For years, most of us liked Priority Pass because it was straight forward. Scan in and you have unfettered access to food and drink. Then they started to charge ~$10 for reserving space in some lounges (mainly in London). But this week, there have been two announcements of lounges accessible on Priority Pass but they require an additional charge.

| Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse | Los Angeles (LAX) – Tom Bradley Int’l | $35 per person | Full Clubhouse experience: à-la-carte dining, cocktails, cinema pods, Zen Den |

| Clubrooms by No1 Lounges | London Heathrow (LHR) T3 | £15 per person | Table-service menu, quieter space than the No1 Lounge next door |

That’s on top of the annual fee you’ve already paid on the card that gave you Priority Pass.

Any Postives?

So no one wants to pay more money, but can we take anything positive from this?

The Terminals
Priority Pass access at LAX is very poor and the Virgin Clubhouse is the first real lounge that Priority Pass has access to, so that’s better than nothing and now you can walk all the way around LAX after security; it at least gives you an option . At Heathrow, the No1 Lounge at T3 is pretty bad. Better than sitting in the terminal but nothing great with lacklustre food options and generally pretty busy. I don’t love the Centurion Lounge there either and if you don’t have Virgin Gold or One World Emerald, your options are limited. I suppose having the options is better than nothing.

Why it’s worrying

• How many more lounges are going to do this? I wouldn’t mind the option if it was a truly step up. But are the big airlines ever going to put the Concorde Room, Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse Heathrow, Chelsea Lounge etc on Priority Pass? I doubt it. So instead of building bigger and better lounges, are they going to have a basic lounge for the people who have Priority Pass and then a nicer lounge for those who want to pay for lounge entry every flight? Maybe the airlines are starting to learn from the tech industry:

https://stratechery.com/concept/business-models/bundling-and-unbundling/

https://hbr.org/2014/06/how-to-succeed-in-business-by-bundling-and-unbundling

📝 TL;DR

1. Buy discounted Airbnb gift cards on GCX (≈ 3.9 % below face value).
2. Use your highest cashback card (Kroger Card - 5%, Smartly Card - 4%, US Bank Altitude Reserve - 4.5%, BoA Unlimited Cash Rewards - 2.625%)
3. Click TopCashback (2.4 %) just before you book.

As things stand, that’s an 11.1% discount, though it could be higher or lower depending on GCX’s and TopCashback’s discounts.

1️⃣ Discounted Airbnb credit

| GCX Marketplace | 3.9 % off e-gift cards | Anything ≥ 2 % | Always on; no cap | Use Apple/Google Pay with the Kroger Mastercard for 5% cashback (OG Smartly card, US Altitude Reserve, BoA UCR as back ups).

Math: 3.9 % discount + 5 % cashback ≈ 9 % off before you even visit Airbnb.

2️⃣ Cashback / points portal (add 2.4 %)

Check the top cashback portal: https://www.cashbackmonitor.com/cashback-store/airbnb/

• TopCashback is paying 2.4 % on Airbnb at time of writing.

3️⃣ Buying gift cards directly from Amazon etc

| Staples / Office Depot | Pay full price, but Chase Ink Cash earns 5 % | Ink Cash (5× UR) | Year-round, unlimited | | Amazon.com | Pay full price, but Prime Visa earns 5 % | Kroger stores | Full price, but Kroger Mastercard earns 5 % at Kroger stores (up to $3 k / yr)

As of writing, the best case is 11% discount. That could increase if you can find better Airbnb gift card discounts or better portal offers. The Kroger card has spend limits so either get a second one yourself or through a P2. Or if your second best option is a 2% cashback card, this is still the best route to go down but some may find buying directly from Amazon, Staples, Target (with a 5% Target card) and using a cashback portal simpler.

Here are the figures as things stand: 5% cashback card (on Amazon etc) + TopCashBack = 7.4% 2% cashback card + GCX + TopCashBack = 8.2% 2.625% cashback card + GCX + TopCashBack = 8.8% 5% cashback card + GCX + TopCashBack = 11.1%

When I wrote the article for the best cashback cards, I noticed some edge cases where other cards might be better—but only if you spend a lot. For those of you with substantial annual airfare expenses, you can access cashback rewards that far exceed the standard 3% cashback you’d get on a basic travel card or even the 5.55% that was in my original article. Just to note, I left cards like the Citi Cash Rewards Card off because of its low spend limit and when doing break-even calculations, I calculated based on the whole of annual fee, if you were seriously looking the break-even point should be lower as most cards have useful credits.

Baseline Option: 3% Cashback on Travel

Many cards, such as the Venmo Credit or Wells Fargo Autograph®, offer a solid 3% cashback on travel. These cards are easy to obtain and provide reliable rewards without any fuss. They serve as a useful benchmark for comparing higher-tier options.

Stepping Up: The Smartly Credit Card

For those with $100k with US Bank, the Smartly Credit Card delivers 4% cashback on every purchase.

Booking Through a Travel Portal: Earning 5%+

If you’re okay/work allows you to use a travel portal to book flights, you can 5% back on quite a few cards such as Chase Freedom Unlimited or Capital One cards and have no annual fee or other requirements.

5% Back - No Portal Needed

The GreenState CU World Mastercard gives 5% back on travel with no limit but there is now a hard geo-fence to get credit cards with them. Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota (you can still join the credit union through the American Consumer Council).

The standard best option: Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards

BoA’s Customized Cash Rewards lets you choose travel as your bonus category, earning 5.25% cashback on airfare—but only on the first $2,500 each quarter.

Unlimited High-Spend Option: Truist Wealth Credit Card

It offers an unlimited 5.25% cashback on travel spend. However, you need at least $1 million in investable assets with Truist. You don’t see much about this card, and with the requirements and the lack of a niche, that makes sense.

Annual Fee: $450

Break-Even: If you spend over $36,000 per year on airfare, but we’ll see better cards later in this list.

A Flexible Approach for High Spend

1. Amex Platinum Schwab Card For airfare and cashback, it has to be the Schwab variant of the Amex Platinum.

Earning: The Platinum earns 5× MR points on airfare booked either directly or via Amex Travel. Limit of $500,000 a year.

Redemption Boost: When you redeem your points through Schwab, they’re valued at 1.1¢ per point (compared to the typical 0.6¢ when redeemed as a statement credit).

Effective Cashback: This translates into an effective return of about 5.5% on airfare spend. Also, if you can find sweet spots on travel, you can keep the MR points to be even more efficient with spend.

Ideal For: High-volume fliers who can consistently redeem points at the higher Schwab rate.

Break-Even: $46,333 spend required to earn more cashback against the Smartly.

2. The 6× Option (Elan Visa® Reserve Rewards+ Credit Card)

The highest straight cashback option on this list, but it has to be done through a travel portal. This Elan card doesn’t have many reviews as it doesn’t excel, apart from this category. You do need to book through their travel portal though. If you want this card, you need to find a bank that provides it (many smaller banks do).

Earning: The Elan Visa® Reserve Rewards+ card offers 6× points on travel booked through its dedicated Rewards Center.

Redemption: With a standard conversion of 1¢ per point, that’s a straight 6% return on your spend.

Ideal For: Travelers who spend heavily and can reliably channel their purchases through the portal to capture the 6× multiplier. Break-Even: $19,500 spend required to earn more cashback against the Smartly.

3. Chase Sapphire Reserve’s 7.5% Combo

Earning: The Sapphire Reserve earns 5× points on airfare when you book through Chase Travel.

Redemption Value: When you redeem these points for travel through the Chase portal, they’re worth 1.5¢ each.

Effective Cashback: This combination yields an effective 7.5% return on airfare spend (5 × 1.5¢ = 7.5¢ per dollar) but this isn’t cash, and has to be used in the portal.

4. Amex Platinum & Centurion

Earning: The Amex Platinum earns 5× points on airfare, still a $500,000 limit.

Redemption Power: With the Amex Business Centurion’s Pay With Points feature, you can receive up to a 50% rebate on your points, effectively doubling the value of your earnings.

Effective Cashback: This can push your effective return on airfare to as high as 10%, though this is a niche strategy reserved for very high spenders with significant assets, but it’s not cash. For those traveling this much, you should be able to burn through acquired points quickly.

Let me know if I missed any cards or options.

Starting April 30, 2025, the unlimited 5% cashback on Instacart is now limited to the first $6,000 in qualifying Instacart purchases, annually. Once you reach $6,000, you’ll earn 1% cash back on all additional Instacart purchases.

You still get: 5% cash back on travel booked through Chase Travel 2% cash back on gas, dining, and select streaming services 1% cash back on everything else

Many people try to optimize their cashback strategy, but this is the most optimized strategy I can create and the end game for cashback credit cards.

All category spends earns 5%+ and the Smartly Card puts the floor at 4% cashback on any US purchase.

It will take a long time to get all of these cards if starting from scratch (having a player 2 (such as a spouse who can also apply) will help increase the speed considerably).

[https://earnitback.com/uploads/2025/8072ab0f86.jpg](https://earnitback.com/uploads/2025/8072ab0f86.jpg) Most people shy away from complicated setups because of the cards you need to use. But I think you could just have 3 cards in your wallet, 2 in your mobile wallet, and the rest at home, with most untouched once you input them into the relevant website for the first time. Some categories (such as Citi Custom Cash cards) might have low limits for some people's spending habits, but you can get more cards in that category or similar cards to increase spending limits.

You need 10 cards in total to cover all of the US cards, and 12 for the complete end-game setup (16 if you need to get the BoA CCRs for foreign transactions).

I'll update the chart with any changes to the cashback landscape and any good tricks I see to increase cashback in these categories and write blogs about some of the ways to get all of these cards, the order to do it in, and other relevant tricks that might interest you if you're reading about cashback optimization.

Key

W - Wallet

M - Mobile Wallet (Apple Pay/Google Pay)

H - Home / in your sock drawer / keep the details in a password manager

Footnotes

To get 5.25% cashback, the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Card and Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card requires $100k in assets with Bank of America.
To get 4% cashback, the U.S. Bank Smartly™ Card requires $100k in assets with US Bank.

*The Citi Custom Cash® Card offers 5% cashback, and pairing it with the Citi Rewards+® Card adds a 10% rebate on redemptions. This effectively increases cashback to 5.55% due to the rebate compounding.
It can be hard to obtain multiple Citi Custom Cash® Cards. Over time and especially with a second player you can get there but the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards Card is a lot easier for most people get multiple cards.

† The AMEX Blue Cash Preferred® Card has an annual fee of $95 but it is waived for the first year. Reports indicate you can get a retention offer every year for a free year.

‡ The base rate is 5% but you can often take delayed shipping for an extra 1% cashback. Prime Visa requires an active Prime subscription.

§ If you spend $3,000/year at Costco, the Executive Membership is worth getting, when buying at standard rates. You get an extra 2% cashback.

¶ Through purchasing Costco gift cards on Costco.com.

◊ The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards card can be foreign transaction fee if product changed from one of Bank of America's foreign transaction fee cards.

Δ If you pay your gym online it might code as an online purchase so the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards
5.25%◊ could be better.

Assumptions

Cards with annual fees are considered, and effective annual fees are calculated with easy-to-use credits.
One-time incentives such as sign up bonuses or the first year of the annual fee being waived are not factored in the calculations unless it can be reliably done so.
The assumption is that the spend is for typical spend levels. There are some edge cases where another card might be better for very high spenders, those cards are not reflected here.
The percentage has to be consistent all year round, no rotating categories.

Limits

Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards: $2500/quarter. One category per quarter.

Citi Custom Cash® Card: $500/month. One category per month.
Citi Rewards+® Card: 100,000 points/year

AMEX Blue Cash Preferred® Card is $6000/year on groceries.

U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card: $2000/quarter. Two categories per quarter ($2000 is a combined total).

Ralphs Rewards World Elite Mastercard®: $3000/year.

AAA Daily Advantage Visa Signature® Credit Card: $10,000/year.

Cards Needed

Cards listed:
Online (and Costco): Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards #1

Restaurants: Citi Custom Cash® Card #1 AND/OR Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards #2

Travel: Citi Custom Cash® Card #2 AND/OR Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards #3

Gas: Citi Custom Cash® Card #3 AND/OR Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards #4

Groceries: AMEX Blue Cash Preferred® Card (same card)
Streaming: AMEX Blue Cash Preferred® Card (same card)

Amazon: Prime Visa

Gym: U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card (same card)
Utilities: U.S. Bank Cash+® Visa Signature® Card (same card)

Apple Pay: Kroger Rewards World Elite Mastercard®

Everything Else:
U.S. Bank Smartly™ Card

Abroad groceries: AAA Daily Advantage Visa Signature® Credit Card

Abroad utilities, gym and everything else: Bank of America® Travel Rewards Credit Card

Also needed for extra cashback from Citi Custom Cash® Card:
Citi Rewards+® Card

Additional cards for extra cashback in low-limit categories:
Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards #5 (Online #2)
Harris Teeter Rewards World Elite Mastercard®

Miscellaneous cards:
Citi SHOP YOUR WAY MASTERCARD® - Great cashback offers
U.S. Bank Altitude® Connect Visa Signature® Card - free 5GB SIM/month
Penfed Pathfinder Rewards - $100/year free travel credit

In the vast world of travel blogs, I couldn't find a single article on Aeromexico's Premier Class from London to Mexico City. So here we are. Another travel blog. Aren't you lucky?

The blog will mainly focus on cashback rewards, so naturally, it only makes sense to write a flight review first.

1. Pre-Lounge

We go to Terminal 3—the SkyTeam (and others) terminal in Heathrow. We're in business class so surely we get to enjoy the slick pre-lounge experience that Virgin has with its Upper Class Wing? That's the Wing where there's the private drop-off area and you avoid all the riff-raff with a private check-in and security line?

Yea, no - that's only for Virgin and Delta flights.

I did my research beforehand, so I knew this was the case, but I did wonder if Premier Class customers got a better experience at all through security. Do we at least get Fast Pass security?

Does the Aeromexico website tell you? No.

Is there any signage in security? No.

Do the staff working there know? No.

The best I got was from the man at the front of the security saying to try and if it didn't work then just join the regular line.

Thankfully it did work and I was in the Fast Track line. It was fast, had those new security machines that mean you don't need to take out your liquids and drops you inside the main terminal, meaning you avoid the snaking path through duty-free (which you still have to go through even if you use Virgin's Upper Class Wing).

You're pretty much opposite the Virgin Clubhouse. Which, this time, you actually have access too! Hooray!

2. The Lounge

Something the blog-o-sphere isn't lacking in is Virgin Clubhouse content so I'll keep this brief. The food is pretty good - the level of a decent pub. I did the public service of tasting lots of the drinks for you, my dear reader, solely to provide an authoritative opinion on them. There's a large list of the ones to choose from so should be something for everyone. The verdict? They're really good and for some reason, they get better and better...

3. The Flight

I was in 7J on an 8 year-old Boeing 787-9. A pretty good seat and I'd always recommend checking you get a couple of windows whenever you pick a seat when flying business class. You don't want to be that poor sod in 5J or 8J who only has 1 window. It makes the seat feel a lot more claustrophobic. AeroLOPA has seat maps for pretty much every aircraft, so I'd recommend checking your plane and planning accordingly.

I did find the seats a bit tight when they were laid flat. Probably more due to being 6'6" but they did seem a bit worse than other business class seats I've flown. I still got 5 hours of sleep on this 12 hour flight. It was a red-eye though and dark from take-off to landing (which also explains some of the dodgy lighting for the pictures - I tried my best). Also there's lots of crevices where things can fall and get lost - RIP my portable battery 2024-2024.

The food was okay - the beef and potatoes were pretty good, the rest was average. Thankfully I had two meals in the Clubhouse. I think there was a second service, but I was asleep and judging from the first one, I didn't miss much.

The amenity kit was also standard with nothing too unique. I've still never fit into the slippers that airlines provide.

The wifi was fast but they limit you to two hours. I always find the nickel and diming on wifi for business class customers to be strange. Thankfully you can start and stop it as you need so you can check in news/social media at regular intervals.

One nice touch is that the whole baggage section above your head is just for you, so you can just throw all of your bags in there without having to fight for space or have it take up room in your personal area. Especially useful for those of us who don't check bags.

The most unique part of Clase Premier is the self-pour drinks. The options weren't exactly top tier but a nice touch. Unfortunately, my public service didn't reach this far and the thought of drinking tequila at 3am, half asleep, awake mid-nap, didn't seem that appealing.

I'm writing this blog a week after my flight and still in Mexico City. It's best to say that the service on the flight was pretty standard for Mexico. It was fine, no one was rude but it wasn't super warm. Some of the best flights crews go out of their way to make sure you have a great experience, that certainly wasn't the case here. If I'm being generous, it was a redeye flight so it's probably harder for them to make an impression, but I'm not being generous and I reckon the service is generally poor to fine on most of their flights.

4. Mexico City

The flight takes off at 10:30pm London time and lands 4:25am Mexico City time. We were even earlier and it didn't seem like immigration were ready for us. So we got off the jet bridge and had to wait for 5 minutes as an airport worker walkie talkied another worker. Finally we were let go - to another man with a walkie talkie. After a slightly shorter wait we were free. To another man with a walkie talkie. Then after a couple of minutes we were once again allowed to walk. This time we made it to the e-gates at immigration. Unsurprisingly we were the first people there so no line and through in seconds. After running my bags through the x-ray machine on the way out I was done.

5. In summary

Was Clase Premier worth it? If it's your only option it's not awful but I would probably pick most airlines over it if I was given the choice. The pre-flight benefits were nice and made the experience a lot better. The seats, service and food were very average.

6. Appendix

Here's a few extra screenshots of the menus at the Clubhouse because I thought some people might be interested.