
In credit cards:
On my mind: Pandemic Best Credit Card Offers
In what became our main topic on FM on the Air this week, Greg explains what prompted him to make an adjustment to our best credit card offers page: many Chase business cards have become nearly impossible to get for many readers. We don’t yet have a useful set of data on other issuers, but I still think that Greg was right to move business card offers out of the “Best of the Best” list since those who know the game well enough to be considering business cards can still find the full list and likely won’t be put off by an extra click. As noted in the podcast/video, we’d love to get reader input on business card success / failure: if you have recently (since April) applied for a business credit card, let us know which card(s) and whether or not you’ve been successful.
Chase Freedom vs Freedom Unlimited: Which to choose?
Hint: You really can’t get this wrong since it’s easy enough to product change or reallocate limits later (and in fact only took 13 minutes via secure message in my case). In my family, we would probably earn more points per year on a Freedom Unlimited, but we ultimately decided to add a Freedom card instead. See this post for the rationale and why you can’t really go wrong either way.
In hotels:
“World’s Best” points-bookable hotels & resorts in the continental United States 2020
This is the standard room at the Kimpton La Peer. Can you understand my skepticism with calling this the #4 city hotel in the US?
If you read the comments on this post, you’ve seen that I was underwhelmed by property #5 on this list (which was actually #4 on Travel & Leisure’s list of best city hotels in the United States): the Kimpton La Peer in Beverly Hills. I stayed there last year and it wasn’t special. Of course, that’s just one property on the list: that Hotel Emma is San Antonio is calling my name for a future trip as it looks awfully cool and the reviews sound very interesting. Overall, I thought this was a really interesting look at which of the places on the “best of” lists are accessible for rewards enthusiasts, and that is certainly a fun exercise.
Staying 30+ Nights In A Hotel? You Might Not Have To Pay The Taxes.
Who woulda known that you could potentially avoid all the taxes by staying 30+ nights? I’ll tell you who woulda known: this guy. Still, as someone who is not that guy, I definitely didn’t know how this worked. I have often contemplated trying a stay of such a length — if that daydream ever becomes a reality in the post-pandemic world, I’ll stand to save a decent chunk of change thanks to this post from Stephen.
IHG: Buy/Renew Ambassador Membership Then Stay Once & Get 40k Free Night Certificate (Cert Expires 4/30/21)
This deal was the topic of this week’s Mattress Running the Numbers segment. I have difficulty getting excited about this one. Ambassador status gets you pretty weak benefits and a glorified 2-for-1 coupon (Can we stop calling this a free night, please? It’s not free. It’s discounted. Sure, it can be a good discount in some cases — but it’s still just a coupon, nothing free). The addition here of a 40K cert if you complete a paid stay in time at one of IHG’s 3 most expensive brands isn’t much of a sweetener before even considering the brief window of validity on that cert. Hyatt gives unlimited 2-for-1 Miraval nights and 25% back on awards for cardholders — no purchase required — and the best that IHG can do is sell you a coupon and a free night cert that expires in spring 2021? Hard pass.
In the hunt for deals:
Spring from Capital One: “Business” deals for everyone
If you’re familiar with Visa Savings Edge or Mastercard Easy Savings, you will find Capital One’s program quite similar (though in this case, it is open to anyone). I pulled out two deals to examine: a Dell deal that isn’t amazing but may be decent and a deal on Happy Gift Cards that didn’t turn out so well: I didn’t get approved to buy at the discounted price, but as Stephen published at GC Galore, maybe that was no real loss. C’est la vie.
Extreme Stacking Dell
In this post, I…
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