Points and Miles Required Reading
Some six months after my last such article, I’ve received no requests for another edition of Points and Miles Required Reading. On the other hand, I haven’t received any complaints on these musings. I certainly didn’t on the last one, and if any previous ones did, I’ve conveniently forgotten. Anyway, in an effort to not lose any more readers than I already have in the first few sentences, I’ll dive right in.
Yet Another Program Update for the Gap Family of Brands
The Gap family of brands – Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy, and Athleta – has refreshed its loyalty program once again. But maybe those italics aren’t completely warranted, because it was over three years ago the program was last tweaked in any substantial fashion. Anyway, it feels like that just happened, but the Gap family of brands doesn’t care about that.
Status
Welcome to the Encore membership program, the common loyalty setup across the Gap family of brands. I won’t get into all changes here (see above for that); rather, I’m focusing on what initially jumps out most in this iteration. The program continues to have three status levels, with names updated to Core, Premier, and All-Access. The Premier mid-tier status now only requires $350 annual spend to achieve, down from $500 before. All-Access maintains a $1k annual spend threshold.
Earning and Redeeming Points
Unfortunately, the Gap Family of Brands has Shop Your Wayified the program. Previously, shoppers earned 1 point per dollar spent at the above stores, equal to 1 cent for redemptions at those locations. Barclays-cobranded cardholders earned 5 points on these purchases and 1 point everywhere else. With Encore, multiply those earning levels by 5. Gap family of brands shoppers earn 5 points at those stores, while cardholders earn 25. Cardholders now earn 5 points everywhere else. Points are now worth 0.2 cents each on the redemption side. In other words, 100 points easily worked out to $1 in rewards in the past; now 500 points equal a buck. By design, this further obfuscates point value.
But on the bright side, the Gap Family of Brands hasn’t devalued their program with this refresh. Upon the changes, I noticed my point balance automatically updated by a multiple of 5 overnight. As a top-tier member, I noticed the free shipping requirement has decreased from a $50 to a $35 purchase. The Encore Market has expanded selections, not just accessories and tchotchkes. For example, members can now redeem for AMC tickets and certain gift cards. But most everyone will probably do better with traditional redemptions at the Gap family of brands.
I Have Hyatt Devaluation Thoughts
The Hyatt devaluation affected my current relationship with the brand zero. That’s because I’ve largely ignored them since my top-tier status ended with their then-loyalty program Gold Passport many years ago. My World of Hyatt balance is terminally under 1k points, and I have no future Hyatt stays planned. These properties just don’t align with my goals, but I can appreciate that many have done big things with Hyatt since I left them behind.
As Mark eloquently explained last week, that’s going to get substantially tougher for Hyatt enthusiasts. To those sticking with the brand, godspeed! I focus on other hotel loyalty programs and am naturally more concerned with how Hyatt’s changes may affect those setups.
Hilton came back down to earth for many in the last year or so with their increasing award rates. The chain pulled back on certain hikes, but we can’t ignore how substantially rates are rising across the portfolio. The Hilton Honors program’s excellent free night certs can help avert some of this, but not all of it. For example, we now live in a world where many unremarkable Hilton Garden Inns are 70k points nightly. And this was before Hyatt made its changes.
Hyatt’s significant tweaks downward will likely embolden Hilton Honors and other programs to make updates. Perhaps certain programs will see this as an opportunity to improve, but my gut is that most will look to devalue. I’m watching.
A New Decline Reason For Us
My wife and I are well-acquainted with Amex card application process. The vast majority of our online applications go pending and require a phone call follow-up. But those generally end up with an approval. Every here and there, we’ll enjoy an immediate card approval based on an online application. But rarely are either of us immediately declined for a card.
Unfortunately, that was recently the case with my wife. Using my referral link, she applied for an Amex Gold card. As expected, she received the pop-up noting she was ineligible for the welcome offer since she previously held or currently holds the card (both true). We wanted the card without the signup bonus, anyway, and she proceeded with her application. She was immediately denied. Amex provided the following reason for the decision via snail mail:
You’ve opened and/or closed too many accounts with this Card.
We found this wording peculiar. And while maybe this isn’t a new reason for Amex, it’s new to us. Indeed, my wife has held various Premier Rewards Gold and Gold cards through the years, subsequently closed them, and opened others. She has one now. But we don’t ever recall being ultimately denied for an Amex card when we weren’t pursuing a signup bonus. We haven’t called in for reconsideration yet, but it doesn’t sound promising based on the above wording.
Will this change our behavior with Amex moving forward? It’s too early to tell at this point. She’ll try again for another Amex Gold in a few months. Based on that outcome, we’ll reassess. Will this make us rethink our high-turnover rate strategy for Amex cards? I’ll keep you posted.
Points and Miles Required Reading – Conclusion
I’m not surprised at Hyatt making program changes, but more so at the extent of them. Regardless, I didn’t expect to talk about changes to the Gap program or a new Amex denial reason as this edition approached. But hey, surprises make our points and miles hobby interesting, and we must own the fact that not all of them will be positive ones. I hope to bring more positive mojo in the next volume, and dear reader, I wish that you’re around to consume it.
Until the next volume of Points and Miles Required Reading, what’s been hot on your mind in the hobby?
