September 6, 2016

Rumor: Starwood American Express Card Signup Bonus Possibly Increasing in Two Weeks

Update (9/22): So my source was kind of right as the offer did change today but I’m not sure it is a better offer. Here is my analysis of the new offer of two free nights at category 1-5 hotels. 

I want to stress the following information is simply a rumor but I believe the signup on the American Express Starwood personal and business cards will increase to either 30k or 35k Starpoints in the next two weeks. I have a friend of a friend who is “connected” at American Express and he claims that the go live date for this offer is the week of September 19th. He didn’t know whether the offer would be for 30k or 35k like it was in March.

The offer from March 2016

The offer from March 2016

Could this information be accurate? Well in years past usually around summertime, though there was a curveball with the 35k offer in March this year, American Express has typically increased the signup bonus on the SPG cards. I went back and put a list together of when over the past few years the publicly available bonus has increased to 30k or 35k Starpoints. Anyone spot a trend?

  • March 2016
  • August 2015
  • June 2014
  • August 2013
  • August 2012
  • August 2011
  • July 2010

That is some serious consistency and only further makes me believe the information I received could very well be accurate. The current signup bonus is 25k for both the personal and business cards so I’m sure some of you might be questioning why I’m recommending you should wait a few weeks for an offer that is only 5k-10k points higher. Here are some of my reasons:

  • Starpoints are incredibly difficult to earn – the only feasible way to earn them is via the Starwood credit card and staying at SPG hotels. Since it is difficult to earn these points in bulk, an extra 5k Starpoints is a big difference to me. And to the average person who doesn’t manufacture spend that equates to spending an extra $5,000 on your SPG Amex to make up that extra 5k points.
  • American Express limits you to one bonus per lifetime on their cards. Basically you only get one shot to signup for this card to earn a bonus so you better make it count. I won’t signup for an American Express card unless I know at that point in time, that is the highest ever known offer on a card.
  • Starpoints are one of the most valuable, if not most valuable, points out there. Great flexibility with dozens of airline transfer partners, a transfer bonus of 5k when transferring in 20k increments and some great hotel redemptions in the Starwood chain. You can redeem points for weekend nights at lower tier SPG hotels for 2k or 3k points a night.

My advice is to resist the temptation to signup for the next two weeks just in case the offer is increased unless you have an absolute urgent need for this card. While American Express might very well match you to the new bonus anyway, remember that American Express limits you to one bonus a lifetime, so you always want to get each Amex card at its peak signup bonus offer. Again I do want to stress this is only a rumor (some will argue I shouldn’t even post unconfirmed information like this) but based on past history, there could be some merit to this information.

I’ll be sure to post an update in two weeks if/when the offer is increased. If my information is correct & you plan to apply for this card at that time, I hope you will consider using my referral links for either the personal or business card (for being a current cardmember, not an affiliate link) for possibly earning you an extra 5k to 10k Starpoints by advising you to wait.

September 2, 2016

500 Free Virgin America Elevate Points

Virgin America is giving away 500 Elevate points for subscribing to the Virgin Hotels newsletter. It took me less than 10 seconds to fill out my name, email address and Elevate number. 


Here is a direct link to the offer. 

500 points for 10 seconds of works seems like a good deal to me. This is also a good way to extend the expiration date of your current point balance. 

Pro tip – use a throwaway email address. 

Enjoy the long weekend!

August 27, 2016

Denied for the Chase Sapphire Reserve Even with a “Pre-Approval” Offer

I know I’ve posted a lot about the Chase Sapphire Reserve over the past week and while I thought I was done talking about the card, I have one more post about the card and unfortunately it contains a negative data point. As many of you know, the only current known 5/24 workarounds to get this card are if you are Chase Private Chase member or have a pre-approval offer in branch. My wife and I are not Chase Private Clients members but luckily my wife had a pre-approval offer (or so we thought) for the Sapphire Reserve (I did not). She went to the branch and ultimately was denied for the card after her application went to pending. Here is a complete timeline of the events and I’ll share some further thoughts at the end.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

  • On Thursday, I went to a Chase branch in NYC and the banker confirmed that I had no pre-approval offers. I asked if he would look up the same for my wife and when I gave him my wife’s Freedom card, he specifically confirmed she was pre-approved for the Sapphire Reserve card.
  • My wife obviously couldn’t apply then since she wasn’t there so on Saturday we visited our local Chase branch on Long Island. The banker also confirmed she was pre-approved for the Sapphire Reserve as well as the Slate card and a United card (he didn’t specify which one). I again had no pre-approvals.
  • With two bankers apparently confirming the pre-approvals, my wife pulled the trigger on the application in branch and the banker informed her she had a pending decision.
  • Knowing what this meant, I asked the banker to call to see if maybe there was an outside shot of any additional information needed but sadly after getting reconsideration on the phone, he came back and said she was denied for “having over 5 recent accounts”.

The best explanation I can think for this is that my wife wasn’t truly pre-approved despite what the bankers stated. On Reddit, a helpful user suggested looking at the APR section of the printout the banker provides when you sign to apply for the card. It should have a fixed APR % not a range – anything other than a fixed APR % indicates you truly are not pre-approved for the card. You might be invited to apply or pre-qualified but these will not work to get past 5/24 – sadly this is apparently what happened to my wife.

So what do I recommend to do? In short, challenge your local banker to make sure you are actually pre-approved and request a copy of the full printout before signing the application (that was another issue I later learned – I only saw the first two pages and not the pages with the APR on them). There are some Chase bankers out there who don’t know this product or process well enough and if you run into my local banker on Long Island, you will end up wasting a hard pull for nothing. I wish I had known this about 3 hours ago but c’est la vie….

August 22, 2016

Breaking: Here is the Link for the 100k Bonus on the Chase Sapphire Reserve

Update: I believe 5/24 is fully applicable to this card and I cannot recommend applying if you are over 5/24. Your best bet is to go to a branch and see if you are pre-approved. That seems to be working to get around 5/24.

A real quick post to highlight that a public link is now live for the 100,000 point signup bonus on the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Here is a direct link to the offer.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

The big news is whether this card is subject to the 5/24 rule and right now the results are inconclusive. There are over 3,300 comments in this thread on Reddit so it is quite a task to go through but there are data points for both approvals and denials for those who are in violation of the 5/24 rule. As such, it is difficult to say for sure at this point whether this card is subject to 5/24 but I am leaning towards yes. There is speculation that the approvals came from people who might have been prequalified and thus got around 5/24. I think in the coming hours or days we will have a lot more clarity on whether the 5/24 rule is in effect but the more recent update seem to indicate 5/24 is in effect. 

In my post yesterday on the hype of this card, I mentioned how this offer was available yesterday in branches though it was obviously tough to find a branch open on Sunday. Someone on Reddit created a survey and asked those who applied to provide data to determine any trends for those who were approved. I frankly think the survey isn’t very clear or easy to follow but here it is if you want to go through the data.

I fully expect Chase to be slammed with applications so if you get a pending decision, it might take a while to get a decision. You could call reconsideration and probably get a quicker decision though if 5/24 is the reason for denial, there is no amount of pleading you can do to get an approval.

Good luck to all applying today! Please report any success or failures in the comments including whether you were over 5/24 or not.

August 21, 2016

Chase Sapphire Reserve Update: The Hype is Insane and Past the Point of Ridiculousness

I’ve been doing this for a few years now and I’ve never see anything like the anticipation/suspense/desire/worry/excitement/nervousness etc.. about the Chase Sapphire Reserve being released today. I know everyone is antsy to get a 100k signup bonus especially if you are over 5/24 since applying earlier is probably the best chance to get approved if the 5/24 rules haven’t made it to the card yet. However, some people are taking this a bit too far thinking they need to apply the moment the card is available.

I mean look at this thread on Reddit Churning – since yesterday evening, there have been over 1,300 comments and there are currently over 1,330 users on that site. If you don’t follow the site, those number are nutty as people are losing their damn mind about this card. People are literally refreshing pages that might contain the application link by guessing the URL based on the format of other Chase cards. Some stayed up all night refreshing links or that thread. Some are calling Chase 6 + times this morning. One user even posted about they have a script that will automatically tell him when the card is available – are you freaking kidding me?

Reserve

My advice? You don’t need to apply the instant it is available. Ideally I’d apply in the few hours or within the day it is available but by then you will see other bloggers post about it or users mention it on Twitter so relax. Besides, the few datapoints coming in seem to indicate the online app won’t be available till tomorrow and only in-branch applications are accepted today (Yes there are a handful of branches open today. No I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit one).

As an FYI, I would guess the big blogs (TPG, MMS, VFTW, OMAAT etc..) won’t have their affiliate links until later in the day tomorrow so I recommend following Doctor of Credit or my Twitter to get notice when a public (i.e. non-affiliate) link is live if you want to apply right away. If you need a refresher, here are my thoughts on the card and applying for it.