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| What's in my wallet |
| by Brian Kelly |
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As “The Points Guy,” I get a lot of questions about the cards I actually use the most to maximize my points. And, of course, this answer changes as offers and travel goals shift.
But, for right now, here’s what’s in my wallet and how I use the rewards.
Chase for transfer bonuses and hotels
First up on my list is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
This is a TPG favorite card for beginners and experts alike. It’s got a low $95 annual fee and earns valuable points that can be used for everything from booking flights or hotels in the Chase Travel℠ portal and transferring to partners. I especially love transferring during transfer bonuses, such as the current 40% bonus to Marriott or the 30% bonus to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
But honestly, lately, I’ve been using my Chase points to book hotels in the Chase Travel portal at a value of 1.25 cents per point, which is a better value per point than if I did the same with my American Express Platinum Card® when redeeming for hotels in the Amex Travel portal.
There’s currently a limited-time welcome offer on the Sapphire Preferred for 75,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. This big bonus opportunity usually only happens once per year.
Capital One to cover travel charges along the way
Then there’s the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Both of these cards have a feature where you can use the Capital One miles that you earn to cover travel charges such as Uber, car rentals, public transit and even taxes on an award ticket. I’ve been using these miles for things like that, though there are also some lucrative transfer partners, such as Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles and Emirates Skywards.
Both cards earn at least 2x miles on all purchases and are currently offering 75,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 in the first three months of account opening.
Amex points for flights
Last but not least, I always like to keep a stash of American Express points.
I like to use my Amex Membership Rewards points for flights, such as getting a 35% bonus on using Membership Rewards with The Business Platinum Card® from American Express if I need to book flights in the Amex Travel portal.
But for actually earning Membership Rewards points, I love my American Express® Gold Card since I earn 4 points per dollar on restaurants worldwide and at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 per year, then 1 point per dollar after that).
The Amex Business Platinum is currently offering a huge 150,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $20,000 in eligible purchases on the card within the first three months of card membership.
And if you have yet to check out TPG’s CardMatch tool to see if you are targeted for a 150,000-point or 175,000-point bonus on The Platinum Card® from American Express after spending $8,000 on eligible purchases on the card in the first six months of card membership, you can do so here.
All that to say, to get the best value, I generally like using my Chase points for hotels, Amex points for airfare and my Capital One miles for everything in between.
Exciting Google Flights updates
In other exciting news this week, Southwest Airlines is now searchable on Google Flights, my favorite platform for finding and comparing airfare prices. You can read our guide to Google Flights. If you aren’t yet familiar with all the functions of Google Flights, I highly recommend the “Explore” map feature and the Points Path extension.
If you haven’t used it yet, Points Path is a free web browser extension that shows award rates next to cash prices in Google Flights for many of the major airlines and indicates which is the better deal for each one-way or round-trip itinerary. In fact, they just added two more airline programs to the tool this week: Alaska Airline’s Mileage Plan and Air Canada’s Aeroplan.
Have a great weekend,
BK
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| Photo Credit: WYATT SMITH/THE POINTS GUY. |
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