Deep Dive: Bank Point Ecosystems

Author: Matthew January 31, 2024

The foundation of credit card hacking and traveling for free is ultimately all about the points. Chase, American Express, Capital One, and Citi are the 4 main banks who issues credit card reward points that can be transferred to airlines and hotels for great value. See how we got free flights and hotels last year in 2023 all on credit card points. Figuring out how to earn and use these points can be difficult, especially when you have these four ecosystems to play in. 

This blog post shares some generalizations of each reward program so you can have a better idea of which credit cards and banks to dive into. Obviously everybody's situation can be unique, so feel free to reach out to us to get our personalized plan and recommendations. 

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Generalizations

While we usually try to stay away making overarching principles to apply universally, we hope to share these broad strokes to help paint a picture of each rewards program's essence. Again, since these are generalizations, your own personal strategy might work better in terms of earning and using in one ecosystem over the other. 

Ability to Earn

American Express Lucrative spend, restrictive bonuses - American Express cards offer 4-5x back on a lot of key spending categories such as dining, groceries, and travel. So a lot of your everyday spending can go on these cards to earn points. However, Amex has a couple key limitations:

• Most of their cards have a lifetime restriction on sign-up bonuses so you can't get multiple bonuses. (However there are common exceptions out there)

• They don't have that many credit cards you can churn through - the main ones being the Platinum, Gold, Blue, Green and their business versions. 

Chase  Points do grow on trees - Chase probably has the easiest set up to earn through its wide gambit of cards and the ability to earn multiple sign-up bonuses. It's through the Chase Ink Business cards that really accelerated our pathway to a million Chase points in one year because of the 90,000 sign-up bonus and 40,000 referral points. Even on the personal side, the Chase Sapphire cards offer great bonuses that can be obtained very 4 years, and then the Freedom line has the best earn rate in bonuses and category spend. The only caution is the 5/24 rule, where Chase doesn't approve of any cards if you've gotten 5 or more personal cards in the last 24 months (2 years). 

Capital One Foundational - Capital One has a good base with my cards earning 1.5% to 2% back on all purchases. From a simplicity standpoint, earning points here is the easiest  since it requires little category management. The one restriction they have is the soft rule of only allowing users to hold 2 Capital One cards. 

Citi Good bonus categories - Citi bank has multiple cards that can provide a good foundation to earning; ranging from 2-5% on a lot of common spending categories. However, one of their flaws is that they don't really have referral bonuses, which limits two-player households in double-dipping bonuses.  

Ability to Use

Overall, the best way to use your points is by transferring to airlines partners. Award Travel's transfer partner matrix is the best way to see how you can transfer points to get the flight you want. 

American Express Intermediate - Amex's membership reward points basically have to be transferred out to airlines for any good value. If redeemed for cash back, each points is actually only worth 0.6 cents, instead of the normal 1 points - 1 cent  ratio like other cards. They do transfer to Hilton and other hotels, but generally it's not a great valuation, even when there is a transfer bonus of say, 50% extra points, the value is questionable. Because of this, Amex points are generally better for finding international trips with its plethora of transfer partners from Qantas to ANA and more. Domestically they transfer to Delta, but Delta points are called 'sky pesos' for a reason... their valuation is terrible. 

Chase Easy peasy - Chase is also one of the easiest places to redeem points. At the base level you can redeem for statement credit at a 1:1 ratio. On the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards, you can Pay Yourself Back at a 1.25 or 1.5 rate for some categories. However, again, the best value is earned through transferring to airlines, but now, also Hyatt. Hyatt redemptions usually go from 2-5x in value. Chase points also transfer to more domestic partners like Southwest and United to make it easy to transfer and find value there. They also transfer to similar international carriers as Amex, such as Air Canada, Air France, and British Airways, all which can book domestic flights through their respective airline partners. 

Capital One Intermediate/International - Capital One points can be very lucrative with some special sweet spots. For example, I was able to snag two business class seats to Brussels for only 90,000 points and $11.80 total last year by transferring to Turkish Airlines, which is NOT a partner with Amex or Chase. Capital One points can be redeemed for statement credit at 1:1 or to a lot of international carrier partners. So it using Capital One points takes a little searching/practice to find the sweet spots.  Finally, some of their hotel partners (e.g., Accor, Choice, etc.) can actually provide some unique locations for free, like The Plaza in NYC. 

Citi Intermediate - To be honest, I have never used my Citi Thankyou Points yet. However, from my research, they seem on par in difficulty with Capital One. 

My Examples

American Express Membership Reward Points to Emirate First Class

All four point ecosystems transfer to Emirates, but since I had a stash of American Express points saved, I used them for my upcoming trip to the Maldieves. For Emirates business class, with the gold plated seats and enclosed rooms  + amazing service with caviar and champagne... I only needed 87,000 points and $105.30.  The route is their fifth freedom route from Newark to Athens, so it doesn't actually go through their Dubai hub, which normally has higher tax rates.