New Schwab Amex Platinum Live

As I wrote about over the weekend, Charles Schwab is launching a couple of new American Express co-branded credit cards for brokerage customers.  The offerings include an Amex Platinum card with a 40,000 point sign-up bonus.  That matches the standard offering for the non co-brand card.

The cards were set to launch 3/31 (today) and they are live on Schwab's website.

I plan to hold off on applying to see if there's a bigger, targeted bonus in the future.  If you are a (big) Schwab brokerage customer, you can receive $100 or $200 off the platinum card annual fee if you hold more than $250K or $1M in assists with Schwab.

Seems like a high bar to me but for a very limited number of you, this may result in $100 or $200 back each year.

Anyway, it's great to see banks expand their product line and always nice to have another card option.

Anbang Withdraws - Marriott Wins

This may be the it.  Multiple news outlets are reporting that Anbang has withdrawn their offer for Starwood Hotels & Resorts citing "market conditions."

W Taipei - a Starwood Hotel

That means Marriott is the likely winner in the bid for Starwood.  While I'm not surprised, I was hopeful that Anbang would figure it out and Starwood would stay independent.

London EDITION - a Marriott Hotel

I know it's been all Starwood news, all the time over the last couple of weeks.  I have new posts coming this weekend that will focus on several other hot topics including today's Alaska devaluation of the Emirates award chart...stay tuned.

Anbang Tops Marriott's Offer

The Marriott/Starwood merger saga continues.  Anbang has topped Marriott's previous offer with a $82.75 cash bid.  It doesn't look like Starwood's board has accepted the offer yet but I can't imagine them not accepting a superior all cash bid.  The only reason not to accept would be concern over regulatory authorities (in China) blocking the deal.

St. Regis San Francisco

If you haven't followed the story, here are previous posts:

Marriott tops Anbang's bid

Starwood signs deal with Anbang

Marriott buys Starwood

It seems Marriott has put a press release basically stating that they won't top the bid and shareholders should continue to vote for the Marriott/Starwood tie-up given greater potential for long term shareholder value creation.  While that may be possible, the better short term deal is clearly Anbang's.

United MileagePlus Explorer 55,000 Mile Bonus

I've had the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer (personal and business) several times over the last few years.  Emily recently reached her 24 month anniversary of cancelling the personal version (Chase limits sign-up bonuses on products to once every 24 months) so she applied for the card.  The standard bonus you'll see on planes and in airports is terrible.  Only 30,000 miles which really won't get you very far on United.

You should be able to get the higher bonus offer (55,000 miles in total) by logging into your United MileagePlus account.  You'll typically see a banner add on the homepage or after clicking "View Account."

Click on "Learn More"

The higher offer provides 50,000 United miles are spending $2,000 in the first 90 days.  The $95 annual fee is waived for the first year.  You will also receive an additional 5,000 miles for adding an authorized user (Perry has a few cards in our household) as well as 2 United Club passes.

55,000 total bonus miles

If you add an authorized user, you'll have 57,000 miles after reaching the bonus.  That is nearly enough for a roundtrip economy ticket from the US to Europe (60,000) or a one-way business class ticket between the US and Europe on United (Star Alliance partner flights cost 70,000).

United offers a free stopover and open jaw on award tickets making a roundtrip ticket even more valuable.  Given that purchasing that type of ticket (in economy) could run you north of $1,500, that's a pretty solid value from one sign-up bonus.

If you're a United flyer, this is a card worth acquiring.  You'll also receive priority boarding and a free checked bag.  Perks that are especially valuable if you don't already have United status.

New Charles Schwab American Express Platinum Card

According to Doctor of Credit, American Express and Charles Schwab plan to launch a new Platinum card to Schwab customers this week.  I've been a Schwab banking and brokerage customer for more than twenty years.  Schwab's High Yield Checking account is my recommendation for free ATM withdrawals worldwide.

Las Vegas Centurion Lounge

I currently carry Amex's personal version of the Platinum card getting me a $200 annual travel credit, access to FH&R, and Centurion lounge access.  Apparently the new card will be marketed as a separate product meaning even if you've received a sign-up bonus for the personal platinum card, you'll be able to get it again with this card.

Schwab Amex Platinum

The card is essentially the same as the personal platinum offering.  You'll be able to deposit points into a Schwab brokerage accounts at a rate of 1.25 cents (not a great deal) in addition to receiving a discount on the annual fee if you hold more than $250,000 in assets with Schwab.

While the standard bonus offer is only 40,000 points, I would imagine Amex/Schwab will be targeting Schwab customers with bigger bonus offers.  I'm going to hold off for a bigger bonus once the card goes live but certainly excited by a new opportunity to pick up valuable Membership Rewards points.

Marriott Leading the Chase for Starwood

I'm a couple of days late with the news that Marriott is once again in the lead to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts.  Marriott submitted a revised offer to Starwood's board on Monday and they accepted.  The cash and stock bid trumped the previous all cash offer from the consortium led by Anbang.

This is after Marriott signed a deal to purchase Starwood back in November.

New York EDITION - Marriott property

Will Anbang counter?  According to everything I've read, they probably will. It still may not be enough as Marriott's offer is significantly larger than their original offer and there may be regulatory concerns on behalf of the Chinese (go figure).

St. Regis Bali - future Marriott?

I'm optimistic that Starwood stays independent but also interested to see what Marriott would do with the company.  The combined enterprise will have north of 30 brands.  Marriott held an investor call earlier in the week and outlined some of their plans by brand (keeping W and EDITION separate, potentially merging Luxury Collection into Autograph Collection, etc...).

Anbang has 5 more days to counter so it's not over yet!

United Premier Tracker Overview

In terms of loyalty, Starwood and United are my primary hotel and airline programs.  I've been loyal to both really since college and as my work and leisure travel patterns have evolved over the years, both companies continue to provide products that work for me.

Starwood launched a dashboard last year that shows stats towards elite status (both status year and lifetime).  United's done the same in recent months at mystatus.united.com.

To view your tracker, login to your United MileagePlus account and click on "View Premier Progress."

Click on "View Premier Progress"

Unfortunately, there isn't a ton of additional information beyond what is shown on the my account page.  But it's cool to see the data in infographic terms and hopefully United will build this out a bit more in the future.

Current and lifetime stats

I've primarily flown United for 15+ years and am still only at 459,000 lifetime miles.  At this rate, it's going to take another 15-20 years to hit million miler status.  Time to step it up I guess!

Progress towards status year goals