Summer, Richard & Julian Discuss What Elite Status Will Look Like in 2022

Julian Kheel: ... that's for Richard when you get to our age, you'll understand.

Richard Kerr: Why, I got 10 years to go, I guess.

Julian Kheel: Maybe a little more than that, maybe.

Summer Hull: So I have to like look up everyone's address for stupid Christmas cards, but it gives me your age, your everything. So you all are old.

Julian Kheel: What do you mean, what gives you our age?

Summer Hull: The internet, Mr. Julian.

Richard Kerr: I got to call Scott, inaudible are we recording? Oh, I can't say, then we're recording.

Speaker 4: Climb a board. This is the Miles to Go podcast, your source for the latest in travel news, reviews and strategies you can't afford to miss. And now here's your host, travel expert and road warrior, Ed Pizza.

Ed Pizza: Hey guys. Welcome back to the Miles to Go podcast. After a couple of false starts, we have all four of the fierce and force and back together to close out the year, talking about what the heck happened when it came to elite status this year and what we plan to do next year. Obviously we know those plans are not going to hold true to form, but we're actually going to try and predict what the heck is going to happen in 2022. Looking around the dial here, I have Summer Hull from TPG with her unicorn headphones on, which is pretty darn cool. Hey Summer.

Summer Hull: Hi. Looking fabulous here as always.

Ed Pizza: Mr. Kerr from Bilt Rewards also with his unicorn headphones looking bald as ever.

Richard Kerr: Howdy. This not headphones. That's just a big horn in my head.

Ed Pizza: All right. I do that. And all the way from the left coast, Mr. Julian Kheel from CNN Underscored.

Julian Kheel: It's much earlier here than it usually is there.

Ed Pizza: Yes. Well-

Julian Kheel: That's how that works. I guess.

Richard Kerr: crosstalk internationally.

Ed Pizza: They came back to bite me on that simply miles promo from a few days ago on the too early, when the midnight time rolled around and they decided to kill the promo early. All right. So, before we dig in just a quick reminder for you guys, we did have a couple questions come in that we'll try and squeeze into the show. If we don't get them in here, because we have some deadlines from all these important folks, we will answer those next week. But a quick reminder, you can shoot us questions via email, at edpizza.motion.com. You can also text us (571) 293-6659. That's in the show notes for you. And lastly, you can always hit us up on social media, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, all @Pizza In Motion. We'd give you Julian's Instagram handle, but sadly, I hear it no longer exists.

Julian Kheel: Well, the handle exists. I'm just don't use it. So, well you could send everything you want right there, but I'll never ever see it.

Summer Hull: You have the prettiest little photos holding dollar bills or something on there.

Julian Kheel: I did. I know. I just, you know what? It was sucking up like half of my day looking at Instagram and TikTok.

Summer Hull: What a loss for the internet. It's too...

Julian Kheel: crosstalk.

Ed Pizza: It really is.

Summer Hull: This is worse than Big Dying. I cannot...

Julian Kheel: Spoiler alert.

Ed Pizza: Spoiler alert.

Julian Kheel: Thanks a lot Summer.

Summer Hull: Oh, I'm sorry. That's not spoiler, that's common knowledge. We can move on now.

Ed Pizza: My wife doesn't know yet, so don't tell her, but it's okay. She doesn't look in the podcast.

Julian Kheel: I was going to say she still doesn't know. So we're all good.

Ed Pizza: All right. So what we want to get covered today is, as we sprint for the finish this year with no idea what the heck next week's going to bring us. I wanted to bring these guys in to talk about where we actually all ended up on elite status, what we're shooting for next year. And then a little, if we've got time, a little bonus of, what's actually going to be top of people's wallets. So yeah. So who wants to go first? Julian?

Summer Hull: inaudible.

Julian Kheel: inaudible.

Ed Pizza: We'll just volunteer you. So where did you end up on status?

Richard Kerr: Who is the oldest year against Julian?

Julian Kheel: I'll tell you. Oh, that was cheap shock curve. Yeah, sure. I'll start. So I think I talked about this before. I got extended my Delta platinum status. I was originally thinking about going for diamond, but then they automatically extended everybody. So I will have about 60 some thousand MQMs roll over to next year. So getting to platinum status next year is pretty straightforward. I'll just have to either make the MQD requirement or do the waiver on one of the Delta cards. The question is, and I really haven't decided yet whether I go for diamond next year, since I'm already halfway there, but Delta recently, as we all know, changed the global upgrade rules for their certificates, so that you can only upgrade now to premium economy rather than business. And quite frankly, I think that's a pretty big hit to Delta diamonds status and makes me wonder whether it's worth going or just sticking with platinum next year and maybe going for a different status with another airline in addition.

Ed Pizza: Yeah, I agree that's a big hit. I also think even though it's not the exact same lever, it brings them, I think, on par for those upgrade certificates with United, who essentially has a copay, if you will, in that to use... To use them you have to be in a higher fair class.

Julian Kheel: Yes. Right. And you could say, look, you can buy premium economy and upgrade from there. I just don't think, I mean, and the United system is very different because of the plus points and all that.

Ed Pizza: Sure.

Julian Kheel: But I think that, and again, I also appreciate that Delta is putting out the word now before you start, maybe trying to get status for 2022, but it makes it questionable as to whether it's worth it to me. And it's very possible for many years, platinum was plenty for me, was all I really needed. And it may turn out that that is still really all I need.

Ed Pizza: Well, and we talked about this earlier in the year. I think the move by airlines to get rid of change fees for everyone really diminished the value of top tier status across the board, because that was one of the more valuable benefits, either a hard benefit where we knew we had fee waivers for certain categories with certain status levels or soft waivers in that, like when I used to be an American Airlines executive platinum, I knew I could call a desk a handful of times a year and they would just wave the change fee for me. And now when everybody gets, it's like, well, maybe I don't need to reach that high.

Julian Kheel: Yeah. And I think it's really interesting Delta, the changes they just made to basic economy fares. They are not waving the change fee $99 or $199 for international, for their elites, for their top tier elites. So again, is it worth going for top tier Delta status at this point, especially with business travel really still not being anywhere close to back? I think it's, I'm going to have to think really long and hard. And I think, I am not one of Delta's most valuable customers, but it does mean I'm not going to not fly. I will move my business to somewhere else and see if it's worth getting status there instead.

Ed Pizza: Well, and you also live somewhere where you have multiple options. And I think when we look at the other folks here, including myself, we're a little bit more limited. And so, Summer, I know you were chasing down United status near the end of the year. I'm guessing you got caught up in the, "I'm going to fly to the finish and do what I need to do." And then, "Oh, sorry. Yeah, we just extended everybody anyway even if you spent that extra cash."

Summer Hull: Sort of, but my situation was a little bit different because I've been a IK before, but it's been years. So I've just had gold status for the last several years. So, that getting extended was sort of irrelevant mostly to me. I mean, the fact that there's more 1Ks I guess, is relevant, but on my personal situation that wouldn't have mattered because I was shooting higher. So yeah, I have platinum status as we're recording this and if I take a plan trip this coming weekend, I will hit 1K but the world's changing kind of rapidly on me. So, TBD.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. And you're right. It is changing rapidly. We've seen case counts going way up. Let's just say for giggles that you do end up with 1K status, what do you think you'll be trying to achieve next year? Do you think your travel plans allow you to get to 1K based on what we think we know now? Or do you think that you'll be settling in for a soft landing?

Summer Hull: I think it's going to depend on the promos they run next year. And of course also what the world does as a whole. So we already know that they're going to have reduced requirements to earn status again next year that recently came out. But of course that was just one side of the coin. This year they also really boosted you up. And in fact, the higher status you had, the more of a boost they gave you along the way. So if I enter the year as a 1K and they do hand out bonuses in a way similar to this year, then I would say, it's very likely I hit it as long as cases don't stay high throughout the year or something. But yeah. So we'll see TBD. I honestly still have no clue if I'm going to hit 1K this year, just because there's question marks now on my remaining flights, but hopefully I will, because I'm very close.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. We're going to loop back on hotel status in a second. We can definitely leave Julian out since he doesn't care about hotel status, but-

Julian Kheel: That would be correct.

Ed Pizza: But Mr. Kerr, I think you ended the year with both executive platinum and potentially Delta platinum. You were on the fence about whether you were going to go for Delta platinum.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. I got Delta gold and not going for platinum. American finally revamped their schedule between Atlanta and LaGuardia and now they're four or five non stops today instead of four or five a week. So it looks like American will give me all the options that I need. So Delta Gold's all needed for free same day change. I did the airplane, match the 75K, I still got to do the trip up to Canada to keep that for another year. And then I'm 164 EQD short of requalifying for exec plat for next year. So taking one more flight here before the end of the year to knock that off and then-

Summer Hull: Mileage run.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. I'll be covered in which way you cut it because it really doesn't matter what Delta status you have out of Atlanta. Like you're still going to be sitting in the back of the bus, so free same the change all I need. I'll take the gold.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. I had a sharp left hand turn this morning. I was pretty surprised I was flying hub to hub on United, I'm a 1K. I was number eight on the upgrade list and cleared on a completely full cabin. And it was first flight of the morning which was odd to me. I don't know how they somehow had eight no shows for first flight of the morning. Sure, there are no shows in the morning. You guys know that, but eight no shows and they upgraded eight people in the back of the bus to the front of and in a completely full flight.

Julian Kheel: Also, Richard, I recently flew Atlanta Detroit and got upgraded into a Delta one suite on the A350.

Richard Kerr: Whoa.

Julian Kheel: So I'm just saying, maybe you should reconsider your options.

Richard Kerr: I won't, but that's cool. I don't need to go to Detroit.

Ed Pizza: Well, this was a crazy year for me from a travel standpoint, you guys know, I sort of inaudible, I dove into the Delta pool to see if I could get a running start on some lifetime status with Delta. And I ended up with both Delta diamond and United 1K again. And I think the silliness to Summer's point about how, like who knows what promos are going to come out. I didn't do anything differently than I normally needed to do for business travel. I traveled only when I needed to travel. I always picked the airline that made the most sense. And I looked this up I took just stunning. I had 32 total segments on United. Anyone them want to guess how many premier qualifying points I had from 32 segments?

Richard Kerr: What's the premier qualifying point again?

Summer Hull: Oh, God.

Ed Pizza: Adopt-

Summer Hull: Get the encyclopedia.

Ed Pizza: Quote to quote dollar spent on most things but not all things.

Julian Kheel: I can't guess because I don't understand how it looks.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. So essentially it's a dollar for most things, but not a couple of cat, like dot not taxes, not seat upgrades, stuff like that. So like 32 flights-

Richard Kerr: Can you buy first class two so...

Ed Pizza: Sometimes, it just depends on if it's discounted, like not if it's crazy, it was 900 bucks this morning to come from Chicago to Dallas. I'm not paying 900 bucks for an hour.

Richard Kerr: Really? inaudible. I would say 20,000.

Ed Pizza: 23,000 PQPs. So I don't even know-

Richard Kerr: Was a good guess.

Ed Pizza: Well I didn't spend-

Summer Hull: Well a Lot of those are fake news this year on United.

Ed Pizza: Right. Exactly. Yeah. I don't think I spent 10 grand on United this year-

Summer Hull: You probably did it.

Ed Pizza: ... definitely that so. Yeah. So it's amazing. I almost doubled the requirement for PQPs just based on the timing of when these promos are. So to Summer's point I think, we really don't know what's going to happen next year and Summer, you could very easily be back at 1K or you could be out of luck.

Summer Hull: Yeah, totally. I mean, I think it's so hard to predict the future these days, but I think that it's probably, I don't fall all the way back to gold. It'll just be, do I land between platinum and 1K because it's a struggle bust for me to hit 1K this year, even with the promos and the reduced stuff. So yeah. I mean, I'm not as fancy as you though Ed, so I'm just sweeping up across.

Julian Kheel: I disagree with that. I disagree-

Ed Pizza: I disagree with that too yeah.

Summer Hull: If you all can see me with my unicorn-

Julian Kheel: Way more fancy than Ed, way more fancy than Ed.

Richard Kerr: I just pulled up my stats said I took two United flights and I earned 251 PQPs this year.

Ed Pizza: Wow. Congratulations.

Richard Kerr: Pretty big baller here. Yeah.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. I think what I learned about the Delta ecosystem is just how powerful credit cards can really be in terms of earning status there. I ended the year with over 200,000 MQMs. I mean that's just, obviously I have a lot of business card spend, but I mean you can very easily spend your way to Delta top tier status. And I mean with rollover, I mean I'm essentially done for diamond for next year if I choose to hit one of the spend requirements.

Richard Kerr: Now that's what the programs are hoping for. I mean this entire American ecosystem next year is put as much spend on that co brand card as possible. Make us as much money as you can. You can get on a plane if you want to or not, we'll still take your credit card spend and make money off you that way.

Summer Hull: I mean, and frankly, if you don't get on the plane, then they win even more in some ways, because they're not giving you any perks at all, then you're doing this all for nothing.

Richard Kerr: And you cost them less fuel with your weight, so.

Julian Kheel: And I think it's interesting because at this point now obviously United and American have both changed their programs so that actual distance no longer matters. Will Delta do the same in 2022? I don't know. I have no insight on this, like no inside track, but my guess is yes. I think we're going to see some changes from Delta in 2022. That will go into effect in 2023. Again, totally a guess. I don't know anything.

Richard Kerr: My question then is why has United made their credit card spend so weak for elite status?

Ed Pizza: It's always been that way. Been that way for a long time. And I would say side note, I do think that Richard was calling Julian fat when he was talking about his weight on the plane-

Richard Kerr: I was talking about you Ed and-

Ed Pizza: Just one-third.

Richard Kerr: ... you weighed one-third as much as me, so.

Summer Hull: So if you go back in time, I'm going to just break up the fight here. If you go back in time, United when it had the continental side of it anyways, I actually had a card that was pretty good on the spend side.

Ed Pizza: Yeah, the presidential card.

Summer Hull: Right.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. And still exists.

Summer Hull: It does. But I have been hearing rumors from people who have it, that it may be getting watered down, but don't quote me on that.

Ed Pizza: You just did.

Summer Hull: It's okay. But I will say that they did ramp up the spend you can earn from cards this year. It's just at such a slow pace. You earn 500 of those PQPs for like 12,000 in spending.

Ed Pizza: Yeah.

Summer Hull: So they increased the number, but it still requires a whole lot of swiping.

Ed Pizza: They virtually doubled the amount of PQPs you can earn from the credit card and they're still so far behind everybody else it's not funny. And I think the other thing when you talk about American, I'm going to be really curious to see how this all pans out for them because if I put the same spend on Delta next year, setting aside that the fact that the global upgrades have been devalued, I get to choose all of the choice rewards I want in the Delta medallion benefits, just like a regular diamond and with American, if I don't fly 30 segments, I get squadush, which I think is a big difference.

Richard Kerr: I'm still not that hung up on it. I mean, global upgrade certificate is not being upgraded to business. I don't really care about those anymore. I mean, there was the allure as you paid the chief sooner not basic economy, but catch a good, fair deal and now you're in a $5,000, $6,000 business class seat. Now you're in a premium economy seat. That's not applicable to the vast majority of times that you're going to use these status. So the choice benefits to all.

Ed Pizza: It was the allure for American. Unfortunately it was never the allure for United because they made you buy a W whiskey class fair or higher so you essentially bought a higher class fair to play the upgrade lottery, which is why the certificates were always useless to me.

Richard Kerr: Yeah.

Ed Pizza: All right. So let's talk hotel status real quickly. And so we can ignore Julian for a few more minutes.

Julian Kheel: As usual. Yeah, go ahead.

Ed Pizza: So Summer, did you end up with any meaningful hotel status this year?

Summer Hull: Yeah. So I've had inaudible platinum for years. It was even easier to re-earn this year, even though-

Ed Pizza: No, we said meaningful.

Summer Hull: I know, you're putting me in the corner with Julian. Except for when I'm at Ritz-Carlton properties. I actually do get value out of Marriott's platinum status, but I added Hyatt Globalist back to my list and that status is truly amazing. And I have missed it and I was able to quickly re-earn it at the beginning of the year when they had sort of some elite promos that stacked on one another. And so, yeah, I've been enjoying the heck out of that one. We don't yet know what Hyatt's doing next year. So I have no clue if I'll be able to keep that. If they go back to the regular 60 nights, my odds are slim, but it is a joy to have it while I have it.

Ed Pizza: Amen. Mr. Kerr, where'd you end up on hotel status?

Richard Kerr: Yeah, I stayed three nights in Marriott this year, including one, two nights ago and I had platinum status again, thanks to credit card nights. That won't be the case next year. I've closed almost every single one of my Marriott cards except one, which has been fine. And then I've lived at the Hotel 50 Bowery since I started working at Bilt in May. So I have 65 organic button bed nights with Hyatt this year. And it's just been fantastic. Every single state proves to me again and again why Hyatt is so far superior compared to everybody else. I do have Hilton diamond through the Surpass Card. My annual fee just hit. I actually don't think I'm going to keep that card open next year, even though it's a fantastic card. I stayed out of Hilton twice this year. I am not going to get $450 of benefits out of that. So I'll just stick with Hyatt for now because it's wherever I need to go. And we'll see what happens.

Julian Kheel: And for the record kids listening to the podcast, if you're staying at Hotel 50 Bowery ask for the Richard rate, okay. It's like the Rogers rate, it's similar, but anybody can get it. Just ask for the Richard rate.

Richard Kerr: Yeah, I tweeted about last year, that hotel has just been absolutely fantastic. One of the few businesses that I feel like still understands how hospitality works, taking such great care of all the Bilt employees. I can't say enough about that place. If you go into New York, you want to stay in Chinatown downtown, go to Hotel 50 Bowery.

Summer Hull: It really is great. Even if you don't intentionally want to spend time in Chinatown, even though it is a really fun part of the city, it's still a great hotel at a great rate. So totally agree with Kerr for once in my life.

Richard Kerr: What do you mean? We agree a lot of the time.

Summer Hull: I get it, twice, it's at least twice.

Richard Kerr: What, I was like wait a minute.

Summer Hull: It's at least twice we've agreed. The other's probably about Disney.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. We, briefly interrupt this show to point out the fact that Summer is usually the one breaking up the fights, not starting them.

Richard Kerr: Yeah what in the world?

Summer Hull: Oh. The week before the holidays, if you're a parent and you have kids in little schools, you're almost guaranteed to be losing your mind with the number of parties and themed and trinket. So that's where we're at ladies and gentlemen.

Ed Pizza: Ladies and gentlemen. Yeah. And for hotel status for me, I ended up a Globalist again. This is the first year in a while that I did not max out at a hundred nights. I ended up with 75 nights and that was due to a couple of things. Credit card spend obviously helps me get there, but I'm really enjoying resorts world in Vegas and it's a Hilton property. And so I stopped staying at the MGM proper because I just really like Resorts World. And so that sort of took away. Some of my Hyatt volumes, still got me to Hyatt Globalist. I do have Marriott Titanium Elite. The app says I had 93 nights. I'm pretty sure I had something like, five or six paid nights. So I'm not sure how I ended up with 93, some combination of credit cards and bonuses and all that other stuff.

Summer Hull: That's great Math. I really like the way math worked for you.

Richard Kerr: How do you lose track of 80 elite qualifying nights?

Ed Pizza: I canceled a couple of Marriott cards, so there's that. I think I got a bonus. Wasn't there a bonus from Marriott at the beginning of the year. Didn't they bulk us up to start the year. If you got some, you got head start?

Summer Hull: But like not that many.

Ed Pizza: I only had a couple of paid Marriott days and honestly like even awards stays were thin this year for Marriott. I had the one when we did the challenge at Swan Reserve. Maybe I had like a single night some, oh, I did. I had a single night when I picked up that damn RV in Michigan. And then Hilton, I did have diamond again with a staggering 199 nights is what the app says based on some employee bookings that we've done that got credit to my account, which was pretty awesome. Titanium elite is my lifetime status. Hyatt Globalist is a lifetime status for me. So I'll obviously have both of those again next year. Either this year or next year is my last year for lifetime diamond in Hilton.
And I intend to keep staying at Resorts World when I go to Vegas. So I think that one will stick regardless. So from a hotel status standpoint, I'll definitely be focusing on Hyatt everywhere, other than Vegas next year, and Hilton at the Conrad Resorts World. For what it's worth the rates there at the Conrad if you go through somebody who has access to the inspirada program, they're pretty darn awesome. I'm consistently paying about a hundred bucks a night with a pretty decent food and beverage contribution. And the restaurant's there. As Summer knows, are pretty darn awesome.

Summer Hull: Can confirm and the speakeasy is really fun so fit that in your schedule too.

Ed Pizza: Oh, that thing is awesome.

Summer Hull: Yeah.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. Oh, sad panda on Hello Kitty they stopped serving food.

Summer Hull: What?

Ed Pizza: They had a couple really cool, they had like tuna appetizer, like two or three really awesome dishes and like one cool dessert and they're all gone.

Summer Hull: Oh, okay, so just drink there. That's fine. We can suffer through.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. You can still drink there. All right, Julian, you're relevant again. How do you feel about that?

Julian Kheel: I question that premise.

Ed Pizza: All right. So as you look forward to next year, I mean, obviously you've had a bunch of new cards in the mix, Bilt rewards MasterCard, Capital One Venture X, and then all the other stuff that's in your wallet. What do you think is going to be at the top of your wallet next year for where you're going to be putting your spending?

Julian Kheel: I'm sorry, what was that first one? The Bilt, I'm not familiar with that word, what is that?

Ed Pizza: B-I-L-T-

Julian Kheel: What's that?

Richard Kerr: If I would be able to turn everything-

Ed Pizza: ... M-O-S-K-I-T-O, moskito.

Julian Kheel: I would get a Bilt card. I don't have rent, but I would absolutely get-

Ed Pizza: You don't have a Bilt card?

Julian Kheel: I don't have a Bilt card, so.

Ed Pizza: All right. Show of hands. Since we're an audio show, only how many people here have a Bilt Rewards MasterCard?

Julian Kheel: I hear two hands going up.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. I hear two hands going up too. That would be me and Mr. Kerr.

Richard Kerr: That's fine, we're going to wear you down. Just wait until next year.

Julian Kheel: I would actually really like to get a Venture X and I have not been able to yet, because I am in the process of closing a mortgage, but yes.

Richard Kerr: How many months now? Way to reason man.

Julian Kheel: This is, listen, this is...

Summer Hull: Oh my God this is my problem too.

Julian Kheel: That's a sore spot, Richard don't, let's not go there. That's a sore spot. But yeah, I think I started that mortgage in 2019 pre-pandemic, but when I can apply, I will try and grab a Venture X and that would probably be at least for a while, my primary card and my wallet because of the two X and et cetera. I would though, I currently have a regular Venture and frankly, I don't see any reason to keep them both. So I would probably cancel my regular Venture and just use the Venture X. Beyond that I always have a Blue Business Plus in my wallet is my go to if I want Amex points. But right now I have few too many Amex points, more than I need. Let's say it that way.

Summer Hull: Is there such a thing, I'm not familiar-

Richard Kerr: Not with simple within a first choice, nope.

Julian Kheel: Yeah. And they close the hit very quickly, but yes.

Richard Kerr: It's a few hours too late this morning.

Julian Kheel: You snooze, you lose Richard, so.

Richard Kerr: Yeah.

Ed Pizza: So on the Venture X, as you mentioned, I think that especially for someone who doesn't focus on hotel status, like you, that card, assuming that the portal and I haven't really played around with the portal, I did get a Venture X, but I haven't played around with the portal yet. Assuming the portal is good. That can be a really solid card for you.

Julian Kheel: Yeah. I have played with the portal actually, because I have access to it with my Venture and it is, it is build primarily for flights or at least with flights in mind as the first thing because of the hopper partnership and things like that, which is great because you can also use it for flights and you'll get the same price that you basically get anywhere else. So you can use that $300 credit really easily, but it certainly does have a hotel component to it. And you're exactly right. That's a good way if you're not going to do hotel status and you're going to be a free agent for hotels. That's a great way to play it and use your credit that way.

Ed Pizza: Yeah I looked into it, I applied for and got the Venture X and I had this recent Disney trip that I did with my son and so I looked there and they had the same list of hotels that chase ultimate rewards had on their portal to be able to book so it wasn't the full list of Disney properties. It was a couple values, like a moderate and then a couple of the deluxes, but enough. And I think, especially for somebody like me who loves Disney, well, all of us love Disney. 10X on Disney is pretty smoking.

Julian Kheel: Absolutely. It's interesting because I think we all agree coming we are at two years into the pandemic or whatever it is. And we're all sitting on a bunch of-

Ed Pizza: Seven years.

Julian Kheel: Seven, feels like it. We're all sitting on a bunch of free night certificates from various hotel cards and they're not usable. And it seems like it's always a fight or a wait to extend them and see if they're going to be extended. If you just have these credits that you can use through Ventures travel portal, the one on the Chase Sapphire preferred, I did end up converting my reserve down to a preferred. So now I've got that $50 hotel credit that comes every year. They're just much easier to use. You're not tied to one particular hotel. You don't have to worry about how many points it's worth, et cetera categories, off peak, peak, et cetera. It just seems like an easier way through. So I think going forward, that's probably, I will likely cancel my Marriott card when the fee comes due, which is coming up here shortly and I won't have any hotel cards and I'll just roll with any credits that I can get.

Ed Pizza: All right Summer, what's going to be top of your wallet in 2022.

Summer Hull: So good-

Ed Pizza: Chasing premier?

Summer Hull: So it's a good choice if you want the Venture X, that lounge PS and DFW is amazing. Loved it. Loved every minute I was there. I'm just not there enough to warrant getting a Venture X right now, but I would do it for the bonus except for I'm about to be in mortgage purgatory like Julian. So I think that my lineup is going to be similar to what it's been. It'll be a mix of different things. I'm still team Chase Sapphire Reserve for traveling, some dining. I love my Amex gold for 4X on dining.
I still use my Amex every day preferred to get one and a half. And a lot of things. Sadly, my United Club Card that earned one and a half got switched to their new product. So that stunk, but I'll still max out my freedom 5X when I can. So it's a hodgepodge for me. I also have the Venture so I can pick up 2X there when I want. So I don't have one card usually, unless I'm working on a welcome bonus, but I do sort of the same mix I've been doing for a little while now. I'm waiting for Bilt to mix it up and makes me want to apply for that card, even though I'm a home owner.

Richard Kerr: Wearing you down. Wait till next year.

Summer Hull: I'm waiting.

Ed Pizza: Oh, so Mr. Kerr is keeping stuff from us again.

Richard Kerr: Yes.

Ed Pizza: Bad habit man.

Richard Kerr: It's legal requirement not a hip.

Ed Pizza: Yeah, but you're supposed to spill the beans to us. Nobody listens.

Richard Kerr: We will.

Ed Pizza: It's okay.

Richard Kerr: Will everybody keep listening to miles to go. We'll talk about some good stuff next year.

Ed Pizza: All right. So what's going to be top of your wallet other than the Bilt Rewards MasterCard?

Richard Kerr: Yeah. I mean that 3X dining is a no-brainer. I mean, this where's always going to go on the Bilt card as well as probably non-bonus spend. But yeah, I was actually thinking about this. We hit the minimum spin requirement on Emily's Venture X. So I'm not working on any welcome bonuses right now. I've actually closed a lot of cards lately. Got rid of a bunch of annual fees. Didn't see any continued value. Just talked about closing the Hilton Surpass, I mean not Surpass but Aspire and I don't know, it feels like I'm almost starting over. It's like I have so many cards, like we haven't hardly applied for anything. That's how I only got approved for the Venture X.
I got approved for the Venture with 100K back in January. I'm not really sure, I could apply for a bunch of cards and work on a whole lot of sign up bonuses, which maybe the way I go, if not, I got to replenish some Amex points after some transfers we've done and now canceled all those flights. So I have all my miles sitting in so many different airline accounts every day preferred will probably be the card that's top of the wallet. Emily doesn't play the points of miles game anymore. After I think 10 years she's like just give me a freaking card and I'm going to only use this card. So Amex every day preferred will probably be top of her wallet for the first quarter of next year.

Summer Hull: Well, if you need more Amex points, I heard Julian has too many-

Richard Kerr: Yeah he said he has too many.

Summer Hull: So you all could probably work something out.

Julian Kheel: Listen, I am more than happy to illegally sell them to you. What? No, that's not what I said.

Richard Kerr: Amex probably is listening? Don't say that. Okay I was thinking, refinance twice and I forgot I was in the middle of a refinance in 2020, I opened a world of Hyatt Card during the refinance, the underwriter just wrote and said, "Hey, did you open a new revolving line of credit?" I went, "Yeah, I forgot. I opened up a credit card." She went, okay. And then closed the refinance. So, I'm not sold you got to do this whole pause thing, I'm really...

Julian Kheel: I, believe me, it's been so long. I've thought about that. I just don't really... Since I started this mortgage several years ago, rates have gone up and I don't really want to lose the rate by doing something that, I can wait-

Richard Kerr: inaudible don't cost now.

Julian Kheel: ... hopefully just another. I'm also at 024, it's been so long. So yeah, I'm going to come out. It's going to be a huge party.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. I was in the same boat when I refinaced during the pandemic where we just sort of waited. I just didn't want to take the chance because the rate was so awesome. From a card standpoint, I did get the Venture X knock wood. I was at lucky enough to have a furniture purchase for one of our restaurants that took care of the $10,000 for the signup bonus.

Richard Kerr: Lucky you.

Ed Pizza: So not working on any signup bonuses right now. I almost decided that I was going to get rid of the Cap One Spark miles card, which I think I still may, at this point, because Venture X has as primary car rental insurance as well. But I think Summer really turned me on to the potential for the Disney path to use the Cap One points to erase Disney purchases.
So I think that's going to be in the mix for a lot of my earn bonus spend for businesses, stuff that doesn't earn bonuses elsewhere. I really thought Delta would be a path I would go to on again this year. But quite frankly, I think the global upgrade certificates is a pretty meaningful change for diamond. So I'm not necessarily sure I need diamond. In which case, do I really want to try to earn 6 million MQMs to get lifetime status with them over the next, 10 or 15 years? I still really like my Ink Cards, my grandfathered Ink Cards that earn 5X on a bunch of categories that are really useful for us, for like Amazon purchases for the restaurants and stuff like that by buying gift cards at office depot and things like that.
So I think Ink is still going to be top of my wallet from a business standpoint. Richard I talked about last week, I'm likely going to dump my Amex Biz Platinum card. I don't see a lot out of value there, still like the Amex ecosystem. I still think they're great. I think the co-branded cards have a lot of value for me. And I think Amex Gold's a really solid card for, as you guys said for restaurant and groceries, that's a good card for me. And then lastly, just because I'm me, the Costco card is in heavy rotation for me on a weekly basis. Yeah. So I think that's where I am on cards.

Julian Kheel: Yeah. Amex Gold remains my go-to when it comes to restaurants and groceries, I think it's a no brainer and it's easy to make that feedback with, because I use Uber Eats and GrubHub and so it's easy to make that feedback. To go back to one second and with all due respect to Richard and Bilt who really have created a terrific program right out of the gate, I think Capital One deserves a lot of credit for what they've done to their miles program in the last few years, because it's come from being pretty much something that nobody really thought about from an advanced perspective to a full blown really solid program. Yes, they're still really missing a domestic airline and that's a tough situation, but if you have some knowledge of even intermediate points transfer techniques, it's a terrific art. I mean it's a terrific program and the way you can transfer within the cards to other people, they have really, I think they deserve a lot of credit for seeing the environment and seeing the market and saying we need to step up and make some changes here.

Richard Kerr: I know, I agree with it. And a lot of the inspiration for the stuff that I did in my first three months is things we learned from Capital One and yeah, a complete shout out. And I've said it multiple times before, besides I still think Bilt is the most valuable points, but if Capital One added a domestic airline partner, I think they would take the top spot away.

Julian Kheel: That is the one missing piece. Yeah.

Summer Hull: Agree. But what's so cool about all of that is, with you all canceling cards and not have too many points, whatever, it can be easy to think that this whole thing is kind of past its prime, but it is the programs like Capital One and Bilt that are investing and creating and keeping things excited that make me excited that this is still our hobby and that the best isn't behind us, we're in it. And it's still amazing. And there's still, I think, great new things on the horizon as Richard Kerr is hinting at which I don't know what he's talking about, but I trust him more than not.

Richard Kerr: See one of the few times we agree right Summer, that's where it is.

Summer Hull: That's the second time.

Richard Kerr: I went from zero inch miles to now 400,000 and that's a lot of spend on that based on three cards. And the changes Capital One's made has me invested in the program now.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. And I would say the one thing I would revise to Julian's point, all due respect to Bilt and where Cap One is, on the flip side, I think, I really did think that Citi was going to continue the thank you transfer partnership with America. I really thought that there was going to be a bridge there. Without that, even though I don't have any rent expense, I'm going to continue to pull out the Bilt Rewards card for personal on bonus spend so that I can have American Airlines miles at my disposal. Maybe I change it next year if there's some bigger incentive to earn. What the heck are they calling the new currency, loyalty? What are loyalty points now for American to get status?

Julian Kheel: They're loyalty points.

Richard Kerr: Loyalty points yeah.

Ed Pizza: I can't keep track of all the darn names. Can't we just stick with the old names, I'm old. I don't remember all this stuff. It's crazy. So, if there's a huge incentive to get an American Airlines Card, if there was some sort of accelerator in the terms of number loyalty points I could earn, maybe I'd consider. But to the point earlier about needing 30 segments on American to really get all the other benefits, I think I just want to accumulate American miles, Bilt gives me the flexibility to park them at Bilt Rewards until I need to transfer them to American. But if I'm not flying American, I can push them over to Hyatt, which I think is another great choice. So I think Bilt will... I'm still not taking the Bilt Card to Costco, but yeah, but that's my 2 cents.

Richard Kerr: That's your final penny?

Ed Pizza: My final one penny. All right. Well, we are running up against some hard stops for the people on my screen. And we are running up against the end of the year. So Summer tell folks where they can find you when you're not hanging out here, chilling with us.

Summer Hull: Definitely. Yeah. You can find me behind the scenes and writing stories every day at the pointsky.com, but also on social. I'm still on Instagram unlike Mr. Julian Kheel, @mommypoints, M-O-M-M-Y points or on Twitter with the same handle @mommypoints.

Richard Kerr: Or on the back of a golf court at the closest margarita stand, on Fridays or Tuesdays.

Summer Hull: Only on Thursdays or Fridays.

Ed Pizza: Look at that, it's Thursday. How about that? Summer has a hard stop for the margarita card. Mr. Kerr, you guys know where we can find Mr. Kerr but what the heck, man, give it a shout out.

Richard Kerr: Always @KerrPoints, K-E-R-R where you will find the vast majority of my material about being a dad and kids in some points in miles, and then check out everything we're doing at biltrewards.com.

Julian Kheel: Also, you can find them on the Miles to Go podcast pretty much every week, right?

Richard Kerr: Pretty much every week. You can find me right here. Yeah.

Julian Kheel: Yeah.

Ed Pizza: Well, and I just want to call out that you were cheating on us and if you guys have time listening to the Miles to Memories podcast from a few weeks ago, where Kerr was on talking about, all things of the world, the Bilt Rewards, RVing, Disney, all that stuff, and even mentioned how much I love to RV.

Richard Kerr: Oh yes.

Ed Pizza: But yes, we love Sean's podcast and you can definitely hear, if you absolutely positively need to hear more Richard, he always there-

Richard Kerr: 45 minutes-

Ed Pizza: ... worth of it. And last, but certainly not least the man who has conquered Instagram and hit top tier status there. Mr. Julian Kheel.

Julian Kheel: That's really what it is. I'm done. I finished Instagram. I finished it. I'm done with it. It's good.

Ed Pizza: You came inaudible-

Julian Kheel: I did it. Yeah. Exactly. But you can still find me on twitter @juliankheel or at cnn.com/underscored for all of our personal finance coverage, including credit cards and travel rewards programs.

Ed Pizza: All right guys, that's where the experts sit on elite status and credit cards for next year. We're going to need to look back on this and see how much of this actually comes true based on whatever left hand turns are coming up for us. We've got lots more stuff coming up in new year, including unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, Mr. Kerr coming back to visit more frequently on a regular basis. And we've got some listener questions that we did not get to today, but we will get to next week, until we upload again. We've got Miles to Go.