This week, we'll cover my favorite tactics for booking travel with points & miles, Southwest card refresh with increased offers, new perks & more, deals on business class award flight deals to Europe + Asia, $9,500 bonus points via shopping portal, enter to win 1M Choice Privileges pointsm, $500+ worth of savings via card-linked offers, how to invest at all-time high, and more!

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🗺️ 18 Tactics for Booking Travel with Points & Miles

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

📖 Read the Blog Post

🛫 Travel, Points & Miles

✈️ Southwest Card Refresh + 100k Welcome Offers

Southwest ​​announced a major refresh​​ of their cards and my feelings on the changes to perks/benefits/fees are mixed. Plus, for a limited time, the three personal Southwest cards are offering 100,000 Rapid Rewards points after you spend $4,000 in the first 5 months. That’s one of the biggest offers we’ve ever seen on these cards.

• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card

I personally value Southwest points at ~1.3¢, which means these bonuses are worth at least ~$1,300, but likely even more because the points for these bonuses count toward a 2-year Companion Pass (more on the strategy here). As has been true in the past, bonuses are available to new cardholders or previous cardholders who haven't received a bonus in the past 24 months. If you’ve been on the fence, this is a good time to do it.

💺 Biz Class Award Flight Deals to Europe + Asia

There are some great business class award deals available now, especially if you're eyeing Europe or Asia for late summer or early 2026.

• 🇪🇸 Spain: From ​45,000 points​ via American Airlines or Iberia.

• 🇮🇹 Rome: From ​55,000 points​ via American Airlines.

• 🇧🇪 Brussels: From ​60,000 points​ via Brussels Airlines.

• 🇵🇹 Lisbon: From ​60,000 points​ to Lisbon via TAP Portugal.

• 🇯🇵 Japan: From ​103,500 points​ via Singapore Airlines.

🛍️ Up to 9,500 Points in Shopping Portal Bonuses

Last week, I shared how you can earn up to 5,500 in combined bonus points/miles via the ​United Airlines​, ​Alaska Airlines​ and ​Southwest Airlines​ shopping portals. This week, Delta and American Airlines have joined in to offer ​2,000 bonus Delta miles​ when you spend $600 and ​2,000 bonus AA miles​ when you spend $1,200 before 8/11.

🎯 Win 1 Million Choice Privileges Points & More

Choice Privileges is running a ​sweepstakes with a grand prize of 1 million points​ redeemable for hotel stays and experiences. Additional prizes include a NASCAR experience and eleven prizes of 100,000 points. There's no purchase necessary, but you have to ​enter the sweepstakes​ before 10/7.

🍽️ Earn 6,000 Marriott Bonus Points on Dining

Earn up to ​6,000 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points​ by dining at participating "Eat Around Town” restaurants before 9/30. Plus, you can earn an additional 200 points for making reservations in advance. ​Registration​ is required.

🏨 Wyndham Promos: Status Match + 20% Off

There are two promos for Wyndham Rewards going on right now:

1. ​Status match/challenge​ allowing members with elite status from other hotel chains to match their status to Wyndham Rewards, potentially reaching Diamond status by the end of 2026.

2. Flash sale with ​up to 20% off​ 2025 bookings made by 7/28

💸 Buy IHG & Aeroplan Points on Sale

If you have a redemption in mind or if you’re already familiar with these two programs, these deals might come in handy.

• IHG: 0.56¢ with ​80% bonus​ (8/1).

• Aeroplan: 1.4¢ with up to a ​95% bonus​ (8/2).

🚕 Alaska Airlines Increases Lyft Earnings Up To 3x

Starting 7/17, Alaska Mileage Plan members can earn 2x on Standard, Priority Pickup, and XL Lyft rides, and 3x for airport rides or premium Lyft options (Extra Comfort, Black, Black SUV). Make sure to ​link your Alaska Mileage Plan and Lyft accounts​ to qualify.

P.S. Don't forget to maximize your earnings by using certain credit cards​ that earn an additional 5x points on Lyft rides.

🚘 Earn 3x Delta SkyMiles on SIXT Car Rentals

Delta SkyMiles members can earn 3x miles per eligible dollar on SIXT car rental bookings through the ​Delta Cars & Stays platform​ until 8/20 (it'll drop to 2x afterwards).

✈️ New Southwest Airlines Boarding Process

Southwest Airlines is changing its ​boarding process to an 8-group system​ based on fare type, seat assignment, and membership status, eliminating its previous open-seating policy. The change, along with the ​new assigned and premium seating​, will go into effect on 1/27/26.

🐶 Free Pet Insurance w/ Nibbles Credit Card

I recently came across the ​Nibbles credit card​, which offers free pet insurance for one dog or cat and earns 3x points on pet and vet purchases. That didn't seem exciting until I realized that a comparable pet insurance policy for our 10yr old dog was $137.56/mo. That made the card a bit more compelling until they said our dog isn't eligible (likely because of his age). So not much to get excited about here.

🤑 Latest Deals

💳 Bad News for US Bank Smartly 4% Cardholders

While US Bank made some ​bad changes​ to the Smartly 4% card back in April, fortunately it only affected new cardholders. Unfortunately, Doctor of Credit ​is reporting​ that most of those changes will be coming to existing cardholders on 9/15. I hope this isn't true, but it's only a matter of time given how unsustainable 4% back is.

🥗 inKind Deal for $25 Off $25+ (incl. Existing Users)

​InKind​ has a ​new great promo​ for new and existing users to get $25 off your next $25+ meal. If you're not familiar, InKind is a free dining rewards app that's helped me save $100s at amazing restaurants.

If you don’t have an InKind account yet, you can join with a referral offer (​here’s mine​) and then add the deal above to your account after.

💳 Latest Card-Linked Offers: $500+ in Savings:

You can leverage card-linked offers to maximize your savings, so here are some I found this week. Expiration dates are in parentheses.

• Turkish Airlines: ​$200 off $1,200+​ (10/19).

• Delta: ​$100 off $500​, up to 2 times (10/15).

• Hotels.com: ​8% back, up to $90​ (10/14).

• IHG: ​15x/15% off stays​ (N/A).

• ​MGM Resorts: ​$80​​ off $400​ (9/25)

• CVS: ​15x (up to 1,000 miles) or 15% off $67​ (7/28).

• Shake Shack: ​10% off​, up to $4 (8/6).

• Hard Rock Cafe & Shops: ​$15 off $75​, up to 2 times (8/22).

P.S. Some of these offers are targeted, so I highly recommend using ​​CardPointers Pro​ (get 30% off ​​here​​) to automate these offers.

🎢 Six Flags Gold Season Pass Starting at $55+

You can now buy a ​Six Flags Gold Season Pass​ (valid for 2025 & 2026), which includes a free All-Park Passport, starting at just $55. The sale is currently accessible via modified URLs listed ​here​ for each location.

💵 Venmo: 15% Back at Sephora, Walgreens & More

Targeted Venmo users can get 15% cash back at popular stores like Lyft, Sephora, Walgreens, Walmart, McDonald's and more (though 8/31). Check your email or Venmo app to see if you're targeted.

🕵️ Great Finds

📈 Investing at All-Time Highs

Ben Carlson recently ​analyzed the historical frequency of all-time highs​ and here’s what you need to know: all-time highs are perfectly normal, and returns are often better when investing at all-time highs compared to other market conditions over 1, 3, and 5-year periods. That being said, I think diversifying your investments is always a good choice.

🎤 Weird Al Is Back on Tour

I'm a big fan of Weird Al Yankovic, so it's pretty exciting to see he's back on tour across the US with ​BIGGER & WEIRDER 2025​. I haven't seen him live for over a decade, but I'm excited to make it happen. Meeting him in person is on my bucket list so if anyone reading happens to know him, feel free to reach out and be in my eternal gratitude!

🏰 Small Luxury Hotel Series: Airelles Collection

I love ​this new series by OMAAT​ featuring some of the world’s small luxury hotel groups that often fly under the radar. Here's a ​guide to the Airelles Collection​, which has some incredible boutique luxury properties that are also family friendly. While most of the hotels in this series won't be bookable with points, I still hearing about them.

That said if you are booking any luxury hotel on a paid stay, check out ​our luxury hotel upgrade program​, which has helped subscribers score 100s of free upgrades, complimentary breakfasts, and so much more!

📋 My Past Week

Since you guys enjoyed this section from last week, I'm going to continue sharing everything from deals I took advantage of, shows/movies I watched, cards I opened, trips I booked and more.

• Just finished watching ​Stick​ and despite that I'm not a golfer, I'm already really excited for a season two.

• I don't drink coffee often (caffeine has a huge impact on me), but a friend brought me a bag of incredible beans from ​Koffee Mameya​ in Japan and not only were they delicious, but between the caffeine and ​Superhuman​, I was able to crank through >300 emails that had been piling up. Welcome back, Inbox Zero! :)

• We got back from our stay at ​Carmel Valley Ranch​​ and it really was an amazing trip. I forget how easy and fun a vacation that doesn't involve any flights can be.

• Our new ​Mesa homeowners card​ has an awesome summer promo to earn 52,025 points for $7,000 spend, which I'm already working towards. I'm also excited to start earning 1x points on our mortgage and 3x points on tax payments.

• I switched to the ​Arc Web Browser​ two years ago and absolutely love it. Unfortunately, the team behind it (​The Browser Company​) announced they'll no longer be developing new features, so eventually I need a replacement. I've been casually looking at ​Zen​, ​Orion​, ​Dia​ and ​Comet​, but ​this video​ of a custom skill my friend made for ​Dia​ makes me excited to try it out.

• I continued going down the rabbit hole building a site with ​Replit​ to collect and facilitate sharing referral links from ​All the Hacks members​. It's so much fun to build software with these AI tools and I'm already thinking about what to build next. But the best part was learning that we've driven over 100 successful referrals to members, earning them over 2 million points.

Editor’s Note: The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of our partner offers may have expired. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.