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Again we are hit with more devaluation news coming from legacy airlines in the States: American/Alaska and United. Frenemies, American and Alaska have announced that they will no longer allow redemptions on eachothers flights starting March 1st 2020. I’d highly recommend reading Gary’s insightful article detailing this, but the long and short…if you have miles in either program that you wish to redeem…get to it.
Miles to Memories brought our attention to United’s sneaky admission that starting November 15th, partners will convert to Dynamic pricing despite their award chart stating other pricing. Honestly, this is could go a number of ways, but odds are…it won’t help the consumer. While we see many favorable rates on Air France, and certainly their promo awards, the move to dynamic pricing means the airlines don’t have to disclose how they price, what the price will be, and ultimately can manipulate pricing to their heart’s desire.
Airlines, by in large, make their money through the sale of their miles – primarily through lucrative credit card co-branding and straight to consumer sales. Why on earth would you jeopardize the valuation of the main profit generating piece of your business? There’s certainly an enormous wave of attention on points and miles, I mean just look at the number of blogs certainly in the space highlighting the numerous ways to utilize them, but creating redemption structures that are veiled and lack transparency does not motivate my loyalty.
I’ve been loyal to Alaska over the last few years, leaving AA as an Executive Platinum. Sure, I have to fly other airlines from time to time, but the treatment I get as an MVP Gold, and the knowledge i’m earning miles for every mile I fly, not the dollars spent, have incentivized me to go out of my way to fly them even when it’s inconvenient comparatively. I’d suspect that AA will follow in United’s footsteps soon enough and devalue partners as well, as they’ve already announced their chart will move wholly dynamic. Sad.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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