Credit Cards

December 5, 2014

American Express Everyday and Everyday Preferred Cards Now Offering 5,000 Bonus Points for Referrals

Every so often, I check the refer a friend or referral sites for Chase and American Express to see if any of my cards are eligible to be referred to family/friends for bonus points. While doing this check today, I noticed that the American Express Everyday card is now available for referrals! I’ve also confirmed the Everyday Preferred is available as well though neither my wife nor I have that card. This is the first time I have ever seen them eligible in my account for referral. (Apologies if this is old news but I never saw this posted anywhere).

Everyday Referral

American Express is offering 5,000 points to the referrer for anyone who is approved via an email referral for the Amex Everyday (the person applying for the credit card will receive 10,000 points). I think it is somewhat interesting the referral bonus is so high compared to the signup bonus of the card. Since the signup bonus on the card is only 10,000 points, the referral bonus is 50% percent of the signup bonus – I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a high percentage for a referral bonus.

My wife has the Everyday card and received the 10,000 points for opening it. The main reason she opened this card was as a way to preserve her American Express Membership Rewards balance since she plans to close her Platinum card at the beginning of next year (after she takes advantage of the $200 airline credit one last time). If she closed the Platinum card without having this card or any other Membership Reward earning card, she would have had to transfer all her Amex MR points out to an airline or hotel before cancelling the card to avoid losing the points.

However, and as I’ve said before, I really value the flexibility of points so it would defeat the purpose to transfer all those points to some airline without any immediate need for them. The solution to this was opening the Amex Everyday card which is the only no annual fee American Express card that still allows you to transfer Membership Rewards points to airlines and hotels. Since it has no annual fee, I never have to worry about closing this card and I maintain the flexibility to use the points as I need to in the future. It also lets me save my points in case there is a big airline transfer bonus in the future (c’mon British Airways transfer bonus!)

If anyone would like to be referred for the card please let me know (either by leaving a comment with your email address or by emailing me) but the point of this post is to make readers aware that you can earn bonus points for referring friends based on the cards you have (and that this is the first time I’ve seen the Everyday/Everyday Preferred available for referral bonus points). If you are already a cardholder of the Everyday/Everyday Preferred cards (as well as other Amex and Chase cards) check to see if your account is eligible for a refer the friend promotion via the Chase Referral Website Link and the American Express Referral Website Link and then use it when friends/family ask you for credit card recommendations (since if you’re in this hobby, everyone naturally comes to you asking about points/miles/credit cards).

Feel free to leave a comment if you have a referral for these cards or any other cards!

December 4, 2014

Here is the Better Offer on the US Airways Mastercard – 50k Miles + 10k Miles On First Anniversary!

Update: Many people have reported Barclays is automatically denying everyone who is applying for this offer who is NOT a Preferred member. If you aren’t a Preferred Member apply for the standard 50k offer here (non-referral link) or feel free to use a refer a friend offer from someone. I’d be happy to refer you – Please email me at ralph@pointscentric.com)

As many of you probably saw, the blogosphere was blitzkrieged with dozens of posts from bloggers promoting the new offer on the US Airways Mastercard of 50,000 miles after 1st purchase. It is a good offer and an improvement over the old offer but most of the bloggers (except Frequent Miler) left out one key detail: There is actually an even better offer for the same 50,000 miles after 1st purchase PLUS 10,000 miles on your first card membership anniversary. Here is a link to that offer – US Airways Mastercard with Anniversary Bonus.

See that little notice in the bottom left? Bingo.

See that little notice in the bottom left? Bingo.

I think this is a very strong offer and one most people who currently do not have an open US Airways Mastercard should go for. Yes, it says this offer is for Preferred members only but in the past anyone has been able to get this bonus and I haven’t read any reports of this changing. Even on Frequent Miler’s post, someone commented they were approved for the card with no status with US Airways and a co-worker of mine was also approved who did not have status.

Here are a few reasons why I think this is a strong offer:

  1. Barclays will stop accepting new applicants for this card at some point in early 2015. This is a fact even though we don’t know the exact date yet. Get it now before you lose the chance to apply for this card for good.
  2. It truly is a strong offer as in the highest ever offer on this card. 50,000 miles for spending a dollar – when do you see those type of offers anymore? Yes, you have to pay the $89 annual fee upfront but would you pay $89 for two domestic roundtrip flights? What about a one-way business class ticket to Europe? Yup, I thought so.
  3. These miles will eventually convert to American Airlines miles at some point in 2015. So even if you think you have no use for US Airways miles, think of this as a way to accumulate extra AA miles that you can use in 2015.
  4. If you do fly US Airways, this card comes with perks such as free checked baggage, priority boarding, an annual companion certificate at $99 and a 5,000 mile discount when booking US Airways awards. That’s a pretty good set of ancillary perks.  

Now of course, you didn’t hear about this improved offer from other bloggers because it wasn’t their affiliate link – it’s really quite that simple as they don’t want to jeopardize their “sales”. Once Frequent Miler posted it, all of the other blogs could have at least mentioned it (I know many of them see his posts) but I didn’t see any other blog update their post (update: MilesforFamily and MommyPoints did mention the better offer later on). I know Travel Blogger Buzz brings awareness to this issue and I’m just doing my part to help.

With no affiliate links on my site, I try to bring you the best, unbiased offers and with several posts on increased offers that other blogs won’t post (75k Amex Business Gold, 50k HHonors Points, $50 bonus on Fidelity Amex) I’m helping my readers get the best bang for their credit card application. Be smart with who you follow and especially on whose credit card links you click on.

*Happy to report no affiliate links were used in this post*

(H/T as well to 4321ka on Twitter)

December 2, 2014

American Express Hilton HHonors Signup Bonus Increased to 50,000 HHonors Points & $50 Statement Credit

Update: Per Gary in the comments there is an offer for 60k points. See my response in the comments but I believe both offers to be equal. The offer I listed below requires $750 in spend as opposed to $1,000 for the 60k offer.

I was in the processing on making a reservation today on Hilton.com (they had $99 rooms at the Hilton Waikoloa Village as part of their Cyber Monday promotion which worked out great for my trip to the Big Island in April) and I noticed a better offer for the no annual fee American Express Hilton HHonors credit card of 50,000 HHonors Points and a $50 statement credit! The public offer is currently 40,000 points with no statement credit. The only way to get this offer to appear is to go through the process of booking a hotel room on hilton.com and on the payment page you will notice a small box in the lower right hand corner with the credit card offer. You do not have to book a room to get this offer to appear.

Look for the offer next to where you enter your credit card information

Look for the offer next to where you enter your credit card information

Here are the key details to know about this offer:

  • You must spend $750 within 3 months of membership to earn 50,000 HHonors points
  • The $50 statement credit is awarded after 1st purchase
  • No annual fee so you could keep this card for a long time for AXON awards though they are much less valuable now
  • You also receive Hilton Silver Status which basically gives you 15% bonus points on stays and the ability to get a 5th night free on award stays
HHonors50k_2

Details of the offer

 

While this is an improved offer over the public one, this isn’t an amazing offer as 50,000 points will not even get you a free night at some mid-tier Hilton family hotels. After the massive Hilton devaluation last year, Hilton points are only good for low to mid tier hotels (see award chart below). For hotels in the higher categories, I would recommend other Hilton credit cards like the Citi Hilton Reserve before this one.

HiltonAwardChart

Hilton Award Chart

 

I personally have this card as I used it in the past to book a AXON award for my honeymoon in Bora Bora – back then you could book a 4 night stay at the Hilton Bora Bora for only 145,000 points total! Now, a single night goes for 95,000 points or 300,000 points with the new AXON awards! If you plan on using Hilton points for aspirational hotels, I would pass on this offer and focus on a card like the Citi Hilton Reserve which offers two free weekend nights at any Hilton in the world. I can only recommend this offer if you 1) have applied for pretty much every other Hilton credit card or 2) need to increase your Hilton balance quickly to book an award stay. I could also see recommending this card if you know you could actually take advantage of the low point rates at the category 1-4 hotels though I imagine for most those hotels do not align with their travel goals.