canyonwalker | Entries tagged with frequent flyer points

About a year ago I opted to do something unusual for me, in the credit card churning game. I opened a miles-and-points credit card without a hefty signup bonus. It was doubly unusual because not only did I open it without a hefty signup bonus but I accepted a hefty annual fee of $650. I crunched the numbers in my head and decided I could make the card pay off, even starting out $650 in the hole. Now that I've owned it for a year, let's check the math on whether I was right.

The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire credit card

The credit card I'm talking about is the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire. It's one of the new generation of premium cards— offering premium benefits in exchange for a premium price, that whopping $650 annual fee.

The trick with the benefits is that you've got to spend money on certain things, regularly, to use them. For example, there's an annual $400 credit on Hilton resort stays. But it's broken up as $200 each six-month period, and it's only good at the small percentage of Hilton's properties they classify as resorts. Similarly there's an annual credit of up to $200 on airline purchases. It's couponed as four quarterly credits of up to $50. You've got to spend on these things every period to maximize the benefit.

Maxing Out a Few Key Benefits

There are a lot more potential benefits than just the few I name here. These are just the few that work for me. And over the past year I did a solid job of making them work.

Due to a trick of timing I hit the semiannual $200 resort credit three times. That's $600.

It took a bit of finagling but I hit the $50 airline credit every quarter. And due to the same trick of timing I hit it five times in 12 months. That's another $250.

Amex offers small cash-back incentives at dozens of specific vendors every month. 99% of these are places I have no desire to shop, but the other 1% I did charge purchases at and earned $51 cash back.

So, just on cash back I outearned the $650 annual fee, grossing $901, net $251.

Then there are the points from spending. Even with no signup bonus I earned 132,500 Hilton Honors points over the past 12 months. Yeah, that sure looks like a big number, but HH points are barely worth $0.004 anymore, so that's just $530. And again, that's a gross value. For the net value I subtract the opportunity cost of not using one of my 2%-cash-back, no-fee cards. I cycled $15,500 of charges to earn those points. At 2% that's $310 I could have earned elsewhere, fee-free. So the points net from this card is just $220. Still, a win's a win, and this increases my net win for the year to $471.

Diamond Status

Owning the card gives me Diamond elite status in the Hilton Honors program. For the limited-service hotels we stay at a lot of the time that means very little; a couple bottles of water and maybe an upgrade to a slightly larger room. At fancier hotels it can mean a nicer room upgrade and a comped spendy breakfast buffet. We enjoyed a bit of each on our trip to Italy last year. I figure the comps were worth $200 to us. That brings the net win on the card to $671.

But Wait, There's More!

Potentially a lot more. There's a big benefit I haven't yet gotten the value of.

Every year with this card Hilton provides a free-night certificate. In the distant past I used these certs on nice-ish hotels that cost, say, $250/night. Then, as prices rose and I widened my aperture, I found a $400/night hotel. Then I really thought about it and found an absolutely amazing $1,000+/night hotel. And you know what? I'm going to book it again.

Booking that hotel for one night pushes the value of this card to over $1,800 for the past year. But you know what? Due to that "trick of timing" I mentioned above, I got two of those free-night certs. That two nights at that amazing hotel that costs almost $1,200/night now. That puts the net value of this card to about $3,000.

Will I Renew? It's a Toss-up!

But will I renew this card? That's always the question I ask in these reviews. As over-the-top as the $3,000 net value I stand to realize from owning this card for one year is, you might think holding it for the next 12 months is a slam-dunk. Actually, it's a toss-up.

It's a toss-up because that "trick of timing" I mentioned several times won't be there for me again. The resort credit will be worth only $400, not $600, and even $400 is only if I max it out— which I'm not sure I will. The airline credit will be maxed at $200. And there will only be one of those free-night certs... and it's not worth making a trip somewhere just for 1 night. (I debated how worth it it was even traveling for 2 nights.)

Put all these together and it's a lot smaller win I can forecast next year than this past year. A smaller win, and yet I start out $650 in the hole (paying the annual fee) if I want to play. I might or might not renew this card when the annual fee posts in a few weeks.

I recently opened another American Airlines partnered credit card. I say another not because I already have one but because I've had this card many times in the past. In fact this is my 6th Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select Card account, going back 12+ years.

Why open another one right now ? Well, because I can, frankly.

Back in the day, credit card churners would churn the ever-loving hell out of this card. I was never so greedy. Once a year was enough for me. 😅

Then several years ago Citi adopted a 48-month exclusion period on the sign-up bonuses (SUBs). You couldn't earn a SUB if you'd owned another account of the same type within the past 48 months. I closed my previous copy (number five) of this card in 2020. That made me eligible to apply for a new one several months ago.

And I did apply several months ago. But Citi rejected me. ...My credit score is 860, WTF are they looking for?

I applied again a few weeks ago. This time they approved me. And with a credit limit that seems like a bazillion dollars. Seriously, four months ago I had a well-paying job and was persona non grata, and now I'm retired with, like, half my previous annual income (yes, I provided accurate numbers), and it's like "Take our card... please!" 🙄

I'm actually glad those Citi clowns (or was it Citi AI?) turned me down several months ago.That's because the bonus offer I found last month was better. I'll earn a bonus of 80,000 points after $3,500 of charges in 90 days. Hitting that level of spend is trivial. I could've done it in a single charge when I paying quarterly estimated state taxes. Instead I'll hit it in 2 when I charge a car insurance bill next month as I split my tax bill halvesies on another card I'm working a bonus offer on.

What do I plan to do with those points? At the moment, nothing... except add them to the mountain of AA points I already have. I already have just shy of 900k AA points. This new card bonus will put me within spitting distance of one million.

Airlines and hotels have been sending me "The Year in Review" messages this past week. My gut reaction each time has been, "WTF? 2025 ended months ago!" But nope, it's only January 19. They're not that late. It only feels like 2026 began months ago because we've already had, like, three or four manufactured political crises in the US this year. (And that's just in two weeks. Sigh. It's going to be a long year.)

The 2025 travel summary that hit today made me laugh. This one's from a hotel brand family, Choice, that I seldom stay at.

I've achieved... NOTHING. Way to go! (Jan 2026)

I've achieved... NOTHING. Way to go! (Jan 2026)

Woohoo, in 19 years with them I've achieved Non-elite status. That means I've achieved nothing. I'm so glad they're trying to make me feel special about that. Way to go, me! 🤣

Every year around the start of the year I take stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs, both to see how we'll I've done in accumulating & using miles as well as to set goals for the coming 12 months. Yesterday I posted a wrap-up of my airline miles and status for 2025. Now it's time for the same with hotel points and status.

This check of points and status comes at an odd moment. I feel I am at a tipping point where it may be time to say "Game over" for the hotel points-and-status chase. Hotels have been watering down the value of elite status. "Room upgrades as available" often are not available. And when they are, the "upgrade" is something close to trivial like the same room on a higher floor or facing the garden instead of the parking lot.

At the same time hotels have been watering down the value of their points. They do this by increasing the amount needed for redemption. Yes, that's been a story most of the 20 years I've been in the points-and-status game, but over the past few years points inflation has gotten out of hand. Hotel rooms routinely now cost 2x the points they could be purchased for just a few years ago.

This runaway inflation puts emphasis on the strategy of earn and burn: earn points (from stays and credit card bonuses) and spend (burn) them quickly, before they lose value. The old strategy, from years ago, of saving up points for years to redeem them for a week-long stay at a top property is broken. Thus as I inventory my points and status I indicate accumulating too many points as a bad thing and managing to spend down my balances as a good thing.

⬇️ Hilton: More Burn than Earn... And I Got Burned!

Hilton edged out Marriott to be my #1 hotel chain again in 2025 (ditto last year, in 2024). I stayed 16 nights with Hilton. The majority, 13 nights, were paid. That's because either (a) they were for work, and the company was paying; or (b) the cash price was reasonable while the points price was through the roof. Unfortunately "through the roof" has become the new normal with Hilton as they have broadly increased their hotel points costs three times in just over a year. 😧

The one stay where I redeemed points was when both the cash price and points price were through the roof. When we visited Rome in May we stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalieri for 3 nights for a whopping 85,000 points per night. (After the latest devaluation it's 120,000 points per night.) I try to make Hilton points worth at least a half cent apiece, so that's $425 at par. But hotels were eye-wateringly expensive across the city at that time. Many were $600+, including the Cavalieri. So while it was a lot of points it was at least a good value.

Status-wise I regained Diamond (top tier) elite after dropping to Silver (bottom tier) at the start of the year. Diamond is a benefit of the Hilton Aspire American Express card I signed up for again in April. I say again because I canceled it in 2024 thinking I'd find some kind of sign-up bonus for it again. Alas I did not. Is the card with its newly raised $550(!) annual fee worth it without a big signup bonus? My plan is for the answer to be Yes; I'll check back on that after the card's anniversary in April.

Thanks to spending 255k points on that Rome Cavalieri stay I spent more Hilton points than I earned in 2025. My balance dropped from 477k a year ago to 385k today. My goal with the remaining balance is to find an enjoyable luxurious stay for 4-5 days. I need to do it ASAP before Hilton hits us with yet another deval It'll have to be cheaper than the Rome Cavalieri, though!

⬇️ Marriott: Bonvoy-age, Marriott!

Marriott was my #2 hotel chain again 2025, falling just behind Hilton with 15 nights (16 if I include one Hawk did on her account). Back in the 2010s Marriott was my #1 choice. I routinely hit 50+ BIB (butt-in-bed) nights a year with them. My overall amount of travel, especially business travel, has decreased since then. And Marriott has gotten... unfriendly. Their prices in many markets are 15-20% higher than their competition, and getting elite benefits from them is like pulling teeth. Benefits shouldn't be hard; I'm a Lifetime Titanium elite! But here we are.

You may have seen a news stories recently about a Marriott that shooed customers off a bench and a Fairfield Inn that posted that bottles of water are no longer an elite benefit! When they nickel-and-dime loyal travelers that hard getting a real benefit like a suite upgrade seems to have a snowball's chance in hell.

In 2025 I succeeded in spending down my Marriott points balance. It's a goal I'd been working on for years. Why was it so hard? It was hard because I insisted on getting good value for my points. The thing about airline/hotel points nowadays is that while you pretty much always can use them for any trip, you're frequently charged a terrible redemption rate. I spent my balance down from 160k last year to almost zero this year. With earnings from a few paid stays I made, I finished the year just 32k left.

For 2026 my plan for Marriott is, basically, "Bonvoy-age!" I'm done. I'm out. I'll be content to stay at Marriott and use my elite benefits if work sends me to a Marriott, or if I happen to find a Marriott at a competitive price (unlikely!) when traveling for leisure, but I am absolutely not going to go out of my way to choose them. Those 32k points? Meh. Once upon a time they would've bought a night at a resort high rise in Hawaii. Today they might— might!— be enough for a one-night stay at a Fairfield Inn along a highway. And I'll have to pack my own damn water bottles.

⬆️ IHG: Burn and Earn

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose portfolio includes Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, remained my #3 hotel chain in 2025. I stayed 8 nights with them... though that increases to 12 if I count in the nights Hawk and I stayed with IHG on her account. (She's burning off points, too!) Every year recently it's looked like IHG will leap ahead of the others, as its footprint of plenty of decent limited-service properties in smaller towns than Hilton and Marriott fits our travel patterns well. But this year even their prices were just too high much of the time.

My goal with IHG for 2025 was to burn down my points balance of 212k. Hawk had a similar goal, too, as she had about as many points as I did! Plus we both have free-night certificates from the IHG credit cards we own. How did we do? We both spent our balances down somewhat. We used the certs first because they expire after 12 months, and we both redeemed some points, too. But then I signed up for another IHG credit card midyear, and earned 140k from the juicy signup bonus. I finished the year more than 100k above where I started, with 316k points.

Status-wise I remain Platinum with IHG, a benefit of owning their affiliated credit cards. Platinum is their second highest tier. In the past I've groused it's not worth much because there really aren't elite benefits to be had at the limited-service properties I make most of my stays at. Usually it's an "upgrade" to a "suite" at a Holiday Inn Express, where it's just a slightly larger than basic room. I mean, I appreciate it, but to me it's not worth more than maybe $10 a night.

For 2026 my goal with IHG swings back to Burn, baby, burn! 316k points is not the huge balance it may seem at today's devalued rates, but I'm going to see if I can redeem it for a 4-5 night stay someplace nice this year.

↔️ Best Western: What do I do with these points?

For several years Best Western was been down in my "Whatever" category (see below), the group of hotel chains I stay at so infrequently I just don't care. For example, I didn't touch BW at all for years. But the chain came back on my radar in 2024 as they do what IHG does at the lower end, but even moreso. And as IHG was too pricey much of the time, I traded down to BW several times in 2024. That left me about 24k points at the end of 2024... which I still have at the end of 2025. Thus my plans for 2026 remain the same: find some reasonable redemption, presumably a one-night stay somewhere not too swank, for my BW points.

↔️ Hyatt, Choice, Wyndham: Whatever

I have memberships in several other hotel rewards programs. Some still have scraps of points left in them from years past. Others are zeroed out due to expiry. I've barely paid attention to these chains for the past few years because the ones above largely meet my needs— and they control a huge portion of the mid-scale and upper mid-scale hotel market. That said, I did stay for 2 nights at a Hyatt (my employer's choice) and 1 night at a Choice (my choice). Plus we stayed 5 nights with Wyndham on Hawk's account. Between those two I was disappointed with Choice and slightly impressed with Wyndham. That reversed my expectations as previous I'd ranked Choice ahead of Wyndham. We should figure out if Hawk has enough Wyndham points yet to be worth anything, like my BW points (above) are worth potentially a few night somewhere.

I think my future will involve a lot more stays at these other brands as I see declining value in elite status and accumulating points, and instead pick whatever property offers the best quality/price tradeoff in the moment.

It's the end of the year, which means it's time for my taking stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs. This blog will be for airlines. A blog later this week will cover hotel programs.

Once upon a time I celebrated growing big balances of airline miles/points. I remember, for example, when a colleague and I were talking about having amassed 250,000 miles each on United after lots of job travel. "It's wild to think I could buy 10 people round-trip tickets anywhere in the continental US," he quipped.

The difference between then & now is that 250k no longer buys 10 round-trip flights between New York and San Francisco. Many days you'd be lucky if it buys three. Inflation is as much a thing in the points economy as it is in the real economy. Actually, it's worse. It's worse because there's no place to invest points to protect their value. Holding points is like keeping cash in a mattress. Keep a small balance that way? Meh. Keep a big balance that way? Holy smokes, no! Thus I consider having a big balance of points a risk. You'll see that how I characterize my balances in the following summaries.

⬆️ Southwest Airlines: Amassing another Mountain (of Risk!)

I've called my American Airlines points (see below) a mountain for many years as I've hovered over 750k with them. I've now built my Southwest balance up to that level. I finish 2025 with 770,000 Rapid Rewards points. That's a new high... and that's not a good thing, for the reasons I outlined above.

My Rapids Rewards balance with Southwest zoomed forward because I spent a lot of the year chasing status with them. My business travel is down from even a few years ago, so to keep renewing elite status I did most of my leisure flying on cash vs. on points. I would've preferred to spend points and save cash, but here I decided chasing status was more important. I cinched Companion Pass in September and made A-List Preferred again with the help of a mileage run in late December.

All that status-chasing helped me earn 229,000 redeemable points with Southwest. I spent less than 28k points. Thus my balance lands at about 770k. Three-quarters of a million.

For 2026 my goal is to spend down that balance. 770k is way too much to have stuffed in a mattress. But I'll see if I'm content to give up the status chase into 2027. 😨

↗️ United Airlines: Earn and Burn (but Mostly Earn)

I seem to alternate between up and down years with my United MileagePlus miles. After having a down year with UA last year and also in 2023— remember, down is good, because I'm redeeming points to secure value from them— 2025 was an up year. My points boosted from 62,000 to 177,000.

It's not that I flew UA a lot, though. I earned only 18k from butt-in-seat time. The lion's share of my points are from credit card sign-up bonuses. I opened two of them in the past 14 months that paid in 2025. Together they paid 200,000 points. So why didn't my balance zoom up to almost 300k? That's because while I earned a lot of points this year I also burned more than half of them, redeeming them for flights and other awards— and making sure to do so at decent rates.

Status-wise I maintain Premier Gold with United, a benefit of reaching Million Miler lifetime status years ago. What's the value of that status? Plenty, actually. First, I can reserve a seat in Economy Plus at booking. Those seats with extra legroom are a valuable perk that make flying actually bearable. It's worth at least a few tens of dollars per flight. That's what UA and other airlines charge to reserve comparable seats without sufficient elite status. Then there's free checked bags. I used that a few times. Then there's lounge access when traveling internationally. We had a good time relaxing at the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge in Toronto in August. Oh, and my designated partner gets all these Premier Gold benefits, too, since I'm a Million Miler. Upgrades? Yes, those are a benefit, though as a lowly Gold it's rare I get one. I did score one coming home from Toronto. All in all these aren't gonzo benefits, but as little as I fly United anymore— not enough to earn even Silver status on a per-year basis— I certainly appreciate the lifetime status from my blood, sweat, and tears of the past.

For 2026 my plan with United is to continue spending down my balance. I don't think that'll be too hard as 177k points isn't a lot anymore. I spent about 107k this year, and that was just for a few, unexciting flights. The only question is, will 2026 be another year of spending on a bunch of small award flights like I did this pat year, or will I find an opportunity to spend a lot of points on something big, like a fun overseas trip? I hope for the latter.

⏸️ American Airlines: Paused atop the Mountain

I've had a crazy big balance with AA for years now. What's "crazy big"? If you thought my three-quarters of a million with Southwest was wild, try this on for size: I have nearly 900,000 AA points.

What's even crazier is that this is exactly what I had last year, too. In 2025 I didn't earn a mile with AA, I didn't spend a mile with AA. I have almost a million miles in their program, and I didn't do a damn thing with them.

My plan with AA in 2026 is the same as it has been for years now: find good ways to spend all those points!

↔️ Delta: 15k and Not Even Trying

Rounding out the list here is Delta Airlines. While it's been over two years since I flew on AA it's been at least three since I set foot on Delta or one of their partners. I retain a pile of points with them— though it's a waaaay smaller pile than with AA. It's not a mountain but a molehill. My balance of Delta Skymiles is a mere 15k.

My plan with Delta in 2026 is also the same as it has been for several years new. I will keep ignoring Delta 🤣 until their flights and offerings seem relevant to me again. Meanwhile, my paltry 15k miles never expire. Though by the time I grow them into something useful that 15k might only be enough to buy a sandwich in-flight.

Flying for Fun & Profit #1
SJC Airport. Sun, 28 Dec 2026, 3:30pm.

This afternoon I am embarking on a mileage run. It's a flight taken strictly for earning points snd status. A few weeks ago I saw I was coming up a tiny bit short on my Southwest status chase, so I booked this mileage run.

For this mileage run I booked a quick round-trip to LAX. But I'm not going to Los Angeles, other than spending a few hours on the ground at the airport. I get back on a flight home this evening.

Right now I'm at SJC airport. I arrived here well early for the first flight. I'm taking as few chances as possible with the schedule.

I've been checking the flights for on-time-ness all afternoon. The aircraft for my first flight has been tracking on time and just landed from its previous leg. The homebound flight has been drifting a bit late, probably picking up delays from coming from somewhere in the East, where snow has caused lots of cancellations. That flight being late is okay... I'd only get worried if my outbound were late, because then I might miss the homebound! I planned over 3 hours on the ground between flights, so the chances of that are small... though never zero.

Stay tuned, this should only take a few hours!

Update: the flight to LA was smooth, then I took a piss and I turned myself around... that's what it's al about!

Several times a year I write an update about a credit card I keep in my wallet and how much I've earned from it. It's part of my practice of credit card churning. I open new credit cards for their lucrative sign-up bonuses, quickly charge thousands of dollars to them to secure the bonus points, then throw them in my desk drawer for the remainder of the year while I repeat the process with another credit card. These reviews are my check-ups on how well churning is working for me— as well as my decision point on whether to keep the card or cancel it and repeat the process. Usually I cancel churn cards after a year. Usually. Today I'm writing about a card that I've now had for 8 years— the longest of any travel affinity card— and will keep for at least a ninth: the Chase IHG One Rewards Select Credit Card.

Chase IHG Rewards Card

I have kept this card for many years not because it pays any high-flying benefits but because it does the opposite. This lowly card pays a not-generous 5x points/dollar on IHG hotel spend; 2x on restaurant, gas, and grocery spend; and 1x on everything else. At a value of 0.6 cents per IHG point* that's only 3% value on hotels and less than 2% on everything else. I already own two credit cards that pay 2%, cash, on everything... plus my spouse has a card that pays 3% on all travel. So using this card for spending is generally a losing proposition. 😧

Most of the benefits I derive from this card are not from charging on it. One big one is that every year I get a free-night award. I've found I can redeem these for about $150 value. The certs don't buy a night at a top tier hotel (anymore), generally just a roadside motel along the way between hither and yon, but $150 is nothing to sneeze at; this one benefit alone is 3x the $49 annual fee.

Another nice benefit I get from this card is a 10% rebate on award points redeemed. How much that's worth depends on how many points I manage to spend in a year. This year I redeemed 71k on a few awards stays, so my rebate was 7,100 points. At the rate of $0.006 that's $42.

As for charging purchases to this card generally being a losing proposition... well, I did spend some on this card. If you don't use cards enough anymore the banks may shut down your account! I waited until there was a promo for "Charge $1,000 of purchases to earn 3,000 bonus points" and then spend just a smidge over $1,000 to earn the bonus. That's all I charged during the year. Those 4,000 total points from spending are worth $24.

Adding these all together, the card delivered $216 of value in exchange for its $49 annual fee. That's a little less than I attributed to the card last year but still enough to make it a keeper— especially because once I cancel this card, it's gone forever. Chase and IHG stopped offering this card several years ago. Apparently it wasn't making them enough money— which is corporate-speak for the benefits were too good for consumers. They've replaced it with a card that charges a higher annual fee. I plan to hold on to this lowly old card for as long as they let me.

One of my credit cards has just reached its anniversary, so it's time to check the score on how well I've done with it. This one's the Chase United Business Mileage Plus card, and I've owned it for one year— which means the tally of benefits from the past year should be pretty good, considering the lucrative sign-up bonus.

Now, you might be thinking, "Wait, didn't you used to have two United cards— and canceled both of them?" The answer is Yes and Yes. 😅 In 2022 I opened both personal and business cards with United/Chase and then closed both of them in 2023. But in 2024 and this year I opened both kinds of cards again. Yup, this is the credit card churning that my topic What's in YOUR wallet? is all about.

The United MileagePlus Business Card by Chase (Nov 2025)

The United MileagePlus Business Card by Chase (Nov 2025)

I opened this card last year under a fairly typical (for this card) offer of 75,000 bonus UA miles after $5,000 of spend in the first 3 months. I hit the spending target easily in the first two months then... didn't quite toss this card in the proverbial sock drawer for the remainder of the year. Instead I kept using it occasionally, taking advantage of various promotions it offered. At the end of 12 months I've charged a total of $6,700 on the card and earned 85,100 points.

Miles & More

At my current valuation of 1.1 cents per point (cpp) for UA miles, my haul of 85,100 miles is worth $936. The annual fee (AF) of $99 was waived the first year so I won't subtract that, but I will subtract the opportunity cost of not charging that $6,700 of spend to one of my 2% cash-back cards. This $134 is the cost of earning these miles. It brings the net win down to a still very respectable $802.

But wait, there's more.

More in this case takes the form of various promotions Chase and United offered on the card. I put them into three groups:

The card offered a $100 statement credit after charging 7 purchases of at least $100 at United. This was likely meant to encourage and reward people who regularly buy flights but I found I could game the system by purchasing United TravelBank credits of $100 each in 7 separate transactions. These triggered the reward— which was cash back— plus I had $700 of credits at United that wouldn't expire for 10 years.
- Partway through my membership year United/Chase changed the above benefit from a $100 statement credit to a bonus of $125 in United TravelBank funds that requires only 5x$100 purchases. Changing it from a cash back bonus to a store credit bonus makes it less useful, generally speaking; and especially because the bonus credit expires in just 12 months. But the cool thing was Chase/United double-dipped me. They gave me both the original bonus and the new one for the same set of purchases I made. And I already spent the $125 voucher. So this year the 12 month expiry was not a problem.

Along with revamping the purchase credit back in the April/May timeframe, United/Chase added a new benefit to the card: $8/month credit on ride-share purchases of at least $20, with a slightly larger credit of $12 in December. If you max out this credit across the year it's worth $100. I hit it for $48 in the months I had access to it.

Chase offers a catalog of merchant specific bonuses, things like "5% back at ABC" or "$5 off one purchase of $25 or more at XYZ". Most of these are at merchants I don't care about, but over the past year there have been at least half a dozen I found worthwhile. I've redeemed cash-back offers worth $28.

There are other categories of credits Chase/United offer on this card but the remainder aren't worth it to me. (For example, there's $25 in United credit on two car rentals with Avis/Budget booked through United, but the rates at United are more expensive than I can get elsewhere with the same car providers.) With the three above, including the one-time double-dip, I nabbed $301 in cash and credits this year.

A Good Haul, But Do I Renew?

Putting the net value of the miles and bonuses together, I've made this card worth just over $1,100 in its first year. That's a solid score. But the question at hand now is Do I renew? It's a tough question because after the first year there's no big pile of miles from a sign-up bonus... oh, and the $99 AF kicks in.

I'm thinking I will renew this card for a second year. The ride-sharing credits, if I can max them out, basically pay back the AF. If I do the 5x$100 purchases again I'll get another $125 credit... though that will be in the form of store credit with United, not cash-back on the credit card. I'll have to decide if I expect to spend that voucher before it expires after 12 months from issue. (The answer is most likely "Yes" but I want to wait until I have more visibility before buying.) Finally, I'll earn a 5,000 mile bonus, worth $55, by having this card together with the United Quest card I opened a few months ago. That bonus will be paid a month or two after the renewal.

One of the credit cards I've opened a new account with this year is the United MileagePlus Quest card by Chase. The Quest is a new-ish offering from Chase and United Airlines. It's one of those semi-premium offerings the banks have been coming out with in the past year or so. Semi-premium, of course, means a higher annual fee (AF) in exchange for elevated benefits... benefits that are designed to look attractive while the credit card companies purposefully make them hard for customers to use. I weighed the benefits of this card carefully before deciding it was worth it to take the plunge of signing up— a plunge that cost $350 upfront for the AF. Then today I discovered a minor but intriguing benefit I hadn't noticed before.

The United MileagePlus Quest card by Chase

The benefit I hadn't noticed before is Pay Yourself Back (PYB). Lots of cards nowadays have PYB schemes. The idea is you spend some of the points you've earned with the card to credit back the cost of purchases you've charged.

On cashback cards this is using some of your cashback points to pay off all or part of your balance. You might think of it as removing the middleman: instead of getting cash back, depositing in your checking account, then paying your credit card bill, you're paying part of the bill directly.

With a co-branded airline or hotel card, the points you're paying with aren't cashback. They're the miles or points you earned in the airline/hotel loyalty program. Normally you'd use them only for buying directly from that loyalty partner. Thus it's intriguing to find opportunities to turn them into cash.

With the Quest PYB program I can't just pay any charge with points. It's limited to United purchases and the card's annual fee. But that whopping $350 AF was sitting right there in front of me so I decided to check what the points are worth.

"How much for how much?" That's always the question when redeeming points. Travel providers and their credit card partners love to give us shitty redemption options. Like, "Here, redeem these points at one-third a cent apiece on these golf clubs instead of realizing 1.1 cents per point (cpp) or more on airline tickets!" You have to know what your points are worth not to get ripped off spending them.

United MileagePlus

I know United miles are worth a minimum of 1.1 cpp when buying tickets. Thus I was surprised when I clicked through the PYB interface on my Chase card account and saw that it would credit my $350 AF for 25,000 points— a redemption rate of 1.4 cpp!

It's unclear right now if this 1.4 cpp rate applies to United tickets, too. If so, this is a great backdoor way to score better than the 1.1 cpp floor. Potentially it could make all of my United Miles worth more! But I say "unclear" and "potentially" because I checked PYB via another card, where I have some United flight charges eligible, and it offered me credits at a rate of 1.0 cpp. It's unclear if that's down to a difference in cards or if the higher rate is only for annual fees.

Canada travelog #21
Back at the hotel · Tue, 26 Aug 2025. 10:30pm.

Today finished on a good note, hiking-wise. We hiked two two-fers, for a total of 4 waterfalls: Albion and Buttermilk Falls, then Sherman Falls and Tiffany Falls. All was not good, though, as at the start of the day we had a problem with dry balls. And it wasn't just Ball's Falls that were dry but several others we had on our list to visit, too. While driving around during the day we decided it'd make sense to cut our visit to Canada short as we'll run out of things we want to do well before Sunday.

Tonight, after dinner and a soak in the hot tub, while Hawk was snoozing (she hasn't slept well recently) I rebooked our flights and shortened our hotel stay and car rental. The plan now is we'll go home Friday night instead of Sunday night.

What's the Cost?

Hawk agreed to leaving early provided the cost of rebooking plans wasn't significant. Cost was a major factor for me, too. If going home early is just a cost sink, we could figure out something to do in Ontario. The numbers work out such that, at worst, it's a wash, dollar-wise— but we still get two days of time back. And, best case, we save a few hundred bucks. Here's the math on the costs:

Departing hotel 2 days earlier: $327 savings

Returning rental car 2 days earlier: $104 savings

Figuring the cost of rebooking flights is a bit tougher as I bought one on cash and one on points. Mine, paid with cash, cost $260 more than my original flight. Hawk's flight I got for 15,000 points, with a travel credit of $271 net she can use within the next 11 months.

If Hawk can manage to use that credit before it expires, it's a great exchange for the 15,000 points we paid. $271 ÷ 15,000 = 1.8 cents per point (cpp), much better than the average value of 1.1cpp I value UA miles at.

Curiously, the numbers work out to a wash if Hawk's travel credit expires unused 11 months from now. If she can use it, then $271 is what we'll have saved by going home 2 days early.

A little over a year ago I opened a new credit card, the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Premier card. I say "new" because it's a new account, but for me it fills an old, familiar slot in my wallet. Between the business and personal variations of Chase Southwest Airline cards, and the various levels of fees and benefits, I've owned at least 7 of these cards over the years.

Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Premier Card

I opened this one last summer because there was an interesting sign-up bonus. (It's virtually always about the sign-up bonus!) The offer was 60k points after $3,000 spend in 3 months, plus another 60k points after $15,000 spend in 9 months. Combined with the minimum of 15,000 points earned from $15k of charges, that's at least 135,000 points— enough right there to qualify for Southwest's valuable Companion Pass. I gave an example of how that works recently when Hawk joined me on a business trip virtually for free. But rather than earn all those points in one year and get the companion pass for free I split the points earning across two years, last year and this, to combine with all my other Southwest earnings and qualify for the companion pass both years.

The Value So Far

Over the past 12 months I've earned a total of 150,000 points from this card on $26,000 spend. Valuing Rapid Rewards points at $0.02 each that's a whopping $3,000. Subtracting out the 2% opportunity cost of using this card is $520. Furthermore there's an annual fee of $99. Together these bring the net value down to a still amazing $2,381. Adding back in nearly $29 in other credits I earned for targeted spend lands it at a net value of $2,410.

The value of this card in its first year is stunning. $2,400 is unlike any other card I've had. It all comes from the power of that Companion Pass. Southwest Airlines Companion Pass

But how do I value it? I decided to value it through the points I earn. The valuation of 2 cents per point I use is a blended rate that reflects the combination of buying individual tickets, where the redemption rate is about $.013, with adding on a companion for free on some of those flights. Basically I'm figuring that half the tickets I buy I'll add my companion on.

This is not the same as the actual value I draw from the Companion Pass. These are points; and mostly I haven't spend them yet. But I estimate that the actual value of the CP I've seen over the past 12 months, including on tickets both purchased with points redemption and with paying cash, is over $3,600.

The Value The Next 12 Months

It's useful to calculate the value of a card over its year just finished. That informs decisions about whether to apply for new accounts like this again in the future. But the question at hand right now is whether to renew this card for a second year. And for that the first-year value means very little. In subsequent years that whopping signup bonus disappears, leaving the card to fly or fail on the value of its regular benefits.

In terms of regular benefits I've been averaging about 1.15 points per dollar. That represents a blend of the 1x, 2x, and 3x points per dollar rates on different categories of spend. At a valuation of $.02 per point, that's an earnings rate of 2.3% on each dollar charged. That's barely better than the 2% cash I earn from either of my 2% cashback cards. On that basis alone it wouldn't be worth renewing this card, particularly with its $99 annual fee.

Southwest Airlines

But the points aren't the only value of this card. One of its fringe benefits is that it helps me requalify for A-List/A-List Preferred status each year. That $26k spend I've charged has given me 10,000 tier qualifying points. These aren't redeemable miles but are a valuable leg up toward status.

Having this elite status, especially at the highest level, means a lot to making travel on Southwest more comfortable. For example, A-List Preferred gets me near the front of the boarding line. That's a big deal with Southwest's current pick-any-seat-you-want seating plan. When they move to assigned seating next year, A+ will get me the ability to select extra leg-room seats at time of booking. That's going to be huge to my comfort & willingness to fly Southwest versus other carriers. Thus I'm going to keep this card for one more year on the basis of needing it to cinch A-List Preferred status.

Hawk and I have made hotel reservations for a trip next week. We're taking extra days off ahead of July 4. For our 6 nights in 3 different cities (we're driving) we looked first at the main brands where I have elite status and frequent guest points: Hilton, Marriott, and IHG. And out of 6 nights we booked... none of them at these hotel brands. They're all too expensive!

We saw rates of $250-300/night or higher for the areas we checked. And we're not staying in Beverly Hills or Manhattan, BTW. We're looking at roadside motels in the mountains of California and Oregon. I'm willing to pay a reasonable premium to get the benefits of my top-tier elite status (or next-to-top tier) with each of these brands, plus earn more points, but these price premiums were completely unreasonable. We booked all 6 nights at lower-rung hotels. Are they as nice? Probably not. But they're also literally half the price of Hilton/Marriott/IHG.

Italy Travelog #4
Rome Cavalieri hotel - Saturday, 24 May 2025, 4pm

Around 3pm today we arrived at the Rome Cavalieri. It's a Waldorf Astoria hotel, so we had reasonably high expectations. Recall that our other W-A experience was the Waldorf Astoria Pedregal in Los Cabos, MX— where we had an amazing arrival experience, a very bougie lunch, and later, a touching "Happy Retirement Ms. Hawk" card.

The Rome Cavalieri, a Waldorf Astoria hotel (May 2025)

Compared to the Pedregal hotel, which was an over-the-top, 5-star experience, the Rome Cavalieri is merely a solid 4.5 star hotel. Everything is appropriately swank— including the prices in the restaurants 😱— but, for example, we had to *gasp* wait in line at the front desk to check in. (At the 5 star hotel, staff opened the car door for us, greeted us by name, and escorted us to a private table with cocktails where the concierge came to us to deliver our keys.)

Our room at the Rome Cavalieri hotel (May 2025)

Our room is suitably luxurious, and spacious, though again without the over-the-top-ness of the W-A Pedregal. Here the balcony with a private pool and a beach vidw is replaced by a balcony with... -out a private pool or a beach view. 😅

Not that there's even a beach, anyway. We're in Rome. Though this hotel is right up the hill from Vatican City. If we were on a higher floor we'd be able to see it from our balcony.

As we explored the hotel grounds a bit this afternoon we found a hawk.

The Rome Cavalieri is a hawk-friendly hotel (May 2025)

Yup, there's a hawk sitting on a railing on the terrace overlooking the pool area. As you can see from the jess to the left of the bird's feet, though, it's not a random hawk; it's kept by a falconer. The falconer wasn't around this afternoon so we spent some time admiring the bird by ourselves without knowing what species of hawk or falcon it is. Hawk noted that our iPhones will identify what we're taking a picture of, if they can. Her iPhone told her, "bird". Thanks, Apple, we were confused for a moment there that it might be a flower. Apparently that AI feature was implemented by the same team that created the original icon for Apple Maps showing a route of jumping off a bridge into busy interstate highway 280 traffic.

Whenever we travel I look to use points to reduce the amount we have to pay in cash. As I've got a lot of points (2024 EOY inventory) I'm always looking for opportunities to use them. But I'm looking for opportunities to get worthy value for them. Alas that's why I have so many points sitting in my accounts.... Opportunities to redeem them for shitty value abound; opportunities to redeem them for decent value, let alone great value, are fewer and farther between. Thus on our trip to Georgia last week, like most, we chose to pay for some things with points and others with cash.

Our five nights at a hotel in Savannah I got on points. The key factor tipping that in favor of points was Marriott's standard bonus of redeeming a 5 night award for the price of 4 nights. If I'd had to pay points equal to 5x the single night rate it would've been a tie for value between that and cash. Getting 20% off the points price made points the winner.

For our two nights in Dawsonville we used points for the Holiday Inn Express. IHG, their parent company, has moved to a mostly rate-based system for awards, so screaming deals on points are very rare to find anymore. This was at least a fair deal on what we consider the points worth. As I've noted before, you've got to know what points are worth to make good decisions about when to use— or not use— them.

Oh, and Hawk used her points for those two nights in Dawsonville. Yes, she has points, too! For IHG, both of us get most of our points from lucrative credit card sign-up bonuses.

For our 1 night at ATL airport— the one we got that suite upgrade on— we paid cash. The hotel's cash rates where low enough that the points rate wasn't worth it. And it was also Hawk's elite status, again from a credit card, that got us that upgrade.

For the flights on Southwest I paid cash. Southwest's points awards follow a formula relative to the cash price so there really aren't deals to be found there. It comes down to a question of "Do I want to earn points and thus get nearer to earning/renewing elite status right now, or redeem points and gain nothing toward elite status?" I'm in status-chasing mode with Southwest right now, so I bought the tickets with cash. Though it wasn't cash, per se, but travel credit. Meaning, there was no hit to my budget this month because it's money I spent months ago on tickets I had to cancel.

The only other part of this trip that was a hard cost, as in money out of pocket this month, was the rental car. And there I'm glad I got pissed at Avis's clusterfuckery and canceled my first car reservation because it turned out we totally didn't need a rental car in Savannah. As we chose a hotel so close to where my sister and her family live, they were okay with driving us around. When we did rent a car for the cross-state drive up to the mountains, it cost just $190 vs. the $575 it would've cost to have a car for the whole week. The difference, almost $400, is what we would've paid just for the 5 day local part of our trip. That's so not worth it I'm surprised I even signed up for it in the first place!

⬆️ Hilton: Too Much Earn, Not Enough Burn

Hilton edged out Marriott to be my #1 hotel chain in 2024 with 13 nights stayed. The majority, 10 nights, were actually paid. That's because either (a) they were for work, and the company was paying; or (b) the cash price was reasonable while the points price was through the roof. The latter is one of the aspects of points devaluation. The cash price for a hotel is reasonable, or even a minor bargain, while the points rate for that ordinary hotel is up in the stratosphere like top-end properties just a few years ago.

The one night where I redeemed points was when both the cash price and points price were through the roof. It was a limited-service airport hotel. Over $300/night or 60k points. I opted to pay points. For those of us who've been playing the points-and-miles game for several years this is galling because 60k points used to buy an absolutely top-end property. Hell, 50k used to be the absolute top end. Now you can easily pay that much for roadside accommodations.

Speaking of top-end properties, we did stay at one this year. I used a pair of free-night certificates for our astounding stay at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos. Now that would be a good use of points! Too bad it's 120k/night.

Status-wise I dropped from Diamond (top tier) elite to Gold (middle tier) this year when I canceled my Hilton Aspire American Express card. I'll probably drop even further, to Silver, in a few months. Over the years Diamond status rarely was worth much. In 2024, though, it did help us with that amazing Waldorf Astoria stay. And with an upgrade to a suite with a walk-out patio our first 2 nights in New Zealand. And with 2 days of a sumptuous breakfast buffet at that hotel. But most of the time it's "Thanks for being a Diamond member, Mr. Walker, here's your ordinary room and a free bottle of water.

Because I spent no points this year while earning from a dozen nights my balance went up, from 430k a year ago to 477k today. That's the opposite of what I wanted. Thus my goal for 2025 remains the same as last year: Find (worthwhile) awards redemptions for enjoyable stays.

⬇️ Marriott: Bonvoy-age, Points!

Marriott slipped to being my #2 hotel chain in 2024 as my 13 nights with Hilton edged out my 12 nights with Marriott. Marriott's count rises to 17, though, if we include nights Hawk paid for with points from her account. Of course, these numbers are way down from the 60, 70, or more nights per year I logged with Marriott in my business travel heyday years ago.

The nights we stayed were on a mix of cash and points. And the places where we used points were not aspirational luxury properties but standard roadside level hotels. When I started the points and miles game I had visions of all the fancy places I'd stay for free on points. As the reality of limited time, limited opportunity, and frequent devaluation set in I made peace with redeeming points anywhere, provided it's a good value relative to the cash price. Thus I'm content that I used points for our 5 night stay in Wisconsin for my niece's graduation, and Hawk redeemed points for 5 nights in Boone, NC on our Blue Ridge Mountains trip. I also redeemed points for a Friday Night Halfway trip. These redemptions whittled my points balance down from 243,000 to 160,000.

Elite status-wise, I hold Lifetime Titanium status in Bonvoy, the second highest of five elite levels. It's a benefit of my past years of much heavier travel. Not that it's often much benefit at all. There aren't a lot of upgrades and other elite perks to be had at the basic suburban hotels where I spent many of my Marriott nights. Though we did enjoy breakfast buffets comped at the AC Marriott in Panama City the last week of the year. Nominally that was a $150 benefit. I peg the real value to us at maybe one-quarter that— particularly because 2 out of 4 days we were up and out before breakfast opened.

For 2025 my goal remains the same as the past several years: Spend points and get value from them. My stash of Bonvoy points is smaller now than in years past... so in 2025 I might boost it by another 100k or so with another credit card. But either way, I'll be looking to spend at least as much as I earn, since holding onto points long term doesn't pay.

⬆️ IHG: Burn, Baby, Burn! (But not Enough)

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose portfolio includes Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, dropped to my #3 hotel chain for 2024. I stayed only 7 nights with them. Every year recently it's looked like IHG will leap ahead of the others, as its footprint of plenty of decent limited-service properties in smaller towns than Hilton and Marriott fits our travel patterns well. But this year their prices were just too high much of the time, allowing Hilton and even Marriott to undercut them.

My stays with IHG were a mix of points stays and paid stays. I wanted to make more points stays but the problem, as above, continues to be that points rates are often ridiculously high. A few times I decided to pay cash and hold onto my points in hopes of finding better value for them later. On the whole I whittled down my IHG points from 240k a year ago to 212k today.

Status-wise I remain Platinum with IHG, a benefit of owning their affiliated credit card. Platinum is their second highest tier. In the past I've groused it's not worth much because there really aren't elite benefits to be had at the limited-service properties I make most of my stays at. Though once again those limited-service properties occasionally come through with small but meaningful upgrades such the "tower suite" upgrade at the airport hotel in Auckland.

For 2025 my goal with IHG remains, Burn, baby, burn! 212k points is not a huge balance at today's devalued rates, but Hawk has a similar balance on her account, too. Together we'd like to redeem for several stay-on-the-way nights to make our one-night or weekend trips easier.

⬆️ Best Western: What do I do with these points?

For the past several years Best Western has been down in my "Whatever" category, the group of hotel chains I stay at so infrequently I just don't care. For example, I didn't touch BW at all in 2021-2023. But the chain came back on my radar this year as they do what IHG does at the lower end, but even moreso. And as IHG was too pricey much of the time, I traded down to BW. Plus, they had a summer bonus program going that paid extra points after 3 stays. I hit that bonus with three one-night stays in small towns. Now I have 24k points total... and no plan for where to redeem them. 🤣 I guess I'll have to look up BW every time I consider staying in a small town this year.

↔️ Hyatt, Choice, Wyndham, Best Western: Whatever

Around every New Year I take stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs, both to see how well I've done in accumulating & using miles as well as to set goals for the coming 12 months. One thing that's different recently is now all the airlines I fly with and the hotels I stay with are doing it, too. They've been emailing me "Your Year in Travel" summaries. If nothing else it's fun comparing my records to theirs to double-check my accuracy— and theirs.

As I go through these balances you'll see that I refer to having a big balance as bad and having a smaller one, especially spending to get down to a smaller one, as good. That may seem contrary to common wisdom; isn't earning and saving a good thing? Sure, earning points is good, but their value doesn't come until they're redeemed. And that's where the rub lies. Loyalty points only ever lose value.

Points lose value because airlines and hotels devalue the redemption rates every few years. Saving them up for too many years hoping to take "the trip of a lifetime" is a mistake. By the time that opportunity comes years later you'll find that the points price has increased 2x, 3x, or more versus what it was when you started saving. The bigger the points balance you carry, the bigger the loss. Thus the more you have the more important it is to have a plan for how to spend them, soon.

I'll split airlines and hotels into two posts to cover a few of each. Here's where I landed in the various airline programs at the end of 2024:

⬆️ Southwest Airlines: Earn and Burn (Needs More Burn)

Southwest continues to be the airline I'm most engaged with. I was a tad less busy with Southwest in 2024 than the year before. I flew 26 segments with them vs. 2023's 31. That made it more of an effort to renew both A-List Preferred and Companion Pass elite status. But I focused on it. I not only had a plan, I had a spreadsheet. And because of that spreadsheet I was able to make mid-year changes to my plan. I requalified for Companion Pass in October and clinched A+ elite status just a few weeks ago, getting over the finish line late in the year thanks to my planning and replanning.

The flip side of pushing hard to re-earn status in a year with less travel on the airline is that most of my travel was on cash— which earns points— when my goal for the year had been to spend more points. I redeemed a tidy 121,000 points this year on Southwest flights... but I earned 241,000. That boosted my already-high Rapid Rewards point balance over 568,000— even more than the nearly 450k I held a year ago.

A lot of people would celebrate, "Woohoo! I have over half a million points!" I don't celebrate it because— as I explained above— carrying a big balance is a bad thing. Points only ever devalue so it's a poor idea to keep them banked for too long intending to use them later. For 2024 my goal was to burn faster than I earned. Well, I earned too much and didn't burn enough. Thus "Burn more than I earn" is my goal again for 2025.

⬇️ United Airlines: Redeeming Points, Again!

It's been another good year with United— good, because I used my miles! After sitting on a pile of 450k at the end of 2022 I worked it down to 280k by the end of 2023. Now I've further spent it down to only 62,500. "Only"! Years ago that would have been plenty for 2 round-trip domestic tickets in coach; today it would barely get me one-way to New York on an expensive week. That's an example of how badly points have been devalued over time and why I strive to spend them on good redemptions sooner rather than later.

Status-wise I maintain Premier Gold with United, a benefit of reaching Million Miler lifetime status years ago. What's the value of that status? Plenty, actually. First, I can reserve a seat in Economy Plus at booking. Those seats with extra legroom are a valuable perk that make flying actually bearable. It's worth at least a few tens of dollars per flight. That's what UA and other airlines charge to reserve comparable seats without sufficient elite status. Then there's free checked bags. I used that several times. Then there's lounge access when traveling internationally. We visited lounges 3 times on our trip to New Zealand in April and 3 more times on our Panama trip in December. Oh, and my designated partner gets all these Premier Gold benefits, too, since I'm a Million Miler.

Upgrades? Yes, those are a benefit, but as a lowly Gold it's rare I get one. Hawk and I did both score upgrades on our flight to Alaska in June as well as on the Houston-San Jose leg home from Panama. Those were definitely appreciated, just not gonzo like that monster upgrade we scored coming home from Australia in December 2023. But still, for as little as I fly United anymore— not enough to earn status annually anymore— I certainly appreciate the lifetime status from my blood, sweat, and tears of the past.

⬆️ American Airlines: The Mountain Beneath Me Grows, Again

I've had a crazy big balance with AA for years now. And this year I did nothing but build it higher. What's "crazy big"? If you thought my half million with Southwest was wild, try this on for size: I have nearly 900,000 AA points.

What makes this big balance even crazier is that I rarely even fly AA. I flew them once— one flight, not even one round trip— in 2023 and zero in 2024. Virtually all those miles come from churning their credit cards. See also, What's In YOUR Wallet?

My plan with AA in 2025 is the same as it has been for years now: find good ways to spend all those points!

↔️ Delta: 15k and Not Even Trying

Rounding out the list here is Delta Airlines. As little I flew AA in 2023, I flew Delta even less. I flew zero on Delta. And I retain a pile of points with them— though it's a waaaay smaller pile than with AA. It's not a mountain but a molehill. My balance of Delta Skymiles is a mere 15k.

My plan with Delta in 2025 is also the same as it has been for several years new. I will keep ignoring Delta until their flights and offerings seem relevant to me again. Meanwhile, my paltry 15k miles never expire. Though by the time I grow them into something useful that 15k might only be enough to buy a sandwich in-flight.

Another one of my credit cards posted its annual fee following account anniversary recently. This is a card I happen to have owned a long time, 7 years. That's longer than any other hotel/airline affinity card I currently own, and longer than all but one hotel/airline card I've ever owned in the past. As I've kept this card so long you might think I use it constantly and travel with the hotel/airline frequently. You'd think that... and you'd be wrong. 😂 This is a oddball little card that delivers value even when I barely use it.

Okay, enough mystery. The card I'm talking about is the Chase IHG One Rewards Select Credit Card. (Yes, that's a mouthful. It always is with marketingspeak.) I've had this card for just over 7 years now. The annual fee is $49. Let's review if and how that's worth paying for another year, year 8.

Chase IHG Rewards Card

This card pays a not-generous 5x points/dollar on IHG hotel spend; 2x on restaurant, gas, and grocery spend; and 1x on everything else. At a value of 0.6 cents per point* that's only 3% value on hotels and less than 2% on everything else. I already own two credit cards that pay 2%, cash, on everything... plus my spouse has a card that pays 3% on all travel. So using this card for spending is generally a losing proposition. 😧

Most of the benefits I derive from this card are not from charging on it. One big one is that every year I get a free-night award. In the past I've made these worth an average of $200 each. Over the past year IHG had devalued its award points again* so I figure the value of these awards at $150 now. Still, that's nothing to sneeze at; it pays 3:1 on the annual fee.

Another nice benefit I get from this card is a 10% rebate on award points redeemed. Some years that's a lot. For example, I earned back 12,000 this way in 2022 and 16,000 in 2023. This year I earned just 4,300. Still, this rebate has value. At the rate of $0.006 it's $25.

There are other benefits, too. Chase and IHG offered a few merchant credits throughout the year. I nabbed $15 of cash-back credits through those. I also get the benefit of IHG Platinum status by owning this card. Platinum isn't worth a heck of a lot with IHG; just earning extra points each stay plus the occasional upgrade. We only got one upgrade this year: a suite at an airport hotel in New Zealand. It was hardly a stunning upgrade, but still we appreciated having the extra space to stretch out in since we were there for 2 days while rain spoiled our outdoors plans. I figure the fringe benefits were worth another $50 this year.

Adding these all together, the card delivered $240 of value in exchange for its $49 annual fee. And that's all value I got for charging less than $1,000 on it over 12 months. For the next 12 months I anticipate getting similar value... and quite possible more if I redeem a greater quantity of points in 2025.

Now, in the past I've canceled some cards when I forecast "only" a $200 net win. I'm choosing to keep this one, though. The reason is that I can't churn this card. Most other cards, I'd cancel long before this point and reapply (churn) to earn another signup bonus. But I can't do that with this card. It's not available anymore. So I'm going to hold onto it for the annual free night award and the fringe benefits relative to the low, $49 annual fee.

_____

[*] I mentioned devaluation a few times. Compared to my analysis a year ago I've reduced my figure for what IHG points are worth. Previously I valued them at 0.7 cents per point. Now I'm using a value of 0.6. Possibly I should use an even lower value such as 0.5. These figures are based on observing what rooms sell for on points versus what they sell for at cash rates— a comparison I check virtually every time I book a stay.

I just clinched A-List Preferred ("A+") status on Southwest Airlines for another year. It's the highest level elite status in one of their two elite programs. Of course, I also have the other valuable elite status— I re-earned Companion Pass in October.

A+ status is much like elite status in other airlines' programs. Its main benefits are early boarding, free wifi onboard, 2 free drinks per flight, and 2x base points earned by flying. Doubling the base redeemable points theoretically has value.... I say theoretically because I have so many points right now (well over 500,000) that I'm not sure when I'll spend them or what value I'll get. Meanwhile, the early boarding feature is nice. It means I can avoid the game of trying to check in at T-24 hours just to get a good boarding order. Also, free wifi doesn't suck. It saves me $8 almost every flight. Having Internet connectivity on my phone while flying makes long flights much less boring and short flights go by in a snap.

Southwest, the 'LUV' Airline

Reaching A+ requires earning 70,000 Tier Qualifying Points (TQPs) in a year. These come primarily from flying and are revenue based. (I.e., the more a ticket costs, the more points you earn. Points are not distance-based like in other airlines' programs in years past.) There are also bonuses for certain credit card activity. I managed my cards and charges adroitly to earn over 15k TQPs through them. Then there are occasionally flight bonuses, like double/triple TQPs for flights booked and flown within certain date ranges. I rebooked one of my flights from using points to spending cash to hit this year's bonus in the fall.

It's a fair bit of flying to reach A+. The various bonuses help get one there but add complexity. Since I don't fly 2-3 round trips per month like I used to it, which would make earning status like this easy, I track my activity carefully to increase my chances. At the start of the year I build a plan— a plan and a spreadsheet. By tracking progress on that spreadsheet I can adjust my plans during the year as necessary. For example, that's how I knew I needed to rebook one flight from points to miles during a promotion period— one, but not two. It's also how I decided I should open a new Southwest credit card in August to re-earn Companion Pass when my flying forecast was coming up short of plan.

No plan is perfect, of course. ...Well, actually, no forecast is perfect. That decision I made in August turns out to have been unnecessary as I've got more trips to fly in November and December than I was able to forecast clearly in August. I'll finish the year at about 75k TQP, well above the 70k threshold, and I'll hit Companion Pass's 135k CPQP (yes, a whole different type of qualifying point) threshold even without the boost from the new credit card I opened.

Today I closed another one of my credit cards. This one was the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®. Yeah, that's a whole lot of marketing-speak right there.

Unlike the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority card I closed three days ago I've only owned this card for just over a year. Also unlike that Southwest Airlines affinity card I literally haven't used this one since earning the sign-up bonus 10 months ago.

CitiBusiness AAdvantage credit card

The sign-up offer was a bonus of 75,000 American Airlines AAdvantage points for spending $6,000 in 6 months. I hit that target in 3 months then tossed the card in a desk drawer for the next 10 months.

This is the purest form of credit card churning. You 1) sign up for a card with a great bonus offer, 2) charge enough to earn the bonus within the initial period, then 3) sock-drawer the card until 4) you cancel it when its annual fee posts after one year.

Why not cancel it sooner? That's because banks look unfavorably upon customers closing cards closed in less than a year. Part of playing the credit card churning game is staying enough in the banks' good graces that they let you keep playing.

Why did I make this card a pure-play on churning while I kept that Southwest card for 3 years and charged $40,000+ a year on it? Ah, that comes down to the benefits of the card and how much they matter to me. The Southwest card had more fringe benefits than this AA card, and those benefits mattered to me because I've been engaged with Southwest as a frequent customer for several years. As I've explained before, points cards are most worth it when you travel with the airline/hotel regularly.

With AA the 81,000 points I earned on this card in pursuing the lucrative sign-up bonus just added to a pile of AA points I've barely been using for years. That pile, BTW, is now nearly 900,000 points. Holding onto AA credit cards for the long term doesn't make sense for me. I'll just keep churning them to build that balance higher... while looking for opportunities to redeem that huge pile of points for great value.

Today I closed one of my Southwest Airlines credit cards. Yes, I have two. Well, had two. The one I closed is the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority card. I just hit my three year anniversary with it. Among other things that means the annual fee for the next year, a significant $149, recently posted. I decided it wasn't worth $149 to keep flying this card for another year.

Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card

The way I choose to open and close credit cards is never seat-of-the-pants, like "Oh, this fee just posted, I'll close it." I'm very deliberate. So let's review the math on this one.

Doing the Math on the Points

Over the past 12 months I cycled $37,000 worth of charges through this card. I hit it hard. Though that's actually less hard than the previous year's $47k. I've hit this card hard because it offers decent benefits for someone who's already got elite status with Southwest and wants help maintaining it.

The primary benefit of the card is the points. I earned 66,000 points over the past year. At a value of 2 cents apiece (due to Companion Pass benefits) those are worth a whopping $1,320. There were also several cash-back opportunities totaling $112. Adding these together and subtracting the opportunity cost of $740— what I could have earned from using a no-fee, 2% cash-back card instead— leaves a net win of $692. And that's not even counting some of the other fringe benefits of this card.

You might wonder how, with a win of almost $700 from the past 12 months, it's not worth paying $149 to play this game another 12 months. Probably I could even have gotten that fee waived with all the business I've given this card; meaning I could take a shot at winning $632 in the coming year without even having to pay the rake. The answer, as always, is Compared to what?

Yeah, that's a question, not an answer per se. 😅 But the answer to that question is the answer to why I chose to close this profitable card.

Deciding to Close this Card

The "Compared to what?" situation is that I'm not just comparing (a) keeping this card to (b) closing it. There's also Option C: Close this card... and open another. In fact I'm already working the sign-up bonus on one other card, another Southwest card, right now and I'm anticipating opening a another card in the near future, probably a United Airlines card. Plus, if I do ever want the benefits of this card again in the future, I can open another copy of it. In fact I have already opened multiple copies of it over the past several years! Cards like this, it doesn't make sense to hold forever. It's better to cycle through them every 1-3 years.