The rumored Amex Gold Card changes went live this week, but do they make the card fool’s gold, or are the new credits solid gold? Read or listen to our thoughts below. The other big news of the week is Southwest moving into its Premium Seating Era — and while I’m sure that many will be here for it, my enthusiasm is admittedly weak. Read on in this week in review for more on those topics, how to save a bundle on a cruise or with a price guarantee, and several updated resources.
This week on the Frequent Miler blog…
Amex Gold Card Changes Now Live
The Amex Gold card has been revamped and more highly couponified — and accompanying those changes is an increase in the annual fee. This post has everything you need to know about what’s changing. Crucially important is that existing cardholders get the new benefits right away but won’t pay the newly increased fee until first renewal after 10/1/24 — so be sure to maximize those new credits right away.
Podcast: Rumored Amex Gold Card Changes: Good or Bad? | Coffee Break Ep19 | 7-23-24
Before the Gold card changes were officially announced, on this Coffee Break episode we discussed the changes that were rumored to be coming on the Amex Gold card. The rumors proved to be true as those changes went live just a couple of days later. On this coffee break, Greg and I discuss our thoughts on those changes — and why neither of us is likely to recommend this card to beginners moving forward.
How I pay for groceries now that Curve is dead
There is a dedicated contingent of enthusiasts out there working their Citi Custom Cashes for grocery purchases. I use the plural form there because, for many of us, that strategy requires multiple Custom Cash Cards. Greg was in that boat and had been using the Curve card to “go back in time” to spread charges across his Custom Cash cards. But now that Curve is dead, Greg has ironically moved to the Amex Gold card. I say ironically because if you listened to the podcast episode above, you’ll hear that he wouldn’t a Gold card to a newcomer — but since he knows that he won’t be charged the increased annual fee yet and will be able to take advantage of the new benefits for a reduced price for a while, the Gold card wins out for now.
Hilton Honors is winning me over, but I’d like one more enhancement…
Greg speaks for many of us when he says that Hilton Honors is winning over hearts and minds with the new partnership with SLH and a renewed focus on developing their own luxury properties. Greg thinks that just one thing is missing: a reasonable way to guarantee a suite. I would love to be able to book a suite for a reasonable number of points and/or with some sort of upgrade instrument. But I don’t have just one enhancement — I think I’d need Hilton to go back to free breakfast rather than the F&B credits within the United States before I’ll be able to go all-in on Hilton.
Saving big on a cruise by stacking an agent with discounted gift cards
Over the past couple of years, I’ve written pretty extensively about casino status matching for “free” (or very cheap) cruises. Family members wanted to join us on a couple of cruises next year, so I went through the process of booking a full-fare cruise for the first time. I was surprised by how much I could save with the right cruise agent. In the end, between the savings of booking through an agent and discounted gift cards, we saved 20%+ over the cost of going directly to the cruise line website and booking with a credit card.
Southwest Airlines: Assigned seating, premium class and red-eye flights are on the way
It’s the end of an era: next year, Southwest will abandon its open seating policy in favor of charging for seating assignments, including premium seating. They’ll also introduce red-eye flights. I’m not terribly excited about this as I’ve long been fine with Southwest’s boarding practice (and thanks to family boarding, we’ve never had an issue getting the seats we wanted) — I don’t really want to pay extra so that I can select seat 23C in advance instead of arriving and taking 24C or 25C or whichever aisle seat is still open. Similarly, I wasn’t very excited about red-eye flights since I assume this means that the more desirable daytime flights that I actually want to book will get more expensive — but Greg points out that if they do, the way around it will be to book a cheap red-eye at a Wanna Get Away Plus fare in order to do a same-day change to a better flight.
Persistence pays off with a Hotels.com Price Guarantee claim success
In this post, I likened my Hotels.com Price Guarantee claim to taking batting practice. That is to say that I knew that if I just relaxed and kept swinging, I’d eventually connect. After running through the process (and getting denied numerous times), I felt like I might have saved myself by providing a direct link to the competitor instead of the name of the competitor site in the “where found” box. Still, persistence is going to be key.
What are Best Western points worth?
If you’ve ever seen a Best Western promotion to earn extra points, you may have wondered what the extra points were worth. Greg put Best Western through the same grinder as the rest of our hotel points and came out with a median value of 0.61c per point. Perhaps even more useful to know is that there was very little variance — the 80th percentile was only 0.66c per point. If I had Best Western points to use, I probably wouldn’t waste much effort trying to cherry-pick for an extra 5 one-hundredths of a point, I’d just use them any time I could get 0.61c per point or anything more and be happy enough.
Best Uses of Capital One Miles
It’s been years since Capital One launched its airline and hotel transfer partners, but I think a lot of people continue to sleep on Capital One. This post outlines the many great uses of Capital One miles — from terrific MLB seats for 5K miles each to domestic flights from 10K miles each way to Scandinavian hotels that yield as much as 20c per point using Finnair Avios and a lot more, this post has everything you need to know.
Best uses for Delta miles
Believe it or not, there are still some ways to get good value out of your Delta SkyMiles. You generally won’t see great value using your SkyMiles to fly domestically on Delta, but this post includes the sweet spots that still exist. Maybe one of these days I’ll drop 13K Delta SkyMiles for a bottle of Dom Perignon in a SkyClub.
Hilton Honors Complete Guide
Our complete guide to Hilton Honors has been updated with everything you need to know for about the Hilton program and how to take advantage of its features. As a reminder, you can find resources like this one about most of the major loyalty programs (and a lot more) on our Resources page by clicking “Resources” at the top of any page on Frequent Miler.
That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep an eye on this week’s month-ending last chance deals to make sure that you make use of them before they’re gone.
The post Fool’s Gold or Solid Gold, Southwest’s Premium Seating Era, and more [Week in Review] appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.