IHG Rewards Card Earns its Keep

Recently I completed another year of owning the Chase IHG Rewards Club card. I've had this particular account for 4 years now but it's actually my third such card. Altogether I've had some incarnation of this card in my wallet for most of the past 10+ years.

For me to own a credit card for 10 years, even if off-and-on, you'd expect it'd be a great bargain, something I'd make frequent use of. You'd be about half right. 😅 It is a bargain, even though I barely use it. Last year I charged nothing on it, and it still came out with a net value of $122. This year I charged a bit over $1,000 of purchases on it. Is it still worth it? Let's check the score.

I charged $1,150 to this card in the past 12 months and earned 5,730 points. That works out to almost 5 points per dollar charged. That's well higher than the card's ordinary rewards rate of 2 points per dollar spent on gas, grocery, and restaurant charges, and 1 per dollar on everything else. I got to 5x because Chase and IHG ran a promo for 3 months offering a total reward of 5x on all charges. I shifted my eligible spend to this card for those months to hit the bonus then shifted it back to cards that pay better.

Points, More Points, and a Free Night

Those 5,730 points aren't all I earned, though. I piled on almost 14,000 more points in rebates for points I spend on award nights staying at IHG hotels. That's one big reason I've kept this card all these years— it pays a 10% rebate on points spent. As long as I have points to spend on award nights, this card stretched them further. I value IHG points at 0.7 cents apiece, so the 19,680 I earned in total are worth $137.76.

In addition to this 10% rebate on points redeemed the card also pays a free night certificate each year at renewal time. I've been able to make these certs worth $150 each. That's the other reason I keep this card even though it charges an annual fee of $49. The cert alone is worth 3x the cost.

Okay, so let's net it out. The benefits are $137.76 + $150. The costs are $49 for the annual fee plus $23 opportunity cost— the value of cash back I could otherwise have earned charging the same purchases to a 2% cash back, no fee credit card. The benefits minus the cost yield a net value of $215.76. That's better than last year's net by almost $100. I'll keep this card at least another year.

Footnote: Churning, but not Here

"Wait a  minute," you might think. "You're not churning?"

In the past I turbocharged the number of points I earned from credit cards by churning them: opening new cards frequently to earn their big signup bonuses, then canceling them after a year or two to lather, rinse, repeat. A few things have changed since then. For one, the rules of the game have changed. The banks wised up to how churners play the game— BTW I was far from the big players at churning— and tightened restrictions on eligibility for signup bonuses. I do still churn, but much slower than before.

Two, this particular card isn't offered anymore! Chase and IHG now offer a different card. It's at bit more up-market, with slightly richer benefits and a higher annual fee. Those of us with the old card are able to keep it; they're not closing down accounts or converting them.

I signed up for the new card, too. That's totally allowed, and the benefits stack nicely with this old card. And since the new card is still open for new accounts and offers lucrative signup bonuses, I'm going to churn it when it comes up for renewal soon.

1 Killed, 1 Injured in Gun Accident on Film Set

It's been above-the-fold news here in the US the past few days that a gun accident occurred on the set of the film Rust in New Mexico on Thursday. Well known actor Alec Baldwin was handed a prop gun he was told was "cold"— meaning not loaded with ammunition— yet when he used it during rehearsal of a shooting scene it fired a projectile, striking two people. Director of photography Halyna Hutchins was killed and movie director Joel Souza was injured.

I've held off writing about this for a few days as I hoped clearer details would emerge. Sadly the facts remains unrevealed. Police are still investigating, and the film production company is denying or no-commenting everything. Statements from members of the film crew, some on the record and some off, paint a damning picture. One crew walked off the set that morning over safety protocols being ignored, and there have been past complaints against assistant director David Halls— the person who declared "Cold gun!" as he handed the weapon to Baldwin— for cutting corners on gun safety practices.

So, evidently the gun handed to Baldwin was not only not "cold", it was also not loaded with blanks. Apparently it contained a real bullet. One thing I wonder is, WTF? Why would live ammunition be anywhere on a movie set? Blanks are enough to create the recoil and muzzle flash of firing a gun, the things filmmakers want to capture for verisimilitude. What complete fucking idiot put a live round in there?!

Then of course there's the obvious problem of safety practices not being followed. Even blanks are dangerous. In 1993 actor Brandon Lee was killed in an accident during filming of action/sci-fi movie The Crow when a blank round discharged a metal fragment that was lodged inside a gun. Thus there are industry practices for how to manage the use of guns as props on movie sets. They were ignored here.

La Niña, Atmospheric River, Bomb Cyclone

The SF Bay Area and much of Northern California have been getting soaked with rain this weekend. There are a variety of names used to describe the weather phenomena at play: La Niña, Atmospheric River, and Bomb Cycle. What's in a name?

La Niña: Spanish for "baby girl" this name sounds downright mild. It describes a condition where waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean are warmer than normal. This shifts around the prevailing winds in a way that gives the Pacific Northwest rainier weather and the US Southwest drier weather. Here in the SF Bay Area our weather can go either way, drier or wetter. La Niña conditions last for a year or longer at a time.

Atmospheric River: This one sounds like it could go either way. Rivers are good, right? But rivers are also dangerous, and can flood. This name describes an atmospheric condition where wind currents carry warm, moist air from the tropics to the West Coast. It lasts for a few days at a time and dumps rain on us. Pineapple Express is colorful name for atmospheric rivers because they come from the area around Hawaii.

Bomb Cyclone: Okay, I gotta say, nothing sounds good about this name. A cyclone is a violent weather thing like a tornado. And a bomb? Either one on its own is bad; put them together and it's like... I dunno... a sharknado?

So, all three of these are happening at the same time in California right now, bringing us heavy rain and high winds. While we desperately need rain to replenish drought stricken reservoirs and groundwater tables the amount of rain we're getting all at once has oversaturated the ground, causing flash floods and slides. And the wind's a hazard, too.

Near where I live the weather has been relatively mild. We've had 1-2 inches of rain in the past 24 hours plus occasionally gusty winds. Elsewhere in the Bay Area rainfall has been 4 inches, 5 inches, up to 10+ inches in some places. And winds have been fierce enough to topple trees, knock out power lines, and flip over trucks on highways.

Update: I posted an explainer on how atmospheric rivers work.