Your Ultimate Checklist for Calendar-Year Credit Card Perks [2024]

Aside from sign-up bonuses, the ability to earn rewards, and insurance coverage, many credit cards offer annual perks that enable you to get even more value out of your card. These annual perks are further divided into two categories: calendar-year perks and cardholder anniversary-year perks. Although similar in name, they vary by when they reset each year. And, if you’re strategic, you might even get some calendar-year perks twice within the same 12-month period.

To avoid missing out on any of your card’s calendar-year perks, it’s important to be on top of your card’s specific benefits as early in the year as possible. That way, you aren’t rushing to use your perks right before they expire. This checklist is intended to help you in this process. We’ll look at all the credit cards that offer calendar-year perks and what exactly you can get.

But let’s first talk about what exactly a calendar-year perk is all about, and then we’ll dive into the cards, issuer by issuer.

What is a calendar-year perk?

A calendar-year perk is a card benefit you get every calendar year, which means the benefit resets January 1 and is available through December 31. This is different from perks that reset on your card year or cardholder anniversary. For instance, if you open a card on June 10, then your cardholder anniversary is every June 10.

Because calendar-year perks reset every calendar year, it’s possible to get a perk twice in one twelve-month period of having a card. For instance, say you open a credit card on March 1 that offers a $100 airline fee credit each calendar year. You will likely have until December 31 of that year to use it, and on January 1 of the following year, the perk resets. As a result, you will get the perk twice in one year of holding that credit card.

Some credit cards offer several valuable calendar-year perks. Depending on how many credit cards you have, you may feel as though there’s just too many to keep track of. The last thing we want is for your credit card perks to fall by the wayside, so we’ve compiled all the calendar-year perks for you.

American Express

American Express^® Green Card

The American Express Green Card comes with two annual credits: up to a $199 CLEAR Plus credit and a $100 LoungeBuddy credit. CLEAR is a technology that provides expedited airport document checks to enrolled members. LoungeBuddy is a service that allows you to purchase access to a network of airport lounges without the need for a specific lounge membership.

Both of these benefits reset every calendar year, so you should be able to use the credit anytime until December 31, and then again on January 1. However, be sure to use each benefit with enough time to spare at the end of the year so the charge posts this year instead of the next. Otherwise, you might miss out on the credit.

The Platinum Card^® from American Express

There are loads of calendar-based credits that come with The Platinum Card from American Express, so you want to make sure to use them all before December 31. These Amex Platinum benefits include an airline fee credit, Saks Fifth Avenue credit (which is biannual), Uber Cash (which is monthly), digital entertainment credit (monthly), hotel credit (annual), Equinox membership credit (annual), Walmart+ (monthly), and CLEAR® Plus credit (annual).

You must designate an airline before placing the charge on your card for the $200 airline fee statement credits to count, and the credit won’t be applied toward things such as airline tickets, gift cards, and award tickets, to name a few. The $200 hotel credit works for prepaid bookings of Fine Hotels + Resorts and The Hotel Collection through Amex Travel.

The $100 Saks Fifth Avenue credit is split into two credits per year. You’ll get a $50 credit from January through June and another $50 credit from July through December. Don’t shop at Saks Fifth Avenue for yourself? Use this credit card perk to buy holiday gifts instead. Whether it’s for a holiday, birthday, or anniversary, this $100 credit can come in handy.

The $200 Uber Cash is divided up monthly, so you get $15 in Uber Cash each month of the calendar year, plus a bonus $20 in December. Your Uber Cash can be used for rides and Uber Eats orders. Terms apply.

The Equinox credit is up to $300 annually in statement credits for an Equinox digital or club membership. The $240 digital entertainment credit is divided up monthly, which works out to $20 per month for these services: Disney+, The Disney Bundle, Hulu, ESPN+, Peacock, and The New York Times.

The Walmart+ benefit covers the cost of a monthly Walmart+ membership, which equals $12.95 plus local sales tax per month. You can also use your card to get up to $199 back per year on a CLEAR® Plus membership. Select benefits require enrollment.

The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express

There are multiple calendar-year perks that come with the Business Platinum Card from American Express. One is up to $200 airline fee statement credits for incidentals such as baggage fees on one qualifying airline. Another is up to a $199 annual CLEAR® Plus credit toward a membership. You can also receive up to $360 in annual Indeed credit, up to $150 in annual Adobe credit, and up to $120 in annual wireless telephone services credit. The last credit is up to $400 in annual Dell credits.

The Indeed credit is spread out over the four quarters of the year. So each quarter (January to March, April to June, July to September, October to December), you can receive up to $90 toward Indeed services. The Adobe credit is valid for annual subscriptions of Creative Cloud or Acrobat Pro DC. The wireless telephone services credit is split up by month. So you can receive up to $10 each month (up to a total of $120 annually) for direct purchases from U.S. wireless providers.

For the Dell credit, you can receive a $200 Dell credit from January through June and another $200 credit from July through December. Whether it’s for a new computer, new software, or a new laptop bag, these credits can be used toward thousands of products. Purchases must be made directly with Dell or on dell.com.

Note that select benefits require enrollment.

Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card

The Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card comes with an airline fee credit of up to $200 back per year ($50 in statement credits each quarter) on eligible flight purchases on a single airline that you designate.

You can also earn an additional night award (in addition to the free night you already receive) after making $30,000 in purchases and another after making $60,000 in purchases on your card in a calendar year.

Hilton Honors American Express Surpass^® Card

With your Hilton Honors Surpass Card, you can earn a free weekend night reward after spending $15,000 on your card in a calendar year. And if you spend $40,000 on your card in a calendar year, you’ll earn Hilton Honors Diamond status through the end of the next calendar year.

Delta SkyMiles^® Gold American Express Card

Your Delta SkyMiles Gold Amex offers a $200 Delta flight credit after you spend $10,000 in purchases in a calendar year.

Delta SkyMiles^® Platinum American Express Card

The Delta SkyMiles Platinum Amex can help you reach Delta elite status quickly. This card offers $2,500 Medallion® Qualification Dollars each Medallion Qualification Year.

Delta SkyMiles^® Reserve American Express Card

The Delta Reserve Amex offers $2,500 Medallion Qualification Dollars each Medallion Qualification Year, and earns $1 MQD for each $10 spent on purchases.

Delta SkyMiles^® Gold Business American Express Card

Similar to the Delta SkyMiles Gold Amex personal card, the Delta SkyMiles Gold Business Amex also offers a $200 Delta flight credit if you spend $10,000 in a calendar year.

Delta SkyMiles^® Platinum Business American Express Card

Your Delta SkyMiles Platinum Business Amex offers $2,500 Medallion Qualification Dollars each Medallion Qualification Year, and earns $1 MQD for each $20 spent on purchases.

Delta SkyMiles^® Reserve Business American Express Card

The Amex Delta Reserve for Business offers $2,500 Medallion Qualification Dollars each Medallion Qualification Year, and earns $1 MQD for each $10 spent on purchases.

Marriott Bonvoy Business^® American Express^® Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Business offers a free anniversary night each year, but you can earn another free night award after spending $60,000 in a calendar year. This earned reward can be redeemed for nights worth 35,000 Marriott Bonvoy points or less.

Bank of America

Bank Of America^® Premium Rewards^® Credit Card

The Bank of America Premium Rewards Credit Card offers up to a $100 airline incidental credit each calendar year for purchases made on your card for incidentals such as seat upgrades, baggage fees, and airline lounge fees. This credit can be earned across any eligible airline, so you don’t need to designate a specific airline.

Barclays

JetBlue Plus Card

The Barclays JetBlue Plus Card offers one calendar-year card perk in the form of a $100 statement credit. To receive the credit, you must use your JetBlue Plus Card card to purchase a JetBlue Vacations package priced at $100 or more.

JetBlue Business Card

The JetBlue Business Card also offers a $100 statement credit each calendar year if you purchase a package through JetBlue Vacations worth $100 or more.

Chase

The World of Hyatt Credit Card

The World of Hyatt Credit Card already offers one free night at any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel each cardmember anniversary. But if you spend $15,000 on your card in a calendar year, you’ll receive another Category 1-4 Hyatt free night.

World of Hyatt Business Credit Card

The World of Hyatt Business Credit Card offers five tier-qualifying night credits (good for World of Hyatt elite status and milestone rewards) for every $10,000 you spend in a calendar year. You can also receive 10% of your redeemed points back after spending $50,000 in a calendar year. This benefit starts after you’ve spent $50,000 or more and lasts for the rest of the year or until you’ve redeemed 200,000 points.

United℠ Explorer Card

The United Explorer Card offers 25 Premier qualifying points (PQPs) for every $500 you spend. You can earn up to 1,000 PQPs in a calendar year using this benefit.

United Quest℠ Card

The United Quest Card also offers 25 PQPs for every $500 you spend. However, this card benefit allows you to earn up to 6,000 PQPs in a calendar year.

United Club℠ Infinite Card

Similar to the other United cards listed, the United Club Infinite Card offers 25 PQPs for every $500 you spend. You can earn up to 10,000 PQPs in a calendar year using this benefit.

United℠ Business Card

The United Business Card offers the same benefit as the Explorer Card. For every $500 you spend, earn 25 PQPs, up to a maximum of 1,000 PQPs in a calendar year.

British Airways Visa Signature^® Card

The British Airways Visa Signature Card offers a “Travel Together Ticket” if you spend $30,000 in a calendar year. This promotional ticket entitles you to bring a companion with you on any British Airways award flight originating in and returning to the U.S. Your companion would only have to pay taxes, fees, and any carrier charges associated with their fare.

Aer Lingus Visa Signature^® Card

For the Aer Lingus Visa Signature Card, you can receive an economy companion ticket that’s valid for 12 months if you spend at least $30,000 in a calendar year.

Iberia Visa Signature^® Card

The Iberia Visa Signature Card has a similar benefit to both the British Airways and Aer Lingus cards. If you spend at least $30,000 in a calendar year, you’ll earn a discount voucher of $1,000 that’s valid for two tickets on the same flight.

Ritz-Carlton Credit Card

The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card is no longer open to new applicants, but current cardholders can still take advantage of the card’s $300 calendar-year travel credit. This credit is applied toward qualifying airline incidental purchases on any airline made with your Ritz-Carlton Credit Card.

Only the following non-ticket purchases qualify for this credit: airline lounge day passes or a yearly lounge membership of your choice; airline seat upgrades; airline baggage fees; in-flight internet or entertainment; and in-flight meals.

Southwest Companion Pass

The Southwest Companion Pass offers qualifying passengers the benefit of choosing one person to fly with them, free of airline charges. To qualify, you need to fly 100 qualifying one-way flights or earn 135,000 qualifying points in a calendar year. When you do this, you’ll earn the Companion Pass for the following full calendar year, plus the remainder of the year in which you earned it. For example, if you receive the pass in January 2023, you’ll have it for the remainder of the year, plus all of 2024.

Timing is essential if you want to get two full years out of the Companion Pass. And one of the best ways to get there the quickest is by earning welcome offers from Southwest credit cards. If you're a Southwest flyer, here are some of the best rewards credit cards they offer:

• Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Plus Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Priority Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Premier Credit Card
• Southwest^® Rapid Rewards^® Premier Business Credit Card
• Southwest^® Rapid Rewards^® Performance Business Credit Card

Some restrictions apply to Southwest personal cards that you should be aware of. According to Chase:

• You can open a new Southwest personal card even if you previously had one
• You can’t receive a welcome offer until 24 months have passed since you last received a welcome offer from any Southwest personal card
• You can also only have one Southwest personal card at a time.
  

In others words, you’re eligible to receive a welcome offer for a Southwest personal card every 24 months.

The verbiage on the Southwest business credit card terms and conditions is a little different:

• You can’t receive the welcome offer for a Southwest business card if you currently hold that same card
• You can’t receive the welcome offer if you previously held the card and received a welcome offer for that card within the past 24 months.

So although you can’t receive the new cardmember bonus for a business card if you currently have the card, previous cardholders can receive the new cardmember bonus as long as 24 months have passed since you last received that card’s bonus.

The best way to take advantage of this perk is to keep track of your accounts and when you opened them, and then you’ll always be sure to get the most from your Southwest credit cards.

Gopuff credits

Gopuff is a delivery service that focuses on delivering snacks and drinks to your home, though groceries, over-the-counter medicine, and other products are also available. Chase and Gopuff have partnered to offer eligible Chase cardholders a $10 statement credit each month for at least a $10 Gopuff order. This promotion runs through Dec. 31, 2023.

Eligible Chase credit cards include: 

• Chase Freedom Card
• Chase Freedom Unlimited^®
• Chase Freedom Flex^®
• Chase Sapphire
• Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card
• Chase Sapphire Reserve^®
• J.P. Morgan Reserve
• Aer Lingus Visa Signature^® Card
• British Airways Visa Card
• British Airways Visa Signature^® Card
• Disney^® Premier Visa^® Card
• Disney^® Visa^® Card
• The World of Hyatt Credit Card
• Iberia Visa Signature^® Card
• IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
• IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card
• IHG Rewards Club Classic Credit Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Credit Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Premier Credit Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Bold^® Credit Card
• The Ritz-Carlton Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Plus Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Employee Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Premier Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Priority Credit Card
• Southwest^® Rapid Rewards^® Performance Business Credit Card
• Starbucks^® Rewards Visa^® Card
• United Club Card
• United Presidential Plus Card
• United MileagePlus Select Card
• United MileagePlus Awards Card
• United MileagePlus Card
• United℠ Explorer Card

Citi

Citi Strata Premier℠ Card

The Citi Strata Premier Card offers $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) annually when booked through CitiTravel.com. You must prepay the entire stay for the offer to apply.

Citi Prestige^® Card

The Citi Prestige card comes with a $250 travel credit that resets every calendar year. It’s applied automatically to eligible travel purchases, including purchases from airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, and more.

Note: This card was discontinued by Citi for the foreseeable future, but existing cardholders can still take advantage of its benefits.

Citi Rewards+^® Card

With the Citi Rewards+ Card, you’ll receive 10% of your points back on the first 100,000 Citi ThankYou Points you redeem each calendar year. In other words, if you redeem 100,000 ThankYou Points in a calendar year, you’ll receive 10,000 ThankYou Points back in your account.

Expedia Rewards Voyager Card

The Expedia Rewards Voyager Card from Citi offers a $100 annual air travel fee credit that can be used toward airline incidentals on the following eight airlines:

• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• Delta Air Lines
• Frontier Airlines
• JetBlue
• Southwest Airlines
• Spirit Airlines
• United Airlines

Eligible airline incidentals include purchases such as checked baggage fees, in-flight entertainment, or in-flight Wi-Fi. The $100 annual credit can also be used toward Boing Wireless and Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi purchases, as well as application fees for either Global Entry or TSA PreCheck.

City National Bank

City National Crystal Visa Infinite Card

The Crystal Visa Infinite Credit Card comes with a $350 airline incidental credit per calendar year. Incidentals that qualify for this credit include ticket change/cancellation fees, checked baggage fees, and in-flight entertainment, to name a few. The credit can be used on eligible U.S. domestic airline carriers. Also receive up to $550 in statement credits for airline club lounge membership per calendar year after spending $50,000.

Bottom line on calendar year perks

Calendar-year perks differ from anniversary year perks in that they reset every January 1, so it’s important to stay on top of your card’s perks so you can use them before year-end.

Calendar-year perks can deliver tons of value to cardholders each year. Because some of these credit cards have high annual fees, using these perks can really make a difference in how much value you receive from your card.

Easy-to-Earn Unlimited Rewards

Bank of America^® Travel Rewards credit card

Benefits

Card Details

• $0 annual fee
• Simple, flat-rate rewards
• Flexible redemption options
• Up to 75% preferred Rewards bonus potential
• Apply Now

• Earn unlimited 1.5 points per $1 spent on all purchases, with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees and your points don't expire as long as your account remains open.
• 25,000 online bonus points after you make at least $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening - that can be a $250 statement credit toward travel purchases.
• Use your card to book your trip how and where you want - you're not limited to specific websites with blackout dates or restrictions.
• Redeem points for a statement credit to pay for travel or dining purchases, such as flights, hotel stays, car and vacation rentals, baggage fees, and also at restaurants including takeout.
• 0% Intro APR for 15 billing cycles for purchases, and for any balance transfers made in the first 60 days. After the Intro APR offer ends, a Variable APR that’s currently 18.49% - 28.49% will apply. A 3% Intro balance transfer fee will apply for the first 60 days your account is open. After the Intro balance transfer fee offer ends, the fee for future balance transfers is 4%.
• If you're a Bank of America Preferred Rewards® member, you can earn 25%-75% more points on every purchase. That means instead of earning an unlimited 1.5 points for every $1, you could earn 1.87-2.62 points for every $1 you spend on purchases.
• Contactless Cards - The security of a chip card, with the convenience of a tap.
• This online only offer may not be available if you leave this page or if you visit a Bank of America financial center. You can take advantage of this offer when you apply now.

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Intro Offer

Earn 25,000 online bonus points after you make at least $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening - that can be a $250 statement credit toward travel purchases

Annual Fee

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Why we like it

• The Bank of America^® Travel Rewards credit card is great for individuals who enjoy earning rewards and traveling.

• Cardholders will enjoy the flexibility to redeem points with no blackout dates and receive a statement credit to pay for travel and dining purchases.

• Earn 1.5X points on all purchases everywhere, every time.

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