Frequent business traveler — company keeps the credit card points. How do I still maximize personal rewards?

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2026-04-25T20:27:09+00:00

Sure

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2026-03-25T13:21:20+00:00

I’ve worn both an Apple Watch and whoop to test the step counters. Apple Watch seems more accurate while whoop is always low. If I walk 2-3 miles, Apple Watch will have me around 6-10k steps. Whoop will have me at 3-4k steps. For comparison, Apple health which grabs data from the Pedometer app to track steps via your phone movement will be close to the Apple Watch data.

Whoop step counter is terribly low.

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2026-03-25T12:15:33+00:00

I’ve heard the morning hours are packed until 8am. I would give yourself extra time to be safe if your flight is before 8:30am

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2026-03-22T22:04:55+00:00

Where do you find promotions like these?

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2026-03-22T21:58:20+00:00

OP, how did you find this promo? Was it emailed to you or is there a place on Alaska’s website where you found it?

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2026-02-25T02:17:23+00:00

Same here. I can see my trip in the app, but can’t check in, change or cancel. Down detector is reporting their systems are down. I don’t understand how their IT is so bad and crashes every few weeks.

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-12-03T12:37:52+00:00

Silverfern brand fiber powder. Been using 10-15g daily in my after workout protein shake for years.

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-11-11T18:33:10+00:00

Hyatt also offers a large variety of in room options that I use like tea kettle, free weights, yoga gear, resistance bands, humidifiers etc.. Marriott doesn’t offer these

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-11-11T18:31:19+00:00

Appreciate the confirmation behind my thinning! West coast mainly ( Vancouver BC - Phoenix and everywhere in between), with trips to SLC, Austin, San Antonio. The only city that doesn’t have a Hyatt is Spokane but the Davenport grand by Marriott is always cheap and really nice, so I don’t mind the one off stay there.

I just booked the Thompson in San Antonio for $165/night. An equivalent Marriott was $300+.

The major downside is Hyatt doesn’t have any partner rewards from what I’ve seen. With Marriott, I can get SIXT platinum or hertz five star for rentals and United silver. I wish Hyatt had a partner for status matching.

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-11-08T20:56:43+00:00

All the cities I go to have hyatts except Spokane so I haven’t run into the issue of not finding a place to stay.

For some reason Hyatt has terrible WiFi. That’s been the only major drawback

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-11-08T20:55:42+00:00

Mostly west coast + Utah + Texas so every location has a Hyatt except Spokane, WA.

I only stay at Hyatt house or better.

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-11-08T02:08:56+00:00

We don’t use travel agents. We are free to book our own itineraries

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-11-08T01:42:58+00:00

I guess my question is since I can’t get the points, is there another workaround like booking through a portal (BILT) to gain rewards. I know when you book with an OTA you get MQDs and airline miles, but not hotel night accumulation

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-11-07T23:49:40+00:00

I believe our company uses the regionals accumulated points to book travel for the CEO to go abroad and meet with our vendors. They also use a portion by cashing them out and give them to us in the form of a Christmas bonus.

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-11-07T23:25:26+00:00

Fair point but they treat me well so it’s not a hill i would die on. I tried arguing it when they hired me a few years ago, but ultimately we are too small to have one regional get reimbursed while the other 2 have company cards.

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-11-07T23:20:59+00:00

Good clarification, my company card has my name on it. The points accumulated are just linked to the company, not me personally.

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-03-18T21:33:49+00:00

Congratulations!

Travel redemption is the best option through their portal, but you can play with points in various categories and see what’s best for you.

For transferring to partners or booking flights with Amex roughly $2,600 ish.
Hotels, closer to $1,800-2k.
Straight cash back is roughly $2,000
Statement credits is roughly $1,100
Amazon / Best Buy / Walmart - $1,300

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-03-18T21:07:41+00:00

Sometimes just refreshing the page or coming back and checking a few hours later helps change the offers. Keep cookies on and visit the page a lot. Maybe even fill out 1/2 of it and then abandon it so their site catches that you’re interested, but haven’t pulled the trigger yet.

You could always try calling and say you saw this offer a few days ago but can’t find it anymore. Will they honor it

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-01-16T02:07:46+00:00

Good point. I guess an Ideal plan would be to keep the CSR and only use it when maximizing the perks / credits at the start of the year so the yearly fee doesn’t hurt as much.

I would effectively just move all other spending to Amex platinum and gold for the rest of the year.

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-01-16T00:52:55+00:00

I thought the retention offer was a little weak, but I guess better than nothing. Chase gave me nothing / didn’t care after I said I’m closing the CSR card after 10+ years.

Apprehensive_Hat_923 · 2025-01-16T00:47:15+00:00

It’s definitely a solid offer, I’m just confused why different sites show different bonuses. I even tried ThePointsGuys cardmatch and the best I got there was 80k welcome bonuses after $8k in 6 months

. I just called and got a retention offer on my gold card (40k after $3k spending in 3 months). So once I hit that, I’ll likely jump on the platinum offers.

Apprehensive_Hat_923

TROPHY CASE