We don’t talk about CitiBusiness ThankYou (CBTY) card. Rarely will a blogger mention it. Most bloggers don’t have a single article on it. The last time it was mentioned with any relevance was almost a year ago when frequentmiler seemingly stumbled upon a 40k signup bonus. Then on 8/28 Citi enforced a “one signup bonus every 24 months per brand” rule and Doctorofcredit (Doc) posted a recycled article to spread awareness on the card. I was still puzzled by the lack of enthusiasm about the card and even more by the lack of information on the card.
As you might know I think very highly of the Ultimate Rewards (UR) program. In fact I even call their collective UR earning cards to be the Ultimate Wombo Combo. Yet, I ended up cashing out over 180k UR points and I don’t regret it one bit. Meanwhile, I am currently hoarding the less valued MR and TYP points. Right now, this whole scenario probably makes very little sense to you but when put in a specific set of parameters, cashing out those UR points was the most ideal thing to do. So, now you may ask, “what were these parameters?
I recently wrote about my stay at Radisson Hotel Kathmandu and I mentioned that I wasn’t very enthusiastic about my stay at Radisson. Well, that was primarily because I had stayed in Hyatt Regency Kathmandu couple of days earlier and my Hyatt stay had set my expectations rather high.
Everyone knows Citi has a long list of glitches, bugs, and loopholes that people have abused. Well, here is another ABUSE that I ran into by accident. I will keep calling it an abuse of the system because honestly there is no other way to describe it. The first time I noticed this abuse I thought it was pretty funny but then I kind of felt bad about getting free money that I otherwise should not have gotten.
If you are a fan of the Ultimate Rewards (UR) program then more than likely your ultimate (pun intended) goal is to end up with five variety of UR earning cards. But before we dig deep into that here is a quick remark on UR earning cards with/out annual fee (AF).
I recently stayed at Radisson Hotel Kathmandu and prior to my stay I was rather excited about my stay particularly for two reasons. First the hotel is not far from a tourist hub. Second, since this is a category two Carlson property, booking only costs 15k in points. But when everything was set and done I realized that not everything was as golden as it seemed.
Few months ago Amex publicly offered 100k on Surpass and 75k on no-AF Hilton card. Soon after card holders were able to generate referrals with 100k and 75k signup bonus. Then on 06/30 the offer expired and so did the increased signup links. However, sometime later the referral links with 100k and 75k started working again.
A question has been floating in the air – can you make $ by paying rent with your credit card? The short and sweet answer is yes. Now how much profit, if any, you can make depends on the rent paying service you use, credit card(s) you have, and the way you consume points acquired in the process. In this article, I will break down the math and give simple formulas for couple of scenarios.
A common question is – which hotel card is the “best” keeper card? The answer to this question essentially YMMV. It ultimately depends on various factors such as: what chains are available in places you wish to visit, what brands you prefer, how important status is to you, how much do you value certain points, how much AF, if any, you are willing to pay, and so forth.
Now, as far as I am concerned, below is how I generally rank my keeper hotel cards. Please do note that I am generally open to paying AF granted I think I will get “good” value out of the card. Before you pass judgement on my choices, do understand that what I find to be “good” value might not necessarily be the same for you. That said, here is the list:
Club Carlson properties, particularly in US, aren’t superb. On top of that (in comparison to Marriott and Hilton) there aren’t many Carlson properties worldwide. Besides that, IMO, everything else is in favor of this card. The earning rate is excellent, the free status is very good, the signup bonus is solid, the annual renewal bonus is very good, and above all Carlson points, while not valued a lot, are very flexible. Now before we dig deep, let’s look at some facts.
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