The Cards Worth Putting Big Spend On in 2026

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Welcome bonuses get all the attention, but there's a whole layer of value hiding inside the cards you already have. Yeah, so this actually came up for me recently. I had a big tax payment coming and I had already earned the bonuses on two new cards, so I had to figure out where to put the rest of the spend. And that's what we're getting into today. Spend thresholds, milestone rewards, status unlocks, and a few tricks that most people never use. Plus, I'll tell you what I actually ended up doing, what I do differently, and why Chris has me fully on the Hilton train now.

[00:00:34]>> [music] >> Hey, I'm Chris. Welcome to the Upgraded Points podcast. And I'm Katie, and today we have a new Hyatt hotel to talk about.

[00:00:45]And then we're going to go into a topic that came up because of a situation I was in with a large payment that I needed to make, and I wanted some options that didn't necessarily include welcome bonuses. So, we are going to talk all about that and what to do with those big spending opportunities that you may have. Before we get to all of that, don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you're watching or listening, and be sure to share us with a travel-loving friend.

[00:01:13]So, Chris, why don't you tell us about this new Hyatt hotel that we have coming up?

[00:01:18]Yes, the first ever all-inclusive Park Hyatt property is coming to Mexico in 2027. Katie, I'm assuming you've seen this. I mean, of of course. Park Hyatt, Mexico, all-inclusive, like three things I love, and you can book it with points.

[00:01:35]>> Can't beat that.

[00:01:36]>> Yeah. So, the Park Hyatt concept will debut in the Riviera Maya area of Mexico. So, this is just south of Cancun, and this is going to happen in 2027.

[00:01:46]Uh World of Hyatt has a separate pricing chart for award stays at all-inclusive properties. And Ryan wrote this article, and he put his guess here that it's going to be an E or F category resort, which would put nights at 32 or starting prices at 35 or 42,000 points per night for two people. Yeah, I think that's that's a great guess from Ryan. I would totally agree. It's going to be on the high end. I mean, this is their first Park Hyatt all-inclusive. It's going to be on one of those top two tiers, for sure.

[00:02:18]And it might really still be worth it.

[00:02:20]So, we're going to have to see. But it looks it looks pretty pretty Yeah, pretty amazing. And if if I'm recalling correctly, we talked about Hyatt all-inclusive and how they're going all-in on all-inclusives back in episode 50.

[00:02:35]So, another one we hit kind of right.

[00:02:38]And this is a good one. The rest of the stuff we've gotten right has been really [laughter] bad.

[00:02:42]Yeah, and that's good. We got to got to say we got to balance ourselves out here.

[00:02:47]Uh yeah, we did call this in episode 50.

[00:02:51]Uh Hyatt is going all-in on all-inclusives. Let's move on to the main segment today. Uh we always talk about big credit card credit card welcome offers. There's no doubt that that is the best and quickest way to earn a huge chunk of points fast. Uh but sometimes can make sense to put big spend on a card that you already have.

[00:03:13]Yeah, so this came up for me recently. I had quite a hefty tax payment, and I actually ended up opening two cards to get their welcome bonuses, and I still had a lot of spend to do. And for a lot of reasons, I wasn't really interested in opening more cards. So, I wanted to figure out a way to get the most benefit from putting that spend on cards that I already had.

[00:03:37]Yeah, most people default to putting all of their spend on one or two cards without really thinking about thresholds. Um but there's a number of hotel and airline cards that are loaded with milestone rewards that only trigger when you hit a specific number. Miss them, even by a penny, and you're leaving real value on the table. Yeah, so let's um go through these credit cards that are great opportunities when you have a big chunk of spend. So, first off, I think is one of the better options, and these are the World of Hyatt cards. So, the World of Hyatt credit card personal version, if you spend $15,000, you will get a category 1 through 4 free night certificate, and the 15,000 is in a calendar year. And when you spend for So, you get two um elite night credits for every 5,000 spend, so you'll get that free night certificate as well as six elite night credits. On the business version, you get five elite nights for every 10,000 in spend. And then, if you spend 50,000, you get 10% of your points back um that you redeem for the rest of the year, up to 200,000 points. That little bit for me isn't quite as exciting. I actually really like the personal version for this, you know, if you have a $15,000 payment on something, that's a really nice return on spend for 15,000. Over at with Hilton, you have the Hilton Surpass card, and you spend 15,000, you'll get a free night reward.

[00:05:05]That is great deal. Um if you get up to 40,000 in a calendar year, you'll get diamond status. That's the top tier.

[00:05:12]Well, I guess there's Hilton uh diamond reserve now. But then, if you have the Hilton Honors business card, you spend 40,000 per year, you'll also get diamond status.

[00:05:21]If you have the Hilton Aspire card, you already get diamond status. Um but then the those free night rewards are at 30,000 and 60,000 spend. Uh so, this is already the most premium of the hotel card in in the market. Uh comes with essentially almost top-tier uh hotel status. Um but it's nice that at least it keeps rewarding you along the way.

[00:05:41]You can get, you know, additional free nights. And those free night awards can be used at any hotel in the Hilton portfolio as long as standard rooms are for sale. You can really stretch the value out of those as well.

[00:05:52]>> Yeah, those are those are fantastic. I would say more than the the Hyatt ones cuz those are limited to category 1 through 4. So, yeah, that those Hilton free nights are are fantastic.

[00:06:02]>> The Hyatt one is nice because it's the lower threshold. But yeah, if you're just comparing just the two certificates, then the Hilton definitely wins.

[00:06:09]>> Absolutely.

[00:06:10]For IHG, there's a three options. Uh the IHG One Rewards Premier credit card, when you spend 20,000 in a calendar year, you'll get a $100 statement credit and 10,000 bonus points. If you spend 40,000 in a calendar year, you'll get diamond status. If you have the IHG One Rewards Traveler card, uh and you spend 10,000 in a calendar year, you will get 10,000 points. If you spend 20,000 in a calendar year, you will get gold status.

[00:06:38]Now, moving over to the IHG One Rewards Premier business card.

[00:06:42]You spend $20,000 in a calendar year, you'll get $100 statement credit and 10,000 points. If you spend 40,000 in a calendar calendar year, you'll get diamond status. And if you keep spending, if you spend $60,000 on your IHG One Rewards Premier business card, you'll get a free night certificate worth 40,000. So, they'll get all those They'll keep stacking up every 20,000 that you spend. So, while maybe that not may not be the most compelling offer, if you are already close to one of those milestones and you have some big spend, it may not be the worst idea to really spend on that card just to hit those milestones. Yeah, absolutely. And actually that that 10,000 points on 10,000 spend for that Traveler card is kind of interesting cuz that's the no annual fee card. So, that essentially, if you hit that 10,000 right on the money, you're getting an extra point per dollar. So, if you're you know, if you're after some IHG points, that could be an interesting threshold to hit. Okay, let's talk about Marriott next. The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card, you can earn an elite credit towards status for every 5,000 dollars you spend. So, one elite night for every 5,000. And then if you hit 35,000 in a calendar year, you will get gold status. Probably wouldn't do that. There are easier ways to get gold status, but hey, you never know. Marriott Bonvoy Bevy, if you spend 15,000 in a calendar year, you get a free night award that is valuable for up to 50,000 points per night. So, that's kind of more along the lines with the Hilton and Hyatt ones.

[00:08:12]That's a nice nice award for 15 15,000 in spend. And then, the Marriott Bonvoy business card, if you spend 60,000 in a calendar year, you get a 35K free night award. I don't quite understand why you only get a 35K for 60,000 in spend, but that's how it is. So, that that Bonvoy Bevy is kind of the sweet spot in in the Marriott cards for free nights.

[00:08:36]>> Definitely sweet spot there. 50,000 points, that can get you, depending on where you are, get you a really nice property.

[00:08:42]>> Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:08:44]All right, let's take a quick break, and when we come back, we are going to dive into the airline and transferable currency cards that you probably already have in your wallet.

[00:09:00]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. We break 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. A lot of the deals we talk about on the show don't last long. The newsletter is where we flag those fast. It's totally free, and you can sign up at upgradedpoints.com/newsletter.

[00:09:34]Okay, welcome back. Let's jump into some airline credit cards and great spend thresholds if you have a lot to spend.

[00:09:43]Starting with American Airlines, uh the Citi AAdvantage Platinum card, if you spend $20,000, you will get a whopping $125 American Airlines flight discount, um and that is during the membership year.

[00:09:57]But it's one of those if you're close, it might be worth it. And now, this can be a little bit confusing because right now American Airlines is getting ready to transition over from Barclays to City. So, if you have that Aviator red card, which will in April I think they're going to be transitioning over maybe a few weeks period, but if you have that Aviator card, it will transition to a City Advantage Platinum card.

[00:10:21]You will still for an a limited amount of time that they have not yet um, announced, but for a while you will have that legacy companion certificate at $20,000 in spend. And that's good for one guest, you spend $99 and the taxes and fees. I think it works out to like 120 something maybe once you spend at $20,000.

[00:10:44]So, you do not have that if you just have the Platinum card, but if you have the Aviator red that's turning into the City Advantage Platinum card, you still have that on your card. Also, for the Aviator silver card, which is going to be transitioning to the globe card, uh, you will have some of the legacy benefits available for a while. Who knows how long, but for a while. I'm guessing probably the rest of this year, but who knows. Um, and this one's even a little bit better. If you spend 20,000, you get two companion certificates and you get 5,000 loyalty points after spending $20,000.

[00:11:21]Okay. That's not bad. Had I had this card, I probably would have done this.

[00:11:27]Um, yeah, I missed [clears throat] my opportunity to upgrade my my Aviator red. Mistakes were made, but if you still have that card, that could be a really interesting one to put some spend on.

[00:11:38]Moving along to Alaska Airlines. If you have the Atmos Summit card, which is the higher end of those cards, this one's really interesting. If you spend $60,000 in a card anniversary year, so that is not a calendar year, it's the anniversary year of your card, you will get a 100,000 point global companion award. And these work just like the 25,000 point companion award that you get just for having the card.

[00:12:05]Um, you have to use it in one chunk.

[00:12:07]It's for award flights, so it's great if you're booking really expensive award flights or round trip. It can be really really valuable.

[00:12:16]Wow, that is cool.

[00:12:18]Um, you have Do you have this card?

[00:12:20]>> I do. I love that card. I I I did not end up putting my spend on this card for that. I thought about it. Um, but I looked ahead at sort of my next year or so of travel and I wasn't confident that I would be able to use that because I already have some stuff booked, so I opted not to, but I think for um, for some people that one would really make sense.

[00:12:41]That's really cool.

[00:12:42]Um, all right, let's move on. I'm going to head over to Chase with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. And this is a nice one. After you spend $75,000 in a calendar year, you will get a long list of benefits including Hyatt Explorer status IHG Diamond status Southwest A-List status plus you'll get a $500 Southwest Airlines credit that you can use for Chase travel and a $250 credit for shops at Chase. And that is great but if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve for business the minimum spend is $120,000 to get all those same benefits. So, not as good as as the consumer version, but still pretty solid list of benefits.

[00:13:28]>> for that amount of spend, yeah.

[00:13:30]Yeah.

[00:13:31]Um, if you have a Capital One Venture X in your wallet, you spend $75,000 on that card per calendar year, uh, you can bring two complimentary guests to Capital One lounges and one Capital One complimentary guest into Capital One Landings.

[00:13:46]So, I mean bummer that the Capital One card's lost the free guest earlier this year, but here is a way to get them in if you were going to be spending that money anyways.

[00:13:57]Yeah, I think had I been close to that 75K threshold naturally, I might have spent up to that. Um, I did not choose that one, but I do think it's for some people that one really makes sense.

[00:14:08]Amex also has some high spend thresholds. The Platinum card and the business Platinum card very similar to the Capital One Venture X. If you spend $75,000 in a calendar year, you will get two guests at Centurion lounges as well as unlimited Delta Sky Club access.

[00:14:26]So, depending on your situation, that could actually be worth it. Um, it's a nice nice, you know, benefit. The Centurion lounges you know, can be can't bring guests into anymore. So, if you can get two guests and then also if you're flying Delta, you get that unlimited Sky Club access, that one could be interesting for a lot of a lot of people.

[00:14:46]Well, Katie, are you going to tell us what did you end up doing for your big spend? Sure. So, um, as I said earlier, these were tax payments, so in my particular situation, I really needed to consider the fee when deciding if it's worth it to put on it a credit card. So, this, you know, if if you don't have a fee, these become a lot easier. When you are paying a tax payment, you do have to pay a fee.

[00:15:09]Um, if you're earning a big bonus, it's 99% of the time always worth it. And a lot of the times for these types of threshold bonuses that we've been talking about, it is worth it as well.

[00:15:20]Um, I think for personal cards, it's like 1.75% and then um, business cards, if you do them through PayPal, it's like 1.85%.

[00:15:31]So, actually really reasonable fees. So, what I ended up doing, I did get two business cards. I got an Amex business Platinum with no lifetime language and an Amex business gold. So, I wiped out those welcome bonuses and then I got to the point where I was like, okay, I'm not getting any new cards right now. So, what I ended up doing I paid up on my Hyatt card to that 15,000 dollar threshold to get the six elite night credits and the free night certificate category one through four.

[00:16:06]And then the next thing I did is probably actually not a good idea and I'm not necessarily recommending this.

[00:16:12]Um, I put the rest of it on my American Airlines executive card to earn loyalty points.

[00:16:19]Okay. Probably not the best solution, but the way I looked at it is I Okay, I'm spending 1.75%.

[00:16:27]I always get at least 1.5 points per dollar on my American Airlines miles.

[00:16:35]Sure. So, and and a lot of times I get much higher than that. So, I kind of looked at that as sort of like it kind of washes, you know, sort of buying those points at cost. And then I also earn those loyalty points. And American Airlines status is very important to me, so I need those loyalty points. I I will always at least one of the lower levels, you know, I generally hit those naturally, but like this last year some of my travel was on Delta and some of it was on United, so I like to get as many of those loyalty points through other means as much as I can. So, I maybe not the best solution, but it works for me. So, what I decided is I'm going to be much more methodical about this next year.

[00:17:19]And I really want to hit those $15,000 minimums on the Hilton Surpass cards.

[00:17:27]So, my plan is I used to have one of these cards and I downgraded it to the free one.

[00:17:33]So, I think next year I might upgrade my free one and get one for my husband at the same time, spend the 15,000 on both so we each hit that at the same time so we have the two free night certificates.

[00:17:45]Because I Chris, after you've you've been talking up like the Conrad Evermore in Orlando and all those Hilton properties in Japan so much that I started looking at Hilton a lot more recently and I was like, those free night certificates are really valuable.

[00:18:01]So, I think that's going to be my plan for next year and that will work into hopefully my Japan trip. Hopefully I can make that happen next year.

[00:18:09]Um, and if not, then we'll do that the next year and I'll find some other amazing uses for those. So, so that's what I ended up doing.

[00:18:17]What what what would you do, Chris?

[00:18:19]If I had to do it without I mean, I think what you did is fine, first of all. Especially with American Airlines.

[00:18:26]I love I mean, I think loyalty points are super valuable. It was frustrating that I didn't have the Aviator red in my name or the Aviator silver because then I could have also gotten the companion certificate.

[00:18:38]So, that was a little annoying, but it was just one of those situations is like, you know what? I'm just going to do it. It's fine.

[00:18:45]I think I think you >> [laughter] >> handled it pretty well. You walked away with a couple nice bonuses there and some free night certificate. If you had to give I had to give listeners some alternatives um, that would they wanted to get some some chunks without opening up a new card I think one of the underrated options is asking for a retention offer before you go and spend on these cards. So, say for example that your annual fee hit recently on your card, you can chat or call in to your bank and they may just offer you a mini welcome bonus right there. Spend $1,000 in the next, you know, a couple months and here's whatever. Those the all the big banks uh, offer something like this and the offers vary depending on a million different things, um, but that's a really nice option that people overlook. That's a great idea. I wish I thought about that. We should have talked about this like two weeks ago, Chris.

[00:19:37]Yeah, I guess maybe your American Airlines could have offered you a retention offer. Could have got some bonus miles on top. Um, but that's something that I just haven't done.

[00:19:46]I I'm guilty of this as well. I just don't do it very often because the past few times that I've done it, they've said no.

[00:19:53]Um and it's whenever I have to call like a city. Like I'll do American Express cuz it's chat.

[00:20:00]Whenever I have to call city, I just get the shivers. So I it's [laughter] it's not worth it.

[00:20:05]Um but yeah, if you have the time and patience, it's it it really it can't hurt to ask.

[00:20:11]Um the other one is just just like what you did Katie, I would go look at what milestones I'm close to hitting. The Hyatt card 15,000 if you're already you know, spent 10,000 or whatever you and another five and you get a free night certificate, that can make a lot of sense. The Hilton ones 15,000 you get another certificate. It's there's just a lot that you can do with the cards that are already in your wallet. And then yeah, just chase the thresholds and not necessarily the points unless they're loyalty points. And here's a third one.

[00:20:40]This is going to be a little little bit more legwork. It's not something that I do, um but a lot of people can go buy gift cards that if they have a card that offers a category bonus somewhere. Maybe it's a Visa gift card, I don't know. But there's ways to uh to spend on your credit card earning elevated uh points bonuses that you know, could add up fast for a big purchase. Yeah, and I think what you said about knowing the thresholds on your current cards is really important.

[00:21:07]Making those cards that are already in your wallet work for you because while we all love a new welcome bonus, sometimes it doesn't make sense. It can't happen for many reasons and it's good to know what you have in your wallet and make those cards work for you. Most airline and hotel cards, at least some of the cards in the portfolio will have some kind of a threshold or milestone benefit that you can look at. I think you just universally some of the ones we talked about today, the Hilton Surpass 15,000 in spend and you get a free night certificate at any Hilton.

[00:21:41]Like that I think is universally pretty pretty amazing.

[00:21:46]Um the Hyatt card also at 15,000 cuz you're also going to earn those elite night credits plus the category one through four certificate and there are a lot of hotels that you can use those category one through four certificates where you're going to get a ton of value. So I think at 15,000 those are probably my top two picks for just all around good value. And then if you have a lot of spend, the Chase Sapphire Reserve at 75,000.

[00:22:11]While I didn't do this and I'm not planning on doing it, I think it does offer a lot of value at that level of spend. And there are plenty of people who who can put all of that spend on a credit card. Um and so if you're you know, in the neighborhood of that 75,000, that is one that I would consider putting some extra spend on to hit to get those multiple elite statuses and and credits for Chase Travel and whatever the shops by by Chase. So Mhm.

[00:22:39]Tax payments are no fun, um but they're a good opportunity and there's other you know, if you're buying something big for the house, we just put in new countertops and they took uh credit cards with no fee. So that was fun. I know. So anytime you have a big purchase like that, it's always nice to kind of know what's in your wallet. A lot of times too, these things come up and you don't have time to get a new welcome bonus. So know what's in your wallet so you're ready to go when you have a big purchase.

[00:23:05]So that's going to wrap it up for that.

[00:23:07]We do actually have one question. And Chris, this one is for you. It is another one that relates to your Chase or I'm sorry, not your Chase, your Japan uh trip. So we recorded that couple months ago and it's been a really really popular episode. We've gotten so much feedback and so many questions related to that episode. A lot of people are interested in going to Japan, myself included. So I'm going to um read this.

[00:23:32]I'm going to paraphrase. We got this email from Amy and um it was kind of a long email so I'm just going to paraphrase and give you the bullet points and see what you think. So Amy is going to Japan in October. She's used all of her Chase points for flights to Japan and has sent opened up a Capital One Venture card and needs to book hotels.

[00:23:54]They're too expensive um to pay cash for the Hyatt hotels that Chris mentioned, the very high-end ones.

[00:24:01]And so Amy asked, should I stay at lower tier Hyatt / IHG hotels? What can I do to minimize the cost if I don't have any more points, but I need to book hotels ASAP?

[00:24:13]Okay.

[00:24:14]Um ASAP. So I'm assuming that you want to do that before your Capital One bonus arrives.

[00:24:22]Um if not, head back one episode, episode 54. We just talked about Accor, uh Choice and I Prefer. And those are all transfer bonus transfer partners from Capital One as well as Wyndham.

[00:24:36]Um so there are some really nice deals in Japan there where you wouldn't have to you know, pay cash and then and erase the the charge there. You could transfer um and book something there. Choice, I saw during my trip, really attractive hotels for five, 10,000 points per night. I couldn't book them because I was traveling with a family of four and we wouldn't fit in the room.

[00:24:57]But if it's just you and your sister and you guys are sharing a room, that is a great way to save. You had also mentioned those Hyatt properties, the I paid cash for that Hyatt Place in Kyoto. So if that's something that's attractive to you, it was like $75 a night. Uh we paid for a rate with breakfast included. Uh that's really affordable. But again, I would just start searching through any, you know, travel portal, see what's out there because rates can really vary especially in Tokyo. It's such a big city. There are some really expensive hotels like the Park Hyatt that I stayed at. That was a a bucket list stay for me.

[00:25:35]Um but there are so many small hotels that will give you such great value because I mentioned this before, the level of hospitality in Japan is just so much higher than what many of us are used to in the US or in I'm in Brazil, it can really just staying at a basic hotel, you may actually think you're a three or four star hotel based on the service. Um so I would just start looking, see if you find anything in cash that could be uh you know, that fits in your budget.

[00:26:04]If you can wait until those bonus points hit, start taking a look at Choice Hotels, Wyndham Hotels with a fixed uh fixed award chart. So there are some really nice uh sweet spots out there, but if you're in Kyoto, I would highly recommend that Hyatt Place. And that's your son's favorite hotel.

[00:26:21]It was. We stayed [laughter] in the nicest hotels in the country and his was the $75 a night hotel. Didn't even have a pool. I love it. Had a view of a wall.

[00:26:29]It was so nice though. I love it. And the last thing I'm going to add, if you're booking in cash, don't forget to whatever credit card you're using, look for Chase offers, Capital One offers, any kind of extra discount, go through a shopping portal, go to um you know, you can go to Save Wise, I think it's getsavewise.com, type in your you know, IHG or whatever and you can see if any portals are offering extra bonus points or cash back. So that's always a good way when you're paying cash just to um either earn extra points or get some cash back on your purchase. So thank you so much Amy for that question. If you'd like to submit a question to us um to answer on the air, you can email that to [email protected].

[00:27:09]We always love [music] hearing from you and don't forget to like and subscribe and give us a thumbs up, leave some feedback, give us a smiley face, whatever you want to do on YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever you're watching or listening, we love to hear from you. That's going to do it for us this week. We will see you next week.

[00:27:27]>> [music]