Early on in 2017, this blog had predicted that there would be nothing much of exciting news in the credit card landscape. Looking back, pretty much most of the time that has passed till then has failed to yield a big bang bonus offer that was the norm in the early part of the decade.
Pretty much now, we have the standard 50k offers on some cards and once in a while 100k offers from some cards from Amex or Chase but with the annual fee not being waived. All said and done, with limited options to spend major league, there is little to do in the whole credit card space.
Add to this the constant devaluation from the hotels and now with airlines following suit, it is best to approach the whole bonus and free travel from a different angle. Check this out https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/bb94hy/american_reportedly_working_on_plan_to_drop_award/ ..
It is just a matter of time that others will follow the same road and emphasize more on the likelihood of the loyalists planning things in advance. The butt-on-the-seat approach is pretty mundane and hardly the best way to accumulate points. A combo could be a good starter and accelerate. That said, the credit cards spend is the way to go.
The go to algorithm or method to accumulate the said points is to start on Chase, Amex, Citi, Barclay cards, Bank of America in that order. Add to that US Bank, regional banks, credit unions and the rest. Pick an area and airport(s) nearby and your target locations. Pick hotels near target locations and airports near that. A quick search online will give you the airports and hotels that will take you there. Then accumulate points directly in that said airlines and hotels. Also convert points from programs such as Membership rewards or other credit card companies and plan the trip accordingly. Once you go thru this cycle, rinse and repeat based on time and luck. Many cards such as Amex will have only once a lifetime bonus points which pretty much removes it from this list after one pass. Others like Chase and Citi are all strict or are becoming more stringent. All this + limited avenues to so called "manufacture spend" and relying on your real spend puts even more dent on this once flourishing way to travel for less money.
A quick round up of fellow blogs will show that most have resorted to "daily deals" or "too much hustling". Some have become finance blogs or lifestyle blogs. Others branching to or merging towards their personal finance or money blog or just frugality or FIRE movement and so on. This blog itself is merged into the general finance and money related blog. And from 2017 till now there has been no change. And does not look like there would be major change going into future- save for few bonus deals that might come on and off. Nothing that one would miss out on.
Pretty much now, we have the standard 50k offers on some cards and once in a while 100k offers from some cards from Amex or Chase but with the annual fee not being waived. All said and done, with limited options to spend major league, there is little to do in the whole credit card space.
Add to this the constant devaluation from the hotels and now with airlines following suit, it is best to approach the whole bonus and free travel from a different angle. Check this out https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/bb94hy/american_reportedly_working_on_plan_to_drop_award/ ..
It is just a matter of time that others will follow the same road and emphasize more on the likelihood of the loyalists planning things in advance. The butt-on-the-seat approach is pretty mundane and hardly the best way to accumulate points. A combo could be a good starter and accelerate. That said, the credit cards spend is the way to go.
The go to algorithm or method to accumulate the said points is to start on Chase, Amex, Citi, Barclay cards, Bank of America in that order. Add to that US Bank, regional banks, credit unions and the rest. Pick an area and airport(s) nearby and your target locations. Pick hotels near target locations and airports near that. A quick search online will give you the airports and hotels that will take you there. Then accumulate points directly in that said airlines and hotels. Also convert points from programs such as Membership rewards or other credit card companies and plan the trip accordingly. Once you go thru this cycle, rinse and repeat based on time and luck. Many cards such as Amex will have only once a lifetime bonus points which pretty much removes it from this list after one pass. Others like Chase and Citi are all strict or are becoming more stringent. All this + limited avenues to so called "manufacture spend" and relying on your real spend puts even more dent on this once flourishing way to travel for less money.
A quick round up of fellow blogs will show that most have resorted to "daily deals" or "too much hustling". Some have become finance blogs or lifestyle blogs. Others branching to or merging towards their personal finance or money blog or just frugality or FIRE movement and so on. This blog itself is merged into the general finance and money related blog. And from 2017 till now there has been no change. And does not look like there would be major change going into future- save for few bonus deals that might come on and off. Nothing that one would miss out on.
