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Costco Anywhere Visa® Review

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A few years ago Costco dropped its relationship with Amex and started a new one with Visa. With that came the launch of the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi. Many Costco loyalists already have this credit card and enjoy its benefits. However, if you don’t have one yet or you’re thinking about a new Costco membership, you might want to know if the Costco Anywhere Visa is the right card for you?

Let’s begin by going over some of the general features of the card and then we’ll get into the pros and cons.

Card Features

Bonus Offer

There is no sign-up bonus offered on this card.

Annual Fee

This card has no annual fee with your paid Costco membership.

Earning Rates

Great earnings rates in popular categories is what makes this card so intriguing. You’ll earn:

  • 4% cash back on gas purchases, up to $7,000 per year
  • 3% cash back on travel and restaurants
  • 2% cash back on purchases at Costco and Costco.com
  • 1% cash back on all other purchases

There are other cash back cards on the market that earn higher rates in some of those categories, but it’s hard to find a better “jack of all trades” card that carries no annual fee.

Don't Miss Out on 7,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Who is this card for?

The Costco Anywhere Visa® card may be perfect for people who want cash back and are in the following situations:

SituationReason
You're just starting out with credit cards and aren't looking to carry many of themThis "jack of all trades" card is great for the credit card beginner because it has no annual fee and has great earning rates on some of the most popular bonus categories (dining, travel, gas)
You're an existing Costco member (or plan to start a membership) who spends a lot on dining, travel and gasIf you eat out quite a bit, travel frequently and drive a car often, you'll build a cash back balance quickly
You spend a lot at CostcoThis card earns an unlimited 2% cash back on all purchases made at Costco and Costco.com

You can apply for the Costco Anywhere Visa® here.

Who might not like this card?

However, this card may not be for everyone. There are a few reasons why this may not be the card for you, including a big one regarding when you receive your cash back savings:

SituationReason
You're not a Costco loyalistIf you don't have a Costco membership, then this card comes with an annual fee. If you have a membership but don't shop at Costco all that much then you lose a big piece of the card's benefit which is earning 2% at Costco and Costco.com.
You want a sign-up bonusThis card has no sign-up bonus, so if you're looking for a quick pop of cash back, this card won't deliver on that.
You want instant access to your cash back savingsCostco provides your cash back earnings as an annual rewards certificate every February. You can then take your certificate to Costco to get your cash. Most other cash back cards allow users to get their cash once their account has at least $25.
You spend more in other bonus categories like grocery or entertainment (movies, concerts, sporting events, etc)If you can't take advantage of the high earnings rates in the card's bonus categories, then there are other cash back cards that could earn you more each year.
You'd rather earn points or milesMore experienced users know that you can get much more value in earning points over cash back. If you want to redeem earnings for luxury travel instead of cash back, use a card that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards or Citi ThankYou points that can be redeemed for oversized value.

What other cards compete with the Costco Anywhere Visa?

There are several cash back cards on the market that compete with the Costco Anywhere Visa. The Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Discover It® Cash Back cards offer 5% cash back on purchases made in rotating quarterly categories and 1% on all other purchases. These cards take a little more effort as you need to monitor the categories each quarter to ensure you’re maximizing the cash back you can earn.

The other cash back cards that compete with the Costco Anywhere Visa have set earnings rates in certain categories. These don’t change quarter to quarter so it’s great for those without the time or desire to track category spending. In general you earn rewards at a set rate and so there’s nothing to think about or remember.

Direct Competitors

Here are a few cards that you could consider instead of or in addition to the Costco Anywhere Visa. All have no annual fee:

  • Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express – The Blue Cash card earns 3% at U.S. supermarkets and 2% at gas stations and department stores. It also has a sign-up bonus of $150 after spending $1,000 in purchases during the first three months of account opening.
  • Chase Freedom Unlimited® – This card earns a flat 1.5% on all purchases and has a sign-up bonus of $150 after spending $500 in purchases during the first three months of account opening.
  • Citi® Double Cash Back – This unique card earns 2% cash back on all purchases, 1% when you make a purchase and 1% when you pay your bill.
  • Wells Fargo Case Wise Visa® – This card earns a flat 1.5% on all purchases. It also comes with a $200 sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 in purchases during the first three months of account opening.
  • Capital One® Quicksilver® – The Quicksilver card earns a flat 1.5% on all purchases and comes with a $150 sign-up bonus after spending $500 in purchases during the first three months of account opening.
  • Capital One® SavorOne℠ – The SavorOne card earns unlimited 3% on dining and entertainment and 2% at grocery stores. It comes with a $150 sign-up bonus after spending $500 in purchases during the first three months of account opening.

Card Comparison Based on Spending

With so many cash back options, it can be difficult to determine which card is best for your situation. To help you decide, you should estimate your annual spending and calculate what kind of cash back you could earn over a given period of time. As an example, I created a table comparing five of the credit cards mentioned above to show the potential cash back savings over a two year period.

Note, that cards with sign-up bonuses have those bonus amounts added to their Year 1 savings only. All calculations were done based on the following monthly spending assumptions ($150 travel, $400 dining, $100 entertainment, $150 gas, $400 groceries and $800 general). Your actual spending will vary and could alter the results.

Credit Cards (*cards with sign-up bonuses)Year 1 (includes sign-up bonus)Year 2Two Year Total (w/out sign-up bonuses)Two Year Total (includes sign-up bonuses)
Costco Anywhere Visa$426$426$852$852
*Blue Cash Everyday Card$504$354$708$858
Citi Double Cash Card$480$480$960$960
*Chase Freedom Unlimited$510$360$720$870
*Capital One SavorOne$558$408$816$966

In this example, the Capital One SavorOne card would earn you the most cash back over the first two years. Remember though that $150 of those earnings are in a sign-up bonus which you wouldn’t receive each year. So if you plan to keep the card for many years, you should factor that in as well.

If you concentrate on what your category earnings would be without factoring in the one-time sign-up bonus, the Costco Anywhere Visa comes in 2nd place. You’ll notice that regardless of sign-up bonus or not, the Citi Double Cash Card fairs very well.

Below are a few other card benefits that makes the Costco Anywhere Visa card attractive.

Card Benefits

Extended Warranty Protection

With this benefit, you can extend the time period of the manufacturer’s warranty by two additional years. This also adds two years to any warranties purchased.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

For those who travel internationally, this card does not charge foreign transaction fees.

Bottom Line

The Costco Anywhere Visa card is a good “jack of all trades” type of card. If you’re a Costco loyalist, this card should probably be in your wallet. Even if you’re not shopping at Costco very often, the card can still be quite valuable. For example, people with long commutes and salespeople could easily cover the $60 Costco membership fee with the 4% cashback on gasoline.

However, if you aren’t interested in a Costco membership or you want instant access to your cashback, there are other cards that may fit better. I shop at Costco quite a bit and use this card anytime I’m there. I also use the card for all gasoline purchases unless gas is currently one of the Chase Freedom rotating 5% bonus categories. If you’re unsure about whether this is the right card for you, check the other cash back cards for a better fit.

Apply here for the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card.

What Credit Cards are in my Wallet (September 2019)

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I’m always thinking about what credit cards should be in my wallet at any given time. And more importantly, when I should use each card. If you don’t review what’s in your wallet at least a few times a year, you’re probably losing valuable points or miles earning opportunities.

My main overarching goal is always to maximize earning points and miles. For day-to-day spending, I almost always choose which credit card to use based on earning the most points possible for every transaction. For example, I pay for travel expenses with my Chase Sapphire Preferred card because it earns me more points in that category than any other card I own. By the same token, I use my American Express Gold card for all transactions in the dining category.

However, there are times when I need to change my credit card usage. In general, there are three reasons why I change which cards I use and thus which cards I carry in my wallet.

  1. Spending on a new credit card in order to meet the minimum spending requirement for a sign-up bonus
  2. Taking advantage of a special credit card promotion
  3. Earning points or miles towards a specific goal

So with that being said, here are the credit cards currently in my wallet and when I use each.

My Wallet as of September 2019

American Express Gold Card

At the current moment, the American Express Gold card is my most used credit card. In a given month, the majority of my transactions can be grouped into dining and grocery purchases. And since this card earns 4x Membership Rewards (MR) points on both restaurants and groceries, it gets the most use of any card in my wallet.

I also use this card to take advantage of promotions called Amex Offers. These limited-time promotions earn either extra MR points or cash-back depending on the type of offer. As you can see below, some of these offers can be quite lucrative.

Amex Offers

For example, since I have no credit cards that earn extra points at Amazon, the Amex Offer got me to switch to using my Gold Card. Through the end of September I’ll earn 2 extra MR points on all Amazon purchases.

Another Amex Offer I received is for 500 extra MR points when I pay my cell phone bill. This offer can be used three times and expires in October. To take advantage of this offer, I updated the auto-payment information with my cell phone provider to charge my Gold Card. I’ll use this offer all three times to get a total of 1,500 bonus MR points.

Finally, you can see that I have an Amex Offer for 3,500 bonus MR points (!!!) for every $7,000 spent through November 21, 2019. That’s a lot of money to spend in the next few months, so I’m treating this offer as a “nice to have”. If I end up spending $7,000 on the card before the deadline, I’ll happily take the 3,500 bonus MR points. But because the spending requirement is so large and I’m not sure I can meet it, I will not move all my spending to this card. Instead, I’ll monitor my overall spending on a monthly basis. If I get close to meeting the spending requirement before the deadline, then I’ll change my card usage to get make sure I get the bonus points.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

Chase Sapphire Preferred

I view Chase Ultimate Rewards as the most valuable points program, so all things being equal, I try to build points with Chase whenever possible. The Chase Sapphire Preferred card earns 2x Ultimate Rewards (UR) points on travel and dining expenses. So I use this card for all travel expenses as I don’t own a better earning card in this category. For dining, however, the Amex Gold card has become my go-to card. Even though I value Chase Ultimate Rewards points over American Express Membership Rewards points, I can’t pass up 4x MR points on dining. So this card mainly comes out of my wallet at any restaurant that doesn’t accept American Express.

United Explorer Card

United Explorer Card

The United Explorer card recently found its way back into my wallet due to a promotion running in August and September. It came at a perfect time as I was also looking for easy ways to increase my United MileagePlus balance. Prior to this promotion, I hadn’t used this card in five months.

I essentially earn 2x United miles on all spending up to a max of 13,000 bonus miles.

To take advantage of the promotion, I’m using the United Explorer card for any purchases where I don’t receive extra points or miles. For example, purchases I make to play golf, go to the movies, or get my dog groomed don’t fall into any of my credit cards’ bonus categories. Thus I would only receive one point or mile for those purchases regardless of which card I used. But with this limited-time promotion, I’ll earn 2 United MileagePlus miles for every dollar spent through the end of September.

Hilton Honors Aspire Card

As I’m nearing my Hilton Honors points goal for an upcoming trip to Hawaii, I’ve been using this card less and less over the past few months. I keep this card in my wallet for stays at Hilton Hotels, since it earns 14x Hilton Honors (HH) points on purchases at any of Hilton’s 5,700+ properties. I also used the card occasionally for purchases that don’t fall into any bonus categories. However, that was happening much more frequently before the United promotion began and when earning HH points was more important to me.

Chase Freedom

Chase Freedom

My Chase Freedom card is in my wallet year round. This card earns a 5% return in rotating categories that change each quarter. Right now, Chase is paying 5% at gas stations and select streaming services on up to $1,500 in combined purchases. So I’ve made sure that all gas station purchases made between July 1 and September 30 are made on this card. Once the quarter ends, I’ll move gas station purchases back to my Costco Visa card.

Costco Anywhere Visa

The Costco Anywhere Visa card is always in my wallet even though I don’t use it all that much. For half the year, I use it to earn 4% on purchases at gas stations. The other half of the year, I use my Chase Freedom card since gas stations usually earn 5% during two of the four quarters. I also use this card at Costco where I get 2% cash-back.

Recently Dropped from my Wallet

CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, one reason to use a card is to meet the minimum spending requirement in order to earn a new card sign-up bonus. Earlier this summer, Citi was offering 70,000 bonus miles on the CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select card. In August, I met the minimum spending requirement and once the bonus miles hit my account, I removed this card from my wallet. I’m keeping the card open for benefits like the free checked bags but I don’t plan on putting any day-to-day spending on the card.

Bottom Line

This composition of credit cards works for me at the current time. Remember that while this is currently my ideal wallet, a different set of credit cards may work better for you. I don’t foresee any changes to my wallet or credit card usage for the rest of the month. However, I do expect the credit card companies to announce holiday promotions soon. When that happens, I will review each one and change my spending habits to take advantage of those that make sense for me.

Using Points and Miles to get to Tucson

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It’s not everyday that Annie’s Wildcats and my Fighting Illini play each other in college basketball. So when we learned that the University of Illinois is traveling to play the University of Arizona this November, there was no question we had to be there.

Using Points and Miles to get to Tucson
The University of Arizona was the first university in the Arizona Territory.

For this trip, we’ll be spending two nights in Tucson and then driving to Phoenix. After one night in Phoenix (which we extended to two nights afterwards) visiting family, we’ll head back to Chicago. Of course, this was another opportunity to see how much money I could save by booking the trip using points and miles. This post explains how we booked and what we saved.

In This Post

Airfare

Annie and I have flown American Airlines to Tucson in the past and they have several flight options that work with our schedule. Checking on flights from Chicago to Tucson and Phoenix to Chicago, I found that two tickets in the main cabin would set us back $870.

As I mentioned in my Tucson planning post, the two non-cash options were to use American Airlines miles or use Chase Ultimate Rewards points and transfer them into British Airways Avios miles. As a reminder, these options would cost me either:

  • 50,000 American Airlines miles, or
  • 40,000 British Airways miles

So Which Option is the Better Deal?

Figuring out which option is the better deal can be a difficult one, but there are few points you should be aware of while you compare the options.

  1. How much are miles or points worth in the programs you’re comparing?
  2. What is the equivalent spend of the miles redemption?
  3. Do you need to save a particular program’s miles for a different trip?

How much are miles or points worth in the programs you’re comparing?

The industry standard value of American Airlines and British Airways miles is around 1.5 cents per mile. With option two, I’d be using Chase Ultimate Rewards points to transfer to British Airways, so I also need to consider the value of Chase points. Based on most valuations, Chase points are worth around 2 cents per mile.

What is the equivalent spend of the miles redemption?

If I spend 50,000 American miles on this trip and those miles are worth 1.5 cents each, that’s the equivalent to spending $750 (50,000 x 0.015).

If I spend 40,000 British Airways miles on this trip and those miles are also worth 1.5 cents each, then the equivalent spend is $600 (40,000 x 0.015).

Would you rather spend the equivalent of $600 or $750? Obviously the lessor amount is better, so that means redeeming British Airways miles is the better deal in this comparison.

Now because the source of my British Airways miles are actually Chase Ultimate Rewards points, I need to compare the American Airlines miles spending equivalent to that of Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

Chase had a 30% bonus special running on transfers to British Airways when I transferred my points. So instead of the normal 1:1 transfer ratio, I received 1.3 British Airways miles per each Chase point.

Prior to May 30, 2019, flights between Chicago and Tucson cost 10,000 British Airways miles. Beginning May 30, 2019, those same flights went up to 11,000 miles. Due to not thinking about time zones, I actually booked the outbound flight prior to May 30 but the flight home after. It was technically May 29 in Chicago, but already May 30 in London. So instead of needing 20,000 British Airways miles per person, I ended up needing 21,000 miles or 42,000 in total.

To have enough miles to use for this redemption, I transferred 33,000 Chase points to British Airways. With the 30% transfer bonus, that translated into 42,900 Avios.

The equivalent spend of the 33,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points is $660 (33,000 x 0.02). Again this is better than the American Airlines spending equivalent of $750.

Do you need to save a particular program’s miles for a different trip?

Since I have a ton of Chase points, transferring them for this trip would not negatively impact any future trips.

My Redemption Summary

In total, our flights cost 33,000 Chase points (equal to 42,000 British Airways Avios) plus $22 in taxes. That’s a savings of $848! 

We saved ~$848 using miles!

Hotel

I have a free night from my Hotels.com rewards account that I decided to apply to this trip. We want to stay close to campus and I found a room at the Tucson Marriott University Park, which is literally steps from the university.

Tuscon Marriott University Park (Photo courtesy Marriott Hotels)

The free night is worth $157 which almost pays for one whole night. In total, the hotel will cost us $252, with a total savings of $157!

In Phoenix we were originally planning to stay with family but those plans changed. So now we’re going to stay two nights at the Hilton Garden Inn Scottsdale North/Perimeter Center, which is only a short drive away.

Hilton Garden Inn Scottsdale North/Perimeter Center (Photo courtesy Hilton Hotels)

Rental Car

Getting a cheap rental for this trip was a must and I performed an exhaustive search. I started with the car rental companies themselves, checking Hertz, Avis, Budget and Enterprise. I also looked at Costco and on the Chase and American Express travel portals. In the end, for a full-size vehicle, Enterprise had the cheapest price at $253.

Although it was more than I wanted to pay, I knew I had explored all avenues so I was confident I had found the best deal. Then I remembered about AutoSlash. AutoSlash is a website that tracks car rental reservations you’ve made elsewhere and notifies you if it finds a better deal.

To enable AutoSlash to track your reservation, you need to fill out a form on the website. It take no more than a minute or two, and requires information about the booking, including name, rental company, confirmation number, pick-up date and the price reserved. It also uses information about which memberships you hold and which credit cards you carry to help get you the best deal.

AutoSlash found a lower rate!

About 15 minutes later, I received an email saying that AutoSlash had found a lower rate for my upcoming rental. They had found me a rental through Hertz for $118, a savings of $135!

Click here for my guide to saving money on car rentals with AutoSlash.

Tucson Redemption Table

Retail CostOur CostMiles and Points UsedPoints Source
2 one way tickets from Chicago (ORD) to Tucson (TUS)$240 per person ($480 total)$5.60 taxes and fees ($11 total)15,385 Chase UR points -> 20,000 BA miles- Chase credit cards
2 one way tickets from Phoenix (PHX) to Chicago (ORD)$195 per person ($390 total)$5.60 taxes and fees ($11 total)16,924 Chase UR points -> 22,000 BA miles- Chase credit cards
2 nights at the Tucson Marriott University Park$205 per night ($410 total)$2531 free night from Hotels.com Rewards (worth $157)- Hotels.com Rewards
2 nights at the Hilton Garden Inn Scottsdale North/Perimeter Center$227 per night ($454 total)$454N/AN/A
3 day car rental with Hertz$253$118N/A- Autoslash
Total$1,987$847- 32,309 UR points
- 1 Hotels.com Rewards night		- $1,140 in total savings
- 57% off retail cost

Bottom Line

Using miles and rewards allowed us to book a weekend trip for $1,140 less than if we paid for everything out of pocket. In total that’s 74% off the retail cost of the trip! This is going to be a really fun weekend. We’ll get to hang out in a cool college town which Annie loves, see our two schools play each other in basketball and see family in Phoenix. Sounds like a pretty great trip to me!

Trip Report Index

  1. Introduction and Planning
  2. Using Points and Miles to get to Tucson
  3. Tucson Marriott University Park
  4. Illinois vs Arizona Basketball Game

CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Card Review

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The CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card is a great card for business owners who frequently fly on American Airlines. The benefits offered can really help you save time and money! On top of earning 65,000 American Airlines miles after meeting the minimum spending requirements, you also get perks such as free checked bags and priority boarding.

Who is this card for?

The card is targeted to business owners who choose American Airlines as their carrier of choice. With perks like free checked bags and priority boarding, owning this card will certainly enhance your travel experience.

You can apply for the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Card here.

Card Features

Bonus Offer

You’ll earn 65,000 miles after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first four months. That’s enough to get you a MileSAAver round-trip award ticket in business class to some areas in South America!

American Airlines 737-800 Aircraft
60,000 miles can get you a round-trip award ticket in business class to South America!

Annual Fee

The card comes with a $99 annual fee, but it’s waived for the first year.

Earning Rates

The CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card earns:

  • 2 miles per $1 spent on purchases from American Airlines
  • 2 miles per $1 spent at telecommunications merchants, cable and satellite providers, car rentals and gas stations
  • 1 mile per $1 on all other spending

The earning rates are nothing special, but they are in line with other similarly priced business cards. If you’re looking to build up your American AAdvantage® miles balance, this is a decent way to do it.

Redeeming Miles

American Airlines makes it very easy to redeem miles on their website. Plus, you can use them to book travel on OneWorld partners, like British Airways, Air Berlin, Iberia, Japan Airlines and more.


Redeem American AAdvantage® miles for award travel on any oneworld Alliance airline

American Airlines and its OneWorld partners fly to more than 1,000 destinations in more than 150 countries. With a network like that, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to redeem those miles!

Card Benefits

This Card has some nice benefits and those that fly American Airlines even once a year will get good value.

Free First Checked Bag

Cardholders will get the first checked bag for you and up to four traveling companions on the same reservation for free. The value here depends on how many people are traveling, but at $30 per checked bag, a family of four can save up to $240 per roundtrip! And because this benefit is linked to your AAdvantage® account, you can still pay for tickets using any credit card you want.

Priority Boarding

As a Cardholder, you and up to four traveling companions on the same reservation will receive boarding Group 5 access for your flights. American Airlines has 9 boarding groups now, so this puts you right in the middle. In my experience, this will give you more than enough access to overhead bin space that could be difficult to come by if you board in the later groups.

Overhead Bin
Boarding the aircraft early can help increase your chances of securing overhead bin space!

25% back on In-flight Purchases

When you use your card to pay for food and beverages onboard American-operated flights, you’ll get 25% back as a statement credit. This doesn’t include Wi-Fi.

Companion Certificate

Your business can earn a certificate for domestic main cabin travel after spending at least $30,000 on the card during your membership year and each time the card is renewed. To redeem the certificate, you must pay a $99 fee, plus taxes and fees.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

For those who travel internationally, this card does not charge foreign transaction fees.

Dedicated Help

You have access to personal business assistants 24/7 for help with travel, hotel and dining arrangements.

Which cards compete with this card?

American Airlines has had co-branded credit cards through Citi for quite some time. But after their merger with US Airways, they maintained their banking relationship with Barclays as well. So in this case, the direct competitor to this card is the AAdvantage® Aviator® Business Mastercard from Barclays.

CardSign-up BonusAnnual FeeFee Waived in first year?
CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card65,000 miles after $4,000 spent in first 4 months$99Yes
AAdvantage® Aviator® Business Mastercard80,000 miles after $2,000 spent in first 90 days$95Yes

That card currently offers 15,000 more bonus miles even though it has a much lower initial spending requirement. The annual fee is a wash since both cards have none for the first year. So in a direct comparison, the clear winner is the Barclays card.

Who should look for another card?

If you don’t live near an American Airlines hub or typically fly other airlines, then this card doesn’t make sense to own. I would encourage owning at least one airline card, however, so that you can take advantage of perks for your preferred airline. The free checked bag perk on these airline cards pays for the annual fee after just one round-trip flight. 

If you don’t have a preferred airline, stick with a credit card that earns flexible points like American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Points in those ecosystems are transferable to various airline partners and gives you virtually unlimited options.

Some good transferable points business cards to consider with similar annual fees are:

Bottom Line

The CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card comes with 65,000 bonus miles once you complete the minimum spending requirements. That’s enough to travel round-trip in coach within the continental United States or one-way to Europe, Asia or South America.

This card has some notable travel perks. You’ll save money with free checked bags and 25% back on in-flight purchases, and save time with priority boarding.

While the card’s earnings rate aren’t the best, if you’re a frequent flier on American Airlines, you can get good value. However, if the specific airline isn’t important to you, there are better business card options out there than the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® card.

Apply here for the CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® Card.

Tucson: Illinois at Arizona Basketball Planning

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My wife, Annie is a die-hard fan of her University of Arizona men’s basketball team. And I’m equally as big a fan of my University of Illinois team. So we were really excited to learn that our schools had agreed to play each other in basketball in 2019 and 2020. Our schools do not play each other often, so we knew we had to take this opportunity to see it in person. This year’s game is in Tucson on November 10.

Tucson Illinois at Arizona Basketball 2019 Planning

Arizona vs Illinois College Basketball History

These two schools have a storied history in college basketball. The University of Arizona owns the 14th most victories all-time, while the University of Illinois ranks 18th.

The two teams have been playing basketball since the early 1900s and yet have only played each other 14 times. Arizona currently owns bragging rights, winning 8 out of the 14 matchups. Arizona has won the last two meetings—a 2007 game in Chicago and a 2006 game in Phoenix.

But back in 2005, Illinois pulled off one of the most memorable comebacks in NCAA tournament history with a 90-89 overtime win to advance to the Final Four. The Illini came back from a 15-point deficit with only four minutes to go to force overtime and the eventual victory.

Illinois fans can re-live the comeback below (Arizona fans, please skip ahead):

During the 2000-2001 season, the teams squared off three times with Arizona taking the first game in Maui and the Illini returning the favor a few weeks later in Chicago. But the Wildcats got the last laugh, as they took down the one-seeded Illini 87-81 to advance to the Final Four.

For the first time in 12 years, our two schools are playing each other! We’re excited to visit Tucson, walk around campus, eat and drink at some of Annie’s favorite places and of course, attend this highly anticipated non-conference game.

For this quick trip, we’ll be spending two nights in Tucson and then driving to Phoenix. We’ll spend one night with family before heading back to Chicago.

Airfare

Annie and I have flown American Airlines to Tucson in the past and they have several flight options that work well with our schedule. Two tickets from Chicago to Tucson and Phoenix to Chicago in the main cabin are going for $870 total.

So I started reviewing our options to use points and/or miles instead of paying for airfare. We had two options involving American Airlines:

  1. Redeem American AAdvantage miles
  2. Redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points and transferring to British Airways

American AAdvantage

The first, and most straightforward, option would be to redeem some of our American AAdvantage miles. If we use this option, American Airlines would charge us 12,500 miles per one-way ticket, or 50,000 miles in total for four one-way tickets.

Chase Ultimate Rewards

However, there was another interesting, and slightly more complex option—use Chase Ultimate Rewards points. British Airways is a Chase transfer partner and so we could transfer some of our Chase points to British Airways Avios program. But how would that help us fly American Airlines from Chicago to Tucson and from Phoenix to Chicago?

British Airways and American Airlines are partners via the OneWorld alliance. That means you can redeem British Airways Avios miles for flights on American Airlines. What’s great about this option is that British Airways uses a distance-based rewards chart to determine how many miles you need to redeem for a given flight. This creates some sweet spots where the same flight can cost less miles when booking through British Airways then through American Airlines.

Chicago to Tucson is 1,437 miles and Phoenix to Chicago is 1,440 miles. Flights in that distance range fall into Band 3 on the British Airways rewards chart. Prior to May 30, 2019, Band 3 flights cost 10,000 British Airways miles. Beginning May 30, 2019, redemptions for Band 3 flights went up to 11,000 miles. So a round-trip flight booked on or after May 30 would cost you 22,000 miles—which is better than using 25,000 American AAdvantage miles.

When it’s time to book the flights, I’ll do some calculations to determine whether it’s a better deal to book the flights using American AAdvantage miles or British Airways Avios miles via Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Hotel

For hotels in Tucson, there’s only two we’re looking at. We want to be as close to campus as possible so that we can walk to restaurants, bars, and the basketball game. There’s also a vibe you get when you stay close to campus that you don’t get when you stay a few miles away. The options are the Aloft Tucson University and the Tucson Marriott University Park.

We stayed at the Aloft once before. It’s a newer hotel, built in 2013 and we had a pleasant stay there several years ago. It’s located on the northwestern edge of campus and is close to the basketball stadium. The Marriott is on the east side of campus, but more in the heart of everything then the Aloft is. Not only is it on campus, it’s very close to several popular bars and restaurants.

Even though we’ve read that the Marriott is old and in need of a renovation, I think it’s likely we’re going to give it a try on this visit. We like the idea of being on campus and since we’re only staying two nights, if the rooms are in terrible condition, at least it’s only two nights.

Car Rental

Finding a cheap rental has been difficult. It could be due to high demand during this time of year. It’s also partly because we’re picking up the car in Tucson and returning in Phoenix. Many car rental companies will assess a one-time drop charge or mileage charge in addition to the rental rate on one-way rentals. Whenever I search for rental cars, I always start with the car rental companies themselves. I also always check Costco Travel and the Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express travel portals.

The next post will detail which airfare, hotel and car rentals I booked and how we saved over one thousand dollars!

Trip Report Index

  1. Introduction and Planning
  2. Using Points and Miles to get to Tucson
  3. Tucson Marriott University Park
  4. Illinois vs Arizona Basketball Game