Author: Saverocity

Extend Old Cathay Pacific Asia Miles during Covid

Featured, Travel

Written by Saverocity @ Saverocity

TL;DR: Transfer 3000 miles from 2 different partners; miles will be extended after 36 hours.I had a sizable amount of Asia Miles expire Jan 31, 2021, I just extended them and now they have the “new” 18 months expiration policy (resets with activity).  It’s not straight forward, so I wanted to share the process.First of all, shame on Asia Miles for not automatically extending miles for members during Covid.  This is especially problematic for their old miles earned before Jan 1, 2020; those miles expired after 3 years (or a little more in some cases) no matter what.  I had looked forward to using 85,000 miles for business class to New Zealand, but during Covid, there was just no good way to use those miles.  I couldn’t even speculatively book an Asia trip through end of schedule, since scheduled CX flights to Southeast Asia are now virtually nonexistent due to Covid.In contrast, my Singapore Airlines miles that were expiring in 2021 have been auto-renewed by 6 months, and the cancellation refund was also more generous (cancelled miles valid for 1..
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50k MR or $500 Retention Offer on NEW Amex Platinum, No Spend Required

Featured, Travel

Written by Saverocity @ Saverocity

This is the most generous retention offer I’ve ever encountered.  Today I called Amex to see if there was any retention offer on my Aspire card, since I barely used the benefits this year.  There was a marginal offer of 10k Hilton points with no spend required, which I value at around $50 now that Hilton improved points value.  But that’s not why I’m writing this post.I asked if there was any offer on my other cards.  I had opened a Platinum card last month with the now-famous 100k bonus and 10x earning on grocery and gas.  On this very card, the agent found a “retention” offer for 50,000 Amex Membership Reward points or $500, with no spend required.  The only stipulation was that I keep the card for a year from today’s call.  Nowadays you shouldn’t cancel or downgrade your card within a year of approval or you risk losing the signup bonus.  This offer means I must keep the card for one more month – a condition I happily accepted.There had been recent reports of this generous offer; what’s..
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Surprise Surprise: IHG not (yet) extending Free Night Certificates beyond Dec 2020

Featured, Travel

Written by Saverocity @ Saverocity

Back in April, IHG blanketly instituted Dec 31, 2020 as the expiration date for all unexpired free night certificate (FNC) as of Mar 1, 2020 that had already been issued.  That means if yours originally expired Dec 15, 2020, you get a whopping 15 extra days.  New certificates issued in 2020 would get 18 months from the issue date. Well, Dec 31 is quickly approaching, and I know many people have yet to find use for their FNC because of COVID, which is currently spiking, with increasing areas locking down or close to it.  What has IHG done in response?  You guessed it – Not. A. Thing.Just for a comparison, here’s what Hilton and Marriott have done: Hilton has instituted Aug 31, 2021 as the expiration date for all unexpired FNC as of March 2020.  New FNC are good for 2 years. Marriott has similarly instituted Aug 31, 2021 as the expiration date for FNC that originally expired in 2020.   Is it a surprise that IHG is behind competition in customer-friendly policies?  Absolutely not.  The few times I needed to contact..
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Yes, Triple Dip is possible with your new Amex Platinum

Featured, Travel

Written by Saverocity @ Saverocity

If you are the owner of a new Amex Platinum card because of the extraordinary signup bonus (here’s the coverage by Doctor of Credit and Frequent Miler), you might be wondering whether Triple Dipping (TM) the $200 airline credit with one annual fee is possible.  The premise is that if your card membership starts at the end of year 1, you can get the airline credit (which resets on Jan 1 each year) in year 1, year 2, and the very beginning of year 3 before the second annual fee is due.While I can’t guarantee this time around (because things can change), I was able to Triple Dip with another variety of Platinum card that was approved on Nov 17, 2017.  You may need to temporarily pay the 2nd annual fee if the airline credit hasn’t been reimbursed by the payment due date, but as long as you cancel the card within 30 days of the annual fee posting, you’ll be refunded the annual fee (at least that’s Amex’s policy as of writing, and has been for many years).Technically, even..
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Exciting: Hilton Improves Points Redemption Value!

Featured, Travel

Written by Saverocity @ Saverocity

I’m seeing an exciting development with Hilton Honors that I haven’t seen reported in the blogosphere (but I also haven’t read every blog).The value of Hilton points has hovered around 0.4 cents per point (CPP) for a while.  There were still some rare good values if you looked hard, but 0.4 CPP was the norm.  However, now I somewhat consistently see a redemption value of 0.57 CPP on average.  That’s a significant improvement. { 0.57 CPP at Hilton Garden Inn Valencia, an affluent suburb of LA }   ExamplesLet’s get right into some examples.  In the table below, I’ve compiled 9 Hilton properties.  Some I’ve stayed in before, others I’m looking at possibly staying in the future.  I’ve looked at additional properties not shown to arrive at the estimated 0.57 CPP average.For example, I stayed at DoubleTree Whittier a couple of years ago for a short visit to LA.  I paid 30,000 points per night when the ADR was $127, giving me a redemption value of 0.42 CPP.  If we were to calculate the CPP after taxes and fees, it..
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