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Bloomberg
With Covid-19 grounding flights, emptying hotel rooms, and turning popular destinations into ghost towns, this might seem the most futile time to think about frequent flyer miles and loyalty points. In
mid-March, the US State Department issued a “do not travel†alert for the entire world. Travel is the last thing on most people’s minds, according to a survey released by trade organisation US Travel. The likelihood of travellers taking vacations in the next six months has dropped by half since late February.
But hitting pause on travel doesn’t mean you need to totally forget about your points and miles. Over the past couple of weeks, a number of travel companies, including American Airlines, Hilton Worldwide, United Airlines, British Airways and Marriott International announced that they would make it easier to reach—and maintain—elite status in their loyalty programmes. United, for instance, is extending current Premier memberships through 2022 and making it easier for everyone else to qualify by cutting the number of flight purchases needed and increasing the ability to earn points on co-branded credit cards. Hilton is automatically extending elite status for a year, while Marriott is maintaining 2019 status tiers until February 2022.
With that kind of flexibility, a shifting economic landscape, and more time on your hands, you might be able to take a hard look at the rewards you’ve been earning and the credit cards you’re carrying in your wallet. Depending on your travel goals and financial needs, you may want to double down on current offers—or divest from credit cards with unused perks. These are the top actions to take while you’re grounded.
Even if you rarely think about your annual credit-card fees, it may have lately occurred to you that spending hundreds of dollars for perks you can’t use right now might make little sense. Cards such as the American Express Platinum Card, Citi Prestige Credit Card, and Chase Sapphire Reserve cost upward of $450 a year—prices that are largely justified by an array of travel benefits, including airport lounge access and airline fee credits. During a lockdown, the value of these things quickly drops to nil.
Before you cancel, check your billing year cycle. Most companies won’t refund any portion of your annual fee if it was paid more than 30 days ago, though Chase, for one, may prorate the fee if you switch to a different card. If you decide to pull the plug, be sure to cash out any points you would lose, or transfer them to different programs.