Retention Bonuses

VaTraveler

Level 2 Member
I am getting ready to make a bunch of these phone calls and figured this thread would be a good place for folks to post their experiences and what they are receiving. My first call today was for a SW Biz Plus Card. This card already got 3000 mile annual bonus, and my call added an additional 3000 miles which offset the $69 annual fee, so I accepted and kept the card.
 

SayainStar

Level 2 Member
I have the Citi AAdvantage Amex. Every year I call and complain and get 5k in miles if I spend 500 in 3 months. I don't get the $95 dollar yearly fee waived but getting 5k in AAdvantage miles for 500 spending is a pretty good offset for the 95.

Chase is the bank that sucks when it comes to waiving fee's. I used to have the Chase BA card and one year spent well over 50k on it. That still wasn't enough reason for them to waive the 95 dollar fee.
 

Outlying Anomaly

Level 2 Member
Citi AA Amex and Visa personals: $85 supposed annual fee on each (total of 4 cards). Just finished our 2nd year, and for the second time, no actual cost. Each year, we pay the $85 annual fee, but they credit our account $95 and give us a bonus for each of the next 16 months: this year it was if we spend $1000+ each month, we get 1000 bonus miles each month.

Hubby's SPG hits next week for first time and have heard they are not as generous. Hate to give up that card as it's the one we use for AA miles (better than Citi AAdvantage, especially this month!). If anyone has any good SPG news (like, can I cancel it and get it again in a year?), please let me know.
 

Hokies2688

New Member
Just called the Marriott retention line and they didn't offer me anything. I'll be closing the account after I book a work trip on it next week.
 

PedroNY

Level 2 Member
Just an FYI, if you plan to close your Chase card anyway, just wait for the yearly bonus to post first, be it 1 free night at marriot/ihg, or 3,000 SW points, or 6,000 SW points, or United Club passes... they all tend to show up during your 12 cycle or right as it closes, so you can still close the card and get the your annual fee refund and keep that yearly giveaway. Final note, if you close the card, ask to transfer you credit limit to another Chase card, you may need it later if you don't get auto approved for a card in the future.

Cheers,

PedroNY
 

RTR

Level 2 Member
CitiBusiness AA:
$50.oo annual fee due, here are the latest retention offers:

1) $25.00 credit
2) 1K miles no obligation
3) 10K miles w/5K spend in 3 months

Chose #2, will call and cancel after 1K miles post. Confirmed that fee would be prorated so if it takes two cycles to post the 1K miles, it will cost about $9.
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
CitiBusiness AA:
$50.oo annual fee due, here are the latest retention offers:

1) $25.00 credit
2) 1K miles no obligation
3) 10K miles w/5K spend in 3 months

Chose #2, will call and cancel after 1K miles post. Confirmed that fee would be prorated so if it takes two cycles to post the 1K miles, it will cost about $9.
I have this card (just canceling it now) I thought the annual fee was $95? I was offered a $50 credit (or miles), same prorated rules.
 

RTR

Level 2 Member
Mine
I have this card (just canceling it now) I thought the annual fee was $95? I was offered a $50 credit (or miles), same prorated rules.
Mine is a CitiBusiness AA MC. Original signup offer was 50K miles with annual fee $50 waived in first year. It's been awhile now since I applied for this card but I remember I used one of those old links for landing pages found in FT.
 

RTR

Level 2 Member
Chase Sapphire Preferred:

No real surprise here. Called to question annual fee, offered to downgrade to regular Sapphire card. Asked to downgrade to Freedom which they did w/o a credit inquiry. Credit line just rolled over. I know I eliminated all potential sign up bonuses for a Freedom card by going this route but this was wife's CSP and she's not exactly enthused about having tons of credit cards in her name. This seemed like the path of least resistance, lol. In any event, we've got all the other Chase personal/biz cards but this is our first Freedom so I'll play around with the category spend bonuses.
 

bondplace

Level 2 Member
I got a $100 statement credit today for my SPG Business Amex card. The interesting thing to me was that when I spoke to the regular customer service rep (I called the # on the back of the card), he said there was no offer available on the account. But then, I asked to be transferred to the Membership Consulting Services team, and the rep there was able to offer me the $100 statement credit.
 

Skywardbd

Level 2 Member
I
I got a great retention bonus from Barclay on the USAir card. Waived the $89 annual fee and offered me 10K extra points (in addition to the usual 10K annual bonus points) for $3K spend in 3 months.
I also received this offer. Even though we were renewing the same month, my husband only received an offer to waive the annual fee without any additional bonus points. Interesting data point: I had sent a secure message requesting relief from the annual fee. Received a message back saying they could not offer any annual bonus or reduction in fee, but would be happy to close my account if I preferred. Receiving that email, I decided to call the retention department. That's when I received the offer for the additional points and the waived fee. (Had they not waived the fee, we would have canceled the cards, so a win-win for both parties.)
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
I was only able to get the waived annual fee with the USAirways Dividend MC. Wish I could have gotten some of the miles spend bonuses so many of you got. Wonder if I should HUCA? At any rate, will keep for the $99 companion fare, which is a good deal if you find the right itinerary. I recently was companion for one of these with someone else. We both changed our FF# to our AA numbers in the reservation after booking. So I got the miles I would get as a AA EXP rather than those I would have with US. Until full integration this is good to remember for AA Elites who do not have status on US while using these.
 

FarconMurakami

Level 2 Member
On the Citi AA card, I called and before I could finish thinking the word "cancel" I was offered the $95 fee waived and one of the 16 month offers.

For the next 16 months, any month I spend 1k; they would give me a bonus 1k miles.
 

Mingy

Level 2 Member
No offer on Chase British Airways, had it for 2 years. Would use the card sporadically. I used to use it more when it was my only no foreign transaction fee card.
 

Vinay

Level 2 Member
I


I also received this offer. Even though we were renewing the same month, my husband only received an offer to waive the annual fee without any additional bonus points. Interesting data point: I had sent a secure message requesting relief from the annual fee. Received a message back saying they could not offer any annual bonus or reduction in fee, but would be happy to close my account if I preferred. Receiving that email, I decided to call the retention department. That's when I received the offer for the additional points and the waived fee. (Had they not waived the fee, we would have canceled the cards, so a win-win for both parties.)
My annual fee just posted. Haven't used the card whole year, not even for single penny. Do you think I would have any luck with the retention bonus? Second question is, would they claw back the 10K annual bonus if I choose to cancel the card?
 

Fishing4Deals

Level 2 Member
Had a United Mileage Plus business card from Chase. Called to cancel and there were not retention offers available. With my Southwest business card, I was offered an extra 3,000 miles.
 

DarcyMae

New Member
I had a Citi AA card in 2011. Got the annual fee waived in 2012 after five transactions on the card. Tried for another waiver in 2013 but for some reason they had no retention offer whatsoever for me. Whatever. When another 50K offer presented itself during a 2014 AOR, I reapplied and got another first-year-free card. Whether I try for a fee waiver in 2015 or cancel/reapply will depend on whether Citi still allows churning.
 

idearr

Level 2 Member
Annual fee hits later this month for Barclay's Arrival +. Called last week. Front line person transferred me to "specialist." Asked for annual fee waiver but offered only downgrade to the no fee card or credit limit increase.

Called again today to get info on timing. Was told that I could call anytime up through the due date of the statement including the annual fee to close the account and avoid paying AF. That is, essentially can use the card for about a month after the AF hits. Useful as I have some points to use up. Front line person said if I called next month to mention I was cancelling because of the AF "because they sometimes waive it." Most reports online seem to show Barclays isn't offering much in way of retention bonus on this card, but I did see a post from Miles Professor that she got it waived (as did Out and Out).

Should note I put a lot of spending on this card.
 

Vinay

Level 2 Member
My annual fee just posted. Haven't used the card whole year, not even for single penny. Do you think I would have any luck with the retention bonus? Second question is, would they claw back the 10K annual bonus if I choose to cancel the card?
Finally called up US airways mastercard customer care today. As suggested by one of the previous posters, I said I am interested in seeing if there is any retention bonus for me as AF has posted on my account. I was transferred to retention guy, who on learning that I want to know about retention bonus, offered to waive off the annual fee. He was extremely nice and genuinely wanted to help. In the end, I got one more free year. Just a data point, I had $0 spend in last one yr on this card.
 

shoppergirl

Level 2 Member
Citi AA Amex and Visa personals: $85 supposed annual fee on each (total of 4 cards). Just finished our 2nd year, and for the second time, no actual cost. Each year, we pay the $85 annual fee, but they credit our account $95 and give us a bonus for each of the next 16 months: this year it was if we spend $1000+ each month, we get 1000 bonus miles each month.

Hubby's SPG hits next week for first time and have heard they are not as generous. Hate to give up that card as it's the one we use for AA miles (better than Citi AAdvantage, especially this month!). If anyone has any good SPG news (like, can I cancel it and get it again in a year?), please let me know.
My annual fee hit last spring for my spg card. I did call and ask for a retention offer. They wouldn't wave the annual fee, but offered me 2000 spg points. Not much, but it's a card I didn't want to cancel, and I did take advantage of all the amex offers throughout the year. Also, just had the card for the year, and probably only put $28,000 spend on it.
 

shoppergirl

Level 2 Member
Annual fee hits later this month for Barclay's Arrival +. Called last week. Front line person transferred me to "specialist." Asked for annual fee waiver but offered only downgrade to the no fee card or credit limit increase.

Called again today to get info on timing. Was told that I could call anytime up through the due date of the statement including the annual fee to close the account and avoid paying AF. That is, essentially can use the card for about a month after the AF hits. Useful as I have some points to use up. Front line person said if I called next month to mention I was cancelling because of the AF "because they sometimes waive it." Most reports online seem to show Barclays isn't offering much in way of retention bonus on this card, but I did see a post from Miles Professor that she got it waived (as did Out and Out).

Should note I put a lot of spending on this card.
I'd call again. Hopefully, they'll waive the fee for you.
 

Vinay

Level 2 Member
My annual fee hit last spring for my spg card. I did call and ask for a retention offer. They wouldn't wave the annual fee, but offered me 2000 spg points. Not much, but it's a card I didn't want to cancel, and I did take advantage of all the amex offers throughout the year. Also, just had the card for the year, and probably only put $28,000 spend on it.
Lucky you! I called SPG today and received only 1000 points + additional 500 on $1000 spent in 60 days. Accepted. I think something is better than nothing.
 

Spgbus

Level 2 Member
Just wonder how they determine retention offers???
80% depends on the card issuing bank and product, the rest 20% is on your luck, YMMV. Couple years ago, both my partner and myself applied the same Capital One 110k promotion offer. A year later, my call for retention was declined while my partner's request was granted promptly. We have almost same spending pattern on this card (basically zero $ after $1000 intially) with similar credit score. Since then my partner got AF waiver yearly after, we are very happy to keep this card today for AGC mining. :)
 

Kendon

Level 2 Member
I called in for my Citi AA visa and got the fee waived and 1,000 bonuses miles per month for the next 16 months when I spend $1000 per month. Called for my Citi AA Master 4 times and the best I was offered was $50 credit and 1000 bonus miles, cancelled that one.
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
Have Citi AA Platinum MC, Platinum Amex, Platinum VC and Citi Exec MC. So, was seriously thinking about canceling the VC since the AF just hit. My husband called a couple of days ago and got nada, so I wasn't hopeful. Got two offers: either take a $50 statement credit and if I spent 1K the each of the next 3 mos I get 1K bonus each month, or no AF waiver, but for nine months if I spend 1K, I get 1K bonus miles. Took second offer as it gives me 2x on everything for 9 months. I redeem AA miles a lot and enjoy the 10% miles back on this and other Platinum cards. I just need to keep better track of which I use and not overlap and NOT use the Citi Exec when I book with miles as it does not have this benefit. Out of the sock drawer it comes.
 

PedroNY

Level 2 Member
A tip on AMEX cards, try this one. Give a call to CSR tomorrow (or tonight), chat them up about your current AMEX card, choose which ever you want, tell them you enjoy it, you use it, you like your relationship with AMEX, etc. Ask them if they can offer you any "goodwill points or miles". I'd say 50% of the time it yields 1,000-10,000 miles or points. Repeat it with every card, every 6 months or so. Remember most of CSRs are in Salt Lake City, ask them about the weather and the ski season, hiking, they all enjoy a good convo with a pleasant person!

Cheers,

PedroNY
 

SherryFD

Level 2 Member
I redeem AA miles a lot and enjoy the 10% miles back on this and other Platinum cards. I just need to keep better track of which I use and not overlap and NOT use the Citi Exec when I book with miles as it does not have this benefit. Out of the sock drawer it comes.
I accidently used the Citi Exec when booking a 100K mile reservation. A definite aarrgghhh! moment which turned into a happy surprise when I still get the 10K redemption bonus. Not sure if a fluke or if you get the benefit no matter which Citi AA card you use as long as you have the Platinum. And hopefully I won't be testing it again ;).
 
R

RamboAroundTheWorld

Guest
Was kind of fed up with Amex so I called in to cancel my Starwoods Business card today. Guy offered me $200 to keep it open, so I figured I'd just let it ride.
 
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