Originally Posted by
rasheed
Yes, all Express Deals and NYOP are still 5x (airfare is back in the Express Deals and car/hotel continue to be available). Basically, when Priceline is the merchant on record, you will get the bonus. There is even talk of Priceline site purchases of travel insurance and such counting for the bonuses.
I was asking about redemption against NYOP purchase. Is it the same as other travel, 1.5cpp + 10% back?
I think there is some good feedback here on Altitude and Crystal. These cards continue to tempt me, no doubt. I appreciate the honesty that Crystal and Altitude are not good for every category spend.
I will mention a few things. I still accumulate most of my points for the Priceline card though non-bonus categories (everyday purchases that are never in any categories such as insurance, utility bills, tax bills, etc.). I think a mobile wallet is useful for many in-person purchases, but not often enough can I tap with my phone (although, it continues to improve). I have many 4-5% cards for gas, grocery, restaurants, online shopping, entertainment, etc. so the "remaining" purchases tend to be ones more difficult to get bonuses beyond a base rebate rate.
It depends on a phone. With Samsung Pay you can always tap, and get 3x, cause it has an MST mode, which works with magnetic strip readers.
I have lost interest though in using points via a travel booking concierge. I don't find that I can replicate some of the ticket deals found via OTAs. This may not be true in most cases, but I admit I am being a bit pickier on redemption options. So, hence why I have not been enamored by CSR and related travel reward cards. I can see though those cards that allow 5x on travel earnings being much better (if the redemption is straight forward on those earned points). I would never use a travel booking concierge tool for hotel or cars though. Leaving too many points and deals on the table for those areas.
I recently redeemed TYP for an economy domestic flight and got 3.55cpp, and that not counting 10% points back from Rewards+ card, with that it would be 3.9cpp.
As far as my rebate calculation, here is one example close to an actual purchase I did. Appreciate the correction for errors.
$818.08 international plane ticket (+1636 points earned on purchase)
Redemption -54539 points
10% travel bonus earned +5454 points
Net points to redeem $818.08 item: 47449 points
At 2x points for each $1 spent (non-Priceline 5x spend), that is 3.448% I believe. I think you have to consider the points earned on the purchase because if you redeem through a concierge, I don't believe you earn points for the redemption part even if the travel contractor is buying the ticket.
But this works only when you redeem and book at the same time.If you just purchase something, then it's 3.33%. In this case, AR is 1.57cpp, or 4.71% cashback, cause you can earn and redeem at the same time. But I'm usually not doing this, cause I just cashout points, and then cancel the booking.