Frequent Miler on the Air - Our Favorite Credit Card Perks | Coffee Break Ep34 | 11-19-24

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

Rewards credit cards are often most valuable for their welcome bonuses, but many of them also have very valuable perks just for having the card. So which credit cards have the best perks for a variety of categories? (Learn more about all the best current credit card offers here.) (00:40) - Best airport lounge benefits? (07:34) - Best Automatic Elite status (10:45) - Best award discount/rebate (12:59) - Best Automatic Free Night (no spend required) (15:57) - Best Companion Ticket (18:45) - Best miscellaneous perk Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media. Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

Here we go. This is not your typical Frequent Miler on the Air episode. This is a standalone segment we're calling Coffee Break. Each Coffee Break segment will cover a single topic related to miles and points. And each Coffee Break is limited to 20 minutes or your money back. Enjoy. For today's coffee break, Nick and I are going to talk about our favorite credit card perks. We're going to just go through different categories of perks that credit cards offer and we'll decide which of the cards has the best

in that category. Let's kick it off with airport lounge benefits. Which cards have the best of those? Well, the Amex Platinum card is perhaps the best of the bunch. I say perhaps, I guess it's arguable or debatable here. But the reasons we like it are because A, it comes with a priority pass. So that'll get you into lots of different lounges around the world from the priority pass benefit. It also includes access to Centurion lounges, which are Amex's own Amex branded lounges, which in many cases are quite nice, especially within the United States. They tend to be some of the nicest lounges in the US. You also get access to Delta Sky Clubs the day you're flying Delta, if you're flying Delta same

day, and escape lounges, which are kind of like a smaller version of the Centurion Lounge. And so that gives you access to those two, which I think some escape lounges might be on Priority Pass these days. But I know from personal experience recently, I was able to access an escape lounge on arrival. And they knew that that was possible with the Platinum card. They weren't sure if it was possible with the Priority Pass benefits. So you get some nice benefits there. And of course, with Priority Pass now, Plaza Premium lounges, I think, are all covered under Priority Pass now as well. That used to be an additional benefit, but those tend to be quite nice lounges internationally.

Yeah. Then, of course, we have the Capital One Venture X card, which also has Priority Pass and gives you access to Capital One lounges, which, I mean, there aren't a lot of them, but they're very nice. And also Capital One lounges, which, I mean, there aren't a lot of them, but they're very nice. And also Plaza Premium lounges. Yeah, which we mentioned are usually quite good too. The Bank of America Premium Rewards Elite card, not the Premium Rewards card, but the Premium Rewards Elite card,

this is the expensive one, includes Priority Pass membership, up to four Priority Pass memberships actually. And you don't even have to add them as authorized users, you just get four Priority Pass memberships. You can give them to whoever you want and it includes restaurant access. Yeah. I mean, that one's pretty spectacular, but it is specific just to priority pass as opposed to the other ones we talked about so far, which include some other lounges that are not priority pass. Next up, you have the US Bank Altitude Reserve card, which gives you

eight priority passes per year. And those do include restaurants as well. Yeah. And when we say include restaurants, by the way, that's because priority pass also has access to restaurants in many places. And the way that usually works is you'll you have to look in the app, but you'll usually get something like a $28 credit per visitor. And of course, the altitude reserve, you get eight visits. So if you bring a guest, that's going to count as one of your eight, but you'd get $28 off the bill for each person. If it's one of those places that offers $28. I've seen some that also have set menus that might be included, etc. So you do have some potential restaurant options there. And by the way, we should have probably mentioned this. If you do have some potential restaurant options there. And by the

way, we should have probably mentioned this. If you have a Priority Pass from any of these cards that we're talking about, and you're logged into your Priority Pass account on your phone, if you're logged into an account that doesn't have access to restaurants, they're not going to show up in the app even when you search. So what I do is I have the digital version of my Priority Pass card logged in as my altitude reserve. That way I do is I have the digital version of my priority pass card logged in as my altitude reserve. That way I can see if there's a restaurant option. And then I also carry the physical priority pass from a different card. And I'll use that physical one from a card that offers unlimited visits to go to regular lounges. And I'll just keep the digital one in case I need

to go to a restaurant. That's a good tip. So another similar card, the US Bank Altitude Connect card gives you four of those Priority Pass visits per year, also including Priority Pass restaurants as an option. The reason I included this here in the list is even though it only has four visits is because this card has no annual fee. So it really stands out among the cards in this lineup with with that particular attribute. It sure does. I mean, with no annual fee, if you bring a family of four to a restaurant that offers 28 bucks a person, you're talking more than $100 off the bill once a year with that card.

And it has no annual fee. That's pretty cool. But if you want to visit more often or you want to visit lounges at least more often, then you might want the Sapphire Reserve, the Chase Sapphire Reserve or the Chase Ritz Carlton card. Those both have unlimited lounge access for a priority pass and along with guests. And you also, of course, get Sapphire Lounge access. You get Sapphire Lounge access with the Sapphire Reserve. With the Ritz card, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think like any other card, you get one visit a year, I think with the Ritz card. Is that right? I was pretty sure it was unlimited for the

Ritz card as well, but I could be wrong. Um, but anyway, the, the way the Sapphire lounges work is you get one, um, you can go once a year with just a regular priority pass membership. But if you have the Sapphire reserve card and I thought it was also the Ritz, but you can get unlimited access to that. Let's move. Yes, it does. You're right. You're absolutely right. My mistake.

Okay. Yep. So moving on to the airline specific cards, you got the Delta Reserve card. You're more familiar with Delta Reserve card than I am. How does that one work? Yeah. The Delta Reserve card, you're more familiar with the Delta Reserve card than I am. How does that one work? Yeah, I mean, the Delta Reserve card gets you into Delta Sky Clubs when you're flying Delta same day. And also to Centurion Lounges when you're, I think you have to be flying Delta that day too to get into the Centurion Lounge, which is kind of interesting. So that's the Delta Reserve card.

You also have the American Airlines Advantage Executive card, which gets you into the American Airlines clubs and the United Club Infinite card, which gets you into United Clubs. So you have those, you know, premium airline specific cards. All right. So that's our roundup.

I know there's some other cards out there that could be mentioned, but these are the ones we're going to discuss. We don't have a lot of time for coffee break. Nick, which one is best? Out of those? I mean, I'm, I, I, I'll keep my Ritz card for this or a Sapphire reserve equal there. Although it is the Sapphire, does the Sapphire reserve include unlimited guests? I don't know if it does or not. I know the Ritz card includes, you know, I'm going to keep the Ritz card because A, it includes unlimited guests when I go to a lounge and B, I can add unlimited, well, presumably unlimited authorized users and they each get their own priority pass

where they can bring guests too. So Ritz card for lounge access, in my opinion. All right. Very good. I'm going to keep the Platinum card because I fly Delta a lot, and so Delta club access is important. And then I like that it also has priority pass and Centurion lounge and whatnot. So there you go. And I think we'll both tack on that Altitude Connect card because why not? It's free-free. Why not?

Yeah, I almost jumped in with that to say, well, I got a free-free card too because I might as well take four restaurant visits per year. Absolutely. Why not? All right. Next category. Which cards offer the best automatic elite status? So we're not talking about where you have to spend a lot of money on the card to get

elite status, but what's automatic? Mostly the Amex Platinum card comes with hilton gold and marriott gold status so kind of mid-tier status in both programs yep uh then of course you have the hilton aspire card which comes with hilton diamond status so that's our top tier status it is then you got the amex bonvoy brilliant that gives you marriott platinum which is again back to your sort of mid-tierish status with the amex bonvoy brilliant but it's worth noting, I think there that even though it's mid-tier-ish, it's high enough to get you like most of the perks that Marriott Elite status offer, you know, free breakfast in places that offer it, lounge access where

available, 4 p.m. late checkout where available, those kind of things so um yeah so it's not your typical mid-tier the you also have the ihd premier card and the premier business card which offer ihd platinum elite status which the perks are pretty thin yeah and the windham earner business card which gives you windham diamond status which we've written about quite a bit because you can match that also to caesar's diamond status and then potentially match that on for free cruises at various places. We've written a lot about that. All right, Nick, you could have just one of these, which one? I think if I can only have one, it would probably, you know, one status or one card. I guess if I can only have one card, I guess it'd be the Hilton Aspire because I'd get the diamond status and

all the other great benefits of the Aspire card. But diamond status isn't measurably better than gold, so it doesn't feel like a great choice over the MX Platinum. And I have a hard time giving up my Wyndham Earner business card. So I guess the Aspire for the card for all of the other benefits and top tier status that gives me lounge access. But I don't feel incredibly strong about that pick. What have you got? Yeah. Well, I thought you were going to say the Wyndham earner business because the

Wyndham diamond, you know, using your, your cruise tracks, you match to the other, other statuses and then you get all these free cruises and everything. And so that can be real valuable. I haven't played that particular game,

but I think that has probably the most singular upside of all of these um the the next you know it's kind of weird to say this because but um the next that would probably have the most value to the most people maybe the marriott platinum uh the so the bonvoy brilliant just because you know a lot of people stay at Marriott hotels and you could get a lot of perks from that. You could. It's an expensive card. It is an expensive card. Because even after the monthly credit on that card, which is just a dining credit, it's still pretty expensive. So I have trouble getting excited about that one over the platinum card, which will give you gold status with Hilton.

So you get breakfast-ish, breakfast broad, and a credit within the United States. Lots of other benefits on the card. So we don't have a clear winner here. No clear winner. I think we just answered all of them except the IHG card. That's the loser. We've got one loser in this bunch. All right. card so that's the loser we've got one loser in this in this bunch all right next up um some cards offer award rebates or discount we have a set of airline uh cards that offer one or the other um

so you have the aeroplan card which advertises discounted awards but doesn't really spell out how much the discount is right we don't don't really know, but apparently there is some. Delta, gold, platinum, and reserve cards all get the 15% discount when redeeming your Delta miles. So you get a 15% discount on awards through Delta. Yep. And then you have the JetBlue Plus and business cards, which offer 10% award rebates. So rebates different, different right because you have to have the full number of points up front then you get 10 back after uh after the trip the united credit cards give you better saver award availability so you'll see expanded availability that's only available to card holders and and or elites yeah so that translates to lower price uh awards in some cases um and the united club infinite card also has that

but it also has a 10 discount on saver level economy awards within the u.s and canada so all right which one is best a controversial choice for me on this one controversial choice i'm going to say the aeroplan card which is going completely off the rails because we don't even know what the discount is going to be. It's going to be variable, whatever. But I'm going to pick the Aeroplan one because the other discounts I wouldn't make great use of. I get a discount here and there now and then. The Aeroplan one, if I'm going to make use of that discount at all, it's probably going to be for a business class award redemption somewhere where the difference is going to be, I would hope,

significant enough for me to be more excited. I don't think any of the rest of these really matter enough to me to care much about. So I'd pick the Aeroplan one if I had to pick. All right.

I'm going to pick the Delta Gold card because it's one of the cheaper cards in this round. So I think it's 150 euros we're recording this and gives you that full 15 15 discount plus some other perks like free check bags and whatnot um so i think that's a pretty um valuable combination yeah yeah i think you convinced me there i i could be convinced there good all right best automatic free night certificate so

we're talking about free night certificates that do not require any spend. What do we have up for the contenders here? Yeah. So you've got the Hilton Aspire card, which each night upon renewal gives you a uncapped. Each year. Did I say each night? You did. Which would be awesome.

That would be a really good perk. You've got 24 hours to use this perk um so hilton aspire gives you a free uh night certificate every year even the first year when you get it now that i think about it um and it's uncapped you could use it at any hilton worldwide as long as there's a standard room available yeah it can be used for a premium room award. It's got to say standard room award. The Bonvoy Brilliant card, which we talked about before, is an expensive card, but it does come with a fancy free night certificate up to 85,000 points. So one night up to 85,000 points. And then of course, you can top that off with up to 15,000 Marriott points on top of it. So you could stay

at a place that costs up to 100,000 points for a night. And so that gives you access to most of the better, I'm not going to quite say best, but most of the better Marriott properties, certainly some that are really valuable. So that could be a cool certificate to have. Yep. Then continue on the Marriott theme. We've got the Bonvoy Boundless

and also the business cards, which are the $100-ish cards that give you a 35K free night certificate each year upon renewal. And they're also top-offable, up to 15,000 points. So you could stay at a place that costs up to 50,000 points for the night using the certificate plus points. The IHG Premier card has a free night certificate worth up to 40,000 points. So you could stay for free at a place that costs up to 40,000 points. But the nice thing here is it is unlimitedly top-offable.

Well, sort of anyway. So you can top it off with as many points as you need to for a standard room award. So if you want to stay at a place that costs 120,000 points per night, you can use your 40K cert plus 80,000 points. So that's pretty cool. Yep, yep. And then you have the World of Hyatt card, which gives you a category one through four

three-night certificate each year upon renewal. The nice thing there is that it doesn't matter if a hotel is peak priced, you can still use it as long as it's within categories one through four. The not nice thing is there's no way to top off to make it you know work for uh higher level categories so what do you think greg what's your pick for the best i don't think there's any uh contest here the hilton aspire it's so far above the others uncapped free night anywhere in the world especially now that you

could use them at slh small luxury hotels of of the world. Around the world, some of those hotels go for $2,000 a night or even more. I mean, it's hard to beat that. It's a great deal. It's a great deal. Yeah. Great deal on that card. All right. Best companion ticket. So we've got a number of airline credit cards that offer companion tickets of some sort. So what have we got for our contenders for the best? Yeah. So the Delta Platinum and Reserve cards give you a companion ticket each year upon renewal. No spend is required. But then you have the Alaska cards, which these days require 6K spend to get the uh companion certificate um it depends when you got your alaska card if you have an older one it doesn't require spend then you've got a whole collection of

different american airlines cards that require 20 000 or 30 000 spend for a uh companion ticket that is is usable up to two or three people depending depending on which card and you earn that from. The Virgin card has a companion ticket of sorts that you could get after 15K spend, and I think again at 30K. And British Airways has one with 30K spend. So that's obviously a really quick roundup, but what do you think is best, Nick? I think the best out of these is the Alaska one because their routing rules on that make it easy to use for pretty complicated trips. You can pick a, you can put together a pretty complicated round trip or a one way you could

have a stopover in there and both people earn miles based on distance flown. So you can get a really good deal with that companion cert. So I think the Alaska one's the best one, though. I am curious to see how the American Airlines one shakes out. I did do the spend on my aviator silver and within the next week or so, I'm expecting to get that certificate, the companion certificate valid for up to two people. And I have a specific trip in mind where I'm looking to use it. So we'll get a couple of them. My wife got one too. So I look forward to reporting soon on how easy or difficult it is to use that one.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, I agree with Alaska one. For me, Delta comes in next because it doesn't require spend and they've recently expanded it to allow you to go further afield than just the lower 48 US states. So now you can go to Canada and Central America, Hawaii, the Caribbean.

That might make it the best one. Yeah, I mean, that could certainly make it the best one. You could argue it, but the routing rules are strict. You have to do a pure round trip. There has to be availability of the particular discount fare classes so it can be a little tricky to use it um and also the companion does not earn miles unlike the alaska companion who does so so yeah i mean overall i'd say the last one probably better of course they have a much uh much less of a route network than Delta does. Much more limited.

All right. And our best miscellaneous perk, the U.S. Bank Altitude Connect card. Again, no annual fee on this card. And it comes with a free GigSky eSIM benefit. So you get a free eSIM card you can use in 125 different countries. You get a plan that's 15 days long and up to five gigabytes of data that's free. And you can get a new one 15 days after, you know, once your first 15 day one expires, you can get another one and then another one and another one if you want.

So it's repeatable. You could use this over and over again. And that's pretty cool. That can save you some money if you're traveling abroad. Absolutely. Well, there you go. There's our favorite credit card perks.