NEW Amex Lounge + 3 BONUSES Ending Soon (Actually Urgent)

In this video, I want to talk about the new Amex Centurion Lounge that just opened, or it's really an additional lounge to the lounge that already exists at Las Vegas Airport. Then we have three huge credit card bonuses that are ending very soon. The first one actually ends on March 12th and the others follow shortly afterwards. So you have to act fast if you want them. Hey, credit warriors, welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges, aka 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, do subscribe. But let's get into the video. So the first story of the day is this new Amex lounge that has just opened in Las Vegas. Now, this is actually a companion lounge to the Centurion Lounge that is already there. Let's take a read of the Amex press release. Today, American Express opened the doors to Sidecar by the Centurion Lounge, an entirely new airport lounge concept within the Centurion Lounge network at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. The space, created for solo and small groups of travelers, is a small speakeasy-inspired lounge where eligible card members looking for a quick stop can sit and order elevated food and drinks from a menu curated by award-winning resi chefs from the Culinary Collective by the Centurion Lounge. So the emphasis is on quick stops and thus you can only access the Sidecar Lounge 90 minutes before your flight's departure time, which realistically will limit your time in the lounge to probably about half an hour or so. If we look at some information from airlines, most AA flights, for example, board 30 to 50 minutes before departure and you may need, say, 10 minutes to get to your gate. So realistically, I'm thinking that this is going to be a lounge for half an hour stops, maybe 40 minutes at most. A lot of people won't make it through TSA a full 90 minutes before the flight anyway, so that's also a factor. If you're on a longer stopover of a few hours switching planes, then go to the Centurion Lounge, which you can get into I think three hours before your flight, although in July this year that will change to five hours for layovers. So Sidecar is for those people who are just rushing in and out, and I find myself in that situation a lot, right? I've got like 20 minutes to go into a lounge and I want to just be real quick, get some food because food on planes sucks, right? Even in business class, the food often isn't that good, especially on US airlines. And I guess this is also another way of easing crowding in the main Centurion Lounge, right? Get this certain percentage of people out of the Centurion Lounge into their own lounge, so then you've got more room in the main lounge. Let me know in the comments, do you think that this is a good idea, right? Will it work? And how long do you normally spend in airport lounges? I'd be interested to hear. But anyway, let's have a look at some of the photos. So we have the entrance, which is pretty cool. You kind of enter the door from the side. I don't know if that's because it's called Sidecar. Then we have the bar area. We also have some of the food and drinks. And actually, in some of the videos from influencers who've been to the lounge, it looks even better than those marketing photos. Lastly, in their press release, Amex says, Sidecar by the Centurion Lounge makes American Express the only credit card issuer with two lounges at Las Vegas, being the number one destination for hotels booked by American Express card members through Amex Travel in 2025. The lounge is located near gate D1 in Concourse D, opening hours at 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., a short distance from the primary Centurion Lounge. That's interesting that Las Vegas is the number one location for hotels booked through Amex Travel. I'm guessing that's going to be because of the hotel credit on the Amex Platinum. And everyone's realized that hotels in Vegas are actually pretty cheap because the hotels make a lot of money from the gambling. So you can actually cover at least one night hotel stay through that $300 hotel credit. And if you were to book two nights separately, all right, one night in late December, you book it. And then the next night when January rolls around and it resets, you book the next night. You could actually cover a whole two-day hotel stay with that credit. And also, if you're wondering, guys, who can access this lounge, whoever can access a Centurion Lounge normally. So Platinum cards, Delta Reserve, Centurion, you can all access Sidecar. All right, let's move on to some credit card bonuses that are only available for a few more days. So the first credit card bonus I want to talk about is the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card. And this one is five free nights for spending $3,000 on purchases in three months. The free nights are worth 50,000 points each. So that's equivalent of getting 250,000 Marriott points if you max them out. And then on top of that, there's a $100 airline credit in the first year too. This one is a great one to get. And if you value Marriott points at 0.7 cents per point, then that is $1,750 in value if you're able to redeem each certificate at exactly 50,000 points. You also get the $100 airline credit. So that takes you to $1,850 in value. Huge potential value there. Now, sites that have affiliate links are reporting that this bonus will end on March 12th. I don't have affiliate links on my YouTube channel anymore. All those banks stopped doing video advertising, but I'm still able to find out when these offers are ending. So you have like two days if you want to get this one. All right, let's move on to another bonus that's also ending soon. But first, if you have a lot of credit card accounts that you're earning rewards from for cashback and free travel, then you've got to check out the ultimate credit card management app, Max Rewards. They've been a sponsor of this channel for a long time, and I've seen their app just get better and better as they make updates. With a secure link to all your banks, it shows you all of your transactions across all of your cards within one app. No need to log into different banks' websites. You'll see your balances, your utilization, your due dates and your points and rewards balances for each card. There are even things like card value trackers where you can see the value you've earned from the rewards versus the annual fee. This is my Amex Gold. Not bad considering we're not even halfway through my membership year. Another great feature of the pro version of Max Rewards, Max Rewards Gold, is that the app activates your credit card offers for you so that you never miss a deal. And there have been times when I've used an offer that was activated by Max Rewards when I was out shopping without even realizing it, and I've saved money. That's happened a few times now. So check out Max Rewards by clicking my link down below for a seven-day free trial of Max Rewards Gold and a three-month discount on the annual plan if you continue after the trial ends. If you download it directly from the app store, use code BEN for the same deal. All right, let's now talk about some more bonuses that are ending soon. So on the personal Southwest Airlines credit cards, there's currently a deal to get a companion pass, which is Southwest's two-for-one flight pass, that is valid through February 28th, 2027, plus a certain number of points depending on which card you sign up for. $20,000 on their lowest card, $30,000 on the mid card, and $40,000 on their highest level card. And the spend requirements are $3,000 on the lowest level card, $4,000 on the middle, and $5,000 on the highest one, all within the first three months. So realistically, if you get the card now, it's going to take you at the quickest one month to do the spending and have your statement closed. So that will trigger the bonus. So at the quickest, you could have the companion pass in April. And that's not even guaranteed because sometimes Chase takes an extra month to give it to you. But anyway, if you did get it in April, that would give you like 10 and a half months of two-for-one flights on Southwest. But for most people, I think they're going to be a little slower doing the spend requirement, especially if they got the higher end card with the $5,000 spend. So, you know, you could be looking at nine and a half or eight and a half months of companion pass. Still, if you're planning a trip this summer, it could be a great bonus to get. Now, we did talk about these bonuses in a video before. But the reason I'm bringing them up again now is that they are ending soon. When exactly? On March 18th. So you have about a week if you want to sign up. And there are actually two more cards that have elevated bonuses that you have just one more week to sign up for. Let's talk about them next. So those would be the IHG credit cards from Chase. We have the exact same end date, March 18th, and the two personal cards both have elevated bonuses. It's 175,000 points on the IHG One Rewards Premier card. That's for spending $5,000 in three months. And if we use 0.5 cents per point as the valuation for IHG points, they're similar to Hilton points. That gives us $875 in value. That's pretty good for a $99 per year card. But check this out. Currently on the IHG Traveler card, which has no annual fee, they're offering 120,000 points as a bonus. Now, this is split into two halves. 90,000 for spending $2,000 in three months and then 30,000 more points by earning an extra 3x on purchases on $10,000 worth of spend in your first six months. I would say that this is doable. Everyone's going to get at least some of that additional 30,000 and some people will be able to max it out, right? It's only $10,000 worth of spend in six months. And if you do max it out, the value is $600. I've stayed at a few IHG properties, three of their flagship intercontinental brand, one in London and two in DC on the same trip, actually. And I found them to be great hotels. Anyway, like we said, if you want to get either of those, you have until March 18th. That's just over a week or pretty much a week. All right, guys, that's the video for today. Don't forget to get a free trial of Max Rewards and then a three-month discount on the annual plan if you choose to continue after the trial ends with my link down below. You can also try the free features if you don't want to continue with the pro version after the trial. Thank you so much for watching. Please subscribe to the channel if you're new. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.