Bonuses Galore

Chase, American Express and Citibank have each unleashed a slew of new bonuses for those who carry their travel-related cards. Since folks aren’t spending money on travel, they’ve increased the bonus points earned at groceries on cards you might not otherwise be using there. Amex and Citibank are also giving you different ways to spend the travel credit that come with some of their premium cards.

All of these changes are temporary as we deal with this virus. While it’s great to have these options, let’s hope they don’t have to come up with more creative ways to incentivize us to use their cards once these offers run out. That will mean we are or will soon be traveling again.

Chase Cards

From May 1 to June 30, Chase has increased the bonus points at grocery stores for up to $1500 in purchases each month. Don’t forget that for this second quarter (April-June) you already earn 5x Ultimate Rewards (URs) points for up to $1500 in grocery store spend. These new bonuses are good for up to $1500 in spend each month. So, for example, if you have the Sapphire Reserve and the Freedom you can earn 4500 URs from Freedom and 9000 URs from the Sapphire Reserve between now and the end of June.

• Chase Sapphire Reserve – 5x Ultimate Rewards
• Chase Sapphire Preferred – 3x Ultimate Rewards
• United Club Infinite – 5x MileagePlus Miles
• United Explorer and any older United cards – 3x MileagePlus Miles
• British Airways/Iberia/Aer Lingus – 3x Avios
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus, Premier and Priority cards – 3x Rapid Rewards
• World of Hyatt and any older Hyatt cards – 3x World of Hyatt points
• IHG Rewards Club Premier and any older IHG cards – 3x IHG Rewards
• Disney Premier card – 3% back in rewards dollars

The Marriott Bonvoy card has a slightly different promotion: 6x points at grocery stores on up to $5000 in spend between May 1 and July 31.

Note that none of these are business cards. In the current economic climate Chase is wary of both new applications and additional spend on small business cards.

American Express Cards

These benefits are in addition to existing benefits.

• Personal Platinum Cards
  • Up to $320 in rebates toward cell phone and streaming services. Maxing this out you’ll get $20 per month (May-December) for each of these categories
• Business Platinum Cards
  • Up to $520 in rebates toward cell phone, shipping and Dell purchases. You can get $20 per month rebate on cell phone charges, an additional $20 per month on shipping charges and up to $200 additional rebate on Dell products ($100 in May and June, an additional $100 July-December)
• Hilton Aspire Cards
  • The $250 resort credit can now be used via restaurant spend, including food delivery services
• Hilton Aspire and Surpass Cards
  • Free weekend night award certificates issued through December 31 can be used on any night of the week and certificates issued May 1 – December 31 are valid for 24 months. (Go figure, I got mine on April 30.)
  • 12x Honors points at grocery stores May 1 – July 31. Bonus points posting between May 1 and December 31 will count toward elite qualification and lifetime Diamond status. Keep in mind that just owning the Aspire card gives you Diamond status and with the Surpass you get Gold status, the best mid-tier hotel status to have.
• Green Cards
  • Up to $80 in rebates toward cell phone charges. You can get $10 rebate per month May-December.
• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Cards
  • The $300 hotel credit can be used via restaurant spend, including food delivery for June-August. You can also earn 6x Bonvoy points per dollar up to $7500 in spend at grocery stores May 1 – July 31.
• Marriott Bonvoy Cards (including Brilliant)
  • 6x Bonvoy points at grocery stores, up to $7500 in purchases May 1 – July 31
• Delta SkyMiles Cards
  • All Delta cards will earn 4x SkyMiles (no limit mentioned) May 1 – July 31.

You may notice that the Gold card is not getting additional benefits. That’s because it already earns 4x points at supermarkets and Amex apparently does not feel the need to increase that further. I can’t blame them, it’s still a good rate.

Citibank Cards

If you have the premium Citibank Prestige card you know it comes with a $250 travel credit and it’s quite possible you won’t be able to spend that this year. Citi’s making that easier for you by counting grocery and restaurant spend against your travel credit between now and the end of the year. That restaurant category also includes food delivery services so you should definitely be able to max that out this year!

If you open(ed) a Citi credit card between December 1, 2019 and May 31, 2020 you’ll have an additional three months to meet the minimum spending requirement. That’s a pretty great deal to know ahead of time. If you’ve been considering opening a Citi card, now’s the time.

Citi Premier cards allow you to earn 5x ThankYou points up to 2500 points between May 1 and July 31 for these categories:

• Home Improvement Stores
• Home Furnishing Stores
• Computer & Electronic Stores
• Department Stores

So you only get $500 spend for these bonuses. While it’s better than a stick in the eye, it’s not great. It’s possible this offer is targeted as I haven’t seen other bloggers writing about it.

If you’ve got the American Airlines co-branded card, all charges between May 1 and December 31, 2020 will count towards your Million Miler status, which gives you lifetime Gold status. Unless you’re pretty close to reaching 1MM status I would exhaust the other options before using this one.