Amex Lounge CHANGES + MORE Bilt Drama + SECRET Hotel Card Bonus

In this video, I want to talk about a new secret welcome bonus on a very popular hotel credit card. We have a way to get the Southwest Companion Pass really easily. And then we have some good news for Amex Platinum holders. They've actually improved lounge access. Normally goes the other way around with them adding restrictions. And then finally, we have more drama around the release of the built 2.0 cards and the now notorious Point Sky bonus offer. Stay tuned for that. Hey, credit warriors. Welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges, a.k.a. The Credit Shofu. And on this channel, I cover U.S. credit cards, personal finance and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that, please subscribe. But let's get into it. Oh, and this video is brought to you by David. But more on that later. OK, so the first thing I want to talk about in this video is this new bonus. And this is kind of a secret bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy boundless credit card from Chase. So you may have already heard about the public bonus on this card, which is five free nights worth up to fifty thousand points each for spending three thousand dollars in three months, plus a one hundred dollar airline credit. Fifty dollars every six months when you spend five hundred dollars or more with airlines. Now, that's a pretty good bonus. The five free nights is really good on its own, to be honest. But having the airline bonus is a great added extra, although I'm not sure that everyone will use the whole thing. OK, if you only go on one trip once a year, then you'll only earn fifty dollars of it since it's fifty dollars every six months. But hey, we'll still take it. But there's actually another kind of secret bonus on this card. You have to go through a direct link for this one. I'll paste it somewhere down below. Apparently, this link was linked to on a TV in a Marriott hotel that someone found. And so, you know, in the future it might get taken down, OK, depending on you're watching this. But, you know, at the time of recording, this was still live. All right. So anyway, what is it? OK, here it is. Earn a four hundred dollar Marriott gift card instantly upon approval, then get fifty thousand points when you spend three thousand dollars on purchases in three months and get the one hundred dollar airline credit. Now, which bonus is actually better? Well, that depends on how much fifty thousand Marriott points is worth. If I search hotels close to me on their Web site, I don't find any for exactly fifty thousand, but I do find this one in New Jersey for forty nine thousand. And if I paid in cash, it would cost three hundred and sixty two dollars per night. That gives me zero point seven three cents in value per Marriott point, which is very close to what the points guy values them at. All right. Just ever so slightly above. But anyway, just for ease of mathematics, let's say we use all five free night certificates at that particular hotel. All right. Since it's hard to find one that's exactly fifty thousand. So you might realistically be using them at hotels that are like forty nine or forty seven or whatever. But it's pretty much that. OK, so that means that we would get one thousand eight hundred and ten dollars in value. Then if we add the airline credit, that's one thousand nine hundred and ten dollars in value. So that's actually a lot better than the new secret bonus. OK, which would be four hundred plus, you know, three hundred and sixty something plus a hundred. OK, so we're getting to around a thousand dollars in value there. Only thing is you have to do three thousand dollars worth of spending and then wait one, two or three months depending on how long it took you to do the spending to get the bonus. So if you're someone who wants to have a Marriott stay paid for right now and then also get fifty thousand points after that and possibly an airline credit, then this secret bonus could be for you. Just be aware you're effectively sacrificing for fifty thousand point level free nights in the future for four hundred dollars worth of Marriott stays now. But, you know, I guess it depends on your priorities. All right. All right, guys, let's move on to a really easy way to get the Southwest Airlines companion pass. But first, I'm a very active guy, whether I'm in the climbing gym, skiing in Vermont or just doing some workouts at home. Ninety eight. Ninety nine. A hundred. Oh, hey, didn't see that. I like to have some quick protein handy to support my active lifestyle. Now, I have struggled to find good quality and tasty protein bars. That is until I found David. The company was co-founded by Peter Rahal, who is also the co-founder of RX Bar, which you've probably heard of. It's named after Michelangelo's David, the epitome of perfection. And that idea of perfection fits well because this is the first protein bar that I've tried that actually tastes good. They come in two varieties. You have the gold bars, which feature 28 grams of protein, 150 calories and zero grams of sugar. These are the most performance focused option. Then you also have the bronze bars that have 20 grams of protein, 150 calories and zero grams of sugar. And these really maximize rich taste. Since my workouts are pretty chill, to be honest, ninety eight, ninety nine. I'm not really pushing things to the max at 40 years old. I love the balance between great taste and performance that the bronze bars offer. The marshmallow texture coated in rich chocolate is totally delicious. It's probably the best protein bar I've ever tasted. And right now, David is offering my viewers a special deal where if you get four, you get your fifth for free when you use my link below or the QR code that is on screen now. If you don't want to wait for delivery, you can also get them at Target, Walmart, Kroger, Publix and many other stores. All right. So the Southwest Companion Pass is a two for one airline pass where each time you buy a ticket on Southwest, either with points or cash, you get a free ticket for a chosen companion as well. Great for couples or you and a friend who planned a big trip together. And right now we have a super easy way to get a companion pass. And that is if you sign up for the Chase Southwest credit cards through a referral link, you get this offer for a companion pass that is valid through February 28th, twenty twenty seven and forty thousand points for spending five thousand dollars in three months. That one is on the priority card and on the other two personal cards. It's the same offer for a companion pass, but it's either thirty thousand points on the mid level or twenty thousand points on the lowest level card. And the requirements are lower to four thousand dollars on the mid level card and three thousand on the lowest one. In my opinion, this is a great deal. If you fit the category of people who would benefit from this, you have a companion who you want to travel with. So let's say you're planning a summer vacation with your wife or husband where you go to loads of U.S. destinations this coming summer. It's such a no brainer. You would probably get it at at least the end of May, just in time for August. I just wish that I had a referral link so I could show it to all you guys, but I don't. So reach out to a friend who has this card for a referral link and it helps them out, too, since they get a bonus for signing you up. All right. Let's move on to changes to Amex lounge access. All right. So American Express has actually improved lounge access at one of the lounge networks that Platinum and Centurion cardholders can access. And that is the Lufthansa lounge. So it used to be that the Amex Platinum or Centurion, if you're lucky enough to have it, would get you into the Lufthansa lounge if you are flying Lufthansa Airlines, Austrian Airlines or Swiss Airlines, which are three airlines from the Lufthansa group. But Amex has now expanded that to all airlines in the Lufthansa group. So this now adds Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa City Airlines. All of the airlines added are more like intra-European carriers. So maybe that's why they originally weren't included, since U.S. Platinum cardholders perhaps wouldn't be expected to fly them, right? They would be more likely to, say, get Lufthansa or Swiss straight from the U.S. to their destination in Europe rather than being going like from Italy to Germany on Air Dolomiti, which is a regional airline. But with these new changes, now you can access the Lufthansa lounge if you are flying on such a route. So I know this is very niche, but it still is of benefit to some people. And if that person is you, then congratulations. All right, let's now move on to our last story of the day, and that is more drama surrounding the Bill 2.0 cards and the PointsGuy offer. So there was an offer only available for one day, January 14th, where if you signed up through the PointsGuy's link on that day, you would get a five points per dollar offer on everything for the first five days you had your new card, starting on launch day, which is February 7th. Here is what it looks like. Basically, they add however many points are needed to make a bonus category up to 5x, okay? So you can see from this screenshot on Reddit, 3x is being added to a 2x transaction, and you can see the person also earned 4% in built cash as well. But after many people applied for this promo, it seems there was some confusion when they called up to built to make sure that the offer was active on their card, and many of the built reps said it wasn't. Built then sent out emails reassuring people that the offer was active, and even some people who didn't sign up through the PointsGuy's link still got the email. And that seems to be the problem now, that the TPG promo was actually given out to a lot of people who actually didn't apply with the TPG link. Check out this message that someone got from CEO of Built, Ankur Jain, on Instagram. So for people who signed up through TPG and haven't got the promo, it seems that they are no longer sorting it out for them because a certain group of people has spoiled it for everyone by submitting the same fake screenshot. I'm curious though about where he says this was a TPG offer. Does that mean TPG was paying for it? Were they adding the extra points? I'm not sure, probably not, although the PointsGuy has been an advisor to Built over many years, so there is a relationship there. If you did sign up through that TPG link though and didn't get the TPG offer for 5 points per dollar, you really do have a case against Built in my opinion, since when you sign up for a credit card, that is a contract. The terms you're signing up for are a contract and that should be honored. After all, you will owe them whatever interest is charged and whatever fees are accrued. That's outlined in the agreement as well. So if you have to honor your part, paying your annual fee, paying your interest if you do accrue interest, they should have to honor the bonus and points multipliers. Maybe Jain is just trying to shift the blame to the PointsGuy, not Built. So it's like, hey, it wasn't us. Go sue the PointsGuy. I don't know if that's going to work, but anyway, leave your comments below. What do you guys think about this? And that is the video for today, guys. Don't forget, if you want to try out the fantastic protein bars from David, I really like them. There is a special deal for my viewers down in the links below, or you can scan the QR code, which is on screen right now, and it'll take you to the same place. Please subscribe to the channel if you're new for more content like this, and we'll see you in the next one. Bye-bye.