Most of you must have heard about the 50K sign up bonus Ultimate Rewards points offer for the Chase Sapphire Card. Now it gets even better: buddychan (on FatWallet) has reported of an offer for 100K bonus sign up bonus Ultimate Rewards points! However, it appears to be targeted.

 
If you have already applied for the Chase Sapphire Card in the last two months, it might be worth an effort to send them a secure message requesting them to match this new offer. If you haven’t, it is probably better to …

2011 has been the year of mega credit card bonuses. In case you are still craving for more, there are three new credit cards that may be worth your attention.

 
· Chase Ritz Carlton Rewards Card: 50K sign up bonus points good for one night in most Ritz Carltons or several nights in Marriotts. Annual fee of $350. However you can get $200 credit towards airline incidentals. Brian (aka The Points Guy) has covered other details here.
This may be a good value but I would probably wait to sign up …

Hilton is offering Visa Signature Card holders instant Gold status until Aug 31. However if you stay thrice within that period, and pay for it with your Visa Signature, you get Gold Status until March 2013. This is seriously good deal, though it’s not a once in a life time offer. Nevertheless, Hilton Gold is normally attained by 16 stays or 36 nights and this offer gives you Gold status for more than a year with only 3 stays!
To get this offer, go to www.hhonors.com/visasignature. Enter your card number and …

In my earlier post on this topic, I discussed the Mega Bonuses Credit Cards are doling out and their impact on us the consumers. In this article, I continue with a detailed analysis on how some of these specific very large bonuses impact the Mileage marketplace for us, the frequent travelers, who earn their loyalty rewards the hard way – by flying the miles and sleeping in the hotels.
Are we being out earned by someone with a good credit history and an Internet connection, who may have never left …

What’s with all the mega bonuses that Credit Cards doling out? They seem to be handing out tens of thousands of miles to new customers like drunken sailors on shore leave in Jamaica or a Fed Chairman trying to revive a country’s economy. Here are some examples of recent offers:

British Airways – 100,000 miles
Capital One Venture Card – upto 100,000 points
American Express Membership Rewards card – 50,000 points

In this article, I will explore two areas – one, why are companies doing this? And two, what does it mean for us, …

Time to go on a mini App-O-Rama?

The credit card offer that started the recent trend of big signup miles/points bonus is back. Garyand others have blogged about it. Yes, I am talking about the 100K British Airways miles bonus Chase Visa card. If you did not grab this card when it was offered in 2009, now is the time to get it.
Even without the signup bonus, this is a good Visa card as I have discussed in an earlier post. In that post I also discussed the best cards in …

I wrote earlier that Hyatt Points are valued at least 1.3cents/pt. Discover America is back with its annual getaway and present a chance to buy Hyatt points at less than 1cent/pt.
 

The Hyatt point purchase deals on April 15 are as follows
24,000 Hyatt points for $250, ~1 cent/pt
30,000 Hyatt points for $333. ~1.1 cent/pt
36,000 Hyatt points for $415, ~1.1cent/pt
69,000 Hyatt points for $778, ~1.1 cent/pt

The deal becomes sweeter if you have an Amex card as purchases with Amex card are given a 10% discount on the aforestated price.
Note …

Details of the analysis Travel (10 cents per $) Airfare (10 cents per $) Highest payout : Travelocity American Express Best Cash-back Rewards Credit card : Chase Freedom (5% for three months in a year), Discover More (5% for 3 months in a year ), American Express True Earnings Card From Costco , Chase BP Visa (2% throughout the year) Best Airline Credit Card : The best payout is by the co-branded card of the airline you are traveling on, Fidelity Aeroplan American Express (2 miles per $) Best Hotel Affinity Card : Starwood American Express (1 point per $=2.1 cents per $) Best Other Rewards Card : American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card ( 3 points per $=6 cents $) , Travelocity American Express (5 points per $=10 cents per $) Hotel (10 cents per $) Highest payout : Travelocity American Express Best Cash-back Rewards Credit card : Chase Freedom (5% for three months in a year), Discover More (5% for 3 months in a year ), American Express True Earnings Card From Costco , Chase BP Visa (2% throughout the year) Best Airline Credit Card : Fidelity Aeroplan American Express (2 miles per $) Best Hotel Affinity Card : Best Rewards is by the hotel co-branded card for the hotel you are staying in. Best Other Rewards Card : Travelocity American Express (5 points per $=10 cents per $), Blue Sky Preferred (2 points per $=2.66 cents per $) Car Rental (10 cents per $) Highest payout : Travelocity American Express Best Cash-back Rewards Credit card : Chase Freedom (5% for three months in a year), Discover More (5% for 3 months in a year ), American Express True Earnings Card From Costco , Chase BP Visa (2% throughout the year) Best Airline Credit Card : Fidelity Aeroplan American Express (2 miles per $) Best Hotel Affinity Card : Starwood American Express (1 point per $=2.1 cents per $) Best Other Rewards Card : Travelocity American Express (5 points per $=10 cents per $), Blue Sky Preferred (2 points per $=2.66 cents per $) Everyday Purchases Grocery and Drugstore (5 cents per $) Highest payout : American Express Blue Cash Best Cash-back Rewards Credit card : American Express Blue Cash (5% after your total yearly spending exceeds 6500$), Chase Freedom (5% for three months in a year), Discover More (5% for 3 months in a year) Best Airline Credit Card : Asiana American Express (3 miles per $ at select stores ); United Mileage Plus Select visa (2 miles per $), Fidelity Aeroplan American Express (2 miles per $) Best Hotel Affinity Card : Hilton HHonors American Express (3 cents per $) Best Other Rewards Card : American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card ( 2 points per $=4 cents $) , Travelocity American Express (2 points per $=4 cents per $) Gas (5 cents per $) Highest payout : American Express Blue Cash Best Cash-back Rewards Credit card: American Express Blue Cash (5% after your total yearly spending exceeds 6500$), Chase Freedom (5% for three months in a year), Discover More (5% for 3 months in a year), Chase BP Visa if buying from BP (5%).

Attention-worthy credit cards

In the first part of this post, I talked about the value of various miles/point currencies out there. In general, the value of all such currencies should be given by a range. However, the aim of our valuation was to compare these currencies with direct cashback and then compare the rewards available from various credit cards.
In the part 2 of this series, I will try to list all attention-worthy credit cards i.e., all credit cards that earns enough rewards to be worthy of anyone’s attention. In part 3, …

Part I: The cent value of miles/points

Let us consider a hypothetical situation. Consider the case that you had every cashback/miles/points Credit Card possible. How would you maximize the value of rewards on your spending? This is a complicated question and requires detailed analysis of various credit cards along with the valuation of various miles/points that these cards award. I realize every person might assign different values to miles and points. Nonetheless, to get a reasonably accurate analysis, it is imperative to assign some value (Cent Value – CV) to all …