I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Cheesecake Factory. Their food is good, but the menu is too damn big. When I go to a restaurant and am hungry I don’t want to read a 46-page novel before deciding what to eat. I want enough choices so there’s “something for everybody,” but not so many choices that I have to set up a Venn diagram to make a decision on what I’ll have.

That’s also kind of how I feel about Starwood’s “Nice Choice” promotion, which I wrote about a few weeks ago. I love the fact that there are options to choose from (after all, Starwood has become all about customization, so kudos to them for sticking true to that), but there are just too many if you ask me. Maybe I’m jetlagged, maybe I’m just plane dumb (don’t forget to tip me on the way out), or maybe this is confusing, but I’m having a hard time going through this.

On the plus side, Starwood deserves credit for including all of their hotels in the promotion. For most of their past promotions there was a huge list of excluded hotels, which really sucks as a customer. To us a Starwood hotel is a Starwood hotel and we expect consistent benefits, regardless of where in the world we are. So it’s nice to see them running a promotion without any excluded hotels.

So let’s start with the basics (which might just be all I can handle). Registration is required for the promotion by June 30. The promotion runs from May 1 through September 30, 2012, though you have to choose a three month period in which you’d like to participate. It’s worth noting that even if you only register on June 30, the choice will apply retroactively through May 1. So given the options, you’re probably best off waiting until June 30 to register in order to decide which promotion works best for you.

Now on to the “choices.” The first decision you have to make is over which time period you’d like the promotion to run, with the following options:

Sticking to the Cheesecake Factory analogy, this would be the “welcome to the Cheesecake Factory, can I get you something to drink?”

The second choice is the general category of the rewards you want to earn:

In the Cheesecake Factory analogy, this would be the “can I get you started with an appetizer today?” (of course not, because your main courses are big enough to feed a villa of sumo wrestlers).

Aaaaaand this is where it starts to get complicated.  This is the point at which the Cheesecake Factory waiter comes over and says “have you had a chance to look at the menu yet?” Have I had a chance to look at the menu? Yes. Have I had a chance to read even 5% of the contents? No. Please come back in five hours.

Not only do you have multiple categories to choose from, but within each category you have far too many options for your own good, so let’s go through them one by one.

If you select the “Starpoints” category you have the following options:

I like a fun promotion with some options, but you need some serious number crunching and math skills in order to make an informed decision here.

If you plan on staying at least 15 nights, the triple Starpoints is probably your best bet. If you’re planning on staying fewer than 15 nights, I think the 3,000 bonus points for every six stays is more tempting than the double SPG points starting with your second stay. For double SPG points to make sense you’d have to be spending over $500 per night in order for that to be a better option than 3,000 bonus points for every six nights, given that you’re essentially earning 500 bonus points per night through it. Of course that assumes you can stage your stays in increments of six. And if you stay mostly at Sheratons, chances are the 500 bonus points there makes sense. If the alternative is double points you’d have to spend an average of more than $500 per night for that to be a better option, or if the alternative is triple points you’d have to spend an average of more than $250 per night for that to be a better option.

The next category is free nights, with the following options:

Neither of these options is especially appealing to me. Last year during the same period Starwood ran a promotion whereby you could earn one free night at a resort for every three stays, while this year they’re requiring 10 nights for a free weekend night, but capping it at category five hotels (compared to category six last time). Still, at the end of the day a category five hotel would cost 12,000 points per night, so I suppose that’s the equivalent of 1,200 bonus points per night. Of course this assumes you want to redeem your free nights over a weekend, and also that you don’t have substantially more than 20 nights, since you don’t earn anything beyond that.

The next option is a merchandise discount:

Next…

Then the last option is elite night credits:

If you absolutely need them and can’t make any additional stays then I guess go for it, though at the end of the day elite night credits aren’t really “tangible” rewards that can be redeemed for anything.

Interestingly the promotion page has a list of the most popular choices by members thus far, and as of now it stands as follows:

So not surprisingly the double and triple points offers are getting picked most often, probably because they’re the simplest. I still think the 3,000 bonus points for every six nights is more tempting than the double points assuming you can get stays in the right increments, though I seem to be in the minority there.

Ultimate this isn’t a promotion that will drive any incremental business to Starwood for me, but then again, I haven’t seen any enticing promotions from other programs. Hyatt has an offer for 5x airline miles, though it’s not entirely clear whether that’s their summer promotion or just a smaller promotion they’ll run alongside another one (I sure hope it’s the latter).

But before anyone’s too harsh on Starwood, let me give you my outside opinion on their inside thinking. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, in the past Starwood gave individual hotels the option of opting into a promotion or not. As a result, it would appear as if hotels were footing the bill for promotions, and that’s why we saw such huge lists of excluded hotels. Starwood deserves a LOT of credit for running a global promotion for the first time. It’s a step in the right direction, though I’m not surprised the promo is more lackluster than what we’ve seen in the past, since I would speculate that SPG is footing the bill here, as opposed to the individual (mostly franchised) hotels. Not trying to justify it, but just explaining why I think the promotion isn’t super-rewarding as it was last year.

Over the course of writing this post I’ve built up an appetite. Maybe a visit to the Cheesecake Factory is in order?

While Hyatt’s spring promotion is still running through April 30, they’ve already announced the details of their summer promotion, which offers bonus airline miles instead of bonus points. For stays between May 1 and August 31, 2012, you earn 4x airline miles for your 2nd and 3rd stays, and 5x airline miles for your 4th through 11th stays.

Registration is required prior to your first stay, and you have to register with the airline you want in advance. The links are as follows:

• Air China PhoenixMiles
• Air France KLM Flying Blue
• American AAdvantage
• ANA Mileage Club
• British Airways Executive Club
• China Eastern
• Delta Skymiles
• Etihad Guest
• Lufthansa Miles & More
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
• United MileagePlus

You typically earn 500 miles per stay, so through this promotion you’re earning 2,500 miles per stay for your 4th through 11th stays, for a total of 24,500 miles throughout the promotion if you max it out.

While this isn’t a great promotion, it’s something, especially for people like me that frequently make one night stays.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that with Hyatt you earn the 1,000 point Diamond amenity regardless of whether you choose to earn points or miles. Furthermore, if the club lounge is closed (which is the case on weekends at several Hyatts) you earn an additional 2,500 points per stay. So 3,500 Hyatt Gold Passport points plus 2,500 American miles per stay at my local Hyatt really isn’t half bad…

Now we just have to wait and see what promotion SPG comes up with.

Lastly, while we’re on the topic of Hyatt, remember that through May 11 Hyatt is offering a free 90 day Platinum trial for anyone with a Visa Signature card, which gets you free internet, late check-out, and the occasional room upgrade for your stays.

(Tip of the hat to Gary)

Per this FlyerTalk thread, it appears as if American is offering United customers “no strings attached” status matches. The email people are getting after requesting the status match reads as follows:

Thanks for speaking with me about a special opportunity to obtain American Airlines AAdvantage® elite status without meeting the standard qualification requirements. In order to proceed, please provide us with documentation reflecting the Premier level that you hold with United Airlines.
Please send us the following documentation. Simply “Reply” to this message, and for prompt service, do not change the subject line:
• A copy of your dated elite membership card reflecting your name and Premier status level for the 2012 Membership Year (.pdf, .tif, .jpeg, .bmp formats, not to exceed 1MB)
• Alternatively, you could send a copy or screen shot of your most recent account summary, reflecting your name and Premier status level (.pdf, .tif, .jpeg, .bmp formats, not to exceed 1MB)
• Your AAdvantage number and phone number
Alternatively, you may FAX copies of your documentation to (817)963-7882. Be sure to include your AAdvantage number and phone number and the Subject Line: Requesting AAdvantage Elite Status. Please do not send both an email and a FAX.
Once your documentation is accepted, you will receive an email within10 days confirming your new AAdvantage elite status, which will be valid through February 28, 2013. Your credentials will follow in 3-5 weeks. Please note the following status equivalents:
• AAdvantage Gold® membership for Premier Silver
• AAdvantage Platinum® membership for Premier Gold or Premier Platinum
• AAdvantage Executive Platinum® membership for Premier 1K
We look forward to welcoming you aboard your next American Airlines flight and await your reply.

Regards,

AAdvantage Customer Service

As you can see, they’re offering status matches all the way up to Executive Platinum status with no fees or “challenges” (whereby you have to fly a certain amount in a specified period of time). In the past American protected their “top tier” status level more than just about any airline, and didn’t even offer any sort of challenges or matches. Then last January they offered an Executive Platinum challenge for a short period of time whereby United 1Ks received Platinum status upfront and had to earn 25,000 elite qualifying points within 90 days to earn and maintain Executive Platinum.

But this is the first time I’ve ever seen them offer a public “no strings attached” match. To request your status match you just have to call AAdvantage customer service, which is open between 7:30AM and 9PM CT on weekdays (with more limited hours over the weekend), at (800) 882-8880.

But before you make the decision to status match, there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all, if you get a status match now it will be valid through February 2013. That means that you’d have until December 31 of this year to earn either 100,000 elite qualifying miles, 100,000 elite qualifying points, or 100 segments. It’s nothing impossible, but it’s just worth keeping in mind. Typically matched/challenged status is only valid for the entire following year if it’s done in June or later. I highly doubt the promo will still be around in June, so keep that in mind when making your decision.

Second, keep in mind that status matching now would likely preclude you from doing so in the future if they ran a similar promotion. There’s no guarantee they will, but it’s not completely a case of “well, there’s nothing to lose.”

Lastly, it’s not entirely clear to me whether you get eight systemwide upgrades for the status match. Typically when “earning” Executive Platinum status you get eight, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they automatically post, though at the same time that would be far too generous. So I certainly wouldn’t count on them, unless we hear otherwise from people that have matched (if anyone calls and asks about systemwide upgrades, please let us know what they say!).

With that out of the way, I figured I’d provide a quick rundown of Executive Platinum status, since I’ve been really pleased with American, their frequent flyer program, and how they treat their customers.

Qualifying for Executive Platinum status

American Executive Platinum status is actually among the toughest top tier status levels to achieve, since they have three qualifying metrics — segments, points, and miles. You can qualify for Executive Platinum status on either 100,000 miles, 100,000 points, or 100 segments.

While the segments threshold is lower than at United, the miles and points distinction is an important one to make. For every revenue mile you fly on American you earn one elite qualifying mile, though you earn anywhere from 0.5 to 1.5 elite qualifying points per revenue mile flown, based on the following chart:

What this means is that if you fly a mix of “premium” fares and “discounted” fares it’ll be tougher to qualify for top tier status with American than with United.

For those of you that have no clue what I’m talking about, let me put it in terms of an example. With United you need 100,00 elite qualifying miles to achieve Premier 1K status. If you flew ~34,000 miles in paid first class that would earn you ~50,000 elite qualifying miles (since you earn 150% of base miles). Then you could fly another 50,000 miles in coach and qualify for Premier 1K.

With American those paid first class segments would earn you a 50% bonus of elite qualifying points, but not a 50% bonus on elite qualifying miles. So with the same amount of travel as above you’d be sitting at 34,000 elite qualifying miles and ~50,000 elite qualifying points. To achieve Executive Platinum status from there you’d either need to earn another 66,000 elite qualifying miles (actual paid, butt-in-seat miles) or 50,000 elite qualifying points (as little as 34,000 flown miles in paid first class or as much as 100,000 flown miles in discounted coach). Hopefully that makes sense…

Domestic upgrades

American offers Executive Platinum members unlimited domestic upgrades, which start clearing at the 100 hour window. Upgrades clear by status level and are prioritized by the time added to the waitlist. The only exception is that within each status level those on full fare tickets clear before those on discounted tickets (but unlike at other airlines, lower elites on a full fare ticket don’t clear ahead of higher elites on a discounted ticket).

American’s first class cabins are large, with 16 first class seats on the 737 and MD-80, and 22-24 first class seats on the 757s. As a result, as an Executive Platinum you’ll almost always clear your upgrades, much more regularly than at United. I have missed a few transcon upgrades, but only because of booking last minute.

It’s worth keeping in mind, however, that American doesn’t offer complimentary companion upgrades. Instead you have to support your upgrade either with miles, eVIPs, or 500 mile upgrade certificates. 500 mile upgrade certificates (known as “stickers”) can be purchased for $30 each, so while you have to pay to upgrade companions, they do clear at your window.

International upgrades

Quite possibly the biggest selling point of Executive Platinum status for me are the international upgrades. As an Executive Platinum member you get eight systemwide upgrades per year, which can be used to confirm upgrades at the time of booking, upgrade availability permitting. But what sets American’s systemwide upgrades apart from United’s is that there are no fare restrictions. As long as you book a revenue ticket it can be upgraded.

Since I’ve been an Executive Platinum I’ve used 12 systemwide upgrades, all of which cleared. While American’s current business class product is still angled flat, you can’t beat the value of paying a discounted coach fare and upgrading to business class. Furthermore, keep in mind that American will be introducing a new business class product on their 777-300ERs later this year.

There are a couple of other things worth noting about American’s systemwide upgrades. First of all, they can also be used to upgrade from discounted business class fares to first class. For example, last year American had $1,600 business class fares to Europe, so I booked a business class ticket and upgraded to first class. That’s an incredible deal for international first class.

Second of all, what’s also interesting about American’s sytemwide upgrades (and mileage upgrades, for that matter) is that the upgrade “bucket” for domestic flights is actually the same as discounted first class. That means as long as American is selling discounted first class (the “A” bucket), you can immediately confirm an upgrade using miles or a systemwide upgrade. There’s no other airline that has such a liberal confirmable upgrade policy for domestic flights.

Take Miami to Los Angeles, for example, which has to be one of the toughest routes in the American system for upgrades:

Almost every flight has “7″ confirmable upgrade seats, which is the highest inventory American will ever show.

Lounge access

As an Executive Platinum member you get Emerald status in the OneWorld alliance, which gets you access to first class lounges when traveling internationally. This means that the lounge access policy is a step up from what the Star Alliance offers, since as an Executive Platinum in international coach or business class you can access the international first class lounges of American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, JAL, Qantas, etc.

Phone service

This is one area where American is literally the best in the industry. Period. Their Executive Platinum phone agents are actually empowered to apply logic to situations, which I can’t say about the phone agents at many other airlines.

Executive Platinum is top tier

At United, Premier 1K is basically a mid-tier status level, since there are so many Global Services members. You really don’t feel like you’re a top tier elite. At American that’s not the case, however. While they have an invitation only level (Concierge Key), I’ve not once felt like I’m “only an Executive Platinum member.”

Onboard product

While the in-flight entertainment on American is lagging behind the competition, American has wifi on all their 767-200s and a majority of their 737 and MD-80 fleet. After getting so used to in-flight wifi, I don’t know how I used to live without it…

But despite bankruptcy protection American’s service upfront, especially domestically, is a step up from the competition. For one, on transcon flights they have “real” duvets and pillows. But beyond that the meal service is also great, with menus, hot nuts, an appetizer, salad, a main course, and an ice cream sundae, and cookies prior to landing. See here for a review I wrote of American’s service between Miami and San Francisco.

American policies that frustrate me

For all the other ways in which American is ahead, there are two policies that really irk me. First, they don’t waive the confirmed same day change fee for Executive Platinum members, which virtually all other airlines do for their top tier elites. Second, when ticketing award reservations they waive the ticketing/change fee if you’re booking an award ticket for yourself out of your Executive Platinum account, but not if you’re booking an award for someone else out of your account, which virtually every other airlines does for their top tier elites. That being said, that’s a small price to pay for the otherwise great experiences I have with American.

Anyway, American rocks, and there’s never been a better promotion for switching over than this. That being said, I’d think twice before making the match just for one or two trips, since you could be giving up a similar opportunity in the future.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know!

Through 11:59PM CDT tomorrow night (Wednesday, April 25) United is offering their Facebook fans a 40% discount on the purchase of United miles.

With this promotion up to 100,000 United MileagePlus miles can be purchased per account for 2.1 cents each, plus a 7.5% excise tax, for a grand total of ~2.25 cents per mile.

Is that a steal? No, but it’s the lowest price I’ve ever seen United miles sold at. United miles are among the most valuable mileage currencies out there, so if you need to top off an account, this is a great promotion through which you can do so.

Daily Getaways, a promotion sponsored by the US Travel Association and American Express, just revealed their week five “sales.” You can read about their week one and two offerings here, and about their week three offerings here.

Anyway, they’ve just unveiled the details of their week five promotion here, which looks pretty good to me.

The Best Western deal on Monday doesn’t really interest me, since they don’t have any real “aspirational” awards, and points can only be converted into miles at a 5:1 ratio. That means the $60 purchase would earn you 2,000 miles, which is three cents per mile. No thanks.

The Fairmont offer can be a good deal. They’re selling both six nights in Hawaii for $1,750 ($1,575 if paying with an American Express), and two nights at the Plaza New York for $950 ($855 if paying with an American Express). Both offers include breakfast. There’s no doubt that in both instances these are savings over the prevailing rates, though in both destinations there are other hotels I’d rather use points for. So if it works for you, great, but for me, it’s just not worth it.

For Wednesday, May 9, Hyatt has the following on sale:

24,000 points for $234 with an American Express card, for a total of 0.975 cents per point (100 available, 20 during presale)
30,000 points for $300 with an American Express card, for a total of 1.0 cents per point (35 available)
36,000 points for $373.50 with an American Express card, for a total of 1.0375 cents per point (15 available)
69,000 points for $697.5 with an American Express card, for a total of 1.011 cents per point (15 available)

All of these are amazing deals. Hyatt’s top hotels cost 22,000 points per night, so you’re basically looking at paying around $220 per night for hotels like the Park Hyatt Tokyo, Park Hyatt Maldives, Park Hyatt Paris, etc.

The huge catch here is that the quantities available are minimal. There will probably be thousands (if not tens of thousands) of people competing for under 200 packages. So while you might as well show up when they start the promotion, think of it more as a fun lottery game than a serious chance at scoring some Hyatt points, in my opinion.

Good luck to everyone, though!

One Kings Lane has a pretty amazing sale on Tumi luggage. Often Tumi sales are limited to the less popular models, but One Kings Lane is offering up to a 40% discount even on Tumi’s most popular models. Plus if you’re referred to One Kings Lane both the person referring and the person referred receive a $15 credit which can be applied towards your purchase. If you’d like to use my referral link you can find it here, and of course I’d be very grateful. You’re more than welcome to post your link in the comments section below as well.

But these really are among the best prices I’ve ever seen on Tumi bags. For example, for the 22″ Continental carry-on, One Kings Lane is charging$359 ($344 when factoring in $15 credit):

While Tumi directly is charging $595:

And I do like my Tumi laptop bag, which is just $229 ($214 when factoring in $15 credit) through One Kings Lane:

Compared to $375 directly through Tumi:

Anyway, while the sale is “live” through 11AM ET on April 26, items do seem to be selling out quickly, so if you’re interested I’d be making purchases sooner rather than later. The 22″ Alpha carry-on and Alpha laptop bag are among Tumi’s most popular products, so getting them at a 40% discount is a steal. The only downside is that there are shipping costs, though there’s no sales tax unlike if you made the purchase directly with Tumi, so it more or less balances out in that regard.

(Tip of the hat to Just Another Points Traveler)

There’s no card that has been as consistently valuable over the years as the Starwood American Express. I’ve reviewed it extensively, and it’s one of the few cards I gladly keep in my wallet year-after-year. For me Starwood points have been one of the few points currencies that haven’t devalued substantially, given that they can be efficiently redeemed for both hotel stays and airline miles. It’s a nice way to “hedge your bets” in case one program devalues, and for that I give them huge props.

So I was quite excited when Starwood and American Express invited me to participate in a new program they’re launching to illustrate the benefits of the Starwood American Express.

Through this program I’ll have access to some really cool experiences (for which the Starwood American Express is covering my expenses), including:

• The Tribeca Film Festival
• The US Open
• New York Fashion Week (Qantas pajamas are considered fashionable, right?)
• A stay at the new St. Regis Bal Harbour
• Two nights at any Starwood property in the US
• A “staycation” at a local Starwood property

I’ll be sharing my experiences for each event and hope to make this quite interactive. The best part is that for each event I attend, you get to have a similar experience which will be covered by American Express. This includes things like:

• A stay at a Starwood property of your choosing in New York
• A stay at a Starwood property with a world class tennis facility
• A $250 American Express gift card for fall fashion shopping
• A stay at the brand new St. Regis Bal Harbor
• A stay at your local Starwood property
• A stay at any Starwood hotel in the US

I’ll announce the details of each giveaway as I recap each of my experiences, the first of which should be next week.

Some of these giveaways will be run through the blog, while others will be run through Twitter, so be sure you’re following me there.

The first event will be the Tribeca Film Festival next week, for which I’ll be American Express’ official Tweeter.

Thanks to the Starwood American Express for this awesome partnership, and I look forward to interacting with all of you regarding these experiences!

Between April 20 and June 20, 2012, British Airways Executive Club is offering a 25% bonus on points transfers from their eight hotel partners. Their partners include Hilton, Marriott, InterContinental, Carlson, Starwood, Hyatt, Shangri-La, and Accor.

In general I’d say this is probably not the best deal since there are much more valuable points currencies out there than Avios, though at the same time there are many things Avios points are useful for. For example, I don’t think there’s a more valuable points currency for booking shorthaul award tickets, as they’re as cheap as 4,500 Avios points one-way.

That being said, if I wanted Avios points I’d probably either take advantage of the 50% transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards or take advantage of the Chase British Airways Visa 100,000 point sign-up bonus.

Anyway, probably not useful for most of us, though I’m sure it works for some…

Well this is pretty snazzy. United’s website now seems to display Qatar Airways award availability on the award search tool. The great thing is that since the integration between United and Continental, Qatar Airways awards are actually priced at the same cost as any other partner award, so there’s not a premium like there used to be.

Back when United had non-Star Alliance partners, not only did they have different costs for award tickets on them, but they also had added restrictions. For example, you couldn’t book partner award tickets as one-ways, you couldn’t mix multiple carriers on a single ticket, and you couldn’t include segments to the partner airline’s gateway city. So that’s a huge plus for the merger (one of the few), since you can now include travel on a partner airline as part of a Star Alliance award, book it as a one-way, etc.

I flew Qatar Airways in first class between London and Doha last year using British Midland miles, and on the whole had a pretty nice experience. You can read all about it here. While I can’t say I necessarily want to go back to Doha, I wouldn’t mind flying Qatar Airways again. And their business class does look very good, with fully flat seats on most of their routes.

Anyway, to start, here’s a map of Qatar Airways’ destinations which seems to be pretty up to date.

As you can see, in North America they serve Houston, Montreal, New York, and Washington, all on two cabin aircraft. They also serve just about everywhere in Asia and Europe, as well as some destinations in Africa and Australia.

At first look, business class award availability seems to be really good, even if you’re connecting to places outside of the Middle East.

For example, when searching for award availability United’s website automatically presented New York to Bangkok via Doha for 60,000 miles one-way in business class:

The same goes for New York to Johannesburg, which is also 60,000 miles one-way in business class.

The funny thing is that flying from the US to Middle East costs 60,000 miles one-way, so your connecting flight is essentially “free.” Even if you have to visit Doha, keep in mind that you’re allowed a stopover on a roundtrip award. So for 120,000 miles roundtrip you can take your trip to Doha, and then also tag on a flight to Africa, Asia, etc., at no additional cost

But here’s the part you guys are going to love. Everyone wants to go to the Maldives, and it was previously a pain to get there using United miles. Not anymore. Qatar Airways flies nonstop from Doha to Male in the Maldives, so a one-stop routing to the Maldives couldn’t be easier.

Here’s the award calendar for nonstop flights between Doha and Male:

As you can see, the dates in yellow have coach award space, and the dates in green have both business and coach award space. In other words, every single day has coach award space, while almost every second date has business class award space.

And even more promising? Look at the award calendar when just searching New York to the Maldives without any trickery even required:

And the flight times work out quite nicely too:

Less than 24 hours to the Maldives? That’s really good.

(Tip of the hat to Craig)

As I mentioned last week, Chase has adjusted the terms of the sign-up bonus for the Chase Ink Bold card on their website, whereby the minimum spend requirement to earn the 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points went from $5,000 in three months to $10,000 in three months, as seen below:

Affiliate links, like mine, continued to show the lower minimum spend requirement of $5,000. Unfortunately, though, I’ve just received word that our links will be deactivated at 10AM ET tomorrow.

If you’ve been thinking about getting the card, this would be a great time to do so. I doubt we’ll see the sign-up bonus go any higher than 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points in the near future, and Ultimate Rewards points are arguably the most valuable points currency out there. They can be transferred to United and Hyatt, as well as several other airline and hotel partners.

Just keep in mind this is a business card, which can actually work to your advantage, since Chase has no problem approving a personal and business card on the same day or in close succession (sometimes they don’t have a problem approving multiple personal applications either, but it seems to vary).

The card offers 5x points on business expenses (office supply stores, and on cellular phone, landline, internet, and cable TV services) and 2x points on gas and hotels. Furthermore, the card comes with no foreign transaction fees. So the card actually complements the Chase Sapphire Preferred card very nicely, which offers double points on dining and travel. Between the two cards you have bonus points covered for dining, travel, gas, and businesses expenses.

Lastly, it’s worth keeping in mind that Chase rebranded the Ink Bold card last November, changing up some of the benefits. As a result, if you applied before then you can actually apply for the card again and once again earn the bonus. I’ve actually been lazy and haven’t applied for the new Chase Ink Bold card yet (since I assume they might make me cancel my old card), as I still have the old one from before they switched it over. So I’m applying today as well.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I do earn a referral bonus for anyone that signs up through the above links. It’s the best available offer, and of course I’m very appreciate of your support, regardless of whether or not you use my links)