The year 2025 will go down as the year of the ultra-premium credit card. I can’t recall a year where we’ve seen such a shake-up in the ultra-premium credit card space. In just the past two months, we’ve seen the lukewarm launch of the newly-couponized Sapphire Reserve cards, learned that...

That moment when you’ve got an hour till boarding…and then you see this line. The Problem With Lounge Wait Times Lounge access has exploded—premium credit cards, elite perks, day passes, even some paid entries. But lounge space didn’t grow at the same pace. That’s why 30–40 minutes in line is now common...

For years, the Citi Strata Premier card has been one of the most valuable ways to unlock Citi’s ThankYou ecosystem. Outside of the long-gone Prestige, it’s the card that enables full 1:1 transfers to Citi’s airline and hotel partners—and that’s the core of its value. But now that Citi has introduced...

All of the major credit card issuers have different rules when it comes to applying for their cards. Furthermore, these rules are constantly changing, as banks try to optimize their strategy as to what kind of card members they’re looking for. With issuers coming up with more and more rules nowadays...

This year alone, it seems as if every time I turn around, a credit card annual fee goes up (I should stop turning around). As a way of partially offsetting these higher fees, many premium cards offer credits for booking travel through their online portals. These vary a lot in their...

KEY LINKS Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card – Earn 75,000 bonus points after $5,000 in purchases in your first 3 months from account opening. $95 annual fee. Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card – Earn 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. $95 annual...

Citi has added a few more cards that have the ability to transfer to American Airlines now albeit at a lower rate. Citi Thank You Preferred® Citi Strata SM Citi Double Cash® Citi Custom Cash® Pretty cool to see that Citi Double Cash is listed. Meaning if you carried this...

Valuing the points at 1.5 cents apiece and realizing the hotel credit and splurge credits twice in the first cardmember year (because the benefits are timed to calendar year) that's at least $2,400 in year one value... without putting a price on the Admirals Club passes or Priority Pass benefit. Continue...

One of the very first questions I get when I talk about the miles and points world is “Doesn’t opening lots of credit cards hurt your credit score?” Of course you don’t have to have 43 credit cards like I do to get a lot of value from miles and points....

There are lots of credit cards with annual fees that are worth holding onto, thanks to the benefits and return on spending that they offer. However, sometimes the annual fee on a card might be billed, and you decide that the card is no longer worth it for you. In those...

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is out with a brand new welcome bonus as Amex keeps announcing in bits and pieces ahead of their card refresh. That and more as we round up stories from the week gone by. Brand new offer on the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card Now, this one came as...

Airport lounges were once fairly exclusive. Most people got in because they (or their company) purchased a membership or they flew First Class. Maybe — just maybe — they held one of the few credit cards that provided access to a club. Now, we see TV commercials for a bunch...

Since it was first released, the Chase Sapphire Reserve has been a nearly perfect travel card, combining a generous 3x bonus travel category that included just about anything travel-related you could think of with the best on-the-go protections on the planet. That is, until recently. In late June, the card was “refreshed...