A Major Credit Card Perk Is Disappearing… Is the US Next?

One of the flagship cards might be getting devalued, there's a lot of new hotel openings, Air France has a good points deal, and Bilt is making changes to make things less flexible. This and more in today's roundup. Do me a favor, give us a thumbs up to help with the algorithm. If you know someone affected by Bilt, then share this with them. Okay, let's start off with the flagship and their priority pass potentially no longer allowing guesting. If you renew or give them away, there's a certain bank that I can't talk about, at least on YouTube. What I can talk about though is science. Specifically, Atomic Number 78. This card is seeing changes abroad in London and previously saw changes in Canada as well as Paris. The question for us is whether we're next stateside. Starting in 2028, the UK version of Atomic 78 will have priority pass restrictions. They're looking at 20 priority pass visits per year and intend for supplement cards. If you spend 30,000 pounds per calendar year, then you have no restrictions. 30k pounds is about $40,000, which beats our 75k requirement. And guesting is also interesting. So guest visits do count towards the cap, and if you travel frequently too, then 20 visits could really end up being 10 visits, unless they have a supplement card which has its own 10 visits. Oh, also supplement cards aren't free. It's pretty much their version of authorized user cards. Over there, it's £285 per card, or about $385 USD. It's actually pretty insane since in the US, for the US version, it's £195 per authorized user. So about half the price. The UK card also feels a bit tougher. I know we complain about coupon books. But at least we can pick our spots. With the US version, it's an $8.95 annual fee, and then up to $3,500 annual credits. We have a lot of credits, and even if you use half or a third, you're in a pretty good spot. With the UK version, it's $6.50 as an annual fee, and then $7.50 as an annual credit. For most people, best case is that you break even, but even then, that's a bit tough. Taking a look at the credits, UK dining seems pretty easy. International dining seems fine, but might be a bit tough depending on where you go. Lululemon is actually kind of more annoying since it's 75, but you do have to spend at least 150 in order to trigger it. So you pretty much need to spend twice as much. Aura and Calm are a bit tougher to quantify, at least in my book, so I'd probably value those a bit lower. I get why some people don't like credits, but for most other countries, their version of this card, you don't even break even. You're pretty much paying an annual fee in order to get lounge access. Also, this isn't just a UK thing, but other countries are seeing a similar shift. Earlier this year in France, they dropped to 15 visits for primary and supplementary cards earlier this month, Australia, New Zealand saw supplementary cards lose priority pass memberships in Canada, starting next year, you only have six visits for the primary card and then two for supplementary cards. Unless you spend 20 K Canadian annually. And mind you that broadly the landscape of cards is very different for other countries. Canada is similar. They have competitive multipliers and rewards and intro bonuses, primarily due to similar interchange fee structures that allow for it, compared to the UK which is heavily regulated. I'm curious if the US would follow suit, and if it does, would you care or not really? For example, with the Atomic Card, Delta Sky Club access has already changed from unlimited to 10 visits, each one being a 24 hour window of unlimited access. That was a big change, but cancellation seemed pretty minimal. At the same time, and depending on when you fly, it did seem to help a lot of crowding and access, so a net positive. So, for example, here's the Delta Sky Club in Salt Lake City, which is pretty snazzy and nice looking. If I had to guess, they'd get rid of guesting first for priority pass before limiting visits. So right now it's unlimited visits for you, plus two guests looking at other cards, though, like the Capital One Venture X Rewards credit card. It's unlimited visits only for you. But guests are 35 bucks If anything, I think this has less to do with the bank itself, and more to do with Priority Pass. From my understanding, the main reason these changes happen is that Priority Pass comes back for more money when the contract renews, and it just doesn't make sense. Same reason why we saw restaurants disappear from all the flagship cards, other than the Citi Prestige card. If Priority Pass comes back asking for a bigger number, does the bank pony up and pay $35? Do they pick a cheaper plan or do they just raise prices for the cards? I'm probably biased because I have a lot of cards and options, but I'd be happy for them to pick a cheaper plan. Yeah. Curious what you'd prefer and what you think will happen if anything at all. On a side note, if you want to learn about cards or the, these ones are pretty much any other cards out there and you want to support the channel. We have links on the website, asksebi.com and also down below in the description box. Make sure the links are competitive, that they make sense for you, but otherwise it's a huge way to support the channel. So thank you in advance. Also, for a lot of these flagship cards, I'd recommend running the numbers to make sure that they actually make sense for your situation. So, for example, there's a lot of credits, but don't take them at face value. Discount them for yourself and for your situation, maybe down to zero. At the same time, just because you can't use all the credits doesn't mean that the card doesn't make sense. Again, the annual fees here, there's this many credits you can use this much and you're still in a great spot. Moving into lightning round, a lot of new hotels are either opening or are scheduled to open. If you're on Team Hyatt, there's a new option for Rome. It opened October 27th, and it's the first Thompson in Italy. There's 69 rooms, and 19 of them are going to be suites, so pretty boutique. It's going to be walking distance to the Roman Forum, Pantheon, and Colosseum. The building itself is a converted 1940s building, and there is a rooftop, and the rooms look nice enough. Oh, also be careful of pricing. Right now, it's about €430, and the all-in price is €444, about 500 USD. It is a Category 8 hotel and pricing wise, you're looking about 35K points on the lowest end. 500 bucks divided by 35K points is 1.4 cents per point. Your mileage may vary, but it's not really worth it to me. I'd rather pay out of pocket and then save my points for a different redemption. To be fair, right now is low season. It's November and prices tend to be cheaper. If it's peak season, let's say the summer and prices go back up and gets to an insane level once occupancy kind of settles. Then it might make sense to use points. Yeah, if I don't get value from points, but I still want to stay there, then I'm more than happy to pay. Going from boutique to a super hotel, we have Standard X Times Square. It's going to be 1800 room flagship hotel. 1800 is pretty insane, but New York is pretty tall. And technically it is smaller than the largest hotel, Marriott Marquis, that has about 1900 rooms. And then the New York Hilton Midtown at about the same level as well. Sheraton Times Square is a bit under at 1780. I think I've actually stayed at the Hilton New York Midtown because the lobby looks very familiar, but it didn't feel like a 1900 room hotel. Definitely not the most interesting though, and more of a standard business hotel. Standard X should end up being the opposite. They're more design focused, and they're targeting a younger audience and a younger vibe. Target open date is the second half of 2028. The hotel will also have an observation deck and a free fall thrill ride. So pretty much their own version of a Tower of Terror. I'm not sure if any other New York hotel has that, so kind of curious about that experience. Switching groups to Hilton, we have the Waldorf Astoria Kuala Lumpur. This might be our favorite hotel brand, at least with points. We've been pretty happy with our Waldorf Astoria stays, whether in Mexico, in Cabo, or in Riviera Maya. In Asia, in countries like Japan, especially Osaka, and of course their flagship in places like the Maldives. This marks their Malaysian debut, and it's an all-suites property with 268 keys. Dining is by Gauri Maharura, who's the first Indian woman to win a Michelin star, and also Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who's pretty much the Jordan or the Brady of chefs. The main floor looks pretty interesting, and especially their interpretation of the Waldorf Astoria clock. The rooms look a bit more subtle, but I do like the green accenting. You also see this in the other spaces. Wellness is a big focus, and it's supposed to be an urban sanctuary. Unsurprisingly, the pool looks pretty nice and a pretty fancy gym. The hotel just opened and prices are around 600 per night, but they do jump up on the weekends to about seven or 800 using points. The standard rate is 100K a night and the base room is a suite. It's 80 square meters, which is about 860 square feet. The bedroom looks pretty normal. But there also is the main area of chairs and sofa, and a ton of art and space, and then the bathroom looks pretty nice and fancy, with a tub that almost looks like a pool. I probably wouldn't use points here, but depends on you. Not bad though if you do have an exploding free night reward. Reminder that if you're not a big spender, then tax payments do end up being a pretty good way to hit these spend incentives. Speaking of which, the IRS might have a new payment option. We'll see what happens, but looks promising. A few weeks ago, they removed a restriction that barred the IRS. From entering into contracts with credit and debit card processors. They're not able to do it, but the requirement being that they have to fully recover all processing costs from the taxpayers, the idea being that the IRS can't pay for anything, but you as a user can, it's also not going to replace Pay 1040 or ACI payments. So those are going to still exist as options. The difference being that the government probably doesn't need to make money while those processors do. So currently for Pay 1040, they charge 1.75% for credit cards. In ACI payments, 1.85%, it's probably costing them 1.7%, and they're making that five basis point spread. The government doesn't need the spread, so they might only be charging the 1.7%. Mind you that the IRS numbers could end up being higher though, since Pay1040 might be charging a fixed amount, making money on some people, but losing money on others. For example, looking at interchange fees, with the base cards, the cost might only be 1.5%. And as you go up, signature might be 1.65, signature preferred 2.1. An infinite 2.3 as a maximum with the other processors, they're picking a middle number and losing money on the infinite cards, probably us, and then making money on the other traditional cards. Government might not be able to do that. So might still make sense to use those processors. So on that positive though, since more options is always better for most of us, these are tools to buy miles or points for a cheaper price. Speaking of buying points, Flying Blue has an interesting promotion going on right now. called Subscribe to Points. You can get up to 360,000 miles per year. There are five different levels, Starter, Smart, Advanced, Complete, and Complete Plus. On the bottom end, you're buying 2,000 miles for 34 bucks, so 1.71 cents per mile. On the top end, 30,000 miles for 402 bucks, which would be 1.34 cents per mile. For most people, Complete or Complete Plus is going to make the most sense. Given that it's the lowest cost for both of those, it's 1.34 cents per mile. The minimum subscription is three months and then afterwards you can cancel. Not for everyone, but it can be very compelling for award travelers. So for example, the standard rate to buy miles from them is 3.05 cents per mile. They do have a lot of sales though. Let's say 80% bonus, which drops it down to about 1.69 cents per mile. Still though 1.34 is cheaper than 1.69. Flying Blue is known for their promotions. They have different reward tickets pretty much every month. For example, right now, the good one is Europe and New York for 45k miles for business. Availability definitely isn't easy, but it does exist. So here's January and February, 45k points and $335 in fees, and there's nine seats available. It depends on product, but can be a nice time, even if it is a shorter flight of seven hours. It's a nice way to get to Europe. Even outside of these promotions, it might still make sense. Normal price for business is 60k miles. Whether you're in Chicago, down in Houston, or all the way out in Portland. For Portland, it's KLM, but it is direct, which is nice. For most of the other directs, it's going to be Air France. So for example, here's Houston, 60K, and 335, and nine seats. If your goal is in Paris, there are other destinations, but less direct, obviously, with a layover in Paris. So for example, here's Budapest, 60K, 354 in fees, and nine seats. Doing the math, 60K miles times 1.34 cents per mile. is 804. 804 plus 354 in fees is $1,158 for business per way. That means that you're looking at about $2,300 for roundtrip business class. That's not bad at all, especially if you like visiting Europe. From San Francisco, I feel like Paris is about the same flight time as Tokyo, and given the choice, I've picked Tokyo more than Paris. Not for everyone, but worth considering if you're out of intro bonuses and you're at that end state. Speaking of Europe, SAS has an interesting status match. Even if you don't fly SAS, the main draw is SkyTeam status. US residents are eligible for this, which is normally not the case. It does depend on other status you have and Delta status is not eligible for a match. For example, United silver matches to silver, gold to gold, and then global services, one care platinum to diamond American airlines, kind of the same idea, lowest level to silver, mid-level to gold and everything else to diamond. Alaska and JetBlue are pretty much the same here. Southwest is a little bit more different and interesting. So the top level is Companion Pass. OK, so we know how they match. What's the cost? If you want to match the silver, it's 89 euro. Gold is 199 and diamond 349. For our purpose, you'd probably want gold or diamond, which would map over to SkyTeam Elite Plus. Ironically, though, you only really need gold rather than diamond unless you're flying SAS. If you got upgrades to business class by having diamond, then things would be different. Here though, it's very much a SkyTeam play. Main draws being lounge access, better check-in, and extra baggage allowance. If you're a domestic Delta flyer, it might be worth considering, especially if you don't want to get a Delta card. The idea being that you can get checked bag perks even without Delta status or a Delta card. The lounge side is a bit tougher because it does involve an international flight or a transfer to an international flight. The idea though is that you can access it regardless of your class of travel. The most obvious use case is if you fly to Mexico a lot. And it works even if you're flying economy. So for example, if Sky Team Elite Plus status from SAS, you'd be able to access Delta, Aeromexico, or Air France lounges even if you're flying economy. That's not the case if you have Sky Team Elite Plus status through Delta. So for example, if Delta Gold, given how the terms work, you wouldn't have access. And mind you, I think there are easier ways to get to lounges, even Delta ones, but depends on if you care about the other perks. It might also be useful chaining together or cycling through different status matches. So, for example, last year I did a match to Royal Jordanian for gold Sparrow status, which lasts until December 10th. This gets me one world Sapphire status, which gets me into one world business lounges, for example, American. That's the case even if I'm flying economy and even if it's domestic. It's a bit weird, but if you have status from a non-U.S. airline, it might actually be more helpful for some things. In my case, I can technically match it over to SAS Gold. We'll run through the changes, but if you do currently have a card or if you get it before 2027, you can opt out of the changes. With Built 2.0 when they moved from Wells Fargo to Cardless, you had two options for additional value. Option one was 4% built cash and option two was the housing only rewards, which was kind of what Built 1.0 was. People weren't happy, mostly because it was stupidly complicated, even though there is an argument for built cash. I still think it's a bit disingenuous, but non-zero value. With this new change, let's call it Built 2.5, for new users and people who don't opt out, you lose option number one, so the 4% built cash is no longer there. You only have the housing only rewards. So before you could choose and you had more optionality. The main draw of built cash is that there wasn't really any spend requirement and it wasn't really capped off, especially for people that didn't really care about the housing side and who just spent a lot of money. It could be viable as a catch all. The main issue was using built cash, especially if you weren't in major cities like New York or San Francisco or L.A. Where you could use built cash for things like Pilates or yoga and a lot of the other auxiliary stuff, With the 2027 change it's the housing only rewards, but there's still a spend requirement in order to get it. So you need to spend a certain amount on the card relative to your rent in order to get value. If you spend less than 25, then you only get 250 points. If you spend 25% at 0.5X, 50% 0.75X, 75% 1X and then a hundred percent plus 1.25X. Let's say you lived in Manhattan, which is about 5K rent. That means that if you spent 2,500 on the card, that's 0.75X, which would be about 3,750 points compared to 100 in built cash. Even at 5,000, which would be the full 1.25X, that'd be 6,250 points. It depends on how you value built cash and built points, and the math gets a little weird. If you aggressively value both, let's say built points at 2 cents per point and built cash at its full 4%, the 5K spend hitting the max for the housing multiplier You're looking for about $125 in value from built points or $200 in value from built cash. It also gets more complicated where you might want to discount built cash, and you can also use built cash to kind of turn on multipliers and stuff. Not really getting into that. And the goal of the change is to make their program less confusing. For a lot of super users and bigger spenders, you might be better off with built cash, and you might want to opt out of the transition. So if you don't do anything, you lose out on built cash as an option. If you opt out, then you stay with built cash. But you can always do the housing-only one. A bit of me thinks that they're hemorrhaging money on built cash and why they're even doing this change. Even though it looks like they're trying to get rid of built cash, it is still sticking around. For example, the Bilt Palladium card, if you do opt into the new change, or if you sign up for the card in 2027, then instead of 400 hotel credit and 200 Bilt cash, you get 600 in Bilt cash. For the Bilt Citizen card, 100 hotel credit becomes 100 Bilt cash. It's annoying, but you definitely want to run the numbers. Even if you don't travel and you hated the hotel credit and you preferred built cash annually, you still might want to opt out and get built cash with a hotel credit you can't use because you might be earning so much more built cash. For example, if you're on a top end of spend, let's say 20,000 spend, with the housing only option, you're only getting 6,250 points, which would be about 125 in points. But if Bilt cash at that 4%, that's $800 a month. That's assuming 5K rent and you're probably rent controlled. If you have higher rent, then obviously math changes. Beyond the opt-out option, there is another change that's affecting everyone. Before, you could use Bilt cash towards hotels every month, and now it's only going to be twice a year. If you have blue or silver status right now, it's $50 per month, or $600 a year. And moving forwards, it's $50 half a year, so $100 total per year. With gold and platinum, $100 per month, $1,200 a year, and $200 for a year total, separated into two parts. With the Bilt Palladium, you do have a bigger capacity, but only if you opt-in. They bump it up to $200 twice a year, so $400 total, and this is regardless of status. If you don't opt in, though, then it's based off status. I feel like if a bank is aggressively trying to tell you to opt in to something, then you might want to opt out. My guess is that they have a bunch of big spenders earning a crazy amount of Bilt cash. So for example, $3,000 in Bilt cash seven months ago, which would be April, so four months into the program. So put another way, they're spending $20,000 or $18,000 per month. In order to get a ton of Bilt cash. So on the top end with super users Bilt cash is costing them a ton of money and on the normal ends it's confusing and people don't like it. They probably also weren't making as much back from the hotel end as they thought since people were aggressively liquidating and using it for that purpose. Somehow still very confusing compared to any other card but curious what your thoughts are. Again if you want to learn about cards we We have links on the website, AskSedby.com, and also down below in the description box. If you made it to this point, leave a distorted face emoji in the comments down below, because that's how I feel, and I'll try to heart it and also respond. Three questions. Number one, do you see Atomic number 78 getting rid of guesting for Priority Pass? Number two, are there any hotel openings that you're excited for? Number three, what are your thoughts on the built change and the program and 2.5? Let me know what everyone else know in the comments down below. Big favorite, thumbs up, share this, but otherwise, hope you liked it. See you next time.