Update 8/25/26: The Bank of America® Unlimited Cash Rewards Credit Card is now also available through Rakuten for bonus rewards.

~~~

Last year, Rakuten started offering bonus rewards when applicants were approved for select Chase credit cards. There are now several Chase and Citi cards available, but there are a few Bank of America credit cards that let you earn bonus rewards on top of the credit card welcome offers as well.

Note that these bonuses ARE NOT available if your earning method is set to American Express Membership Rewards; they’re only available if it’s cash or Bilt points. It’s also worth noting that your Bilt earning rate depends on your Bilt elite status level. If you have any level of elite status, it’s 1 cent:1 point. If you don’t, it’s 2 cents:1 point, at which point cash back is almost certainly the better option.

The cards in question are the Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card, the Customized Cash Rewards credit card, and the Unlimited Cash Rewards credit card. Details for both of the cards are below, but note that clicking through to apply for the cards from our site won’t get you the bonus rewards from Rakuten.

Card Offer and Details

Bank of America® Travel Rewards credit card ⓘ $234 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates 25K points worth $250 Non-AffiliateThis is NOT an affiliate offer. We always present the best offer even when it means less revenue for Frequent Miler 25K after $1K spend in the first 90 days No Annual Fee Learn more Alternate Offer: Rakuten is offering bonus cashback if you click through from their site Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Earning rate: 1.5X everywhere; 3X for travel booked through BofA Travel Base: 1.5% Portal Flights: 3% Portal Hotels: 3% Card Info: Visa Signature issued by Bank of America. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: Up to 75% bonus for BofA Rewards banking customers

Card Offer and Details

Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card ⓘ $179 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates $200 Cash Back + 6% back in category of your choice Non-AffiliateThis is NOT an affiliate offer. We always present the best offer even when it means less revenue for Frequent Miler $200 after $1K spend in the first 90 days + 6% back in quarterly category of your choice (up to $2,500 spend/qtr) for the first year No Annual Fee Learn more Alternate Offer: Rakuten is offering bonus cashback if you click through from their site Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Earning rate: After the first year, 3% back on your choice of the following: gas and EV charging, online shopping, cable, streaming, internet & phone plans, dining, travel, drugstores, home improvement & furnishings (can choose a new category monthly) ✦ 2% back at grocery stores & wholesale clubs ✦ 1% back everywhere else. 2% and 3% rewards are capped at $2500 in combined purchases per quarter Base: 1% Travel: 3% Flights: 3% Hotels: 3% Grocery: 2% Dine: 3% Gas: 3% Card Info: Visa Signature issued by Bank of America. This card imposes foreign transaction fees. Noteworthy perks: Up to 75% bonus for BofA Rewards banking customers

Card Offer and Details

Bank of America® Unlimited Cash Rewards credit card ⓘ $234 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates $250 cash bonus Non-AffiliateThis is NOT an affiliate offer. We always present the best offer even when it means less revenue for Frequent Miler Limited Time Offer! $250 online cash rewards bonus after you make at least $1K in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening No Annual Fee Learn more Alternate Offer: Rakuten is offering bonus cashback if you click through from their site Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Earning rate: 1.5% everywhere; Earn up to 2.625% back everywhere with BofA Rewards Premier status Base: 1.5% Card Info: Visa Signature issued by Bank of America. This card imposes foreign transaction fees. Noteworthy perks: Up to 75% bonus for BofA Rewards banking customers

The Travel Rewards card is usually the most rewarding of the options in terms of the welcome bonus and Rakuten rewards combined. That said, the Customized Cash Rewards card will be a better keeper card beyond the first year for many people given the ability to earn 3% cashback on $2,500 spend every quarter in a category of your choosing for as long as you keep the card.

The categories you can choose from are gas and EV charging stations, online shopping/cable/internet/phone plans/streaming, dining, travel, drug stores/pharmacies, or home improvement/furnishings. Many of those categories have ways in which you can easily generate $2,500 of spend each quarter in order to max out the spending category.

The earning rate on all these cards will also increase if you have Preferred Rewards status with Bank of America, though be aware that the bonus rates recently changed.

The post Rakuten offering up to $275 / 27,500 Bilt points on select Bank of America credit cards appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Delta is offering an incentive for new SkyMiles enrollees right now that can earn new members up to 5,000 bonus miles, thereby giving their new account a nice head start.

The Deal

• Earn up to 5,000 bonus miles when joining Delta SkyMiles and completing the following activities:
  • 100 bonus miles – opt in to receive emails
  • 1,400 bonus miles – join SkyMiles Dining and spend $30 in your first 30 days
  • 1,500 bonus miles – book a flight on the Fly Delta app and complete your flight within three months
  • 2,000 bonus miles – complete the above three activities
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• To qualify for participation in the SkyMiles Starter Pack promotion, an eligible Member must enroll for this promotion within 45 days of joining the SkyMiles Program (the “Enrollment Period”) via delta.com/myskymiles/promotions. Enrollment period ends December 31, 2026; Members must enroll prior to the end of the enrollment period to be eligible for the offers.
• Within 3 months of enrolling in the SkyMiles Starter Pack promotion (the “Promotion Period”), eligible Delta SkyMiles Members who have enrolled in this promotion can earn up to 5,000 bonus miles by completing certain qualifying activities as listed below:
  • (i) 100 bonus miles after by opting in to marketing communications by the end of the Promotion Period;
  • (ii) 1,400 bonus miles after signing up for SkyMiles Dining via www.skymilesdining.com/, linking a valid credit and/or debit card, and spending $30 on eligible purchases (dine-in only) with SkyMiles Dining within 30 days of signing up for SkyMiles Dining (“SkyMiles Dining Offer”) by the end of the Promotion Period. For the avoidance of doubt, any spending or sign-ups after the expiration of the Promotion Period will not be honored or counted towards the eligibility requirements for this reward bonus;
  • (iii) 1,500 bonus miles booking and completing an eligible flight (as defined below) during the Promotion Period when booked via the Fly Delta app; and
  • (iv) 2,000 bonus miles after completing all three actions i, ii and iii during the Promotion Period.
• SkyMiles Dining New Member Bonus must be completed by the end of the Promotion Period to earn 1,400 Bonus Miles (instead of the standard 1,000 Bonus Mile offer.)
• Qualifying Activity: Qualifying flight activity includes paid (retail) tickets, Award Tickets, Miles + Cash Tickets, Pay with Miles tickets, and post-purchase upgrades (excluding those purchased at check in or at the gate), but does not include travel on partner airlines (even if marketed by Delta), exception fares (including Delta Vacations), purchases of products other than Delta tickets, and any fees associated with travel (e.g., baggage, cancellation fees). If a Member uses an Upgrade Certificate, receives a Complimentary Upgrade, purchases an upgrade offered at check in or at the gate, or receives an operational upgrade, the Member will not earn bonus miles for the upgraded cabin. Companions traveling on Delta SkyMiles American Express Companion Certificates are not eligible to earn the bonus miles associated with this offer, but the paid ticket of the certificate holder will qualify for this offer.
• Flights must be both marketed and operated by Delta Air Lines or Delta Connection® carriers, and flown during the Promotion Period.

Quick Thoughts

A few airline and hotel loyalty programs offer either temporary or ongoing incentives for new members, but this is the first time that I remember Delta running a promotion like this.

Earning up to 5,000 bonus miles isn’t a massive reward, but if you’ve never enrolled in the SkyMiles program then now—or within the next few months—is as good a time as any.

This promotion is open for enrollment through the end of the year, although be aware that there are a few other date-related factors to consider. When opting in to marketing emails, that has to be done within three months, but also before the end of the promotion period (i.e. December 31, 2026.) For the SkyMiles Dining bonus, you have to spend $30 within 30 days of signing up for the dining program. As for the flight bonus, you have to complete your travel within three months of enrolling in the challenge.

With regards to the flight component, that has to be for travel on Delta or Delta Connection carriers—crediting a paid flight on a partner airline won’t count. However, Delta award flights do count, so that could be handy if there’s a decent value SkyMiles award flight you want to book and you have Amex Membership Rewards you can transfer in (but remember that Amex charges an excise tax for transfers to Delta).

With the SkyMiles Dining bonus, the 1,400 bonus SkyMiles are instead of the usual 1,000 SkyMiles bonus miles—not in addition to.

h/t Points Path

The post New Delta SkyMiles members can earn up to 5,000 bonus miles when joining appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Transferable points like Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, and Amex Membership Rewards are, by and large, the most sought-after currency in points and miles.

The main reason is flexibility: rather than being tied to redemptions through a single loyalty program, such as United MileagePlus or Hilton Honors, you can transfer them and use them for awards with many different airlines and hotel brands. This means you theoretically have a much larger menu of redemptions and, as a result, an easier path to getting outsized value for your points.

However, although each transferable currency offers numerous travel partners, most are airlines. Amex Membership Rewards has 25 airline transfer partners but only four hotel programs. The knock-on effect of that disparity is that it can be much harder to wring good value from your transferable points by redeeming them for lodging than when using them for flights.

2026 has seen tremendous changes in the relative appeal of transferable currencies for lodging. On the plus side, Wells Fargo added Wyndham Rewards as a 1:2 transfer partner, while American Express became interesting for hotels for the first time in ages by adding Leading Hotels of the World at an industry-leading 4:1 ratio.

On the other hand, Citi tanked the two best partners of ThankYou Points by cutting transfers to Preferred Hotels’ I Prefer in half, and Choice Privileges from 1:2 to 1:1.5. Chase caused even more consternation by requiring customers to hold a $795/year card in order to get 1:1 transfers to World of Hyatt, a change that was exacerbated by a decrease in the value of Hyatt points after it implemented a new award chart.

Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to take a fresh look at the question, “Which transferable points are the most valuable for lodging?”

Methodology

For those unfamiliar, Frequent Miler keeps a database of point valuations called “Reasonable Redemption Values.” These are estimates of the “worth” of airline miles, hotel points, transferable points, and more. The goal is to identify a “reasonable” expectation for the value that you can receive for your points. For hotel points, RRVs are the median observed values found from numerous hotel award searches. Half of the available awards from those searches offered better value, and half worse.

When we publish RRVs, we conservatively use the median (50th percentile). The idea is that just by randomly picking hotels to use your points, you have a 50/50 chance of getting this value or better. However, many people prefer to use their points only for higher-value awards, so we also publish “cherry-picking” tiers that represent the top 25% and 10% award values.

In our quest to determine the value of bank currencies for hotel redemptions, we’ll combine transfer ratios with our Reasonable Redemption Values. Since we have three different “tiers” of RRVs (median, top 25%, and top 10%), we’ll also have three different categories of “redemption value”: the value you can get when using your points for the top 50% of awards within a given hotel program; then the top 25%; and finally the top 10%.

Most transferable points can be used to pay for lodging directly as a cash substitute, but we’re only including examples that offer more than 1 cent per point. With that as a filter, it’s a short list: Chase Sapphire Reserve® and Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ cardholders can get up to 2 cents per point value when booking hotels through Chase Travel℠; Chase Sapphire Preferred® cardholders can get up to 1.75 cents per point; and Bilt cardholders get 1.25 cents per point when booking hotels through the Bilt travel portal. Note that Chase values apply only to a small subset of properties available via “Points Boosts” in the portal, while Bilt’s apply to all hotel bookings.

Hotel loyalty programs and transfer ratios

Which points are most valuable for hotels on average

First, let’s look at the value you can get by using transferable points to book hotels at our Reasonable Redemption Value, or the point at which 50% of available awards are better value and 50% are worse. Both RRV and Transfer RRV values are in cents per point (cpp).

It’s telling that, out of all of the transferable options here, there are only ten that offer better than 1 cent per point value…and only four that offer better than our Reasonable Redemption Value for the transferable currency itself. Bilt and Wells Fargo lead the pack at this stage, although the real “leader” is Leaders Club, which offers the top two options via Amex and Citi, respectively. The significance of Amex’s addition of Leaders Club really shows up here, as it goes from being nonexistent on last year’s list to the #1 option at base RRV. It also shows what a great opportunity a 4:1 transfer to LHW can be.

Capital One barely enters the game with Accor and I Prefer, while Citi plummets to the bottom because its transfer ratios to I Prefer and Choice have been drastically reduced. Hyatt’s new award chart and Chase’s devaluation of transfers to programs from everything but its $795/year cards cause both to fall as well.

Accor and Leaders’ Club placing so high might surprise some folks. Both have a fixed value: Leader’s Club points are worth 8 cents each (~1.6 cents per Citi point or ~2 cents per Amex point), while Accor’s are pegged at 2 Eurocents. The dollar continues to fare poorly against the Euro, so each Accor point is now worth ~2.34 cents…even when redeemed for properties outside Europe. The problem is that none of the currencies transfer 1:1 to Accor; the best are Bilt and Rove at 3:2. However, even at that comparatively poor ratio, Accor represents over one and a half cents per point value, far better than the “big” three of IHG, Hilton, and Marriott.

Although it’s impossible to get incredibly outsized value with Accor or the Leader’s Club, both have high floors and can appeal to those who want consistent value without having to be selective about award nights or be confined to standard rooms.

Which bank’s points are most valuable for the top 25% of hotel awards

Next, we’ll examine the value that can be obtained through using transferable points to book hotels at our first “cherry picking” Reasonable Redemption Value, or the point at which 25% of available awards are equal or better value, and 75% are worse. Both RRV and Transfer RRV values are in cents per point (cpp).

It’s no surprise that as we become more selective about which awards we’re seeking, more 1-cent+ options become available. Leaders Club (from Amex) and Hyatt (from Bilt or Chase Reserve customers) are the clear leaders, and the gap is even more pronounced than at the median. If you’re cherry-picking awards, using Wells Fargo to book through Choice or Wyndham gets interesting, both yielding more than 1.75 cents per Wells Fargo point in value.

Accor and Leaders Club drop relative to the other programs by virtue of the fixed nature of their points, while Marriott becomes the first of the “big three” to appear, bringing up the tail at #10. Outside of LHW, none of Amex’s other hotel transfer options are anywhere to be seen.

Which bank’s points are most valuable for the top 10% of hotel awards

Finally, let’s look at the value you can get by using transferable points to book hotels at our “advanced cherry picking” Reasonable Redemption Value, or the point at which 10% of available awards are equal to or better value, and 90% are worse. Both RRV and Transfer RRV values are in cents per point (cpp).

Now we’re cooking with gas. By looking only at the top 10% of available awards, we’re seeing much better value through points transfers. Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio is far and away the best of the bunch, but it’s again interesting to see what happens with Wells Fargo’s two 1:2 partners, now both offering over 2 cents per point in value.

1:2 I Prefer transfers (coming from Capital One, Citi, or Bilt) are finally becoming interesting, and even 4:3 Hyatt transfers from Ink Business Preferred and Chase Sapphire Preferred start to look good. Marriott and Hilton are both present, though neither exceeds our RRV for the transferable currency itself, even when we’re looking only at the top 10% of redemptions. However, if we also factor in getting the fifth night free on a five-night award, Marriott via Bilt jumps up to 1.73.

The winners: Amex, Bilt, and Wells Fargo

It’s hard to emphasize how much this comparison has changed since last year. Amex, Bilt, and Wells Fargo are now the clear winners, while last year’s top dogs, Chase and Citi, have become much less interesting. That Amex and Wells Fargo are suddenly compelling as lodging options is incredible, and Chase’s decision to nuke Hyatt transfers from its $95 cards is one of the best things that ever happened to Bilt.

Over the last year, we’ve seen Hyatt, Marriott, and Hilton points all go down, something that makes Accor and Leaders Club increasingly attractive to me. While it doesn’t necessarily give you access to the high-value awards you can get through, the consistent worldwide value is appealing. If we start seeing transfer bonuses to either currency, I might start salivating.

Capital One and Amex’s non-LHW partners both perform poorly, as do 1:1 transfers to the big brands (or even 1:2 transfers to Hilton) in general. Much of the time, using your points to transfer to these programs is a low-value proposition. However, the combination of the fifth night free and a transfer bonus could create an opportunity where it makes sense. The rest of the time, your points are better saved for flights.

The post Which transferable credit card points are most valuable for lodging? appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

How do you handle Citi cards in 2-player mode now that point sharing is dead? “GH” wrote in with this question recently, wondering:

(Paraphrased): My old plan was to keep a single Strata Premier card for myself, a Double Cash card for player 2, and multiple Custom Cash cards across both. Now that Player 2 can’t move points to me, I need a new plan. Should Player 2 get a Strata Premier card to enable 1-to-1 point transfers, or should we give up on Player 2 holding any Citi ThankYou cards?

Watch here:

Or listen here (or click “Follow” on the player below to select your preferred podcast app instead):

(00:53) – What does “player 2” mean and what does this question mean?

(03:09) – What is the best 2-player strategy for earning Citi points?

(06:46) – What is the best 2-player strategy for earning Citi points if you’re starting from scratch?

Subscribe and Follow

Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.
Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder

The post How to handle Citi cards in 2-player mode now that point sharing is dead? | Question of the Week Ep13 | 8-24-26 appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

The Citi AAdvantage Executive Card has now gone live with a newly increased annual fee and new benefits. Along with all that, the card features a newly increased introductory offer of 125,000 American Airlines miles after $15,000 in purchases in the first five months. That’s quite a strong offer, particularly if you are confident that you’ll be able to take advantage of the AA Vacations coupons that the card offers.

The Offer & Key Card Details

For more information about this card, click the card name below to go to our dedicated card page. 

Card Offer and Details

Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® ⓘ $800 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates 125K miles Non-AffiliateThis is NOT an affiliate offer. We always present the best offer even when it means less revenue for Frequent Miler 125K miles after $15,000 spend in first 5 months $695 Annual Fee Learn more Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Good choice for those who need Admirals Club® access and those who value the AA Vacations credits and Loyalty Points boosts at 50K and 90K Loyalty Points earned. Plus, it offers the usual collection of perks for flying AA (free checked bag, priority boarding, etc.) and some handy credits for Avis or Budget rentals. Earning rate: 4X AA ✦ 12X hotels booked through AAdvantagehotels.com ✦ 12X car rentals booked through AAdvantagecars.com ✦ 1X everywhere else Base: 1X (1.4%) Portal Hotels: 12X (16.8%) Brand: 4X (5.6%) Card Info: Mastercard World Legend issued by Citi. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: First Checked Bag Free ✦ Admirals Club® access for both primary and authorized users ✦ Up to $500 in credits per year for AA Vacations packages ($250 from Jan-Jun and gaain from Jul-Dec) ✦ Up to $100 back per year on in-flight purchases on AA and eligible purchases in Admirals Clubs ✦ Avis President's Circle status ✦ Up to $120 back on eligible Avis or Budget prepaid car rentals every calendar year ✦ $15 monthly Lyft credit after you take 3 Lyft rides that calendar month ✦ 10K bonus Loyaty Points after earning 50K Loyalty points through all channels and another 10K bonus Loyalty Points after earning 90K, 165K, and 240K Loyalty Points through all channels ✦ Complimentary Omni Hotels Champion Status & one complimentatry Omni award night each year after qualifying paid 2-night stay in the form of 100 Omni Credits ✦ Up to $120 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit every 4 years

Quick Thoughts

Stephen wrote about the card changes several weeks ago. While the annual fee has increased by $100, some will find the new coupon credits to more than offset the increase in cost.

The card now has a twice-annual $250 credit for AA Vacations bookings, which can be used once between January and June and once between July and December. If you’re able to make use of that and one or two of the card’s other coupons or status benefits, and if you also value Admirals Club access, the card certainly could be a keeper.

That said, at $695 it is quite an expensive card. If Admirals Club access doesn’t matter much to you, then I can’t imagine this card would be a keeper. Still it might easily be worth it for at least the first year, given a sizable introductory bonus. The 125,000 miles could at least theoretically be enough for a round-trip business-class flight to Europe or Asia if you’re able to find partner award availability.  The spending requirement is on the steep end, but given that Citibank is the only issuer of American Airlines credit cards these days, it may be of interest to those who are eligible for the bonus.

The post 125K AA miles with new AAdvantage Executive card offer appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Today’s deal of the day for Capital One Shopping and Capital One Offers is TripAdvisor. I’m currently seeing 30% back via Capital One Shopping or 25 miles per dollar through Capital One Offers. As is always the case with the deal of the day, it is possible that you’ll see an even better targeted email offer. In the past we’ve seen offers as high as 70% back via email.

The Deal

• Capital One Shopping’s Top Deal of the Day is for TripAdvisor. We’re currently seeing rates of 30% back on the desktop Shopping site or 25x miles through Capital One Offers, but we sometimes see higher targeted email offers for Capital One Shopping

Key Terms

• Valid 8/24/26 only until 11:59pm Pacific time

Quick Thoughts

It is always necessary to disambiguate between Capital One Shopping, which is a public shopping portal available to anybody, and Capital One offers, which are only available to Capital One cardholders.

Capital One Shopping is a public portal open to anyone, where rewards are only earned in the form of credit that can be redeemed for gift cards, whereas Capital One offers are earned in the form of either cash back or miles, depending on the card you’re using to access Capital One offers.

Which is better for you likely depends on how much you value miles and how high your target offer becomes for Capital One Shopping.

As of the time of writing, I have not seen an email offer any higher than the 30% back that I see on the Capital One Shopping home page. We sometimes get targeted email offers of up to 70% back when TripAdvisor is on special. At just 30% back in the form of credit that can only be redeemed for gift cards versus 25 miles per dollar, I would probably lean toward earning the additional transferable miles, but when the percentages become higher, the decision can sometimes become more difficult. Either way, it could be worth considering booking activities or airport transfers through TripAdvisor when targeted rates become high.

Keep in mind that Capital One Shopping rewards for travel-related purchases sometimes track as ineligible at first and are only credited after travel is complete. That is exactly what has happened with my past TripAdvisor bookings — they initially showed up as “ineligible”, but then became “pending” (and later “credited”) after travel was complete.

I’m not sure that the 30% back or 25 miles per dollar would be enough to get me to make a booking I wasn’t already considering, but if you do have bookings to make, this could certainly be handy. Keep in mind that these “Top Deal of the Day” offers only last until 11:59 pm Pacific Time.

The post 30% back (maybe more?) or 25x miles on TripAdvisor bookings through Capital One Shopping / Capital One Offers appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Staples is once again waiving purchase fees for digital Visa gift cards sold online. This type of deal is always popular, so you’ll want to buy ASAP if you’re interested.

The Deal

• Buy $200 virtual Visa gift cards with no purchase fee at Staples.com.
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• These usually expire in a day or two.
• Limit 4.

Quick Thoughts

There’s a limit of five listed, but if you try buying $1,000 worth it won’t let you, so you have to reduce the total to four cards costing $800.

When Staples offers these virtual cards, they tend to sell out within a couple of days—if not sooner—so it’s best to buy ASAP if you’re interested.

The post Staples.com is selling $200 digital Visa gift cards with no purchase fee appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

With the launch of Bilt 2.0 in February 2026, Bilt had said that members would eventually be able to use some amount of Bilt Cash toward Blacklane rides. That functionality is finally live, though it is limited to a single use per calendar year, and the booking experience through Bilt leaves a lot to be desired. The price through Bilt was also about 3.1% higher for the first ride I checked, so you’ll want to check against the cost to book directly with Blacklane. Still, this could be a decent one-time use of Bilt Cash.

The Deal

• Bilt and Blacklane have finally launched a partnership whereby Bilt Rewards members can redeem Bilt Cash one time per year for a discount toward booking a Blacklane chauffeur service ride in the Bilt app as follows:
  • Bilt Members may redeem Bilt Cash toward Blacklane bookings, subject to the terms
    and conditions set forth below. Members are eligible to redeem Bilt Cash for one (1)
    Blacklane credit per calendar year. Credits are issued on January 1 each year and
    expire at the end of the year in which they are issued. The available credit amount varies by Member tier as follows:
    ● Platinum Members: one (1) credit of up to one hundred fifty dollars ($150)
    ● Gold Members: one (1) credit of up to one hundred dollars ($100)
    ● Blue and Silver Members: one (1) credit of up to fifty dollars ($50)

Key Terms

• Redeem your credit at checkout for your Blacklane ride booked through the Bilt app or
  website.
• Blacklane credits expire at the end of the calendar year in which they are
  redeemed.
• Blacklane credits are subject to the Blacklane program terms of service
  available at https://www.blacklane.com/en/terms/

Quick Thoughts

Blacklane is a car service facilitator that bills itself as providing a chauffeur service experience. In reality, Blacklane is just a booking platform that connects customers to local chauffeur service companies. If that sounds a lot like Uber but for chauffeury-rides, you’re on the right track.

However, Blacklane tends to be significantly more expensive than traditional rideshare services. Some price difference is warranted, given that it provides a scheduled ride with someone who has some built-in waiting time rather than an on-demand service. And in some cases, the difference in price may not seem totally unreasonable.

You can now book a Blacklane through the “Car Service” tab in the Bilt app or on the Bilt website (under “Rewards”).

Unfortunately, the experience of trying to book through Bilt isn’t intuitive. Both in the app and on the desktop site, I was trying to type in the name of my hotel (which starts with “Le”), and the only results it would give me were airport codes. I then tried typing in “Grand Hyatt Dubai” in the search box (this isn’t a hotel where I’ll be staying; I’m just using it as an example to show how poorly the system works), and it gives me a long list of airport codes that have nothing to do with the search.

If you scroll past the list of airport codes, you’ll eventually find a list of “Places”, where the Grand Hyatt Dubai hotel does show up, but I tried using the app multiple times over several days to book a ride and I didn’t realize that there was anything in the list other than airport codes (because who would repeatedly scroll beyond a list of search results that are irrelevant to the search terms?). The odd thing is that the search experience in the Blacklane app works exactly as you would expect — enter Grand Hyatt Dubai, and the Grand Hyatt Dubai is the only search result it populates.

Once you know that search quirk, you can at least use Bilt to book a Blacklane and earn an extra 1 point per dollar when booking through Bilt or redeem Bilt Cash once per year toward a ride.

I view these coupons as a good way to use up some Bilt Cash that might otherwise expire at the end of the year anyway to get a slight discount on a ride if you’re able to use one to cover a ride in full (or nearly in full). This isn’t a face-value use unless you’re already a Blacklane customer, but it will be useful in some circumstances.

It just so happens that I will need a ride to an airport in a couple of weeks where a Blacklane would be just a bit over $100, so I thought this might make for a good use of Bilt Cash. An Uber for a similar ride looks like it would ordinarily be less than $50, but scheduling one in advance would be more like $85, so Blacklane isn’t a bad alternative given other parameters (like the fact that I need the ride at a very early hour when I might otherwise have difficulty finding a rideshare driver).

I was disappointed to see that booking through the Bilt app would cost about 3.1% more than booking directly through Blacklane for the car type I wanted (I checked a different car type and Bilt was 3.6% more expensive). While those are relatively small markups, it nonetheless erodes the value of the Bilt Cash redemption. It also means that it probably isn’t worth booking through Bilt for the extra 1 point per dollar spent rather than simply booking through Blackalne, since you would effectively be buying the extra Bilt point for more than 3c.

That led me to check an airport pickup from the Grand Hyatt Dubai since I had already entered that hotel to search. For a random date ride to Dubai airport (DXB), booking through Bilt was about 9.4% more expensive than booking through Blacklane. Bilt was charging $44.34.

The same ride booked directly through Blacklane would be 148.82 AED (~$40.52).

It still might be worth using a $50 Bilt Cash coupon in that sort of situation if you’ve got Bilt Blue or Silver status and will otherwise have Bilt Cash expire, but it is worth comparing prices to know that what you’re getting makes sense for your situation.

The post Bilt Blacklane coupons are live: Search through Bilt isn’t intuitive, and bookings might cost more appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Rakuten has increased the welcome offer on its American Express credit card to $200 after $2,000 spend in the first 90 days. This matches the best offer that we’ve seen on this fairly new card.

This increased offer usually only sticks around for a day or so; this time it is scheduled to last until 8/25/26.

The Offer & Key Card Details

Card Offer and Details

Rakuten American Express® Card ⓘ $158 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates $200 cash back ⓘFriend-ReferralThis is a friend-referral offer. A member of the Frequent Miler community may earn a referral bonus if you are approved for this offer Earn $200 bonus cashback after $2K spend in the first 90 days (Offer Expires 8/25/2026) No Annual Fee Learn more Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Earning 4% extra (or 4X Membership Rewards or 4X Bilt points if you have status) on purchases via Rakuten is good, but the limit of $10,000 spending limits its usefulness. Earning rate: 5X extra on Rakuten Dining ✦ 4X extra on Rakuten purchases (limit $10K spend per calendar year) ✦ 2X groceries & restaurants ✦ 1X everywhere else Base: 1% Grocery: 2% Dine: 2% Brand: 4% Card Info: Amex issued by FEB. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Noteworthy perks: If you have another Amex card that earns Membership Rewards, you can change the earning preference on your Rakuten account to Membership Rewards as well. If you do this, the "cash back" earned via this card will be converted to Membership Rewards and deposited into your Amex account. Alternatively, you can set your Rakuten earnings to Bilt Rewards points; these transfer on a 1:1 basis if you have Bilt status or 2:1 if you don't have status

Quick Thoughts

When the Rakuten American Express card launched, the welcome offer was a meager $50. They soon increased it to $100 and have done a couple of one-day boosts to $200. We don’t know exactly when this increased offer will end, but it never lasts for long (on the flip side, it always returns eventually).

Depending on your Rakuten earnings preference, the welcome offer could be worth significantly more than $200. If your account is set up to earn American Express Membership Rewards or Bilt points (and you have Bilt elite status), the $200 bonus effectively translates to a 20,000-point bonus.

That’s not as impressive as the Membership Rewards you can earn from the welcome offers on other Amex cards, but it’s still decent if you’re interested in getting the Rakuten card for its 4x earnings. Just remember that the 4x earning rate applies only to purchases made via Rakuten, and it’s capped at $7,000 in spend per calendar year.

The post Rakuten American Express card welcome offer increased to $200 appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Citi ThankYou Rewards has launched a 25% transfer bonus when transferring points to Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club. With this transfer bonus, Citi Strata Premier and Strata Elite cardholders can expect to get around 2 cents in value per Citi ThankYou Rewards point, so this can be a great deal if you find a solid redemption.

The Deal

• Through 11:59pm ET on September 19, 2026, Citi ThankYou Rewards is offering a 25% transfer bonus when you transfer Citi ThankYou points to Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club. With this transfer bonus, Citi Strata Premier, Strata Elite, Prestige, and AT&T Access More cardholders will get the following ratio:
  • 1,000 Citi ThankYou points = 250 Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club points

Key Terms

• Cardholders with eligible Citi cards can transfer ThankYou Points to Leaders Club and receive 25% bonus points.
• Offer is valid for Point Transfers to Leaders Club completed by 11:59 PM ET September 19, 2026.

Quick Thoughts

The ordinary transfer ratio from premium Citi cards to Leading Hotels of the World is 1,000 points to 200 Leading Hotels of the World points (5:1). Since Leading Hotels of the World points are generally worth around 8c per point toward room rates (note that there is some variance, but many hotels are close to exactly 8c per point), the ordinary transfer ratio yields about 1.6c per Citi point.

With a 25% transfer bonus, every 1,000 Citi points become 250 Leading Hotels of the World points (4:1), worth about $20 toward Leading Hotels of the World properties. That’s good for a value of about $0.02 per point.

Keep in mind that Amex recently added Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club as a transfer partner, and the ordinary transfer ratio for Amex is 4:1, so this puts a transfer from Citi on par with one from Amex. Either can be an excellent deal, particularly considering the relatively few options left for using transferable points to good value for hotel stays.

All that said, this will be of limited use given LHW’s small footprint. However, if you have upcoming travel plans where LHW could be a fit, this could be a great deal.

The post 25% transfer bonus from Citi to Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

My wife and I recently spent a week in Mallorca, one of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. Shae had expressed an interest in doing an all-inclusive at some point; we’d done one in Lanzarote (Canary Islands) almost 20 years ago and one in Jamaica about 10 years ago, so I guess it was time to do what appears to be our once-per-decade all-inclusive holiday.

I’d picked Mallorca as it was in the path of totality for the solar eclipse that was taking place during our trip. Thanks to its acquisition spree in recent years, there are many all-inclusive properties in Mallorca that are part of Hyatt’s Inclusive Collection, but there was only one I could find that was bookable with points, at least for our dates.

That property was Alua Calvia, so I booked a week-long stay there almost a year ahead of time, once award nights became bookable. I was a little wary about it because some of the online reviews of the hotel were varied, but I needn’t have worried. We ended up having a lovely stay overall and were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food there.

Here’s a full review of our stay at Alua Calvia in Mallorca.

How we booked

I booked our stay for August 2026 in October 2025. I believe award nights had become bookable a few weeks before that, but I’d been waiting because this property was the only all-inclusive that was bookable with points at the time. I’d assumed other Hyatt all-inclusives would eventually make awards bookable, but that didn’t seem to happen and so I locked in a booking at Alua Calvia 10 months before our stay.

It was, at the time, branded Dreams Calvia, but at some point after booking it rebranded to Alua. It was—and still is at the time of publishing this post—award category A. As a reminder, while most Hyatt properties are part of an award chart that runs from categories 1-8, its all-inclusive properties are based on different award pricing that runs from categories A-F.

We booked this stay before Hyatt’s award chart change in May 2026. That means that at the time, category A properties cost 12,000, 15,000, or 18,000 points per night depending on if it was at off-peak, standard, or peak pricing respectively. Since those award chart changes were implemented, category A pricing runs from 12,000-25,000 points.

Our dates were all at peak pricing, so we redeemed 18,000 points per night, meaning we redeemed a total of 126,000 World of Hyatt points for our week-long stay. The hotel doesn’t have a resort fee, although that wouldn’t have been applicable for our stay anyway seeing as we booked with points.

The cash pricing for our stay would’ve been $384.64 per night, so we got 2.14 cents per point of value which is very good for Hyatt all-inclusive stays. Something important to be aware of when booking cash rates at Alua Calvia is that not all rates are all-inclusive. Some include breakfast only, some are half-board (i.e. breakfast and dinner are included, but lunch and drinks throughout the day aren’t included), etc., so don’t get caught out with booking a seemingly low cash rate under the assumption that it’ll be all-inclusive.

I have Globalist status in the World of Hyatt program. After making our reservation, I emailed my concierge and asked them to apply a Suite Upgrade Award to our stay (Junior Suites were available when paying with cash, but weren’t showing up as an award redemption option, so I couldn’t apply the Suite Upgrade Award myself). This was the reply I received:

The Dreams Calvia confirmed you in the Junior Suite for your stay. Please note this will not update on your confirmation since the hotel set the room type up directly in their reservation system.

Sure enough, our reservation on Hyatt’s website still displayed that we’d be in a double room, but there was a note mentioning the Junior Suite. Unfortunately, that didn’t end up being the room we received.

Check-in

Our British Airways flight from London Gatwick to Palma, Mallorca was cancelled. What was previously a nonstop flight got rebooked on Vueling with a layover in Barcelona, so we arrived 5-6 hours later than our original arrival time. That meant we didn’t check in until just after 7pm.

That might’ve ended up being a good thing. When walking through the lobby earlier in the afternoon on some days we were there, we noticed fairly long lines at the front desk with an influx of people checking in; likely the arrival of people on package holidays where the tour operator provides transportation between the airport and hotel.

Arriving when we did though, there weren’t any lines and we got checked in quickly. The front desk agent mentioned we’d been upgraded into a My Favorite Club room and advised us how to drive around to that part of the resort and park there.

We were provided with a map which detailed where everything was on the property. That proved to be very useful, particularly for the first couple of days while we got used to the layout. We were each also given a wristband to signify that we had both an all-inclusive package and access to My Favorite Club.

Our keycard holder had a QR code which provided a link to download the Hyatt Inclusive Collection STAY App. As you can see in the photo below, it provides information about the resort’s activities, services, menus, and property information.

Alua Calvia grounds

The hotel is split into three buildings/areas: Wave, Sky, and Palm.

Palm is where guests with access to My Favorite Club stay. In addition to having access to the small club lounge, Palm has its own small, private swimming pool, as well as a pool bar that also serves snacks.

Wave has about half the hotel’s guest rooms, as well as a couple of swimming pools, a couple of bars, the fitness room, a buffet, the lobby, club lounge (My Favorite Club) and more.

Sky has the other large chunk of guest rooms, as well as the main buffet for breakfast and dinner, Italian and burger joints for dinner, a bar, a pool, and a kids club.

Wave and Palm have locked gates to enter them, so you’ll need your keycard with you. There are paths between the three areas; be aware that there are quite a few steps to get from Sky to Wave and, particularly, Palm.

Be careful when walking between Palm and Sky as one section has very uneven paving. What makes this even more dodgy is that there’s zero lighting along this walkway, so if you’re walking from one building to the other at night, you’ll definitely want to use the flashlight on your phone to find your way.

My Favorite Club Deluxe room at Alua Calvia

I mentioned earlier that after booking our stay, I contacted my concierge to apply a Suite Upgrade Award to my reservation and they confirmed we’d be in a Junior Suite.

The front desk agent had mentioned an upgrade when checking in and that we were in a My Favorite Club room, so I’d assumed we were indeed getting a Junior Suite. When arriving in our room, I thought it looked a little small for a Junior Suite, but figured it was likely a little larger than other rooms at the hotel, so I didn’t think much more of it at the time.

However, after checking the Alua Calvia website to check the exact name of the room we were in when putting together this review, I realized that we’d only been given a Deluxe room, not a Junior Suite. This is disappointing in hindsight as the photos of the Junior Suite definitely look larger than a Deluxe room, but I’m writing this a week after checking out, so it’s not like it can be fixed in real time. I dropped my concierge an email to let her know and she put a Suite Upgrade Award back in my account. Ultimately, it’s not like being in a Deluxe room rather than a Junior Suite actually spoiled our stay, so I was fine with this resolution.

Anyway, on to our My Favorite Club deluxe room. When entering our room (3303), the bathroom was on the left and the bedroom was straight ahead.

The bedroom had a king bed, a small sofa, and coffee table on one side, with a desk and chair on the opposite side of the room.

There was no shortage of pillows, so the couch ended up being a makeshift pillow holder.

Both sides of the bed had power outlets. In addition to the European format outlets, there were a couple of USB ports to more easily charge devices.

The closet was a decent enough size, with plenty of hangers.

The room’s TV had a selection of ~50 international TV channels, about half a dozen of which were English language.

There was a welcome amenity on the desk consisting of a bottle of Mallorcan red wine and a fruit tray. There was also a large bottle of water; I’m not sure if that’s something that only My Favorite Club and/or Globalist members receive, or if all guests get one.

The room had a tea and coffee-making station with both a coffee maker and an electric kettle. Beneath that was a mini fridge which kept things properly cold. We were able to fit the fruit plate inside too in order to have that last a few days.

There were a few items in the mini fridge: a can of Coke, a couple of cans of San Miguel, a lemon Fanta, and some kind of sauce/spread. I don’t think this mini bar gets restocked during your stay, but that’s not going to be too much of an issue if you’re there on an all-inclusive stay.

I believe all My Favorite Club rooms and suites have a balcony; in fact, it looked like all guest rooms at Alua Calvia had a balcony, but don’t hold me to that.

Our balcony had a table and chairs, as well as a drying rack for swimsuits and towels.

Some My Favorite Club rooms have a view of the Mediterranean Sea, but ours only had a view of the resort and pool. It certainly wasn’t a bad view though.

The bathroom had long double sinks, an enclosed toilet, and a walk-in shower.

The walk-in shower had both a rainfall showerhead and a handheld shower wand, along with large bottles of toiletries.

A downside of our room—for us anyway—is that there was a night/safety light above the door that shone all night. Despite it not fully illuminating the room, it was brighter at night than we like.

I do have to give the hotel props for the quality of the air conditioning in our room. It worked incredibly well which was very much appreciated considering it was ~100° F (38° C) each day. Being able to come back to a cool room was a relief, especially considering the air conditioning in the public areas is virtually non-existent.

Something to be aware of is that the air conditioning turns off when opening the balcony door, so you have to turn it back on each time.

Alua Calvia swimming pools

Alua Calvia has four different swimming pools.

Family pool

Sky has a family pool which we never made it to, but a photo on the hotel’s website makes it look like the pool has a small paddling area for younger children on one side, with a barrier separating it from a larger pool for adults.

My Favorite Club pool

The Palm building has an exclusive pool that’s only for those with My Favorite Club access. There are several cabanas that are available on a first-come, first-served basis, as well as numerous loungers and umbrellas.

The My Favorite Club pool has a poolside bar called The Fancy. In addition to serving drinks, you can order various snacks and ice creams (more about that in a later section). Seeing as it serves food, there are also tables and chairs near the pool.

Fresco pool

The Wave part of the hotel has two swimming pools. Fresco pool—next to the Fresco snack and bar area—was a pretty good size, although it’ll be a struggle to get any laps in.

We mostly used the My Favorite Club pool and so never utilized the Fresco pool. At the far side of it there was a smaller pool with a barrier between it and the main pool; I’m not sure if that was a shallower pool for kids or if it was a whirlpool, but I think it was likely the former.

Main pool

The main pool was both the largest and the most popular pool. There were quite a lot of loungers, but as would be expected at a European resort in the summer, these were usually claimed early in the day. At the far side of the pool area there were even more loungers; later in the day, those had the added benefit of extra shade from the trees.

Two sides of the main pool were very shallow—perfect for if you want to lay in the water and relax without wanting to actually swim.

There were often activities in and around the pool, such as exercise classes and, on one day, an inflatable slide.

Swimming pool opening times

All of the pools at Alua Calvia are open from 10am-6pm, with the exception of Fresco pool which is open from 11:30am-6pm. That’s a surprisingly late opening time and early closing time, but I’m assuming it’s to ensure families in rooms overlooking the pool can get some rest in the morning and evening.

That said, the evening entertainment that goes on until 10pm or later takes place above the main pool, so perhaps there’s some other non-noise related consideration regarding the opening times.

If you have access to the My Favorite Club pool, I imagine you’d be able to swim in there later in the evening as it’s unlikely that staff members will be in that area like they would be at the other pools. If you’re simply in the pool hanging out and not making any noise to disturb other guests in the Palm building, it’s unlikely that other guests will complain.

Alua Calvia towel policy

OK, so this was a little goofy. You can’t get pool towels each day, presumably because people would wander off with them and the hotel wouldn’t get them back. Instead, you have to pay a €10 euro deposit for each towel which is refunded when you return them at checkout.

That’s fair enough, but what was annoying was that we weren’t informed of this when checking in. We learned about the policy the next morning when going to use the pool, so I had to walk to the front desk on the other side of the hotel to pay €20 for a couple of hotels. The thing is, you pay there but you don’t get your towels there.

I was told that I could get one at Fresco pool or the main pool, so I went to Fresco as that was on the way back to the My Favorite Club pool. I’d been misinformed though: Fresco pool apparently doesn’t have any towels, so I had to go down to the main pool.

The whole process took about 30 minutes which, while not a long time in the grand scheme of things, was far longer than it should take. I imagine most hotel guests want to get pool/beach towels, so it would make far more sense for guests to be told about the policy when checking in so that they can pay there and then. It would also be more convenient to have the option to either get the towels from the front desk when checking in if you want, or from the main pool later on in your stay if you’d find that easier instead (e.g. if you’re wrestling with multiple suitcases).

Alua Calvia all-inclusive dining

The hotel has numerous dining outlets and bars that are open at different times of the day.

I took lots of photos of the buffets. Rather than inserting 12-15 full-sized photos of each one which would require you to scroll endlessly through the next section, I put them into collages. You should be able to zoom in to get a better sense of what was available at each of them.

Both Shae and I were impressed overall with the breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffets. While they’re not exactly fine dining, they each had good selections of food with something for all palates, with all of it being decent quality for being an all-inclusive in Mallorca.

The buffets could get busy at times, but it was never a madhouse like restaurants like Golden Corral can be when it comes to actually lining up for food. The staff also did an excellent job keeping food items well-stocked—it was very rare that any given dish was unavailable.

Breakfast at Ocean buffet & Terra buffet

There are two breakfast buffets: Ocean buffet is in the Wave building and is open from 7:30am-10:30am, while Terra buffet in the Sky building is open from 8am-11am each morning.

We ate at both of them and the selections were similar. On mornings where we wanted a later breakfast, we ate at Terra buffet seeing as it was open until 11am. Otherwise, we ate at Ocean buffet as it was closer to our room.

There were various egg options each morning, including fried, scrambled, and hard boiled eggs, as well as Spanish omelets. There was bacon, a few types of sausage, other hot items, lots of salad items, fruit, breads, pastries, cold cuts, yogurt, pancakes, churros, French toast, and more.

Lunch at Ocean buffet

Ocean buffet is open for lunch from 1pm-3pm. We only ate there a couple of times; the other days we were either out during the day, or we simply weren’t hungry enough for lunch after a large breakfast.

There are self-serve drinks of water, sodas, beer, and wine (red, white, and rosé) at lunch; drinks at dinner in the evening are provided by servers.

Food-wise, there’s lots on offer. There’s a good selection of salad items, cold cuts, breads, seafood, lots of different hot options, pasta, fries, freshly cooked chicken and salmon to order, fruit, desserts, and a chocolate fondue.

We always ate inside as it was a little cooler than outside, despite the air conditioning in there not being amazing. If you’re better at handling the heat than I am, or if you’re visiting during a cooler part of the year, there’s plenty of outdoor seating too.

Dinner at Terra buffet

Dinner at Terra buffet is available from 6:30pm-9:30pm. We got extremely lucky whenever we went for dinner there because after being seated we often saw much longer lines waiting to get in than we’d encountered.

The buffet had a different theme each evening based on different types of world cuisine. One night it was Mallorcan, another it was Mexican, another was Asian, etc. Those weren’t the only types of food available, but it helped ensure that there was good variety from night to night.

In addition to some of the themed dishes, there was also a themed cocktail each night based on the region the food was from. The cocktails weren’t amazing, but it was a nice touch nonetheless, especially because it ensures you have something cold to drink while waiting to place your drink order.

Speaking of drinks, if you have the all-inclusive package then your drinks are included. If you aren’t staying there on an all-inclusive basis, it sounded like drinks cost extra. We heard one customer complaining to a server because they had to pay for tap water with their dinner. I could understand their frustration because that should, in my opinion, be available free of charge, particularly when it’s 100° outside.

It was pretty much just as hot inside too because the air conditioning in Terra buffet in the evenings was sadly lacking. My Favorite Club members get access to a more exclusive seating section which, on the one hand, is great because it often meant getting a seat more quickly than other guests. However, it’s a bit more enclosed and even hotter than the main seating area, so we always ate dinner fairly quickly and cleared out of there as the heat and stuffiness got oppressive at times.

As for the food though, this was always good quality with a wide variety of food types. If you have a picky eater in your family, there’s pizza, pasta, fries, mozzarella sticks, etc. There are all kinds of other options though including a good salad bar, regional dishes of the day, loads of other hot dishes, seafood, cold cuts, fruit, desserts, chocolate fondue, and more.

I tended to start with a large plate of salad, then went back to try some of the meat dishes, then had some fruit and one or two of the bite-sized desserts.

The fruit was always particularly good. The honeydew melon and pineapple were always perfectly ripe and very sweet, while the watermelon was also very good (albeit with larger seeds than I’m used to).

Dinner at Trattoria and Babbo American Grill

Next to Terra buffet is Trattoria (which serves Italian food) and Babbo American Grill (which serves burgers).

We never ate at either of them, so I can’t attest as to the quality of either joint. The night I took these photos, it didn’t seem like Trattoria was open, but perhaps you order food from there at Babbo.

These restaurants are both meant to be open from 6:30pm-9:30pm each day.

Lunch & snacks at Fresco Snack

Next to the pool at Fresco is a bar that also serves snacks. You can get lunch there from 1pm-5pm on a paid basis, plus they have snacks available for all-inclusive guests from 3pm-5pm.

Here’s the all-inclusive snack menu; we’d gone there to check our options, but we weren’t feeling any of them that day, so we went for lunch at Ocean buffet instead.

The Fancy

If you have access to My Favorite Club, next to its pool is The Fancy. This is open from 10:30am-6pm for drinks and it also serves snacks from 1pm-4pm.

Most of our pool time was spent in the My Favorite Club pool, so we ended up getting quite a lot of drinks from The Fancy. It seemed like they go easy on the liquor in the cocktails which I was actually glad about. It meant that we could drink cocktails all afternoon without getting wasted while hanging out in the pool.

We were rarely hungry between breakfast and dinner, although on one day we did order some fries and a chocolate mousse cake to share.

Fancy Bar—and I think all the bars for that matter—had a good selection of ice cream bars you could order.

Agua bar

The hotel’s main bar—Agua—is in the Wave building and is open from 10am-midnight. It’s open on two sides; one side you can access from the games room/My Favorite Club lounge, while the other side is open to outside for people sitting up on the patio and those enjoying the main swimming pool below.

Areca bar

Areca bar is in the Sky building next to the family pool and is open from 10am-6pm. It serves both drinks and snacks, but we never made it over there in order to take a photo.

My Favorite Club lounge

If you’re in a My Favorite Club room, you also have access to the My Favorite Club lounge. It wasn’t clear to me if Globalist members also get access to the lounge even if they’re not in a My Favorite Club room; I didn’t think to ask about it while we were there seeing as we had access by virtue of our room.

The lounge is just off a larger indoor games room, with a door separating the two. There were various tables and chairs in the lounge, a fridge with soft drinks, and lots of snacks available throughout the day.

I imagine this lounge has some utility when the weather is a little cooler, but in the summer there doesn’t seem much point to it. There’s seemingly no working air conditioning in there (nor the games room), while the heat emitted by the fridge in the somewhat enclosed lounge area turns it into a sauna. We went in there after checking out on our final day to grab a soda and lasted about three minutes, deciding that it was cooler outdoors in the shade of a 100° day than it was in there.

Amenities & activities

Complimentary activities

Alua Calvia runs free activities from 11am through 10pm (or a little later). There’s a list of the week’s activities available at the front desk; I think these same details can be found if you download the Hyatt Inclusive Collection STAY App (see the QR code earlier in the review).

We didn’t really participate in any of these activities as we were either enjoying the pool, out and about exploring, or chilling out in our room at night.

That said, we did check out the live entertainment one evening. The mini disco for kids was cute and the bingo was surprisingly fun (this could be played both traditionally on paper, or interactively on your phone without needing to download an app).

The live music was pretty good too. The singer had a decent voice the night we attended, although it was far more low key than I was expecting.

Fitness room

The hotel has a fairly small fitness room. There was always someone in there when I went to take a photo, but the photo below shows most of the equipment, with the exception of a weight bench and some weights where someone was sitting at the time.

Spa

If you’d rather relax, you can get various spa treatments. There was a pricing booklet in our room showing what’s available and how much the treatments cost.

However, I’m not sure if these take place in your room as I don’t think there’s an actual spa on site.

Games room

There’s a large games room in the Wave building next to My Favorite Club, but it seemed to be fairly light on games and was extremely hot due to what appeared to be non-functioning air conditioning.

Beach

Alua Calvia is located near a beach, but isn’t right on one. The closest beach is Platja de Magaluf which is about a ten minute walk away.

Despite Magaluf being a popular vacation spot in Mallorca and it being the height of summer when we visited, the beach wasn’t crazy busy. The sea was beautifully warm with enough waves to bob up and down, but not strong enough to cause any safety issues for young or less confident swimmers (although you’ll obviously want to check conditions the day you visit).

Parking

There’s a small parking lot by the Palm building with about a dozen spaces. Somewhat strangely, half of those are designated as accessible parking spots. We were always fortunate enough to find a space available that wasn’t for those who needed accessibility, but it was odd that there were only about six regular parking spaces.

I’ve no clue where other guests park as I didn’t notice any other on-site parking lot. I searched online for parking details, but the hotel’s website doesn’t state anything that I could find. Other hotel booking sites state that the hotel has a parking lot with limited spaces for a €22 (~$25.75) per night fee, but perhaps that’s the one we parked in.

Google Maps shows that there are quite a few parking lots within a 10-15 minute walk of the hotel, so you might be stuck doing that if you’re not in a My Favorite Club room.

Location

Alua Calvia is in Magaluf, something I hadn’t realized before our arrival. That’s probably good because Magaluf has a bit of a reputation in the UK as being a resort town where Brits go on holiday and eat at British-themed pubs, drink too much, act obnoxiously, etc. As a Brit myself, I would’ve been apprehensive about staying in Magaluf if I’d been aware of that ahead of time, but that wasn’t any kind of issue during our stay. However, we didn’t go out into Magaluf other than to check out the beach one day, so perhaps it is like that if you’re exploring the nightlife.

The hotel is a 30 minute drive from Palma airport in the southwest part of the island, so I was glad we’d booked a rental car to get to and from the hotel, as well as to explore Mallorca a little more during our trip. Driving in Mallorca is easy, especially if you’re from the US as they drive on the right hand side of the road and on the left hand side of the car. Just be aware that there are more roundabouts (turning circles) than you tend to get in the US and the speed limit is displayed in kilometers per hour rather than miles per hour.

If you don’t want to drive from the airport and you’ve not booked a package holiday where airport transfers are included, it looks like there’s a bus you can take from the airport to Magaluf which takes about an hour, then it’s a 5-10 minute walk to the hotel.

Magaluf has plenty of restaurants and bars, but those will likely hold less appeal if you’re staying at Alua Calvia on an all-inclusive basis. There are a couple of convenience stores right outside the hotel which are nice to have if you want to get a few snack items for during the day, get postcards, sunscreen, etc.

We’d brought a cool bag with us, so the day before the eclipse I stocked up on cold drinks and snacks at one of the stores to take with us to the beach (Platja de Santa Ponça) where we watched the eclipse.

Service

Service at Alua Calvia was very good—much better than I’d expected from an all-inclusive property. Staff were always friendly and personable, plus it seemed like they were genuinely enjoying themselves. The staff working behind the scenes at the buffets also did an excellent job, both with the quality of the food and keeping the buffets extremely well-stocked.

A particular shoutout to Blanca at The Fancy who was always excellent, as was Lucia who I believe was in charge of My Favorite Club, but who seemed to be everywhere.

Final thoughts

Shae and I very much enjoyed our stay at Alua Calvia. It was made all the better by having access to My Favorite Club. While the lounge was far too hot to spend any time in, being in the Palm building (which is reserved for My Favorite Club guests) meant it was likely a lot quieter than if we’d been in the Sky or Wave buildings where far more families stay. Having access to the exclusive My Favorite Pool was particularly great; it had a much more chilled vibe than the main pool and it was very convenient having The Fancy bar right there.

The food was decent quality for it being an all-inclusive buffet. I met a Frequent Miler reader on our last day (hi Tanya!) and she agreed that the food was much better quality than she’d expected.

As a World of Hyatt category A property, Alua Calvia can be very good value when booking with points, although you’ll definitely want to compare against the cash rates—be sure to compare to the all-inclusive cash rates.

Pros & cons

Pros

• Very good air conditioning in our room
• Decent buffets for an all-inclusive
• The My Favorite Club pool is a lovely place to spend the afternoon
• Lots of activities throughout the day if you want to participate in those
• Friendly service

Cons

• The swimming pools all close at 6pm
• Air-conditioning inside the buildings (other than guest rooms) is pretty much non-existent
• We didn’t get the suite upgrade that was supposed to have been guaranteed
• It’s a 10 minute walk to the nearest beach
• The line for the dinner buffet was sometimes very long
• The light in our room at night was annoying

The post Hotel review: Alua Calvia, Mallorca (Hyatt all-inclusive) appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Staples is again offering fee-free fixed $200 Visa Gift Cards, through Saturday, August 29, 2026.

The limit is nine per customer per day in-store, although some stores may allow more. Different stores appear to have different policies regarding the variable-load cards that some Staples now sell. Some folks report that fees are waived when they purchase them…others find that they aren’t. Your mileage may vary.

The Deal

• Staples in-store will waive the $7.95 activation fee when you buy a $200 Visa Gift Card.

Key Terms

• Offer valid 8/23/26-8/29/26.
• Limit 9 per customer per day in-store (YMMV on whether your cashier/store allows or enforces the limit).

Quick Notes

These deals can be a great way of getting rewards through spending at office supply stores. If you can buy 9 at a time in-store, that’s a potential of $1,800 that’s possible each day. Note that some stores may allow you to purchase more than 9, and we also hear occasional reports that some managers will only sell a smaller amount despite what the ad says.

Other times this deal has run recently at Staples:

Fee-free Visa Gift Card Sales

• 8/2/26-8/8/26
• 7/26/26-8/1/26
• 6/28/26-7/4/26
• 5/31/26-6/6/26
• 5/3/26-5/9/26
• 4/19/26-4/25/26
• 4/5/26-4/11/26
• 3/8/26-3/14/26
• 2/8/26-2/14/26
• 1/11/26-1/17/26
• 12/7/25 – 12/27/25
• 11/23/25 – 11/29/25
• 11/9/25 – 11/15/25
• 10/12/25 – 10/25/25
• 9/14/25 – 9/20/25.
• 8/17/25 – 8/23/25
• 7/20/25 – 7/26/25
• 6/22/25 – 6/28/25
• 5/25/25 – 5/31/25
• 4/27/25 – 5/3/25
• 3/30/25 – 4/5/25
• 3/2/25 – 3/8/25
• 2/2/25 – 2/8/25
• 1/5/25 – 1/11/25
• 12/22/24 – 12/28/24
• 12/8/24 – 12/21/24
• 11/17/24 – 11/23/24
• 10/13/24 -10/19/24
• 9/15/24 – 9/21/24
• 8/18/24 – 8/24/24
• 7/21/24 – 7/27/24
• 6/23/24 – 6/29/24
• 5/26/24 – 6/1/24
• 4/28/24 – 5/4/24
• 3/31/24 – 4/6/24
• 3/3/24 – 3/9/24
• 2/4/24 – 2/10/24
• 1/7/24 – 1/13/24
• 12/10/23 – 12/16/23
• 11/12/23 – 11/18/23
• 10/15/23 – 10/21/23
• 9/17/23 – 9/23/23
• 8/20/23 – 8/26/23
• 7/23/23 – 7/29/23
• 6/25/23 – 7/1/23
• 5/28/23-6/3/23
• 4/30/23 – 5/6/23
• 4/2/23 – 4/8/23
• 3/5/23 – 3/11/23
• 2/5/23 – 2/11/23
• 1/8/23 – 1/14/23
• 12/25/22 – 12/31/22 (only on $100 cards)
• 12/11/22 – 12/17/22
• 11/6/22 to 11/12/22
• 10/9/22 to 10/22/22
• September 25-October 1, 2022
• September 4-September 10, 2022
• August 7-13, 2022
• July 10-16, 2022
• June 12-18, 2022
• May 8-14, 2022
• February 27-March 5, 2022
• January 16-22, 2022
• December 12-18, 2021
• October 31-November 13, 2021
• October 17-23, 2021
• September 26-October 2, 2021
• September 5-11, 2021
• August 8-14, 2021
• July 11-17, 2021
• June 13-19, 2021
• May 9-15, 2021
• February 28-March 6, 2021
• January 17-23, 2021

The post Fee-free Visa Gift Cards in-store at Staples appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Welcome to our weekly list of what’s ending this week, along with a collection of other deals due to end soon.

There are a dozen deals ending this week, two of which are Cathay Pacific-related. One of those is a 10% transfer bonus, while the other gives a points rebate when booking award flights to or from Hong Kong.

Also ending this week are some United Mile Play offers, the latest Choice points sale, the latest Kimpton secret password, and more.

Below you’ll find this week’s Last Chance Deals. Those are followed by deals that Won’t Last Long and Other Limited-time Offers. Deals in bold were posted this week.

Expires Sunday, August 23, 2026

• Delta Cars & Stays promos: Earn 5X miles, earn 1X MQDs, & get 15% off bookings with SkyMiles (15% off promo expires 6/30/26, 1X MQDs promo expires 7/20/26, & 5X SkyMiles promo expires 8/23/26)
• Kroger: Earn 4X points on select 3rd party gift cards; no purchase fee on Visa / Mastercard variable loads (Visa/Mastercard deal expires 8/23/26, 3rd party gift card deal expires 8/25/26)
• Thrifty Traveler Premium promo: Save 30% on first year’s cost (Expires 8/23/26)

Expires Monday, August 24, 2026

• Strawberry Hotels (formerly Nordic Choice) Summer Pass is back (Valid on stays 6/18/26-8/24/26)
• Save 15% on cash portion of IHG Points + Cash (but buying points outright is cheaper) (Book by 8/24/26 for stays through 9/7/26)

Expires Tuesday, August 25, 2026

• Kroger: Earn 4X points on select 3rd party gift cards; no purchase fee on Visa / Mastercard variable loads (Visa/Mastercard deal expires 8/23/26, 3rd party gift card deal expires 8/25/26)

Expires Thursday, August 27, 2026

• Giftcards.com Chase Offer: Get 5% back on up to $1,000 spend (Expires 8/27/26)
• Cathay Pacific award rebate promo: Get 800 Asia Miles back for every 5,000 you redeem (Book by 8/27/26 for travel 9/10/26-12/10/26)

Expires Friday, August 28, 2026

• New United Mile Play offers: See if you’re targeted for bonus miles (Some offers expire 8/28/26, others expire 10/5/26)
• Get a 40% discount when buying Choice points (buy points for 0.62 cpp) (Expires 8/28/26)
• Get a 10% bonus when transferring bank or hotel points to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (Expires 8/28/26)

Expires Saturday, August 29, 2026

• New Kimpton “Secret” Password (Expires 8/29/26)

• Capital One Shopping offering $80 referral bonus for both sides
• [Aug/Sept ’26 added!] Baseball fans: Capital One once again has great seats for 5,000 miles each
• Earn up to a $735 bonus with a new SoFi checking/savings account
• Capital One Shopping: Spend $100 & get $100 back on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars (targeted?)

Welcome Offers / Credit Cards / Other Finance

• None ending this month

Travel

• 20,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $1K with Air France / KLM (targeted, enrollment required) (Expires 8/30/26)
• Save 10% on 2+ night Homes & Villas by Marriott stays, no minimum spend required (Book by 8/30/26 for stays through 11/30/26)
• Get $75 back on $325+ spend with Hertz Citi Offer (Expires 8/31/26)
• Earn 10X at Sunoco gas stations on Wyndham credit cards (Expires 8/31/26)
• Preferred Hotels promo: Earn $50 hotel cert for every 2+ night stay at a different hotel (Max $250) (Expires 8/31/26)
• IHG promo: Earn 2K points every 2 nights or 8K points every 4 nights (your choice) (Expires 8/31/26)
• Save 30% on award stays at Virgin Hotels in New Orleans & Dallas (select months only) (New Orleans valid for stays 6/1/26-6/30/26, Dallas valid for stays 8/1/26-8/31/26)
• Frontier Fly One, Get One offer: Earn 5,000 miles for each round trip (Register by 5/31/26, fly by 8/31/26)
• Caesars Rewards Amex Offer: Spend $200 & get $40 back (Expires 8/31/26)
• Hotels.com Amex Offer for prepaid hotels: Get 10% back on up to $1K spend; stack with other Amex Offer (Expires 8/31/26)
• 1,000 Qatar Avios with a Hilton hotel booking (Expires 8/31/26)
• Get up to ~1.5c per Emirates mile for select flights with Emirates, EasyJet, Jet2 (Expires 8/31/26)
• Get 15% back at Great Wolf Lodge with targeted Chase Offer (Expires 8/31/26)
• Hyatt Inclusive Collection Chase Offer: Spend $1K+ & get $100 back as statement credit (can use twice) (Expires 8/31/26)
• Viator/TripAdvisor Experiences Chase Offer: Get 8% back on up to $125 spend (Expires 8/31/26)
• Hyatt Under Canvas Chase Offer: Get 15% back on $450-467 spend (Expires 8/31/26)
• Marriott Bonvoy Chase Offer: Get 10% back on $100-$500 spend (Expires 8/31/26)
• 15% transfer bonus from Capital One to Avianca LifeMiles (Expires 8/31/26)
• Caesars Chase Offer: 10% back, up to $50 (Expires 8/31/26)
• Get a 40% transfer bonus from Citi ThankYou to Turkish Miles&Smiles (Expires 8/31/26)
• Flying Blue Promo Rewards for August: Get 25% off economy & premium economy to/from Europe (Book by 8/31/26 for travel in September)
• Get 10% back on Lyft rides with new Chase Offer (Expires 8/31/26)
• AARP/Expedia: Book 3+ night hotel stay & get $75 gift card free (Book by 8/31/26)
• Best Western & SureStay Amex Offer: Spend $250 & get $50 back (Expires 8/31/26)
• Save on Turo rides with Amex Offer, Chase Offer, & Citi Offer (Chase Offer expires 8/31/26; Citi Offer expires 9/30/26)
• Singapore Airlines: Premium Economy between US and Asia starting at 55K (Book by 8/31/26 for travel 9/1/26-9/30/26)
• Book Air France/KLM flight from US, earn 10,000 bonus Flying Blue miles (Book by 8/31/26 for travel through the end of the schedule)

Shopping/Spending Deals

• Wyndham cardholder promo: Earn 3k bonus points when paying 3 different bills 3 consecutive months (Expires 8/31/26)
• SimplyMiles: Earn 6X AA miles + 6X Loyalty Points at Giant Food (Expires 8/31/26)
• Get waived purchase fees at MastercardGiftCard.com, VanillaGift.com, & AmexGiftCard.com (AmexGiftCard already expired, MastercardGiftCard & VanillaGift expire 8/31/26)
• Select gift cards (incl Apple) on sale at Citi ThankYou Rewards (Expires 8/31/26)

Bank Account Bonuses

• List of great bank account signup bonuses available this month

Other Helpful Resources

• Current Deals
• Best Offers
• Current Amex Offers
• Instant Gift Card Deals

The post Last Chance Deals: Cathay Pacific transfer bonus & award rebate, United Mile Play offers, & more appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

In a recent “Ask Us Anything, Live“, someone asked the following question:

I have a question for Stephen and Carrie. Now that I am retired my wife and I are interested in finding rentals for several weeks at a time. I am pretty good at finding good properties on Airbnb and VRBO for several days but have less experience with navigating longer term rentals. Do you have any tips on how to find good locations and get good deals?

Since the second phase of my nomad life was a slower, more Airbnb-centric travel style, I thought this would be a good question to address a little more thoroughly.

How do you find good short-term rental locations?

When I’m visiting someplace brand new to me, I do just a little research to try to establish which part of town might be considered either the old town or the arts district. I highly value walkability, in part to prevent the need for a car rental if I’m otherwise stationary for a stretch of time, and in part because meandering is one of my favorite activities. Once I figure out where that part of town is, I do a search for coffee shops, parks, restaurants, and grocery stores in that neighborhood. Those are the places I’m most likely to want to walk to, after all.

I also sometimes look up art galleries and yoga studios, not because I think I’ll certainly visit, but because these tend to be good indicators of the hip part of town. Then, when I pull up the Airbnb (or VRBO) map, I know where I want to be.

How do you find good short-term rental deals?

To find good deals, there are only really three tips that come to mind.

1. Take advantage of your flexibility by doing a flexible search.
   Both Airbnb and VRBO give you the option to search for flexible dates. For example, I’m interested in spending some time in the New River Gorge area this fall, but I don’t care exactly when I go or exactly how long I’ll stay. So I can select my rough duration goal (one week in my case) and my rough range of interest (September and October in my case).

   As you can see in the results, I get to see all my options regardless of date range with an option for Sep 7-12 right alongside an option for Sep 20-25. This helps me avoid needing to go into each perspective property and try to examine their calendar of availability to determine the rates for one weekend over another.
   

2.  Don’t be afraid to ask for a discount, especially if you have positive reviews.
   Hosts are often willing to give discounts for mid-term and long-term stays, even if they haven’t pre-programmed extended stay discounts into their pricing automatically. If they’re not already offering an extended stay discount, you can simply ask if they would consider it. If they are already offering it, you can just ask for a discount for no reason at all, but offer a little bit of information about yourself to convince them what an easy guest you’ll be. I don’t usually suggest a discount amount; I simply ask if they would consider giving one. My success rate has been around 50% for this (with longer stays being more likely to work), so there’s really no reason not to ask.
3. Don’t be afraid to book longer than you actually want to stay, as some people don’t add discounts in until you reach closer to a month. 
   Some places heavily discount longer stays, so you may actually find that your options for a full month aren’t all that much more expensive than a whole week (or that a whole week is not much more expensive than 3 days, etc etc). In my sample search, for example, the high end of my week-long search results was similar to the low end of the month-long results. If you’re flexible on your duration anyway, don’t forget that a longer duration may actually be a better deal than a shorter one.

What are some of the tips and tricks you use for finding and booking good short-term-rental deals?

The post A few tips for longer Airbnb stays (A Carrie commentary) appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

I’ve been seeing just how long I can go with a $0 credit card wallet, carefully curating a modest collection of no annual fee cards that earn me transferable points at decent rates for my most common spend categories: grocery, dining, and gas. While I’m happy to take this as slow as I need, I still have an embarrassingly hard time remembering which card I’m supposed to use for what, and find myself defaulting to the Amex Blue Business plus a lot, for 2x on most of my spend (up to $50,000). I am getting close to the point where I’ll need to print out little sticker labels for myself to literally label each card with its intended purpose, but I haven’t gotten to that point quite yet.

In addition to forgetting which cards I’m supposed to use for what, I also completely forgot that my Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card offers 3X for travel, hotels, and flights. I haven’t needed to book much along those lines lately, but I do have a trip to Disney coming up where I’ll undoubtedly be racking up some travel category expenses. While I’m happy about the prospect of earning 3x on travel, this card didn’t make Tim’s list of best all-around travel cards, likely because Wells Fargo points aren’t exactly the most coveted points around, or maybe because of the lack of travel protections.

This week, we heard from Tim about all the cards that are more worth considering for all-around travel expenses, how being a United cardholder may actually make a huge difference in award availability, US Bank’s wonky transfer partner launch, and more.

This week on the Frequent Miler blog…

Shortcuts to Flying Blue elite status | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep372 | 8-21-26

With Nick on vacation, Tim joined Greg for this week’s podcast episode to discuss the many ways to shortcut Flying Blue elite status. Greg also breaks down how Flying Blue’s “Experience Points” work and why you might care to have Flying Blue elite status in the first place, even if you don’t find yourself flying them that often.

What’s the best all-around travel credit card?

This post was an interesting look at which cards have decent earning rates for travel-related spend, as well as the protections you might care about as you travel. While there were no $0 cards included (which would mean disrupting my $0 wallet experiment), there were quite a few $95 cards, like the Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.

United’s amazing cardholder award availability

In April, United added some cardholder perks to its program, like greater access to Polaris business-class saver awards, for example, and a 10% discount for award flights. With the help of Seats.aero’s setting for showing cardholder or elite member pricing in their searches, Greg was able to officially confirm that, at least for the time being, there’s actually a “massive difference” in saver-level Polaris award availability for cardholders. Check out his post to see exactly how he concluded this.

Best and worst of Alaska’s Atmos Rewards | Coffee Break Ep119 | 8-19-26

With Nick out on vacation this week, Tim has been our backup banterer alongside Greg for our podcast schedule. And with Tim based in Seattle, the Alaska Atmos Rewards program was a very suitable topic. This coffee break episode was all about the pros and cons of the program. (You might be surprised by how many “pros” there are – a free stopover on most one-way awards, for example. That’s pretty great.)

Flying Blue to increase Standard award prices and introduce Light and Flex award fares

Next month, Flying Blue is introducing a sort of “basic economy” approach to all fare types, including premium seats. Just as Basic Economy usually discounts a ticket by removing benefits like baggage allowances, etc, “Light” will strip away things like checked bags, advanced seat selection, lounge access, and changes/refunds. But then they’re also adding an option called “Flex,” which will sort of do the opposite, adding free changes and cancellations. And “Standard” will refer to the kind of fare we’d been used to with the standard features included. The idea was that this wouldn’t impact the rate of Standard tickets, but would give a discounted option for those who only care about the seat. In reality, though, the lowest-priced Standard awards will now probably cost 25% to 30% more. If it weren’t for that, I actually could have been kind of excited to have the option to book a premium seat for less, since I actually am mostly just concerned with the seat and don’t care much about the bells and whistles. But of course, if the way in which “light” fares were discounted was really just by increasing standard fares, then nobody wants that.

Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide (2026)

With some recent negative changes from Citi, namely the removal of points sharing and decreased transfer ratios to Preferred Hotels & Resorts and Choice Privileges, you may not feel all that stoked about Citi ThankYou rewards right now. Understandable. But this may actually be the perfect time to read over this guide and remind yourself what other opportunities may exist within this program. Don’t forget, as of last year, you can transfer your points to American Airlines, for example.

What’s so great about Air Canada Aeroplan? | Question of the Week Ep12 | 8-17-26

One of our listeners wrote in with some frustration about trying to make use of 300,000 Aeroplan points “stuck in Aeroplan,” asking, “Everyone always says Aeroplan is a great program, but I’m not seeing it. What am I missing?” Greg and Nick tackled this question, highlighting how helpful it can be to use an award search tool and set alerts for the awards you’re looking for.

US Bank launches transfer partners. Now transfer to Accor, Flying Blue, and Ethiopian

US Bank finally launched the transfer partners it’s been claiming were coming soon for a while, but the launch had some eye-roll moments. For instance, they initially announced this list of transfer partners: Accor ALL, Ethiopian Airlines Sheba Rewards, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, and Qantas Frequent Flyer. However, that list didn’t last too long, and pretty immediately the latter two disappeared from the list…and then one got added back. So, depending on when you visited their website, you may have seen three different lists. The one they landed on (at least for the time being) is simply: Accor, Flying Blue, and Ethiopian. Check out Nick’s post for more details on this.

Don’t sleep on Costco Travel for car rental bookings, especially if you have an additional driver

In this post, Stephen describes a few different ways that Costco Travel saved him a decent chunk of change for his recent car rental in Mallorca. By Stephen’s calculations, he actually saved a couple hundred bucks booking his car rental this way! Nothing to sneeze at.

That’s it for this week at Frequent Miler. Keep an eye on this week’s last chance deals to know which are ending this week.

The post Testing United’s cardholder award availability, digging into Atmos Rewards, US Bank’s wonky transfer partner launch and more (Week in Review) appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Wells Fargo has extended its regular offer for new checking account customers. The offer is available in-branch or online and gives a $400 bonus when you open a new Everyday Checking account and deposit a total of $1,000 in direct deposits within 90 days. See Doctor of Credit’s list of what Wells Fargo considers a direct deposit here.

The Deal

• Wells Fargo is offering a $400 bonus when you open a new Everyday Checking account and make a total of $1,000 in direct deposits within 90 days of account opening.
  • Expires October 6, 2026

Direct Link to Offer

In order to receive the bonus, you must:

Terms and Conditions

• This offer is for new checking customers only.
• You are not eligible for this offer if:
  • You are a current owner of a Wells Fargo consumer checking account
  • You have received a bonus for opening a Wells Fargo consumer checking account within the past 12 months
  • You are a Wells Fargo employee
• Once the 90-day qualification period has elapsed, we will determine if you have met the offer requirements and will deposit any earned bonus into your new checking account within 30 days.
• The new checking account must remain open throughout the 90-day qualification period and at the time we attempt to deposit any earned bonus payment. Please note that an account with a zero balance may be closed by us without prior notice, as further described in the Deposit Account Agreement.
• You are responsible for any federal, state, or local taxes due on the bonus and we will report as income to the tax authorities if required by applicable law. Consult your tax advisor.

Quick Thoughts

Wells Fargo has a broad definition of “direct deposits,” including ACH transfers from many banks. When I did this a couple of years ago, I just scheduled an ACH from my local credit union (BECU).

The terms require the account to remain open until the 90-day qualification period ends, so it’s important to understand the requirements to avoid the $15 monthly fee. You could schedule a monthly $500 ACH deposit into the account and then transfer most of it back out to keep the account free, or just leave $1,500 in the account. There’s no early termination fee if you close the account. Still, with Wells Fargo, it’s generally considered best practice to leave it open for at least a few months to avoid getting blacklisted from future bonuses.

The post Easy $400 bonus with a new Wells Fargo checking account appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

On today’s episode, we’ll talk about the many ways to shortcut Flying Blue elite status and why you might want to.

Shortcuts to Flying Blue elite status

Watch here:

Or listen here (or click “Follow” on the player below to select your preferred podcast app instead):

Giant Mailbag

(00:50) – Credit cards we’re considering | Coffee Break Ep118 – Credit cards we’re considering

Crazy Thing: Citi – Greg announce

(03:32) – Citi ThankYou Mastercard

Learn about Citi’s retailer cards here

Mattress Running the Numbers

(09:12) – 50X AA miles for Stand Up for Cancer donation

Learn more about this here

Bonvoyed – Feeling Blue about Flying Blue?

(14:49) – Flying Blue to increase Standard award prices and introduce Light and Flex award fares

Learn about Flying Blue’s Light and Flex award fares here

This Week in Points

(23:42) – Greg- Bilt adds new Bilt Cash Options (Learn how to use Bilt Cash to book Blade rides here)

(34:08) – Tim – Cardpointers: automatic “smart add” feature for Amex Offer priority (https://frequentmiler.com/workarounds-for-adding-amex-offers-to-multiple-cards-appear-to-be-dead/Learn some workarounds for adding Amex offers to multiple cards which appear to be dead here: )

Personal Points

(38:16) – Atmos 100K companion cert caveats (Learn all about Atmos Companion Awards here: https://frequentmiler.com/atmos-global-companion-awards-guide/)

Main Event: Shortcuts to Flying Blue elite status

(52:35) – Learn shortcuts to Flying Blue elite status here: https://frequentmiler.com/elite-status-via-the-air-france-klm-credit-card/ And why is Flying Blue status interesting?

(58:57) – How Flying Blue elite status works

(1:03:29) – Normal way to earn XPs

(1:09:24) – Shortcuts

Learn about Flying Blue Status Match (US residents version) here: https://frequentmiler.com/flying-blue-status-match-for-us-residents/

Subscribe and Follow

Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/ to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.
Music Credit – “Ocean Deep” by Annie Yoder

The post Shortcuts to Flying Blue elite status | Frequent Miler on the Air Ep372 | 8-21-26 appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

National Cheap Flight Day takes place on August 23 each year. In anticipation, Thrifty Traveler is offering a 30% discount on Premium or Premium+ subscriptions and has now extended it through the 23rd.

The Deal

• Save 30% on your first year’s subscription of Thrifty Traveler Premium or Thrifty Traveler Premium+:
  • Thrifty Traveler Premium – $90.99
  • Thrifty Traveler Premium+ – $132.99
• Direct link to offer (our affiliate link).

Key Terms

• Expires August 23, 2026 at 11:59pm PT.

Quick Thoughts

Thrifty Traveler Premium and Premium+ usually cost $129.99 and $189.99 per year, respectively, so using our affiliate link (which auto-populates the FREQUENTMILER promo code that gives the 30% discount) drops those costs to $90.99 and $132.99, respectively.

Note that those discounted prices are for the first year only; the pricing will revert to the regular cost after the first year.

If you’re not familiar with Thrifty Traveler Premium, it’s a subscription service that sends email alerts with flight deals for both cash and points. Their Premium+ service provides even more flight alerts, plus alerts for hotel deals when booking with points.

The post Thrifty Traveler Premium promo: Save 30% on first year’s cost (extended) appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

This post is designed to show current Amex Offers. If you have any Amex cards, even authorized user cards, then you’re eligible to sign up for offers when you log into your Amex account. If you’re planning to shop or book travel, check this page to see if an Amex Offer exists that will help you save money or earn extra points.

Amex Offers often appear on some cards, but not others. Don’t be surprised if an offer listed here is not available on any of your cards. Additionally, some of the offers shown here are only available in specific regions.

CardPointers

The data found below was graciously provided by CardPointers. CardPointers is an app and browser extension which can be used to automatically load Amex offers (and offers from many other institutions) to your cards. Once done, you can quickly and easily see all of the offers available to you.

Read more about CardPointers here.

Current Amex Offers

By default, the following table shows the first 10 offers. To find additional offers, use the search box, or change the number of entries shown, or press Page Next at the bottom.

Amex Offer	Expiration Date
1stDibs.com - Antique & Modern Furniture, Jewels, Fashion, Art: Spend $1,000 or more, earn $200 back Earn a one-time $200 statement credit after using your enrolled eligible Card to spend a minimum of $1,000 in one or more qualifying purchases online at 1stdibs.com by 9/10/2026. View Terms: By enrolling in this offer, you agree to these terms and the Amex Offers® Program Terms.Eligibility and EnrollmentEnrollment is limited. Eligible Card Members must first add offer to their Card and then use same enrolled Card for qualifying purchases. Any Cards issued outside of the US are not eligible. Only Card Members who enroll are eligible; offers are non-transferable.Limit of 1 statement credit per eligible Card Member account.Qualifying PurchasesOffer valid online only at US website 1stdibs.com or through the 1stdibs mobile app. Excludes commission fees, credit card processing fees, monthly subscription & listing fees, featuredlisting & ad fees, and shipping fees. See merchant website for shipping policy. Some merchants may not ship to all areas. Purchases must be made in USD, and offer is only valid on purchases made directly with the merchant. Offer not valid on purchases made using third parties, such as resellers, delivery services, or other intermediaries.Statement CreditIf you meet the offer requirements, the statement credit(s) will typically post to your account within 30 days after you make a qualifying purchase, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase. In some circumstances, it may take up to 90 days after the offer end date for statement credit(s) to post. Please call the number on the back of your Card if credit(s) have not posted to your account 30 days after you made the qualifying purchase. Accounts that are canceled at the time of fulfillment of the offer will not receive the credit(s). Credit(s) may not be received or may be reversed if an eligible purchase is returned, partially returned, refunded, canceled or modified.GeneralAmex Offers® are available for varying and limited periods of time, are dynamic and personalized and may differ between Card Members. If you navigate away from the Amex Offers page, you may see different offers when you return. American Express reserves the right to modify or revoke the offer at any time.PrivacyBy enrolling in this offer, you agree that American Express may use your transaction and personal information to administer the offer, communicate with you about it, and facilitate your offers experience in accordance with the American Express Privacy Statement.POID: KCA9:0001	2026-09-10
7forallmankind.com: Earn 6% back on purchases, up to a total of $250 Earn 6% back as a statement credit after using your enrolled eligible Card to make purchases online at 7forallmankind.com by 9/1/2026. Limit of $250 back in total statement credits.  View Terms: By enrolling in this offer, you agree to these terms and the Amex Offers® Program Terms.Eligibility and EnrollmentEnrollment is limited. Eligible Card Members must first add offer to their Card and then use same enrolled Card for qualifying purchases. Any Cards issued outside of the US are not eligible. Only Card Members who enroll are eligible; offers are non-transferable.Limit of $250 in total statement credits per eligible Card Member account.Qualifying PurchasesOffer valid online only at US website 7forallmankind.com. Not valid on orders shipped outside of the US. Purchases must be made in USD, and offer is only valid on purchases made directly with the merchant. Offer not valid on purchases made using third parties, such as resellers, delivery services, or other intermediaries.Statement CreditIf you meet the offer requirements, the statement credit(s) will typically post to your account within 30 days after you make a qualifying purchase, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase. In some circumstances, it may take up to 90 days after the offer end date for statement credit(s) to post. Please call the number on the back of your Card if credit(s) have not posted to your account 30 days after you made the qualifying purchase. Accounts that are canceled at the time of fulfillment of the offer will not receive the credit(s). Credit(s) may not be received or may be reversed if an eligible purchase is returned, partially returned, refunded, canceled or modified.GeneralAmex Offers® are available for varying and limited periods of time, are dynamic and personalized and may differ between Card Members. If you navigate away from the Amex Offers page, you may see different offers when you return. American Express reserves the right to modify or revoke the offer at any time.PrivacyBy enrolling in this offer, you agree that American Express may use your transaction and personal information to administer the offer, communicate with you about it, and facilitate your offers experience in accordance with the American Express Privacy Statement.POID: K7YZ:1279	2026-09-01
177milkstreet.com: Earn 5% back on purchases, up to a total of $250 Earn 5% back as a statement credit after using your enrolled eligible Card to make purchases online at 177milkstreet.com by 9/1/2026. Limit of $250 back in total statement credits.  View Terms: By enrolling in this offer, you agree to these terms and the Amex Offers® Program Terms.Eligibility and EnrollmentEnrollment is limited. Eligible Card Members must first add offer to their Card and then use same enrolled Card for qualifying purchases. Any Cards issued outside of the US are not eligible. Only Card Members who enroll are eligible; offers are non-transferable.Limit of $250 in total statement credits per eligible Card Member account.Qualifying PurchasesOffer valid online only at US website 177milkstreet.com. Not valid on orders shipped outside of the US. Purchases must be made in USD, and offer is only valid on purchases made directly with the merchant. Offer not valid on purchases made using third parties, such as resellers, delivery services, or other intermediaries.Statement CreditIf you meet the offer requirements, the statement credit(s) will typically post to your account within 30 days after you make a qualifying purchase, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase. In some circumstances, it may take up to 90 days after the offer end date for statement credit(s) to post. Please call the number on the back of your Card if credit(s) have not posted to your account 30 days after you made the qualifying purchase. Accounts that are canceled at the time of fulfillment of the offer will not receive the credit(s). Credit(s) may not be received or may be reversed if an eligible purchase is returned, partially returned, refunded, canceled or modified.GeneralAmex Offers® are available for varying and limited periods of time, are dynamic and personalized and may differ between Card Members. If you navigate away from the Amex Offers page, you may see different offers when you return. American Express reserves the right to modify or revoke the offer at any time.PrivacyBy enrolling in this offer, you agree that American Express may use your transaction and personal information to administer the offer, communicate with you about it, and facilitate your offers experience in accordance with the American Express Privacy Statement.POID: K7YZ:1411	2026-09-01
accessories.ford.com: Earn 5% back on purchases, up to a total of $250 Earn 5% back as a statement credit after using your enrolled eligible Card to make purchases online at accessories.ford.com by 9/1/2026. Limit of $250 back in total statement credits.  View Terms: By enrolling in this offer, you agree to these terms and the Amex Offers® Program Terms.Eligibility and EnrollmentEnrollment is limited. Eligible Card Members must first add offer to their Card and then use same enrolled Card for qualifying purchases. Any Cards issued outside of the US are not eligible. Only Card Members who enroll are eligible; offers are non-transferable.Limit of $250 in total statement credits per eligible Card Member account.Qualifying PurchasesOffer valid online only at US website accessories.ford.com. Not valid on orders shipped outside of the US. Purchases must be made in USD, and offer is only valid on purchases made directly with the merchant. Offer not valid on purchases made using third parties, such as resellers, delivery services, or other intermediaries.Statement CreditIf you meet the offer requirements, the statement credit(s) will typically post to your account within 30 days after you make a qualifying purchase, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase. In some circumstances, it may take up to 90 days after the offer end date for statement credit(s) to post. Please call the number on the back of your Card if credit(s) have not posted to your account 30 days after you made the qualifying purchase. Accounts that are canceled at the time of fulfillment of the offer will not receive the credit(s). Credit(s) may not be received or may be reversed if an eligible purchase is returned, partially returned, refunded, canceled or modified.GeneralAmex Offers® are available for varying and limited periods of time, are dynamic and personalized and may differ between Card Members. If you navigate away from the Amex Offers page, you may see different offers when you return. American Express reserves the right to modify or revoke the offer at any time.PrivacyBy enrolling in this offer, you agree that American Express may use your transaction and personal information to administer the offer, communicate with you about it, and facilitate your offers experience in accordance with the American Express Privacy Statement.POID: K7YZ:1271	2026-09-01
adidas.com: Spend $100 or more, earn $20 back Earn a one-time $20 statement credit after using your enrolled eligible Card to spend a minimum of $100 in one or more qualifying purchases online at adidas.com by 9/1/2026. View Terms: By enrolling in this offer, you agree to these terms and the Amex Offers® Program Terms.Eligibility and EnrollmentEnrollment is limited. Eligible Card Members must first add offer to their Card and then use same enrolled Card for qualifying purchases. Any Cards issued outside of the US are not eligible. Only Card Members who enroll are eligible; offers are non-transferable.Limit of 1 statement credit per eligible Card Member account.Qualifying PurchasesOffer valid online only at US website adidas.com. Not valid on purchases shipped outside of the US. See merchant website for shipping policy. Some merchants may not ship to all areas. Excludes Hype sales and bulk gift card purchases. Purchases must be made in USD, and offer is only valid on purchases made directly with the merchant. Offer not valid on purchases made using third parties, such as resellers, delivery services, or other intermediaries.Statement CreditIf you meet the offer requirements, the statement credit(s) will typically post to your account within 30 days after you make a qualifying purchase, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase. In some circumstances, it may take up to 90 days after the offer end date for statement credit(s) to post. Please call the number on the back of your Card if credit(s) have not posted to your account 30 days after you made the qualifying purchase. Accounts that are canceled at the time of fulfillment of the offer will not receive the credit(s). Credit(s) may not be received or may be reversed if an eligible purchase is returned, partially returned, refunded, canceled or modified.GeneralAmex Offers® are available for varying and limited periods of time, are dynamic and personalized and may differ between Card Members. If you navigate away from the Amex Offers page, you may see different offers when you return. American Express reserves the right to modify or revoke the offer at any time.PrivacyBy enrolling in this offer, you agree that American Express may use your transaction and personal information to administer the offer, communicate with you about it, and facilitate your offers experience in accordance with the American Express Privacy Statement.POID: KCBV:0001	2026-09-01
Adobe.com: Earn 20% back on purchases, up to a total of $200 Earn 20% back as a statement credit after using your enrolled eligible Card to make qualifying purchases online at adobe.com by 12/15/2026. Limit of $200 back in total statement credits.  View Terms: By enrolling in this offer, you agree to these terms and the Amex Offers® Program Terms.Eligibility and EnrollmentEnrollment is limited. Eligible Card Members must first add offer to their Card and then use same enrolled Card for qualifying purchases. Any Cards issued outside of the US are not eligible. Only Card Members who enroll are eligible; offers are non-transferable.Limit of $200 in total statement credits per eligible Card Member account.Qualifying PurchasesOffer valid online only at US website Adobe.com and through the Adobe app. Excludes Adobe branded merchandise. Eligible subscriptions or memberships will automatically renew unless you cancel, and the merchant will charge the applicable fee to the Card they have on file. If you receive a free trial, charges may not post to your account until the trial has lapsed. Charges must post to your account by 12/15/2026 in order to qualify. Purchases must be made in USD, and offer is only valid on purchases made directly with the merchant. Offer not valid on purchases made using third parties, such as resellers, delivery services, or other intermediaries.Statement CreditIf you meet the offer requirements, the statement credit(s) will typically post to your account within 30 days after you make a qualifying purchase, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase. In some circumstances, it may take up to 90 days after the offer end date for statement credit(s) to post. Please call the number on the back of your Card if credit(s) have not posted to your account 30 days after you made the qualifying purchase. Accounts that are canceled at the time of fulfillment of the offer will not receive the credit(s). Credit(s) may not be received or may be reversed if an eligible purchase is returned, partially returned, refunded, canceled or modified.GeneralAmex Offers® are available for varying and limited periods of time, are dynamic and personalized and may differ between Card Members. If you navigate away from the Amex Offers page, you may see different offers when you return. American Express reserves the right to modify or revoke the offer at any time.PrivacyBy enrolling in this offer, you agree that American Express may use your transaction and personal information to administer the offer, communicate with you about it, and facilitate your offers experience in accordance with the American Express Privacy Statement.POID: KCZC:0001	2026-12-15
ADT - Home Security Equipment and Installation: Spend $250 or more, earn $250 back Earn a one-time $250 statement credit after using your enrolled eligible Card to spend a minimum of $250 in one or more qualifying new residential customer purchases of home security equipment and installation online at adt.com, via mobile app or by calling an ADT representative by 11/3/2026. View Terms: By enrolling in this offer, you agree to these terms and the Amex Offers® Program Terms.Eligibility and EnrollmentEnrollment is limited. Eligible Card Members must first add offer to their Card and then use same enrolled Card for qualifying purchases. Any Cards issued outside of the US are not eligible. Only Card Members who enroll are eligible; offers are non-transferable.Limit of 1 statement credit per eligible Card Member account.Qualifying PurchasesOffer valid for new residential customer purchases of home security equipment and installation made online only at US website adt.com, via mobile app or by calling an ADT representative. Not valid on recurring monthly payments after initial purchase. See merchant website for service availability in your market. Excludes purchases of all other ADT services. Not valid on purchases shipped outside of the US. See merchant website for shipping policy. Some merchants may not ship to all areas. Purchases must be made in USD, and offer is only valid on purchases made directly with the merchant. Offer not valid on purchases made using third parties, such as resellers, delivery services, or other intermediaries.Statement CreditIf you meet the offer requirements, the statement credit(s) will typically post to your account within 30 days after you make a qualifying purchase, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase. In some circumstances, it may take up to 90 days after the offer end date for statement credit(s) to post. Please call the number on the back of your Card if credit(s) have not posted to your account 30 days after you made the qualifying purchase. Accounts that are canceled at the time of fulfillment of the offer will not receive the credit(s). Credit(s) may not be received or may be reversed if an eligible purchase is returned, partially returned, refunded, canceled or modified.GeneralAmex Offers® are available for varying and limited periods of time, are dynamic and personalized and may differ between Card Members. If you navigate away from the Amex Offers page, you may see different offers when you return. American Express reserves the right to modify or revoke the offer at any time.PrivacyBy enrolling in this offer, you agree that American Express may use your transaction and personal information to administer the offer, communicate with you about it, and facilitate your offers experience in accordance with the American Express Privacy Statement.POID: KCZ2:0001	2026-11-03
Aesop - Formulations for skin, hair, home & body: Spend $200 or more, earn $30 back Earn a one-time $30 statement credit after using your enrolled eligible Card to spend a minimum of $200 in one or more purchases in-store at Aesop or online at Aesop.com by 10/5/2026. View Terms: Eligibility and EnrollmentEnrollment is limited. Eligible Card Members must first add offer to Card and then use same Card for qualifying spend. Only US-issued American Express® Cards are eligible.Limit of 1 statement credit per eligible Card Member account. If the Card Account is canceled or past due, it may not qualify to receive statement credits.Qualifying PurchasesOffer valid in-store at Aesop and online only at US website Aesop.com. Valid at participating locations in the US. Not valid on purchases shipped outside the US. Excludes wholesale purchases. See merchant website for shipping policy. Some merchants may not ship to all areas. Offer valid only on purchases made in US dollars.Offer only valid on purchases made directly with the merchant. Offer not valid on purchases made using third parties, such as resellers, delivery services, or other intermediaries.Statement CreditPlease allow 90-days after 10/5/2026 for the statement credit(s) to be posted to the Account, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase.Participation in Amex Offers is subject to Amex Offers Program Terms.POID: KC70:0002	2026-10-05
Aesop - Formulations for skin, hair, home & body: Spend $300 or more, earn $30 back Earn a one-time $30 statement credit after using your enrolled eligible Card to spend a minimum of $300 in one or more purchases in-store at Aesop or online at Aesop.com by 10/5/2026. View Terms: Eligibility and EnrollmentEnrollment is limited. Eligible Card Members must first add offer to Card and then use same Card for qualifying spend. Only US-issued American Express® Cards are eligible.Limit of 1 statement credit per eligible Card Member account. If the Card Account is canceled or past due, it may not qualify to receive statement credits.Qualifying PurchasesOffer valid in-store at Aesop and online only at US website Aesop.com. Valid at participating locations in the US. Not valid on purchases shipped outside the US. Excludes wholesale purchases. See merchant website for shipping policy. Some merchants may not ship to all areas. Offer valid only on purchases made in US dollars.Offer only valid on purchases made directly with the merchant. Offer not valid on purchases made using third parties, such as resellers, delivery services, or other intermediaries.Statement CreditPlease allow 90-days after 10/5/2026 for the statement credit(s) to be posted to the Account, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase.Participation in Amex Offers is subject to Amex Offers Program Terms.POID: KC70:0001	2026-10-05
AG1 - Daily Foundational Nutrition supplement: Spend $75 or more, earn $25 back Earn a one-time $25 statement credit after using your enrolled eligible Card to spend a minimum of $75 in one or more purchases online at drinkag1.com/amexoffer by 9/30/2026. View Terms: Eligibility and EnrollmentEnrollment is limited. Eligible Card Members must first add offer to Card and then use same Card for qualifying spend. Only US-issued American Express® Cards are eligible.Limit of 1 statement credit per eligible Card Member account. If the Card Account is canceled or past due, it may not qualify to receive the statement credit(s).Qualifying PurchasesOffer valid online only at US website drinkag1.com/amexoffer. See merchant website for shipping policy. Some merchants may not ship to all areas. Eligible subscriptions or memberships will automatically renew unless you cancel, and the merchant will charge the applicable fee to the Card they have on file. Offer valid only on purchases made in US dollars.Offer only valid on purchases made directly with the merchant. Offer not valid on purchases made using third parties, such as resellers, delivery services, or other intermediaries.Statement CreditPlease allow 90-days after 9/30/2026 for the statement credit(s) to be posted to the Account, provided that American Express receives information from the merchant about your qualifying purchase.Participation in Amex Offers is subject to Amex Offers Program Terms.POID: KCPJ:0001	2026-09-30

The post Current Amex Offers appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.

Homes & Villas by Marriott has launched a new promotion offering 2,000 bonus points per night, up to 10,000 total bonus points per stay. If targeted, you can stack this with an Amex Offer that gives you $350 back on stays of $1000 or more.

The Deal

• Earn 2,000 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points per night when booking Homes & Villas stays of 2+ nights costing $1,500+.

Direct link to registration

Key Terms

• Marriott Bonvoy Members earn 2,000 bonus points per night, up to a maximum of 10,000 bonus points per qualifying paid stay at a participating home rental booked between August 21, 2026 (12:01 AM EST) and October 1, 2026 (11:59 PM EST) through the Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy website (“HVMB Platform”) for stays completed between August 21, 2026, and December 31, 2026. Payment for the stay must be made by debit or credit card.
• Marriott Bonvoy Members will earn 2,000 bonus points per eligible night, up to a maximum of 10,000 bonus points per stay.
• Stays of two (2) or more consecutive nights must be completed during the promotion earning period, beginning August 21, 2026, up to and including nights stayed on or before December 31, 2026.
• A minimum spend for the stay is $1,500 (or foreign currency equivalent). Charges that do not qualify for Points include, but are not limited to, taxes, booking fees, cleaning fees, security deposits, and extra add-on services purchasedand/or applied to home rentals booked through the HVMB Platform.

Quick Thoughts

Since you have to spend at least $2,000 before taxes and fees to earn 2,000 bonus points per night (capped at 10,000 bonus points), it isn’t a huge reward. That said, it’s better than earning zero bonus points if you were going to book a Homes & Villas stay anyway.

If you’re an Amex cardholder, check whether you’re targeted for this offer, which gives $350 back on stays of $1,000 or more. These will stack, which means you’d earn up to 10,000 total bonus points AND save $350, making it much more worthwhile.

Homes & Villas by Marriott is available on several shopping portals, so click through from one of those before making a reservation. You can find the current rates here and here. It’s also worth browsing the Homes & Villas website with the Capital One Shopping browser extension installed as I’ll often get targeted with much higher offers via email as a result.

The post Homes & Villas by Marriott promo: Earn 2K bonus points per night appeared first on Frequent Miler. Frequent Miler may receive compensation from CHASE. American Express, Capital One, or other partners.