On September 9, Greg, Nick, and Tim picked all their cards for this year’s Wild Card challenge: their destinations, credit card welcome bonuses they’ll get to book travel with, obstacles, and power ups (read more about that here).
They selected their cards at random from a deck of nine different cards for each round which means that there were many cards that didn’t get picked. Both the contestants and readers were curious what other options they could’ve opted for, so I thought I’d publish this post to share what could’ve been. I’ll also share how Carrie and I made some of our decisions.
Destination 1
When planning the challenge, we knew that we’d be scheduling three livestreams during the travel period. The first would take place in their first destination, the second in their second destination, and the third in their third and final destination where they’ll all be meeting up.
That meant that in an ideal world, the contestants wouldn’t be in wildly disparate parts of the world. Carrie and I therefore came up with the concept of zones, whereby all the destination 1 locations would be within the same general time zone, then having all the destination 2 locations being in their own similar time zone. This would have the added benefit of making things somewhat fair for the contestants as they’d all be traveling to fairly similar regions.
The zones we came up with were:
Due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the potential for travel there to be interrupted at any given moment, we decided to leave places like the UAE and Oman off the list. We also didn’t end up including Africa because for much of our planning, Morocco was going to be the final destination.
We then curated a list of nine countries in each of those zones, primarily focusing on locations that none of us had visited during previous challenges, although a few countries that had appeared in past challenges did end up making the cut.
As a reminder, these are the Destination 1 countries that the guys picked during the livestream:
- Greg – Panama & Colombia (Greg picked a Power Up card that allowed him to change one of his destinations, hence him ending up with two countries in the Destination 1 zone)
- Nick – Guadeloupe
- Tim – Costa Rica
That leaves five other countries that didn’t get picked which were:
- Canada
- Mexico
- Peru
- Ecuador
- Belize
As you can see, perhaps the two easiest countries to have gotten to and from—Canada and Mexico—didn’t get picked. Nick was also unfortunate enough to have picked Guadeloupe which is, arguably, the trickiest of all those countries to have chosen.
All three contestants picked locations that could be affected in the event that there’s a hurricane during their travel dates, so fingers crossed that they don’t get impacted by that.
Destination 2
For a little while, Carrie and I weren’t too sure whether to pick the Asia zone or Europe zone for the second destination. We were leaning towards Asia because a) we’ve spent quite a bit of time in Europe during past challenges, and b) it felt like it might be a little too easy to get to Morocco from Europe (Morocco was, at the time, what we were planning for the final meetup destination).
When we came up with the idea of sending all three of the contestants to Australia at the end of the challenge, that solidified Asia as the second destination. Many flights that aren’t nonstop from the US to Australia route via Asian countries, so this felt like a great opportunity for Greg, Nick, and Tim to showcase some of those options.
For what it’s worth, these were the European countries that were on our list if we’d gone that route:
- Croatia
- Austria
- Portugal
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Italy
- Poland
- Sweden
- Finland
Like I mentioned though, we ended up choosing the Asia zone for Destination 2. The countries they picked during the livestream were:
- Tim – South Korea
- Nick – Vietnam
- Greg – China (although he returned this option to the deck as a result of his Power Up card)
That left six Asian countries that didn’t get picked which were:
- Cambodia
- Indonesia
- Thailand
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Hong Kong
Greg’s been desperate to visit Hong Kong for a long time, so I was rooting for him to pick that for his second destination, but alas—it wasn’t to be.
Unlike some of the potential picks for Destination 1, it didn’t really feel like any of the Destination 2 picks would be bad. I imagine that Indonesia might’ve been the easiest (or one of the easiest) options given its popularity as a vacation destination for Australians (and thus lots of flights between the two countries), along with its relative proximity to Australia compared to the other eight potential picks for Destination 2. No matter what, we figured that each of those countries has plentiful nonstop or one-stop routes on to Melbourne, Australia.
Of the nine Asian countries that could’ve been picked, five of them—Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and China—all require some kind of visa. We researched this ahead of time to make sure that obtaining a visa would be achievable for them and determined that it was. Seeing as Greg returned China and picked Colombia as a second Destination 1 location, Nick is the only person visiting a country that requires a visa.
Airline credit cards
From destinations, we moved on to selecting credit cards. First up were airline credit cards and the guys picked the following:
- Nick – Lufthansa Miles & More® Premier World MasterCard® issued by Barclays – 70K
- Tim – Aeroplan® Credit Card – 60K
- Greg – Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card – 90K
The six cards that weren’t picked were:
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® – 80K
- Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card – 85K
- United℠ Business Card – 100K
- Chase British Airways Visa Signature® Card – 75K
- Air France KLM Visa Signature® Credit Card – 70K
- Virgin Red Rewards Mastercard® – 60K
Nick, once again, picked what was perhaps the most difficult option: the Lufthansa Miles & More card. Tim got unlucky with his pick; at the time of choosing the cards, the Aeroplan card only had a 60K welcome offer. The very next morning it got increased to up to 115K miles. For the purposes of the challenge, we would’ve listed the available bonus as 75K though as the additional 40K points requires $20K of spend in the first 12 months, but that’s a moot point.
Although it was inadvertent, the collection of airline credit cards included three Oneworld airlines, three SkyTeam, and three Star Alliance.
Hotel credit cards
Next up was the opportunity to choose a hotel credit card. These were the cards selected by Greg, Nick, and Tim during the livestream:
- Greg – Marriott Bonvoy® Brilliant® American Express® Card – 150K + $250 statement credit
- Nick – Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card – 125K
- Tim – IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card – 140K
The remaining half-dozen cards were:
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card – 130K
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card – 150K + free night
- IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card – 140K
- Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card – 4x 50K free night certificates
- Chase World of Hyatt Business Credit Card – 70K
- Wyndham Rewards Earner Premier Card – 90K
There weren’t really any bad options here, although there were some that were certainly better than others. Greg picked one of the very best options: the Bonvoy Brilliant card that, at the time, had a 150K points welcome offer, along with a $250 statement credit.
Another desirable card was the Hilton Aspire card with its 150K bonus points and a free night certificate that’s redeemable at virtually any property worldwide. The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card could also have provided some excellent value courtesy of its four 50K free night certificates.
The Wyndham Rewards Earner Premier card was the biggest wild card within the deck. In the right country, it could be extremely valuable, particularly with its 25% award discount which would make the 90K points go even further. However, Wyndham has a more limited footprint worldwide than Hilton, Marriott, and IHG, so options might’ve been lacking if a contestant picked it depending on which destinations they’d also selected.
A card that we didn’t include was the Best Western Rewards® Premium Visa Signature® card which has an 80K point welcome offer. I did a little research and found that although quite a few of the potential destinations had Best Western properties, a surprisingly large number of them didn’t have any award availability for the nights that they’d be booking. It therefore seemed a little unfair to include that card, so I replaced it with the Marriott business card which Nick ended up picking. You’re welcome Nick (I think!)
Transferable points credit cards
The third credit card that they got to choose was one that offers transferable points. The three cards selected were:
- Tim – Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card – 100K
- Greg – American Express® Gold Card – 100K
- Nick – Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card – 75K + $300 stays credit
The six cards that weren’t selected were:
- Wells Fargo Premier Autograph Visa Infinite – 100K
- American Express Platinum Card® – 175K
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card – 75K
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card – 100K
- Citi Strata Elite℠ Card – 75K
- Capital One Venture Business – 100K
Ultimately, the three of them all had good picks given their options, although the Amex Platinum card probably would’ve been their most preferable card given its much higher welcome offer.
Of the rest of the cards, Tim picked what is probably—for the purposes of the challenge—the best other card. That’s because the Chase Sapphire Reserve card not only has the 100K welcome offer, but it comes with a $300 travel credit, a $250 hotel credit valid at IHG brands and some other hotel chains, The Edit credit for stays of two or more consecutive nights, and more.
One transferable points card that you might notice is missing is the Bilt Palladium card. That’s because its welcome offer only awards 50K bonus points which, in the context of the challenge, didn’t feel like it would be sufficient, especially if the person picking the Palladium card got unlucky with their other card choices.
We also left out the as high as 200K welcome offer on the American Express® Business Gold Card, the as high as 300K offer for the The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, and the 200K offer for the Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ Card as those bonuses felt a little excessive and could put the other contestants at a severe disadvantage in comparison.
Wild Card credit cards
A round that the contestants weren’t expecting was the ability to choose a Wild Card credit card. This was a collection of cards with low welcome offers that ordinarily wouldn’t be worth chasing, but which could prove to be very helpful in some way for the challenge.
The cards they picked were:
- Nick – Cathay Pacific Visa Signature card – 38K
- Greg – American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Card – 15K
- Tim – Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card – 20K
The six Wild Card credit cards that didn’t get selected were:
- Delta SkyMiles® Blue American Express Card – 10K
- The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express – 15K
- United Gateway℠ Card – 30K
- Best Western Rewards® Visa Signature® Card – 40K
- Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card – 20K
- Wells Fargo One Key™ Mastercard – $250 OneKeyCash
Some of these bonuses were more generous than others, but none were offers that they’d be able to base their trips around. Nick chose the 38K welcome offer on the Cathay Pacific card which was probably the most useful card on the list given they’re flying to and from Asia, despite it ordinarily being a card with extremely limited appeal.
The Wells Fargo One Key card with $250 of OneKeyCash could’ve been an interesting pick seeing as that would be redeemable for flights, accommodation, rental cars, etc. and so was a little more flexible and valuable than many of the other options.
Although the 80K welcome offer of the Best Western Rewards® Premium Visa Signature® card didn’t merit inclusion on the list of hotel cards, we did choose to include the no annual fee Best Western card with a 40K offer as part of the Wild Card credit card selection, with this card also having the potential to be put to good use.
Obstacle cards
With their destinations and credit cards picked, the penultimate round of cards to be selected had them choosing from a deck of nine obstacles. Many of the concepts for these came courtesy of reader suggestions on previous posts, so thanks to all of you who contributed ideas.
The obstacles they ended up with were:
- Greg – The night owl: Not allowed to book flights that depart before 10am local time. (Flights that leave in the very early hours of the morning (e.g. 2am) are eligible provided Greg has stayed up overnight—just like a night owl would do. Even a 4am departure is fair game provided he hasn’t stayed in a hotel overnight and gotten up very early to make the flight.)
- Tim – The overpacker: Has to travel with both a checked suitcase and a carry-on
- Nick – The non-hailer: Not allowed to use rideshares in either of their first two destinations. Regular taxis are allowed.
The half-dozen obstacles remaining in the deck were:
- The ‘You shall not (Priority) Pass’: Not allowed to visit Priority Pass lounges
- The light packer: No checked bags and your carry-on bag can’t weigh more than 22 lbs
- The family guy: Has to find hotel award availability for four people per room (but not flight award seats)
- The procrastinator: Doesn’t start booking anything until five days before their trip
- The positioner: Have to start from Albuquerque
- The technophobe: All of your award flights have to be booked over the phone
As with the other card decks, some of the obstacles were better than others. Greg and Tim chose two of the hardest obstacles to be stuck with: not being able to book flights before 10am for Greg and the requirement to travel with both a checked bag and a carry-on for Tim.
Nick, on the other hand, caught a break with an easier obstacle as things went considering there likely won’t be any rideshare options in Guadeloupe and regular taxis should be plentiful in Vietnam.
Power Up cards
Last, but not least, was the opportunity for the contestants to pick a Power Up. Once again, many of these were inspired by reader suggestions, so thanks for those.
Here are the three Power Ups chosen by Greg, Nick, and Tim:
- Nick – Get out of surcharges free: Part of the way that Carrie and I will be judging their trips will be the value that they get from their bookings. This Power Up means that we won’t be taking into account the taxes and fees that Nick incurs for his award flights.
- Tim – 30% transfer bonus of your choosing: This can only be used for a single transfer, but it can be to any partner of the transferable currency card that he picked (in this case, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card).
- Greg – Stay in the zone!: Trade one of your destination picks from one zone, with a new pick from the opposite destination deck (so that both destinations are in the same zone.) This will be a blind card draw, just like your first draw.
The other six Power Ups that remained unselected were:
- Swapsies: You can swap any one card with any one card of another contestant. This can be a destination card (has to be in the same region), a credit card (has to be of the same variety (e.g. airline card for airline card, premium card for premium card, etc.), or an obstacle card.
- Redraw Any Card: Draw randomly from deck. Your card has to be the same type, whether destination, obstacle, or credit card.
- Lower hurdle: Your obstacle card doesn’t have to apply to one of the legs of your trip
- Rakuten payment in your favor! (But no Bilt status): Get 12,500 Bilt points or 25,000 Amex Membership Rewards
- Points boost: Get an additional $150 worth of hotel points based on the Frequent Miler Reasonable Redemption Value for whichever hotel card you picked
- Miles boost: Get 20K additional miles for whichever airline card you picked
Nick’s selection of no surcharges was incredibly valuable, although given the trickiness of getting to and from Guadeloupe, he might’ve been better served by the Swapsies or Redraw Any Card options. The Swapsies card in particular would’ve been a fascinating pick for any of them as it would’ve provided a great way to enhance their own trip, while slightly sabotaging another person’s.
Your questions
Is there anything else you’d like to know regarding the card decks, how we planned the challenge, etc.? If so, please let us know in the comments below and we’ll try to answer them.
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