Recap Week Ending 9/13/26

Nothing too crazy to highlight news-wise this week which is good! But I did want to bring up a few reminders. In addition to some quarterly Amex credits that expire at the end of this month (highlighted below), don’t forget that Chase Sapphire Preferred transfers to Hyatt drops from 1:1 to 4:3 on October 1.

Don’t miss the next points & miles deal

Deals I’ve sent in the past week include US/Taipei on Starlux; EgyptAir business class on new A350; Condor business class to Germany; and lie-flat business class seats to Bogota, Colombia. If you want more points deals in your inbox, learn more or upgrade here!

Use them or lose them. So far, American Express is the biggest perpetrator of quarterly credits. Some tips and spoon feeding here to help you out.

1) You can often trigger Resy credits buying gift cards (GCs); 2) Lululemon has made it difficult to buy $75 GCs or split payment but YMMV; 3) Hilton hotel credits used to work for Starbucks GCs in select Hilton’s, but seems to have gone away for most. Maybe use restaurants? (Google Docs with data points); 4) Aspire flight credits are for any flight-related purchase and not just incidentals like the Plat. So United Travel Bank works; 5) no idea how to use the Indeed credit.

Two Marriott promos and a Hyatt promo worth highlighting. Amex also has some nice (but potentially targeted) offers to save on hotel stays as well.

1) Marriott’s fall promo. The first is the fall promo (kind of sucks but free points is free points) where you can get 1,500 bonus points for stays of 2+ nights and an extra 3,000 bonus points for resort stays of 2+ nights (stacks to 4,500 if you stay at a resort). Sign up here in just a few clicks on Marriott’s site.

2) Marriott’s double elite night credit promo. But you have to book Marriott Homes & Villas (the home rental platform). This could be potentially important for those who might be short a few elite night credits to requalify for Platinum or Titanium (Gold isn’t worth it to try to qualify for). Need to book by September 30 and bookings need to be $1,750+ and stays must be from now through December 15. Link for info and to register here on Marriott’s site here. Check your Amex cards for potential discounts as well, I have a spend $1,000+ get $350 back for Marriott Homes & Villas.

3) Hyatt has 2x points when booking Thompson Hotels. Info here (Hyatt site) and get 2x points on eligible Thompson Hotel stays between September 8 through November 10. You need to register and book through the Hyatt app apparently.

4) Check your Amex offers for discounts as well. I have a bunch of different Amex offers across my Amex Platinum, Gold, or Marriott cards. There’s a new Marriott offer that was on my Amex Bonvoy business card.

There’s so much info out there with most not super important or relevant to the majority of people. That’s why I created this newsletter, to help filter through all of it.

But why is it important to stay up-to-date on the news? Things can change fast with credit card perks and points & miles news. That includes the best ways to use points to book certain flights, limited-time coupons & deals, or one-off promotions like Paze.

But, that means someone has to go through it all. So how do I do it? I personally don’t use any AI directly tools, although some newsletters I get are clearly AI generated. Those newsletters often get important details wrong or think old news is new news.

So, I have to read everything myself. I read multiple blogs every day, subscribe to dozens of newsletters, scour Facebook groups and Reddit threads, read comments on social media, get updates from group chats and friends, try to listen to podcasts (not really a podcast person ☹), and just test things myself. There’s also a site called Milesfeed that aggregates a bunch of blog posts into one that helps me out.

Anyways, here is a non-exhaustive but somewhat comprehensive list of what I read or listen to.

If you have a lot of Delta miles and/or Amex points, Delta has business class flights on Delta One across major gateways in the US to Europe. Delta One business starts at 125k points each way on average (106.25k points with 15% cardholder discount). Return flights can also be priced at the same 125k points rate if you book a round-trip flight, but won’t price at that rate if you only book a one-way Europe→US flight. This round-trip requirement has been a quirk with these Delta sales for a while.

Another benefit is you can do a multi-city trip and get the average price of 125k points each way. So you can fly New York to Rome (FCO) and then back from Venice (VCE) to New York and get the price. You can also connect from other cities in the US to the major Delta international gateways and get the same pricing, helping you save on a positioning flight. Example, a flight from Miami→Atlanta→Milan would price at 125k, same as the Atlanta→Milan flight.