Upgraded Points_Ep(57)_v02_Transcript.txt 00:00:00:02 - 00:00:09:08 Chris Wells Fargo added two new transfer partners in less than two weeks. Wyndham Rewards at a 1 to 2 ratio, the best available anywhere in Cathay Pacific at a 1 to 1. 00:00:09:14 - 00:00:14:17 Katie And that changes the conversation around a program that most people have completely written off. 00:00:14:18 - 00:00:25:01 Chris Today, we're breaking down whether Wells Fargo Rewards has finally earned a spot in your points strategy. The cards worth knowing about and exactly how it fits alongside everything else you've already been doing. 00:00:25:03 - 00:00:37:00 Katie But first, Hyatt's annual category changes are coming, and there are some moves you need to know about before May 20th. 00:00:37:02 - 00:00:39:22 Chris Hey, I'm Chris. Welcome to the Upgraded Points podcast. 00:00:40:02 - 00:01:11:02 Katie And I'm Katie and today we have a lot to talk about. We are going to go over some updated benefits for the Amex Gold card. The new Hyatt category changes that you need to know about. And then we're talking all about Wells Fargo and whether or not this program is actually interesting. Now, before we get to all of that, don't forget to like and subscribe and leave comments and share with your friends on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you are watching or listening and if you have questions for us to answer during a show, you can reach us at podcast at Upgraded points.com. 00:01:11:08 - 00:01:17:03 Katie So let's jump right into it. Let's start with the Amex Gold updates. Chris, what's going on? 00:01:17:05 - 00:01:37:18 Chris Yeah, the American Express Gold card just announced some updated benefits. And if you have one in your wallet, you can breathe a sigh of relief because it's only getting better. Or if you've been considering applying, now is a great time. This card has long been a fan favorite because it earns four X Membership Rewards points. At restaurants, you can get up to $50,000 per year. 00:01:37:20 - 00:01:55:06 Chris That isn't changing. But if you like to travel like we do, there are some benefits that you will love. Now you'll be able to earn more on travel. You'll be able to get five x points on prepaid hotels at Amex Travel and through the Amex Travel app. Previously that was just two x, so this is great. 00:01:55:08 - 00:02:18:17 Chris You're going to be able to get Hertz five star status now. Nice little perk. And there are some new dining partners. Right now card members get up to $120 in dining credits. That's in $10 statements per month at five partners. But now there are two new ones. A Buffalo, Wild Buffalo, Wild Wings and wonder. Are the new additions Goldbelly and wine.com are, exiting the program. 00:02:18:19 - 00:02:35:06 Chris Enrollment is required for that. But that's a nice little perk. This is in addition to the long list of benefits that the Amex Gold card has. And will continue to offer without raising the annual fee of 325. So that value prop just got a little bit better? 00:02:35:08 - 00:02:58:21 Katie Yeah, definitely. And they also announced, through October 30th. There's a special deal for Uber One membership. You can enroll and get a one time statement credit of up to $96 when using your gold card to pay for an annual Uber one membership. So be sure to do that. And then also just in the Amex ecosphere, there is a Hilton Honors Points transfer bonus. 00:02:58:21 - 00:03:22:13 Katie Right now, you can receive a 20% bonus through May 30th. And there is an Amex Travel offer for at select properties in the hotel collection. So if you have that Gold card or the Amex Platinum card, take a peek at the hotel collection. You can get special rates like complimentary third night, a complimentary fourth night, 25% off rooms. 00:03:22:15 - 00:03:34:18 Katie There's all kinds of different deals. I'm sure they're targeted. And for very specific hotels. And that is available through July 15th. So those are some, another great couple benefits to keep an eye on. 00:03:34:20 - 00:03:41:21 Chris Yeah. This is like I said, this is a fan favorite card. So it's nice and always nice to see new perks without an increase in annual fee. 00:03:41:23 - 00:04:06:10 Katie Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely good news. So let's talk about some not good news. Hyatt's annual award category changes are out and we knew these were coming out. That was not a surprise at all. These were announced last month sometime. And it's not all bad news, but it's mostly bad news. So 24 properties are shifting down in category, so that's nice. 00:04:06:10 - 00:04:29:05 Katie But 112 are moving up. But like we said, this happens every year. So we always expected all of these changes will happen on May 20th, which also happens to be the day that the Hyatt award chart expands to be kind of a dynamic award chart. I mean, it's technically still an award chart, but it's it's expanding to those five different bands of prices. 00:04:29:05 - 00:04:48:07 Katie So this all happens on May 20th. And if you're watching this the day that it drops, you have just over a week to take advantage of these hotels that are changing categories before they change categories. If you book them now, you can lock in that lower price. And if you happen to book a hotel where the category goes down, you can get a one time price adjustment. 00:04:48:09 - 00:05:04:08 Katie Or you can always cancel and rebook at the lower price. So I'm not going to go over the whole list. We'll drop that link in the show notes, but I just wanted to mention a couple of notable changes. There are a handful of properties that will be eligible for those Hyatt category one through four certificates now, and that's always great news. 00:05:04:10 - 00:05:29:20 Katie So, the dream Nashville is one Hyatt centric Congress Avenue, Austin, the Andaz Macao, the Standard in Singapore, and the Hyatt Regency Dharamshala Resort. So those are all moving to category four, so that's always nice. Unfortunately, there's a lot of hotels that are moving from category four up 2 or 5. So if you want to book these with free night certificates you have to do it before May 20th. 00:05:29:22 - 00:05:54:06 Katie Couple of notable, options here. The Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort, which is in Orlando right at me. And I know that's a popular one with free night certificates. The Hyatt Regency Seattle, which I am actually staying at next month, booked with free night certificates. That's moving up to a category five. The Carolina in the Hyatt Regency in Lisbon is another one. 00:05:54:08 - 00:06:15:03 Katie So those are kind of bummers. The other bummers are there are a handful of hotels that are moving to category eight, which means not only are they going to be more expensive, but you won't be able to use them, or book them with that Hyatt 1 to 7 free night certificate. And that is the Andaz Fifth Avenue, the Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort and Spa. 00:06:15:05 - 00:06:36:02 Katie And I hate it when I see Hyatt Regency in category eight that I always kind of scratching my head a bit. And then the Hotel Duluth in Paris, which as we spoke about, talked about episodes ago, one of my absolute favorites. I mean, and I'd still look at it a category eight. I love that place, but it was like a category six when I stayed there. 00:06:36:04 - 00:06:53:14 Katie But a year and a half ago maybe. So that was a kind of a bummer in the Park. Hyatt London, is another one that's just, I hate I hate seeing those move up to category eight. Yeah, couple of them I do. I do understand that it. I don't like seeing Anderson Hyatt Regency. It's a category. 00:06:53:15 - 00:07:12:23 Chris And a category that's crazy. I guess Fifth Avenue one. But yeah, there are a couple. We talked about the, you know, my favorite, Hyatt place in, in in Kyoto. That's for the two to a three. I'm. I'm okay with that. The hotel is so good at category three. Still, even though I would, I paid cash because I thought the cash rate was so good. 00:07:12:23 - 00:07:29:05 Chris So, yeah, I won't really impact too much there. And then, as you mentioned, the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, that is a really nice one for families going to theme parks, because it is a big resort. It's not on property, so you need a car or take an Uber to the parks. But the resort itself is just really big. 00:07:29:05 - 00:07:43:04 Chris It's got awesome pools and bike paths and everything. So I'm probably going to book that. We got a couple of free night certificates in our account, so we'll maybe, you know, speculatively book, a trip in the worst case scenario, you just cancel it. 00:07:43:06 - 00:07:49:17 Katie Yeah, I'm kind of taking a peek at a couple of these and link to it. Don't just go ahead and book it. And you never. You never can always be. 00:07:49:22 - 00:08:11:17 Chris Yeah, you can always cancel. That's the beauty of this. Yeah. All right, well, let's jump in to Wells Fargo. The bank has made some big moves recently, and we're asking ourselves, is it time to start really paying attention to this, this program? When Transfer Partners launched just in 2024, the lineup was very small with just a few programs. 00:08:11:22 - 00:08:23:11 Chris And while the list is still small, it is growing. Plus, Wells Fargo has two really interesting credit cards that have pretty much fallen under the radar that we're going to take a second look at today. 00:08:23:13 - 00:08:40:18 Katie Yeah. If you would ask me, even like two months ago, if we would dedicate an entire podcast episode to Wells Fargo, absolutely not. Would have been my answer. But they've really made some interesting movies recently. That kind of got me thinking, like, maybe we should kind of take a peek. So yeah, just so everyone's on the same page. 00:08:40:18 - 00:09:10:23 Katie Let's start by just going over their transfer partner list. It's not big, so this will take three seconds. All airlines transfer at a 1 to 1 ratio. Right now you can transfer to Air Lingus, Air France, Avianca, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, which is a new one. Iberia, JetBlue and then Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Red. Hotel transfers are at a 1 to 2 ratio, and they transfer to Choice and Wyndham and Wyndham is their new, hotel transfer partner. 00:09:11:03 - 00:09:31:18 Katie So let's focus on these new transfer partners, because these are the two Cathay Pacific and Wyndham that have been, announced very fairly recently. They kind of made us say, okay, they're actually they're making changes and these are positive changes. So maybe we should take a peek. So in mid April, Wyndham was added as a transfer partner at a 1 to 2 ratio. 00:09:31:19 - 00:09:51:23 Katie And that ratio is why this is exciting. If it was just Wyndham at a 1 to 1. I don't think anyone would care. But the 1 to 2 is really exciting because every other, program that transfers to Wyndham is 1 to 1. So this is the best ratio by far. And Wyndham actually has one of the largest portfolios of hotels. 00:09:51:23 - 00:10:10:14 Katie They have, I think over 9000. They do skew more budget and moderate, which I think is one of the reasons why a lot of us don't pay attention to them, because, you know, the big luxury hotels and brands are the ones that get all the hype, but there's still a lot of value in those budget and moderate brands. 00:10:10:16 - 00:10:35:08 Katie The nice thing about Wyndham is they have three award tiers. So they do actually have an award chart and it's got three tiers and that's it, which is really nice. So any hotel you book is going to be either 7500 points per night, 15,000 or 30,000 points per night. And if you have the Wyndham card, even the $0 annual fee, Wyndham earner card, you get, 10% discount on all award bookings. 00:10:35:10 - 00:11:00:13 Katie So, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And if you're doing the math, if you're transferring Wells Fargo points to Wyndham, that means you're booking hotels for 37, 57,500 or 15,000 Wells Fargo points per night, and even less if you have a Wyndham credit card. Yeah. Which is pretty amazing. So, you know, you might be thinking, okay, fantastic, but I don't I don't want to stay at a budget hotel. 00:11:00:15 - 00:11:25:00 Katie There are actually some luxury hotels, an all inclusive resorts in that Wyndham portfolio that you can book. So I picked out a couple, and I found these within a few minutes of searching the other day, the Wyndham Grand, Clearwater Beach in Florida, there's the Dolce by Wyndham, Campo Reale in Lisbon in Portugal, and the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar Rainforest Beach and Golf Resort in Puerto Rico. 00:11:25:01 - 00:11:29:14 Katie I don't know anything about that place, but I want to say good right? 00:11:29:16 - 00:11:30:16 Chris Forest in the title. 00:11:30:16 - 00:11:58:06 Katie I know I love it. So all three of those properties are, cost 30,000 Wyndham points, which actually seems pretty reasonable, but that means it's only 15,000 Wells Fargo points per night. And then they have the, Viva as Teca by Wyndham, which is an all inclusive resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It only cost 15,000 Wyndham points per night, which is 7500 Wells Fargo points per night. 00:11:58:08 - 00:12:09:19 Katie So you can book an all inclusive in Playa del Carmen for 7500 Wells Fargo points per night. Like that number sounds like a mistake, but it's not. 00:12:09:21 - 00:12:20:01 Chris That does sound like a mistake. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah, I think we're going to have to go on site, do some real research. Katie, see what we can do for, for these these Wyndham rewards. 00:12:20:05 - 00:12:36:23 Katie Yeah, definitely. I think it's it's, you know, even if Wyndham isn't your your dream hotel brand, there's enough that's interesting there that I think those of us, we all want a deal. We're all chasing the deals. And I think maybe there are some here that that we're missing, that we should take a second look at that. 00:12:36:23 - 00:13:00:02 Chris Like that. All right. Well, let me look at take a look at the other new partner. Cathay Pacific was added on April 28th, and that was just two weeks after Wyndham. And this is at a 1 to 1 ratio, just like all of the, all of the other airline transfer partners built Capital One in Sydney. Also transfer to Cathay at a 1 to 1 Amex just reduced their transfer ratio to 5 to 4. 00:13:00:04 - 00:13:22:02 Chris So this is still one of the better options, even though it is, you know, only 1 to 1. Cathay is Pacific, is based in Hong Kong and is part of oneworld. So you can use these miles to book partner airlines like American Airlines or British Airways. But you can book Cathay Pacific business class from LA to Hong Kong for 88,000 miles, first class for 125,000. 00:13:22:04 - 00:13:30:09 Chris And you can get there with Wells Fargo. Points is a straight 1 to 1 transfer. That's genuinely great use of a program that most people don't even have on their radar. 00:13:30:11 - 00:13:51:14 Katie Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's really interesting that they made these two additions really close to each other, you know, within two weeks of each other. And it kind of has me thinking, you know, is there something else coming which would be really nice when we can talk about them even more? But definitely, I think those two additions are great, and they've made this program a little bit more interesting. 00:13:51:16 - 00:14:03:03 Chris Absolutely. All right. Well, let's take a break. And when we come back, we'll dive into the credit cards that may make a good fit in your wallet. 00:14:03:05 - 00:14:13:05 Chris Yes. Hey, real quick, before we jump back in, if you're listening to this podcast, you're exactly the kind of person we built our free newsletter for. 00:14:13:06 - 00:14:23:08 Katie We broke down the best credit card offers, transfer bonuses, award alerts, and travel news that actually matters. No fluff, no spam. Just the stuff we'd text a friend if something big dropped. 00:14:23:10 - 00:14:28:07 Chris A lot of the deals we talk about on the show don't last long. The newsletter is where we fly those fast. 00:14:28:09 - 00:14:37:02 Katie It's totally free, and you can sign up at upgraded points.com/newsletter. 00:14:37:04 - 00:14:59:06 Katie You. Okay. Welcome back. We are going to continue our conversation about Wells Fargo. Now that we're all kind of at least sort of interested in Wells Fargo, let's talk about the credit cards. They have to help you understand how you can earn some of these Wells Fargo points. The first thing that you should know is there are points earning cards, and there are cash back cards. 00:14:59:08 - 00:15:17:06 Katie And you can move your points from your cash back cards to your points, earning cards in a similar manner that many other programs have. So it's easy to pull your points so you can look at these all kind of as points earning cards in your head if that's your goal. So the two points earning cards, are under the autograph brand. 00:15:17:06 - 00:15:38:20 Katie So the Wells Fargo autograph card is a no annual fee card and earns three points per dollar on restaurants, travel, gas stations, transit, streaming services and phone plans. It comes with cell phone protection, no foreign transaction fees, and you get full access to the transfer partners without needing a card with an annual fee. 00:15:38:22 - 00:15:40:02 Chris That's that's. 00:15:40:04 - 00:15:42:02 Katie Right. Yeah I yeah. 00:15:42:02 - 00:15:43:06 Chris $0 annual fee. 00:15:43:09 - 00:16:07:08 Katie Yeah, yeah. Okay. Then the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey card has a very, very reasonable $95 annual fee. This card earns five points per dollar on hotels, four points per dollar in airfare, and three points per dollar on other travel and restaurants. It has cell phone protection, lost baggage reimbursement, trip cancellation, interruption protection and a $50 annual statement credit. 00:16:07:08 - 00:16:11:16 Katie When you spend at least $50 with an airline. Okay, I know. 00:16:11:16 - 00:16:14:18 Chris If you just drops to $45. Yeah. 00:16:14:20 - 00:16:28:23 Katie Yeah. Now I will say the welcome bonuses on these cards are very uninspired. So it's like, you know, at the time of recording, it's about 20,000 for the autograph card and 60,000 for the autograph journey card, like, 60,000 is kind of reasonable. 00:16:28:23 - 00:16:29:13 Chris Let's. Yeah. Okay. 00:16:29:13 - 00:16:52:15 Katie So $95 annual fee. Not bad. But you know, those two cards I think are really, really interesting. Let's look at the the cash back cards. So the Wells Fargo Active Cash card another no annual fee card. This is your straight 2% cash back on every purchase. And these rewards can be moved to the annual or I'm sorry, the autograph card to access all those transfer partners. 00:16:52:15 - 00:17:19:13 Katie Even the no annual fee autograph card. And this card also has cell phone protection, which is, pretty unique on a no annual fee card. And then the Signify Business Cash card by Wells Fargo. Also no annual fee. And this is the business version of they're just 2% straight cash back card. But it also has primary auto rental, collision insurance and up to $250,000 of travel accident insurance. 00:17:19:13 - 00:17:55:00 Katie When you pay for the trip with your card. So these are sneaky good cards. I think if Wells Fargo had a high profile transfer partner, or they continue to add some more transfer partners and grow that list, I think everyone would be talking nonstop about these cards. If any one of these this this combo of four cards, especially those two autograph cards, if those had a chase name or a city name or capital one name, we would be talking about those cards in the best of categories, I think. 00:17:55:00 - 00:18:17:08 Katie I think they're under the radar. You can earn three points per dollar and that really on on travel, that kind of fills in that gap that we lost with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. I just think they're really sneaky good. And if Wells Fargo continues to improve their transfer partner list, I think we're going to be talking about those cards a lot more in the future. 00:18:17:10 - 00:18:21:16 Chris Okay, another prediction from Katie. You've been pretty accurate lately. 00:18:21:18 - 00:18:23:16 Katie See, sometimes that's not so good to. 00:18:23:18 - 00:18:47:22 Chris Oh we'll see I think I think you're right. Yeah. I mean if they continue in this trend, I mean, they just had the two pretty decent partners in two weeks. I forget another one this year. That would be pretty nice. But for our listeners that want to know, how does Wells Fargo fit in, to your strategy, if you're just starting out, this probably isn't the best program to dive into first. 00:18:48:00 - 00:19:07:19 Chris First of all, the welcome bonuses are less than exciting, so they want your you won't be able to book that. Maybe that big trip you're trying that you're looking for. And the partner list is still pretty small. It's strong enough. If you have some other currencies, but for it to be your only transferable currency, it could be a little limiting. 00:19:07:21 - 00:19:34:14 Chris There is some nice perks, though. There are no minimums for point transfers, which is really rare. So you can't just transfer one point. Like if you're, if you're short in one program, 20 points, 50 points, 100 points, you can just send those over instead. Some other programs charge you 1 or 2000 points per transfer. This is a great way to, top off some accounts without worrying about another, you know, 500 being abandoned in that program. 00:19:34:16 - 00:19:47:08 Katie Yeah, I think that's a really under the radar, really nice perk of Wells Fargo as sort of a reason to have it as your not your first, probably not even your second, but maybe your third transfer partner. 00:19:47:13 - 00:19:48:14 Chris Or just for top offs. 00:19:48:18 - 00:20:08:09 Katie Yeah, just for top offs. I mean that that's really nice. So you don't have to have accounts with abandoned, you know, 900 points here, 800 points there. I think that's actually a really, really nice benefit, especially for someone who's pretty deep into the into this game where you have all of the transfer partners and you do want to manage all of that. 00:20:08:09 - 00:20:10:06 Katie That's that's a nice perk. 00:20:10:08 - 00:20:17:04 Chris Or if you don't want if you're trying to get some points, does not expire by having some activity in your account to transfer one point over. 00:20:17:08 - 00:20:43:13 Katie Yeah. You don't have to waste the thousand. Just just waste one. Also, I mentioned this briefly when I was talking about credit cards, but like either of those autograph cards, including the $0 annual fee, one earns at least three points per dollar on all travel. Like that's amazing. There are a couple cards still left that do that, but these do that for potentially $0 annual fee. 00:20:43:13 - 00:21:12:03 Katie I don't know of any card off the top of my head that a $0 annual fee that earns three points per dollar in travel, that can be huge. The fact that you can also access these transfer partners with $0 in annual fees is really, really nice. Most other programs, you need to have one of those annual fee cards, not all of them, but most of them to access their transfer partners at their full, transfer ratio. 00:21:12:05 - 00:21:34:13 Katie And with Wells Fargo, you don't have to pay a dollar in annual fees to do that. With that, no annual fee autograph card. You could be earning 2 to 3 points on every single purchase. Combine that card with the, no annual fee cash back card, that two card combo with $0 annual fee, 2 or 3 transferable points per every dollar that you spend. 00:21:34:15 - 00:21:47:22 Katie That's pretty exciting, actually. Even if the transfer partner list is still small. If that list continues to grow, that's going to be really exciting. So I think it's definitely something to keep an eye out on. 00:21:48:00 - 00:22:05:22 Chris Yeah. And you mentioned the transfer partners and we and we talked about it a lot even though it is small. And keep in mind that partners like Cathay Pacific, they're members of the One World. So even though you don't see American Airlines on that transfer partner list, it is possible to book some American Airlines flights. So again, this is not really a beginner currency. 00:22:06:00 - 00:22:25:10 Chris But there are it there are options out there. But like you said, most programs will make you pay an annual fee just to access these transfer partners. And, well, Wells Fargo lets you do that with $0 out of pocket, two no fee personal cards and full access to those airlines and hotels. And that's rare. 00:22:25:12 - 00:22:44:14 Katie It's really rare. And, you know, as much as we we love our cards with annual fees and we get a ton of benefit, there are some people out there who are very annual fee averse, but maybe they do want some some bonus points and some, you know, some awards here and there. And so this could be a good option for them. 00:22:44:18 - 00:23:07:22 Katie It's a probably a very small percentage of people where this is going to be the only program. It's definitely like Chris said, I think not necessarily a beginner program, and it's probably not going to be your first or your second program in your in your, arsenal. But I definitely think it can have a spot in maybe a lot more, a lot more people's arsenals than, than are using it right now. 00:23:07:22 - 00:23:29:19 Katie So, yeah, definitely keep an eye out. I don't have any of these cards, but it's in there. Maybe they can get a better welcome. Really, if they get a good welcome bonus, right? That would be nice. But alas, we'll see. But definitely want to keep an eye on. So we wanted to share that with you. We do actually have one question this week. 00:23:29:21 - 00:23:46:11 Katie And this one is for you, Chris. And we got this question on YouTube from Sean, who I'm guessing maybe watched our episode last week. And Sean asked, is it too late to enter the Disney giveaway? It's a dream to take my kids someday. 00:23:46:13 - 00:24:08:12 Chris Great news Sean. You still have time to enter for your chance to win a trip to Walt Disney World for four people and for anyone that is not familiar, we are giving away a trip that includes airfare, hotels, park tickets, and a $300 gift card and more. And if you don't win, there's ten first prize. Winners were given out a bunch of gift cards as well. 00:24:08:13 - 00:24:22:02 Chris There is no purchase necessary. This is open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states age 18 and older. This ends on May 26th, so we still have some time to enter. For the full official rules, just visit Upgraded points or check out the link in the show notes. 00:24:22:04 - 00:24:43:03 Katie Yeah, that's a that's a great giveaway. So make sure you enter and we hope you win. That's going to do it for us this week. Be sure to like and subscribe on all those channels YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts. And if you have questions for us to answer on air, you can reach us at podcast at Upgraded points.com and be sure to share us with a travel loving friend. 00:24:43:03 - 00:24:44:08 Katie We will see you next week.