From the I’ll-never-use-this files (similar to my previous pondering about Alaska’s MileagePlan), I stumbled upon the Shell Fuel Rewards Network and wanted to share an overview of the program because it looked really interesting.
Stop me if you’ve already heard about it and I must also disclaim: I live in New York City. I don’t have a car. I don’t even know where the closest Shell station is. But I signed up for the Fuel Rewards Network program all the same.
Why?
You’re interesting
I’ve been curious about Alaska’s MileagePlan program for a while. Between trying out Delta, then racing to qualify for status on American, Alaska has always been that airline that I’ve known about but never really explored. MileagePlan was discussed quite a bit at April’s FTU, and since then, I’ve been looking into the program more.
I’ve written before about the benefits of FoundersCard.
They partner with American Airlines to offer a unique benefit each quarter. In the past, they’ve had discounts of 5% or 10% off most fares on AA metal, which can be quite a nice break with you fly American a lot.
Here are the current airline benefits:
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I’d already decided last month to keep the Barclaycard Arrival for another year. This weekend, I logged in to see if some points had posted for the gifts cards I purchased on a recent spree of manufactured spend.
I was asked to verify my address and contact info – no biggie, didn’t think too much of it. And then, I noticed the logo of the Arrival card looked a little different. It was now a Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercard.
Surely enough, the entire blogosphere exploded with this news. I’m not one to parrot news, so I’d recommend reading this post by Million Mile Secrets that outlines all the new changes. I already have a World Elite Mastercard (the Ink Plus from Chase), but having two of a nice product never hurts. Read More
Ah, my adventures in Serve.
They are doing their best to make sure the product is secure, I’ll give ’em that.
When I originally got the Serve card, I wanted to find out which banks charge cash advance fees for reloading with a credit card. My idea was to load $5 from each bank’s credit card and report the results. Not so fast.
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I just reviewed my latest post and I’ve written about Amex a LOT recently. This is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. Chase’s products are functioning smoothly and as they should; I still love the Arrival card; still jammin’ on my Club Carlson Visa. The only anomaly recently has been with Amex.
I was a bad boy for both flights and showed up at the airport in time to hop into the boarding lane and sit down at my seat. The events leading up to both points were harried. Teeth were knashed, hands were wrung, but I made it. I didn’t have time to make a visit to the new SkyClub at T4, though I was very close it. I’ve been there before and wasn’t overly impressed. If anything, I would’ve liked to’ve seen if the recent Amex Platinum Card changes have thinned the ranks somewhat, because last time was a crowded, near-hellish experience. And at SEA, I didn’t want to miss any of FTU so left as late as possible.
I do have to give it to Delta. They’ve got things figured out. Their operations are great, they’re profitable, and the flights I were on were damn near full. Good for them.
I wish Delta’s SkyMiles program was different. I wish they treated their partners like partners and not bastard stepchildren (American, by contrast, treats their partners very well). I wish they’d step off of this revenue kick they’ve been on lately and keep things like how they were before. But that’s all “wishful” thinking.
I wrote yesterday about the new ability to see category bonuses on the Amex website. I also wrote previously about a secret/hidden benefit of the PRG card – that online transactions were posting at 3 points per dollar. In introducing this new category bonus transparency, Amex revealed two things: 1) the unpublished 3x bonus was long-lived and 2) it is now gone.
3 points per dollar for Amazon Payments? Yes, please!
In the first photo, from May 2013, you can see that I had luck getting 3 Membership Rewards per dollar for all online transactions, including Amazon Payments. As you can imagine, this was a boon for my manufactured spending. I also got the 3x bonus for Birchbox, an online subscription service.
In the second photo, from March 2014, I got the standard 1 point per dollar – but it is coded as an internet purchase, NOT a cash advance, which is good to know – and it did earn me Membership Rewards points.
I was hanging on to the PRG card for this unpublished benefit. Now that it’s gone, and I have the EveryDay Preferred card, I have no use for this card any mre. And at $175 per year, it screams “cancel me.”
Going forward, I recommend the EveryDay Preferred card unless you know you’ll meet the $30,000 spending threshold to get the 15K Membership Rewards bonus. In all other cases, default to the EveryDay Preferred. You can read more of my analysis of these two cards in this post.
Having that bonus for online transactions was a good benefit. Now that category bonuses are visible on the website, it seems that this benefit has been removed.
Dear readers, I have two things hanging around that I know I won’t use. You all know how much I love Kohl’s, and I have $10 in Kohl’s cash that I’d like to give away to someone who’ll use it, as well as a promo code for shoes.com
It’s only $10, but I’d hate to see it go to waste. It’s good until May 3rd. Leave a comment here on this post with your email, and I’ll send it over on Thursday, May 1st. Be sure to specify whether you’d like the Kohl’s Cash or shoes.com code.
I bought some Chucks and got a promo code included for $15 off any order over $75. If you hit it right at about $75, this equates to ~20% off. This one’s good until May 31st. Leave a comment here on this post with your email, and I’ll send it over on Thursday, May 8th. Be sure to specify whether you’d like the Kohl’s Cash or shoes.com code.
And that’s it. I know it’s not a lot, but I’d rather give these away that let them expire.
Thanks for reading Out & Out!
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It’s no secret that Amex LOVES to screw me out of signup bonuses due to incompetent phone agents, and (admittedly) my own love of drunken app-o-ramas whereby I don’t properly read the T&Cs.
But, I am happy to report, I HAVE RECEIVED AN AMEX SIGNUP BONUS for the EveryDay Preferred card.
Interesting to note: the bonus posted when the statement closed, which is unusual for Amex. The bonus usually posts about two months later after being tantalizingly viewable in the “Pending points” section of Amex for over a month.
In fact, I was SO not expecting that I only found out about it via an email from AwardWallet (which everyone should have if you don’t already).
Sure enough, this was reflected on my Amex account:
My rewards accounts are always low. That’s because I earn and BURN. Don’t trust any program for too long. They can and WILL devalue.
15K Membership Rewards is enough for a round-trip ticket to Toronto or Montreal from NYC, or any other short-haul flight on American or US Airways via British Airways Avios. It is also enough to fly to the Caribbean one-way from NYC. It is also enough for a domestic one-way with lots of other programs (Aeroplan and JetBlue come to mind) . Be sure to review the full list of Amex partners and keep all your options open as they have 17 airline partners.
This bonus isn’t hefty or anything, but the earning potential sure is. Now, if they’d only increase my credit limit, I’d be a total happy camper.
Yay for Amex! And bonus points (not the kind that you can use for travel) if you immediately knew the title of this post is a quote from Romy and Michele. 🙂
Amex is the company I hate to love and love to hate. Finally, after over two years, I have received an Amex bonus. The earth is moving.
While poking around the Amex website today, I headed over to the Membership Rewards section and saw something I’ve never seen before. They’ve added a super helpful new feature that shows you an exact breakdown of every points-eligible transaction for each statement period. Chase has had this functionality for a few of their cards for a while, so kudos to Amex for adding this.
Here’s an example of activity from my Premier Rewards Gold account. I paid $7.50 for taxes on my recent award ticket to Seattle for FTU when I burned all my SkyMiles. Airfare earns 3 points per dollar, and sure enough, that earning structure is reflected in this transaction.
It also shows activity for gas, grocery, and other bonus category purchases (depending on the card). Also interesting is that it worked for all of my Amex accounts. I have four at this point: Delta Platinum SkyMiles, the Platinum Card, the EveryDay Preferred, and the PRG (as in the pic above).
To view your activity, click the “Rewards” tab, then “Activity Detail.” Your recent statements will appear with a note that says “See Card Bonus Detail” if you had eligible purchases in that statement period.
While not earth-shattering, this is a nice perk that helps you to track benefits more efficiently. It has also lead me to plan a rewrite for a previous post about a possible hidden benefit of the PRG card.
Curious if this works for ALL of their cards or just some of them. Does anyone else see this new bonus category breakdown when they log into their Amex accounts?
Also see:
Is this a game changer? Or just a game enhancer as per the comments on this post from Travel With Grant?
Hello and welcome to Out and Out! My name is Harlan – I’m a points and miles enthusiast who loves to travel. I am interested in personal finance, the power of positive thinking, and the extraordinary journeys that make life worth living.