Happy Saturday! Hope your weekend is off to a great start. Here are some highlights from today’s newsletter:

• 🤔 What happens to your points & miles after you die?

• 💳 Increased offers on all Delta Amex cards (up to 200K miles)

• 🤩 Best-ever 125K bonus on refreshed Citi AA Executive

• 🍽️ Earn up to 14x Rove Miles at 2,000+ restaurants

• 🚴‍♂️ BMX tricks these days are so incredible

• ✈️ 10 chances to win 1M Alaska points

• 🔍 Google Flights now showing award pricing

If you enjoyed reading, please forward this email to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

🤔 What Happens to Your Points After You Die?

Have you ever wondered what happens to your points and miles when you die? And how can you make sure they don’t disappear? This week, I break down how major banks, airlines, and hotel programs handle rewards after death, strategies to protect or transfer your points, and the steps you can take now to make things easier for your family. Plus, learn what to do if you’re already dealing with a loved one’s rewards.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🎙️ I Stopped Typing and Nobody Noticed

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Wispr Flow​​

I’m a huge fan of ​Wispr Flow​. It turns the way you naturally talk into clean, ready-to-send text in any app on Mac, Windows, or iPhone. I hit a hotkey, talk, and the text appears, ready to be sent.

The thing most people miss: talking is faster than typing. What takes two or three minutes to type takes 20 seconds to say.

And it’s nothing like the dictation you gave up on. It cleans up filler words and mid-sentence corrections, and it learns your tone, your shorthand, and the names and acronyms you use.

Try it for free at ​chrishutchins.com/wisprflow​.

📋 My Past Week

• My youngest daughter might be in pre-school, but she absolutely loves taking photos, so sharing a photo she took of me during her older sister’s first day of school.

• Sadly, I’ve spent most of the past week being sick with what seems like your standard viral infection that comes with congestion, headache, body chills, etc. Not fun, but hoping that I can kick it by the end of the weekend so I can try to have a productive week next week!

• When I was at the doctor to figure out this sickness I did an InBody scan (similar to dexa scan) and it was cool to see that lifting weights more regularly actually showed up in the data, with my muscle mass going up and my body fat going down.

• One of our two kids went back to school this week, which felt a bit chaotic, but I’m just so glad she’s such a fan of her school, teachers and classmates. Looking forward to getting our other daughter back in school after labor day, which will finally free up a bit more time during the week for the adults to get things done!

• Speaking of getting things done, between two weeks traveling and being sick, I feel so behind on everything work-related. As much as I love running a business without any W2 employees, I’m starting to wonder if bringing an experienced full-time person on board to help with everything from research to podcast planning to creative work makes sense. Still an open question, but something I’m considering.

• For our Friday Pizza and a Movie night yesterday, we watched Toy Story 5, which was better than I expected for the 5th movie in a franchise. While our kids don’t spend much time on devices, the entire premise is around how being too wrapped up with screens gets in the way of “play time”, which I think is something we can all strive to do a bit more of (no matter how old you are).

⭐ My Top Picks

💳 Best-Ever Offers on Delta Amex Cards: Up to 200K

There are increased offers on all 6 co-branded Delta cards through 11/4/26. If you fly Delta regularly, the combination of these bonuses and Delta-specific benefits might be worth a look. I’m especially intrigued by the personal reserve card bonus, which could be worth $2k+, depending on the flights you book with it.

• ​Delta SkyMiles® Reserve​​​: 50K bonus miles plus 2 round-trip Delta Comfort Flight Certificates (valid to the US) after $10K spend in 6mo.

• ​​​​​Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business​​: 200K bonus miles after $20K spend in 6mo.​​​

• ​Delta SkyMiles® Platinum ​​: As high as 90K miles after $4K spend in 6mo, plus $300 statement credit with same spend requirement as bonus miles.

• ​​Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business​​: 100K bonus miles after an $8K spend in 6mo.

• ​​Delta SkyMiles® Gold​​: As high as 80K miles after $3K spend in 6mo, plus $250 statement credit with same spend requirement as bonus miles.

• ​Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business​​: 90K miles after $6K spend in 6mo.

🤩 125K Miles Bonus on New Citi AA Executive Card

The refreshed Citi AAdvantage Executive has a best-ever offer for ​125K AA miles​ after $15K spend in 5 months (roughly $1,750 at 1.4¢ each). That makes up for the $695 fee the first year, but going forward it comes down to whether Admirals Club access and other perks can make up for the cost.

🍽️ Earn Up to 14x Rove Miles at 2,000+ Restaurants

​Rove​ has expanded beyond its travel and shopping portal with dining, gift cards, and in-store offers. You can now earn ​up to 14x Rove Miles at 2,000+ restaurants​, with many offers in the 6–8x range. Spending is capped at $3,500 per transaction, but probably plenty for any meal out. Plus, the points are ​transferable to 20+ hotel and airline partners​.

The new gift card feature is also interesting because miles are awarded instantly. So if you’re 2K miles short of an award, you could buy a gift card for something you’d purchase anyway, earn the ​Rove Miles​, and transfer them to a travel partner right away.

✈️ 1M Alaska Atmos Point Giveaway (Ends 9/1)

I don’t usually cover sweepstakes, but this one is free (no purchase or T-Mobile account is required) and takes ~30 seconds to enter. T-Mobile is ​​giving away 10 prizes of 1 million Atmos Rewards points​​, and each winner also gets an $8,571 check to cover the taxes. The odds aren’t great, but if you actually win 1M Atmos points, it’d be amazing!

🔍 Google Flights Now Shows Award Pricing

You can now ​ask AI Mode in Google Flights​ for pricing in a specific currency and get real-time award prices back. Supported programs are limited for now (Alaska, AA, Choice, Hilton, and Wyndham), so it’s not as comprehensive as other tools out there, but it’s very interesting to see Google get into the award search game. In my limited tests, it also feels a bit glitchy, so I wouldn’t expect too much for now.

🛫 United & American Add 20 New 2027 Routes

United and American Airlines dropped their summer 2027 international schedules/routes this week, and there’s a lot of new territory covered.

• United: ​10 new destinations across Europe & Japan​ — Its largest route drop ever, with 8 of the 13 routes from Newark.

• American: ​7 new routes, on sale 8/31​ — Vienna, Porto and Reykjavik are new.

🚴‍♂️ Recommendation: Crazy BMX Skills

I used to ride BMX bikes ~25 years ago and now that my youngest daughter is riding her bike on her own, I wanted to find a video of some of the craziest things people can do on a bicycle. I don’t know how, but I completely missed the unbelievable progression the tricks in the sport have had since I was a kid. We just missed the X-Games in Sacramento in June, but I already have my daughters excited to go next summer!

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Bilt: ​Up to 100% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic​ (only on 9/1) — The bonus depends on your Bilt status and is capped at 150k points transferred. I normally wouldn’t transfer speculatively, but if you buy up to a 100% bonus, it could be worth it.

• Citi: ​25% bonus to Leading Hotels of the World​ (ends 9/19) — Gets you 2¢/point, but probably only worth it with a stay in mind.

• Citi: ​Grandfathered Aviator perks end 10/25​ — Burn any leftover Companion Certificates, then reassess the annual fee.

• JetBlue: ​BlueHouse Boston opens, free for Mint​ — Unlikely I’ll ever make it to this lounge, but looks nice.

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Accor: ​2-3x in Europe, 4x at new properties​

• Accor: ​Free Silver status​ (targeted)

• IHG: ​14 Kyoto Hotels joining IHG​ — Having more Kyoto award options is great given how pricey that city gets.

• Under Canvas: ​50% off every 2nd night​ (book by 8/30)

💎 Award Deals

• 🇺🇸 Berkshires: ​Miraval from 60K Hyatt points​ — Wide open in early 2027 with $1,250+ cash rates.

• 🇩🇪 Germany: ​Biz class from 60K Aeroplan​

• 🇮🇹 Italy: ​Biz class from 55K Flying Blue​

• 🇲🇽 Mexico City: ​Park Hyatt Polanco from 20K points​

🏦 Bank Bonuses

• SoFi: ​$400 checking & savings bonus + 3.80% APY​ (ends 12/31)

• Wells Fargo: ​$500 checking bonus​ (ends 10/6)

🛒 Other Deals

• Amazon.com: ​$15 off $50 household purchases​ — Stackable with P&G rebates for Tide or Bounty products.

• CLEAR+: ​$149, or as low as $129 for Alaska elites​ — Plenty of cards cover CLEAR+ outright, so check your credits first.

• Kroger: ​4x fuel points on 3rd party gift cards​ (ends 9/1) — You can redeem them toward grocery purchases, up to $10/day.

• Sam’s Club: ​$100 DoorDash gift cards for $80​ (Limit 2)

💬 Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think. I read every response. 🙏

Chris

I hope your weekend is off to a great start! It was a slow week of news, but a few things worth sharing:

• 😁 The science of lasting happiness

• 🗓️ $100 Best Buy gift card for $60, in store today only

• 📉 Flying Blue devalues awards on 9/8

• ✈️ New US to Europe routes on Alaska

• 💳 Bilt Cash adds Blacklane, Equinox & BLADE

• 💎 Park Hyatt Los Cabos from 35K points/nt

• 🏦 SoFi’s 2% deposit match, with a 5-year hold

If you enjoyed reading, please forward this email to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

😁 The Science of Lasting Happiness

Behavioral social scientist Arthur Brooks shares why success and happiness follow different rules as we age. We dig into fluid vs. crystallized intelligence, success addiction and dopamine, the reverse bucket list, and how to actually buy happiness

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🧖 A Beautiful, Modern and Easy Home Sauna

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📋 My Past 2 Weeks

• We got home from a 12-day trip to Europe last night and had a truly incredible time. I couldn’t possibly capture it all here, so a full episode on the whole trip and how we made it possible will absolutely be coming soon, but here are a few highlights.

• For flights, we booked Swiss Air business to ZRH for 80k Lifemiles per person. The flight was easy (we mostly slept), though I think the cabin is overdue for a refresh. Coming back we flew Condor business from FRA for 75k Alaska miles per person, which was probably my favorite biz class flight of the year, except that outside of meal service they had ZERO snacks/food available.

• In Switzerland, we stayed at the ​Märchenhotel​ in Braunwald and it was truly the most incredible and magical experience I could have imagined for a family with younger kids. I could honestly see us making it part of an annual tradition and even encouraging friends or family to join us each year. I’ve never had family travel be so seamless and catered towards parents (wine tastings, 3-course meals, free childcare, gym/sauna), while simultaneously giving kids a fairytale experience (animals everywhere, playgrounds, kids club, bouncy houses, kids meals and so much more). I spent some time getting to know the owner, so feel free to email me if you ever want to book a trip.

• In Italy, we drove to Lake Como and stayed at the ​Grand Hotel Victoria​, using Hilton Free Night Awards. I’d never been to Lake Como, but wow, I totally get the appeal and I couldn’t imagine a better hotel/resort to stay at. The rooms, breakfast, pools, spa (which has kid-friendly hours), staff, etc. were all fantastic. We rented a boat one day to cruise around and mostly spent the days enjoying Italian food, gelato and the beauty of the lake and the town of Menaggio.

• Now it’s time to do a ton of laundry and get ready for school to start next week!

⭐ My Top Picks

✈️ Flying Blue to Devalue Awards on 9/8

Starting 9/8, the ​cheapest Air France/KLM awards will become “Light” fares​, which are non-refundable and no longer include free checked bags, advance seat selection, or lounge access. Standard awards will then cost about 25–30% more. If you don’t care about some of those things, this might not be a devaluation, but it definitely means less flexibility at the lowest price point. Since partner awards aren’t affected, Flying Blue still might be a great program for booking SkyTeam awards.

💳 3 New Places to Spend Bilt Cash

Bilt Cash is getting more options to use it, which is important because all but $100 expires at the end of the year. Using Bilt Cash to unlock points on housing payments ($30 unlocks 1,000 points) would value Bilt Cash at ~58% off (assuming 1.25¢/point). That means that if any of these are worth it for the same discount or you’ve maxed out your housing point earning, then they could be good options for redemption.

• Blacklane: ​Up to $150 Bilt Cash on Chauffeur Rides​ — At 58% off, it’s close in price to an UberX, but a better experience.

• Equinox: ​Up to $150 Bilt Cash for Spa & Training​ — Only worth it if you’re already an Equinox member

• BLADE: ​Up to $350 Bilt Cash per Seat, 2x/year​ — At 58% off the lowest $195 price, this gets pretty close to the cost of an Uber/Lyft with a much faster trip (depending on traffic and destination in NYC).

🏦 SoFi: 2% Deposit Match Through 8/31, 5-Year Hold

SoFi will ​match 2%​ of any new cash you move into a taxable brokerage account through 8/31, but the money has to stay there for five years (or the bonus gets prorated). That works out to 0.4% a year, which is lower than many other brokerage bonuses on an annualized basis, but if you don’t want to be doing multiple brokerage bonuses over the next 5 years, this one is probably the best. Also, there’s no cap on the bonus, so if you have a huge 7-figure balance, this might also be the best option out there. For balances of $100k or less, the current ​TastyTrade 3%​ match might be better. Note that you do need SoFi Plus ($10/month) for the full 2% bonus.

😎 Recommendation: XREAL Glasses

Right before my trip to Europe I bought a pair of ​XREAL One Pro AR glasses​ and they were amazing. You can plug them straight into your phone or computer with a single USB-C cord and get a giant screen (they say 171”) for watching movies, gaming, or even working from your laptop. I found it to be such a better experience for watching TV or movies on a flight or in bed than using a phone, tablet or computer. I’ve even used it as a second display for my computer. The ​One Pro​ is $599, so it’s not cheap, but they do have a few cheaper models (the ​a01+​ is $299) and they have free returns on Amazon. Just know that despite all the photos, they definitely don’t look “cool” when you’re wearing them. If you’re not sure on size, they have ​this free tool​.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Popular Bank: ​Back-to-back hotel credits work again​ — Good news if you want to use the full $500 for a 4-night stay.

• Uber One: ​Ride credit 6% → 5%​ — Breaking even on the $96 fee now takes $1,920 of rides, but is still free with Amex Platinum or Gold.

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• Alaska: ​New Seattle to Athens & Paris routes​ — I love seeing more carriers with Europe routes.

• Cathay: ​800 Miles back per 5K​ (book by 8/27​) — Only valid on select award flights to/from Hong Kong.

• United: ​Status match for Chicago residents​ (register by 9/30) — 120 days of elite status when you take an eligible United flight in/out of ORD within 90 days or have taken in the past 30 days.

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Hyatt: ​Up to 5 free nights in LatAm & Caribbean​ (register by 9/30).

• Wyndham: ​15K points after one business stay​ (register by 9/30).

💎 Award Deals

• 🇲🇽 Los Cabos: ​New Park Hyatt from 35K/night​ — Can’t wait to try this property out!

• 🇳🇿 New Zealand: ​Biz class from 80K AA miles​

• 🇪🇸 Spain: ​Biz class (one way) from 35K Atmos rewards​

• 🇨🇭Switzerland: ​Biz class from 60K Aeroplan points​

🛒 Capital One Shopping Deals

Some offers are targeted, so check your account to see eligibility.

• Away: ​$150 off $250​

• Hotels.com: ​$150 off $250​

• StubHub: ​30% back or 20x miles ​— Stacks well if you have a StubHub credit from a popular travel card.

• Turkish Airlines: ​$100 off $350​

• Virgin Atlantic: ​$100 off $350​

🤩 Other Deals

• Best Buy: ​$100 gift card for $60 in store today​ — Stock will be limited, so go early if you’re interested.

• Rakuten: ​$50 new member bonus​ when you use a referral link (​here’s mine​) and spend $50. — This can also be earned as 5,000 Amex or Bilt points.

💬 Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think. I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Saturday! Hope your weekend is off to a great start! Here are some highlights from today’s newsletter:

• 📖 The new rules of points & miles in 2026

• ✈️ 20% Aeroplan bonus + 25% off awards

• 🏨 Hyatt’s hidden 50% discount on second rooms

• 🏦 U.S. Bank finally has transfer partners

• ❌ Amex kills multi-card offer activation

• 🍽️ Resy to add 25k+ restaurants, wineries and experiences

• 🚁 Redeem your Bilt Cash for BLADE helicopter rides

• 🏡 Offer for $199 back on $199+ at Trust & Will

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

📖 The New Rules of Points & Miles in 2026

This week, we’ll break down the biggest trends reshaping points and miles. We discuss new ways to earn transferable points without a credit card, the award search tools worth using right now, a six-month check-in on Bilt, and what’s coming next for premium cards.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

💰 Don’t Wait Until March to Save on Taxes

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Gelt​

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⭐ My Top Picks

✈️ Aeroplan: 25% Off Awards + 20% Transfer Bonus

Two Aeroplan deals landed this week:

• Award Sale: ​Up to 25% off award flights worldwide​ when you book by Tue 8/18​. Travel must be between 9/8/26 and 6/30/27.

• Transfer Bonus: ​20% bonus​ when you move a popular bank’s points to Aeroplan until 9/30. You also get an extra 10% on 50k+ point transfers if you’re an ​eligible cardholder​.

🚫 Amex Kills Activating Offers on Multiple Cards

Historically many tools like CardPointers have been able to use a workaround to activate Amex offers on multiple cards at once. Unfortunately, that ​stopped working​ for most people this past week, so each offer can only be activated on one card (which is the way Amex always intended).

🚁 Bilt Cash Now Books BLADE Helicopters

Bilt finally turned on the BLADE redemption it promised at launch. You can now ​book BLADE helicopter transfers​ between Manhattan and JFK or EWR in the Bilt app and apply up to $350 of Bilt Cash per seat, twice a year. If you hit platinum two years in a row, that means you could end up getting a great deal on 4 seats on a BLADE flight all at once.

🔄 U.S. Bank Finally Has Transfer Partners

After a year of delays, U.S. Bank ​launched its first four transfer partners​ for Altitude Reserve cardholders, but two of them (Flying Blue and Qantas) are no longer showing up. That leaves Ethiopian at 1:1 and Accor at 2:1. The Accor transfer will only get you ~1.15¢/point, but Ethiopian is interesting, with ​business class from 15,000 miles​.

🍽️ Resy Credits to Work at Some Tock Restaurants

Resy has ​just added​ Tock’s 25,000+ restaurants, wineries and tasting experiences to their app, and starting 9/15 “select” Tock restaurants will work with Amex Resy statement credits. Resy recently ​added some restrictive language​ that made people worry about many restaurants not qualifying, but so far that hasn’t actually happened, so I’m optimistic that the Resy credit will work at most Tock restaurants (and possibly the wineries and experiences).

🏨 Recommendation: Hyatt Family Plan

When traveling with our family I much prefer booking a suite that has room for all of us, but sometimes it’s not possible or wildly expensive, so we need to book two rooms. In that case, you should know that Hyatt has an ​unpublished Family Plan Rate​ that takes up to 50% off a second room when you’re traveling with kids. I actually booked two second rooms with points that I’m about to cancel because 50% of the cash rate is a much better deal. To book these rates, you can call the hotel, message ​@HyattConcierge​ on X or email your My Hyatt Concierge (if you’re Globalist). Note that the second room has to be a cash rate, but the first room can be cash or points.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Amex: ​350 new Fine Hotels + Resorts properties​ — I find it hard to use my FHR credits, so more hotels will hopefully help!

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• American: ​Up to 50x miles for cancer donations​ (ends 9/30) — You’re paying ~2¢ per mile and it’s likely not tax-deductible, so I wouldn’t consider this unless you were already looking to donate.

• Avios: ​Free award calendar for BA, Aer Lingus & Iberia​ — This is a great addition that will make it even easier to find award availability on Avios flights.

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Hyatt: ​Up to 5 free nights in LatAm & Caribbean​

• IHG: ​Iberostar up to 50% off + $800 credit​

• Radisson: ​Finnair transfers & status match​ — Transfers are not a good deal unless (like me) you have a small Radisson balance you’d love to get rid of.

💎 Award Deals

• 🇦🇷 Argentina: ​Biz to Buenos Aires from 50K Alaska​

• 🇧🇷 Brazil: ​Biz to São Paulo from 40K AA​

• 🇪🇺 Europe: ​Biz to Vienna for 75K Aeroplan​

• 🇲🇻 Maldives: ​Park Hyatt Hadahaa from 25K Hyatt​

• 🇯🇵 Tokyo: ​Reopened Park Hyatt from 35K Hyatt​

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• ADT: ​$250 back on $250+ ​— Only for new residential service.

• AT&T: ​$50 back on $55+ fiber internet​ — Free money if AT&T Fiber is already your provider.

• Caesars: ​10% back, up to $50 in Vegas, Reno & AC​ — You have to book direct with Caesars Rewards.

• Marriott: ​$30 back on $300+ via Citi​

• Trust & Will: ​$199 back on $199+​ — We used Trust & Will for our Estate Plan and this offer (if targeted) stacks with this ​20% deal​.

💬 Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think. I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Hope your weekend is off to a great start! Here’s a preview of everything in today’s newsletter:

• 🏖️ How we booked a $20,000 vacation with points

• ✈️ American fee hikes: lock lower prices by 8/23

• 🏨 3 new Marriott card offers: 4 free nights & up to 150K points

• 🔗 $100 back at Accor, $75 at Hertz, $40 at Walmart

• 🧔🏻 My anti-aging “cheat code” for your face

• 🚗 Premium cards might be increasing your car rental rates

• 🔄 New transfer bonuses: 30% Avios & 40% Turkish

• 💳 Some Amex referrals jump to 45K points

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

🏖️ How We Booked a $20,000 Vacation w/ Points\

Amy and I booked a last-minute week in Bora Bora that would have cost over $20,000, almost entirely on points, including business-class flights and inter-island travel. Learn why we chose Bora Bora over Fiji, how we navigated a Marriott award search quirk, and then three nights in why we decided to pay more to switch resorts.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🔒 Remove Your Personal Info from the Web

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📋 My Past Week

• I’m writing this from Denver, where I’m at the first of a few points & miles related events this year. Since I work for myself at home, it’s really nice to have a community to hang out with a few times year that feels a bit like my “colleagues”. It’s also fun to nerd out on points stuff with other people and spare my wife from being the only person I typically have to chat with.

• We used 3x Stubhub credits (thanks Dad!) to buy tickets to the ​Beauty and the Beast musical​ in San Francisco and went to the matinee on Wednesday. It was our girls’ first theatre event and they were fully captivated and loved it. My wife and I loved it too and I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re near any of the 30+ cities it stops in over the next year.

• Our youngest daughter is finally comfortable enough riding a bike on her own, which meant we got to take our first family bike ride without carrying the kids on the back of our bikes. There’s still some room for improvement before we tackle longer rides, but I’m already seeing a future of all of us biking to dinner or the farmer’s market and I’m so excited for it.

• Including parents and siblings, more than half of our immediate family has a birthday in a 3-week period of the summer, so every year we just have a big family birthday party for everyone. This year we did a big lobster bake at my sister’s house and it was so much fun. We’ve decided as a family (both sides) that we don’t do gifts for siblings any more, but it’s still a lot of fun trying to find unique gifts for our parents (also our kids, but they’re much easier). If you need a gift for anyone who likes to garden, we gave my mom a subscription to ​this Seed of the Month club​.

• I spent a ton of time the past 2 weeks trying to plan out the content for the podcast for the rest of the year and I am so excited for some of the episodes lined up. There’s a good mix of solo and guest episodes as well as some new topics we’ve never covered before like becoming a better storyteller and creating a healthier home.

⭐ My Top Picks

🚗 Car Rental “Discounts” Can Cost You $$

A writer at Upgraded Points was pricing a 10-day National rental in Cancun and found the rate tied to their Amex Platinum “discount” was increasing the rate by so much that ​taking the card off the profile saved $520​. So always make sure to check the rates with different discounts, including searching while logged out as well.

✈️ American Airlines Raises Card and Lounge Fees

American is repricing almost everything on 8/23 and it’s a mixed bag:

• Citi Executive: ​Annual fee going up to $696​ — If you fly a lot on AA, all the new coupons/perks on the card will probably make up for the fee (especially if you can make use of the $500 AA Vacations credit).

• Admirals Club: ​Membership fees increase by up to $550/yr​ — If you want to bring guests into the AA lounge, it’ll now cost you an extra $500-$550/yr. This makes the Executive card much more appealing by comparison.

• Upgrades: ​No more coach to biz upgrades​ — For transcon and Hawaii routes, AA Elites booked in economy will now only get free upgrades to premium economy instead of business, which definitely sucks for top tier AA elites.

🏨 Marriott Cards: Up to 150K Points or 4 Free Nights

Marriott is now offering 3 new welcome offers across their card lineup:

• ​4 free nights, up to 50K each​ — If you can make good use of the 50k awards (which can be topped up to 75k with points), this is definitely the best offer right now, especially on a <$100 annual fee card.

• ​150K points + $250 credit​ — This offer has been higher in the past, and given the >$500 high annual fee, you’d really need to want to have the card to act now.

• ​125K points + $150 credit​ — For a mid-tier annual fee it might seem like a good offer, but given the value of Bonvoy points, I feel like there are better options out there.

🔄 New Transfer Bonuses: 30% Avios, 40% Turkish

Two transfer bonuses showed up this week, and the Amex one is the first bonus to Avios in about a year. Neither is worth transferring speculatively, but if you already have plans in mind, this could be a great bonus.

• Amex → Avios: ​30% bonus, first in about a year​

• Citi → Turkish: ​40% bonus, capped at 125K point transfer​

🧔🏻 Recommendation: Wild Roman

Now that I’m in my 40s, I’ve finally accepted that I should probably be taking better care of my face. To do that, I wanted products with natural ingredients and no chemical junk, which is why I landed on ​Wild Roman​. Their ​Face Routine Set​ is dead simple, all natural and feels like an anti-aging cheat code for your skin. Through 8/31, you can get ​40% off​, plus unlock a free gift and free shipping. Or use code CHRIS-HUTCHINS for 15% off everything else.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Amex: ​Referral bonuses up to 45K points​ — These are targeted, so check all your cards to see if you have the elevated offers.

• Bank of America: ​Travel portal moves to Agoda​ — This is a big improvement that will bring many more hotels and airlines.

• Capital One: ​Move credit lines to/from Discover​ — An easy way to shift an unused limit onto the card you actually want more room on.

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• Frontier: ​GoWild Fall/Winter Pass for $199​

• Rate.com: ​50K Alaska miles for a mortgage​ — Rare to earn miles on a mortgage, but the rate you get matters far more than 50K miles, so shop around.

• United: ​5x miles on Make-A-Wish donations through 8/31​

💎 Award Deals

• 🇮🇩 Bali: ​Alila Villas Uluwatu from 35K Hyatt​

• 🇨🇱 Chile: ​Biz class to Santiago from 50K Alaska​

• 🇳🇮 Nicaragua: ​Private Island from 240K Hilton​

• 🇹🇨 Turks & Caicos: ​Ritz-Carlton from 106K Marriott​

• 🇻🇳 Vietnam: ​New Park Hyatt Phu Quoc from 25K Hyatt​

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• Accor: ​$100 back on $500+ at Luxury Brands​ — Covers Raffles, Fairmont, SLS and Sofitel, so 20% off if you already have a luxury stay planned.

• Hertz: ​$75 back on $325+​ or ​$100 on $500+​ — The $75 is a Citi Offer and the $100 is an Amex Offer. Both need one single transaction, not cumulative rentals. Also make sure you’re not trading off good rental car coverage for a discount.

• Uber & Lyft: ​15% on Uber (ends 8/10)​ or ​10% on Lyft​ — The Uber one ends Monday and runs through several issuer portals, so check yours today if you’re riding this weekend.

• Walmart: ​$20 off $60, usable twice via Amex​ — $40 total on things you were buying anyway is about as easy as Amex Offers get. Online only.

Several of these are targeted, so check your own accounts to see which ones you have.

💬 Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think. I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Saturday! Hope your weekend is off to a great start! There weren’t enough exciting things to share last week, but this week is filled with so much great stuff:

• 🏨 Amex adds transfers to Leading Hotels of the World

• 🛋️ Popular bank lounges cut Priority Pass access on 8/15

• 🏦 4 new bank bonuses worth up to $5,500

• 🔎 Seats.aero adds award prices to Google Flights

• 🔄 3 new transfer bonuses: LifeMiles, Asia Miles & Flying Blue

• 🛍️ 11,500 miles from 5 airline shopping portal bonuses

• 🗓️ Bilt Rent Day: Accor status match up to Platinum, today only

• ✈️ Alaska adds Philippine Airlines (biz from 75K)

• 💳 Best-ever 100K Flying Blue card welcome offer

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

💰 Where to Keep Cash for the Highest Return

In this episode, I break down where to park your cash to earn the most, whether you have $10,000 or a few million. I’ll explain the tradeoffs that actually matter and why the highest advertised interest rate isn’t always the best choice. I also cover ​this tool​ I built to help you explore options.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🏠 Turn Your Housing Payment Into Points

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📋 My Past Three Weeks

• I spent the first of the last 3 weeks on a kid-free vacation with Amy to Bora Bora. While I love exploring new destinations, we keep going back here because we always leave feeling like it was the best vacation. Next week’s episode will cover a lot more, but we managed to check out two new resorts and had an incredible time together. I think the next trip might finally be the time to bring the kids along!

• After we returned, we took a weekend family trip to Carmel Valley Ranch. We went last year and it was one of the best family weekend trips we’ve ever had, so we booked another trip this summer. It has so much to do, including a farm, pool, organic garden, tree swings, hikes, beautiful scenery, scavenger hunt and more. Even better, it’s a Hyatt property, so you can book with points and as a Globalist or with a Guest of Honor certificate, you get an amazing free breakfast for the whole family. I highly recommend checking it out and now that we’ve already booked another trip in the fall, I might see you there!

• If two trips weren’t enough, after coming back from Carmel, I headed up to Victoria, Canada for an event called ​Interesting People​. It was an amazing time meeting so many people who fit the description. Also, Victoria is beautiful and I can’t wait to plan a trip back with more time to explore. I’m excited to record a few episodes with some interesting people I met at the event, so stay tuned for those!

• On one day of the event, we went out to a lake, where I got a chance to try out an efoil. As someone who likes to snowboard, skateboard and surf, I thought I was going to be cruising around the lake in no time, but that was certainly not the case. While I eventually figured out how to ride, it was so much harder than I expected and I got thrown off at least a dozen times. I’d certainly try it again, but I probably don’t see efoil ownership in my future.

• Another highlight of the event was showing people how easy it is to search for ​Unclaimed Money​ they are owed. During one conversation, I helped 3 people find $400, $1,800 and $20k+. If you’ve never looked on your state’s unclaimed property site, it’s worth a few minutes to see how much you’re owed.

• Finally, I had an amazing birthday dinner with my family. I may not care about birthday gifts or parties like I used to, but I absolutely love spending the day with the family and getting to open the homemade gifts and cards my kids create.

⭐ My Top Picks

🏨 Amex Adds Leading Hotels of the World at 4:1

Amex has a new hotel transfer partner, and this one is worth paying attention to. Membership Rewards can now ​transfer to Leading Hotels of the World’s Leaders Club at 4:1​, which sounds awful until you realize Leaders Club points are worth ~8¢ each. That’s roughly 2 cents per Amex point at 425+ luxury hotels (and a better ratio than Citi’s 5:1). I’m very excited for this one and can’t wait to share more after my first stay.

🛋️ Popular Bank Lounges Cut Priority Pass 8/15

Starting 8/15, ​a popular bank’s airport lounges will stop accepting Priority Pass and LoungeKey​, so Amex Platinum, Venture X, and Citi Strata Elite holders will lose the free visits. If you want to continue going to these lounges, you’ll need to have one of the four premium cards offered by the same “popular bank”.

🔎 Seats.aero Adds Award Prices to Google Flights

​Seats.aero​ is one of my favorite award search tools, and they just launched a new ​Chrome extension​ that shows award pricing on Google Flights results, so you can easily compare the cash fare and the points price. I haven’t had enough time to compare it with PointsPath, which offers a similar Chrome extension, but it’s always great to have more tools to make this hobby easier. In the same week, Seats.aero also started showing United and Delta cardmember award pricing for Pro members. Between these two launches, ​Seats.aero​ is quickly moving towards the top of the award search tools list.

🛍️ 5 Airline Portals: Up to 11,500 Bonus Miles

Five airline shopping portals are running back-to-school bonuses at once, worth up to 11,500 bonus miles combined if you hit every tier, and they all end between 8/8 and 8/10. These only make sense if you are shopping already, but can certainly be a nice boost if you are.

• Alaska: ​300-2,000 Points on $150-$750​

• American: ​400-2,500 Miles on $200-$1,200​

• Delta: ​300-2,000 Miles on $100-$600​

• Southwest: ​500-2,500 Points on $100-$500​

• United: ​500-2,500 Miles on $150-$500​

✈️ Alaska Adds Philippine Airlines: Biz From 75K

Alaska quietly ​turned on Philippine Airlines awards​, and there’s a ton of availability right now. Lie-flat business class to Manila starts at 75,000 points + ~$26 and flies from SFO, SEA, LAX, YVR, ORD, YYZ and JFK. Economy starts at 37,500. Philippine Airlines will also join Oneworld soon, which should bring more programs to book from.

💳 Best-Ever 100K Flying Blue Bonus + 100 XP

Bank of America’s refreshed Air France KLM Card is offering 70,000 miles after $3,000 spend in 90 days, plus 30,000 more miles and 100 XP towards status after $7,500 spend in 180 days. The annual fee is only $89. ​Full details here​.

📺 Recommendation: The Agency S2

I recommended ​The Agency​ last year after watching season one, but I just finished season two and it was amazing. It swapped the slower speed of the first season for a much faster pace as it follows a CIA officer playing a dangerous double game, while his own office hunts for a mole and a rookie agent runs her first undercover mission in Tehran. It’s on Paramount+, which is free with Walmart+ (which is free with the Amex Platinum and Business Gold).

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Amex: ​Green Card Pulled Ahead of 8/20 Rename​ — I’m very curious what will happen with the relaunch.

• Bilt: ​Authorized Users Now Allowed From Age 13​ — Starting a teenager on credit building this early is interesting.

• Capital One → LifeMiles: ​15% Bonus All August​ — It took me 3 years to use the LifeMiles I transferred in 2023 and the cancellation fees are very high, so proceed with caution here.

• Cathay: ​10% Bonus on Transfers to Asia Miles​ — Needs registration, but not big enough to move the needle for most.

• Citi → Flying Blue: ​20% Transfer Bonus​ — Great if you have a booking to make, but we’ve seen bigger bonuses in the past.

• Popular Hotel Card: ​Bonus Raised to 75K​ — If I didn’t have the business card, I’d be eyeing this offer, because I keep ending up staying at these properties.

• Samsung: ​New card earns 3% on all Samsung Pay​ — Getting 3% uncapped mobile pay is interesting for Samsung users.

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• Air Canada: ​Adds Biz & Premium Basic Fares​ — Definitely don’t love this trend.

• Alaska: ​Portal Bonus Points No Longer Earn Status​

• American: ​24-Hour Refunds Only 7+ Days Out​ — One more reason to book close-in trips with miles instead of cash.

• American: ​AA Miles Now Book Oman Air Biz to India​ — Oman Air is small, but this opens up a new path to India & the Middle East.

• Delta: ​4x on Delta Stays Through 8/6​ — This makes for a better deal if you have a Delta Stays credit to use.

• Delta: ​Premium Basic Fares Get $300-$500 Fees​ — Another disappointing change for the industry.

• IHG: ​Triple United Miles on Stays​

• JetBlue: ​Adds ‘BlueFirst’ Domestic First Class​

• Singapore: ​You Now Need 1,000 Points for Award Search​ — It’s annoying, but if you consider it a $15 fee it feels better.

• Southwest: ​Up to 20K Points + A-List for Biz Travel​

• United: ​Mile Play Is Back, Check If Targeted​

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Bilt: ​Accor Platinum Match for 15K, Today Only​ — I prefer a big transfer bonus, but this is great if you want Accor status.

• Hilton: ​Adds a Dozen+ SLH Properties, Incl. Nevis​ — Some of these properties cost $2,500+/night, which is a great value for Hilton points (if you can find availability).

💎 Award Deals

• 🇪🇺 Europe: ​Emirates Biz to Milan or Athens from 59K​

• 🇯🇵 Japan: ​JAL Biz to Tokyo from 60K AAdvantage for Jul-Aug​

• 🇪🇸 Madrid: ​Iberia Biz from 40.5K Points via Iberia or Alaska​

• 🇫🇷 Paris: ​Park Hyatt Vendôme Open for Summer 2027 from 35K​

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• Air Canada: ​$100 Back on $1,000​

• Airbnb: ​$20 Back on $80+​

• Alaska: ​$80 Back on $400+​

• Capital One: ​$10 Back on $20​

• Hyatt Place: ​7% Back, up to $50 back​

• Marriott: ​10% Back, up to $50 back​

• Marriott: ​Up to $150 Back on $375+, Ends 8/5​

Some of these are targeted, so check your own accounts to confirm you’re eligible. For compliance reasons, we can’t mention all the cards by name, but the linked pages have all the details.

🏦 Bank / Brokerage Bonuses

• Popular Bank: ​Brokerage Bonus Up to $1,000​

• TastyTrade: ​3% Transfer Match, Up to $3,000​ — I did the last bonus here, and 3% is great, but it’s a 36-month hold.

• Verve: ​Up to $600 Checking Bonus, Nationwide​

• Webster Bank: ​Up to $900 in 8 Northeast States​

💬 Parting Thoughts

Thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think. I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Saturday! Hope your weekend is off to a great start! I’m on vacation this week, so skipping the My Past Week section, but there’s still a lot to share today:

• 💰 Big 250K point brokerage bonus

• 🤝 Two new airline and hotel partnerships

• 💳 Best-ever 100K bonus ending soon

• 📉 Putting “Die With Zero” into practice

• 📺 My favorite game meets YouTube

• 💸 AA and Choice points on sale

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

📉 Putting “Die With Zero” Into Practice

Chris and Brad Barrett revisit “Die With Zero” and confront how much harder Bill Perkins’ ideas are to live than to agree with. They dig into when frugality flips from superpower to liability, the maximizer’s struggle to let go, optimizing for the perfect Tuesday over the once-a-year trip, and giving money to your kids while it still matters.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

💰 Don’t Wait Until March to Save on Taxes

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Gelt​

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⭐ My Top Picks

💰 Big 250K Point Brokerage Bonus (Ends 7/31)

I moved a lot of my investments over to ​Silo​ to start earning points on my brokerage balance. Now, through the end of the month, new customers can earn a ​bonus of up to 250,000 points​, which can be cashed out as $2,500 or (very soon) transferred to airlines and hotels. There are two membership tiers at Silo ($20-80/mo), but they unlock earning 0.5x points on your investments, which usually covers the fee.

Also, because Silo is built on top of the 40+ year-old Interactive Brokers, I didn’t have any worries about moving my investments to a new startup and I haven’t had any issues using them the past 6 months. More details on Silo and the bonus are ​here​.

🤝 Two New Airline + Hotel Partnerships

I have elite status with Marriott and Hyatt, so I was excited to see these two partnerships, however, best I can tell, the only real benefit I *might* ever use is a small flight credit on Air Canada.

Hyatt & Air Canada Aeroplan

Hyatt and Air Canada just launched a new partnership that helps Aeroplan elites and cardholders earn Hyatt Globalist in as few as 20 nights. A similar status challenge for Hyatt elite members is coming soon. In addition to status, you can also convert points between the two programs (at a poor ratio), redeem points for flight certificates and free night awards (possibly a good deal), and if you’re Hyatt Globalist, you’ll get a free C$20 Air Canada credit each year. ​More details here​.

Marriott & Japan Airlines

Marriott and JAL’s partnership is also best used for status. Every Marriott elite will earn free JAL FLY ON points when linking accounts, but only Titanium and Ambassador Elite will earn enough to get JAL status without additional flying. If you happen to have JAL status, you can also get free Marriott status, but it’ll need to be Diamond or higher to earn Marriott Platinum. They’ve also enabled point transfers, but the ratios aren’t that exciting. ​More details here​.

💳 Best-Ever 100K Bonus Ending Soon

One of the ​most popular low-fee travel cards​ recently brought back its best-ever 100,000-point welcome bonus, and it’s been announced that it’s “ending soon.” There aren’t many personal cards that let you earn 100K+ transferable points without having to pay a $100+ annual fee, so this could be a great card if you haven’t had it before. More ​here​.

📺 Recommendation: Mafia

One of my favorite games to play with a group is ​Werewolves​/​Mafia​. I’ve played 100s of times since first learning it at a leadership retreat in college and it never gets old. If you haven’t played, ​here’s one​ of many sites with the rules, but this one happens to sell a beautiful card deck to play with that I’ve owned for a few years. If you want to see it in action, someone recruited a bunch of tech founders/investors to play and made the very entertaining video above. If you like this kind of game, don’t have a big enough group, or want a shorter game, definitely check out ​Coup​.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• DFW: ​New Bank Lounge Now Open in Terminal D​

• Hawaiian: ​Co-Brand Cards Raise Bonus to 70K Atmos​ — This might be the last chance to get a bonus on this card if you’re looking for more Alaska miles.

• IHG: ​Best-Ever 100% Transfer Bonus​ — Even at 100%, this isn’t a great deal.

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• American: ​Buy Miles For As Low As 1.88¢​ — For the right AA use case, this could make sense, but I wouldn’t do it speculatively.

• Frontier: ​Adding Starlink Wi-Fi Across Its Fleet​ — Still not enough to get me to fly Frontier.

• United: ​Mile Play: Up to 15K Bonus Miles​ — Worth checking what you get if you have upcoming UA flights.

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Choice: ​Points 50% Off, Best Sale of the Year​ — Worth it if you have a trip in mind.

• Wyndham: ​25% Off Caesars and 2x Points​

💎 Award Deals

• 🇦🇺 Australia: ​Delta Roundtrips From 25K SkyMiles, NZ From 34K​

• 🇦🇺 Australia: ​Biz Class From 80K AA, Japan From 60K​

• 🇯🇵 Japan: ​Singapore Biz Japan-US From 79K KrisFlyer​

• 🇨🇭 Switzerland: ​Biz Wide-Open From 60K Aeroplan​

• 🇹🇼 Taiwan: ​Wide-Open Starlux Biz From 75K Atmos​

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• Citi Travel: ​$75 Off $400+ Hotel Booking, Stackable​

• Hyatt: ​$100 Back at Select Properties via Amex Offer​

• Rosewood: ​$150 Back at Mexico Hotels via Amex Offer​

🛒 Other Deals

• Apple: ​Back-to-School: Up to $150 Gift Card on Mac/iPad​

• Google Fi: ​75% Off Unlimited Plans for 12 Months​

💬 Parting Thoughts

Thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think. I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Saturday! Hope your weekend is off to a great start! Here are some quick highlights from today’s newsletter:

• 💳 Are Credit Card Points Still Worth It?

• 🛍️ Amex Platinum Swaps Saks for Retail Offers

• 🏨 Marriott Quietly Raises Award Prices

• 🔄 3 New Transfer Bonuses Up to 30%

• 🎟️ Free ‘When Will I Be Rich?’ Workshop

• 🍽️ $300 Dining Credit List Gets a Refresh

• ✈️ Southwest’s New Rapid Rewards Debit Card

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

💳 Are Credit Card Points Still Worth It?

With fees climbing, credits getting harder to use, and points constantly devaluing, it’s fair to ask whether earning points and miles is even worth it anymore. In this AMA episode, I dig into when the fees are still worth it and when cash back might make more sense. I’ll also walk through how I’d start earning points from scratch and how to squeeze more out of overlooked spending categories.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🔒 Remove Your Personal Info from the Web

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📋 My Past Week

• The highlight of the week was definitely getting to take my youngest on her field trip to our local fire station. We both learned a ton, got to meet a bunch of the firefighters in our community, and spray the firehose. I didn’t get to slide down the pole, but maybe next time!

• We’ve been through dozens of colds with the kids, but our oldest daughter had her first stomach bug this week and had to miss half a week of camp. Fortunately she’s finally feeling great again!

• We spent the 4th with my parents up in Napa last weekend and it really made us appreciate how much a local staycation can feel like a real vacation with so much less lift than a big trip. That said, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the idea of having a 4th of July without fireworks... a drone show doesn’t come close!

• The World Cup this year has been so much fun to watch. I’ve gotten to see at least half of the games and I can’t believe how many have been decided in the final minutes (or even in PKs). I always love to cheer for the underdog, so now that the US is out, I’d love to see Norway go all the way!

• This week I discovered that our bedroom CO₂ spikes while my wife and I breathe during sleep. It’s not an acute safety issue, but ​research suggests​ levels around 1,000 - 1,300 ppm can affect sleep quality, so I’m testing simple fixes like running the HVAC fan and cracking a window. This is part of a recent effort to optimize our home and I’m excited to share more soon.

⭐ My Top Picks

🛍️ Amex Platinum Swaps Saks for Retail Offers

As of July 1, the Platinum card’s twice-yearly $50 Saks credit is gone. While it wasn’t officially announced as a replacement, Amex did add a ​handful of new offers​.

• Bose: $75 off $300+

• Eight Sleep: $200 off $1,000+

• Nordstrom: $50 off $200+

• Perplexity: $100 off $200+

• TUMI: $50 off $250+

For us, $50 off $200+ at Nordstrom is probably more valuable than a free $50 at Saks, but I don’t think we’ll get any value from the rest.

✈️ Southwest’s New Rapid Rewards Debit Card

​Southwest’s debit card is finally live​, and if you’re going for Companion Pass, it could be worth a look because cardholders can get:

• 2,500 point welcome bonus for making 2 direct deposits and spending $100 in 90 days

• An extra 1,000 points for a $250+ direct deposit by 9/30

• 7,500 Companion Pass qualifying points each year

• No monthly fee with a $2,500 balance

All the points earned (including bonuses) count towards companion pass, which means this card (which has no hard pull on your credit) could net you 11k points towards companion pass with very little effort. You’ll also get a 20% promo code every January and a $35 statement credit on Southwest purchases.

🍽️ $300 Dining Credit List Gets a Refresh

A popular travel card just overhauled the restaurant list for its $300 dining credit, ​adding 91 spots and removing 64​, with Las Vegas taking the biggest hit. If you had a reservation at a delisted restaurant, there’s a 60-day grace period to still claim the credit. From an SF perspective, I think the changes are a net positive, with ​Frances​ (one of our favorite spots) getting added to the list.

🔄 3 New Transfer Bonuses Up to 30%

There are a few new transfer bonuses live right now:

• Amex → Virgin Atlantic: ​30% Bonus (through 7/31)​

• Capital One → EVA Air: ​30% Bonus, a New Path to Asia Biz (through 7/31)​

• Amex → Hilton: ​20% Bonus (through 7/14)​

Without a specific redemption in mind, I can’t get excited about any of them. That said, I was really tempted to find a reason to take advantage of the EVA Air bonus, because I know a Taiwan trip is on the horizon and EVA Air often has some great availability in their own program. Honestly, if EVA didn’t have a hard 36mo expiration, I might have done it, but I’m not certain we’ll have a use for them that soon!

🏨 Marriott Quietly Raises Award Prices by up to 16%

Marriott quietly increased award pricing at many properties ​by as much as 16%​. It’s especially annoying for people with free night certificates, because a stay that used to fit under the 35/50/85k point cap might not work anymore. I’m feeling pretty lucky that I happened to just make a big 300k+ point redemption a few days before this change. I guess we can be thankful it’s not a bigger devaluation, but it still sucks.

🎟️ Free Workshop Recommendations

My friend Ramit Sethi runs I Will Teach You to Be Rich and they’ve been running some great free workshops recently. I hosted one a few weeks ago on credit card points (you can watch the replay ​here​), and on Monday (7/13) they’re hosting ​When Will I Be Rich?​, where Ramit is going to break down what ‘rich’ actually means for your life and the systems that get you there. You can register for the free event ​here​.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Amex: ​Tighter Centurion Lounge Rules (Guests Must Fly Same Flight)​ – This change probably won’t matter for most of us.

• CLEAR+: ​Price up to $219, Amex Credit Will Match​ – Reminder to link your DL/AS/UA accounts for a discount too.

• Hyatt: ​Personal Card Bonus Up to 75K (Really 60K)​ – Marking this as 75k is absurd, but it’s better than the previous offer.

• Marriott: ​Free Gold Status Is Back for a Popular Travel Card​

• Robinhood: ​Gold Card Adds 3% Foreign Transaction Fee​ – While this sucks, I’m honestly surprised they’re still offering 3% back.

• SoFi: ​New Card: Unlimited 5% on Groceries​

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Accor: ​Up to 7,500 Bonus Points in EMEA & Asia (5+ Nights)​

• Choice: ​20% Off Stays of 2+ Nights​

• Hyatt: ​Up to 30K Bonus Points at 29 New Properties​

• IHG: ​Summer Sale: Up to 30% Off Across the Americas​

• YOTEL: ​Joins Hilton Honors as ‘Select by Hilton’ Starting 7/15​

💎 Award Deals

• 🇨🇴 Colombia: ​Miami to Bogotá/Cartagena From 7,500 Alaska​

• 🇪🇺 Europe: ​Flying Blue 25% Off Awards, Biz From 45K​

• 🇺🇸 Hawaii: ​Hawaiian 787 Biz From 26K Avios​

• 🇮🇪 Ireland: ​Aer Lingus Biz From 45K Alaska​

• 🇵🇹 Lisbon: ​Andaz Lisbon Wide-Open at 20K Hyatt/Night​

• 🇨🇭 Switzerland: ​SWISS Biz to Zurich/Geneva From 60K Aeroplan​

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• Delta: ​$250 Back on $2K+ Booked via Amex Travel​

• Hilton: ​$250 Back on $1,250+ at Waldorf, Conrad & LXR​

• Hyatt Under Canvas: ​15% Back Up to $70 on $450+ Stays​

• Lyft: ​10x Capital One Miles or 10% Back via Popular Bank​

• Sixt: ​$100 Back on $500+​

Some of these are targeted, so check your own accounts to confirm you’re eligible.

🏦 Bank / Brokerage Bonuses

• Amex: ​$300 Checking Bonus With $7,500 in Direct Deposits​

• E*Trade: ​Existing-User Brokerage Bonus Up to $20K​

• Trump Accounts: ​$1,000 Contribution for Kids Born 2025–2028​

• Wells Fargo: ​Up to $825 Business Checking, No Direct Deposit​

💬 Parting Thoughts

Thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think. I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Saturday! Hope your weekend is off to a great start and an early Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads! Here’s some quick highlights from today’s newsletter:

• 💳 20+ Card Benefits You’re Probably Not Using

• 🍽️ How I regularly get 35%+ off dining

• 🛍️ Free $80 from the Capital One shopping extension

• 💵 Paze’s New 10x $10 Off Promo (Up to $100/card)

• 💍 Oura Ring 4 for under $50 wit Amex credit

• 🔐 Up to 105% Back on VPNs (+ $50 back)

• 🛒 Amazon: 3 promos to save with Amex + Discover

• 🏨 Wyndham devalues awards on 9/15

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

💳 20+ Card Benefits You’re Probably Not Using

I break down the credit card benefits that save real money but rarely get attention, from getting a cracked iPhone repaired for free to purchase protections, travel coverage, and a deep bench of lesser-known perks. Learn exactly which card to reach for on every purchase, so you’re always covered and never leaving money on the table.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🎙️ I Stopped Typing and Nobody Noticed

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Wispr Flow​​

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📋 My Past Week

• Had a wonderful Father’s day last weekend that started with a family rock climbing trip, included good food and building a huge magnetic tile castle, and ended with a cute screening of a video from my daughters. Hope all the Dad’s out there had a great day!

• We’re breaking our household screen time rules this month with all the World Cup games happening. There’ve been so many incredible matches so far and I’m excited to see how far Team USA can make it this time. We considered trying to make it to a game, but tickets are so expensive. I think it was cheaper for us to fly to Paris and buy tickets to the Olympics in 2024 than it would be to buy tickets to any Bay Area World Cup game.

• On Thursday I onboarded a new employee to the company that we found from ​Oceans​. We were so impressed with our last employee who was with us for 3+ years that we were really excited to work with them again. Excited to have her on the team!

• For the brief window that Anthropic had their Fable 5 model available, I built very alpha version of an iOS app of the Credit Card App I’ve been building. I’ve been iterating on it for the past week and hopefully will get the first test version out to a few people this coming week. It’s so fun to get back to building software after taking a break for a few years.

• Amy and I are taking a last minute trip in a few weeks and it’s wild to see how much last minute award availability is opening up (se the award alerts below). I’ve found nonstop biz class from the west coast to Fiji, Japan, Europe and South America.

• Finally, with the end of the Month/Quarter/Half-Year around the corner, now is the perfect time to make sure you use up all those credits and coupons on your credit cards. The main one’s I’d try to use before 6/30 are: ​$75 Lululemon​, ​$10-$100 Resy​, ​$200 Bilt Hotel​, ​$150 Dining​, ​$300 Amex Hotel​, and ​$150 Stubhub​.

⭐ My Top Picks

🛍️ Free $80 with Capital One Shopping Extension

If you don’t already use Capital One Shopping, it’s a cash back shopping portal, similar to Rakuen and they currently have a ​free $80 for new customers promo​ . Just sign up as a new user, install the browser extension within 7 days, and leave it installed for 90 days (full details ​here​). You don’t need to make a purchase or even hold a CapitalOne Card. And beyond the signup bonus, Capital One Shopping regularly has some pretty lucrative cash back on travel, electronics, tickets, online retail and more.

🍽️ inKind: How I Get 35%+ Off Dining

​inKind​ is one of my favorite ways to save at restaurants. Between their ​$25 off $50+ Referral Promo​ and $100 gift cards on sale for ​$65 at Costco​ and ​$70 at Amazon​, it’s easy to regularly get 35% off your meal (or more if multiple people at the table are taking advantage of their promotions). Our Bay Are favorites are: Hurrica, Niku, and Che Fico.

💵 Paze: $100 Back per Card (10x $10 Off)

Paze, the bank-backed digital wallet, is giving $10 back on every $10 purchase, up to 10 times per card ($100 max each), through 9/10. Eligible cards span personal credit and debit from most major banks. ​Lots of info in this DoC post​. Gift card options might have dried up, but can still use at many retailers, including Stubhub, Untied, Dunkin, Sephora, and more.

🏨 Wyndham Devalues Awards Starting 9/15

Right off the heals of ​refreshing their card lineup​, Wyndham is changing their simple award chart. The current top tier of 30,000 points jumps to a new 45,000-point tier, while the cheapest tier actually drops from 7,500 to 5,000 points. Unfortunately, Wyndham isn’t being clear about where different properties will end up, so if you’ve got a high-tier hotel in mind, book it now to lock in current pricing.

🛒 Amazon: Targeted Promos for Amex + Discover

You might want to check if you’re targeted for these Amazon promos:

• ​Amex: Up to 50%/$100 off​: Get 15-50% off ($15-$80 max cash back) when paying with as little as 714 amex points by 6/30.

• ​$15 off w/ Amex​: Add an Amex card to your Amazon wallet and get $15 off a $15.01+ purchase by 12/31.

• ​Up to 40% off w/ Discover​: Use at least 1 Discover point at checkout for up to 40% off, max $50.

💍 Oura Ring 4 as Low as $44 w/ Amex $200 Off

Now that they’ve launched the Oura Ring 5, the Oura Ring 4 is ​being discounted​ from $349 to $244.30. If you’re holding an Amex Platinum, it comes with a ​$200 Oura credit​ that will bring the total price down to $44.30 + tax/shipping. I’m still wear my 3rd Gen Oura every day, but might pick up a backup at this price.

🔐 Up to 105% Back on VPNs via Rakuten (+$50 Bonus)

If you’ve been meaning to sign up for a VPN, ​Rakuten​ is making it basically free right now: up to 105% cash back (or 105x Amex MR or Bilt points) on subscriptions from ​several VPN providers​. These deals come and go constantly, so apologies if they’re not live when you click the link, but keep checking, because I see similar offers every few days. If you’ve never signed up for Rakuten, you can use ​my link for $50 off $50​, which would make this offer ~150% back.

🍿 My Grilled Cheese Recommendation

Grilled Cheese was on the meal plan this week, but a few hours before dinner, I had a desire to try and elevate things a bit. I came across this recipe from Nick DiGiovanni for “The Perfect Grilled Cheese” and it did not disappoint one bit. In fact, I had to go back and make another one because we ran out. If you aren’t interested in the full recipe, I’d still encourage you to try the parmesan crust, which you can find ~10min into the video. Hope you enjoy!

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Alaska: ​Last call for Summit Card 100K + companion award + 50% off, ends Tue 6/30​ — I already took advantage of this and have been using tons of Alaska awards ever since.

• Amex → Etihad: ​Last chance to transfer, ending 6/30​ — I’ve never transferred to Etihad, so I won’t miss this.

• Bilt → I Prefer: ​New Hotel transfer partner at 1:2​ — I’m excited about this one, but haven’t had a chance to dig in yet.

• Bilt → Hilton: ​July Rent Day up to 200% bonus​ — Hilton points are regularly on sale for 0.50¢, so this isn’t worth doing.

• Capital One: ​Spark Cash: $1,000 bonus after $10K spend​ — This is a great bonus, and if you hold a Capital One card that earns miles, you can convert the $1,000 bonus to 100k points.

• Southwest: ​Last call on Personal Card bonuses (up to 90k)​

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Hilton: ​Using ‘loophole’ to deny Diamond lounge access​ — this sucks and feels similar to Hyatt adding resort fees to regular hotels.

• Marriott Homes & Villas: ​2x points on 4+ night stays in US & Europe​

• Hyatt: ​Summer promo: up to 8K points (7/1-9/7)​ — Just registered and hoping to get some extra points on this one.

• LHW: ​2x Leaders Club points, book by Tue 6/30​

• Park Hyatt: ​First all-inclusive Park Hyatt opens for booking in Mexico​ — Might have to check this out next year, looks nice!

💎 Award Deals

• American: ​Award sale, flights from 9K miles, book by Tue 7/7​

• 🇲🇦 Casablanca: ​Royal Air Maroc biz from 55K Alaska​

• 🇨🇷 Costa Rica: ​Andaz Papagayo from 35K Hyatt pts​

• 🇬🇷 Greece: ​American biz to Athens from 55K Alaska​

• 🇹🇷 Istanbul: ​Turkish biz wide open from 65K miles​

• 🇲🇽 Los Cabos: ​Park Hyatt from 35K Hyatt pts​

• 🇮🇹 Milan: ​SkyTeam biz to Italy from 55K pts​

• 🇨🇭 Switzerland: ​SWISS biz from 60K Aeroplan​

🎁 Gift Card Deals

• Amazon: ​Prime Day gift card sale: $100 inKind for $69.99, Instacart, Starbucks, Uber & more​

• Kroger: ​Fee waived on $150+ Visa/Mastercard gift cards, ends Tue 6/30​

• Meijer: ​$10 off $150+ in Visa gift cards, ends Tue 6/30​

• Newegg: ​$500 Lowe’s eGift card for $450​

• Staples: ​Fee-waived $200 Mastercard gift cards​

💬 Parting Thoughts

Thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think. I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Saturday! Hope your weekend is off to a great start and an early Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads! Here’s some quick highlights from today’s newsletter:

• 🌍 I Was Wrong About Travel Insurance

• 🛒 Up to $100 Off a Costco Membership

• 🍎 Earn Miles on New iPhones & MacBooks​

• 🍿 Award Search Tool Built Into Google Flights

• 📦 Amazon Prime Day This Week

• ✈️ Avios Getting Harder to Use for Family & Friends

• 📱 50% “App of the Day” Promo for CardPointers+

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

🌍 Do You Actually Need Travel Insurance?

Learn exactly when you might need travel insurance and when your credit cards already have you covered. I’ll go over the components of travel insurance, what coverage you get from your credit cards, and when it makes sense to buy additional protection.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

💰 Use Your Taxes to Grow Your Wealth

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Gelt​

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📋 My Past Week

• We’re still getting a ton of use from the ​standup paddle boards​ we got as a gift a few years ago. Thanks to the ​Dewalt Inflator​, it only takes a few minutes to get them inflated and the girls love going out on the water. If you’re in the Bay Area, the water is easy in Foster City and you can even rent gear if you don’t want to buy your own.

• When we came back from Mexico, we used Global Entry’s new ​walk-through camera tech​. You just walk straight through immigration with no stopping at all (though the CBP officer did say “Welcome home Christopher”). I don’t think Global Entry has ever been that slow, but this was so fast it was impressive. It’s currently being piloted at SFO, BOS, DFW, JFK, PHL, and SEA.

• I’ve been slacking on fitness the past few weeks, but I’ve managed to get two runs in the past week and one sauna + cold plunge session. My goal is to get to 2x cardio, 3x strength, and 3x sauna each week, which is becoming a little easier in the summer when the girls don’t have to get up so early for school.

• I spent most of this week building out a new mobile app for the credit card app I’ve been working on the past few months. The main features of the app are tracking all the recurring credits and comparing the benefits/earnings of all the cards in your wallet. There’s about a dozen other features already, but I’m still not quite ready to put it in front of too many people. That said, I put up a waitlist you can sign up for ​here​.

• My parents have kindly offered to watch our girls for a week next month (thanks Mom + Dad!), so my wife Amy and I doing a bit of last minute planning for a getaway. I’m surprised at the amount of award availability I’m seeing this summer for international business class, but hotel deals are a bit harder to come by. Hopefully we can find something amazing soon.

⭐ My Top Picks

📦 Amazon Prime Day Runs 6/23-6/26

Prime Day is back 6/23 through 6/26, and a bunch of ​early deals are already live​. Also, if you have a Prime Visa, you should be able to get 7% back when you pick No-Rush Delivery and if you pay just 1 Amex Point, you might be able to get 50% off (usually capped at ~$80).

🍎 Earn Miles on New iPhones & MacBooks

Most airline shopping portals exclude current-year Apple products, but Air France/KLM just launched a ​dedicated Apple portal​ for US shoppers that earns 1x to 4x Flying Blue miles per dollar on virtually everything, including the latest iPhones and MacBooks. If you’re already planning an Apple purchase, it’s an easy way to stack some extra miles.

🛒 Up to $100 Off a Costco Membership

Groupon is offering Costco memberships ($65 Gold Star or $130 Executive) that come with a ​Costco.com coupon for $50 or $100 off​. The offer is good for new members (or anyone lapsed 18+ months ago). You can also stack an Amex Offer or ​Rakuten/Cash Back​ to save more.

📱 CardPointers: App of the Day + 50% Off (Till 6/21)

​CardPointers​ was Apple’s App of the Day this week and to celebrate, ​CardPointers+​ is 50% off until tomorrow (6/21). This is an awesome deal because I’ve easily earned $500+ from the card-linked offers that the app automatically activates for you across all your cards. They also have a great browser extension that reminds you when you have offers to use on different online retailers.

✈️ Qatar Tightens Award Bookings for Family & Friends

I was about to use some of my Avios points to book a flight to Fiji this week through Qatar’s program when I noticed that I couldn’t book flights for anyone but me. Turns out that morning they stopped letting you book for any other travelers unless you have earned Avios by flying Qatar or have their co-branded credit card. This is a huge negative change, given that they have a handful of sweet spots for international business class and frequent transfer bonuses. ​Full details here​.

🍿 My Recommendation: PointsPath

Points Path is absolutely my highest ROI browser extension, because it shows you flight award prices right on Google Flights. The free version will show you the miles needed for flights on Alaska, American, Delta, JetBlue and United. There are also a paid tiers ($35-80/yr) that include price tracking alerts, 7-day calendar searchers, and adjusts for United/Delta cardmember pricing. The Pro tier has more than paid for itself for me, so definitely give it a try (there’s a 3mo free trial) and if you like it, you can get 15% off with the code ALLTHEHACKS15.

📰 The Rest of the Week

I hope the rest of summer isn’t this light on deals/news...

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Popular Bank: ​New Miami Airport Lounge in $94M Outbid​ — Will probably be very nice, but might take 2 years to open.

• IHG: ​Last Chance on Two 100K+ Offers​ (Ends 6/25) — Not interesting to me, but good offers if you want an IHG card.

• Wells Fargo: ​Attune Card No Longer Accepting Applicants​ — This was an interesting card, so I’m curious what’s next at WF.

• Wyndham: ​New Earner Premier Card, $395 Fee, 120K Bonus​ — I’m not interested in Wyndham, so not interested here.

💎 Award Deals

• 🇳🇱 Amsterdam: ​Biz From 60K Flying Blue via KLM​

• 🇦🇷 Argentina: ​Biz to Buenos Aires From 50K Alaska​

• 🇪🇺 Europe: ​Wide-Open Delta One From 115K SkyMiles​

• 🇮🇹 Italy: ​Biz on Seattle to Rome From 57.5K AA​

• 🇯🇴 Jordan: ​Royal Jordanian Biz to Amman From 70K AA​

• 🇻🇬 Necker Island: ​3 Nights for ~577K points​

💬 Parting Thoughts

Thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think. I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Monday! We were traveling last week, so this email is coming to you a few days late. Fortunately, that means I could include a few new offers that came in over the past 72 hours. Here’s the highlights:

• 🔥💳🔥 Four Best-Ever 100K+ Welcome Offers

• ✈️ United Points Pooling Just Got Better

• 💰 $1,250 New Customer Brokerage Bonus

• 🛒 Three New Shopping Portal Bonuses

• 🍿 My Top Recommendations for Father’s Day

• 📈 Two New Airline/Hotel Transfer Bonuses

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

💸 Saving Money and Optimizing is My Kryptonite

When does optimization stop helping and start hurting? Chris shares how a string of seemingly smart decisions had him pouring hours into marginal gains that never materialized. He unpacks the hidden cost of optimization, the role AI plays in amplifying it, and how he’s learning to focus on what actually moves the needle.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🔒 Remove Your Personal Info from the Web

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📋 My Past Week

• We ended up spending our first week of summer in Cabo for a family trip. Unlike Tokyo, where we were exploring a new place every day, we spent the whole trip at the resort (Solaz). Almost every minute we weren’t eating was spent at the pool and it was really fun to relax and hang out in the sun for a week.

• We also celebrated my youngest daughter’s birthday and as cliché as this must sound, it’s so sad during each of her birthdays to think that I’ll never have a kid that age again. That said, it’s also a great reminder to savor all these moments, which is precisely what we did in Mexico.

• These days it feels rare to actually use our Priority Pass membership for lounge access, but in Cabo it’s the only way to access the “VIP Lounge” at SJD. While there’s nothing that special about the lounge, the service was fast, our girls were able to get a free lunch and there were plenty of TVs to watch the World Cup.

• Speaking of the World Cup, I’m having so much fun watching the games every day (Go Team USA). While I’d love to watch every game, I just don’t have the time. However, I am really enjoying that the Fox One app makes it easy to watch highlights and replays without showing any score spoilers.

⭐ My Top Picks

💳 Best-Ever 100k Point Offer on a Low-Fee Card

My ​favorite low-annual-fee points card​ just re-launched its best-ever welcome offer of 100,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months. With how I’ve been able to redeem these points that could be worth over $2,000 on a card with an annual fee of only $95.

The timing is great because the card also got a ​round of updates​ that, for many people, make it better, with no change to the annual fee. I broke down my thoughts on the new offer and updates in ​this post​.

🧰 Best-Ever 100k+ Bonuses on 3 Business Cards

The same popular bank also rolled out ​best-ever welcome offers on three of its business cards​. Two of these offers might be the best bonuses I’ve ever seen on a no-fee card.

• ​Two no-annual-fee business cards​: $1,000 / 100k points after $8k spend in 4mo. The offers are marketed as cash back, but you actually earn points you can pool with other cards in the same rewards program.

• ​Premium business travel card​: 200k points​ after $30k in 6mo

I wrote ​this post​ on the full details of all three cards here. We currently hold two of these cards, so it looks like now is a perfect time to consider the third one. Also, if you’re not sure whether you’re eligible for a business card, I put together this post: ​Am I Eligible for a Business Credit Card?​.

✈️ United Points Pooling Just Got Better

United’s MileagePlus pooling has been around for a while, but it’s biggest flaw is that pooled miles could only book United flights, but not any of their partners. ​That’s now fixed​, which means you can pool miles with up to four other people for free and redeem the combined balance across United’s 40+ partners (e.g. Lufthansa, ANA, Singapore). This is a big win for families or any other groups who travel together.

💰 Robinhood New Customer Bonus Up to $1,250

Robinhood is offering a tiered cash bonus up to $1,250 for new customers who deposit funds into a new account and hold them for 30 days (no investing required). You can ​enter your email and see the tiers/terms here​, but wait until you receive an email confirmation of the offer before applying. It scales by deposit and you’ll need a $100K+ balance for $1,250, but with a 30-day hold, that’s an annualized 15%, which is incredible.

🛒 Extra 2.5-10x Points From Shopping Portal Bonuses

There are three summer shopping portal bonuses going on right now. Non are huge bonuses, but if you’re already doing some online shopping, they could give you a little extra boost. When it comes to points from shopping portals, Alaska gives you 1 status point per 3 points earned, Southwest points count towards companion pass, but United points don’t help at all towards status.

• Alaska: ​500 Points for Spending $200 by 6/19​

• American: ​500 Points for Spending $200 by 6/18​

• Southwest: ​2,000 Points for Spending $200 by 6/29​

🍿 Recommendations for Father’s Day

With Father’s Day next weekend, I thought I’d share a handful of gift ideas that are either things I have and love, or that I’ve gifted before:

• ​Anker Nano Charger + Battery​ — I bought this recently and love the built-in power plugs and cable. It’s great for travel.

• ​Box One​ & ​Box Two​ by Theory 11 — Think solo board game meets puzzle challenge. I love both of them.

• ​Coravin Wine Preservation System​ — We use this every week to pour a few glasses of wine without having to open a bottle.

• ​Hot Ones Hot Sauce Challenge Pack​ — I got this from my Dad a few years back and it was awesome!

• Lego ​Concorde​, ​DC-3​ or ​other sets​ — my dad has LOVED getting these and putting them together.

• ​Ninja Creami Ice Cream Maker​ — The protein ice cream recipes for the Creami are the best “healthy” versions of ice cream.

• ​Panasonic ARC5 Palm Shaver​ — I got one of these in Japan and it’s replaced my razor. It’s amazing and so easy for travel.

• ​Tesla Box by Puzzle Potato​ — I love puzzle boxes and had a lot of fun with this one. There are dozens of other brands/variations, but many others take too long to ship for next weekend.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Amex: ​Resy Credit Limited to Select Restaurants on 8/1​ — TBD if this matters, but right now most restaurants are eligible.

• Bank of America: ​Refer Cards for $100 each​ — Not that exciting, but better than nothing.

• Citi: ​50% Transfer Bonus to Accor (1:0.75)​ — Accor points are worth a fixed €0.02, so this transfer makes Citi points worth 1.74¢ (at the current exchange rate). Not bad if you’ll use them.

• Popular Bank: ​Q3 5%/5x: Gas, Transit & Live Entertainment​

• Popular Bank: ​30% Transfer Bonus to Virgin Atlantic​ (through 7/14) — great for ANA biz/first & Upper Class; don’t transfer speculatively.

• Wells Fargo: ​Point Combining Ending on 9/25​ — This is a bummer, but we only have one WF card in our household, so won’t really matter for us.

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• Philippine Airlines: ​Joining Oneworld in 2027​ — Excited for this to unlock more options for Asian business class flights.

• Southwest: ​2x Rapid Rewards, Register & Book by Sun 6/15​

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Hilton: ​Buy Points at 0.5cpp​ — only worth it if you have a high-value redemption locked in.

• Marriott: ​Lefay Luxury Wellness Brand Joining Bonvoy​ — Italian wellness resorts arriving late 2026.

💎 Award Deals

• 🇦🇹 Austria: ​Biz to Vienna from 70K Aeroplan​

• 🇪🇺 Europe: ​Delta One Flash Sale from 97.5K SkyMiles​

• 🇲🇻 Maldives & More: ​Qatar Qsuites from 57K on New PHL Route​

• 🇪🇸 Spain: ​Iberia Biz to Madrid from 32K pts​

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• Hilton: ​$100 Back on $200+ Hilton Stays​

• Marriott: ​$6/1K Points per $15 Transit/Rideshare, up to 3x​

• Lowes: ​15% Back, Max $50​

• IHG: ​10% Back at IHG Brands, Max $57​

🎁 Gift Card Deals

• Starbucks: ​10% Off at Newegg​ + Stack Paze ​for 10x Points​

💬 Parting Thoughts

Thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think – I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Saturday! Hope your weekend is off to a great start! Here are some quick highlights of today’s newsletter:

• 💳 Delta Amex: best-ever bonuses + new perks

• 🎨 The sticker maker my kids are obsessed with

• 🩺 My playbook for taking control of my health

• ✈️ Alaska’s new higher fees and monthly award sales

• 🔄 5 new transfer bonuses this month

• 🔥 Last call on two huge 150K welcome bonuses

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

🩺 Taking My Health Into My Own Hands

This week, I share the playbook I used to take control of my health after digging into my family historical and lab results. I’ll break down which tests I think are actually worth your money and when each one matters. Plus, I’ll share the personal health AI I built on top of my medical records to surface what doctors missed.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🛒 The Grocery Membership That Pays for Itself

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Thrive Market​

​​Thrive Market​ is an online grocery store for higher-quality staples, delivered to your door, with every product vetted against 1,000+ ingredients they don’t allow.

We do a ton of our shopping with Thrive and love so many of the brands we’ve found on their site, like Simple Mills, Mighty Sparks and Graza. We’re always finding new awesome brands through Thrive!

With no per-order delivery fees, service charges, or tip math, the flat $5-a-month membership pays for itself in the first order or two. Thrive also has a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free.

Get $20 off your first three orders plus a free $60 gift at ​chrishutchins.com/thrivemarket​

📋 My Past Week

• We got a membership to the SF Zoo last year that expires at the end of the month, so we got in another trip last weekend. It was the first time we’ve gone in the afternoon and either we got lucky or we should have been doing that since the beginning, because all the animals were out and active. Everyone had a great time.

• On the way home from the Zoo, we stopped at ​Jagalchi​, a huge 75,000 square foot Korean food complex in Daly City, CA. They have a bakery, restaurant, half a dozen food stalls, sushi counter, cocktail bar and a full grocery store. We picked up a bunch of groceries and had great dinner at the restaurant (​Pogu​). Highly recommend checking it out if you’re ever nearby.

• Somehow I missed that Visa has a ​partnership with GigSky​ to offer free international data. It’s a great free offer, but it made me want to see what other credit card benefits I was missing. So I spent most of this week reading dozens of benefit guides for popular cards and doing a ton of research. That led me down another rabbit hole about whether Travel Insurance ever makes sense. Expect an episode on everything I learned on both topics before the end of the month.

• With the school year coming to an end and all the kids with summer birthdays trying to have their parties before summer starts, it feels crazier than ever. I’m really looking forward to a trip we’re taking to Mexico to relax after all the chaos is over.

• We made ​Crispy Gnocchi With Burst Tomatoes and Mozzarella​ this week and it was quick, easy and delicious. It was also the kids favorite meal of the week, with everyone (myself included) coming back for seconds. Also, if you don’t have an NYT Cooking subscription, don’t forget you can get it free with Instacart+, which you should have free with ​any Mastercard​ or ​many cards from a popular bank​.

⭐ My Top Picks

✈️ Delta Amex Cards: Best-Ever Offers + New Perks

To celebrate 30 years of partnership, Delta Amex Cards have ​new best-ever 90K-125K welcome bonuses​. Additionally, the cards now include a free 2nd checked bag on domestic flights and the Gold/Business Gold cards added a $120 rideshare credit ($10/mo). Both of those perks come with no increase in annual fees.

💳 Last Call: Two Best-Ever 150K Welcome Bonuses

Two record-high 150K offers are about to disappear. If you can meet the minimum spend and are eligible, I think they’re great offers.

• Popular personal travel card: ​Best-ever 150K bonus​

• Capital One Venture Business: ​Up to 150K miles​ (ends 6/8)

With both these bonuses worth >$2,000 to me, I’d be all over both of them if I didn’t already have the cards.

🔄 5 New Transfer Bonuses Live This Week

Several new transfer bonuses are out this month. As always, I don’t suggest moving points speculatively without a booking in mind.

• Amex → Flying Blue: ​25% Bonus​ — This one is my favorite, especially with ​recent award availability​

• Amex → Marriott: ​20% Bonus​ — Still not worth it.

• Citi → Qatar Avios: ​30% Bonus​ — Don’t forget you can move points freely between all Avios programs.

• Hotel points → United: ​25% Bonus​ — Also a poor trade

• Rove → Turkish: ​50% Bonus​ — Post TK deval, I’m not excited

🏨 Marriott Card: Best-Ever 125K + Free Night Offer

A personal Bonvoy card is now offering a ​best-ever welcome offer of 125K Marriott points plus a free night award​, which I value at ~$1,300. The free night is good for up to 50K points, but top-able to 75K. For a low fee card with a low minimum spend, this is great offer if you’re interested in accumulating Bonvoy points and can get good use out of a 50K free night award.

✈️ Alaska Atmos: Increased Fees + 50% Off Award Sale

Mixed news from Alaska’s Atmos Rewards. The bad: the ​partner award booking fees are rising from $12.50 to $20​ each way on 7/1, and Saver (basic economy) fares stop earning points and status for bookings made on/after 6/11. The good: the new monthly ​Global Getaways award sale​ offers up to 50% off economy awards. Right now you can go to Mexico City from 7,500 points and Europe from 15K (for travel 9/1-11/15), but you need to book by 6/6 (today). I’m excited to see what these deals look like each month.

🍿 My Recommendation: Stickerbox

​Stickerbox​ is an amazing device that turns ideas into stickers. My Dad got my daughter one for her birthday and now both my girls are obsessed. You just press the button on top, say what you want on the sticker and it prints instantly on BPA/BPS-free paper. ​Check it out here​.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Amex Green: ​Renamed ‘Classic Green’​ — Likely means a new version is coming

• Bilt: ​Palladium Cardholders Seeing $50K Limits​ — I got my limit bumped to $50K this week too

• Citi: ​Custom Cash 5X Discontinued for New Applicants​

• Wells Fargo: ​New Premier Autograph w/ 100K Bonus​ — It’s invite-only, but the 100K bonus is pretty great

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• Lufthansa: ​Stops Releasing First Class Awards to Partners​ — If this is true, it definitely sucks, I’ve always wanted to fly LH First

• Oneworld: ​AA & Alaska Elites to Get Taj/IHCL Status​ — I have status on Alaska, so I’ll take some free status when it’s live.

• Delta: ​Free Premium Drink for T-Mobile Customers​

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Hyatt: ​Up to 30K Points at Hyatt Place & Hyatt Select​

• Wyndham: ​Summer of Rewards, Get Up to 15K Bonus Pts​

💎 Award Deals

• 🇦🇪 Dubai: ​Emirates biz from 96K + $835​

• 🇬🇷 Greece: ​AA biz to Athens from 55K Atmos​

• 🇰🇪 Kenya: ​Safari Camp for 100K Virgin pts/night​

• 🇵🇪 Peru: ​AA biz to Lima from 27.5K AA​

• 🇧🇷 Rio: ​GOL biz from NYC for 40K AA​

• 🇪🇸 Spain: ​Iberia biz to Madrid from 32K Avios​

• 🇬🇧 UK: ​Virgin Upper Class to London from 29K pts​

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• Amex: ​Up to $2,400 Back on Electronics/Software​

• Amex: ​10% Back at IKEA, up to $27​

• Amex: ​$250 Back on $2,000+ Virgin Atlantic​

• Citi: ​$50 Back on $65+ AT&T Wireless​

• Disney Visa: ​Up to 35% Off + $150 Credit at Aulani​

🏦 Bank / Brokerage Bonuses

• Bank of America: ​$100–$500 Checking Bonus​

• E*Trade: ​$400 Savings Bonus on $20K + 4% Intro​

• Four Leaf FCU: ​Up to $550 Checking Bonus​

• PNC: ​$100–$400 Checking Bonus​

• SoFi: ​Up to $765 Checking & Savings (with Swagbucks)​

💬 Parting Thoughts

Thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think – I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Saturday! It’s a lighter week on the top picks, but instead of “promoting” things that don’t deserve to be there, I’m leaving the list short. Here are some quick highlights of today’s newsletter:

• 💳 Three new 80-90K Southwest welcome bonuses

• 🧰 I might be opening a Bay Area studio for builders

• 🏦 Why an 800+ credit score can still get denied

• ✈️ AA blocking close-in partner awards

• 🤖 Is AI actually creating more work?

If you’ve been forwarded this, you can ​subscribe here​. And if you have a friend who’d find this useful, I’d be grateful if you sent it along.

Chris

🏦 The Hidden Rules of Credit Card Approvals

Learn how to dramatically improve your odds of getting approved for the credit cards you actually want. I’ll break down the hidden system banks use to evaluate applications, why your credit score matters far less than you think, and the real factors driving denials, from credit-to-income ratios to recent inquiries to each issuer’s internal model.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

💸 Take Control of Your Money Today

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Copilot Money​

​​​​Copilot Money​​​ is the personal finance app I use and trust almost every day to stay organized and confident about where our money is going.

It’s a beautifully designed money-tracking app that pulls your spending, net worth, and investments into one dashboard you can access on iPhone, Mac and Web. With Copilot Money, you can set flexible spending and savings goals, stay ahead of renewing subscriptions, and trust that your data is never sold.

It’s the only personal finance app to win an Apple Editor’s Choice award and you can get ​​​2 months free with code HACKS2​​​.

📋 My Past Week

• I’m a big fan of ​Colin & Samir’s​ work in the creator world and really enjoyed joining them at their ​Press Publish LA​ event this week. As someone who works at home without a team, getting to spend a day with other creators talking about the future of our work was so fun (and honestly necessary). I highly suggest you all try to find at least one in-person event or meetup this year with people who share your profession or hobby.

• The event is actually pushing me to consider something I’ve been thinking about for the past year: opening a physical space for builders and tinkerers. Think a shared workshop where you could 3D print a prototype, hack on an interesting AI project, laser cut a sign or solder a circuit board alongside other curious builders. If that resonates with you and you live in the bay area, on/near the peninsula, let me know here:

Bay Area Builders Studio

• While in LA I stayed with a close friend for 2 nights and it was so great to have so much time together that it felt like we got past the catching up stage and were just hanging out. After having kids I don’t feel like we often get to do that and it was really fun.

• My youngest daughter loves taking photos. Everywhere we go, she asks to borrow our phones and take photos. The end result is that we have 1000s of random photos, mostly of her fingers, the ground or a wall. But amongst all that are some really fun photos that I never would have captured myself, like this:

⭐ My Top Picks

💳 Southwest Personal Cards: Up to 90K Point Bonuses

Right now, three personal Southwest cards have elevated welcome offers of 80-90K Rapid Rewards points, which I value at $1,000+ of travel. Even better, the spend requirements are lower than many similarly valued offers and the welcome bonuses will leave you more than halfway towards companion pass. ​Full details on the offers here​.

✈️ American Is Blocking Close-In Partner Awards

Bad news for those who book American flights with partner miles. It appears AA is ​blocking nonstop domestic saver award space​ within ~6 days of departure, while keeping those same seats bookable with AA miles. This is a huge bummer for people like me, who often use Alaska or Avious to book last-minute domestic flights. There hasn’t been an official announcement, so things could change in the future.

🪒 My Recommendation

I’m a huge fan of the content around AI and Tech that Dan Shipper and the team at ​Every​ have built. But I specifically loved the long-form piece they recently published called ​After Automation​, which is about how AI progress is creating more work for humans, not less, which is something I’m personally feeling a lot right now. While a lot of their writing and the apps they’ve built are part of a subscription (with a 30-day trial), their ​AI & I podcast​ is free and they actually put out ​this episode​ on the After Automation piece I linked above.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Bank of America: ​BofA Rewards Launch is Live​ — I was hoping for cool new perks, but only got a mediocre streaming credit.

• Citi: ​Custom Cash No Longer Accepting New Applications​

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• American: ​Adding Starlink Wi-Fi to 500+ Aircraft​ — I can’t wait for Starlink on all flights, the experience is amazing.

• Bilt: ​June Rent Day — Up to 125% Transfer Bonus to TAP​ — Between the limited uses of TAP and a cap of 100k points transferred, I’m passing on this one.

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Hilton: ​2K Points/Stay + 4K Points on 4+ Nights (6/1 - 8/15)​

• Hyatt: ​Early 13-Month Award Access for Elites & Cardholders​ — TBD if this will be a “perk”. I assume most people booking Hyatt’s far out already have status or a Hyatt card.

• IHG: ​3rd Night Free on Premium Rooms (EMEA & Asia)​

• Hyatt: ​Some Park Hyatts Reclassifying as “Resorts” to Dodge Late Checkout​ — This feels like it shouldn’t be allowed.

• Marriott: ​Up to 10K Bonus Pts/Stay at 121 Luxury Properties​

• SLH: ​Free Club 03 Top Tier Status, No Stays Required​ — Sadly this won’t work for bookings if you want to earn Hilton points.

💎 Award Deals

• 🇦🇷 Argentina: ​US to Buenos Aires Biz/First From 50K/75K Alaska​

• 🇦🇺 Australia: ​DFW/LAX to Sydney First From 110K​

• 🇧🇪 Belgium: ​IAD to Brussels Biz From 60K Aeroplan​

• 🇯🇵 Japan: ​Park Hyatt Tokyo Reopens, Nights From 35K Hyatt​

• 🇵🇹 Portugal: ​TAP Biz to Lisbon/Porto From 60K Aeroplan​

• 🇪🇸 Spain: ​Iberia Biz to Madrid From 40.5K pts​

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• Hertz: ​$75 Back on $325+, Citi Offer​

• JetBlue: ​$50 Back on $400+, Citi Offer​

• UberEats: ​$15 Back on $25+, BankAmeriDeals​

🛒 Other Deals

• Gas: ​$1/Gallon Cashback through OnePay Every Wednesday​

💬 Parting Thoughts

Thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think – I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Memorial Day weekend! Hope you enjoy the long weekend and get to spend some quality time with friends and family! Here are some quick highlights of today’s newsletter:

• 💰 Lots of points are on sale, but should you buy?

• 📉 How long-term investors think about risk

• 🏨 How bad was the big Hyatt devaluation

• ✈️ New award flight option for biz class to Asia

• 🔄 Three new transfer bonuses to hotel programs

• 🛏️ Bunk beds on flights are coming soon

• 🏋️ Award-winning documentary on beating the odds

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

📉 How Long-Term Investors Actually Think About Risk

Learn to handle market volatility and build long-term wealth in a world dominated by market fear, inflation concerns, and nonstop financial noise. ​Ben Carlson​ and I discuss why investing remains psychologically difficult, how to think about global diversification, when to reevaluate your portfolio, and the risks most investors still overlook.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🛒 The Grocery Membership That Pays for Itself

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Thrive Market​

​Thrive Market​ is an online grocery store for higher-quality staples, delivered to your door, with every product vetted against 1,000+ ingredients they don’t allow.

It’s where we do a ton of our shopping and have found a handful of brands we genuinely love that I’m not sure we’d have spotted at a regular grocery store.

With no per-order delivery fees, service charges, or tip math, the flat $5-a-month membership pays for itself in the first order or two. Thrive also has a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free.

Get $20 off your first three orders plus a free $60 gift at ​chrishutchins.com/thrivemarket​.

📋 My Past Week

• Don’t worry, that’s not our new blue Cybertruck... but for 7 hours on Tuesday while our car was in the shop, it was our loaner vehicle. Despite it not being that much wider than many big SUVs, it felt like we were driving a boat around town. Needless to say, there won’t be a Cybertruck in our future.

• While the kids seem to get sick every few weeks, I usually manage to avoid it. Unfortunately, that didn’t hold true this time and I was out of commission for a few days this week. I’m feeling great now, but still playing catch up from missing a few days.

• Every year this guy Aaron comes through our neighborhood knocking door to door offering to wash all the windows on the house. We were gone a few times he stopped by but I managed to find him outside at ~6p one day and asked if he could do our windows. He asked if he could come over in 20 minutes and get it done before the end of the day. How could I not want to support that attitude? And now our windows all look fantastic!

• We made ​Coconut Fish and Tomato Bake​ for the first time this week and it had everything you want in a dinner. It was delicious, lots of flavor and so easy/quick to make. We made it with some Halibut that Amy’s dad caught (thanks Tom!), but you can use almost any type of fish. Hope you enjoy it!

• For the past few months, my daughter’s class has been studying different artists and doing a piece of art in their style. To celebrate the unit, they hosted an art show, where each kid had a docent badge and took their parents on a tour of the “gallery” and showed off their paintings, mobiles, pottery and more. It was so cute seeing to see her so proud to show off her hard work!

⭐ My Top Picks

💰 Lots of Points on Sale, Is It Worth It?

Lots of points are on “sale” right now, but should you buy any? First, you should know that the non-sale price for points in most programs is so high, that a sale could still be a terrible deal. So make sure to consider how the price compares to the value you might get from the points. If you don’t have a value in mind, I suggest looking at ​Frequent Miler’s valuations​. For example, if you look at all the current sales below, only IHG and LHW are on sale for less than most valuations. That doesn’t mean you can’t get value from other deals. I just wouldn’t recommend buying points unless you have a very specific use case in mind, where you know it’s worth the investment.

• ⭐ IHG: ​100% bonus, 0.5¢/point​

• ⭐ LHW: ​Up to 100% bonus, 6¢/point​

• Emirates: ​Up to 50% bonus, 2¢/point​

• EVA Air: ​Up to 30% off, 2.8¢/mile​

• Finnair: ​Up to 50% bonus, 1.45¢/point​

• Frontier: ​Up to 150% bonus, 1.08¢/mile​

• Hyatt: ​20% bonus, 2.17¢/point​

• Qatar: ​Up to 50% bonus, 1.53¢/point​

🏨 Hyatt Award Chart Devaluation Now Live

The Hyatt devaluation announced last month went live this week and many properties will now need more points to book. That said, so many people were expecting that every property would be priced at the highest end of their new five tier award chart, and ​thankfully that wasn’t the case​. While many properties did go up in price, at least one that I had booked actually went down (so I canceled and rebooked it). With such negative expectations across the industry, I’m feeling surprisingly happy with the current “smaller” devaluation. Most of all I’m happy it’s over, because I felt a ton of pressure before the changes to try and make as many speculative bookings as I could.

✈️ New: Book Philippine Airlines Online with Avios

Qatar Airways Privilege Club just enabled online award booking for Philippine Airlines, which opens up a new path from U.S. transferable points to Asia. Business class from the US is 110,000 - 154,500 points, but availability is actually pretty good. Every single transferrable points program I know has at least one Avios program in it and you can move Avios freely between all Avios programs, so this should be an option available to a ton of people. ​Full details here​.

🛏️ Air New Zealand Launches Economy Bunk Beds

I didn’t choose to highlight this because I expect that many people will be flying to New Zealand soon. However, I love seeing airlines doing innovative things to make it easier to sleep on long-haul flights for much less than a business class ticket. Air New Zealand launched their SkyCouch years ago, and these ​new “Skynest” sleeping pods​ are already on sale for JFK-AKL and cost $495/4hrs. While $124/hr is expensive, business class on the same flight seems to run ~$250/hr and you have to pay that price for the full 18hr. Earlier this year United also announced their “​Relax Row​“ which has a similar proposition.

🔄 3 New Transfer Bonuses to Hotel Programs

Similar to points being on sale (see above), I don’t tend to look at transfer bonuses unless I have a definitive plan to use the points (and it’s a good deal). For the right redemption, the I Prefer and Bonvoy bonuses could make sense, while the Wyndham bonus is probably not worth considering. That said, none are exciting enough for me to speculate on.

• Citi: ​25% Bonus to Wyndham Rewards​ (6/13)

• Citi: ​30% Bonus to I Prefer Hotel Rewards​ (6/13)

• Popular Bank: ​55% Bonus to Marriott Bonvoy​ (6/30)

🍿 My Recommendation

Prisoner No More is a short award-winning documentary that follows Tae Jin Park, a young man diagnosed with cerebral palsy, who overcame so many physical limitations to make one of the most incredible transformations I’ve ever seen. It’s an amazing story that redefines what the human body and mind are capable of. It’s ​free to stream on YouTube​.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Air France/KLM Card: ​Now Earns 3x on Bilt Rent​ — I prefer Bilt points, but could help if you’re going for Flying Blue status

• Amex: ​Fanatics Joins as a Transfer Partner​ — I’m not using this, but interesting to see Amex adding non-travel transfer partners.

• Top Travel Portal: ​Adds Price Match Guarantee​

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• British Airways: ​Raising Taxes & Fees on Awards​ — Fees were already prohibitive, so doesn’t change much for me.

• Emirates: ​Skywards Devalues Awards ~15% 5/21​ — Haven’t ever transferred to Emirates, so probably won’t affect me.

• Rove Miles: ​Up to 15x at Select Merchants, Stacks With Paze​ — Great stacking opportunity with the ​10x Paze promo​.

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Kimpton: ​Summer Password “In bloom and out of office”​

• Fairmont: ​Endless Summer Sale, Up to 30% Off​

💎 Award Deals

• 🇲🇦 Casablanca: ​Royal Air Maroc biz from 55K Alaska​

• 🇹🇷 Istanbul: ​Turkish biz wide open from 65K​

• 🇦🇹 Vienna: ​Austrian biz from 70K Aeroplan​

• 🇩🇪 Germany: ​Lufthansa biz from 60K Aeroplan​

• 🇵🇭 Manila: ​Philippine Airlines biz from 110K Avios​

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• Amazon: ​1,200 points on $150, up to 3,600​

• AT&T Fiber: ​$75 Back on $75​

• Chewy: ​$15 Back (or 2,500 MR) on $75​

• CVS: ​25x Miles In-Store​

• DISH: ​$85 Back on $89.99​

• Hertz: ​$75 Back on $325​

• IHG: ​$50 Back on $250+​

To find and activate offers across all your cards in one place, I love using ​CardPointers​ (30% off ​here​)

🏦 Bank / Brokerage Bonuses

• Popular Bank: ​Up to $1,500 Business Checking​

• SoFi: ​$815 Checking Bonus, Stacked With Swagbucks​

• Ally Invest: ​3.5% IRA Contribution Match​

• KeyBank: ​Up to $500 With New Checking​

🛒 Other Deals

• Airbnb: ​Adds Car Rentals, Grocery & FIFA Experiences​

• Amazon: ​Resale Memorial Day Event, Up to 40% Off​

• Domino’s: ​Free Pizza if Team USA Gets a Red Card​

💬 Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s newsletter, and if you enjoyed it, please let me know why!

Chris

Happy Saturday! Hope your weekend is off to a great start! Here are some quick highlights of today’s newsletter:

• 💳 Up to 15x points on United, Newegg, Sephora and more

• 🛠️ The AI Tools I’m Building for Everyday Optimization

• 📖 Great new book on risk, volatility and long-term wealth

• 🔄 Rare 30% transfer bonus to Southwest

• ❓ Ask me anything on credit cards, points & miles

• ✈️ JetBlue + United elite perks are now active

• 🏨 Last call to book Hyatt awards before 5/20 increase

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

🛠️ AI Tools I’m Building to Replace Spreadsheets

Is AI making it possible for the average person to live a fully optimized life? My friend Anish Acharya and I swap notes on how custom AI tools are replacing our spreadsheets and reshaping the way we work, learn, create, and relate to each other. We’ll dig into why I abandoned OpenClaw, the architecture mistakes many people are making, and what happens when the subsidies on all these AI tools go away.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

💰 Smart Q2 Tax Moves to Make Right Now

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Gelt​

Tax Day has passed, but if you filed an extension, the clock is still ticking, and there are real moves to make before October. Q2 is actually the best time to bring in a pro who’ll make sure you’re in good hands.

I’ve been working with ​Gelt​ for a few years on our personal and business taxes, and I love that every client gets:

✔️ A proactive, year-round strategy to minimize tax liability ✔️ Guidance on missed deductions, retirement contributions, entity structure, and more ✔️ A platform that keeps your tax plan aligned with your goals

Right now, ​Gelt​ is offering two Q2 specials for business owners who are ready to get serious about their taxes. Find out if you qualify ​here​.

📋 My Past Week

• Our girls still love rock climbing and it’s been really fun to keep up with the tradition of trying to take them every week or two. I miss getting to climb more often, but one of these days they’ll be old enough to be my belay partners and I can do a bit more climbing myself.

• Cleaning the solar panels on our roof is one of those home maintenance tasks that never seems urgent enough to prioritize. But it had been almost a year, the days are getting longer, and we finally decided to tackle it (and turn it into a family activity). The good news: we saw a noticeable boost in energy production. The bad news: we also discovered one of the panels was cracked and needs to be repaired, which will sadly probably cost more than any future production for that single panel.

• One of the kids in my daughter’s class had a birthday party at the ​Marine Science Institute​, where they went out on a research ship and got to interact with a bunch of sea creatures. It was such a unique idea and everyone had an amazing time. Since we weren’t able to join on the boat, we had lunch at ​Hurrica​, a new restaurant that was amazing. Worth checking out if you’re ever near Redwood City and want a meal on the water.

• With the Hyatt award rates going up on 5/20, we’ve been making all of our bookings for the next year. Since award reservations are generally refundable, we’ve even made a few speculative bookings. And if you have Globalist status, ​Points Advance​ will let you make bookings without needing to have the points when you book (though you’ll eventually need them).

⭐ My Top Picks

💳 10-15x on United Airlines & More via Paze

A few popular bank cards just quietly added a ​10x bonus on Paze checkout​, which is a new wallet/checkout platform. The list of merchants is small, but notably includes United Airlines, Newegg (which sells gift cards), Dunkin’, Sephora and more. It’s capped at $1,500/month in spend (15K bonus points) and good through the end of the year, which could mean up to 105k bonus points. This stacks on top of normal credit card earning, which could mean earning up to 15x on these purchases. Details in the post above on which cards qualify.

🙋 Upcoming AMA on Credit Cards, Points & Miles

I love getting a chance to answer all your questions, so I’ll be recording an “ask me anything” episode next week, focused on credit cards, points & miles. If you have any questions to share, please ​add them here​. The AMA episode after that will be on Money/Investing, so feel free to add questions on that topic as well. Thanks in advance!

💬 Ask Me Anything

🤖 Amex’s $300 ChatGPT Credit is Live

If you’ve got an Amex Business Platinum or Business Gold ​you can now get $300/mo back on a ChatGPT Business account​. Enrollment on the Amex site/app is required and ChatGPT Business requires a minimum of two users, which is $50/mo (though codes ​like this​ might cut that in half). At $50/mo with 7 months left in the year, the $300 credit would cover most of the cost for two accounts. For next year, if you have two of these cards, it’d cover the cost for two users for the entire year. I think this one is definitely worth checking out if your ChatGPT usage doesn’t require the $100 or $200 plan.

✈️ JetBlue + United Reciprocal Elite Perks Live

The next phase of the JetBlue/United Blue Sky partnership is now active, and TrueBlue and MileagePlus elites get ​reciprocal priority boarding, preferred seating, free checked bags, and same-day standby​ when flying the other airline. While it’s better than nothing, I do wish it included preferred seating at booking for top-tier elites.

🔄 30% Bonus to Southwest from a Popular Bank

A popular bank just launched a ​30% transfer bonus​ to Southwest through 6/5. This is only the second-ever bonus to Southwest and bigger than the last one. While it’s hard to get outsized value from Southwest points, in my recent searches I consistently saw ~1.35¢ per point. That means with this bonus you could be getting ~1.75¢ per point, which is pretty decent value. Just know that points don’t count toward Companion Pass or Southwest status.

⚾ Capital One: Free Drinks + Cheap MLB Tickets

Two fun Capital One perks landed:

1. ​Free handcrafted drinks every Monday at Capital One Cafés​ from 5/25 through 9/28. No purchase or card required, just enroll and add the QR code to your wallet.

2. June and July dates are now ​bookable for the Cardholder Exclusive MLB seats at 5,000 miles each​. They only have 4 seats available per game, so the good ones go fast. Avoid anything labeled “Powered by VividSeats.”

🍿 My Recommendation

Ben Carlson just released ​Risk and Reward​, a new book on how to handle market volatility and build long-term wealth. I really enjoyed reading an advanced copy to prep for my episode with Ben, which comes out next week. The book is full of great context on past crashes, inflation, lost decades and bear markets – but the bigger takeaway is how to think about risk, time horizon and staying invested when things inevitably get uncomfortable.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Intuit: ​New 2% Business Card with a $300 SUB​ – plenty of better 2% cards with higher bonuses.

• Mastercard: ​New Lounges in HKG & GRU (free for World Legend cardholders)​ – No plans to be in Brazil or Hong Kong, but they look beautiful

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• Amex Biz Gold: ​FedEx Ending as $20/mo Credit Option​ – I’ve never used this credit on FedEx, so not a big deal to me

• Delta: ​Up to $80 Uber Credit for Flying Comfort​

• Industry: ​Summer Airfares Up 20%+ YoY​ – I’m definitely feeling this as we’re booking some upcoming travel

• JSX: ​Red Stripe Sale from $199 One-Way​

• United: ​SFO–Sapporo Nonstop + ORD–Tokyo Narita Daily​ – I’d love to go to Hokkaido, so I’m excited for this.

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Accor: ​Mega Offer: Up to 40% Off Americas​

• Choice: ​8K Bonus Pts Every 2 Stays​

• Marriott × Starbucks: ​Sip, Share & Earn Sweepstakes + $5 GC​

💎 Award Deals

• 🇭🇰 Hong Kong: ​Delta One from 85K SkyMiles​

• 🇮🇪 Ireland: ​Aer Lingus Biz from 45K Alaska​

• 🇮🇹 Italy: ​Biz Class from 55K Flying Blue​

• 🇬🇧 London: ​Virgin Upper Class from 29K + ~$700​

• 🇵🇫 Tahiti: ​LAX–PPT from 24K Cap1 Miles​

🏦 Bank / Brokerage Bonuses

• Ally Invest: ​$200 Bonus on $1K Deposit (Existing Ally Customers)​ – Small bonus, but easy for Ally customers

• SoFi Invest: ​2% Bonus, $100K Cap (5-yr Hold)​ – 2% is a fantastic bonus, but not worth it for a 5-year hold. I’d be interested if it were 1-2 years

💬 Parting Thoughts

Thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think – I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Saturday, and more importantly, Happy (early) Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms out there! Hope your weekend is off to a great start! Here are some quick highlights of today’s newsletter:

• 🏥 Managing medical emergencies abroad

• 🇪🇺 Best ways to get to Europe on points

• 💳 3x best-ever 100k+ card offers

• 🛍️ My favorite purchase from the past year

• 🛒 United & Alaska shopping portal bonuses

• 🏦 Three $800+ bank bonuses

• ⛽ 50¢ off per gallon at 7-11/Speedway

If you’ve been forwarded this, you can ​subscribe here​. And if you have a friend who’d find this useful, I’d be grateful if you sent it along.

Chris

🏥 What I Learned From a Travel Emergency in Japan

A few weeks ago, our last day in Tokyo turned into a sprint to an emergency room, and challenged what we thought we knew about traveling abroad. I break down what an ER visit really cost, credit card benefits most travelers don’t know they have, the best places to shop in Japan right now, and how to navigate Disney Tokyo without losing your day to four-hour lines.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🔒 Remove Your Personal Info from the Web

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​DeleteMe​​

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📋 My Past Week

• Huge thank you to the dozens of people who shared advice on our washing machine situation. After my email last week I opened the unit up to see that the control board overheated and probably caught on fire briefly. The burnt plastic fumes were so bad that I’m glad we got out of the house for the weekend and thanks to some serious ventilation, it feels safe to be home again. LG sent someone out to inspect the unit for free and they told me they wouldn’t even try to repair it, so ultimately we bought a new one. I have so many learnings to share from the emails I got and research I did (e.g. best air filters for VOCs, best laundry appliance brands, getting the biggest appliance discounts, negotiating with corporations when their appliances catch on fire), so expect an episode going deep on this soon.

• Partially to get out of the house, we went to Napa this past weekend for an early Mother’s Day celebration with my parents, sister and her family. We had an amazing dinner at ​Charter Oak​, which is one of my favorite restaurants (their raw vegetable appetizer is incredible). Even better, it’s a Resy restaurant, so between all the Amex cards at the table, we had $410 of Resy credit to use.

• I joined my daughter and her class on a field trip to the ​Cantor Arts Center​ at Stanford University, which is an art museum I didn’t even know existed and is free to the public.

• I spent some of this week building out a local database of all of my personal interactions with people dating back to 2001, which includes emails, call logs, calendar events, texts/iMessages, and even my old AOL IMs and GChats. I’m not quite sure what the plan for it is yet, but I’m going to start using it to build a personal CRM and likely tie in a lot of the learnings to something like ​GBrain​. Stay tuned!

• We’ve implemented Taco Tuesday in our home and this week we brought these ​Korean Beef Tacos with Sriracha Slaw​ back into the rotation. It might be one of the few meals that has a near-perfect hit rate from everyone who’s tried it. We go a bit light on the Sriracha for the kids, but we’re still trying to help build their spice tolerance. If anyone has tips, please share!

⭐ My Top Picks

💳 JetBlue Premier: 100K Bonus + 5 New Perks

Barclays just refreshed the JetBlue Premier card with ​5 new perks and a best-ever 100K-point welcome bonus​ after $5K spend in 90 days. When this card first launched, I thought it was wildly underwhelming relative to the annual fee, but now it offers the ability to earn companion passes with spend, bonus tiles towards status and BlueHouse lounge access (JFK and soon BOS). There aren’t many opportunities to fly JetBlue from the Bay Area, but if you fly JetBlue regularly or are looking for a card bonus outside the main issuers, it could make sense.

✈️ Best Ways to Use Points to Get to Europe

A few friends have asked me lately about booking flights to Europe with points, and Frequent Miler just refreshed ​their 2026 guide on exactly that​. It covers award chart updates, fuel surcharges, and cancellation policies across every major program. ThriftyTraveler also has ​a complementary take​ focused on Flying Blue and Aeroplan sweet spots. Both are worth a look if you have a Europe trip in your future.

💳 Best-Ever 150K on Schwab/MS Amex Platinum

​Both the Schwab and Morgan Stanley flavors of the Amex Platinum​ are offering a best-ever 150K Membership Rewards after $12K spend in 6 months. While they have the same perks and annual fee as the regular Platinum, they have a few unique perks:

• Schwab: Cash out up to 1M points/year at 1.1¢ and get a $100-$1,000 annual credit, based on your account balance.

• Morgan Stanley: First additional platinum card free, cash out points at 1¢ (no cap), and get up to $895 as an annual bonus.

Keep in mind that you’re not eligible for the bonus on either card if you’ve gotten any personal Amex Platinum bonus before.

🪒 My Recommendation

I’ve mostly shaved with a razor my whole life, but it’s such a pain when traveling, because you need shaving cream and an extra blade. And then there’s the occasional cut you have to deal with. But electric razors are bulky too and usually have some proprietary charger. I never had a good tip here, until I saw the ​Panasonic ARC5 Palm​ electric razor on display in Japan. It’s so portable, has USB-C charging, is waterproof, but how good is the shave? After reading what seemed like the best reviews you could ask for, I bought one while we were in Tokyo last month, and it’s definitely my top purchase from the past year. This thing is amazing and gets close enough to what a razor does that I’m never going back. If you need a Father’s Day idea, it’s also ​on sale right now​.

📰 The Rest of the Week

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• American: ​10K Bonus Miles for Joining AAdvantage Business​ — If you have a business, fly AA and haven’t done this, you should!

• Atmos Shopping: ​Earn 1,200 miles after spending $400​

• Delta: ​3x on Airbnb Experiences & Services​ — I just wish it was 3x on stays.

• United Shopping: ​Earn 2,500 miles after spending $400​

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Hilton: ​Up to 20% Off App Bookings​

• IHG: ​3K Points on $1K Spend on IHG Card​

• Preferred Hotels: ​$50 Cert per 2-Night Stay, Up to $250​

💎 Award Deals

• 🌍 Doha: ​Qatar Qsuite from US Gateways for 70K Avios​

• 🇪🇸 Madrid: ​Iberia Biz Class from US for 40.5K Alaska/Iberia​

• 🇲🇽 Mexico & Caribbean: ​AA Flights for 4,500 Atmos​

• 🇵🇱 Poland: ​Biz Class from 70K Aeroplan​

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• Amex: ​10% Back on Expedia Prepaid Hotels, Up to $125​

• Popular Bank: ​10% Back on $400+ IHG Stays, Up to $62​

🏦 Bank / Brokerage Bonuses

• BMO: ​Up to $1,500 on Biz Checking (AZ/FL/IL/KS/MO/MN/WI)​

• SoFi: ​Up to $815 on Checking & Savings​

• Wells Fargo: ​$400-$825 Business Checking​

🛒 Other Deals

• 7-Eleven/Speedway: ​$0.50/Gal Off on 7th & 11th Each Month​

• Costco: ​$100 inKind eGift Card for $64.99 (limit 5, through 5/10)​

• Postmates: ​$15 Off $35 with Code MOTHERSDAY​

💬 Parting Thoughts

Thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think – I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Saturday! Big thanks to everyone who sent feedback on the new format for the newsletter. I read (and replied) to every one. Special thanks to Rob, who said he missed hearing more of my commentary on everything, which inspired me to add a lot more of my takes below. Here’s a quick highlight of what’s below:

• 🇯🇵 Tips from booking our Japan Spring Break trip

• 💳 Best-ever 150K bonus on a personal travel card

• 🎁 10% off Disney and Southwest Gift Cards

• 💵 Rakuten’s week of deals offering 15% back

• 📉 Two more airline devaluations coming

• 😔 Amex’s disappointing Gold Card “refresh”

• 🔄 Four New Transfer Bonuses and more!

If you’ve been forwarded this, you can ​subscribe here​. And if you have a friend who’d find this useful, I’d be grateful if you sent it along.

Chris

🇯🇵 Saving $30K+ on the Perfect Japan Trip

I’ll break down how I booked four nonstop business class seats and a week at the Park Hyatt Tokyo entirely on points. I’ll also break down the strategy I used, key takeaways from the trip and how I built an AI-powered trip planner, and more.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

📚 Give Mom a Gift Worth Keeping Forever

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Storyworth​

My mom was programming mainframe computers in COBOL before I was born. I found that out almost by accident, and it made me realize how many family stories would be gone if nobody asked.

That’s what ​Storyworth​ is for. Every week it sends your mom a question about her life, and she can respond by email, phone, or voice (no apps, no passwords). After a year, every story becomes a hardcover book your family keeps forever.

Mother’s Day is May 10th, order now and save up to $20 at ​chrishutchins.com/storyworth​.

📋 My Past Week

• Last weekend we went to a local high school track to have a family race. Our kids had to do 2 laps faster than we could do 4, which seemed like an easy win for us, but our oldest actually beat us. As the winner she decided to make us run extra laps as punishment. Given that I’ve been slacking on exercise the past few weeks, it was probably well needed.

• Yesterday morning our whole house started smelling like burnt rubber or fresh asphalt. We assumed it was a road getting repaved until my wife walked by the laundry room and realized it was our washing machine, which had previously been running a normal load. By the time we figured it out, it was dead and wouldn’t turn on. We bought it 5.5 years ago and now have to decide whether it’s worth paying $425 to get it repaired or pay 2-3x to get a new one. I equally hate the idea of spending so much for a new appliance AND spending so much to repair something that could die again next year. What would you do?

• A few years ago, I started setting up recurring calendar events with a few good friends that I wasn’t great at staying in touch with. We put them on the calendar every 6-12 weeks, with the expectation that either one of us can move or cancel them. They often get canceled, but this week I ended up spending an hour catching up with a good friend and getting a tour of his new bookstore in Columbus, Ohio. If you’re ever in town, check it out: ​​Clintonville Books​​.

⭐ My Top Picks

💳 Best-Ever 150K Bonus On a Top Personal Card

A popular bank’s ​top personal travel card​ just rolled out a best-ever welcome offer: 150,000 transferrable points after $6K spend in 3 months. I find these points worth at least 1.5¢/point, which means this welcome offer could be worth $2,250 or more! Learn more ​here​.

🎁 Sam’s Club: 10% Off Disney + Southwest GCs

Sam’s Club is running two 10% gift card promos this weekend (through 5/3). Both gifts cards have no expiration.

• ​Disney $500 eGift for $450 (limit 2)​

• ​Southwest $500 eGift for $450 (limit 5)​

If you’ve got a Disney trip or any upcoming Southwest travel, these are a fantastic deal. If you’re looking for other gift card deals, you can find 5-12% off a handful of brands on ​my gift card site​ as well (though even I can’t beat the Sam’s Club deals above).

🔄 Four New Transfer Bonuses This Week

• Amex → Hilton at 20% (5/30)

• Capital One → Qantas at 20% (5/31)

• Popular Bank → Marriott at 65% (5/15)

• Popular Bank → Flying Blue at 20% (5/27)

For the right booking, every single one of these transfer bonuses could be a great deal. In fact, I regularly book awards with Hilton, Marriott and Flying Blue. However, these bonuses just aren’t compelling enough to warrant a speculative transfer with no specific booking in mind. But if you do have a booking in mind, these could be a great opportunity.

😔 Amex Gold Card: Disappointing New Offers/Perks

To celebrate the Gold Card’s 60th anniversary, Amex rolled out a handful of ​promotional offers​. My favorites are: 50% back on CLEAR+, $96 off Uber One, $50 off HBO Max, and $30 off $100 at Williams Sonoma. The card also added a few new perks: 5x on prepaid hotels (via Amex Travel), Hertz Five Star status, and Buffalo Wild Wings now eligible on the dining credit. Overall, it was an underwhelming “card refresh”.

🛍️ Rakuten Big Give Week: 15% Back 5/4–5/11

This week is Rakuten’s Big Give Week, which will come with an elevated 15% back at hundreds of stores, including: Adidas, Bombas, Columbia, DSW, Expedia, Kate Spade Outlet, KitchenAid, LEGO, Lenovo, PetSmart, Puma, Ray-Ban, Sonos, Ulta and more.

I’m a big fan of Rakuten because you can earn your cash back in the form of Amex or Bilt points. And if you haven’t joined yet, new members can use a referral link (here’s ​mine​) to earn a ​$50 bonus​ (or 5,000 points) after spending $50.

📉 Avianca + Aeroplan Both Devalue Awards

Two transfer-partner devaluations landed back-to-back:

• Avianca LifeMiles raised partner award prices unannounced, with many Europe biz seats now 90K+ one-way (up from 63K historically). More info ​here​.

• Air Canada Aeroplan’s new chart goes live 6/1, with long-haul biz/first up 20-67%. More info ​here​.

Virgin Atlantic and Hyatt also recently devalued, so consider this your reminder to use your points before they get devalued again.

✈️ Spirit Airlines Has Ceased Operations

Spirit shut down at 3am ET today. If you had a flight booked, don’t head to the airport expecting to fly. Credit/debit bookings will be refunded to the original payment method, but Free Spirit points and vouchers will go through bankruptcy court (and are likely gone). You can find capped/discounted “rescue fares” here: ​United​, ​JetBlue​, ​Southwest​ and ​Frontier​ (American/Delta said they’ve reduced fares on many Spirit routes too). Unfortunately travel insurance rarely covers airline default.

🍿 My Recommendation

I wouldn’t call myself a “runner” and I certainly never ran track or cross country at school. Yet it still feels crazy to think through what it took for Sabastian Sawe to run a sub-two hour marathon. If you want a breakdown of some of the crazy stats about his pacing in the race, you’ll definitely enjoy this video.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Citi: ​AAdvantage Platinum 80K Bonus + No AF Yr 1​ - AA miles are hard to come by and there’s no annual fee, so I like this.

• Citi: ​Ending ThankYou Points Sharing 5/17​ (last day 5/16) – This is disappointing, but transferred Citi points have always expired after 90 days, so it wasn’t an exciting feature to begin with.

• IHG: ​Two New Best-Ever Bonuses​ – I don’t stay at IHG much, so not interesting to me.

• Royal Caribbean: ​New Royal ONE & ONE Plus Cards​ – I’ve only been on one cruise ever, so not exciting for me.

• Wells Fargo: ​Adds Cathay Pacific as 1:1 Partner​ – LOVE this addition, and excited to see Wells becoming an increasingly attractive points program.

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• Delta: ​No More Free CLEAR+ for Diamond Elites​ – You can still get free CLEAR+ with Amex Plat, Biz Plat, Green and Aspire.

• Flying Blue: ​25% Off Economy from 11 NA Cities​ (book by 5/31)

• Frontier: ​Summer GoWild Pass $199​ (through 9/30) – I’ve never flown Frontier, but you do, this could be a good deal.

• JetBlue: ​Adds China Airlines as Redemption Partner​ – I love that JetBlue keep adding new partners to redeem points on.

• TSA: ​Back to Normal after 76-Day Shutdown Ends​

• United: ​Polaris Biz on Transcon + HNL Routes​ – Excited to check this out if they have low cost biz awards on these routes.

💎 Award Deals

• 🇧🇶 Bonaire: ​AA Econ MIA→BON from 7.5K Atmos​

• 🇩🇪 Germany: ​Lufthansa Biz from 60K Aeroplan​ (BOS/NYC/PHL)

• 🇪🇸 Madrid: ​Iberia Biz from 40.5K Atmos/Avios​

• 🇨🇳 Shanghai: ​Delta Biz from 104K Flying Blue​ (SEA/LAX/DTW)

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• Amex: ​Viator $35 Back on $350, Use 2x​ (5/31)

• Amex: ​CVS 10% Back, Up to $10​ (5/31)

• Amex: ​Best Western $50 Back on $250​ (7/31)

• Citi: ​Hertz $75 Back on $325​ (targeted, 6/30)

• Citi: ​10% Back on Lyft, Max $10​ (6/30)

• Popular Bank: ​10% on Home Improvement​ (up to $15, 5/31)

To find and activate offers across all your cards in one place, I love using ​CardPointers​ (30% off ​here​)

🏦 Bank / Brokerage / Crypto Bonuses

• Associated Bank: ​$600 Checking Bonus​ (9-state, 5/31)

• OKX: ​2–3% Crypto Deposit Match, 30-Wk Hold​ – This is a decent bonus, but all my crypto is still locked up from a Robinhood bonus last year.

• PNC: ​Business Checking Up to $1,000​ (select states, 6/30)

• Popular Bank: ​Total Checking $900 Bonus​ (7/15) –

🛋️ New Lounges

• Cathay: ​The Wing First Class Reopens at HKG​

• HNL: ​3 New Lounges Coming from AS, DL, WN​

• SkyTeam: ​New Flagship Lounge Opens at FRA T3​

💬 Parting Thoughts

Thanks so much for reading! Hit reply and let me know what you think – I read every response. 🙏

Chris

Happy Sunday! A note before we get into it: the newsletter just crossed 100,000 subscribers this week, which is genuinely surreal. Thank you for being one of them. The fact that this lands in your inbox every weekend and you actually open it is something I don’t take for granted.

I also took an extra day this week to restructure how the newsletter works. The goal is to spend less time on the long list of every deal that crossed my desk and more time on the things that actually deserve your attention — while still keeping the comprehensive list at the end for anyone who wants to scan it. Here’s what that looks like:

• 📋 My Past Week: a bike lesson gone wrong, a 3D printer save, and a few automation experiments

• ⭐ My Top Picks: Hyatt’s award chart shake-up, save $$ on flights you’ve booked, 50% off Disney Cruise kids, and more

• 🍿 My Recommendation: a new HBO show worth your time

• 📰 The Rest of the Week: JAL/ANA doubling fuel surcharges, 25% Citi bonus to LHW, business class award deals, and more

If you’ve been forwarded this, you can ​subscribe here​. And if you have a friend who’d find this useful, I’d be grateful if you sent it along.

Chris

🤖 The Custom Everything Era with Kevin Rose

This week, my good friend Kevin Rose and I dig into how AI is reshaping the way we use software. The big idea: we’re entering an era where it’s faster to build your own tool than to download someone else’s. We get into how we’re actually using AI day-to-day, what we’re sharing with these models, and what it means for jobs, trust, and creativity.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

💸 Take Control of Your Money Today

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Copilot Money​

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It’s a beautifully designed money-tracking app that pulls your spending, net worth, and investments into one dashboard you can access on iPhone, Mac and Web. With Copilot Money, you can set flexible spending and savings goals, stay ahead of renewing subscriptions, and trust that your data is never sold.

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📋 My Past Week

• When I first learned to ride a bike, I remember turning around to see my parents’ faces light up that I was doing it on my own, then running straight into the mailbox and getting a few stitches on my head. Well, my youngest daughter took after me this past week and turned around to see how proud we were and tumbled right over her handlebars. She was right, we were very proud, and fortunately she only got some scrapes and avoided the ER.

• On a happier kid note, I loved getting to take my two daughters out for a breakfast date this week, and it was even better that we did it somewhere I could pay with our Amex Hilton credits. We make an effort to have some 1:1 time with our kids (or 1:2 time in this case) and as much as I love doing things with the whole family, we also think some single parent time is important too.

• My dad somehow lost one small lego piece on the ​DC-3​ we got him for his birthday, which Lego would have had to ship from Denmark. Fortunately, this was a great opportunity for our 3D printer to get him the piece in less than 20 minutes. It actually took two prints, because I didn’t use auto-orient the first time.

• In an effort to “buy more time”, I spent the weekend trying to automate a lot of the manual processes I do on a regular basis. This week it was automating Invoicing and Award Searching and early results are very promising. I was really looking forward to building this out on the new GPT 5.5 models, but they were down right as I started this project, so that’ll have to wait until next week.

• Finally, I restructured the newsletter to be more focused on my goal of highlighting the top things each week, so I hope you like what I did. Please reply and let me know!

⭐ My Top Picks

The most actionable money, points, and travel items I came across this week. Some weeks that’s 7-8, others just 3-4. I’d rather keep it short than waste your time.

🏨 Hyatt Award Changes: 112 Hotels Moving Up

Hyatt just announced its biggest award chart change in years and it’s not great. Starting 5/20, 112 properties are moving up at least one category and only 24 are moving down. This is on top of ​broader award price hikes​ across the board. Free night certificates will still work regardless of tier, but if you’ve been eyeing a Hyatt redemption, book before 5/20 to lock in today’s price. ​Full details here​.

✈️ Save Money on Flights You’ve Already Booked

I recently started using ​​Autopilot​​, a service that automatically tracks your upcoming flights (American, Delta, United, Alaska, and JetBlue for now), and any time the fare drops by $20+, they rebook the same ticket and issue you airline credit for the difference (your flight, seat, and cabin don’t change). It’s free to track flights, and you only pay 15-25% of the savings if they save you money. And with ​this link​​, you get your first $100 in savings processed free.

🔍 Google Hotels Adds Price Tracking Alerts

If you need an option for tracking Hotel prices, ​Google Hotels​ now lets you set alerts on a hotel and dates, and get an email if/when the rate falls. This is especially useful if you ever make refundable hotel bookings that you can easily cancel and rebook.

🏨 Top Travel Portal Boosts Hotel Redemptions to 2.5cpp

A popular card issuer’s travel portal just bumped their hotel redemptions to 2.5¢/point on a curated list of 11 luxury hotels. The list is small but includes some genuinely aspirational properties in the US, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. At 2.5cpp, this is a fantastic value for your points. ​Full list of hotels and details here​.

🎿 Free Marriott Night When You Renew Your Ikon Pass

If you ski as often as our family does, you’re probably holding an Ikon Pass. And if you’re renewing for 2026-27, ​​there are 5 Renewal Rewards​​ to choose from, with the standout being a Marriott Bonvoy Free Night Award worth up to 25K points (which you can top off with 25K more to book up to a 50K-point property). Other options include $50 off your renewal, up to $100 off Backcountry.com plus a Premium membership, 2 free rental days from Ski Butlers, or $25 monthly mountain credits. This offer is valid through 7/31 for U.S. and Canada residents.

🚢 50% Off Disney Cruise Line Kids Fares

If you’ve got kids under the age of 18, Disney’s new ​​Together at Sea offer​​ gives 50% off the cruise fare. However, you do need 2 adults paying full fare, the sailing can’t already be discounted, and suites/concierge services are excluded. Book by 6/14 for sailings between October 2026 and March 2027. The offer even applies to existing bookings in the window, so you can call Disney to adjust.

🍿 My Recommendation

Amy and I have been really enjoying ​Rooster​ on HBO. It’s a new Bill Lawrence comedy (Ted Lasso, Shrinking) starring Steve Carell as a best-selling thriller author who shows up at the New England college where his daughter teaches, just as her marriage is falling apart. Episodes are only 30 minutes and it’s had us laughing a lot.

📰 The Rest of the Week

Everything else worth knowing this week, organized by category. Skim to whatever’s relevant to you.

💳 Credit Cards & Points

• Citi: ​25% Bonus to Leading Hotels of the World (through 5/16)​

• Capital One: ​Quicksilver → Discover, Adds 3% Gas/Grocery​

• LifeMiles: ​Another Devaluation (3rd in a year)​

• Citi: ​AT&T Points Plus Card Refresh (new bonus + credits)​

✈️ Airline News & Promos

• Air France/KLM : ​​10K miles on economy from the US​

• ANA & JAL: ​Doubling Fuel Surcharges from North America​

• Cathay Pacific: ​​Up to 4,380 miles for completing challenges​

🏨 Hotel News & Promos

• Accor: ​​Up to 3x pts in Asia, Africa and Middle East (4/20 - 8/31)​

• Hyatt: ​​20% points back on Las Vegas awards (4/3 - 7/31)​

• IHG: ​​5K points in Middle East, Africa & South Asia (4/21 - 6/21)​

• IHG: ​​3K bonus points for new members after 1st stay​

• Marriott Homes & Villas: ​​40K points on 2+ nt stays (4/27 - 1/3)​

💎 Award Deals

• 🇦🇪 Abu Dhabi: ​Biz class from 70K Etihad miles​​

• 🇳🇱 Amsterdam: ​Biz class from 60K Virgin points​​

• 🇯🇴 Amman: ​​​​Biz class from 70K Royal Jordanian miles​​

• 🇦🇷 Argentina: ​​​​Biz class from 50K Atmos points​

• 🇬🇧 London: ​Park Hyatt London for 5K/night​

• 🇪🇸 Madrid: ​​​​Biz class from 40.5K Iberia Avios​​

🔗 Card-Linked Offers

• Air France/KLM: ​​$250 off $1,250​ or ​​$400 off $2,000​ (5/31)

• AT&T Wireless: ​​$75 off $100​​ (4/30)

• Citi Travel Hotel Bookings: ​​$50 off $300​​ (5/14)

• Fox One: ​$19.99 off $19.99​ (5/16)

• Go Rentals: ​​20% back, up to $200​​ (8/5)

• Hilton: ​​10% off, up to $65​​ (5/15)

• Leading Hotels of the World: ​​$150 off $700+​​ (7/31)

• Marriott: ​​10% off, up to $80​​ (5/15)

• The Parking Spot: ​$10 off $50+​ (5/15)

To find and activate offers across all your cards in one place, I love using ​CardPointers​ (30% off ​here​)

🛒 Points on Sale

• British Airways: ​1.64¢ each with up to a 40% bonus​

• Marriott: ​0.89¢ each with a ​targeted 40% bonus​

🎁 Gift Card Deals

• Amex: ​Up to 10K bonus miles for Delta gift cards​

• BJs.com: ​​10% off Lowe’s, Panera, Gap & more​

• Meijer Mperks: ​​7,500 points for a $100 Visa gift card​

• Newegg: ​8% Off $250 Lowe’s Gift Cards​

• Staples.com: ​​15% off Ulta, Cheesecake Factory & more​

For 5-12% off brands like Uber, Doordash, Instacart, Airbnb & more, check out ​my relaunched gift card site​.

💬 Parting Thoughts

This is the first issue with the new format. Hit reply and tell me what you think — I read every response. 🙏

Chris

We’re back to emails on Saturday! Hope you’re having a great start to your weekend. Here are some highlights from today’s newsletter:

• 😲 The surprising history of points and miles

• 💳 Up to 150K miles on the new CapOne Venture Business card

• ⛽ How to save up to $0.95/gallon at Speedway

• 💰 Earn up to $4,350 in bank bonuses

• 🐶 Free 24/7 online pet care with Amex Platinum

• 🔗 Card-linked offers worth $800+

• 💻 The ancient coding language from the 1950s, and more!

Quick favor: If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! (And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​). Thank you so much!

Chris

😲 The Surprising History of Points and Miles

Want to learn the history of points and miles so you can get more out of every point you earn? I cover the legal accidents that made credit cards wildly profitable, why loyalty programs are worth more than the airlines themselves, the psychology behind hoarding points, and more.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

💰 Smart Q2 Tax Moves to Make Right Now

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​Gelt​

Tax Day just passed, but if you filed an extension, the clock is still ticking, and there are real moves to make before October. Q2 is actually the best time to bring in a pro who’ll make sure you’re in good hands.

I’ve been working with ​Gelt​ for a few years on our personal and business taxes, and I love that every client gets:

✔️ A proactive, year-round strategy to minimize tax liability ✔️ Guidance on missed deductions, retirement contributions, entity structure, and more ✔️ A platform that keeps your tax plan aligned with your goals

Right now, ​Gelt​ is offering two Q2 specials for business owners who are ready to get serious about their taxes. Find out if you qualify ​here​.

📋 My Past Week

Here’s a quick recap of what I was up to last week:

• We’re finally all caught up on jet lag from the Japan trip. It went better than expected, but it turns out the first night back was a red herring, because the kids woke up in the middle of the night for a few days after. That said, they went back to sleep and finished out the night, which makes us optimistic about continuing to take overseas family trips.

• While I always prefer not to have to pay any more taxes, I did owe something on tax day this past week and the silver lining is that I was able to advantage of the low 1.75% cost to put federal tax payments on a credit card.

• Our youngest daughter got some stitches out from a small accident in Japan (full story will be on the podcast in two weeks). The craziest thing was that we paid 2x more to get the stitches removed at a routine appointment back home with good health insurance than we did to get the stitches done at a hospital in Japan paying cash. Big thanks to three subscribers (Corey, Bill and Rob) who offered some remote guidance on the situation.

• If you need to bake a cake to celebrate anything in your life, I can’t recommend this ​Lemon Bundt Cake​ more highly. It’s a huge hit every time we make it and is now at least half of my extended family’s birthday cake requests.

• Last year my sister and I got my Dad a ​Lego Concorde​ kit, which he loved, so when the ​Pan Am DC-3​ kit came out, we knew it’d be an amazing birthday gift for him this year (and it was). Highly recommend Legos as gifts for people that are hard to shop for

🛫 Travel, Points & Miles

💳 New CapOne Venture Business Card: Up to 150K Miles

Capital One just introduced the ​​Capital One Venture Business​​ to replace the Spark Miles card and it comes with a limited-time welcome bonus of ​up to 150,000 miles​ (75K after a $7,500 spend in 3 months, plus another 75K after a $30K total in 6 months). It earns unlimited 2x miles on every purchase, 5x on hotels and rental cars through Capital One Business Travel, and up to $100 in annual credits for just a $95 annual fee. This is a great card for business owners because Capital One miles transfer to 15+ partners like Aeroplan, Avios, and Japan Airlines.

🛍️ 95x Amex/Bilt Points at Rakuten

Rakuten is currently offering ​95% cash back​ (or 95x Amex or Bilt points) on Surfshark VPN. If you set your earnings to Amex or Bilt Points, you’re effectively buying transferable points for ~1¢ each and getting a free VPN for up to 27 months. For example, the Surfshark One+ plan costs $112.86 and would earn you $107.21 cash back or 10,721 points. You’d also get a VPN for 27 months, so you could look at this as 27 months of a free VPN for $5.64. Offers are limited to new Surfshark customers on first purchase. Also, these offers change frequently, so you can keep ​checking here​ for the latest deals.

And If you’re not yet a Rakuten member, this ​​referral link​​ earns you an extra $50 (or 5K points) after your first $50 purchase, which would make the deal above profitible :)

🧳 A Guide to Free Checked Bags via Credit Cards

Since checked bag fees just went up across every major U.S. airline, free checked bag benefits on co-branded cards have become more valuable than ever. ​This Frequent Miler guide​​ breaks down every card that offers free bags, how each benefit works, and which cards cover multiple passengers on the same reservation.

📣 Other Airline, Hotel and Points Promos This Week

Business Class Award Deals

• 🇦🇹 Austria: From ​​70K Aeroplan points​​

• 🇮🇪 Ireland: From ​​45K Atmos Rewards points​​

• 🇲🇦 Morocco: From ​​55K Atmos Rewards points​​

• 🇹🇷 Turkey: From ​​65K Turkish Miles&Smiles miles​​

Hotel Promos

• Accor: ​​2X points​​ on stays of 2+ nights in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Panama, and Brazil. Register and book by 8/8 and stay before 9/8.

• IHG: ​​​​Stay 2 nights and get the 3rd night free​​ at select properties in Asia and the Pacific. Book by 5/1 and stay before 12/31.

• Preferred Hotels: ​​Up to 35% off stays​ at select properties worldwide. Book by 4/27 and stay before 5/28.

• Wyndham: ​​20% off 2+ night stays​​ at 600+ participating properties. Book by 5/22 and complete the stay before 6/1.

Airline Promos

• American Airlines: ​​100K AAdvantage miles sweepstakes​​ for 100 winners. Enter daily with your AAdvantage number, no purchase necessary. Book an AA flight during the sweepstakes for 100 bonus entries (up to 4 bookings).

• Singapore KrisFlyer: ​​30% off Saver award tickets​​ on select routes in Economy, Premium Economy, and Business. Book by 4/30 for travel between 5/1 and 5/31.

• Southwest (Targeted): ​2x Companion Pass-qualifying points​​ (up to 10K bonus points) on home improvement store purchases made with your Southwest card between 4/1 and 6/30. ​Registration​ is required.

🤑 Latest Deals

⛽ Save Up to $0.95/Gallon at Speedway

Last week I shared how you can save on gas up to $1.41/gallon at ​​7-Eleven​​ and $0.20/gallon through ​​Amazon Prime Fuel-Up Fridays​​.

Now Speedway is running a ​​stackable fuel discount promo​​ that can save you up to $0.95/gallon by combining multiple promo codes. Text SAVE for $0.25 off (works for three fill-ups), FUEL for $0.40 off and FUEL30 for $0.30 off (which are one-time use) separately to 96001. Not sure how long these codes will last, so act quick.

🐶 Two Pet Deals: Free Virtual Care and $30 off $100+

• Free 24/7 Online Pet Care. If you have an ​Amex Platinum Card​, which includes a monthly Walmart+ credit, you can ​​activate a free Pawp membership​​ for 24/7 virtual vet care. A standalone Pawp membership normally costs $99/year, so this is a nice hidden perk. Just log into your Walmart+ account, click “Free online pet care,” and follow the prompts.

• $30 Off $100+ on Pet Products. Amazon is currently offering a ​​$30 credit when you spend $100+ on select pet products​​. If you were already stocking up on food, treats, or supplies, this is an easy way to save.

💰 Earn Up To $4,350 in Bank Bonuses

Bank bonuses continue to be one of the easiest ways to earn cash, and there are new offers that might be worth checking out:

• ​​Up to $1,500 from Capital One​​: Open a new 360 Performance Savings account with promo code BONUS1500 and complete the qualifying requirements.

• ​​Up to $450 from U.S. Bank​​: Open a new Smartly Checking account before 6/18 and complete the qualifying requirements.

• ​​$400 from Wells Fargo​: Open an Everyday Checking account before 5/18 and complete qualifying direct deposits.

• ​​(Business) ​Up to $2,000 from Citi​: Open a new eligible business checking account in-branch before 7/7 and complete the qualifying activities.

🔗 Card-Linked Offers Worth $800+

Here are some card-linked offers I found this week with expiration dates in parentheses.

• AT&T Wireless: ​$50 off $65​ (6/30)

• Best Western: ​10% back, up to $32​ (5/25)

• Construction Purchases: ​$75 off $2,500+​, up to 3x (7/16)

• Hilton: ​$60 off $300+​ (depends on the stay)

• La Colombe: ​10-20% back​, up to $250 (7/15)

• Norwegian Cruise Line: ​$200 off $1000​ (6/30)

• Omni Hotels: ​$100 off $500+​ (8/14)

• Preferred Hotels & Resorts: ​$100 off $500+​ (7/8)

• Rover: ​$50 off $100+​ (6/30)

• Turo: ​$25-30 back on $150​ (5/31)

• YouTube: ​$20 off $49.99​, up to 3x (7/15)

Please note that some of these offers are targeted, so I recommend using ​​CardPointers Pro​​ (get 30% off ​​here​​) to automate them.

🕵️ Top Finds

💻 The Ancient Coding Language Powering 95% of ATMs

It’s pretty wild that banks still rely on COBOL, a programming language from the 1950s, to run critical financial systems. It’s incredibly stable and deeply embedded (so replacing it is risky and expensive) but also creates a weird talent gap since very few engineers learn it today.

💬 Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s newsletter, and if you enjoyed it, please let me know why!

Chris

Hope you’re having a great weekend! We’ll get back to Saturday emails next week (now that I’m back from Japan). Here are some highlights from today’s newsletter:

• 🤔 How to stop overthinking and start deciding

• ⛽ Two ways to save on gas: 7-Eleven & Amazon

• 💰 $11,000+ in bank & brokerage bonuses

• 🛍️ Up to 1,000 points via airline shopping portals

• 💸 Get $200 cash back on a $500 Melio payment

• 🔗 Card-linked offers worth $900+

• 💳 Big Hilton welcome offers ending soon

• 🏠 The current state of U.S. housing, and more!

If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

🤔 How to Stop Overthinking and Start Deciding

Want to learn to stop overthinking and make better decisions? This week, Derek and I discuss how optimizing can go wrong, a coin flip trick for making decisions, journaling as a superpower, how your actions might reveal what you actually want, and so much more.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🔒 Remove Your Personal Info from the Web

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… ​DeleteMe​​

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📋 My Past Week

We just wrapped up a 10 day trip to Japan with the whole family and I have so many things to share that it’s going to need its own episode. While this wasn’t our first trip to Japan, it was the first time we’ve taken the kids, and I think it might be the most kid-friendly travel destination we’ve ever been to. More to come soon!

🤑 Latest Deals

⛽ Two Ways to Save on Gas: 7-Eleven & Amazon

With gas prices surging lately, here are two ways you could save.

• ​7-Eleven​: Stack multiple promo codes to save up to $1.41/gallon. Text SAVE, FUEL, FUEL30, STARSWIN, and DEAL separately to 711711, then redeem through the 7-Eleven app or enter your phone number at the pump. Military, first responders, teachers, and students can save an extra $0.05 via ID.me verification in the app. FYI these codes probably won’t stack for long.

• ​Amazon Prime Fuel-Up Fridays​: Through 5/29, Prime members save $0.20/gallon (double the usual discount) on one fill-up every Friday at bp, Amoco, and participating locations. Activate once at ​amazon.com/fuelsavings​ and redeem via the earnify app. Amazon Family households can double-dip with separate earnify accounts for up to $48 in total savings.

💰 $11,000+ in Bank & Brokerage Bonuses

Bank bonuses are a great way to earn some easy cash, so here are some worth checking out.

Brokerage

• ​Up to $1,000 from J.P. Morgan​: Open a Self-Directed Investing account by 7/21 and transfer a qualifying amount and maintain the balance for 90 days.

Bank (Personal)

• ​Up to $5,000 from HSBC​: Open a Premier Checking account by 6/30 and deposit or invest $150K-$1M+ in new assets and complete the qualifying activities.

• ​Up to $1,600 from Raisin​: Open a new account with promo code FRESHSTART before 4/30 and complete the qualifying activities.

• ​Up to $900 from a popular bank​: Open eligible checking AND savings accounts before 7/15 and complete qualifying activities.

• ​$500 from BCU Credit Union​: Open a new checking account before 5/15 and complete the qualifying requirements.

• ​Up to $400 from First Commonwealth Bank​ (Select States): Open a new checking account with promo code FCB400, make 10 debit card transactions, and deposit $2K+ within 60 days.

Bank (Business)

• ​Up to $1,200 from U.S. Bank​: Open a new qualifying business checking account before 6/30 with promo code Q2BUS26 and complete the qualifying activities.

• ​$400 from Truist​ (select states): Open a new small business checking account before 7/9 with promo code SB26Q2CHECKING and complete the qualifying requirements.

• ​$200 from Live Oak Bank​: Open a new business checking account before 4/30 and complete the qualifying requirements.

💸 Get $200 Back On a $500 Melio Payment

​Melio​ offers businesses an easy way to pay vendors with a credit card when they don’t offer the option themselves. They do charge a fee, but right now, ​Melio is offering $200 cash back​ when you make a $500 payment. If your business has an upcoming bill to pay, it’s a solid deal.

🛍️ Cash Back Shopping Portal Bonuses: Earn Up to $125

Last week I shared a sign up bonus for ​Rakuten​ where you can earn a $50 bonus after a $50 purchase. Two other cash back shopping portals are offering similar bonuses right now.

• ​$50 bonus from RebatesMe​​: When you sign up and earn $10 in cash back within 90 days.

• ​$25 bonus from TopCashback​: When you sign up and earn $10 in cash back within 180 days.

🔗 Card-Linked Offers Worth $900+

Here are some card-linked offers I found this week with expiration dates in parentheses.

• AllTrails: ​50% back​, up to $40 (7/5)

• Delta Vacations: ​$200 off $1,000​ (6/30)

• DirecTV: ​$50 off $100​, up to 2x times (4/30)

• DISH Network: ​$85 off $85​ (5/15)

• Marriott: ​$150 off $375​ (6/22)

• Rover: ​$50 off $100​ (6/30)

• Turkish Airlines: ​$200 off $1,200​ (6/30)

• Viator/TripAdvisor Experiences: ​8% off​, up to $125 (4/30)

Please note that some of these offers are targeted, so I recommend using ​CardPointers Pro​ (get 30% off ​here​) to automate them.

🎯 Target: 20% Off Car Seats and Strollers

​Target’s trade-in event​ is back from 4/19 to 5/16. Bring in any old car seat, stroller, or other qualifying gear and get 20% off a new one. If you’ve got kids (or are expecting), this might be worth checking out.

🛫 Travel, Points & Miles

🛍️ Up to 1,000 Points via Airline Shopping Portals

Both the ​Alaska Airlines​ and ​United​ shopping portals are running promos right now. Alaska is offering ​500 bonus Atmos Rewards points ​when you spend $100 through 4/17, and United is offering ​500 bonus MileagePlus miles​ when you spend $100 through 4/15.

📰 Amex: New Referral Limit, Member Airfares & More

Here are three notable updates from Amex this week.

• ​Amex Caps Referrals at 5 Per Year​: As of 4/8, referral bonuses on each Amex card is capped at 5 per calendar year​. This could be better for some cards (5 referrals at 30K each on the Platinum = 150K, up from the old 100K cap) but worse for cards like Hilton or cash back, where the effective earning ceiling drops.

• ​Amex Launches Platinum Member Airfares​: This is mostly just a rebrand of the old International Airline Program, which offers ~10% savings on premium cabin fares with 30+ airlines through Amex Travel. That said I’ve noticed some domestic discounts on economy flights (e.g. Delta), so it could be worth a look.

• ​Amex to Lose Lufthansa Lounge Access on 10/1​: Platinum and Centurion cardholders will ​lose access to Lufthansa Lounges.

💳 Elevated Hilton Card Offers Ending 4/15

All four increased welcome offers on the Hilton Amex cards end on 4/15. Three of the offers include a free night award, which can be super valuable because it can be used for a standard room award at almost any Hilton property worldwide, regardless of the cost in points.

• ​Hilton Honors American Express Business Card​: 175K bonus points + free night award after an $8K spend in 6 months.

• ​Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card​: 130K bonus points + free night award after a $3K spend in 6 months.

• ​Hilton Honors American Express Card​: 70K bonus points + free night award after a $2K spend in 6 months.

• ​Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card​: 175K bonus points after a $6K spend in 6 months.

📣 New Airline, Hotel and Points Promos This Week

Business Class Award Deals

• 🇵🇱 Poland: From ​70K Aeroplan points​

• 🇶🇦 Qatar Airways: From ​70K Avios points​

• 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: From ​23K Virgin points​

Hotel Promos

• IHG: ​3x points ​on stays across 80+ countries. ​Register here​ and book today, 4/11 and stay before 5/22.

• IHG: ​15% of award bookings​ at new and revamped hotels listed ​here​ with expiration dates for bookings.

• Marriott Bonvoy Escapes: ​Up to 20%​ on stays booked with promo code QRI before 4/12 and completed by 5/3.

• Preferred Hotels: ​2,500 bonus points per stay at new properties​ booked before 6/30 and completed by 9/30.

• Wyndham: ​5K bonus points + up to 25% off 2+ night stays​ at Caesars Rewards properties. Book by 4/30 and stay before 9/1.

Airline Promos

• Delta: ​Earn 1 MQD per $1 spent toward status​ on hotels, vacation rentals, and car rentals. Book by 5/18 and travel by 9/30.

• United & Air Canada: ​Free reciprocal Wi-Fi​ for loyalty members.

• Virgin Atlantic: ​​​​Rove Miles has added Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Red as ​1:1 transfer partners​​.

💼 Every Major U.S. Airline Has Now Raised Bag Fees

All five major U.S. carriers have now hiked checked bag fees amid surging jet fuel costs. ​Southwest​, ​Delta​, and ​American​ all bumped first bags to $45 and second bags to $55, joining JetBlue and United. American went further by adding an extra $5 surcharge on basic economy bags starting 5/18 and stripping elites of complimentary upgrades on basic economy fares. However, co-branded cardholders and elites still get free bags across all airlines.

🕵️ Top Finds

🏠 Is U.S. Housing Starting to Crash?

If you’re thinking about buying a home, Nick Maggiulli​ wrote ​this article​ about the current housing market. He highlights that 75% of major metros saw real home price declines last year, new home sales are at their lowest since late 2022, and cancellations are at record highs. His take is that we’re unlikely to see a full crash because homeowners have so much equity built up, but a slow deflation is very much on the table.

⛽ Interactive Gas Price Map

The New York Times put together an ​interactive map showing gas prices based on where you live in the U.S.​ It lets you compare prices across regions and even down to the county level. It’s a fascinating visualization, even if the price disparities are a bit uneasy to look at.

💬 Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s newsletter, and if you enjoyed it, please let me know why!

Chris

Happy Sunday! Life got in the way of getting this out yesterday, but hope you’re having a great weekend so far! Here are some highlights from today’s newsletter:

• 🧳 My process for booking travel with points & miles

• 💳 Multiple increased welcome offers up to 300K

• 💵 Rakuten: $50 for new members + up to $150 card bonuses

• 🏛️ Free museum tickets this weekend for BoA cardholders

• ✈️ Airlines start raising fees on bags

• 📱 Website for live TSA security wait times

• 🌉 Why bridges don’t sink and more!

A small favor: If you enjoyed reading this newsletter, please forward this to a friend who might too! And if that’s you, make sure to ​subscribe here​. Thank you so much!

Chris

🧳 My Process for Booking Travel with Points & Miles

Want to learn how to turn your points into significantly better travel experiences? I share how I usually plan travel, find award availability, choose the right tools, and decide between portals vs. transfers, plus the mindset shifts that make the whole process work.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

🏠 Turn Your Housing Payment Into Points

Today’s newsletter is sponsored by… ​Bilt Rewards​

Your housing payment is probably your biggest monthly expense, so why not make it your most rewarding? With ​​Bilt Rewards​​, you can earn up to 1.25x points on rent or mortgage payments.

Bilt just launched three new cards (Palladium, Obsidian, and Blue) that turn your housing payments into flexible rewards you can redeem at top airlines, hotels, Amazon.com, future rent payments, and more.

Find the card that fits your lifestyle and apply today at​ ​​​chrishutchins.com/bilt​​​.

Terms and limitations apply. Subject to approval and eligibility. Bilt Cards are issued by Column N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to license from Mastercard International Incorporated.

📋 My Past Week

Here’s a quick recap of what I was up to last week:

• I’ve been looking to replace our August locks for years, because the product and software hasn’t evolved at all. I finally swapped them out for Aqara locks and I’m so happy with the outcome. I don’t have any affiliation with the company, but they’ve integrated so easily to Apple Home and Home Assistant. I got the ​U200 Lock​ + ​G400 Doorbell​ for the front door and plan on swapping two other doors with ​U400 Locks​ (which I would have gotten for the front door if we didn’t have a mortise lock).

• I took the lock replacement project as a catalyst to update our entire home automation system as well. While it would have been easy if all our devices connected to Apple Home, they don’t, so I set up ​Home Assistant​, which has a plugin that will bridge all your devices into Apple Home, so we can finally manage all our lights, cameras, security system, plugs, etc. in one place.

• We packed up all our ski gear and returned our season rentals last week. While we didn’t have the best snow, we managed to get 12 days on the mountain, which definitely made our Epic Passes worth the cost. Hopefully the snow next year is even better, because I just renewed our passes for next year.

• Our youngest daughter had some type of viral respiratory infection last week and I’m so thankful that we had a ​nebulizer​ and ​pulse oximeter​ at home, which saved us a trip to the ER.

• Without knowing that Anthropic would ​ban using your subscription OpenClaw​ yesterday, I had spent the past week building a new system using ​Claude’s Channels​ that allows my main agent to spin up Claude Code sessions I can manage from telegram. Very happy I spent that time, especially since I’ll be traveling a lot over the next few weeks.

🛫 Travel, Points & Miles

💳 New Welcome Offers: Up to 300K & More

There are quite a few big card bonuses right now. They’re mostly cards I already have (and I sadly opened most of them with lower bonuses). If you’re able to get a 300K offer on the Business Platinum, that’s probably the best offer. However, for a personal card, the 3-in-1 offer on the Atmos Summit card is very compelling too.

• ​Amex Business Platinum​: Up to 300K points after spending $20K in 3 months.

• ​Amex Business Gold​: Up to 200K points after spending $15K in 3 months.

• ​Atmos Rewards Summit​: 100K points + a 25K-point Global Companion Award after a $6K spend in 3 months + a 50% flight discount code for an eligible future flight.

• ​Atmos Rewards Ascent​: 80K points after a $4K spend in 4 months + a 50% flight discount code for an eligible future flight.

• ​Atmos Rewards Business Card​: 80K points + a $99 Companion Fare after a $5K spend in 3 months.

• ​Airline Co-brand Cards​: All 6 cards of a major US airline have increased bonuses of ​up to 110k miles​. They also now unlock at least 10% off award flight and free checked bags.

Finally, quick reminder that the welcome offer on the ​Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card​ for 75K miles + $250 towards Capital One Travel after a $4K spend in 3 months (worth ≥$1,000 if you leverage transfer partners) will end on 4/13.

You can find the full list of best card offers on our ​​​​Best Cards Page​​​.

For compliance reasons, we can’t mention all the cards by name, but the linked pages have all the details on the increased welcome offers.

🔁 Transfer Bonuses: JAL, Aeroplan & IHG

I don’t recommend making any speculative transfers unless you have a specific redemption in mind. All offers expire on 4/30.

• Capital One → JAL: ​30% bonus​. I think JAL miles are the best way to book business class flight to Japan because JAL releases so much inventory to its members. Just don’t forget that JAL miles have a hard expiration after 36 months.

• Popular bank → Aeroplan: ​20% bonus​ + 10% for cardholders. A decent bonus for one of the most versatile programs out there.

• Popular bank → IHG: ​70% bonus​. A bonus that’s only worth it for a specific IHG redemption you already have in mind.

✈️ Airlines Are Raising Fees and Surcharges

​JetBlue​ and ​United​ both raised checked bag fees this week (though co-branded cardholders are still exempt), and ​Flying Blue​ quietly bumped award surcharges in business class. I’d expect most airlines to follow similar moves soon, especially given all the uncertainty around oil prices. If you regularly check bags on a specific airline, having their co-branded credit card is now an even better deal.

📱 Live TSA Security Wait Times at Busy U.S. Airports

If you have travel plans this weekend, check out ​From the Tray Table​, a new site that shows live TSA security wait times by checkpoint at the busiest U.S. airports. It’ll be pretty useful for deciding when to head to the airport, especially with all the security wait issues happening.

📣 New Airline, Hotel and Points Promos This Week

Business Class Award Deals

• 🇩🇪 Frankfurt / Munich: From ​60K Aeroplan points​

• 🇪🇸 Madrid: From ​40.5K Avios points​

• 🇧🇷 Rio de Janeiro: From ​40K AAdvantage miles​

• 🇨🇳 Shanghai: From 106K ​Flying Blue miles​

• 🇯🇵 Tokyo: From ​89K Flying Blue miles​

Hotel Promos

• Hyatt: Cardholders of a popular bank’s two premium cards who spend $75K in a calendar year ($120K for the business card) can now ​unlock World of Hyatt Explorist status​.

• Hyatt Homes & Hideaways: 2x points on stays through 5/31. Register ​here​.

• Hyatt Under Canvas: ​Up to 100K bonus points​ (11 points/$1 spent) on stays booked by 6/12 and completed before 9/8. Register ​here​.

• IHG: ​15% off award stays​ at new hotels through 9/30.

• Preferred Hotels: ​Up to 35% off stays​ booked by 4/13 and completed before 5/14.

Airline Promos

• Alaska: 1.88¢ per point with up to a ​​​100% bonus​​​ until 5/2.

• KLM Flying Blue: ​25% off award flights​ between select U.S. cities and Europe. Book by 4/30 for travel through 9/30.

• Southwest: ​Up to 5x points on Lyft rides​ through 12/31 when you link your accounts and set the Southwest card as the default payment.

• United: Registration for the ​Mile Play promotion​ is open until 6/9.

• Virgin: ​1K bonus points​ with a card-linked shopping portal purchase before 4/6.

🤑 Latest Deals

💵 Rakuten: $50 New Member + Up to $150 BoA Bonus

I love using ​Rakuten​ for earning cash back or points on everyday purchases. New members can now use a referral link (here’s ​mine​) to earn a ​$50 bonus​ after spending $50. Best of all, the $50 bonus can be issued as 5K Amex or 5K Bilt Points.

Rakuten also just added Bank of America cards to its portal, offering ​$150 back on the Travel Rewards card​ and ​$75 on the Customized Cash Rewards card​ on top of the standard welcome bonuses.

🏛️ Free Museum Access This Weekend (4-5th)

It’s the first full weekend of the month, which means Bank of America and Merrill Lynch cardholders (including debit) get ​free admission to 200+ museums​ today​ (4th) and tomorrow (5th) through the Museums on Us program. You’ll need one card per person for entry.

🔗 Card-Linked Offers Worth $600+

Here are some card-linked offers I found this week with expiration dates in parentheses. Some of these offers are targeted, so I recommend using ​CardPointers Pro​ (get 30% off ​here​) to automate these offers.

• Aer Lingus: ​$250 off $1,250​ (4/12)

• Air India: ​10% off​, up to $50 (5/1)

• Away Luggage: ​$100 off $400​ (5/21)

• Hyatt Unbound Collection: ​15% back​, up to $60 (5/1)

• IKEA: ​15% back​, up to $41 (4/30)

• Park Hyatt: ​15% back​, up to $70 (5/1)

• Popular Bank’s Travel Portal: ​$100 off $600​ (6/30)

🕵️ Top Finds

🌉 Why Bridges Don’t Sink

Ever driven over a massive bridge and wondered how it stays up? ​This video​ breaks down the surprisingly complex foundation engineering that keeps bridges from sinking into riverbeds and soft soil.

😔 A Lot of Millennial Millionaires Don’t Feel Wealthy

Here’s ​an interesting read​ on why many millennials who have crossed the $1 million net worth mark still don’t feel financially secure. Between housing costs, lifestyle inflation, and constantly moving goalposts, the milestone doesn’t feel the way it used to.

💬 Parting Thoughts

Happy Easter to everyone celebrating today! I hope you get to spend some quality time with your family and loved ones.

And thanks so much for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s newsletter, and if you enjoyed it, please let me know why!

Chris