Due to COVID-19 most airlines are in survival mode and coming up with various promotions to keep them afloat or to get the much needed cash infusion. Etihad Airways is running a promotion which started on 10th of June and valid till 24th of June where you would get 50% more in value when you purchase a travel voucher which could be used for booking any flights starting 1st August 2020.
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You can purchase the travel voucher in any amount from $250 to $65,000 and it would be valid for 2 years from the date of purchase. One of the best thing is that you can use the voucher for booking flights for any friend or family and till the end of schedule from the date of booking which could be the last date of expiration of the voucher. You can also book your tickets online and see the voucher value while booking so you do not necessarily need to call.

You will need Etihad Guest Account to have travel voucher deposited to the linked travel bank account. You would also earn miles and elite points on the actual ticket purchase. Do keep in mind that although highly unlikely Etihad can also go out of business and you would wind up holding "zilch" or $0 in value for the voucher. Also you cannot use the travel voucher for paying taxes and fees for the award ticket. Below are the terms and conditions of the voucher:

• Bonus credit applicable to all Etihad Travel Vouchers purchased between 10 - 24 June 2020.
• This offer can only be purchased through our Contact Center.
• You must be an Etihad Guest member to be eligible.
• Valid for a period of two years, for travel from 1 August 2020.
• Minimum voucher value US $250.
• Maximum voucher value US $65,000.
• Vouchers are non-refundable and non-transferable, but can be used to book flights and extras for other people – you do not need to travel.

​You will need to call the Etihad call center here to make the purchase and in the process they will create the travel bank account for you loaded with the travel voucher purchased. More information on travel bank can be found here. Etihad has vast network of flights and has highly rated Business Class and ranked in top 10 of the world's best business class seats in 2019. So, there could be quite number of opportunities where you can travel with Etihad using the voucher. 

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We wrote about Hilton Honors Aspire resort credit of $250 applicable to dining purchases going live on 06/01/2020 here. So, if you have not used your Hilton resort credit for the current year from now to 08/31/2020 is the best time to use your Hilton Honor's aspire card for the any dining purchase. The important point was that you can use that credit towards takeout / delivery service providers such as Grubhub, UberEats. DoorDash etc. This allows for potentially using these delivery service with any promotion's they present along with any points, cashback earning potential through various cashback sites or hotel programs. 

So, below are the few things you can do to maximize your points/cashback for the reimbursed $250 dining credit on your Hilton Honors Aspire card (If you have not already used your resort credit!!).

• Add your Hilton Aspire credit card to dining programs such as American Airlines Dining, Alaska Airlines Dining etc.
• Add your Hilton Aspire credit card as default for purchase at Grubhub, UberEats (If new use code: eats-ubergotraveller ), DoorDash etc.
• Use the cashback site for UberEats or linked programs for earning points such as IHG for Grubhub or  Choice privilege points / Club Carlson points with delivery.com.
• Finally do check out of there are any special promotion or trial sign up which would reduce the delivery fee or provide discount on delivery/pick up.
• Any Amex Dining Offer which would provide cashback or Hilton Honors points (Do remember that any Amex cashback offer here may not stack with $250 credit)

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Chase Sapphire cards has added an amazing feature called "Pay Yourself Back" effective 05/31/2020 where you can cash out ultimate reward points at value of 1.25 cent/point (Preferred card) or 1.5 cent/point (Reserve card) for your purchases made with the card in certain categories. For starters below categories are valid till 09/30/2020:

• Grocery stores.
• Dining including in-restaurant, delivery and to-go purchases.
• Home Improvement purchase such as at Home Depot.

As per the media release the statement credit will post within 3 days after redeeming ultimate rewards for the said charges. You can access the special pay yourself back page here after logging in your chase account and redeeming ultimate reward points for either 1.25 cent/point or 1.5 cent/point value for the said categories depending on which sapphire card you have purchases on.

Chase Sapphire Preferred comes with $95 annual fees whereas Chase Sapphire Reserve has annual fees of $550 (although Chase has lowered annual fees to $450 for any renewals from now till December 2020 instead of the regular fees of $550). Also Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with $300 annual travel credit which can now be redeemed against Grocery store purchase or Gas station purchase till Dec 31st, 2020. 

So, if you have huge stash of Ultimate Reward Points then having one of the Sapphire credit cards would allow you to redeem the points at a great value. You could also upgrade an existing freedom card to Sapphire card. Do remember though that if you go after Sapphire Reserve card you would have to probably pay regular fees of $550 instead of reduce fees of $450 or you could upgrade to Sapphire Preferred for $95 annual fees. So, do your math if it's worth for you to upgrade and to which card!!

Hat tip (Doctor Of Credit)

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Due to COVID-19 situation lot of travel related credit card's with high annual fees are innovating and throwing in temporary statement credit redemption options. Hilton Aspire credit card comes with $250 resort credit each card member year for purchases at participating Hilton Resorts. They are making good on those credits by allowing to redeem them against restaurant charges for a short window from June 1st to Aug 31st 2020.

Hilton Aspire is a great card with benefits worth its high fees of $450 if you are travel geek. Having an alternate option to redeem those $250 in resort credit's for restaurant purchases (including Grubhub / Seamless, UberEats etc) makes the credit card compelling and the one which you should hold on or can apply for here. Also the free annual weekend night which can be used at any property except few here is a great value.

Below is the snapshot of the modified benefits of the card as per American Express. Also the terms are below for completeness.

As you can see you already earn 12 Hilton Honor Points at U.S. Supermarkets as modified benefit for time being. In addition you might notice additional point earning offers such as below on your "Amex Offers" which would make it useful card even in time of No travel.

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One of the best card's for extended warranty is Citi. While American Express extended warranty claim is much easier to get approved, AMEX only provides up to 1 year of extended warranty where-as Citi provides up to 24 months of extended warranty. 

Citi's extended warranty adds 24 months to any original manufacturer warranty or purchased extended warranty from vendor/service provider with maximum vendor/service provider of 5 years. So effectively you can get total of 7 years of extended warranty. The best part is you can get this extended warranty with No annual fee Citi Reward+ credit card. 

Below are some of the baseline terms. For complete benefits guide you can look up "card benefits" section after login in to your citi online account:

• Get an extra 24 months added to your warranty when you purchase items at least in part with your Citi card and/or ThankYou® Points. If your eligible item breaks, we’ll repair, reimburse or replace it, up to the amount charged on your Citi card and/or ThankYou® Points or up to $10,000 per item, whichever is less.
• Some Important Details: Coverage begins when the manufacturer’s warranty, or an extended warranty you bought, expires. In no event will total coverage exceed seven years from the purchase date.
• What's Covered: Purchases made with your Citi card and/or ThankYou® Points that come with a manufacturer's warranty.
• Example of What's Not Covered: Cars, boats, aircraft or any motorized land, air or water vehicles and their original equipment. Tires are not covered. Items that do not come with a manufacturer’s warranty.

So, let's say for example you buy a cooking range from Home Depot and you purchased extended warranty of 5 years. You will get additional 24 months of coverage extending your warranty to total of 7 years! If you do not want to pay for the extended warranty from Home Depot than you would still have 1 year of manufacturer warranty (usually) and additional 24 months of extended warranty from Citi. (Note: You need to have some manufacturer warranty provided or else Citi's extended warranty does not apply!)

You also get reimbursed only for the amount paid with Citi credit card/Thank You points. so ensure that you put full purchase charge on Citi card to get the full benefit.

One important thing to check is that even within Citi the extended warranty benefit is not available across all credit card's. For e.g. as of this writing this benefit is not available with Citi Double Cash Card . So do check the benefits of the card before using it for purchase. You can find all the Citi credit card's here.

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With most of the folks not looking to travel in next few months and uncertainty around travel some of us would be thinking of how to best preserve cash. Most of the flexible credit card points program in the U.S.A such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou points allows one to cash out the points for statement credit or cash in checking/savings account.  If you have a big stash of these flexible points and no near term travel plan it may be prudent to cash them out. 

While Chase Ultimate Rewards makes it easy and gives a value of 1:1 (Every 1,000 points can be redeemed for $10 in cash) Citi ThankYou points gives a real bad value of 1:0.5 (Every 1,000 points can be redeemed for $5 in cash).

How to maximize cash out of Citi ThankYou points?
Citi ThankYou points allows few ways of cashing out the points.

• Cash Rewards (1:0.5 ratio)
• Statement Credit (1:0.5 ratio)
• Payment towards Mortgage (1:1 ratio)
• Payment towards Student Loan (1:1 ratio)

As you can see from above only the redemption towards Mortgage / Student Loan will get a 1:1 value for your points. But what if you are not looking for any payments but want some cash?

Alternative option of gift card!!
You can redeem Citi ThankYou points for gift cards at 1:1 ratio. While not as good as cold hard cash, you could still redeem for plethora of merchants such as Target, Lowe's , Home Depot, Best Buy etc. This would give flexibility of getting close to 1:1 value which otherwise you would not get. You can also sell this gift card at some of the online re-sellers and still get `~90% of the value of gift card as cash getting a redemption ratio of 1:0.9 (1000 points for a value of $9) which is better than 1:0.5. 

Getting a Citi Rewards+ Card for Better Redemption value:
Citi has a no annual fee Citi Rewards+ Card which gives 10% back in points for any redemption of Citi ThankYou points (Maximum of 10,000 points back per year). If you have this card and redeem for gift card than you can potentially get close to ~1:1 ratio as you would receive 10% back in points.

So, do remember alternate option as they might be better of than taking a direct "cash reward" or "statement credit" at reduced value.

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Lot of folks are currently looking to either change or cancel their near term travel as well as at the same time return to their home ASAP due to the outbreak of COVID-19. While most of the airlines/hotels are updating or changing their policy to accommodate the passengers/guests, there is lot of anxiety among the folks who are either currently travelling or have near term travel booked. 

So, if you need to change / cancel your travel here is your to-do list in no particular order:

• Check the airlines/hotel website for updated information regarding their change/cancellation policy. Since the pandemic situation with COVID-19 is evolving there are lot of changes happening rapidly and the best source is to check with airlines/hotel website.
• Use social media specially twitter to check for quick answers/resolution. This is useful as most airlines/hotels have a dedicated social media team and there are others who would have raised similar questions, so easier to check with the airlines/hotels social media representatives.
• If you booking is done through an OTA such as Expedia or Priceline check their website for an update. Remember that your best resource for information is Airlines/Hotel website, so check their first before heading to OTA's website as lot of times the support staff is not completely knowledgeable. 
• If you are trying to call Airlines/Hotels and have long hold time, try calling their foreign office through Google Hangout App or any other VOIP service. These are pretty cheap these days and would avoid you having to wait for a long time.
• Last but not the least, do you homework. Be ready with alternatives and flexibility in what you want to get done. It will help broaden your options rather than relying on the one presented by Airlines/Hotels support staff.

Be safe and hopefully the situation will get better sooner than latter. 

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Due to spread of Coronavirus named COVID-19 majority of airlines in the U.S.A. are now offering free cancellation (in some cases free change of dates). There is a catch though for all of them where the refund will be provided as a credit for the future ticket (again the length of validity of that credit varies). The policy are different for different airlines in regards to when the tickets were booked and the flight date till which the policy would be applicable.

The good news is that if you have any travel plans within the eligible dates then the time is to book NOW!! Since you are eligible to cancel without any reason you can be assured that if your plans change you will not lose your flight money completely (although it would be tied to particular airline only). The policy also applies to "basic economy" fares which are the most restrictive otherwise.

That being said the best deal out there is with JetBlue Airways as there policy applies equally to both revenue fares purchased as well as Award Tickets. So below are the links for major U.S. Airlines regarding their change/cancellation policy.

JetBlue Airways: Policy applies to both revenue fare as well as Award Tickets. The refund will be provided in "JetBlue travel bank" credit for revenue ticket and taxes+fees on award tickets. The credit expires 1 year from initial issue date.

Alaska Airlines: Policy applies to revenue fare only. The refund will be provided in "Alaska Wallet" which is valid for travel till 28th Feb 2021.

American Airlines: Policy applies to revenue fare only and only "changes" are allowed. Also there are few "gotcha" in terms of the valid dates of booking and travel which you need to be aware of.

Delta Airlines: Policy applies to revenue fare only and only "changes" are allowed. Both domestic and international tickets can be changes without paying change fees when booked within applicable dates.

United Airlines: Policy applies to revenue fare only and both changes and cancellations are allowed. For cancelled tickets the original ticket value will be retained for future travel up to 12 months from the original ticket issue date. Also this applies only to tickets purchase within applicable dates.

So, if you have any travel plans within the applicable booking cancellations dates now is the best time to book it.

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JetBlue Airways has recently issued notice that they will be waiving change/cancellation fee's for ticket's booked between 02/27/2020 till 03/11/2020 for travel booked till 06/01/2020 in light of Corona Virus. The value of the ticket if changed/cancelled will be provided as travel credit in JetBlue Travel Bank valid of 1 year from the date of issuance of credit.
This is a good news at several levels because:

• The policy will be applied to all fare types including "Blue Basic" fare.
• The policy applies to award redemption being made using JetBlue TrueBlue Points.
• The policy also applies to tickets booked through 3rd party OTA such as Expedia, Priceline and includes Chase Ultimate Rewards booking.

Since we all live in a more connected and online world where you can book your travel easily online in a whim we forget sometimes that there are rules which govern entry into different countries and which keeps changing with time. 

The good news is that it is relatively easy to find the requirements of visa for tourism purposes. One of the best, reliable and accurate resource with this regards is the TIMATIC tool (Travel Information Manual Automatic). Since lot of us are on the move where it is quite plausible that we are citizen of one country but work in another and always on the quest to visit the third :) knowing the rules of visiting a country is quite important.

That being said below are the useful website's which allows to check this information for free after entering few (sometimes exhaustive) details.
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IATA TravelCentre:
IATA TravelCentre is one of the useful tools which can help determine your visa requirement to enter a certain country. It requires you to enter "Travel Information" which is the destination country you want to travel; followed by "Personal Information" which includes information related to travel as shown below.

Once you enter the information it shows you details regarding passport eligibility, visa and health related information which can help you guide you for visa related information for your visit. This is a great tool to use and luckily there are quite a few airlines/agency which allow to retrieve this information. You can find the links for them below:

• United Airlines TIMITAC Tool:
• DELTA SKYTEAM TIMITAC Tool:
• TravelDoc Tool:
• Emirates TIMITAC Tool:

Do note that some of the alternative visa requirement determination tools provided by airlines can change anytime with the updates to their website. Still, you can use either of these useful web tools to determine the rules for the country you are looking to travel to for tourism. So, next time you are booking your aspiration trip you can make an informed decision. Hopefully this would be useful tools for your visa checks.
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