Marriott Bonvoy Announces Positive Program Updates, For Real!

 

Even though things are opening up and travel is making a comeback, Marriott announced today that it is extending a variety of benefits for Bonvoy members. 

The announcement includes: 

• Elite status from 2019 and 2020 will be extended through February 2023
• Suite night awards extended through June 2022
• Pausing points expiration through December 2022
• FREE night award certificates extended through June 2022

The other announcement may or may not be so positive, Marriott Bonvoy is dropping its award chart for dynamic pricing. This means that the number of points needed to book a hotel will vary depending on on-peak and off-peak demand. For example, instead of the Marriott San Diego charging 35,000 per night as a category 5 hotel, it may charge 30,000 per night in May (off-peak) and 40,000 per night in July (on-peak). 

Marriott Bonvoy is also making a change to its annual award night certificates that come with many of the credit cards. You will soon have the option to use or purchase up to 15,000 points to the certificate's value so that you have access to more hotels. We will hear more about this option as it gets closer to the debut date of early 2022. 

Right now, you can earn 3 FREE nights (35,000) at a Marriott Bonvoy property by applying for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card. It has a $95 annual fee and a $1,000 minimum spend in the first three months. If you prefer a credit card with no annual fee, the Marriott Bonvoy Bold credit card offers 1 FREE night (35,000) with just a $500 spend in the first three months. 

Marriott points are great because you can transfer them to a dozen different airlines at 3:1 and of course, you can use them at thousands of properties across the globe. 

100% Bonus on IHG Points Through Nov. 8

 

If you like IHG, you might want to get in on the 100% bonus offer on points. From now until Nov. 8th, when you buy IHG points, you will get a 100% match. IHG points are good at Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Intercontinental, Kimpton, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Even Hotels, Hualuxe, Regent, and Six Sense. All in all 16 brands with 6,000 locations. IHG uses dynamic pricing so you do have to decide whether using points makes sense. We value IHG points at 5 cents each. 

The 100% bonus kicks in at 30,000 points so you need to spend a minimum of $300 to earn 60,000 points. The max is $2,500 for 500,000 points. You will also need to do some research to see if it's worth it for you and your family. There are some great IHG properties in the Maldives and the Caribbean. A quick search showed a lovely Kimpton Hotel in Grand Cayman for 70,000 points per night. If you paid per night, the website says it would cost you $1,200 per night. So obviously if you spent $2,500 on 500,000 points, it would be a sweet deal. 

You can use awardmapper.com to locate IHG hotels throughout the world. 

The sale ends Nov. 8th so you have some time to do the research and decide if this is a good offer for you. We don't usually recommend buying points, but I know some people who use this promotion to travel the rest of the year and swear by it. 

How To Get The Most Points From Shopping Portals

 

Dreaming of traveling to faraway places? Of course, you are. One of the best ways to get there for FREE is to use shopping portals for your everyday purchases. You can read about how to use the portals in general here. However, today, the portals launched their Halloween special offers which means increased points on your purchases. 

But the rates are not the same on all the portals. Now sometimes it has to do with the value of the points in that rewards program. But for you, it may mean the difference between a free ticket and not quite being there. 

So we have to be very intentional about which portal we use for what purchases. 

So let me show you! 

Take a look at this offer I got this morning in an email from the American Airlines shopping portal. If I go thru the portal and sign up for the Motley Fool newsletter, I get 7,500 American miles. Pretty sweet. If I sign up with Blue Apron through the portal, I get 2,000 American miles. 

Now at the exact same time, I got an email from United Airlines Mileage Shopping with these offers. 

If I sign up for Motley Fool through United, I get 4,000 United miles and if I sign up for Blue Apron, I get 1,000 miles. Now if you need United miles to top your account or you only fly United, then you should go through this portal. 

But if you fly both American and United, you may want to make your purchase through the American Airlines shopping portal. 

We value American miles at 1 cent and United miles at 1.1 cent. 

I always check cashbackmonitor.com to see which portal has the best offer before I make a purchase. 

Good luck! 

Why Wyndham's New Promotion Is A Joke

 

Wyndham launched a new promotion today, stay 4 days and get 1 FREE. Sounds like a great deal and similar to one from Best Western last year.

I took advantage of the amazing deal from Best Western, stay 2 nights, get 1 FREE. BUT there was a big difference. The Best Western deal was for a certificate good for one night at ANY Best Western hotel. I used mine at the Best Western outside Bryce National Park. Beautiful! 

The Wyndham promotion is good for 7,500 points which is good for one night FREE. BUT a few years ago, Wyndham separated its hotels into three tiers 7,500, 15,000, and 30,0000. My favorite hotel in New York City, the New Yorker, went from 15,000 to 30,000 points per night. Bummer. 

You can see 7,500 can get you a FREE night, but maybe not exactly where you had in mind. 

So check it out before you jump on this deal. Now if you need 7,500 points to top off your account, then this might be a good way to do it. 

Remember to register for the promotion before you book your reservation. Reservations must be made by January 14, 2022 and stay by January 18th, 2022. 

Why I'm Waiting To Apply For The Increased Southwest Credit Card Bonus

 

Yes, the Chase Southwest Airlines credit card is offering the best points offer yet. No, don't take the bait and apply quite yet. Here's why. The offer is to spend $2,000 in the first three months and get 50,000 bonus points then spend $12,000 by the end of the year and get another 50,000 bonus points. Pretty sweet! 

The deadline to apply is December 7th. 

Now here's why you should wait until closer to December 7th to apply.....two words, the companion pass. 

The Southwest Companion Pass is one of the best travel perks around. You earn the pass when you collect 125,000 Southwest points in a calendar year. Then you get the pass for the rest of the year PLUS the following year. 

So if you earn the pass in December 2021, then it's valid for December 2021 and 2022, BUT if you earn the pass in January 2022, it's valid for all of 2022 and 2023. 

So yes, this is a good offer, and yes, I know Southwest gave members in good standing a bonus of 25,000 points, but the best plan is to wait until close to December 7th to apply for the card. Then plan to hit the minimum spend of $2,000 in January and then try to hit the $12,000 as soon as you can. 

To earn the companion pass, you will still need an additional 11,000 points, but you can earn those by flying Southwest, using the shopping portal, using Rocketmiles to book hotels 

There are three personal Southwest Credit Cards, the Plus, Premier, and Priority. You can read here why I think the Priority is actually the best deal even though it carries the highest annual fee. 

If you decide to apply for any of the Southwest credit cards, please use my referral link. 

Time To Activate The New Q4 5% Rotating Categories

 

Time to activate the 4th quarter Chase Freedom Unlimited and Freedom Flex rotating bonus categories. For the 4th quarter, you can earn 5x points on purchases at Walmart (think holiday shopping!) and Paypal. Click here to activate your card. 

Walmart is pretty straightforward, if you shop at the brick and mortar store or at the shop online, use your FREEDOM Unlimited or FLEX card. 

The Paypal category is super interesting. I remember this one from last year and I played around with it quite a bit. You can actually pay for many purchases via Paypal. Look for the Paypal logo every time you make an online purchase and for this quarter, you should use it and your FREEDOM Unlimited or FLEX card. 

Once you get your bonus points, if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve, you should transfer the points to those cards so you can get an additional bonus. Those cards offer 1.25 and 1.5 respectively when you use the points in the travel portal and pay yourself back tools. 

Right now, the Chase FREEDOM Unlimited and Flex cards are offering $200 bonus when you spend $500 in the first three months of account opening. Plus these cards are offering 5% back on grocery purchases so you can rack up points quickly. Both cards carry no annual fee so it's a no-brainer in my book. 

Please use my referral link to get the best offer. 

Chase Sapphire Preferred 100K Offer Ending Wednesday!

 

If you have been thinking about applying for the 100K bonus offer on the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, you better do it now! This amazing offer ends Wednesday, October 6th. 

I told you about this one back in July. This is my number one go-to card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. 

I love it because if you don't really know where you want to travel or have a specific need, then this is the card for you. Chase Ultimate Reward Points are super flexible. You can transfer them to a number of hotels and airlines, you can use them for cash back, to erase certain purchases, get a discount on travel in the Chase Travel Portal, and more. 

100,000 Ultimate Reward points equal approximately $1250 in FREE travel or cash back.

The offer requires you to spend $4,000 in the first three months. If you have ever had this card, check the fine print to make sure you have waited long enough to apply again. Also, you can only hold the Preferred OR the Reserve. 

So don't wait and please use my referral link, you get the same great deal and I get a little thank you for referring you. 

Also if you want to learn more about the Chase Travel Portal, you can join me on Monday, October 11th at 5pm pst on a one-hour webinar about how to use the for FREE travel. I'll be filling in for national travel blogger Lyn from Gototravelgal and Families Fly FREE.