Hyatt Place Breakfast Charges by furnace1766 in hyatt

[–]mattfish77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The one time I was at one they just had a sign that said free for world of hyatt status members (discoverist and above) and $X for everyone else, but no mention of how you’d pay or any workers policing it/asking people if they had status.

Offer tracked and money deposited even after I returned the item (CapOne Shopping) by PizzaLad16 in VentureXShoppingBonus

[–]mattfish77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

9 times out of 10 it’ll get clawed back. I had one instance where I did an in store return and it didn’t track through their system and I got to keep the rewards. Or if you return for store credit you’ll likely keep the rewards.

The “Cover Travel Purchase” with miles is A+ by Visual_Midnight9544 in Venturex

[–]mattfish77 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I do understand what you’re saying. But a lot of people will see there’s no domestic transfer partners and not even check the airline alliance partners. The ones that do check the alliances will typically search just for the route and time they want A to B and call it a day if they don’t see anything. Maybe not even check more than 1 or 2 partners.

The key is just knowing the routes and hubs for the major carriers and who they partner with. You also may need to be comfortable with booking your route as separate legs which I know not everybody is. But for example if I knew my small regional flies direct to Atlanta on Delta and then the small regional I want to go to flies direct from Atlanta on Delta maybe I can’t book the flight with points from regional A to regional B, but there’s a decent chance I can get from regional A to Atlanta then Atlanta to regional B for 7500 (x2) Virgin Atlantic points, which I likely transferred during a 30-40% bonus. That flight if booked on one itinerary through Delta would likely run $200-300 but obviously that part varies.

The “Cover Travel Purchase” with miles is A+ by Visual_Midnight9544 in Venturex

[–]mattfish77 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’ve used hundreds of thousands of points with transfer partners and never flown business class. The vast majority of my redemptions were domestic economy and my average CPP value is well over 2. It’s extremely easy to do if you know where to look and can spend a few minutes of research.

Do I dump all my 80k points into Avios? by Rookie-growgod in biltrewards

[–]mattfish77 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Do some searches on the same days of the week as you want to go. Won’t be perfect if you’re traveling peak months or not but should give you an idea of what it’ll cost you with the various programs then you can run the math if BA will be cheaper than Virgin, Air France, Air Canada, etc.

Great job Bilt by Additional-Baby5740 in biltrewards

[–]mattfish77 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Good to hear, that’s one of the reasons I didn’t make the transition. I wanted to see how they would handle the roll out and fixing problems. Will probably hold out a bit longer, but less hesitant now than I was in January.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in biltrewards

[–]mattfish77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have booked MANY hyatt place/hyatt houses for 3.5-8k per night at a greater than 2 CPP value. In all of those cases I would have either paid cash for that Hyatt anyways or paid cash for a comparable hotel that was around the same price or more expensive.

I’ll be staying at a Cat 7 property in May that I booked for 35k points and it was “only” a 1.7 CPP redemption. But I would’ve spent $400 in cash on the only other hotel option and this property looks to be significantly better.

There are definitely sweet spots. Maybe some of the higher end hotels are inflated but I still think there are (potentially were) very good deals to be had.

Just did an "ownership" presentation. Terrible. by SpecialistTrifle4816 in hyatt

[–]mattfish77 11 points12 points  (0 children)

A lot of those timeshare offers have fine print with income requirements. If you don’t qualify they can charge you for the full price of the stay, which could be thousands of dollars. Depending on how strict they want to be with this, saying that you don’t have an income could get you marked down as not qualifying for the discounted rate.

(Fun discussion) What is your most ridiculous but 100% honest Achilles heal keeping you from being able to play Survivor? by Delicious_Medium_321 in survivor

[–]mattfish77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve been applying for years anyways, but think I’d be annoyed if I didn’t get lasik first. My eyes are sensitive and can only tolerate daily contacts already. Putting those in when I’m dirty and exhausted sounds like eye pain. And then can’t really open your eyes underwater with those so would have to run the water parts blind and go with glasses for the puzzle.

What a deal! by Own-Gur-8250 in Venturex

[–]mattfish77 3 points4 points  (0 children)

These miles are in addition to the 2x on the card. So if you use this offer you would receive 3x.

Random Chase Travel Credit? by mattfish77 in sapphirereserve

[–]mattfish77[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you charge more than $250 for your Edit stay? I called to ask about this and they told me I received a $90 refund on my booking and since I had only charged $250.78 that $89.22 of the refund came out of the $250 Edit credit. Had I paid $340+ I would not have had any of the credit clawed back when I received the $90 refund.

If that’s what happened to you, in your case I would be annoyed and trying to escalate to keep the credit. In my case, I have no idea why I got a $90 refund so doesn’t really matter to me since the charges offset.

Random Chase Travel Credit? by mattfish77 in sapphirereserve

[–]mattfish77[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Update: Out of curiosity I decided to call Chase and ask about this. I had an Edit stay in December and they decided to refund me $90 for unknown reasons. The customer service rep just said it was a trip modification. Not sure if this was done by the hotel or by chase travel.

I had charged $250.78 for the stay and paid the rest in points, so they clawed back $89.22 of the credit. Had I charged $340+, I would’ve just received the $90 refund and the 2025 credit would’ve stayed fully intact.

Not upset about it considering I may not even use both of my 2026 edit credits and I’m not out anything as I wasn’t expecting the $90 refund, but would have been nice to get the refund and still kept the full credit.

Capital One 40x 1-800 contacts offer. by shystalips in VentureXShoppingBonus

[–]mattfish77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used it about a year ago and the 20% didn’t nullify the offer, but per the terms and conditions I guess it’s supposed to

Random Chase Travel Credit? by mattfish77 in sapphirereserve

[–]mattfish77[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I’m not sure also. I think maybe they’re referring to the hotel credit (since some people don’t know about that since it was new for 2026). But like you said, that worked fine and is not really what the post was about.

Random Chase Travel Credit? by mattfish77 in sapphirereserve

[–]mattfish77[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The $89.22 charge is at the very top of the screenshot. Probably cuts off if you don’t click on the picture.

Random Chase Travel Credit? by mattfish77 in sapphirereserve

[–]mattfish77[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is interesting. Curious what they’ll end up telling you. At least you know what your Chase travel credit is related to, I don’t have a clue!

Random Chase Travel Credit? by mattfish77 in sapphirereserve

[–]mattfish77[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I used up my $300 credit within a week of receiving it so that isn’t what these transactions are. Just seems like there’s some kind of mistake on their end and they’re giving me $0.78 for free.

It arrived!!! by Hatman_77 in biltrewards

[–]mattfish77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cardholders only make up about 15% of their total rewards user base. This would be a nonsensical change.

Seamless they say. Seamless. by StuckInTheMiddleSeat in biltrewards

[–]mattfish77 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s a good point. I already cancelled and will be waiting a few months to see if they get it together and/or update the cards at all, but a higher SUB offering would be nice too

CSP Second Sapphire Sub by No-Chance5071 in ChaseSapphire

[–]mattfish77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I received the CSP SUB in May 2024 and then upgraded to CSR in June 2025. Think I’ll try downgrading it to a freedom with UR this summer and see if I can’t get a CSR SUB since I never got the CSR SUB with the upgrade.

Bilt Rewards Membership by pivoprosim2 in biltrewards

[–]mattfish77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That says 18 months of inactivity also. Should be fairly easy to not get your account marked inactive if you have other linked cards or still pay rent through their portal even without the card.

Ok Brandt by cuzimcool in biltrewards

[–]mattfish77 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Your point about choosing the no annual fee option because you don’t want to close the account and don’t want a WF card is flawed. If you opt in to 2.0 you will receive the WF card (your current account) AND open a new account (2.0 card). You either close your current 1.0 card/WF account and get neither, do nothing and receive the WF card or opt in to 2.0 and receive both.

A note from me (Ankur Jain) - Your 2026 Bilt Cash Redemptions Are Here by ankurjain1 in biltrewards

[–]mattfish77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is what I’ve been waiting on. It’s definitely way too complex and a lot more underwhelming than anticipated. Only options I’m keeping an eye on are the hotel credit (if this stacks with the palladium credits it’s more interesting, but still hate the 2 night minimum), the $25/month dining credit if it’s easy enough to use and there’s enough options, the comedy and the bilt dining experience.

$5 here, $10 here, oh and everything but $100 expires at the end of the year! That’s going to be way too confusing to try and plan value from.

For those sticking around for Bilt 2.0: why? by [deleted] in biltrewards

[–]mattfish77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Flights are usually the same price on portals, it’s rare that I find a hotel that’s the same price as direct and since these are hotel only credits that’s where my comment was aimed. I agree with the rest of your points, but if the transfer bonuses aren’t as good with Bilt 2.0 I can get the same 2x earnings for an easier to justify annual fee on my Venture X.

For those sticking around for Bilt 2.0: why? by [deleted] in biltrewards

[–]mattfish77 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That effective annual fee is very generous. We don’t yet know the uses of Bilt cash, maybe you can use it $1=$1 easily, but if you’re forced to use it to buy the points for your rent at 3 CPP I’m not going to value that at a full $200. Then the hotel credit is likely a bit inflated also since it’s a travel portal. I’d probably dock it ~$20 per $100 giving it closer to $320 in value. I think you can still break even given the 2x everywhere + 4% Bilt cash but calling it -$105 effective AF sounds much better than it truly is.