It’s a New Year for Travel Credits, Category Limits, and Loyalty Status

Many card benefits and limits have now renewed since the new year began. Here’s a brief list, pulled, mostly, from our post at the end of last year.

• Some American Express cards have a bonus category with annual limits:
  • Blue Business Plus $50,000 for 2x everywhere.
  • Blue Cash and Everyday cards have a $6,000 limit on the bonus-earn at grocery stores.
  • Gold card $25,000 for 4x at grocery stores.
  • SimplyCash $50,000 for 5x office/wireless and 3% on chosen category.
• Many credit cards offer annual travel credits. These credits are often triggered when buying gift cards too. Things can always change so worth doing sooner rather than later.
  • Grandfathered Chase Sapphire Reserve cardmembers get their $300 travel credit based on the calendar year (see what counts here). More recent cardmembers, since May 2017, get it based on their cardmember year. Check your online Chase login to see if you are eligible.
  • Amex Platinum personal, Platinum business, Hilton Aspire, and the Gold card (formerly Premier Rewards Gold) have an airline incidental credit each year: $250 for the Hilton Aspire, $200 for the Platinum cards, and $100 for the Gold (see what counts here).
  • The Chase Ritz-Carlton card offers up to $300 reimbursements for airline incidental charges (see what counts here).
  • The Citi Prestige card comes with a $250 airline credit (see what counts here).
  • The Bank of America Premium Rewards card comes with $100 airline incidental credit (see what counts here).
  • The CNB Crystal card offers a $250 annual incidental charges (see what counts here).
  • The FBNO Travelite card comes with a $100 airline incidentals credit (see what counts here).
  • The PenFed Pathfinder comes with $100 annual airline credit (see what counts here).
• The personal American Express Platinum card offers a twice-per-year $50 Saks credit which renews now. Ideas on what to buy can be found here.
• Chase, Amex, and Discover offer a bonus when you refer friends to their credit card, with an annual limit on the number of referrals you can do each year. That has now reset.
• There are many loyalty perks which require credit card spend. See a full list here. Notably, the Southwest Companion Pass year has renewed. More details on how to get that here.

Other things which just reset:

• $15 monthly Uber credit from the personal Amex Platinum card
• $10 monthly dining credit on the Amex gold card
• Quarterly categories on the Chase Freedom, Discover, Citi Dividend, and US Bank Cash+ cards