Interesting hack: if you text WSJ to 833-979-0710 they’ll send you back a link to a pdf of that day’s paper. It’s from Delta Sky Club lounge perks, no authentication required.
I don’t have a subscription directly, so usually have to read it through my library’s access, but that version is plain text only so you miss out on graphics etc.
We have a local store, so I buy a $50 physical gift card each 6 months. (Can’t do that online or it does not credit.)
That store also happens to be in the same mall as Cheesecake Factory where I use the $10 monthly credits for our Gold cards to buy those GCs too, so I double dip the trip.
Saks is pretty tough to spend only $50, so I give the GCs to DW and she uses multiple if something useful comes up. (The higher free shipping threshold now is annoying, though.)
We’re going to be staying at a Hilton Curio Collection hotel this coming weekend, using my Platinum Fine Hotels & Resorts benefits (excellent deal at this place near my sister in Denver). Do you think it would be possible for me to charge $50 to each of our Surpasses at the front desk? I have to put the Plat down for room charges upon check-in so that I can get the $100 F&B credit for the stay.
My first thought was that Since you’re using your Amex Plat FHR benefits, that you had to prepay with the Plat before your stay.
But after double checking, it looks like that might only be a requirement if you are trying to use the $200 annual FHR Plat credit, as opposed to just booking an FHR hotel through the portal.
So, I think the answer is you should be able to use any Amex card at the hotel.
Any future trips on the horizon where you could focus on certain points?
If not, the Amex Business Gold has a 175k offer. $375 fee but comes with $240 flexible spending credit so more like $135 for the fee. Also comes with Walmart+. But it is 15k spend in 3 months and 0% APR for 6 months. Those Amex points can be very valuable used certain ways.
Thanks! 175K is tempting. I would probably be able to put another $5,000 on the card within the 3 months (in addition to the big home maintenance expense). BUT (and I should have mentioned this originally) I’d be much more interested in a card with Chase Ultimate Rewards points (because my go-to airline is United).
I have the same thing going on lately too (cesspool project, college payments) and as @Mrandmrsthomas0618 suggested just got an Amex Biz gold myself.
FWIW, I got a targeted offer from Amex and for it and got the 175K SUB with only $10K spend. (Did anyone think they’d ever say “only” in relation to $10,000? I did not.) Might be worth checking in your Amex offers and cards list when logged in to see if you get that one.
Also: I think you just missed by a day the elevated Ink Business Preferred 120K SUB, but you can still get 100K on the regular offer, or 75K on the other Ink cards.
Don’t forget to use referrals from friends/family if possible for extra points.
You might want to check the Amex Platinum benefits - there is some homework to be done to make sure you use all the credits (I wrote about it back in thread, or plenty of articles at the various points web sites), but you can essentially negate the high annual fee or even make it a money maker, plus get good perks to to with.
Just the $200 airline credit + $200 Uber cash (works at Uber eats) and $240 digital entertainment credit alone gets you close to even and there’s a lot more.
(Plat has far better perks than the Biz gold, IMHO, but the Biz gold is worth it for the SUB and likely dropping it next year for me. I already have a Plat, but was considering getting another for DW at some point.)
I see when looking at my own Plat referral in incognito mode you should be able to get a 175K SUB for $8k spend in 6 months. There are often much higher SUBS, usually with higher spend. Same for the Biz Plat.
Can you split the home expense? If so, I’d consider doing a couple of Ink cards and splitting the purchase. Especially if you can do one for you and one for a P2 where you can refer each other.
I know I’m leaving money on the table if I settle for a no-fee card, but I don’t have enough mental space available to track another set of perks and rewards, so I think I’m going to apply for a no-fee Chase UR card with the best SUB. I’m seeing the Ink Business Unlimited at 90K UR points for $6K spend, do you think that’s my best bet right now?
Also, is this business card better than any non-business Chase SUBs I could get right now? If I have to, I’ll stretch the truth about being a business owner, but I’d rather not.
The Inks are pretty much always a decent decision, think the elevated Unlimited will do you well.
You do need an Ink to refer from, but once you have the first you can bounce back and forth between each other in the future.
Remember: a business is as simple as the intention to earn income, maybe just selling a few things online etc. You want to apply as a sole proprietor, use the 10xTravel course to see examples of the way to do that.
I don’t think there are any higher Chase UR bonuses right now, but always good to Google a little or read up at Frequent Miler or other points blogs.
Confirming that this is the case; as soon as I created my online business account I was greeted with several prompts, one of which was to refer a friend.
Thanks JJT and everyone for all your helpful advice, I’m starting to bank a lot of points!
I’ve gone through most of the 10x Travel course at this point and just finished Chapter 29: Credit Card Timing & Strategy (When to Open, When to Close/Downgrade, etc.). This section goes over the valid reasons for closing a card, but didn’t mention whether one reason would be so that you can sign up for the same card later (after some minimum waiting period) so as to get the SUB again for that card. Is this a thing?