Lazy Points of the Week
Story of the week: Dosh is shutting down 😭
For a while, Dosh was one of the best deals running, offering a dining program that allowed you to double dip on rewards with programs offered by airlines and hotels, while also offering its own set of earning opportunities with retail stores and hotels.
Alas, this good thing is coming to an end, with qualifying purchases no longer available, and the app set to officially shutter on February 28th. If you’ve earned any cash back from Dosh, you can initiate a transfer to your Venmo account until February 23rd. The $57 I earned in a few years of using Dosh arrived in my Venmo account about 3-4 business days after initiating the transfer, so you’ll want to get that process started as soon as possible.
This is a big loss for fans of lazy point-earning opportunities, but fear not—we’ll be on the lookout for the next great opportunity to pick up easy points on your pre-existing spending.
Other card and points news
Earn extra AA miles on Red Cross donations. In the wake of the Southern California fires, American Airlines is offering 10 AAdvantage miles for every dollar donated to Red Cross relief efforts through February 29th, with a minimum donation of $25. This is a great move from AA, and it makes a great way to use your charitable donations to fuel your next journey. Or, if you’re feeling extra charitable, you may be able to take those AA miles and donate them as well.
Earn extra rewards on your Chase card. Do you have a Chase card? Check their “My Bonus” link to see if you are eligible for extra rewards. Personally, my IHG card is now (temporarily) earning 7x points on up to $1000 in spending on dining, gas, and groceries:
The card normally earns 5x, 5x, and 3x on those categories, respectively. IHG points aren’t super valuable, but with earning rates this high, it makes my go-to gas card even better, makes the IHG Premier my grocery card of choice, and even makes it competitive for some restaurant spending (although the Bilt card is still slightly stronger there for me).
Even if it doesn’t change your spending habits, go check out the link to make sure you’re getting the most points and miles possible with your Chase cards. (h/t Daily Drop)
Tax implications for credit card rewards? Tax season is coming. What do all those points and miles mean for your tax return? I’m not a CPA, but ThePointsGuy has a nice write-up for you.
Choice Privileges makes rooms easier to book. I’m not a frequent user of Choice Hotels, but one thing I love about the program is the availability and price of hotels in Japan, where it has long been possible to book rooms at many hotels for just 8,000 points per night. I used points transferred from my Capital One Venture X to book almost our entire upcoming stay in Japan. One drawback was that you could only book rooms with a 100-day window from your stay, so my booking entailed some Google Calendar reminders and some hoping that rooms would be available by the time I was allowed to book.
Good news for my future trips, though, as, according to TPG, Choice is expanding the booking window from those 100 days to 50 weeks and apparently lowering the price of hotels in Japan to 8,000 points across the board.
Central Tokyo
Amex, Capital, and Wells Fargo are 1:1 transfer partners with Choice, while Citi offers an 1:2 transfer ratio, so if you earn transferable points with any of these banks, you might want to think about Choice as a redemption option.
Sign up bonus of the week
Nothing exciting to report this week, so I’m not just going to make something up; the highlighted deals below are still around and still solid. If you’re just getting started, you can always go with a reliable bonus like that on the Venture X: the bonus is (almost) always 75k miles, and that’s a minimum of $750 worth of travel. Also nice: you can support the blog and get that bonus while using our referral link.
Previously highlighted bonuses with offers still available:
•35k + up to 30k more on the World of Hyatt card
•70k on the Hawaiian Airlines Mastercard
•30, 60, 70, or 90k miles on United Airlines credit cards
•75,000 points on the Citi Strata Premier
Lazy tip of the week
Do you like taking your shoes off to go through security? Neither do I. That’s why I love TSA PreCheck (and getting it for free). But sometimes it doesn’t show up on your boarding pass. Before you resign yourself to the body scanner, check out this TPG article about what to do if your boarding pass isn’t showing your PreCheck status.