Award Wallet: "IHG Business Rewards just brought back a promotion offering members double points on stays, meeting rooms, and events booked before June 30, 2024 and completed before November 30, 2024."
"Any IHG One Rewards member can add an IHG Business Rewards account to their personal account. Thereafter, they will receive 3 points for every dollar spent by travelers connected to their IHG Business Rewards account. However, no points will be earned on their own travel. IHG Business Rewards points will be added to the IHG One Rewards account connected to the business account."
Direct link to register
Create an IHG Business Rewards account
Admittedly, the Delta Amex cards haven't played a big role in my points strategy over the years as SkyMiles are some of the least valuable points or miles on the market. Since there are still niche uses for these cards, let's take a quick look at the changes.
Fun fact: My first travel rewards credit card was a Delta Amex Gold just because I flew Delta quite a bit. Live and learn.
Annual Fee Increases
The following annual fee increases apply to both the personal and business versions of these cards. The increased annual fees apply to new applicants immediately. Current cardholders will see the new annual fee on their first annual fee due date on/after May 1, 2024.
Statement Credits
Amex has turned these cards into small coupon books by adding a bunch of statement credits. You will see Delta Stays credits (stays booked via Delta's hotel portal), Resy credits for Resy restaurants, and rideshare credits.
Companion Certificate Changes
The Delta Amex Platinum and Delta Amex Reserve (personal and business) companion certificates can now be used for flights to/from Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America.
New Business Card Bonus Categories
Delta Amex Gold Flight Credit
With both the personal and business versions, you'll now receive a $200 Delta flight credit if you spend $10,000 on either card in a year.
Points Wire Note:
If you will naturally utilize the new statement credits, you might find it easy to come out ahead even with the increased annual fees. If you won't use these credits, the fee increase will be tough to stomach.
In my opinion, the real value in these changes are the new companion certificate destination options. Those plus the credits could make the cards worth it for a Delta flyer.
If you've only been using a Delta Amex Gold card for the free checked bag benefit, that alone might not be enough justify the annual fee.
In short, these cards are useful in only a few select circumstances.
Frequent Miler: "A reader sent us an e-mail that they received today from Chase, offering them 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points if they added an employee/authorized user (AU) to their Ink Business Unlimited card before 3/1/24. This particular offer appears to be targeted towards the Business Unlimited; we’re not sure if it extends only to that card or if Ink Cash, Preferred and Premier cardholders are being targeted as well."
File this one under transfer bonuses you can ignore. While a 60% transfer bonus is nice, in theory, IHG One Rewards points just aren't worth enough to make this a good idea. You can get much more value out of Chase Ultimate Rewards points by transferring them to airline partners or World of Hyatt. You can even get more out of them by booking via the Chase travel portal.
Frequent Miler: "IHG has opened registration for a new promo which is extremely rewarding if you have any interest in staying at their new (to them) Iberostar all-inclusive brand. They’re giving 40,000 bonus points for every 4 nights you stay which is on top of your standard earnings and will stack with any other promotions you’ve been targeted for."
One Mile At A Time: "As of February 1, 2024, Starlux is opening a second Galactic Lounge in Taipei, specifically in Terminal 2. Not only will this add lounge capacity, but it means that the airline will operate its own lounge prior to departures to the United States, rather than sending passengers to contract lounges."
Points Wire Note:
I flew Starlux Airlines business class from Taipei to Los Angeles last year and this is going to be a huge upgrade compared to the contract lounge they've been using!
You can get 30% off Alaska Airlines flights with the promo code THANKYOU30 if you book by 11:59pm PT on January 31, 2024 and travel between February 8 and March 13, 2024.
Day of Week Restrictions
Another random restriction is that this doesn't include flights to/from Prudhoe Bay (SCC) in Alaska.
Disclosure: I am not an accountant. This is not financial advice. Please talk to your accountant regarding taxes.
Last night, I received a message from a reader about the 1099-MISC they received from a bank.
Since it's tax season, I thought I'd share a quick reminder that banks will often send you a 1099-MISC when you've referred a friend to a credit card and received a referral bonus.
Yes, your referral bonuses get treated as income. This is different than points you've earned via sign-up/welcome bonuses or day-to-day spend which are considered rebates.
If you have multiple cards from a bank and refer people from each of them, expect to get one 1099-MISC form for each of your cards. So, if you have an Amex Gold, Amex Platinum, and Amex Blue Business Plus and you referred people from each card, you'll likely get three 1099-MISC forms.
Make sure you provide these forms to your accountant.
Points Wire Note:
I know it's tedious and it means using points to travel isn't free - of course, the "free" travel hype is tedious as well. Still, you can get way more value out of the points than you'll pay in taxes. Think of it as the cost of doing business.
One Mile At A Time: "Between February 1 and February 29, 2024, Alaska Mileage Plan will be offering bonus elite qualifying miles (EQMs)."
"In order to take advantage of this, you must be flying on Alaska Airlines or Horizon Air, so travel on partner airlines doesn’t qualify. Furthermore, Saver Fares aren’t eligible for the bonus elite qualifying miles."
Corporate rates will actually earn 3x EQMs rather than the 2x EQMs that all Alaska Mileage Plan members can earn.
World of Hyatt and Etihad Guest have teamed for a promo.
You can earn 1,000 bonus Etihad Guest miles on every eligible Hyatt stay you complete by March 30, 2024. Even if you've already booked the stay, it will be eligible as long as you register before the stay. Not to worry, you'll still earn Hyatt points for these stays. The Etihad miles are in addition to the Hyatt points you earn.
Eligible stays include any stay where a member is paying an Eligible Rate or redeems a free night award."
The terms indicate that it could take six to eight weeks for the Etihad miles to post to your account.
Points Wire Note:
Most people aren't going to earn a ton of Etihad miles as this is per stay rather than per night - no, you can't do back-to-back one-night stays. However, why pass up on free airline miles when there's no extra cost?!
Sign up for free flight alerts or upgrade to Straight To The Points Premium.
Premium members even get text alerts when there are great opportunities to book business and first class flights!
To make choosing your next card a bit easier, we've ranked the best credit card offers to help find the best bonuses.
Whether you need help figuring out the best ways to earn or redeem points and miles, I’ll work with you to create a personalized strategy that’s easy to follow.
In August 2018, I started the Straight To The Points flight alerts newsletter with the goal of making it easier to book business and first class flights with points & miles and fare deals.
I started Points Wire to make it easier for you to keep up with the news you need to know without all of the fluff.