This week, we'll cover how I saved $10,000+ on luxury hotels, 9 new welcome offers (up to 200k points), flight deals to Europe, South America & more, up to 3,600 bonus Amex points for Amazon purchases, IHG, United, Southwest & more points on sale, early access to FIFA World Cup 2026 tickets, Sam’s Club membership for just $15, 1 free year of Perplexity AI Pro with PayPal, what you should do about the stock market and more!

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🏨 How I Saved $10,000+ on Luxury Hotels

Want to learn how I saved over $10k on luxury hotels in Costa Rica and Carmel Valley using points, free nights, and elite perks? I’ll walk you through every step, from how to book with points, when to buy them on sale, how to stack hotel credits, which hotel programs give you upgrades and free breakfast, and more!

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

📖 Read the Blog Post

🛫 Travel, Points & Miles

💳 80k-200k Welcome Offers on Delta & IHG Cards

This week, the Delta Amex cards and IHG co-branded cards increased their welcome offers, which range from 80k to 200k. You can find details on all of these offers on ​this page​.

💺 Flight Deals to Europe, South America & More

Some great awards and cash fares are available right now if you’re planning travel to or via any of these destinations.

• 🇨🇱 Chile: From ​50k Atmos points​ in business.
• 🇨🇷 Costa Rica: ​7.5k/15k Atmos points​ in economy/business.
• 🇮🇪 Ireland: From ​$319 round-trip​ in economy via Delta.
• 🇵🇪 Peru: From ​35k Atmos points​ in lie-flat business.
• 🇶🇦 Qatar: From ​70k Avios points​ in Q-suites.
• 🇪🇸 Spain: From ​45k Atmos points​ in business, ​$353 round-trip​ in economy lite via Air Europa, or ​$219 one way​ in economy via Iberia.
• 🇹🇼 Taiwan: From ​75k Aeroplan points​ in business.
• 🇪🇺 UK/Europe: From ​$323 round-trip​ via British Airways.

You can also save 25% on Air France/KLM economy/premium economy and business class awards with ​​Flying Blue Promo Rewards​ when you book​ by 9/30. Plus, ​TAP Air Portugal’s Beyond Summer Sale​ has round-trip fares starting at just $399 from the U.S. to Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, and more—book before 9/17.

🏨 Latest Hyatt Promos

Here are 4 ways to earn bonus points or save on stays at Hyatt this fall.

• ​Earn up to 20k bonus points​ on stays at Hyatt Regency hotels through 11/23. You must ​register in the app​.
• ​Earn up to 20k bonus points​ on stays in Europe, Africa & the Middle East between 9/15 and 12/1. You must ​register before 11/1​.
• ​Save up to 20%​ at Hyatt Centric hotels worldwide for stays before 12/31, booked by 10/27. List of participating hotels ​here​.
• ​Earn 500 bonus points/night​ at newly opened Hyatt hotels. Eligible hotels along with dates are listed ​here​.

🔄 Transfer Bonuses to Virgin & Hilton

There are currently two new transfer bonuses this week. Neither are too excited unless you’ve got a specific redemption in mind.

• Hilton: ​25% bonus​ until 9/23.
• Virgin Atlantic: ​30% bonus​ until 10/1.

🛜 Free Wi-Fi on Southwest Flights (Launching Soon)

Starting 10/24, Rapid Rewards members will get free access to inflight internet across all Southwest flights. ​Signing up​ for Rapid Rewards is free, which makes this pretty exciting news.

🏨 Latest Rove Miles Promos: Earn 50k+ Miles

​Rove Miles​ is a new transferable points currency earned through shopping, hotel bookings, and more. Right now they have 3 offers:

• Earn 1,000 bonus miles when you sign up via a referral. Here's ​my referral link​. Offer expires 9/17.
• Earn up to 5,000 bonus miles on hotel bookings. Spend $250+ and use code STAYCATION to earn 2,500 or spend $500+ use code BACKTOSCHOOL to earn 5,000. Offer expires 10/3.
• Earn 1,000 bonus miles when referring someone to Rove. Plus get 10% of their earnings for 6mo (50k max). Offer expires 9/17.

💎 GHA DISCOVERY Paid Status Match

Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) is offering a limited-time paid status match, allowing access to Titanium status for $150 or Platinum status for $100 until Dec 2026. ​Register before 11/30​ to enjoy benefits like complimentary breakfast, room upgrades, late checkouts, and more.

P.S. Our ​luxury hotel upgrade program​ offers similar benefits for FREE at major 5-star hotels and some boutique hotel brands.

🤑 Latest Deals

📦 Up to 3,600 Bonus Amex Points from Amazon

A best-ever card-linked offer from Amex is offering ​up to 3,600 bonus points​ on Amazon purchases (1,200 points on a $150 spend, up to 3x times). This offer is available via Amex offers and expires on 10/25. To automate these offers, use ​CardPointers Pro​ and get 30% off ​here​.

💰 IHG, United, Southwest & More Points on Sale

If you’ve got a redemption in mind, here are some deals worth checking out. Expiration dates in parentheses.

• IHG: 0.50¢ with ​up to a 100% bonus​ (9/10).
• Finnair Avios: 1.45¢ with ​up to 50% bonus​ (9/17).
• United: 1.88¢ with ​up to a 100% bonus​ (9/23).
• Lufthansa: 1.31¢ with ​up to a 60% bonus​ (9/30).
• Southwest: 1.5¢ with a ​50% bonus​ (10/2).

🛒 Sam’s Club Membership for Only $15

Right now, when you purchase an annual Sam's Club membership (costs $50) before 9/8, you'll get back ​$35 in Sam’s Cash​, making the total cost only $15.

⚽ Presale Draw for FIFA World Cup 2026 Tickets

The first phase of ticket sales for the FIFA World Cup 2026 starts on 9/10 and Visa cardholders will get exclusive early access to purchase tickets. ​Learn more here​, register before 9/19 and you'll be notified in October and given a specific time slot to purchase tickets.

🤖 One Free Year of Perplexity AI Pro with PayPal

Perplexity AI is offering ​12 free months of the Pro subscription​ when you connect your PayPal account. All you need to do is choose a valid billing method.

📺 Free Access to Peacock or Paramount+ via Walmart+

Starting 9/15, Walmart+ members can now pick between Peacock or Paramount+ as a free streaming service. Reminder that you get complimentary access to Walmart+ if you have ​The Platinum Card® from American Express​, making this deal even better.

🏰 Walt Disney World Trip Giveaway (incl. Airfare)

Upgraded Points is hosting a sweepstakes for a chance to win a ​4-person trip to Walt Disney World​ in Florida with airfare, hotel, park tickets, and a $300 Disney gift card. They're also giving away ten $50 Disney gift cards. ​Enter the giveaway​ before 9/30.

🎁 Latest Gift Card Deals

If you want to learn how to save and profit from gift cards, listen to ​Ep #212​. For now, here are some gift card deals I found this week with expiration dates in parentheses.

• Visa Gift Cards: ​$15 off $300​ at Office Depot/Max Stores (9/6).
• Kroger/Harris Teeter: ​4x fuel points​ on gift cards (9/9).
• inKind: ​$64.99 for $100​ at Costco (9/14).
• Giftcards.com: ​5% back​ via Swagbucks/InboxDollars (N/A) or up to ​10% back​ via Capital One Shopping (targeted offer).

🏛️ Reminder: Free Museums This Weekend with BoA

Did you know that Bank of America cardholders (including debit cards) have ​​free admission to 100’s of museums​​ across the US on the first full weekend of every month? That's today (9/6) and tomorrow (9/7), so make sure to take advantage of it!

🕵️ Top Finds

👨‍👩‍👧 Why You Should Spend Less Time With Your Kids

📉 The Stock Market Volatility: What You Should Do?

I'm a fan of Burton Malkiel and enjoyed ​his NYT op-ed​ on how to think about the stock market being at all-time highs. He draws parallels to past bubbles and points out some risks to consider.

📋 My Past Week

Here's a quick recap of what I was up to last week, including a new card I applied for, some of the deals I took advantage of, a podcast I was a guest on, and more!

• Professionally, my highlight for the week is that we started publishing the video version of the podcast ​on Spotify​. Huge thanks to the team at ​Podcast Royale​ for helping make it happen!
• Just a week into school and both our daughters got sick with some type of respiratory infection and I'm so thankful we had a ​pulse oximeter​ at home to save us a trip to urgent care.
• We've been talking about adding mirrors to one of the walls in our Garage (aka our Gym) and this past weekend, I decided to make it a DIY project and it was so much easier than I thought. I bought two ​36' x 60' mirrors​, ​these J Channels​ and ​these clips​ and about an hour later, we had an amazing mirror wall set up.
• For the gym, I also came across this ​Dumbbell Converter​, which turns dumbbells into barbells. So far it's working great!
• I've wanted to eat at ​Sam Ho Won​ since they first had a pop-up in SF and I was finally able to go last week. Big thanks to my amazing wife for planning a birthday dinner for me. It exceeded all expectations and I highly recommend checking it out.
• Ever since ​my conversation with Dan Martell​ about buying back your time, we've been thinking about new ways to buy back our own time. Then last week, I caught the latest episode of ​The New Modern Mom Podcast​ about House Managers and we're starting to think what a part-time house manager could look like as an alternative to an au pair or nanny when both kids are in school.
• One of the perks of the new ​Alaska Atmos Summit card​ is waived same day change fees, which is now leading me to be a little risky booking cheaper flights on the day of departure and planning to change to the ideal flights at 12:01am the day of. Stay tuned to hear if I regret this approach.