Marriott Bonvoy Business Amex 100k: This card is back to 100k bonus with $5000 spend. This is a higher offer than the offer in our affiliate network. See this post on Doctor of Credit for more details. Keep in mind that you won’t be approved for this card if you’ve had the SPG/Marriott business card in the past or if you’ve acquired a Chase Marriott card in the past 90 days or have received a Marriott bonus within the past 24 months.
Amex Business Platinum 100k: The bonus on the Amex Business Platinum is back up to 100k. However, the required spending is quite large. Earn 50,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $10,000 and another 50,000 points after spending an additional $15,000. The annual fee is $595, and the card earns 5X points on flights and pre-paid hotels booked on amextravel.com. If your small business can handle the spending and you’ve never had this card before, this could be a good opportunity. This card is in our affiliate network. Note: Via Doctor of Credit, there might be a way to get 110k bonus points. See this post.
Hyatt $250 off $500 at All-inclusive Resorts: World of Hyatt credit card holders can get a $250 statement credit after spending $500 at any of Hyatt’s all-inclusive Ziva and Zilara resorts. You must register here by November 30, 2019 and stay between November 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020. That covers spring break for a lot of areas. Is anyone taking advantage of this offer? I wish I could!
Marriott Adding 10% Resort Fees at Select Hotels: This post on Miles to Memories has concerning news about Marriott adding a 10% resort fee (even on award stays?) at select hotels. Ten percent can add up to a lot in peak season. Based on the comments, it sounds like people have mixed results with getting resort fees waived when booking on points at Marriott. What has been your experience? I’ve never paid a resort fee with a Hyatt or Hilton award stay. Edited to add: See comment from Mark below for clarification.
Amex Limits Transfers of Membership Rewards: This post on Travel Codex highlights a new rule that Amex has for transferring points to friends and family. The person must be an authorized user on your account for at least 90 days. This is bad news for those of us who want to stay away from additional authorized user accounts for our Chase 5/24 calculation.
Is Flying Business Class with Kids Worth It? Ian details his experiences flying business class with his kids in this post on Travel Update. Most of you know that I’ve never splurged on business class for my family of five. But if the kids don’t sleep during the flight, is business class even worth it? I don’t think so, unless you have a gazillion miles you want to burn.
Have a great weekend!
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
For extra long transpacific flights i.e. over 13 hours, using miles for business class is absolutely worth it for my family of 4. We all arrive relaxed since we’ve slept and the trip starts on a positive note. For long flights to Europe or Hawaii, we’ve always flown coach.
Before kids, my wife and I did a 15 hr. economy flight from ATL to NRT and vowed to never do it again. It was a very good DL flight – exit row with 6 ft of legroom on a brand new 777 at the time – but our bodies just felt sore after sitting in those seats for so long. (Frankly speaking, my employer at that time flew me all over the world in biz, so I KNEW the difference!) Happy side note: Platinum Medallion was the top level back then and as we were deplaning the FA gave us a free bottle of champagne to take with us to thank me for my loyalty!
Thanks for the share Nancy! Marriott normally charges resort fees on award stays. It appears this property, since it charges 10%, does not charge them on award stays. Greg from FM has stayed there and confirmed that they don’t even though it says they will. Still a concerning trend especially for anyone paying cash rates. Hopefully the 10% plague doesn’t spread to any other properties.
Thanks for clarifying, Mark!