Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card 5 Free Nights Review

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The amazing 5 Free Nights offer for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card is back but is this offer worth it and what should be on your radar when going for it? Let’s take a look!

Welcome Bonus

Offer no longer available.

Earn 5 Free Nights after you spend $5,000 on purchases in your first 3 months.

These free nights are worth up to 50,000 points each meaning that you have the potential to effectively utilize up to 250,000 points.

Now, Marriott allows you to top off free night certificate with points up to 15,000 points.

So if a property would cost 65,000 points you can use a free night certificate +15,000 points to stay there for free. That opens up a lot of opportunities for free hotel stays (at very nice properties).

Learn how to apply!

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There are a couple of challenges with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card bonus.

The first challenge is that with free night certificates you want to optimize the value which means that ideally you would be only using these certificates at properties costing 50,000 points/night.

But that can sometimes be difficult to do and make your travel plans limited.

My advice would be to not feel the need to always fully optimize these free night certificates in terms of the points needed per night.

You can easily find great properties worth staying at for under 50,000 points per night and so if you find a hotel you like going for 40,000 points/night don’t be afraid to use a 50K free night certificate on it.

The other slight drawback is that these expire after 12 months. This means that you want to be diligent about your travel plans so that you don’t potentially waste these. At this stage of the pandemic, I think extensions are becoming less common.

Eligibility for the bonus is a little bit tricky. I would highly suggest to enter in all your credit card open dates into WalletFlo and let the app automate your eligibility calculations.

Bonus Spend

Up to 17X total points at Marriott

The card itself will earn you 6X points at Marriott hotels but you’ll also earn 10X points from Marriott for being a Marriott Bonvoy member and an extra 1X point from your Silver Elite Status.

Putting your spend at Marriott on the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card can be a good idea because other travel cards will code the purchase as travel and probably only offer you 2X to 3X (maybe 4X).

3X points

You can earn 3X points on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each calendar year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining.

After $6,000 is spent, you go back to earning 2 points for each $1 spent.

This combined bonus earning category is decent although I would much rather put these type of purchases on other cards that earn flexible points.

2X points

Earn 2X points for every $1 you spend on all other purchases.

Perks

Free night award

You’ll get a Free Night Award every year after your account anniversary, which will be good for a one night hotel stay at a property with a redemption level up to 35,000 points. (Notice that this is a decrease from the welcome bonus free night certificate offer of 50,000 points.)

Every year, I justify my annual fee utilizing this free night certificate. I usually receive around $200 to $250 in value which makes holding onto this card a no-brainer.

Elite Status benefits

Silver Elite Status comes automatic with the card but it’s not that special.

You can upgrade to Gold by spending $35,000 on purchases each calendar but I’d rather just get a different credit card that comes with automatic Gold status.

The biggest elite benefit that I care about with this card is the 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year.

I also have a business Marriott card so that offers an additional 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year which means that every year I basically start off with 30 elite nights. That makes obtaining the higher levels of elite status like Platinum and Titanium much easier.

You can also earn 1 Elite Night Credit towards Elite Status for every $5,000 you spend. So once you hit the minimum spend you’ll have an additional elite night credit.

This card will also offer you some pretty decent protections like:

Baggage Delay Insurance
Lost Luggage Reimbursement
Trip Delay Reimbursement
Purchase Protection
Visa Concierge

Annual fee

As mentioned above, the annual fee is $95 but easily offset with the free night award.

Final word

Overall, this is a fantastic offer worth pursuing if you are interested in free hotel nights. The free night certificates are not as easy to use as a points bonus but with a little bit of patience and planning you can get a tremendous amount of value from it.

Also, the perks are good enough so that you’ll want to hold onto this card in the long run.

Editorial Disclosure: Opinions, reviews, analysis & recommendations are UponArriving’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

Daniel Gillaspia

Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and creator of the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned full-time credit card rewards/travel expert and has earned and redeemed millions of miles to travel the globe. Since 2014, his content has been featured in major publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, US News, and Business Insider. Find his full bio here.

Great limited time offers (80K & 75K)

Right now, there are a few great offers you might be interested in entertaining. All of these are limited time offers with one expiring very soon on June 1.

Below, I’ll give you some insight into these offers and provide some tips for deciding on whether or not these cards are for you at the moment.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is allowing you to earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. This offer is set to expire on June 1 at the end of the day.

[Offer Expired]

If you are new to credit card rewards chances are you should be well under 5/24 which means that you have not opened up five accounts in the past 24 months (that report to your personal credit report).

When you are under 5/24 in the vast majority of cases you should pursue Chase credit cards first to optimize your earnings with them. Otherwise, you might end up ineligible for the best Chase cards (which also happen to be some of the best overall travel cards).

Because the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has an elevated bonus of 80,000 bonus points right now this would be a perfect time to jump on it.

The Sapphire Preferred earns flexible Ultimate Rewards which can be transferred out to various travel partners at a 1:1 ratio.

These partners include the following.

Airlines:

Aer Lingus AerClub
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air France-KLM Flying Blue
British Airways Executive Club
Emirates Skywards
Iberia Plus
JetBlue TrueBlue
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
United MileagePlus
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotels:

IHG Rewards Club
Marriott Bonvoy
World of Hyatt

And when it comes to bonus points you can earn the following:

5X on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal
3X on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs)
2X on all other travel purchases
1X on all other purchases

Be mindful of the Sapphire eligibility rules which could exclude you if you received a bonus in the last 48 months for a Sapphire card.

You can always use the eligibility checker in WalletFlo to verify your eligibility before applying.

Southwest credit cards Limited-time offers

The Southwest credit cards offered by Chase just got elevated bonuses. Here’s a look at the highlights of each card and their new bonuses.

Offers no longer available

Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card

Earn 75,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months.

3,000 bonus points on each anniversary
2 EarlyBird Check-In each year.
$69 annual fee

Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card

Earn 75,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months.

6,000 bonus points on each anniversary
2 EarlyBird Check-In each year.
$99 annual fee

Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card

Earn 75,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months.

7,500 bonus points on each cardholder anniversary
4 Upgraded Boardings per year when available
$75 Southwest travel credit each year
$149 annual fee

These 75,000 point bonuses are some of the best offers you’ll see for these cards. Spending $5,000 in three months is a little bit high but still doable for a lot of people.

The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card is my pick because we almost always upgrade our boarding passes to Business Select in order to take advantage of better seating. It’s also incredibly easy to justify the annual fee when you utilize the $75 credit and the 7,500 anniversary points.

You cannot get more than one personal Southwest card but if you picked up a personal card AND a business card, you could earn enough points (125,000) for the Southwest Companion Pass.

For example, the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card is offering 60,000 points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.

Offers no longer available

Together with a personal card that would net you over 135,000 points when you meet the minimum spend.

The Southwest Companion Pass is a pass that allows a companion to fly for free with you on Southwest flights for up to two calendar years — it’s generally considered one of the most valuable travel perks available.

With one person flying free (only responsible for fees) those 135,000 points could take you really far.

Earning the pass now would allow you to take advantage of that pass for nearly one and a half years.

But if you wanted to try to optimize for the full two years you would be better off waiting until the end of the year to pursue the Companion Pass.

Remember, you can always use the eligibility checker in WalletFlo to verify your eligibility before applying.

Final word

These are some great offers and you’ll definitely want to think about applying for these if you fall into certain groups.

Editorial Disclosure: Opinions, reviews, analysis & recommendations are UponArriving’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

Daniel Gillaspia

Big Chase Sapphire Changes Coming?

8/10/21 Update:

Chase just confirmed that the rumored changes discussed below will go into effect August 16.

As a reminder here are the changes:

Sapphire Preferred changes

$50 hotel credit
10% anniversary point bonus
3x on dining/streaming services/online grocery (excludes: excluding Target, Walmart and
5x on travel booked through the Chase Travel portal

Sapphire Reserve changes

10X on Chase Dining Hub
10X on hotels through Chase Travel portal
10X on car rentals through Chase Travel portal
5X on airline travel booked through the Chase Travel portal

The new changes give the Sapphire Preferred a considerable upgrade. While I am not crazy about the 3X on groceries being limited to online groceries, the 3X on dining is solid. With the additional 10% anniversary point bonus and the $50 hotel credit, it’s going to be even easier to offset the already reasonable annual fee (assuming that it does not soon increase).

The changes to the Reserve are more mediocre. The only change that I am potentially excited about is earning 10X on rental cars, since I am not a huge fan of booking hotels or even airfare through a travel portal and the options in the Chase Dining Hub are minimal.

Tip: Be sure to download the app WalletFlo to help you keep up with the new credit and bonus categories!

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7/7/21 Original article:

News just broke on Reddit about Chase adding new features to two of its most popular credit cards: the Sapphire Preferred and the Sapphire Reserve. The information is based on leaked documents so we don’t know if these changes are going to occur or not but if they do, it’s possible they could be implemented in the middle of August. Here’s a look at some of the new changes.

Sapphire Preferred changes

$50 hotel credit
10% anniversary point bonus
3x on dining/streaming services/online grocery (excludes: excluding Target, Walmart and
5x on travel booked through the Chase Travel portal

$50 hotel credit

It looks like the $50 hotel credit is going to be issued on a cardmember year basis and limited to hotel bookings in the Chase Travel Portal. If so, that greatly reduces its value since hotel bookings through OTA’s usually decrease the benefits you get from loyalty programs. Still, you could use it to cover all or part of a cheap hotel stay for a one night stay at an airport hotel or somewhere similar.

The addition of this credit would make me think that the annual fee will be increased. It seems very rare for cards to introduce credits and not hike the annual fee but we will see. Some people think that this credit may have to be earned (presumably with spend) which may not mean a fee increase.

10% anniversary point bonus

Based on some of the language I’m seeing it looks like this 10% anniversary point bonus would be based on the base earning rate for all purchases of 1X.

So let’s say that you spent $10,000 on travel. You would earn 20,000 points with 2X on travel but your 10% rebate would only apply to your earnings at a rate of 1 point per dollar spent. So instead of getting 2,000 Ultimate Rewards back you would only get 1,000 Ultimate Rewards.

That is still a decent little rebate but not nearly as lucrative as it would be if it was based purely on all earned points.

New bonus categories

3X on dining, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart)
5X on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal.

The 3X on dining and streaming is a nice upgrade. 3X on dining, while a great change, seems to detract from the value of the Reserve. It’s always a weird look when a card with a much higher annual fee offers the same bonus multiplier.

3X on groceries would be great but the limitation to online groceries really is not that attractive to me.

I have used Instacart and curbside delivery with various grocery stores but I have not been too impressed. People really don’t know how (or care) to pick out good produce and a lot of people really lack attention to detail when it comes to specific types of groceries requested.

5X on the Chase Travel Portal merely puts the CSP on par with no annual fee Freedom cards, so it’s not terribly exciting.

Sapphire Reserve changes

10X on Chase Dining Hub
10X on hotels through Chase Travel portal
10X on car rentals through Chase Travel portal
5X on airline travel booked through the Chase Travel portal

So with the Reserve, it looks like it is all about the new bonus categories.

10X on dining is phenomenal but it is limited to the Chase Dining Hub. Many people will not have any locations near them and even in bigger cities like Phoenix you may only have a handful of options. So there is very limited value.

10X on hotels and car rentals is actually pretty impressive. Of course, you have to deal with the OTA problem of losing out on elite benefits and possibly perks so that is still a major limitation. The 10X on rental cars might not be a bad deal though.

Once again, 5X on airline travel through the Chase Travel Portal is nothing special considering you can get that with a Freedom card.

Notably missing from here is the multiplier on streaming and groceries and also the 10% rebate. It’s extra odd that Chase would add unique perks to the CSP considering they have a rule that does not allow you to get both the CSR and CSP.

Final word

Right now, it looks like the Sapphire Preferred would be the big winner here but based on some of the perks like the hotel credit it seems like that annual fee might be creeping up. The changes to the Reserve could be lucrative for a subset of people who utilize the Chase Travel Portal and occasional outings through Chase Dining but overall the enhancements seem pretty limited.

Daniel Gillaspia

Huge Platinum Card Changes Coming?

6/30/21 Update:

It looks like we have confirmation that the platinum card annual fee is officially going to increase to $695. You can tell this from this PDF.

I’m expecting to hear something from American Express very soon (hopefully tomorrow) that officially outlines all of the enhanced benefits we have heard about such as the new credits that will help offset this much higher annual fee. So stay tuned!

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Offers contained within this article maybe expired.

There are some huge changes coming to the Platinum Card. Right now, there is a mixture of rumors and substantiated changes but even the rumors seem like they will likely come into fruition based on what we’ve seen so far. These changes will have pretty dramatic effects on the value proposition for the Platinum Card so you definitely want to take note about these.

Confirmed changes

Beginning in February 2023, it looks like free guests will no longer be permitted for Platinum Card members. Instead, you will have to pay $50 per guest unless you have spent $75,000 in the last calendar year or current year.

I think this is just yet another step American Express is taking to reduce overcrowding in Centurion Lounges and we’ll see if it actually works. This change is a pretty big blow to people who rely on a single Platinum Card to gain entry as a couple/duo or family because they will have to cough up $50 per visit.

Also, if you have kids below the age of 13 they cannot be added as an authorized users and so you will have to pay $50 for them. For families with multiple kids, that guest fee will add up pretty quickly.

This change will likely mean fewer people and families/kids in the lounge, but I do wonder if the changes will noticeably thin out the crowds.

Rumored changes

Below are some additional rumored changes.

Keep in mind that the change to the lounge admission policy was once upon a time a rumor so I think the odds are pretty high that we will see these changes happen.

Probably the biggest rumor is that the annual fee is set to increase all the way to $695! The increase of this annual fee will come with a host of different credits that if utilized properly, can probably make this increase actually a net gain.

According to DOC these credits include:

$300 equinox credit
$240 entertainment credit, $20 monthly (magazine/news subscriptions, video streaming services and audio/music streaming services)
$200 credit for prepaid hotel bookings
Annual CLEAR membership will replace TSA Precheck, but Global Entry seems like it’ll stay
$100 temp Resy credit

Here’s my breakdown:

Here in Tucson, we don’t have an Equinox Fitness near us so a $300 credit there may be completely useless depending on work around techniques with gift cards, etc. Obviously, if you are a current member then that $300 credit will be absolutely huge.

However, the big credit that will likely matter the most is the $240 entertainment credit. It looks like this credit will be given out $20 per month. This credit would presumably be good for things like streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify. For many people, a credit for those services would be as good as cash.

So without the $300 Equinox credit factored in, $240 would offset that $695 annual fee to $455.

A $200 credit for prepaid hotel bookings is still pretty attractive to me. While it is true that you would most likely not receive elite credit for your stay, I have received elite benefits for many stays booked through an online travel portal, including Amex Travel. I would happily utilize the credit for a one night or two night trip to Phoenix or Sedona.

So that credit would help knock the effective fee down to about $255.

The annual CLEAR membership, which might be replacing the TSA Pre-check credit, is also very enticing. A full price CLEAR membership is $179. Assuming that you would pay full price, that knocks the effective fee down to only $76.

There also is what looks like to be a temporary Resy credit.

Resy is an app that “powers the world’s best restaurants, using technology to imagine the future of hospitality. If you’re a person who loves dining out but hates hassling for reservations, download Resy now! Book sought-after seats at the best restaurants in 80 cities worldwide.”

I personally have not used the app but I might look into it if I had a credit.

It’s not clear to me what the plan is for the current credits (Uber, Saks, etc.). Given all of the value above I would assume that all/some of those would be dropped or at least modified. It also seems like some of these changes could start happening as soon as this year so be prepared for these changes to come quickly.

Final word

Overall, these changes mean a different value proposition (and look) for the Platinum Card.

The shift in lounge admission policy means that the card will be catering more to business/frequent travelers and high spenders — a key Amex demo.

Those who travel as a couple or with kids with only one Platinum Card will have to make a decision on whether or not they want to pay for lounge access or add authorized users if possible (based on age limits). Currently, you can add up to three authorized users by paying $175 but we might see that price go up as well. Who knows?

The annual fee increase is honestly not that big of a deal to me given the diverse range of credits. For someone like me who does a moderate level of traveling, I think it is going to be pretty easy to get the effective fee down to an acceptable level. Still, I’m not really in love with the full line-up of proposed credits (especially the $300 Equinox credit).

I will say that all of these additional credits will make using WalletFlo that much more important. You’ll be able to easily keep track of your fees and also keep track of whether or not you are coming out on top of your annual fees when utilizing your credits and perks.

Amex has been a bit of a trendsetter and so it won’t surprise me to see other issues mirror what Amex is doing by raising the annual fee and trying to get you locked in with an array of credits.

H/T: DOC

Daniel Gillaspia

Earn 50X Rapid Rewards on June 11

Southwest just announced a pretty cool promotion that will allow Southwest credit card holders to earn 50X on June 11.

The 50X will apply to purchases made on Southwest which include the following:

Flights
In-flight purchases
Southwest gift cards
Rapid rewards points center
Southwest vacations packages

The interesting thing here is that you can purchase gift cards and still earn the 50X. You can only earn 50X up to $100 and spend so this is limited to a total earning of 5,000 Rapid Rewards.

Depending on how you value Southwest points, 5000 points could come out to around $75 in value. So if you purchase a gift card you could look at it as if you were getting a hefty discount.

The terms state that “All Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Cards are eligible.” It seems to me that you could earn 50X on multiple Southwest cards but I have not seen that confirmed just yet.

The bonus points will count towards Companion Pass but will not count towards A-List or A-List Preferred qualification.

Promo Link

Daniel Gillaspia

Capital One Improves Savor Cards

Capital One just upgraded the bonus earning rates for two of us most popular cards.

Capital One Savor

The Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card previously earned:

4% on dining and entertainment
2% on groceries

However, it just got upgraded to the following rates:

4% on dining and entertainment
4% on streaming services, including Hulu, Disney+ and Netflix
3% on groceries

Streaming is a category where most people have pretty limited spending so the 4% back can only go so far. But with so many streaming services now out there the savings could add up over the span of 12 months to help you offset the annual fee.

Let’s say you are spending $100 a month on streaming services. That’s $1,200 a year and 4% of that comes out to $48. The annual fee is $95 so with that bonus category alone you can offset about half of the annual fee. Not bad.

But of course the real value with this card is the 4% back on dining and entertainment. Purchasing expensive tickets to one event could get you some dramatic cash back savings (sometimes up to 8%) and foodies who eat out a lot will quickly accumulate tons of cash back month after month.

Capital One SavorOne

The Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card is also getting an upgrade in the bonus category department.

The Capital One Savor One previously earned:

3% on dining and entertainment
2% on groceries

However, it just got upgraded to the following rates:

3% on dining and entertainment
3% on streaming services, including Hulu, Disney+ and Netflix
3% on groceries

Getting 3% on all of those categories is really good for a no annual fee credit card. It’s definitely more of a strong contender with the Chase Freedom cards with the increased bonus earnings.

Final word

A lot of times when you see new bonus categories come in and get increased there is a bit of a shuffle and some bonus categories drop. That is not the case this time with Capital One so that is a major plus for the new changes.

Daniel Gillaspia

Huge new Hilton credit card offers

American Express just came out with some increased welcome bonus offers for some Hilton cards.

These are interesting offers because these are very high offers (up to 180K)! Also, to my knowledge Hilton has not come out with tiered bonuses very often for their cards, so this is a little different.

Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card

130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you make $2,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership.
Plus, you can earn 50,000 more points after you spend a total of $10,000 in combined purchases in the first 6 months.

180,000 Hilton points is a ton of Hilton points for a welcome bonus. To earn the entire amount you will have to spend a total of $10,000 in 6 months which is a bit high but honestly not that bad.

You can also get great bonus earning rates with 12X at Hilton properties and 6X at US restaurants, US gas stations, and US supermarkets. You’ll earn 3X on everything else.

Remember that you can earn a free night after you spend $15,000 in a year so after you hit the total minimum spend for this bonus you will only be $5,000 away from earning a free night.

Currently, you can use your free nights on not just weekends but weekdays making it easier than ever to cash in on that perk.

The card also comes with automatic Hilton gold status and the ability to upgrade to Hilton diamond status if you spend $40,000 on your card in a calendar year.

Finally, you can also get a Priority Pass Select membership that provides you with 10 free lounge visits each year. Learn how to apply.

Terms apply.

Hilton Honors Credit Card from American Express

Earn 80,000 Hilton points after you spend $1000 in the first three months.
Plus, you can earn an additional 50,000 points after you spend a total of $5000 in the first six months.

This Hilton card will earn 7X at Hilton and 5X at US restaurants, US supermarkets, and US gas stations. You will also earn 3X on all other purchases.

It comes with Hilton Silver status which doesn’t offer much although if you spend $20,000 in a calendar year you can upgrade to Gold.

If you are interested in a no annual fee option then this offer is right up your alley. Rates & Fees.

Terms apply.

Final word

These are some fantastic welcome bonuses. The minimum spend requirements are higher but not astronomical given that you have six months to meet them. I’m especially big on the Surpass bonus because it leaves you only $5,000 away from earning a free night.

Daniel Gillaspia

New Apple Card Family Introduced

The Apple Card from Goldman Sachs is one of the most popular credit cards on the market and is also extremely popular with WalletFlo users.

I’ve been a fan of the card for a while based largely on the transparency, security, and simplicity that it offers.

The card also has some decent rewards as it earns:

3% on Apple purchases
2% on Apple Pay purchases
1% back on all other purchases

But now Apple is adding more value to this card by allowing users to more easily build credit and manage spending as a family.

In May, you will be able to add up to five people to your Apple Card (all users must be part of the same Family Sharing group and be 13 years of age or older).

You’ll be able to control the spending of other users within the app by setting spending limits and monitoring the spend in a user-friendly interface.

Other issuers such as Amex already offered this in the form of authorized users but this looks like an even simpler way to do this and the age 13 limit is pretty low which will be very helpful for starting your kids out young.

Apple Card Family displayed on iPhone 12 Pro. — Image: Apple

You can also share your account with any eligible customer who is 18 years or older by adding them as a co-owner.

Sharing your account provides a better opportunity to build credit history together and Apple will actually allow you to keep the lower APR of the two accounts.

Typically, authorized users do not benefit the same as the primary card member but if they are designated as a joint owner they should reap the same level of credit building benefits.

This co-owner status is not very common with credit card issuers, so it’s great to see Apple making this accessible. I think it is going to be a great way to simultaneously build credit together.

I’m really interested to find out more details about how the joint ownership process will work.

Daniel Gillaspia

Big (positive) Capital One changes coming

Capital One is currently offering a pretty strong 100K offer for the Capital One Venture. With thew new offer you can earn:

50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months
Another 50,000 miles when you spend $20,000 total on purchases in the first 12 months from account opening
Learn how to apply

This 100K offer was already pretty interesting but it just got wayyy more appealing with the announcement of the new Capital One changes.

1:1 Transfer partner tier

Beginning on April 20th, Capital One miles can be transferred to select travel loyalty programs at a 1:1 ratio. (This is an improvement from the prior ratio of 2:1.5.)

These programs include:

Avianca (LifeMiles)
Etihad (Etihad Guest)
Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles)
AeroMexico (Club Premier)
Finnair (Finnair Plus)
Qantas (Qantas Frequent Flyer)
Wyndham Rewards

These 1:1 partners like Avianca, Etihad, and Asia Miles have real value.

Avianca is already a partner of Amex Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou Points so this makes it even easier to build up that balance which can be used on Star Alliance flights with super low taxes/fees. Etihad and Asia Miles are also great programs with the multiple transfer routes as well.

So the new 1:1 transfers make your Capital One miles more valuable and therefore make the Capital One Venture a much more attractive option. You are basically earning 2X for those programs on everyday spend which is very good. In fact, we will now be updating the WalletFlo point valuation for some Capital One cards.

New travel partners

Capital One is also adding four new loyalty programs:

British Airways (Avios)
Choice Hotels (Choice Privileges)
TAP Air Portugal (Miles&Go)
Turkish Airlines (Miles&Smiles).

British Airways (Avios) and Turkish Airlines (Miles&Smiles) are two very solid programs but the drawback is that they will be will be in the 2:1.5 tier. That’s not terrible but if these two partners had been part of the 1 to 1 tier this would’ve been an even more next level change.

Still, I would highly recommend looking into Turkish Airlines. They have some very good sweet spots and some pretty customer friendly change and cancellation policies.

The other new partners will be in the 1:1 tier. I don’t have experience with those partners so I’m not sure about their value proposition.

New airport lounges

Capital One is also stepping into the airport lounge space. They will be setting up two lounges: Dallas/Fort Worth Airport (DFW), opening in late summer 2021, and Dulles Airport (IAD), coming in 2022.

Based on the renderings these lounges look to be close to Centurion Lounges in terms of quality. It also looks like they are going to be very equipped with:

High-speed Wi-Fi
Restaurant-quality in-lounge dining
Grab-and-go food (local chef menus)
Coffee bars
Quiet work zones
Individual power outlets at every seat
Soundproof relaxation rooms stocked with blankets, eye covers and earplugs
Soundproof multi-faith room
Family area an private nursing rooms
Luggage lockers
Cycling and yoga rooms
Private shower suites with luxury bath amenities

You don’t see many lounges with wellness-focused amenities (cycling and yoga rooms) so Capital One is getting a little innovative with their lounges which is really cool to see.

These lounges could be a great way to mix it up and perhaps avoid the larger crowds that sometimes plague Centurion Lounges.

In terms of food and beverages, it sounds like they are making some serious efforts to uphold a high-quality standard and to make “sad salads” a thing of the past. They are said to be offering a restaurant-quality in-lounge dining experience with unique touches like craft cocktails on tap, local beers, and regional wines.

Capital One cardholders will be eligible for special entry rates depending on the card they have. So that will be the other question: How much will it cost cardmembers to get in? Could a Venture /Spark Card get you in for $25? Can you bring guests?

It also makes you wonder if Capital One is eventually planning on rolling out with a more premium product that grants lounge access when they have a few more lounges.

New travel portal

The new travel portal for Capital One will be launching later this year in partnership with Hopper.

I’m not super excited for what looks like another online travel agency portal but there may be some additional features that stick out like special assistance for Capital One members and the ability to earn and use rewards. I doubt that the redemptions will be super compelling especially in light of the new travel partners but we will see. It’s possible this portal may have something special to offer.

Final word

This is really exciting for people who can get on board with Capital One. Having the ability to transfer 1:1 with Avianca (LifeMiles), Etihad (Etihad Guest), and Asia Miles is very exciting to me. Because you can also transfer points from other programs to these partners it’s going to make it that much easier to build up big balances.

The new lounges are also very exciting and I would assume that they already have plans to open up new ones in 2022 and beyond. The lounges look like they will be competitive with Centurion Lounges and even offer additional amenities but I am also curious about the admission policy and prices.

If you were on the fence about the Capital One Venture these new changes might mean it’s time to finally jump on the card.

Daniel Gillaspia

Capital One Venture 100K Offer

The Capital One Venture is back with another exciting 100K offer.

The offer

Earn 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months
Earn another 50,000 miles when you spend $20,000 total on purchases in the first 12 months from account opening

Normally, this is a pretty interesting offer but things are much more interesting now that we know about the upcoming changes.

Capital One is set to add new transfer partners, a 1:1 transfer tier, new airport lounges, and a new travel portal.

In short, they are stepping up their game big time. For this reason, those potential 100,000 miles now amount to a new level of value.

Learn how to apply

Daniel Gillaspia

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