FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - I built an app to track high-end credit card benefits
Old Jul 21, 2025 | 2:27 am
  #9  
dbuckho
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Santa Monica, CA
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Perhaps a first enhancement might be allowing more than 500 characters in the feedback forms.

I added 16 of my travel cards to start playing around with the site. Could not register American Citi Plat Business (chose regular AA Select instead), Ink Bold (chose similar Chase Ink business card), nor Amazon card as they are not there yet. Maybe that suggests a general comment about adding legacy cards – others like Chase Ritz – that folks might have and use benefits but can no longer apply for.

Also in some cases folks might have a lesser annual fee due to bank relationship or other reason. For example I get a $100 discount on my Plat Amex because I have a Corporate Platinum Amex from work. Maybe a feature note there too -- i.e. I have benefits to use for that corporate card that I track, but do not pay the annual fee myself. Maybe too much of an outlier to worry about now – but it is something longer-term some might want to track without showing the additional annual fee in the total fees being paid.

Longer-term it would also be great if you could manage an associated profile in the app and switch between, or see a consolidated view. I manage my cards and my wife’s – she also has an Amex Plat and Alaska/United personal cards whereas I have them in business (similar benefits but some differences). She also has an Amex Gold and Southwest Visa that I do not have. Have not added these 5 additional cards for now – but that is the overall portfolio I am managing.

Here are some notes going through the benefit tracking:

In general it would be good to have a monthly-only benefit tracking view. Because of all the stupid coupon-ish monthly items (uber, resy, dining credits, etc), I make a list each month of what needs to be used and cross it off when I use them. You have completed vs. open, but the completed mixes monthly and yearly/quarterly/semi-annual benefits. A monthly to-do list/tracker would be very useful.

Marriott – Platinum Elite benefit you can choose redeemed. But I (and many others) have lifetime Platinum status so that has no value. That said, I do put a value on the extra status nights the card gives me that let me get to 50 nights/year to select a choice award – usually night upgrades that I use for at least $100/night. Would want to track that in the annual benefits.

Delta Sky club – the option is redeemed or not. But you really should mark off how many are used out of the total you get per year (for the basic entitlement).

The same tracked benefit also mentions the additional passes earned with spend. There should be a selector to say if you have earned that or not, and only then should the benefit line appear for you to track if used. This comment applies to all cards with similar earned benefit based on spend amount. You have something like this for UA travel bank benefit for IHG card – you can click activate – so something like that here before the additional spend based benefit shows is suggested.

Marriott – hotel free night award. Rather than saying just redeemed, let users put a value for what you redeemed it for (comment applies to all free hotel nights). You actually have something sort of like this for the Alaska companion in the next comment.

Alaska companion fare – has a dollar value slider max $300. Happens I used mine for $255 this year – so I marked that. But then it shows remaining value which is not really there. And also you could redeem it for more than $300 value – should be used yes/know and then fill in value.

Hilton resort credit – scale only shows $200 even though it is $400 per year. I went ahead and put $200 since I used 1H of this year – but really it should allow to say 1st half and then 2nd half used and what amount (two sliders?). Maybe it does that since you have others that are bi-annual/monthly, etc -- but it was not clear.

Checked bags – instead of redeemed, perhaps how many times used (and associate a value to that)? You might need to have some selector for the user if they already have status as well with the airline -- to see if a user really got an extra bag or not? For example Delta gives you credit card bag + status so sometimes I actually do use the card benefit, though mostly use status benefit.

Hawaiian card – I see the signup benefit of 50% of a companion but not sure people in year 2+ would have that benefit? Maybe a more general thing if there is a special benefit in year 1 vs. other years? Or signup offer to use - give them the option to select or hide it for tracking.

Amex Plat Saks credit – slides only shows $50 x 1 – even though it is semi-annual benefit (not sure if the app resets each ½ year)?

I also then see some benefits like travel protection and purchase protection listed. But seems a bit confusing to see these here as you look at your benefits for tracking purposes. I think it only belongs here if you use the benefit – for example I file an extended warranty claim and it pays x – I can add that to my received benefits. Otherwise maybe another tab is needed for non-financial benefits – i.e. insurance like stuff - to track and compare those.

Delta Reserve – has a single slider against the $240 annual. But this is a monthly credit – should be listed like other monthly ones. Same for monthly rideshare credit

IHG UA travel bank – I clicked activated – but cannot select that I was able to use it in the period before it expires on the UA side.

Also for IHG you have the 4th reward night free as just redeemed or not -- but would be more useful to see how many times and for how many points. I use this benefit many times per year.

Hyatt tier qualifying nights but has scale of $50 – is this supposed to be the $50 credit x2 per year for stays?

Chase Sapphire – Dashpass benefit is there but not the monthly credit.

I will keep playing around with it and provide additional feedback on the line item benefits.

At the top level, would be great to see a breakdown of the benefits used. After setting this up it says I am getting $5k of benefits vs. $4k of annual fees, but not sure what is being counted (I know I get more benefit that what I pay out - would otherwise cancel any card not holding its weight - but would like to compare math!).

And then for the value of Amex MR and Chase UR – I value them higher than 1.4c based on how I use them, so my value would change the best card to use per expense type in certain cases. Perhaps a feature that lets you assign your own value to the transferrable currencies and override the default for those (but then an easy button to put the defaults back in the view if you want to compare default vs. custom values).

Also, at some point consider adding travel memberships that have a benefit. Thinking of things like IHG Ambassador where you have paid a fee and get the BOGO weekend night and other benefits. Does not factor into the best card to use when part of the app, but has a similar fee due at a certain time of year and did you get the benefit of it flavor as the credit cards.

I also second the Android version request and also add an ask for a web version. Sort of a pain to setup all this on my iPad - but maybe very easy after initial setup to be mobile-only since you are just clicking monthly use.

Last edited by dbuckho; Jul 21, 2025 at 1:58 pm
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